Lesson 17. THE PATH OF UNFOLDMENT.

SLOKA 17 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS GOD SIVA’S UNMANIFEST REALITY?
Parasiva is God Siva’s Unmanifest Reality or Absolute Being, distinguished from His other two perfections, which are manifest and of the nature of form. Parasiva is the fullness of everything, the absence of nothing. Aum.

BHASHYA
Parasiva, the Self God, must be realized to be known, does not exist, yet seems to exist; yet existence itself and all states of mind, being and experiential patterns could not exist but for this ultimate reality of God. Such is the great mystery that yogis, rishis, saints and sages have realized through the ages. To discover Parasiva, the yogi penetrates deep into contemplation. As thoughts arise in his mind, mental concepts of the world or of the God he seeks, he silently repeats, ”Neti, neti–it is not this; it is not that.” His quieted consciousness expands into Satchidananda. He is everywhere, permeating all form in this blissful state. He remembers his goal, which lies beyond bliss, and holds firmly to ”Neti, neti–this is not that for which I seek.” Through pranayama, through mantra, through tantra, wielding an indomitable will, the last forces of form, time and space subside, as the yogi, deep in nirvikalpa samadhi, merges into Parasiva. The Vedas explain, ”Self-resplendent, formless, unoriginated and pure, that all-pervading being is both within and without. He transcends even the transcendent, unmanifest, causal state of the universe.” Aum Namah Sivaya.

LESSON 17 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
BRAHMACHARYA: SEXUAL PURITY

Brahmacharya, sexual purity, is a very important restraint among the ancient Saivite ethical principles known as yamas and niyamas, because it sets the pattern for one’s entire life. Following this principle, the vital energies are used before marriage in study rather than in sexual fantasy, e-pornography, masturbation, necking, petting or sexual intercourse. After marriage, the vital energies are concentrated on business, livelihood, fulfilling one’s duties, serving the community, improving oneself and one’s family, and performing sadhana. For those who do not believe in God, Gods, guru or the path to enlightenment, this is a difficult restraint to fulfill, and such people tend to be promiscuous when single and therefore unfaithful in marriage.

The rewards for maintaining this restraint are many. Those who practice brahmacharya before marriage and apply its principles throughout married life are free from encumbrances–mentally, emotionally and physically. They get a good start on life, have long-lasting, mature family relationships, and their children are emotionally sound, mentally firm and physically strong.

Those who are promiscuous and unreligious are susceptible to impulses of anger, have undefined fears, experience jealousy and the other instinctive emotions. The doors of the higher world are open to them, but the doors of the lower world are also open. Even the virgin brahmachari who believes firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment and has a strict family must be watched and carefully guided to maintain his brahmacharya. Without this careful attention, the virginity may easily be lost.

Brahmacharya for the monastic means complete sexual abstinence and is, of course, an understood requirement to maintain this position in life. This applies as well to any single individual who has taken the celibacy vow, known as brahmacharya vrata. If brahmacharya is compromised by the brahmachari, he must face the consequences and reaffirm his original intent. Having lost faith in himself because of breaking his vrata, his self-confidence must be rebuilt.

It should be perfectly clear that it is totally unacceptable for men or women who have taken up the celibate monastic life to live a double standard and surround themselves with those of the opposite sex–be they fellow ashramites, personal aides, secretaries or close devotees–or with their former family. Nowadays there are pseudo-sannyasins who are married and call themselves swamis, but, if pressed, they might admit that they are simply yoga teachers dressed in orange robes, bearing the title ”swami” to attract the attention of the uninformed public for commercial reasons.

There is great power in the practice of brahmacharya, literally ”Godly conduct.” Containing the sacred fluids within the body builds up a bank account through the years that makes the realization of God on the path to enlightenment a reality within the life of the individual who is single. When brahmacharya is broken through sexual intercourse, this power goes away. It just goes away.
SUTRA 17 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
BEINGS OF JOY AND COMPASSION
Those who live with Siva are honorable, cheerful, modest and full of courtesy. Having removed the darkness of anger, fear, jealousy and contempt for others, their faces radiate the kindly compassion of their soul. Aum.

LESSON 17 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THE PATH OF UNFOLDMENT

Meditate on man being like a lotus flower. He comes through the mud, his instinctive mind, and he’s aware of the things of the instinctive mind: hate and greed and love and passion, and jealousy and sorrow, and happiness and joy and excitement. He comes into the intellectual mind. He becomes aware of ancient history and predictions about the future, politics, all sorts of systems, all sorts of organizations, institutions and opinions of other people. And this consumes and overshadows the soul, life after life after life, just as the desires and cravings of the instinctive mind overshadow the soul life after life after life after life. But all this time, the body of the soul is growing up. It’s getting stronger. It’s absorbing the reactions of each lifetime, drawing more energies from the central source of energy to build and absorb these reactions; and this is food for the soul. Then, finally, awareness comes into its bud state. It says, ”Here I am, a bud, and I’m out of the mud, and I’m out of the water.” We’ll look at the mud as being the instinct, we’ll look at the water as being the intellect and we’ll look at the air as superconsciousness. ”Now I want to unfold, and be of service to mankind and everyone else who is unfolding, I see them all down in the mud, caught in the mud like I was at one time. I want to help them out of the mud. Then I see hundreds of people caught in the intellect. They’re all in the water. They think they’re a stem, but I know I’m a bud.” Then begins the process on the path of enlightenment for this bud unfolding and awareness expanding. First it becomes aware of the inner processes of the body and how breath controls thought. Then it becomes aware of the inner processes of the mind, how light moves through the body, how the mind of light begins to work, and it goes on unfolding and unfolding and unfolding through the ages.

If we look at the past as a catalog and the future as a planning book, and now as the only reality of time, we have dodged the past and we have dodged the future, because we have brought them both into the eternity of the moment. The mystic on the path of unfoldment doesn’t allow his awareness to go into the past and flow through all the yesterdays and relive in his mind what formerly happened to him physically. The mystic doesn’t go into the future and live emotionally experiences that may or may not happen to him. The mystic remains in the present, right now–using the catalog of the experiences of the past and a planning book for his future. This makes him wise, for intellect when it is correctly used at the right time is wisdom.

Holding the eternity of the moment feeling and the feeling of the being within that has never changed, finally you don’t even say it’s a being within. That in itself is duality. You just identify it as you, an immortal being who’s lived for thousands of years, which never changes except it unfolds more, and it lives now. The past and the future are only intellectual concepts that we live with and have been developed by man himself in that particular area of the mind.

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