SLOKA 60 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF PERSONAL DHARMA?
Personal law, or svadharma, is our own perfect individual pattern in life. It is the sum of our accumulated seed karmas as they relate to the collective effect on us of rita, ashrama and varna dharma. Aum Namah Sivaya.
BHASHYA
Each human being has an individual, personal dharma. This dharma is determined by two things: the karmas, both good and bad, from past lives; and the three dharmas of this life–universal, human and social. Svadharma, ”one’s own law,” is molded by our background and experiences, tendencies and desires–indicated by astrology–all of which determine our personality, profession and associations. The key to discovering and understanding personal dharma is the worship of Lord Ganesha, the God of memory, time and wisdom, who knows our past lives and can clarify our most perfect pattern, our right path in life. When we follow this unique pattern–guided by guru, wise elders and the knowing voice of our soul–we are content and at peace with ourselves and the world. Dharma is to the individual what its normal development is to a seed–the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. A Vedic prayer implores, ”That splendor that resides in an elephant, in a king, among men, or within the waters, with which the Gods in the beginning came to Godhood, with that same splendor make me splendid, O Lord.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 215 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
THE WEB’S VAST POTENTIAL
http://www.HinduismToday.com/ No, that’s not a typographical error or a foreign language. It’s Hinduism Today’s World Wide Web address. If you have access to a computer, you can read our Hindu family magazine from any of Earth’s hundreds of millions of Internet nodes, for free. True, you would not get all those wonderful photos or art, but the text is there for anyone searching the net for dharma. Years ago, before the Internet really took off, I meditated on what it would mean for Sanatana Dharma and could see a time when Hindus would all be connected on the Internet. An ashrama in Fiji could download explanations for samskaras. A yoga society in Orissa would be able to locate graphical information about chakras for a public slide show. A pilgrim could call up a home page with all the sacred sites, temples, tirthas and ashramas his family can visit on their way back to Bharat, complete with maps, train schedules and cost of A/C rooms. I saw more, much more. A panchangam, sacred Hindu calendar, we all use together, would be available, listing the holy days and festivals. I noted that our own timeline of Hindu history, from Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, was already on the Net. It has stirred historians to write us many letters and discuss the new way India’s history is being understood. Even now you can access it and search for when Ramakrishna was born, when the Vedas were written down or when South Indian Chola kings set sail for Indonesia.
I foresaw interactive courses. A teacher in South Africa could download wonderful resources to enrich the lessons she prepares for her students–photos, maps, Vedic verses, illustrations and sounds, all the things that interest children. How about an encyclopedia of Hinduism online? How about a library of dharma graphics which anyone could log onto, find that perfect piece of art for illustrating a brochure, download it and never leave their desk? The possibilities are endless.
Say your daughter just had a new baby and you want a special name. What to do? Search for Hindu names on the Net, through thousands of names on numerous sites, for the perfect name, with the meaning and the right pronunciation. Need a good time to start a business, sign an important contract or leave on a trip? Just call up the WWW home page on astrology for a computer analysis of the auspicious moment.
SUTRA 215 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
THE MOMENT OF GRAND DEPARTURE
Siva’s devotees strive at the moment of death to depart the body through the crown chakra and consciously enter the clear white light and beyond. A perfect transition culminates in God realization. Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 215 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THE SHEATH OF VITALITY
In the West we have only a few close equivalents for the Sanskrit word prana, and they are odic force, actinic force and energy. But prana is not really a form of energy or a force; it is the sum total of all energy, all force, in its various manifestations. Science has proven that all matter is in vibration, that the difference in these vibrations are what gives matter its form. At one time scientists believed the atom to be the smallest unit within matter, but progressively smaller units have been discovered. When the smallest subdivision of matter is reached, prana, or pure energy, remains. Prana is the sum total of energy, because the whole material universe is, in a sense, manifested from it.
The odic pranic sheath is the health body, pranamaya kosha, hovering just within and through the physical body, extending out from the physical body about two to five inches. Odic prana is physical vitality. Actinic prana and willpower are one and the same.
You have probably read of cases of suspended animation, men buried alive for hours or days without air or food. When this actually occurs and it is not faked, it is usually due to the control of prana. After extensive training, odic force can be stored in a static state in the body and then used in the absence of air or food, for it is the essence of air or food. Some animals that hibernate do this as well. Frogs have been found buried in earthen mounds in the United States and are said to have been hibernating there hundreds of years without food, water, or air, yet once liberated they showed every sign of life. And man can do it, too, with proper training over a long period of time. This, of course, is not a complete unfoldment of the meaning of life. It is only the conquest of the second aspect of man, odic prana.
Breathe deeply in and out, in and out, in and out. As you breathe in, feel as though you are pulling odic prana into you as well as air. As you breathe out, feel as though you are sending out the air, but keeping the odic prana in the body, all the time storing it in the solar plexus. Soon you should begin to feel full of energy, solid and stable.
Here is another exercise. Select a dimly lit place that you can use as a background against which to view your hand, such as a closet. Open your right hand, in which you have been storing odic prana, and hold it against the dark background. With your eyes half open, gaze at your hand relaxed. Don’t try too hard. You should be able to see the odic prana around each of your fingers. It will be seen as a cloudy, vaporous substance. If you are in perfect health, the odic prana will be clearer and more readily apparent. Some sensitive yoga students can see the odic prana around the physical body of people.
