Summary of the Contents of the Volume VI of Abhinavaguptas Sri Tantraloka and Other Minor Works First Time English

h translation with Sanskrit texts By Professor Satya Prakash Singh and Swami Maheshvarananda ISBN 978-81-87471-82-0 (Vol.VI) ISBN 978-81-87471-86-8 (Set) Published by Mohindra K. Vashistha for STANDARD PUBLISHERS (INDIA) 205, Kiran Mansion, 2nd Floor, 4834/24 Main Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002 (India) Tel. No. 91-011-23240594, 23240593 91-9871009093 (M) Tele FAX - 011-23272338 E-mail: standardpublishersindia@gmail.com mkvsr9@gmail.com Website: http://www.indianbooksworldwide.com This Volumes consists of Chapter 16 to 27 CHAPTER 16: 1. 2. 3. Chapter sixteen deals with the statement of the object of knowledge to be made clear by the teacher to the disciple. Intending to initiate the disciple as a samayin, son, teacher or practitioner of yoga, he should draw a circle at the spot of collective sacrifice or elsewhere as directed. Inside the circle care should be taken to seek oneness with iva by way of expansion of the range of consciousness.

4. The remainder of the offerings to iva should be distributed among only deserving ones. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Only such animals need to be sacrificed inside the circle which were supposed to be prepared for the offering. The teacher should get transformed to himself all the lust for enjoyment in life of the student. Mantra should be chanted while sacrificing the animal to the Goddess for the sake of its liberation. Sacrifice as the device to attract the grace of the Divine. The teacher's prayer for the redemption of the disciples as well as of himself.

10. Total span of the human body is eighty-four finger-ends plus twelve over and above it up to the anhata cakra. Again, there is a span of twelve-finger ends over and above the physical body and relating to consciousness. This is the explanation of the number one hundred and eight accorded to yogins.

11. Assignment of bhuvanas and sounds to different points in the body of the disciple. 12. Initiation is of two kinds direct and indirect in view of the presence and absence of the disciple respectively. 13. Mind's limitation of reserving the continuity of awareness to only the particular life is designed by Nature itself. This limitation may be removed through practice of yoga, mantra, etc. 14. The deities like Viu, etc. are affected by the guas and hence do not deserve to be followed by aivites. 15. Initiation as the necessary precondition for success in attaining oneness with akara. CHAPTER 17: 1. 2. 3. This Chapter deals with the rite of initiation beginning from that of birth. The teacher needs to tie to the hand, throat and crest three threads tripled representing the individual, akti and iva. In the adverb svh, sv means the moon while h the fire. It along with nama is known as dpaka, since it is illuminative of the accomplishment of the rite.

4. The teacher needs to transmit the force of his Self to the disciple through a touch of his heart. 5. The teacher needs to undergo as stages of birth of the disciple beginning from impregnation. 6. 7. 8. Purification of the essences of the elements like earth and water, malice of ignorance, action culminating in that of the crest. The teacher makes his own life-force enter into the body of the disciple and then asks him to contemplate on iva as seriously as he himself had been doing. The contemplation results in ascension of the life-force to the lotus of the crest with effulgence of delight.

9. It is the senses which are determinants of bondage and liberation both. CHAPTER 18: 1. 2. This Chapter is a summary of the statements regarding initiation as delivered by iva and other stras including the Kiraa. According to it, the teacher may initiate a disciple directly and summarily without application of ash, pre-condition of the disciple's living in his proximity, consideration over the features of the spot to complete the rite. The only care required to be taken concerns the path along which the teacher would like him to traverse being charged with contemplation on iva exclusively. The constituent elements of the universe as well as the disciple's personality need to be purified by means of sounds drawn from mtk and mlin both the series.

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CHAPTER 19: 1. 2. This Chapter deals with the procedure of initiation meant for immediate liberation. This initiation is meant for those who are close to death. The purpose behind it is to lessen the pang of death.

3. Under this initiation, the person concerned is required to assume the posture of fire and fill the body with breath from toe to top of the head. 4. 5. This initiation can be performed by the teacher who is a yogin himself and has attained full control over his breath. Though the senses of the dying person have ceased to respond to stimuli coming from outside, yet he keeps awake to the effect of the sense of mantras as their burden is consciousness.

CHAPTER 20: 1. 2. 3. This Chapter deals with the initiation measurable in its effect through a scale of measurement. The teacher needs to demonstrate it through a roasting of certain seeds to show how having been subjected to the lustre of consciousness the individual becomes immune to rebirth. Such an elucidation is required to convince only the ignorant and is not applicable to those who are enlightened.

CHAPTER 21: 1. The topic of this Chapter is initiation in absentia.

