Religion

"The Gayatri is a universal prayer enshrined in the Vedas. It is addressed to the Immanent and Transcendent Divine which has been given the name 'Savita,' meaning 'that from which all this is born.' The Gayatri may be considered as having three parts - (i) Adoration (ii) Meditation (iii) Prayer. First the Divine is praised, then It is meditated upon in reverence and finally an appeal is made to the Divine to awaken and strengthen the intellect, the discriminating faculty of man. The Gayatri is considered as the essence of the Vedas. Veda means knowledge, and this prayer fosters and sharpens the knowledge-yielding faculty. As a matter of fact the four core-declarations enshrined in the four Vedas are implied in this Gayatri mantra."

"Tantra-sastra is a distinct tradition in ancient Indian culture. Scholars hold that its origin goes back to prehistoric times. Its ancient form can be found in the Atarva Veda and Yajur Veda. There are statements in Vedic literature like “the letter a is all speech” (Aitareya Aranyaka 2,3,6) and “A is brahman”...which remind one of the concept of matrka, which came to be expanded in the tantra of the Saivas, Saktas, and Buddhists."

"Give up this filthy Vâmâchâra that is killing your country. You have not seen the other parts of India. When I see how much the Vamachara has entered our society, I find it a most disgraceful place with all its boast of culture. These Vamachara sects are honeycombing our society in Bengal. Those who come out in the daytime and preach most loudly about Âchâra, it is they who carry on the horrible debauchery at night and are backed by the most dreadful books. They are ordered by the books to do these things. You who are of Bengal know it. The Bengali Shastras are the Vamachara Tantras. They are published by the cart-load, and you poison the minds of your children with them instead of teaching them your Shrutis. Fathers of Calcutta, do you not feel ashamed that such horrible stuff as these Vamachara Tantras, with translations too, should be put into the hands of your boys and girls, and their minds poisoned, and that they should be brought up with the idea that these are the Shastras of the Hindus? If you are ashamed, take them away from your children, and let them read the true Shastras, the Vedas, the Gita, the Upanishads."

"To practice tantra requires even greater compassion and greater intelligence than are required on the sutra path; thus, though many persons in the degenerate era are interested in tantra, tantra is not for degenerate persons. Tantra is limited to persons whose compassion is so great that they cannot bear to spend unnecessary time in attaining Buddhahood, as they want to be a supreme source of help and happiness for others quickly."

"…denounced only the present corrupted form of Vamachara of the Tantras. I did not denounce the Mother - worship of the Tantras, or even the real Vamachara. The purport of the Tantras is to worship women in a spirit of Divinity. During the downfall of Buddhism, the Vamachara became very much corrupted, and that corrupted form obtains to the present day. Even now the Tantra literature of India is influenced by those ideas. I denounced only these corrupt and horrible practices -- which I do even now. I never objected to the worship of women who are the living embodiment of Divine Mother, whose external manifestations, appealing to the senses have maddened men, but whose internal manifestations, such as knowledge, devotion, discrimination and dispassion make man omniscient, of unfailing purpose, and a knower of Brahman. "[(Sanskrit)]-- she, when pleased, becomes propitious and the cause of the freedom of man" (Chandi, I. 57). Without propitiating the Mother by worship and obeisance, not even Brahma and Vishnu have the power to elude Her grasp and attain to freedom. Therefore for the worship of these family goddesses, in order to manifest the Brahman within them, I shall establish the women's Math."

"Hinduism arrived in last and worst age of medieval development," in which the noble philosophy of the Vedas had been replaced by the obscene sexual perversions and black magic of the left-hand (vamacara) Tantras: "The rites, or rather, orgies, of the left hand worshippers presuppose the meeting of men and woman of all castes in the most unrestrained manner."

"The general scholarly consensus has been that the Yoginī cults so foundational to early Tantra emerged out of an autochthonous non-Vedic Indian source. (…) The point I wish to make here is that it is quite artificial to inject a distinction between ‘Vedic’ or ‘Indo-Aryan’ tradition, on the one hand, and ‘non-Vedic’ or ‘Indus Valley’ on the other. The religion and culture is already present in the Vedas, together with the more predominant Indo-Aryan material, and is no more ‘indigenous’ to the Indian subcontinent and no more ‘alien’ to the Veda than the latter. (…) It suffices to scratch the surface of the salient features of the Yoginī cults to find a vast reservoir of Vedic and classical Hindu precursors, in (1) the cults of Vedic goddesses (…); (2) the various groupings of unnumbered mother goddesses (…); and (3) in general attitudes toward women and femininity."

