Therapeutic Elements of Tantra
Tantra’s impetus as a religious therapeutic is evident in the Mahanirv ̄ a ̄Óna
Tantrawhen Íakti addresses Íiva as “Lord among physicians of earthly
ills” [MNT 4:7]. The word used for ills is bhavavyadhi ̄ , explained by
Woodroffe as meaning “both the ill of existence itself (i.e., the cycle of re-
birth and death), and the ills flowing therefrom.”^62 Among Indian tradi-
tions, Tantra is outstanding for its concern with practical problems over
philosophical ones, and on this basis, Basu notes Tantra’s affinity with
the art of medicine.^63 Eliade locates the source of Tantra’s therapeutic
concern in its conception that the great ailment of human life is ‘suffer-
ing.’ Suffering, in soteriological terms, arises from “the shattering of the
primordial Unity,” co-extensive with the creation and coming-to-be of all
things.^64 T ̄antric religious therapeutics therefore focus on the recovery of
unity, particularly utilizing somatic experience for meditation and attain-
ment of liberative knowledge. Psychologically, Tantra implies that the
healthy personality is integrated—not fragmented—especially in virtue of
its recommending that desires be sublimated or otherwise recast, rather
than being eliminated or repressed. Kakar puts it this way:
The healthy personality in Tantra is neither passive nor desireless; it has
only redefined the terms of the struggle between desire and a world
which is often unable and unwilling to gratify it.^65Tantra, with other Indian traditions, promotes liberation by means of
knowledge, but (like classical Yoga), its psychophysical therapeutics are
liberative as well.^66 Tantra holds that ignorance of the identity of self and
ultimate reality produces spiritual illness, and perpetuation of the cycle of
death and rebirth. Shah identifies a range of therapeutic applications of
T ̄antric theory and practice, presenting perspectives on health conceived
in terms of equilibrium among Yoga’s five pr ̄aÓnasor vital airs, Åyurveda’s
three doÓsas, and the five mahabh ̄ ̄utasor basic elements of S ̄amkhya.Ó
Shah examines the therapeutic powers of four manifestations of
kuÓnÓdalin ̄ı energy. Its kriyavat ̄iaspect is kuÓnÓdalin ̄ı’s manifestation on the
physical plane. This is the domain of vital energy resulting from practice
of HaÓtha Yoga. KuÓnÓdalin ̄ı’s kalavat ̄ı aspect pertains to energy manifest as
the digestive fire, whose function is necessary for physical health. The ved-
hamay ̄ı aspect concerns the rising of kuÓnÓdalin ̄ıthrough the cakras. Each
cakrais associated with a particular mah ̄abhuta ̄ or element, and with cul-
tivation of one’s power to control the ascent of kuÓnÓdalin ̄ı, the s ̄adhakais
said to be able to influence the five elements, whose proper proportions
154 religious therapeutics