"Tantra Has Feminine Deities"

    

    Mahavir was on the path of yoga, but he was not really suppressing sex. He had known it, he had lived it, he was deeply acquainted with it. But it became useless to him, so it dropped. Buddha was on the path of yoga, but he had lived through the world, he was deeply acquainted with it. He was not fighting.

    Once you know something you become free from it. It simply drops like dead leaves dropping from a tree. It is not renunciation; there is no fight involved at all. Look at Buddha’s face – it doesn’t look like the face of a fighter. He has not been fighting. He is so relaxed; his face is the very symbol of relaxation... no fight.

    Look at your yogis. The fight is apparent on their faces. Deep down much turmoil is there – right now they are sitting on volcano. You can look in their eyes, in their faces, and you will feel it. Deep down somewhere they have suppressed all their diseases; they have not gone beyond.

    In a healthy world, where everyone is living his life authentically, individually, not imitating others but living his own life in his own way, both are possible. He may learn the deep sensitivity which transcends desires; he may come to a point where all desires become futile and drop. Yoga can also lead to this, but to me yoga will lead to it in the same world where tantra can lead to it – remember this. We need a healthy mind, a natural man. In that world where a natural man is, tantra, and yoga also, will lead to transcendence of desires.

    In our so-called ill society, neither yoga nor tantra can do this, because if we choose yoga we do not choose it because desires have become useless – no! They are still meaningful; they are not dropping by themselves. We have to force them. If we choose yoga, we choose it as a technique of suppression. If we choose tantra, we choose tantra as a cunningness, as a deep deception – an excuse to indulge.

    So with an unhealthy mind neither yoga nor tantra can work. They will both lead to deceptions. A healthy mind, particularly a sexually healthy mind, is needed to start with. Then it is not very difficult to choose your path. You can choose yoga, you can choose tantra.

    There are two types of persons basically, male and female. I do not mean biologically, but psychologically. For those who are psychologically basically male – aggressive, violent, extrovert – yoga is their path. For those who are basically feminine, receptive, passive, non-violent, tantra is their path. So you may note it: for tantra, Mother Kali, Tara, and so many DEVIS, BHAIRAVIS – female deities – are very significant. 

    In yoga you will never hear mentioned any name of a feminine deity. Tantra has feminine deities; yoga has male gods. Yoga is outgoing energy; tantra is energy moving inwards. So you can say in modern psychological terms that yoga is extrovert and tantra is introvert. So it depends on the personality. If you have an introverted personality, then fight is not for you. If you have an extroverted personality, then fight is for you.

    But we are just confused, we are just in a mess; that is why nothing helps. On the contrary, everything disturbs. Yoga will disturb you, tantra will disturb you. Every medicine is going to create a new illness for you because the chooser is ill, diseased; so the result of his choice will be illness. So I do not mean that through yoga you cannot reach. I emphasize tantra only because we are going to try to understand what tantra is.