Tantra Unveiled: Seducing the Forces of Matter and Spirit

by Rajmani Tigunait

Everything is sacred; nothing is profane.”)

the ancient and elegant philosophy of tantra that skillfully demonstrates how to use the objects of the world as a means for spiritual unfoldment.

The tantric approach to life avoids this painful and confusing dilemma by taking the whole person into account—our human as well as our spiritual nature. The literal meaning of tantra is “to weave, to expand, to spread,” and according to tantric adepts, we can achieve true and everlasting fulfillment only when all the threads of the fabric of life are woven according to the pattern designated by nature.

Tantra sadhana (practice) reweaves the fabric of life and restores it to its original pattern.

No other path of yoga is as systematic or as comprehensive. The profound practices of hatha yoga, pranayama, mudras, rituals, kundalini yoga, nada yoga, mantra, yantra, mandala, visualization of deities, alchemy, ayurveda, astrology, and hundreds of esoteric techniques for engendering worldly and spiritual prosperity blend perfectly within the tantric disciplines.

The key to success is shakti—the power of soul, the power of the divine force within. Everyone possesses an infinite (and indomitable) shakti, but for the most part it remains dormant. And those whose shakti is largely unawakened have neither the capacity to be successful in the world nor the capacity to enjoy worldly pleasures. Without access to our shakti, true spiritual illumination is not possible. Awakening and using shakti is the goal of tantra, and this is why tantra sadhana is also known as shakti sadhana.

This is the basis of tantra: Yatha pindande, tatha brahmande—Whatever is in the body is also in the universe.

that all tantric texts and the techniques they describe have one characteristic in common: they adopt an integrative approach to sadhana, with the objective of making the best use of all possible resources, within and without.

Thus at a social level tantrism refers to a particular way of life, at a philosophical level it refers to shakti metaphysics, and at a spiritual level it consists of a set of techniques for gaining access to the multi-level forces within the human body and the cosmos.

According to tantrism there is a perfect equation between the universe (the macrocosm) and the human being (the microcosm). Through direct experience tantric masters throughout the ages have confirmed that the active and dormant forces in the universe correspond to the forces in the human body, and that the whole universe lies within each of us.

power of sound (mantra), form, color, and shape (yantra), and have documented their influence both on humans and on the different aspects of nature.

And in the process they have discovered how the energies of herbs, minerals, gems, planets, and constellations correspond to different parts of the human body. These findings ultimately resulted in tantric systems of yoga sadhana, medicine, astrology, and alchemy, which are well-documented in tantric texts and allied literature.

most tantric practices consist of a range of disciplines involving the body, senses, breath, and mind, as well as the use of ritual objects, mantra recitation, silent meditation, visualization of deities, and meditation on a purely abstract, formless, divine being.

The goal is to demolish the illusion that a wall stands between the individual and the divine, to correct the false impression that internal and external reality are mutually exclusive.

Fire is the center of all tantric rituals, both external and internal; the study of tantra cannot be fruitful withou...

The highest tantric practices are the ten schools of maha vidya (the great knowledge), and among them Sri Vidya is the most complete and comprehensive. (The practices related to the other nine maha vidyas are subsumed, directly or indirectly, in Sri Vidya.)

The goal of Sri Vidya is to give the aspirant a direct experience of the primordial life-force, or shakti, that holds all the cells and molecules of the body in place.

When the adepts discovered how to access this shakti and the domain of matter and energy animated by it they were able to pinpoint the precise nature and characteristics of the forces governing our anatomy and physiology as well as all other aspects of nature. And to communicate this knowledge to those who had not had the direct experience, tantrics referred to these forces as “deities,” explaining that any deity (force) that dwells within us also dwells outside us. The deity that governs the formation of the human fetus, for example, also governs the germination of a seed.

Tantrics have never involved themselves in religion, either as advocates or critics, but the myriad techniques they have developed for enhancing the quality of worldly and spiritual life have proved so potent that tantrism has influenced every aspect of life, including religion, in India and neighboring countries.

Other sites, such as Allahabad, have been the hub of hundreds of tantric practices, and therefore within the radius of a dozen miles or so almost any kind of tantric sadhana will be fruitful. And because thousands of devout practitioners and millions of faithful pilgrims visit Allahabad every year, they perpetuate the concentration of spiritual energy there. As a result this city is called tirtha raja (the lord of all shrines).

The experiences gained at these sites also teaches us to understand apparent discrepancies in the scriptures. Tantric practices are rarely documented in a systematic or comprehensive manner. And until we understand the context in which references to particular practices are made we will find contradictions among different tantric texts. In some practices, for example, the use of meat and liquor is compulsory; in others it is prohibited. Some scriptures prescribe sacrificing the inner beast (the ego) by means of contemplation and self-surrender; others prescribe sacrificing an animal to achieve this same result.

