78 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One

Chapter 21

Throughout the Ages (1)

I have already said that when ideology is totally reflected in a personality, that very personality is worshipped as a divine personality, a god. Ordinary people follow His instructions; they want to be guided by His will, because they experience bliss by moving in this way. Krśńa said,

Yad yadácarati shreśt́hastad tadevetaráh janáh;
Sa yad pramáńaḿ kurute lokastadanuvarttate.

[The common masses faithfully follow whatever great people do; they follow the examples set by great personalities.]

In the age of Shiva, towards the end of Shiva’s lifetime, the Aryan and the non-Aryan communities admitted the supremacy of Shiva. There were no longer conflicts between the Aryans and the non-Aryans regarding the issue of deities; there was no difference of opinion as to which great personality should be respected. Shiva was accepted as the supreme personality in the Vedas, and as such was considered a god. In the Vedic Age, people who worshipped the Vedic gods and goddesses accepted Shiva as one of them, and started worshipping Him and generally following His instructions. They used to follow only the ritualistic portions of the Vedas (the yajiṋas) and followed Shiva in all other matters. But those who did not follow even these ritualistic portions of the Vedas but followed Shiva in all matters were called Shaeva Tántriks [followers of Shiva Tantra].

Perhaps you know that in the Vedas, the Tantras, and partly in Post-Shiva Tantra, particular gods were worshipped with specific biija mantras [acoustic roots]. Shiva was not worshipped with any particular acoustic root during His own time, in Shiva Tantra, because the people considered Shiva so much their own, so intimate with them, that they did not feel the necessity to worship Him with the help of any acoustic root. And Shiva really did become one of them. Thus they did not depend on any acoustic root to invoke Him. The then followers of the Vedas accepted the supremacy of Shiva, but their relation with Him was not so intimate. As I have already said, there was no system of idol worship in those days, but they used to accept Shiva as their deity of transmutation – as the transmutational principle.(1) The people in those days used m [the sound “mm”] as the acoustic root for the process of transmutation, the process of metamorphosis. Thus they used m to indicate anything concerned with Shiva.

Although Shiva was accepted in the Vedic Age, He himself did not follow the Vedic cult. He accepted only the Tantric cult and adhered to it very strictly, and persuaded others to do the same. You know that the Jain religion was introduced a little more than two thousand years ago, but the Shiva Cult is much older than the Jain religion. Some people claim that the Tiirthauṋkars (the original Jain prophets) existed even before the advent of Vardhamán Maháviira; they propagated Jainism, but it was undoubtedly long after Shiva. When Jainism was spreading in India, Shiva had already become a god of the people; He had penetrated into all walks of Indian life and become intimately associated with each and every aspect of social life. This was not only because of His extraordinary personality and genius, but because of His pervasive influence in all spheres of human life. Though Jainism is quite old, and efforts were made to propagate it, the people of that age accepted it only superficially. Jainism received quite a good response in India, particularly in the Ráŕh area, but Shaeva Dharma [Shaivism] maintained its existence like a subterranean flow in the people’s minds.

Perhaps many of you know that Jainism is divided into several branches, and the two main branches are Digamvara and Shvetámvara. By historical research, it has been found that Jainism is mainly Digamvara.(2) But later a time came when the Nirgranthaváda of Digamvara Jainism (granthi means “knot”, so nirgranthi means “not using the knots of clothes” – that is why the doctrine was known as “Digamvara”) was not appreciated by the householders, and it was primarily they who introduced the Shvetámvara doctrine, although Jainism is primarily Digamvara. Later this Nirgranthaváda of Jainism was associated with Shaivism. People were outwardly Digamvara Jain, but in the core of their hearts they were Shaivites. All the idols of Digamvara Tiirthauṋkars which have been found are naked. Now let us move to another topic.