1 - Discourses on Tantra Volume Two

Publisher's Note (1)

The many features of Tantra which distinguish it from other spiritual traditions make definition difficult within a short space. But if we are to focus on the single most characteristic of Tantra’s distinguishing features, surely that must be the spirit of fight. Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti has said,

The main characteristic of Tantra is that it represents human vigour. It represents a pactless fight. Where there is no fight there is no sádhaná. Under such circumstances Tantra cannot be there, where there is no sádhaná, no fight. It is an impossibility to conquer a crude idea and to replace it by a subtle idea without a fight. It is not at all possible without sádhaná. Hence, Tantra is not only a fight, it is an all-round fight. (“Tantra and Its Effect on Society”)

Tantra finds or creates circumstances designed expressly to bring out, rather than to intern away, one’s problematic mental tendencies. “A practitioner of Tantra becomes elevated and attains mastery over a hostile environment. Tantra does not accept the teaching of the Vedas that human beings should move internally, and carefully avoid any association with their environment.” (“The Fundamental Difference between Veda and Tantra”) So only if a spiritual path at some stage deliberately seeks out fearful, demoralizing or tempting circumstances in order to fight and overcome them by Cosmic ideation and by trust in the guru, does it deserve to be called Tantric.

It is not only an external or internal fight, it is simultaneously both. The internal fight is a practice of the subtler portion of Tantra. The external fight is a fight of the cruder portion of Tantra. And the fight both external and internal is a fight in both ways at once. So practice in each and every stratum of life receives due recognition in Tantra.… The practice for raising the kulakuńd́alinii is the internal sádhaná of Tantra, while shattering the bondages of hatred, suspicion, fear, shyness, etc., by direct action is the external sádhaná. (“Effect”)

Both the “internal fight” and the “external fight” refer to the fight against internal enemies – but the latter uses external means to intensify the fight.

The very first night that a Tantric goes to the burial ground, he is stricken with fear.… But when he returns home after finishing sádhaná, the mind is much lighter than before. When he goes out for sádhaná the next night, he is much less fearful. And thus the Tantric steadily and slowly overcomes fear. This is the applied process of Tantra which will help the practitioner overcome all instincts. (“Fundamental Difference”)

Though practices such as that of sádhaná in a burial ground may be the clearest instances of techniques designed to bring to the surface one’s mental propensities, such practices are not required of all Tantrics. But all Tantrics are brought face to face with their weaknesses in one way or other. A Tantric guru assigns to his disciples tremendous responsibilities for social change. The disciples’ participation in an activist movement aimed at a just and spiritually-based society forces them to confront sometimes physical fear, but more routinely the fear of social censure and the fear of the overwhelming task before them. The inferiority complex is the most debilitating fear which most of us must learn to overcome in our lives.

Tantra advises, “Jump into your environment without the least hesitation. Don’t be afraid. Fear will leave you step by step. Tomorrow you will not be as fearful as you are today, the day after you will be even less fearful, and ten days from now you’ll notice that you are completely fearless.” (“Fundamental Difference”)