Bhairava - part i

Bhairava is depicted in the anger mode. It merely means Bhairava is epitome of Masculinity.

The real meaning of Bhairava is a mystery in itself. Bhairava is like a marriage of many attributes and virtues and it cannot be confined in any single word. Mark Twain once family said "Marriage is not a word but a sentence". Like Mark Twain, for me, "Bhairava is not a word but a long never ending sentence". I have termed it as "never ending sentence" because a Bhairava is infinite when the true meaning of Bhairava is realized and Bhairava when viewed through the perception of the physicality becomes a tantra practicioner.

Bhairava etymologically would mean (Bhaya + rava), which literally means which dispels the fear inherent in a human. Bhairava is someone who controls and has mastered all types of fear in his inner world. Only when the inner fears are won, the light is spread inside. The outer world is the reflection of the inner world. The more illumine the inner world the brighter the outer world.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the ex president of USA once in his famous speech stated "we have nothing to fear but the fear itself". His speech writer might have written the famous line but it is one of the most basic axiom in Tantra itself. When one fears, one is defeated because fear is psychological. Outer battles can be won through powers but a fear in a heart would stop the person to take action. Since fear control the mind, being a Bhairava means going beyond mind. That is for the reason the Bhairava is pictured as someone who is holding a skull cap. The skull cap literally means his mind is under his control and he dictates his mind and not the other way around.

There are basically two basic emotions that guide all human actions and endeavors. They are fear and desire. If you control the fear then there is no desire that you cannot fullfill. If fear is taken care of then desire takes care of itself. A Bhairava is therefore who is adept in both spiritualism and materialism because he neither fears spiritualism nor materialism. He can adapt in both disciplines.

A Bhairava is therefore a person who is a tantra practicioner and and is in the process of mastering all his fears. If you do not fear and desire a particular thing, then you can have the perfect unbiased and neutral perception towards it. Bhairava is someone with a pure perception.