Dear Luciana,

Regards. There is lot of misconception about tantra. People think it is evil. Common folk who know nothing of tantra and witchcraft think that it is evil and fear it. As a result of this ignorance and their own fear they commit attrocious crime againt tantric practicioners. In the west there was one time when the orthodox church commited atrocious crimes - witch burning and torchering and all that stuff - against people who were involved in Wika. Wika simply is a old religion before cristinaty came to existence and is as wholy as cristianity itself. Only that it is a different religion. Even in india in supersticious villages we come across terible crime against some old poor women accused to be witch practice.

Tantra is not evil. It is holy -Very holy. The word meaning of tantra is technique , technology. It is a technology of transmutation of soul to God - of jeeva to Siva. All tantras - there are sixty four of them - are techniques of kundalini awakening. Kundalini is the Shakti - power -that all tantras deals with and nothing else. All the gods and goddesses involved in tantra are the same kundalini - its various manifestations in human body. Each chakra in the body is associated with a tantric deity and each nerve associated with that chakra has a specific goddess. For example in the root centre is the tantric goddes Dakini, In Swadistana is Rahini, and so on. Each Goddess in turrn is the head of a host of other deities associated with eash nerve.

The powers - siddhis - supernatural accomplishments - come from unlashing our own inner potentials. We get various powers when we awake kundalini and activarte various nerve centres whch lie dormant in average human. According to tantric science there are Eight centres in the bogy. ( the more convintional seven chakra plus one more situated in between throat and evebrow - at the place where there is an hole at the pallet inside mouth ) Each of these eight centres has eight nerves radiating from them and there are thus 8X8 = 64 spiritual nerves. Each nerve is associates with a yogic godess called Yogini and associated with a yogic power called yoga siddhi. Thus there are 64 yoginis, sixty four Siddhis, and Sixty four tantras.

There is nothing evil about practicing tantra. It is in fact our duty to accomplish our full potential . Being born as human and not achiving what we are capable of , and living like a beast - just eating, mating sleeping and reproducing - which is called socally normal life is disgusting and sinful.

Tantras are very holy. They give us the methods of unlashing our own potetials. All the Tantric gods and powers are our own aspects. Tantra is a most wonderful science dealing with the inner wisdom.

Rama Krishna Paramahamsa the top class mystic of Bengal practiced tantric path. Kali worship (and for that matter any worship of any deity with form - idol , and mantra) is tantric. If fact he was trained in all sixty four tantras. But the ignorant version of tantra probagated in the streets of Bengal is full of misinformation, ignorance and fear. People are made to fear "Black magic" in order to make a business of "whit magic" . This is a business con. There is no blackmagic and whitemagic. There is only one magic - the principles are same. However the use might differ - just like the same knife could be used to kill in the hands of the murderer and save life in the hand of a surgion. When people develop power using kundalini - and all powers are due to kundalini only, there are no other power - it can be used for good purpose or for bad purpose. The good purpose is to seek liberation the bad purpose is to seek fullfilment of materialistic desires. That is the spiritual definition of good and evil. By this definition by whatever method one is involved in materilistic desire fulfilment - tantra or other wise - is evil. It is not tanta it self that is evil. Tantra is Holy. It is worshiping science, a science of transcendance. A science of transformation of soul to god.

In Kali age, scriptural texts declare that Veda will not be effective. Only agamas - the worshipping methods of deities, with form mantra and rictuals - are declared to be effective. Tantras are part of agamas. They are the holy of the holiest religions.

I thought I would clear some of the misconceptions associated with tantra.

Regards,
K.Ravindran