The Five Qualities and Attributes of the Mahan Tantric

Uplifting, Graceful, Penetrating, Humble and Compassionate The Seal, the Necklace, the Staff, the Mala and a Bag.

This long overdue contribution to all previous, present and prospective participants of the White Tantra experience, about the origin of the Five Mahan Tantricʼs qualities and attributes was edited and composed by SS Guru Hans Singh Khalsa Douqué for the purpose of recording and sharing the information received from the Mahan Tantric Yogi Bhajan and what was subsequently rediscovered as time went by.  It was adapted between 1972 and 2011 and can be copied for personal use and shared with the mention of the author and 4fold management. ~Paris, 22 January 2011

The First Tantric Course in Europe

In the very beginning of 1972 I started taking Kundalini Yoga classes in the meditation center “De Kosmos“ in Amsterdam and in the summer of that year I participated with my wife in the first White Tantric Yoga session, held in Europe in the English countryside, organized by Guru Dain Singh and Kaur. The ten day experience, under the direction of Yogi Bhajan, who had only recently been empowered by the Tantric force, was so overwhelming that I decided to consecrate the majority of my time, energy and attention to create the conditions that contributed to the incredible enhancement of the Tantric experience. The most evident, being far from the maddening crowds and in isolation inside a magically beautiful setting.

The Festival

Of the two following Tantric sessions in similar conditions, the first one was held in 1974 in the Dutch countryside, hosted by Guru Hans Kaurʼs parents. The second, after months of weekend karma yoga cleanups, was held in the summer of 1977 in the North of France on the Alincourt castle grounds near the Templarʼs town of Gisors. In the summer of 1978 we settled down on the castle grounds of “La Clou- tière“, located a twenty minute walk south of Loches, Indres et Loire, France, gracefully hosted by Josette Delvaud de Chambord. From 1978 until 1986, under his watchful eyes, the Mahan Tantric personally presided over the White Tantric Yoga sessions that were to become the core event of the yearly Yoga Festival in Europe, until the first “Renew to be New“ Video Tantra was installed in 1987.

The original team members who with great consistency and commitment established the groundwork to this event, that was to last and grow over the years into a solid institution, were spread far and wide over Europe and yet converged in mind and body at regular intervals during the year. The names to be remembered are as follows: MSS Sat Kartar Singh & Kaur, SS Guru Jagat Singh & Kaur from Amsterdam, MSS Tarn Taran Singh & Kaur, from Hamburg, SS Kartar Singh & Kaur from London, SS Guru Dass Singh & Kaur from Barcelona, SS Guru Meher Singh from Rome, SS Guru Sangat Singh & Kaur from Berlin, SS Sat Raj Singh & Kaur from Copenhagen, SS Sat Purkh Kaur and SS Sat Jiwan Singh from Frankfurt, SS Guru Hans Kaur and myself from Paris.

As the festival continued to attract more and more students from all walks of life, so the family members who participated in the organization grew in numbers. SS Satya Singh and SS Simran Kaur from Hamburg, who with great devotion and determination, together with all those they inspired to come forward, were the ones who carried the Yoga Festival into 21st century and beyond.

This Tantric posture was introduced in Europe for the first time during the Tantric course, held in the Dutch countryside home of Guru Hans Kaurʼs parents. This posture served as an inspiration for a vertical version, conveying the essence of the Tantric force. The Tantric couple is bend backwards into the form of the French “Fleur de Lys“, with the flame of the life force generated by the couple, meeting the one from the source, brought down by the Mahan Tantric, while their auras merge, under the protection of the Tantric field, the seal representing the source.

This posture was used for the first time during the Tantric Yoga course on the castle grounds in the north of France near the Templarʼs town of Gisors. Intrigued by the external beauty and elegance of this posture I asked the Mahan Tantric about the significance of it and he said that it conveyed another essential factor in the way the Tantric energy flows in the lines. Contrary to the idea that one might have when choosing a partner, in reality one is doing Tantric with the persons diagonally opposite rather than with the partner directly in front in spite of the eye contact.

It was the second Tantric posture that inspired the composition of the above poster. It explains in essence the entire application of the Tantric force. The Tantric Hand represents a top down view of the Tantric Field. The Mahan Tantric extends his aura to include all the participants. From that moment on, they have become an integral part of the Mahan Tantricʼs nervous system. All the couples are set face to face into perfectly straight lines. A combined effort of holding on to their posture, gazing into their partner’s eyes and chanting a mantra, each couple generates an energy circuit and like any dynamo, an induction.

Each individual induction is increased by the adjacent couple all along the line. Together, with the other lines, a powerful accumulated current is directed towards the Mahan Tantric, who absorbs the collective energy into his spinal column and by the power invested in him, has the ability to purify the energy.

