Tara

A star in the dark night bursting forth a sphere of light out of vacuum - that is Tara, the second of the great paths to self realisation. The unmanifest sound of Omkara bursts forth into the manifest world, that is Tara.

Cut a sphere with a central star in it, into two halves, and place them side by side. Move the half star into the surface centres of the two hemispheres. Thus does Omkara assume a female form, where the centre is moved to periphery, and one appears as two. Out of this, the creation proceeds further, shown by the tail of the Omkara and a third centre of the world develops - that is jeeva. Jeeva is located in the navel, and that is Tara as Omkara symbolising manifestation. Tara is worshipped at the navel centre, called the manipura. Manipura is the first place where lights manifest, like so many starry jewels. The Sanskrit word Tara takes on different meanings.

The highest meaning is that she is Tarini, she crosses you to the beyond, she is the bridge for you to walk to immortality. In this, she is symbolised by Omkara.

The second meaning of Tara is that she is high pitched sound. This reflects how the Omkara heard in the heart centre transforms itself first into supersonic sound, and then into light, and then into darkness again as the frequency increases. This is the level of unmanifest manifesting as it comes down.

The third meaning is that Tara is- the lover of Moon, whom moon seduced from Brhaspati, the one intelligent counsellor to Gods. This shows that manifestation is a reduction of band width, a ray of the infinite frequency, since moon symbolizes love, which is based on duality. At the physical level representing duality, Tara is worshipped with an aim to experience the undifferentiated state by a couple. Here the worship bears a similarity to Kali, but with this difference that the focus of awareness is at the navel centre, not the svadhisthan centre as in Kali. Tara involves seduction too, which Kali does not. As the purpose of seduction is self realisation, it becomes purified in the nondual state.

In its first meaning, Tare is a Vedic mantra, the suddha pranava. This mantra is OM. In its second meaning, Tara is - tantric rantra, to be worshipped as Hrim Strim Hum Phat. The object is that the maya, illusion Hrim acting as the great seducer Strim, the woman(symbol for mind), should be blown away (Phat) by the fire of knowledge of Siva (Hum.  This is done by a sadhaka alone, but in union with Kundalini. Seduction is present here too, as a goddess or a god is invited to couple in the Consciousness. Sexual union between 2 partners of opposite sexes is indicated.

In its third meaning, where physical seduction is present, Tara is a buddhist mantra of the Mahayana or Vajrayana sect. Here the mantra takes the form OM Hrim Strim Hum Phat. The meaning is the sane as above. Seduction is the situation where the maximum sensory imputs are present physically and mentally. So gaining control here is vital.

The sound symbol Phat is very important. It is an explosive sound, and symbolises the piercing of darkness by light. The Fourier transform of a sharp transition contains all frequencies in it; when the frequencies fall in the visible range, it becomes an explosion of light in meditation.

At the lowest frequencies, the sound is a current or a vibration in the body„ As the frequency rises, the following transformations occur: feelings, sound, heat, silence of radio waves, light, ultra-violet, then silence again. All these effects can be felt in meditation.

The sensory mechanisms of the body respond only to the shaded zones, and do not respond to the others. The second branch consists of the regions I, II and III, I is called para, II is called madhyama. III is called pasyanti. When II is modulated by throat and tongue and becomes recognized as meaningful words, it is called vaikhari. Beyond the sound forms is the light branch. Beyond that is invisible infinite spectral range of frequencies. Here lie the material waves whose phase velocities w are related to the group velocities v by the relation w = (c^2)/v. If the matter particle is at rest, it’s waves are moving with infinite velocity. (when v=0, w = infinity). Hence Upanishadic statement – it moves, it moves not – is true.

As Kundalini moves up, first it is para, then pasyanti, then madhyama and lastly vaikhari - in the sound branch. In the light branch, it becomes infra -red, visible light, ultra-violet, and the invisible black, cold light of x rays, gamma-rays, cosmic rays, and matter waves.

So, after sound ceases, comes light. After light ceases, awareness persists in sunyata. This is what the Buddha says - nirvana is sunyata, which has the nature of vajra or a diamond - it is indestructible. It is wrong to assume of course that sunyata is emptiness. Quite the contrary, it is the utter completeness of variety which is incomprehensibly deep in knowledge and awareness. Consider am example.

