Namaskar - Apr09

Everything is bristling
with divinity and we
experience God in all
her forms via our body
and its senses
negative) that must be burned off via intense austerities. Any View that sees the world in
this way is going to have practices that are geared towards purifying, denying, and even
punishing the body in order to transcend the base desires and instincts that keep one stuck
in the realm of sin. Many of these practices have come to be known as brahmacharya or
that which must be done to experience the state of brahmacharya. It is ironic to this author
that so many Westerners that seek to throw down the shackles of the dualistic and guiltridden
religions of their youth have simply adopted the same View in the different clothing
of yogas like Iyengar, Ashtanga, Bikhram’s, Baptiste’s, Power-Vinyassa, etc. All of these
practices, whether it be known or not, stem from the Views of Patanjali, Advaita-Vedanta
or both. And, all of them are wrought the same problems that are created when one is
taught that something is inherently wrong with the base desires of their very own being.
In short, these Views are almost equivalent to that of Catholicism’s “Original Sin.”
It is fine if one believes these Views. In fact, the transcendental practices of brahmacharya are
extremely effective at getting one out of the body and into the sleep-like, “heavenly”
experience of samadhi described by the likes of Patanjali. If you buy it – that this world is
inherently impure and you want to escape it and think it possible to find eternal bliss by
doing so - then go for it with gusto! But, if you are like many practitioners I know that
appreciate a more life-affirming View and the possibility of experiencing the divinity of
each moment - including all the “nasty” stuff of life like changing diapers, having sex or
eating a juicy steak - then you might want to ask your yoga teacher: “do you know the View
where these practices come from?”
I have seen and experienced a great deal of inner confusion and conflict – and what my
Paramguru, Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati calls “spiritual schizophrenia” – in those
that try to project their idea that “it’s all one and all good” onto a transcendental, dualistic
model of spiritual practice. Here I was, yearning to know God in the intimate details of
my life, but doing practices and meditations that were spilling my Essence all over the
floors of hot-room yoga studios and getting me lost in realms of psychic delusion. The
brahmacharya practices that come from these Views see the body as a burden and an obstacle
- and they treat it as such. Through the intense heat created by austerities and tapasya one
literally burns off their sensual fluids and purifies themselves of the desire not only for sex,
but also for all sorts of worldly experience.
what is appropriate for
one person to expand
will actually force
another to contract
But, there is another View of brahmacharya and it comes from the tradition of Tantra,
which is about getting juicy rather then drying up. Non-dual Tantriks (not to be confused
with New-age sex addicts) see the entire world as the manifestation of God. We call her
Shakti. Everything is bristling with divinity and we experience God in all her forms via our
body and its senses. Many who fear the power that is cultivated by authentic Tantrik adepts
have tried to demonize Tantra, sexuality, and women in general – saying that the tradition
is heathen and debased. But, real Tantra, which does include appropriate practices of
discipline and restraint, is truly both a-moral and sensual in its orientation. In this View,
brahmacharya is not necessarily the renunciation of sex or of worldly matters altogether, but
rather, it is the letting go of the ego that creates attachment to the world of impermanent
objects, and thus suffers when things change and die.
Tantra is not based on rules of morality (like Yama/Niyama or the Ten Commandments)
because totally different practices might be appropriate for different people to expand
beyond their ego. Tantra does not see the ego or its desires as sinful or impure, just only as
limited. We seek to experience the fullness of divinity by expanding beyond the ego and to
do so we must accept ourselves as we are and be at peace with our most powerful energies.
Tantra is therefore a-moral and does not have rules because what is appropriate for one
person to expand will actually force another to contract and harden their sense of separation
and suffering. What is good practice for a person who is totally self-indulgent and without
any sense of structure or boundaries is perhaps a stint of celibacy. But, then again, a
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