[Sanskrit]

tantra

1. a yogic system which is in its nature synthetical and starts from a great central principle of Nature, a great dynamic force of Nature: in the Vedic methods of yoga [i.e. the trimarga] the lord of the yoga is the púrusha, the Conscious-Soul, but in tantra it is rather prakriti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the Will-in-Power executive in the universe; it was by learning and applying the secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its tantra, that the tantrika yogin pursued the aims of his discipline - mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude; the method of tantrika discipline is to raise Nature in man into manifest power of spirit. 2. [a text of the tantrika system].