The Navāvaraṇa Pūjā
This transformation of your own character is what is important in the ritual. You start with your present situation, whatever that is—whatever fears, lusts, greeds, possessiveness, hunger for power, and all kinds of limitations, whatever your feelings of separation imply. It is from this starting point that you have to move, to shed your inhibitions one by one and learn what it means to have intercourse with the world.
Every aspect of your life is maithuna, or intercourse, not just sex. Sex is redefined in Tantra as the enjoyment of beauty. Tantra teaches that you do not have to own a thing in order to enjoy it.
Do you own the ground that you walk upon?
Do you own the air that you breathe?
Do you have to own the sun, the stars, the moon, and the clouds in order to see and enjoy them?
Ownership is not there, except in the broad sense of:
“Yes, I own the whole world!”
The Śakti Pūjā
After these sixty-four offerings (upacāras), you have brought Her close to you and you have embraced Her. This embrace has been so deep that She has penetrated your body and is residing there in the lotus of your heart as a golden girl, sixteen years old.
That transformation has happened.
Your bodies have not remained separate. They have merged into one. That is the yab-yum, Śiva and Śakti.
The concept of this union is the final step. It is the Śakti Pūjā.
In the ritual, there is no union. There is no union because you are adoring the Mother. For the purpose of your pleasure, your happiness, and your enjoyment, you are thinking of Devī as different from you, and so you are able to adore Her.
Like a child, we make-believe in these Gods and Goddesses in front of us. And the magic is that they become real. We worship them and then we bring them back into ourselves.
This is the notion of pūjā, which is a total absorption into the Other—the Divine.
The Devī Pūjā has to be done in Advaita. That is the only way it can be done. Because She is all power, and power needs to be controlled. Otherwise it is like driving a high-powered car with an accelerator but no steering wheel.
You are bound to end up in a disaster.
You have to have a steering wheel to control the way you are going, no matter what speed. The more speed, the more control you must have.
Without discipline you cannot achieve what you want.
The more power you have, the more control you must have over your tongue, because what you are going to say is going to come true. You cannot afford to say bad things even in dreams. You have to have that much control over your behavior.
These are the various aspects of Tantra, at a glance.
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