The Royal Path of Shakti: The Erotic and Magical Techniques of Kaula Tantra

THE

ROYAL PATH

OF SHAKTI

The illuminating visualizations give readers a viable spiritual path to face and overcome disease, difficulties, and even death and to truly taste the amrita of the Kaulas. This wondrous book is a sacred invitation into divine embodiment of the Kaula yogini mysteries of the cosmos. A must-read and invaluable guide of never-before-revealed ancient yogini wisdom.

LAURA K. AMAZZONE, AUTHOR OF

GODDESS DURGĀ AND SACRED FEMALE POWER

Inner Traditions

One Park Street

Rochester, Vermont 05767

www.InnerTraditions.com

Copyright © 2022 by Daniel Odier and Éditions Almora

English translation copyright © 2023 by Inner Traditions International

Originally published in French in 2022 under the title Kaula: la voie royale de la Shakti by Éditions Almora, Paris

First U.S. edition published in 2023 by Inner Traditions

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 978-1-64411-716-3 (print)

ISBN 978-1-64411-717-0 (ebook)

To send correspondence to the author of this book, mail a first-class letter to the author c/o Inner Traditions • Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767, and we will forward the communication, or contact the author directly at www.danielodier.com.

In a word, the way of liberation resides in the Kula Dharma, the Royal Path of Shakti.

KULARNAVA TANTRA

Contents

Preface

PART I

Practices

PRACTICE 1 The Emergence of Tattvas

PRACTICE 2 The Body on Fire

PRACTICE 3 The Five Elements

PRACTICE 4 The Lingam as Pure Consciousness

PRACTICE 5 The Dancing Flames of the Nadis

PRACTICE 6 Luminous Shakti

PRACTICE 7 The Hive

PRACTICE 8 The Garland of Letters

PRACTICE 9 Asceticism and Pleasuring

PRACTICE 10 Lunar Nectar

PRACTICE 11 The Three Moons

PRACTICE 12 The Flux of Lunar Nectar in the Chakras

PRACTICE 13 The Flood Divine

PRACTICE 14 The Chakras

PRACTICE 15 Lineage Yoga

PRACTICE 16 Amrita, the Divine Nectar

PRACTICE 17 The Color Black

PRACTICE 18 The Lunar River

PRACTICE 19 The Sahaja Mothers, the Heart Practice of the Yoginis

PRACTICE 20 The Eight Chakras

PRACTICE 21 The Eight Red Goddesses and the Chakras

PRACTICE 22 Eternal Substances

PRACTICE 23 Dietary Prescriptions

PRACTICE 24 Freedom

PRACTICE 25 Hamsa

PRACTICE 26 Samadhi of the Heart and the Rainbow Body

PRACTICE 27 The Throat and the God of Love

PRACTICE 28 Sweating Milk

PRACTICE 29 Breathing and the Nose Chakra

PRACTICE 30 The World in Oneself

PRACTICE 31 Not Water, Not Fire, Not Earth, Not Air, Not Ether

PRACTICE 32 The Colored Spheres

PRACTICE 33 The Worship of Devi

PRACTICE 34 Orgasmic Pleasuring and the Wheels

PRACTICE 35 The Skulls Practice

PRACTICE 36 Kaliki Yogini

PRACTICE 37 The Subtle Centers

PRACTICE 38 Vatuka, Protector of the Teachings

PRACTICE 39 The Music of the Infinite Body

PRACTICE 40 The Yoga of Looking with Your Skin

PRACTICE 41 Worship of the Kaula Shakti

PRACTICE 42 Shakti’s Animal Forms

PRACTICE 43 The Dance of the Red Yoginis

PART II

The Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra

Patala One

Patala Two

Patala Three

Patala Four

Patala Five

Patala Six

Patala Seven

Patala Eight

Patala Nine

Patala Ten

Patala Eleven

Patala Twelve

Patala Thirteen

Patala Fourteen

Patala Fifteen

Patala Sixteen

Patala Seventeen

Patala Eighteen

Patala Nineteen

Patala Twenty

Patala Twenty-One

Patala Twenty-Two

Patala Twenty-Three

Patala Twenty-Four

Conclusion

Glossary

Index

Preface

The Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra of Mahasiddha Matsyendranath is the pivotal tantra that marks the transition from the magic and erotic tradition of Assam to the refined philosophical tradition of the great Kashmiri masters Somananda, Abhinavagupta, Kallata, and Utpaladeva, spanning the period from the ninth and tenth centuries up to the poetical flowering of Lalla in the fourteenth century.

