~~ TANTRA ~~4

You become afraid of love if you suppress sex. A person who has suppressed sex will always be afraid of love, because the moment love comes sex will follow. Love is of the soul and sex is of the body, so love cannot be allowed to happen because then sex will follow. It will be just somewhere near, by the corner. So a person who has suppressed sex cannot be loving. He may show it, he may pretend that he is very loving, but he cannot be because he is so afraid. He cannot touch you with a loving hand because the fear is there. The loving hand can any moment turn out to be a s*xual touch, so he will be afraid; he will not allow you to touch him.

He may create many justifications for it but the real thing is fear - fear of the instinct which he has repressed. And he will be filled with hatred, because any energy that is repressed reverses itself and goes to its original nature.

Sex moves easily toward love; that is a natural flow. If you prevent it, if you create hindrances to its path, it will become hatred. So your so-called saints and so-called moral teachers, if you look deep into them you will find them filled with hatred. And that is bound to be, it is natural. Sex is hidden there, any moment it can erupt. They are sitting on a dangerous volcano. If you push down energies, you are just postponing a task, and the more it is postponed, the more difficult it will be.

Tantra says, create your life with real energies - and real energies are all animal energies. But when I say animal, there is no condemnation in it. The word 'animal' for me is not condemnatory, as it is for you. The animal is beautiful in itself, the animal in itself is nothing to be condemned. The animal within you is pure energy, moving according to natural laws.

It has been asked, "What should we do consciously? Should we not channel? Should we not control?" No! Your consciousness is not to control, your consciousness is not to channel. Your consciousness can do only one thing: your consciousness is to understand, and understanding in itself becomes the transformation.

Tantra will say, understand sex, do not try to channel it. If you do not understand it, every effort is bound to be a failure, and harmful. So do not do anything. First understand it, and through understanding the path will be revealed. You are not to force your energies on that path. Through understanding you come to know the law, just like in science. What are you doing in science? You come to understand a law; a natural mystery is revealed. Once the natural mystery is revealed, you can use the energy creatively.

Without your knowing the inherent law, all efforts are doomed. So tantra says, understand the animal, because in the animal is hidden the potential for your future. Really, it can be said that in the animal God is hidden. The animal is your past, God is your future - but the future is hidden in your past, in seed form. Understand whatsoever your natural forces are. Accept them, understand them.

Your mind is not to be there mastering; it is not there to control them and fight with them, it is there to understand them.

Really, if you understand them, you are using your mind rightly. Understand sex, understand anger, understand greed. Be alert; try to find out their ways - how they work, what are their functions. And be constantly aware of the very movement of these animal instincts within. If you can be conscious of these animal instincts, there will be no division, you will not have an unconscious mind. If you can move with these instincts deep within, you will have only a conscious mind; there will be no unconscious.