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Worship Generally There are four different forms of worship corresponding with four states (bhava). The realization that the jivatma and paramatma are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman exists, is the highest state, or brahma-bhava. Constant meditation by the yoga process upon the Devata in the heart is the lower and middlemost (dhyana-bhava) japa (q.v.) and stava (hymns and prayer) is still lower and the lowest of all is mere external worship (puja) (q.v.). Puja-bhava is that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper and worshipped; the servant and the Lord. This dualism exists in greater or less degree in all the states except the highest. But for him who, having realized the advaita-tattva, knows that all is Brahman, there is neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither yoga nor puja, nor dharana, dhyana, stava, japa, vrata, or other ritual or process of sadhana. In external worship there is worship either of an image (pratima), or of a yantra (q.v.), which takes its place. The sadhaka should first worship inwardly the mental image of the form assumed by the Devi, and then by the life-giving (prana-pratishtha) ceremony infuse the image with Her life by the communication to it of the light and energy (tejas) of the Brahman which is within him to the image without, from which there bursts the lustre of Her whose substance is consciousness itself (chaitanya-mayi). She exists as Shakti in stone or metal, or elsewhere, but is there veiled and seemingly inert. Chaitanya (consciousness) is aroused by the worshipper through the prana-pratishtha mantra. Rites (karma) are of two kinds. Karma is either nitya nr naimittika. The first is both daily and obligatory, and is done because so ordained. Such as the sandhya (v. post), which in the case of Shudras is in the Tantrik form; and daily puja (v. post) of the Ishta- and Kula-Devata (v. post); and for Brahmamas the pancha-maha-yajna (v. post). The second or conditional karma is occasional and voluntary, and is kamya when done to gain some particular end, such as yajna for a particular object; tapas with the same end (for certain forms of tapas are also nitya); and vrata (v. post). The Shudra is precluded from the performance of Vaidik rites, or the reading of the Vedas, or the recital of the Vaidik mantra. His worship is practically limited to that of the Ishta-Devata and the Bana-linga-puja, with Tantrik and Pauranik mantra and such vrata as consist in penance and charity. In other cases the vrata is performed through a Brahmana. The Tantra makes no caste distinctions as regards worship. All may read the Tantras, perform the Tantrik worship, such as the sandhya (v. post), and recite the Tantrik mantra, such as the Tantrik Gayatri. All castes, and even the lowest chandala, may be a member of a chakra, or Tantrik circle of worship. In the chakra all its members partake of food and drink together, and are deemed to be greater than Brahmanas; though upon the break-up of the chakras the ordinary caste and social relations are re-established. All are competent for the specially Tantrik worship, for, in the words of the Gautamiya Tantra, the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for all women. The latter are also excluded under the present Vaidik system, though it is said by Shankha Dharma-shastra-kara that the wife may, with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform homa and vrata, etc. According to the Tantra, a woman may not only receive mantra, but may, as a Guru, initiate and give it. She is worshipful as Guru, and as wife of Guru. The Devi is Herself Guru of all Shastras and woman, as, indeed, all females who are Her embodiments are, in a peculiar sense, Her earthly representatives. |
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