- SIVA , DURGA
Text 377048: Today 04:39 /30 lines/ Suhotra Swami
Receiver: (Have)
Danda (Will Travel) <102>
Subject: A
note to the last text
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A short note to the last text:
It would not be correct to designate as “Tantrics” the Kanci Sankaracarya or any other Mayavadi in the line of Adi Sankaracarya (the original Sankaracarya who introduced Mayavada to defeat Buddhism). But in fact Adi Sankara did establish the system of pancopasana (worship of five deities) in his sampradaya, and among these five—each of which is conceived by the Mayavadis as savisesa-brahman—are Durga and Siva. Sankara also prescribed a method of puja for these deities that is derived from the tantras and agamas, therefore the system of worship employed at the Kamakoti Pitham is right-hand tantra. Actually the Kamakoti Pitham is an ancient tirtha for worshipers of Durga-devi that existed long before the Mayavadis took it over. Before they took up the worship, it was done by regular Tantric brahmanas.
The special significance of the Kamakoti Pitham is that it’s supposedly the place where Sati-devi’s yoni fell to earth after she burned her (Press Return)
body in anger at her father Daksa (vid. SB Canto 4). There are 108 Devi-pithams in India, each one a site where a part of her body landed. These places are still magnets for Tantrics. One can just imagine how important a place of pilgrimage the Kamakoti Pitham must have been to the Tantrics of both the right and left paths; probably all sorts of perverted things were going on there. Sankara’s mission was to reform the Hindu religion, so after he and his followers took over that place, the Kamakoti Pitham became a respectable Hindu temple. Still, the practice that is referred to in the purport that Vaiyanatha Prabhu quoted is going on there, but in a symbolic way that is in accordance to Sankara’s philosophy and method of puja.
(Text 377048) ----------------------------------------------
Text 376930: Yesterday 18:38 /47 lines/ Suhotra Swami Comment on: Text 376827 by Vaidyanath (das) HKS (NE-BBT)
Subject: Siva’s cult
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It would seem that mudrikastaka (which Bhaktividya Purna Maharaja, who is here with me in Greece, thinks means “8 mudras”) has something to do with the Tantrika “pancha-ma”, though I am not sure, not being a Tantric myself. Pancha-ma means “5 M’s”, five words that begin with the letter M which are important in Tantric practice. They are Mamsa (meat), Matsya (fish), Mada (wine), Mudra (hand symbols and yoga postures) and Maitunya (sex). Tantrics are initiated into the ritual use of these items in their puja of Siva-Sakti (Lord Siva and Durga-devi, represented by the linga and yoni, the male and female genitalia either worshiped separately or combined together in one image that is worshiped in Siva and Durga temples).
The word tantra refers to a tradition of worship (tantra means “book”, particularly books that supplement the Vedas; the tantras are also called agama-sastras to differentiate them from the Vedas, the nigama-sastras). The Vaisnava system of Deity worship comes from the (Press Return)
Narada-pancaratra and other Vaisnava tantras and agamas. Just as we have our tradition of worship, so do the Saktas (worshipers of Sakti) and the Saivites (worshipers of Siva), who are in the mode of ignorance. They are also known as Tantrics.
In Tantra there are two paths, the right-hand (daksina-bhaga marga) and the left-hand (vama-bhaga marga). On the right-hand path, the panca-ma are employed only symbolically in temple puja. On the left-hand path, Tantrics directly engage in eating meat and fish, drinking wine and engaging in sex while practicing “yoga”. The “making of the vagina as one’s sitting place” can therefore be understood symbolically and literally, depending on the path of Tantra. In Siva Kancipuram in South India is the Kamakoti Pitham, the headquarters of the Kanci Sankaracarya (Mayavadi “Pope”), where the main deity worshiped is the yoni (vagina) of Durga-devi. Sometimes small versions of this deity appear on ISKCON altars as those brass acamana pots called kosha-koshi, which when you see them you’ll think look fish-shaped. The kosha-koshi is actually the symbol of Durga’s vagina, and why they end up on ISKCON altars I do not know—I suppose ISKCON pujaris eager to be “authentic” buy them in India and bring them home. But Gaudiya Vaisnava temples in India do not use kosha-koshi. Anyway—the Kanci Sankaracarya sits in the Kamakoti Pitham where he worships and meditates on the vagina of Durga to attain nirvana, liberation. Why? He thinks she is Savisesa-(Press Return)
Brahman (Brahman with form), and that her yoni is the source of the material world (janmadyasya-yathah). Moreover, he thinks by this meditation, he is Siva. And so on and so forth.
I will not describe the left-hand method of this meditation. For that, you can read the article, “Tantra—Can Sex Be Yoga?” by Acyutananda Swami in BTG Vol. 13 No. 7.
(Text 376930) ----------------------------------------------
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Text 376827: Yesterday 15:30 /13 lines/ Vaidyanath (das) HKS (NE-BBT)
Subject: Siva’s cult
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In the 4th Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.2.29) Srila Prabhupada mentions, “In the initiation into Siva mantra there are mudrikastaka, in which it is sometimes recommended that one make his sitting place on the vagina and thus desire nirvana.” I came across this passage translating the book. To translate it properly I need to know what mudrikastaka is, and how we should understand the expression “sitting place on the vagina”. Outside of this it would also be interesting to know how this is connected with the desire for nirvana. Could you elaborate on this?
your servant
(Text 376827) ---------------------------------------------- (Comment in text 376930 by Suhotra Swami)
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