Have you heard about the latest conservative Congressman getting caught with his pants down? Indiana Republican Mark Souder, Congress' leading advocate of abstinence-only sex education, was forced to resign when he was caught screwing one of his aides. It's so bad that these days, the easiest way to spot a closeted gay politician is by looking for the one raging the loudest against homosexuality. Likewise, a tip-off that a married congressman is getting some on the side is that he can't stop talking about family values.

Maybe it's God sending a little message, since Souder made a name for himself by fighting AIDS prevention programs in the name of God. How blissfully ironic that a man who preaches abstinence-only for AIDS prevention was brought down by his own inability to abstain from extramarital sex. Our moment of Zen comes when you watch Souder's made-for-Christian-TV YouTube video in which he congratulates himself for standing up for abstinence, while being interviewed by his mistress. Now that's rich. This is a tale that is epic in its moral: hypocrites beware!

But sexual hypocrisy isn't limited to the Midwest (it just seems to be concentrated there). Let's look at the latest developments in the holy land of India, where a trio of sleazy sadhu's - Baba Bheemanand of Delhi, Swami Nithyananda of Bangalore and Baba Anoop of Ghaziabad - hit the headlines for alleged sexual misdemeanours. And true to form, sex tapes are now available! Hidden camera videos of Swami Nithyananda Paramahamsa and Tamil actress Ranjitha have been playing all over India, proving that the saint was just another regular guy who likes hot oil massages from hot Bollywood starlets. When questioned by police who arrested him for defrauding the public, he responded that he still experiences sexual urges once in a while, and during such times, he adopts a yoga posture to overcome the urge.

In India, people generally assume that politicians, police and public servants will be corrupt. However India will not tolerate one thing: it expects its religious leaders to be beyond reproach. The real scandal is that Nithyananda was found to be enjoying a normal sexual life while preaching celibacy for others.The situation has gotten so bad that a new rule has been instituted throughout India, that "women should refrain from going to temples unaccompanied by men or meeting sadhu-sants and mahants alone in temples and ashrams.”

This is the reason that the neo-tantra movement is so unique, and different from the sexual hypocrisy that normally afflicts most institutions – it's not afraid of its own shadow. Most modern tantra teachers and tantric sexual educators are more than willing to be open about their own sex lives, because after all, the truth will set you free. Both politicians and these shady sadhu's could learn a thing or two from the brave leaders of the western neo-tantra movement. It's important to remember that even the most enlightened beings are subject to sexual urges. This is the reason that  the Dalai Lama is not allowed to be in the presence of a woman unattended.

So keep up the good work and keep telling the truth!


PS, one more thing occurs to me when I look at the photo of Nithyananda... if you're an emerging tantra master, when your PR people tell you to make yourself look a bit more "holy" for your press photo, resist that temptation. In fact, the holier the photo, the more likely that there is an ugly shadow that guru is hiding.