"Our biological body itself is a form of hardware that needs re-programming through tantra like a new spiritual software which can release or unblock its potential."

"As Tantra Sastra or Agama is not as some seem to suppose, a petty Sastra of no account; one, and an unimportant sample of the multitudinous manifestations of religion in a country which swarms with every form of religious sect. It is on the contrary with Veda, Smrti and Purana one of the fore most important Sastras in India governing, in various degrees and ways, the temple and household ritual of the whole of India today and for centuries past.... Over and above the fact that the Sastra is an historical fact, it possesses, in some respects, an intrinsic value which justifies its study. Thus it is the store house of Indian occultism. This occult side of the Tantras is of scientific importance, the more particularly having regard to the present revived interest in occult study in the west."

"A famous stanza ascribed to the Varaha (sometimes to the non-existent Varaha) Tantra enumerates seven of these [theoretical statements]. Creation, dissolution of the world, worship of the gods, mastery of divine beings, recitation and worship of mantras, execution of six acts of magic, and the four fold practice of meditation. They are said to be characteristics of Agama."

"Tantra is the oldest Eastern tradition of spiritual philosophy and practice...From its origin to the present day, it is revolutionary approach to human evolution."

"In another tradition, five types of tantric lore are distinguished. Siddhanta Jnana (leading to salvation), Garudajnana (removes poison or poison magic), Kamajnana (enables the adept to enforce his will), Bhutatantra (exorcism of demons) and Bhairvatantra (destruction of enemies). This system lays too much stress on the magical side of Tantric literature. A variant is the five-fold series of Siddhanta, Garuda, Ghora, Vama and Bhutantra which together constitute the Five Currents."

"The path and the way, the processes by which we get illumined, lie in Tantra."

"The Tantric heritage and its pluralistic culture presents a great synthesis of Hinduism in its perfection. One strand of the Tantras is traced back to the Vedas. Another Strand of Tantra emanates from a non-vedic scriptural corpus, the Agamas. Apart from these two traditions, the Tantras incorporated several beliefs and practices of the indigenous oral-based cultures. Thus, in the course of its development Tantra absorbed knowledge of different Shastras within its fold, such as astrology, ayurveda, vastuvidya, yoga, ethnobotany and the occult sciences. The Tantric form of practice influenced all sects and sub-sects of Indian origin. So we have Buddhist, Jain and even Muslim forms of Tantra. The influence to Tantra is not limited to India alone; there is ample evidence that Tantrism in some from or other travelled to various parts of the world, especially Nepal, Tibet, China, [[w:Japan|Japan and parts of South-East Asia."

"Tantra means technique - a technique for the fulfillment of desires. Man has no control over his desires. A desire is claimed as one’s own only after it comes to one’s mind. Desires are products of latent tendencies/vasanas. Through the fulfillment of the desires,‘vasanas’ are eliminated. Tantra provides the methodology whereby, through the fulfillment of one’s desires, liberation is attained. Liberation means understanding one’s own nature. From that understanding, one realizes that the world is nothing but the manifestation of the consciousness of which we are, but only a part. It is also a way of living which provides aesthetic enjoyment and knowledge."

"However, the expresses feminine gender in only a qualified sense, since in her absolute essence she represents the ultimate beyond gender. From this point of view, she has no allegiance to anyone; it is inaccurate to say that women alone possess the dakini. When the practitioner truly understands this, liberation from gender concepts can be glimpsed. The wisdom dakini can best be understood in terms of her enlightened essence, the four dimensions that depict how the limitless nature of mind can manifest in human forms dedicated to the welfare and awakening of all beings."

"The basic tenet of tantra is that all of life is food for spiritual development, from the most mundane tasks of everyday living to the deepest meditation. Tantra teaches to embrace life, to try to strive to see the creator in everything within and around us. The practices including concentration, meditation, yoga postures, relaxation, visualization, nourishing food, community involvement, service, and right conduct, are all designed to help us experience body, mid, spirit, joy, peace, suffering, and pain as changing aspects of one invisible Being."

