SLOKA 116 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE HINDU MONASTIC TRADITION?
In the Hindu tradition there have always existed among men a few for whom the world held no attraction and karmas were on the wane. Some are solitary mendicants. Others reside with their brothers in monasteries. Aum.
BHASHYA
Certain men are by nature inclined toward realization of the Self, and disinclined toward desires of family, wealth and property. Some among them are sadhus dressed in white. They are anchorites living in the seclusion of distant caves and remote forests or wandering as homeless mendicants, itinerant pilgrims to the holy sanctuaries of Hinduism. Others dwell as cenobites assembled with fellow monastics, often in the ashrama, aadheenam or matha of their satguru. These monks, both anchorite and cenobite, may live with no formal vows or take certain simple vows. When initiated into the order of sannyasa, they don the saffron robes and bind themselves to a universal body of Hindu renunciates whose existence has never ceased. Scriptural doctrine states that the two paths, householder and renunciate, are distinct in their dharmas and attainments, affirming that true renunciation may not be achieved by those in the world even by virtue of a genuine attitude of detachment. The holy Vedas declare, ”The man who has found Him becomes a silent monk. Desiring Him alone as their world, ascetics leave their homes and wander about.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 271 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
AVENUES OF TRANSFORMATION
What is it that causes someone who was previously violent to become nonviolent? It is a matter of realizing what life is really all about and how harming others violates our own inner being. When an injurious act is committed, it makes a mark deep within the mind of the violator. Those individuals who become penitent bring higher energies into themselves, and these energies slowly heal this mark. But there is more to it than this. Certain kinds of spiritual therapy must go along with the penitent mood for a total healing to occur, which would be absolution. This therapy is finding a way to pay back society for the harm caused in that act of violence. It may be working as a nurse’s aid or as a volunteer to help in the healing of people who have been victimized by the violent acts of others. The modern laws of community service are good, but for a total healing and change of heart, the service to the community should be directly related to the actual crime the person committed. Finally, over a long period of time, if the matter is totally resolved in the mind of the person and those who know him, then he would be as much a nonviolent person as he was previously a violent person.
Personal revelations or realizations can also bring about a transformation. One example that people are familiar with is the experience of astronauts who have orbited Earth. From their cosmic perspective they saw no borders, no divisions, only a one small planet, and this has tended to make them peacemakers. Their journey in space has been called ”the overview effect” and would indeed be a revelation of higher consciousness. In deep states of consciousness such visions also happen and do change peoples’ lives. But contemplative experiences come, for the most part, to contemplative people. And if we are referring to meditation and yogic practices here, they should not be performed by angry people, jealous people, confused people, lest the uplifted energies plummet and intensify the anger and other aspects of the lower nature. The better way would be for the angry, violent person to become religious and consistently do small religious acts, for these despicables will get their solace through remorse, repentance, reconciliation and finally absolution. Even the Gods will not, unless invoked, interfere and penetrate the sunken depths in which they live, in the chakras below the muladhara, in the lower part of the body, down to the feet, chakras which spin counterclockwise.
Many people do have life-transforming mystical experiences, such as a soldier on a battlefield or someone who nearly dies. These experiences can also change our view of the universe. But transforming experiences generally come to really nice people, people endowed with love and trust. Maybe they are not too intelligent and get drawn into situations where they are overtaken by a fit of temper. But their remorse is immediate. A contrite or penitent reaction to hurting others is the sign of a higher-consciousness person. Maybe the karma the person caused is heavy, but his soul goes to work on the situation, and the healing process starts within his mind. Possibly the intensity of the violent mishap, which we might say is an uncontrolled mishap, itself creates a deep remorse which catalyzes the big awakening into higher consciousness.
We Hindus would look at that as a grace from the guru or a boon from the Gods, coming unbidden in the form of an inner revelation, bringing with it more permanent contact with inner-plane beings. This inner contact with greater beings, and the revelation they bestow, shortens the time sequence of the act and the absolution, which in some cases might take years, if someone was penitent, seeking atonement and absolution.
SUTRA 271 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
REACHING OUT TO SAIVITE SOULS
My ardent devotees relentlessly search for Saivite souls, finding them, drawing them to Siva and their satguru and, when necessary, helping them convert to Saivism from the faiths or philosophies they have rejected. Aum.
LESSON 271 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THOSE FOLLOWING NEITHER PATH
It is necessary for spiritual unfoldment on the path to enlightenment to live among others, be loyal, faithful, not promiscuous, to settle down and establish a cooperative routine of community life. Living among others–even having roommates who think, believe and have adopted the same spiritual, religious disciplines–grants the burden of good conduct, prompt resolution of problems and an abidance of sharing, giving and caring during the trials and happinesses that naturally arise in living with others.
