Heather

This week, while promoting “The Hangover,” Heather Graham, in the ultimate non sequitur, talked about tantric sex. “I first got into it when I was filming ‘The Guru’ in 2002 and I haven’t looked back,” she says. “[It’s] not having sex continually...The idea is that you let the whole thing build very slowly until finally you merge with your partner. It works for me.” -- Huffington Post

Hollywood actress Heather Graham's repeated comments on "tantric sex" has offended a section of Hindus in the US who say she has misinterpreted the ritual of tantra "as just sex".

Reacting to this, Rajan Zed, an Indian American Hindu priest in Nevada, said Graham and other Hollywood celebrities were misinterpreting the meaning of tantric sex.

"Tantrism was a major channel in Indian religious traditions and, besides Hinduism, it also exerted considerable influence on Buddhism and Jainism," said Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.

Zed said tantra was a conscious approach to self-discovery which directed the seeker to prepare the mind and body to a level where it could withstand any turbulence - inner as well as outer.

"Tantras noted three unique states of sadhana (spiritual endeavour) - purification, illumination and unification," he said. -- The Times of India