"Everything Is Holy"

    

    Modern Hindus also feel guilty because the minds of modern Hindus are created by Christianity. They are ”Hindu-Christians” – and they are worse, because to be a Christian is good, but to be a Hindu-Christian is just weird. They feel guilty. One Hindu leader proposed that khajuraho temples should be destroyed, that they do not belong to us. Really, it looks like they do not belong to us because tantra has not been in our hearts for a long time, for centuries. It has not been the main current. Yoga has been the main current, and for yoga Khajuraho is inconceivable – it must be destroyed. 

    Tantra says, approach the sex act as if you are entering a holy temple. That is why they have pictured the sex act on their holy temples. They have said, approach sex as if you are entering a holy temple. Thus, when you enter a holy temple sex must be there in order that the two become conjoined in your mind, associated. Then you can feel that the world and the divine are not two fighting elements, but one. They are not contradictory, they are just polar opposites helping each other. And they can exist only because of this polarity. If this polarity is lost, the whole world is lost. So see the deep oneness running through everything. Do not see only the polar opposites, see the inner running current which makes them one.

For tantra everything is holy. Remember this, for tantra EVERYTHING is holy; nothing is unholy.

    Look at it this way: for an irreligious person, everything is unholy; for so-called religious persons something is holy, something is unholy. 

For tantra, everything is holy. 

    One Christian missionary said, ”God created the world.” So I asked him, ”Who created sin?” He said, ”The devil.” Then I asked him, ”Who created the devil?” Then he was at a loss. He said, ”Of course, God created the devil.”

    The devil creates sin and God creates the devil. Then who is the real sinner – the devil or God? But the dualist conception always leads to such absurdities. For tantra God and the devil are not two. Really, for tantra there is nothing that can be called ”devil”, everything is divine, everything is holy. And this seems to be the right standpoint, the deepest. If anything is unholy in this world, from where does it come and how can it be?

    So only two alternatives are there. First, the alternative of the atheist who says everything is unholy. This attitude is okay. He is also a non-dualist; he sees no holiness in the world. Then there is the tantric’s alternative – he says everything is holy. He is also a non-dualist. But between these two are the so-called religious persons, who are not really religious. They are neither religious nor irreligious because they are always in a conflict. Their whole theology is just to make ends meet, and those ends cannot meet.

    If a single cell, a single atom in this world is unholy, then the whole world becomes unholy, because how can that single atom exist in a holy world? How can it be? It is supported by everything; to be, it has to be supported by everything. And if the unholy element is supported by all the holy elements, then what is the difference between them? So either the world is holy totally, unconditionally, or it is unholy; there is no middle path.

    Tantra says everything is holy, that is why we cannot understand it. It is the deepest non-dual standpoint – if we can call it a standpoint. It is not, because any standpoint is bound to be dual. It is not against anything, so it is not any standpoint. It is a felt unity, a lived unity. 

    These are two paths, yoga and tantra. Tantra could not be so appealing because of our crippled minds. But whenever there is someone who is healthy inside, not a chaos, tantra has a beauty. Only he can understand what tantra is. Yoga has appeal, an easy appeal, because of our disturbed minds. 

    Remember, it is ultimately your mind which makes anything attractive or unattractive. It is you who is the deciding factor. 

    These approaches are different. I am not saying that one cannot reach through yoga. One can reach through yoga also, but not through the yoga which is prevalent. The yoga which is prevalent is not really yoga, but the interpretation of your diseased minds. Yoga can be authentically an approach toward the ultimate, but that too is only possible when your mind is healthy, when your mind is not diseased and ill. Then yoga takes a different shape.