The Tantric Way of Shiva
— An Interview with Shivavatar    

Seeker:

I am deeply involved with the fantastic teachings of Bhagawan Rajneesh and like so many others who get together on the Web about his teachings, I found it a bit upsetting that you were claiming to be Shiva Himself as well as saying things about Bhagawan Rajneesh which you have no proof of.  Therefore, since you allowed me to meet personally with you (for some reason), I would like you to prove you are Shiva or else stop making claims about yourself!  May I make this request without upsetting your ego?
Avatar: Why do you want “proof”?  What constitutes “proof” for you?
Seeker: If you really are Shiva, which I consider unlikely, I would fall at your feet and announce you to the world of spiritual seekers as much as possible.  In regard to what would be actual proof, I am not sure.  I think I will just intuitively know whether your proof is true or not.
Avatar: I do not particularly want your worship for anything.  I have had millions of worshippers throughout thousands of years of human history.  Worship benefits the worshipper, not the worshipped.  As for being “announced” by you or others and creating a following of zealots or believers, that could prove fatal to my present task.  Creating provocation and keeping my identity “up in the air” is more in line with my mission.  Provocation causes more learning in the provoked seekers, whereas proof would only create useless and immature followers.  My outrageous claims are designed to be more like a Zen Koan.  The possibility that I am Shiva is very good for anybody trying to define spiritual authority.  Therefore I am not motivated to give proof.  It must remain an open issue.

        The central issue for you to resolve is actually your problem of what, in fact, would constitute proof.  You know, a very great Zen Master in a Western body, Wei Wu Wei / Terence Gray, in his book Posthumous Pieces Section 48.  All About Us, once responded with pure depth when one of his students was upset that some Western seeker had called Wei Wu Wei “bogus”.  Because the West is so materialistic and lacking in impressive Siddhas or Great Miracle Workers, the Western seekers tend to condemn as automatically false any and all spiritual teachers in Western bodies.  Because they have no real faith in their own Divine Potential, they keep themselves deliberately blind to Divine Realizations in Westerners.  Also, they are afraid of Divine Realizations in Westerners because they could not play at being Expert Seekers whose judgments and opinions in their heads really matter for others.  They would have to drop out of their heads and develop real “Intuition” in their Hearts.  They would have to stop their social ego expansions of playing teacher or expert advisor in Web forums about spiritual leaders or famous teachings or traditions.  They fear dissolving as impressive would-be Teachers, Counselors or Experts.

        When you believe that your own supposed “intuition” could judge my possible “proof”, for instance, you are being simply irrational.  If intuition is available within you, it is your real proof you have faith in, which means you do not need me to show anything or for me to work some magic that would defeat your brain’s mechanism of assessment such as showing some rockets going off to a group of savages.  If you have a real faculty of intuition, use it directly here and now rather than some sort of dubious backup in case your confused brain is unable to process some information or phenomena.  From my perspective, neither your brain nor your intuition are working properly, just like so many of your fellow Web socializers and expert judges who try to tell others “what’s what”, when if they knew “what’s what” and “who’s who”, why would they endlessly keep wasting their time trying to impress each other through empty talk?  People of genuine realization and cosmic clarity of Truth do not endlessly socialize and chat in the silly spiritual forums.  Real People have more important things to do with their time besides building up their socially frustrated social selves, which are more concerned with getting and giving attention than cultivating direct realization and genuine spiritual experiencing.

