Virato, as he is popularly called, has experienced a unique, and panoramic life. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he spent his first career in the world of electronics with major Fortune 500 companies, was married with a family, two-car garage and all that goes with an upscale suburban life.

After his divorce in 1972, Virato, who was then known as Joe Banks, began to immerse himself in metaphysics and alternative lifestyles. He even ran a club in New Jersey called The Love Center that explored the leading edge of sexuality, more along the lines of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, MD, and the famed Esalen Institute.

In 1976, while walking along New York's Broadway, Virato was struck with what he says were "two flashes of light" from "above." He claims it changed his life. He says he moved into a different dimension of awareness ...that his sense of hearing and smell were radically enhanced, and that he saw things in a new light. He also instantly stopped eating animal flesh and wearing artificial clothes. However, to this date he does not claim to  be a "vegetarian."

Soon after this epiphany, he learned of Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.   Drawn to him, in 1979 left for Poona, India to become a sannyasin (disciple) of this controversial mystic, who was seen by many as an enlightened Master. Virato was personally told by Osho to continue His (Osho's) work in the West (America/Europe).

In 1982-84 Virato ran Premsager Rajneesh Meditation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and started a publication called New Frontier Magazine, which, over the next 18 years was to become popular international magazine of new thought consciousness.

Throughout this period, he became connected to the energy of human sexuality that has become the focus of his work--a work that he says is deeply spiritual. His teaching has taken him around the world, even to Russia, where he conducted the first Cosmic Love Tantric events ever held in that country, and now has several disciples himself in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Swami Virato has appeared on numerous national and international radio and TV programs, and his events have been heralded in magazines and newspapers worldwide. I came across him at a Whole Health Expo in Boston, where many turned out to see and hear him.

Swami Virato  says "expect the unexpected," and the time I spent with him was indeed that. He is a dynamic, direct and charismatic individual. If you get the opportunity of attending one of his outrageous and powerful events do so. I did , and I know I'll never forget the experience...

Swami Virato, how would you describe your work?
Put simply, Barbara, I do what I can to remove one's limitations and blockages to pleasure and enlightenment...to Cosmic Love.

What has this to do with Tantra and spirituality?
Everything. Most people tend to believe that spirituality is solemn, or holy, requiring an ascetic and renunciate lifestyle. While there may be such paths, unless we can release ourselves of the material world--by fully experiencing it ...totally, with all our senses, we can never understand our spiritual nature.

We are indeed spirit in form. To deny this form as a full part of ourselves, openly and freely, puts people into a sort of denial, which is another word for fear. And, as said by many, where there is fear there cannot be love

People may think they are spiritual,  practicing yoga and meditation, or following some self-help, religious or spiritual path, but unless one's essential self is released, one cannot begin to move into a divine state of consciousness--to get to heaven, so to speak.

What do you mean by the "essential self being released?"
It has been said that we are not our bodies or our minds. I accept this. Our essential Self is the core of our beingness--our connection to Divinity...to universal oneness. This I call simply call consciousness. It has many names some poetic and some scientific. Mystics call it spirit-self, soul or our "original face." Think of it this way: Who are you? Simply ask yourself that question for a few minutes and look at your answers.

How do you go about releasing this "Self"?
I challenge people's beliefs. I encourage them to open up by facing their fears, going beyond them, and moving on to bliss. It's really quite fun and simple. Yet, you should see the resistance in people,and how quickly they fall into judgement and confining beliefs--religious, moral or whatever.

But what do you actually do?
Besides being a cosmic trickster, meaning you never know what to expect when you are in my presence--and even after--I conduct events where people participate in processes that are designed to break through their barriers. In my weekend, or longer events, participants look at the things that keep them from bliss and unconditional love and ecstasy.

Can you give us an example?
Sure. Many of the techniques I use are similar to the methods used in leading forms of psychotherapy such as psychodrama, gestalt, encounter and catharsis. I use a lot of meditations, guided imagery and breathwork, bringing prana, or life-force energy into people's bodies.

Each event I conduct is different depending upon the group. For example, working with couples who are in a relationship is different than working with singles. Older people, require different processes than young people, same goes for foreign cultures and so on. I offer an introductory event and more intensive events.

It sounds like a lot of therapeutic stuff.
While a good portion of my weekend events may indeed be looked at as therapeutic, it is all very spiritual. The doorway to one's spiritual dimension lies just beyond the mind. Go beyond the mind and you reach God/Divinity.

There is also plenty of time for fun and romantic exploration, which I see as part of personal and spiritual development. The difference is that the romance takes places within the presence of openness and awareness. Although we use games in the group, people relate with much less "game and role playing."

In fact, I use no name tags, and never have anyone introduce themselves at the beginning of a weekend. Towards the end of a weekend event people are willing to let go and experiment. Some of the methods I use can bring people to a state of ecstasy. Years later, people write me and say how I transformed their very lives.

What does that really mean?
When our mind doesn't control us, but simply witnesses our deep self--our original face, as the Buddhists call it--pure love, that which we are,  is allowed to surface.

When we permit the mind and body to serve us, instead of control us, then magic can happen. Sexual bioenergy expands in us to every cell of our physical body, as well as our etheric body.

I remember an intensive weekend event I conducted in Moscow, where we could actually see energetic plasma or auras in the group room as all the  participants moved into an orgasmic state. In fact, the orgasm is that time and space when and where we, our minds and bodies, let go to a universal force.  The French word for orgasm means "little death." It is when Kali the destroyer of ego and self enters....to merge us with Cosmic Unity.

