The word guhya⁽¹⁾ as commonly used means something mysterious, something concealed, something like a dreadful nightmare, some secret chant, some mystical occult power; or witchcraft. Or finally, it may indicate the five branches [exclusive to] Avidyá Tantra – márańa, vashiikarań, uccát́ana, sammohana and stambhana.

Avidyá Tantra has six branches in all; the sixth branch is called shántikarma, which is an element common to both Vidyá Tantra and Avidyá Tantra.

The six branches of Vidyá Tantra are: to awaken benevolent intellect, to awaken noble propensities, to arouse a sense of humility, to arouse a sense of dharma, to arouse a sense of self-surrender, and shántikarma [propitiatory rites for others’ welfare]. So as we see, shántikarma is an element common to both Vidyá and Avidyá.

The śat́karma [six actions] of Vidyá Tantra are applied in order to elevate human beings in the world of spirituality by goading them towards auspicious thoughts; whereas the śat́karma of Avidyá Tantra are applied in order to exploit human beings and utilize them for one’s own self interest.

The first action of Vidyá Tantra is the awakening of the benevolent intellect in human beings. Very often people are guided by the crude intellect. That is, they have intellect, but they cannot utilize it; or their intellect is not utilized in the practical sphere. Now if these people are trained to utilize their intellect in the practical sphere, they can prosper in life. This is how both human beings and animals can be guided along the respective paths of their own welfare.

The second action is the awakening of the nobler vrttis [propensities] in the human mind. There are approximately one thousand propensities in the human mind. They are controlled from a particular point in the guru cakra. That particular point is called the sahasrára cakra.

Not that the total number of propensities is exactly one thousand. But anyway, of the propensities, some are benevolent, some are malevolent, and some are neutral.

Some are neutral, as I said. For instance, if you inadvertently put your hand into fire, you quickly withdraw it; if thorns prick your foot, you quickly pull your foot back; when you see a snake in front of you, you take a quick jump; when you feel hungry you tell your mother to give you some food. Similarly you may feel sleepy, drowsy, etc. These are all neutral tendencies of mind. There is neither merit nor demerit in these psychic tendencies. Likewise, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching – these actions are also neutral in character, that is, neither good nor bad. Even in the most undeveloped protozoa, some of these instincts, if not all, are found to exist. The two recognized criteria of living beings – to multiply and to attempt to survive – are very prominent in undeveloped protozoa. These two are also neutral tendencies, above the domain of merits and demerits.

There are some other propensities which are definitely malevolent – for instance the eight fetters, the six enemies, harming others, tyrannizing over others without reason, profligacy, exploiting society, deliberately confusing and misguiding others, duping society with lofty words, falsehood, and hypocrisy. These are undeniably malevolent tendencies of mind.

And as regards the benevolent tendencies, they are compassion, love, sense of righteousness, service, helping others in distress, consoling the bereaved, arousing hope in frustrated hearts, etc. So the second action of Vidyá Tantra is to arouse the benevolent tendencies in the minds of human beings and of other microcosms.

The third action of Vidyá Tantra is the awakening of the sense of humility. Arrogance disturbs peace. If human beings develop modesty instead of arrogance it does no harm to anyone, and many undesirable situations can be prevented by thus avoiding arrogance. A modest person is respected and admired by others. Hence people should be taught to be modest starting at an early age. And even with those who have grown old, efforts should be made to rectify their arrogant nature. If such people are corrected, they too can learn modesty.

Vidyá dadáti vinayaḿ vinayádyáti pátratám;
Pátratat dhanamápnoti dhanáddharma tato sukham.

[A proper education leads to modesty, and through modesty one wins the respect of society.]

The fourth action is the awakening of the sense of dharma in human beings. The basic difference between human beings and other creatures is that human beings are capable of following dharma. This propensity of dharma is either dominant or dormant in human beings. A person in whom the propensity of dharma is very much alive should be encouraged to make vigorous efforts to augment it even more, so that the propensity of dharma becomes more and more manifest. One who is sleeping should be awakened. In the absence of the sense of dharma there is hardly any difference between humans and animals, rather the human without dharma goes one step lower than the animal.

Áhára-nidrá-bhaya-maethunaiṋca
Sámányametad pashubhirnaránám;
Dharmo hi teśám adhiko visheśah
Dharmena hiináh pashubhih samánáh.

[Food, sleep, fear, procreation – these are the common properties of humans and animals. But humans possess an especial dharma (Bhágavata Dharma), in the absence of which they are no better than animals.]

