Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/44

xxxviii and Men, and then the Lokas of Ghosts (Pretas), Brutes, and Hell. Each Loka is characterized by its ‘poison’ or besetting sin, but, of these, five only are mentioned. The editor has, however, referred to corruption in the Text in some of these matters, and others I have noted on a careful analysis of the translated Text.

The peaceful Devatās follow on the sixth and seventh day, and the wrathful Devatās on the eighth and subsequent days. The latter are of the terrific type, characteristic both of the Buddhist and Hindu Shākta Tantras, with their Bhairavas, Bhairavīs, Ḍākinīs, Yoginīs, and so on. Hinduism also makes this distinction in the nature of Divinities and interprets the wrathful orders as representative of the so-called ‘destructive’ power of the Supreme Lord and of his lesser manifestations; though, in truth, ‘God never destroys’ (na devo nāshakah kvachit), but withdraws the Universe to Himself.

But Power, which thus dissolves the world, is ever terrible to those who are attached to the world. All bad action (Adharma), too, is dissolvent; and, according to the Text, the deceased’s evil Karma in the Sangsāra is reflected in the Nirvāṇic line in its forms as Divinities of the Lower Bardo, who so terrify the deceased that he flees from them and sinks therefore more and more into such a state as will eventually bring him birth in one or other of the Lokas.

The Peaceful Devatās are said to issue from the heart, and the Wrathful from the head. I do not, however, think that this statement necessarily lets in the Yoga doctrine of the ‘Serpent Power’ and the Six Centres, which the editor has shortly set out in Part II of the Addenda, assuming (a matter of which I have no personal knowledge) that the Tibetans both practise this Yoga and teach it in its Indian form. I myself think that the mention of the heart and head does not refer to these places as Yoga-centres, but possibly to the fact that the Peaceful Deities reflect, as stated in the Text, the love of the deceased which springs from his heart.

I make a reservation also as regards the subject of Mantras, dealt with in Part III of the Addenda. No doubt the Tibetans employ Sanskrit Mantras, but such Mantras are often found in