The Mahan Tantric then projects the purified energy, along the outlines of his extended aura, back into the lines at the far end of the Tantric Field. The circulation of this purified energy sweeps through the subconscious of all the participants in successive waves, turning the collective group aura into a steady blue color. As soon as the Mahan Tantric, by his clairvoyant vision, sees the aura of the first couple turn into violet, he immediately terminates the tantric exercise. Further prolongation could send the whole group uncontrollably into another dimension.

The entire operation is made possible by the grace of the original Tantric Force, symbolically represented, by the suspended disk bearing the fourfold symbol of the primal creative force, linked to the Mahan Tantric by a golden thread. While the experienced integration is situated at the highest level a person is able to attain, it is of paramount importance that the etheric bodies of the participants, that where momentarily completely merged on the molecular level, are also carefully separated at the end of each session so that the emotional attachments due to the Tantric experience, do not remain. All this explains why this kind of practice is not encouraged without the watchful presence of the Mahan Tantric.

Tantric Yoga – the Yoga of Fulfillment

Yoga means ‘union’ and in the case of Tantric Yoga, it refers to the union of the basic forces of the Universe, the male and female principles. They are experienced as light and dark, day and night, hard and soft, sun and moon, yin and yang.

The Universe is kept in motion by the interplay of these opposite polarities. While this motion is eternally subject to the cycles of Generation, Organization and Destruction, mysteriously, within each motion there is a stillness.  Within each change there is a permanence. Within the process of life, precariously suspended by the thread of breath, there is something that always lives and never dies. Within the oscillating tides of passions and emotions there is something that is shared and held sacred amongst all peoples.

This essence, this fixed point amid all the constant fluctuations, is where the mind can rest and center itself before moving on again to participate in this world’s cos- mic play.

The point where the latitude and longitude of our beings cross is called the Bindu, also known as the essence of the essence of the essence. It is here, as a result of the Tantric merging of the opposites, that the Self can become aware of Itself.

Sincerely participating couples are quickly able to transcend the personality play of attraction and repulsion on the physical and emotional levels. It is then that they will experience a union of the male and female principles, of the highest and purest level. At this level where unity is experienced, understanding is nurtured and universal love begins, the male and female identities are no longer manifest, and a true fusion of the souls is established and consciously experienced.

Tantra means weaving, and in this case, it refers to the weaving of the fiber where the intersecting threads are the coordinates of Time and Space of each individual. It is at each of these cross points that the uniqueness of your presence, in confrontation with your polarity, is emphasized and made evident.

The Tantric Force

From the instant man appeared on this planet the Tantric Force was amongst us. Sometimes it becomes manifest depending on the circumstances of the time and place. More often this force is passed on unnoticed from person to person, along the line that connects humanity to its origin.

Since the beginning of our recorded history this Force has not been manifested in the West, until Yogi Bhajan, the Mahan Tantric, came amongst us. In the summer of 1972, he presided over his first Tantric course in the United Kingdom.

The Mahan Tantric

The Mahan Tantric is a universal filter. The force or power of White Tantra is manifested only by one person at a time. It can go to a woman or a man, but it comes and goes by its own right. It cannot be commanded or transformed nor can it be acquired by all the knowledge in the world. The crown of spirituality cannot be conquered.  It is granted. The bearers of the bridge linking this force through time and space are also known as the Mystic Pillars. Each succession is announced by internal revelation the moment the bridge makes a transfer from one bearer to the next, confirming the bearer’s membership into the order of the Golden Chain.

The Five Symbols of Office of the Mahan Tantric

All Mahan Tantrics are endowed internally with the five qualities of being Uplifting, Graceful, Penetrating, Humble and Compassionate. The corresponding external attributes of office of the Mahan Tantric are: The Seal, the Necklace, the Staff, the Mala and a Bag.

Few Mahan Tantrics are outwardly recognized and even fewer are presented with these 5 external symbols of office, as they can’t very well ask for them. Very rare are those Mahan Tantrics who receive the 5 symbols of office to coincide with the foundation of a Church, a Temple, a Religion or a Dharma.

Confirmation of the Five Attributes

After I had already started some research on the symbolic meaning of the staff, I received confirmation from SS Guruke Kaur, that I had indeed, intuitively traced the first 3 symbols of what, I expected to be the 5 symbols of the office of the Mahan Tantric, as all these groups of symbols always seem to come in fives. 

The five symbolical attributes of a king for instance are: The Crown, the Scepter, the Globe, the Sword and the Ring. Fortunately, the Siri Singh Sahib revealed to her the two remaining ones in a letter she sent to me.

