Tantra is a meditational technique and a complex metaphysical belief system. Central to its teaching is the concept that reality is a unity. This unity is called Shiva-Shakti--Cosmic Consciousness . The individual has the potential to realize and equate himself with Cosmic Consciousness. The purpose of Tantra is to intuit this reality and achieving yoga—the merging of the individual self's identity with the universal self.

The tantric sadhaka (aspirant or seeker) develops the latent powers of the body to achieve this goal. He uses for this purpose Kundalini Shakti or the Serpent Power, a complex psychophysical force that, according to the practitioners of this doctrine, ordinarily lies almost untapped in the body. This extraordinary power center lies between the human body and in the cosmos as a whole. It is located at the base of the spine, nourished by energy from food and air, and from ethical and spiritual development. It can be expressed in sexual activity or transmuted into a subtle form that rises from the spinal column into a center in the brain, enlarging consciousness. The sudden movement from the base of the spine is the awakening of the Serpent power. This form is evolutionary, both in its expression of the procreative urge and its internal union within the human body, opening a door to the inspired consciousness that guides the progress of the human race through sages, seers, geniuses, artists and others.

The transformation of consciousness, brought about by the arousal of the Kundalini, introduces a new element into the field of perception. The world of the mind, imperceptible before, becomes cognizable, bringing another area of creation within the reach of our consciousness. The impact of the surpassing glory, the wonder and the joy of the new experience is the cause of the ecstasy. The awakening of Kundalini implies the renewed activity of the same life-force to refashion the brain to a higher dimension of awareness, which fashions it in the womb and keeps it alive and sane every moment of our life.

There are different energy centers that are called Chakras (nerve centers) located in the cerebrospinal axis. They are usually represented as lotuses. As Kundalini reaches each chakra, the lotus opens and lifts its flower, and as soon as she leaves for another chakra, the lotus closes its petals and hangs down, symbolizing the activation of the energy of the chakra and their assimilation into Kundalini. The increasing number of lotus petals, in ascending order, may be taken to indicate the rising energy or vibration-frequency of the receptive chakras, each functioning as a "transformer."

The seven major chakras are situated at vital spots in the body and control the organs of reproduction, digestion, blood circulation, respiration etc. Kundalini circulates in all vital organs, including the brain. There is no exact correspondence between metaphysical body and subtle body. However, for the sake of simplifying the idea of the tantric centres, locations in the physical body are mapped to represent different chakras; Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara Chakra.

Muladhara Chakra: means the base or the root. This centre is at the base of the spinal cord, where Kundalini lies in a dormant form, controlling the evolution of every human being and waiting to be aroused by those with an ardent desire for self-awareness.

Svadhisthana Chakra: This energy centre is, in Freud’s words, the "domain of libidinous impulses, the primordial, elemental passions and desires of human life." These are the basic instinctual drives. Svadhisthana, which prevent premature suppression or ascetic annihilation of instinctual drives.

Manipura Chakra: plays an important role in the integral knowledge as A source of unsuspected abilities for establishing the glory of truth and love in the world.

Anahata Chakra: this is the love centre, the heart centre and the centre of the psyche. This centre transforms the joys of being into the joys of giving.

Visuddha Chakra: the throat centre. Its function is the ability to see things as they are--everything in its suchness. At this centre, the initiate is intuitively illumined with knowledge and inspired with love, using words as an affective tool of communication of the truth of things.

Ajna Chakra: this is the sixth centre. The quality of this centre is a great potential of human beings. It is the ability to see things in their wholeness. This chakra shines with light of Cosmic Consciousness and reveals the universe in its unified wholeness of being.

Sahasrara Chakra: means the one thousand petalled lotus. When the energy moves to the seventh centre the adept becomes a radiant lotus. This lotus is Nirvana. This is the highest centre of consciousness; * the crowning fulfillment of the mystic realization of which humans* are potentially capable. All the supernormal powers pertain to this centre.

