Shiva Purana describes Sharabha as thousand-armed, lion-faced and with matted hair, wings and eight feet. Sharabha Upanishad portrays Sharabha with two heads, two wings, eight legs of the lion with sharp claws and a long tail. Kalika Purana which mentions Shiva as Sharabha subduing Varaha - the boar form of Vishnu - describes Sharabha as black in colour, with four feet downwards and four feet uplifted, with an enormous body. It also has a long face and nose, nails, eight legs, eight tusks, a cluster of manes, and a long tail. It jumps high repeatedly making a loud cry.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Aum Namah Shivaya
The embodied soul is supreme, whole, eternal, consisting of nothing, stainless. It is the ultimate atomic particle, the Natha. It is supreme Shiva, all pervading. It is the ultimate, that jiva, it is Hamsa, the soul of Shakti
- Kaulajnananirnaya
- Kaulajnananirnaya
Mahakaal
The highest sadhaka who recites a mantra whilst holding the rosary of human skullbone holds in his hand the eight siddhis, and is like the imperishable Shambhu. As the Ganges is situated at the top of one's head, what need is there to bathe in the (external) Ganges? Whosoever is devoted to the great rosary of human skullbone gains the merit of bathing in all sacred waters such as Varanasi, Kamarupa, Haridvara, Prayaga, River Gandaki, Vadarika and the Ganges Delta - Matrikabhedatantra IV, 27-29
The male spouse of Mahakali is the outwardly frightening Mahakala (Great Time), whose meditation image (dhyana), mantra, yantra and meditation image is given in the Shaktisamgama Tantra.
According to this work, the mantra of Mahakala is Hum Hum Mahakala praside praside Hrim Hrim Svaha. The seer of the mantra is Kalika, it is pronounced in the Virat meter, the bija of the mantra is Hum, the shakti is Hrim and the linchpin is Svaha.
Mahakala has four arms and three eyes, and is of the brilliance of 10,000,000 black fires of dissolution, dwells in the midst of eight cremation grounds, is adorned with eight skulls, seated on five corpses, holding a trident, a damaru, a sword and a kharpa in his hands.
With a beautiful body adorned with ashes from the cremation ground, on various corpses he dallies with Kalika, fondling her and making love with her and fiercely kissing her, surrounded by numbers of loudly shrieking vultures and jackals, adorned with a heap of braided hair, in a deserted place.
Kalika is of the form of the void, ornamented with skulls, with a sweet and charming face, in the midst of that five-fold love-yantra. Her yoni is the wheel of time (kalachakra), the tantra states.
Then follow various meditations that his devotees can perform.
"Meditate on Ganapati in the Muladhara, in the linga on Ganapati's beloved one, in the navel Vatuka Natha, in the heart on Vatuka Natha's beloved one, in the throat Oddiyana Pitha, in the brow the auspicious blazing one, in the forehead Karavira, and in the lock of hair Kshetrapala."
[Kshetrapala is lord or protector of the place. According to the Tantraraja Tantra, Shiva bestowed a boon on him which made him unconquerable in the three worlds. The only way the gods could subdue him was by 64 of them sitting on him at once.]
"Meditate on Devi Kalika in the trikona, in the six petals the six limbs, in the navel the Shaktis of the directions, in the heart the twelve suns, in the throat the sixteen kalas of the moon, in the two-petalled lotus Kala and Kali together.
"On the head Kalika, the mother holding dominion over the void; in the forehead the Khecari; on the brow the Dikcari; in the heart the Gocari; in the navel the Bhucari; in the linga the Khaga; and in the Muladhara Vicitra "
[These are various classes of Shakti, some of which help the sadhaka towards his goal and some of which throw up obstacles.] "In the forehead the sun, in the right eye the lord of time, in the left eye the lord of fire, in the throat Kalika, in the heart the demon-born, in the navel the demon Siddhas.
"Meditate in the head on Brahmi with Manthana-Bhairava; in the forehead Maheshvari with Satcakra-Bhairava; in the throat Kaumari with Phatkara Bhairava; in the heart Vaishnavi with Vibhaksha Bhairava; in the navel Varahi with Viresha Bhairava; in the genitals Indrani with Shrimanteshvara Bhairava; in the Muladhara Camunda with Hamsa Garbha Bhairava; in all the limbs Mahalakshmi with Candikeshvara Bhairava."
