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Tantra: Ecstasy Through Rituals / 289
In Sanskrit Vama means the left and Dakshina means the right. A woman in tantra is called Vama because her position is always on the left side of her man. This fact is seen in all the images and pictures of couples of deities like Rama and Sita, Shiva and Parvati, Vishnu and Laxmi, and so on. Thus Vamachara is that sect of tantra in which a Vama or woman takes part in the rituals, especially in sexual intercourse as a part of the tantric rites.
Virachara is the tantric sadhana followed by the vira sadhakas. Vira means a warrior. In tantra it means a sadhaka who has conquerred his senses. He is not swayed away by lust and other passions. He is a fit person to do tantric sadhana with the five 'm' s, because internally he has reached a highly developed peaceful state which can not be disturbed by the use of wine or woman.
Kaulachara means the way of practice of the Kaula sadhakas. Kula in tantra means the female sex organ, which is called yoni or trikona. An esoteric meaning of the term 'kula' is the seat of the divine power 'kundalini' i. e., the mooladhara lotus situated between the anus and the genital organ. Akula, in this context, means Lord Shiva located in the sahasrara-chakra. Thus a kaula is one who achieves a union of Shiva and Shakti. Panchatattva sadhana, according to this interpretation, is meant for arousing the dormant power called Kundalini
The word 'latasadhana' indicates the form of tantric worship in which a woman lies down like a creeper (lata) or embraces the male worshipper in sexual act as a part of sadhana.
The panchatattva worship is based on the principle that poison is the antidote for poison. This is a very sound principle which has been largely used in medicine. Tantra seeks to achieve liberation or emancipation through those very things which are considered harmful for it. Food and sex are the two most important sources of deriving enjoyment and pleasure in life. Most of our thoughts and activities are primarily influenced by these two basic desires. If these two desires remain unfulfilled then there can be no peace in life. Rather most of our tensions and conflicts in life issue from the unfulfillment of these two basic urges.
One way of coming out of the influence of these desires is to negate them, to deny any expression to them, and to train the mind to do away with them. But for most of us this proves to be an impossibility. It is not at all possible to remove these desires from the mind simply by starving the sense organs. Tantra does not recommend this way. It believes both in bhukti, i. e., enjoyment, and mukti or emancipation, It shows how one can attain mukti with the use of those very things which are supposed to come in the way of mukti. Of course, it does not advocate libertinism, and it does not recommend this way to the ordinary sadhakas of tantra. On the contrary,
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