Journey into Tantra

Here is an 18 part, college-level lecture series in audio and video featuring ~44 hours of content with Q&A + a guided meditation. The idea was to create an interactive learning environment in which these ancient and transformative teachings come to life! 

Everything we recognize about modern postural yoga  – the poses, the hand gestures, the mantras, the philosophies – all come from Tantra.

Almost all of the modern Hindu temples are Tantrik in design.

Almost all of the portraits, paintings, sculptures and presentations of the various gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon come from Tantra.

Every day, millions of people all around the world perform a pooja (Hindu ritual worship). This a purely Tantrik innovation in Indian spirituality. Ironically, most people doing pooja don’t even know that they are doing Tantra! The same people who would put Tantra down are the very people who practice it daily.

Perhaps this word, “Tantra” is the most maligned and misunderstood word in both the East and the West. In India, the word "tantra" often connotes black magic today at worst and at best a dangerous spiritual practice limited to an elite class of mystics.

In the West, the term often means a pleasure-enhancing technique to spice up life in the bedroom. Just because you’re making love to some tabla music in the background, does it make what you’re doing “spiritual”?

So which is it? Sorcery or sex?

In truth: Tantra is neither of these things.

Tantrism is the very air that I breathed growing up. I was born into a Tamil Shaivite family and I spent much of my childhood and adolescence standing, kneeling or sitting before the mysterious picture of Shiva at our family altar, wondering at the profundity of Shiva's mischievous smile. I was raised before the murtis and weaned on the mantras and yantras of the Shaiva Tantrik tradition. It is the tradition in which I am most at home. And so it is with tremendous joy that I invite you into the lurid world of Gods, Goddesses and Ritual that is Tantrik practice and theory in this new audio program, Journey into Tantra.

In this audio program, we will explore what Tantra is and most importantly, how you can start practicing it in your own life.
Whatever faith or tradition you are currently working with, understanding the theory and practice of Tantra can add many powerful elements to your spiritual life, empowering you in your own chosen path. For example, if you are more inclined to the Christian symbolism, then, it is my hope this audio program will make you a better Christian! If you are Muslim, I hope this program will make you a better Muslim! And if you are an Atheist, maybe this program will make you a happier one!
This is because the various principles and ideas discussed in the following lectures are universal themes in spiritual life.
I hope they can be as much of an inspiration to you as they have been to me! 

Also, in this audio program we will point out the nuances between Tantrik Non-Duality (Kashmiri Shaivism) and Classical Non-Duality (Advaita Vedanta) while striving always for a synthesis between the two systems. 
While they are different in many respects, there is an underlying Truth that runs through all the schools of Indian philosophy as well as through all the spiritual traditions of the world. As it says in the Rig Veda "Truth is One though sages might call it by different names." 
As such, it is my sincere hope this audio program will give you an appreciation of the Tantrik themes that exist in all the major world religions and that this realization will show you that all the religions in the world are equally true and equally effective in bringing the aspirant to Enlightenment, the ultimate goal of a human life.