History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.98
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.98
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The Guhyasamāja-tantra puts forward a quick and short method for realising Buddhahood and for the attainment of miraculous powers (siddhis) through the processes of Yoga. The siddhis are said to be of two kinds, Sāmānya (ordinary,¹⁷²⁵ such as becoming invisible) and Uttama (highest i. e. attaining Buddhahood). Four means for securing ordinary siddhis are mentioned and they are called *Vajra-catuṣka*. It is further provided that the best *siddhi* is acquired by the nectar of knowledge due to the six *aṅgas*¹⁷²⁶ of Yoga (and by no other way) viz Pratyāhāra, Dhyāna, Prāṇāyāma, Dhāraṇā, Anusmṛti and Samādhi. It is worthy of note that the first three aṅgas of yoga mentioned in the Yogasūtra viz. *yama*, *niyama*¹⁷²⁷ and *āsana* are omitted and a new one, Anusmṛti, is added. Yama could not be included because to the Guhyasamāja it did not matter if the sādhaka ate flesh, or indulged in sexual intercourse or told lies, while in Yogasūtra *yamas* are *ahiṁsā*, *satya* (truthfulness), *asteya* (not appropriating anything that does not belong to one), *brahmacarya* (sexual purity) and *aparigraha* (non-acceptance of gifts). Niyamas could not be included because among the five niyamas are svādhyāya (Veda study) and (Īśvarapraṇidhāna) devotion to or surrender to God. Many Bauddhas reviled the Veda and acknowledged no Supreme Deity. The Guhyasamāja introduced Yogic practices for quickly securing Buddhahood.
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The idea of allowing flesh and sexual intercourse seems to have been that the Yogin is to be indifferent as to what he does so long as he is striving for the goal of Buddhahood, for development of his psychic life and that he may disregard all social conventions and rules.¹⁷²⁸ Another innovation of the Vajrayāna was the introduction of *upāsanā* of Śakti for liberation through Yoga. The Guhya-samāja provides that if even after making efforts for six months, the sādhaka has no realisation, he may repeat his efforts for three times more and if even after that he has no enlightenment he should resort to Hathayoga and then he would attain correct knowledge through Yoga. A further innovation was the theory of the five Dhyāni-buddhas,¹⁷²⁹ emanating from the Bhagavān, who represent the five Skandhas or fundamental principles of which the whole creation is composed and each of whom was associated with a female Śakti. The teaching of the Guhyasamāja is that if psychical power and miraculous siddhis are to be developed females must be associated with those who undertake Yogic exercises to achieve their ends.
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Thus the prophecy of the founder of Buddhism pronounced, when yielding to the pressure and entreaties of his favourite disciple Ānanda for allowing women to be members of the *saṅgha* and to be nuns, that on account of this innovation his system would stand fast only for five hundred years, though otherwise it would have lasted for a thousand years, was literally fulfilled (vide Cullavagga X. 1. 6 in Vinaya Texts, vol. III, S. B. E. XX. p. 325). If we accept 483 B. C. as the date of Buddha's Parinirvāṇa (as many scholars hold) or 477 B. C. (as A. Foucher holds) 500 years therefrom would bring us to the first century A. D. and it is clear that by a century or two after that time much of Buddha's teaching appears to have been almost completely swamped by doctrines of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Tantras. By a strange irony of fate Buddha's 'dharma-cakra-pravartana' came to be transformed into 'adharma-cakra-pravartana' by many of his so-called followers of the Vajrayāna. In the Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta V. 23 (S. B. E. vol XI. p. 91) the Buddha was very strict and warned bhikkhus not to see bhikkhunīs, not to talk to them if they could not avoid seeing them, and to be wide awake if a nun talked to them. Buddha severely rebuked one of his disciples for showing his miraculous powers (vide p. 1037 and n. 1672 above), but Guhyasamāja and other Buddhist tantras make provision for endowing the sādhaka with miraculous powers, such as causing rainfall in case of drought (Guhyasamāja p.
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84), killing an enemy by magical rites over an effigy of the enemy (*ibid.* p. 96). Besides, the Guhyasamāja knows the six cruel or terrible magic acts (called 'ṣaṭkarmāṇi), viz. *śānti* (rite for averting disease or black magic), *vaśīkaraṇa* (bewitching women and men and even gods), *stambhana* (stopping the movements or actions of others), *vidveṣaṇa* (creating enmity between two friends or two persons who love each other), *uccāṭana* (making a person or enemy flee from the country, town or village), *māraṇa* (killing or causing permanent injury to living beings). The Guhyasamāja mentions these six (putting 'ākarṣaṇa' for 'vidveṣaṇa') respectively at pp. 168, 165, 96, 87 (Ākarṣaṇa), 81, 130. Vide Sādhanamālā pp. 368-369 for the same and for the shape of maṇḍalas and times for each of the six cruel rites. Even the rather sober Śāradātilaka-tantra mentions these six (23. 122), defines them (23. 123-125), provides that Rati, Vāṇī (speech or Sarasvatī), Ramā, Jyeṣṭhā, Durgā and Kālī are respectively the six deities of these six cruel acts and must be worshipped at the commencement, that six periods of ten *ghaṭikās* from sunrise are respectively appropriate to these six and so also are certain seasons (23. 126-139). It is most astounding that the Prapañcasāra (23. 5) ascribed to the great *advaita* teacher Śaṅkarācārya describes at length a mantra called Trailokya-mohana for accomplishing the above six cruel acts.