Lesson 194 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Is the Nature of the Yoga Pāda?

ŚLOKA 39
Yoga is internalized worship which leads to union with God. It is the regular practice of meditation, detachment and austerities under the guidance of a satguru through whose grace we attain the realization of Paraśiva. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Yoga, “union,” is the process of uniting with God within oneself, a stage arrived at through perfecting charyā and kriyā. As God is now like a friend to us, yoga is known as the sakhā mārga. This system of inner discovery begins with āsa­na—sitting quietly in yogic posture—and prā­ṇā­yāma, breath control. Prat­yāhāra, sense with­drawal, brings awareness into dhāraṇā, concentration, then into dhyāna, med­itation. Over the years, un­der ideal conditions, the kuṇḍalinī fire of consciousness ascends to the higher chakras, burning the dross of ig­norance and past karmas. Dhyāna finally leads to enstasy—first to savi­kalpa samādhi, the contemplative experience of Sat­chid­­­­ā­nanda, and ultimately to nir­vikal­pa samādhi, Para­­śiva. Truly a living satguru is needed as a steady guide to traverse this path. When yoga is practiced by one per­fect­ed in kriyā, the Gods receive the yogī into their midst through his awakened, fiery kuṇḍalinī. The Vedas enjoin the yogī, “With earnest effort hold the senses in check. Controlling the breath, regulate the vital activities. As a charioteer holds back his restive horses, so does a per­­se­­vering aspirant restrain his mind.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 194 – Living with Śiva

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

Education And Career

Many youth are pushed into professions by their family, even if they are not suited to that profession. They graduate and ask themselves, “What do I do next? Do I get a job near my family home? Do I go to a far-off country and seek employment?” Family pressure is on, and comments, sometimes hurtful, are made to motivate the youth. But in today’s world youth have to think on their feet, take their life into their own hands and make their own goals for their future, especially if they have been abused by senseless beatings from angry parents whose cruel hearts drive them from their home.

The long-term goals of education and career should be planned out ahead of graduation. Ideally the planning takes place with the family, but only if it is a cooperative, reasonable family that has enough love to foresee their youth fulfilling happy lives with productive futures. As we saw earlier, too harsh an upbringing can lead to their taking their life with their own hands.

In the United States before the First and Second World Wars, people were committed—committed to their family, to their community, to their country, to the growth of the nation and to their business. Everyone knew what they were going to do with the rest of their life by the time they were eighteen or nineteen years of age. They went forward and lived out their life as planned. When I was seventeen, I knew what I would be doing right now. That is commitment, clarity of mind, the ability to see a direct path into the future and then to have the character and the willpower to live to make that path manifest. Society was stable, society was strong, and there were simpler problems.

After the First World War and Second World War, the family unit began to break up, and people were no longer committed. The word of the times was not commitment, but one that also started with a “c.” It was choices. “I’ll make a choice and see where it leads me. Then I will make another choice and see where that leads.” People didn’t stick with one occupation and perfect it. They dabbled half-heartedly at ten occupations which they didn’t perfect, and the quality of work suffered as a result. The opportunities of choice were so grand. Parents would encourage their children “Make your own choice of what you are going to do with your life. We just want you to be happy.” The same child was not allowed to make his own choice about what clothes to wear or what foods to eat. But he was allowed to make the really important choices, including: “What are you going to do with your entire life?” and “Whom are you going to marry?” Of course, to buy a car he was taught by his parents to read Consumer Reports and pick just the right one. But he could take up any career and marry anyone he wanted to, just on a whim and fancy.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 194: WEARING THE BODY LIKE A SANDAL
Śiva’s devotees do not indulge in inordinate concerns about food, undue physical worries or extensive personal health studies other than āyurveda. They avoid extreme diets, except under medical supervision. Aum.

