Thanks to all for appreciating my posting. I will try to comment to all of your postings or questions without adressing each of the comments separetly.
In the tantras and agamas vedachara is the beginning or the lower rung of the ladder of spiritual conduct and their own respective achara be it Siddhanta, Yoga, Vama, Dakshina or Kaula is the most comprehenssive and therefore highest. The most comprehensive and advanced conduct amongst Shaktas is Kaulachara.
Since different people are qualified for different conducts or religious paths some of the advanced acharas can only be understood and practiced after having spent many lifetimes studying the other acharas that gradually can lead one to the supreme understanding.
Of course there has occurred a mixture of both veda and agama or tantra during history. There are maybe only 500 people left in Bharata that practise and study according to the ancient vedic shrauta tradition. Also people following a pure tantric path are rare nowadays. So most people today are following a mixed path.
A lot of agamic or tantric practices and ideas, those ideas and practices that do not contradict shruti and smriti have been accepted also into what is known as classical advaita vedanta, or smarta sampradaya to lesser or greater degree.
Shastras such as Saundaryalahari and Prapanchasara Tantra that are said to have been authored by Adi Shankaracharya, are a witness to the general acceptance of tantric methods even by adherents of orthodox classical vedanta.
Saundaryalahari belongs to this class of shastras that resulted form assimilation of tantra into vedanta, it is a shakta shastra with topics that are acceptable within advaita vedanta sampradaya.
Since it is not possibble to study and practice both, tantra or agama and vedanta to its full extent at the same time , because each path alone would need exclusive attention, that is why during the course of time tantra and vedanta became mixed.
I always try to remind in discussion that when different darshanas use the same word like brahman or advaita or moksha, it does not necessarily denote the same thing, the same word can have a very different meaning. Also buddhists or jains have terms in common with hindus but they can assume very different meanings according to the context of the religion.
The term Adishakti also can have many meanings, when Vira Shaiva Sampradaya will use the term it will have a different meaning as when it is used in Kaula Sampradaya. That what is in common is that since "adi" means primal or first, this term will always denote a form of shakti that is considered high ranking or even ultimate. The rest should be decided from the context in which the term is mentionend
In the tantric viewpoint, Vishnu and Lakshmi or Brahma and Sarasvati, Rudra and Kali and all other dual pairs are derived from the ultimate Para Bindu (transcendent seed-point) splitting into a male female duality and its point of junction or interaction, which is the original cause and the process by which the universe emanates after a mahapralaya. But not only these devata but everything else including our own body, which came ino existance by admixture of rajas and shukra (female egg and male semen, arises out of an interplay of two opposites and their union, the dynamic of laws of physic, like gravity, electricity, magnetism arise also out of the same interaction of opposites.
Per definition Shiva is never the cause, he is the eternally unmoved quiescent watcher, that never undergoes any change, he is pure awareness, whether this awareness is situated in a devata or a human or and animal, or exist as such it is the same undivided state , therefore he is called the akula, without family or cluster of finite relationsships, and Shakti is the reverse the Kula the family or cluster of finite relationships.
Thats why it is said that Shiva is Shava (corpse) without the Letter "I" symbol for the Shakti. Shakti is not an effect. Shakti is the cause, creative activity and energy, she only rests at the endpoints of the cycle either when all creation is achieved or when all worlds are dissolved into the Parabindu again. For instance in her activity of creative world mother, (Jagadamba) creating the material world, she assumes the form of Prakriti, an undivided mass of potential physical objects, all these different latent cognitions begin to form into objects in the moment conciousness (Shiva) starts cognising, then the undivided mass of elements, which is Prakriti changes into a huge mass of distinct objects, suited to the individual mass of cognisers (jivas), Shiva has seemingly split into many, by action of Maya Shakti and her limiting energies.
So whatever kind of jiva is in the process of cognising, whether it is a devata or an animal or a human being, the pure underlying awareness inside each unit is always the same, Shivas undivided self awareness. Also whatever a Jiva is cognising by using his six senses, whether considered good or bad by him, it is only one underlying Shakti that is the object seemingly split in myriad forms.
Shiva is the eternal subject and Shakti, the eternal object that impinges upon conciousness by the act of cognising or knowing, therefore Shiva is called Prakasha the light (of conciousness) and Shakti vimarsha the mirror of (of objects.)
Their union, the act of cognising or knowing causes an arising of an image in the mirror. In this example there is one difference to an actual mirror, in the case of the example there is no object outside the mirror that is reflected, we imagine that only the light, the reflection in the mirror and the act of reflecting exist.
Shakti is active in two modes, one is the creative impulse called sristhi, creation, or vikasa, expansion, which causes the conciousness to become outward directed towards the sense impressions and worldly activity and binds the jiva in this state, this Shakti is the fully expanded lower Shakti called different names for instance, Apara Shakti, or lower Kundalini (adho-kundalini) she that rests in the lower part of the body, the other mode of movement of the shakti is called the dissolving, samhara, or sankoca, contraction, which leads to introversion, rest from sense impressions, and the arising of self knowledge, and this is the Urdhva (upper) Shakti also known in the body as Urdhva Kundalini and other names.
While the lower Shakti, the expanding Kundalini, turning in the righthand direction, (dakshinamarga) the vishnumaya, deludes the jiva, and keeps him a bound subject (pashu) attached to sensual objects, by her limiting force, that way jiva is kept in the rounds of rebirth, in samsara, while under the influence of the Para sakti and the upper Shakti with her the lefthand turning (vamamarga) directed upwards, kundalini can rise and dissolve the karmas and samskaras, and free the sadhaka from samsara.
Tantra sadhana can use the forces of both movements, expanding and contracting for spiritual purposes. When this is done dualities such as dharma adharma pure or impure dissolve.
When the Vijnanabhairavatantra states that the the "mukham" the mouth or face of devi causes shiva to appear, this implies a complicated secret terminology loaded with diverse meanings which is not possible to state in plain words, so much i say that there are two "mukham" of devi corresponding to the expansion and contraction of Shakti the urdhva mukham, and the adho mukham, which can be found in the body and subtle nadis. If the kundalini or prana shakti is moved in a proper way, meditation or awareness of both mouths can be utilised to free the sadhaka from samsara.
But it is necessary that at first the power of grace, the Anugraha Shakti, the Para Shakti and the Urdhva Kundalini becomes active, this can only happen by grace, not by effort, the karma has to naturally ripen to the state that the sadhak can at least once get the impulse of the shaktipat (descent of power) that will free him from the Maya shakti, the resting, the lower Kundalini, (adho-kundalini ), which binds him to samsara and opposes the begin of the reverse the leftside (Vama) movement of Shakti, which is the outward worlds dissolution and the begining of an inward turning process.
Because of these peculiar practices, the higher tantric path requires that the jiva has already naturally exhausted the worldly outward movement, (Pravritti marga) and exhausted his karma, only than he will be able receive the required impulse from the higher shakti that makes him enter on the return path. (Nivritti marga)
In the normal case if the person is qualified the required downflow of shakti is iniitialised by a guru, since grace (Anugraha Shakti) requires that no concious egotistical effort is invested.
If no Shaktipat or Anugraha Shakti is present, the divine intuiton, Pratibha Shakti will not awaken in the jiva and the meaning of the tantric shastras will not unfold and other acharas have to be practised first.
Therefore much of the effort invested into the study of highly complex agamas and tantra like the Vijnanabhairava can go in vain without the spiritual impact of Anugraha Shakti through the medium of the Guru or in rare cases by the action of Shakti herself.
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Originally Posted by sambya
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