("exercise with your right hand") This is the word for a sort of tantric practice that does not use any banned drugs or encourage any conduct that the orthodox would deem scandalous or unacceptable in the hidden ritual tradition known as tantra.
It contrasts with the vamachara, or "left hand practice," which employs prohibited chemicals in its ritual and has little respect for traditional sensitivities.
Madya (wine), matsya (fish), mamsa (meat), mudra (fermented or parched grain), and maithuna (copulation) are the five prohibited things (panchamakara), so named because they all begin with the letter "m" (in the ancient Sanskrit language, makara).
These forbidden substances are employed in their original forms by left-hand tantra practitioners, whilst right-hand tantra practitioners substitute other more socially acceptable things for them.
This is another another example of Hinduism's widespread right-left polarity, which contains implicit value judgements.
Left-hand practitioners are considered as dirty and dangerous in this situation because they deliberately breach social boundaries, while right-hand practitioners are socially acceptable.
See Arthur Avalon's (Sir John Woodroffe's) Shakti and Shakta, 1978; Swami Agehananda Bharati's The Tantric Tradition, 1977; and Douglas Renfrew Brooks' The Secret of the Three Cities, 1990 for further details.
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