[FairfieldLife] Re: Chilim Mantra
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, rudra_joe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Pretty much figured it out Oh Shankara. You can't hide stuff from Shiva. Thanks for this whole thread though. It was very meanigful to this erstwhile stoner. ** Some more links on the relationship of ganja to spirituality, ritual, offerings and sadhana in some traditions. Along with others, perhaps Rick's friend Dana could comment on his observation of its spiritual / ritual use (or abuse) in India. Some mantras: He is invoked before taking the first puff by shouting one of many chilam-mantras: Alakh!; Bam Bam Bholanath!; Bom Shiva! Mantra for offering ganja to Balarama: Baladev Baladev Hara Hara Ganja. Other: Om Shiva Shankara Hari Hari Ganga! http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/evolution/drugs.asp In India, the Aghora sect of Tantra and a significant section of Shaivite Tantrics ritually partake of marijuana as part of their sadhana (spiritual exercise). With the first drag, Shiva (a Hindu deity) made the sky. With the second, he made the earth and with the third he made this world. This, according to Dr Molly Kaushal, research officer at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, is how the Gaddi tribals of the northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh describe the act of Creation. The 'drag' here, of course, refers to a puff of cannabis. As she tells me this, an excited Madhusudan Baul, a folk singer from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, chips in: These three puffs are extremely important. There is a proper ritual involved in taking them. There should be a gap of at least 90 seconds between each puff. And the high that you reach after three puffs is the climax. No further smoking will make any difference. And what does he feel when he is on such a high? Madhusudan closes his eyes in bliss as he recalls: We all know that God resides everywhere. But we see Him in bits and pieces. Cannabis makes me see God in His entirety. It is a sight of such unalloyed joy that tears well up in my eyes. Neem Karoli Baba forwarded a similar view when he was asked by one of his disciples whether taking hashish helps spiritual development. You should smoke hashish like Lord Shiva, he said, only to be with God. But smoking hashish is not necessary to reach God. The effect only lasts a short while. Devotion to God is an addiction that lasts all the time. http://surrealist.org/prayforpeace/1997b.html Excerpt from Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men, by Dolf Hartsuiker Inner Traditions, Int'l. (1993), p. 97-98 A common ritual [for devotees of the God Shiva] is the smoking of a mixture of tobacco and charas (hashish) in a chiam (pipe). Although this undoubtedly serves the more earthly purpose of socializing with Sadhu-brothers and devotees, the smoking of charas is nonetheless regarded as a sacred act. Intoxication as a 'respected' -- amongst Babas anyway -- method for self-realization is related to the drinking of soma, the nectar of the gods, which is recommended in the Vedas as a sure means of attaining divine wisdom. Mythologically charas is intimately connected with Shiva: he smokes it, he is perpetually intoxicated by it, he is the Lord of Charas. He is invoked before taking the first puff by shouting one of many chilam-mantras: Alakh!; Bam Bam Bholanath!; Bom Shiva! Babas offer the smoke to him; they want to take part in his ecstasy, his higher vision of Reality. As a final gesture of devotion, a Sadhu may mark his forehead with the chilam-ashes, or even eat them, as prasad from Shiva. Charas may be used by Shaivas (Shiva worshipers) and Vaishnavas (Vishnu worshipers). Lord Balarama Ganja Worshipers of Shiva traditionally offer their ganja to Shiva before smoking, but what about followers of Krishna? Krishna generally does not accept ganja offerings, although He clearly states that He is the healing essence of all herbs. In ancient India, the temple incense was infused with hashish so worshipers could inhale the sacred smoke and experience love of God. Although hash incense is no longer available, Krishna worshipers offer ganja smoke to Krishna's brother, Balarama, and receive the Lord's blessings. Mantra for offering ganja to Balarama: Baladev Baladev Hara Hara Ganja. http://www.tripzine.com/print.asp?id=dowhatido She brought out a heavy auburn cone of clay which had an inner rod that fit snugly inside the hollow cone. She ripped a tattered fragment off of her orange sarong and tied it around the thinner end of the cone, brought out a small cup made from an immature ash-blackened coconut in which she crumbled up a 1:2 mix of charas and rare ganja which she tightly packed into the wide end of the chillum. Om Shiva Shankara Hari Hari Ganga! Ditto. I mimicked her mantra and we began. I got this pipe from a baba who resides in the Shiva Temple at Hampi. My first goal was to find the Baba who taught Eleanor the art of chillum smoking. Before we slept she
