Sir John George Woodroffe (15 December 1865 – 16 January 1936), also known by his pseudonym Arthur Avalon, was a British Orientalist. His choice of the name Arthur Avalon may have been due his initiation into a Celtic equivalent of eastern tantra. His extensive and complex published works on the Tantras, and other Hindu traditions, stimulated a great deal of interest in Hindu philosophy and yoga. In this book he expends a lot of effort explaining why a sexual practise can legitimately serve as a spiritual, holy practise.

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[From Chapter Twenty-Seven “The Pañcatattva (The Secret Ritual)”. Note that he never explicitly mentions the need to avoid orgasm. He merely hints at it. He was more explicit in his book Hymn to Kali.]

The Tantrik Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalamkara in his valuable notes appended to the commentary on the Mahanirvana Tantra of Hariharananda Bharati, the Guru of the celebrated “Reformer” Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Ed. of K. G. Bhakta, 1888), says, “Let us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget his duty, sink into sin and die an early death. First among these are wine and women, fish, meat, Mudra and accessories. By these things men have lost their manhood.

Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be a mistake as to the application, the patient is likely to die. Shiva has said that the way of Kulacara is as difficult as it is to walk on the edge of a sword or to hold a wild tiger.

There is a secret argument in favor of the Pañcattva, and those Tattvas so understood should be followed by all. None, however, but the initiate can grasp this argument, and therefore Shiva has directed that it should not be revealed before anybody and everybody.

An initiate when he sees a woman will worship her as his own mother and Goddess (Ishtadevata) and bow before her. The Vishnu Purana says that by feeding your desires you cannot satisfy them. It is like pouring ghee on fire. Though this is true, an experienced spiritual teacher (Guru) will know how, by the application of this poisonous medicine, to kill the poison of the world (Samsara).

Shiva has, however, prohibited the indiscriminate publication of this. The object of Tantrik worship is Brahmasayujya. or union with Brahman. If that is not attained, nothing is attained. And with men’s propensities as they are, this can only be attained through the special treatment prescribed by the Tantras.

If this is not followed, then the sensual propensities are not eradicated and the work is, for the desired end of Tantra, as useless as harmful magic (Abhicara) which, worked by such a man, leads only to the injury of himself and others.” The passage cited refers to the necessity for the spiritual direction of the Guru. To the want of such is accredited the abuse of the system. When the patient (Shishya) and the disease are working together, there is poor hope for the former; but when the patient, the disease and the physician are on one, and that the wrong side, then nothing can save him from a descent in that downward path which it is the object of Sadhana to prevent.

All Hindu schools seek the suppressions of mere animal worldly desire. What is peculiar to the Kaulas is the particular method employed for the transformation of desire. The Kularnava Tantra says that man must be taught to rise by means of those very things which are the cause of his fall. “As one falls on the ground, one must lift oneself by aid of the ground.” So also the Buddhist Subhashita Samgraha says that a thorn is used to pick out a thorn.

Properly applied the method is a sound one. Man falls through the natural functions of drinking, eating, and sexual intercourse. If these are done with the feeling (Bhava) and under the conditions prescribed, then they become (it is taught) the instruments of his uplift to a point at which such ritual is no longer necessary and is surpassed.