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The three bonds that hold us in the swirl of ego, karma and mind are shown as links of a mighty chain. These keep us fascinated with the ever-changing world and ignorant of our divine identity.<\/em>\u00a7<\/a><\/p>\n SHUTTERSTOCK<\/small>\u00a7<\/a><\/p>\n S<\/samp><\/span>iva is perfection itself. Each soul shares His perfection inwardly, but outwardly is immature. Think of Siva as a mighty oak tree and the soul as an acorn that will one day be a mighty tree itself. Lord Siva\u2019s veiling grace,\u00a0tirodhana shakti<\/em>, veils the soul\u2019s all-knowingness. This is a loving power that limits and protects us so that we may learn and mature. This grace is in three parts. First,\u00a0anava<\/em>makes us forget that we are unlimited. Anava is that which makes the soul finite and separate from God Siva. Under its power, we are completely involved in the joys and sorrows of our particular life, not aware that we are a divine soul, one with God. Second,\u00a0maya,<\/em>\u00a0the world, offers us vast opportunities for experience. This gift from Siva is our playground of experience. Third,\u00a0karma,<\/em>\u00a0the law of cause and effect, is our instructor in the play of life. Together, anava, karma and maya are known as\u00a0pasha<\/em>, meaning \u201ctether.\u201d An ancient analogy of a cowherd tending his cows illumines this idea. The cowherd is God Siva, called Pati. The cows represent souls,\u00a0pashu<\/em>. And the tether, or rope, with which Pati leads the cows is\u00a0pasha<\/em>. The cowherd restrains and protects the cows with the rope, just as Siva guides and protects souls with anava, karma and maya. Through many lifetimes, under the harnessing power of these three, our soul grows to maturity and the three malas begin to loosen their grip. When the time is ripe, Siva grants His revealing grace,\u00a0anugraha shakti<\/em>. When finally we yearn to know Siva, the satguru appears in our life and gives us disciplines to help us evolve further. Finally, through his grace, the soul realizes its true identity with Siva. The\u00a0Tirumantiram<\/em>\u00a0explains, \u201cWhen the soul attains Self-knowledge, then it becomes one with Siva. The\u00a0malas<\/em>\u00a0perish, birth\u2019s cycle ends and the lustrous light of wisdom dawns.\u201d\u00a7<\/a><\/p>\n GURUDEVA:<\/small><\/strong>\u00a0Maya is the classroom, karma the teacher, and anava the student\u2019s ignorance. The three bonds, or malas, are given by Lord Siva to help and protect us as we unfold. Yet, God Siva\u2019s all-knowingness may be experienced for brief periods by the meditator who turns within to his own essence.\u00a7<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The three bonds that hold us in the swirl of ego, karma and mind are shown as links of a mighty chain. These keep us fascinated with the ever-changing world and ignorant of our divine identity.\u00a7 SHUTTERSTOCK\u00a7 Siva is perfection itself. Each soul shares His perfection inwardly, but outwardly is immature. Think of Siva as a mighty oak tree and the soul as an acorn that will one day be a mighty tree itself. Lord Siva\u2019s veiling grace,\u00a0tirodhana shakti, veils the soul\u2019s all-knowingness. This is a loving power that limits and protects us so that we may learn and mature. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-path-to-siva-a-catechism-for-youth","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u00a7<\/a><\/p>\n