THE KAMASUTRA AND TANTRIC SEXUALITY

Tantra or Tantric Sexuality is making waves in the western world – especially in places where people lead an active lifestyle such as California – but the fact is that this lifestyle has been around in the world since at least five millennia. Tantra is a byproduct of Indian spiritual practices, where sex was an embodiment of everything good. In fact, Hindu philosophy strongly believes in the advantages of union between gods and goddesses and even gods and humans, which is all important in creating the balance of the universe. The art of Tantra teaches – among various other things – the right way of having sex, which we will do better if we call as lovemaking. Tantric science places an almost divine quality on sexuality and that is what the world is appreciating today about it.

Both lovemaking and orgasms have great importance in Tantra. Siva is the main male God of the Hindu pantheon, and Shakti is the female embodiment of all energy in the universe. The union between Siva and Shakti is highly celebrated in Hinduism. When this union occurs – as is depicted innocuously with the Siva Linga – the world witnesses the highest form of enlightenment that can be possible.

A person learning about Tantra will be learning about how lovemaking is a divine act, and how it is the source of all life forms in the world. Being so divine in its outlook, the person will also be taught how to prolong his lovemaking act, and how not to force it upon someone else, since mutual consent is the most important part of this union. People having sex will actually experience the energy that was first created by the holy union of Siva and Shakti, and that is what enables them to beget progeny through their act. The only goal in Tantra is to make people more aware of their bodies, and of their sexualities, and to learn to live in harmonious relationships with each other.

Tantra and Sexual Preference

People who learn the art of Tantra begin to understand how to convert sex into a deeply emotional act of love. Here, the preferences are not important – it is not important what you like in sex – but the more important factor is whom you have the intercourse with. For this reason, Tantric sex is open to anyone and everyone who wants to have a blissful sexual episode. Tantrikas – i.e. the people who practice Tantra – place greatly divine status on the sexual act and the energy derived from it, greatly acknowledging the life-giving powers that are embodied within it. In fact, the whole premise is to make individuals into gods and goddesses as they partake of the divine sexual energy that was originated by the divine beings themselves.

The Indian culture or yore has many examples of Tantrikas being educated in the art of sexual commission by spiritual teachers, quite akin to gurus. They used Yoga to teach them control over body and mind, and to make their sexual union a more fulfilling process. With the help of spirituality, lovemaking can be taken to a higher plane of existence.

The concept of Tantric Wholeness is very widespread today. This is the knowledge of a person’s own body, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. It is a way of knowing more aware of what the body is capable of doing, and to even learn to push it beyond the limits. The concept of Tantric Wholeness is a black-and-white concept; it labels everything in the universe as either good or bad, and people have to make their choices.

If you are frustrated with your sexual life, Tantric Wholeness will not consider the symptoms of your frustration as that means nothing in this branch of knowledge. Instead it will try to address the situation that has brought on the frustration. Was there anything good or bad that was influencing your actions? That is the whole point of Tantric Wholeness. It will also ask questions like, why are you living this life of frustration in the first place? What are your obligations? An answer to such questions will help to probe better into the subconscious and arrive at an answer.

Tantra and Gender Equality

Since the main ground of Tantric knowledge is an awareness of wholeness of the body, you will find that opposites attract in this world. Man attracts female and woman attracts male. In fact, men and women are considered to be complementary to each other rather than opposites. The Ardhanarishwara form of Siva and Shakti together embodies this. Man and woman are not two different entities, but they are one, merged into the single divine being. And for that reason, Tantra believes that there is no quality that is purely male or purely female. Every person is a mélange of both these qualities – only the proportion in which these qualities exist may differ from one individual to another. Tantra says explicitly that people will be able to explore their sexual individualities much better if they get out of this rut of male and female and just think of the opposite gender as a complementary gender – something that they need to complete their existence on earth.

Women can explore where she is man-like. There may be some aspects like leadership qualities, or one-upmanship in sex compared to her man, taking initiatives, guiding her lover and many other such points that are considered to be stereotypically male. Men may submit in sex too, and that could be a feminine side to their personalities. The truth is that by doing such things, neither the man nor the woman is abandoning their own sexualities. They are just becoming one whole, where the complementary factors are uniting and making one universal being.

So, Tantra is a positive way of living and not just a science of sex as most people think it to be. It is an art that teaches one to celebrate pleasure and not be shy of it. It’s not just sexual pleasure that is spoken of here – but the pleasure derived from eating, drinking, tasting, smelling and even beholding beautiful things is a part of the Tantric pleasure that makes life worth living. Creative expression is a very important thing for experience wholeness in life – and that is the whole essence of Tantra.

Kama Sutra

It is widely known that the Kama Sutra is the oldest surviving treatise on sex. It was compiled by Vatsyayana, an Indian sage about two millennia ago. The work is not counted as original, because Kama Sutra is derived from the ancient Kama Shastras, which were Rules of Love, written down by ancient sages at least three millennia before the present time.

The Kama Sutra is a compendium of sexual norms and customs pertaining to the act of seducing women and lovemaking with them. Since the society at that time was highly patriarchal, the treatise is also masculine in its outlook – in fact, most parts of the Kama Sutra are directly addressed to the male city-dweller, on how he should go about his sexual life. In the only part of the Kama Sutra that is addressed to women, they are only told about how they should submit themselves wholly to appease their men.

Despite that, the lovemaking positions of the Kama Sutra that are so widely publicized today are highly equal for man and woman. The pleasure derived is equal for both genders. Hence, though chauvinistic, Kama Sutra remains very contemporary. The love positions are deemed by experts as equal unions of the male and the female.

Actually, the Kama Sutra is not a guidebook on making sex; and nor is it a manual for the purpose. Today, the Kama Sutra is much imbued with Tantric inputs, which has placed the sexual positions of the book in a deeply sanctimonious manner, even giving them a slight godly manifestation.

In the recent versions of Kama Sutra, five lovemaking positions have been made popular:-

1. Man down, woman on top
2. Woman down, man on top
3. Both on sides, face to face
4. Man huddled behind woman’s back
5. Seating positions, face to face