Hindu Tantra

Closely connected with the worship of the Goddess is a large connection of writings known as the Tantras. They were composed in the medieval period. These texts are essentially technical manuals for how one may attain liberation and enlightenment through dedication to the Devi. The yogi practice of Tantrism or more simply Tantra is based on the techniques described in these writings.

Tantra practice has become relatively well-known in the West as a manner for improving one’s sexuality. There are even books offered in western countries that teach how to increase sexual pleasure by using Tantric methods. Whether or not these practices are authentic Tantra is debatable, but it is clear that the purpose of Hindu Tantra is not physical pleasure but spiritual bliss and enlightenment. Yet, certain varieties of Tantra seek to attain this happiness in unconventional ways, including sexual ritual.

When westerners think of Tantra they usually think of what is called left-handed Tantra. The so called right-handed Tantra is a worship practice that is not altogether unlike the worship of Vishnu or Shiva, although the Tantric form emphasises the repetition of a special mantra given to the initiate by a female guru.

Both varieties of Tantra are open to males and females of all castes and operate independent of Brahmanic authority. Tantra has had an specially strong influence on the development of the religion of Tibet. It is considered by its practitioners to be an advanced form of yoga. One must master other yogi practices before attempting Tantra, else it can prove dangerous.

Left-Handed Tantra

What many find scandalous of left-handed Tantra is what others find intriguing. That is its ritual use of certain things that are ordinarily forbidden to Hindus. These elements include the eating of meat, the drinking of wine and sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other. Tantra is not the casual practice of these activities, but their deliberate usage for the purpose of enlightenment.

Tantric rituals are practiced in a sacred space in the presence of a guru on a specific carefully determined day. In the first part of the ritual both male and female participants ritually bath, dress and apply cosmetics. They undergo ritual purification through meditation and mantra recitation. Male-female couples then form a circle around the guru and the guru’s partner. The female partner sits on the man’s left, which is the traditional position of the goddess relative to the god. This is the how the practice acquired the name left-handed Tantra.

Then they ritually consume the meat and the wine and eventually end with sexual union. Before each of these activities, mantras are pronounced to consecrate the elements, otherwise they would be highly polluting. Mantras are recited to sanctify the woman as the Goddess. Sexual union then is envisioned as a form of worship and devotion to her.

The Purpose of Tantra

Of the numerous accounts to explain the purposes for these practices, perhaps the most basic is that which argues for directing human desires towards liberation rather than repressing them. This philosophy argues that trying to deny certain desires only empowers them further. Rather than repress potentially harmful impulses, Tantra tries to harness them in service of salvation.

Ritual provides a controlled and highly structured context for indulging forbidden desires. In addition to ritualize sex, this practice serves to awaken a participant’s own awareness of the non-duality of the world. Duality, that is thinking in absolute terms of yes and no, black and white, good and evil; is precisely what keep us from realizing the identity of Brahman and Atman.

These activities are meant to break down the conventional duality we have constructed. To awaken this awareness by bodily as well as by intellectual means is a tremendous aid on the path to enlightenment.

Along these lines, the aspect of ritual sex is regarded as the reenactment of the cosmological union of shiva and shakti. Deva and Devi meet each other. Shiva without shakti is a curse. Shakti without shiva can be overwhelming. The male is unable to appropriate the active feminine powers. And the female can’t appropriate the passive masculine powers. Dualism is thus transcended.

A final theory explains how Tantric yoga arouses the latent energies in what is called the subtle body. This conception tells of a vast power source that resides near the base of the human spine. Hindus call this source the kundalini. Enlightenment can be attained by stimulating the dormant kundalini energy and allowing it to flow through the centers of the subtle body called chakras. Chakras are power centers in the shape of lotus flowers that lie along the spine, from its base to the top of the head. Releasing k allows energy to flow upward, causing the practitioners to realize oneness with ultimate reality.

Worship of the Goddess and Tantric yoga are two ways in which Hinduism really differs from the mainstream religious traditions of the West. Some westerners, however, are coming to regard these Hindu religious forms as embodying some things worth embracing. Some have argued that masculine gods of the western religions are to be balanced with a more consciously appropriated feminine element.

Others see value in viewing the body as a source of revelation and truth. Whether or not the western tradition would be ever find a place for the Goddess as Hinduism has remains to be determined.

