Tantra - Liberation in the World

The story of my life is nothing more than a long journey, from what I believed myself to be to what I truly am. It is a tale of transcending the personal and the universal, the partial and the total, the illusory and the real, the apparent and the true. My life is a flight beyond the temporal and the eternal, darkness and light, the human and the divine. This story is not public but profoundly private and intimate.

Only what begins, ends; only what starts, finishes. One who lives in the present is neither born nor dies, because what lacks a beginning never ends.

I am the disciple of a seer, an enlightened being, somebody who is nobody. I was initiated in my spiritual childhood by the moonlight. A seagull who loved flying more than anything else in life inspired me. In love with the impossible, I crossed the universe obsessed with a star. I have walked infinite paths, following the footsteps of those who saw.

Like the ocean that longs for water, I sought my home within my own house.

Tantra refers to a very diverse corpus of scriptures, techniques, rites, and teachings. It is hard to define because of this wisdom's multifaceted mystical nature. Nobody knows its age with certainty, but like the Vedas, it is considered eternal. It was cultivated and practiced in areas where Brahmanism was less influential, such as northwestern India, Bengal and Assam in the east, and Andhra in the south. Subsequently, Tantrism expanded, influencing not only Buddhism and Jainism, but each and every major religion of the world.

Although many in the West have become familiar with the term tantra, few know its true meaning. The West has largely ignored the ancestral religious and spiritual systems of India that present an order of values different from its own. Since it is one of the traditions least studied by Western scholars, it has been misinterpreted and even condemned.

This complex existential phenomenon cannot merely be described by words since it is not an intellectual philosophy, but instead belongs to the world of experience. Tantra emphasizes practice over beliefs and philosophical theories. Scholars try to define Tantra, but yogis do not require any categorization. Tantrikas resort to philosophy only when it is essential to explain their worldview logically and clarify the theological and metaphysical meanings of their practices. In the end, the main intention of Tantra is self-knowledge.

Until we develop enough sensitivity, we will not be able to grasp Tantra. However, we can say without a doubt that getting closer to Tantric sensual spirituality makes us more authentic and real. Tantra leads us to discover deep aspects of our existence that lie dormant or repressed; it guides us to the revelation of our inherent potential that is hidden deep within us.

**Contents and Sample Pages**