Kaulachara

I have truly become a Kaula now. Lines on my palm or my pre-written destiny have become irrelevant now. I am no more bound to any sect or religion though I may study them for a limited period of time and utilize the powers gained for the good of the universe. On the other hand, Mahanirvana Tantra and the other relevant Tantric doctrines will be the "basis" for my life long experiment with truth and the unknown. These will be the doctrines, the study and mastering of which, I shall never keep aside at any point of time. Let me now put down excerpts from the Mahanirvana Tantra which explains what exactly is the path of the Kaula.

Forms of Achara, Mahanirvana Tantra (Translation by John Woodroffe “Arthur Avalon”) :

“ There are seven, or, as some say, nine, divisions of worshippers.  The extra divisions are bracketed in the following quotation. The  Kularnava Tantra mentions seven, which are given in their order of  superiority, the first being the lowest: Vedachara, Vaishnavachara, Shaivachara, Dakshinachara, Vamachara, Siddhantachara (Aghorachara, Yogachara ), and Kaulachara, the highest of all. The  achara is the way, custom, and practice of a particular class of  sadhaka. They are not, as sometimes supposed, different  sects, but stages through which the worshipper in this or other births  has to pass before he reaches the supreme stage of the Kaula. Vedachara, which consists in the daily practice of the  Vaidik rites, is the gross body (sthula−deha), which  comprises within it all other acharas, which are, as it  were, its subtle bodies (sukshma−deha) of various  degrees. The worship is largely of an external and ritual character,  the object of which is to strengthen dharma. This is the  path of action (kriya−marga). In the second stage the  worshipper   passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme  protecting energy of the Brahman, towards which he has feelings of  devotion. This is the path of devotion (bhakti−marga), and the aim at this stage is the union of it and faith previously  acquired. With an increasing determination to protect dharma and  destroy a−dharma, the sadhaka passes into  Shaivachara, the warrior (kshatriya) stage,  wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and the  cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion (bhakti), and inward determination (antar−laksha). Entrance is  made upon the path of knowledge (jnana−marga). Following  this is Dakshinachara, which in Tantra does not mean  "right−hand worship," but "favourable"  that is, that achara which is favourable to the accomplishment of the higher sadhana, and whereof the Devi is the Dakshina Kalika. This stage commences  when the worshipper can make dhyana and dharana of the  threefold shakti of the Brahman (kriya, ichchha, jñana), and understands the mutual connection (samanvaya ) of the three guna until he receives purnabhisheka (q .v.). At this stage the sadhaka is Shakta, and qualified for the worship of the threefold shakti of  Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara. He is fully initiated in the  Gayatri−mantra, and worships the Devi Gayatri, the Dakshina Kalika, or  Adya Shakti  the union of the three Shakti. This is the stage of  individualistic Brahmana−tattva, and its aim is the union of faith,  devotion, and determination, with a knowledge of the threefold  energies. After this a change of great importance occurs, marking, as  it does, the entry upon the path of return (nivritti). This it is which has led some to divide the achara into the two  broad divisions of Dakshinachara (including the first four) and  Vamachara (including the last three), it being said that men are  born into Dakshinachara, but are received by initiation  into Vamachara. The latter term does not mean, as is  vulgarly supposed, "left-hand worship," but the worship in which woman ( vama) enters that is lata-sadhana. In this  achara there is also worship of the Vama Devi. Vija is here  "adverse," in that the stage is adverse to pravritti, which governed in varying degrees the preceding achara, and entry is here made upon the path of nivritti, or  return to the source whence the world sprung. Up to the fourth stage  the sadhaka followed pravrittimarga, the outgoing  path which led from the source, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curved by dharma. At first unconsciously, and later  consciously, sadhana sought to induce nivrittt, which, however, can only fully appear after the exhaustion of the  forces of the outward current. In Vamachara, however, the sadhaka commences to directly destroy pravritti, and  with the help of the Guru (whose help throughout is in this necessary)  to cultivate nivritti. The method at this stage is to use  the force of pravritti in such a way as to render them  self-destructive. The passions which bind may be so employed as to act  as forces whereby the particular life of which they are the strongest  manifestation is raised to the universal life. Passion, which has  hitherto run downwards and outwards to waste, is directed inwards and  upwards, and transformed to power. But it is not only the lower  physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse which must  be subjugated. The sadhaka must at this stage commence to cut  off all the eight bonds (pasha) which mark the pashu  which the Kularnava Tantra enumerates as pity (daya), ignorance (moha), shame (lajja), family ( kula), custom (shila), and caste (varna ). When Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing  Gopi, and made them approach him naked, he removed the  artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the sangsara. The Gopi were eight, as are the bonds (pasha), and the errors by which the jiva is misled are the clothes  which Shri Krishna stole. Freed of these, the jiva is  liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family, and society.  He then reaches the stage of Shiva (shivatva). It is the  aim of Vamachara to liberate from the bonds which bind men to  the sangsara, and to qualify the sadhaka for the highest grades of sadhana in which the sattvika guna predominates. To the truly sattvik there is neither attachment, fear,  or disgust. That which has been commenced in these stages is by degrees  completed in those which follow  viz.: Siddhantachara, and according to some, Aghorachara and Yogachara. The sadhaka becomes more and more freed from the darkness of  the sangsara, and is attached to nothing, hates nothing, and is ashamed of nothing, having freed himself of the artificial bonds  of family, caste, and society. The sadhaka becomes, like Shiva  himself, a dweller in the cremation ground (smashana). He  learns to reach the upper heights of sadhana and the mysteries  of yoga. He learns the movements of the different vayu  in the microcosm the Kshudra-brahmanda, the regulation of  which controls the inclinations and propensities (vritti). He learns also the truth which concern the macrocosm (brahmanda ). Here also the Guru teaches him the inner core of Vedachara . Initiation by yoga-diksha fully qualifies him for  yogachara. On attainment of perfection in ashtanga-yoga , he is fit to enter the highest stage of Kaulachara.”

