Shava Sadhan

Tarapith

June Mcdaniel: The corpse ritual is part of the tantric path known as vamachara (the way of the left or reverse practice) or kulachara (the way of a family group or religious lineage). The goal is loosening the person from the bonds of samsara— he or she is no longer attached, neither hates nor fears, is ashamed of nothing, and has gone beyond all traditional notions of good and evil. Such a person is in the state of divyabhava, beyond purity and impurity. It is a radical breaking of attachment, with both the world of samsara and traditional morality. The Shaivite tantrika, who follows the yogic approach, seeks total concentration and conquest of fear, and worships the gods all around him and in the corpse. When the god dwells in his body for the fifteen years following the ritual, his own body is understood to be the body of Shiva, thus sanctified and treated as ritually pure. As David Kinsley writes, “Surrounded by death in the place of death, those aspects of reality that end in the fires of the cremation ground become distasteful . . . attachment to the world and the ego is cut, and union with Shiva, the conqueror of death, is sought.”
From the yogic perspective, the goal is to sit on the corpse and gain detachment from the fear of death and spiritual discernment, recognizing both world and self as finite, and even dead in comparison to the realm of brahman. This recognition should cause repulsion toward the physical world, and attraction toward infinity as Shiva or brahman or infinite consciousness. The tantric dimension can also include theistic elements and interpretation. The devotional approach to the corpse ritual interprets the practice a sign of true love, and evidence of one’s passion and dedication to the goddess.
Indeed, the goddess is herself often seated on a corpse in her iconography. Shiva without Shakti is said to be a corpse, and the goddess (often in the form of Kali) may stand over him or sit upon him. The practitioner meditates upon Shakti in the heart lotus, wearing the dead bodies of two boys as earrings, with a belt made of dead men’s hands, sitting upon the (spirits) (pretas) of Brahma,
Vishnu, Rudra, Ishvara, and Sadashiva. They are dead, because they cannot act without her power. She is naked, and surrounded by jackals. In her form as Ucchishtachandalini, she is wearing a red sari and ornaments, carrying a skull and a sword, and is sitting on a corpse. She is worshiped when the practitioner is in an impure state, with impure objects.
The devotee sits upon the corpse to call down the goddess, who saves him when he is threatened by demons or ghosts. As the Tantra Tattva phrases it, “If her son is in trouble, Ma runs down from her golden throne on Mt. Kailasa, without staying even to arrange her dress, and extends her ten fear-dispelling arms in ten directions, crying ‘fear not.’

Tara

Here the tantrika is the child of the deity, overwhelmed by fear and love, who seeks to dwell in the lap of the goddess. This is the bhakti surrender of the devotee, who passes the ocean of birth and death to dwell in eternity with his goddess. The ritual of shava-sadhana is a powerful way to call down the goddess, for her power (shakti) is understood to dwell most strongly in corpses, burning grounds, jackals, and natural sites.130 In this ritual, the corpse itself becomes the body of the deity, and the practitioner also becomes ritually sanctified. The goddess is often worshiped in other bodies, where the power of the mantra (mantra-shakti) reveals her true form. She may be worshiped as Kumari in the bodies of young virgins, as Uma in jackals, as Mother of Siddhis within the brahmani bird or kite. She may enter the corpse itself, and speak through its mouth, or she may appear in a vision. The goddess descends as a savioress in the midst of fear, as Bhattacarya explains:

"When all earthly means fail . . . when in that terrible and pitiless great cremation ground, where horrors do a frantic dance, there is, despite the presence of the all-good Mother, nothing in all the infinite world which for our safety we can call our own; in that deep darkness of a new-moon night, haunted with destructive Bhairavas,Vetalas, Siddhas, Bhutas, Vatukas, and Dakinıs . . . when the firm tantric and yogic shaktism and heroic heart of even the great Vıra shakes with fear; when even the intricate bonds of the Sadhaka’s posture on the back of the corpse which is awakened by Mantra is loosened; when with a faning (sic) heart the Vira feels as he sits the earth quake furiously under him; when without means of rescue he is about to fall and be crushed; when he is overtaken by the swoon of death—if even at such times the Sadhaka but . . . extends his uplifted hands, saying, “Save me, I pray thee, O Gurudeva!” then the Mother of the world, who is Herself the Guru, at once forgets all his faults, dispels all his difficulties with Her glance, and stretching forth ten hands instead of two, says: “Come, my child, there is no more fear,” and blesses the Sadhaka by raising him to Her assuring bosom."

Here danger is deliberately sought, so that the Mother goddess must come down and rescue the devotee.