The lowest centre is Muladhara, from where life of the body and senses is born. With the seventh center, Sahasrara, life is born, life of the eternal not of the body, not of the senses. This is the Tantra physiology, and not the physiology found in medical books. It is a map to make things understandable for the average person.

Whitman's tantric vision in "Song of Myself" is the subject of my talk this afternoon. In particular I shall try to identify the seven chakras in his poetry. The poet begins his poem by describing one "transparent summer morning" when he was leaning and " observing a spear of summer grass." He speaks of a certain physical sensation followed by a swift and revolutionary transformation of the psyche. The world and the human scene appeared in a new light.

With this realization he becomes aware of "the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth" and deeper significance of life. This was not a passing fancy or a poetic mood for Whitman, but a permanent transformation. It was an expansion of consciousness. Something happened that touched the psychic source of his life when suddenly he was engulfed in silent-ocean of pure consciousness. At that moment a poet is born and there came to him a feeling of union or identity with super-consciousness. A sense of ineffable joy leading to the conviction that the seer has been released from the limitation of space and time and has been granted a vision into the nature of truth. The poet achieves transcendental illumination:

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the arguments argument of the earth,

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, and I

know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,

And that a kelson of creation is love.

When Whitman gets inspiration and insight, nature unfolds its secrets to him and all doubts within him disappear. He clearly begins to understand that the most essential condition or happiness and fulfillment in human life is in balance, harmony and integration. With this he becomes aware of a great power within him. It is the moment when the Kundalini, the mysterious secret reservoir in the human body is aroused and the poet achieves mystical experience of higher consciousness that is rare and great.

Whitman’s experience is similar to that described by Gopi Krishna:

Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain through the spinal cord . . . . I felt the point of consciousness that was myself growing wider, surrounded by the waves of light." ( Higher Consciousness: The evolutionary thrust of Kundalini ).

This experience occurs gradually as a result of yoga or other spiritual practices, or, as in the case of Whitman, it may have come spontaneously when he was entirely unprepared. It was an insight arising from the actual condition of higher consciousness. At times the immensities of consciousness and perception were too much for mental and physical body that the poet gave expression to his thoughts by writing marvelous vistas of life and human destiny that opened his vision like a blaze of dazzling light. The resultant new awareness and visions are supplemented with art.

Whitman's "Song of Myself" is the record of the activation of Kundalini within his self. Kundalini begins her journey from Muladhara chakra, the root centre of physical experience to Sahasrara chakra, the centre of quintessential consciousness, where integration of all polarities is experienced, and the paradoxical act of transcendence is accomplished.

With the activation of Kundalini, a change takes place within Whitman and he cannot stop pursuing his longing to know what is beyond. He proceeds to find the experience of infinitude, his vast extension, or concentrated intensfication into Allness. He carries this conquest to its end, and realizes that the energies within him like fire, are urging him forward:

Urge and urge and urge,

Always the procreant urge of the world,

Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase,

always sex,

Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life.

Whitman wanted to be the "one complete lover: of the known universe," i.e., of the natural order of existence, and out of his love for the physical world he could intuit the spiritual world which gives life and existence to the physical. This love and intuition enables him to acquire the wisdom which defies adequate translation into words, but in passage after passage Whitman reveals his conviction that in that eternal system of creation, each part, regardless of how seemingly trivial, is equally important and immortal. The whole world is revealed to the poet when this realization comes to him. The barrier between matter and energy breaks down for the poet, and he sees even a grain of sand and a blade of grass as vibrating with energy.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,

And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg

of wren,

And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlours of heaven.

Whitman recognizes the essential unity of matter and body, which find no opposition between the body and soul

I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul.

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,

And I have said that body is not more than the soul,

And nothing, not God, is greater to one's self is.

