Spirituality is a wonder by itself; there are many paths to realize this reality. All these paths have been revealed at someplace and some time to the sages/prophets by the Divine. Indian spirituality is very ancient and complete in itself. The most public spirituality in India is the Vedic one. The Vedas’ intent is mostly to the ritual practices by the individual in a group/community, which are of daily in nature aiming mostly at cleansing the clouded intellect of the common man (It is called citta śuddhi). These are to be learned from a Preceptor, who is venerated as the Divine clothed in human apparel. A clear man now focuses on the more subtle aspects of creation. Herein the Vedas declare that these are specific to the individual and these have to be obtained from a Master, who has a deep understanding and experience. Some passages of the Vedas also hint in a coded manner of these higher spiritual practices. Tantra is often a misconceived territory in a mysterious world. People attribute drinking liquor and having sex as tantric nature.
Mantra, Tantra, and Yantra is a triad. Here Tantra will denote the doctrine or system which will have practice mystic words (mantra) with the usage of the mystic diagrams (yantra). These practices are the basis of the sādhaka in his sādhana. Simple basic yoga sādhana like prāṇāyāma, placing of seed sound (bijākṣara) on the body is called as nyāsā, placing vessels for outer worship is called as ‘pātrāsādhana’, worship of the main deity and attendant deities are called as pradhāna pūjā and āvaraṇapūjā respectively, are some of the aspects seen in most of the tantras. Some tantras also deal with the metaphysical and philosophical basis of these rituals.
The Meaning of Tantra has a lot of aspects. Some are:
The Sanskrit word tantra means the warp of a loom or the strands of a braid. The root of the word tantra comes from tanoti and trāyati. 'Tanoti’ will mean stretch, expand, or to continue without a break and trāyati will mean protection. The highest protection is the recognition that verily all this the self and no different from it. This is liberation. Thus this will mean a set of principles or systems (likened to a web), which will lead to liberation.
Tantra is often translated as ‘continuum’ or ‘unbroken stream’ and indicates a flow of consciousness from ignorance to enlightenment. Thus we can see that Tantra represents the interconnecting energies between all things in this and other planes of existence, leading to the liberation.
Tantra - the word will also mean ‘tanu vistāryate iti tantra’. That which expands the body is Tantra. Now how will it look if we have a long nose after tantric sādhana, does it mean that? Or big ears? Or short becoming taller or vice versa. Since none of these are happening, then it must be something that is connected to this body that is said in the above statement. It is body consciousness or the awareness that ‘I’ exist. This is clear when at midnight is darkness and no other sound is heard, we are aware of our existence; nobody is there or is needed to identify that ‘I’ exist. Expansion of this is hinted by the above meaning to encompass the entire creation and re-establish the identity with the Divine.
Other words used to describe tantra are leading principles, an essential part, model, system, framework, doctrine, rule, theory, scientific work, order, chief part, rule, authority, science, mystic works, magical arts, etc.
Source: "Meditative Texts - Revised Thoughts on the Way" by Yogamba Sameta Atmanandanatha (Ramesh Kutticad)
Yogamba Sahita Atmanandantha (Ramesh Kutticad) is a Śrī Vidyā Guru from Chennai. He is associated with Guruji since 1996. Smt. and Sri Ramesh have painstakingly written the following scholarly, research. We're grateful to him for allowing us to make these articles available for the public.
