SLOKA 106 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
WHAT IS THE INNER IMPORTANCE OF PUJA?
The traditional rite of worship, called puja, is a sanctified act of the highest importance for the Hindu. It is the invoking of God Siva and the Gods and the heartfelt expression of our love, devotion and surrender. Aum.
BHASHYA
Puja is a ceremony in which the ringing of bells, passing of flames, presenting of offerings and chanting invoke the devas and Mahadevas, who then come to bless and help us. Puja is our holy communion, full of wonder and tender affections. It is that part of our day which we share most closely and consciously with our beloved Deity; and thus it is for Saivites the axis of religious life. Our worship through puja, outlined in the Saiva Agamas, may be an expression of festive celebration of important events in life, of adoration and thanksgiving, penance and confession, prayerful supplication and requests, or contemplation at the deepest levels of superconsciousness. Puja may be conducted on highly auspicious days in a most elaborate, orthodox and strict manner by the temple pujaris, or it may be offered in the simplest form each morning and evening in the home shrine by any devotee. The Vedas proclaim, ”Sacrifice resembles a loom with threads extended this way and that, composed of innumerable rituals. Behold now the fathers weaving the fabric; seated on the outstretched loom. ’Lengthwise! Crosswise!’ they cry.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 261 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
THE CAUSE OF JOY AND SORROW
Somewhere the idea was born that man should live in states of happiness and joy all of the time. But, in the first place, happiness and joy depend upon unhappiness and sorrow, even to be recognized or appreciated. If man would only know that whatever emotion transpires within him foreshadows its opposite. Secondly, suffering is a greater intensity, a higher vibration, than happiness. You do not learn much from your happinesses; you learn from the states of suffering, which awaken the higher consciousness of your soul. But suffering has no value for its own sake. When the mind recognizes it is suffering over something or other, it is time to practice meditation, to see into the causes, to expand your consciousness a little bit more so that you will grasp the workings of life and its karmic laws. Then you will attain to a greater intensity than either joy or suffering has to offer. You will view the wheel of life, of cause and effect, objectively. And you will not so quickly identify yourself with the lower emotions or the objects of your own mind’s creation.
Then there are the people who, like a fish caught by a fisherman, grasp onto the hook, who step on the spiritual path, but spend their time flip-flopping in the water, tugging at the line, swimming first one way then the other, never really approaching the surface. Why? They live in their ego, that’s all. Their consciousness is limited. The ego is just a trifle dumb. Have you observed an egotistical person? He is just a little dumb, isn’t he–not aware of the layers and layers of wisdom within him.
It is the wise man who recognizes the importance of controlling the forces of his mind. His life is a struggle to make his philosophy real, to gain control of the cycles of experience which have tied him to the wheel of karma. You don’t escape the chain of cause and effect by just sitting with your eyes closed, trying to keep awake, trying to meditate. The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line. This type of diligent concentration will definitely change you from the inside out. You will begin to realize, more and more, that you are the creator of your life and every aspect of it.
But your incarnation on this planet is not complete until you have exhausted the wheel of karma, and it will not exhaust itself unless you gain control of it. The wheel of karma, of cause and effect, the world of form, is apparent only when you look at it. You only attain the natural state of your radiant inner being when you step off the wheel of karma. It is not natural for man to live bound to the lower states of mind, ignorant of the fact that God dwells within. But the hearing and understanding of this truth is only the first glimmer of the dawn, a preliminary awakening. The rest, the final realization, is up to you. It is up to you and you alone to penetrate the veil of illusion and realize the Self, the Absolute, beyond desire, beyond the experiences of the mind. It is up to you to realize God.
SUTRA 261 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY MISSIONS
My congregation is organized into local missions to nurture religious life through shared worship, extended family gatherings, sacraments and community service, in accordance with the Saiva Dharma Shastras. Aum.
LESSON 261 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
THE SPINE’S CENTRAL ENERGY
Once in either current for a long time, it is difficult to flow awareness out of it. There are some people who are predominantly pingala, aggressive in nature and strong in their human elements in that area. There are some people who are predominantly ida, human, physical and earthy, and full of feeling. And there are some who switch from one to the other. These are the more rounded and well-adjusted type of people, who can move awareness through the pingala current and through the ida current and adjust the energies almost at will.
We have still another basic strong current that you should know about. It is called sushumna. Within this massive current are fourteen other smaller currents which govern the instinctive, intellectual, conscious, subconscious, sub of the subconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious areas of the mind. The ida and the pingala are two of these fourteen, so this leaves twelve more within the sushumna.
When we begin a religious pilgrimage or retreat into sadhana and we want awareness to dive deep within, we have to withdraw the energy of the vibrating ida and the vibrating pingala current into sushumna. This is quite a chore, because these currents have had energy flowing in them for a number of years. So, to rechannel that energy is to rechannel the entire circumference of awareness into the sushumna current. This takes a lot of practice.
Breathing, of course, is a major function of control here. Hatha yoga is a major function, too. Sitting in the lotus position conquers a great deal of the ida current. The practices of concentration and observation conquer a great deal of the pingala current. Some good, solid study that disciplines awareness, such as the study of math, music or a skill, moves awareness into the pingala and helps balance these two currents.
Then the next step is to bring awareness into sushumna. This is the path. However, if awareness is flowing through the pingala current already and is extremely aggressive, that means the entire nature of the individual is extremely aggressive, intellectual, and it is extremely difficult for him to withdraw those energies into the sushumna current. Why? Because he will argue within himself mentally and reason himself out of it. He will simply go to another book, or have a different intellectual look at it, or go to another teacher, or watch television instead, or go to another lecture. He will never quite get around to bringing in this aggressive pingala energy from the intellect back to its source, sushumna, so that he can go within and experience superconscious realms of the inner mind consciously.
These two forces, the ida and the pingala, are the big challenges. They are what makes a person ”human” in the popular sense of the word. It is the degree of energy that flows through the areas of the ida and pingala that forms one’s nature, his actions, reactions and responses. The areas of his external personality are governed by these two currents.
