Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c25.s3.2

c25.s3.2

In Kabīr, though the Vaiṣṇavite spirit on the Dvaitādvaita line together with the Sūfī-istic spirit may sometimes seem dominant, the Tāntric spirit is not also wanting. By Tāntric spirit, in this connection, we mean the principle of making the physical system, including the physiological and biological processes, an instrument for the realisation of truth. A study of the poems of Kabīr will reveal that Kabīr had a yogic system of his own involving the theory of the lotus or plexus, the nervous system and the control of the vital wind.¹ We find here the two important nerves in the left and the right, most commonly known as the Iḍā and Piṅgalā, as the moon and the sun, or the Gaṅgā and the Jamunā.² The meeting place of the three nerves Iḍā, Piṅgalā and Suṣumnā is, as usual, described here as the tri-veṇī (i.e., the meeting of the three courses).³ The middle nerve suṣumnā has always been spoken of (like the Buddhist Sahajiyās) as the path to Sahaja or vacuity (sahaja śūnya),⁴ and the yoga has always been described as Sahaja yoga and the final state as Sahaja-samādhi or Sahaja-śūnya. The drinking of the nectar pouring from the moon situated on the top of the mount Meru (i.e., the spinal chord) has been held very important by Kabīr.⁵ All the mediaeval Hindi poets akin to Kabīr had a similar system of yoga. Dr. P. D. Barthwal, M.A., D.Litt., in his work, *The Nirguṇa School of Hindi Poetry*, has given an exposition of the yogic system of Kabīr and other poets of his school.¹