On the contrary, the body, its organs and the mind, are the very means of gaining experience of the soul. Whitman seeks the unfolding of the powers within by an act of self-realization. He does not look upon the world as an illusion or maya, but as a kind of experience, but accepts and strives to reach yet another level of experience. Whitman does not reject the normal level of experience, but accepts and strives to reach yet another level of experience where reality attains richness. By accepting everything as the gift of A supreme being, the poet is freed from all the dualities and tensions of body and soul, of matter and spirit, "Clear and sweet is my soul, clear and sweet is all that is not my soul." He showed accord with existence and gave approval to everything. He felt an ineffable sense of fruition and fullness, he is ". . . satisfied--I see, dance, laugh, sing" and his poems express an exalted vision of a tantric sadhaka: he enters into the last phase of spiritual triumph and arrives at the stage of infinity which the seers sought. By subjecting everything emotional, physical, sexual, spiritual to the deepest centres of the lowest self, he attains maximum consciousness in the higher self.

Whitman conquers everything from the lowest to the highest centres. His

. . .feet strike an apex of the spices and of the stairs,

On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps,

All duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount

Each psychic center plays a vital role in Whitman's life.

The lowest chakra plays an integral part in strengthening Whitman's self-image. His experiences of this chakra are many. Sometimes he is in his normal mode of seeking mere pleasures of the world, and feels something rising with a tingling sensation from head to foot. At this level he remains content, experiencing no desires to change or expand into any other state. At this center the poet realizes the immense potentiality of sex energy, and, through intuition, transforms the energy of sex and frees it to the plane of cosmic awareness. He sees sex as divine in itself, and as a source of vital energy capable of acting with tremendous force on a psychophysical state which in turn reacts on a higher cosmic plane. Just as in a genuine mystical experience, there is inexpressible transformation of personality. Precision of the intellect and the accuracy of sensual images is never blurred or distorted but the perception is heightened and everything becomes clear and brilliant, and harmonious.

Whitman is aware of the fact that the small pleasures derived from sex are not actually the pleasures of sex but a vibration in the pool of vital energy. This vibration is: "The smoke of my breath,/ Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, crotch and vine,/ My respiration and inspiration, the passing of blood and air through my lungs." The activation of this centre makes Whitman renounce nothing but indulge and enjoy and celebrate existence. The existence goes on celebrating and there is great joy and rejoicing in Whitman's heart. This experience makes his body light and he possesses inexhaustable energy. He gets divine intoxication, and develops a power of oration, and in exhilaration he begins to compose sublime hymns and poetry involuntarily. With the arousal of this energy, the poet is a totally new and transformed individual. The poet's state of consciousness results in immediate knowledge.

Whitman feels energy within him, lying low at the life center, rising upward. Rapturous and supersensual vision appears before Whitman's mental eye; new worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold before his eyes. This energy is like an electric current and a flaming force, and at the same time it is cool like the morning breeze. This energy also accompanied by a tactile sensation of cold. As his body is exposed to heat and cold, he admires the flesh:

If I worships one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my

own body, or any part,

Translucent mould of me it shall be you!

Shaded ledges and rests it shall be you!

Firm masculine colter it shall be you!

Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you!

You my rich blood! your milky stream pale strippings of my life! Breasts that pressed against other breasts it shall be you!

My brain it shall be your occult convolution!

Root of wash'd sweet-flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest of guarded'd tussled hay of head, beard, it shall be you!

Trickling sap of maple, fiber of manly wheat. it shall be you! Sun so generous it shall be you!

Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be!

You sweaty brooks and dew it shall be you!

Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against it shall be you! Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving lounger in my

winding paths, it shall be you!

Hands I have taken, face I have kiss'd, mortal I have ever

touch'd it shall be you!