2. Initiation in absentia is meant for those who had died uninitiated, were young, women, incapacitated, idle or kings. 3. A circle bedecked with decorations should be drawn. Inside it, a figure of the dead made of cowdung and kua should be placed. 4. The spirit of the candidate needs to be brought to the circle through the use of a great trap which consists of the inner being as enveloped in the net of nerves. 5. If the symbolic representation of the dead were to show some sort of movement in it, the initiation would become convincing.

CHAPTER 22: 1. This Chapter is devoted to the account of the rite known as ligoddharaa, raising the emblem of iva. 2. Under the inspiration of iva and akti there is the possibilities of redemption of even those who have got derailed from the path by their commitment to such lesser paths as Vaiavism and Buddhism. The candidate needs to be taken close to the emblem of iva and prayer needs to be made for excusal of the fault. This is to be followed by making one hundred oblation to the fire.

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Thus the candidate needs to be purged of his fault of staying in the proximity of an ignorant teacher the mantra imparted by whom proved ineffective. Real initiation is that which leads to the acquisition of the real knowledge and wisdom.

CHAPTER 23: 1. This Chapter deals with the rite of sacred bath. 2. It talks of the proper occasion of conducting test on the disciples as not that of initiation but that of discussion. Here is also a reference to the seven-semestrial trial of the candidate. 3. 4. 5. Following the ceremony of bath, the disciple is required to undergo the course of muttering the mantra with concentration for six months so as to get established in it. While muttering the mantra, he should have his concentration on the cakras beginning from mldhra to sahasrra. If any disciple be found out making misuse of his knowledge imparted by the teacher through initiation, that force of knowledge needs to be withdrawn from him through a reversal of the practice of tantra.

6. The aspirant of higher knowledge needs to take resort to a teacher capable of leading him to that end. 7. If a teacher indulges in any heinous crime, it is imperative for the disciple to warn him against it gently. if even then the teacher does not desist himself from committing such crimes again, the disciple needs to desert him and go elsewhere and meditate on iva. The delight of highest spiritual experience and pleasure of erotic consummation are essentially throbs of consciousness and hence kindred in nature.

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CHAPTER 24: 1. This Chapter is devolved to deliberation on the post-mortem initiation.

2. This rite needs to be performed for the sake of those dead ones who happen to have died on account of transgression of the prescribed code of conduct. 3. It is to be performed directly on the body of the dead in place of some sort of emblem of the same. 4. The kals in him need to be hit by mantras via the suumn nerve. Consequently, he is likely to respond to the strike by raising his hands. 5. Devotion to Brahm, Viu, Rudra, a, Sadiva and iva in this context is done in order to satiate them as deities of mldhra, svdhihna, mapura, anhata, viuddha and aj cakras respectively. CHAPTER 25: 1. 2. This Chapter deals with the post-mortem rite according to trika system. Aspiration for enjoyment is another body of the dead which is supposed to get transformed into iva by means of this rite.

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Days of the demise of such persons need to be regarded as the teacher's day. On this day disciples need to make the life-force flow via the suumn following the blockade of the i and pigal. Devotion to Lord iva is the best way of performing the rite.

CHAPTER 26: 1. This Chapter is devoted to determination of the rest of the duties of an aspirant of redemption as well as enjoyment particularly in the form of oblation apart to the fire.

2. The aspirant is required to perform his daily worship of the deity, teacher, fire and stra besides showing kindness to creatures. 3. Flower-test may be conducted on the candidate to determine his aptitude for muttering a particular mantra. 4. The disciple needs to perform worship of his favourite deity in the morning or on all four meeting points of day and night including the meridian. 5. The delight which flows out of the sense of oneness with iva, the same needs to be offered to Him at the highest level of one's being.

CHAPTER 27: 1. This Chapter deals with the mode of worship of the emblem.

2. The emblem may be taken from the bed of the river Narmada or be made of pearls, of flower, food or cloth and by no means manufactured by anyone. If it is metallic, only golden is permissible. 3. 4. The vessel of worship needs to be of coconut, bilva (Stone apple, aegle marmelos), golden or silvery. It should be filled with pacmta, a mixture prepared by mixing five kinds of drink. In course of worshipping the emblem, whatever the worshipper happens to utter while making rounds becomes his muttering of mantra and whatever he comes to observe amounts to oblation to the fire of consciousness. As the worshipper proceeds onward, he needs to show greater and greater diligence to the task of worship with the idea of the real invested in the emblem. This wisdom of worship should be transmitted to aspirants. In case of unavailability of any worthy aspirant, the emblem needs to be consigned to some deep reservoir of water with prayer for forgiveness.

5. 6.