SLOKA 144 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE VIEW OF MONISTIC THEISM?
Monistic theism is the synthesis of monism and dualism. It says God is transcendent and immanent, eternal and temporal, Being and becoming, Creator and created, Absolute and relative, efficient and material cause. Aum.
BHASHYA
Both strict monism and dualism are fatally flawed, for neither alone encompasses the whole of truth. In other words, it is not a choice between the God-is-man-and-world view of pantheistic monism and the God-is-separate-from-man-and-world view of theistic dualism. It is both. Panentheism, which describes ”all in God, and God in all,” and monistic theism are Western terms for Advaita Ishvaravada. It is the view that embraces the oneness of God and soul, monism, and the reality of the Personal God, theism. As panentheists, we believe in an eternal oneness of God and man at the level of Satchidananda and Parasiva. But a difference is acknowledged during the evolution of the soul body. Ultimately, even this difference merges in identity. Thus, there is perfectly beginningless oneness and a temporary difference which resolves itself in perfect identity. In the acceptance of this identity, monistic theists differ from most vishishtadvaitins. The Vedas declare, ”He moves and He moves not; He is far, yet is near. He is within all that is, yet is also outside. The man who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings is free from all fear.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 144 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
THE ROLES OF MAN AND WIFE
Is there anything unique in the Saivite marriage that helps in dealing with the roles that men and women traditionally play? Are women always to be meek and dependent and men aggressive and in charge? Sometimes an aggressive woman marries a passive man. How does Saivism deal with this?” This totally depends on the education of both the husband and the wife. This has been my experience. When the modernization of education occurred, which taught people how to live in the world, run a business or work for someone else, family life began to evolve out of the village consciousness and into the technological age. In this change, traditional roles also changed.
Today there are five basic patterns of marriage. In an agricultural community, women take care of the house, and men take care of the farm, the business and industry; or in some other societies where women are stronger, they work side-by-side with the men. There, for a man to have his wife work side-by-side with him in the field is a sign of status, better meals for the family and more attention to himself. Also we must understand that in these marriages both husband and wife share a similar educational level, a similar understanding of how the world works. This is the first and oldest pattern.
However, as society changes because of technology and industrialization, people change and their relationships change. I have found that a Western-educated man who marries an Eastern village-educated girl will always be head of the house, and she will allow this. Basically, she does not understand the ways of urban life. This is the second type of marriage. The educated man marrying an uneducated girl will not expect her to understand what he is thinking about or feeling. And she would probably not understand even if he explained it all to her. She would naturally be submissive; he would be aggressive.
It has been my experience that it works exactly the same the other way around in cases where the woman is more highly educated than the man. The intellectually educated lady marrying an uneducated man would most likely be the principal wage-earner, and he would be submissive. She will naturally make the major decisions about how to spend her money. He will naturally concur. Or, they will fight. This third, more difficult, relationship will demand a leader and a follower, especially if she earns more money than he and has more job security and greater benefits, such as medical insurance and retirement.
The second and third types of marriage share a common factor. A village girl has no way of earning her own living, should her husband die or leave her, and would have no recourse but to return to her family, unless he left her a substantial bequest or alimony. A nonprofessional village man would have no other recourse than to seek his own level of income should his educated wife die or leave him without providing a generous support or inheritance.
SUTRA 144 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
POOLING INCOMES FOR FAMILY UNITY
Siva’s followers require unmarried progeny living with them who have finished school and are employed to submit, after tithing, all earnings to the family fund. Once betrothed, they manage their own earnings. Aum.
LESSON 144 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
LOWER STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
When someone begins on the path from states of consciousness below the muladhara, in the confused thinking areas of the mind, in the angry chakras, religion will be to him a superstitious, forboding, very unclear area. These chakras are also known as talas, or states of darkness, self-concealment and distortion. They are the ”nether poles” of the higher chakras and of the seven corresponding lokas. Confused thinking we can define as ”self-preservation thinking.” When a person is within this chakra, the feelings of ”me and mine” are strong. It is a state of outward passion and sense indulgence. This is the vibration of the talatala chakra, which could be translated as ”under the bottom level,” ”place-nonplace” (tala-atala), or ”realm of nonbeing.” In this fourth center below the muladhara, the protection of one’s small universe at all costs is the consciousness.
Should such a person ever become uplifted, since his consciousness is deep within the lower chakras, he would first come up in consciousness into jealousy, the sutala chakra, meaning ”great lower region,” a ”good matter” state of spiritual darkness ruled by desire and passion. The feeling of jealousy is a higher consciousness than that of the chakra below, which confuses the thinking. The next upliftment, after jealousy and confused thinking, is the release into the chakra of anger, the second force center below the muladhara. This is the vitala chakra, translated as ”the region of the lost,” ”realm of division or confusion.” The upliftment to follow anger is to enter the chakra of fear, a state of spiritual annihilation called the atala chakra, meaning ”without bottom,” or ”no place.” Fear is a higher consciousness than anger or jealousy. It is people who live in this chakra who make up the masses who fear God rather than love God.
The fifth chakra below the muladhara is called rasatala, literally ”state of sense enjoyment.” This is the true home of the animal nature. Here personal selfishness predominates. Persons strongly in the consciousness of this force center care nothing for the problems and suffering of others.
Below this, dare we speak of it, is the mahatala, ”the greatest lower region,” where ego rules supreme. This is the realm of unconscionable acts, wherein perpetrators feel absolutely no remorse for the most heinous wrongdoings. The conscience is completely dormant for those locked in this realm. Negativity, depression and other dark states of mind are the order of the day for those in the mahatala chakra. Finally, at the bottom of consciousness is the patala chakra, ”lower region of wickedness” or ”fallen state,” where dark ignorance rules. This is the realm of vicious destruction, of revenge, murder for the sake of murder. Basking in the twisted vibrations of this area of consciousness, depraved transgressors torture others without a thought, express malice without a twinge of conscience, harm others in innumerable ways for sheer enjoyment and take delight in the emotional, mental and physical suffering of fellow humans and all beings that cross their path. Hatred is the ruling force in the patala chakra; malice reigns supreme. Far from reason, and farther still from compassion and insight, are those who live in the darkness of this area of mind.
We can see that coming up through the lower chakras is quite an ordeal. But once the individual goes through the fear chakra, he comes to Lord Ganesha’s feet and enters the realms of memory and reason, clarity and understanding. It is at this point in the unfoldment through the chakras, which is a journey of consciousness, that he would begin thinking of others and seek to benefit them more than himself. From here on, the path of spiritual unfoldment is not as ominous as it was before. There are no threatening areas, except that it is possible to fall back into lower consciousness.
