World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 657

The employment of sex imagery is frequent in the tantric lore. It works both ways - making it adorable and making it abominable, although sex is employed in tantra not for direct gratification but for reversal and restraint. Unfortunately we live in an erotic age of 'sex affirming culture where for better or worse the lid is off the Id.
Special care must be taken in deciphering sexual metaphors and symbols used by the Siddhas and the tantrics who divinized sex in order to take away sex-mindedness. It is very true that in this imperfect world the way to hell is paved with very good intentions. As a washerman makes a dirty cloth clean with some matter which itself is dirt, or as some water accidentally goes into one's ears is taken out by the help of some additional water itself, the Siddhas and the tantrics feel that one can get rid of the kama by kama itself. Kama becomes a bondage only when it is resorted to by the foolish and not by the wise in whose case it serves as the cause of emancipation. It is said that the joy of sexual union is a foretaste of heaven. It is also observed that when an animal's sexual instinct is over whelmingly strong its instinct for self-preservation or selfidentity is reduced practically to zero. During sexual union one loses one's sense of individuality and merges oneself into a greater whole. Sexual union is the obscure silence where all lovers lose themselves. Tirumular calls sexual union as yoga and terms it as pariyankayogam, which has been translated by Zvelebil as 'bedstead yoga?8. It may also be noted in this context that the familiar symbol of sexual union in Tibetan iconography Yab-Yum does not mean merely 'male-female' more specifically it means 'father-mother and therefore, sexual union is actually a reverential expression. According to H.V. Guenther, the symbolic Yugananddha points to the unique harmony and interpenetration of masculinity and feminity. Sexual union is the best expression for the most intimate relation between the opposites. We may end our discussion of the five 'm's, by saying that there exists a big gap between the literal, substitutional and symbolic meanings of them as used in the tantras. 5. An example from Tirumular's sunya sambhasanai.
We may refer to the oft-quoted verse of Tirumular!'. The superficial meaning of the verse as it stands is: I sowed brinjal and got bitter gourd; I dug the dust but the pumpkin flowered. After seeing this perversion, the gardeners ran away from me. Then the plantain fruit became ripe.” But the implied meaning is: I undertook the practice of kundalini yoga ("sowed brinjal"), because of it I got the vairagya (got bitter gourd). I examined the tattvas of the self (digging the dust or philosophical speculation). Because of it, I found Sivatattva in me (pumpkin flower: Civam manifesting itself). Once Sivatattva was discovered in me all my indriyas kept quiet (the gardeners, i.e., the sense organs ran away from
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