Lesson 194 – Merging with Śiva

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

The Use Of Intuition

Intuition is the natural way in which man expresses himself on Earth or any other planet on which he might find expression of his being. This natural flow of mana, the Polynesian word for prāṇic śakti, from and through him only becomes inhibited when he disconnects from the nerve system of the celestial into the nerve system of the animal. When this occurs, there, therefore, is a disconnect between superconsciousness and external consciousness. Man’s individual awareness is either captured by the nerve system of external consciousness, of the successive animal bodies which his soul inhabits as a vehicle to live on Earth in, or man’s individual awareness is captured by his celestial nerve system, matured on aged planets in the galaxy prior to arrival here on Earth. This, then, is superconsciousness—the natural expression of the transcendental soul known as man.

Intuition day by day occurs spasmodically, but it does occur. And systematically one can gear his observation of his own intuitional faculties and find out exactly when these intuitive functions occur within him. It is a well-defined fact that we have the faculty of precognition of coming events. It is also concurrently known that feelings of fear may precede impending danger. It is for the individual to disentangle and sort out within his own daily experiential pattern which is which. In this way he becomes knowledgeable in the great university of his own mind as to what is a daily intuitive occurrence and what is not.

How does one distinguish between intuition and usual thought-feeling processes? Desires come through feeling, warmth of emotion, as do thoughts, schemes, ways of manipulating the media forces for one’s own personal benefit or that of a loved one. This is contrary to the power of intuition, which runs cold and is direct, like a bolt of lightning in the inner sky or the subtle rainbow of an etheric aura which bypasses the processes of current thinking, giving answers before the question and solving problems before they have accrued.

It is only through sādhana and divesting oneself—in order to perform sādhana—from the social structure of the conglomerate of mortals that surround you that you will actually be able to prudently delineate between true intuition and the imposing factors of need and greed that often seem paramount when living up to the externalities of the instinctive nerve system.

Lesson 193 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Is the Nature of the Kriyā Pāda?

ŚLOKA 38
Kriyā is joyous and regular worship, both internal and external, in the home and temple. It includes pūjā, japa, penance, fasting and scriptural learning, by which our understanding and love of God and Gods deepen. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Hinduism demands deep devotion through bhakti yoga in the kriyā pāda, softening the intellect and unfolding love. In kri­yā, the second stage of religiousness, our sādhana, which was mostly external in charyā, is now also internal. Kriyā, literally “action or rite,” is a stirring of the soul in aware­ness of the Divine, overcoming the obstin­acy of the instinctive-intellectual mind. We now look upon the Deity image not just as carved stone, but as the living presence of the God. We perform ritual and pūjā not be­cause we have to but because we want to. We are drawn to the temple to satisfy our longing. We sing joyfully. We ab­sorb and intuit the wisdom of the Vedas and Āgamas. We perform pilgrimage and fulfill the sac­ra­ments. We practice diligently the ten classi­cal ob­ser­vances called niyamas. Our re­lationship with God in kriyā is as a son to his parents and thus this stage is called the satpu­tra mārga. The Tirumantiram in­structs, “Pū­jā, reading the scriptures, singing hymns, performing japa and un­sullied aus­ter­ity, truthfulness, restraint of envy, and of­fering of food—these and other self-purifying acts con­sti­tute the flawless satputra mārga.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 193 – Living with Śiva

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

Keep the Doors Open

Many parents hesitate teaching Hinduism to their children as they do not want to make them different than their school chums. But it is only a “storybook Hinduism” that would do that. We do not need stories these days that were created for a society that no longer exists. We do need the philosophical, metaphysical and psychological Truths which are as eternal as space, time and gravity. These should be well implanted into their minds. One is never too young or too old to learn the Eternal Truths that never fail. World thinking is built on only a few Truths and more than a few false concepts. Never give up on your young adults, whatever the problems that arise. They will be just fine with you, their parents, by their side all along the way.

Yes, your children need both of you as friends, someone to come home to when the going gets rough, someone who accepts and loves and, in heartfelt tolerance, tries to understand. It is possible, you know, to close the door on them in your hearts and minds, especially when they are not obeying. Remember that there are others out there who will take them in and may lead them even further astray. Be a friend. Don’t force them out of your hearts and minds. Always keep the doors of a compassionate heart, loving arms and an understanding mind open. Listen to their problems and come forward for their needs, even when you may not agree with them or approve of what they are going through. Remember, three hugs a day keeps trouble away. This is modern Hindu Dharma. This is ancient Hindu Dharma. This is living Śiva’s contemporary culture.

