Lesson 144 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Is the View of Monistic Theism?

ŚLOKA 144
Monistic theism is the synthesis of monism and dualism. It says God is transcendent and immanent, eternal and temporal, Being and becoming, Creator and created, Absolute and relative, efficient and material cause. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Both strict monism and dualism are fatally flawed, for neither alone encompasses the whole of truth. In other words, it is not a choice between the God-is-man-and-world view of pantheistic monism and the God-is-separate-from-man-and-world view of theistic dualism. It is both. Panentheism, which describes “all in God, and God in all,” and monistic theism are Western terms for Advaita Īśvaravāda. It is the view that embraces the oneness of God and soul, monism, and the reality of the Personal God, theism. As panentheists, we believe in an eternal oneness of God and man at the level of Satchidānanda and Paraśiva. But a difference is acknowledged during the evolution of the soul body. Ultimately, even this difference merges in identity. Thus, there is perfectly beginningless oneness and a temporary difference which resolves itself in perfect identity. In the acceptance of this identity, monistic theists differ from most viśishṭādvaitins. The Vedas declare, “He moves and He moves not; He is far, yet is near. He is within all that is, yet is also outside. The man who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings is free from all fear.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 144 – Living with Śiva

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

The Roles of Man and Wife

Is there anything unique in the Śaivite marriage that helps in dealing with the roles that men and women traditionally play? Are women always to be meek and dependent and men aggressive and in charge? Sometimes an aggressive woman marries a passive man. How does Śaivism deal with this?” This totally depends on the education of both the husband and the wife. This has been my experience. When the modernization of education occurred, which taught people how to live in the world, run a business or work for someone else, family life began to evolve out of the village consciousness and into the technological age. In this change, traditional roles also changed.

Today there are five basic patterns of marriage. In an agricultural community, women take care of the house, and men take care of the farm, the business and industry; or in some other societies where women are stronger, they work side-by-side with the men. There, for a man to have his wife work side-by-side with him in the field is a sign of status, better meals for the family and more attention to himself. Also we must understand that in these marriages both husband and wife share a similar educational level, a similar understanding of how the world works. This is the first and oldest pattern.

However, as society changes because of technology and industrialization, people change and their relationships change. I have found that a Western-educated man who marries an Eastern village-educated girl will always be head of the house, and she will allow this. Basically, she does not understand the ways of urban life. This is the second type of marriage. The educated man marrying an uneducated girl will not expect her to understand what he is thinking about or feeling. And she would probably not understand even if he explained it all to her. She would naturally be submissive; he would be aggressive.

It has been my experience that it works exactly the same the other way around in cases where the woman is more highly educated than the man. The intellectually educated lady marrying an uneducated man would most likely be the principal wage-earner, and he would be submissive. She will naturally make the major decisions about how to spend her money. He will naturally concur. Or, they will fight. This third, more difficult, relationship will demand a leader and a follower, especially if she earns more money than he and has more job security and greater benefits, such as medical insurance and retirement.

The second and third types of marriage share a common factor. A village girl has no way of earning her own living, should her husband die or leave her, and would have no recourse but to return to her family, unless he left her a substantial bequest or alimony. A nonprofessional village man would have no other recourse than to seek his own level of income should his educated wife die or leave him without providing a generous support or inheritance.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 144: POOLING INCOMES FOR FAMILY UNITY
Śiva’s followers require unmarried progeny living with them who have finished school and are employed to submit, after tithing, all earnings to the family fund. Once betrothed, they manage their own earnings. Aum.

Lesson 144 – Merging with Śiva

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

Lower States Of Mind

When someone begins on the path from states of consciousness below the mūlādhāra, in the confused thinking areas of the mind, in the angry chakras, religion will be to him a superstitious, forboding, very unclear area. These chakras are also known as talas, or states of darkness, self-concealment and distortion. They are the “nether poles” of the higher chakras and of the seven corresponding lokas. Confused thinking we can define as “self-preservation thinking.” When a person is within this chakra, the feelings of “me and mine” are strong. It is a state of outward passion and sense indulgence. This is the vibration of the talātala chakra, which could be translated as “under the bottom level,” “place-nonplace” (tala-atala), or “realm of nonbeing.” In this fourth center below the mūlādhāra, the protection of one’s small universe at all costs is the consciousness.