Netra Tantra, Swacchanda Tantra, Tantraloka, Rudra Yamala, Prapancha Sara, and Sri Vidyarnava)

Among the group of sadhus, called vairagi, who dominate this locale you will find tantric adepts practicing the disciplines associated with the tradition of Dattatreya, the master of masters. The nature of their sadhana is such that through the millennia this mountain has become an embodiment of love, compassion, kindness, and complete surrender.

A tour through Khajuraho will leave you either with the impression that tantrism is a path of sexual insanity or with the understanding that it is a way of transforming this natural urge into a spiritual means.

These different levels of understanding both the Divinity and the purpose of life have led to different approaches for gaining Her grace and guidance. This is how the tantric practices have become so diverse. For example, one person worships the deity so that his goats will be healthy and fertile, another so that her children will marry into a suitable family, while others worship and meditate on Her in order to attain freedom from the cycle of births and deaths. To express their love and devotion to the Divinity some offer vegetarian food, while others sacrifice a goat. Still others surrender their ego to the Divine. Some connect their hearts with the Divine by means of simple tantric practices like offering incense, flowers, water, and fruit to the fire, along with the recitation of prayers and mantras. Others, who are familiar with the symbolic meaning of yantras, have developed more elaborate rituals.

that different components of the yantras represent the invisible forces of individual and collective consciousness, so they incorporate the visualization and worship of yantra into their practices.

Tantrics hold that there is only one primordial force animating all forms of life, that this force is the Divine, and that the world is Her manifestation.

Most of our problems, tantrics maintain, are not caused because we do not know God; rather, we suffer because we do not know this world. But once we know what this material world is all about and can regulate the subtle forces that govern it, we can overcome all suffering.

Because tantrics do not accept the notion that spirituality and worldliness cannot commingle, tantra addresses all the concerns of both body and spirit. It is up to us, the tantrics say, to choose the nature and scope of the practices we undertake.

For example according to the scriptures the gayatri mantra helps us wash off karmic impurities, and it is therefore one of the most powerful mantras for purifying the mind and heart. As this process begins we gain clarity of mind, our thoughts become organized, and our concentration improves, enabling us to intuitively distinguish good from bad and right from wrong. Ordinarily, however, when people meditate on the gayatri mantra it takes years before they notice any effect. The tantric method of practicing gayatri accelerates this process. It includes rituals, meditation on a specific yantra, meditation on the chakras, the recitation of auxiliary mantras, pranayama practices, and, ultimately, the making of a fire offering.

In tantra the gayatri mantra can be used in several ways to achieve worldly goals, to overcome specific obstacles, or to advance spiritually. Offering a mixture of sugar, honey, coconut, ghee, and kaner (Nerium indicum) into the fire while repeating the gayatri mantra cures physical and psychosomatic problems. Offering the flower of a lotus while reciting the gayatri mantra brings prosperity. Offering the fruit, leaves, and sticks from a bilva tree (Aegle marmelos) brings both peace and prosperity. Offering karanja fruit (Pongamia pinnata) is a tantric cure for phobia and schizophrenia. An offering of sticks from a palash tree (Butea monosperma) grants retentive power (memory) and clarity of mind.

Similarly, chapter 6 of Netra Tantra describes six ways to use the maha mrityunjaya mantra for healing oneself or others. Most of these consist of rituals, visual...

The goal of the practice determines what ritual ingredients are used. They can include water, flowers, milk, yogurt, ghee (clarified butter), fruit, cooked food, honey, turmeric, rice, black sesame seeds, raw sugar, sandalwood powder, saffron, and, in some cases, liquor, meat, and fish. And because it is necessary for the practitioner to maintain a mood that is compatible with the force being invoked, the goal of the practice also dictates what that mood should be—tense, relaxed, passive, aggressive, etc. To engender the most auspicious atmosphere, the practitioner eats food that is compatible with the practice, selects a compatible set of mala beads, wears clothes of a compatible color, and chooses a compatible material on which to sit while doing the practice. For example if the goal of your practice is to subdue an enemy, to destroy the animosity in an enemy’s mind, or to subdue the enemies within yourself (the negative tendencies of the mind, such as ego, attachment, desire, and anger), your diet preceding the practice should consist of yellow food—dishes containing turmeric, saffron, or yellow legumes (such as toor dahl and mung dahl). Rice pudding with saffron or a pudding of cream of wheat, puffed lotus seeds, and saffron is ideal. A mala made of rudraksha beads, turmeric root, coral, or topaz will be conducive to engendering the proper mood, as will wearing yellow clothes (preferably silk) and sitting on a woolen blanket.

In all the practices described so far rituals play the key role, but tantric texts also describe practices that do not involve rituals and therefore do not employ external objects. These practices are purely meditative; rituals are replaced by internal, contemplative techniques.

