Page 46 - Studio International - December1996

The Universe and the Terrestrial Atmospheres: Painting, c. 1800 Rajasthan
The red background signifies spatial mass consisting of atomic particles
the power to limit itself, i.e. to assume the habits and
forms of the environment into which it is put, and, to the
extent of such limited experience, to appear to be un-
conscious of its limitations. In apprehending things the
mind takes the forms of the objects apprehended and
builds up a world, the reality of which it dogmatically
assumes and never questions. 'By meditation on any-
thing as Self, one becomes that thing,' says the Gand-
harva Tantra. Which reminds me of one of the first
psychedelic or mind-manifesting expressions uttered
under mescalin by Henri Michaux. 'I put an apple on
the table; then I put myself into the apple: Quelle
tranquilité: This psychological truth is stated by the
Tantra: 'The mind must have an object which again
shapes the mind.' The sadhaka (worshipper) meditates on
and worships that. Sincere and prolonged efforts bring
about a transformation of the worshipper into a likeness
of the divinity worshipped. For just as he who is always
thinking bad thoughts becomes bad, so he who thinks
divine thoughts becomes 'divine' himself. The Chhan-
dogya Upanishad says: 'As a man thinks, that he
becomes'. A man can thus shape his mind for good or
bad. The transformation of the worshipper to Godhead
is commenced in sadhana (ritual worship) and completed
in yoga (union). When a unitary consciousness in which
ecstasy (samadhi) or transcendent experience is achieved,
the difference between worshipper and the worshipped
ceases. Since divinity cannot be seized by the mind any-
more than air can be hung on a hook, it becomes
necessary to have something placed before you as an
object of devotion. This may be an external object or
even a mental image.
The rite is called 'gross' or 'subtle' according to the
quality of the object, external or mental. But the word
`gross' does not mean coarse. It is merely used as a con-
trast to the word 'subtle'. Yet there is an important
difference between the two modes of worship : the
grossest is that in which there is no call upon the imagina-
tion, such as worship before realistic images made of
three dimensions, plates 57, 58, and 61. Less so are flat
paintings rendered in two dimensions, such as the frontis-
piece, plates 12-30, plate 43, plates 45-48, and the
astonishing flat paintings, plates 53 and 95. Then come
the emblems such as the shalagrama stones, plates 34, 35,
44 and 66, and lastly the yantra which is a symbolic
diagram of a prayer verse (mantra), itself a geo-
metrical formula for each god of the Hindu pantheon,
plates 7 and 8. In other words, a yantra is a diagramatic
presentation of a divinity, and mantra is its sound-
expression. The former is the body of the latter.
Mr Mookerjee explains that Tantra is derived from the
sanskrit root Tan meaning to expand. But Tantra is
combined with mantra and yantra in a scheme forming a
sort of trinity, therefore expanding knowledge com-
bining the three. Mantra is a prayer, a liturgy of life-
transforming words which, to be effective, must be
actually heard from the mouth of the guru or spiritual
preceptor. The nearest analogy is transubstantiation,
when a Roman Catholic priest consecrates the host by
whispering into it the words of Christ: 'This is My Body.'
A yantra is a pattern or form either carved or painted,
which is supposed to be the exact likeness of a particular