Suppose you are listening to music. The tempo builds up, the rhythm beats faster and faster. After some time, no rhythm can keep pace with the speed, and everything merges into a steady monotone of unmanifest silence, which is one pointed awareness, which appears to have lost all vibrations. It is vibrating at an infinite frequency as awareness. It is the stillness of a spinning top, not the laziness of a sleeping man. That in essence is the difference between Samadhi and sleep.

It should be realised that the combined band width of para, pasyanti and madyama is far below that of the light waves; and that the band width of the light waves is far below that of the waves of awareness or the matter waves, which invariably travel faster than light, and hence are always moving backwards in time.(Anything which moves faster than light has, of necessity, to move back in time). Hence Buddha's statement that silence and Sunyata is the nature of the universe is absolutely correct. This is what the Upanishads also say - that the manifest universe is only the tail of Brahman.

There are three kinds of particles known in physics. These are particles, light waves and antiparticles. Particles move forward in time; antiparticles move backward in time. Light waves don't move in time - they freeze the present. When a particle meets another corresponding antiparticle, they annihilate each other explosively, and that becomes light. So, light is a result of pair annihilation; knowledge is a result of the union of past and future in the present. The nature of present is bliss. Buddhist philosophy says - eliminate desires, which are anticipations based on duality; you will eliminate misery. In the present lies realisation; if you move away from it either by remembering or by planning, you have lost irretrievably the contact with the purity of the present moment, the utter bliss of the present moment, the nirvana of the present moment. Come to think of it, there is no past, there is no future. There is only present, a moving present, an infinitesimal moment of time which contains all of infinite time in it. There is no time away from the present!

Tars is the pashyantî sound, which overlaps madhyamâ in frequency. The power of manifest sound is bridge to God within the human system. The power of sound is called Om. The word syllable Om is only imitating the sound within. It is only a symbol. What the symbol points to is an unbroken sound which is heard inside, which resembles Om. The external symbol has a beginning and an end. Not so for the inner sound. It is there always. That is Târâ.

That Târâ pointed to by the symbol Om, has many forms. One form is called Nîlâ - She is called the dark one, Tâmasî. Here the darkness refers to unheardness, unmanifestness, unclearness. The same applies to the Tâmas of Rudrâ, the God of unmanifest. This Târâ is the most pious of the pious. Because Om is the unusual name of Îshwarâ. Patânjalî has said - Om points to Îshwarâ. One who has not heard the Om within, has no use for any mantrâ. Even the Vedâs say - what will any one do with the song (of the Vedâ) if one has not heard the Om within?

This Om enters all sounds and makes them come alive individually. However, there is a difference in the ability of different sounds to convey the Om. Among the sounds, vowels carry Om best. Even there, Vedâs contain the quality of sound best. If one ignores the barrage of consonants and listens to the vowel sounds of the Vedic mantras, the pleasing nature of Om will become evident. That is why it is important to protect the sound of the mantrâ.

When mantrâs are translated, the purpose is only to bring out the hidden meanings - the coded meanings of the mantrâ. But such translations cannot be used for japa, because the sound Om is not brought out clearly in the translation.

What then is a mantrâ? When sages sit meditating, that is listening to the sound of Om in their heart - throat - head centers, out of the ocean of the Om, waves called mantrâs arise, and are heard or seen in meditation. That is why each mantrâ has a seer - the rishî who happened to see or hear the mantrâ in his meditation.

These mantrâs are natural flow of sound waves, controlling a manifestation of Omkârâ. If one meditates on Om, that is Târâ or Saraswatî, She gives mantrâs. If one meditates on these mantrâs, one gets communications of knowledge from that wave. All such communications form the content of the mantrâ. These mantrâs arise spontaneously, without effort in meditation - it is a by product. There must have been no effort at all in designing the mantrâ. A mantrâ is not designed; it is complete and arises by itself. It designs itself, it creates itself.

What is designed with effort is ordinary language constructs which cannot convey Om so clearly. A limited intellect has no capacity to design a mantrâ. Though all elements are available, a sculptor cannot build a living being. A mantrâ is a living sound. It has life in it. Only unlimited intellect of God can foresee and build life out of a genetic code. The mantrâ is the genetic code of the deity. By repetition of the genetic code, Man is made. By repetition of mantrâ a God or Goddess is made. That is why mantrâ manifests God by repetition.

When mantrâ starts flowing, it can become joy, peace, power, dance, art, poetry, prose, vedâs, purânâs, Agamâs, nigamâs, etc.

