Tantra: A direct approach to existence

Dr Sudhansu Kumar Dash

Tantra vision is one of the greatest vision ever dreamt by man .It is a religion without any priest, without any temple, without any organization. It is a religion which does not destroy the individual rather respects the individuality the most.

The vision of tantra is a direct approach to existence, reality or God, whatever we call it. It is an approach towards what is.It has no meditator,no middle man  and no priest and the moment the priest enters ,it goes corrupted. It is not a religion in the ordinary sense for the simple reason that it is an individual approach towards reality. It  is tremendously rebellious that trusts not in any organization, in any community but trusts in the individual.

Tantra trusts in the body what no other religion does. When a religion trusts in the body it creates a split between the individual and his body as a result the individual becomes the enemy of the body and starts destroying the wisdom of it. It not only believes in the body but also in the senses and their energy in total. It doesnot deny anything, but transforms everything.

Tantra is the way of intelligence, not of intellect. It does not answer any question, it does not explain anything at all; it is non explanatory. It is not a questioning, it is a quest. It is not an enquiry about the truth, it is an inquiry into the truth. It is to go beyond thinking .That’s why the love orgasm is a symbol for the ultimate reality. The reason is that only in love orgasm; one looses one’s mind for a few moments. That is the only state of no-mind available to an ordinary man, the only possibility to have a glimpse of the reality. It does not stay long but still that is the only possibility for one to have a contact with the reality. Otherwise one is always surrounded by one’s thoughts and the thoughts explain nothing .All explanations about the reality are simply nonsense. If one really wants to know what the unknown is , one has to drop out the mind and disappear into existence . That is the way of tantra.

Tantra is not a philosophy. It is absolutely existential not the existentialism of the western philosophers like Sartre, Camus or others. That existentialism is a philosophy , a philosophy of existence but not the way of tantra.The difference is quite vast. The existential philosophers of the west stumble upon anguish, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, meaninglessness, purposelessness. All these are negatives but tantra stumbles upon all that is beautiful, joyful and blissful.Tantra says ;existence is an orgasm ,an eternal orgasm and the ecstasy of the orgasm is going on for ever and forever.

To attain the vision of tantra the first thing is the body, the base where one is grounded. To be against the body is to be miserable, to be schizophrenic and to create a hell for oneself. Of course one is more than the body but that ‘more’ will come later when the body is transcended. So to transcend the body the body is needed at first. To be disrespectful to the body is to be losing contact with the reality. Tantra therefore teaches reverence to the body :a deep love respect and gratitude for the body as it is the greatest of mysteries of existence. So the first thing to learn is to respect the body and to unlearn all the nonsense that has been taught against the body, otherwise one will never turn on ,turn in and turn beyond. The body is the beginning and to be purified from all repressions, a  great catharsis is needed for the body.

The second thing that Tantra says is  that if one goes on finding new ways every day, the life will remain a thrill and it is an adventure. One will always be curious to know and be in the verge of seeking the unknown and the unfamiliar. When one will always be in the verge of seeking, one cannot become dull or bored. Learning to do things in a new way is to free oneself from the old habits as much as possible. It speaks not at all about imitation rather to be innovative and to have the signature of one on everything that one does. It brings individuality into things because to imitate is to miss the life. To be imitative is to be neurotic and the only way to be sane in the world is to be individual, to be authentically individual and to be one’s own being.

The third thing in tantra is that the body should purified of repression , the senses have to be made alive again and the mind has to drop neurotic thinking, obsessive thinking and to learn ways of silence. Whenever possible, to put the mind aside.

Now one will say that it is easy to say to put the mind aside but is it possible? To this question tantra says that let the mind be filled with thoughts but one is ti be dethatched and watch the thoughts that comes. there is no need to be worried about it-just watch. Just be the observer and by and by one will see

That silent gap has started coming. When one will be aware that the gap has started coming .one will be aware of the watcher. Now watch the watcher and the a new gap will start coming-the watcher will start disappearing. Just like the thoughts One day ,the thinker will start disappearing and then the real silence will arise. In this state both subject and object have gone and one has entered into the beyond. When these things have happened, body is purified of all repressions, senses freed from dullness, mind liberated from obsessive thinking, and a vision arises in one free from all illusions-that is the tantra vision , a direct approach to existence.

Lecturer-in-English

Shreedhar Swamy College of Education and Technology

Sadangi,Dhenkanal,Odisha, INDIA