The fifth action of Vidyá Tantra is to arouse the sense of self-surrender. Human beings are microcosms, finite; whereas Parama Puruśa is the Macrocosm, the Infinite Entity. So if a finite microcosm throws down a challenge to the Infinite Macrocosm, it is simply ludicrous. If a tiny mouse wants to wrestle with a lion, the lion may or may not even be aware of the final outcome, but the poor mouse will know all about it. That is why starting from early childhood one should develop the habit of self-surrender to the Supreme Entity in all thoughts and actions. There is no greater happiness or peace or joy than in complete surrender to Parama Puruśa. The essence of the spirit of self-surrender is contained in the following shloka:

Tvameva mátá ca pitá tvameva
Tvameva bandhushca sakhá tvameva;
Tvameva vidyá dravińaḿ tvameva
Tvameva sarvaḿ mama Devadeva.

[Thou art my father and my mother, Thou art my friend and my eternal companion, Thou art my learning and my wealth, Thou art my everything, O Supreme Lord.]

Shántikarma, performing propitiatory rites, is the sixth action of Vidyá Tantra. If one’s predominant defects, caused by the influence of bad stars, are removed, then the suffering consequent upon those defects, and therefore also the legacy of the bad stars, can be avoided.

Now let us analyse the six actions of Avidyá Tantra.

1. One part of Avidyá Tantra is to kill or cause the death of someone through mantra or through some related technique or in some artificial way. This is called márańa. [Mára literally means “annihilation”.]
2. Bringing somebody under one’s control by means of a mantra or a dravyaguńa [some plant or other natural substance which projects psychic effects], or by wearing a squirrel’s tail like a ring on the little finger of the left hand and chanting the mantra hriiḿ kriiḿ klu, or by feeding that tail to a person in a chánci pán [a betel preparation], is known as vashiikarańa. But remember that this action must be accompanied by purashcarańa [raising the kuńd́alinii, the dormant force] as per Avidyá Tantric style. When under the influence of vashiikarańa, a person becomes completely controlled and behaves like a servant.
3. Cat́ana or cát́ana means one’s residence. When somebody is uprooted from his or her residence by means of a mantra or some mystic power or some dravyaguńa, the process is called uccát́ana. It is said that if a particular mantra is written on a brick in red ink and buried under the northeast corner of a house by a naked person on a rainy night, the owner of that house becomes uprooted within three days. This process may or may not fructify, but if it actually does the effect is disastrous. Keeping this fact in mind, I have deliberately refrained from giving the mantra in this book.
4. To get someone to do something by hypnotizing the person with light waves or by fixing one’s gaze on him or by breaking or overpowering his personality is called sammohana. In English this process is called hypnotism. The [European] physician Dr. Mesmer did some research on this method to find out if this process could be utilized for the benefit of the public; hence this process is also known as “mesmerism”.
5. Stopping the flow or movement of something is called stambhana. Stambha means “pillar”. Since any moving thing will be stopped when it hits a pillar, stopping the movement of something by means of a mantra and some dravyaguńa is called stambhana. By using some mantra and holding under the tongue a kánt́ánat́e root fitted into a silver ring (like a hub circled by its wheel), one can stop another person’s movement or action. Suppose someone is about to urinate. The flow of urine is stopped. In the science of áyurveda, the medical condition of constricted urination is known as mútrastambha [just as this Avidyá practice is known as mútrastambha]. Vákstambha [stopping the flow of another person’s voice] is a similar Avidyá Tantric practice. But the Avidyá Tantric should be cautious about trying to maintain the stambhana for a long time, because it requires him or her to remain in an abnormal condition [sometimes physiologically abnormal], which will eventually harm the person.
6. The shántikarma of Avidyá Tantra means to save someone from a danger or a disease by means of certain rituals, and then redirect that danger or disease towards another person: that is, to help one person to survive by killing another.

When the Kálacakrayána and Vajrayána Tantras of the Buddhist school of philosophy were popular in Bengal, these six actions of Avidyá Tantra were widely practised. But when the Kálacakrayána and Vajrayána vanished from Bengal, the six actions also fell out of use. And the six actions of Vidyá Tantra fell out of use simultaneously. It is good that the actions of both have been forgotten by people. What is desirable is that people move towards spiritual elevation along the paths of jiṋána, karma, and bhakti⁽²⁾ with a healthy and rational outlook.

The secret processes of Vidyá Tantra and Avidyá Tantra are called guhya vidyá. The motivation behind the practice of Avidyá Tantra is Máraya máraya náshaya náshaya uccát́aya uccát́aya mama shatruńám [“Kill my enemy, kill. Destroy my enemy, destroy. Uproot my enemy, uproot.”] This sort of mentality should not be allowed to develop in a person. This sort of prayer should also be avoided.

Footnotes

(1) The contents of this chapter consists of an elaboration on the word guhya. The author’s discourse on that day entailed linguistic discussion of a number of Sanskrit terms; the discussion of each term became an entry in the author’s linguistic encyclopedia Shabda Cayaniká (“Collection of Words”). –Eds.

(2) Forms of spiritual practice which emphasize, respectively, discrimination, selfless action, and devotion. –Eds.