Wonderful India Festival: Tantra - Myth Vs Reality

Over the years, tantra has been subjected to deep mis-translation and misrepresentation and has been presented as Tantric sex or as a ritualistic practice in the West. In this seminar we seek to dispel these myths and misconceptions around Tantra and present practical spiritual science of Tantra and how the path of Nivrtti Marga or Vidya Tantra brings about deep inner spiritual realization and helps to develop a sentient individual and society.

The talk will conclude with a guided spiritual music and meditation session by the yogis and provide a practical glimpse into Tantra Yoga.

RSVP required to attend, with pay-what-you-can donations accepted to support additional and ongoing programs celebrating the work of local artists specializing in Indian arts, music, and cultural traditions. Please reserve free tickets for community members who cannot afford to attend otherwise.

_________________ More About Tantra

Tantra is a spiritual tradition which originated in the Indian Subcontinent in pre-historic times and subsequently systematized. Tantra emphasizes the development of human vigor both through the system of meditation and through facing difficult external situations to overcome all fears and weaknesses. Tantric spiritual practice consists of three qualitative stages that can be fused into one or remain separate: Shakta, Vaeshnaviiya, Shaeva. Shakta represents the determination to awaken the cognitive faculties of the mind to overcome physical ailments, psychic disorders, and social evils in the surrounding social environment. In the vaeshnaviiya stage the sadhaka remains absorbed in the desire to be one with the all pervading cosmic consciousness and in the Shaeva stage the sadhaka experiences a state of non-dual existence with the cosmic consciousness. Tantric spiritual practice is a combination of these three stages and consists of the process of raising the kundalini using the repetition of Mantra with a proper understanding of the essence of the spiritual practice.

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About the Presenters

Dada Nabhaniilananda, is a Tantra yogi, a meditation instructor, an author, a keynote speaker and a musician. Born in New Zealand, he was ordained as a yoga monk in India in 1979 and has been teaching meditation for 40 years. His book on meditation has been translated into twelve languages and is a standard text for meditation teachers all over the world. In addition to writing both fiction and non-fiction books, Dada has won several international song-writing awards, recorded eight musical albums and performed and spoken in more than forty countries, including playing to more than 10,000 people at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit where he appeared onstage with the Dalai Lama. Dada now lives in Silicon Valley, California, where he teaches courses and workshops at UC Berkeley, Apple, NVIDIA, Google, CISCO, Lam Research Intel and Facebook. Dada has also widely presented on the topic of AI and the Mind in the Silicon Valley.

Acarya Dhyanesh, got his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree specializing in Eco-Village design. During his student days, Acarya Dhyanesh studied Kriya yoga (SRF), Kripalu Yoga, Integral Yoga, Tibetan Tantric Yoga, Kundalini yoga, and with the Hopi till he found his guru Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Dhyaneshji married Jamuna in Kolkata in 1984 and has three children. Since then, Dhyaneshji has been balancing family life, landscape architecture company Oasis Gardens and Tantra Yoga practices. Dhyanesh started the University Yoga Club at University Of Texas, Austin and has been teaching every week from 1984 with over 7,000 students having participated in his Yoga classes. Ac. Dhyanesh also built and managed a 10 acre urban farm with student cooperatives and 30 family membership with an amphitheater for humanitarian relief benefit concerts from 1997-2012. He also built a 3 acre eco-solar envelope homestead for seminars and collective meditation. In the last 35 years, Ac. Dhyanesh has helped design 20 Yoga Meditation Eco-Villages in California, New York, North Carolina, India, Russia, Phillipines, Italia, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, and Denmark. He also graduated from Tatvika training in Benares, India in 2002 and received his Tantra Acarya training in Puri, India in 2008.

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