SLOKA 62 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT ARE GOOD CONDUCT’S FOUR KEYS?
Purity, devotion, humility and charity are the four keys to good conduct. Of these, purity is the cardinal virtue. We cultivate purity by thinking, speaking and doing only that which is conceived in compassion for all. Aum.
BHASHYA
Purity is the pristine and natural state of the soul. We cultivate purity by refraining from anger and retaliation, by maintaining a clean and healthy body, and by guarding our virginity until marriage. We cultivate purity by seeking good company and by living a disciplined life. Devotion is love of God, Gods and guru, and dedication to family and friends. We cultivate devotion through being loyal and trustworthy. We cultivate devotion through worship and selfless service. Humility is mildness, modesty, reverence and unpretentiousness. We cultivate humility by taking the experiences of life in understanding and not in reaction, and by seeing God everywhere. We cultivate humility through showing patience with circumstances and forbearance with people. Charity is selfless concern and caring for our fellow man. It is generous giving without thought of reward, always sharing and never hoarding. We cultivate charity through giving to the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the elderly and the unfortunate. The Vedas explain, ”As to a mountain that’s enflamed, deer and birds do not resort–so, with knowers of God, sins find no shelter.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 217 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY
Building up the spiritual vibration in the home requires a control of the computers. Here at our Saivite Hindu monastery in Hawaii, all of the monastics have a computer. When they take their vows, they are given their robes, their beads, their staff of tapas and their Macintosh! This enables us to serve the very best that we can from our tiny little island. At this ashrama we look at our technology as our tools. We control these tools. They do not control us. We use these tools to enhance our religious work, to amplify the Sanatana Dharma and bring it out into the Western world and throughout the world through written publications and on the Internet. Our tools do not dominate our life. We turn them on at a certain time. We turn them off at a certain time. At twelve noon they are turned off and not turned on again until 3:00pm. At 6:30pm, they’re turned off again and not turned on until after worship and intense guided meditation the next morning. On retreat days–two days each week–we don’t use them at all, except possibly for an hour on rare occasions and only for very important things. What does this do? It allows everyone to talk with everyone else, to communicate, to share, to appreciate each other, to work together for the good of all. It allows us to live a balanced life, a human life in which the spirit within us can shine through and we have time to enjoy the sunset on our 459-acre spiritual sanctuary on the Garden Island of Kauai, to listen to the song of a bird, to meditate and enjoy the company of one another, even in this technological age.
Perhaps the most prevalent electronic media is television. A family watching television together is a togetherness, provided the program is a wholesome choice that everyone enjoys. You can laugh and talk together and discuss what you watched afterwards. But there should be an afterwards and a before. That balances the mesmerizing capacity of television. Television shouldn’t consume all of the family’s time. Before the TV is turned on in the evening, the family should sit together, talk about the day, acknowledge or praise each other and mutually decide what will be viewed. Afterwards, some time should be taken to discuss what was watched and to explain it to the children, especially if they are young, allowing them to partake of the wisdom of the parents. Especially if they see a program you don’t approve of, sit them down afterwards and talk it over with them, discuss the values portrayed in relation to our Saivite values. Let them be aware of other points of view. This is your duty.
Treat the television like you would going to a movie: the whole family gets in the car as if they are going to a big event. They drive to the movie house, buy the tickets, some popcorn and soda, have a wonderful time and come home and enjoy one another’s company.
Children should not be allowed to watch TV constantly, but made to live a balanced life that includes exercise, games and outdoor activities. Some children can and do watch TV for many hours each day, filling their minds with all kinds of ideas and neglecting their studies. It is up to the parents to set wise rules for TV and to enforce those rules for the benefit of the child’s mind. One such wise rule is to limit daily watching to one or two hours.
Use television if you wish, but use it wisely and you will avoid these problems. Learn to control television. Realize that it is a great instrument for entertainment, but a dangerous instrument if it overcomes you, if it fills up your subconscious mind, if it brings alien thoughts into your home and upsets your family.
While TV has enormous negative potential, music does as well. The type of music played in the home and the message it delivers is crucial. Ideally, it should be beautiful Hindu music played on traditional instruments by Saiva souls. Great care should be exercised to exclude the crass music and lyrics of lower consciousness. Whatever you listen to brings you into one state of consciousness or another.
SUTRA 217 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
THE MYSTICAL BENEFIT OF CREMATION
Siva’s devotees arrange swift cremation, ideally within 24 hours. The fire and accompanying rites sever ties to earthly life and give momentum to the soul, granting at least momentary access to superconscious realms. Aum.
LESSON 217 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
TRACE THE SOURCE OF PRANA
Prana is not air, of course, yet it is contained in the air in a certain manifestation. Much prana is found in the air among the trees or near the ocean. All of nature and the forces of nature are various manifestations of odic prana that have taken visual shape. Plants feed on the odic prana in the air. You can absorb prana simply by walking through a grove of trees. The air is filled with it. Take a walk today, out into the odic force field of nature and absorb the prana in the air through your breath and through the pores of your skin. You will feel the prana entering into your pranic sheath, or vital health body, and remaining there while you exhale.
Sit quietly and use the internal method of concentration when you think on this. Each time your mind wanders, pull it firmly back to the subject of concentration. Remember, in concentration, that the process of making the mind return to the object or subject of concentration forces a flow of odic as well as actinic prana through the most subtle nerve currents, causing them to grow strong, so that soon your concentration will be effortless as your subconscious responds to your conscious-mind concentration efforts, causing a new process called meditation to occur in the wonderful world of the mind.
Concentrate on the pranic health body flowing through and just within your physical body. Mentally go over the exercises we have done this week in proving the flow and existence of odic prana to the subconscious habit mind, so that by establishing a new habit pattern, the subconscious will aid instead of barricade your natural unfoldment on the path to enlightenment. Your subconscious needs certain proofs of these inner laws to solicit full cooperation.
Mentally trace odic prana to its source and cause. Does it come to an end? If so, where? Where does actinic prana begin? You will soon find that odic prana does come to an end, for it merges in the subconscious area of the mind into the subsuperconscious. You will find that odic prana depends on the existence of actinic prana for its existence. As you concentrate on the interrelated flow of odic prana and ascertain the area of the inner mind where actinic prana begins, you should conceptually see how you have been controlling odic prana during this entire week through the use of your subsuperconscious state of mind.
You are maturing through the knowledge of the within of your Being, which you have been studying these last few months. Remember, in the wonderful world of the mind, understanding, gaining mental perspectives, finding proof, no matter how small, within ourselves–these form important controls over the mind. The art of concentration, though the basic and most fundamental control of all, is not the only control over the mind on the classical yoga path to enlightenment. Harmony is control of even deeper aspects of the mind, as are understanding and actinic love. As we expand our consciousness on the yoga path to enlightenment, we hear more, see more, feel more, know more within ourselves. This is intense. We must not fear intensity, for intensity is actinic. Your actinic Being is intensity itself, actively alive and always shining out. Man can be thought of as seven aspects of form, but the Self is beyond the mind or beyond form, for mind is form. Mind is consciousness; consciousness is form. The Self is formless. Therefore, you can contemplatively say, ”I am That, I am.”
