“Oh, DOMBI! You are all happiness!.. Some say you are terrible and overwhelming, but especially the wise ones hold you at their bosom… Oh, DOMBI! There is no one more sensual and charming than you ” [1]
A woman with flourishing femininity and immense erotic power is known in Tantra as a Dombi woman. Such a woman possesses captivating sensuality, refined eroticism and total inner freedom.
Due to her fully awakened erotic potential she is seen as an initiatress on the tantric path, the initiatress into Pure Eros and Godly Love.
Dombi women have been highly appreciated “because of their fully manifested femininity, lack of inhibitions and prejudices, and for their capacity of total abandonment”[2] to the Supreme Divine Consciousness within a man.
A girl from the legend
The story of a Dombi takes its origin in a legend of an Indian king who has been brought on the spiritual path with the help of the mysterious power of Dombi, his tantric consort. The legend goes like this.
Once the king of Maghada saw a performance of street entertainers and instantly fell in love with one of the dancing girls. The legend says that she was so beautiful that a mere look at her was enough to fall in love. She had all the qualities of a padmini, a lotus woman, “the rarest and most desirable of all women”[3]. Despite the strict interdiction of marrying outcaste women, the king took the girl as his consort. However, the ministers did not consent to such marriage and the king together with his wife had to leave the country, retreating in the forests.
The legend affirms that the king had been initiated into the secret tantric practices. For many years the king and his beloved consort had been practicing amorous fusions with erotic continence that had ultimately led them to the spiritual realization.
During his absence the kingdom turned into anarchy and disorder. The ministers, who initially had forced him to leave, went to search for the king. When finally they found the hermitage, they saw the king meditating under the tree and his wife walking on water on the lotus leaves. Astonished, they begged the king to return.According to the legend, the king and his wife returned back “[i]riding on a pregnant tigress and using a poisonous snake as a whip”[4]. However, the king didn’t intend to reign.
After having reached spiritual accomplishment, the king did not see the value in ordinary material life as he had it before. Moreover, he had lost his cast status by marrying an outcaste woman and did not find it proper to resume his position as a king. Therefore he said to his people:
“Since death ends all distinctions, burn us. In our rebirth we will have been absolved.”[5]
A big cremation pyre was made for them and for seven days the fire was burning. When the flames finally went out, the people could see the king being transformed into the mighty deity Hevajra, being amorously united with his wife.
The legend states that through this miraculous manifestation the king brought many people of his kingdom on the spiritual path. Thereafter he became known as Dombipa, “The Lord of Dombi”.
The untouchable one
Dombi is described a woman of an inferior caste or outside all castes. Beyond the apparent inferior position, her low social status carries a very profound significance. In reality it indicates a certain disposition of hers to access profound truths which are beyond mainstream norms and principles.
Like other people of outcaste origin, a Dombi woman is considered to be the one who “should not be touched”. The fact that she is untouchable also has a deeper meaning, as she is the embodiment of the enigmatic feminine principle, impalpable with the senses, incomprehensible for the human mind.
Dombi means a “washerwoman” as she is the only one “free from every qualification and attribute, social, religious, ethical, etc”[6]. Her position of a washerwoman carries a great significance. It symbolises exceptional inner purity with which she purifies and sanctifies everything she touches. It also indicates her simple and humble attitude towards life. She is the one serving others with abnegation and humbleness.
In the work “Yoga: Immortality and Freedom” famous orientalist Mircea Eliade confirms that a story of a young outcaste girl, “full of wisdom and possessing magical powers”, can be frequently found. He also mentions that in tantra such low-case women have been venerated and even exalted because the tantrics develop the capacity to see the noble and sublime hidden beyond the profane.
Woman that shows the path to the absolute
Woman is naturally endowed for the Tantric path due to her extraordinary capacity to experience various profound states of orgasms. When combined with spiritual aspiration, such intense states of orgasm lead her to the spontaneous expansion of the consciousness.
Overwhelming states of orgasm that a woman has access to propel her to mystical states of Divine ecstasy, SAMADHI. In reality, such states are indescribable experiences of communion with the Absolute or God.
If a man with whom such an awakened woman makes love is empathic, she is able to induce extraordinary spiritual states in him. In this way she helps a man to reach transcendence. That is why in tantra woman is considered to be the one showing the path towards the Absolute or God.
“This gigantic energy that Dombi possesses, either natively or by the enhancement of her sensuality, causes the awakening of Kundalini, which helps both her and the man to rapidly attain the state of androgyny and leads them to transcendence”[7].
Qualities of a Dombi woman
There are women who are born with extraordinary qualities of a Dombi. However, it is absolutely possible to become an embodiment of Dombi by consciously developing the qualities specific to a Dombi woman. Such as:
- Simplicity. Dombi is a simple woman. Her simplicity lies within the open, positive attitude towards life as well as towards challenges or difficulties that she faces. It also includes an overall state of contentment and gratitude.
- Beauty is one of her main attributes. Outer beauty of a Dombi woman reflects the inner beauty of her soul. Such beauty combines purity, humbleness, aspiration and inner harmony.
- Humbleness is one of her main features. She does not have pretentions to life and she receives with gratitude everything that God offers to her. Humbleness is an expression of a deep acknowledgment of God’s supremacy and almightiness as well as profound respect towards the Divine authority.
- Sensuality which she manifests freely and without any inhibition and which allows her to experience life fully and vividly.
- Inner freedom that is expressed as utter shamelessness. Because a Dombi woman has no prejudices, no dogmas or taboos, she is totally free from any constrains.
- Overwhelming refined erotism that allows her to experience intense ecstatic states.
- Aspiration towards the Divine, which helps her to uplift the erotic energy to the higher levels of her being. At the same time it is her intense aspiration that can help a man, with whom she amorously unites, sublimate the energies during lovemaking and thus perfect his erotic amorous continence.
- Exuberant vitality which gives her emotional stability and helps to maintain spiritual states.
- Flexibility which allows the cosmic energies to flow freely through her body.
- Great capacity to love. When a woman opens up to the sublime energy of love she becomes a channel of Godly love which she can offer with great joy to others.
As a conclusion we can say that Dombi represents a totally awakened woman, both erotically and spiritually. Her overwhelming erotic energy is expressed freely but at the same time wholly directed to the Supreme Consciousness.
When a woman awakens within her being the qualities specific to a Dombi woman, she discovers and then assumes her true role in the life of human society. That is the role of the Initiator into the Divine Mysteries of Creation. Thus a woman becomes a mysterious divine force that propels human beings towards spiritual transformation.
[1] The Introduction into the Secret Tantrism, Mircea Eliade
[2] Masters of the Mahamudra Path, vol. 1, The Legends of the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas
[3] The Legends of the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas, Mondup Sherab
[4] According to Tradition: Hagiographical Writing in India, Winand M. Callewaert, Rupert Snell
[5] Dombi Heruka, Palpung Thubten Choling Buddhist Monastery https://palpungny.org/dombi-heruka/
[6] Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade
[7] Spirituality and the Sacred Languages, Mircea Eliade