VI. Nimi asked: -- "Tell me about Karma Yoga, by the performance of

which Karma is speedily destroyed." Avirhotra replied: -- "Vedic Karma does not directly lead to Moksha. Offer up your Vedic Karma to Ishvara, and perform it, without any worldly attachment, however. "He who wants speedily to cut asunder the tie of Ahankara shall worship Vishnu in the way prescribed in the Tantras or Agama. (Vedic Karma at first consisted of Vedic Yajna. The Gita gave a death blow to the performance of Vedic Yajnas. _Nishkama_ Karma took the place of _Kamya_ Karma, The Vedic Karma however survived in the Sandhya Mantras, which conform themselves to the Path of Upasana. "The Vedic Sandhya is however meant only for Brahmanas. "The Tantric Sandhya is an imitation of the Vedic Sandhya, adapted to all classes of men, and it supplements the Vedic Sandhya by laying down a method of worshipping the Lord in the heart and of worshipping His image. Mantras are also prescribed. Devotion is the chief element in Tantric Upasana and this Upasana is enjoined for all Bhagavatas or Vaishnavas. There are Siva Tantras, Sakti Tantras, Ganapati Tantras, Surya Tantras as well as Vaishnava Tantras. There are black rites prescribed in some of the Sakti Tantras and the Tantras have therefore got a bad name with many. But the Tantras as a whole form the only science of practical occultism in Sanskrit, and the Vaishnava Upasana is strictly a Tantric Upasana." (I do not enter here into the details of that Upasana, though some details are given in the text.)