– Hugh Urban
Two of the most important figures in the reimagining of Tantra were Bengali – Gopinath Kaviraj and Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, though, they arrived at very different interpretations of Tantra and its significance. While for Bhattacharya, Tantra provides evidence of archaic communism and thus a prefiguration of egalitarian society envisaged by Marxism, for Kaviraj, Tantra is both the culmination of Indian philosophy and the means of collective salvation for all humanity.
Although his work is still not widely known in the West, Gopinath Kaviraj (1887-1976) must surely be recognized as one of the single most important figures in the study of Tantra in the twentieth century. Not only was Kaviraj one of the first to try to synthesize all of the known Tantric texts and traditions into one integrated Tantric system; but he also developed a highly original interpretation of Tantric yoga that aimed at collective liberation for all humankind.
Born to an orthodox Brahmin family in Dhamrai, East Bengal, Kaviraj received his early education first in Dhaka and then in Jaipur. Because the nationalist movement had exploded into violence in Bengal and he had lived his early years in the midst of it, Kaviraj was initially influenced by the ideas of Aurobindo and others fighting for independence.
Yet Kaviraj chose not the life of a political activist, but rather that of the scholar and spiritual seeker. After receiving his master’s degree in Sanskrit in Varanasi, he worked as a research scholar in charge of the Saraswati Bhavan Library at the Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi. By 1917, however, Kaviraj had also come into contact with a number of spiritual masters and was later initiated by Sri Paramahamsa Vishuddhananda, a master well known for his supernatural powers. Eventually, Kaviraj would abandon worldly life altogether, retiring in 1937 to live like a saint and a teacher. So highly regarded was his scholarship that the government conferred upon him the title of Mahamahopadhyaya (Great Teacher) in 1934, followed by the Coronation Medal in 1937 and the title of Padmavibhushana in 1964. As G.C. Pande suggests, Kaviraj should be understood as an important figure in the larger cultural, spiritual, and national awakening of India in the twentieth century. Although he retreated from direct political involvement, Kaviraj was one of the most important agents in the cultural and religious renaissance of India.
Like Woodroffe before him, Kaviraj took it upon himself to defend and relegitimize the tradition of the tantras, which had so long been denigrated and Indian and European scholars. Whereas most modern west-influenced Indians regarded the tantras an abomination, Kaviraj showed that they are so stupendous and colossal that it is not possible in one’s life span to study them, not to speak about their esoteric interpretation. And like Woodroffe, Kaviraj saw Tantra not in opposition to the traditions of the Veda and Vedanta, but as their compliment and ultimately as the culmination of the history of Indian philosophy.
Profoundly influenced by the Kashmir Shaivite schools, Kaviraj undertook a synthesis of the various Tantric traditions. Not unlike Abhinavagupta in his Tantraloka, Kaviraj sought to create an overarching ontological system, a hierarchical gradation of teachings that would find a place for all the many Hindu perspectives: “The relative or fragmentary truths, or aspects of the Absolute Truth, represent varying stages in the ascending order of the Sadhaka’s journey in quest of self-realization. When pieced together, and studied in light of the resultant whole, they will present a sublime picture of synthesis”. Kaviraj’s synthesis could be compared to a cast temple whose foundations are the six systems of Indian philosophy and whose walls are the traditions of Shakta, Shaiva, and Vaishnava systems. Kaviraj’s own philosophy is this the shikhara of the temple and his practice of Akhanda Mahayoga is the deity installed in the shrine.
Surely the most fascinating and original aspect of Kaviraj’s system is his new vision of Tantra, which is now conceived as something far more than a quest for individual liberation. For Kaviraj, Tantra has the potential to achieve collective salvation or universal liberation for humankind. Through his new ideal of Akhanda Mahayoga or Supreme Integral Yoga, Kaviraj imagined Tantra to be a spiritual method of universal liberation.
Kaviraj’s system embodies a kind of eschatological vision – an ideal of universal salvation that would, in effect, bring about the dissolution of the entire cosmos. For the yogin is seeking to make Mahapralaya to happen through the control of the perennial source of creation. Once the integral yogin has brought this supreme consciousness back into this world, the boundaries between brahman and samsAra, absolute reality, and the ignorance of Maya would disappear, and all beings would be free to enter the single boundless kingdom of Divine Consciousness. “As world-redeemer the integral Guru must effect a complete ontological reconstruction, replacing the old Tantric cosmology with its complexity of ontic domains with the boundlessness of a single maNDala as the radiant kingdom of dynamic consciousness where all may attain their integral self-realization”.
Kaviraj’s disciples hold that he had nearly reached this sublime state of realization and was in the process of completing the final stages of Supreme Integral Yoga. He had, it is said, been embraced by Mahashakti, the Supreme Mother and the power of the universe herself, who was now working through him to begin the action of the total transformation of the world. Yet, although Kaviraj was approaching the realization of his ultimate goal, he was unable to achieve it in his mortal lifetime. Nonetheless, he left us with a remarkable vision of a universalized Tantra that seeks the liberation of all. Although he seems to have given up the possibility of a concrete political solution to the crises of the modern world, Kaviraj conceived of a radically innovative form of Tantra as the ideal solution to this age of chaos and suffering, in which discord and hatred are bound to disappear like mists before the light of the sun. It will herald the advent of a New Life in the world when the central principle of Unity will reign.