The Kâpâlika approached him with eyes rolling wildly from alcohol intoxication. He raised his trident to lop off Shankara’s head. In that moment, Padmapâda, one of Shankara’s main disciples, saw in his mind’s eye what was about to happen. He uttered an invocation to his chosen deity, Nri-Simha, the Man-Lion incarnation of God Vishnu. Instantly the faithful disciple assumed the God’s leonine form, flew through the air, and arrived at the secret hiding place. Just as the Kâpâlika swung his trident, Padmapâda jumped on him and tore open his chest. Shankara returned to his ordinary consciousness and, seeing the mutilated body of the Kâpâlika and the blood-drenched shape of Nri-Simha before him, begged the God to withdraw his terrific aspect and manifest mercy instead. Thereupon Padmapâda regained his ordinary consciousness and form and promptly prostrated himself at his teacher’s feet.
There undoubtedly were villains and psychotics among the Kâpâlikas, but most were probably content with wearing skulls stolen from cemeteries where they practiced their strange magical rituals. And there were a few genuine masters, like the Buddhist adept Kânha, of the eleventh century C.E., who in his songs calls himself a skull bearer (kâpâlin). He speaks of mating with, and then killing, the licentious washerwoman (dombî), who here stands for the feminine aspect of the transcendental Reality. To murder Shakti means to transcend her.
Kânha’s statement also contains a reference to the sexual practices of the Kâpâlikas. Though renunciates, they gathered every spring and autumn for a big orgiastic ceremony. In the course of the ceremony they performed the “Five M’s” for which Tantrism achieved notoriety: the consumption of liquor (madya), meat (mâmsa), fish (matsya), and parched grain (mudrâ), which is thought to have aphro- disiacal properties, as well as the performance of ritual intercourse (maithunâ) with specially prepared women.
The Kâpâlikas, like the Pâshupatas and Kâlâmukhas, were worshipers of Shiva—but Shiva in his terrifying aspect as Bhairava. The purpose of all the Kâpâlika rites was to achieve communion with God, through which the practitioner acquired both superhuman powers (siddhi) and liberation. They offered human flesh in their ceremonies and have been accused—probably rightly—of occasionally performing human sacrifice. The practice of human sacrifice (purusha-medha) was already known in ancient Vedic India, but for the seers (rishi) was a purely symbolic ritual. They understood that the real purusha sacrifice is the archetypal self-offering of the cosmic Person, without which the universe could not have come into existence. Over the centuries, however, actual human sacrifice continued to be resorted to by some extremist sects and overzealous kings as a means of propitiating the Divine. In 1832 the British Raj finally outlawed this custom.
From the perspective of the evolution of human consciousness, this gruesome Kâpâlika practice must be regarded as a terrible regression from the high moral sensibility achieved in the Buddhist and Jaina communities, which celebrate the virtues of nonviolence and compassion. From a yogic point of view, it was likewise a step back into unfortunate literalism, for the Upanishadic sages had already understood that sacrifice was a matter of the renunciation of the ego, not of animal slaughter or human murder. By the fourteenth century the Kâpâlika order was virtually extinct, perhaps brought down by the cumulative karma of those who failed to grasp that Yoga consists in the metaphorical sacrifice of the self.
The Kâlâmukha Order
Lakulîsha was venerated also by the Kâlâmukhas, a well-organized sect that developed out of the Pâshupata tradition. None of their scriptures have survived, and we know of their beliefs and practices only from the writings of their critics. The Kâlâmukha order may have originated in Kashmir. It thrived, together with the Pâshupata order, in the southeast of the peninsula between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries C.E. It appears that there may have been an actual migration of Lakulîsha adherents from north to south at the beginning of the eleventh century, perhaps because they had lost patronage in Kashmir.
The name kâlâmukha, meaning “black-faced,”5 probably derives from the fact that these ascetics wore a striking black mark on the forehead, indicating their renunciation. They existed in two big divisions, known as the “power assembly” (shakti-parishad) and the “lion assembly” (simha-parishad) respectively, each of which had its own subdivisions. We may speculate that the former were in practice and theory oriented more toward the feminine or power aspect of the Divine, whereas the latter’s orientation was more toward the masculine or Shiva aspect of the transcendental Reality.
