SLOKA 48 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL?
Instead of seeing good and evil in the world, we understand the nature of the embodied soul in three interrelated parts: instinctive or physical-emotional; intellectual or mental; and superconscious or spiritual. Aum.
BHASHYA
Evil has no source, unless the source of evil’s seeming be ignorance itself. Still, it is good to fear unrighteousness. The ignorant complain, justify, fear and criticize ”sinful deeds,” setting themselves apart as lofty puritans. When the outer, or lower, instinctive nature dominates, one is prone to anger, fear, greed, jealousy, hatred and backbiting. When the intellect is prominent, arrogance and analytical thinking preside. When the superconscious soul comes forth the refined qualities are born–compassion, insight, modesty and the others. The animal instincts of the young soul are strong. The intellect, yet to be developed, is nonexistent to control these strong instinctive impulses. When the intellect is developed, the instinctive nature subsides. When the soul unfolds and overshadows the well-developed intellect, this mental harness is loosened and removed. When we encounter wickedness in others, let us be compassionate, for truly there is no intrinsic evil. The Vedas say, ”Mind is indeed the source of bondage and also the source of liberation. To be bound to things of this world: this is bondage. To be free from them: this is liberation.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 358 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
ARE YOU A HINDU?
This afternoon we had a nice visit with a fine young man here at my ashrama in Sri Lanka. During the conversation, I encouraged him to stand strong for Hinduism. ”When you stand strong for your religion, you are strong,” he was told. Today there are many Hindus from India and Sri Lanka in the United States and Europe who when asked, ”Are you a Hindu?” reply, ”No, I’m not really a Hindu. I’m nonsectarian, universal, a follower of all religions. I’m a little bit of everything, and a little bit of everybody. Please don’t classify me in any particular way.” Are these the words of a strong person? No. Too much of this kind of thinking makes the individual weak-minded. Religion, above all else, should bring personal strength and commitment to the individual. When a Hindu is totally noncommittal, releasing his loyalties as he goes along through life, disclaiming his religion for the sake of so-called unity with other people or for business or social reasons, he can easily be taken in, converted to other people’s beliefs. Even when it is just a way to get along with others, by seeming uncertain of his path, he opens himself to alien influences of all kinds.
In America the beautiful, the land of the money, anything is possible. It is possible to get money. But to get it at the expense of disclaiming one’s religion to the public is a very great expense. Young adults hear their parents disclaiming their religion by saying ”Oh, I am a Christian. I am a Muslim. I am a Buddhist. I am a follower of all religions. All religions are one.” All religions are not one. They are very, very different. They all worship and talk about God, yes, but they do not all lead their followers to the same spiritual goal. The Christians are not seeking God within themselves. They do not see God as all-pervasive. Nor do they see God in all things. Their religion does not value the methods of yoga which bring Hindus into God Realization. Their religion does not have the mysticism of worshiping God and the Gods in the temple. Jews, Christians and Muslims do not believe that there is more than one life or that there is such a thing as karma. They simply do not accept these beliefs. They are heresy to them. These are a few of the basic and foremost beliefs that make our religion and theirs very, very, different indeed.
Many Asian Hindus traveling to America, Europe or Africa for business reasons think that in order to fit in, to be accepted, they must deny their religion. The Jews, Christians and Muslims did not deny their faith when they found themselves in alien countries, yet their businesses flourish. But too many Hindus say, ”I am a Muslim. I am a Jew. I am a Christian. I am a Hindu. I am a universalist.” These are very naive statements. The Muslims do not think these Hindus are Muslim. The Jews do not think that they are Jewish. The Christians know they are not Christians. And the Hindus know they were born Hindu and will die as Hindus, and that they are disclaiming their own sacred heritage for the sake of money and social or intellectual acceptance. How deceptive! How shallow! The message should go out loud and strong: Stand strong for Hinduism, and when you do you will be strong yourself. Yes! Stand strong for Hinduism. Stand strong for Hinduism. Religion is within your heart and mind.