Whitman's poems are full of exaltation of love, birth and sex. His union with himself leads to an awareness of his unity with God,with others, with nature. This is not only attained by prayer or meditation but by sexual union, which like poetry is a creative act. Whitman realizes love of self through an auto erotic acceptance of the body. This leads to love of God and a view of all humanity as one whole. The central structure is God's creation is love. The poet's ritual drama of creation reveals its own source--the acceptance and love of one's own body. The self is not only in traditional mystical experience, submerged or annihilated, but rather celebrated.

Svadhisthana Chakra: With the activation of the first centre, the poet does not shun the basic libidinous impulses, the primordial, elemental passions and desires of human life. In fact he not only accepts the senses but celebrates them. This acceptance of the senses dawns upon him when the energy reaches the second chakra, the abode of the self where Whitman really begins to exist. He then transcends the fact of death by discovering the reality of the spirit in life within him and by participating in the eternity of the spirit.

At this center, the state of consciousness begins to interpenetrate; there arises a hitherto unexperienced continuity of consciousness. This means enormously increased sensitiveness throughout the whole being. When the soul "plunged its tongue" to the "bare stript heart" of the poet, the physical becomes united with the spiritual. The body from the beard to feet is held in the grip of the soul, and the body and the soul become one it ". . . reached till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet." The sensations felt by Whitman are similar to the sensation felt during the awakening of the energy within a human being. It is here that he begins to feel an ascending movement that fills him with ecstasy, ". . . you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me," describes an axial rotary movement and this is followed by a sensation of chill ascending along the body.

As a consequence Whitman feels a sense of physical exposure, "And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone." For Whitman the spiritual is not in conflict with the organic but rather its fulfillment. His aim* is not the discovery of the unknown, but the realization of the known and the result of this is an experience that is more real than the experience of the objective world. With the awakening of the primordial energy Whitman is born again, born a new person. He is joined with God and finds "that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers." He discovers the most fundamental secret of the universe, "That the kelson of creation is love."

With the Svadhisthana chakra vibrating in rhythm with the Muladhara, Whitman becomes aware of his power as a warrior, creator, mover and shaker. He uses this power as the means towards the constructive fulfillment of interpersonal relation and higher values such as truth, beauty, goodness, peace, freedom, and justice. Whitman realizes the unity of wisdom, power and love and he is aware that love binds man to man, woman to woman, and man to God. In this tremendous knowledge, he knows perfection and grows grave and tremulous before this ultimate truth.

Life according to Whitman is valuable because of sentiments, emotions, laughter and tears. These are the glories of life, which only humans are capable of having and expressing. Whitman believes that spiritual progress and liberation is not achieved by avoiding emotions and sentiments, but by transforming them. Therefore, for the poet sensations and emotions are powerful human motive forces that should be cultivated and harnessed to the ultimate goal.

Whitman feels that only through sentiments and emotions and sensitivity can a person come to that vibration through which meaningful communication is possible. Thus the poet gives vent to his feelings and creates poetry of laughter and tears. After overcoming all bonds and inhibitions and the consequent enlargement of consciousness, there is a tremendous flow of vital energy that manifests itself in an immense exuberance of spirit and self-assertion. He sounds his "barbaric yawp" over the roofs of the world, declaring himself, "infinite and omnigenious," is at once the great prophet and creator, "The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supreme./ . . .becoming already a creator

Ajit Mookerjee writes that Kundalini Shakti is aroused by meditation, and asserts, "One must rise by that which one may fall." He continues, "What in the cosmic plane is fusion of polarities, on the biological level, the sexual union of asana (yogic poses)--not "sexual intercourse" as commonly and wrongly stated." Whitman's power too resides in sensuality. Power is the mother goddess who gives birth to the male child and then initiates man into carnal knowledge, which for the poet is the surest and most crucial knowledge, as he says:

Unfolded out of the strong arrogant woman I love, only thence can

appear the strong and arrogant man I love,

Unfolded by browny embraces from the well-muscled women I love,

Only thence come the brawny embraces of man.