The arrival of Matsyendranath in Kashmir and Nepal and the transmission of the Kaula Way, the Path of Shakti, are considered fundamental by Abhinavagupta. He pays homage to the Mahasiddha in the first chapter of his monumental Tantraloka,* where he writes: May Matsyendranath be auspicious for me. It is he who cast the net, the net steeped in red, crisscrossed with knots and gaps, that extends and stretches to all locations.†

What is notable in the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra is that he also points out a connection, a continuation with the ancient Shaivism of the Indus Valley. This connection is the preeminence of the yoginis and of respect for the feminine in all its forms—whether it be human, vegetable, or animal, such respect being essential to the wish for union with all that is. Matsyendranath could be an answer to the mystery of the transmission of teachings between the disappearance of civilization from the Indus Valley 1,700 years before our era and the resurgence of the teachings in Kashmir at the beginning of our era.

In the Kaulajnana* we find all the magic practices connected with obtaining siddhis (magical powers), such as the ability to hear at great distances, to be present in several places at the same time, to travel great distances in a few moments, to penetrate through solid matter, and to defend oneself from enemies. Such powers also included black magic practices such as enslaving, destroying, or paralyzing. More surprising, and rarely mentioned among the siddhis by other sources, is obtaining the gift of poetry and experiencing the freeing power of the word.

Matsyendranath lived with his consort Konkanamba, the mother of Konka, at Kamarupa, a sacred site that mythology tells us was the place where Shakti’s yoni fell when she was dismembered by Vishnu. Konkanamba was considered a Mahasiddha. She and Matsyendranath were incarnations of the magic Shiva-Shakti couple and together they taught the practices of the Kaula Way, which would have been lost if it had not been transmitted by Lalita Devi’s lineage. Their text just barely touches on this topic without embarking on the transmission of the actual practices. They were revered as Kuleshvara and Kuleshvari.† Matsyendranath and Konkanamba traveled to Kashmir, taking the route through Nepal. They established the Kaula tradition by creating several practice centers in locations between Assam and Kashmir. Matsyendranath died on one of these trips, at Patan, where he lived in a temple that still exists today, as does a column erected there in his memory. He and his companion lived four generations before Abhinavagupta (950–1020). The Kaula lineage proceeding on from them was as follows: Matsyendranath and Konkanamba transmitted to several disciples, of whom nine were their own children. One of the children transmitted the teaching to Sumati, who transmitted it to Somadeva, and finally it was transmitted to Ambunatha, who was Abhinavagupta’s master.

In the Sahasranamam, which contains the thousand names of Shri Lalita Devi, a manifestation of Durga, we find a connection to the Kaula Way: O Thou, divinity in the Kula sphere, I pay homage to Thee. O Thou, whom the adepts of the Kaula tradition venerate, I pay homage to Thee (sts. 440–41).

In the Kaulajnana there is a brief autobiographical passage on Matsyendranath containing underpinnings of legendary magic:

When you (Devi) and I were going to Candradvipa (the Island of the Moon), we were joined by Vatuka Karttikeya. Even though he was ignorant, I entrusted this Shastra to him. O Devi! The instruction given to Skanda was in vain: he stole the knowledge and threw it into the sea. Bhadre! So I went to the ocean and after having caught the fish that had swallowed the Shastra, I made an incision to open its stomach. After having recovered the books of knowledge from the fish’s stomach, I hid them in a secret location. Once more, Kruddha adopted the appearance of a mouse and stole them in order to throw them into the ocean. Once again, they were gobbled up by a fish of immeasurable size! Furious, I made a Shakti net. I caught this fish, which was submerged in seven seas. However, this fish was as strong as I was. Because of his spiritual strength, he was difficult to vanquish even for the thirty-three gods. Giving up my position as a Brahmin, I became a fisherman and I caught the fish with my Shakti net. By making a gash to open him, the Kulagama* was recovered once again. Even though I was a Brahmin, O Supreme One, I acted as a fisherman. Since the Brahmin rescued the knowledge from the stomach of the fish by killing it, he was known as Matsyaghna.* Because the Lord of the Brahmins acted as a fisherman, he became Kaivarta (the fisherman). (Patala 16)

