Vama Marga : left-hand path of the Tantra; the worship of Shakti, esp. as Kāli.
... is the way of the Tantra. Owing to certain of its developments Tantra has fallen into discredit with those who are not Tantrics; and especially owing to the developments of its left-hand path, the Vama Marga, which not content with exceeding the duality of virtue and sin and instead of replacing them by spontaneous rightness of action seemed, sometimes, to make a method of self-indulgence, a method of... in its origin, Tantra was a great and puissant system founded upon ideas which were at least partially true. Even its twofold division into the right-hand and left-hand paths, Dakshina Marga and Vama Marga, started from a certain profound perception. In the ancient symbolic sense of the words Dakshina and Vama, it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda,—Nature in man ...
... There is a fact you are probably aware of... Which one? You had the visit of E., that Italian, and his wife? So then? He asked me questions on "left-hand Tantrism," you know, the "Vama Marga".... What's that? It's those so-called Tantrics who make a "yoga" out of sexuality. And he asked me all sorts of questions on the place of sexuality in yoga, adding that for a year, he and... there is no "key" to be "recovered"—it does not exist. There is a key in the relationship between man and woman, but not in their sexual relations. The so-called "left-hand Tantrics" (of the Vama Marga) are to true Tantrism what Boccaccio's tales are to Christianity, or what the sodden Roman Bacchus is to Dionysos of the Greek mysteries. I know Tantrism, to say the least. As for the Cathars, whom ...
... his atmosphere there is sex and nothing else. It's the only problem that interests him. So in his magazine and a few other similar ones, they are trying to make Tantrism "of the left hand," the "Vama Marga," fashionable. Oh! Page 33 He asked me questions on sexuality and talked to me about a "yoga of sexuality"! Oh! So I set things straight.... Oh, good. Not very d ...
... virtue and sin, but it seemed to make self-indulgence a method of unrestrained social immorality. But in its origin, its two-fold division into the right-hand and left-hand path, dakshina marga and vama marga, started from a certain profound perspective. In the ancient symbolic sense it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda. In the way of Knowledge, nature in man liberates ...
... People used to speak of them as "Bedantins" – meaning two sets of teeth, – one for showing and another for chewing Page 167 like the elephant. What is the truth of Vama-marga? Sri Aurobindo : I don't know. It must have been with the idea of taking up forces and pull them high up. Even the sexual act has to be done from a high consciousness. Upanishad also says ...
... When one knows the hostile forces also as the working of the Divine, the left hand of God, then the movement of exhaustion of these forces is very quick. Disciple : Was the principle of Vama Marga of Tantra similar to this idea of conquering hostile forces, by "taking them as the movement of the Divine? Sri Aurobindo : I have no direct knowledge of the Tantric Sadhana. But most probably ...
... darkness of the Dionysian ecstasy in the approach to the secrets of Nature; but there is a luminous Apollonian as well as an obscure and sometimes dangerous Dionysian mysticism, a Dakshina as well as a Vama Marga of the mystic Tantra. And though no partaker in or supporter of any kind of rites or mummery, Heraclitus still strikes one as at least an intellectual child of the Mystics and of mysticism, although ...
... one's province then the error comes in. To say that one can't change one's doctor, it seems to me, is a little too much. In Indian spirituality they have allowed all sorts of experiments including Vama Marga, and you see how wonderfully it has developed. Mechanisation has begun from the pressure exerted by the developments of the physical sciences in which one can be exact, precise and where everything ...
... has no freedom, he doesn't grow. Organise by all means, but there must be scope for freedom and plasticity. In India, even in spirituality they allowed all sorts of experiments, including the Vama Marga, the left-hand path of the Tantra, and you see how wonderfully Indian spirituality has developed. NIRODBARAN: Sometimes people justify both totalitarianism and imperialism. Shaw, for instance ...
... do?" Ramakrishna said, "Then I spit on your Vedanta." But logically the Vedantin was right. So long as you believe everything is Maya, you can do as you like. PURANI: What is the truth in the Vama Marga, the left-hand path of Tantra? SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know. It must have been prescribed with the idea of taking up the lower forces and pulling them high up. But to go back to our original ...
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