now the tantric system has been vilified it is considered to be something where you get drunk
and the three words that become visible are mass madeira and maithun and this has been really fine
in this dramatic manner let me just touch on this idea of tantra in its purest form and what
it implies you see all of us are in a way kind of polarized when we kind of interact with the
rest of the universe we are polarized either to relate to the things that we experience as either
something that is attractive or something that we are we find aversion for we run away from we find
it you know kind of impulse you know we feel that it is not right and we run away from it so there
are two things that are very visible in our lives attraction and aversion now what tantra the purest
form of tantra is trying to do is to tell us that if you can stop polarizing your you experience the
universe by linking just to this idea of abortion and attraction then you mastered spirituality
because now you are no longer linked up with this variation of experiences but the experience itself
now this may sound difficult but let me just tell you how easy it is or how difficult it is
the greatest attraction we have as physical beings is gender attraction we are strongly attracted to
the person of another gender this is inbuilt in us all of us it can we cannot avoid this
and yet you see the tantric practice what we are trying to find is this we are trying
to see suppose the most beautiful person is present in front of us of the opposite gender
and we are able to kind of not be attracted we are able to take on this
very important challenge and not get attracted not get drawn
then we win at the same time we have aversion so in the tantric practice they will say look here is
a skull they're going to cook some meat in it and make you eat it in a scowl you go ah abortion this
is why it appears very weird the idea is to take away the polarization that we have regarding the
idea of attraction and abortion and rise above both of them this is the pure idea of tantra
and in the case of ramakrishna as i said within a few days he mastered all the tantric practices
and what becomes what happens is this the moment you are successful you acquire tremendous power
because once you are able to stand up to this major forces that attract all human
beings attraction and aversion whether when you are able to rise above it you general you you
you discover tremendous powers within yourself they become manifested a's aids the asta siddhis
the eight types of supernatural powers and these were very visible in the life
of ramakrishna and yet we see him offering giving us a health warning saying keep away
the aim of tantra is not to acquire the siddhis but to rise about all this such attraction and
to discover god that is the whole idea so you must move away from the tantra the idea of siddhis this
is very visible the story is very interesting at later stage his chief disciple swami vivekananda
visited ramakrishna when ram krishna was about to pass away
gave up his body and ramka said come here my boy i've acquired all these eight siddhis astra
siddhis you are going to do great things in this life and you can be you're going to work so much
so well for me i would like to give them to you as a gift it will help you with your work
like the teacher the disciple is equal to the task he said keep them master i
am not interested in the siddhis my aim is good realization and nothing else will ever attract me
he just you see just as the master is so so so so kind of careful the disciple is equal
to the task he too rejected the siddhis it's an interesting thing for us you see when we study
the story of ramakrishna we come across various interactions with various personalities various
ideas various themes that are visible in hindu tradition but are not properly been understood
so as i said the pure idea of tantra is basically to stop polarizing our interaction
with the rest of creation through evolution and attraction and rise above it that is a pure idea
and yet it becomes degenerate and it's necessary to purify it and the the the fruits that you gain
from tantra is something again you need to move away from and not be attracted to and
again this is visible in the story of ramakrishna as well as his chief disciple swami vivekananda
let me tell you something else why this shri ramakrishna is so attractive
in the story of ramakrishna the reason why for example i'm attracted to ramakrishna
is because here i find somebody who is talking about religion about spirituality from fast and
experience book learning doesn't bother he's not interested in book learning he's not interested
interested in intellectual kind of gymnastics he's beyond that he's interested in the first hand but
it must be visible spirituality must become visible must be something to experience
here and now this is what attractes me or attracts me to shiramakrishna spirituality that can be
experienced experience we want that we want that thrill we are talking about this bliss we hear of
this bliss we want to experience this place we wish to you know dive into this blissful state
we want that nothing less will do this is the requirement and this is why i am attracted to
him that is why thousands of human beings attracted this personality because there is
no other sign look at him there's nothing to draw you towards him seems so simple
too simple in fact there are no external signs he doesn't grow horns or anything like that and yet
is such an attractive personality because it's a spiritual you want to experience come here this
is why i'm attracted this is why lots of people attract this is why swami vivekananda is attracted
and when people say where is your authority about hinduism i passed the book as i told
you last time to swami vivekananda and he passes around to this fellow saying he knows
it is the groundwork that he has put through this various experiences in dakshineshwar
they become like the the feeding ground of modern hinduism this is where modern hindus becomes
becomes visible and it's going to influence the rest of the world in no uncertain terms so this
is the foundation of this this modern proponent of hinduism and the groundwork is being carried out
you