Among these several manifestations, some are true and some are untrue; the mostly true and accurate picture of Godliness is contained in Vedâs - called the Trayi Vidyâ - they contain the highest light and wisdom. So do the religious texts of all religions.

Absolute truth cannot be conveyed in words. So, all words are mappings of the truth, but contain some lie in it by necessity. It is a question of degree of how much truth is there.

Here truth is used in the sense of resemblance. Can the idea formed in the reader be same as the idea which prompted the seer or writer? The answer is sadly no, in most cases.

Vedâs are direct revelations. So are the revelations of the seers, jnânîs in their dhyânâ. They all have the same validity. They contain the highest degree of resemblance to the reality seen. They are called Shukla, the white, or the manifest Târâ.

In coitus, the state of potent joy is before the climax. That is unmanifest, potent joy - that is Nila. The orgasmic bliss, the flow of the mantra into a bursting explosion of language constructs which are true, is called Sukla. Seminal fluid is white in colour, it is manifest joy, obtained through a leap of the ego out of the body.

When ever ego breaks loose of the body - either in sleep, or in coitus, or in death, or in Samadhi - deep joy is experienced. There is a similarity between sleep and death, and a similarity between coitus and samadhi. Sleep and death differ only in the time scales. Orgasm and Samadhi differ oaly in time scales. Death is a continuous sleep, Samadhi is a continuous orgasm. In orgasm, you are not there, you have jumped out of the body; but this is short-lived, and one craves forth again. But the craving cannot be satisfied immediately, because the seed is no more there. The better way thus is to achieve an orgasm without spending the seed. And this is exactly what Samadhi is. The seed is not spent - so the orgasm continues uninterrupted as long as the seed is there. Who wants to come out of the middle of an orgasmic bliss? That is exactly the dilemma faced by a sage in the continuous orgy of an orgasmic splendour of Samadhi - he doesn't want to come out of it, ever. That is union with God, that is Yoga. Ordinary coitus is an imitation, a passing memory of the infinite coitus that God can do to you, the maddening creative egoless bliss - the path of no return. Once one has known the taste of this one doesn't want any thing else. That is Ardhanareesvara tattva - the unending orgasmic bliss called Brahmananda.

Vedic knowledge and proper meditation can lead one to infinite joy. This is obtained by study and practice of Vedas and Upanishads and revelations contained in Agamas and Nigamas. Agama means it came out of Siva's head and went into Parvati's face.

"Agatam Siva vaktrena gatam ca girija mukhe”.

Siva is the erect phallus on the physical plane - Coming out of its head is semen, the leap of the ego. and the bliss experienced in the orgasm. It goes into the mouth of Parvati. Parvati is Para-sakti, the power, the source, the mother, the womb, the divine vulva. So, all Agamas preach the worship of
the genitals as the first step towards sublimation. Vedas countenance this, because at the end of Yajna, the couple performing the sacrifice have to engage in coitus, and offer the coital fluids into the homam. This is the nain ingredient, called the purna homam - an offering of the self to the higher self. This occurs in Asvamedha vaga, where the horse's seed where the horse's seed is collected and offered along with the human seed; the idea is an essential unity of all life forms cutting across even the genital and species barriers. This is also  done in jyotis toma and panca rata yajna's prescribed in Vedas.

In Hindu and Vajrayana pantheism, erotic element plays a vital role. There is no temple which is complete without the erotic element, Eros was worshipped in all possible ways in the olden days, by house-holders. Eros was only forbidden to Sanyasis. The goal of life - Kama had a high place in society - with Sastra's supporting how to achieve it. It was elevated to art, recognising that the vital lust is best handled as Sringara, the decorative, unhurried, detached bliss.

The word Nigarna means the reverse. It refers to revelations of power, achieved by Urdhva retas; control of seed, and transformation of vital sex drive into higher forms, which are more satisfying, which have immanance in them. This is called the Amritham,the flow of energy from the power - the woman to the powerful ~ the man. This is the path of with drawal, nivritti, the vajroli mudra practised by hatha yogis. Vajroli means creating a vacuum in the bowels, enabling a continuous suction of semen back into the phallus, and the libido moving up into the head. In Srividya Upasana, vajroli is  symbolised by Sarva Trikanda Mudra, meaning, the sex drive moving from vital to mental to Supra-mental.