Young people have to prove for themselves the basic principles of Sanātana Dharma. Some go at it in a straightforward way and others go about it in a roundabout way, trying to disprove everything, and therefore proving it. What is the straightforward way? Accepting it as it is and trying to prove it also by relating it to your own life experience. We should not be discouraged with young people if we find they reach a certain age and pull away a little bit. They can come to understand the law of karma by going through a few experiences and finding out how they themselves created those experiences. They have to have those basic realizations in this life if they didn’t have them in a previous life. If they had these basic realizations in a previous life very, very strongly, their confidence in the teachings would be very strong. Those things carry over from life to life, and in the end the soul builds on them.

The new breed of swāmīs that have come up in the past three decades relate well to the young adults who were born as Hindus but raised as modern youth with little knowledge of their hereditary religion. These swāmīs know the problems, the pitfalls and some of the solutions. They, too, were raised “modern” and by their own conviction learned Eternal Truths and now preach them with a vigor and practical clarity that is unsurpassed. Introduce your young adult to them, and he or she will find an understanding friend and religious mentor.

When we are young, the old ways can seem stiff, old-fashioned or just plain silly. Help your young adult see into the reasons and discover the meaning in our culture, philosophy and religion. Then the Sanātana Dharma will belong to them, too, never to be lost, but to be preserved and passed along to their children when the time comes and the cycle begins again.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 193: CHOOSING APPROPRIATE HEALING ARTS
Śiva’s devotees know wellness is balance. If the imbalance called illness occurs, they apply self-healing, then resort as needed to such arts as āyurveda, acupuncture, chiropractic, allopathy, prāṇic healing or massage. Aum.

Lesson 193 – Merging with Śiva

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

Learn to Move Awareness

You must not think the superconscious mind is way out of your reach simply because of the word super, because it is quite the contrary. It is within you. It has always been within you. All you have to do is to reprogram the subconscious a little and move awareness out of the conscious mind, and your journey is within. You are superconscious now. You have to accept that. You do not have to “get to be” superconscious. This is not something that is going to happen to you all of a sudden and then cause you to be different. The thing that is going to happen to you is that you will release your individual awareness from the so-called bondages of the habit patterns of the external mind that it had been accustomed to flowing through. Once it is released, you will automatically flow into other inner areas of the mind because you have been studying about them and now have the map clearly outlined for you.

You might be wondering why, if you are supposed to be superconscious right now, you have not had the wonderful experiences that I have told you about. This is easy to answer. You may be superconscious now but not consciously superconscious all of the time, or even for long enough periods to have these beautiful experiences. So when I say you are superconscious right now, that is true, or you would not even be hearing about it.

It is no accident our meeting in this way to share some of my inner life and this particularly deep subject matter. It is providential, I would say, and has occurred at the proper time of your unfoldment on the path. Though you are superconscious right now, awareness is still externalized enough that you touch into it only a little bit and then are pulled back to the subconscious or to the conscious mind.

Through regular practice of meditation, one learns to move awareness through the superconscious areas like a dancer learns to move across the stage according to the rhythm of the music. It takes much practice for the dancer to acquire the technique in the preparation of himself to fulfill his calling. He has to live a disciplined lifestyle. It is the same for the contemplative. He has to work with and exercise the currents of awareness so dynamically that he can flow into a superconscious area and remain there long enough to look around a little bit and enjoy it.

Lesson 192 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Is the Nature of the Charyā Pāda?

