About Getting Back Home
Within this tantric scripture, dharma is presented as the indispensable ground for both ritual efficacy and non-dual realization. The text emphasizes core virtues such as non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, and non-attachment, insisting that without these, mantra and ritual remain fruitless. Compassion, inner purity, and self-control are treated not as optional refinements but as essential qualifications of a sādhaka. Ethical discipline is thus woven into the very structure of practice, so that external observances and inner disposition mutually reinforce one another.
A distinctive feature is the insistence that esoteric pursuit does not cancel ordinary moral and social responsibilities. The practitioner is urged to honor parents, elders, and teachers, to maintain household duties, and to engage in fair livelihood and charitable giving. Respect for one’s spiritual lineage, careful treatment of sacred spaces and implements, and adherence to prescribed dietary and purity rules in ritual contexts all serve to anchor tantric life within a broader framework of righteousness. Association with those who ridicule or violate dharma is discouraged, as such company is seen to undermine both character and practice.
The guru–disciple relationship is given especially stringent ethical contours. The guru is to be revered and obeyed, yet the scripture also stresses that the teacher must be self-controlled, compassionate, and free from greed or exploitation, and that the disciple should test the guru’s authenticity before full surrender. Secrecy regarding mantras, initiatory teachings, and esoteric rites is framed as a serious obligation, with disclosure to the unprepared counted as a form of adharma. At the same time, the disciple is expected to be truthful, steady in devotion, and respectful, progressing through teachings only as guided.
Finally, the text’s Śākta orientation shapes its ethical vision in a particular way: women, and especially ritual partners, are to be honored as embodiments of Śakti rather than treated as objects of pleasure. Any attempt to use tantric doctrines as a pretext for licentiousness or social irresponsibility is sharply condemned. By linking non-dual insight with spontaneous righteousness and reverence for all beings as forms of Śiva–Śakti, the scripture portrays authentic realization as naturally expressing itself in non-injury, fairness, and compassionate conduct.