forbidden. Although this rite collapses
conventional boundaries of good and
bad, pure and impure, the goal is to
replace external rites (bahiryaga) with
interior ones (antaryaga), thus explod-
ing the duality of subject and object. The
paradigm for this interior practice is
tantric yoga. This is usually some vari-
ant of kundalini yoga, in which the two
divine principles of Shiva and Shakti
are ultimately united in the expert’s
subtle body. The final vehicle for tantric
practice comes in rituals using symbolic
diagrams (yantra), of which one exam-
ple is the shrichakra. These are often
particular to specific tantric lineages
(parampara) and thus ground the
aspirant in a particular tradition. For
further information see Arthur Avalon
(Sir John Woodroffe), Shakti and Shakta,
1978; Swami Agehananda Bharati, The
Tantric Tradition, 1977; and Douglas
Renfrew Brooks, The Secret of the Three
Cities, 1990.
Tantrika
Name denoting a practitioner of tantra,
a secret ritually based religious practice.
Tapas
(“heat”) Term denoting any physical
asceticism, or what in earlier times was
referred to as mortification of the flesh.
The term tapas encompasses rites of
denial, such as fasting (upavasa) or
celibacy, as well as rites of enduring
physical pain, such as the “five fires”
(panchagni) rite. In this rite a person
sits during the hot seasonsurrounded
by four fires, with the fifth fire being the
sun overhead. Other rites include
enduring cold from bathing (snana) in
snow-fed rivers, and enduring any other
sort of physical discomfort. The word
tapascan also describe bizarre and even
masochistic behaviors, such as remain-
ing standing for years on end; keeping
an arm upraised until the muscles atro-
phy, and it cannot be lowered; lying on
beds of thorns and nails, and so forth.
The governing assumption behind all of
these practices is that they generate
spiritual power (seen figuratively as
“heat”) and that a person who generates
and amasses enough of this power
will gain supernormal powers or the
ability to demand boons from the
gods themselves. Even though many
contemporary Hindus are skeptical of
the more extreme practices and may
dismiss them, there is still great cultural
respect for ascetic self-control, and
combined with the right personality,
such practices can still confer considerable
religious authority.
In Hindu mythology Indra, king of
the gods, pays close attention to those
amassing such powers to protect him-
self from being replaced by someone
more powerful. When an ascetic starts to
amass enough power to displace him,
Indra’s heavenly throne becomes hot
through the “heat” generated by the
tapas. Indra must search for the aspirant
and defuse this power in one of two
ways—either by giving the aspirant a
boon, which in many cases is the reason
for performing the tapas in the first
place, or by sending a celestial nymph
(apsara) to seduce the ascetic, whose
power will be discharged along with his
semen. This mythology reflects the
basic Hindu belief that the starting point
for ascetic power is celibacy, which con-
serves a man’s vital energies by conserv-
ing his semen.Taraka
In Hindu mythology, an extremely pow-
erful demon, who endures such severe
physical asceticism (tapas) that he
receives a boon that he can be killed
only by a sonof the god Shiva. This
boon seems to make Taraka invulnera-
ble because at the time, Shiva is lost in
meditation and is still grieving for his
dead wife Sati. For a long time Taraka
grows more powerful and more arrogant
until he is eventually able to defeat the
gods in battle and exile them from heaven.
In their despair the gods turn to the god
of love, Kama, and beg him to shoot
Shiva with an arrow of desire so that heTaraka