An Evaluation of Natha - Moti Lal Pandit

Gregorian Bivolaru, a Romanian, has founded a new Tantric movement in the West, which in Romania is known as The Movement of Integration into the Absolute (MISA) of which Natha (The Lord, a title of Shiva) is a Scandinavian branch. The Natha has its headquarters in Copenhagen, whereas the international headquarters of the movement are in Bucharest.

It seems that Gregorian, from very early childhood, was having some kind of mystical experiences in terms of dreams. These dreams he interprets as a kind of divine intimation, and in terms of which he has now assumed the role of a full-fledged Guru. Whatever dreams he had were later on confirmed as being divine intimation when he read Mircea Eliade, Ramakrishna, Yogananda and Shivananda. Accordingly was his religiosity formed.

Gregorian believes in a kind of religiosity that is synthetic and syncretistic. He has, thus, no compunction in asserting that he accepts Kabbala and Tantra as much as Christian and Islamic mysticism. No indication is given in the literature he has written as to how he achieves logical synthesis between opposing and dissimilar religiosities. Maybe he adopts the Vedantic normative principle of degrees of knowledge or of truth. Christian truth, within his metaphysical scheme, would represent relative truth, and so whatever Christianity proclaims is true insofar as relativity goes.

As a representative of synthetic religiosity, Gregorian has assimilated such elements into his system from various schools of Yoga as well as from Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism that fit into his metaphysical pattern that has been borrowed from Kashmir Shaivism. Following the concept of Reality as propounded by Kashmir Shaivism, particularly by Vasugupta in his Spandakarika, Gregorian interprets Reality as being of the nature of Resonance or Vibration (spanda). The dynamic notion of Reality seems to have been borrowed by the Shaivites of Kashmir from Buddhism which believe that all phenomena are a process. In our own times this theory of dynamism of matter was propounded by the Marxists. Instead of confining dynamism to matter, as do the Buddhists or Marxists, the Shaivites have applied it to Reality.

For a Kashmiri Shaivite Reality is not static, but contains innate movement within itself, and on account of this movement the emission (visarga) or ejection (vamana) of the phenomenon is actualized. This innate dynamism of Reality, at the religious level of thought and praxis, is identified with the feminine principle called Shakti. Reality, when looked at from a microcosmic viewpoint, consists of a bi-unity, or what in religious terms is called the Divine Couple: Shiva and Shakti.

This bi-unity of Reality, at the philosophical level, is characterized by the luminosity of consciousness and self-reflection. Consciousness is not just luminosity (prakasha), but also self-reflection (vimarsha). Consciousness as luminosity is identified with Shiva, and the power of reflection of consciousness with Sakti. There can be no emission or ejection of the phenomenon unless Reality is characterized by self-reflection. It is upon reflecting on itself that Reality as Resonance emits, as it were, from within itself the cosmos of which the world is just one part. The world, thus, is nothing but the self-becoming of Reality. Upon assuming the form of phenomenal entities, Reality becomes differentiated and in terms of which Sakti is atomized as the kundalini in each individual. Insofar Shiva as an individual thinks of itself as a limited being, to that extent individual has no possibility of recognizing (pratyabhijna) his Sivahood. As to how to realize one's Shivahood, Tantrics believe that the kundalini who, in her atomic state, remains dormant, has to be aroused through certain Tantric techniques. It is upon her arousal that the individual realizes the essential nature of Reality as being that of bi-unity. It is to return to the primoridial state of undifferentiated unity of Reality which Tantrism, particularly the left-hand school, desires to attain by making use of ritualized sex.

It within this conceptual framework that the Tantric notion of sexuality as a means of realizing bi-unity has to be grasped -- and Gregorian follows it meticulously.

It is this notion of bi-unity of Reality which Gregorian has incorporated into his Tantric system. To realize within oneself this divine bi-unity, Gregorian follows the Tantric methods as developed by the Kaula (Familic) Tantric School of Kashmir. It is at the level of praxis that sexuality is made use of for the purpose of arriving at the experience of unity of consciousness in terms of luminosity and reflection. To make his method more effective, Gregorian uses hierarchically the structured initiations of Kaula Tantrism. What kind of initiations he makes use is not divulged. Believing in the Tantric esoteric secrecy, he thus keeps all such items secret which, according to him, cannot be made public.

Further, Gregorian attempts at synthesizing this Tantric conceptuality Reality with the theories of modern physics, particularly with the theory of quantum mechanics. How far he succeeds in this attempt can be explained by the one who has a comprehensive grasp as to what modern physics is propounding. Since I am not a physicist, so I am unable to shed any light on it. What I can say affirmatively is that Gregorian is a hard-core left-hand Tantric, and he professes it openly. Also he has presented it in such a manner that suits the Western sensibility.