Chapter 10 - Mystical Suicide (utkranti)

CHAPTER X MYSTICAL SUICIDE The purpose of the utkranti and categories of people that benefit from it. Siva's hand procedure. The "projection of the blade" (krpandyadinyasah) procedure. The "circulation in the body" (carah sariragah) procedure. The brahmavidya rite. The futility of utkranti for accomplishing the Saivite tantric path. There is a multitude of manners and ways for reaching the highest state; and tantra is generally characterized as the shortest path. For the final achievement, tantra has available a whole arsenal of means which can be divided in twofold categories: gradual or formal methods, and direct methods applying only at the yogic performances. In the second group, mystical suicide is both quick and direct, being based upon the highest mastery of yogic techniques. Mystical suicide in Saiva tantra is performed with the purpose detaching the spiritual entities which reside inside the body. Afterwards they are guided by a trained master higher and higher to the final self-realization. The advantage this practice offers is that, after getting rid of the burden of the material body, the spiritual essence finds its way towards freedom easier. The sanskrit name of of

- 200 mystical suicide is utkranti. .. For succeeding in stopping the vital breath, the disciple must concentrate on a wheel of eight rays or spokes,e.g. the wheel beginning with the god Aghora. The wheel appears to the adept, turning round a multiplied and terrific syllable PHREM (i.e. matrpranava Haracarita-cintamani, XV, 460-463) while his ownbody becomes a trident. There are the three gods Bhairavas in the navel, the goddess Para is in the heart, Apara is on the outside circle and Parapara on the central point of the trident as in the well-known mandala of the trident which the sadhaka represents mentally. Visualization of this wheel burning with red. flames, paralyses all ties with life. Further, the aspirant to freedom must worship from outside this wheel, becoming detached from himself. At the same time, the master will assume the whole mandala which has been made up by the disciple as representing his body, and will pass it on his head. This transfer separates instantaneously the vital breaths from the body. This movement is a part of the initiation bestowing immediately nirvana ( sadyonirvanadiksa). The transfer is possible through the rite of Siva's hand (sivahastavidhih) which is the master's imaginary hand (N.B. it does not mean unreal). By the agency of divine hand, the master bestows his blessing, the initiation, and also he can act in special rites involving the spiritual transfer as seen above. I mention in connection with the technique of detaching the the .. this spiritual essence 61 19 body and its caption into a mandala, that the same method can be employed by the Saivite tantrika to act against somebody, harming or even killing that enemy. For this purpose, making up a mandala

- 201 mentally, the tantrika will place there the spiritual components of the person he wants to harm. He will take out some rays or spokes of a certain wheel if he intends to wound only, and will remove the main centers when his intention is to kill. After the demise, the disciple is the subject of an evident decrease of worldly powers keeping him in bondage. Therefore he could receive siva's initiation (sankari) by the agency of his master, achieving fruition or going directly to "He who is pierced by Rudra's power, desiring by Siva's will to go to a good master, he is lead (by Him) to be able to realize his freedom and fruition. Having propitiated (his master) and receiving from him who is satisfied, Siva's initiation, (the disciple) goes to Him either having obtained certain fruition after his own demise, or immediately" (Malinivijaya-tantra, I, 44-45). the Lord. The initiation for a sudden leaving of body is bestowed in the following cases: a) when a dying man manifests a visible weakness of worldly powers (links); b) when a man close to his demise manifests the desire to have a master and to receive the initiation; c) when the wife, parents, friends etc., ask for the initiation on behalf of a dying person; d) when the dying man has been a neophyte but he did not receive the supreme initiation; e) when the neophyte, having received the initiation, wants to leave his vital spirits and pass into the supreme plane. On the other hand, the master must pay attention to bestow such an initiation either to persons who manifest signs of a weakness of power (Haracarita-cintamani, XIX, 7), or to those whose karma is not yet exhausted. Abhinava quotes the master's choice, from the

