Page 23 - Studio Internationa - March 1971

`laboratory-like' conditions.' complementaries) within the self. Maithuna—signifies the 'integration of
`The flesh, the living cosmos and time are the The physiological ritual is directed towards principles', the union of the soul with the
three fundamentals of Tantric Sadhana.' 2 awakening the slumbering Sakti (the dormant divine. During this final stage of a long, complex
Sadhana, or ritual, involves the analogy between female creative impulse symbolized by the ritual, experience of the transcendental unity of
the 'gross' (flesh) and the 'subtle' (divine) bodies. Kundalini) and to raise this through various opposites is realized by the simultaneous
Employing Hatha Yoga, combining the use of energy centres (the seven Chakras) situated in immobility of breath, semen and thought. The
Asanas, Mudras, Mantras and Yantras, the the body along the Sushumna or central nerve ritual symbolizes the rise from the limitations of
stress is on a practical, experiential exercise, chord, to join finally with Purusha (the male Maya3 towards understanding Supreme
using the vehicles of the heart and sexuality formless supreme consciousness) in the Reality.4
rather than the traditional ascetic or speculative Sahasrara (the topmost part of the head Tantric doctors rejected the Brahmanic
approach. The aim of the Yogin is, via this symbolized by the thousand-petalled lotus) and tradition as inadequate and returned to the
Sadhana, to understand the structure of self thereby realize Ananda: joy, bliss, Nirvan, pre-Vedic cult of the Great Goddess, Sakti, the
and thereby the structure of the universe, realized in Advaya: absolute union of opposites, Divine Mother embodied as the mystery of
microcosm-macrocosm; to realize the Oneness which is illustrated by the union of Siva and creation. They felt this step to be essential in
of All by the uniting of opposites (or Sakti (male and female). The sexual ritual— relation to theKali-Yuga spirit: the contemporary