SLOKA 29 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHY ARE WE NOT OMNISCIENT LIKE SIVA?
The three bonds of anava, karma and maya veil our sight. This is Siva’s purposeful limiting of awareness which allows us to evolve. In the superconscious depths of our soul, we share God Siva’s all-knowingness. Aum.
BHASHYA
Just as children are kept from knowing all about adult life until they have matured into understanding, so too is the soul’s knowledge limited. We learn what we need to know, and we understand what we have experienced. Only this narrowing of our awareness, coupled with a sense of individualized ego, allows us to look upon the world and our part in it from a practical, human point of view. Pasha is the soul’s triple bondage: maya, karma and anava. Without the world of maya, the soul could not evolve through experience. Karma is the law of cause and effect, action and reaction governing maya. Anava is the individuating veil of duality, source of ignorance and finitude. Maya is the classroom, karma the teacher, and anava the student’s ignorance. The three bonds, or malas, are given by Lord Siva to help and protect us as we unfold. Yet, God Siva’s all-knowingness may be experienced for brief periods by the meditator who turns within to his own essence. The Tirumantiram explains, ”When the soul attains Self-knowledge, then it becomes one with Siva. The malas perish, birth’s cycle ends and the lustrous light of wisdom dawns.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 29 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
SHAUCHA: PURITY
Purity, shaucha, number ten of the yamas, is the outcome of restraining ourselves in all the other nine. Purity is the natural heritage of men and women disciplined in mind and body, who think before they speak, speaking only that which is true, kind, helpful and necessary. People whose thoughts are pure–and this means being in line with the yamas and niyamas–and whose bodies are free from incompatible alien obstructions, are naturally happy, content and ready to perform japa. Japa yoga lifts the spiritual energies and annihilates pride and arrogance by awakening within the superconscious areas of the mind an extraterrestrial intelligence, far surpassing the ordinary intellect one would encounter in the schools and universities of the present day. To be pure in mind means to have a bright, luminous aura filled with the pastel hues of the primary and secondary colors under every circumstance and life situation. Those who practice this restraint have realized that thoughts create and manifest into situations, actual physical happenings. Therefore, they are careful what they think and to whom they direct their thoughts.
A clean personal environment, wearing clean clothes, bathing often, keeping the room spotless where you meditate, breathing clean air, letting fresh air pass through your house, is all very important in the fulfillment of purity. Shaucha also includes partaking of clean food, which ideally is freshly picked food, cooked within minutes of the picking. There are creative forces, preservation forces and forces of dissolution. The preservation force is in the continued growing of a fruit or a leafy vegetable. It reaches its normal size and if not picked remains on the plant and is preserved by the life of that plant. As soon as it is picked, the force of dissolution, mumia, sets in. Therefore, the food should be cooked and eaten as soon after picking as possible, before the mumia force gets strong. Mumia, as it causes the breakdown of the cells, is an impure force. When we constantly eat food that is on the breakdown, the body is sluggish, the mind is sluggish and the tongue is loose, and we say things we don’t mean. Many unhappy, depressed situations result from people eating a predominance of frozen foods, processed foods, canned foods, convenience foods, which are all in the process of mumia.
Clean clothing is very important. One feels invigorated and happy wearing clean clothing. Even hanging clothing out in the sunlight for five minutes a day cleanses and refreshes it. An incredible amount of body waste is eliminated through the skin and absorbed by the clothing we wear. It is commonly thought that clothing does not need to be cleaned unless it has been dirtied or soiled with mud, dirt or stains. Very little concern is given to the body odors and wastes that are exuded through the pores, then caught and held by the fabric. Small wonder it’s so refreshing to put on clean clothing. The sun and fresh air can eliminate much of the body waste and freshen up any garment.
SUTRA 29 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
KEEPING CLEAN SURROUNDINGS
Lovers of Siva keep their home and work environment clean and uncluttered to maintain a spiritual vibration and not attract negative forces. They seek fresh air and sunshine and surround themselves with beauty. Aum.
LESSON 29 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
AWARENESS, A BALL OF LIGHT
The average person who is not a mystic lives two-thirds in the external area of the mind and one-third within himself. The within of himself can be and sometimes is very foreboding. He doesn’t understand it. He is a little afraid of it, and prefers to involve himself with external things. Possibly he’s had some inner experiences, some emotional unhappinesses, and he shuns anything that is inner. The mystic lives, and is taught to live, two-thirds within himself and only one-third in the external. In learning how to do this, the mystic is taught to become consciously conscious, or aware that he is aware. He learns to separate awareness from that which he is aware of. The person who is not a mystic, living two-thirds in the external mind, he says, ”I am happy,” meaning, ”I am aware of a state of mind called happiness, and I am in that state, so that is me.” Or, ”I am unhappy. Unhappiness is me.” The mystic living two-thirds within says to himself, ”I am flowing through the area of the mind that’s always unhappy.” He doesn’t change; he is a pure state of awareness.
Visualize a little ball of light. We’ll call that man’s individual awareness, and that light is shining right out from his eyes, and this little ball of light is going through the mind. It’s going through the area of the mind that’s always unhappy. It’s going through the area of the mind that’s always dreaming, the area of the mind that’s delightfully happy, the area of the mind that’s in absolute bliss, the area of the mind that’s absolutely in jealousy all the time, the area that’s in fear all the time–many people live in this area of the mind; it’s quite crowded with lots of balls of light there. This ball of light flows through the area of the mind that’s in resentment. It’s like a churning ocean. It’s a delightful place to be in, especially if you’re a little ball. You get bounced all around. Then there’s the area of the mind that is completely peaceful and has always been peaceful. No mood or emotion has ever been in it to ruffle it, because that’s the peaceful area of the mind. The one who meditates seeks out this area to become aware in.
Man’s individual awareness is just like this little ball of light, and it’s like a camera. It photographs. It registers. It understands. It’s pure intelligence. Man knows where he is in the mind, but the first step in awakening on the path of enlightenment is to separate awareness from that which it is aware of.
