SLOKA 10 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
\nWHAT IS THE UNIVERSALISTIC SMARTA SECT?
\nSmartism is an ancient brahminical tradition reformed by Shankara in the ninth century. Worshiping six forms of God, this liberal Hindu path is monistic, nonsectarian, meditative and philosophical. Aum Namah Sivaya.<\/p>\n
BHASHYA
\nSmarta means a follower of classical smriti, particularly the Dharma Shastras, Puranas and Itihasas. Smartas revere the Vedas and honor the Agamas. Today this faith is synonymous with the teachings of Adi Shankara, the monk-philosopher, known as shanmata sthapanacharya, ”founder of the six-sect system.” He campaigned India-wide to consolidate the Hindu faiths of his time under the banner of Advaita Vedanta. To unify the worship, he popularized the ancient Smarta five-Deity altar–Ganapati, Surya, Vishnu, Siva and Shakti–and added Kumara. From these, devotees may choose their ”preferred Deity,” or Ishta Devata. Each God is but a reflection of the one Saguna Brahman. Shankara organized hundreds of monasteries into a ten-order, dashanami system, which now has five pontifical centers. He wrote profuse commentaries on the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Shankara proclaimed, ”It is the one Reality which appears to our ignorance as a manifold universe of names and forms and changes. Like the gold of which many ornaments are made, it remains in itself unchanged. Such is Brahman, and That art Thou.” Aum Namah Sivaya.<\/p>\n
LESSON 320 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
\nTHE DHARMA OF PRAYER<\/p>\n
You may ask if the devas perform only good for us, and if they test us or punish us. All devas are under one of the Gods. When you write prayers to Lord Ganesha, some of His devas go to work in finding a solution for you. It is the same for Lord Murugan. Lord Siva is creator, preserver and destroyer of all that exists, but He also has tens of hundreds of thousands of devas who serve His devotees. All Siva temples are ahimsa, benign. The temple devas who answer prayers are those who represent only two of Siva’s powers: that of creation and that of preservation. The innocent requests, void of malice toward others, are considered benign and acceptable. No request is fulfilled for a bad thing to happen–the death of an enemy, the failure of one person so that another can succeed, the displacement of a neighbor, the fall of business competitors, the injury of those who have injured us, the death of an infidel, equal retaliation for hurts received (the eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth philosophy). Any such retaliatory, hurtful, himsa request is automatically placed into another sacred homa fire in the inner world by the first deva who reads it and sent back to the sender in tongues of fire to his heart to stimulate the fire of tapas, to soften his heart and to lift this young soul into higher consciousness, out from the asuric realms in which he lives. No, the Siva temple’s sacred fires can never be used for black magic, gray magic or the manipulation of other lives for the personal benefit of one’s own. Hurtfulness, himsa, is to be avoided, lest it stimulate the fires of tapas within the himsa advocate and begin a process of purification that one might not be quite ready for.<\/p>\n
There is no need to fear tapas, though it can be painful to see the malice wished on another come back to oneself. This is Siva’s mode of dissolution, a grace that burns away ill will and brings about a softening of the heart. It is one’s own malice that must be faced and overcome and destroyed. When tapas begins, it will burn off the accumulated dross from the wrongdoings of many past lives and eventually lift the soul to higher consciousness. This is why we call higher consciousness ”Siva consciousness.” But tapas is a painful process, one to be avoided by not wishing harm on another through the sacred fire.<\/p>\n
You can gently purify yourself, while avoiding the burning fire of tapas, by following the disciplines of Saivite religious life and sadhana such as the yamas and niyamas, the pancha nitya karmas, scriptural study and other personal disciplines given by the Kailasa Parampara satgurus. These keep the fires of tapas only warm, not burning hot, and accomplish the same purpose over a prolonged period of time.