The Seal

Offering collective presents to honor the Master and ourselves started when I stumbled on the idea of making a copy of the symbol the Sikhs have adopted as their logo. In order to celebrate the Mahan Tantric’s presence in France at the moment of his birthday, sometime between 1978 and 1979, the festival staff members agreed to present Yogi Bhajan with a fourfold Adi Shakti laid out in silver, gold, lapis lazuli and encrusted with diamonds. On receiving the seal, he told us that this seal, from that moment on, was to be known as the Dharma Seal.

You will notice how little it takes to transform the symbol of one Dharma into another. The cross of the Templars, the soldier saints, who were the last to have tried to accomplish the Khalsa experiment in Europe, derived their symbol from the Celtic Cross. The French “Fleur de Lys“, the symbol the Mother of Christ and the French blood line also originated from the “Adi Shakti”. Going back a little further, we can trace this symbol to the Tibetan Dorje. Presented in its three-dimensional form, the fourfold Dorje has been used in the Tibetan Tantric rituals for as long as recorded history and beyond. The original idea of putting the four Adi Shaktis into a seal came from these Dorjes I had seen plenty of in the Tibetan market in New Delhi, when I was invited to join a group that accompanied Yogi Bhajan on a trip to India in 1974.

It was on that occasion, during a consecration ceremony, that he received the title of Siri Singh Sahib and Head of the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. These Dorjes or three-dimensional Adi Shaktis also form the crown of most of the churches in Amsterdam. Their basic structure can be easily seen. Some have church bells hanging inside the structure, amplifying the power of this energy form, when the sound of the church bells sweep in synchronized waves across the city.

The origin of the Adi Shakti coinciding with the first manifestation of the Infinite, much later being represented by the Tibetan “Dorje“ and the French “Fleur de Lys“, her symbol is now repeated in both of the above. The original Christian Dharma was represented by the Celtic Cross well before the Church of Rome imposed its version on Europe and the world. The Sikh Dharma is in fact a version of the Celtic Cross turned at 45°, with the four Adi Shaktis visibly emphasized. Hence, the required continuity between the successive wheels of the Dharma is maintained.

The Necklace

By the time the Festival in Loches was becoming a tradition, I rediscovered an image of the Tantric Necklace on the last page of a book on Divinatory Magic and I wondered if this might be the next present to give the SSS for his birthday. This project got bogged down for a while due to lack of funds and credibility. I had decided to reproduce the necklace in gold and lapis lazuli beads, faithfully respecting the order and arrangement of single and double beads. The idea of the Bead Bonds and the confirmation by the SSS that it was indeed a Tantric Necklace, paved the way to the materialization of this rather important and I might say interesting symbol. Financially this project turned out to be a success, because all the members of the Sangat in Europe as well as those in the US and elsewhere contributed to it. Each Singh and Shakti bought a share that paid for one of the 416 Beads.

By the end of 1985, I began to wonder if by chance the necklace contained some important information embedded in its binary code. Early the following year, after countless trials and errors, I did manage to break the code. It presented itself in the form of a three-dimensional geometry. When I showed the geometry to Yogi Bhajan in Rome in 1986, his first gesture was to place it on his forehead, telling me that it had the same property as the little black (hyper) cubes Rabbis and Shinto priests strap on their brows.

It was obvious to me that he had recognized it immediately, because he named it “Sola Kala Avatar” which translates into “the sixteen movements of incarnation”.  He also said that everything in the universe can be summed up by the two words “Lens and Lever”. The geometry clearly shows the way these two interact. He then slowly tilted the three dimensional geometry and showed how it turned into a lounging chair, letting me know that if I could reproduce this chair, he would be able to lead the Tantric sessions much longer than was originally planned, because of its powerful healing properties. It may well be that he was referring to the original throne designs, also known to some as Akal Takats.

The Staff – a Poem and a Task

In the autumn of 1986, on his way back from Helsinki, during a meeting in a hotel in Amsterdam, Yogi Bhajan handed me a poem (Majesty of a Noble Thought) and the tusk of a Narwal. The tusk consists of a spiraling ivory looking bone, about 5 feet long. As a task, he asked me to do what was necessary to turn the tusk into a staff.

The ivory cross on top of the staff has been shaped in such a manner as to fit snugly into the armpit, so that by simply leaning on the cross the breath can be discretely changed from one nostril to another depending on the circumstances. But apart from this neat technicality, with this staff, I think we symbolically and physically linked the Master unto the most awesome past of a long and uninterrupted tradition of Dharmic cycles, the coming and going of civilizations.

We have all heard of the staff of Moses and the staff of St Peter. Well, this tradition continued right here where a Dharmic cycle ends. I am speaking of the Hindu, Buddha, Jewish, Christian, Muslim Dharmas, as these official and formal manifestations of the cosmic law, may have come to an end. It is not that they no longer have a purpose, they will continue to function until the levels of consciousness that they emphasize and represent will have reached the anticipated stages of perfection. The Sikh Dharma merely adds a dimension that will usher humanity into the next evolutionary stage right into the Aquarian Age and beyond into the Capricorn cycle. This means that the formal and external structure will and must acknowledge and support the inner path to Purity. The intangible will consciously give form to matter towards the advancement and accomplishment of its intended purpose.

