Today we had a wonderful group of young 1st grade children from the Na Kamalei School in Kilauea, a Waldorf based school who came to the monastery on a field trip. Our photographer said they were the most well behaved and respectful young people of that age he had ever seen. Here they are visiting the Iraivan temple site. They were told at the beginning there would be a quiz at the end and to be especially observant.

Sadhaka: “I will give you a question and three choices. You have to chose one if you think you know what it is raise your hand and we will choose one of you to answer… OK, here’s the first question: This place is a) a supermarket, b) a beach c) a Hindu monastery?”

Children ( all raise hands) “Oh, that’s easy!…Its a monastery!”

Sadhaka: “Next question… the person hosting you his name is Michael, John or “Thondu”?
Children this time giggling and unable to restrain themselves all yell: Thondu!”

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Date: April_06_2002
Title: Master Course on Moksha
Category: The Ultimate Goals of Life
Duration: 8 min., 10 seconds
Date Given: March 18, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha

Today’s ‘Dancing with Siva’ lesson was particularly appropriate for the Moksha Ritau, because it defines moksha.

“The destiny of all souls is moksha, liberation from rebirth on the physical plane. Our soul then continues evolving in the Antaraloka and Sivaloka and finally merges with Siva, like water returning to the sea.”

The Bhashya then starts out, “Moksha comes when earthly karma has been resolved, dharma well-performed and God fully realized. Each soul must have performed well through many lives, the varna dharmas or four castes and lived through life’s varied experiences, in order to not be pulled back to a physical birth by a deed left undone.”

That is what I wanted to focus on. This contains the idea of having performed well, the four dharmas or the castes. We have lived through life’s varied experiences. In other words, there is a lot of experiences we have to go through. We all go through them in different lives. That is why people are so different. We are not all in the same chapter, at the same time, so to speak, experiencing different kinds of lives at different points. So, there is a great variety. But, the idea is we go through all these experiences. As it says here that we go through the experiences of the four castes and that is part of what is necessary to do in life. In other words, just because someone is spiritually motivated does not mean he can go sit in a cave and achieve moksha. He may not have had enough of the experiences of life for that to work.

Sitting in a cave is appropriate in two situations. One is, for someone who is on the sannyasa dharma, a monk. Even then, he cannot necessarily sit in a cave, 24-hours a day and benefit from it. It is appropriate for everyone in the later stages of life in the sannyasa ashrama, when it is natural to become more spiritual and drop off other duties. Otherwise, it does not work. We are just postponing experiences we need to go through. For a single person who is not on the sannyasa dharma, just to go and sit in seclusion does not necessarily benefit them that much. It might be better for them to follow the traditional Grihasta Dharma and go through the experiences of life, choosing swadharma which is natural to them. In that way, they might make much more spiritual progress, than they would otherwise.

That is the point that Gurudeva is making here. Just because we are interested in moksha does not mean we can skip certain experiences in life. We need to go through life and experience what the planet has to offer, in order not to be pulled back to it. That is a very nice thought.

Just to touch briefly on one more subject. Yesterday’s and today’s lessons in ‘Merging with Siva’, are like a manual on how to realize the Self. In case you had not noticed it, it is much more specific. I say manual in the sense that, it is like step-by-step. OK, first you do this. Then you do this. Don’t do that. Don’t do this. But, then you do that and then you do this. That is the sense of a manual. It inspired me! So, I think I will work up a talk on it for next phase or soon after.

Just wanted to read a little bit of it, in order to get all of our minds to it. It is talking about the inner light, seeing the inner light at the top of the head. Then it says something very interesting.

It says, “… to hold the light in a 3-inch diameter, because there will be a tendency for the light to fill up his forehead. He will feel very blissful.” Then, what does Gurudeva say? “We don’t want that to happen.”

You wouldn’t expect that, would you? We would not want that to happen because he would start to get emotional and little bit externalized, instead of detached and poised.

“We don’t want him to get too blissful. We do not want the emotions of the lower mind to get out of control simply because he found a bright light in his head.”

Then, it explains what to do next. Then, there is a nice statement which helps explain what the inner light is. “A wise sannyasin will not allow himself to get emotional about the inner light, because seeing this light indicates that he is only beginning to come into his superconscious.”

So, this is like a first experience, not the depth of superconsciousness. Gurudeva explains why. “The light, really, is the friction of the superconscious mind against the conscious and the subconscious mind.”

If that was not clear, try this one. “In my way of looking at it, it is an electrical friction of the odic forces and actinic forces merging that causes light and sound.”

In other words, if you are seeing light, it means that you are still involved in some of the odic forces. Otherwise, you would not see light. If you are clearly in the actinic or superconscious forces, you would not see any light. It is the friction between the actinic and the odic force that causes, like, a spark. When you go more into the actinic, you go beyond light which it starts to talk about. If you come more into the odic, you cannot see the light. So, it gives a nice balance.

I think we will save the rest of that for a nice talk on how it all works. It is beautifully written up. I , certainly, am not aware of anything that Gurudeva has written, which pins it down into such a step-by-step, manual-like write-up on how to realize Parasiva. Enjoy that. It is wonderful for the Moksha Ritau.

Of course, the way we study the Trilogy, we start it on Tamil New Year. So, the Moksha Ritau is the third of the three ritaus. Therefore, we are going through the end of ‘Merging with Siva’ during the Moksha Ritau. That is the deepest part. That is what all of this is about, realization. That is in the last 18 chapters.
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		Innersearch 2002 in Hawaii! Our next Innersearch Travel-Study program will be held right here on the island of Kauai in the summer of 2002. It’s the first such program on the Garden Island since 1974! From July 17 to July 22 we will enjoy daily classes with the swamis, join in the annual Guru Purnima festival, be inspired by local culture, explore the lush tropical island in exciting and non-touristy ways, and more. Be prepared for a wonderful spiritual experience in paradise with meditations, seminars and sacred ceremonies at the Siva temple of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. Many have applied already, and there is a limit of 50 participants, so we recommend everyone apply as soon as possible. Interested? Please request an application from pilgrim@searchbeyond.com
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