"Tantra is not religion"

Two or three things more. When you ask a question, you may be asking for many reasons. One may be just this, that you want a confirmation. You already know the answer, you have the answer, you just want it to be confirmed that your answer is right. Then your question is false, pseudo; it is not a question. You may be asking a question not because you are ready to change yourself, but just as a curiosity.

The mind goes on questioning. In the mind questions come as leaves come on a tree. That is the very nature of the mind – to question. So it goes on questioning. It matters not what you are questioning, with anything given to the mind it will create a question. It is a machine to grind out, to create questions. So give it anything and it will cut it into pieces and create many questions. One question answered, and the mind will create many questions from the answer. This has been the whole history of philosophy.

Bertrand Russell remembers that when he was a child he thought that one day, when he will be mature enough to understand all philosophy, all questions will be answered. Then later, when he was eighty, he said, ”Now I can say that my own questions are there standing, as they were standing when I was a child. No other questions have come up because of these theories of philosophy.” So he said, ”When I was young I used to say, philosophy is an inquiry for ultimate answers. Now I cannot say it. It is an inquiry for endless questions.”

So one question creates one answer and many questions. The doubting mind is the problem. Devi says, ”Do not be concerned with my questions. I have asked so many things: What is your reality? What is this wonder-filled universe? What constitutes seed? Who centers the universal wheel? What is life beyond form? How can we enter it fully above time and space? But do not be concerned with my questions. Let my doubts be cleared. I ask these questions because they are in my mind. I ask them just to show you my mind, but do not pay much attention to them. Really, answers will not fulfill my need. My need is, let my doubts be cleared.”

But how can the doubts be cleared? Will any answer do? Is there any answer which will clear your doubts? Mind IS the doubt. It is not that the mind doubts, mind is the doubt! Unless the mind dissolves, doubts cannot be cleared.

Shiva will answer. His answers are techniques – the oldest, most ancient techniques. But you can call them the latest also because nothing can be added to them. They are complete – one hundred and twelve techniques. They have taken in all the possibilities, all the ways of cleaning the mind, transcending the mind. Not a single method could be added to Shiva’s one hundred and twelve methods. Vighyana Bhairva Tantra, is five thousand years old. Nothing can be added; there is no possibility to add anything. It is exhaustive, complete. It is the most ancient and yet the latest, yet the newest. Old like old hills – the methods seem eternal – and they are new like a dewdrop before the sun, because they are so fresh.

These one hundred and twelve methods of meditation constitute the whole science of transforming mind. We will enter them one by one. We will try to comprehend first intellectually. But use your intellect only as an instrument, not as a master. Use it as an instrument to understand something, but do not go on creating barriers with it. When we will be talking about these techniques, just put aside your past knowledge, your knowing, whatsoever information you have collected. Put them aside – they are just dust gathered on the road.

Encounter these methods with a fresh mind – with alertness, of course, but not with argumentation. And do not create the fallacy that an argumentative mind is an alert mind. It is not, because the moment you move into arguments you have lost the awareness, you have lost the alertness. Then you are not here.

These methods do not belong to any religion. Remember, they are not Hindu, just as the theory of relativity is not Jewish because Einstein conceived it. And radio and television are not Christian. No one says, ”Why are you using electricity? This is Christian, because a Christian mind conceived it.” Science does not belong to races and religions – and tantra is a science. So remember, this is not Hindu at all. These techniques were conceived by Hindus, but these techniques are not Hindu. That is why these techniques will not mention any religious ritual. No temple is needed. You are quite enough of a temple yourself. You are the lab; the whole experiment is to go on within you. No belief is needed.

This is not religion, this is science. No belief is needed. It is not required to believe in the Koran or the Vedas or in Buddha or in Mahavira. No, no belief is needed. Only a daringness to experiment is enough, courage to experiment is enough; that is the beauty. A Mohammedan can practice and he will reach to the deeper meanings of the Koran. A Hindu can practice and he will for the first time know what the Vedas are. And a Jain can practice and a Buddhist can practice; they need not leave their religion. Tantra will fulfill them, wherever they are. Tantra will be helpful, whatsoever their chosen path.

So remember this, tantra is pure science. You may be a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Parsee or whatsoever – tantra doesn’t touch your religion at all. Tantra says that religion is a social affair. So belong to any religion; it is irrelevant. But you can transform yourself, and that transformation needs a scientific methodology. When you are ill, when you have fallen ill or you have caught tuberculosis or anything, then whether you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan makes no difference. The tuberculosis remains indifferent to your Hinduism, to your Mohammedanism, to your beliefs – political, social or religious. Tuberculosis has to be treated scientifically. There is no Hindu tuberculosis, no Mohammedan tuberculosis.

You are ignorant, you are in conflict, you are asleep. This is a disease, a spiritual disease. This disease has to be treated by the tantra. You are irrelevant, your beliefs are irrelevant. It is just a coincidence that you are born somewhere and someone else is born somewhere else. This is just a coincidence. Your religion is a coincidence, so do not cling to it. Use some scientific methods to transform yourself.