Pranam
Vamachara and why questions answered by the west KR IRS 25722
left-handed, and why are fewer people left-handed than right-handed?
Researchers who study human hand preference agree that the side of the
preferred hand (right versus left) is produced by biological and, most
likely, genetic causes. The two most widely published genetic theories of
human hand preference argue that evolutionary natural selection produced a
majority of individuals with speech and language control in the left
hemisphere of the brain. Because the left hemisphere also controls the
movements of the right hand--and notably the movements needed to produce
written language--millennia of evolutionary development resulted in a
population of humans that is biased genetically toward individuals with
left hemisphere speech/language and right-hand preference. Approximately 85
percent of people are right-handed. These theories also try to explain the
persistent and continuing presence of a left-handed minority (about 15
percent of humans).
The genetic proposal to explain hand preference states that there are two
alleles, or two manifestations of a gene at the same genetic location, that
are associated with handedness. One of these alleles is a D gene (for
dextral, meaning ¿right¿) and the other allele is a C gene (for ¿chance¿).
The D gene is more frequent in the population and is more likely to occur
as part of the genetic heritage of an individual. It is the D gene that
promotes right-hand preference in the majority of humans. The C gene is
less likely to occur within the gene pool, but when it is present, the hand
preference of the individual with the C gene is determined randomly.
Individuals with the C gene will have a 50 percent chance of being
right-handed and a 50 percent chance of being left-handed.
These theories of hand preference causation are intriguing because they can
account for the fact that the side of hand preference of individuals with
the C gene (most left-handers and some right-handers) can be influenced by
external cultural and societal pressures, a phenomenon that researchers
have documented. These theories can also explain the presence of
right-handed children in families with left-handed parents and the presence
of left-handed children in families with right-handed parents. If the
familial genetic pool contains C genes, then hand preference becomes
amenable to chance influences, including the pressures of familial training
and other environmental interventions that favor the use of one hand over
the other. The proposed genetic locus that determines hand preference
contains an allele from each parent, and the various possible genetic
combinations are DD individuals who are strongly right-handed, DC
individuals who are also mostly right-handed, and CC individuals who are
either right-handed or left-handed. These genetic combinations leave us
with an overwhelming majority of human right-handers and a small, but
persistently occurring, minority of left-handers.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What we say?
Vāmahasta (वामहस्त) refers to the “left hand”, according to the
Ambāmatasaṃhitā verse 18-119-12.—Accordingly, “Washing first (his) food
with water, he should eat it with the left hand [i.e., *vāmahasta*].
Maintaining the vow of purity and silence, (he should remains) concentrated
and content. All the food he has earned is the sacrificial pap (*caruka*)
he eats. The pervasion (*vyāpti*) (of the deity) and success in the
repetition of mantra (*japasiddhi*) arise due to that. This should be done
in one's own home or in a secluded place where there are no other people.
Otherwise, the householder should not do it”.
N. N. Bhattacharyya explains the Sanskrit technical term *Ācāra
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80c%C4%81ra>* as follows:
"[t]he means of spiritual attainment which varies from person to person
according to competence.... *Ācāras* are generally of seven kinds -- Veda,
Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, Dakṣiṇa, Vāma, Siddhāṇta, and Kaula
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaula_(Hinduism)>, falling into two broad
categories -- Dakṣiṇa and Vāma. Interpretations vary regarding the nature
and grouping of the *ācāras*. It is generally held that those who
participate in the rituals of Five Ms belong to the category of Vāmācāra."
*Vāma* means "pleasant, lovable, agreeable" and *Dakṣiṇa
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakshina>* means "south". Facing the rising
sun towards east, *Dakṣiṇa* would be the right side. For this reason, the
term Vāmācāra is often translated "Left-hand practice", while Dakṣiṇamārga
is translated as "Right-hand practice". An alternate etymology is that it
is possible that the first word of the expression Vāmācāra is not *vāma* or
"left", but *vāmā* or "woman". N. N. Bhattacharyya notes that a main
feature of the Tantras is respect for the status of women as a
representation of Shakti <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti>, and that
if this was the original conception underlying Vāmācāra the opposing term
Dakṣiṇācara may have been a later development
An alternate term *Vāmamārga* ("Left Path") is also used. In this compound
the ambiguity between *vāma* and *vāmā* is not present because the final "
*-a*" in Vāmamārga is clearly short.