202 Gahvaratantra, an unrecovered text: "Seeing that the disciple is overwhelmed either by his old age or afflicted by a disease, the master must make him leave (the body) and join him with the supreme reality" (Tantraloka, XIX, 8). Comformable to another practice, the master projects on the mystic suicide the mantra called the "blade" (ksurika) which has the ability to operate on the vital points. This introjection appears "blazing like the fire of dissolution of time" (kalanala) is followed by another projection, that of the pair of mantras SKRK and CHINDI which can be melted into one mantra (viparitavidhanena kuryat skrkchindi-yugmatam Malinivijaya-tantra, XVII, 23b). The master will concentrate on and the fire (agneyim dharanim) visualizing how it bathes all the vital points of the disciple (Malinivijaya-tantra, XIII, 20-33). Then he will fill the adept's body with vital breathings, starting from the foot-fingers up to the top of the head. The vital principle must be pushed by force from the 100t-fingers to the whirl of the head and afterwards the vital points. are cut off. This way the vital principle together with the mantra SKRK, named the "night of time" (kalaratri), will go freely through Brahma's foramen. This initiation is mainly destined to neophytes who may obtain the self-realization thus without any oblation or outside sacrifice. With the same purpose the use of mantra SRKSRYUM must be accompanied by a finger-contraction when this "blade", starting from feet, has reached the knees and goes on raising gradually up to the supreme wheel. The five mantras RRAH, RRAH, HKSJAH, KRAH, KSRAH are added to that "plade"%;B they correspond to the five "ethers" from the

203 genital organs, the navel, the heart, the place between eyebrows and the nada (Brahma's foramen). master must be A particularly subtle method is that concerning the "circulation in the body" (carah sariragah). For practicing it, the completely familiar with pranayama techniques. At the beginning the disciple receives the projection of mantras as it was explained above. The unity with Siva is obtained through a progressive surpassing of the causal forces and their dispersion. For this purpose the master realizes a dissolution of his own lunar forces by means of the sun-fire from the right part of his body. Identifying his mind and breaths with these solar forces he enters the disciple's body. The detailed procedure follows the line of action given in the sequel: The master must rely on the supreme vital principle, viz. the force of power (saktam balam), getting unification with it. Thanks to this force, having sprung out from his body along the igneous movement of prana through the right canal (pingala), he introduces his breath which shines with a crown of flames, into the disciple's left canal. His prana will dissolve by means of its ardour, the totality of the disciple's lunar rays. The master goes down into the disciple's left canal reaching the wheel of navel and remains there together with all the rays of his prana, for some moments. The remaining prana in the navel becomes the master's alter ego, a new spiritual entity with a quasi-independent existence. This new entity receives life by the agency of the master's strong will. The master starts dissolving the disciple's powers, one by one, visualizing the process as the melting

204 of some metallic objects into a sun which is his own consciousness. keaching this point, the master must transfer the new spiritual entity - which is the product of his own consciousness gathered with the disciple's melted powers onto his own self. Hence, he energically pulls that spiritual entity out from the disciple's wheel of the navel decreasing in this way the links of worldly existence. Now, the master will begin the withdrawal from the other body, keeping the left canal - = and ascending upto the suicide's heart-lotus. Here, the master will vital refill his entity with breaths and the kundalini's nectar from the patient's body, fixing himself firmly in the middle of that heart. Then, he starts again pulling out the disciple's self which is dissolved by the fire of his prana. For this purpose the master imagines his prana or entity becoming a bent finger or a trunk that extracts the essence (sara) or the vital essence (ojodhatu) of the pacient. That vital essence appears as red-yellowish and it was produced of pure lunar fluids. Having taken out the whole essence, the master's prana will quickly go out from the pacient's heart keeping the right canal this time, and will enter inside the master's body through the left nostril, integrating this prana into the guru's lunar wheel of apana. Thus, prana will take rest for a while in the lotus of the master's heart. The preceptor will make up again the disciple's subtle body, this time deprived of the material structure, and will lead him to the desired plane (Netra-tantra,XX,27-35). Another method asks the master to meditate on the trident of consciousness as it was represented in the mandala. The trident is seen burning in flames together with the three wheels in the

