Quotes from Alain Daniélou

The faithful of Shiva or Dionysus seek contact with those forces which...lead to a refusal of the politics, ambitions and limitations of ordinary social life. This does not involve simply a recognition of world harmony, but also an active participation in an experience which surpasses and upsets the order of material life.

Love is necessary to satisfy the mind, ethics to satisfy the conscience, and spiritual seeking for peace of soul. Without food and clothes, the body becomes thin and weak. Without eroticism, the mind becomes restless and unsatisfied. Without virtue (ethics), the conscience goes astray. Without spirituality, the soul is degraded.

When we repress our desires, they do not disappear but stay beneath the surface and continue to exert their influence. Prohibition arouses desire and suggests stratagems for satisfying it.

It should also be noted that the first encounter may be a failure, if loveplay is not known. The man must be more careful than the woman in the act of copulation, since he does not know how to restrain himself, while the woman is always hesitant. The responsibility lies with both.

If we wish to understand Indian thought, we must return to its sources, that is, to the great civilization that preceded the arrival of the Aryans, which has continued to the present time and of which the Shaiva religion, the cosmological theory called Sâmkhyä, the practices of Yogä, as well as the bases of what we consider to be the Hindu philosophy, are part.

The sacred places mentioned are often difficult to identify, although usually they have been preserved by later religions, as for example Mecca (Sanskrit:Makheshvara), whose "black stone," mentioned in the Puranas, was an emblem of Shiva.

That first undifferentiated potential perception, that first principle of experience, is said to correspond to pure, absolute enjoyment, the innermost nature of existence.

The Soul is the sum of all the gods. "All the gods are this one Soul, and all dwell in the Soul." (Manu Smá¹›ti 12.119. [13])

Human efforts are ineffective" (N'atthi purisakare) was the slogan of the Âjîvikä(s).

The spiritual decadence of man, according to Hindu tradition, goes hand in hand with progress in metallurgy from the Golden Age (Satyä Yugä) to the Iron Age (Kali Yugä).

Happiness both given and received is mutual enjoyment. For this shared happiness and pleasure, a man is willing to give himself entirely. For a man as for a woman, the total gift of self is a source of wonderful happiness and luck. Sexual intercourse is not merely a pleasure of the senses: more important is the sacrifice of oneself, the gift of self. To understand the mystery of sexual intercourse, to know and make use of what is fitting is the essential difference between man and beast.

There is no god without animality, no animal without humanity, no man without a portion of divinity