"Adjust yourself to the realization that you are a divine being, a self-effulgent, radiant being of light."

Jyoti is the Sanskrit word for inner light. To bestow on devotees terms that were more specific, Gurudeva developed the Shum Language of Meditation. In Shum the word for the light that lights up the mind is balikana. During Shum meditation there is an indrawing of forces to realize balikana, a moon-like glow, leading to iftye a deeper kind of inner light which, in turn, leads to milinaka, a sustained iftye which doesn't go away and can be sustained after we've finished our meditation.

Path to Siva, Lesson 47

Twelve Shum Meditations

Unedited Transcript:

This morning we're continuing on Path to Siva, Lesson 47. We didn't finish it last time.

"Meditate on a Subject of Your Choice.

"Your Meditation: With the body relaxed and the mind quieted, you are ready to focus on the day's meditation. It could be a problem you are working on, a decision you want to ponder or something that interests you. But this isn't a time to think, that is, to logically move from one thought to another. Instead, you want to concentrate in a general way on the issue, and wait for some new understanding to occur. So instead of thinking, keep the mind quiet and wait for the next insight, which will come when your mind is open. In this way, you can tap into your superconscious mind. "

Next section:

"Or Meditate on Five Forms of Siva Consciousness

"Sivachaitanya Panchatantra: When you are really good at meditating, you can try this advanced one. The discipline is to concentrate on five forms of Siva consciousness, one after another:

"Vital Breath: prana. Concentrate only on your in-breath and out-breath. Try to experience them as Siva's will within your body, then as the pulse of the universe, divine will in action.

"All-Pervasive Energy: shakti. Become conscious of the flow of life within your body. Try to see this same universal energy within every living thing.

"Manifest Sacred Form: darshana. Hold in your mind a sacred form, such as Nataraja, Sivalinga or your satguru, and try to experience that form as Siva Himself.

"Inner Light: jyoti. Look within your mind as if you were looking at an inner TV screen. Remove the images and thoughts and you are left only with light. Concentrate on that light.

"Sacred Sound: nada. Listen to the constant high-pitched ee sounding in your head, like a humming swarm of bees. Usually this can be heard first in one ear, then the other. Try to balance the sounds until the ee sound is centered in the head."

And the last section:

"Coming Out of Meditation

"Reverse the Seven Steps: When you are finished meditating, reverse the steps you took to go within. Feel the spine, then the energy of the spine returning out to the parts of the body. Feel the nerves of the body, then your breath. Finally, become aware of the body's warmth, then your posture. Open your eyes, chant 'AUM' three times and your meditation is complete. Every time we go within, our life is enriched. Gurudeva said the only bad meditation is the one you did not do."

This is from the first mamsane. Anyone doesn't recall what the mamsani are they're, they're very simple Shum murals. There's twelve of them, one for each month. And just to make sure we didn't forget them, Gurudeva had them carved into the pillars of Iraivan Temple. So, guaranteed to last a thousand years.

First one's on inner light. This is Gurudeva's description of the process.

"Our first mamsani tells us to not only meditate upon it during vigil after our worship and before sleep but all through the day. Yes! We must constantly be looking within ourselves all month during our waking hours. Throughout each day, try to see the light within the mind. Have you ever stopped to think that the light that lights up your thoughts, even when you are in a darkened room, is the light of the mind? That is true. Try taking the image out of the mind and you will see that only light is left. Just before you go to sleep each night, while you are thinking and visualizing the happenings of the just-completed day, the images that you are seeing are set apart, distinguished by light, shadows and color. This is the light of the mind that you are seeing. But this light is taken for granted. We do not often think about it. We are too involved in the pictures that we are making. The practice to be mastered this month is to consciously remove the pictures and only see balikana, the light of the mind. Even in our dreams, there is light which lights up the colors of the scenes that pass before us. Truly, each and every one of us is a divine being of light. Yes! You are a divine being of light, and this you will truly realize by becoming aware of this light within you. Adjust yourself to the realization that you are a divine being, a self-effulgent, radiant being of light."

