In Indian philosophy, three main forces, three gods known as the Trimurti are said
to maintain the universe: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer.
While Brahma and Vishnu are connected to the structure of the world, Shiva is often linked
to inner change. He represents the destruction of ego, false beliefs, and mental limits that keep a
person stuck. Often called the first yogi, he was the first to master the human system and transcend
the limitations of the mind, thus making him the ultimate archetype of human potential.
While most religions focus on following rules to reach a "heaven" later, Tantra is a philosophy
for the here and now. The word "Tantra" literally means "tool" or "technique." It is a collection of
radical methods, supposedly handed down directly from Shiva to his wife Parvati, designed to
shatter the ego and expand consciousness. ,If you feel stuck in your habits or boxed
in by your own personality, these are the seven ways of Tantric philosophy to help you
destroy your limitations and finally become the person you are currently afraid to be.
1. Break the Pashu In Tantric philosophy,
most people are described as Pashu, a word that means “tethered animal.” This refers to a state
where your potential is restricted by social and psychological conditioning. This cage is
maintained by the Ashta Pasha, or eight bonds: aversion, shame, fear, doubt, self-censorship,
family expectations, concern about status, and rigid politeness. These bonds quietly
set the limits of your life. Whenever you have a great idea but keep it to yourself,
or you want to change careers but worry about your parents' opinions,
one of these chains is pulling at your neck. You stay "tame" not because you lack talent,
but because you are afraid of what the herd will say. To become who you are meant to be, you
must recognize that these bonds are the tools the herd uses to keep you predictable and controlled.
Shiva is called Pashupati - the Lord of the Animals. Legend says that while the other
gods lived in gold palaces, Shiva chose to live in the dirt of the cremation grounds, wearing snakes
as jewelry and rubbing funeral ash on his skin. When the other gods mocked his "wild" appearance,
Shiva didn’t argue or try to prove his worth; he remained indifferent because he didn't recognize
their social standards as valid. By being comfortable with things most people fear - death,
dirt, and isolation - he freed himself from the need for approval. He is the "Lord" of the animals
because he mastered the survival instincts and social fears that keep everyone else enslaved.
To reach this level, you must perform what Tantra calls "Social Suicide."
This is the deliberate death of your persona - the fake version of yourself maintained to
keep your social circle comfortable. To break the tether, you must first pay close attention
to the moments you "vibrate" - those split seconds where you instinctively adjust your tone, posture,
or opinions to please the people in the room. This vibration is a biological drive for tribal
belonging, and it is draining you. Breaking it requires you to accept that to the herd, you will
temporarily look like a failure or a "weirdo." As the judgment inevitably comes, you must reframe
it as an Operational Overhead Cost. In business, you don't argue with the electricity bill;
you simply pay it so the lights stay on. Treat social disapproval the same
way. When a friend mocks your new discipline or a family member questions your direction,
do not explain yourself and do not defend your choices. The moment you try to convince them you
are right, you have crawled back into the herd. The final step is the Active Reallocation
of your energy. Once you stop managing your reputation, you will find yourself with a sudden,
massive surplus of focus. You must immediately pour this reclaimed energy into your business,
your training, or your creative work. By refusing to spend your resources on maintaining a mask,
you cease being a member of the herd and finally become the Architect of your own life.
2. Find Your Cremation Ground The second stage of transformation
requires moving toward the Shmashana, or the cremation ground. In Hindu tradition, this is
the physical place where bodies are burned. While most people avoided these grounds,
ancient Tantrics practiced Sh-mash-ana Sadh-ana, which is sitting in the middle of these sites
at night, meditating among the smoke and remains. In the presence of literal death,
the A-ham-ka-ra, or the ego, realizes it is a ghost. It is a heavy psychological tool:
the anxieties that rule your daily life instantly burn away when you are forced to confront the fact
that you will eventually be nothing but ash. Most of our fears are based on avoiding "ego
death." We are afraid to take risks because we are trying to protect a permanent image of
ourselves. Shiva living in the cremation ground is a metaphor for a person who has accepted
impermanence. When you accept the ultimate "worst-case scenario" - death - you stop
being paralyzed by small failures because you’ve already reconciled with the fact that the "you"
you are trying to protect is temporary. To practice this today, you must find
your Personal Sh-mash-ana. This isn't a physical graveyard, but any situation
you avoid because it puts your identity at risk. If you are terrified of being seen as incompetent,
your Shmashana is launching a project that is only 70% ready and letting the
world see the unfinished version. If you pride yourself on being "the
strong one," your Shmashana is the uncomfortable conversation where you admit you are struggling.