The Independent Hindu Goddesses and the Creative Power

The most terrifying form of the Devi (Goddess) is called Kali. She is black and fond of blood. She wears a necklace of seven human heads. Theologically, Kali reveals that life is inherently painful. In a not too distant past, human sacrifices were offered to Kali in South India. These sacrifices were practiced up until the 19th century. In the late 18th and early 19th century, a group known as Thugs was known for committing crimes in the name of Kali. They often murdered innocent victims by strangulation as a sacrifice to their patron Kali. The Thugs were often respectable men who had regular jobs during the day, but served the goddess at night. Although the British banned the Thugs in the 19th century, their name lives on in the English language as a synonym for a brutal criminal.

Although human sacrifices in honor of Kali had by far disappeared, animals are regularly offered to her in Calcutta. Nonetheless, animals are only a substitute for humans. The Puranas say that the goddess is pleased for a while with the sacrifice of goats or buffaloes, but a human sacrifice pleases her for a thousand years. Even today there are sporadic reports of human sacrifices to honor the goddess.

The autonomous goddesses were often and still are associated with the outbreak of epidemics, specially smallpox, the disease that has ravaged India more than any other. Epidemics have frequently believed to be the result of the goddesses’ anger directed toward a particular village or district. There are innumerable local village goddesses and many of them are smallpox goddesses. When epidemics occur, Devi worship intensifies. Still today many Hindu villagers would refuse to take smallpox inoculations because they believe the goddess has a greater power to prevent the disease. To submit to human science would be to anger her.

The Unsatisfied Goddesses

The contrast between the independent goddesses and their married female counterparts is striking. It is a difference that has not gone unnoticed among scholars, specially those working in the area of women studies. A common explanation for this difference is as follows. The rage to which the Goddess is subject derives in essence from her childlessness. Without children she is seen as not having fulfilled the central role of the female. Hindus do not deem it appropriate for the goddesses and gods to have children, except in a few remarkable cases, since children would mean a loss of immortality.

The view implied here is a common one in the history of religion. Children are what humans have instead of immortality. Perhaps it is ironic then that Hindu women seek help from the Goddess to have children. Being childless and perhaps sexually frustrated, the Goddess’ emotional energies are triggered and usually directed towards those who might upset her in the slightest way. It is therefore in one’s best interest to cool the Goddess’ ardor with appropriate gifts and offers.

What might motivate a Hindu to choose such a deity to worship? The sufferings that one endures in this life are regarded as the chastisement of an ultimately loving mother, to whom one clings in all circumstances.

Shakti: The Female Creative Power

Being childless, the married goddesses are also subject to the propensity of rage. But their relationship to male gods keeps them cool, channeling their anger into nurture. Perhaps this Theology sounds blatantly steorotypical of a patriarchal society that believes that a woman is never fit for independence. Yet, there is also a relatively complex understanding of the divine nature that supports this view, one that is not wholly stereotypical. In this understanding, the female aspect of divinity is considered its creative and activating power. The word for this power is Shakti, and it is the root word in Shaktism, the religion in which the Goddess is worshipped as supreme. A devotee of the Goddess is called a Shakta.

Shakti is the active principle in Hinduism, not unlike what the Chinese call Yang. Yet the word Yang is associated with the masculine, Shakti is feminine. The masculine principle, or shiva (note the small “s”), is, by contrast, passive. In fact, the masculine principle is so passive as to be dead. “Shiva without Shakti is a curse”, as a proverb says. Male gods require goddesses to empower and enlighten them. This is why in the temple images the gods are usually accompanied by their consorts. The indispensable nature of the Shakti is suggested in a macabre image depicting Kali dancing on Shiva’s dead body. This idea is also suggested by the goddesses’ red forehead markings, as contrasted with the white forehead markings for the gods. Red is the color of power and energy. White is a cooling color often associated with death.

As the goddesses are essential for the functioning of the gods, at the same time goddesses require passive gods to give form to their dynamic power. Without form and restrain, the energy embodied in the Goddess can become dangerous. Thus we witness the fury of the independent goddesses. With too much restrain, though, the goddess may become too passive. It is for this reason that we find both the dependent and independent form of goddesses in Hinduism.

The Hindu Goddess

The worship of female deities has a long history in India and today it remains one of Hinduism’s prominent religious features. In the Indus Valley civilization numerous female figurines suggest that women were given a sacred status by virtue of their capacity to nurture new life. The Vedic pantheon as well contains several goddesses. It is true that during the Vedic period male gods were in the ascendancy, but in later classical and medieval Hinduism, the worship of the Goddess came into its own and regained a central place in popular religion. Today, Shaktism, the worship of the Goddess, is regarded as a major Hindu religion alongside Shaivism and Vaishnavism.

