SLOKA 24 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF LORD KARTTIKEYA?
Lord Karttikeya, Murugan, first guru and Pleiadean master of kundalini yoga, was born of God Siva’s mind. His dynamic power awakens spiritual cognition to propel souls onward in their evolution to Siva’s feet. Aum.
BHASHYA
Lord Karttikeya flies through the mind’s vast substance from planet to planet. He could well be called the Emancipator, ever available to the call of those in distress. Lord Karttikeya, God of will, direct cognition and the purest, child-like divine love, propels us onward on the righteous way through religion, His Father’s law. Majestically seated on the manipura chakra, this scarlet-hued God blesses mankind and strengthens our will when we lift to the inner sky through sadhana and yoga. The yoga pada begins with the worship of Him. The yogi, locked in meditation, venerates Karttikeya, Skanda, as his mind becomes as calm as Saravana, the lake of Divine Essence. The kundalini force within everyone is held and controlled by this powerful God, first among renunciates, dear to all sannyasins. Revered as Murugan in the South, He is commander in chief of the great devonic army, a fine, dynamic soldier of the within, a fearless defender of righteousness. He is Divinity emulated in form. The Vedas say, ”To such a one who has his stains wiped away, the venerable Sanatkumara shows the further shore of darkness. Him they call Skanda.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 334 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
THE IDEALS OF SANNYASA
The Saiva sannyasin states at the time of his initiation, ”All that I have and all that I am I now give unto my God, my Gods and my guru. I have no family except the Divine Father Siva and Mother Shakti who dwell in Kailasa, and on Earth the sangam of Saivite devotees.” This is the ideal of not only the swami, but of all monastics. Therefore, a state of aloofness from blood ties must be maintained on the part of each monastic. This is reflected in the protocol of the monk’s not referring to relatives as ”my father,” ”my brother,” ”my mother,” but by formal, impersonal names and common courtesy titles, such as Mr. Sivanesan, etc. This is an affectionate detachment, a lovingly detached attitude, from the grihastha community. It is a detachment from joint or extended family, which includes former friends, seeing guru as mother and father, and fellow monastics as family, aadheenam devas as dear relatives, and Gods as close, not far away. Each family learns to respect this renunciate attitude. This is the fabric of monastic life, both for sannyasins and postulants, for in our community, all monastics are on the path of renunciation. Some have received sannyasa diksha and others are preparing for it by fully living the life of the one who has renounced the world in one-pointed quest for service and God Realization. Because training must be given when the nature is still young and pliable, I do not accept candidates for monastic life who are over the age of twenty-five.
All must always remember that it is a family’s greatest blessing for a son to become a sannyasin. But a word of caution must follow. Though a young man may be raised and trained to one day become a monastic, it is he himself who must have the burning desire for ultimate, transcendent realization of Parasiva. It is he who must have a heart full of selfless service and vairagya, the spirit of renunciation. It is he who must have the prarabdha karmas that would allow him to be the ideal sannyasin his parents would hope for. Becoming a monk is not simply a matter of moving from his family home into a monastery. Various tests must be met and passed. The entire monastic community has to be convinced of the young man’s sincerity and strengthened by his presence. Such potential sannyasins are watched closely and expected to dissociate themselves from grihastha impulses such as claiming ”my things, my space, my career, my advancement and my exclusive duties.” They are examined for the qualities of true sannyasa, tested often as to their flexibility, their ability to instantly renounce attachment to position and job security without residual resentments, the fluidness to release awareness and move transparently from one area to the next as needs arise.
How does a monastic serve his guru in daily life? He must take every opportunity to be open. At the first level, that of a young aspirant, the mom and dad give him over and say, ”The guru is now your mother and father. Go and be with him.” Then it is up to the young man to think of his guru as mother and father and not think of them as his parents anymore. That is what they expect. They are thrilled that they could produce a son who could be a spiritual man, thrilled that their son might be accepted. The next step is on the part of the son himself. In living in the ashrama the son only sees the guru in his mind. He doesn’t see anybody else. When he starts seeing others, finding fault and liking some more than others, that’s when the trouble begins. Rather, he serves the guru’s mission exclusively, in his whole mind, even while he is working with others. He treats everyone equally, with kindly, affectionate detachment. He fulfills each duty wholeheartedly and harbors no preferences for one type of service over another. He doesn’t use the facility as a trade school to improve his skills, just in case monastic life doesn’t work out. Finally he attracts the guru’s attention, and the third stage begins. He is given special small tasks to accomplish by the satguru, and when successful given larger and more difficult tasks, as the guru guides him in strengthening his willpower. From that point on, his life unfolds from stage to stage as he purifies himself and brings forth his Divinity in his service and striving.
SUTRA 334 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
HUMILITY IS THEIR HALLMARK
Siva’s monastics never boast of their accomplishments, knowledge, position, equipment, money they handle, places they have been or people they know. Self-effacement–yea, self-erasement–is their hallmark. Aum.
LESSON 334 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THE BODY OF THE SOUL
All concepts of time, space, mind, universe, microcosm and macrocosm are what occur when inhabiting a physical body. But they are only concepts, not relating to what actually occurs. The seven chakras of the physical body produce their frameworks, relationships. The Self, the realization of God, Parasiva, is immanent now within everyone, only realizable according to the soul’s evolution, which can be hastened through the practice of yoga. Therefore, to look for realizations through correlations or to seek correlations as destinations is futile. This is because what you seek after already exists in its fullness within each soul.
Those in the kevala avasthai, are creating forms around the soul and are not inwardly directed. Those in the sakala avastai are deciphering their creations and not interested. Those in the shuddha avasthai perceive, little by little, a fullness–that within which has never changed since the first cell broke away containing within it the fullness of Siva, His samadhi, as well as form.
Our soul is an immortal, effulgent being of light created by God Siva in His image and evolving to union with Him. Its uncreated divine essence is Pure Consciousness and Absolute Reality, eternally one with Siva. The unfoldment of the soul through the avasthais of existence can be understood in the analogy of the fragrant lotus rising above the water, drawn up by the sun, having come from the mud below. The mud is kevala, the lotus and its blossoming is sakala, and the sun is shuddha.
One day you will see the being of you, your divine soul body. You will see it inside the physical body. It looks like clean, clear plastic. Around it is a blue light, and the outline of it is whitish yellow. Inside of it is blue-yellowish light, and there are trillions of little nerve currents, or quantums, and light scintillating all through that. This body stands on a lotus flower. Inwardly looking down through your feet, you see you are standing on a big, beautiful lotus flower. This body has a head, it has eyes, and it has infinite intelligence. It is tuned into and feeds from the source of all energy.
The soul form, which is another way of naming the ”soul body,” evolves as its consciousness evolves, becoming more and more refined until finally it is at the same intensity or refinement as the Primal Soul. The experiences of life, in all the various planes of consciousness, are ”food for the soul,” reaping lessons that actually raise the level of intelligence and love. Thus, very refined souls are walking intelligences, beaming with love. The ”soul body” is not like any other body, because it is the Being itself, not an encasement for the being.
I chose the term soul body many years ago to convey the very real fact that souls do have a human-like form that can be seen in mystic, superconscious vision. It was a way of describing the actual nature of the soul, which is not simply a ball of intelligence, or a point of awareness. But the body of the soul cannot be separated from the soul. They are one and the same. If you take away the form of the soul, all bonds are broken and jiva becomes Siva.
