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Shri Devi said: One may meditate on a visible image, O Mahadeva. What is
the nature of meditation on the invisible? Shri Shankara said: O Devi,
sound, uttered by me, is the absolute. By pronouncing a mantra with a
devoted mind, there is invisible meditation and so forth. Maheshvari,
this is true, true, self evident, undoubtedly - Matrikabhedatantra XII,
5-7
The Kularnava Tantra defines dhyana in the following way: "Controlling
the affliction of senses by the mind, contemplation by the inner being
of the chosen deity is called dhyana". (KT XVII, 36, Rai's translation).
In the tantrik traditions, there are numerous dhyanas which require
intense visualisation skills, themselves part of the "work on oneself"
or sadhana required by an initiate. Simply put, in the Bhagavad Gita,
that what the mind thinks on, it becomes.
Underlying these practices is the basic tantrik idea that the worshipper
and the worshipped are one. Kalika, Shiva or any of the other 33 million
devatas do not live in some separate place as disembodied beings who can
bestow boons or curses. Instead, the macrocosm is, as the Todala Tantra
and many other texts state, one with the microcosm. (See also the
abstract of the Siddhasiddhantapaddhi on this site).
Not only is the ability to visualise in a concentrated manner one of the
elements of sadhana, it is both a preliminary and an essential basis for
many other tantrik practices, including the daily puja or worship,
optional practices, nyasa, many yogic practices such as intense
visualisations on the inner body à la Kaulajnananirnaya, the recitation
of mantra, meditation of yantras, the performance of mudras and even
sexual sadhana for some of the heterodox tantrik schools.
Not only must an adept be able to visualise sometimes very complex
images, but also be able to hold such images, concentratedly, often for
a long period of time. External images, the different elements of puja,
and repeated practice lead eventually, so the masters of these
traditions tell us, to perfection in which the meditator, the means of
meditation and the meditated on are realised in their essential unity.
Devotion and grace may also assist towards this end.
As with many other elements in the tantrik traditions, these
visualisations/meditations can have either a gross, a subtle or supreme
form.
"...attachment of mind to anything (raga) is Redness. The Consummation
of worship (Upasti) is meditation one's Self. Siddhi is attained when
thought does not wander from the contemplation of the identity of one's
Self with the Object of Worship." (Arthur Avalon's introduction to the
Sanskrit text of the Tantrarajatantra.)
This same tantra also gives examples of gross, subtle and supreme
meditations on Tripurasundari. Avalon says in his introduction that the
relation of Lalita with the other fifteen Nityas is the gross form,
subtle meditation is when one meditates on the goddess in the six bodily
centres or chakras, while the supreme form is meditation on the supreme
Shakti as "one, impartite and impartible whole and visualising the Atma
as a steady, motionless flame in a windless place".
From another point of view, the absolute, whether seen as Shiva, Shakti,
or the union of the two, takes the form of an image or pratima in its
gross form, of a yantra in its subtle form, and of a mantra in its
supreme form. All three represent devata but are progressively more
subtle. An advanced adept will develop the ability to visualise not just
images of "gods" and "goddesses" but complex yantras such as the Shri
Yantra.
It is clear from the foregoing, and from the many complex examples of
meditation given on this Web site, that achieving a degree of success in
these practices is not, necessarily, an easy thing.
This brings us to the iconography of the tantrik devis and devatas. The
images sold in every Indian bazaar of Lakshmi, Shiva, Ganesh and others,
where true to their original descriptions, are based on meditation
images found in the tantras, the puranas and in other texts. The number
of arms and heads, the weapons held in such hands, and other elements of
the dhyanas, are intended to remind a practitioner of the essential
nature of the devata meditated on. They often have a symbolic meaning,
as well as providing rich imagery as objects of meditation. |
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