Kaula Dharma, Mahanirvana Tantra (Translation by John Woodroffe “Arthur Avalon”) :

Kaulachara or Kaula-dharma is in no wise sectarian, but, on the contrary, is the heart of all  sects. This is the true meaning of the phrase which, like many another  touching the Tantra, is misunderstood, and used to fix the kaula with  hypocrisy antah−shaktah, vahih−shaivah sabhayang  vaishnavahmatah nana  rupadharah kaulah vicharanti mahitale (outwardly Shaivas; in gatherings, Vaishnavas; at heart, Shaktas; under  various forms the Kaulas wander on earth). A Kaula is one who has  passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulachara.  It is indifferent what the KaulaÕs apparent sect may be. The form is  nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power  to narrow the KaulaÕs own inner life; it is everything in the sense  that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal  meaning. So understood, form is never a bond. The Vishva−sara Tantra,  says of the Kaula that "for him there is neither rule of time; nor  place. His actions are unaffected either by the phases of the moon or  the position of the stars. The Kaula roams the earth in differing  forms. At times adhering to social rules (shishta), he at others  appears, according to their standard, to be fallen (bhrashta). At times, again, he seems to be as unearthly as a ghost (bhuta  or pishacha) To him no difference is there between mud  and sandal paste, his son and an enemy, home and the cremation ground."

“At this stage the sadhaka attains to Brahma−jnana, which is the true gnosis in its perfect form. On receiving mahapurna−daksha he performs his own funeral rites and is dead to  the sangsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he  remains in constant samadhi, and attains its  nir−vikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti  Maha−shakti, dwells in the heart of the sadhaka, which is  now the cremation ground wherein all passions have been burnt away. He  becomes a Parama−hangsa, who is liberated whilst yet  living (javan−mukta).”

“ It must not, however, be supposed that each of these stages must  necessarily be passed through by each jiva in a single life. On  the contrary, they are ordinarily traversed in the course of a  multitude of births. The weaving of the spiritual garment is  recommenced where in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In the present life a sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he is born  into Kaulachara, and so is a Kaula in its fullest sense,  it is because in previous births he has by sadhana, in  the preliminary stages, won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti  is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and,  according to the Mahanirvana Tantra, it is by merit acquired in  previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulachara.”

Mukti, Mahanirvana Tantra (Translation by John Woodroffe “Arthur Avalon”) :

“ There are various degrees of mukti, some more perfect  than the others, and it is not, as is generally supposed, one state.  There are four future states of Bliss, or pada, being  in the nature of abodes  viz., salokya, samipya, sarupya, and sayujya  that is, living in the same  loka, or region, with the Deva worshipped; being near the  Deva,; receiving the same form or possessing the same aishvaryya  (Divine qualities) as the Deva, and becoming one with the Deva  worshipped. The abode to which the jiva attains depends upon the worshipper and the nature of his worship, which may be with, or  without, images, or of the Deva regarded as distinct from the  worshipper, and with attributes, and so forth. The four abodes are the  result of action, transitory and conditioned. Mahanirvvana, or Kaivalya, the real moksha, is the result of spiritual  knowledge (jnana), and is unconditioned and permanent.  Those who know the Brahman, recognizing that the worlds resulting from  action are imperfect, reject them, and attain to that unconditioned  Bliss which transcends them all. Kaivalya is the supreme state  of oneness without attributes, the state in which, as the Yogasutra  says, modification of the energy of consciousness is extinct, and when  it is established in its own real nature.”

“ Liberation is attainable while the body is yet living, in which case  there exists the state of jivanmukti celebrated in the  Jivanmuktigita of Dattatreya. The soul, it is true, is not really  fettered, and any appearance to the contrary is illusory. There is, in  fact, freedom, but though moksha is already in possession still,  because of the illusion that it is not yet attained, means must be  taken to remove the illusion, and the jiva who succeeds in this  is jivanmukta, though in the body, and is freed from  future embodi−ments. The enlightened Kaula, according to the  Nitya−nita, sees no difference between mud and sandal, friend and foe,  a dwelling−house and the cremation−ground. He knows that the Brahman is  all, that the Supreme soul (paramatma) and the individual  soul (jivatma) are one, and freed from all attachment he is  jivanmukta, or liberated, whilst yet living. The means whereby  mukti is attained is the yoga process (vide ante).”

I have chosen to write these excerpts from the Mahanirvana Tantra here because they are influencing  my thinking and practical life without any bias to the past, present and the future. The constant changes that I am witnessing in my life are absolutely based on the doctrine mentioned in these excerpts.

Sanjay at Nirvana

Comments

[Shailendra Naithani]

dear friend
this is so easy to vomit informations but to become real kaula .by vies by attitudes by virtues by initiation by different abhishek & purna abhishek kaula specially uttara kaula avadhoot renounce every thing even the means of renouncement
i just wanna know which kaula u r & from which kula
kali kula or sri kula

[V. Srinivasan]

"The sadhaka must at this stage commence to cut off all the eight bonds (pasha) which mark the pashu which the Kularnava Tantra enumerates as pity (daya), ignorance (moha), shame (lajja), family ( kula), custom (shila), and caste (varna )".
This sentence is from the Text above. All the eight bonds are not listed. Please verify.