chants mantras, nor performs mudras or pranayama, nor worships gods and goddesses. For he looks upon all that is in himself. Pattinattar, the Tamil tantrika siddhai poet, expresses the joy of realization thus: The eightfold yoga The six regions of the body The five states They all have left and gone Totally erased And in the open Void I am left Amazed There is but a red rounded Moon A fountain of white milk For delight The unobtainable Bliss Has engulfed me A precipice Of light. 43 The origin and goal meet in a single focal point: UNION. The knower and the known become ONE.
Notes 1 Woodroffe, Principles of Tantra, II, p. 39 2 Barnett, The Universe and Dr Einstein, p. 90 3 Schindler, Goethe's Theory of Colour, p. 205 4 Naranjo and Ornstein, On the Psychology of Meditation, II 5 D. Bhattacharya, Love Songs of Chandidas, p. 18 6 Ibid., p. 153 7 Solomon, LSD, p. 69 8 Eliade, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, p. 250 9 Mookerjee, Tantra Art 10 Rawson: review of Tantra Art in Oriental Art XIII, 4, 1967 11 Coomaraswamy, The Transformation of Nature in Art, p. 67 12 Lucio Fontana's statement, 1965 13 Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, pp. 141-2 Glossary ADHIKARA, a disciple's competency to practise spiritual discipline. ADYA SAKTI, the Primal Energy. AGAMAS, sacred tantric scriptures. AJAPA MANTRA, the involuntary repetition of a sacred formula. AJNA CHAKRA, centre between eyebrows in the subtle body. AKASA, generally, ether, a kind of matter subtler than air. ANAHATA CHAKRA, the heart centre in the subtle body. ANAHATA SABDA, unstruck sound. ANANDA, essential principle of joy, bliss, spiritual ecstasy. ANIMA, power to become small as an atom through yoga. 196 14 Jenny, UNESCO Courier, December, 1969, pp. 16, 18 15 Abstract Art Since 1945, p. 289 16 Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, p. 51 17 Ibid., p. 50 18 Zimmer, Ibid., p. 90 19 Rawson, The Art of Tantra, P. 139 20 Boner, Principles of Composition in Hindu Sculpture, p. 25 21 Quoted by Koestler in The Roots of Coincidence, p. 63 22 Seal, The Positive Science of the Ancient Hindus, pp. 40-1 23 Prabhavananda, The Spiritual Heritage of India, pp. 213-14 24 Ibid. 25 Rola, Alchemy, pp. 20-1 26 Ray, History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, p. 132 27 Walker, Hindu World, I, p. 286 28 Parker, The Compleat Astrologer, p. 50 29 Krishna, The Biological Basis ANJALI, the mudra in which the two hands extended upwards are held palm to palm. AP, the material element of water. APANA, one of the energies that goes downwards, controlling the vital air in the abdominal region. ARDHANARISVARA, the androgynous form of Siva. ASANA, steady posture, yogic pose, a condition of balance and poise. ASRAMA, a hermitage or dwelling place dedicated to spiritual pursuits. AUM, the three sounds which compose the root mantra, Om (q.v.). AVADHUTA, a rebel renunciate. AVATARA, a divine Incarnation. of Religion and Genius, PP. 42-3 30 Quoted by Reyna in The Philosophy of Matter in the Atomic Era, p. 96 31 Rieker, The Yoga of Light, P. 157 32 Gupta, Laksmi Tantra, p. 189 33 Quoted by Fabun, Dimensions of Change, pp. 199-200 34 Gupta, op. cit., p. 206 35 Vivekananda, The Yogas and Other Works, p. 627 36 Rieker, op. cit., p. 36 37 De Ropp, Sex Energy, p. 4 38 Rieker, The Secret of Meditation, p. 52 39 Documentation of a number of mantras by Kalyan S. Coll has been of great help 40 Letter of Aldous Huxley to Timothy Leary, 11 February 1962 41 Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest, pp. 164-5 42 Rawson, op. cit., pp. 133-4 43 Kamil V. Zvelebil, The Poets of the Powers, pp. 101-2 AYURVEDA, ancient Indian medical system based on the Vedas. BANDHA, muscular flexion, yogic practice in which certain organs of the body are 'locked' in a position. BHAGASANA, 'vulva pose', a secret sexo-yogic posture in which the male member is 'locked', in prolonged erection inside the yoni of a female partner, while certain internal esoteric acts are performed. BHAIRAVA, destructive aspect of Siva. BHAVA, emotion: aesthetic state or feeling which enlivens the senses, the vehicle of rasa (q.v.). BHOGA, enjoyment.
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$9.95 Printed in England The life-a
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Frontispiece: Manuscript leaf illus
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Archaeological Surv
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Introduction Tantra is a creative m
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number of tantric texts were assemb
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Saktas (worshippers of Sakti, or fe
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The basic tenets of tantra can be e
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the union of opposites, the male an
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notions concerning time and space,
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Cosmic energy symbolized as the ser
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Tantric asana, or sexo-yogic postur
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The washer-maid represents the prim
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the five ingredients beginning with
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32 but at the same time maintains p
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Om, the cosmic sound, is a combinat
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Brahmanda, cosmic spheroid, a symbo
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Hari-Hara. Painting illustrating Vi
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ART The art which has evolved out o
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spective, tantric imagery is not an
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Symbolism and Imagery Tantric forms
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visible and eventually apprehended.
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figurative representation. The Sukr
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uilt up in stages during the entire
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The Universe and the terrestrial sp
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Point, and signifies the starting-p
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The Sri Yantra is a configuration o
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The Sri Yantra is called 'Nava Chak
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The seventh chakra, consisting of e
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64 The mandala indicates a focaliza
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The Kundalini Sakti, symbol of coil
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The creative spiral, Kundalini. 68
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A cosmographical schema showing Jam
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Cosmogram: an astronomical computat
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Cosmographical scheme showing Jambu
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so they signify the action of karma
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The terrifying aspects of these ima
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Modern research into the compositio
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'Krim', the bijamantra, almost an e
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consciousness, came spontaneously i
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tantric art and their own. Like the
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94 ancient Hindus. Some inferences
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Bindu. The universe in its unmanife
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98 units of energy called tanmatras
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V Astronomical equations, based on
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Samkhya's view that it is possible
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Atoms The atomic hypothesis of the
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matter or the remaining sediment of
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The Siddhayoga of Vrinda is an Ayur
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The science of mathematics was clos
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Solar orb. An astronomical chart us
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Extant astronomical charts were use
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(beginning with the new and full mo
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ecorded in 1954. Though science has
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Being residing in heaven. The real
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126 Moscow Institute of Oriental St
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128 of realization. Harmony is the
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Symbolic marks painted on wooden ma
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Yantra with mantra. 132 guru select
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Chakras in the etheric body. Rajast
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IX A practising Tantrika from north
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142 Both mudras and nyasas are exte
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- Page 202 and 203: Bibliography Abhinavagupta, Tantras
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