- 205 the insisting more on = points. Then, the master performs by its agency the operations of arising /consciousness in the pacient's wheels, starting with the "bulb", but the heart-wheel. These operations are: awakening, raising, penetration, excitation and agitation. Thus, the raising of the totality or powers inside the disciple, will lead him to reach the dvadasanta center, where there is neither prana, nor apana. The totality of powers must be offered to Paramesvara as an oblation in the dvadasanta. The disciple becomes thus identical with the supreme God (Tantraloka, XIX, 17-19). a The corpse of a person who has performed such mystic suicide, must not be the object of any post mortem rite, inasmuch a purificatory purpose, ensuring a higher because he has already reached the highest as all these rituals have evolution of the dead. But, plane, the material remains are which is merely burnt (Tantraloka, XIX, 20). to be treated as a useless object The use of mantra RHRMUM has the same auteriologique effect%3B this mantra 15 recited by the master a hundred times, projecting it into the disciple's body. This mantra cuts 011 instantaneously the "ties" after a hundred recitations, so that the pacient can freely go out to get unification with the supreme sell. The branmavidya rite is based on a combined technique of yoga and recitation. The brahmavidya acts through its twofold devices, namely the chaned formula and the "dispossessed of bondage" formula, bringing about its effects by the purification of principles. The formulae must be repeated at the Saiva suicide's ear

- 206 some times for producing their effects. Due to the action of rituals and mantra, the master can lead his disciple to the supreme reality, bestowing on him a thorough freedom. When the master is not trained in yoga however he is able to carry out this initiation thanks to his power of consciousness, meditation, ritual action and mantra. On the strength of these practices, the disciple leaves his body rather suddenly. Even admitting that during a short interval the pacient experiences death it does not last long and is therefore negligible. Sometimes, the master offers a thorough liberation when the disciple's vital spirits are ready to leave the body. The brahmavidya can be recited not only by a master but even by a neophyte or a "spiritual son". It has the peculiarity that the mere hearing of it by a dying man bestows on him the initiation of neophyte, becoming thus an incarnation of Rudra. Its occult power consists in giving immediately a tangible sense of the self. When it is recited by a "knower", the brahmavidya eliminates at once the fright of death and interrupts vital breathings in the pacient. Even he who has fallen prey to the greatest darkness, grows gradually wise while listenin to it. The brahmavidya reads: 1. "Come here from the supreme plane, thou who art eternal, abandon the extremity of the body etc. O Lord, the base which is made of toes etc., is actually a frightful tie! 2. Abandon the tie from the knee to the ankle, from the bone to the genitals: Arise from the lotus of heart to the supreme middle abode! 3. Swan, Hayagriva, Lord, thou art Sadasiva, the supreme, the vital principle: Thy body is made up by the bindu, which is produced by

- 207 the union of sun-moon-fire. Come on, come on, get outside! 4. Thou, Swan, art produced by the great mantra, thou art eternal, thou see good and evil, thou reside in the center of the mandala thou art the invaluable cause of the great bridge of power, thou reside in both lotuses. Wake up, thou who hast as body the divinity! 5. Thou art tied because of ignorance. Wake up, rise up, the first among gods! 6. Go to the extremity which takes the name of palate and, reaching the greatgate made of wood of udumbara (ficus glomerata), go forwards, forwards, towards Vamadeva's abode! 7. Lord of knots, Supreme Self, acquiring comfort (and) reaching the great hole of palate, get out through it, oh, Lord of the body, arrive quickly at Siva's abode, the stainless abode: 8. Reaching the middle duct, joining together the prana and the apana, abandoning piety and impiety, go, Narayana, where everything is quietened, to the raising of him! 9. O, Brahma, o Visnu, o Rudra, thou art Siva, thou Vasudeva abandon, o great ether, this mass of earth made by Agni, Soma and the Eternal One. lo. Abandon, oh, thou the subtlest, this stainless veil, great like a thumb! 11. Thou art the soul, imprisoned by the ties of nature, with the loop of the ego-sense. Thou beyond the existence, beyond the existence, thou eternally present, thou supreme self, abandon the path of passion!