"[T]he Tantras...are the embodiment of ceremonial black magic of the darkest dye...[T]hose Kabbalists who dabble in the ceremonial magic described...by Eliphas Levi are as full blown Tantrikas as those of Bengal"

"My words of encouragement for women, for that to be given for women in the East, it is to have confidence and encourage them that they can accomplish Dharma just like the men; but in the West you have already realized the equality of women and men sometime ago, so I do not have to really encourage you – you already know that."

"Vaidika and Tantrika cults have co-existed in Bharath from very ancient period. From that time itself, Tantra was confined to a few people. If the theory and practice of Tantra are understood and accepted widely, there will not be any class difference among human beings."

"In the Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Truth), Samkhya provides the cosmological structure, Vedanta, the uncompromising and unalloyed Truth of indivisible Existence, Knowledge and Bliss, and Tantra and Yoga offer and define the method and the practice. All of the above, together, represent the consummate path and way."

"Yoga, Vedanta and Tantra owe much of their basis and growth to the Samkhya philosophy which enumerates the twenty-four cosmic principles as a basis for the universal manifestation. This steady foundation assisted in the presentation of the life-giving, life-saving, life-transforming declarations of the Vedas. Due to this structure, Tantra gave birth to the many wonderful methods through which to realize the Truth contained in the Vedas and over time graced the system with twelve more powerful principles (tattvas) of a higher and purer order."

"...if we study the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, we find that though He taught the truths contained in the Upanishads, He illustrated these principles to us by methods that are Tantric in origin and content. His worship of and devotion to Mother Kali, Sri Krishna, Mother Sita, Lord Chaitanya, Lord Shiva, and others, reveal His wonderful Tantric nature and point to the many ways of practicing the Vedic truths."

"It was therefore that Shri Ramakrishna came. The days of practising the Tantra in that fashion are gone. He, too, practised the Tantra, but not in that way. Where there is the injunction of drinking wine, he would simply touch his forehead with a drop of it. The Tantrika form of worship is a very slippery ground. Hence I say that this province has had enough of the Tantra. Now it must go beyond. The Vedas should be studied. A harmony of the four kinds of Yogas must be practised and absolute chastity must be preserved"

"The children of Sri Ramakrishna are Vaidikas in essence, Tantrikas by path and process."

"Tantra often runs into trouble in the West, because it utilizes transgression as the vehicle to transcend dualism in certain cases. To even begin to understand tantra, however, we must bear in mind the cultural and philosophical context in which it exists. Tantra originated as a range of bodily technologies for perfecting the individual. Many of its practices, texts, beliefs and traditions are opposed to any normative order and serve as a form of counterculture in India. Its rejection of order takes the form even of sanctioning the deliberate violation of norms, particularly those centred on ritual purity. Over time, there occurred a healthy cross-fertilizing back and forth with Vedic and other traditions. Elements may have been borrowed from Vedic and other rituals, symbols and philosophies, and reformulated, systematized and integrated into the coherent corpus of what became known as the tantra tradition. These two poles of values and rituals coexist and mutually penetrate each other in complex ways."

"The real meaning of the word Tantra is Shastra, as for example, Kâpila Tantra. But the word Tantra is generally used in a limited sense. Under the sway of kings who took up Buddhism and preached broadcast the doctrine of Ahimsâ, the performances of the Vedic Yâga-Yajnas became a thing of the past, and no one could kill any animal in sacrifice for fear of the king. But subsequently amongst the Buddhists themselves — who were converts from Hinduism — the best parts of these Yaga-Yajnas were taken up, and practiced in secret. From these sprang up the Tantras. Barring some of the abominable things in the Tantras, such as the Vâmâchâra etc., the Tantras are not so bad as people are inclined to think. There are many high and sublime Vedantic thoughts in them. In fact, the Brâhmana portions of the Vedas were modified a little and incorporated into the body of the Tantras. All the forms of our worship and the ceremonials of the present day, comprising the Karma Kanda, are observed in accordance with the Tantras."

"...in , Samkhya provides the cosmological structure, Vedanta, the uncompromising and unalloyed Truth of indivisible Existence, Knowledge and Bliss, and Tantra and Yoga offer and define the method and the practice."

"While sexuality is part of Tantra because it is part of life, it is not the core of tantric philosophy or practice"

"Real tantric sex blows your mind completely because it takes you beyond all our conceptions of everyday reality...Understanding that our bodies are temples for expressing divinity we can…expand, celebrate, and share relationship engorgement in every cell of our being … blending sex and spirit."

