The Concept of Immortality in Hindu Tantric Soteriology
The article considers the category of immortality in Hindu Tantrism in relation to the liberation. We analyze this category in the context of two main principles of spiritual liberation, i. e. the principle of deliverance and the principle of unity. In the case of the principle of deliverance, the emphasis is on overcoming death as an important element of the samsara. In the case of the principle of unity, we can say about a person’s connection with the immortal transcendental principle. We also distinguish between bodily and spiritual immortality. While spiritual immortality was recognized by all tantric movements, opinions regarding bodily immortality diverged in Tantrism. The theme of the corporeal immortality was emphasized in those “active” Tantric schools that paid great attention to Hatha Yoga, especially in the Siddha movement. Physical immortality assumed a paradoxical situation of death for the usual human world. The gross body dies, but the “divine” body is born in its place and doesn’t die longer. Part of the Siddha movement was the Natha tradition, which distinguishes two stages in immortality: immortality in the “perfect” body (relative immortality), and then in the “divine” body (absolute immortality). We present the connection of the concept of bodily immortality with Rasayana (Indian alchemy) which since the beginning of the 8th century entered the tantric period of its development. Treated mercury was of particular importance in Alchemy; it was mercury that, in the opinion of the alchemists, made the body immortal and young. It is concluded that both the spiritual and bodily immortality of the individual are connected with the ideal of liberation which he attains during his lifetime