47 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One
Chapter 12
The Meaning of “Krśńa” in Rája Yoga (3)
When human beings do sádhaná, the kulakuńd́alinii, an ideative entity, rises upward through the spine. It pierces through cakras one after the other, and simultaneously the thoughts or propensities controlled by their respective cakras are brought under control. As soon as the kulakuńd́alinii pierces the múládhára, svádhiśt́hána and mańipura cakras, it brings under control all the propensities up to and including those of the mańipura cakra. The mańipura is the controlling cakra of ten propensities – shyness, sadistic tendency, envy, staticity, melancholia, peevishness, yearning for acquisition, infatuation, hatred, fear. When after rising and rising the kulakuńd́alinii reaches the sahasrára, it becomes one with Paramashiva. This is the state of liberation.
You know very well that in medieval India, Tantra branched out into numerous schools: Saora Tantra, Shákta Tantra, Shaeva Tantra, Gáńapatya Tantra, Vaeśńava Tantra, etc.(5) So according to yoga scripture, the kuńd́alinii resides in the múládhára and Paramashiva in the sahasrára. And according to Vaeśńava Tantra, the kulakuńd́alinii is called “Rádhá” and Paramashiva is called “Krśńa”. This is the essence of the concept of Rádhá and Krśńa. Unfortunately, the actual underlying spirit of the Vaishnavite Cult is forgotten or ignored by many.
Quite often at the end of a [Vaishnavite] kiirtana you will hear that Rádhá and Krśńa have become united. The participants express this with a sentence that includes the words, Haribol, Haribol. The fact is that the sádhaná has elevated the jiivabháva [microcosmic bearing], and, it having become one with Paramashiva at the sahasrára cakra, the microcosm has gone beyond the periphery of all bondages, and has attained the bliss of emancipation. This is the inner secret.
Here the seven cakras, from múládhára to sahasrára, which the kulakuńd́alinii has to pierce, are the fetters or ropes which a spiritual aspirant has to snap. Páshabaddho bhavejjiivah, páshamukto bhavecchiva – “Those who are in bondage are called jiivas, and those who have been freed are Shiva.”
This is the last of our interpretations of the term “Krśńa”. In the sahasrára cakra, Paramashiva is the controlling point. Paramashiva is the same as “Krśńa”.