the tantric socalled Prabhupada disciple Gaurahari das Babaji

Any comments?

sadhaka108

from: http://www.goldenliontemple.org/tantra/

Preface

by Sri Gaurahari das Babaji

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love to write. Communication is truly a passion for me, and I am at ease with it. Indeed, I have often made the claim that I am willing to talk with anybody about anything. And for many years I have made my living writing articles and books on all sorts of topics.

But whenever I sit down to write something as self-explanatory and frankly self-promotional as this, I just get writers’ block. While I do love to talk with all kinds of people about Tantric Vaisnavism, I have found it far more difficult to commit my own deeply personal experiences, feelings and strongly held beliefs to the page. So I hope you will be a little patient with me while I get over this feeling of self-consciousness and catch my stride.

When it comes to writing about spiritual topics, I have a principle that I observe very strictly: I refuse to write about anything that I have not personally experienced. That means everything you will read herein is an account of an experience, or a conclusion drawn from experience. I will never simply repeat something I read in a book somewhere. That kind of second-hand material has no place in a book about Tantric Vaisnavism, for it is a path of experience rather than mere philosophical or theological exercise.

There are so many books about spiritual life. And these days, there is no lack of material about Tantra and the spiritual potential of sexuality. As far as I am personally concerned, there is no need to write another. I have had the great good fortune to actually experience all of the spiritual things I could desire or imagine, and much more. So from my point of view, the ideas expressed in this or any other book on spiritual life are self-evident to anyone who has eyes to see and is experienced in spiritual realization.

However, I find that the vast majority of books published in the West do not really express the essential intensity of Tantric Vaisnavism as it is practiced by people for whom it is the native cultural and spiritual orientation, and among whom I have had the good fortune to live and learn for the majority of my adult years. Consequently both the presentation and practice of Tantra in the West has become, to a great extent, spiritually disempowered, materialistic and superficial.

No doubt part of this is a result of the spiritually enervating atmosphere of Western culture, which tends to reduce everything to the lowest common cultural denominator. But many if not most Western so-called ‘tantra’ teachers, in their rush to exploit Tantra, the only well-known spiritual path with a sex-positive orientation, present material they have encountered third-hand in books but not actually practiced for a significant time and realized for themselves. They also have to bear a large share of the responsibility for distorting Tantra in the West.

How many Western teachers of ‘tantra’ have studied in India with native teachers, learned Sanskrit, read the Tantric source literatures, and received formal initiation into the tradition? Has Tantra as it is taught in Europe and America produced any great saints or Enlightened beings? Cultural conditions in the West do make it difficult to practice Tantric ways. I had to go to India to find conditions conducive to doing my sadhana, and there I met quite a few Westerners who reported the same problem.

My concern is that, as ancient traditional spiritual cultures are repackaged for distribution in the global mass-market culture, the tendency is to mistake a merely intellectual understanding for actual realization, confusing the symbol with the actual thing it represents. This is especially true in the case of Tantra, where so much of the actual practices remain obscure, secret and hidden, even in India.

Tantric rituals must be a uniquely personal expression of the practitioners’ sexuality; no one-size-fits-all or cookbook approach will suffice. Therefore, Tantric practices are really only appropriate for those who are sufficiently advanced to create their own style of practice in harmony with Tantric principles. Tantra is not for spiritual neophytes, but for those with a deep understanding and realization of its principles.

One of my most important aims in presenting the Tantric teachings is to restore the West’s understanding of the Tantric path to the greatness of its original spiritual roots, the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas. Another very important aim is to encourage people to practice esoteric spiritual paths with great enthusiasm, intensity and energy. I am confident that once the actual spiritual aims and purposes of Tantra are more widely understood, this deepening of practice will naturally follow.

Energy and Ecstasy
My first experience of these practices was a spontaneous event in my teenage years, when I discovered the interesting psychophysical effects of intense sensation and prolonged ritual practices. Later my first wife, a Native American Medicine Woman, initiated me into the intensely erotic world of the Navaho Qidoshka practices. Alone with her in the silence of the desert, I learned firsthand of the intense sensations, high-energy states, deeper spaces, visions and ultimately, the other dimensions and spiritual worlds attainable by these practices. My travels and further learning experiences in India and the South Pacific broadened my knowledge and deepened my practice. Now my life is about sharing these wonderful practices and experiences with others.

The essence of Tantric Vaisnavism is intense energy, spiritual erotic ecstasy and visionary creative consciousness. Tantric Vaisnavism is a sex-positive, pansexual spiritual practice that is open to the erotic practices of all orientations without judgment. It uses consciously directed sex energy to manifest states of advanced spiritual consciousness.

Unfortunately in the West, we have erected many cultural obstacles to experiencing this kind of ecstasy. Lack of knowledge, leisure time and cultural resources are perhaps the most serious such obstacles. Under the prevailing conditions in America especially, spiritual life, deep meditation, the pursuit and attainment of Enlightenment, sexual ecstasy and emotional satisfaction are precious luxuries. They are obtainable only by the elite with sufficient resources to cultivate advanced erotic, cultural and spiritual arts, or by the dedicated few who are willing to renounce material opulence, comfort and reputation to live their dreams.