Should such a person ever become uplifted, since his consciousness is deep within the lower chakras, he would first come up in consciousness into jealousy, the sutala chakra, meaning “great lower region,” a “good matter” state of spiritual darkness ruled by desire and passion. The feeling of jealousy is a higher consciousness than that of the chakra below, which confuses the thinking. The next upliftment, after jealousy and confused thinking, is the release into the chakra of anger, the second force center below the mūlādhāra. This is the vitala chakra, translated as “the region of the lost,” “realm of division or confusion.” The upliftment to follow anger is to enter the chakra of fear, a state of spiritual annihilation called the atala chakra, meaning “without bottom,” or “no place.” Fear is a higher consciousness than anger or jealousy. It is people who live in this chakra who make up the masses who fear God rather than love God.

The fifth chakra below the mūlādhāra is called rasātala, literally “state of sense enjoyment.” This is the true home of the animal nature. Here personal selfishness predominates. Persons strongly in the consciousness of this force center care nothing for the problems and suffering of others.

Below this, dare we speak of it, is the mahātala, “the greatest lower region,” where ego rules supreme. This is the realm of unconscionable acts, wherein perpetrators feel absolutely no remorse for the most heinous wrongdoings. The conscience is completely dormant for those locked in this realm. Negativity, depression and other dark states of mind are the order of the day for those in the mahātala chakra. Finally, at the bottom of consciousness is the pātāla chakra, “lower region of wickedness” or “fallen state,” where dark ignorance rules. This is the realm of vicious destruction, of revenge, murder for the sake of murder. Basking in the twisted vibrations of this area of consciousness, depraved transgressors torture others without a thought, express malice without a twinge of conscience, harm others in innumerable ways for sheer enjoyment and take delight in the emotional, mental and physical suffering of fellow humans and all beings that cross their path. Hatred is the ruling force in the pātāla chakra; malice reigns supreme. Far from reason, and farther still from compassion and insight, are those who live in the darkness of this area of mind.

We can see that coming up through the lower chakras is quite an ordeal. But once the individual goes through the fear chakra, he comes to Lord Gaṇeśa’s feet and enters the realms of memory and reason, clarity and understanding. It is at this point in the unfoldment through the chakras, which is a journey of consciousness, that he would begin thinking of others and seek to benefit them more than himself. From here on, the path of spiritual unfoldment is not as ominous as it was before. There are no threatening areas, except that it is possible to fall back into lower consciousness.

Lesson 143 – Dancing with Śiva

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

Are Monism and Dualism Reconcilable?

ŚLOKA 143
Monists, from their mountaintop perspective, perceive a one reality in all things. Dualists, from the foothills, see God, souls and world as eternally separate. Monistic theism is the perfect reconciliation of these two views. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Visualize a mountain and the path leading to its icy summit. As the climber traverses the lower ranges, he sees the meadows, the passes, the giant boulders. This we can liken to dualism, the natural, theistic state where God and man are different. Reaching the summit, the climber sees that the many parts are actually a one mountain. This realization is likened to pure monism. Unfortunately, many monists, reaching the summit, teach a denial of the foothills they themselves climbed on the way to their monistic platform. However, by going a little higher, lifting the kuṇḍalinī into the space above the mountain’s peak, the entire Truth is known. The bottom and the top are viewed as a one whole, just as theism and monism are accepted by the awakened soul. Monistic theism, Advaita Īśvaravāda, reconciles the dichotomy of being and becoming, the apparent contradiction of God’s eternality and temporal activity, the confusion of good and evil, the impasse of one and two. The Vedas affirm, “He who knows this becomes a knower of the One and of duality, he who has attained to the oneness of the One, to the self-same nature.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 143 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Bringing Up Children

Many families look at their children as intruders, as strangers. Śaivites don’t. There is great power and wisdom in the knowledge of astrology in bringing the necessary information to the parents to know the nature of their new arrival. Non-Hindu families generally do not have this kind of insight into the nature and future of their offspring and are generally at a loss to understand or know how to deal with patterns and developments as they arise.

Hindu parents view each child as an adult in a very young body, growing up into the fulfillment of its potential. Using the knowledge gained through astrology, they work to strengthen the strong character traits and never aggravate the weaker or antagonistic ones. This is to say that should the child have a propensity toward anger, jealousy and argumentativeness, and another propensity toward generosity, creativity and acquisition of knowledge, the wise parents will, of course, never argue with the child, because they do not want to awaken and strengthen this quality; they would carefully refrain from angering the child and quickly quell the anger when it flares up. In order to avoid strengthening the tendency toward jealousy, they would seek to secure the child’s relationship with friends and things so that he never felt unloved or disadvantaged. They would praise his creativity, generosity and acquisition of knowledge. For all this he would be rewarded with kind words and gifts, because once these tendencies are strengthened, the negative ones will fall aside.

