41 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One
Chapter 11
The Acoustic Roots of the Indo-Aryan Alphabet (11)
T́ha is the acoustic root of anutápa vrtti [repentance]. One is seized by a feeling of repentance when one realizes (either from within or with the help of a second person) the impropriety of one’s action. In northern India anutápa is called pascháttápa. Both anu and paschát mean “later” or “after”; tápa means “heat”.
D́a is the acoustic root of lajjá vrtti [the propensity of shyness].
Senseless, sadistic killing is called pishunatá vrtti. If meat-eaters slaughter animals in the way that inflicts the least pain, that is not pishunatá; but if they kill them slowly and cruelly, first chopping off their legs, then their tails, then their heads, it is definitely pishunatá. These days in many civilized countries people are unable to give up meat-eating, but have at least devised modern methods to kill the animals less painfully. But remember, the killing of animals, no matter how it is done, is contrary to the spirit of Neohumanism.
Once I saw a harrowing sight in a market place: part of a live tortoise had just been chopped off and sold, but the poor creature was not completely dead and was trying to crawl away, leaving a stream of blood. Such cruel things should be abolished altogether. The cruel slaughter of that innocent tortoise is certainly a case of pishunatá.
To kill human beings is totally undesirable, but if people do want to eliminate their enemies, they should do so with a minimum of torture. The kings of old used to kill criminals by impaling them on spikes; or by half-burying them in the ground, sprinkling salt over them, and letting the dogs eat them. Sometimes people were flayed alive. These actions certainly deserve universal condemnation. They are all examples of pishunatá.
Ńa is the acoustic root of iirśá vrtti [the propensity of envy].
Ta is the acoustic root of staticity, long sleep and deep sleep. It is also the acoustic root of intellectual dullness and spiritual inertness. That which brings about the cessation of dullness and staticity is called Tantra – Taḿ jádyát tárayet yastu sa tantrah parikiirttitah.
The root-verb tan means “to expand”. If a person bound by ropes manages to expand his body, the ropes will snap automatically. That which leads to liberation through tan, expansion, is also Tantra – Taḿ vistáreńa tárayet yastu sah tantrah parikiirttitah.
Tha is the acoustic root of viśada vrtti, of melancholy (melancholiness, melancholia).
Da is the acoustic root of peevishness. If one speaks in a nice way to a peevish person, he or she reacts adversely; if one speaks in a harsh way, he or she takes it calmly.
Dha is the acoustic root of thirst for acquisition. This limitless craving for wealth, name, fame, power and prestige is called trśńa in Sanskrit. Here trśńa does not mean “thirst for water”. To divert all the pure and impure thoughts of the mind towards Parama Puruśa is the only cure for limitless psychic craving.
Na is the acoustic root of moha vrtti [blind attachment or infatuation]. This propensity of blind attachment is usually divided into the four categories of time, space, idea and individuality. When one loses one’s rationality out of blind attachment for one’s country, it is called deshagata moha, “geo-sentiment”. People who live in a country where not even a blade of grass grows, where people die of starvation, and which imports huge quantities of food grains from other countries, become so infatuated with their country that they say it has an abundance of water, has a bountiful fruit harvest, and is a net exporter of food to other countries.
Kálagata moha is blind attachment for a particular period of time. One becomes so attached to a certain period of time that one is unable to discern its positive or negative aspects. Some people complain that the behaviour of the present generation of children is disappointing. They say that when they were young they could easily digest iron pans, but the present generation has trouble digesting even water! They lament the great misfortune that has befallen the present age.
When a particular idea has a strong impact on mind, the mind rushes towards it again and again. Thieves, in the shock of the moment, always make a quick getaway from the scene of the crime. Later, however, they brood repeatedly about the place, and often return, straight into the hands of the police! A person who uses an object for a long time develops a fascination for that object. This is called ádháragata moha [fascination for an object]. There are many rich people who have a strange weakness for some old, battered object such as a rickety chair with one arm broken off. I know a story about how a pretty pot made of bell-metal was the cause of a bitter quarrel among the daughters-in-law of a certain family, so bitter that it led to the eventual break-up of the family. Na is the acoustic root of moha vrtti.
The only way to free oneself from the clutches of infatuation is to superimpose the ideation of indifference and divert one’s mental thoughts towards Parama Puruśa. It may be possible to control this propensity of wild fascination temporarily by intimidation or by enacting laws, but only temporarily. Those who believe in the equal distribution of the world’s wealth, naively underestimate the power of moha vrtti. The human mind can be sublimated only by spiritual ideation, not by any high-sounding philosophy. This utopian idea has proved ineffective in the past and in the present and will continue to prove so in the future.