SLOKA 8 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE MAGIC AND POWER OF SHAKTISM?
Shaktism reveres the Supreme as the Divine Mother, Shakti or Devi, in Her many forms, both gentle and fierce. Shaktas use mantra, tantra, yantra, yoga and puja to invoke cosmic forces and awaken the kundalini power. Aum.
BHASHYA
While worship of the Divine Mother extends beyond the pale of history, Shakta Hinduism arose as an organized sect in India around the fifth century. Today it has four expressions–devotional, folk-shamanic, yogic and universalist–all invoking the fierce power of Kali or Durga, or the benign grace of Parvati or Ambika. Shakta devotionalists use puja rites, especially to the Shri Chakra yantra, to establish intimacy with the Goddess. Shamanic Shaktism employs magic, trance mediumship, firewalking and animal sacrifice for healing, fertility, prophecy and power. Shakta yogis seek to awaken the sleeping Goddess Kundalini and unite her with Siva in the sahasrara chakra. Shakta universalists follow the reformed Vedantic tradition exemplified by Shri Ramakrishna. ”Left-hand” tantric rites transcend traditional ethical codes. Shaktism is chiefly advaitic, defining the soul’s destiny as complete identity with the Unmanifest, Siva. Central scriptures are the Vedas, Shakta Agamas and Puranas. The Devi Gita extols, ”We bow down to the universal soul of all. Above and below and in all four directions, Mother of the universe, we bow.” Aum Chandikayai Namah.
LESSON 318 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
HOW PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED
The Gods, their devas and your own guardian devas are ever ready to respond to requests for help and guidance. You may well ask, ”How are prayers answered?” It is well known that religious people have guardian devas, or angels, helping them through their Earthly experience. Established families who have kept the continuity of togetherness generation after generation court the same devonic beings century after century in their home shrines. In our technological age it is difficult to maintain this kind of togetherness or to attend properly to the home shrine. Therefore, other means of communication with the devonic guardians must be used.
Those who worship in Siva temples slowly gain acceptance into the devonic realms of the Gods, and one or two of the uncountable numbers of devonic intelligences often return with the devotee to his home. When this happens, the home immediately has within it the feeling of fullness. It is these guardian devas who are the first to receive the devotee’s written prayers when they are transferred to the Devaloka through the sacred fire. They read each prayer carefully. If they cannot immediately respond, the prayer is given to a waiting dispatcher along with some personal advice about the individual or the family from their guardian deva. The dispatcher carries the prayer, along with the guardian deva’s advice, to the group of devonic helpers who can best fulfill the request.
There are many groups of devas who sit in sangam circles, communicating with one another through thought transference. When they receive a prayer, read and understand it, through the power of consensus their group mind begins the process of fulfillment. After the prayer has been read and understood by each one present, it enters their inner minds. When this happens, the solution, karmically proper, is revealed to all. One or several of the devas is then seen to vanish from the group, on their way through inner space to execute the request. Because Earth time and astral time are different, the entire process takes about three Earth days from the time the prayer is offered until the time that it is fulfilled.
These sangams of devas configure themselves in circles of six, twelve, twenty-four and thirty-six. They dispatch many kinds of requests, some business, some health, some personal, some creative, some marital, some mental and others emotional. There is a sangam circle of devas for literally every department of life. These sangams service the needs of devotees in many temples and shrines in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, India, Africa, North America, Europe and other areas of our planet.
Before the Gods and devas can respond to your request, they must examine a time line extending ninety-nine years into the past and ninety-nine years into the future. Then they divide the possible decisions into nine groups to choose their course of helpfulness to your karmic pattern. Their duty is not to alter time or experience or to manipulate karmas, but to assist you in going through your natural karmas and to mitigate, nullify and soften the effects of karmas of the past that touch you in the present, whether they be good, mixed or bad. Therefore, it is important to delineate your state of mind as you write your prayer.
The devas surrounding all Natha temples and shrines respond best to written requests. The Gods and devas do not normally read your thoughts–only the thoughts directed to them–and they never interfere in the natural karmas of individuals who come into these places of worship. Hindus often say, ”God knows my need. He will fulfill it.” This is generally true for those who have sufficient mental prowess and intensity of thought, the inner fire burning in the manipura chakra, in the heart chakra and in the head. But in our day-to-day states of consciousness, it is most fruitful to clearly and precisely let our thoughts be known through the written word. This is the great boon the Natha temples have to offer–the direct, intricately concise, two-way communication between this and the higher inner world.
SUTRA 318 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
HOLDING FAST TO THE TRUEST TREASURES
Siva’s monastics never fail to take refuge in their God, their guru and their Great Oath. This is the highest path they have chosen, the culmination of numberless lives, perhaps the last in the cycle of reincarnation. Aum.
LESSON 318 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
DEVOTION AND GURU GUIDANCE
Of course, our most cherished theology is monistic Saiva Siddhanta, the advaitic teachings inherited from our guru parampara who outlined the course we are on. This teaches us that God and man are ultimately one. This teaches us that our Supreme God, Siva, is the creator of the universe, and He is also the creation. He is not different from it.
We must go to the temple and worship, with all our heart, God in form before our karmas are cleared, our responsibilities paid, and we realize the formless perfection of God Siva. The guha, the cave of consciousness, opens its doors for us to sit comfortably, mentally undistracted, within the cavity within the head, there to begin the yoga of union for personal, spiritual, everlasting attainment. Saiva Siddhanta outlines the path that we are on. It tells us how to attain these goals.
The saints who sang the hymns of Tirumurai inspire us onward and inward. The illustrious, venerable Rishi Tirumular captured the essence of the Vedas and the Agamas in his epistles, promulgating the rules and regulations that we must follow, setting forth the attainments that we may expect to reach. Over two thousand years ago the great siddha, Saint Tirumular, taught, ”Offer oblations in love. Light the golden lamps. Spread incense of fragrant wood and lighted camphor in all directions. Forget your worldly worries and meditate. Truly, you shall attain rapturous liberation.”
It is said in our Hindu scriptures that it is necessary to have a satguru. However, it is also possible for an individual to accomplish all of this by himself without a guru. Possible, but most difficult and exceedingly rare. There may be four or five in a hundred years, or less. Scriptures explain that perhaps in past lives such a soul would have been well disciplined by some guru and is helped inwardly by God in this life. With rare exceptions, a guru is necessary to guide the aspirant on the path as far as he is willing and able to go in his current incarnation. Few will reach the Ultimate. The satguru is needed because the mind is cunning and the ego is a self-perpetuating mechanism. It is unable and unwilling to transcend itself by itself. Therefore, one needs the guidance of another who has gone through the same process, who has faithfully followed the path to its natural end and therefore can gently lead us to God within ourselves. Remember, the satguru will keep you on the path, but you have to walk the path yourself.
All gurus differ one from another depending on their parampara, their lineage, as well as on their individual nature, awakening and attainments. Basically, the only thing that a guru can give you is yourself to yourself. That is all, and this is done in many ways. The guru would only be limited by his philosophy, which outlines the ultimate attainment, and by his own experience. He cannot take you where he himself has not been. It is the guru’s job to inspire, to assist, to guide and sometimes even impel the disciple to move a little farther toward the Self of himself than he has been able to go by himself.