This example is given to explain the way in which mother and father must work together to formulate patterns of positive discipline that they will understand and implement in the same way, so as to bring out the best qualities within the child. When these best qualities are brought up and become a part of the child’s daily life, the worse qualities will naturally be subdued by the best qualities. It is an interactive mechanism within the child himself that brings him closer to perfection. Non-Śaivite families often bring up the worst within their child, and the child has to, for his own salvation, leave home to be with people of a higher nature, a more expanded consciousness, who will strengthen his finer qualities, or be drawn to those of a lower nature, who will strengthen his lesser qualities. Everyone is on the path to perfection, and they are instinctively and superconsciously seeking out those who are capable and able to help them progress. Śaivites want this to happen within the home itself, and hence welcome the involvement of the guru, the swāmīs and the entire community.

Because people are human, differences arise. If everyone were the same, humanity would be called a herd, with the instinctive nature the predominant functioning intelligence. But humans are not a herd; they are individuals, each and every one of them. Each has a destiny and on the path to fulfill that destiny must go through an intricate series of unique experiences. Śaivites appreciate the differences. If any sameness exists, it is because of the shared understanding of the Śaiva Dharma and each one’s ability to live up to it in his own way, helped or restricted by his prārabdha karmas. In our own Śaivite organization—a worldwide family it has been called—a pilgrim can visit a mission in Canada, California, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius or India, and experience his brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles. This worldwide extended family exists because of their shared, basic Śaiva beliefs and attitudes, and their striving to live up to the culture and sādhanas in their own way, only being helped or inhibited by their prārabdha karmas.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 143: TRAINING YOUTH IN MONEY MANAGEMENT
Śiva’s followers who are parents preserve family unity and teach responsibility by not granting youth financial independence. Money is given only for approved expenses, and change is returned with accounting. Aum.

Lesson 143 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Bhakti Is the Foundation

Bhakti is a state of mind, an arrival at an inner state of consciousness. People who become angry, people who become jealous, people who are fearful, people who get confused are living in the asura loka. They are the ones who upset others and experience revenge. They have yet to come up even to the āṇava mārga and attain a little appreciation of themselves. They have yet to experience being secure in their own identity.

They have yet to “be their own person,” “find their own space.” They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities. Once firmly planted on the āṇava mārga, they begin feeling that they are God’s gift to the world and may seek out a spiritual teacher. If the teacher does teach them karma yoga and bhakti yoga, they begin to realize that there are forces in the universe, souls in the universe, who are much greater than they are now or will ever be for a long time. Once this happens, the die is cast. They are on the spiritual path to their own eventual enlightenment.

Our scriptures, the Śaiva Siddhānta scriptures, are filled with stories of the greatest jñānīs who performed karma yoga and bhakti yoga and also spoke out the highest truths of jñāna. The tales explain that during auspicious days of the month they performed intense rāja yoga tapas. This is the yoga—the arms and the head and the torso of yoga. You do not perform only one yoga without all the others. It is an integral whole.

On occasion we observe devotees pilgrimaging to a temple, prostrating so devotedly. But after leaving the temple, they slap one of their children. We know that upon entering the house they argue with their spouse and complain about their in-laws. Where is the true bhakti here? This is what bhakti is not. Unfortunately, the children who observe this hypocrisy remember it for a long, long time. A child might think, “You love Lord Gaṇeśa, Mom, but you can’t love me.” When you love a baby, you will not hit it when it cries, even if the crying disturbs you.

Wise gurus will not initiate anyone into rāja yoga techniques who does not have a sweet nature and a natural outpouring of bhakti. No one auditions for the symphony orchestra until he has mastered all that his first, second and third music teachers have taught him.

Suppose a devotee who is not virtuous is taught an intense rāja yoga meditation and practices it ardently over a long period of time until a burst of light is seen. Then the devotee, now feeling quite above others, argues with his parents, or flashes out in anger when talking to a friend. At that moment, all the good merit and benefits of the rāja yoga awakening are erased. This is because the prāṇa of higher consciousness has been dissipated by the angry words, which now burn deeper into the mind of others than they would have before. No, a kindly, gentle nature must precede rāja yoga sādhanas. That is for sure.

Bhakti is the base and the bedrock of spiritual unfoldment. A devotee who has an amiable nature, who is a good, considerate and giving person, is obviously a bhaktar. The disciplines of bhakti yoga make one a devotee, and a devotee is a very selfless type of person. These disciplines can take many forms, but the fruit of bhakti yoga, which is a loving disposition, must be attained before one can go further on the path with security. The proof is in the actions and attitudes of the individual. If he really sees Lord Śiva in and through all things, how can he not be a bhaktar? If he truly understands the law of karma, he cannot possibly resent any happening. He knows that the experiences of today were created in the past. He truly knows that today’s actions mold the experiences of a future time. Yes, bhakti yoga is the bedrock of all minor and major enlightenments. Devotees who are very kind people, devotional, obedient, intelligent, will fulfill whatever assignments their guru gives—be it a pure advaitic path, the rāja yogas or the path of karma yoga.

