[Seven thousand] years ago there was a great yogi; His name was Sadáshiva – Shiva. You know, in Tantra there are two cadres, two stages, or two varieties, amongst yogis. One of the stages is known as kaola, and the other Mahákaola. Kaola means the spiritual aspirant who has raised the coiled serpentine, known as kulakuńd́alinii in Sanskrit, and brought it to the controlling point of the pineal gland. (To establish the union of the fundamental negativity with the fundamental positivity; of the starting point with the culminating point.) Such aspirants are called kaola because they have raised the kulakuńd́alinii; the adjective of kula is kaola. Kula⁽¹⁾ is the noun, kaola the adjective. All sádhakas, each and every sádhaka, can become a kaola through sádhaná.

Mahákaolas are rare personalities. For a devotee, the Mahákaola is called Táraka Brahma.

What is Táraka Brahma? The movement of this world, or the movement of each and every entity, is of a particular nature. There is in the centre [of an atom] the nucleus, and electrons are moving around the nucleus. In each and every system there is a nucleus, and other objects are moving around the nucleus. If there is any change in the comparative applied force of the centripetal and the centrifugal forces, then the cyclic order will undergo metamorphosis. This is the expression, and in that case it will take a parabolic form, a parabolic movement. The point where the parabolic and the elliptical figures touch each other – that tangential point – is Táraka Brahma so far as the Cosmological order is concerned.

That Táraka Brahma takes shape, physical shape, to help the general people in their progress in the realm of Tantra and yoga. Such people are Mahákaolas.

Shiva was a Mahákaola. He came here about 7000 years ago. After Him, about 3500 years ago, there came another Mahákaola. He was called Krśńa. The difference between kaola and Mahákaola is, the kaola raises his or her coiled serpentine, kulakuńd́alinii, through his or her sádhaná, and establishes the union [of] the fundamental negativity and the fundamental positivity; where in the case of the Mahákaola, the Mahákaola has the power to raise the kulakuńd́alinii of others also. A kaola can never raise the kulakuńd́alinii of others; he or she can raise his or her own kulakuńd́alinii. A Mahákaola can, if He so desires, raise the kulakuńd́alinii of others also. So Shiva, or Sadáshiva, was a Mahákaola. And He brought all the expressions and activities, all the secrets, of Tantra, within the framework of a system. That is, He systematized all Tantric and yogic pursuits, or actions.

Shiva’s spouse was Gaorii. She was also known as Párvatii. In Sanskrit parvat means “mountain”. Gaorii was a mountain girl, Himalayan girl; that’s why she is commonly known as “Párvatii”. She was also a great yogi. Now, Shiva and Párvatii are treated as ideal. They are looked upon as the ideals of each and every yogi, whether family person or ascetic.

For a family man, a yogi who is a family man, Shiva is the ideal. For a lady who is a yogi and a family [person], Párvatii is the ideal. For an ascetic, male or female – for a male, Shiva is the ideal, and for an avadhútiká [an avadhútiká is a female ascetic], Gaorii is the ideal, Párvatii is the ideal.

Now I think you have understood the story? It is not a story, it is a fact, and most of the books on yoga are nothing but conversations, dialogues, between Shiva and Párvatii. Shiva is treated as the ideal man, and Párvatii as the ideal lady.

Footnotes

(1) The lowest vertebra of the spine, where the kuńd́alinii is located. –Eds.