Barrett (2008: p. 161) discusses the "charnel ground
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnel_ground> sadhana" of the Aghori
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori> practitioners in both its left and
right-handed proclivities and identifies it as principally cutting through
attachments and aversion in order to foreground inner primordiality, a
perspective influenced by a view by culture or domestication:
The gurus and disciples of Aghor believe their state to be primordial and
universal. They believe that all human beings are natural-born Aghori. Hari
Baba has said on several occasions that human babies of all societies are
without discrimination, that they will play as much in their own filth as
with the toys around them. Children become progressively discriminating as
they grow older and learn the culturally specific attachments and aversions
of their parents. Children become increasingly aware of their mortality as
they bump their heads and fall to the ground. They come to fear their
mortality and then palliate this fear by finding ways to deny it
altogether. In this sense, Aghor *sādhanā* is a process of unlearning
deeply internalized cultural models. When this *sādhanā* takes the
form of *shmashān
sādhanā*, the Aghori faces death as a very young child, simultaneously
meditating on the totality of life at its two extremes. This ideal example
serves as a prototype for other Aghor practices, both left and right, in
ritual and in daily life.
Beer (2003: p. 102) relates how the symbolism of the khaṭvāńga
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kha%E1%B9%ADv%C4%81%C5%84ga> that entered
Vajrayana <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana>, particularly from
Padmasambhava <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmasambhava>, was a direct
borrowing from the Kapalikas <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapalika> of
Shaivism <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivism> who frequented places of
austerity such as charnel grounds as a form of vamacharin spiritual
practice.
The form of the Buddhist *khatvanga* derived from the emblematic staff of
the early Indian Shaivite *yogins*, known as *kapalikas* or 'skull-bearers'.
The *kapalikas* were originally miscreants who had been sentenced to a
twelve-year term of penance for the crime of inadvertently killing a
Brahmin. The penitent was prescribed to dwell in a forest hut, at a
desolate crossroads, in a charnel ground, or under a tree; to live by
begging; to practice austerities; and to wear a loin-cloth of hemp, dog, or
donkey-skin. They also had to carry the emblems of a human skull as an
alms-bowl, and the skull of the Brahmin they had slain mounted upon a
wooden staff as a banner.These Hindu *kapalika* ascetics soon evolved into
an extreme outcaste sect of the 'left-hand' tantric path (Skt. vamamarg) of
*shakti* or goddess worship. The early Buddhist tantric *yogins* and
*yoginis* adopted the same goddess or *dakini* attributes of the *kapalikas*.
These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth,
marks of human ash, a skull-cup, *damaru*, flaying knife, thighbone
trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or *khatvanga*.
IN DEFENCE OF VAMA CHARA OR VAMA MARGA ONLY TO KNOW THE PROS AND CONS:
The Left Handed Path:
Otherwise known as the Kaula sadhana, this is the most significant and yet
most misunderstood of all the Tantric traditions. This is partly because
the practices were always kept in secret, handed down from guru to
disciple, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. As I have come
to understand, these are simultaneously regarded among the highest and most
potent of practices, and if misused could be detrimental to one’s own life.
Unfortunately, there were some who, out of ignorance, chose to use these
practices for personal pleasure. While pretending to be Tantrics, they
focused on the indulgence of sex and substances, rather than on the sacred
mindfulness which the practices were meant to impart. These pseudo-Tantrics
brought a bad name to this otherwise powerful spiritual practice. Later,
the critics of this time declared that Kaulism was nothing but perverted
hedonism. My intention in writing this is to demystify some of the
confusion about the true spirit of this practice.
*Seeing All As Divine:*
According to Tantric thought, the world is an extension of Siva (ultimate
reality). Kula is Siva's power (Sakti), which manifests the entire world.
Kula literally means family or extension. The power of Siva that pervades
the whole universe is also called kundalini, which literally means the
female coiled serpent. Kundalini is also the vitality / life force (prana)
of the individual body. Since the entire world is an extension of, and
directly connected to, Siva, the world (and our worldly experiences) can be
used as a means to awaken to our own Siva essence. *This is called
Siva-bhavana, which means to see Siva everywhere and in everything.* So we
learn not to see just an object, but to see it as Siva. Very similar to the
understanding of bhakti (the path of devotion), this would be like seeing
the beloved in every form. Any form can become a medium through which one
can look at the Divine, for the forms are nothing but the Beloved appearing
in different poses. Therefore the Tantric sees the things of the world as
mediums for contact with Siva (or Sakti).
