Lesson 67 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Is the Inner Source of Noninjury?

ŚLOKA 67
Two beliefs form the philosophical basis of noninjury. The first is the law of karma, by which harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself. The second is that the Divine shines forth in all peoples and things. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
The Hindu is thoroughly convinced that violence he commits will return to him by a cosmic process that is unerring. He knows that, by karma’s law, what we have done to others will be done to us, if not in this life then in another. He knows that he may one day be in the same position of anyone he is inclined to harm or persecute, perhaps incarnating in the society he most opposed in order to equalize his hates and fears into a greater understanding. The belief in the existence of God everywhere, as an all-pervasive, self-effulgent energy and consciousness, creates the attitude of sublime tolerance and acceptance toward others. Even tolerance is insufficient to describe the compassion and reverence the Hindu holds for the intrinsic sacredness within all things. Therefore, the actions of all Hindus living in the higher nature are rendered benign, or ahiṁsā. One would not hurt that which he reveres. The Vedas pronounce, “He who, dwelling in all things, yet is other than all things, whom all things do not know, whose body all things are, who controls all things from within—He is your soul, the Inner Controller, the Immortal.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 67 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

The Path To Perfection

It is the brahmachārī’s duty to be the channel of the three worlds. In this way he can help stabilize humanity through the Kali Yuga so that the forces of promiscuous desire do not blot out our culture, creativity and all connection with the Śivaloka. This is why the sādhana of brahmacharya is so extremely important for each unmarried Śaivite to understand and observe.

As a brahmachārī or brahmachāriṇī, you must endeavor to hold the force of the Śivaloka and the Devaloka in line with the higher forces of the Bhūloka, the Earth plane. This happens naturally through the transmutation process and living a contemplative life. Regular personal sādhana and noninvolvement in the emotional nature of others is the practice to be observed.

A great aid to the accomplishment of this is to invoke Lord Śiva daily. Then the higher chakras open within your psychic body. Peace of mind comes unbidden, and bliss flows forth from your aura for all to feel. Regular pūjā invoking the assistance of Lord Murugan will also greatly aid in a premature banishing of connections with the external world and in severing the tubular connections with inhabitants in it. When Lord Murugan is reached through your pūjā, He will also give wisdom and the divine understanding of the transmutation process.

An occasional loss of the reproductive fluids does not “break” or interrupt brahmacharya sādhana, though this should be avoided and is minimal when the brahmacharya sādhana takes hold. If one does have a “wet dream,” this should not cause undue concern. Rather, this should be regarded as simply the natural release of excess energy, of which the vitality, or prāṇa, goes up into the higher chakras as the physical fluid goes out. This does not happen during masturbation.

Those who have resolved to follow the path of brahmacharya, but are troubled by sexual fantasies and nightly encounters during their dream state, should not despair. These are simply indications that their creative energies are not being used to capacity. The brahmachārī or brahmachāriṇī should simultaneously resolve to work more diligently in guiding the flow of thought through the day. They should work harder, mentally and physically, get up early in the morning and do sādhana, go to bed early and seek the more refined areas of consciousness during the dream states. How can you seek these more refined areas during sleep? This is done through chanting and meditating before going to sleep, and through praying for guidance from Lord Gaṇeśa.

There is a simple remedy or penance, self imposed, that we recommend for one who indulges briefly in a sexual fantasy: to have just rice and dal for lunch, rather than a full meal. If he indulges longer in such fantasies, he fasts for that meal with his empty plate before him to remind him of the need to control his inner forces. The instinctive mind will eventually get the idea that if you persist in these visualizations in moments of careless fascination you don’t get to eat. And what’s more important?

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 67: HONORING THE VALUES OF OTHERS
All Śiva’s devotees think globally and act locally as interracial, international citizens of the Earth. They honor and value all human cultures, faiths, languages and peoples, never offending one to promote another. Aum.

Lesson 67 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Understanding Other People

Love is the source of understanding. You know intellectually that within you resides the potential, expressed or not, for all human emotion, thought and action. Yet, you no doubt meet or observe people occasionally whose life and actions are repellent or unacceptable to you. The absence of love has created a vacuum of understanding. For the meditating person, there should not be a single human being whose actions, habits, opinions or conduct lies beyond your ability to love and understand.

