THE TANTRIK

Amitabh Shukla

The year was 2001 and the month March. I was posted in Ranchi in Jharkhand and was on a professional assignment to cover the life and problems of the primitive Asura tribe, living in the newly formed state.

The place, close to Netarhat on the border of Chhatisgarh, where the tribe lived, was completely secluded. There were no roads to boast of and our vehicle could not take on the rogours of what passed off as a road. It broke down. Three of us – an anthropologist friend and a local teacher decided to walk the remaining 3 kms to the Asura village.

After getting to know the tribe from close quarters and taking notes for my write-up, we decided to wind up and proceed back to the state Capital. It was then that, I noticed a non-tribal, sitting on a chair and enjoying the natural beauty of the place. Journalistic curiosity and the odds led me to his modest government accommodation.

He was a clerk working in the rural bank located in the village – the only sign of any government presence apart from the slogans to eradicate pulse and polio on the walls. He soon revealed that he was a Tantrik. Getting to know a tantrik, who looked like a normal person, instead of skeletons in hand, led our small group to ask a series of questions.

“I roamed in all places, including the cremation grounds for several years. Then my guru ordered me to become a normal householder and bear children. I got a job and settled down in this place,” said the tantrik. He added: “I am in tantra and also a grihasth. Being a householder is a divine order for me and has to be complied”.

As the conversation blossomed, I asked him about the negatives associated with Tantra - skeleton worship, liquor, sexual rituals etc. “There are several schools of tantra. The one I follow is the worship of the female power in the form of Durga,” he said.

“I am her child, she is my mother. I cry before her. I dance with ecstasy before her. I laugh with her. She advises me, helps me and my disciples out of the problems,” said the 40-year old tantrik.

The tantrik answered my spiritual queries with such simplicity and humbleness that I immediately believed him. “A son can become wayward but a mother never abandons him. You just have to ask the divine mother with a true and pure heart and she will fulfill what you ask for,” he reasoned.

What led to a true and pure heart? “Concentration and meditation,” replied the Tantrik. “When a heart is cleansed after years of struggle, it never yearns for the worldly goods and physical pleasure. Whatever you ask the mother, is for your disciples and your surroundings, never for yourself,” he continued.

But what is Tantra then? “The intensity of devotion which makes one closer to the Goddess. Extreme penance and detachment. Following the divine directions and using the powers bestowed by the mother for welfare,” he summed up.

We had another meeting at a different venue when the Tantrik had gone to his disciple’s house for spiritual counseling. The discussion was more intense and the answers satisfied my spiritual quest. Why don’t you publicise yourself and reach a wider audience. “You reached me at an inaccessible place. This was ordained by the divine forces. “Those who truly seek the mother’s blessings never go unblessed,” said the Tantrik.