*The Sexual Connection:*
The scholar Abhinavagupta writes that there are six ways to establish this
contact: the external world (bahih), the woman (Sakti), the female/male
couple (yamala), the body (deha), the process of breathing (prana-patha),
and the workings of the mind (mati). Through these six methods we can
realize Siva more effectively. I found it interesting that the man was not
the seventh principle. Perhaps it is because this is coming from a male
perspective and it is assumed that the male would be the one having the
experience. An example of how this would look in a Kaula ritual is one
where the woman is not seen as a human being but rather as the Goddess
incarnate. Like the Divine alchemy that turns everything into gold, Kaulism
transforms the world into the Divine. As it is written in the scriptures of
Kashmir Shaivism; "*When someone worships an object or a person as if it is
God, that object or person becomes God for the worshiper. The sex act is
given special attention in Kaulism as a medium for which God can be
recognized. It is said that the power of the entire universe (kundalini
Sakti) is alive in the body in the form of sexual energy*". Therefore in
Kaulism, sex is the most important channel for reaching the Divine, for
connecting with Siva.
*And Beyond:*
Through my experience with this practice I have opened channels of
awareness and gained insights into the nature of my true essence. These
have been among the highest realizations I have had - as if a whole world
of unity and creation was exposed to me in the presence of breath and
sensation. Naturally if we were using everything in the world as a means
toward realization, this would include sex. *When we speak of sexual energy
it is not limited to the actual sex act, it is the energy of pleasure
(kama) that expresses itself in every form of joyful activity.*
*Misunderstood:*
Vedic followers who looked down on the Kaulas assigned the term “Vama
Marga” - “left-handed path”, to suggest that they were going down the wrong
track. This was because of its ritual use of five substances that the
Vedics considered impure: wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and sexual
intercourse. However, the Kaulas gave it a different interpretation. They
took vama to mean the left side of the body, as in the female side of Siva,
which in essence is the worship of Sakti (power, energy). It is important
to understand that not all Tantrics participate in the use of these
substances, and not all Tantrics incorporate sexual acts in their spiritual
practice. *Also significant is that these so called left-hand practices
grew out of the Tantric insight that the act of finding God in the most
profane objects and activities was a powerful tool for discovering the
Divine in everything.* Another, far more extreme, example of this would be
the Aghori sect which goes as far as smearing excrement and urine on their
bodies simply to move past anything as being unholy or not Siva. It is
understood that anything that we see as separate or unholy is simply egoism
and is ignorantly seeing the world as something other than Siva (ultimate
and supreme consciousness).
*Humility:*
I feel there is some truth here; the vama-sadhana (spiritual
practice of seeing all as Divine) is an effective technique for curing
one's egoism and ignorance. For me it is a concept that sits in the back of
my mind and I am able to examine my limitations through this lens. Of
course what I am really trying to do is to eradicate the feelings that
something or someone who is filthy is anything other than God.
*Desire, Energy, Transformation:*
The goal of the Kaulas is to transcend our desires. The idea is that as
long as we have an overly intense attitude toward our desires, particularly
our sexual urges, we cannot overcome them. Instead we may end up
unconsciously repressing them, resulting in denial and self-deception.
Desires are a form of energy. This energy cannot be destroyed; it can only
be refined or transformed into a higher and subtler level of expression,
such as love or creativity - art, music, writing, etc.
*Going Deeper:*
So why wouldn't we want to just continue using sex for physical pleasure? *I
believe, as the Kaulas did, that sexual energy is identical to the energy
of the universe.* It is the very life force that brought us to be here. And
because of this, it is in a sense responsible for all of the joy and
creativity in our lives. True joy and creativity is very connected to the
awakening of the sexual energy (kundalini). After all, this is our primal
life force. To deny it would be to deny a crucial part of our being. *If we
look at this from the perspective that our sex energy is the same as our
creative life force, we can begin to recognize what the Tantrics have been
saying for centuries:*
A. The same energy is at work in every form of enjoyment, be it gross or
refined.
B. This same energy is also at work in every form of creativity or
creative process.
C. The more this core, raw energy is caused to express itself through
higher channels, the more joy and creativity it brings.
