SLOKA 56 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS DHARMA? WHAT ARE ITS FORMS?
Dharma is the law of being, the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. Dharma is of four main divisions, which are God’s law at work on four levels of our existence: universal, human, social and personal. Aum.
BHASHYA
When God created the universe, He endowed it with order, with the laws to govern creation. Dharma is God’s divine law prevailing on every level of existence, from the sustaining cosmic order to religious and moral laws which bind us in harmony with that order. We are maintained by dharma, held in our most perfect relationship within a complex universe. Every form of life, every group of men, has its dharma, the law of its being. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the Truth that inheres and instructs the universe, and we naturally abide in closeness to God. Adharma is opposition to divine law. Dharma prevails in the laws of nature and is expressed in our culture and heritage. It is piety and ethical practice, duty and obligation. It is the path which leads us to liberation. Universal dharma is known as rita. Social dharma is varna dharma. Human dharma is known as ashrama dharma. Our personal dharma is svadharma. Hinduism, the purest expression of these four timeless dharmas, is called Sanatana Dharma. The Vedas proclaim, ”There is nothing higher than dharma. Verily, that which is dharma is Truth.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 56 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
TRANSMUTING WILLPOWER
Willpower is a pranic force which exudes out of the manipura chakra. This energy, when directed downward, can be used up through excessive reason, excessive memorization, fear and amplification of fears, anger, the perpetuation of resentment without resolution, amplified by instinctive jealousies, all of which eventually dissipate the semi-divine energy of willpower and eventually close the manipura chakra. But when this same energy of willpower is upwardly directed, it pulls memory into a purified memory, making it forget what has to be forgotten, namely wrong knowledge, and remember what has to be remembered–siddhanta, the final conclusions of the rishis who live within the sahasrara chakra, the siddhas who are contacted through great tapas.
There is no reason to believe that developing and unfolding the ten petals of the manipura chakra comes easily. To develop an indomitable will capable of the accomplishments needed as a prerequisite to make the upward climb to the anahata, vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara chakras, and to sustain the benign attitudes of humility, is certainly not an easy task. But it comes naturally to one who has attained such in prior lifetimes, an older soul, I would say. Fulfilling each task one has begun, putting the cap back on the toothpaste tube after squeezing the toothpaste on the brush, the little things, and perfecting the yamas and the niyamas, especially contentment, austerity, giving, faith and regular worship, builds this indomitable will. These are mini-sadhanas one can perform on his own without the guidance of a guru. Yes, it is the little things that build the indomitable will that dominates the external intellect, its memory and reason abilities, and the instinctive impulses of fear, anger and jealousy. Doing this is just becoming a good person.
Willpower is the muscle of the mind. We lift weights, exercise, run a mile, all to develop the muscles of the physical body. The more we perform these practices, the more muscular we become. The process of strain reshapes the cellular properties and the structure of the muscles. Intermittent rest allows them to build up double. Strong muscles appear on the body as a result. The manipura chakra is the sun center of the physical body and of the astral body, the place where all nerve currents of these two bodies meet and merge. It emanates the power of life. It is the seat of fire, the agni homa. It is the bridge between the ultimate illumination and a prolonged, ongoing, intellectual processing of ideas, coupled with instinctive willfulness. Let there be no mistake, we must get beyond that by transmuting this tool, willpower, into mati, cognition, where its energies are usable yet benign. Therefore, the more you use your personal, individual willpower in your religious service, in your business life, your personal life, your home life, your temple life, in fulfilling all the yamas and niyamas, the more willpower you have. It is an accumulative, ever-growing bank account.
Of course, you can lose some of it through lapses into fear, anger and jealousy, just as in an economic depression one loses money. But you can also court an inflation by seeking higher consciousness in the vishuddha chakra of divine love through the anahata chakra of direct cognition, through understanding the oneness of a well-ordered, just universe, both inner and outer.
SUTRA 56 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
NONINJURY
Siva’s devotees do not intentionally kill or harm any person or creature. Nonviolence, physically, mentally and emotionally, is their highest code. Full of compassion, they are never a source of fear or hurtfulness. Aum.
LESSON 56 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
SPRINGBOARD TO ETERNITY
The uninitiated might ask: ”What is it like to be in the clear white light?” The young aspirant may reply, ”It is as simple as sitting in a darkened room, closing the eyes in deep concentration and finding the entire inside of the cranium turning into light.” At first it may be only a dim, moon-like glow, a pale flicker of several different colors, but then it becomes as bright and intense as the radiance of the noonday sun, then crystal clear and white. It all depends upon the composition of the mind states of reactionary patterns as to how the light in the cranium will first appear.
Of course, clear white light is not absolute, for light invariably implies the existence of shadow. The shadows that sometimes fade out inner light are the instinctive functions that hold the physical body intact. These are represented as attributes in the external mind and character of man.
Attachment, for instance, holds our cells together; it is also the root of much suffering, for attachment to material objects or people keeps man’s awareness externalized, incapable of expressing itself in full freedom. Man who is caught in the magnetic forces is prone to resentment. Not being able to cognize various fears as they occur, he stores them up into a conscious resentment of all threats to the false securities found in attachment. Resentment burrows deeply into the outer mind’s layers, undermining much of a person’s creative endeavor. The reactionary conditions resentment is capable of agitating are subconscious and cast many shadows over clarity of perception for long periods of time.
Those who resent are often jealous, another shadow or character weakness which stems from feelings of inferiority, a limited view of one’s real Self. After one burst of clear white light has occurred, the force fields of attachment, resentment and jealousy are shattered. An increased control of the mind, an expanded consciousness, is maintained which frees man little by little from ever again generating the magnetic holds consuming his consciousness in these shadows. When man allows himself to routine his external thinking and action to settle into uncreative, static conditions, pressures of various sorts build up, and the undisciplined mind releases itself to the emotion of anger, a state of consciousness which renders a man blind to the existence of inner light in any degree.
Fear is another shadow which causes man to have an inability to face a critical moment, even in the intimacy of his deepest meditation. But fear is a protective process of the instinctive mind, allowing time to temporarily avoid what must later be faced. Fear, being an intense force in the mind’s, as well as the body’s, structure, must be handled positively, for when man thinks under the shadow of fear, he causes his fears to manifest. The flickering shadows of worry brought on by allowing mind to irrationally jump from one subject to another, never centralizing on any one point long enough to complete it, must be handled through disciplining the flow of thought force, for worry provokes a darker shadow–fear. Fear when disturbed causes anger, submerged anger, resentment, causing a jealous nature. Hence the constant play of the clear white light versus its shadows.
By becoming conscious of the way in which the mind operates in even a small degree, the young aspirant to light finds it easy to fold back the shadows into shafts of clear white light.
