Inner Tantric Yoga: Working with the Universal Shakti Secrets of Mantras, Deities and Meditation

Inner Tantric Yoga presents the deeper tradition of Tantra, its multi-dimensional vision of the Divine and its transformative practices of mantra and meditation that take us far beyond the outer models of how Tantra is usually presented today. The book can expand your horizon about masculine and feminine energies, Self and world, universe and the Absolute into a living experience of the Infinite and Eternal both within and around you.

DR. DAVID FRAWLEY (PANDIT VAMADEVA SHASTRI) is a world renowned teacher of Yoga, Ayurveda, Vedic astrology and Veda and the author of several definitive texts in these fields over the past twenty-five years. He follows the Tantric approach of Ganapati Muni, the chief disciple of the great Advaitic guru Ramana Maharshi.

Yoga is such a big part of Western culture these days that most of us believe' we're already aware of everything it has to offer. After all, Hatha Yoga classes are available everywhere people exercise together, and yogic stress reduction techniques are taught at medical clinics around the country. Everyone knows how healthy a vegetarian diet is, and that meditation produces an impressive array of psychological and physiological benefits. This resume is dazzling enough; what more could there be? Plenty, it turns out.

In fact the more time I spend with traditionally trained yogis and yoginis from India, the more amazed I am at how little of the authentic tradition has reached our shores. It's as if the yoga masters feed us small pieces of it at a time, as much as people raised in our far more materialistic culture are able to assimilate. Only after we've had a chance to digest those teachings do they reveal more advanced techniques and insights.

Looking back, it's easy to see that yoga swept into Western culture in waves. In 1893 Swami Vivekananda first introduced Americans and Europeans to the four great paths: Raja Yoga (physical and mental exercises), Jnana Yoga (the intellectual quest for spiritual experience), Bhakti Yoga (devotion) and Karma Yoga (the practical yoga of enlightened daily activity). In the 1930s Paramahamsa Yogananda initiated Western students into Kriya Yoga, which focused on subtle inner experiences involving the gradual arousal of Kundalini. But it was in the late 1960s that yoga leapt from the fringes of American culture into the mainstream when, thanks to adepts like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Rama, claims about yoga's astounding physical effects were finally validated in scientific research studies. Then in the late 1980s India's yoginis (female yogis) began making their mark here, often emphasizing the spiritual value of social service.

But what is the next wave? Important elements of the yoga tradition-elements considered absolutely essential by most practitioners in India-remain virtually unknown in the West. Ironically, this was not always the case. Historians of Western religious traditions have shown that some of these elements were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and were even embraced by many early Christians. Tragically, during the Dark Ages a great deal of spiritual lore disappeared in Europe. The long lost "wisdom of the ancients" was preserved in India however, and beckons us to reclaim it. Are we ready for even deeper and more powerful dimensions of yoga practice?

Most of us first get involved with yoga not because we want to be enlightened but because we want to be healthy. We're got our hands full dealing with the world around us; we don't want to de-vote hours a day to inner realms when contending with the outside world is challenging enough. We just want to learn some yoga postures and maybe a few tips about cooking healthier meals. But yoga opens the door to inner experience whether we consciously turn the doorknob or not. After an hour of hatha poses and yogic breathing we feel incredible. We're experiencing a level of clarity and tranquility, of focus and well being, that we've rarely touched before. We get to know ourselves in a whole new way, as a calm, bright, creative soul rather than a restless, worried, chronically dissatisfied mind. Yoga practice has carried us beyond our body and thought processes, and introduced us to spirit.

his is the point where many students start exploring yoga philosophy and sign up for meditation classes. We learn a whole new vocabulary for amazing inner states that English doesn't even have words for, but that yoga texts describe in detail. We become eager to experience these extraordinary states ourselves. "Enlightenment" is no longer just an abstraction to us-it becomes an actual goal.

But then, for many yoga students, something goes wrong. As I travel around the United States visiting different yoga centers, students report a common problem: they complain their meditation practice eventually becomes so lifeless, it's difficult to stick with it. They've been taught to sit mechanically counting their mantras as if they were spiritual accountants, or to work with their posture and breath as if yoga was nothing more than a clever way to manipulate their nervous system. No wonder they're bored and uninspired! It's time for the next wave of yogic wisdom to surge across our shores. There is so much more the masters have to share; if we're ready for this knowledge it will sweep us past the stuck points in our practice to a vastly expanded experience of spirituality. This is the aspect of yoga science that cracks us out of our self-preoccupation and opens our meditation to the universal forces flowing around us and through us.

This is the knowledge the adepts in India use to lift and expand their personal practice, to connect with the living universe in a way that galvanizes their spiritual life. The secret-openly known throughout India but barely hinted at in the West-is the Devata, the inner deities or cosmic powers of yoga. In the book you now hold in your hands, Dr. David Frawley will introduce you to the Devatas that lie at the heart of traditional yogic practice. (You should be aware that Devatas were also recognized by spiritual masters like Socrates, lamblichus and Proclus in the West centuries ago.) The Devatas are the living intelligence in nature, sparks of spirit that guide and illumine, divine beings we've called "angels" in the West without really understanding what angels are. These are the forces that make mantras, yantras and mandalas come alive, that activate our intuitive powers, and that assist and protect us in the state after death.

In all my years of studying the sacred tradition in India, I've never met a yogi or yogini who wasn't actively engaged with these powerful inner energies. They link us with the many Shahtis or powers that govern the physical and subtle worlds. They serve as bridges to higher fields of consciousness.