\nSUTRA 320 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
\nLIVING IN THE SPIRIT OF TOGETHERNESS
\nMy Saiva monastics embrace a selfless life in which all work their minds together to keep the monastery strong. They never follow an individual path, remaining remote or aloof from brother mathavasis. Aum Namah Sivaya.<\/p>\n
LESSON 320 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
\nATTAINING THE ULTIMATE<\/p>\n
In other words, the practice of yoga well performed produces the jnani. The yogi has the same experiences, if he is successful, and comes out with the same independent knowledge which, when reviewed, corresponds perfectly with what other jnanis discovered and taught as the outcome of their yogic practices. This kind of knowledge surpasses all other knowing and is the basis of all Hindu scriptures. The jnani is a rare soul, a highly evolved soul. He speaks of Truth from his experience of it and gives it a personal touch. As Shri Ramakrishna said, you go into yourself a fool, but through the practices of yoga you come out a wise man. That is the jnani–the knower of the Unknowable.<\/p>\n
The yogi who is in the process of yoga, who has not graduated to God Realization, is not yet a jnani, though he has all kinds of realizations along the way, some sustained, others yet to be sustained. The yogi is seeking, striving, changing, unfolding, trying with all his heart to become, to know his ultimate goal. When the merger has become complete, when two have become one, he is no longer a yogi, he is a jnani. When the student graduates from college, he is no longer a student, he is a graduate. The merger of which I speak is Parasiva, to be experienced by the sannyasin who has turned from the world and into himself.<\/p>\n
There is yet another realization which can be described as experiencing God Siva as Satchidananda, as light and love and consciousness. This also may be achieved through yoga. When one experiences this expanded state of being, this cosmic consciousness, he comes back knowing he has had a fantastic experience, but no jnana persists, for he has yet to attain the Ultimate. Family people can attain this second state through diligent effort, and even attain to Parasiva at the point of death, or before if the path of renunciation is entered upon fully after life’s obligations have been fulfilled. But there are few, very few, who have attained the highest of the high, Parasiva, after having been householders, having fulfilled their family dharma, freed from any and all worldly endeavors, plunged into total, total, abandonment of spouse, family, friends, associates of all kind, taking no disciples, shunning devotees and forever living alone on alms, to seek the highest of the high. As said, even following such a strict path, there are few, very few, who attain to Absolute Reality. But all who strive have done powerful preparation for their next life.<\/p>\n
My satguru, Siva Yogaswami, often said, ”Lord Siva is within you. You are within Lord Siva. Lord Siva, with all of His powers, cannot separate Himself from you.” Siva Yogaswami told us to go to the temple, to worship at the temple. He also told us to go within ourselves, into Sivajnana. He did not tell us not to go to the temple. He did not try to break our faith. He tried to build our faith and make us strong. He guided us on the straight path, the path of the Saivite saints, leading us to the feet of Siva.<\/p>\n
Siva Yogaswami himself, though completely Self realized, went regularly to the temple, worshiped Siva there, then plunged within himself in the aftermath of holy puja, drawing near to Siva through meditation. He never advocated, nor has any Saivite satguru advocated, that advanced devotees give up bhakti, give up the temple. No! Never! They taught that Siva is within and cannot be separated from you, but they also wisely directed us to seek Him and worship Him in the temple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SLOKA 10 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA WHAT IS THE UNIVERSALISTIC SMARTA SECT? Smartism is an ancient brahminical tradition reformed by Shankara in the ninth century. Worshiping six forms of God, this liberal Hindu path is monistic, nonsectarian, meditative and philosophical. Aum Namah Sivaya. BHASHYA Smarta means a follower of classical smriti, particularly the Dharma Shastras, Puranas and Itihasas. Smartas revere the Vedas and honor the Agamas. Today this faith is synonymous with the teachings of Adi Shankara, the monk-philosopher, known as shanmata sthapanacharya, ”founder of the six-sect system.” He campaigned India-wide to consolidate the Hindu faiths of his time under <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-lesson-with-gurudeva","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6624","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=6624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}