- 208 - 12. Quickly, without delay, reach the end of body which has body the mantras HRIM, HUM 1 13. Abandon, o self, this body made of six receptacles, whose essence the constituent elements (art) I as 14. Enough with the body made of gross elements: Take the great body, the eternall 15. Reach the stainless, endless and threefold mandala, having broken it!" (Tantraloka, XXX, 66b-88a). This is the brahmavidya in its "wrapped" form which can be applied to the persons tied up in worldly bondage. The "dispossessed or dispoiled" form of the same formula is obtained by placing at the beginning and at the end of everyone of the fifteen stanzas given above, the mantra OM HRI HUM PREM RHRKSMLVYUM. The second form is employed for those who have passed over the first initiatory flight. This recitation must have an echo on the pacient's psychic so • = that he starts repeating it inwardly. The power of brahmavidya is actual ly limited only to this inner act of repetition and it is not an object of learning and communication to others. The occult purpose of this prayer is to substitute the whole psychic structure of the patient, giving him a new subtle and purified body. The performer must get identification with this prayer that becomes in this way both substratum and vehicle towards self-realization. The recitation of this prayer bestows the condition of neophyte, exorcising and purifying the person whom it is addressed. The pure body of this vidya can neither be adulterated by being uttered by a layman, nor if it is recitated in a to

profane place. - 209 The brahmavidya acts upon the pacient producing his awakening through the power of consciousness (cicchakti) which is self-bright and independent of senses. This power brings about the apparition of supreme consciousness as soon as the pacient leaves his body, without having the necessary time to occupy another. A "factor of awakening" (prabodhakabalat) causes the whole process; this factor is a mantric thinking (mantramarsana), homogeneous with his own consciousness. The whole line of action is based upon the identification of the pacient with mantra (prayer), whose essence is pure thinking. The argument that such a holy prayer must not be uttered in front of a profane is rejected on the ground that the mystic self-murderer is a person whose mind envisages the other world only. Thus the profane can not stain what is pure in the earthy world; and, once having heard the prayer, he grows wise, consequently he becomes an initiate. The initiation is nothing else than a purification (samskara) and there is no doubt, the self-murderer has received it through the brahmavidya (Tantraloka, XIX, 37-45a). This rather free application of mantrainjunctions concerns only the brahmavidya. As for the sadhaka's own mantra, it must be repeated only mentally, and in the case it is heard even by flies, it will have to be submitted to appropriate rites for the compensation of infringement (Tantraloka, XIX, 5ob-51a). The braumavidya can be recited at the pacient's = ear even by a neophyte, with the master's approval. The master who, although trained in yogic practices of pranayama, refuses to assist a

- 210 suicide, was not yet reached a superior plane of consciousness (Tantraloka, XIX, 52-53). This method of mystical suicide is generally accepted by the sacred Saiva texts. "If somebody, having thought that any fruition is nonsense, abandons the body, then, joining (the supreme reality) by this method, he will become Siva, even if (Malinivijaya-tantra, XVII, 25 ). 34 1 met peopdute" The proper utkranti is performed by the yogi WFO mas thoroughly acquired mastery of his body. The Saivite who has not reached such a spiritual level, but is fully aware of the futility of life, must chose a sacred spot near a Saiva temple or on a place of pilgrimage, and he must starve himself to death there (Haracarita-cintamani & Tantraloka, XXVIII, 257-<59a). It is very important that the Saivite tantrika has no fright of death to perform such an experience. He must fix his mind on Siva, he especially while abandons his body, because it is believed that the last thought is decisive for the next condition of being. The last thought can ease a further ascension or can obstruct it. "Hence, in any moment think of me and strain yourself. If thy mind and thy intellect are fixed on me, there is no doubt that thou will go to me. Certainly, it is not only when the body is in good health, but still in the moment of death... That is, what is thought in the moment of death is just the reality which has always pervaded our intellect and exactly what is going to be acquired" (Bhagavadgitarthasamgraha, VIII, 7). This statement means that the last thought is determined in a way by the whole halo of ideas wrought up along the entire life and it is not quite an arbitrary choice. Hence, the final achievement is what has constituted the

