Madonna's mentor gives 'Tantrik Diksha' to Ukrainian Yoga teacher

Varanasi, Jan 14 (UNI) Spiritual guru Vagish Shastri who once delivered Sanskrit lessons to pop diva Madonna here today gave 'Bhairavi Diksha' to a Ukrainian Yoga teacher aiming to eliminate myths about 'Tantra' in the erstwhile USSR country.

''Tantra in Ukraine is misinterpreted as a mysterious art, which is linked to black magic or sexual activity, especially Kama Sutra. I have taken 'Tantrik Diskha' from Dr Shastri to help me eliminate the myths about Tantra in my country,'' said saffron clad Boris Bidichev (38), a Yoga practioner from Odessa (Ukraine).

At a two-hour 'Satwik Pujan' comprising integral Vedic rituals, Dr Shastri whispered the key 'Bhairavi Mantra' to Boris amid the sacrifice of a coconut smeared with vermillion. The whispering of Bhairavi Mantra to the psychology student capped a week-long Tantrik exercise of transfer of transcendental energy from Dr Shastri to his European 'shishya.' ''Two years ago a Russian couple came to me to learn Kali Mantra.

The couple while in Ukraine met Boris and after seeing his leaning towards Yoga and Tantra sent him to me for Diksha,'' Dr Shastri said.

''Today's exercise has awakened the dormant spiritual sense of Boris, which will help him successfully embark on the journey to eliminate the myths about Tantra Shastra in Ukraine,'' Dr Shastri added.

Dr Shastri, a Sanskrit scholar, had delivered telephonic Sanskrit lessons to the material girl Madonna in 2001 after spotting mistakes in her pronunciation of verses from Adi Shankaracharya's 'Yoga Taravali' forming one of her numbers in the album 'Ray of Light.' The president of Odessa Yoga Federation has for the last 12 years learnt Yoga and Sanskrit from books written by Dr Shastri and other Sanskrit scholars and is equally conversant in Sanskrit as well as his native lingo. He now intends to teach the basics of Tantra Shastra to his followers in Ukraine.

''Tantra begins where Patanjali's Yoga ends and many of my students who are psychiatrists in the west have clubbed psycho-therapy, Yoga and Tantra to cure incurable mental ailments.

May be this psychology student also follows that path,'' Dr Shastri hoped.

''The response from his lanky shishya was prompt. ''Till now, I have studied psychology in books but today, I am blessed with real life psychology forming the basis of the new branch para-psychology,'' claimed Boris.

''I will keep on coming to Varanasi to learn more about Tantra as this city houses one of the 51 Bhairav Peeths in the form of Vishwanath Bhairav, an integral seat of Tantrik knowledge,'' he added.

UNI