It is the act of stepping into an arena where you might be seen as "failed" or
"broken," and choosing to stay there rather than running back to safety.
As you step into your "fire" - whether it’s a difficult presentation or a
personal confrontation - your ego will start to scream. It will tell you to hide, to apologize,
or to make excuses. In that moment, take a Vow of Stillness. Do not try to fix the discomfort.
Instead, mentally step back and simply observe the sensation. You realize that you are not the
one burning; you are the space in which the burning is happening. You are the observer
of the fire, not the fuel being consumed by it. Your true potential is only reached when you let
your insecure self burn away until, when the fire dies down, only the Ash remains. Ash here
represents the indestructible core of your being that no longer needs to perform, to impress, or to
hide. That is where your transformation begins. 3. Process the Poison
In the story of Samudra Manthan, the gods and demons were working together to find the nectar
of immortality, but before they found it, a deadly, black poison called Halahala emerged
from the depths. It was so toxic that it began to suffocate everything in existence. While the
other gods fled in terror, Shiva stepped forward. To save the world, he drank the venom; however,
he didn't swallow it into his stomach, nor did he spit it out. He held it in his throat.
The poison was so potent it turned his neck deep blue, but he remained perfectly calm.
This story is a masterclass in how to handle the inevitable "poison" of life.
Most people handle pain in one of two ways: they either swallow it - internalizing the
stress until it causes a physical or mental breakdown - or they spit it out - lashing
out at others and spreading the toxicity. Shiva’s "blue throat" represents a third path:
Containment. He stays in the middle of the discomfort by holding the poison in his
throat - the center of communication and will - and refuses to let it reach his heart or his
gut. He acknowledges the pain and the "burn," but he doesn't let it dictate his actions.
This "Blue Throat" is the disciplined ability to sit with extreme discomfort without letting
it dictate your behavior. " It isn't repressing it, but observing it.To practice this, you must:
Identify Your "Halahala": Recognize the specific moment a situation turns toxic, such
as when a major client cancels or a project fails. Hold the Tension: Instead of reacting immediately,
you "hold" the emotion in your throat. This means you acknowledge the pain
and the "burn" of the situation, but you refuse to let it change your character.
Analyze Dispassionately: Look at a failure objectively. Find the 5% of
truth in harsh criticism without being destroyed by the 95% that is unfair.
By mastering containment, you become the person who can lead when things go
wrong because you have proven that external "poison" cannot penetrate your internal core.
4. Dissolve the Vikalpa A Vikalpa is a label or a story
you tell yourself about who you are - phrases like "I am an introvert," "I am a businessman," or "I
am a failure." While these labels help us navigate the world, they eventually become a prison because
you stop acting based on what is necessary and start acting based on what fits your "character."
Shiva is often called Digambara, which means naked. This is a symbol of being stripped of
all labels, titles, and social identities. He is not a "professional," a "citizen," or
a "success" - he is pure, unconditioned consciousness. To reach your potential,
you have to be willing to be "naked" in this same way by destroying the stories you’ve used in the
past to define yourself. If you believe "I am not the kind of person who does X," you have created
a wall that prevents you from growing. To do this today, you must drop your
ego-labels the moment they stop serving you. If your business is failing,
the label "I am a successful entrepreneur" is now a source of pain; however, if you drop the
label and just become a man solving a problem, the pain vanishes. You aren't "losing" yourself;
you are killing a limited version of yourself to make room for something bigger.
You are no longer "this" or "that"; you are the force that chooses what to become in every moment.
5. Tame the Monster Most of us are taught from childhood to be "good".
We are told to suppress our anger, our ambition, and our raw protective instincts. Tantra, however,
suggests that if you suppress these forces, they don't disappear - they just turn into resentment
or cowardice. To reach your highest potential, you cannot be "harmless." You must become formidable.
The mythology behind this is centered on Bhairava, Shiva’s most terrifying manifestation. According
to legend, when the god Brahma became blinded by his own arrogance and ego, Shiva didn’t try to
reason with him. Instead, he manifested a primal, monstrous form: Kala Bhairava. Depicted with bared
teeth, a garland of skulls, and carrying a severed head, Bhairava used a single strike
to cut off Brahma’s fifth head - the head of pride. Bhairava represents the "Shadow"
of Shiva - the raw, destructive power required to protect what is sacred and destroy what is false.
