God is our dearest beloved implying transcendence of individuality and 'sayujya' union with the Divine; identification with Satchidananda. The state of living in Satchidananda is called Sivasayujya, the beyond consciousness. The transcendental source is called atattva aka Parasiva and Nirguna Brahman. In Shum atattva is imkaif--the absence of kaif. Jnana is the fruition of yoga tapas. Each pada causes an additional maturation of the soul to take place.

Tirumantirum

Sarvajnanottara Agama

Gurudeva's The Self God

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

Continuing our series on "Awareness and Omnipresence" and we're in Saiva Siddhanta, look at it. Last time we did the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Pada; this time we're doing Saiva Siddhanta Jnana Pada.

The jnana pada is also called the san marga meaning "true path." For here God is our dearest beloved implying transcendence of individuality and merger with the Divine. The patavi is sayujya "union" with God.

As well as mentioning specific goals to be achieved in meditation, the jnana component of jnana gives general guidelines for conduct. Tirumantiram gives such a guideline in verse 1474 in stating that jnana-in-jnana is to transcend the "I" and "Mine."

Sabharathnam Sivacharya elaborates on this line:

"Jnana with jnana is the discipline of being detached from the notions of I-ness and mine-ness."

This is not referring to the basic form of detachment which is to be detached from the fruits of one's actions. It is referring to being detached from identifying as a person who was born and will die. It is identifying with omnipresent, loving consciousness throughout one's daily activities -- identifying with Satchidananda.

Our Himalayan Academy lexicon gives this definition:

"Satchidananda: Existence-consciousness-bliss. A synonym for Parasakti. Lord Siva's Divine Mind and simultaneously the pure superconscious mind of each individual soul. Satchidananda is perfect love and omniscient, omnipotent consciousness, the fountainhead of all existence, yet containing and permeating all existence. Also called pure consciousness, pure form, substratum of existence and more. One of the goals of the meditator or yogi is to experience the natural state of the mind, Satchidananda, holding back the vrittis (mental activities) through yogic practices."

Paramaguru Yogaswami had a terse way of stating this:

"Sat Chit Ananda. That is one thing--Satchidananda. Sat is 'you are.' Chit is omnipresence--prakasha, light as from the sun, all-knowing. Ananda is bliss. They are three; but they are one. That is your nature."

Another statement from Yogaswami is:

"Bliss, bliss, bliss! I am here, I am there, I am everywhere!"

To make sure his devotees didn't think that this was an attainment unique to him, he would also state:

"I am everywhere. You are everywhere, but you don't believe it."

He also made seemingly outlandish statements such as:

"Now I am sitting here. I am in England also. I am also in America."

Not only was Yogaswami able to experience Satchidananda, he was able to utilize it to accomplish tasks at a distance:

"We can give initiation by thought to people in Singapore while remaining here (in Sri Lanka.)"

The state of living in Satchidananda is called Sivasayujya.

The Himalayan Academy lexicon gives this definition of Sivasayujya:

"Intimate union with Siva. Becoming one with God. The state of perpetual Siva consciousness; simultaneous perception of the inner and the outer. A permanent state of oneness with Siva, even in the midst of ordinary activities, the aftermath or plateau which comes after repeated Self Realization experiences. Rishi Tirumular says: 'Sayujya is the state of jagratita--the 'Beyond Consciousness.' Sayujya is to abide forever in upashanta, the peace that knows no understanding. Sayujya is to become Siva Himself. Sayujya is to experience the infinite power of inward bliss forever and ever. In many Hindu schools of thought the highest attainment. It dawns when the kundalini resides coiled in the sahasrara chakra."

In the yoga pada, the goal is to sustain awareness aware only of itself for longer and longer periods. In the jnana pada, that practice is taken one step further in realizing the transcendental source of awareness. In the terminology of the tattva system the transcendental source is called atattva. Other names for it are Parasiva and Nirguna Brahman. In the Shum-Tyeif language realizing atattva is called imkaif--the absence of kaif.

The Himalayan Academy lexicon definition:

"Atattva: non-category: beyond existence. Atattva, the negation of tattva, is used to describe the indescribable Reality--the Absolute, Parasiva, the Self God--which transcends all 36 categories (tattvas) of manifestation. It is beyond time, form and space. And yet, in a mystery known only to the knower--the enlightened mystic--Parasakti-nada, the first tattva, ever comes out of Parasiva. If it were not for Parasiva, nothing could be. Parasiva does not exist to the outer dimensions of cosmic consciousness, but without it, the mind itself would not exist."

Gurudeva's original description of atattva was in his talk "The Self God" given in 1959 at his San Francisco center:

"If you visualize above you nothing; below you nothing; to the right of you nothing; to the left of you nothing; in front of you nothing; in back of you nothing; and dissolve yourself into that nothingness, that would be the best way you could explain the realization of the Self. And yet that nothingness would not be the absence of something, like the nothingness inside an empty box, which would be like a void. That nothingness is the fullness of everything; the power, the sustaining power, of the existence of what appears to be everything."

Each pada causes an additional maturation of the soul to take place.

Gurudeva gives this description for the maturation that takes place in the jnana pada:

"Jnana is divine wisdom emanating from an enlightened being, a soul in its maturity, immersed in Sivaness, the blessed realization of God, while living out earthly karma. Jnana is the fruition of yoga tapas.

"Each time he enters that unspeakable nirvikalpa samadhi, he returns to consciousness more and more the knower. Unknown to himself, he has become the temple of his religion, capable of imparting knowledge merely by the power of his silent presence. He has become the source of light and darshan which radiate out through the nadis and pranas of his being. This great soul is found in his reveries sweeping the temple floor, polishing brass lamps, weaving fragrant garlands, expounding smriti and being the humble Sivanadiyar, slave to the servants of the Lord, as he lives out the final strands of karma of this last birth."

And the last part here is three verses from the Sarvajnanottara Agama which provide a clear description of the soul mature in the jnana pada:

"In this way, the seeker who is fully qualified to practice such supreme kind of meditation as instructed by the Guru well versed in this Sarvajnanottara Agama, becomes completely disentangled from all the bonds, evolves into all-knower and becomes all-pervasive by the constant practice of non-dual meditation. Having set aside all those scriptures which contradict the truths enshrined in this Agama and having clearly understood the pure nature of the self as conceived in this Agama, the knower of this Agama, being refined and firmly resolved, should practice this non-dual meditation for the attainment of meditative union with the Supreme Self. Having realized with all certitude that there is not even a single discipline here superior to this yoga of non-dual meditation and having arrested... Having realized with all certitude that there is not even a single discipline here superior to this yoga of non-dual meditation and having arrested all of his mental modifications and fluctuations, he should practice this supreme science of yoga. Upon such constant practice, he reaches a bodiless state and gets established constantly in that state. He reaches all directions and places simultaneously by virtue of his bodiless and pervasive nature; he becomes the Liberated Self. He becomes the possessor of all the exalted qualities of Lord Siva who presents Himself simultaneously within and outside the universe replete with movable and immovable existents."

So says Sarvajnanottara Agama.

Thank you very much. Wonderful day.