To sum up what we know about the origin of 'TM'
practice and MMY's spiritual philosophy, which
as everyone now knows, is akin to the Tantric
Yoga and the worship of Goddess Saraswati in
India.
Apparently 'Tantrism' (TM) has it's origin in the
Vajrayana sect of Mahayana Buddhism. According to
what I've read, Vajrayana originated in Uddiyana,
located in the modern day Swat Valley in what is
now Afghanistan, the original home of the Vedic
Rishis who composed the Vedas and invented Mantra
Yoga.
The question is, how did the Tantrism of Kashmere
get to Karnataka to become the Sri Vidya sect,
with the meditation and the bija mantras, and the
purported authorship of the Soundaryalahari to
the Adi Shankara?
It is a fact that all the Saraswati sannyasins
adhere to the Sri Vidya. It is also a fact that
the only requirement, written in stone, for a
Saraswati Sannyasin is to recite the Gayatri and
meditate on the Saraswati bija mantra at least
twice a day, morning and night, without fail.
According to Swami Rama of the Himalayas, SBS used
to meditate on a Sri Yantra with the bija of
Saraswati inscribed thereon, in Sanskrit.
Read more:
Srividya and Guru Dev
http://tinyurl.com/dxpf9
In 747 the Indian master Padmasambhava traveled
from Afghanistan to bring Vajrayana Buddhism to
Tibet and Bhutan, at the request of the king of
Tibet...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana
Tantrism originated in the early centuries CE
and developed into a fully articulated tradition
by the end of the Gupta period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra
It is philosophically important to distinguish
Kashmir Shaivism from the Advaita Vedanta of
Shankara as both are non-dual philosophies which
give primacy to Universal Consciousness (Chit or
Brahman). In Kashmir Shavisim, all things are a
manifestation of this Consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism
Vijnana Bhairava Tantra:
The central tenet of this system is everything
is 'Spanda', both the objective exterior reality
and the subjective world...
Spanda:
The Spanda system, introduced by Vasugupta (c.
800 AD), is usually described as 'vibration/movement
of consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism
Sanskrit word of the day: kali...
The word 'kali' in Hinduism appears in Indian literature
following the Gupta Age, the so-called 'Golden age in
Indian history.
Kali is depicted as the 'Shakti' of Shiva. According to
MMY, meditation is reality at rest or absolute pure
concsciousness - Shiva.
The dynamic and creative aspect of meditation or the
thoughts in the mind, is the active relative aspect of
creation - Shakti.
For TMers, the absolute Being and the relative becoming
are completley separate, Purusha and prakriti. - activity
and rest.
More TMer thoughts on Kali Tantra:
It would seem that the Marshy got confused - instead of
extolling the Vedas, he should have been promoting the
Tantras.
Apparently there are no 'bija' mantras memtioned in the
Rig Veda. In order to establish the TM practice, the
Marshy should have been explaining how TM came to use the
bija mantras.
From what I've read, TM practice and the use of bijas
comes from the Sri Vidya, and not from the Rig Veda. Sri
Vidya is a tantric sect, purportedly founded by the Adi
Shankaracharya.
Swami Brahmanand Saraswati was a member of the Sri Vidya
- all the Saraswati dasnamis are headquarted at Sringeri.
SBS's guru, Swami Krishanand Saraswati, was from Sringeri.
The primary symbol of the Sri Vidya is the Shri Yantra
with the TM bijas inscribed thereon.
So, it's obvious that TM adherents should be looking to
the tantras, such as the 'Saundaryalahari' for the
origins of TM, not the to the Vedas.
The Rig Veda has little to say about yoga practices such
as 'TM'. The Rig Veda is based on sacrificial rituals,
dedicated to appeasing the celestial beings that control
the forces of nature, such as earth, wind and fire, etc.
The Demi-gods, such as Krishna, Balarama, and Ramchandra
are deified heros of Indian mythology. There are no
'istadevatas' and their 'bija mantras' mentioned in the
Rig Veda.
The use of bijas came a long time after the composition
of the Rig Veda, during the Gupta Age in India. Bija
mantras are products of the Indian alchemists, not the
Vedic rishis. The Rig Veda was probably compiled before
the Aryan speakers even arrived in present Pakistan.
'TM' practice is almost pure tantric practice, with a
little fertilizer thrown in for good measure. LoL!
So, there are two ways of perceiving the same absolute
reality; there is the transcendental plane, the plane
of pure CC, and there is the active plane, the plane of
relative mass, action, and time.
According Feuerstein, Shiva symbolizes the pure, absolute
consciousness, and Shakti symbolizes the entire content
of that consciousness.
