Sarkar's Tantra: A Comparative and Historical Review of Transcendental Praxis
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Hewitson, Justin
Abstract
This study has two main divisions. Part One is an etic historiography of Tantra contrasted with the Tantric Sadguru Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar’s (Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) emic chronology. Contemporary exegeses of Tantric ideology are contextualized by Sarkar’s formal definition of Shiva Tantra as a 5500 BCE transcendental praxis leading to the liberation of anthropical consciousness. The introduction of standardized nomenclature facilitates researching duality, monism, consciousness, and infinity in the macro-environment of material and transcendental cosmology. Part One compares the commonly accepted definition, history, and aims of Classical Tantra with Sarkar’s exegesis of Shiva Tantra. Part Two is an emic hodology of transcendental praxes. Sarkar’s cosmology and causal theory of mind are ontologically differentiated from materialism. Finally, Sarkar’s Tantric sādhanā (meditation) and bhakti (devotion) are, respectively, compared to Husserl’s Transcendental Reduction and Socratic eros. The primary objective of this study is to elucidate how a meditator''s quest for spiritual liberation ‘mok̟sa’ is profoundly impacted by cessative or numinous objects of meditation. Sarkar’s discourses on Tantric philosophy are public, but instruction in his Tantric meditation requires initiation ‘Tántrikii diikśá.’ Sarkar defines Tantra in Discourses on Tantra Volume 2: “Tan means “to expand” and tra means “liberator,” so the science that frees the aspirant from the fetters of bondages by expansion — by expanding the mind, by expanding the existence – is Tantra” (22). This study’s major theme, complementing its elucidation of Tantric meditation, is the convergence of Sarkar’s theory and praxis in what Gerald Larson states are “two of the most puzzling yet important terms in South Asian studies, . . . ‘yoga’ and ‘tantra’” whose nexus is “the study of the self (ātman) and mind (citta)” (487). The introduction overviews Tantra and discusses the critical need for emic and etic Indological studies of Tantra-Yoga. The importance of practitioner-researchers disciplined in both meditation and analytic research for comparative studies of consciousness is examined. Sarkar’s causal model of mind informs the terminology of this work. Metaseity, a new term introduced here, unites interdisciplinary concepts of t rue infinity, absolute void, nirguńa, śūnyatā, and Tao. Chapter 2 investigates Sarkar’s explication of tantric ascesis to counter Tantra''s misconstruction as antinomian hedonism. Chapter 3 questions received histories of Vedanta and Tantra-Yoga, arguing Shiva Tantra arose in 5500 BCE. The evidence of the Rg̟ Veda and Sarkar’s explications are juxtaposed against the widely accepted 300 BCE date. Chapters 4 and 5 present Sarkar’s Shivology, detailing Sarkar’s unique knowledge of Tantra and its first Sadguru. Shiva Tantra’s transformation into Vajrayána Buddhism and other pan-Indian traditions vis-à-vis its adoption, integration, and distortion is contextualized by Sarkar’s historiography of Tantric festivals and deities. Part Two of this study focuses on Sarkar’s Tantra and meditative praxes compared to Western transcendentalism. Chapter 6 contrasts Cartesian duality to transcendental monism and compares physicists’ notions of material infinity to transcendental infinity. Chapter 7 investigates the object and objective of meditation, followed by Tantric and Buddhist accounts of savikalpa and nirvikalpa samādhi. Chapter 8 discusses the significance of Sarkar’s pratyāhāra to an evolution of Husserl’s Phenomenology and poorly understood Transcendental Reduction. This informs a Tantric analysis of ipseity — the transcendental self. Chapter 9 correlates Plato’s Symposium and the eros of the seer Diotima with the Iatromantis, Parmenides. The latter’s monism and Socratic eros is adduced to Tantric bhakti (devotion). Chapter 10 summarizes the major findings of a practitioner-research based study of Sarkar’s Tantra and transcendental philosophy.
Subjects
actional mind
Anandamurti
Aseity
brain
Buddha
Buddhism
cognition
consciousness
contemplation
Cosmic Consciousness
Cosmic Mind
Descartes
energy
enlightenment
enstatic
ecstatic
epocheeros
existential mind
expansion
force
Heidegger
Husserl
infinity
materialism
ipseity
liberation
meditation
Metaseity
mind
moks?a
moksha
motion
mysticism
neurophysiology
Nirgun?a
nirvikalpa sama?dhi
non-duality
objectivated mind
P.R. Sarkar
Parmenides
Phenomenology
pratya?ha?ra
praxis
Ra?r?h
Indology
Rg? Veda
sa?dhana?
Sarasvati River
Sartre
savikalpa sama?dhi
shakti
Shiva
singularity
S?iva
Socrates
spirituality
Tantra
Tantric deities
temporal
trance
monism
duality
Transcendental Reduction
transcendental
Yoga
Type
thesis
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