ŚLOKA 37
Charyā is the performance of altruistic religious service and living according to traditional ethical conduct and culture, by which the outer nature is purified. It is the stage of overcoming basic instinctive patterns. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Charyā, literally “conduct,” is the first stage of religiousness and the foundation for the next three stages. It is also called the dāsa mārga, meaning “path of servitude,” for here the soul relates to God as servant to master. The disciplines of char­­­yā include humble service, attending the temple, performing one’s duty to community and family, honoring holy men, res­pecting elders, atoning for misdeeds and fulfilling the ten classical restraints called yamas. Within a strong society, one performs char­yā whether he wants to or not. Young or rebellious souls often resist and resent, whereas mature souls fulfill these obligations most naturally. Right behavior and self-sacrificing service are never outgrown. The keynote of charyā, or karma yoga, is sevā, religious service given without the least thought of reward, which has the magical effect of softening the ego and bringing forth the soul’s innate devotion. The Tirumantiram ex­plains, “The sim­ple temple duties, lighting the lamps, picking flowers, lovingly polishing the floors, sweeping, singing the Lord’s praise, ringing the bell and fetching ceremonial water—these constitute the dāsa mārga.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 192 – Living with Śiva

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

A Story of Heartbreak

Here is a letter a discouraged Malaysian Hindu girl wrote to her parents just before she attempted to end her life at age eighteen. One of the main reasons she cited for this attempt was too much pressure coming from her parents. It was published in the Malaysia edition of HINDUISM TODAY.

“Dear Mom and Dad: You’ll never understand why I did this. Never. In your opinion, you always did what was best for me. You always knew what was best for me. You always believed I was your naive, irresponsible little girl who always needed your hand to hold on to. You thought it was necessary to use the sharp edge of your tongue to keep me on the right track.

“But that was the biggest problem—you were the ones who chose that track for me. I never had any say in my own life. Did you realize that that right track became a psychological prison for me? That your leading hand became a set of chains for me? That the sharp side of your tongue got to be a barbed wire that was continuously lashing out at me? No, you never did.

“You have said many things to me when you were angry, and you always excused yourself by saying that you weren’t in your senses when you said them. But did you realize how much those things could have hurt me? No. You never even thought about it. How about if I called you a b . . . . when I was angry? Would you excuse that with the same reasoning? I think not.

“Didn’t you ever stop to think that maybe I should have some say in what I wanted to do with my life? You decided which college would be the right one for me to attend and what academic field I should go into. The college, of course, had to be the most prestigious and elite one, so you could brag to your friends about it. You never thought that maybe I wanted something more than school and books, but that was never important to you. You only wanted me to achieve academically so your friends would be duly impressed. That was the same reason that you wanted me to become a doctor. I didn’t want anything to do with it.

“You never realized that maybe I had wanted a social life, to make real friends for once in my life. When I told you that, you scoffed at me and told me that we Indians were so much superior that we didn’t need to deal with them. There was never anything in my life that you let me have any control over. When I finally met someone who meant something to me, you two couldn’t handle the fact that maybe someday I would learn to control my own life and rid myself of your manipulations. So, then you decided who it was that I was going to see and who it was that I didn’t. You forced me to break the first real relationship that I ever had in my life. I was constantly harassed by you about him. You told me that I was disgracing the family name. ‘…what would everyone say?’ You destroyed everything for me. This ‘relationship’ between us is nothing but a farce. And there is no reason to continue it. I have searched for some way to escape you, but I have come up empty handed. And now, unable to do anything else, I want you to understand the meaning of ‘empty handed.’ Always remember that you can only control someone for so long. Now you must live with this guilt. I hope you will never be able to forgive yourself.”

Isn’t that sad? Yes, very sad. Fortunately, the young woman lived through this ordeal. In contacting the editors, knowing her letter would strike a chord in many youth, she cautioned that she now knows suicide is not the way out. She firmly believes that all things, no matter how bad they seem at the time, can be lived through. She allowed the publication of this very personal letter in the hope that her battle with suicide would help others—parents and children—deal better with problems before they reach hopelessness.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 192: FASTING FOR HEALTH AND PENANCE
Śiva’s devotees may fast for twenty-four hours on water, herb teas or fruit juices each Friday or twice a month on pradosha. Longer fasting, such as a festival penance, is done only with the guru’s or a doctor’s sanction. Aum.

