The Energy Made Me Do It

published on Mon. Mar. 24th, '08 by Swami Atma

The Gist for Busy & Impatient Yogis

In the vedic path and religion in general great emphasis is put on being good in thought, speech and action, oftentimes leading to guilt and split of personality - a split between one's aspirations and one's day to day nature.

Tantra says: forget about morality, do lots of yoga with the right attitude and that will lead to being a more moral and ethical person. We say here: practice on both fronts.

You Are Not a Bad Person

This essay aims at exploring the relationship of the moral and ethical precepts of yoga (yamas and niyamas) with the theory of tantra. Obviously the title of this page is a play on the famous saying ...

This playful remark is often dismissed as a poor excuse for one's defects but it may hold the key to successful self-transformation and a better understanding of oneself.

Invoking the devil, an outside entity, is an easy cop-out to personal responsibility, however, why do so many new year's resolutions not last until January 15th? Many of us can relate to making conscious resolves to perform or not perform a given action and soon after not keeping up to that resolve, defeated, as it were, by an outside force.

The recurring theme of Advaita Vedanta is that our true Self is pure consciousness and taking the physical body and mind for the Self is a pure case of mistaken identity. This spiritual truth, just like many scientific facts, is counter intuitive but it is very useful as it leads to the realization that some parts of our own minds are independent of us and function on their own volition.

In the excellent book 'Yoga Nidra' Swami Satyananda tells of teaching deep relaxation to jail inmates. After only a few one-a-week sessions a substantial drop in fights and violent behavior was observed.

Somebody who acts in an over aggressive manner will often be met by a "what's his problem anyway?" reaction. This expression intuits that inner tensions and unease will lead to psychotic actions and that a well adjusted being won't indulge in such conduct. Managing stress and tensions through deep relaxation is a subject worth exploring on its own and is a major factor to the topic at hand but I want to focus here on the energetic side of the equation. This leads to the tantric view on spirituality.

What's Tantra Again?

Because of the general misconception it's always better to start with saying what tantra is not. Tantra is not primarily about sex and how to get a better sex life.

Tantra is a very ancient Indian spiritual tradition which is primarily concerned with the power aspect of the Divine. Consciousness (Shiva) is the static, male aspect of divinity and power (Shakti) is its dynamic, female counterpart.

This shakti is expressed as different Goddesses when thought of as outside ourselves and as the Kundalini Shakti when looked at within.

Tantra is a very practical way of spirituality. To oversimplify you could say that it's all about harnessing, awakening, and controlling prana and shakti .

Morality According to the Tantric & Vedic Traditions

Vedic Scriptures & Most Religions

Religious traditions lay out moral and ethical guidelines which usually manifest into hard rules and edicts. For example among the yamas is ahimsa which is the universal principle of non-violence. An application of this principle is the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'.

Very good. Most agree that killing somebody is bad. In practice things get a lot more complicated but that will be the subject of a different essay.

Similarly we are taught not to steal, and this for obvious reasons. Now imagine that I have the samskara (deeply engrained habit) of stealing things from folks and stores - which I don't by the way ;-) .

Wanting to be a good yogi or Christian I try with all my might to not indulge in this bad habit but again and again I end up committing theft. This will create a strong feeling of guilt as well as shame if uncovered.

Now all of a sudden the non-stealing precept is creating a lot of inner tensions and may end up working against my spiritual evolution. At the very least it's not very helpful and at worst it's physically, psychologically, and spiritually damaging.

Please note that to be fruitful yoga sadhana needs to have a strong emphasis on purification, not just awakening, and that the lofty spiritual aim of life should be entertained in the mind throughout the whole practice in order to bear fruit. Otherwise the practice could lead to strengthening of lower desires and attachments leading to unrighteous character and behavior.

So what is one to do?

Morality in Tantra

Here the emphasis is to do much practice and invest little time and energy on the theory and philosophy although there are of course very sophisticated theoretical and philosophical tantric systems. Also one should be aware of the moral and ethical teachings but doesn't need to actively live up to them.

The idea is to awaken the inner powers and to channel all energies and forces upward and toward the higher chakras, thus freeing the mind from lower desires and tendencies. This will help loosen up attachment to old actions and habits and increase the practitioner's free will thereby leading to a more righteous behavior, in line with the yamas and niyamas.

So what's better, Vedanta or Tantra?

The Solution

All religious traditions tend to include practices which help sublimate lower energies in order to enable one to reach the spiritual heights extolled and exemplified by their prophets and mystics. This article contends that if you had to choose, just practicing tantric methods such as hatha yoga will be preferable but it's best to combine both approaches with, for most people, an emphasis on tantra.

This is the approach taken in our tradition of Sivananda Yoga.

Advaita Vedanta with Tantra

In the Sivananda tradition we use advaita vedanta as the guiding light to our spiritual life but we use yogic and tantric practices such as yoga asanas, pranayama, mantras, etc. to purify, awaken, and sublimate prana and shakti.

Many yogis have integrated these concepts into their spiritual life but not always being consciously aware of this process, hence this article.

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