Traverses on Less Trodden Path of Indian Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 154

Tripurā Tantra...
145
in early Upanişads 90 also. There are many later Upanišads which havo developed the same idea of mother yoddess, that centre round Sakti regarded as Brahman and became the Philosophical basis of Sakta Tantra.
There are three Subschools within the Sakta Tantra, viz., Kaula, Miśra and Samaya and they have their own independent treatises. Kaula group has 64 treatises with various commentaries, %1 Miśra group has eight Ägamas. 29 These two schools emphasize external worship and their methods are mostly used to acquire material power and prosperity. Really it is some of the followers of Kaula group who have brought bad name to Tantra literature.
These two groups are considered as non-Vaidika by traditional Tantric writers like Sankara, Laksmidhara and others. Srividyopasakas are warned not to follow these paths, 23 The Samaya group is most important amonga the sākta Tantras on account of its philosophical height and its purified method of worship. This group of literature points the way to liberation along with material prosperity. This sama ya method of Sakri worship is accepted as the supreme path of realisation of Advaita by Adi Sankar. Its path is purely internal, though, as a first step in the spiritual advancement, it prescribes external worship of diagram and image. The main source of this Samaya method is five treatises known as śubhagamapancaka, whose authors are the great Sages, Vasiştha, Sonaka, Sanandana, Saratkumāra and Suka, 24 In adition to these five treatises, there are innumerable texts, such as Vamakeśvara, Tantrarā ja, Saundar ya. lahari etc., and many commentaries which propagate philosophy and
20. A(1) Kcnopanişat - DJI-12, p-3.
(2) Te dhyanayogougată apaśyan devātmasaktim svaguņa irnigūdhäm-Svetaśva
taropanişad-I-3. 20. B. (1) Tripurātāpinyupanişad-p. 461-70.
(2) Tripuropanişad- P. 472-73. (3) Bhāvanopanigad- P. 476-77,
(4) Bahvịcopanişad- p. 554-55. 21. Nit yaşodasikarnava. 1-14-21, ed.: Dviveda Vraja vallabha, Varāṇaseya Sanskrit
Viśvavidyalaya, Vārāṇasi, 1968; P. 43-44. 22. Saundaryalahari-31. Commentary by Lakşmidhara, p. 140. 23. 'Misrakam kaulamärgamca parityājyam hi Sankari'--Saundar yalahari-31, with
Lakşmidharā. -141. 24. Ibid. p-140.
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