The celebration of the body and the association of sexuality with artistic creativity are fundamental. Both the transcendental experience of the union with nature and physical experience of the sexual orgasm are prolonged far beyond their usual short lives, as Whitman works up the ladder.

With the opening of the heart centre, Whitman has some profound experiences within him. This centre is the poet's being, hidden within him, where he gets a glimpse of truth and relates it with primordial energy of life. Whitman begins to hear celestial music, music of the infinite, music that is created without the help of instruments, a flowering of the infinite.* It is similar to the mantras that arise from the depth of one's being. It is the Manipura center that leads to the beyond that has no frontier; A limitless infinite expanse which knows no sorrow. There is nothing but abounding bliss:

O the joy of my soul leaning pois'd on it self, receiving identity

through materials and loving them, observing characters and

absorbing them,

My soul vibrated back to me from them, from sight, hearing, touch, reason

articulation, comparison, memory and the like,

My real life of senses, and flesh transcending my senses and flesh,

My body done with materials, my sight done with my material eyes,

Proved to me this day beyond cavil that it is not my material eyes which f finally see,

Nor my material body which finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts, embraces, procreates.

This experience seems to have touched the psychic source of his life. He begins to be drawn to silence, the milieu in which he has his being and the boundless reservoir his poetic creativity. At this moment when he first comes to know the unfathomable, perfectly silent ocean of pure consciousness, he is born a poet, a singer of great songs. For him words become meaningless. He allows music to flow through his body, his physical throat--a music not a sound, but of silence. In that rippless lake of consciousness, something is conveyed.

Not words, nor music or rhyme I want, nor custom or lecture,not even the best,

Only the lull I like, the hum of your valve'd voice.

After attaining access to the heart center Whitman realizes that words do not convey meaningful silence can. Silence cannot be communicated by language, since talking involves shifting attention from the thing that matters. How could silence sing or communicate? Why should silence preoccupy a singer? The question goes to the heart of the creative process Whitman experiences as a poet. It also goes to the heart of the secret mystical experiences that recurred throughout his life—it is without name—"…it is an word unsaid,/ It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbols." In silence Whitman enters the womb of existence and begins to experience profound consciousness.

Illumined with knowledge and inspired by love Whitman experiences purity and innocence, as the energy strikes the fifth centre, Visuddha. Through love and compassion there is realization of God and the poet pours forth words that are unsayable, ineffable, and inexpressible. He sees the beautific vision of God and becomes mad with joy, longing to come closer to him and be united with him. His Words have fragrance, dance, and music and whatever he says is poetry, and whatever he utters is sheer joy: Hymns to universal God from universal man all joy!

A reborn race appears--a perfect world, all joy!

Women and men in wisdom innocence and health--all joy!

Riotous laughing bacchanals fill'd with joy!

War, sorrow, suffering gone--the rank earth purged—nothing but joy

left!

The ocean fill'd with joy--the atmosphere all joy!

Joy! joy! in freedom, worship, love! joy in the ecstasy of life! Enough to merely be! enough to breathe!

Joy! joy! all over joy!

Here the expansive and dynamic self of the poet realizes its all-inclusive nature, embraces the world and identifies himself with it, thus bridging the gulf between the self and non-self. In this state there is a continual bliss.

Consequently the poet experiences the free flow of creative energy at the sixth centre, the wisdom centre. Here the self of the poet--like the self of the universe--includes and transcends all. He realizes the intuitive identity of the universe and rises to the conception of an absolute Being, which is at once the support and essence of the world, "Ehtreal, pervading all,/ Essence of forms, life of the real identities, permanent, positive,/ I, the general soul." This soul is the "only certainty" and "final substance." For Whitman "Kosmic spirit" is no other than one's own self. In his "Song of Myself" he expresses this cosmic vision , this exalted sense of self-expression which is the highest achievement of the intuition.