The Names of the Goddess

When speaking of the female divine in India it is common to refer to the Goddess in singular. This is because all the particular goddesses are form of Devi or Mahadevi, the great Goddess. In myth and in worship there are countless goddesses, which are often treated as distinct deities, particularly at the popular level. Just as different gods represent the one God, so the different goddesses manifest the one Devi. Ultimately, Devi and Deva symbolize the trans-personal Brahman.

Although the name Devi is commonly used, more frequently she is known to devotees with various words meaning “mother”. Interestingly, however, not but a few goddesses have children. And those who do have children acquire them by unusual means.

We can classify the many manifestations of the Devi into two broad categories. The first is the category of consorts: those goddesses who are the wives and companions of the great gods. The second group comprises the independent goddesses, those who are not associated with male divine figures by way of marriage. A goddesses’ relationship to a male god determines her basic character. Those who are divine consorts are seem as benevolent, gentle and life-giving. The independent unmarried goddesses are malevolent, terrifying and lustful.

The Gods and Their Consorts

Each of the great gods of Hinduism is married. Brahma, the creator, is married to Saraswati. Shiva is married is to Parvati. Vishnu is married to Lakshmi. We can also mention the consorts of Vishnu’s avataras. Rama is married to Sita. Krishna’s consort is Radha. In temples, the male gods rarely appear without their female counterparts. But the goddesses, even the married ones, may appear without their husbands in temple icons. For example, Lakshmi is not only Vishnu’s wife, she is also the goddess of good fortune and wealth. At the start of a new fiscal year, business persons commonly worship her and pray for prosperity.

The Devi Saraswati is almost always worshipped alone and never with her consort Brahma. Saraswati is the goddess of music and education. Brahma, despite his status as one of the three cosmic deities, has very little role in popular Hinduism. Temples devoted to him are extremely few. Saraswati, on the other hand, is very important. She is often venerated at school festivals and prayed to before tests.

Unlike Lakshmi and Saraswati, Parvati is usually not worshipped alone, but together with Shiva. In mythology, Shiva has many different wives, such as Durga and a host of others. They can all be viewed as forms of Parvati. Shiva’s wives were probably local village goddesses that were incorporated into Shaivite religion.

The consorts of Vishnu’s avataras are revered mainly for their relationship to their male counterparts. Sita, the wife of Rama, is considered the ideal wife because of her fidelity and obedience to her husband. Radha, Krishna’s consort, is the image of the devotee with a passionate love for god.

The Independent Goddesses

It seems quite clear that the independent goddesses are not considered divine exemplars of femininity. Of course it would be a mistake to say that the gods and goddesses are necessarily, by virtue of being divine, images of the ideal human life. The goddesses and gods are different from us no matter how much like us they may appear.

The goddesses who are independent and autonomous often appear as celestial deities, like Vishnu and Shiva. Many of the myths about the Devi depict her engaged in activity akin to that of the great male gods, such as protecting the cosmos from powerful demons. Sometimes she is portrayed as accomplishing difficult tasks that the male gods cannot.

The great Durga Puja, celebrated in Bengal, is a nine-day affair that memorializes the victory of the devi as Durga over a powerful buffalo demon. This is one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism. The celebration is based on a story that tells how the gods were too impotent to defeat an army of demons. Vishnu and Shiva themselves were unable to control the demon army and had to create the goddess to do so. Thus Durga was born from the combined anger of these two great gods.

Durga proceeds to defeat the demon leader after a long and vicious battle. After her triumph she promises to return whenever the demons grew too powerful.

One of the striking differences between the gods and goddesses is their realm of activity. In general, the gods are seen as celestial. Goddesses are terrestrial. Although the earth is the stage for many of the gods’ activities, the link between earth and goddess is much stronger. This connection is shown in many ways. For example, the earth itself is a goddess. She is named Budeive, literally “earth goddess”, or more loosely “mother nature”. Rivers are also goddesses, such as the Ganga. As rivers, goddesses nourish the world with their water. The entire land of India is a goddess, Barat Natta, or “mother India”.

It is important to mention one final manifestation of the Goddess. This is the embodiment of the Devi as actual human women. Such incarnations of the Goddess are not uncommon. For some, specially powerful woman, such as Indira Gandhi, might be regarded as the Goddess in flesh. Sometimes the incarnation is a less well-known woman who is believed to personify the qualities of the mother Goddess.

Continues at: The Independent Hindu Goddesses and the Creative Power