Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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M.M.Pt. Gopinath Kaviraja's Contribution to Tantric Philosophy
Dr. D.A. Gangadhar In the present context I have chosen the topic to present some of my thoughts and experiences with regard to M.M.Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj. Why I have chosen the subject, is not without reason. Pt. Kaviraji has been one of the great pillar among the modern interpreters of Tantric Philosophy. His concern is no less than Sir John Woodroff who has translated the best work on Tantra named as Kularnava Tantra. But Pt. Kavirajji went further to Woodroff, because he had a devine personality. In fact, I had the opportunity to see the holy feet of M.M. Pt. Gopinath Kavirajji in the year 1966, while I was doing my Master's Course in Philosophy at the Banaras Hindu University. My teacher Mrs. 'Sobharani Basu, a devout disciple of Kavirajji took me to his house at the Sigra place of Varanasi, where he was residing and blessing the scholars on the subject. When I entered his room following my teacher, he looked at me and was introduced by my teacher, he smiled with deep thought and directed me to sit nearby. Really those moments are immemorable in my life.
I could see a divine and seriously knowledgeable person. The purpose of my visit was to be enlightened by this great pandit on a work, I was assigned to complete a dissertation on St. Kabir. Pt. Kavirajji suggested me to write some thing on Kabir's massage on “Way to SelfRealization", later this happened to be the topic of my dissertation in M.A. Course. I used to visit him to listen his views on Religious experience and the methods of Self-realization. He continued to solve some of my curiosities on the mysterious problems on self-realization and mystical experiences. I learnt a lot and made myself a humble student of comparative study of religions.
I can say, without hesitation, that I found Pt. Kavirajji as a serious thinker with encyclopaedic knowledge of the original sources of all the systems of Indian philosophy and religions. I experienced him as a true Sadhaka, a great Rishi-like personality. His approach to Indian Philosophy, religion and Sadhana was the same as that of the great seers, sages and yogis of India. To quote the words of Prof. Arabinda Basu, a renowned scholar of Indian Philosophy and Religion, I must say that "The illustrious guardians of spiritual thought and practice were his guides in his lifelong search for the spirit of Indian culture. He was a most devoted and stead fast upholder of the hoary Indian traditional faith that there are diverse approaches to Truth and that it is need and proper that there should be different philosophies, religions and spiritual disciplines. All
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