One of the advantages of the Shum language is that it's very specific. In our Path to Siva reading it rendered inner light in Sanskrit as jyoti. If I were to ask a hundred people what exactly is jyoti I'd probably get a hundred different descriptions, right? Because it's just a very general term. It doesn't have a specific meaning and that was one of the reasons Gurudeva developed the Shum Language was to have terms that were more specific. And the light that we're talking about, this light of the mind that lights up the images, the Shum word is balikana.

And this is the definition of balikana:

"Seeing light by looking out upon and through the fourth dimension of the mind; visualize a tree, then remove the tree; the light that remains is balikana; it is the moon-like glow that remains where the mental pictures used to be; this light is the light of the mind, and is generally not taken for inner light as such, but accepted as a natural function of the mind; this light does not come from the fifth dimension, but is a different kind of light; it is the light of the conscious mind that lights the thoughts; even if one has not yet had his first fifth-dimensional inner light (iftye) experience, balikana can be isolated and enjoyed."

Then we have a deeper kind of inner light. It's called iftye:

"Clear brilliant inner light. Iftye is experienced in the fields of the fifth and sixth dimension. In the fifth dimension it is experienced as a brilliant inner light within the head, bright and clear. In the sixth dimension that light grows in every cell of the body, through the torso, the hands, legs and feet. One can move into iftye through kalibasa once you have located balikana, this light, moonlike glow within the head. It is easy to enter the state of iftye provided that the area of nimrehnimling (which is the images) has been moved out of entirely."

This points out another aspect of the Shum Language. The first aspect was it gives precise names for what's going on inside of us. We just don't have jyoti, it's a general term. We have balikana and iftye. And distinct definitions of each.

Then the second point is we can move, we can first attain balikana and then from balikana we can move into iftye. So it's giving us a way to experience iftye. It's not saying: Okay sit down and experience iftye. It's saying: Sit down, experience balikana and then from balikana move into iftye. Very, step one leads to step two. You don't try for step two first.

So Gurudeva explains this:

"Balikana is the major fourth dimensional portrait of the sub-second world in this mambashum."

So he's talking about one of the fifty-two mambashums.

"And it is from the state of balikana that today's meditation begins. Only with the transmuted energies resting firmly in the rehmtyenali through the nadis showed on a pranayama, (that's this one) which is done before the meditation begins can we hope to even begin a meditation and experience the ultimate of the balikana mambashum which is of course, iftye, the clear white light.

So we don't move during Shum meditation, therefore, when you're doing this exercise of cross breathing you have to do it before the meditation cause we don't move once we start.

"The power of nikashum, once mastered, leads to a mental attitude where you deliberately cause yourself to feel that you are going to be successful at the time of your meditation in-drawing the force from alikaiishum, rehnamtyevum, from rehnamtyevum into bivumbika, from bivumbika into rehmtyenali, from rehmtyenali into kalingkasim at which time milinaka and iftye are experienced. This deliver command and feeling that you can command as you sit locked in shumnam begins the experience of nikashum. Of course, I've previously described the nadi sowed on a pranayama which is the process through which nikashum can be fully accomplished. It is after balikana has turned into it's next clarity iftye, the clear white light of the third world, the sixth dimension of the the mind, that milinaka can persist with the quality of ease which allows steadiness of awareness strong enough and long enough so the next area in the mambashum can be discovered."

That's the three processes then there's balikana: The moon-like glow that remains when we take away the images. Leads to iftye which experienced in the fifth dimension is in the head and when experienced in sixth dimension is throughout the body. Which leads to milinaka which isn't defined here but milinaka means a sustained iftye, doesn't go away. Just cause we've finished our meditation it doesn't go away. We're able to sustain it.

Those are three steps.

And, thank you very much.