SLOKA 16 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF OUR GOD SIVA?
God Siva is all and in all, one without a second, the Supreme Being and only Absolute Reality. He is Pati, our Lord, immanent and transcendent. To create, preserve, destroy, conceal and reveal are His five powers. Aum.
BHASHYA
God Siva is a one being, yet we understand Him in three perfections: Absolute Reality, Pure Consciousness and Primal Soul. As Absolute Reality, Siva is unmanifest, unchanging and transcendent, the Self God, timeless, formless and spaceless. As Pure Consciousness, Siva is the manifest primal substance, pure love and light flowing through all form, existing everywhere in time and space as infinite intelligence and power. As Primal Soul, Siva is the five-fold manifestation: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; Rudra, the destroyer; Maheshvara, the veiling Lord, and Sadasiva, the revealer. He is our personal Lord, source of all three worlds. Our divine father-mother protects, nurtures and guides us, veiling Truth as we evolve, revealing it when we are mature enough to receive God’s bountiful grace. God Siva is all and in all, great beyond our conception, a sacred mystery that can be known in direct communion. Yea, when Siva is known, all is known. The Vedas state: ”That part of Him which is characterized by tamas is called Rudra. That part of Him which belongs to rajas is Brahma. That part of Him which belongs to sattva is Vishnu.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 326 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
WHY A GURU IS NECESSARY
Many of you have been studying with me for ten, twenty or thirty years. I want you to think and think through the rest of the day about the spirit of the satguru. Suppose you didn’t have a satguru. You would be guided by the spirit of your intellect, or the spirit of your instinct, or the energies of confusion. The satguru only has one job, to keep his devotees on the right track. We do not follow the way of words, which is repeating from memory verses and stanzas of scripture with meager mental interpretations of their meaning. We follow the way of transformational spiritual unfoldment. We follow the marga of sadhana and tapas. Shishyas move from one stage to another in spiritual unfoldment as they progress through the different petals of the higher chakras and come into one or more inner awakenings, one after another. They are not to settle down in any one or several of the chakras and consider, ”This is a nice life. I like this part of my unfoldment, so I won’t strive further.” They can’t do that, because the spirit of the guru drives them onward. He is constantly thinking and saying, ”This is not good enough; you can do better.”
Did Chellappaguru ever say to Yogaswami, ”OK, now we’ve done enough. Let’s just be ordinary”? No, he kept walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, until finally Satguru Yogaswami was walking around and feeding everybody, walking around and feeding everybody, and eventually everybody was doing the same thing. Passing on that spiritual quality, we don’t have any problems. We don’t have to solve problems with words. Problems are tackled with words when you are following the path of words. This can be a long, long, tedious process. But when spiritual awakenings are there, problems are solved by lifting consciousness. The problem goes away, just automatically goes away. It is a do-it-yourself process, a mystical tantra not to be ignored.
Every Hindu needs a satguru, a preceptor. The satguru is as much a part of Hinduism as are the temples, as are the Vedas and our other great scriptures, because not everyone can see for themselves. They need someone to see ahead a little bit for them and to keep them on the right track and in the right mood. Because people are tribal, they need a guide. I’ve heard prominent swamis all through the years remark, ”You all need a spiritual guide. If you don’t want me, find somebody else, but you need someone to guide you through life.” It could be a grandmother, it could be a grandfather, it could be your astrologer, a temple priest, a visiting yogi or a resident swami in your community, a sadhu, a pandit or a rare satguru–somebody that you will listen to and follow. The choice must be made after much consideration, after talking with parents, consulting elders and searching the heart. Once the choice is made, don’t change your mind. Be loyal and give him or her all the love and devotion you have to give and more. Take advice and admonition as golden offerings and proceed in confidence. Many benefits will come from their guidance on the path of dharma for a fruitful and fulfilling life.
A heavy burden falls upon the preceptor, too. He or she must produce results and continue to do so. Preceptors are not entertainers, content to be lauded or bowed down to in adulation. Rather, they must benefit their followers’ lives, lessen their karmic burdens and strengthen the family, hold marriages together, as well as seek out potential religious leaders and train them well. They must follow the karmas of each individual and each family year after year, and they must be there for devotees when needed most. They must demonstrate their shanti and bask in the bliss of attainment. They must be spirit, for spirit lives on.
SUTRA 326 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
RAJA YOGA IN ACTION
Siva’s monastics–acharyas, swamis, yogis and sadhakas–are precise, concentrated, serenely centered, eager to serve and tireless in every task, held back to rest only by others. Jai, they carry their yoga into action. Aum.
LESSON 326 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THE POINT OF CONCEPTION
The point of conception is the apex of creation. At what point do we conceive, and how do we create? Let’s expand our consciousness, really expand our consciousness, and begin to know that creation is merely recognizing what is already there–that there is nothing new; everything is within you and it is portrayed on the outside as you become aware that it is already created, finished, within you.
What makes the point of conception the apex of creation? It is the story of you. Expand your consciousness to take in the sun, the moon, the planets, the Earth, everyone. And when your limited consciousness focuses upon one thing, you say, ”There is the sun, and in a few hours I will see the moon.” And in a few hours you do see the moon. You are the creator, but you only create to the lower realms of the mind. Everything is within you: the sun, the moon, the planets, all of the people functioning through all their different states of consciousness, all of the various manifestations of form. They are all within you.
As you become aware of one thing at a time, you are really creating it into the lower realms of your mind. You are translating it into the lower realms of your mind. Your recognition of what is is the way you create it to yourself. This is deep. This is in the realm of contemplation. And only in the realm of contemplation will you begin to conceive of it.
Those of you who have had the power enough to concentrate enough of the mind in order to contemplate should begin to be very godlike in your everyday life. You should work very, very hard to do each thing perfectly that you do in your conscious mind, to finish each job, and to have consideration for others at all times. That will take you into the next stages of contemplation.
When we become careless in our lower realms of the mind after having reached contemplation, we use that great God-power in a negative way and build great barriers within ourselves that hold us in the lower realms of the mind. But when we strive diligently to perfect devotion, which is bhakti, to perfect service, which is karma yoga, at all times–twenty-four hours a day, the vigil is–then we release barriers, barriers that we are going to meet perhaps next year or the year after. We burn up and clean up karma that will come even in your next life. And you go from one stage of contemplation and become stable in the next stage of contemplation, until you begin to live on the very brink of the Absolute. And it’s on the brink of the Absolute that you can begin to realize that the point of conception is the very apex of creation. You realize all form, and then you realize formlessness.
The struggle with the mind is an easy struggle if you are constantly vigilant, all of the time, doing always what you know you should do, not allowing the mind to become instinctive, not excusing the mind when it does become instinctive, not allowing the mind to justify, rationalize, excuse, become combative, but making the mind always remain poised, like a hummingbird over a flower, so that you begin to live in the eternal now, constantly, permanently. And then the within becomes natural to you, not something you hear about, study about, talk about, sing about, for you become open, awakened, within.