The Kâlâmukhas were fond of learning and had a special relationship with the Nyâya school of thought, a traditional system of logic. Thus, according to one epigraphic record, Someshvara, a renowned teacher of the Kâlâmukha order, received in 1094 C.E. a generous donation from his township in recognition of his great yogic accomplishments and his equally great learning in the arts and sciences. As is clear from many other temple inscriptions, the Kâlâmukhas laid great store by the careful observance of the moral virtues codified by Patanjali under the categories of moral discipline (yama) and self-restraint (niyama).
The epigraphic evidence does not bear out the widespread belief that the Kâlâmukhas practiced revolting and obscene rituals. It appears that they were commonly confused with another Shaiva order, the infamous Kâpâlikas, who definitely did not belong to mainstream Shaivism but were Tantric in character.
The Aghorî Order
The Kâpâlikas were replaced by the Aghorî order. The word Aghorî derives from aghora, meaning “nonterrible,” which is one of the names of God Shiva in his terrific aspect. Presumably, only the initiate who knows how to propitiate Shiva is not fearful of the God’s dread-instilling or wrathful aspect. The Aghorîs, who are both venerated and feared by the villagers of India to this day, aspire to obliterate all human-made institutions in their way of life. Thus, they live in cremation grounds or on dunghills, drink liquor or urine as readily as water, and break all social conventions by eating meat and the flesh of human corpses.
Recently, an outstanding book was published that documents the life and teachings of a modern Aghorî master, Vimalânanda (d. 1983), who said about himself, “Either I must be mad or everyone else is; there are no two ways about it.”6 The author of the book, who was a close disciple of Vimalânanda, comments about his teacher’s extremist approach:
Aghora is not indulgence; it is the forcible transformation of darkness into light, of the opacity of the limited individual personality into the luminescence of the Absolute. Renunciation disappears once you arrive at the Absolute because then nothing remains to renounce. An Aghorî goes so deeply into darkness, into all things undreamable to ordinary mortals, that he comes out into light.7
The Aghorî does more than encounter his own shadow, as it is called in Jungian terms. He encounters the shadow of his society, possibly of humanity as such, for he pushes himself to the very edge of human existence. In doing so, he certainly comes to the brink of madness, and not a few explorers of this path of negation have succumbed to insanity. The Aghorîs put into radical practice the philosophy of challenging all values for which the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche achieved fame. Incidentally, Nietzsche himself, who was a mere theoretician in such matters, died in an insane asylum. The Aghorî lifestyle demands a rare fortitude and a level of renunciation that is natural to few individuals.
The Lingâyata Sect
Another Shaiva sect that achieved great popularity after the decline of the Kâpâlikas is the Lingâyata tradition, so called because its members worship Shiva in the form of a phallic symbol (linga), standing for the creative process in the Divine. They carry a miniature stone linga in a small box attached to a necklace. Twice a day, the faithful sit quietly in meditation with the linga in the left hand, performing the various rituals. The Lingâyatas are also known as Vîra- Shaivas, “Heroic Followers of Shiva.” This sect originated in the twelfth century C.E., though its adherents believe that the roots of their faith reach back into the hoary pas
t and that the adept Basava (“Bull”), or Basavanna (1106-1167 C.E.), merely reorganized their tradition.
Six stages (sthâla) of the path are distinguished:
Bhakti, or love-devotion, which is expressed in ritual worship at the temple or in the home.
Mahesha, “Great Lord” (from mahâ and îsha), is the phase of disciplining one’s mind, with all the trials this entails.
Prasâda, or grace, is the peaceful stage in which the devotee recognizes the Divine working in and through everything.
Prâna-linga, or “life sign,” is the stage in which the devotee is certain of the Lord’s grace and now begins to experience the Divine in the consecrated temple of his or her own body-mind.
Sharana, or “[going for] refuge,” is the phase in which the devotee becomes a fool of God, where he no longer identifies with the body- mind, but is also not yet completely at one with the Divine; he longs for Shiva as does a woman for her absent lover.
