another ground for the belief that this ancient scripture will
become one of the religious influences of modern life, not
... superseding Christianity, but in an interaction through
which the Shakta Shastra will help ... to produce a Mother-
pearl of a complete and true religious exegesis.”
Sakti and Sakta
Yet let us return to our central theme of ‘Marxism and
Moksha’, and with it the quest for a revolutionary Tantra
and ‘Red Banner of Rudra’ relevant to our own times. For
historical scholarship alone, however thorough,
sympathetic or even divinely inspired and devout (as
exemplified by the life work of Lakshmanjoo) bears with it
the danger of merely offering us a retreat to the religious
language and traditions of an earlier historical era – thus
not only evading Eliade’s admonition “to escape from
historic time to another Time” but also leaving us with
nothing to say about our time, let alone providing a radically
new and revolutionary direction for its transformation.
It is in this politically leftward direction that Urban
points to the work of Gopinath Kaviraj (1887-1976), whom
he describes as “undertaking a synthesis of the various
Tantric traditions” similar to that of Abhinavagupta
himself.