Lesson 142 – Dancing with Śiva

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

How Do Monism and Dualism Differ?

ŚLOKA 142
To most monists, God is immanent, temporal, becoming. He is creation itself, material cause, but not efficient cause. To most dualists, God is transcendent, eternal, Creator—efficient cause but not material cause. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
To explain creation, philosophers speak of three kinds of causes: efficient, instrumental and material. These are likened to a potter’s molding a pot from clay. The potter, who makes the process happen, is the efficient cause. The wheel he uses to spin and mold the pot is the instrumental cause, thought of as God’s power, or śakti. The clay is the material cause. Theistic dualists believe in God as Lord and Creator, but He remains ever separate from man and the world and is not the material cause. Among the notable dualists have been Kapila, Madhva, Meykandar, Chaitanya, Aristotle, Augustine, Kant and virtually all Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians. The most prevalent monism is pantheism, “all is God,” and its views do not permit of a God who is Lord and Creator. He is immanent, temporal—material cause but not efficient cause. History’s pantheists include Sankara, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Plotinus, the Stoics, Spinoza and Asvaghosha. The Vedas proclaim, “As a thousand sparks from a fire well blazing spring forth, each one like the rest, so from the Imperishable all kinds of beings come forth, my dear, and to Him return.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 142 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Mysticism In the Home

The Śaivite Hindu lifestyle is very special, very binding, strengthened by: the pañcha nitya karmas; the Monday family home evening and the daily family meetings; the knowing that each child is and has been totally a part of the family, maybe for hundreds of years; the knowing that there is karma to be worked out within the family—feelings of happiness, unhappiness and misunderstandings, all to be resolved; and the knowing that there is a purpose for them all being together and that they may all be together until mukti, liberation from the cycle of rebirth. All this and more distinguishes the Śaivite family from all other families on the planet.

It is on the astral plane, the inner world of this world, that twenty-four-hour life takes place. Beings there do not have to sleep. The positive activity of the astral world within the house or the apartment transforms it into a home, or if negative into a hotel room. To stabilize this astral activity and make sure it is positive, the home pūjā is performed by every Śaivite family daily. Scriptures are read, the yamas and niyamas are fulfilled and all difficulties, large and small, are resolved before sleep. Divine ancestral devas are coaxed to live in the home, as well as devas from nearby temples where the family frequently worships. This magic makes the home into a spiritual abode, not unlike a temple itself.

Children are always treated with great respect and awe in a true Śaivite home, for one does not always know who these young ones were in past lives. They may be incarnations of a grandmother, grandfather, aunt or uncle, dearly beloved mother, sister, brother, respected father, distant related yogī or ṛishi. Who are they? What is their destiny to fulfill in this life?

The answers lie in the voice of the universe, the mystical Śaivite astrological system laid down by the ṛishis of yore. The family’s astrologer carefully explains the nature of each child, and how it will develop, flourish and unfold year after year. This gives the parents knowledge and hope, courage and understanding, tolerance and forgiveness, and all the other fine qualities that all Śaivites want to cultivate within themselves. In raising the children and simultaneously realizing that each is a part of Śiva’s well-ordered universe and has entered the family with his or her own prārabdha karmas to be lived out, the parents are neither excited nor dismayed when the predicted characteristics begin to manifest within the child. Yes, the Śaivite home is a factory, an intricate mechanism manufacturing spiritual unfoldment for every member of the family.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 142: INSPIRING BELONGING AND DIGNITY
Śiva’s followers encourage and inspire children so they always feel they belong and are significant. If upsets occur, parents use loving, positive strategies such as time-out, logical consequences and denial of privileges. Aum.

Lesson 142 – Merging with Śiva

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

Foundations for Fruitful Yoga

Many Hindu teachers in the West teach purely advaitic meditation with no theism or religious practice, but most who have come to the West from India were raised in Hindu homes. They have within them a firm religious, cultural foundation for yoga. Many do not pass the religious culture on to their Western devotees, however. In an orthodox Hindu community they would most likely teach in a more traditional way. Advaita philosophy is appealing to the Westerner. It does not require a change in lifestyle.

