Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c17.166

c17.166

In Vajrayāna three elements are involved, śunya, vijñāna and mahāsukha. The combination of these is called *Vajra*. Śūnya is *Nairātmā*, a goddess in whose eternal embrace the individual mind (Vijñāna) is locked, and in which it remains in eternal bliss and happiness. Or, in another aspect, voidness (śūnyatā) and compassion (karuṇā) together constitute the individual mind, and like the deities, Heruka and Prajñā, unite as the god, advaya (non-double). This union is yab-yum. The doctrine of karuṇā gave excuse, in the end, for the grossest forms of immorality and lawlessness. The regulation being that the sādhaka should not be attached to particular foods or women.¹ Śūnya is handled in compromise fashion under the assertion that ‘it is better to take the world as real. . . When the conception of unreality is abandoned, it gives rise to a state which is neither saṃsara nor nirvāṇa. The realization of voidness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, after careful discrimination between knowledge and the object of knowledge, is what is known as the highest knowledge of the Prajñā. . . Compassion is of the nature of affection (rāga) as it removes the sufferings (rañjati) which spring up from numberless causes. This compassion is called Upāya or “means.” Because it always, like a boat, leads him towards the goal. The commingling of the two—Prajñā and Upāya—is the like commingling of water and milk whereby the duality is merged into one without distinction, and is called Prajñopāya. This . . . is the creative principle of the Universe and everything emerges and develops from this principle. This Prajñopāya is called Mahāsukha because it gives eternal happiness. . . Vajrayāna is thunderbolt-knowledge. . . It is known as mahāmudrā (great woman). . . The realization of this Vajrayāna leads to happiness and to the highest goal of Nirvāṇa or emancipation.²