Sarita and Yogi Malik chat about a vast array of subjects on Tantra – from Kundalini to Mantras, Chakras to sacred sites, to how to bring Tantra into our daily lives.
Please suggest a few exercises to awaken the Kundalini Energy in the Second Chakra.
When we address the subject of Kundalini, it is important to understand the role our emotions play in this phenomenon. The second chakra is of a fluid nature. It is a positive pole for women, meaning she has a gift to offer to men from this chakra, just as men have a gift to offer to women in the first chakra. The second chakra holds the key to both birth and death, and also to the emotions connected to birth and death. It is a portal into the cosmic womb.
When Shakti Kundalini awakens, it is essential that the seeker of truth is ready to open up to emotional fluidity in a conscious way. This will support the ascent of Kundalini to be both fluid and ecstatic. If there is emotional stagnation held in the chakras, the rise of Kundalini can be a very shocking ordeal, because anything not in tune with oneness will be expelled from the system all at once. The person may not be prepared to deal with the repercussions of this.
To help open Kundalini in the second chakra, I would recommend a two-fold process.
1) Learn and practise emotional release, which can be done with breath and re-birthing sessions, with Osho’s Dynamic Meditation, or Becoming the Emotions Meditation (as described in my book Divine Sexuality) with Osho’s Mystic Rose Process or with Craniosacral sessions.
2) Inner ecstasy practices, such as Kundalini Yoga, Dance as meditation, Tantra meditations, including Tantric Sexual practices, massage of various kinds, silent meditation, devotional singing, gong baths and communion with nature.”
What is the role of Tantric Mantras, for the purposes of Sacred Sexuality?
Mantras help us to focus on and activate particular life principles. As we chant, we fall in tune with the deep meaning and intention of this particular mantra and also with the person who first created that mantra. The mantra is imbued with the original intent. The more people who chant a particular mantra, the more powerful it becomes. It becomes a living transmission. In life, energy always follows intent. When we have unconscious intention, we manifest a reality which may not be to our liking. For example, someone may carry a subconscious belief that old age descends like a curtain somewhere around the age of 70 and it is all downhill from there on in. They will then find themselves manifesting this scenario as their 70th birthday dawns. Someone else in another culture may believe that becoming old is to become a highly respected and wise elder, and will be in joyful anticipation of this phase of life.
Our subconscious intentions become our reality. Just as we are what we eat, we are also what we intend. A mantra is a way of creating a reality based on conscious intention.
This conscious intention is imbued with much more power when practised during Tantric Sex. This is because, when we have sex, all of our senses and our emotional being are also involved. Our heart may be very open to the music of the spheres as we melt into deep union with our partner. The right and left sides of the brain merge and we may open into deep orgasm with the universe. Such a state of being is a tremendously potent way to practise mantra chanting. With such practice, our conscious intention manifests quickly and easily. Conscious Sex is God in action, the creation principle at work. As we attune ourselves to the creation principle with our totality of being, we are aligned with the God spark from where everything arises, and to where everything returns. We are attuned to Leela, the divine play.
Tantrikas work with Yantras. What are these tools and how can they aid the practice of Yoga and Tantra?
There are four areas of human development in which Tantra practitioners excel: Meditation, Love, Mantra and Yantra. In meditation we become a non-judgemental witnessing consciousness of our inner and outer reality. As this takes place, the divinity within all that we witness is revealed. In Love, we merge with the divinity of all. In mantra, we attune ourselves to and celebrate the creation principle at work. In yantra, we manifest creative thought into reality; we become the architect of our own creation.
Yantras are normally represented as sacred geometry designs, which are pregnant with multifaceted meaning. As we study them or meditate with them or do rituals with them, the multifaceted and deeper meaning is transmitted to us beyond thought. The living presence of the symbolism jumps out of the yantra and is made flesh within us.
In my Tantra groups, I love to create Living Yantras’ This means, I ask the participants in my group to create the shape of the yantra with their own bodies, as part of a sacred ritual practice. It is exquisitely beautiful and powerful. Just as water receives and carries information, our bodies are also made largely of water and have the same capacity of being information conduits. We need to take care what information is fed into us. Sacred yantra practice is a phenomenal way to bring the body into harmony with universal principles.
Please recommend 1 or 2 books by Osho which deal with Tantric Sexual Energy and it’s purpose.
The are many books by Osho which give precious insights into Tantra, from various angles. One, which has become very famous and controversial is called, From Sex to Superconsciousness. Osho used to laugh about the people who would buy this book because it carried the word ‘sex’ in it. Many people forget completely that it also carries the word Superconsciousnes in the title.
