History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.137
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.137
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The Tāntrikas clothe their practices in bombastic and high-sounding words. The five makāras are called pañca-tattvas, kuladravyas or kulatattvas. Maithuna is generally referred to as pañcamatattva, the woman with whom sexual intercourse is to be had or who was at least to be associated with a male in Tantra worship is called Śakti (vide Kulārṇava VII 39-43 and Mahānirvāṇa VI. 18-20) or *prakṛti* or *latā* and this special ritual is called ‘Latāsādhana’ (Mahānirvāṇa I. 52). Wine is called tīrthavāri (holy water) or kāraṇa (VIII. 168 and VI. 17). The Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, though a reformist work and in certain cases asking the king to punish drunkards (XI. 113-121), waxes eloquent over wine and praises it as Tārā in the form¹⁷⁵³ of a fluid substance, as the saviour of individual souls, as the mother (or producer) of bhoga (enjoyment) and mokṣa (liberation) and as the remover of misfortunes and diseases and after some further praise of wine winds up by saying that those men who drink wine according to the rules and with a well-controlled mind are gods on earth (XI. 108). For the worship of Śakti the five tattvas are absolutely necessary (Mahānirvāṇa-tantra V. 21-24 quoted in note 1695 above and¹⁷⁵⁴ Kulārṇava V. 69 and 76). Some tantras say that the meaning of tattva differs according as the person concerned is Tāmasika (*a paśu* kind of worshipper), Rājasika (*a vīra* as he is called), sāttvika (*a divya*, a person who is godlike).
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Madya means according to various Tāntrik Texts real wine as well as a substitute like cocoanut water or any other liquid; it also means that intoxicating knowledge that comes of Yoga practices, whereby the worshipper becomes senseless as regards the external world. *Māṁsa* is the act whereby the sādhaka surrenders himself and his action to Lord Śiva. *Matsya* (fish, of which the first part '*mat*' means 'mine') is that psychical state by which the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beings. *Maithuna* is the union of the Śakti Kuṇḍalinī (the woman inside a man's body) in the Mūlādhāra-cakra with the supreme Śiva in the Sahasrāracakra in the highest centre of the brain and is the stream of the sweet juice that drops from the Sahasrāra. Preparation of hemp (called *vijayā* or '*bhāṅg*') is madya for some. The Mahānirvāṇa says (VIII. 170 and 173) that '*madhura-traya*' may be substituted for wine and for 'Maithuna' meditation on the feet of the (image of) Devī and *japa* of the desired mantra may be substituted. The Kaulāvalīnirṇaya (III 111) boldly states that if a man, after partaking of vijayā (*bhāṅg*) engages in meditation, he sees directly before him the form of the goddess as described in the Dhyānamantra.
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Some Tantras like the Kaulajñānanirṇaya and Bhāskararāya¹⁷⁵⁵ in his commentary on Lalitāsahasranāma say that when Kuṇḍalinī is roused by a yogin and it reaches the thousand-petalled cakra (Sahasrāra) from which (that has on its pericarp the moon) drops nectar which is figuratively spoken of as *madya* (vide notes 1716, 1752). The Kulārṇava at first asserts (I. 105-107) ‘Mukti does not result from the study of the Veda nor by the study of śāstras, it results from (correct) knowledge alone, that the āśramas are not a means of mokṣa nor are the darśanas the means, nor all the śāstras, that it is knowledge alone that is the cause, that it is the knowledge imparted by the teaching of the guru that confers *mukti*, all (other) vidyās are mockery.’ Then in the Vedāntic strain it affirms (I. 111-112) “two words (respectively) lead to bondage or liberation viz. (this is) ‘*mine*’ or ‘nothing is *mine*’. A person falls in bondage by the thought ‘this is mine’ and becomes liberated by realising ‘nothing is mine’ and that that is proper action that does not lead to bondage and that is real lore that leads to liberation.” After these high thoughts the same Tantra (II. 22-23 and 29) proceeds to Kaula doctrine. ‘If a man is a yogin he does not (ordinarily) enjoy life, while one who enjoys life does not know yoga; but the Kaula doctrine combines both *yoga* and *bhoga* and is superior to all (other doctrines); in the Kaula doctrine bhoga turns into yoga directly, what is sin (acc.
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to ordinary people) becomes meritorious, *saṃsāra* turns into mokṣa. Kaula knowledge enlightens him whose mind is purified by the mantras of Śaiva worship, Durgā worship &c.”