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The Group Sexual Ritual

The group ritual, even more than the individual ritual, has been the object of all kinds of attacks. Puritan academics, as well as members of other spiritual movements, have wanted to believe that the group ritual involved a symbolic language or a “depraved” practice of the Tantrism of the path of the left hand led by certain small offshoot groups of sectarians. In order truly to understand the spirit of this ritual, it is indispensable to be familiar with what Abhinavagupta, supreme authority of Kashmiri Shaivism, says about it in his Tantraloka. We will see that he places this experience first and foremost from the point of view of the body glorified by the yoga of presence, a body made sensitive and tremoring by the yoga of the senses.

Considered the supreme vehicle of divinity, this body is devoid of ego. Having passed beyond desire and object of desire, it can experience the Great Union, which is performed like a sacred ritual wherein all the participants of the spiritual family (Kula) are united through the master with Shiva-Shakti in nondifferentiation. Abhinavagupta furthermore places himself among the practitioners of the path of the left hand in his Tantrasara when he speaks of the nonsupreme schools attached to duality, such as the school of the Vishnuite tantrikas—whom he describes as “practitioners of the path of the right hand.”⁵⁰

Lalla, the fourteenth-century master and poet, also recognized herself as a practitioner of the path of the left hand:

Stand, Royal Woman,

Ready to offer wine, meat and pleasure!

If you know the supreme state

Everything is reunited in the heart of non-duality.

When you surrender to the celebration in the company of tantrikas

You glorify the Path of the Left Hand!

Here is what Abhinavagupta writes:

The union with the yogini is of two kinds, according to whether it occurs by yogic necessity or by love. For the first, it is befitting to be attentive to her penetratable points, for the second, show creativity. . . . During union with the yoginis, one necessarily contacts consciousness, and for this reason this day will be considered a day of plenitude. One can say the same thing about the union between two members of the spiritual family.⁵¹

Later, Abhinavagupta clarifies:

Consciousness, which is composed of all things, enters into a state of contraction due to the differences generated by separate bodies, but it returns to a state of oneness, to a state of expansion, when all of its components are able to reflect back on each other. The totality of our own rays of consciousness are reflected back one on the other when, overflowing in the individual consciousness of all present as if in so many mirrors, and without any effort whatsoever in an intense fashion, it becomes universal. For this reason, when a group of people gather together during the performance of a dance or of song, etc., there will be true enjoyment when they are concentrated and immersed in the spectacle all together and not one by one. Consciousness which is overflowing with bliss, even when considered individually, attains in these spectacles a state of unity and, because of that, a state of full and perfect blissfulness. The absence of causes of contraction such as jealousy, hate, etc., allows consciousness in such moments fully to expand without obstacles in a fullness of bliss, but if even one of those present is not concentrated and absorbed, then consciousness remains offended as at the touch of a surface full of depressions and protuberances because he stands out there as a heterogeneous element. This is the reason why during the rites of adoration of the circle (cakra) one must remain attentive and not allow anyone to enter whose consciousness is in a dispersed state and not concentrated and absorbed, because he will be a source of contraction. In the practice of the circle (cakra) one must adore all the bodies of those present because since they have all penetrated in the fullness of consciousness they are in reality as if they were our own body.⁵²

In the introduction to chapter twenty-nine of the Tantraloka, devoted to the “sacred ritual,” Abhinavagupta cautions practitioners who might not have the necessary qualities:

Now I describe the secret ritual according to the Kula method, which can only be practiced by masters and very highly advanced disciples. He who sees everything in this light and has destroyed all doubt is worthy of practicing this ritual. The Kula sacrifice can be performed in six different ways according to the circumstances: in outer reality, in energy, in a couple, in the body, in the vital breath, and in the mind.

For he who has not reached the heart of consciousness, the whole impulse of the senses, deprived of its sublime source, will lose all yogic efficiency: All the luminous rays of the senses, when they are deprived of contact with supreme consciousness, are immobile, stripped of their own nature and straining toward this supreme source.

Adepts, after having savored colors, flowers, and scents connected to the pleasures of dance and music, and after having consumed a light meal of food and drink forbidden by brahmanism—alcohol and meat—practice the yoga of lineage and pay homage “to the masters and to their Shaktis, who are overjoyed, without a defined body” and who are imagined in space. Next, the master draws a mandala, inside of which the deified participants take their places. Each area of the body is transmuted into a divine body through the means of sound (mantra) and through the touching of the various organs, head, throat, chest, navel, genitals, knees, and feet.

Then,

bursting with ambrosia and ardor, tasting their own juices brimming with savors, this appeasement finds its resting place by being poured into the Self. By the offering of their objects, the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight become an overflowing stream that spills over, and by the fullness of the secondary wheels, and through the grace of a jolt of power, the Lord of the central wheel (consciousness) spills over impetuously.⁵³