The nondual, advaita-based meditations do bring the devotees out of the conscious mind, but more often than not lead them into the subconscious. It is here, within the subconscious, that unresolved problems with family and one’s own personal ego begin to appear. Without a proper religious-cultural background and traditional Hindu belief system, these problems are difficult to handle. This turmoil is certainly not the purpose of advaitic meditations, but it is a by-product. The wise guru trains his devotees in traditional Hindu culture and values and teaches the beginning yogas, as well as temple protocol, music, the arts and dance. All these should be mastered to build a proper subconscious foundation within the mind. Karma yoga and bhakti yoga are the necessary prelude to the higher philosophies and practices.

Group meditation is all right, as the group can really help the individual, as does the individual help the group. Intense meditation awakens the saṁskāras, the impressions of the past, and intensifies the prārabdha karmas, bringing them into manifestation before their time. It has a greenhouse effect.

No one should perform intensive meditation alone until he or she can serve selflessly and accept praise and blame and criticism without complaint or resentment, but with a sweet smile. Only when a devotee has reached this stage is he or she firmly on the kriyā mārga, which will lead quite naturally to the yoga mārga. Then, finally, rāja yoga and other kinds of more refined, intensive sādhanas can safely be performed. These will clean up the karmas of the past without mental pain, once the proper foundation has been set within the mind and character of the devotee.

The progressive sādhanas of karma yoga, bhakti yoga and then rāja yoga are like clearing a path of its stones. First you remove the big stones. Then you walk back along the path. You still see big stones, but they are half the size as the first ones that were removed, and you remove these as well. Then you walk back along the path and remove more stones that stand out as large, and on and on until the path is clear. It is a refinement process.

The seeker on the path has to be soft, pliable, easy to get along with, as well as firm-minded. Therefore, bhakti, which is love in action, is a necessary prerequisite to success on the San Mārga, the straight path to God, toward merger with Śiva. All kinds of yogic techniques can be practiced, but they hold no fruitful rewards for those who are not firm-minded and not strong in the essential virtues. The prideful, antagonistic and difficult-to-get-along-with people must soften their hearts. This is done through bhakti and karma yoga. These practices alone will free the devotee from the āṇava mārga—the path of building up and keeping the personal ego strong. The āṇava mārga is a difficult path to leave for the San Mārga, but the results on the San Mārga are so much more rewarding in the long run.

It is often postulated by certain Indian schools of thought that once you reach a certain stage, bhakti should be set aside because it is dual by nature. But a devotee arriving into a high state of consciousness does not give up his love for God and the Gods. His devotion does not stop; rather it becomes more intense. He does not stop eating, relating to family, friends and other devotees. These are all dual things, too. Yes, it is true that some teachers preach this doctrine. But to avoid the charyā mārga, having perhaps never been on it, and say, “I am on a greater and much higher one; I don’t have to do that” is another philosophy, not ours.

In Śaiva Siddhānta, the mārgas are progressive stages of character building. They are a foundation for good character, which is built on bhakti. Proper habit patterns created through the daily sādhanas of karma yoga and bhakti yoga lay this foundation within the mind, body and emotions. In case a devotee fails in pursuit of the higher yogas, he will always have his success on the charyā mārga to rely upon. For someone to say, “I now intellectually understand the Vedas and do not need to express love and devotion” is sad indeed. One who had really realized the truths of the Vedas would never say this.

Lesson 141 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Are the Many Hindu Philosophies?

ŚLOKA 141
From time immemorial, India’s sages and philosophers have pondered the nature of reality. Out of their speculations have blossomed hundreds of schools of thought, all evolving from the rich soil of village Hinduism. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
At one end of Hinduism’s complex spectrum is monism, advaita, which perceives a unity of God, soul and world, as in Sankara’s acosmic pantheism and Kashmīr Śaiva monism. At the other end is dualism, dvaita—exemplified by Madhva and the early Pāśupatas—which teaches two or more separate realities. In between are views describing reality as one and yet not one, dvaita-advaita, such as Ramanuja’s Vaishṇava Vedānta and Srikantha’s Śaiva Viśishṭādvaita. Hindu philosophy consists of many schools of Vedic and Āgamic thought, including the six classical darśanas—Nyāya, Vaiśeshika, Sāṇkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṁsā and Vedānta. Each theology expresses the quest for God and is influenced by the myth, mystery and cultural syncretism of contemporary, tribal, shamanic Hinduism alive in every village in every age. India also produced views, called nāstika, that reject the Vedas and are thus not part of Hinduism, such as Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Chārvāka materialistic atheism. The Vedas state, “Theologians ask: What is the cause? Is it Brahmā? Whence are we born? Whereby do we live? And on what are we established?” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.