Those who are self-indulgent have no inclination to share companionship in a family, an ashram or spiritual community, as getting along with others is burdensome, bothersome, impossible to even imagine. Their subconscious is so full of dross that their aloneness relieves it somehow–through self-indulgence on the Internet, sweets, preferential foods and avoidance of confrontations of any kind which might or would conjure up anger, distance and dispel the little I-ness into I-dentity within a group where kukarmas and sukarmas are shared as their life on the spiritual path moves upward and upward and upward.
All gurus should disallow and throw such seekers out of their ashrams, lest they become accomplished detractors and herald an Internet site against them. Their only purpose is to infiltrate, dilute and destroy–not always consciously, perhaps, but subconsciously–and to bring everything down to their own level. The borderline conflicts that they create, where no one is exactly right and no one is exactly wrong, hold back the spiritual work, the mission of the lineage, temporarily, perhaps only for a moment, an hour or a day. Their mission of preaching indecision to those who have decided is fulfilled. When they tire of their new surroundings and are ready to move on, they infiltrate another group, endeavoring to take along with them those they have converted to their ways. All satgurus, gurus, swamis, heads of Hindu orders and those of other faiths, too, have recognized this problem and are alerted to potential infiltration, dilution and disruption of their group by those who do not belong because they will not follow the accepted patterns and instead endeavor to adjust them, dilute them into the nothingness which they would find inside themselves if they were even to spend a moment or two alone.
Other faiths are a little better disciplined in demanding followers to be totally converted to their particular denomination and not admitting into their sanctuaries, monasteries and administrative bodies those who have not taken up a strong commitment. It is here the trouble lies for Hindu-based organizations, bringing in members of Abrahamic religions, faiths which are, by their own proclamations, dedicated to the destruction of Hinduism. Truly devout born members of Hinduism would never turn against the cause they support, nor would those who join the faith by valid adoption or conversion–for to make their unwavering commitment, they made sacrifices, be it a family inheritance or alienation from their community, such as Jews, Christians and Muslims have faced who left their fold and converted to the Sanatana Dharma. The voice here is commitment to an established religion and fully converting to it by severing from any and all prior affiliations. Also, there should be zero tolerance for inharmonous conditions. So many gurus live surrounded by conflicts amongst followers as a way of life. No wonder they pass on before their time.
It has always been my advice to gurus and swamis to impose aloneness as a prayashchitta, penance, on dissidents who have infiltrated their core. In their aloneness, they would experience the torment of their own misdeeds, and their departure would be imminent, or in their aloneness their soul might shine forth and deliver a message to their errant mind–perhaps preprogrammed by others who sent them to break up the group–and emancipate them from the destructive and disruptive path they are on. Those within the ashram pursuing a higher path, training for true renunciation, are then freed from the detractors. The detractors are also freed to find good spouses and raise good families within the confines of their faith. Every group has such misfits within it from time to time. Wise gurus and swamis will ferret them out and send them on their way before they make too many bad karmas that will sorely impact their next birth.
Many devotees ask about realization amidst family life, not renouncing the world, but just changing your attitude about life. ”I mentally renounce the world and therefore I am a sannyasin.” Realization in family life is in the anahata and vishuddha chakras, which then stimulates the chakras above into psychic abilities of various kinds: astral projection, foreseeing the future, reincarnation-readings of past lives and more. These realizations are stabilizing to the families, especially to the elders of the extended family when three generations live in one house. However, the family man would not want to seek for timeless, formless, causeless Parasiva, because this would be a foundation, a starting point, for detaching from the family, and he would never look back. To renounce the world may not be possible, but if he were to continue seeking for total transformation, the world would renounce him. The family would find their newly acquired mendicant incompatible with their desires and goals. The wife would find her spouse more interested in himself than her, with difficulties in maintaining income, continuity of family duties, distaste for work in the world, and the desire to retire into mountain caves, or at least a peaceful forest. All these thoughts, desires and feelings manifest in deserting family duties, or grihastha dharma, and its penalty is bad merit and breaking the vows that fulfill that dharma. So, you can see the dilemma that entangles stepping over the fiery line without the proper preparation, qualifications and initiations. It is the sannyasa initiation that gives permission, the starting point for the experience of Parasiva and the aftermath of transformation. This is what the orange robes signify in orders that set for themselves this ideal as their true goal.