The twenty-four chapters (patalas) of the Kaulajnana broach the following topics:

1. From the tips of the big toes emanate the tattvas .

2. Fire kicks off dissolution.

3. Kaula characteristics: the senses, the object of the senses, and the body are Shakti.

4. Intense practice and opening the nadis .

5. Alchemical knowledge, the light of the moon.

6. Where Shiva resides in the body, amrita or sublime essence.

7. The chakras nourished by lunar light.

8. The sadhana of the sixty-four yoginis.

9. Siddhas, mantras, molten gold flowing through the chakras.

10. The round of Sanskrit letters in the body.

11. Feeding, the sacred substances of Shakti.

12. The Way is to act according to one’s own will.

13. Inner repetition of the Hamsa mantra.

14. The eight siddhis, the heart center, the beautiful perspiration of lunar milk. Shakti.

15. The Sahaja chakra.

16. The siddhi yoginis, sexual union. Autobiographical fragments. Vatuka.

17. The vital breath, the central channel, Shiva-Shakti unity. Neither meditation nor non-meditation.

18. The worship of the siddhas, the yoginis, and the guru.

19. The worship of the black yoginis and the siddhi yoginis.

20. The path of sexual love. The vira (hero) and his Shakti.

21. The various Kaula paths.

22. The hidden lingam and the worship of the guru.

23. The animal, vegetable, and human forms of the Kaula yoginis.

24. The red yoginis.

The Kaulajnana is above all a text on practice and, like many other tantras, it is written in a twilight language, meaning a text that outlines the practice without revealing its esoteric aspects, which are to be received by transmission from one’s master. Lalita Devi took great care to explain each practice to me, and to have me discover everything that was not written explicitly in the text. The Kaulajnana is actually a kind of crib sheet or reminder list that names the practice without saying how it begins or how it ends. Without further explanation, it is therefore impossible to conduct these practices. That is why I have chosen to separate them and describe them in detail before giving the full text of Dominique Boubouleix’s magnificent work, which to my knowledge is the first French version of this text translated directly from Sanskrit. What I am writing here is the third installment of the teachings of Lalita Devi, following my books Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love* and Crazy Wisdom of the Yogini: Teachings of the Kashmiri Mahamudra Tradition.†

Without preludes and postludes, the textual rendering of the practices is not savored in the same way. What is missing is the night-blue space, how to begin, the way the visualization appears, and the conclusion: generally a return to the body that has undergone an alchemical transmutation and has found once again the memory of infinite space. Here is an example:

Let us meditate on the image of an eight-petalled chakra, colored white like the Moon and located where the spine meets the skull, that is, where one’s hairline begins. We can gratify our bodies thanks to this light. (Patala 7)

And here is the complete practice as taught by Lalita:

You are floating naked, seated in night-blue space. Your breathing is becoming more and more finely subtle. It transforms into a breathing cycle that forms an energy loop moving across your palate, descending along the central channel, looping around the perineum and coming back up in front of the spine. Behind you a magnificent full moon appears. You feel its rays shining on your skin, but you cannot see it. Your desire to rest your gaze upon it is so great that you imagine that your eyes turn back slowly and focus on the spot of the secret chakra found in the occiput, where your hairline begins. With your finger, you can feel a slight hollow there. A triangle is formed joining your left eye, your right eye, and the secret chakra that will gradually open so you can see the moon. You gaze at it until the moment when a river of lunar milk emerges from the moon, enters your secret chakra, nourishing the eight-petalled lotus and spreading out impetuously through your head, irrigating your brain with a milky whiteness and carrying away all the dark shadows of suffering, memories, and patterns of conditioning. The tumultuous flow descends through your body, moving through the bones, muscles, organs, nerves, and tendons, carrying with it all traces of darkness. The river of milky light revolves in your pelvic area, touching all parts and moving out into night-blue space continuously until you become nothing but lunar light. Stay in this space until the lunar river ceases to enter you. The secret chakra that opened now closes. Your eyes return to where they belong. The river leaves your