Aikya, or “union,” with the Divine: Here formal worship is at an end, because the devotee has become the Lord; the pilgrim has arrived at his destination and found that he was never apart from it.
The devout Lingâyatas aspire to see Shiva in everyone and everything. As Basava expressed it so beautifully in one of his poems:
The pot is a God. The winnowing
fan is a God. The stone in the
street is a God. The comb is a
God. The bowstring is also a
God. The bushel is a God and the spouted
cup is a God.
Gods, Gods, there are so many
there’s no place left
for a foot.
There is only
one God. He is our Lord
of the Meeting Rivers.8
The popularity of the Lingâyatas was largely due to the fact that they championed greater social equality —favoring, for instance, the removal of caste distinctions, the remarriage of widows, and late marriage. This more moderate sect affords a convenient bridge to gamic Shaivism, another conservative religious movement, which will be discussed next.
III. THE POWER OF LOVE—THE SHIVA WORSHIPERS OF THE NORTH
By no means do all devotees of God Shiva follow the perilous path of the Kâpâlikas and Aghorîs described in the previous section. Indeed, most of them cultivate a far more moderate approach to God-realization, though it may well include such Tantric rites as sexual intercourse with a consecrated partner.
Both mainstream and left-hand Shaiva beliefs and practices are found codified in the vast gama literature of the North and the South. We will look at the northern branch of gamic Shaivism first because it appears to be marginally older. The gamas—the word means simply “tradition”—understand themselves as a restatement of the ancient wisdom of the Vedas and are therefore often called the “Fifth Veda” (as are the Purânas and the Mahâbhârata). They purport to be for the spiritual seeker of the “dark age” (kali-yuga), who lacks the moral fiber and the mental concentration necessary to pursue the path of liberation by the more traditional means. The same intent is expressed in the Tantras, which are gama-like scriptures that have Shakti (the feminine counterpart of Shiva) as their metaphysical and practical focus. However, mainline brahmins, who accept the revelatory authority of the Vedas, reject both the gamas and Tantras as false revelations.
The gamic canon is traditionally said to comprise twenty-eight “root” (mûla) scriptures and 207 secondary scriptures (called Upagamas).9 In his Pratishtha-Lakshana-Sâra-Samuccaya, the Bengali prince Vairocana (early ninth century C.E.) mentions no fewer than 113 works, many of which are Tantras. In his Tiru-Mantiram (63), the great Tamil adept Tirumûlar refers to a group of nine gamas. Since he is generally placed in the seventh century C.E., these must all have been creations of the preceding period. It is thought that the earliest of these works were authored in the sixth century C.E. in the north of India but proliferated rapidly in the subsequent centuries, though they could have been in existence several hundred years before then. These scriptures increasingly incorporated the notion of shakti, and for this reason later on merged imperceptibly with the Tantras.
Linga in a yoni base
According to tradition, Shiva taught four groups of Tantras with four of his faces: Garuda (issuing from the Sadyojata face), Vâma (from the Vâmadeva face), Bhuta (from the Aghora face), and Bhairava (from the Tatpurusha face). The twenty-eight gamas, however, are said to have issued from Shiva’s Îshana face.10 Sometimes they are said to have been taught by all five faces of Sadâ- Shiva.
The names of the most important works of the principal gamas are the Kâmikâ (comprising 12,000 verses, of which 357 are lost), Karana (16,151 verses), Ajîta, Sahasra, Suprabheda (4,666 verses), Raurava, Makuta, Mâtanga, and Kirana (1,991 verses). The most important works of the secondary gamas are the Mrigendra, Vatula-Shuddhâkhya, Paushkâra (800 pages long), Kumâra, and Sârdha-Trishati-Kâlottara.
It is impossible to do justice to the complexity of the history and the philosophy of the gama literature in the context of this volume. To simplify matters, we can say that the southern and the northern schools of Shaivism found vindication in the gamas for their own distinct positions. Southern Shaivism—also known as Shaiva-Siddhânta—favors a qualified monism that, in practice, is polarized, with Lord Shiva on one side and the devotee (bhakta) on the other. This is epitomized in the devotionalism of such great saints as Tiruvalluvar, Sundarar, and Mânikkavâcakar. By contrast, northern Shaivism leans toward an idealist, or a radically nondualist, interpretation of reality, similar to Advaita Vedânta.
