Suppose there is a rose. If the entire mind is focused on the colour of the rose, the mind will become totally identified with the rose and will ultimately think, “I am the rose.” Samádhi on the indriyas⁽¹⁾ is also possible. One who attains samádhi on a particular indriya consciously brings it under control and gets one’s work done according to one’s sweet will. This was widely practised in Avidyá Tantra in the past.

The indriyas can function either within or beyond their immediate surroundings. For instance, from here you can physically see a part of Calcutta. But if you have been to Naihati [a small town about thirty miles from Calcutta], you will certainly also be able to visualize a part of that town while sitting here in this room. In this case a proper adjustment must be brought about between your eyes and the previous perception. Your mind decides, “I want to see the features of Naihati,” and your eye indriya responds accordingly. This is called the “mental eye”.

Avidyá Tantrics make use of this sort of process. With the help of their sense organs and ectoplasms they create positive hallucinations. In Sanskrit this science is called rákśasii vidyá. (Rákśasa does not refer to any monstrous type of animal, but to a particular group of humans.⁽²⁾ ) With the help of your mental eyes and your psychic power you can create an image visible to the eyes of an ordinary person. You can actually suspend the power of vision of another person so that he sees the object you want him to see. This is called rákśasii máyá.

Such negative practices are common in Avidyá Tantra. For example, suppose a wicked person may be sitting in a solitary place where bones are scattered around. Using his or her psychic power, the person can create ectoplasmic “hands”, and command them to throw the bones into the house of the person whom he or she wishes to harm. The inhabitants of the house, ordinary people no doubt, will certainly be terrified by such occult phenomena. They will think it is the work of a ghost and will probably decide to move out of the house. Instead of bones, bricks or stones could also be hurled. To do this, one does not require great power – rákśasii máyá is an occult power of inferior degree.

The Rámáyańa, though fictional, contains some stories which illustrate rákśasii máyá. The golden deer is one such story. Of course, there was never a real golden deer – can you imagine such a thing? – rather the “demon” Marich fabricated a golden deer using his occult power. Another such story goes as follows: Prince Angad, the son of King Bali, was about to present his credentials to King Ravana in court. The nineteen ministers present wanted to humiliate him in some way, and decided to use their rákśasii máyá for the purpose. Present in the court at the time were Prince Angad, King Ravana and his son Indrajit, and the nineteen ministers. In order to baffle Angad, the ministers created a form tanmátra,⁽³⁾ a type of positive hallucination, through which they all assumed the form of King Ravana. So, his vision distorted, Angad’s perception was that there were a total of twenty Ravanas by the side of Indrajit. Nineteen of them were the ministers, of course, but due to the hypnotic spell exercised by their ectoplasm on his mind (they put themsleves into a kind of tánmátrik samádhi, in this case involving the tanmátra of form), they all looked like Ravana. The best way to disturb someone’s mental concentration is to make him or her angry by being provocative. Be it Vidyá Tantra or Avidyá Tantra, everything depends on the degree of psychic concentration. So Angad thought, “I have to disturb their mental balance by provoking them in some way and making them angry. If I make them angry, their arms and legs will tremble and they will lose their mental balance. Consequently they will lose their ectoplasmic support, and their tánmátrik samádhi will be destroyed.” And Angad did just that. He said,

Angada kahila tabe shuńa Indrajitá
Viśt́i Rávańa dekhi viśt́i ki tor pitá?

[Listen, Indrajit – I can see twenty Ravanas. Do you have twenty fathers?]

Everybody became furious, lost their mental balance, and became their original selves, permitting Angad to single out the real Ravana and submit his credentials.

Footnotes

(1) An indriya is a sensory or motor organ, together with its respective nerves, nerve fluid, and site in the brain. Samádhi on an indriya may make possible an extraordinary use of that indriya. –Eds.

(2) In mythology, rákśasa refers to demons or monsters; but the word originated historically as a term of contempt applied by the Indo-Aryans to India’s indigenous Dravidians. –Eds.

(3) Literally, “minutest fraction of that”, i.e., of a given rudimental factor of matter. The various types of tanmátra convey the senses of hearing, touch, form (vision), taste, and smell. –Eds.