February 2024 Chitra Padapuja

Jai Gurudeva!

Today was the Chitra nakshatra and our monthly padapuja to Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's tirvadi in Kadavul Temple.

"You become everything when you merge in Siva, but you are no longer you." - Gurudeva

\"A satguru doesn’t need a lot of words to transmit the spirit to another person; but the śishyas have to be open and be kept open.

The little bit of spirit extends like a slender fiber, a thin thread, from the satguru to the śishya, and it is easily broken. A little bit more of that association adds another strand, and we have two threads, then three, then four.

They are gradually woven together through service, and a substantial string develops between the guru and the śishya. More strings are created, and they are finally woven together into a rope strong enough to pull a cart. You’ve seen in India the huge, thick ropes that pull a temple chariot. That is the ultimate goal of the guru-śishya relationship.

Upon the connection between guru and śishya, the spirit of the paramparā travels, the spirit of the sampradāya travels. It causes the words that are said to sink deep. They don’t just bounce off the intellect; the message goes deep into the individual. Spiritual force doesn’t just happen. It’s a hand-me-down process, a process of transmission, just as the development of the human race didn’t just happen. It was a hand-me-down from many, many fathers and mothers and many, many reincarnations that brought us all here.

Paramparā is a spiritual force that moves from one person to another. I am not talking about the modern idea of bestowing śakti power, where somebody gets a little jolt and pays a little money and that’s the end of the association with the teacher. Paramparā is like giving a devotee one end of a tiny silk thread. Now, if the devotee drops his end of the thread, the experiences are stopped and only words are left, just words, one word after another, another and another.

The devotee then has to interpret the depth of the philosophy according to the depths of his inherent ignorance. What other measurement does he have? The relationship with the guru is a constant weaving in and out of one fiber of the thread added to another fiber, added to another fiber, added to another fiber, just like this khadi kavi robe we wear in our Order was woven.

Each fiber is attached to another fiber, attached to another fiber, attached to another fiber, and finally we have a thread.

Between the guru and śishya many threads are all woven together, and finally we have a firm rope that cannot be pulled apart or destroyed even by two people pulling against one another.

That is sampradāya.

That is paramparā.

That is the magical power of the Nāthas.

As we look at this great line of satgurus—coming from Lord Śiva Himself through Nandinātha and countless ones before Nandinatha, to Rishi Tirumular and countless ṛishis after him to the Rishi of Bangalore, to Kadaitswami, Chellappaguru and Yogaswami

we see the same spiritual force flowing.

We see an undaunted, rare succession of individuals who considered adversity as a boon from the Gods

wherein all the accumulated karmas to be wiped away come together in one place to be taken care of all at once.

Nāthas don’t run from adversity

nor do they resent it.

They take it within themselves in meditation and deal with it

dissolve it in the clear white light within themselves, every tiny little bit of it

They consider it a boon from the Gods that it all came at one time rather than strung out over a period of many years.

If you ever become discouraged and wonder about the path, remember that there are three pillars of Hinduism that will keep you on the path: the satguru, the temple and the scriptures.

Go to the temple, strengthen your relationship with your guru and begin studying the scriptures.

Discouragement will go away and courage will come. Dark hours will go and bright hours will come. Problems will bend down as the intelligence from the spiritual force begins to come up.

This is the way of the mysterious Nāthas, who don’t follow the way of words.

Nāthas don’t have any hype. We are not beating a drum or selling a mantra or selling a seminar or selling a promise.

We just are who we are, doing what we are doing, and if anyone comes along to help, that is our karma at that point in time.

We do the very best that we can with the facilities that we have.

We don’t sell healing. We make no promises. Nāthas do their job on a very broad scale and pay attention to every small detail at the same time.

That’s the working of the spiritual force that has come from Sage Yogaswami, Chellappaguru, Kadaitswami, the mysterious Ṛishi and those that preceded him, back to Tirumular and Maharishi Nandinatha and those that preceded them and those that preceded them and those that preceded them, for as long as people have walked on this planet...\"

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