Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 72

Food and Drink

Jagdhipanakritollasa Rasanandavijhrimbhanaath|
Bhavayeth Bharithavasthaam Mahanandasthatha Bhaveth||
Here we go! We all love food. We love the taste of sweets and savouries, coffee, tea, ice cream, pizzas, burgers - just about anything. Next time, around you, put something that you like (or don't!) into your mouth, here's the meditation for you - when you are happy with tasting something solid or liquid contemplate on the blissful feeling feeling that arises. In that state of fullness, you experience the maha ananda. (Pic and text: Swahilya Shambhavi. Tasting a juicy apple at the heights of Deoria Tal in Rudra Prayag District, Uttarakhand, Himalayas.)

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 71

When you meet with friends

Aanande Mahati Prapte Drishteva Bandhavechirath|
Aanandamudgatam Dhyathva Tallayanthanmana Bhaveth||

When we meet our dearest friends or someone beloved to us, there is a great joy in that meeting. When you meditate upon this joy that springs within, when you remember the incident in complete detail, you experience the mind merging with consciousness. - Swahilya Shambhavi. (New found young friends at a Samskrita Prashikshana Shibiram in Hosur recently organised by Samskrita Bharati.)

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 70

Remembering the embrace

Lehana Manthana Kotaihi Stree Sukhasya Bharathsmrite|
Shaktyabhavepi Deveshi Bhavedananda Samplavaha||

If Shiva were to be conducting a modern-day meditation workshop, then this verse would feature under the category of "Strictly for couples alone!" There is a direct allusion to sex and a glimps of ananda. When the man remembers totally the kissing, hugging and pressing embrace of a woman and the joy that arises out of sexual union, oh queen among gods, (Parvati), even at the time when the women is absent, the bliss that is present ever swells from within.
Being aware of this bliss totally you become aware of the witness who is watching the event of bliss arising out of the sexual experience.
Tantra shows the day-to-day path to meditation. And this is one way which makes use of the explosive energies involved in the sexual act to turn the mind inwards toward the awareness. (A pathway of the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple where the divine Meenakshi married Lord Shiva in the form of Sundareshwarar. Pic. Swahilya Shambhavi.