[These are the eight Siddha Devis, together with the eight Bhairavas, or Terrible Ones.]
According to this work, the mantra of Mahakala is Hum Hum Mahakala praside praside Hrim Hrim Svaha. The seer of the mantra is Kalika, it is pronounced in the Virat meter, the bija of the mantra is Hum, the shakti is Hrim and the linchpin is Svaha.
Mahakala has four arms and three eyes, and is of the brilliance of 10,000,000 black fires of dissolution, dwells in the midst of eight cremation grounds, is adorned with eight skulls, seated on five corpses, holding a trident, a damaru, a sword and a kharpa in his hands.
With a beautiful body adorned with ashes from the cremation ground, on various corpses he dallies with Kalika, fondling her and making love with her and fiercely kissing her, surrounded by numbers of loudly shrieking vultures and jackals, adorned with a heap of braided hair, in a deserted place.
Kalika is of the form of the void, ornamented with skulls, with a sweet and charming face, in the midst of that five-fold love-yantra. Her yoni is the wheel of time (kalachakra), the tantra states.
Then follow various meditations that his devotees can perform.
"Meditate on Ganapati in the Muladhara, in the linga on Ganapati's beloved one, in the navel Vatuka Natha, in the heart on Vatuka Natha's beloved one, in the throat Oddiyana Pitha, in the brow the auspicious blazing one, in the forehead Karavira, and in the lock of hair Kshetrapala."
[Kshetrapala is lord or protector of the place. According to the Tantraraja Tantra, Shiva bestowed a boon on him which made him unconquerable in the three worlds. The only way the gods could subdue him was by 64 of them sitting on him at once.]
"Meditate on Devi Kalika in the trikona, in the six petals the six limbs, in the navel the Shaktis of the directions, in the heart the twelve suns, in the throat the sixteen kalas of the moon, in the two-petalled lotus Kala and Kali together.
"On the head Kalika, the mother holding dominion over the void; in the forehead the Khecari; on the brow the Dikcari; in the heart the Gocari; in the navel the Bhucari; in the linga the Khaga; and in the Muladhara Vicitra "
[These are various classes of Shakti, some of which help the sadhaka towards his goal and some of which throw up obstacles.] "In the forehead the sun, in the right eye the lord of time, in the left eye the lord of fire, in the throat Kalika, in the heart the demon-born, in the navel the demon Siddhas.
"Meditate in the head on Brahmi with Manthana-Bhairava; in the forehead Maheshvari with Satcakra-Bhairava; in the throat Kaumari with Phatkara Bhairava; in the heart Vaishnavi with Vibhaksha Bhairava; in the navel Varahi with Viresha Bhairava; in the genitals Indrani with Shrimanteshvara Bhairava; in the Muladhara Camunda with Hamsa Garbha Bhairava; in all the limbs Mahalakshmi with Candikeshvara Bhairava."
[These are the eight Siddha Devis, together with the eight Bhairavas, or Terrible Ones.]
Source: www.shivashakti.com
Tantra
Many of you must have heard of tantra.Most people think of it as some kind of pagan ritual or superstitions and weird practices etc.Well if that is what you believe tantra to be then you are sadly mistaken.
So what is Tantra? Well as per wikipedia
Tantra (Sanskrit: तन्त्र , "loom, warp"; hence "principle, system, doctrine", from the verbal root tan "stretch, extend, expand", and the suffix tra "instrument"), anglicised as tantrism or tantricism, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India in the fifth century CE,[1] expressed in scriptures (called "Tantras").Tantra, or more properly tantrika, is a diverse and rich spiritual tradition of the Indian sub-continent. Although in recent years, in the Western world, it has become almost exclusively associated with sex, in reality this is one aspect of what is a way of life. In India itself, tantra is now, nearly always, associated with spells and black deeds.
Neither of these views is correct, and each wildly underestimates the wide-ranging nature of the different traditions. Further, there remains an ocean of tantrik and agamic literature still to be discovered and translated, spanning a period of time which at least reaches back to the 10th century of the common era (c.e.).