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chilim Mantra
A second set of links, linking cannabis with ritual, sadhana and tantra. http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/sex.php Advanced Tantra marijuana rituals were intense, complex and difficult. Researchers have uncovered sacred texts describing cannabis rituals, but doubt that modern Tantra practitioners still engage in such activities. *** VAJ, do you know what this is referring to? Tantra cannabis rituals date back at least to 700 AD, and involved groups of purified male and female worshippers who engaged in fasting, chanting, prayer, ceremonial purifications, Kundalini yoga, and sexual union, subjecting body and spirit to excruciating and ecstatic ordeals. Concentration, consecration and transformation were the goals of such rituals, which were conducted in temples festooned with thousands of flowers, clouds of incense smoke, and flickering temple lamps. http://www.entheogen.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=3978.html In Plants of the Gods (2nd edition), it is stated that in Tantric Buddism of the HImalayas of Tibet, Cannabis plays a very significant role in teh meditative ritual used to facilitate deep meditation and heighten awareness, (97-8). http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/sex.php After fasting and purging for at least 24 hours, Tantric celebrants ingested bhang, accompanied by deep abdominal breathing and visual imaging exercises. These exercises free blocked energy, tonify muscles and blood flow, and facilitate the power and onset of cannabis intoxication, which usually occurs within an hour of swallowing the spicy, potent libation. An anthropologist notes that cannabis religions recognize the metaphysical potential of the female cannabis plant. Cultures with sacred cannabis use tend to be cultures which recognize the 'goddess'. That could mean mother earth, yin, or female beauty and virtues. People who bring marijuana inside themselves are engaging in a type of sexual union with the plant. It is a very sexual act to have a molecule of THC implant itself into your brain. Since cannabis is associated with female dieties like Kali, we could say that when you use marijuana sexually, you are bringing a very special 'woman' into your bed. Make sure you're ready for that relationship. Similarly, in Marijuana Medicine by Ratsch, we find that in Tantric Buddhism, psychoactive hemp drinks ocntinue to be used when medetating on the cosmic union of Buddha and his shakti as well as for the actual physical union between temple servants and priests (cf. Grieder 1990:152ff.). Here, the aphrodisiac hemp is regarded as the food of Kundalini, the female subtle creative erngy that transforms sexual energy into a spiritual experience. THe drink is consumed 1.5 hours prior to meditation for the yab/yum ritual so that hte culmination of its effects occurs at the beginning of the spiritual or physical activity. When used in this manner, hemp increases meditative concentration, improves attentiveness to the ceremony, and stimulates sexuality (Aldrich 1977; Touw 1981), (45-6). http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:vxGfLrKXiFkJ:www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/1ref.htm+bhang+OR+charas+OR+cannabis+%2Btantrahl=enclient=firefox-a In his Dictionary of Assyrian Botany (p. 220), Campbell identified the Sumerian term a-zal-la and the Akkadian term azulla as cannabis on the basis of their similarities to the Syrian azal, meaning to spin. Campbell also took the Assyrian word gurgurangu as another reference to cannabis because of its similarity to garganinj, the Persian word for cannabis. Building on these similarities, Campbell then identified the Sumerian drug gan-zi-gun-na as hashish [literally, a robber (gan) who spins away (gun-nu) the soul (zi)]. Campbell also felt that the similarity between gan-zi and the Hindu word qanjha also supports his arguments. However, in a later discussion of this issue (p. 229), he acknowledges the possibility that the Sumerian and Akkadian words he tentatively identified as hashish could just as likely be words denoting narcotics in general and opium specifically. A letter written around 680 B.C. by an unknown woman to the mother of the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, mentions a substance called qu-nu-bu which also may have been cannabis, but again there is no certainty for this identification. Cf. L. Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1930), letter 368. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
