SLOKA 53 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
DOES HELL REALLY EXIST? IS THERE A SATAN?
There is no eternal hell, nor is there a Satan. However, there are hellish states of mind and woeful births for those who think and act wrongfully–temporary tormenting conditions that lift the fiery forces within. Aum.
BHASHYA
Hell, termed Naraka, is the lower astral realm of the seven chakras below the muladhara. It is a place of fire and heat, anguish and dismay, of confusion, despair and depression. Here anger, jealousy, argument, mental conflict and tormenting moods plague the mind. Access to hell is brought about by our own thoughts, words, deeds and emotions–suppressed, antagonistic feelings that court demons and their aggressive forces. Hell is not eternal. Nor is there a Satan who tempts man and opposes God’s power, though there are devilish beings called asuras, immature souls caught in the abyss of deception and hurtfulness. We do not have to die to suffer the Naraka regions, for hellish states of mind are also experienced in the physical world. If we do die in a hellish state of consciousness–burdened by unresolved hatred, remorse, resentment, fear and distorted patterns of thought–we arrive in Naraka fully equipped to join others in this temporary astral purgatory. The Vedas say, ”Sunless and demonic, verily, are those worlds, and enveloped in blinding darkness, to which all those people who are enemies of their own souls go after death.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 53 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
MATI: COGNITION
Cognition, mati, is the seventh niyama. Cognition means understanding; but deeper than understanding, it is seeing through to the other side of the results that a thought, a word or an action would have in the future, before the thought, word or action has culminated. Mati is the development of a spiritual will and intellect through the grace of a satguru, an enlightened master. Mati can only come this way. It is a transference of divine energies from the satguru to the shishya, building a purified intellect honed down by the guru for the shishya, and a spiritual will developed by the shishya by following the religious sadhanas the guru has laid down until the desired results are attained to the guru’s satisfaction. Sadhana is always done under a guru’s direction. This is the worthy sadhana that bears fruit.
Mati, cognition, on a higher level is the awakening of the third eye, looking out through the heart chakra, seeing through the maya, the interacting creation, preservation and dissolution of the molecules of matter. Mati is all this and more, for within each one who is guided by the guru’s presence lies the ability to see not only with the two eyes but with all three simultaneously. The spiritual intellect described herein is none other than wisdom, or a ”wise dome,” if you will. Wisdom is the timely application of knowledge, not merely the opinions of others, but knowledge gained through deep observation.
The guru’s guidance is supreme in the life of the dedicated devotee who is open for training. The verbal lineages of the many sampradayas have withstood the tests of time, turmoil, decay and ravage of external hostility. The sampradayas that have sustained man and lifted him above the substratum of ignorance are actually great nerve currents within the sushumna of the awakened satguru himself. To go further on the path of yoga, one will encounter within his own sushumna current–within one of the fourteen nadis within it–a satguru, a guru who preaches Truth. He will meet this guru in a dream or in his physical body, and through the guru’s grace and guidance will be allowed to continue the upward climb. These fourteen currents, at every point in time on the surface of the Earth, have a satguru attached to them, ready and waiting to open the portals of the beyond into the higher chakras, the throat, the third eye and the cranium.
To say, ”I have awakened my throat chakra,” ”I now live in my third eye” or ”I am developing my sahasrara chakra,” without being able to admit to being under a guru, a satguru who knows and is personally directing the devotee, is foolishness, a matter of imagination. It is in the heart chakra, the chakra of cognition, that seekers see through the veils of ignorance, illusion, maya’s interacting preservation, creation and destruction, and gain a unity with and love for the universe–all those within it, creatures, peoples and all the various forms–feeling themselves a part of it.
Here, on this threshold of the anahata chakra, there are two choices. One is following the sampradaya of a satguru for the next upward climb into the vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara. The other is remaining guru-less, becoming one’s own guru, and possibly delving into various forms of psychism, astrology, some forms of modern science, psychic crime-detection, tarot cards, pendulums, crystal gazing, psychic healing, past-life reading or fortunetelling. These psychic abilities, when developed, can be an impediment, a deterrent, a barrier, a Berlin Wall to future spiritual development. They develop the anava, the ego, and are the first renunciations the satguru would ask a devotee to make prior to being accepted.
Coming under a satguru, one performs according to the guru’s direction with full faith and confidence. This is why scriptures say a guru must be carefully chosen, and when one is found, to follow him with all your heart, to obey and fulfill his every instruction better than he would have expected you to, and most importantly, even better than you would have expected of yourself.
Psychic abilities are not in themselves deterrents on the path. They are permitted to develop later, after Parasiva, nirvikalpa samadhi, has been attained and fully established within the individual. But this, too, would be under the guru’s grace and guidance, for these abilities are looked at as tools to fulfill certain works assigned by the guru to the devotee to fulfill until the end of the life of the physical body.
It is the personal ego, the anava, that is developed through the practice of palmistry, astrology, tarot cards, fortunetelling, past-life reading, crystal gazing, crystal healing, prana transference, etc., etc., etc. This personal ego enhancement is a gift from those who are healed, who are helped, who are encouraged and who are in awe of the psychic power awakened in the heart chakra of this most perfect person of the higher consciousness who doesn’t anger, display fear or exhibit any lower qualities.
SUTRA 53 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
WORSHIP AND SCRIPTURAL STUDY
All Siva’s devotees cultivate bhakti and family harmony in daily ritual and reflection, Ishvarapujana. Upholding siddhanta shravana, they hear the scriptures, study the teachings and listen to the wise of their lineage. Aum.
LESSON 53 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
A FEW CARDINAL SIGNPOSTS
The young aspirant just becoming acquainted with the path to enlightenment may wonder where he is, how much he has achieved so far. There are a few cardinal signposts he may identify with to know he has touched into the inner realms of his mind. Should he ever have experienced a ”here and now” consciousness, causing him to fight the ”where and when” of the future and the ”there and then” of the past afterwards, he can fully impart to himself an award of having achieved some attainment by striving even more diligently than before. The ability to see the external world as transparent, a game, a dream, encourages the aspirant to seek deeper. The moon-like light within the center of his head appears during his tries at meditation, sometimes giving him the perceptive ability to cognize the intricate workings of another’s external and subconscious states of mind, as well as his own, intimately. The ability of the ardent soul to recognize his guru and identify himself in the actinic flow from whence the master infuses knowledge by causing inner doors to open is another signpost that the aspirant has become an experiencer and is touching in on the fringe or perimeter of transcendental states of mind.
Many on the path to enlightenment will be able to identify, through their personal experience, some of these signposts, and recall many happenings that occurred during their awakenings. But remember, the recall and the experience are quite different. The experience is ”here and now;” the recall is ”there and then.” However, by identifying the experience and relating it to a solid intellectual knowledge, the ability will be awakened to utilize and live consciously in inner states of superconsciousness. After acquiring this ability to consciously live superconsciously comes the ability to work accurately and enthusiastically in the material world while holding the intensity of the inner light, giving perceptive awareness of its mechanical structure. There also comes the ability to work out quickly in meditation experiences of the external mind or worldly happenings through finding their ”innerversity” aspects rather than being drawn out into the swirl of them. In doing so, the cause-and-effect karmic experiential patterns of the aspirant’s life that tend to lower his consciousness into congested areas of the mind will clear up as, more and more, the actinic flow of superconsciousness is maintained as the bursts of clear white light become frequent.
