Pandit Rajmani Tigunait – Living Tantra

Head of the Himalayn International Institute, Tiguanit offers a clear, calm, open guide to Tantric practices that are often shrouded in mysterious language; mantras, chakras, and symbolic hand-gestures are all clearly explained and illustrated. This primer is perhaps as good a printed guide to esoteric Hindu practice as the uninitiated Western seeker can hope to find. For larger collections.
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“Pandit Rajmani is perhaps the most important teacher of Tantra in America today. His work is both practical and accessible, while maintaining a deep spiritual and meditative vision. His insight is original and creative but in harmony with lasting traditions and proven teachings.

TANTRA UNVEILED is an inspiring work that shows the reader the keys to mind-body transformation, to a personal and spiritual unfoldment that integrates our full human potential.” — -David Frawley, author of Yoga and Ayurveda

“Tantra Unveiled is a most valuable addition to the literature on Tantra. It combines excellent scholarship with an initiate’s firsthand knowledge of the subject. Through many colorful anecdotes of his own encounters with Tantric adepts, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait affords his readers a unique glimpse into the living heart of real Tantra. He also generously shares with them a precious practical ritual of the Sri Vidya school.” — Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D: Author of The Yoga Tradition, The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, ect; Director of Yoga Research Center

“Tantra…has for too long been portrayed as a religion of sexual excess…Pandit Tigunait clarifies these and other misconceptions in Tantra Unveiled…[His] level of erudition…hold[s] the reader’s attention from beginning to end as he portrays Tantra…as an experiential path…The book is chock full of detailed information…a worthy addition to any numinous bookshelf.” — Dr. Robert E. Svoboda, BAMS Author, Aghora: At the Left Hand of God; Faculty, The Ayurvedic Institute

“Wonderfully done. TANTRA UNVEILED is a riveting narrative…this book at once engages us, aids us, inspires us, and illumines us. Herein lies the questand a read par excellence.” — Professor John Grimes, Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D., is the Spiritual Director of the Himalayan Institute. He received his doctorate in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad in India, and a doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. A disciple of Sri Swami Rama and lifelong practitioner of yoga and meditation, Pandit Tigunait is the author of many books and numerous articles, and has given lectures throughout the world.

From Chapter 1:
According to most spiritual traditions the desire for wordly pleasures is incompatible with the spiritual quest. You can have the treasures of this world, they say, or the treasures of the spiritual realm, but not both. This either/or approach sets off and endless internal struggle in those who are drawn to spiritual beliefs and practices but who have at the same time a natural urge to fulfill their worldly desires. This includes most of us. And when there is no way to reconcile these two impulses we fall prey to guilt and self-condemnation, or we repress either our spiritual desires or our worldly desires, or we try to have both, and become hypocrites.

The tantric approach to life avoids this painful and confusing dilemma by taking the whole person into account- our human as well as our spiritual nature. The literal meaning of tantra is “to weave, to expand, to spread,” and according to tantric adepts, we can achieve true and everlasting fulfillment only when all the threads of the fabric of life are woven according to the pattern designated by nature. When we are born, ignorance, desire, attachment, fear, and false images of ourselves and others tangle and tear the threads.

Tantra sadhana (practice) reweaves the fabric of life and restores it to its original pattern. No other path of yoga is as systematic or as comprehensive. The profound practices of hath yoga, pranayama, mudras, rituals, kundalini yoga, nada yoga, mantra, yantra, mandala, visualization of deities, alchemy, ayurveda, astrology, and hundreds of esoteric techniques for engendering wordly and spiritual prosperity blend perfectly within the tantric disciplines.