Chinnamastā’s myth is recounted in the Pranatoshini Tantra.
Once the progress of the day or the process of world unfoldment has reached a state of stability, it continues to exist, depending for its sustenance on destruction, on burning, on consuming. The cosmic sacrifice (yajña) expresses this process of universal metabolism, and the ritual sacrifices (yajña) are performed with the intention of harmonising and co-operating with the cosmic process of maintenance. Yajña is the exchanging of energies between differing levels of existence and the creation of harmony and balance.
The aspect of Śiva which presides over the cosmic sacrifice is the Headless (Kabandha). The Vedic ritual of sacrifice involves the beheading the victim — “The sacrifice is indeed beheaded.” (Satapatha Brahmana). Hence the Shakti (dynamic energy) of the sacrifice is depicted as the “Beheaded-one (Chinnamastā). At the end of the ritual sacrifice there is a ceremony called the “joining of the head” (śiro-sandhāna), in which the head is symbolically reattached to the body of the victim. This symbolically represents the consummation of the cycle of time – birth, death and rebirth, without which the meaning of the sacrifice as a process of transformation and progress would remain incomplete.
The beginning of life is the sex act in which an offering of semen is made into the uterus – this is the “yajña” of coitus. The womb is symbolic of the fire-pit (homa-kuṇḍa) and the offering of ghee is the semen made with the ladle (sruva) which represents the penis. In the animal sacrifice the full offering is the blood and the animal is afterwards consumed. When seen as a participation in a perpetual cosmic process of sacrifice, the deep contemplation upon “life feeding upon life” can become a means of great spiritual insight, instead of being merely an unconscious and automatic act of self-nourishment. The Tantras warn that the sādhaka should only partake of meat from animals that have been duly consecrated and sacrificed, and the first fruits of all produce should be offered to the deity.
Chinnamastā rules over the five Great-Sacrifices (pañca-mahā-yajñas). Every human born is born with 5 debts (r̥ṅas) and our duty as mindful and authentic humans is to discharge these 5 debts at every occasion for the entirety of our lives on the planet.
The five Great Sacrifices are nothing but the continual expressing of gratitude to all those beings who facilitate and support our existence. They are:—
1. Pitr̥-yajña — sacrifice to Ancestors - parental responsibilities
2. Deva-yajña — sacrifice to gods, the cosmic forces which maintain the harmony of the universe – through pūjā and homa.
3. Brahma-yajña — The greatest of all sacrifices is through the study of the teachings of the sages and imparting those teachings to others.
4. Manuṣya-yajña — sacrifice to fellow human beings - societal responsibilities.
5. Bhūta-yajña — sacrifice to the animals and elements - environmental responsibilities.
The meme of beheading is also found associated with Viṣṇu in the Shatapatha Brahmana. Ants chew through a bow-string which causes the bow to spring open and Viṣṇu’s head is cut off. It ascends into the sky to become the sun. The solar radiation (pravargya) is also a constant offering of life to the earth. The very life-essence of the sun, pours down into the earth to invigorate it, so that all beings upon it may live. The solar energy (photosynthesis) is the essence of all food (anna). This outpouring of solar radiation is compared to a perpetual “beheading of the sun”.
In Tantric Buddhism Chinnamastā is also worshipped and she is known as the Power-of-the-Thunderbolt of Wisdom (Vajra-yogini). Her philosophical form is Prajña-paramitā.
As a form of the eternal night, Chinnamastā is the Night-of-Courage (Vīra-rātri) when the victim is brought to the altar of sacrifice
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