- 211- = the "dominant" of the whole life. The last thought which is included in a temporal particle (kalamsa), follows the last movements of the patient, i.e. the difficulty in respiration, perception, communication etc., and it escapes from the attention of those present. This moment is characterized by relaxation of boaily links and therefore, the sensations of pleasure, pain etc., grow dim. The cause persistent a thought however at such a moment is due both co the intensity of that thought throughout the life, and to the new and subtler stage the being is making for. • The last thought can not be identified with the usual things a dying man asks for: water, having nearby a dear person etc. The really last thought can not be perceived by an ordinary man. Consubstantiation with Paramesvara, who is pure consciousness, takes place next to this thought. The state of pure consciousness is easier to be reached after death because the cessation of temporal impressions, hence the appearance of knowable reality in its multifarious aspects. The utkranti or the mystical suicide is considered a valid means of achieving self-realization in Saiva tantra. However, the Saivite texts do not come to an agreement to which extent the utkranti is preferable to other means. Sometimes, as in the Urmikaulatantra, Irom which Abhinava quoteu, the mystic suicide is not accepted as compatible with the Saiva doctrine. "If the God is all-pervasive, once outcoming (from the body), where will thou go? And if He is not all-pervasive, He will be like any insensible thing, like a bowl etc. The method of voluntary exit is spoken of as a thing that takes 1or its

212 object (only certain) parts (from the whole) and cosequently, it can not be logically applied to the Siva principle which is deprived of parts" (Tantraloka, XIV, 33b-35a). The quoted text considers that during the life, the vital breathing is connected with the four principles which make up the body, viz. earth, water, fire, air, while outcoming from the body, the vital breathing (jiva) will join the ether. Hence, the achievement of the supreme reality is not at all dependent on the actual or future links of the vital breathing, but only on a spiritual evolution. Even the malinivijaya presents the utkranti not mainly as an act of liberation but rather as renunciation at fruition. Renunciation of the body has not a clear justification even for persons who have accomplished their duties concerning meditation, recitation etc. and are disgusted with iruition. Supporting this view, the example of Bhisma is uttereu. The well-known nero of the Mahabuarata who received to decide nimsell the moment of his death, being wounueu and the boon very aged, ne renounced his life, but only after the vernal equinox (MBh, VI, 70). The symbol of this behaviour is that his death was assimilated with the great and abundant revival of the whole nature in spring, hence it was no a proper death but sooner a universalization or transubstantiation. The utkranti must be understood as a major and decisive step that only a fully accomplished tantrika can employ in agree ment with the great laws of the universe which only he knows. The mystic suicide must be used in extreme cases, when, due to an uncommon strength

-213 of body through practices like yoga, mantra, various substances, etc., there is no other possibility to detach oneself from the earthly existence that has become useless for one. This is the true interpretation of the affirmation: "Or, thinking that all fruition is nonsense, and abandoning his own body, one reaches the permanent plane" (Malinivijaya-tantra,XVII,25) Actually, the understanding of our free essence as doers of the five operations is the capital initiation which really bestows the Siva-condition on the disciple. The achievement of supreme condition is realizable either during this life through a mind deprived of differentiated representations, grasping the whole as pervaded by the Bhairavic refulgence, or, if such a unitary understanding is not attainable in this life, one has the same opportunity after death, thanks to the use of external initiatory rites, multiple disciplinary rules, etc. The utkranti is advisable only for the first category, the socalled jivan-mukta, the "liberated in this life". It is said that Abhinavagupta proceeded to such a voluntary renunciation of life, leaving his disciples in a cave. Generally, it is admitted that, even if only a sparkle from the huge fire of the supreme reality has shined during the life, in the moment of death it will burst out as the fire of universal consciousness itself, burning for ever the roots of transmigration (Tantraloka, XIV, 46). Therefore man must strive throughout his life to achieve at least a sparkle of true consciousness.