Northern Shaivism
One of the earliest expressions of Shiva worship in Northern India was the Krama system of Kashmir, which was in vogue by the seventh century C.E. This system consists of two branches of practice. One has Shiva as the ultimate principle of existence; the other revolves around the worship of the Goddess Kâlî as the Divine, par excellence. Their practical method roughly coincides with Râja-Yoga, although moral discipline (yama), self-restraint (niyama), and posture (âsana) are not listed as separate “limbs” (anga), whereas reasoning (tarka) is counted as a separate category of spiritual practice. Significantly, the Kâlî branch of the Krama system involves left-hand practices such as the literal use of wine, meat, and sexuality during the Tantric rituals.
The Kashmiri tradition of Shaivism flourished in the pristine form of the Trika (“Triadic”) system. Its name is derived from the fact that it acknowledges the interdependence of the following three aspects of the Divine: Shiva (the male pole), Shakti (the female pole), and Nara (the conditional personality seeking liberation). The Trika tradition comprises the original doctrines of the gamas with their preeminently dualistic orientation, the teachings of the Spanda or “Vibration” school, and the doctrines of the Pratyâbhijna or “Recognition” school.
At the beginning of the ninth century C.E., the Kashmiri adept Vasugupta “discovered” the Shiva- Sûtra, rather like hidden spiritual treasures (Tibetan: terma) are discovered by masters of the Nyingma order of Tibetan Buddhism. The Shiva-Sûtra is a digest of the earlier gama teachings that had the declared intention to bring to light the nondualist approach of these doctrines. According to Kshemarâja, author of a tenth-century commentary on the Shiva-Sûtra, God Shiva appeared to Vasugupta in a dream. He revealed to him the secret location in which the Shiva-Sûtra could be found inscribed in rock. Upon waking, Vasugupta promptly went to the place shown to him in the dream and found Shiva’s seventy-seven aphorisms.
Even though the word yoga is nowhere used in the Shiva-Sûtra, this scripture is a unique treatise on Yoga. It distinguishes four levels of yogic means (upâya):
Anupâya (“nonmeans”): The practitioner realizes the Self spontaneously, without effort, as a result of the teacher’s transmission of the teaching.
Shâmbhava-upâya (“Shambhu’s means”): Shambhu is another name for Shiva. This level of Yoga is also known as icchâ-upâya or “means of the will.” When the mind is perfectl
y still, the transcendental Shiva-Consciousness flashes forth spontaneously, without exertion on the part of the practitioner.
Shâkta-upâya (“Shakti’s means,” written shaktopaya): The shâmbhava-upâya calls for a degree of spiritual maturity that few possess. Most people find it impossible to go beyond conceptualization (vikalpa) and to simply rest in perceptual awareness. The very effort to outwit the conceptual mind merely tends to produce new conceptual content. Therefore, Vasugupta put forward an alternative—to attach attention to what he calls “pure” (shuddha) concepts. By this he means such intuitions as the following: Our true identity is not the ego-personality but the transcendental Self, and the knowable universe is not external to us but a manifestation of our transcendental Power. In this way, we can remove the ingrained illusion of duality between subject and object.
nava-upâya (“limited means”): The shâkta- upâya seeks to trick the mind into a new way of looking at its own nature and the nature of the apparently external world. Vasugupta particularly recommended Mantra-Yoga for this process, since the dwelling of the mind on the hidden meaning of such mantras as “I am Shiva” (shivo’ham) ultimately blots out the distinction between the mantra and the mind, and so forms a foundation for the revelation of Shiva- Consciousness. At the level of ânava-upâya, the practitioner resorts to such common yogic practices as breath control, sense-withdrawal, concentration, and meditation. Ultimately, the practitioner has to transcend this level and discover the transcendental ‘I’-Consciousness through the more direct means of shâkta-upâya and then shâmbhava-upâya.
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