STFU
𝗜𝗳 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗶 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝗵ū𝗯𝗮𝗹ī (𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲)?
A question which is often asked these days is why do we need to worship such forms or a variant of it that God is all kindness and love, He or She can never demand a sacrifice.
Or that just Bhaktī to the Divine is enough, what need for all these “gruesome” methods?
This is a naive question born from a cocktail of ignorance and Abrahamic thinking. People tend to confuse a deity with human measurements and human sensibilities which keep changing every few decades.
From this stems another misguided query – how can a Mother (Devi) take pashubali? Of course, She can, and very often does.
When the texts colloquially call Her mother, it is mainly a kind psychological device of upasana to create a meaningful mode of interaction with what is essentially a terrific non-human Force.
Mahakali is a Mother for the capable sadhaka once She accepts the upasaka as Her child, but no amount of modern whitewashing can remove that blood-dripping Khadga from Her hands, nor change her lolling blood-red tongue or tame Her unstoppable vehemence.
Destruction is as much a part and parcel of Her domain as creation. It is very very important to realize that a deity is not like a human being, neither in their perspective of the universe nor in their eternal presence.
It is the upasaka who must adhere to the likes and dislikes of the devata as stated by the Shastras if one must safely approach the deity and not the other way round, that is, to expect the gods to bow before our limited mentality and weak emotionalism.
Hindus are perhaps the only race who have envisioned the divine in all kinds of forms, from the gentlest and sweetest to the most terrible and terrifying.
Even the flute-playing Krishna of Bhagwatam turns into a most deadly Viswaroopa form, so fierce that a warrior of Arjuna’s caliber shrunk into fear seeing that terror-inducing Cosmic manifestation.
The Devi Mahatyam describes the Divine Mahā Śaktī as the gentlest of all, Soumyati Soumya, and yet the fiercest of all, Ugratiugra.
A cursory reading of the Chandipaath shows extremely graphic details of the warfare that Chandika waged against the Asuric force, including descriptions where Chamunda and the matrika-s drink the blood of asuras and dance intoxicated to the rhythm of battle drums.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗕𝗵𝗮𝗸𝘁ī 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻?
Bhakti is vital, but it is not enough. More important is Shraddha, a living faith in the efficacy of the path shown by the acarya-s and siddhas who gave walked before.
The aim of the Tantric sādhanas is to attain Mantra and Tantra Sīddhī, finally ending in a sīddhī or accomplished communion with the deity and for that exact steps are needed.
Even in the modern biographical narrative about the Aghori Pratap Mody as mentioned in a series of books called Aghora – at the Left Hand of God, we find that even a hardcore vegetarian Vimalananda had to offer meat and blood when Smashan Tara appeared in front of him during a midnight ritual in a cremation ground in Bihar.
If Bhakti were perfect nothing else would be needed, but such ideal bhakti is nowhere to be found in human beings, which is precisely why rituals and rules were made by the rishis and Sīddhas.
So any argument that Vāmacara Sādhana should replace Balīvīdhan is in direct contraction to the Sāstras and a clear recipe for failure of the Sādhana.
Even Ramakrīshna who towards the end of his life ate very less, and never anything non-veg would still offer his Namaskaras when a slice of meat from Balī was presented to him, for that, according to the Kali Upasaka, was prasada of the Divine Mother.
Those who are disinclined for such practices can always try the Daksīnacāra route, but at no point can anyone else, least of all an outsider with zero direct experience or achievement in this path, has any Adhīkara to pass judgment on what to do and what not to do, or try and change the practice of Pashūbalī, for these methods have been established by Sīddhas who walked before, and by their very lives demonstrated how this path leads to the higher communion with the devata, such that the very body of the sadhaka becomes a Yantra capable of holding Her infinite power, while the sadhaka’s mind becomes a constant Mantra.
In this manner the limited human is transformed into an unlimited living God and this indeed is mukti for the Tantra sadhaka.
Courtesy : Tantrācāra
www.independent.co.uk
www.indiatimes.com
