Between Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism

10 Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism

10 Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism Elizabeth Chalier-Visuvalingam (translated from the French by Sunthar Visuvalingam) o vision of immortal and supreme ambrosia, resplendent with conscious light streaming from the absolute ReaLity, be my refuge. Through it art Thou worshipped by those who know the secret (science ). Having purified the "foundation" (adhara-dhara) by sprinkling it with the rapturous savor ofSelf-Consciousness, and mentally offering all objects presenting themselves (to the senses, as if they were) flowers exhaling an innate scent, (dipping them first in) the nectar of bliss overflowing the impeccable libation-vessel (argha-patra) of my heart, I worship Thee night and day, 0 God united to the Goddess, in this House ofdeva-sadana, my Body. Abhinavagupta, Tantraloka, 26.63--64, 29.176 (adapted from Silburn's translation, KUI)Qalinf, p. 204) The fundamental preoccupation of Hinduism is to put an end to the infernal cycle of rebirths (samsara) and thus to attain deliverance (mok$a).! The Hindu ideal aims at fusion with the totality (brahman), which abolishes all individuality (Mman). In this regard, the different systems of Hindu philosophy seem to rally around this idea expressed in the Paramahaqlsa Upanii?ad: "I know the Unity; my soul is no longer separate but united to the cosmic soul; this is indeed the supreme union (junction)-no more 'me' nor 'you' for him (= the liber195 196 Elizabeth Chalier-Visuvalingam ated), the very universe has disappeared."2 Under the influence of Advaita Vedanta, unity in the Hindu tradition has been generally understood in opposition to the world of multiplicity, of illusion (maya), of bodily incarnation, which must necessarily be rejected in order to unite oneself with the Absolute. Within such a perspective, it is difficult to understand how any concrete union, presupposing as it does the (at least initial) dualism of the sexes, could lead to salvation. Sexual union is after all based on the identification with the ephemeral flux of the body and the desire for its other, whereas unity is precisely the negation of the Other. In the Vedic myth, it is indeed through the desire for the Other that the One becomes many. The valorization of symbols of sexual union and the universalization of their sacrificial notation in the Brahmanical ritual functioned within a public "polytheistic " context where any aim of unity is not at all apparent. It is only in the later doctrines of Tantrism that ritualized sexual union is systematically sanctified within a nondualistic perspective, precisely as a means to individual liberation. For here unity is understood rather as the absence of oppositions between mok?a and samsara, an ineffable state including both transcendence and immanence that the Trika philosophical system-more widely called "Kashmir Saivism"-designates by the term anuttara. Inclusive Unity in the Trika System) The Trika-l is a doctrinal synthesis which constitutes, among other things, the sophisticated self-representation of a radical Tantric outlook within and through the high discourse of classical Brahmanism itself. Though the doctrinal bases were already laid down by the beginning of the ninth century C.E., its highly refined philosophical superstructure called the "Doctrine of Recognition" (Pratyabhijiia) found its fullest and most powerful formulation in the extensive work of its dominating figure, Abhinavagupta (tenth-eleventh century ), who insists on going "beyond dualism and nondualism." Unlike the "exclusive" nondualism of Sankara's Advaita Vedanta which simply rejects all dualism, the Trika perspective seeks to encompass the rich diversity of manifestation within the nondual principle at its diversity of manifestation within the nondual principle at its heart. The fundamental difference consists in the apprehension of activity as illusion (maya) for Sankara and as reality for Abhinavagupta. For the latter, the Absolute is characterized by the totality of two powers (sakti), that of knowledge (jiiana) and that of activity (kriya). The sort of ideological split that occurred within the Veda-based orthodoxy Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism 197 between the ritualists (Mlmarpsakas), who espoused action in this world to the detriment of knowledge, and the Vedantins who could affirm such liberating knowledge only by negating action, is not only reconciled in practice but also resolved in theory by the Trika. Ritual confers insight and stabilizes the degrees of self-realization, just as knowledge vivifies and empowers the outer activity in turn. Hence the affirmation of a supreme nondualism (paradvaita) that goes "beyond both dualism and nondualism" makes good sense from the soteriological point of view...