Try this. This week look at everyone you meet, and feel, from your fingertips right down to your toes, love welling up from your deepest resources and radiating out to them through every cell of your body and especially through your face. Say to yourself, “I like you”—and really feel it. There are many thousands of things that most people do not understand from their confused states of mind, and they therefore act in unseemly ways, due to the ignorance of past karma. Should their ignorance confuse you? Should it cloud your own understanding? Certainly not! We do not love the flower and hate the muddy roots from which it grew, and we cannot hate the instinctive roots of mankind.

With understanding, a great thing happens—your life becomes even, balanced and sublime. The ups and downs within yourself level out, and you find yourself the same in every circumstance, find yourself big enough to overcome and small enough to understand. Then you can really begin to do something. When emotional ups and downs are allowed, what happens? Your poor nerve system is terribly strained in a constant state of frenzy and uncertainty. All of your energies are then devoted to coping with yourself, and not much is reserved to accomplish creative, productive projects. As your life evens out by using the great power of understanding, the emotional self of you heals and grows strong. Your nervous system, believe it or not, grows, and it grows strong if you feed it correctly by handling your mind. Understanding is the best nourishment for the emotional body.

You must have a basis for understanding your fellow man, and a very good basis is: “I perceive him with my two physical eyes. He appears to be forty years old, but I intuit him to be emotionally a little younger and mentally about sixty—a learned person. I know he is a being of pure awareness going through the experiences he needs to evolve further. Therefore, I shall understand him in this light and make allowances accordingly.” This is not something to think about and appreciate philosophically. It must become as much a part of you as your hands and feet. It’s an easy process if we apply it and a difficult process if we ignore its practice.

Understanding, loving and making allowances—these are the strengths of the soul awakened through sā­dha­na, once the emotional ups and downs and the barriers of the instinctive influences of fear, jealousy, anger, deceit and disappointment are conquered. If you are creative, you will begin to truly create. If you are a mystic, you will have deeper and ever more fulfilling insights in your daily meditations. All of the mysteries of life will unfold before your inner vision once the instinctive mind is mastered in your life.

Lesson 66 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s real voice

What Is the Great Virtue Called Ahiṁsā?

ŚLOKA 66
Ahiṁsā, or noninjury, is the first and foremost ethical principle of every Hindu. It is gentleness and nonviolence, whether physical, mental or emotional. It is abstaining from causing hurt or harm to all beings. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
To the Hindu the ground is sacred. The rivers are sacred. The sky is sacred. The sun is sacred. His wife is a Goddess. Her husband is a God. Their children are devas. Their home is a shrine. Life is a pilgrimage to liberation from rebirth, and no violence can be carried to the higher reaches of that ascent. While nonviolence speaks only to the most extreme forms of wrongdoing, ahiṁsā, which includes not killing, goes much deeper to prohibit the subtle abuse and the simple hurt. Rishi Patanjali described ahiṁsā as the great vow and foremost spiritual discipline which Truth-seekers must follow strictly and without fail. This extends to harm of all kinds caused by one’s thoughts, words and deeds—including injury to the natural environment. Even the intent to injure, even violence committed in a dream, is a violation of ahiṁsā. Vedic ṛishis who revealed dharma proclaimed ahiṁsā as the way to achieve harmony with our environment, peace between peoples and compassion within ourselves. The Vedic edict is: “Ahiṁsā is not causing pain to any living being at any time through the actions of one’s mind, speech or body.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 66 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Astral Magnetism

The force of kuṇḍalinī flows as a river through men and women. Sexual intercourse gives that river an outlet, creates a channel, a psychic-astral tube between their mūlādhāra chakras. After the first intercourse, awareness is turned outward into the external world and the man or woman is more vulnerable to the forces of desire. The ramification of the intellect can now be experienced more than ever before. If the force is contained within the marriage covenant, with blessings from the Devaloka and Śivaloka, rays similar to the astral tube established between the couple are established between each of them through the higher chakras with the Mahādevas and their devas. A holy state of matrimony has been entered into. Dancing with Śiva, Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism states: “When a young virgin man and woman marry and share physical intimacy with each other, their union is very strong and their marriage stable. This is due to the subtle, psychic forces of the human nerve system. Their psychic forces, or nāḍīs, grow together, and they form a one body and a one mind. This is the truest marriage and the strongest, seldom ending in separation or divorce. Conversely, if the man or woman has had intercourse before the marriage, the emotional/psychic closeness of the marriage will suffer, and this in proportion to the extent of promiscuity.”