The Staff itself is an awesome object of Wisdom directed Power, of authority on the rotating wheel of Dharma and Karma. Its outward appearance takes its inspiration from the Holy Grail and the legends of Soldier Saints, Knighthoods and Brotherhoods, Chivalries of purity of thought, word and action.

The splendid decorations are to enhance and rivet attention to its anticipated magic function. It is the staff of the Hermit, assisting the pilgrim on his perilous path to the celestial city. The words “IN GOD I DWELL” proclaim the arrival of the pilgrim’s destination. The staff is the magic wand, the spiraling effect of the tusk represents the spiraling incarnating forces of the Universe.

The following poem was handed over to the Mahan Tantric at the same time as the Staff:

The Staff

Walking towards the light
The pilgrim advances
leaning on his staff
armed against evil
armed for a vision.

His steps carry the revelation
He marches on in calmness and serenity
The spiral descends from above
directing itself towards mother earth
as a sign of birth and resurrection.

The arm of the master rests on the staf
The head of the staff forms a cross
The cross is Christ
Christ is the unification of all mankind
The staff of Moses; staff of the Master

Its point inscribes the knowledge on the stone
It presses the ground confirming the steadiness
Of the master’s steps
Its spiraling form reflects the cosmic force
and the divine knowledge.

~Author Unknown

The Bag and the Mala

I doubt whether I would have been able to guess that there was to be another necklace, the one we are all familiar with, namely – the Japa mala of 108 beads. Last and probably not least, is a rather simple seeming object in the form of a Bag. In the meantime, I did discover that the Mala has some interesting combinations and three-dimensional properties, apart from the more obvious functions, of serving as a support to the science of Japa, the repetition of the Name, the almost exclusive vehicle to the Infinite. I did also, using the hidden geometry in the necklace, find out the Tantric weaving pattern for the bag. The bag itself would need to be woven, like the robe of Christ, in one thread continuous, to give it ultimate coherence. 

(The Bag and the Mala have not yet been created).

My heartfelt thanks are extended to MSS Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa, who by his una- bated curiosity tracked me down and cajoled me into releasing as much information as possible into sharing and recording whatever I learned from the Mahan Tantric Yogi Bhajan directly about the five symbols of office and whatever I discovered subsequently myself, especially about the Tantric Necklace. Without pressure car- bon does not turn into diamonds, thoughts not into words, memories not into images waiting to be shared.

While not all can be told, much can be revealed until such time when there will be no more secrets to be kept, no more copyrights to be protected and all can be shared without fear of distortion or diversion, appropriation or expropriation of sacred and creative endeavors for unintended purposes.

In my wish to continue to contribute to the intended purpose of the Khalsa and the ever-ongoing renaissance of the Sikhs and the Dharma, I remain sincerely yours,

~SS Guru Hans Singh Khalsa Douqué Paris, 22nd January 2011

The image of the eyes behind the fan shaped screen is a copy of the one provided to us by Yogi Bhajan for the practice of “Tratak“, taken when he was in an absolute neutral state of mind. Very much like a mirror, but better still, the reflection of your self would be far from stable. The image reflects your inner states of being you would normally never perceive. You see yourself how others see you. You can start to communicate with the teacher behind the image, draw from his experience even when he is no longer physically alive. You can learn to communicate with your own subconscious, your soul who remembers everything you have ever done, your spirit who is directly linked to your better half, to … the Divine, the Void, the Infinite, your own Origin. Ref: 1- Ind-Ind Teaching in Consciousness – GHS – 2009

On the back cover is a printout of a vertical version of a Tantric Poster, that got lost, was never officially approved, printed or posted. It shows the source disk, the golden thread, the tantric couple in the position of the “Fleur de Lys“, the fan shaped screen filtering the energy of the watchful gaze of the Mahan Tantric behind.

The photo of the Mahan Tantric in yellow, I used once before on the cover of one our first Yoga Festival pamphlets.  The ones of Guru Hans Kaur and myself, taken at the Tantric course in Heeswijk; the one of some of the members of the original festival; of the fabrication of the Dharma Seal; of the Staff and the presentation of the Staff; of myself (summer of 2004); all of these, the authors are unknown to me. I have used them with the best intention, acknowledging their contribution. Otherwise the compositions and graphic contributions are my own.

© GuruHansSinghKhalsaDouqué-TantricTimeLine

View the original PDF of this information here.

Here is a poster by Guru Hans Singh, which is believed to represent his “homework” for all of the above: