Tantra in Thakura Nigamananda's Spiritual Journey
Tantra sadhana at Tarapeetha
One night Nalinikanta saw one Sadhu with a brilliant aura around him in his dream. He woke up to find the Sadhu standing beside his bed in ‘reality’. The Sadhu handed out to him a ‘bilwa’ leaf bearing a mantra written on it and then disappeared. Nalinikanta was spellbound by the incident. He did not know what to do with the mantra. No sadhu or spiritual teacher, whom he consulted, could decipher the mantra nor could they give him any guidance about what to do with it. At this point of time a crestfallen Nalinikanta received directions in his dream to go to the greatest Tantrik Guru of that time - Bamakshepa, at the ‘Tarapeetha’ of Birbhum, in West Bengal. Bama was extremely pleased to see the unique ‘Veeja Mantra’ (root/source mantra) of Goddess Tara which Nalinikanta had received in his dream, and readily accepted him as his disciple. Within a short span of one month, Nalinikanta was able to master the secrets of the Tantrik ways (tantra sadhana) of attaining spiritual success. As a mark of perfection of his sadhana (spiritual practice), ‘Tara’ or ‘Mahashakti’ (the embodiment of cosmic energy) appeared before him in the form of his wife Devi Sudhansubala and granted him the boon that he would be able to see Her in that form whenever he would so wish.
The search for knowledge of the Self
But later on, Nalinikanta became discontent as the form of Sudhansubala eluded physical contact with him. Moreover, Nalinikanta observed in disappointing wonder that that form would materialize out of his person no sooner than he wanted to see Her but would melt away into the same whenever he tried to hold Her in embrace. He was puzzled by this highly tantalizing experience. He began to wonder, "If ‘Mahashakti’ originates from me only, then who am I?"
Overpowered by a consuming desire to know his ‘self’, Nalinikanta sought the advice of guru Bamakshepa. The latter advised him to attain the knowledge of ‘Advaita’ from a Vedantic guru. He became a disciple of Guru Srimat Swami Satchidananda Saraswati at the holy place of ‘Pushkar’ in the state of Rajasthan. He instantly realized that Swami Satchidananda Saraswati was the sadhu who gave him the ‘Tara’ mantra in his dream. The swami initiated Nalinikanta into the arduous practice of Sanyas (renunciation) and in due course named him ‘Nigamananda’, in consideration of his sound comprehension of the Vedic (nigama) knowledge (jnana) with facility.
Sources and attribution
Source text: NSS website. Original article author not credited in the source.
Reproduced from the existing NSS website; no separate reviewer or review date is recorded.