The higher rays and lower astral-psychic tubes that are created between husband and wife can contain the forces of desire within them. They also control the instinctive curiosities of the intellect, allowing its full power to manifest and create a productive and abundant life for the family which has continuity and consistency. A life of dharma can be lived.

The release of the sacred seed into the woman during sexual intercourse establishes, through the first chakra, a connecting psychic astral tube which can be clearly seen on the astral plane. It is through this psychic tube that desires, feelings and even telepathic messages can be passed from one to another. This connecting tube is generally about six inches in diameter.

Nowadays, because of promiscuity, masses of people are connected one to another in this way. A great bed of astral matter envelops them as they go from one partner to another. This causes the forces of intense fear to persist. From an inner perspective, their soul bodies are obscured by this astral matter, and it is most difficult for those living in the Devaloka to contact anyone on the Earth plane who is thus involved. Such individuals must fend for themselves, with little or no protection from the Devaloka or the Śivaloka, as do the animals, who do not have benefit of the intellect to guide their actions.

Any two people touching in other ways—kissing, embracing—also establishes a temporary connecting link of astral matter which penetrates their auras and completely covers their forms. This is sometimes called the great magnetism, for it appears in the Second World as a psychic mass connecting the two of them as wide as the length of their bodies. This astral matter is created from the diverse expulsion of emotional energies, blending their auras together. The psychic connection is magnetic enough to repeatedly pull them back together or cause emotional pain if they are separated. But unless the encounter is repeated, the astral matter will wear away in three or four days, a month at the most. In this way, touching or caressing someone causes an abundant release of magnetic force to occur.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 66: PROTECTING CREATURES, DEFENDING RIGHTS
All Śiva’s devotees are stewards of trees and plants, fish and birds, bees and reptiles, animals and creatures of every shape and kind. They respect and defend the rights of humans of every caste, creed, color and sex. Aum.

Lesson 66 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Emotional Maturity

What is emotional maturity? It certainly is not to be equated with physical age. I know people who are well past middle life and are not yet emotionally mature. Even if the physical body is totally mature, the intellect, as well as the emotional unit, can remain childish and unstable. The mind may have been educated to the nth degree, and yet such a scholar remains vulnerable to depression and discouragement. The very first step toward emotional mastery is recognition coupled with admission that in some areas we are not yet perfect. Only through open admission can we devote ourselves to the sā­dha­na that will balance and lessen the forces, allowing us to strive within ourselves to secure ourselves within ourselves. An emotionally mature man or woman is totally secure within and prepared to tap the greater realms of spiritual being.

We make very little progress when we strive to conquer these baser instincts in a good mood. However, vast strides are possible when we are miserable and work with ourselves to replace our misery with joy and understanding. Therefore, if you are ever disappointed or discouraged, count it a blessing, for you then have the opportunity to conquer the instinctive nature and really stabilize yourself dynamically on the spiritual path.

Often we are disappointed not only with ourselves and our circumstances but with other people as well. We can oversee this and other instinctive responses, such as mental criticism or jealousy, by looking at everyone and saying to ourselves, “I like you. I send you blessings.” We cannot be discouraged or disappointed or jealous when we look our fellow man in the eye and say and simultaneously feel and believe through every atom of our being, “I like you. I send you blessings.” Impossible! Love overcomes all instinctive barriers between people.

There may be certain people or a certain person to whom you can say, “I like you,” but for whom this is hard to believe in your heart. If you look deeper into them, you may find they are emotionally immature, a twelve-year-old emotional body walking around in a thirty-five-year-old physical body. Are you going to dislike a person for that? No, of course not. You are going to understand him or her. I’ve seen people with twenty-two-year-old bodies with the wisdom of an eighty-year old and the emotional stability of a forty-year old. I’ve seen people walking around in a sixty-year-old body with a twelve-year-old emotional body. By learning to understand, we cease to be a personality leaning upon our fellow man and falling into disappointment when he lets us down. No, we must lean on no one but ourselves, our own spine, and not be the reactionary victims of the ups and downs of the world around us or the people around us. Then we will gain our freedom from the instinctive forces we were born into and attain sufficient emotional maturity to love and bless the world, no matter what our circumstances may be.