If there were no humans with thinking minds on the planet, there would be no religion at all. Religion does not exist outside of a person’s mind and spirit. Religion lies within the human mind. If we want to preserve the world’s oldest religion, the Sanatana Dharma, which goes back in time as far as man himself, then we must preserve it within our minds, protect it in our hearts and then slowly, steadily spread its great wisdom out into the minds of others. The dignity of the Hindu people must be preserved, not surrendered on the altar of material gain.
SUTRA 358 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
MY SWAMIS DO NOT SPEAK OF THEIR PAST
My swamis never speak of their past or the personal self they have renounced. Those who know tradition do not ask, for one never looks for the source of a rishi or a river. These always remain shrouded in mystery. Aum.
LESSON 358 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
WISDOM OF THE AGES
Religion as it is known today is an offshoot of various ethnic groups that gathered together in the twilight of human history and forged systems of law, worship, culture and belief. The unique circumstances of geography, language, communications and race isolated one group from another and differences were born and preserved: differences of belief and custom. As these small communities varied, so did the systems which satisfied each one. From their inception they absorbed the singular thought patterns postulated by their culture and their leaders, and these distinctions were perpetuated from father to son, from guru to disciple, from one generation to the next. The leader was the shaman, the priest, the acharya, the philosopher-king. He was well versed in religious matters among them and naturally became the authority, the tribal priest. Religion in the early days was tribal, for man’s early experience was tribal. Being tribal, religion was political. The political character has been preserved, as we find it today, in the world’s many religions, which are, for the most part, the common beliefs of the various races and/or nations on the Earth.
Five, ten thousand years ago in the Himalayas and across to the Indus Valley, ancient rishis and sages studied and meditated upon the eternal truths passed down to them and in conclaves jointly concurred as to the results of their personal findings on the inward path. Following an already ancient tradition, they were sent on missions–to Kashmir, China, Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, South India, Southeast Asia and to every traversable part of the world–with the same message, digested and concise, given out with the power and force of their personal realizations of the final conclusions.
Today I am going to speak about Hinduism and the conclusions drawn by its early sages and saints as to the orderly evolution of man’s soul and the ultimate spiritual goal of that evolution, the culmination of the countless accumulated passages of the soul on its journey to Truth. The ancient ones, the rishis and sages who formulated these final conclusions, recorded them as scriptures which still exist today. They were not interested in preserving a sectarian view of religion. Rather, they laid down their conclusions for all mankind. They had realized God within themselves, and from that inner realization they spoke out with boundless humility and undeniable authority. These teachings were recorded in the early Vedas. They blossomed in the Upanishads. They were detailed in the Agamas. They came to be known as the Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Path.
According to ancient Hinduism, all is Siva, all is God. God is both immanent and transcendent, both saguna and nirguna, with and without form. There is but one God. He manifests variously as the formless and Absolute Reality, as the rarefied form of Pure Consciousness, Satchidananda, Pure Energy or Light flowing through all existence, and as the personal Lord and Creator, the Primal Soul. As the Immanent Lord, Siva created the soul, and the world of form and experience, that it might evolve toward and merge with the Absolute.
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad (3.1-2 upp) speaks of God as both immanent and transcendent, and I would like to quote for you from it. ”He is the one God, the Creator. He enters into all wombs. The One Absolute, impersonal Existence, together with His inscrutable maya, appears as the Divine Lord, endowed with manifold glories. With His Divine power He holds dominion over all the worlds. At the periods of Creation and Dissolution of the universe He alone exists. Those who realize Him become immortal. The Lord is One without a second. Within man He dwells, and within all other beings. He projects the universe, maintains it, and withdraws it into Himself.” Elsewhere, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (3.8-9 ve) speaks of God as the Primal Soul, ”I have come to know that mighty Person, golden like the sun, beyond all darkness. By knowing Him, a man transcends death; there is no other path for reaching that goal. Higher than Him is nothing whatever; than Him nothing smaller, than Him nothing greater. He stands like a tree rooted in heaven, the One, the Person, filling this whole world.” And the Mundaka Upanishad (2.1.2 mc) speaks of God as the unmanifest, Nirguna Brahman: ”Self-resplendent, formless, unoriginated and pure, that all-pervading Being is both within and without, anterior both to life and mind. He transcends even the transcendent, unmanifest, causal state of the universe.”