Seeker: I have to begrudgingly admit that my ability to register proof is probably inadequate.
Avatar: That is why weather I am or am not Shiva is more of a Learning Provocation for you or others than a potential target for dazzled adoration or cynical disdain.
Seeker: If you are Shiva, then you could teach me your Ultimate Tantric Way and empower or bless me to follow it.
Avatar: (remains silent)
Seeker: Is there some reason you will not answer or bless me?
Avatar: I transmit by Silent Transmission of Theory and Empowerment.  If you cannot inwardly hear my guidance or feel my empowerment, you are not my disciple.  It means, yet again, that the condition of your consciousness and feeling are both so unprepared and undeveloped that you cannot viably connect with any Siddhaguru, Godman, Godwoman, or Real Sufi or Divine Immortal.  That is also why all the social quandaries about who or what is the Real Thing are nothing but a preliminary learning provocation and not a direct way forward.
Seeker: Is there any hope for me?
Avatar: Abandon all Web socializing.  Study and meditate more expansively and deeply in all meaningful teachings and methods.  Undertake preliminary self-improvements.  Develop Mantra with breathing, devotion and higher cosmic awareness.  Have faith in your Divine Godself beyond all the shallow, nasty socializers and emotional fools.  Ever question your real motives and where they are leading you.
Seeker: Will you please give me a hint about Tantra?
Avatar: Do not destroy discipline for pleasure nor destroy pleasure for discipline.  Give up self-harming bad-habits but increase the ecstatic energy in sex, natural beauty and open awareness.  Work and play in all dimensions of your being, including those you have not discovered yet.  Never believe any good or bad opinion of any spiritual socializer on the Web and elsewhere.  You must truly think, feel and see for yourself.  And, above all, absolutely stop giving a shit what the usual kinds of lost or normal people think of you.  Whoever flatters or criticizes you are just assholes who want to exploit you.  The First Freedom is from other confused and pretentious people on your own usual level.
Seeker: Would you claim to me face-to-face that you really are Shiva?
Avatar: I will do better than that.  I am claiming to you, face to face, here and now, that I am Brahman.  If you will Vedantically learn to get direct experience that you also are secretly Brahman, you will not only see my Shivahood as a glowing White Sun in Divine Space, you will also get a glimpse of your own Godself Individuality, and, like Myself, you will not give a damn how many Web socializers try to tell others of their kind that you are nothing but a pretentious Westerner.  Like me, you will simply find them more to be pitied than blamed.  You will see that they suffer a secret existential envy over a hidden intuition that you are getting Divine Joy, Power and Perfection that they cannot get into because of their spiritual materialism of trying to do everything with their nasty and proud little brains.
Seeker: I must admit that your faith in your own Divinity is somewhat contagious!
Avatar: (remains silent)
Seeker: I am beginning to sense the important meaning of your outrageous provocation.  I do not know who you really are, but I do sense a very ancient being disguised as a phony Western crank.  I am perilously close to believing you are really Lord Shiva.
Avatar: Why spoil the fun and fall into useless emotional believing?  That would be just as stupid as trying to believe I have nothing going for me or that I lack Real Power.
Seeker: That’s it!  Your detractors lack Real Power.
Avatar: Of course!  That’s why they are always putting others down.  They cannot get Real Power, so they try to increase their social power, which is an energized nothing, an empty and unfulfilling waste of time and potential.  Who is Real is actually infinitely more significant than anyone considered False.  If I or others are truly considered to be “false”, then we are not worth talking about.  If someone “false” is being heavily discussed and attacked, then there must be something real there that is causing all the anxious and angry discussion.  Look, for instance, at how much negativity was directed in the world against my dear disciple, Osho Rajneesh!  That itself was proof that something very spiritually real was happening with him which everyone should learn to appreciate and learn from.  Whoever or whatever fixates a detractor is always worth some deeper examination.  The greater the number of detractors, the greater the potency of the being who is spoken against.  There is never a lot of social trouble to put down something weak and stupid.  When lots of people are claiming I or anyone is a “mere Westerner” we can know that I or that someone is certainly more than a “mere Westerner” because there is some real power or potency working there with some real significance.  So yet again, however outrageous my “claim” may be, I will continue to point out that I am Shiva in this body, which is a very fortunate recognition for some advanced souls to be allowed to have.
Seeker: I am not really coping with all this.  I Think I should go away and meditate on all these new insights.  Thank you for your help.
Avatar: Good luck and good hunting!