In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores practical uses of Tantra and its role in transformation and focused spiritual practice.

By Tantra, I mean the group of techniques that have been used for transformative purposes, both internal and external, in India for approximately a thousand years, although they were certainly being used before that. It is useful to remember that the majority of puja, meaning ritual worship, performed in temples in India today is fundamentally Tantric in nature.

The procedures developed through various traditions and gradually became incorporated into temple worship. One practical use of Tantra is to assist an individual in pleasing or pacifying a divine being for a particular purpose. Tantra involves techniques and intended results.

One of the most detailed and practical uses of Tantra in a specific real-world situation is the tradition called Rasa Vidya, sometimes translated as alchemy. Over the past several centuries, practitioners of Tantra experimented with metals, minerals, and other substances to determine whether they could be used for various purposes. Some of the compounds developed through these practices became part of Ayurveda as mineral medicines called Rasa Aushadhis.

Some of these medicines can also be used internally for spiritual development. However, it is important to remember that Rasa Vidya does not only refer to external substances, such as metals and minerals used in alchemy. Rasa also refers to the juices within the body and to emotions.

Therefore, when Rasa Vidya is applied internally, sometimes with the assistance of external substances, its purpose is to refine, purify, and make emotions more subtle, directing them toward the Divine.

Sometimes it is said that the physical body contains six rasas, or tastes, while the mind contains many different rasas, depending on how many emotions and experiences one identifies. The purpose of Rasa Vidya is to gather all these different rasas and transform them into one rasa, one essential flow, meaning one purpose, one focus, and one intention.

Then the energy created through this unified focus can be directed toward the goal one wishes to achieve. This is really what Tantra is about: deciding the direction you want to move in and then moving consistently in that direction.

Even simple worship can be a practical use of Tantra. Panchopachara Puja is one of the simplest forms, where offerings are made to the five elements. A flower represents the space element, incense represents the air element, a flame such as a lamp or candle represents the fire element, something sweet to eat represents the water element, and fragrance such as essential oil represents the earth element.

When these five offerings are made with the intention that the elements are purified, that purification can benefit you by helping the Shakti, the energy within you, move more easily toward whatever transformation you seek. That same energy can also help influence the external world in a positive way.

This is what magic is truly about: creating alignment with the five elements so that the elements within and around you cooperate in a beneficial way.

There are many practical ways Tantra can be applied, and these are only a few examples. But the beginning of all Tantra is the commitment to gather your energy, refine your personality, determine the direction you wish to move in, and then move in that direction.