SLOKA 2 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHERE AM I GOING? WHAT IS MY PATH?
We are all growing toward God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum.
BHASHYA
We have taken birth in a physical body to grow and evolve into our divine potential. We are inwardly already one with God. Our religion contains the knowledge of how to realize this oneness and not create unwanted experiences along the way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers, discovering the mystical meaning of the scriptures. The peerless path is commitment, study, discipline, practice and the maturing of yoga into wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer until we learn. Learning leads us to service; and selfless service is the beginning of spiritual striving. Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to meditate deeply and without distractions. Finally, meditation leads us to surrender in God. This is the straight and certain path, the San Marga, leading to Self Realization–the inmost purpose of life–and subsequently to moksha, freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely affirm, ”By austerity, goodness is obtained. From goodness, understanding is reached. From understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed from the cycle of birth and death.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 312 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
TEMPLE METAPHYSICS
Our Supreme God Siva has created the Mahadevas, the Gods, to help us, to protect us, to inspire us–such as Lord Murugan, Lord Ganesha and many others. Ganesha, above all others, is the God, the great Mahadeva, to be invoked before every act and especially worshiped and prayed to when changes occur in our lives as we move from the old established patterns into new ones. Lord Ganesha is always there to steady our minds and open the proper doors as we evolve and progress. He never, ever fails. He is always there for us when we need Him. Lord Murugan was created by God Siva’s shakti and given a vel of spiritual discernment, a lance of divine intelligence. Pray to Lord Murugan to unravel the great mysteries of the universe. Pray to Lord Murugan to make you a spiritual person. Pray to Lord Murugan to release you into the arms of Lord Siva by teaching you more about your Saivite religion.
The understanding of the reality of God and the Gods may help you to appreciate the importance of prayer and worship. Take, for instance, our hymns and chants–our Devarams and bhajanas, our japa and the many other ways we express the praises and love of God Siva that we feel in our hearts. These hymns are actually heard by the subtle beings. Devas in the Second World come, hover around and near us and rejoice in our singing. If we are deeply devoted and inspired, then even the Mahadevas of the Third World will hover above the devas in their magnificent bodies of light, showering blessings to those who are singing or chanting prayerfully.
You may not be able to see these subtle beings, but you can feel their presence, feel a holy atmosphere around you. I’m sure that many of you here have felt this, perhaps while chanting Aum Namah Sivaya. As long as somebody is saying ”Aum Namah Sivaya,” the Saivite religion exists on the planet in full force. Wake up in the morning saying ”Aum Namah Sivaya, Aum Namah Sivaya.” Go to sleep at night saying ”Aum Namah Sivaya, Aum Namah Sivaya,” and through the night you will leave your physical body and travel in the celestial spheres, where we are all together, learning, meditating and advancing ourselves spiritually.
On this Earth plane the Gods have a special home, and that is the holy temple. It is in the sanctified temple, where regular and proper puja is being performed in a pure way, that the Gods most easily manifest. You can go to a Hindu temple with your mind filled up with worries, you can be in a state of jealousy and anger, and leave the temple wondering what you were disturbed about, completely free from the mental burdens and feeling secure. So great are the divine psychiatrists, the Gods of our religion, who live in the Third World, who come from the Third World to this world where our priests perform the pujas and invoke their presence over the stone image.
Hindus do not worship stone images. Don’t let anyone ever convince you of that. It is absolutely false. Those who say such things simply do not understand the mystical workings of the temple, or they seek to ridicule our religion because they feel insecure about their own. Hindu priests invoke the Gods to come and manifest for a few minutes within the sanctum of the temple. The Deities do come in their subtle bodies of light. They hover in and above the stone image and bless the people. If you are psychic and your third eye is open, you can see the God there and have His personal darshana. Many of our ancient Saivite saints, as well as contemporary devotees, have seen such visions of the Gods. They know from personal experience that God and the Gods do exist.