The tradition, or perhaps better, the traditions, underwent many phases and schools over this period of time, ranging from an extremely heterodox viewpoint to, in some cases, a very orthodox standpoint. Refer to this page to see the vast diversity of thoughts and practices subsumed under the word "tantra". Much of the material on this site is related to the Kaula tradition in many of its guises. The work kaula is cognate with clan and the communities venerated a huge number of gods (devas) and goddesses (devis).
The historical significance of the movement lies in the fact that it impacted every major Asian religion extant in the early medieval period (c. 500 - 1200 CE): thus Shaivism, Buddhism, Vaishnavism, and Jainism all developed a Tantric dimension. Even Islam in India was influenced by Tantra.[2] The geographical impact of Tantric ideas and practices spread far outside of India, into Tibet, Nepal, China, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.[3] Today, it is Tibetan Buddhism and various forms of Hinduism that show the strongest Tantric influence, as well as the international postural yoga movement and most forms of American alternative spirituality grouped under the New Age rubric.
While the doctrines of Tantra vary too widely to summarize briefly, one of its most salient features when compared with earlier forms of Indian religion is that its nondual forms reject the renunciant values of classical yoga, offering instead a world-embracing vision of the whole of reality as the self-expression of a single, free and joyous Divine Consciousness (for example, see the concept of the world as the divine play of Shiva and Shakti.[4]).
The practical consequence of this view was that householders could aspire to spiritual liberation in the Tantric system, not only monks. Furthermore, since Tantra dissolved the false dichotomy of spiritual versus mundane, practitioners could entail every aspect of their daily lives into their spiritual growth process, seeking to realize the transcendent in the immanent. Tantric spiritual practices and rituals thus aim to bring about an inner realization of the truth that "Nothing exists that is not Divine" (nāśivaṃ vidyate kvacit[5]), bringing freedom from ignorance and from the cycle of suffering (saṃsāra) in the process. Though the vast majority of scriptural Tantric teachings are not concerned with sexuality, in the popular imagination the term tantra and the notion of superlative sex are indelibly, but erroneously, linked.[6] It is the case that in the nondual schools that advocated "left-handed" practice (vāmāchāra), sexual ritual was employed as a way of entering intensifying and expanding awareness and dissolving mind-created boundaries.Well now that we are clear what tantra is lets see what a tantrik is:
A person who, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, aspires for spiritual expansion or does something concrete, is a Tantric. Tantra in itself is neither a religion nor an 'ism'. Tantra is a fundamental spiritual science. So wherever there is any spiritual practice it should be taken for granted that it stands on the Tantric cult. Where there is no spiritual practice, where people pray to God for the fulfilment of narrow worldly desires, where people’s only slogan is “Give us this and give us that” – only there do we find that Tantra is discouraged. So only those who do not understand Tantra, or even after understanding Tantra do not want to do any spiritual practice, oppose the cult of Tantra.
So though in India 99.99 per cent of all so calle dtntriks are just criminals,rapists etc there is .01% of tantriks who are the real deal.They don't mingle with people,they live in forests and caves in the himalayas and have tremendous siddhis.I will give yousome real life accounts of real tantriks and siddhas and also tell you the hierarchy in the cosmos in subsequent posts.The most important aspect of tantra is Shiv and Shakti.
Only when Shiva is united with Shakti does he have the power to create - Saundaryalahari
Also, the importance of guru in tantra cannot be explained by mere words.
Second-hand knowledge of the self gathered from books or gurus can never emancipate a man until its truth is rightly investigated and applied; only direct realisation will do that. Realise yourself, turning the mind inward. - Tripura Rahasya, 18: 89
On this blog you will find yantra, mantra, tantra and other material relating to some of the different traditions; texts on the siddhas, gurus and yogis of the Natha sampradaya including Gorakhnath, Matsyendranath and Dattatreya; much about kundalini, nadis, chakras; images of tantric kula devas (gods) and devis (goddesses) including Kali, Tripura, Shiva, Ganesha, Cchinnamasta, Durga and Tara; pujas and practices; meditations and dharanas; the inner meaning of kaulachara, vamachara and svecchacharya; an extensive bibliography, and original English translations as well as links to other sites.
An excellent website to visit to get extensive literature on tantra is www.shivashakti.com. Most of the material in the blog has been borrowed by me from www.shivashakti.com,wikipedia and a lot of pdfs available with me and also comments from fellow devotees of the namak shivaya yahoo group.Also I intend looking for people who have true knowledge about the same and share their views on it.
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