Reaching For and Claiming Your Personal Victories Through Tantra
Begin to Channel the Secrets of Ancient Practices to Step Into Your Full Potential and Take Control of Your Life’s Purpose
Considering the scarce nature of Tantra in today’s modern world, you are either reading this article by chance, or you heard the word Tantra in relation to incredible sex and got excited. Well, although Tantra is often associated with sexual intimacy, its principles and applications extend far beyond physical pleasure. This article gives an introduction to the concept of Tantra, as well as a group of instructions into how they can be used in achieving success in any endeavor.
History and Nature
The word “Tantra” is an ancient Sanskrit word that literally means “loom” or “weave” or “wrap”. Just like many traditional practices that have endured to the modern day, Tantra originates from ancient India, around the first millennium of the Christian Era (CE). At the time, it was strictly a part of the Hinduism and Buddhism traditions of that era. In Indian traditions, however, the word “Tantra” is also used to refer to any systematic and broadly applicable “text, theory, instrument, method, practice, or technique”. In these old traditions, Tantra and tantric practice often used mantras, which are sacred utterances. These utterances could be Latin sounds in simple words, group of words, or even syllables. It was believed that these mantras had religious, supernatural, spiritual, or magical powers, and many people still hold these beliefs till today (including me).
When discussing Tantra, one major problem faced by most is the lack of a single definition or description for the concept. In fact, different scholars of old and modern theology often devised and at times diluted their own definitions for Tantra and popularized them. Some of these “scholars” even decide to offer multiple unrelated definitions for the one concept and leave it to the individual to select any one of which works for them. Many mainstream readers and knowledge seekers have also somehow been led to believe that the word “Tantra” strictly refers to a form of spiritual meditative sexual intercourse as I mentioned earlier – this is actually a tantric practice but is definitely not what the concept of Tantra is all about. However, the confusion is one that is not likely to be solved anytime soon, or maybe ever. What we know about Tantra for sure is that it encompasses a broad range of different practices from the past, some of which still exist today.
Using Tantra to Succeed in Life’s Endeavors
A belief common to most tantric religions and beliefs, as well as the tantric mantras, is that succeeding in life’s endeavors requires a high level of inner strength and vigor. A person without proper mental balance will find it particularly difficult to navigate life’s problems and overcome them to achieve material success.
Tantra requires a level of personal transformation in order to truly access the parts of ourselves that will directly influence our success. This includes dropping destructive habits, embracing new routines, and most importantly, awakening the prana shakti within ourselves.
Awakening the prana shakti, according to tantric traditions, is what gives us motivation, self-confidence, grit, vigor, and insight, which is needed by every single person to achieve any form of success – spiritual or worldly. It is referred to as enlivening by tantric traditions.
Tantric beliefs practically state that the forces of nature are in direct correlation with our vitality. This means that the inner strength needed to succeed will depend on how much the forces of nature are on our side. Unsurprisingly, they also state that one of the ways to be in tune with the forces of nature is by tantric rituals, which help us nurture the natural world and be nurtured by it.
The Use of Tantric Rituals
Many tantric rituals are usually intended for cleansing purposes, while some are for healing. Generally, they help in renewing our personal identity and our continual commitment to improve or transform it, which gives us the necessary inner strength to persevere and reach our goals. They also help in ignoring the hindrances along the way, where we originally would have tried to spend our energy in removing.
Summarily, Tantric rituals are categorized into three areas, in terms of their main uses:
Healing
Cleansing
Focusing our attention away from obstacles while helping us eliminate them.
The Rudra Yaga
According to tantric practices, Rudra is the most primordial form of divinity within us and breathes life within us. Rudra is what is responsible for the awakening of our prana shakti, responsible for keeping us confident, strengthened, and renewed.
The Rudra Yaga ritual goes a long way in granting us a renewed sense of self to approach our ambitions with determination. In this segment, we will briefly highlight the steps of practicing the Rudra Yaga internally.
Sit down and relax your breathing
Offer your respect and love to the teacher of all teachers and the guide of all guides (known as the Inner Intelligence)
Pay homage to the remover of obstacles – the Ganesha
Then, you offer your love gratitude and respect to the great force which invites revelation and strengthens you to receive intuition and proper understanding – the Batuka Bhairava
Offer your image to the following divine spirits:
Kshetrapala, known as the lord of the field that is the body and mind.
Dashadikpala, referred to as the lord of directions.
And the 64 Yogins, also called the compassionate mothers.
Eventually invite – and at the same time, invoke the thirty-three divinities.
Offer your image to your own prana shakti, the life force which has kept you alive and expired thus far.
Close your eyes and infuse the energy at your eyebrow center.
Then slowly and calmly direct the energy towards your navel center, and focus your awareness there.
Meditate for as long as you want,
Gently open your eyes and conclude your ritual.
Clearly, the above ritual appears to be somewhat complicated and lengthy. It will take some practice. But the truth is, in any step we do take in life, and no matter what your personal beliefs are, it is always necessary to find ways to renew your drive and achieve personal transformation by dropping bad habits and acquiring new ones. It is also important to attain a level of self-confidence that will not only help you charge through your life pursuits but will also guide you in removing obstacles as you encounter them.
Last Words
Finally, as a takeaway, Tantra encourages that we protect ourselves from negative influences because they are likely to render us “spiritually poor, and inner poverty reflects in the world around us”. This poverty of the soul bleeds into poverty in the physical realm.