A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t5.107

v2.c19.s6.t5.107

As regards the immoral character of this literature and these cults, we should neither exaggerate it, nor should we seek to deny it. There is no doubt that the ritual of the Vajrayāna has led to gross abuses; on the other hand, we must admit that it has a mystic, philosophical background. The Vajrayāna teaches a monistic philosophy. Just as Śiva and Pārvatī are one, Buddha and his Śakti, Tārā or Bhagavatī or Prajñā-Pāramitā, are one. This unity is symbolised figuratively by the intimate embrace (yuganaddha, Tibetan yabyum) of the gods and goddesses, who, for the most part, are merely male and female personifications of abstract ideas. The sexual union, in which the man is regarded as the incarnation of Buddha, and the woman as that of Bhagavatī, in reality serves the same symbolical purpose as those pictures in the cult.¹