Lesson 192 – Merging with Śiva

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

Be Aware Of Energy

Become aware of the totality of Being. This does not take a lot of time. The easiest way, the simplest way, is to be aware of the spine and the energies within the head. Locate the consciousness of energy. Be aware of energy. When you are aware of energy, you automatically forget what you were previously aware of and it fades away. You leave the consciousness of the instinctive-intellectual area of the mind and move into superconsciousness. If you can remain totally centered in awareness of the energy within your spine and the energy within the head, you become aware of the same energy within everybody and everything you see. You are immediately in a superconscious state when this happens.

Therefore, the simple goal is, stay in this consciousness of energy for the rest of your life. It is just that easy, but it is not quite that simple to accomplish, because you have already trained your awareness to move into other channels of the mind, and it will do that automatically as soon as you cease to be aware of the energy within the spine. Then you forget that you are a superconscious, immortal being and begin to think you are only temporal. You may begin to think that there is a past, or that there is a future, and begin to feel that the eternal now is an insecure time. You may find yourself beginning to lean on other people rather than on your own spine. When you discover this happening, then begin to meditate. Go deep within yourself again and find superconsciousness. Seek the company of people who center their awareness within. This will make it easier for you to do so. Being around people who center awareness in the external areas of the mind is difficult because they draw your awareness into the external areas of the thought strata.

People who really value awareness being “hooked,” shall we say, into the inner areas of energy, and have studied that function of energy, draw your awareness into it. When this happens, you begin to see from inside out. You actually see from the inside of everything that you look at to the exterior of it. You look at a tree. You first see the energy within the tree. The bark is the last thing you see. When you are in an outer consciousness, first you see the bark of the tree and then you intellectually surmise that there must be energies within it because you happen to notice that a leaf is growing and assume that it must be alive. How awkward awareness is when it is stumbling around in the external area of the mind. And how smooth awareness flows freely when it is dynamically cruising into inner layers of inner space.

We shall now compare the superconscious mind to an onion of seven layers, each interior layer more subtle than the outer ones. 1) Experiencing the consciousness of the eternity of the moment, as if the world was revolving around you; 2) Experiencing a cosmic energy, a divine force, flowing through your external mind which is more real to you than the external mind itself; 3) Experiencing hearing voices singing, music playing—the divine sounds of the flute, mṛidaṅga, vīṇā and tambūra—while in meditation or early in the morning just before awakening; 4) Experiencing seeing the faces of Gods or devas, or a ṛishi’s face, looking into yours while in meditation or early in the morning just before awakening; 5) Experiencing the peace and inner poise of the all-pervasive Satchidānanda; 6) Experiencing the ānandamaya kośa, the body of the soul, as it comes into conscious union with the physical body; 7) Experiencing being on the brink of the Absolute, Paraśiva, the void, having lost consciousness of the physical body and of being any of the five states of mind. These seven states of superconsciousness are only a few, to be sure, of this vast area of mind.

Lesson 191 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Are the Four Stages on the Path?

ŚLOKA 36
The path of enlightenment is divided naturally into four stages: charyā, virtue and selfless service; kriyā, worshipful sādhanas; yoga, meditation under a guru’s guidance; and jñāna, the wisdom state of the realized soul. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Charyā, kriyā, yoga and jñāna are the sequence of the soul’s evolutionary process, much like the natural de­­­­vel­opment of a butterfly from egg to caterpillar, from caterpillar to pupa, and then the final metamorphosis to butterfly. These are four pādas, or stages, through which each human soul must pass in many births to attain its final goal. Before entering these spiritual stages, the soul is im­mersed in the lower nature, the āṇava mārga, or self-centered path, bound in fear and lust, hurtful rage, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, con­science­less­ness and mal­ice. Then it awakens into charyā, un­selfish religious service, or karma yoga. Once ma­tured in charyā, it enters kriyā, devotion or bhakti yoga, and finally blossoms into kuṇ­ḍa­linī yoga. Jñāna is the state of en­light­ened wis­dom reached toward the path’s end as a re­sult of Self Realization. The four pādas are not al­ter­na­tive ways, but progressive, cum­ulative phases of a one path, San Mārga. The Tiruman­tiram says, “Being the Life of life is jñāna worship. Beholding the Light of life is yoga worship. Giving life by invocation is external worship. Adoration that displaces anger is charyā worship.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.