Tantra Unveiled: Seducing the Forces of Matter and Spirit

by Rajmani Tigunait

The medium of communication at the level of feeling is blocked if the deity is beyond our reach. Some of us can override our cultural conditioning, but most of us cannot. And so to overcome the sense of separateness caused by ignorance of our oneness with the Divine, tantrics include complementary practices in their mantra sadhana. Two major components of such practices are prana pratistha and nyasa. Prana pratistha is an intense visualization, and it is further energized by the mantra. It causes you to feel that the deity is sitting in the lotus of your heart, or even that you have been replaced, and the meditation about to be undertaken is actually being done by the deity. This helps you rise above the dualistic consciousness which led you to believe that you and the primordial life-force were two different entities. Next comes nyasa, which means “to synchronize different aspects of the mantra with different aspects of our being.” This practice helps you to synchronize the forces of the mantra with the different limbs and organs of your body. There are different levels of nyasa practice. At the first stage of initiation a simple version is used. (In the practice of the highest category of tantric mantras, such as Sri Vidya, the nyasa is quite elaborate.) In this simple version the mantra is divided into six parts and is established in the thumbs, index fingers, middle fingers, ring fingers, little fingers, and palms through the power of concentration. This is called kara...