manifestation, and the human body is Íiva’s abode. The body is the quin-
tessence of the physioconscious creation, and the T ̄antric practitioner or
sadhaka ̄ awakens the divinity within him- or herself with the orientation
expressed in the Ratnas ̄ara Tantrathat “one who realizes the truth of the
body can then come to know the truth of the universe.”^65 Eliade writes
that in T ̄antrism, the body assumes an importance unparalleled in the In-
dian tradition:
To be sure, health and strength, interest in a physiology homologizable
with the cosmos and implicitly sanctified, are Vedic, if not pre-Vedic,
values. But T ̄antrism carries to its furthest consequences the conception
that sanctity can be realized only in a “divine body.” The UpaniÓsadic
and post-UpaniÓsadic pessimism and asceticism are swept away. The
body is no longer the source of pain, but the most reliable and effective
instrument at man’s disposal for “conquering death.”^66Eliade distinguishes two convergent orientations in Tantra’s valuation of
the body:
- Emphasis on the total experience of lifeas integral to T ̄antric
s ̄adhana. - The will to master and transmute the body into a divine body, a
strong theme in HaÓtha Yoga.^67
Central to Tantra is the polarity of macrocosm and microcosm, wherein
the human body is realized—through the interiorization of ritual—as a
microcosm of the universe. The language of ‘macrocosm/microcosm’
conveys Tantra’s metaphysical orientation, but only in practice can one
grasp the meaning of realizing oneself, in body and consciousness, as
being part of the whole seamless conscious creation. Although writers on
Tantra use the terminology of macrocosm/microcosm, it would be more
consonant with T ̄antric metaphysics to speak in terms of correspondence
throughout the domains of being. T ̄antric unity of self and cosmos is a
variant of Vedic macranthropy. The Atharva-veda,for instance, identifies
the breaths with the cosmic winds [AV 11: 4.15]. The UpaniÓsadscontain
references to the identification of the breath with the cardinal directions
[Ch ̄and. Up. 3:13.1–6]. While air “weaves the universe” [BÓrhad Up.
3:7.2], breath “weaves” the human being [AV 10:2.13]. The spinal col-
umn is equated with the world-axis Mount Meru in the T ̄antric text
DohakoÓsa. The iÓd ̄a-nad ̄ı and pi ̇ngala-nad ̄ ̄ı (corresponding with the two
principal breaths pr ̄aÓnaand apana) ̄ are called sun and moon, symbolizing
body and philosophies of healing 35