For example because tantrics consider the human body to be a microcosm of the entire universe, tantrics who use meditative practices instead of rituals invoke the forces of nature within their own body instead of those same forces in external objects. The goal is the same: experiencing a state of oneness with those forces. Their ritual consists mainly of reciting mantras while concentrating on certain parts of their body. They do not use external yantras: their body is the yantra. Nor do they use fire rituals to propitiate the life-force: their own solar plexus serves as the fire bowl. With their powers of concentration they visualize the mind as a garden where all kinds of desires grow in th...

practice make a comprehensive and minutely detailed equation between the forces of the cosmos and the forces in the body. For example they pinpoint nine minerals, nine gems, and nine groups of herbs that correspond to the nine planets; ultimately these groups of nine correspond to the nine constituents of the human body: chyme, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, seminal fluid, ojas, and jiva.

There is a third category of tantric practice that combines both ritual and meditation. Some tantrics may undertake the practice of the gayatri mantra, for example, in a purely ritualistic fashion. Then after completing a course of practice (which may consist of repeating the mantra a hundred thousand times, or eleven hundred thousand times, or 2.4 million times), they do a fire offering with sesame seeds and ghee while they continue to repeat the gayatri mantra. Then they go on to the next stage of the practice, which involves doing half of the daily gayatri practice while employing external ritualistic objects and the other half while meditating on the third chakra (the navel center). At this stage surrendering the ego to the fire element at the navel center replaces the offering of sesame seeds and ghee into the external ritual fire. At the third stage of practice they do not incorporate external rituals at all—the practice has become completely internal.

Over time the tantrics developed so many techniques that it became impossible to study them systematically or even to find a progression from one type of practice to another.

divided all tantric practices and techniques into three major categories: those employing external objects, those which are purely meditative, and those which combine both techniques. This is the basis for the three major schools of tantra.

Most humans operate at the level of body consciousness: our sense of pleasure and pain and our experience of success and failure correspond to our bodies and to the world around us. So all the tantric practices requiring the involvement of our bodies, senses, and material objects were organized into one group called kaula—literally, “that which is related to kula (the family).” This is the path of householders. Practices accompanied by rituals, the recitation of scripture, pilgrimage to holy shrines, and fire offerings belong to the kaula path. The goal of tantric practices at this level is to organize life in such a way that everything—including interpersonal relationships, the acquisition of material objects, and the satisfaction of the biological urges—becomes a means to spiritual growth.

Another category of practices is used to internalize the rituals. Those who aim at complete independence from external objects but who have not yet gained access to the inner realm of consciousness undertake this set of practices, which are partly ritualistic and partly meditative. Because they combine both techniques they are called mishra, literally “mixture” or “combination.”

The third category of practices consists of purely meditative techniques that enable the aspirant to maintain awareness of their oneness with the Divine within. This school of tantra is called samaya, which means “one with Her.” Its goal is to allow consciousness to move upward through the energy channel that flows between the eyebrow center and the center at the crown of the head. It is only after gaining access to this channel, called the brahma nadi, that practitioners can achieve their goal of meditating at the crown chakra and experience their oneness with the Divine Mother.

All tantric practices, from the lowest end of the spectrum to the highest, fit into one of these three categories: kaula, mishra, and samaya; they refer to external, combined, and internal practices. There is no strict rule holding an aspirant to this sequence, but adepts usually initiate students into kaula practices first. Even before this, however, students are led through a preliminary series of practices, beginning with standard mantra meditation and followed by the tan...

The first step is to become familiar with the kaula theory and practice, including the distinction between the right- and left-hand paths within the path of kaula.

As already mentioned, the word kaula is derived from kula, which means “family”; those tantrics who believe that every aspect of creation is part of a divine family are called “kaulas.” They believe that Shakti, the Divine Mother, is the origin of all that exists. Everything—all forms of matter and energy—emerge from Her. It is not that the universe as a distinct entity evolves from Her; rather, She becomes the universe, She is the universe. She is both inside the universe and beyond it. Considering anything to be different from Her is ignorance, and experiencing anything as other than Her is bondage. Liberation is experiencing Her alone, within and without. Becoming one with Her in every respect is the highest achievement.

Kaula tantrics practice this philosophy in every aspect of their daily lives. First they cultivate a positive attitude toward their relationships with their family, environment, society, and, ultimately, the entire world. The process of self-transformation they undertake is guided by this philosophy—they see their spouse, children, friends, and even enemies as the manifestation of the Divine Mother. And because they have dismantled the wall that ordinarily stands between right and wrong, good and evil, auspicious and inauspicious, they do not find worldly objects and experiences to be a barrier in their spiritual quest.

They see the Divine Mother in everything, so they see no need to renounce the wor...