"Peoples Temple and the Branch Davidians both approximated the 'apocalyptic sect' as an ideal type. In such sects the end of the world is taken as a central tenet."

"Despite being a relatively new organization, the Church of Scientology already has had to denounce splinter groups, including sects that claim to practice Dianetics complete with E-Meters independent of the Church."

"Some of these terms, including "cult" and "sect," have long traditions of use, stretching back to the centuries when Latin was the official language of scholars. But the meanings of words often change over time; and terms that once were neutral or simply descriptive sometimes take on harshly negative implications and potentially lose their original usefulness, including the two just mentioned. Other terms have been coined more recently to circumvent the stereotypes associated with older categories. Among this newer terminology are "outsider groups" and "New Religious Movements." Sometimes the newer nomenclature is useful despite certain limitations. "Marginal religious communities," for example, is a positional designation — not a qualitative judgment — implying a location on the margin or edge of mainstream religious groups. When using these terms, it is important to recognize that they are often loaded with powerful assumptions and implications."

"Branch Davidians are a modern religious sect that claims to be an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The church renounced any connection with the sect in the 1930s."

"The Peoples Temple movement began in the 1950s as an independent Pentecostal congregation of white and black working-class families … Some argue it was initially a Christian sect that then became a new religious movement."

"The Heaven's Gate sect received national attention in the spring of 1997, when its thirty-nine members committed suicide in Southern California."

"To read the website of the Heaven's Gate sect is to enter a world of eternal promise. Among those who are going home for good, there is only 'joy', 'the rapture of the saved', the blissful prophecy of the 'Talmudic sages'."

"Like Peoples Temple, the Branch Davidians approximated the 'apocalyptic sect' as an ideal type."

"As with its disciplinary practices and its round of daily life, the community of goods in the Peoples Temple at Jonestown emphasizes its similarities to otherworldly sects—both the contemporary ones labeled 'cults' by their detractors, and historical examples which are often revered in retrospect by contemporary religious culture."

"I remembered the devotion of those belonging to the Manson 'Family' or the 'People's Temple' of Jim Jones or the Branch Davidian Sect or the 'Heaven's Gate' sect of Marshall Applewhite It wasn't how much the 'Heaven's Gate' believers believed that there was a spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet, waiting to take them to paradise; only the actual existence of such a spaceship really mattered."

"Now I see there is a people risen that I cannot win with gifts or honours, offices or places; but all other sects and people I can."

"The Branch Davidians are an offshoot of the Davidians, a religious sect that had split from the Seventh-Day Adventists in the 1930s."

"Jonestown was at heart a religious community, whether classified as a new religious movement, a cult, a sect, or a church."

"Observers of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple noted that Jones' socialist sect did not lose non-profit status or receive reams of negative publicity until the massacre at Guyana occurred."

"Every person who is not a fellow member, and every social, religious and political institution that lies outside the sect's domain, is portrayed as a representative of Satan's world. In our research, we found that Moonies and members of many Christian sects with similar religious and political doctrines often focus on such beliefs to the exclusion of all other thought."

"The Branch Davidians were a separatist, communal sect of the Seventh Day Adventists that had occupied several buildings and some acreage outside of Waco,Texas. David Koresh, the sect's leader, preached an apocalyptic message of a showdown with government forces."

"There is an interesting class difference to be found among these apocalyptic sects. The victims at Waco were predominantly from the lower class, as was true of Jonestown. The Heaven's Gate believers, on the other hand, were on the whole from the middle class."

"The vast majority of groups termed 'sects' by the Government are small organizations with fewer than 100 members. Among the larger groups is the Church of Scientology, with between 5,000 and 6,000 members, and the Unification Church, with approximately 700 adherents throughout the country. Other groups found in the country include Divine Light Mission, Eckankar, Hare Krishna, the Holosophic community, the Osho movement, Sahaja Yoga, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Transcendental Meditation, Landmark Education, the Center for Experimental Society Formation, Fiat Lux, Universal Life, and The Family."

"The Indiana Peoples Temple was essentially a sect, which was joined by new religious movement members in California, which then recruited black church members as it focused its ministry on the residents of urban California."

"In time, psychological expressivism declined, but the self-religions remained, resulting in the New Age as 'a relatively significant practical and cultural resource' within wider society."