Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines
—and teaches that they do not escape samsara.1 Kaula innate practice developed from this Akulavīra Tantra; it is therefore certainly distinct from Buddhist practice.
Kula and Akula
Kula Tantra is dualistic. Akula Tantra is nondual, opposed to distinction, and centred upon the innate. In the Kaulas' view, Kula means Shakti and Akula Shiva. Establishing the relation of Kula to Akula is the Kaula path.2 The goal of Kaula practice is therefore to join Kula and Akula and make them samarasa. Their harmony is Kaula knowledge.
Shiva is rightly called Akula because he has neither family nor lineage, beginning nor end.3 Shiva's desire to create is itself called Shakti. All things arise from Shakti; she is Shiva's activity. Yet there is no distinction between Shiva and Shakti. Their relation is that of the moon and its moonlight.4
The fourth instruction of the Siddha-siddhānta-saṅgraha says that Shiva is unique, undivided, nondual, imperishable, without defining property, and without parts; he is therefore called Akula. Shakti, being the cause of creation and the mover of the entire manifested world, is called Kula or lineage.5 Without Shakti, Shiva is incapable of doing anything.6 The vowel i—
Footnotes
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Vikalpa-bahulāḥ sa mithyā-vādā nirarthakāḥ / na te mucyanti saṃsāre 'kulavīra-vivarjitāḥ //—“Full of conceptual divisions, those false doctrines are futile; deprived of Akulavira, their followers are not freed from samsara.” Akulavīra Tantra. ↩
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Kulaṃ śaktir iti proktam akulaṃ śiva ucyate / kule 'kulasya sambandhaḥ kaulam ity abhidhīyate //—“Kula is declared to be Shakti and Akula is called Shiva. The relation of Akula within Kula is designated Kaula.” Saubhāgya-bhāskara, p. 53. ↩
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“Because he is free of colour, lineage, and the rest; unique, infinite, undivided, nondual, imperishable, without defining qualities and without parts, he is held to be Akula.” Siddha-siddhānta-saṅgraha, p. 4. ↩
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Śivasyābhyantare śaktiḥ śakter abhyantare śivaḥ / antaraṃ naiva jānīyāc candra-candrikayor iva //—“Shakti is within Shiva and Shiva within Shakti. One should know no interval between them, just as between the moon and moonlight.” ↩
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Shakti is called Kula because her harmony is the luminous cause of creation and because she sets the whole manifested universe in motion. Siddha-siddhānta-saṅgraha 4.12–13. ↩
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Śivo 'pi śakti-rahitaḥ kartuṃ śakto na kiñcana / śivaḥ sva-śakti-sahitaḥ samāsād bhāsako bhavet //—“Even Shiva, bereft of Shakti, can do nothing. United with his own Shakti, Shiva becomes the illuminator of all.” Siddha-siddhānta-saṅgraha 4.16. ↩