world to be less real than Brahman. For persons who are concerned
about provision for particularity, as is the case when body is considered
integral to personhood, T ̄antric metaphysics makes an important contri-
bution. According to Tantra, not just the person’s consciousness, but con-
sciousness and the psychophysical complex together are Brahman. The
body is the person’s locus in space, and has a particular position and na-
ture, with no less reality than the person’s non-material aspects.
Reverence toward the beings and things of the world does not imply
attachment and indulgence. Rather, Tantra considers recognition of the
unity and sanctity of material nature as an antidote to attachment, for at-
tachment requires a sense of duality. In the words of Kamalakar Mishra,
“I can be attached [only] to something which I consider different from or
other to me.” By realizing that I am one with all, “there is no question of
attachment with what is already myself or my own.”^60 Eliade expresses
the core of T ̄antric metaphysics and soteriology as follows:
... the absolute reality, the Urgrund, contains in itself all dualities and
polarities, but reunited, reintegrated, in a state of absolute Unity (ad-
vaya). The creation, and the becoming that arose from it, represent the
shattering of the primordial unity and the separation of the two princi-
ples (Íiva-Íakti, etc.); in consequence, man experiences a state of duality
(object-subject, etc.)—and this is suffering, illusion, “bondage.” The
purpose of T ̄antric s ̄adhanais the reunion of the two polar principles
within the disciple’s own body.^61
Consonant with other Indian traditions, Tantra holds that liberation de-
pends on self-knowledge. The individual, or j ̄ıva,is Íiva, and T ̄antric sad- ̄
hanaserves the purpose of gaining self-knowledge: atma-pratyabhijña ̄.
Mishra names pratyabhijña(‘recognition’) as the central problem of the
T ̄antric tradition of Ka ́sm ̄ıra Íaivism. He notes that this school is in
agreement with Advaita Ved ̄anta on the point that self is known not as an
object in a dualistic subject-object way, but is known as a self-illumined
or svayampraka ́ ̄sasubject.^62 Self-realization in Tantra is considered to af-
ford both ultimate liberation and enjoyment in the present life.^63
Classical Yoga envisions liberation as realization of Self-nature as
pure consciousness, without suffering, but without bliss. Tantra, how-
ever, like Ved ̄anta, conceives the liberated state as one of Being, con-
sciousness, and bliss. However, in T ̄antric practice, body is central in the
quest for liberative self-knowledge.
A main tenet of T ̄antric practice or sadhana ̄ is that “the Absolute is
to be realized in and through the human body.”^64 The universe is Íiva’s
34 religious therapeutics