None of the books on Tantra and Tantric Vaisnavism I have seen so far in the West provide a practical way around this and other difficult problems in practicing spiritual growth in such a heavily materialistic society. So I am motivated to provide something that can help.

If only we could put aside, even for a moment, our social conditioning and live our lives on the spiritual platform from our true heart. Everything would acquire its proper value and people would naturally be happy. I often see our social conditioning as a materialistic addiction that insists we keep so busy doing things we hate, that we have no time to do things we love. How wonderful life could be if only we had enough time and energy for spiritual wisdom, love and pleasure.

Fortunately, the Esoteric Teaching of Tantric Vaisnavism gives us practical ways to attain these things in this lifetime, even in a modern lifestyle. If performed with the proper intention and understanding, the original Tantric methods are so powerful that they provide results very quickly. This will be a real help to many people who do not have the time, resources or discipline needed to study the classical Ways of Enlightenment like Zen or Yoga, which require years of disciplined, monastic life and rigorous study just to reach an acceptable standard of theoretical or technical competence.

Portland, 1984
My partners and I had been exploring Tantric erotic practices intensively for several months. At some point I felt a deep need for silence and aloneness. I needed to meditate.

I was determined to attain Enlightenment or die. My main partner and I went traveling, visited my Teacher and then took a small apartment in a quiet building overlooking the Portland harbor.

Every day I would meditate for at least 8-10 hours, sometimes as much as 18 hours a day. I was following the meditation method outlined in the Taoist classic, Secret of the Golden Flower.

I was meditating on my breath to begin with, then on my heart, then on my energy, which was gradually moving higher and higher up my inner channel. I got so that I could easily move the energy up and out the top of my head, exteriorizing completely from my body at will. Then I would just relax and feel the space.

After six weeks of intense meditation, I was so sensitive I could feel the energy of every person in the entire apartment complex. My partner took a weekend trip to visit a friend in a nearby city. I had retreated deep into the silence and she was tired of being ignored.

That Saturday, the morning passed in the usual manner, that is to say I sat and meditated. I took a break about noon and cooked some whole wheat saimin and miso shiro.

As I relaxed after eating, I started to masturbate. I had not ejaculated in about two weeks. I masturbated very slowly to climax, doing nothing special whatsoever. Now up to this trip north, I had been practicing Tantric erotic methods so intensively that it is quite possible I may have employed some of them instinctively. But I had no conscious knowledge of this.

In the afterglow of the orgasm, I suddenly felt a presence in the room. A person, female from the energy, was there but not visible to my eyes. Then I felt a tap of energy on my forehead, on my third eye where I have a scar from a childhood accident.

My spiritual vision opened up and I could suddenly see. I saw the Spirit, His love like a tidal wave in an ocean of milk, pervading everything and somehow being everything without becoming it.

My world was suddenly seven-dimensional, with the ordinary reality and the spiritual reality running concurrently through time. I could see what was going on in the Spirit behind the illusion. The veil had opened.

I could feel everything the plant in the corner of the room was feeling, or talk to a stone. Everything was alive, everything had its own intelligence.

I felt ecstatic; I could barely contain my joy. I wanted to run around hugging people, like the guy in the song “Love Potion #9.” After some hours of this ecstasy, I had to share it with someone. Barely containing my bubbling joy, I walked down to the local teahouse.

People were a real surprise. They looked like cardboard cutouts and studiously tried to make believe I was not there. Hell, I got better rapport from the plants in the teahouse window! I felt like a ghost. I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn’t left my body. No one would even acknowledge my presence.

Back at my place, the energy was better. I remained in ecstasy for hours. Although the initial excitement gradually wore off, I was profoundly changed in some very subtle way. My consciousness was permanently altered.

Having achieved my goal, I gave up my intensive meditation program. After a few days, I learned to behave relatively normally again. My partner came back from her trip, refreshed. A couple of weeks later we went camping on Maui.

Life goes on after Enlightenment. It’s hard to say what’s changed except my consciousness and how I see things; but then again, that has made all the difference.

Tantric Vaisnavism does not require students to change their sexual practices, clothing, diet, or lifestyle. The changes will come naturally from within as one gradually progresses in the practice. The whole point is to start developing your spiritual practice from where you are now. You don’t have to change anything external; real spiritual practices are transcendental to this material world.

Because of my personal experience with these teachings and practices, I am confident that the Esoteric Teaching of Tantric Vaisnavism will be a contribution of real value to many sincere spiritual seekers. It enabled me to solve the problems of life, to my great personal satisfaction. That benefit will now be available to many.

Sri Gaurahari das Babaji
St. Charles, Illinois, USA

April 18, 1995

the tantric socalled Prabhupada disciple Gaurahari das Babaji

PAMHO

Tantric Vaishnavism (Iskcon deviant style) - by Sri Gaurahari das Babaji

You need to be a member of Sastra Caksusa to add comments!

About