Thread by @poonamdut

From The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Introduction

TANTRA and Shri Ramkrishna Paramhans
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#Tantra

TANTRA

According to Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ananda, or Bliss. This Ultimate Reality, Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas.

Man is one with this Reality; influenced by maya(illusion), he forgets his true nature. Apparent world of subject & object is real for him; this error is the cause of his bondage & suffering. Goal of spiritual discipline is rediscovery of his true identity with divine Reality.

For the achievement of this goal the Vedanta prescribes an austere negative method of discrimination and renunciation, which can be followed by only a few individuals endowed with sharp intelligence and unshakable will-power.
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Tantra considers natural human weakness, their low appetites, love for the concrete. It combines philosophy with rituals, meditation with ceremonies, renunciation with enjoyment. Underlying purpose is gradually to train the aspirant to meditate on his identity with the Ultimate.

The average man wishes to enjoy the material world. Tantra bids him to enjoy, but at the same time discover in it the presence of God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense-objects become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed into a love of God.

The bonds of man are turned into releasers, poison that kills is transmuted into elixir of life. Outward renunciation is not necessary. Tantra's aim is to sublimate bhoga, or enjoyment into yoga, or union with Consciousness.
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For, according to this philosophy, the world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Shiva and Shakti, the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.
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Disciplines of Tantra are graded for all types of aspirants. Exercises are prescribed for people with animal, heroic & divine outlooks. Some rites require presence of members of opposite sex - the aspirant learns to look on woman as embodiment of Ma Kali, Mother of Universe.

Tantra's basis is Motherhood of God & glorification of woman. Every part of female body is to be regarded as incarnate Divinity as the rites are very dangerous. Help of a qualified guru is an absolute must. An unwary devotee may lose his foothold & fall into a pit of depravity.

As per Tantra, Shakti is universe's active creative force. Shiva, the Absolute, is passive principle. Shakti is as inseparable from Shiva as fire's power to burn is from fire itself. Shakti, the Creative Power, contains in Its womb the universe, & thus is the Divine Mother.

All women are Her symbols. Kali is one of Her several forms. The meditation on Kali, the Creative Power, is the central discipline of Tantra.
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While meditating, aspirant at first sees himself as one with Absolute; then thinks that out of that Impersonal Consciousness emerge 2 entities - his own self & living form of Goddess. He then projects the Goddess into a tangible image before him & worships it as Divine Mother.

Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising Tantra; at the bidding of Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brahmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound.

He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result promised in any one of them.
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After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into samadhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal" lost its meaning.
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The whole world & everything in it appeared as lila, the sport, of Shiva & Shakti. He beheld everywhere manifest the power & beauty of the Mother; the whole world, animate & inanimate, appeared to him as pervaded with Chit, Consciousness, & with Ananda, Bliss.
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He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anahata Sabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes.
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He acquired the eight supernatural yogic powers that make a man near omnipotent; he spurned them as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of divine Maya, inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created & sustained & into which it is finally absorbed.

He had the vision of a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerge from Ganges & slowly approach Panchavati. She gave birth to a child & began to nurse it.
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A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws, and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
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But the most remarkable experience during this period was the awakening of the Kundalini Sakti, the "Serpent Power".
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He saw the Power, at first lying asleep at bottom of spinal column, then waking up & ascending along mystic Sushumna canal & through its six centres to Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus on top of head. He also saw that as Kundalini went upward the different lotuses bloomed.

And this phenomenon was accompanied by visions and trances. Later on he described to his disciples and devotees the various movements of the Kundalini: the fish-like, bird&like, monkey-like, and so on.
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#Kundalini

The awakening of the Kundalini is the beginning of spiritual consciousness, and its union with Siva in the Sahasrara, ending in samadhi, is the consummation of the Tantrik disciplines.
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#Kundalini

About this time it was revealed to him that in a short while many devotees would seek his guidance.
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