SLOKA 22 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF LORD GANESHA?
Lord Ganesha is the elephant-faced Patron of Art and Science, the Lord of Obstacles and Guardian of Dharma. His will prevails as the force of righteousness, the embodiment of Siva’s karmic law in all three worlds. Aum.
BHASHYA
Lord Siva, the Almighty Power, created heaven and earth and the God Lord Ganesha to oversee the intricate karmas and dharmas within the heavens and all the earths. Lord Ganesha was created as a governor and interplanetary, intergalactic Lord. His knowledge is infinite, His judgment is just. It is none other than Lord Ganesha and His mighty band of ganas who gently help souls out of the Naraka abyss and adjust them into higher consciousness after due penance has been paid, guiding them on the right path toward dharmic destiny. He is intricate of mind, loving pomp, delighting in all things sweet and enjoying adulation. Lord Siva proclaimed that this son be worshiped first, even before Himself. Verily, He is the Lord of Karma. All Mahadevas, minor Gods, devas and sentient beings must worship Ganesha before any responsible act could hope to be successful. Those who do not are subject to their own barriers. Yea, worship of Him sets the pattern of one’s destiny. The Tirumantiram says, ”Five-armed is He, elephant-faced with tusks protruding, crescent-shaped, son of Siva, wisdom’s flower, in heart enshrined, His feet I praise.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 332 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
AN ORDER OF RENUNCIATES
Sannyasa is the life, way and traditions of those who have irrevocably renounced duties and obligations of the householder path, including personal property, wealth, ambitions, social position and family ties, in favor of the full-time monastic quest for divine awakening, Self Realization and spiritual upliftment of humanity. Traditionally, and in our order, this dharma is available to men under age twenty-five who meet certain strict qualifications. Some orders are more lenient and accept men into sannyasa after age twenty-five. The rules pertaining to homeless anchorites are, for obvious reasons, more lenient. Other orders will accept widowers, and a few initiate women, though Hindu custom prefers that women who wish to follow the monastic path take simple vows of brahmacharya and not take sannyasa.
Women in today’s liberal Hindu orders who do take sannyasa should wear white. Women donning orange robes is a new, very new, fashion. My perception over the past decades is that this generally does not work out well in the long run. Those women of history who have been recognized and honored as celibate seekers, as great souls, even as gurus, have worn the color white. This was then and is still the order of the day and will be far into the future for many very good esoteric reasons.
The householder naturally comes into the sannyasa ashrama, stage of withdrawal, at age seventy-two, having lived through life’s three prior stages: student (brahmacharya), householder (grihastha) and elder advisor (vanaprastha). This fourth stage is a time of turning inward, devoting oneself more fully to worship, introspection, scriptural study and meditation. This step for householder men and women may be ritually acknowledged in a home blessing but is not in any way construed as sannyasa diksha, which is a monastic initiation. While traditions vary, after commencing the fourth stage of life, the elder husband and wife, now as brother and sister, turn more fully to religious pursuits while continuing their associations with the family, though they may seek accommodations that offer more privacy for their meditations and worship.
An elder man whose wife has passed on and whose children are grown may upon reaching age seventy-two take up the mendicant life fully and then diligently pursue his spiritual sadhana in a state of genuine renunciation and not in the midst of his relatives. This is expressed in sutra 210: ”Siva’s unmarried men and widowers may renounce the world after age seventy-two, severing all ties with their community and living as unordained, self-declared sannyasins among the holy monks of India.” Sannyasins who were formerly married are not generally afforded the same respect as sannyasins who never entered the family dharma.
Though it is sometimes done, it must be noted that it is against dharma for a householder to abandon his wife and children on the pretext of renouncing the world. Becoming a self-declared sannyasin after age seventy-two is also not traditional, for one who has been divorced and whose former spouse is still living. Marriage is a lifetime commitment, and once taken cannot be rescinded.
SUTRA 332 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
REMAINING APART FROM THE UNQUALIFIED
Siva’s monastics restrain their support for sannyasins in saffron robes who are married, who have personal income, live with birth family, deny or dilute Hinduism, have left their guru or are known philanderers. Aum.
LESSON 332 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
REALIZATION AND EVOLUTION
When the soul is spawned, it is a release of energy. This energy, once released, accumulates more energy around it from the manifest world, which is also Siva. The impact of the spawning is so strong that finally a body is created around this tiny cell, which looks exactly like the Primal Soul body of the God that spawned the soul into being. The word soul in itself, meaning core, refers to this cell. The body of the soul, the actinic causal body, as it becomes denser, moves into another plane of manifest being and begins on its own to create, preserve and destroy, for it now is form, taking on the same nature, which is its nature, of Siva in manifest form. The only difference now between this soul and Siva is that Siva can be in unmanifest state, but the soul is caught in the activity, the so-called bondage, of the manifest state. It has not yet completed the cycle. Once this soul has completed the cycle of the manifest state, then quite naturally it merges back into itself and realizes, or is, the unmanifest state.
After realization of the Self, to attain actual liberation from rebirth requires the willful and deliberate act of the adept at the point of death to direct the course. If he feels and knows that he has yet to perform actions of service on this planet, once the physical body has been parted from, he will find himself on an inner plane in which he can prepare to return at the proper place and proper time to fulfill his desire. However, should he have felt well satisfied with his many lives, as they play before his vision during his transition from his physical body, now ready to go on in this liberated state, he would find himself on an inner plane whence it would be impossible to reenter flesh. Thus, moksha, kaivalya, liberation from earthly birth, has been attained, and the way is open to further evolution on the subtle planes.
Embodied souls have attributes that are constantly refining themselves as they traverse the instinctive nature toward the Divine. These qualities are becoming more and more like Lord Siva’s. His personality, attributes and qualities are described by the 1,008 names given to Him, for no single name is adequate to depict His attributes. Similarly, a person could not be adequately explained by one word. Now you can see the similarity between Lord Siva and His offspring.