As a result of this cosmic consciousness the poet, freed of all impediments, becomes perfectly fluid and diaphanous and reflects within himself the cosmic existence. There is continuous chanting voice within him. The world and the human scene appear revealed in a new light, and Whitman becomes aware of the deeper significance of life. Since God is the ultimate experience the poet now feels that the union between him and God has been established. He now becomes the voice of God:

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

I see of something of God each hour of the twenty- four, and each

moment then ,

In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my face in the glass,

I find letters from God dropt in the street and everyone is sign’d by

God’s name ,

And I leave them where they are, for I know that whereso’ er I go.

Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Thus through the rousing of the energy the poet attains divine wisdom, superconscious conception, and realization of the spirit. At last all is one, all is love, even hate is love, even flesh is spirit. The great oneness, the experience is infinity, the triumph of living spirit, which at last includes everything, is here accomplished.

There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me,

Wrench’d and sweaty—calm and cool then my body becomes, I

sleep—I sleep long,

I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid,

It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol,

Something that it swings on more than the earth I swing on,

To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me

Perhaps I might tell more, Outlines! I plead for my brothers and

sisters,

Do you see my brothers and sisters?

It is not chaos and death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life

--it is happiness.

Whitman becomes perfectly detached when the psychological energy passes beyond the six sixth center to the seventh, *highest center of consciousness. At this level the poet experiences a crowning fulfillment of the mystic realization, and his soul realizes its freedom. He enters into a blissful communion with the supreme godhead, bringing into life the ultimate fulfillment of spiritual longing. He feels an ineffable sense of fruition and fullness, he is ". . . satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing" and his poem express an exalted vision of tantric sadhaka. He enters into the last phase of spiritual triumphs, finally touching infinity. It is in this state of heightened sensibility and magnified power of perception that Whitman beholds a vision of the deity. He is overwhelmed by his own power of observation and the new meaning it gives to every object.

This love and intuition enables Whitman to acquire the wisdom which defies adequate translations into words; but in passage after passage the poet reveals his conviction that in the eternal system of creation, each part, regardless of how seemingly trivial, is equally important and immortal. The whole world is revealed to Whitman when this realization comes to him. The barrier between matter and energy break down, with poet seeing even grains of sand and blades of grass as vibrating with energy:

Being a poet of energy, Whitman feels an unfathomable sensation arising within him, beginning from the highest center and travelling to he lowest? As soon as Whitman knows his true self and his position and function in the total scheme of existence, his whole being is filled with the spirit of love, because he knows he is part of the whole. Nirvana is an experience beyond dualities. Therefore, the moment the poet attains enlightenment, he attains Nirvana and liberation. This experience for Whitman was not something new, nor was it a passing fancy or a poetic mood; it was a transformation which stayed with him permanently, urging him toward constant utterance:

I am the poet of the Body, and I am the poet of the soul,

The pleasures of heaven with me and the pains of heaven with me,

The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a

new tongue.

This a cyclic process, his "feet strike an apex of the spices and of the stairs,/ On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches and steps,/ All duly travel’d, and still I mount and mount." Each psychic center plays a vital role in the poet’s life.

Whitman’s dynamism is the product and expression of the experience of Kundalini. With this experience the idea of expansion and dynamism permeates his thoughts. The meaning of life is revealed to him through meditation and he expresses his inward illumination in art form. This is the moment of supreme inspiration in his art that flows from a level of consciousness where his inner spirit becomes one with his ego and where he begins to identify himself with the universe.

Seen through the eyes of a tantric scholar, Whitman’s "Song of Myself" is a record of the progress of consciousness, from Muladhara to Sahasrara, flowing from one energy center to the others. Seen thus, Whitman’s poetic journey is neither an ascent nor a decent, but a progression from one spot of light to another. This is a system of dynamic meditation. Like a tantric, Whitman perceives the radiance mind and body, of subject and *object, of life and death, of light and darkness, and of all else, with equanimity, tranquillity, and, above all, love.