Tarpaṇaṃ is the act of offering libations, but also means to satisfy the deity. Tarpaṇaṃ, as ritual worship, is a core practice in our tradition. Guruji describes the tarpaṇa pūjā as a move from solidity to liquidity, from the mūlādhāra to the svādhiṣṭhāna, and from individual consciousness to collective consciousness. As form melts into the formless, Guruji teaches us that there is a sense of freedom as heaviness turns into lightness.
Our ancient kaula tantras describe tarpaṇaṃ as the melting away of lower categories of knowledge into higher ones, thereby revealing higher, and "purer" orders of knowledge. Abhinavagupta, the kaula tantra jagadguru, interprets tarpaṇaṃ in his classic interpretive move to see nearly everything as a manifestation of the three modes of epistemology (knower, known, and means of knowing). He teaches us that the object of knowledge melts into the means of knowledge and is thereby reabsorbed into the supreme subject of knowledge, or the knower. He furthers that tarpaṇaṃ brings about an absence of desire and therefore results in an expansion (vikāsa) of consciousness.
Strikingly similar [and actually connected] statements about the use and utility of ritual worship to reveal jñāna can be found throughout the writings of our ancient Śrīvidyācāryas who understood that ritual worship and jñāna are not two separate domains or paths, but are actually inextricably connected. The continuity of the tradition is as striking as the wide diversity, a testament to the strength and perseverance of Śrīvidyā [and related lineages] through time and the continual blessings of the deity and guru maṇḍala.
śrī gurubhyo namaḥ
