Be intimate with God

Guruji: I would like to see God in front of me, not as something unknown to me, but just like I am seeing you. I want to talk to God, to that Higher Intelligence, and I want to experience it as a reality, not something that I imagine. I would like to gather some experiences in this life that will give me that tranquil state and then replay that tape and get a more perfect version than I have been able to experience. This is the essence of second part of the puja, the offering of the Sixty Four Intimate Services to God.

You try to see all the elements of Goddess in another human being. You invoke the Goddess into a, little girl, a single woman or a couple, and you worship them as embodiments of Goddess. Goddess is also in you, whether you are male or female. It is Goddess who is worshipping herself. This is where the question of Tantra comes in. Tantra speaks of interaction with others. The question is as you relate yourself with others, are you trying to keep your separateness and relate to them as two separate entities, or are you trying to relate to others through merging as you relate to yourself?

Jesus Christ has given a beautiful answer to this question. It is worth repeating. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Not as somebody else, because if you think of your neighbor as somebody else then the question of desire, of lust, of judgment can come in. If you are loving thy neighbor as thyself, is there any desire in that? If there is desire it can be fulfilled without any restrictions or inhibitions.

If I want to enjoy myself, love myself, or make love to myself, who can stop me? I am free. I go into the bathroom and take a soap to wash my body. Is the rest of my body ashamed that my right hand is taking the soap and rubbing me all over? It is not. There cannot be a sense of shame in unity. In the context of puja, notion of unity rather than separation is to be experienced. The idea that what I am seeing is myself should never be lost sight of. 

For intimacy to happen there can be no restrictions of any sort. That is where the nudity comes into tantra. You cannot surrender yourself to your partner if you say, I am a woman. I must not remove my clothes." You and your partner are not different people. You are trying to merge into one. The word digambara does not mean just the removal of clothes. It is a merging of the minds, of thoughts. You are thinking the same thoughts that I am thinking. You are experiencing the same things that I am experiencing. There is a transference into the other being, an expansion of your consciousness to include the other being as yourself. Both of you are experiencing the same thoughts without talking. That is digambara. That is when you are united. That is the intent of Tantra.