So the study of the Vedas, Upanishads, Agamas, Nigamas provides a worship of Saraswati, the creative power of Brahman; this is called Sukla Upasana. The study of the source of all such revelations, to get the revelations oneself, is called the Nila Upasana. Then there is the third form of Upasana of Tara. It is called Citra.

The words spoken by people, ordinary people, contain both lies and truths. Such is Citra - truth and untruth; reality and myth; perception and projection. Seeing Omkara, hearing Omkara in all such sounds, and not responding and reacting to the pairs of opposites in them constitutes the Upasana of Citra. All three forms are forms of Tara, The pranava, the sastras, and the ordinary conversations, are all forms of Tara. Any one procedure can be followed. Jnanis follow the study of vedas, sastras, etc; Yogis follow the Om in their heart; the common man can simply concentrate on the world of sound around him.

In the upasana with mantras we have already listed the forms of mantra. Om is to be recited alone - this leads to Yoga path. The mantras Om Hrim Strim Hum Phat; Hrim Strim Hum Phat; Hrim Strim Hum; all these can be practised by a Parasakti and Parama purusha, in an attutude of eliminating illusions of other. In Tara upasana, unlike Kali, if physical union is to be used, it must be with a para sakti, not sva sakti, because there is to be no ejaculation; in Buddhist union seed emission is forbidden. In Hindu union, seed emission is allowed after the_repetition of required number for mantra is complete. In Tara, both religions meet; both insist on para sakti, and both forbid ejaculation by the male, for the very reason that it is para sakti. Kali is Kundalini, svasakti; Tara is para sakti. Sundari uses both; sva sakti and para sakti. Sundari is a circle where all males are Sivas and all
females are Saktis as long as they are aspiring for yoga. That is why in Sundari Upasana, the words “paraya, aparaya, paraparaya” are used. Once they are in Yoga, they are both Siva and Sakti.

The need for para sakti can thus be envisaged in the fallowing progression. -The main aim is to destroy the ego structure, and identifying oneself with the body. As long as this identification exists, the notion of one’s own and that belonging to another - para and apara persists. The first thing is to integrate with ones own partner - that is Kali. The next wall to be broken down is the notion of the other; so para sakti is prescribed, that is Tara. In the third stage, group identity is to be established, hence Tripura Sundari. In Sundari, this identity proceeds by establishing all the Gods and Goddesses in ones own body, and in union of a pair, it is the mating of Gods and Godesses that is envisaged; this final act is brought down to the physical bliss level by a group of initiates forming a mandala - or a circle. Sricakra allows a union of 108 pairs, the number of dieties in Khadgamala.

Whether singly or by a couple, upasana of Tara is done by a constant awareness of unmanifest sound within; this is obtained by constantly researching the sound of the mantra within, when the unmanifest sound comes to be known. It becomes known by a permissive mood (anujna mudra), uncensoring mood.

This Tara is known as Aksara Vidya - in the Upanishads. Aksara means i) not subject to decay, ii) beginning with A ending with ksa, that is all letters, language, etc., the manifest sound. Both meanings are valid. She is also called the Udgitha Vidya, meaning, the v|dya which allows you to transcend upwards.

No untruth should be spoken. Only truth is to be spoken even if it hurts ones own ego to do so. One must study well and remember what is said or taught. This in brief is Sukla upasana.

Citra is the Om in other's voices. In abuse and praises in pointless talks and in great epics; in harsh noise and in melodious music; in crying and in singing; the sound must be taken in equally, observing the sound picture. One should not turn away from the unpleasant, one should not seek the pleasant sounds. One should be a detached observer. This is Citra Upasana.

The bliss of speaking out, from the tip of the tongue, is Sarasvati. Sarasvati is rasavati, one who has rasa, or ananda with Sa the sakti. Sarasvati means the bliss of orgasmic union, utter creativity, manifest by detachment, and elimination of the notion of one’s own, and another's.

Sanyasa is an outgrowth of yoga. Having.tasted union with God, all other pleasures pale in comparison. For that reason one must not however spurn the lower nature, but use it intelligently, wisely, to break down the ego barriers and reach Samadhi. From untouchables, one should become touchable. If you are afraid of touching man, how are you going to touch God? Have no fear; use that by which man fall to lift yourself upwards. Poison can kill; but snake poison is serum, giver of life at the moment of death. How wise can you be? This is what Tara Tantra teaches.