Another book I adore is called The Book of Secrets. This is Osho’s commentary on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, a collection of 112 sutras. In this Tantra treatise, Lord Shiva is answering questions on life, love and spirituality, posed by his consort Parvati. Each of his answers is a meditation method. Osho comments on these Sutras with such elegance and genius that it inspires a life’s journey to dive into the understanding and practise of these methods.
What purpose do the fire ceremonies play in Tantric practice?
Fire ceremonies are essential to Tantra practice. Traditionally, many Tantric practitioners have used not only fire puja, but have also lived in or near Burning Ghats, where the dead are burned. This little-understood way of life gives rise to deep superstitions about Tantric attitudes. There is a science behind it. When a body is burned, the soul can more easily depart from the previous life’s attachments and discover liberation. If a yogi or yogini is able to meditate on the burning bodies, he or she can discover such liberation while still alive.
In fire puja, a similar principle is at work. Fire transmutes energies into their more refined aspects. When we align with fire, we can easily burn one layer of whatever is currently making us feel dense or heavy, whether that be physical, emotional or psychological. As the layer is burned, we use mantra to call in those energies, which will help us to align with our true soul purpose.
Have you visited the ancient Tantric sites in India? Is there a purpose now to visit these places?
Yes, I have visited Varanasi, Konark, Khajuraho, Gokarna and other sacred sites. It is certainly very special to go and meditate in such places. Enlightened beings have left their fragrance in sacred sites, and if we are sensitive, we can imbibe the nectar of their presence. There is a word, Terma, used by Tibetans, which describes the possibility of downloading a spiritual transmission left in the ether by an enlightened one. If someone is ripe and ready, just sitting silently in a sacred place, the complete transmission of a past master can enter into them. There is an undercurrent of enlightenment that is very present in many places in India. It is India’s great heritage and it’s power should not be underestimated.
How can ordinary people apply the principles and practices of Tantra into their daily lives? Suggest some examples, please.
It is my passion to teach such practices to people from all walks of life. I travel around the world doing only that! Usually when I teach such practices, I like to create a milieu where it will be easy for people to understand through their experience. I create a Tantric Temple ambiance, and devices or situations, which will help people to receive a living transmission of Tantra. On the written page, people are missing one vital ingredient, and that is, to do the method instead of only thinking about it.
I will tell you a couple of sutras from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra and how you can play with them.
1) “This so-called universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so.”
There are various ways you can practise this meditation. One simple way is to begin your day with laughter, a meditation I have learned from my Master, Osho. By doing so, you catapult yourself into awareness of the ‘cosmic joke’.
Before opening your eyes in the morning, stretch like a cat. Then go into a deep belly laughter for no reason at all, for 3 minutes. Then, you can open your eyes and begin your day.
Do this meditation each morning for 21 days and you will discover a totally new way of seeing and experiencing the world around you. Things that used to seem serious will appear funny. Gradually, you will be able to enjoy the dramas and traumas of life from a detached place, as if watching a rather amusing film. This brings lightness of being and ongoing bubbling joy. Seriousness fuels the ego-mind, while joy and laughter supports heart and soul.
2) “When in worldly activity, keep attention between two breaths, and so practicing, in a few days be born anew.”
The instructions for this meditation are very simple and yet it has profound results. There are a few points, which will help to understand it. The in-breath represents life. The out-breath represents death. This sutra is asking us to keep our attention in between the two breaths. The space in-between life and death is the transcendental field from where everything comes and to where everything returns. Whenever we allow two opposite polarities to meet, right there in that point of meeting, God realization will be experienced. Tantra methods will often play with the union of opposites for this reason.
Another relevant point about this meditation is, that it is asking us to practise it while engaged in worldly activity. Normally people believe that meditation is to be done in isolation from the world. But in Tantra, it is known that the macrocosm is mirrored in the microcosm. The world is our present moment. This is where we live. All we need to do is to bring awareness to what is, and this simple moment is revealed in its pure divine aspect.
How can someone connect to a Tantric Master or their Yoga Master, especially if they are on the other side of the world?
In the heart, there is no distance. All is one in the light of love. When you are connected through your heart to a beloved master, to a friend or to a lover, you can feel them very close, even if they are physically far away. To anchor this sense of closeness, you may like to have their picture, or an object they have imbued with their energy. Each object in existence carries a vibration. Some materials are easily charged with energy. A photograph carries a very strong vibration of the person who has been photographed. Silk cloth also absorbs energy very easily, as does marble rock or crystals. If your spiritual master has a particular time of day when they meditate and you meditate at the same time of day, you may be amazed how powerfully you can feel their presence.
The golden key, which unlocks all doors within, is the regular practice of meditation.
Excerpted from an article first published in Yoga Magazine (yogamagazine.com) and reproduced on Sarita’s blog: tantra-essence.com
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