D. The more the sex energy is elevated to higher levels, the more one's
sexual problems automatically dissolve.
So, rectifying the sexual energy brings desirable results on all levels. . .
*The Serpent:*
In the Tantric tradition, sexual energy is symbolized as a coiled serpent
(kundalini). In most people, the serpent is asleep - it is said that her
face points downward. The small bit of awakening that is there is at the
lowest level and is seen in the animal enjoyment of sex. Tantric practices
aim to awaken this kundalini, causing her face to point upward and the
energy to ascend through the cakras (energy centers) and up the susumna
nadi (central channel located on the inside wall of the spine), finally
reaching Siva (her consort) at the crown of the head. *The rising up of
kundalini is a metaphor for the process of the transmutation of the sex
energy from the level of gross enjoyment to the level of being in union
with the Divine.*
*Observing Our Energy and Attitudes:*
When we restrict sex just to the physical level, this causes a drain in
one's energy. This is most visible in a man, post ejaculation. Men often
become very tired and are visibly exhausted after having lost their seed.
The energy that could be used to bring tremendous power is, in a sense,
wasted. The Kaula-sadhana of sex was devised to address this problem and
learn how to infuse and elevate the sex energy so that it could be utilized
in the best possible way.
There are two important attitudes the participants must cultivate: the
feeling of reverence toward the sex act and a feeling of love toward the
sex partner. In fact, the Kaula ritual sets up a whole environment to help
cultivate these feelings. *Tantrism advocates the practice of seeing sex as
something that is holy and divine. The same attitude is to be cultivated
toward the sexual partner.* A man should look upon a woman as an
incarnation of the divine Sakti and the woman should regard the man as
Siva. This attitude is an antidote to the thought that sex is somehow
sinful. The practice of integrating the spiritual with the sexual can help
release old ideas of Puritanism and ingrained negative thoughts about this
most natural, and beautiful, human act.
*What Tantra Is Not:*
On the other hand, it is important to be very clear that Tantra does not
advocate hedonism. Self-indulgence and self-gratification are neither the
goal nor the means of reaching the goal. As it is written in the scriptures
of Kashmir Shaivism, "*The aim of the Tantric sadhana is the sublimation of
sex, and changing ones’ attitude toward sex from shame to holiness is the
first step. The two evils, so to speak, are either hating sex and seeing it
as sinful or using it for complete self-gratification*". On that note I
would like to add that even when a partner says they enjoy bringing intense
pleasure to their lover, this is still a self-gratifying act, because
ultimately it adds to the ego's fixation.
In the Kaula-sadhana the actual sex act is done not for enjoyment, but as
an offering to the deity - not for sexual gratification, but as an actual
spiritual act. It is the physical enactment of joining as one the
polarities we perceive as masculine and feminine. One could not exist
without the other; an ultimate state of union with all that is can be
immediately attained. The Kularnava Tantra, which speaks in-depth of the
Kaula-sadhana, clarifies, If by merely having sexual intercourse with a
woman one could become liberated, then all the creatures of the world would
be liberated through the sex act.
*History:*
Now we can begin to understand the meaning of the phallic worship handed
down to us from the Tantrics. Even today, all over India, we see the ritual
honoring of the Siva linga, which is for most regarded as the regenerative
aspect of the material universe. It is in essence formless, although we
often see a rounded, phallic sculpture made out of stone and at its base is
Sakti. The woman participant in the ritualized sexual intercourse
(maithuna) in the Kaula-sadhana is worshiped as the Goddess (devi).
The attitude that sex is holy and divine, as opposed to profane, is a very
real characteristic of Tantra, or in this case, the left-hand tradition.
But we can also find this attitude in the right-hand scriptures of the
Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, where specific lines are given to
describe God or Brahman as the libido that reproduces.
*The Importance of Love:*
Cultivating love for a sex partner, as seen from the Kaula perspective, is
something that in our western minds may be of conflict. As it is written,
we should see our partner as our own, meaning that we should cultivate a
sense of identity with each other that is without duality. We tend to be
afraid of unifying with an-other for fear of co-dependence or surrendering
too much of ourselves. I feel that the point here is that each partner
should intensely love the other, leaving behind the mind trips and romantic
ideas of who we think we want this person to be, and coming into a whole
and spacious experience of love that is beyond the individual.