Lesson 65 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Are the Ten Classical Observances?

ŚLOKA 65
Hinduism’s religious tenets are contained in ten terse precepts called niyamas. They summarize the essential practices that we observe and the soulful virtues and qualities we strive daily to perfect. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
Good conduct is a combination of avoiding unethical behavior and performing virtuous, spiritualizing acts. The accumulated wisdom of thousands of years of Hindu culture has evolved ten niyamas, or religious observances. These precepts defining the ideals of kriyā are: 1) hrī, “remorse,” be modest and show shame for misdeeds; 2) santosha, “contentment,” seek joy and serenity in life; 3) dāna, “giving,” tithe and give creatively without thought of reward; 4) āstikya, “faith,” believe firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment; 5) Īśvarapūjana, “worship,” cultivate devotion through daily pūjā and meditation; 6) siddhānta śravaṇa, “scriptural listening,” study the teachings and listen to the wise of one’s lineage; 7) mati, “cognition,” develop a spiritual will and intellect with a guru’s guidance; 8) vrata, “sacred vows,” fulfill religious vows, rules and observances faithfully; 9) japa, “recitation,” chant holy mantras daily; 10) tapas, “austerity,” perform sādhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice. The Vedas state, “They indeed possess that Brahma world who possess austerity and chastity, and in whom the truth is established.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 65 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Psychic Tubes

It is said that when man first killed a kinsman, great strength came into the nerve system of the animal body of all upon this planet. Normal seasonal cycles of mating turned into promiscuity. The population increased and is increasing even now with this intensification of kuṇḍalinī fire through the sexual nature of men and women.

Through the ancient traditions of Śaivite monasticism, the inner laws of brahmacharya have been preserved down through the centuries to help guide humanity through the Kali Yuga. This knowledge records the methods of how to preserve the vital energy within the body of men and women so that Śaivism, the remembrance of Śiva and His crystal clear śakti, can be passed through the darkness of the Kali Yuga in unbroken continuity. For only through the power of the tapas of brahmacharya can His śakti be passed on from one to another until the individual’s śakti finally accrues enough intensity so that the brahmachārī becomes as Lord Śiva Himself.

It is when fear pervades a country or the planet that the impulses of the animal nerve system cause desires for mating to intensify for the prolongation of the species. During intercourse, the astral bodies of the man and woman merge together, and conception may occur, as a person in the Devaloka gains a body from the woman to enter this world. The connection formed between a man and a woman during intercourse makes a psychic, astral, umbilical-cord-like tube in the lower astral-plane world which lasts for twelve years or more. Providing no other connection with the same or other individual occurred in the meantime, the tube would slowly wear away during the ensuing years. This is provided that, at the same time, sādhana or tapas is performed and regular pilgrimages and visits to Śaivite temples are made.

Brahmacharya is holding the power of the Divine within the core of the individual spine so that, as Lord Śiva sends His power through the five great winds of the astral body within the physical body, the winds adjust among themselves and emanate a śakti strong enough to adjust the five great psychic fluids within everyone around. This power of brahmacharya is accrued and disseminated through sublimation, then transmutation, of the sexual force. Transmutation occurs automatically through regular daily sādhana, the rigors of positive living and adherence to the ceremonial customs of our religion. Ideally, brahmacharya begins at puberty for virgins and continues on until marriage. Otherwise, brahmacharya sādhana begins after the last sexual encounter with a member of the opposite sex has occurred and when a conscious decision is made to begin the practice of brahmacharya.

While “in the process” of brahmacharya, those who have had sexual encounters with one or more members of the opposite sex experience times of trial. Great temptation may occur on the physical plane as the astral matter of the animal nerve system and systems of fluids and odors that attract the opposite sex store up in great abundance. This creates a magnetism which attracts those of the opposite sex. Especially attracted will be those of a similar nature and deportment as those of past encounters.

