• The author simply explains the nature and the necessity of a Guru within Tantric practices.

The true Guru is like a mother bird; the true disciple is like an egg on which the mother sits for days till it hatches. Then the mother feeds the baby bird. Then she teaches her to fly. But the baby might fall while flying; the mother lifts the baby up and teaches it to fly. In between she brings the little bird food which she feeds the new-born bird. And till the baby bird is ready to fly; the mother bird does not allow it to be alone. The mother bird is always careful that snakes and other animals do not eat the baby bird.

The true Guru is like this. The relationship between the Guru and the disciple is one of a mother and her child. This is what I have learnt from my Gurudeva.

This is his metaphor of who and what a Guru should be. The bond between the Guru and a disciple is that of love. It is from this love, that the Guru unconditionally gives everything material and immaterial to the disciple. The Guru need not speak to the disciple. The Guru knows what is needed. That is why our holy books say that the Guru is everything --- the Guru is truly Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev.

The Guru alone with a single glance can wipe out the accumulated karma of the disciple over hundreds of previous births. And the Guru never dies; the Guru lives on for the disciple. Unlike one’s parents and family, the Guru is beyond samsara, thus lives on and even after leaving the body continues to care for the disciple. This is why the Śabar mantra says in one of its rituals: Guru ki dohai.

This mantra is used in the Kalikula Tantric rituals performed in crematoria by Tantrics. When everything that one can possibly do to ward off evil does not work; then one invokes the power of the Guru. Incidentally, in practice Śabar mantras are used in Tantric rituals in North and East India including Nepal. Śabar mantras, if one searches online, are separate from folk-mantras. In reality, they are mixed with Sanskrit mantras to fight evil. Here evil is not some concept, or some human force.

Evil in the context of Tantra and Śabar mantras, is supernatural and can possess people. The Roman Catholic Church has minor and major exorcisms; within our Dharma, we use seed-syllables or Beej Mantras and Śabar Mantras in combination to fight demonic beings. The point here is not how we fight evil beings; but nothing can be fought if one’s Guru does not teach the disciple the methods of exorcism, step by step. Nothing of this is written down and most things should be kept hidden.

The point is that no one can learn these things by reading books, watching Insta-reels or YouTube.  These are passed from Guru to the disciple. The famous writer and practicing Tantric, the late Sri Narayan Dutt Srimali used to say that only one siddhi is required for spiritual progress in the Tantric lineage. It is Guru siddhi. If one has Guru siddhi, all other siddhis follow.

I must also add that a Guru has no ethnicity, religion or gender. One’s Guru is definitely saguna Brahman to the disciple. Unless a disciple is convinced of this, there can be no spiritual progress. More than self-effort, or telling the beads (japa), bhakti (devotion with love) towards Guru matters. As a mother cannot turn away the pleas of her child; a Guru can never ignore the disciple. Every wrong that a disciple does is unconditionally forgiven by the Guru even when the disciple cannot forgive himself.

How does one find the right Guru?

At least in Tantra and the lineage to which my Gurudeva belongs, nothing has to be done by the disciple. For no reason known to the disciple, for no other reason than love for a soul lost in samsara, a Guru comes to rescue one from samsara and leads him to eternity. No planning, preparing and discipline can help one unless the Guru in His infinite mercy looks at the disciple with compassion and love. The relationship is not of one lifetime, but over many lives.

The Guru prepares the disciple and then the Guru calls the disciple and then discloses himself. It is under this Guru that one starts spiritual practices. Otherwise, the power inherent in Tantric mantras will certainly destroy a person.

For instance, the famous Navarna mantra is not to be taken lightly as it is taken online. Only if one is instructed to chant it, then only the powers of Maha Kaali, Maha Laxmi and Maha Saraswati are activated and the Holy Mother as, the fierce Mother, Maa Chamunda is awakened. Otherwise, the repeated chanting of the Navarna Mantra might awaken forces which the human body cannot bear.

Another online fad is meditation of various Bhairavas. The worship (puja) that should be done only at the crematoria are being done at home. This is so harmful that one cannot even begin to write on this. Praying to Mahadev and worshipping Him as Shiva is one thing, but invoking, say, Sri Batuk Bhairav under the misconception that this is a childlike form of Bhairav is misleading to say the least.

Sri Batuk Bhairav lives in cremation grounds and is worshipped for controlling forces like Vetalas. The worship at home should be according to the Vedas and suitable for family life. The same disciple will do the same worship in a cremation ground and the entire method changes. The mantras too change; God is worshipped as Power and God as a Powerful Mother.

In Aghora, the fierce forms of Shiva are worshipped. The same God is worshipped within daily Hinduism, in Tantra and in Aghora. There is no difference in the Supreme Being; but the paths are very different but the end of all these is simply, ‘mukti’ from samsara. But that ‘mukti’ cannot come to one unless mediated by the Guru. One Guru has only one true disciple in this path of seeing God as Mother. The Guru passes on everything to the disciple through supersensory means say dreams.

The Roman Catholic Cardinal and scholar Henri de Lubac, who is on his way to canonization, or Sainthood, in his works speaks of the need for the supernatural within a way of life for it to be called a religion. The nearest word for religion in Indic systems is ‘Dharma’.

Dharma is definitely anchored in the explicitly supernatural nature of being-in-the world. Along with Fr. de Lubac, who studied both Pure Land Buddhism and Vaishnavism, we reject any definition of Dharma which is not firmly rooted in the supernatural experience of the Divine. The Guru within Tantra conveys the supernatural nature of our Faith to us, with love not force.

It is the Guru, who compels the Ten Mahavidyas and the Matrikas to reveal themselves and their mantras to the disciple through supernatural means. The Guru reads the heart of the disciple and knows what needs to be done. There are no phone calls and lengthy talks involved in this Guru ‘parampara’ which has its origins at Mayong in Assam.   

The author is a theologian. He will not discuss this article in person or elsewhere online; nor is he open to replying to emails about this article.

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