From a scientific perspective, the participants allowed their frequency and energy levels to expand to a point where they achieved universal or cosmic consciousness.  It is a state of  timelessness. What I do is simply allow this state to expand.

I have heard that if people are ill they get better in your events. Is this so?
[Laughter] Well, I'm surely no doctor, although we sometimes do play the child's game of "Doctor" in our intensive event.

Let me say it this way, all disease is a blockage of life energy in the body, whether we believe in the air germ theory, or whether we inherit a disease genetically. Hence the word "dis-ease."

We have learned that Acupressure, Acupuncture, Reflexology, Reiki, Network Chiropractic, various forms of bodywork, Shamanic ritual and other techniques can manipulate the body's energy field and change energy patterns to facilitate healing and other manifestation.

Remember, everything is energy in form. When any energy is blocked, the form is also affected,and vice-versa. This happens in the common cold or headache, as well as in cancer, AIDS, or a tight bra!.

Wilhelm Reich, MD, the noted author, physician, and discoverer of orgone energy, showed that a release of psychic bioenergy relates directly to our physical form. In fact, Dr. Reich showed that releasing orgasmic energy can cure cancer and other disease--physical and psychological.

Norman Cousens used laughter to cure himself, tantrikas do it with sexual energy.

I remember a woman in one of my events that thought she would pass out from a severe migraine headache that came up during the weekend. I let her release herself in orgasm, and the headache instantly disappeared. It's actually easy to understand.

If more sick people allowed themselves to get sexually aroused, they'd have fewer problems. Suppressed sexual energy, (psychologically and physically) in fact, creates disease.

Some people might say your events are nothing more than promiscuous, and sexual,and that it can actually take people off their spiritual path.
While it may appear to some that what I do is not spiritual, it is only the mind making comparisons, and fear-based dogmatic programming that divides spirit and soul from sensuality or sexuality. 

Many so-called "spiritual" paths are really not what they appear to be, as I have said before. That is why I do not support religions or other political and social structures imposing social dogmatic limitation--and most often fear-based, blocking or taking us from love.

While all forms of true meditation may bring one to a state of "no mind," it's like cleaning the furnace or fireplace. All and good, but unless we make the fire, there is no ignition of the Kundalini energy. We do not move on....

I know many people who have practiced Transcendental Meditation, and other forms of meditation or yoga for years, or who followed some dogmatic spiritual path or religion, or some psychological self-help approach. However, many of these people are no more evolved than people who have never had any exposure to spirituality or new age thought.

In Tantra we permit our deeper self, our Cosmic Love, to be released, so that we can indeed reach the place that all spiritual paths speak of, such as Nirvana or Mooksha. We do not deny the physical!

Let me put it another way. If spirituality is the achievement of a state of union with Divinity, we must let go and allow ourselves to get there. Most of the paths that are called religious or spiritual describe a state of enlightenment, heaven, nirvana, etc., ...then worship the icon or persona that shows the way such as Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, the latest guru, etc., rather than becoming the icon itself. Osho would say, "I point the way with my finger, and you begin to workshop my finger."

All the Masters have said we must become like them. It's time to let go of the old story of God being "out there," separate from us, rather than in us.

In the way of Tantra, we "experience" spirituality directly. Most people however, are so deeply programmed, blocked or armored that they will actually reinforce their prisons by hiding out in religion, morality, "political correctness" and condemning processes that can release them from their bondage.

As a society, we have begun to accept fear and violence as a state of being. One only has to follow the news.

Too many people do not wish to relinquish control, even though that same control keeps them imprisoned within themselves.

Is there some way to study Tantra, or what you teach independently, or from books, etc.?
The problem with "study" is that it involves too much of the mind. It sets up more dogma. Trying to "learn" Tantra from a book or video is like trying to raise yourself by your own bootstraps so to speak. Since the way of Tantra is releasing to bliss, it is almost impossible to do so if we are in a state of resistance. It's like trying to listen to music in a sound-proof room with the orchestra playing outside.

Sure you can study traditional techniques,  or a particular teacher's method or methods. There are excellent sources on the Internet. However, embodying the essence of the lifestyle is needed to truly comprehend the practices or techniques.

One must work with a teacher. While I started on this path with books, they were only the key. I still had to place the key in the lock, turn it, and open the door and enter. For me it was being with a Master, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now called Osho), and months and months of intensive work to breakthrough, and still there are many things I myself work on day to day to flow and be in the state of bliss. I am still very much a man.

Since we are so open in Tantra, we become very susceptible to our external stimuli. This is why Tantra is called the left-handed path. To truly practice Tantra, we must have a loving support system, eat good wholesome food, and stay in a loving Tantric environment.

No, books and videos alone will not "teach" this very powerful spiritual path. You need to jump in.

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Do you having any closing statements?
Two. First, believe nothing I say, only feel its truth. Second, If you are not willing to let go now, then when? The Earth Mother and her inhabitants experiencing much violence now. It is time to stop the fighting and again experience the total bliss of ecstasy and union with a Divine state.

Tantra is the gift for the new Millennium.

When we focus on negativity, evil, etc., we create this in our consciousness and on the planet.. When we focus on bliss and ecstasy we attract and create that. Which shall it be? It's your choice...and your life.  I come to each of you with love, openness and pleasure, and my arms and heart await you

©1998 New Frontier Magazine. Barbara Williams is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in TIME, OMNI, the New Yorker and other national magazines. For more information, or if you have interest in sponsoring one of Swami Virato's powerful "events," contact The NEPAL INSTITUTE , PO Box 17397, Asheville, NC 28816, E-Mail

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