Comparative Study of Mantrashastra

SR No.: 006575
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Bhagwandas Jhaveri
Publisher: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab
Publication Year: 1944
Total Pages: 376
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, L000, & L020
File Size: 21 MB

Page 56

TANTRAS: NECESSITY FOR PRACTICAL METHOD IN RELIGION
scriptures have not generally understood them, otherwise they would not have found them to be so "meaningless". They may be bad or they may be good but they have a meaning. Men are not such fools as to believe in what is meaningless. To them perhaps it had no meaning. For otherwise they would not define Mantra as "mystical words "'; Mudra as "mystical gestures" and Yantra as "mystical diagrams".
It does not imply knowledge. Those who speak of 'mummery', ‘gibberish', and 'superstition' betray both their incapacity and ignorance.
NECESSITY FOR PRACTICAL METHOD IN RELIGION
Religion is a practical activity; just as the body requires exercise training and gymnastic, so does the mind. This may be of a merely intellectual or spiritual kind. The means employed are called Sādhanā which comes from the root “Sādh" to exert. Sadhana is that which leads to Siddhi.' Some practical ritualistic Method is necessary for realisation if religion is not to be barren of result. Tantra Shāstra gives that practical method. The mere statement of religious truths is not sufficient. What is necessary is a practical method of realisation. Further ordinary people cannot apprehend nor can they derive satisfaction from mere metaphysical concepts. For them ritualistic methods of self realisation are useful. These people are impressed if one can appeal to the personal principle. Be it Devi or Deva, Shiva or Vishnu, or Buddha or Jina, or for the matter of that any other deity. Further these people require guidance of a preceptor. It is not enough for them to meditate and to uplift their mind in homage to the supreme deity. They need a definite representation of their object of worship as is detailed in the Dhyāna of the Devatās or in their image or Yantra. A ritualistic and pic religion can hold their attention.
RITUAL AND ITS UTILITY “Ritual is an art, the art of religion. Art is the outward material expression of ideas intellectually held and emotionally felt. Ritual art is concerned with the expression of those ideas and feeling which are specifically called religious. It is a mode by which religious truth is presented, and made intelligible in material forms and symbols to the mind. It appeals to all natures passionately sensible of that