Subhasis Chattopadhyay, studied Tantra Answered 1h ago on Quora a) The first question that comes to my minds is why will one be interested in Tantra? • May be, you want to dupe people and get a lot of cash? Is it possible you are worried about the consequences of doing evil to both yourself and others? • You want to be with women/men; drink and enjoy or rather, wallow in sense pleasures. • Or, you dislike for some internal deviancy the routine things in life. May be, you are bored. And the rituals of Tantra provoke in you a sense of being 'high'? May be you want to escape your swadharma? Therefore in the search of the esoteric (not even supernatural) and for the need of enjoying the sense organs (through which sense objects are experienced), you are reading, studying or trying to dupe yourself or/and others about Tantra. Therefore, the first reason why you should NOT want to even read on Tantra is this: you are searching for the miraculous or you'd not be searching the Tantras for knowledge. Because you don't want to study the Brahmasutras, the Major Upanishads and The Bhagavad Gita, you are searching for Tantric esotericism. The danger in Tantra in praxes is that you might simply go INSANE. Mother Dhumavati pictured above destroys those who seek sense-pleasures. Refrain from cheating yourself and others. b) The greatest danger in even thinking of Tantra is to be disobedient to our shastras. You may run the risk of hallucinating, experiencing psychoses and down the line you will just be a person living for the pleasures of the flesh/sarx. c) Your approach to life may be of a pre-literate atavistic person; regressing within superstitions and nonsensical abracadabra. Having said these here are some links to follow why you are missing out on the great benefits of Tantra. Before I give you those links; here are some home-truths: • Adi Shankaracharya wrote one of the best hymns to Sri Ma Tripura Sundari, one of the Mahavidyas. Therefore Tantra is the highest form of worship within Hinduism. And it has NOTHING to do with sex. Whom should I listen to, tell me discerning reader? To Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, to Swamis Saradananda and Swahananda and to my own Guru or to some charlatan who cannot control her/his senses? Also the key word here is worship. Most Hindu worship is Tantric and has NOTHING to do with money, sex or power. • If you are indulging in unchaste behaviour and practise simony; you are simply put, a no-gooder. Within Hinduism including Tantra, there is the pericope of deha ninda (prakarana). The moment you think of the flesh, you are finished. This is there in Christianity too. Strict mortification of the flesh is needed in Tantra. Now for the links: the first one shows monks of the Ramakrishna Order praying to Mother Kaali; this is Tantra. The Ramakrishna Mission monks (attached to Belur Math) are not unchaste; they take celibacy very seriously. Notice in between Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj too praying... Tantra is about interiorising the Deity...the next link is to a source book brought out by the Ramakrishna Mission on Tantra. Then the links are of my writings explicitly or implicitly on Tantra. So to sum up, the greatest dangers to you searching and dabbling with Tantra is you are going to probably end up either a cheat or you will simply go crazy and will have to be put on anti-psychotics. https://youtu.be/7iQc19b6PD8 http://www.esamskriti.com/essays... http://advaitaashrama.org/Conten... Subhasis Chattopadhyay, Review of Chinnamastā: The Aweful Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess PhilPapers I continue to write at various places on Tantra and am translating forgotten vernacular books on Tantra. But at the end of the day, I'd wager my little money on the Beatitudes of Jesus and the words of the Sannyasa Upanishads. If you feel a very strong urge to be into Tantra; read the following please (online) and watch YouTube videos of: a) The life and works of Swami Vivekananda. b) The life and works of Ramana Maharishi. Even then if you want to pursue Tantra; first see a good psychologist and a psychiatrist and THEN access Tantra. If you are addicted to pornography, abuse drugs or drink hard liquor and want to experiment with Tantra; please get yourself treated by newer antipsychotics and other mood stabilizers. Master Nome writes on Advaita Vedanta; one of his books has been reviewed by me here. Advaita Vedanta or Sri Ramanujacharya's dualism are better options than Tantra. To repeat, why should you or I listen to anyone peddling sex, quick-fixes and worldly fame when the Hindu shastras forbid them? As I said I am not merely writing or reading intellectuals like Professor Shinohara, but I am learning the sacred art of Tantra. And believe you I, sex and money and ego have nothing to do with this path. The danger is you will become a pervert reading and misinterpreting Tantric books. Please fixate(sic) on the lives of Catholic Saints and Hindu sages like Trailanga Swami and earlier, Sri Madhavacharya. May Mother Dhumavati bless both you and I, and cut off your bondage to esoteric religious searches. May we both, the writer and the reader be infused with hatred for the flesh qua sarx. May we together forget the world and its vanities and may Mother Dhumavati destroy eros, sense of family and make us happy in solitude. May SHE take us beyond samsara. May Sri Shankara and Sri Ramanujacharya both protect us from self-delusion. Whenever you are thinking of the Tantras, please think of Sri Ramakrishna who was among many other forms (things!) a Tantric first and was initiated as such. The Master forbids unchaste behaviour and simony.