This story serves as a psychological blueprint for weaponizing your aggression. There is a profound
difference between a man who is "peaceful" because he is incapable of violence, and a
man who is peaceful because he has a "monster" inside him but chooses to keep it under absolute
control. Being "harmless" won't help you when your business is at risk or your family needs a leader;
in those moments, you need to be able to summon your inner Bhairava - the part of
you that is capable of absolute focus, fierce boundary-setting, and cold, calculated action.
In your daily life, invoking the Bhairava mindset means stopping the habit of "editing"
your strength to make others comfortable. It is the ability to walk into a high-stakes negotiation
or a conflict and remain completely unshakeable because you aren't afraid of the "messiness" of
the confrontation. You use that inner "monster" not to hurt others, but to cut off the "heads" of
your own internal enemies: your laziness, your excuses, and your tendency to procrastinate.
By taming your monster instead of hiding it, you move from a state of being "tethered" by social
niceties to a man who has integrated his light and his dark, making you someone that others respect
and that your enemies fear to cross. 6. The Union of Totality
Ardhanarishvara is a different form of Shiva that is split down the middle—half-man, Shiva and
half-woman, Shakti. This is a symbol of the union of all opposites. Shiva is the Maha Yogi, the
silent monk sitting in absolute stillness, but he is also Nataraja, the ecstatic dancer who destroys
and creates worlds with his movement. He is the cold ash of the cremation ground and the heat of
the funeral pyre. By embodying both extremes, he becomes a complete, unshakeable being.
The depth of this lesson is that you are often afraid to be great because you think you have
to choose a side. You think you can’t be a "hard-hitting professional" and also a
"vulnerable, present father." You think you can’t be "spiritual" and also "wealthy." Shiva’s Tantra
says: Be both. But when you integrate your entire spectrum - your masculine drive and
your feminine intuition, your light and your shadow - you stop being a character
in a story and start being a force of nature. Instead of trying to negotiate a middle ground,
learn to be 100% present in whatever the moment requires. When it’s time to work, you use your
"Bhairava" focus; when it’s time to connect with family, you use your "Shakti" empathy.
When you embrace your whole self, both your masculine and feminine side, you no longer
have to explain why a warrior reads poetry or a spiritual man builds an empire. You become a
unified force that acts with absolute precision - doing exactly what the moment requires,
without hesitation or apology. 7. The Great Recognition
Most self-improvement philosophies are built on the idea of "becoming"—the idea
that you are currently lacking something and must work hard to acquire new traits.
Shiva’s Tantra flips this entirely. It suggests that you don't "become" a hero;
you simply stop pretending you aren't one. You are already the powerful, fearless version of yourself
you’ve been chasing; you’ve just been hypnotized into believing you are a Pashu, a tethered animal.
The mythology illustrates this with a simple story: A man spends his entire life traveling
the world in search of a legendary diamond. He faces countless dangers and exhausts his fortune,
only to return home and realize that the diamond was actually a button on his own
shirt the whole time. He had it from the very beginning, but he didn't have the "recognition"
to see it. In the same way, Shiva is not a distant goal or a god in the clouds. Shiva
is the Awareness that is watching this video right now. It’s the observer that remains still
while your thoughts and fears move like clouds. The reason people often avoid reaching their
potential is that it requires giving up the comfort of being a victim. If you admit that
the strength you need is already inside you, you can no longer blame your upbringing, your boss,
or your environment for your current state. This is why this path is considered difficult:
it forces you to take 100% responsibility for your own power.
The fearless version of you isn't a future character; it is the part of you that has already
survived every failure you've ever had. Like the man with the diamond button, you stop searching
for external solutions and start using the tools you already have. You become free when you realize
that the person you were waiting for to save you is the one looking back at you in the mirror.
Remember: you are the one holding the rope of the Pashu, and you are the one with the power
to snap it. The man you are afraid to become is just waiting for you to finally have the courage
to say "Yes" to your own power. So instead of running back to safety, enter the cremation
ground of your ego, drink the poison of your struggle, and recognize the Shiva within you.
My name is Dan and if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our
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... And that's our video! So what did you think? How will you be applying the lessons of tantric
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you’ve been amazing and if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our full
philosophies for life playlist and for more videos to help you find success and happiness
using beautiful philosophical wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.