*Love causes sex to automatically be purified*. The surest means for
refining the hard raw sexual impulses is to engage in the sex act as an
expression of love. And because our beloved is the Divine incarnate, we can
overcome our personal needs and expand our expression of desire to a higher
state of consciousness. In my experience, the feeling of love relaxes the
crude animal impulses on the one hand, and on the other hand, cures the
sometimes mechanical and lifeless sex act of its dullness and boredom. It
is helpful for married couples to keep the spiritual and loving aspect of
sex alive, as over the course of time the warmth of love can cool down and
the sex often becomes mechanical. The dilemma is that if sex is ignored or
repressed it causes issues on other psychological levels, however if it is
used purely for enjoyment (bhoga), it becomes, after some time, draining
and lacking in relish and flavor.
Kaulism, for the spiritually minded, is the way out of this dilemma. Sex
becomes meaningless and lifeless when it is devoid of love, that is to say
when the sex partner is no longer an object of love but becomes an object
of enjoyment. So love has a dual function in relation to sex: (A) it brings
joy and satisfaction, and (B*) in that very process it also sublimates sex
by absorbing the experience with the sanctity of union with the other*.
The state of sex being sublimated is a happy synthesis of two things - what
is called preya (the pleasant) and sreys (the good & the beneficial). The
ideal lover finds his or her desire for sex automatically gratified, even
more intensely. When the sexual feeling is transformed to a higher and
subtler level, it integrates the individual, leaving them feeling more
whole than from where they started, thus adding richness and beautification
to the social surroundings of each partner.
*Universal Love:*
Love naturally reconciles one's own inherent good with the good of the
person who is the object of sexual desire. The Tantric insight is to take
the raw material of sex and transform it. Human beings already engage in
sex, so why not do it in such a way? It's not as if one needed to begin a
meditation practice on a subject they had no familiarity with. Sex is as
natural to us as being born. The question now moves toward how the
Kaula-sadhana can be a means to bring realization (moksa*). All texts of
the Indian tradition, whether left-hand or not, affirm that it is the
feeling of oneness with all universal love that brings Self-realization.* One
cannot be realized unless one loves the entire universe.
One might object that while the Kaula practice may help in developing the
feeling of love towards our sex partner, it does not necessarily serve to
cultivate universal love, which is the means toward realization. However,
the Kaula would say that love for the opposite sex is the beginning of
universal love.
*Tantrism exploits the inborn impulse toward love and sex to prompt a
melting into universal love. *
In loving one's sex partner, one has the first glimpse of spiritual love.
Sexual love, if mastered, naturally paves the way for universal love.
Moreover, it doesn't really matter if the beloved object is a single person
or the entire world; it's the quality of love that matters. If we have in
our hearts a flow of true and pure love for even one person, we can acquire
the capacity to love all beings. *It is said that "If the flow of love
exists within the sadhaka (spiritual practitioner) it will saturate
whatever object comes before him or her, be it an individual or the whole
world".*
*Self Realization:*
Another reason the sadhana of sexual sublimation may be considered a means
to Self-realization is that we can reach the Self (Siva) by catching a
thread of spontaneity (spanda) in our experience and developing it more and
more. *I feel that sex is perhaps the greatest spontaneous act in our
physical experience. If we catch a hold of that sense and cultivate it in
the right ways, we can reach the ultimate state of freedom, which is in
essence joyful activity, free and spontaneous.*
Tantrism, or Kaulism, is not merely a particular ritualistic sex worship,
it is a general attitude towards life. It is a positive philosophy that
integrates life and makes it sublime. While engaging in pleasurable
activities, the Kaula places his or her attention on the Self (Siva) or on
love, which is natural to the Self. The moment the attention is turned from
the Self to the object of enjoyment, it is a fall. Of course it is very
difficult to keep the attention fixed on the Self or love and not allow it
to drift to the enjoyment; for this reason *it is said that the Kaula
sadhana is as difficult as moving on the edge of a sword*. But in my
opinion it is definitely worth trying.
The pleasure of our sex life is not independent. It depends on the Self, or
love that is spiritual. If we are not seated in the Self, we are not able
to experience full enjoyment of the world. What I have learned is that the
pleasure we take from, and share with, the world is proportionate to the
degree of Self-realization we have achieved. We receive from life, or the
world, the joy that we are already projecting onto it.
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