Each person is born in a full state of brahmacharya. Upon reaching puberty, those boys and girls who remain virgins maintain the inherent state of brahmacharya. They are able to ward off, and may not even notice, many emotional and sexual temptations that would be troublesome to the nonvirgin. This is because the psychic shield surrounding the virgin’s aura has never been penetrated. They are the ones “who walk in the rain without getting wet, sit long in the sun without getting burned.” They are the ones for whom reading about worldly experiences nurtures only their curiosity, whereas had they established psychic tubular connections with a member of the opposite sex, the reading would nurture a much deeper sexual desire. It is the virgins performing brahmacharya sādhana since puberty who can, if they persist, live in “Brahm,” or God consciousness, most of the time, even without performing intense sādhanas. This is because they have never consciously entered into worldly consciousness. Instead they look out into it as if through a veil.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 65: NONINJURIOUS SOLUTIONS
Śiva’s devotees uphold the principle not to kill even household pests, but to stop their entry, not to kill garden insects or predators, but keep them away by natural means. This is the highest ideal. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 65 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Disappointment, Discouragement

Another instinctive response to the ebb and flow of life force is disappointment, which intensified becomes discouragement, depression and despair. These three negative states are obstacles to all human endeavor, especially for the spiritual seeker, who must learn early to regulate, control and balance the emotional ups and downs so well that he never experiences discouragement, which is nothing more than an imbalance of force.

Life tests and retests our emotional maturity. Whether we meet those tests or fail is entirely up to us. On the Śaivite path, the sat­guru gives the tests in order to mold and strengthen the seeker’s character. Great strength of character is required to attain spiritual goals, enormous courage and forbearance, and anyone who lacks that strength and stamina will cease striving long before full realization is attained.

Therefore, to bring out the natural strengths, the guru will offer challenges. He knows that we all fall short of our own expectations now and again, and that we react either positively by reaffirmation or negatively through discouragement. As the tests of life present themselves, the sat­guru will observe the seeker’s response time and time again until his emotional body grows strong enough to combat negative reaction to what appears to be failure and later to absorb within itself all reaction to disappointment, the father of discouragement.

It is the day-to-day reactions to circumstance that indicate the attainment and not mere recorded knowledge about the path. When the aspirant is able to meet ordinary happenings and respond to them in the effortless wisdom born of detachment, that indicates that his striving is genuine. When he is able to encounter conditions that send ordinary people into states of disappointment or discouragement and when his emotional nature indicates mastery over these lesser states of consciousness, he is well on his way toward filling the gaps of a natural growth of the instinctive vehicles—body, emotions and intellect.

But to attain emotional stability, recognition of those vulnerable areas must be cultivated. It is quite natural to encounter circumstances that are potential sources of disappointment. The very recognition and admission are half of the necessary adjustments. As one set of conditions is resolved, another set of a more intense vibration arises naturally to be mastered. With disappointment reined in, the aspirant next faces tendencies of discouragement, then depression and finally despair, for they are all linked together in the instinctive nature of humankind. Once he recognizes these states as belonging to all men and ceases to identify them as personal tendencies, he is then able to cognize their source and convert them. In this way the emotional nature matures under the loving guidance of the spiritual teacher.

Lesson 64 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Are the Ten Classical Restraints?

ŚLOKA 64
Hinduism’s ethical restraints are contained in ten simple precepts called yamas. They define the codes of conduct by which we harness our instinctive forces and cultivate the innate, pristine qualities of our soul. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
The yamas and niyamas are scriptural injunctions for all aspects of thought and behavior. They are advice and simple guidelines, not commandments. The ten yamas, defining the ideals of charyā, are: 1) ahiṁsā, “noninjury,” do not harm others by thought, word or deed; 2) satya, “truthfulness,” refrain from lying and betraying promises; 3) asteya, “nonstealing,” neither steal nor covet nor enter into debt; 4) brahmacharya, “divine conduct,” control lust by remaining celibate when single, leading to faithfulness in marriage; 5) kshamā, “patience,” restrain intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances; 6) dhṛiti, “steadfastness,” overcome nonperseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness; 7) dayā, “compassion,” conquer callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings; 8) ārjava, “honesty,” renounce deception and wrongdoing; 9) mitāhāra, “moderate appetite,” neither eat too much, nor consume meat, fish, fowl or eggs; 10) śaucha, “purity,” avoid impurity in body, mind and speech. The Vedas proclaim, “To them belongs yon stainless Brahma world in whom there is no crookedness and falsehood, nor trickery.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.