Kashmir Shaivism – Map Of Creation – Tantra VS Yoga

Map of Creation – Kashmir Shaivism – Samkhya

Integral Yoga path is an amalgamation of spiritual theory applied through experiential science of sublimation of energy.

The oldest philosophy schools of India – Samkhya and Vedanta utilised in methods and techniques of Yoga and Tantra serve as the two unsheakable pillars of unified consciousness manifested through material reality.

Modern corrupted view of Tantra as means of self-indulgence and primitive sexual exploitation of energy give a limited vision to what Tantra, as a science of sublimation of energy, is capable of, limiting the Yoga aspirant to loop the energy in the lowest subdomains of our creative manifestation.

Tantra has been and remains a concealed sacred pathway, a solo-road to the innermost chamber of our heart, and the road there is nothing that has been laid out in the books. Yoga and Tantra is the path of self-exploration and scrutinous self-study.

The main point, often knowingly or unknowingly neglected, is that the lore clearly points out that Tantra begins when Yoga is perfected. As a Yoga path is that of extreme self-discipline and acquiring a grip on our own mental modifications (“yogash chitta vritti nirodha” Sage Patanjali), Yamas-Niyamas (code of conduct boiled down to the main 10 points by the same Sage Patanjali) are crucial and underlying the structure and healthy boundaries for self-expansion, without which mind gets lost in the infinite folds and webs of the exploratory field of consciousness.

In simple terms, Yoga gets perfected when all the Yamas and Niyamas have deeply embeded in the day-in and day-out activities, without a tremble.

Tantra is a set of advanced techniques of meditation. For example advanced Tantric techniques of Kriya Yoga as given by a saint Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh to one of the greatest Sanskrit and Yoga scholars Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati, that he further explored, and enriched with other nearly forgotten and lost techniques, were meant for serious Yoga aspirants who already have befriended their own mind and have unswerving control of their actions. Getting into Tantric exploration without the prerequisite of a steady path of renunciation in the world leads one to a disaster, as the powers unleashed crash the immature rider, like a herd of wild horses running in all directions.

Samkhya as the oldest path of mathematically breaking down the structure of the mind, and Vedanta as the path of reaching inwards into Oneness, serve as two major tools to break down the matter (Samkhya), aka “food-processor” in a kitchen, and to unify consciousness (Vedanta), aka “funnel” to pour down the nectar of immortality.