SLOKA 5 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF EARTHLY LIFE?
The ultimate goal of life on earth is to realize the Self, the rare attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi. Each soul discovers its Sivaness, Absolute Reality, Parasiva–the timeless, formless, spaceless Self God. Aum Namah Sivaya.
BHASHYA
The realization of the Self, Parasiva, is the destiny of each soul, attainable through renunciation, sustained meditation and frying the seeds of karmas yet to germinate. It is the gateway to moksha, liberation from rebirth. The Self lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling nature, beyond action or any movement of even the highest state of consciousness. The Self God is more solid than a neutron star, more elusive than empty space, more intimate than thought and feeling. It is ultimate reality itself, the innermost Truth all seekers seek. It is well worth striving for. It is well worth struggling to bring the mind under the dominion of the will. After the Self is realized, the mind is seen for the unreality that it truly is. Because Self Realization must be experienced in a physical body, the soul cycles back again and again into flesh to dance with Siva, live with Siva and ultimately merge with Siva in undifferentiated oneness. Yea, jiva is actually Siva. The Vedas explain, ”As water poured into water, milk poured into milk, ghee into ghee become one without differentiation, even so the individual soul and the Supreme Self become one.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 5 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
WORKING WITH YOUR KARMA
Seekers more than often ask, ”Why has Siva given us karma to go through? Could He just have made us perfect from the beginning and avoided all the pain?” My answer is: accept your karma as your own, as a healing medicine and not a poison. As you go through your self-created experiences in daily life and seed karmas awaken, as your actions come back through your emotions, even in this life, not in a future one, resolve each and every experience so that you do not react and create new cycles to be lived through. Whether it is happy karma, sad karma, miserable karma or ecstatic karma, it is your karma. But it is not you, not the real you. It is the experience that you go through in order to evolve, in order to grow and to learn and to attain, eventually, wisdom. This is all Siva’s mysterious work, His way of bringing along devotees, His way to bring you close and closer to Himself.
The great Vedic rishis have explained that Siva has created the body of the soul, permeated that body with His being, His essence. All souls are evolving back to His holy feet, and there are many lessons to be learned along the way. The lessons learned in the karma classroom are part of the process of evolution, the mechanism of evolution, the tool of evolution. Why did He do all of this? The rishis give no reason. They call it His dance. That is why we worship God Siva as Nataraja, the King of Dance. Why does one dance? Because one is full of joy. One is full of life. Siva is all life, God of life, God of death that brings new life, God of birth that brings through life. He is all life and He is everything. He danced with the rishis. He is dancing for you. You are dancing with Siva. Every single atom in this room is dancing His dance. He is every part of you this very moment. By seeing Him, you see yourself. By drawing near to Him, you are drawing nearer to yourself. Our great satguru, Siva Yogaswami, made a most perceptive remark. He said, ”There is one thing only that God Siva cannot do. He cannot separate Himself from me.” He cannot separate Himself from you, because He permeates you. He is you. He created the soul, the Vedas and Agamas tell us. He created your soul, and your soul is evolving, maturing through karma, through life, on its way back to Him. That is the goal of life, to know Siva, to love Siva and to find union in Him, to dance with Siva, live with Siva and merge with Siva. This is what the oldest religion on the Earth teaches and believes.
Siva is the God of love and nothing else but love. He fills this universe with love. He fills you with love. Siva is fire. Siva is earth. Siva is air. Siva is water. Siva is ether. Siva’s cosmic energy permeates everything and gives light and life to your mind. Siva is everywhere and all things. Siva is your small, insignificant worry, the concern that you have been holding in your mind for so many years. See God Siva everywhere and His life energy in all things. First we dance with Siva. Then we live with Siva. The end of the path is to merge with Siva, the Self God within.
SUTRA 5 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
SEEKING WHILE STRONG
Siva’s devotees heed the ancient wisdom: ”The physical body does not last forever. Age prowls like a leopard. Before the limbs lose their vitality, one should take to the auspicious path to the Self.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 5 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
PREPARATIONS FOR TRUE YOGA
We must live in the now to follow the path to enlightenment. In the lower realms of the mind, where time and space seem very real, we are worried about the past or concerned about the future. These two intermingle and limit conscious awareness. Living in the past or the future obstructs us in this way: the past by reliving old experiences–mainly the negative ones, for they are vividly remembered–clouds our vision of the future. Living in the future overactivates the intellect, the emotion and the desires. The future is little more than another form of mental fantasy. Past and future are equally unreal and a hindrance to spiritual unfoldment. A person functioning in the now is in control of his own mind. He is naturally happier, more successful. He is performing every task with his fullest attention, and the rewards are to be seen equally in the quality of his work and the radiance of his face. He cannot be bored with anything he does, however simple or mundane. Everything is interesting, challenging, fulfilling. A person living fully in the now is a content person.
To attain even the permission to perform yoga one must have the grace of Lord Ganesha and the grace of Lord Muruga. Lord Muruga is the God of the kundalini, of the advanced yogic practices. Unfoldment all happens within the kundalini and the chakras within our subtle bodies. Once a profound relationship is developed with Lord Muruga, then with the guru’s permission and guidance, true yoga may commence. Otherwise, no matter how long one sits in meditation, no matter how hard one tries, it is just sitting, it is just trying. There is no fire there, no shakti, no power, no change. It is the Gods who control the fire and at this stage help the devotee immensely, bringing him closer and closer to the supreme God, Siva. Quite often the yogi in his deep internalized state may see in vision the feet or form of God Siva before he begins to blend into the mind of God Siva, called Satchidananda. It is God and Gods in form that help us to find the formless God.
