History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.111

v7.c92.111

The Vedānta system requires for its understanding high intellectual and moral attainments and could be followed by only a few gifted souls. It is claimed that Tantras provide a method which assists men of ordinary intellect and which utilizes visual and physical processes for the attainment of spiritual experience, for the development of psychic forces and for the quick attainment of liberation by such practices as the repetition of mantras, mudrās, nyāsa, maṇḍalas, cakras and yantras. The respect for the guru sometimes reached amongst Tantrik writers to extreme and disgusting lengths as the note below will indicate.¹⁷³⁶ the guru. The necessity of a guru for the acquisition of esoteric philosophy is stressed by the Upaniṣads also. For, example the Kaṭhopaniṣad¹⁷³⁴ says 'this knowledge cannot be obtained by ratiocination, it can be understood well only when expounded by another'; the Chāndogya (IV. 9. 3) says 'Sir, I have heard from men like you that only knowledge that is learnt from a teacher leads to real good'. The Liṅgapurāṇa¹⁷³⁵ and others say that guru is identical with Śiva and the rewards of devotion to Śiva and to the guru are the same. The Kulārṇava (XI. 46) emphasizes that the order of the succession of gurus, the Āgamas, Āmnāya, mantra and practices—all these when learnt from the lips of a guru become fruitful and not otherwise. The Prapañcasāra provides 'the disciple should consider in his mind that guru, *devatā* and mantra are one and should repeat a hundred times the mantra that he received by the favour of the guru.'