When we go to the temple, we leave with our mind filled with the shakti of the Deity. We are filled and thrilled with the shakti of the temple in every nerve current of our body. When we return to our home, we light an oil lamp, and that brings the power of the temple into the home. This simple act brings the devas in the Second World right into your home, where they can bless the rest of the family who perhaps did not go to the temple. With a little bit of study of the mysticism of Saivism, we can easily understand how the unseen worlds operate in and through us.
SUTRA 312 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
CAUTION AGAINST DABBLING IN THE OCCULT
My devotees may spontaneously experience but do not practice clairvoyance, clairaudience, astral projection, lucid dreaming, trance mediumship, mind-reading, fortunetelling, magic or other distracting occult arts. Aum.
LESSON 312 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
TEMPLE AND HOME SHRINE
Through darshan power, the guru is able to communicate with his disciples. Information is passed on these rays of darshan. Unfoldment is guided on these rays of darshan. A beginning student cannot feel the darshan. That means he is not inwardly connected or ”hooked in.” He does not have that open line. That is why the satguru often puts out some sort of intellectual book or pamphlets, to hold the intellect in check until the student goes deeper within. After deep study of the guru’s works, they then begin to feel his darshan occasionally from a distance, but not all the time.
A devotee does not have to be with his guru physically all of the time to unfold as a beautiful flower on the path. But he does have to be with the satguru’s darshan all the time, for that waters, protects, guides the unfoldment superconsciously. The guru is within him–not the physical presence of his teacher, however holy, but the divine spheres of his guru’s superconscious being. The law is, though, that only his guru can bring him into this realization fully and permanently.
A temple can be prepared to emanate a certain kind of darshan as strong as, if not stronger than, a guru’s. When a Hindu temple is established, a satguru who has a strong darshan is invited to come and help the priests prepare the main altar in the temple, which initiates the flow of darshan and shakti. This is done through the use of actinodic force. Certain physical elements are magnetized with actinodic power within the shrine through the chanting of mantras and by various other means. This brings the vibratory state of the physical element that holds this new vibration to a high pitch. The darshan vibration penetrates the ethers.
In a similar way, you have magnetized your clothing without realizing it with your personal vibration. A very sensitive ”medium” could be blindfolded and by holding in his hand a piece of your clothing identify it as yours and tell something about you. That is why a temple has to be visited with the proper attitude, for a minute part of your actinodic force is left in the temple as you stand in front of the altar feeling the darshan radiating from it. The altar darshan builds up over many, many years as devotees come and go and priests chant the sacred mantras, permeating the temple with this darshan force, storing it in a great battery which takes in and emanates out.
Darshan is extremely important in spiritual unfoldment, because it catalyzes the crown chakra. It catalyzes the refined, superconscious being of man, energizing and strengthening it, in the very same way a violent or sensuous movie and the vibrations of the people sitting within the theater catalyze the lower chakras. Darshan catalyzes the crown chakra, the all-seeing-eye chakra, the universal-love chakra and the chakra of direct cognition in a similar way. That is why once a temple has been established, it should be approached and treated in a certain sensitive way to keep its darshan flowing strongly and profoundly. It builds in power through the years and stabilizes the spiritual unfoldment of all pilgrims who know of its existence, especially those who pilgrimage to the temple to be blessed by it.
If you get a little cloudy, a little foggy, and karma becomes heavy to the point you feel you cannot handle it yourself, then you can tune into the temple darshan if you do not have a satguru, for it works much the same way. Each devotee should establish a shrine in his own home which is connected in vibration with the darshan of the temple, which is again connected with the guru who helped the priests begin the flow for the temple.
The home shrine can bring through some of the vibration by your simply using the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether. This would be taught by the wise elders. This, then, is the cycle of darshan: from the satguru, the temple, the home shrine and back to you. If you want to begin a little shrine yourself, you need a stone blessed at the temple, which holds the vibration of the darshan there, nice, fresh air; and you have to reserve a space, preferably a private room. It must be neatly arranged and be clean and clear of worldly vibrations, a room set apart from all others. In it you must have the five vibrations occurring: earth, air, fire, water and ether, and it must be connected into the darshan of the temple.
