65 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One

Chapter 16

The Psychology behind the Origin of Tantric Gods and Goddesses (2)

So you see that the landlords began to worship the goddess with a lot of fanfare. The middle-class people did not have enough resources to organize such expensive religious worship. But perhaps you know that there is a certain place called Hukkipara in Hooghly District. Twelve persons from middle-class families in that Hukkipara village once decided to organize the pújá [worship] of the goddess Durgá collectively, because separately they did not have the resources to organize such worship. In Urdu a friend is called iyár. Since twelve friends [in Bengali “twelve” is báro] combinedly organized the pújá, it was called “Bároiyárii Pújá”. At that point in time this form of worship spread from the landlords down to the masses.

Caste distinctions continued to be observed in Bároiyárii Pújá, but toward the end of the British rule, people began to argue, “Since you are collecting subscriptions from all kinds of people, how can we believe in casteism? Let all people participate in this worship.” At that time this worship received a new name, “Sárvajaniin Pújá”. This Sárvajaniin Pújá is also bároiyárii, but caste distinctions are disregarded.

In Tantra there is some reference to Durgá, but to aśt́abhújá [an eight-armed one – ten-armed was more common]. In western India and northern India, similar aśt́abhújá stone and metal images are sometimes unearthed during excavation work. So the quarrel is whether the deity has eight or ten hands.

One of the characteristics of Tantra is this, that the different gods and goddesses originate from one idea or other. Those ideas were conceived in order to arouse and develop the finer sensibilities of the human mind. Thus a person conceived of a certain idea, and to make concrete that abstract idea, an image was invented. But such an idea, whether good or bad, is not an integral idea, it is a non-integral idea. If human beings try to give expression to one such idea out of many, that means that other ideas are excluded. In any case, this is how there arose the various gods and goddesses in Tantra, through a process of giving external form to abstract ideas.

In Sanskrit the term devatá is feminine. In this respect there is no fundamental difference between Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, although there is a difference in terminology. For instance, there are Buddhist Tantric goddesses called Máriici, Háritii, Vajrabaráhii, Báráhii, Vajrayoginii, Vajratárá and Bhánatárá. And then there are Kálii and the Dashamáhávidyá [ten goddesses known as the Ten Mahávidyás], all Hindu Tantric goddesses. These various gods and goddesses represent one idea or other. For instance, Anucchunyá Prakrti, the state of Prakrti at the stage prior to creation: that idea is represented by Kálii. But this is just a non-integral idea, not an integral one.

Meghavarńávigatavasaná,
Shavashivárúd́há shyámá trinayaná;
Narashirakhad́gavarábhayashobhaná,
Caturbhújá Kálii Kálikárúpińii.
Garvitádánavagarvakharvákrti khad́ga
Kharpará Niila Sarasvatii;
Sarvasaobhágyapradáyinii kartrii,
Namaste Tárárúpá tárińii.
Bálá ruńásamá-ujjvalauṋgábhá,
Caturbhújá trinayaná,
Tribhuvanamanolobhá pásháuṋkush-sharacápa-
Dhárińii Shivá, Śod́ashii rúpá Shiva bhávinii.
Hásyamukharitá nishákaravanditá,
Tribhuvana mauṋgalá Bhuvaneshvarii máta.
Raktotpaladhará kot́ibhánuninditá,
Bhaeravii varábhaya dáyinii.
Vivarńá vidhavá malinámbaradhará
Kákadhvajá Dhúmávatii shúrpakará;
Bagalámukhii piitavarńá piitámbará
Mudgara ari jihvá dhárińii.
Nijashirachinditá rudhirapánaratá
Digvásá ratiratá jano parisaḿsthitá;
Chinnamastá mátá d́akiniisamanvitá
Pravalapátakiikula ghátinii.
Mańimayásane shyámakalevará,
Mátauṋgiirúpadhará sudháḿshu shekhará;
Káiṋcanakántisudiiptá manohará
Kamalá harahrdivásinii.

With a particular idea in one’s mind, one experiences a particular state of existence in life, and accordingly one or another Mahávidyá has been thought up. For instance, Dhúmávatii is described as vivarńá [colourless], vidhavá [widowed], with sunken eyes and wizened face, wearing dirty, dishevelled clothing (malinámbaradhará). Crows hover over her head (kákadhvajá); in her hand she is holding a broken winnow (shúrpakará – from the Sanskrit shúrpa, the words suppa in Prákrta and sup in Bengali have come(2)). The entire description gives an idea of an impoverished deity, shorn of all glory and opulence.(3) When people are shorn of everything, the idea of Dhúmávatii symbolizes that idea. Tantra holds out one or another idea of that type.