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LOKA 28 FROM DANCING WITH SIVA
HOW IS OUR SOUL IDENTICAL WITH SIVA?
The essence of our soul, which was never created, is immanent love and transcendent reality and is identical and eternally one with God Siva. At the core of our being, we already are That–perfect at this very moment. Aum.
BHASHYA
At the core of the subtle soul body is Parashakti, or Satchidananda, immanent love; and at the core of that is Parasiva, transcendent reality. At this depth of our being there exists no separate identity or difference–all are One. Thus, deep within our soul we are identical with God now and forever. These two divine perfections are not aspects of the evolving soul, but the nucleus of the soul which does not change or evolve. From an absolute perspective, our soul is already in nondual union with God, but to be realized to be known. We are That. We do not become That. Deep within this physical body, with its turbulent emotions and getting-educated mind, is pure perfection identical to Siva’s own perfections of Parashakti and Parasiva. In this sacred mystery we find the paradoxes of oneness and twoness, of being and becoming, of created and uncreated existence subtly delineated. Yea, in the depth of our being, we are as He is. The Vedas explain, ”The one controller, the inner Self of all things, who makes His one form manifold, to the wise who perceive Him as abiding in the soul, to them is eternal bliss–to no others.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
LESSON 338 FROM LIVING WITH SIVA
THE FIRST 24 YEARS
There are no more maharajas to defend the Saiva Dharma for the people, and therefore the people themselves have taken up the scepter. Together they have to work to preserve and publish scriptures. Together they have to found Saivite schools and universities in which the knowledge of their forefathers will be safeguarded and disseminated. It is not enough to be born into a Saivite home. Education and training are now more essential than ever before if Saiva souls being born today are to grow up into the fullness of the Saiva Samayam.
In our efforts to preserve Saivism, we have but one paramount duty to perform, and that is to pass Saivism on to the next generation. How do we do this? By capturing and holding the minds of our youth for their first twenty-four years, holding them close, as was done in the traditional gurukula, exposing them to a broad yet specific knowledge and immersing them in the most wonderful impressions of our great religion. Children during the brahmacharya ashrama, we could say, are on the kutumba marga, the stage of being trained by their parents, of being educated, of developing into useful members of society. After age twenty-four, they can be freely released with the confidence that they will contend well in a demanding world, that they will always have their faith to guide and strengthen them when karmas become intense or alien influences encroach.
We of the older generation are already set in our ways. Our patterns were established years ago when early impressions impregnated and influenced our minds. We can still learn, we can study, but our formative years are largely past. It is now the children who must be thought of, for they will be here when we pass away. We can devise ways to let them benefit from our experience, good and bad. To do this, we must hold them firmly for twenty-four years as they go through two natural twelve-year cycles of life, impressing on them the intricacies of the Saiva Samayam before they are exposed to any alien faith or belief. Having done that, our duty is complete, and we can rest assured that Saivism will be perpetuated by our children, by our children’s children and on into the future of the world, on into the new age of space.
However, it must be said, and said boldly, that not all Saivites are performing this important duty. Rather than becoming the first gurus, as mother and father, as is traditional, they send the youth off to school, away from home, without chaperoning, and make the world his guru. From there he falls naturally into anava marga, the path of being his own person, looking out for ”number one.”
If we fail and let a single generation slip by, the entire religion will be threatened. It only takes one generation to let our religion begin a fall into disuse. I gave this message on Saivite education to over 300,000 devotees during a 1981 tour of Sri Lanka and India. It was an important message at the time, well received, and today is no less relevant. I pointed out in no uncertain terms that for many decades Hindus have been sending their children to Catholic schools. They do this because the Catholics run very fine educational institutions and programs throughout India and Sri Lanka and elsewhere, and each family naturally wants its children to have the best education. The children do get a good discipline and education, but it is a Catholic education, an education ultimately designed to bring young boys and girls into the Catholic religion, designed to persuade them of the Christian view of life, of the Christian view of God and salvation, and of all the Christian beliefs.
Hindu parents should not send their children to Christian missionary schools, nor to schools founded in the name of any other religion who seek to influence them, even in subtle ways, such as through symbols and peer missionaries who chide and taunt Hindu children about their culture, their beliefs, their dress or their symbols. These schools have a detrimental effect on the subconscious minds of the children, steadily turning them away from Hindu beliefs. When they slowly absorb the attitudes of another faith, slowly their belief structure is altered, and gradually their actions at home reflect this change.
SUTRA 338 OF THE NANDINATHA SUTRAS
THEIR LIKES ARE THEIR DISLIKES
All Siva’s monastics firmly uphold the spirit of nonownership, never adopting the householder attitudes of claiming their own space, timing, tools, friends, ambitions, likes and dislikes. Yea, they are unattached. Aum.
LESSON 338 FROM MERGING WITH SIVA
BRINGING OTHERS INTO REALIZATION
The lesson I want to point out is that once the soul has realized the Self, it is now on the road to realizing it again, and realizing it again and again. It is just as simple as that, and the warning that I would give is: do not become fascinated in the aftermath of any experience of the Self–so that the inner mind is always reaching for the highest samadhi, not being intrigued with the superconscious that is after samadhi. When one is intrigued with the superconsciousness after samadhi, this builds up the forces, not only of the mind but all the psychic forces, and brings the mathavasi into a realm of occultism. This is something to guard against, because when he is intrigued with the aftermath, with the possibilities and the ramifications of the mind, this will eventually lead him around and around in circles, because the mind can offer nothing other than ramifications. In the beginning teachings, all devotees learn that the mind created itself, created itself and created itself. Well, even the superconscious mind does this.
What must be really sought after, in order for one as a Self-Realized person to fulfill his destiny of bringing others into Self Realization, is a pure samadhi which will keep the pure teachings of advaita yoga alive on the Earth through the sannyasins. Everything on Earth comes through people. Everything of advanced knowledge has come through people. Self Realization is the pure teachings of yoga, attained on the Earth through people who talk, breathe, live just like the Self-Realized soul does.
If he goes into nirvikalpa samadhi and becomes ramified in the psychic powers that come after samadhi, after his first samadhi, his second samadhi, his third samadhi, he will become more intense and will realize new possibilities within himself. If he remains on those planes of the phenomena of the occultism of the mind, then he gains new and fascinating powers of the mechanism of the mind, but he loses the power to bring others along the path into samadhi. If the renunciate maintains a clean samadhi and comes back into the mind, he realizes he has had some extrasensory perceptions, and he does not use them. He does not use them at all unless, of course, he uses them quite naturally, just as naturally as he would enjoy a meal, but he does not dwell on supernatural powers as anything special. He is at every point in time just who he is.
What the renunciate is taught to dwell on would be the next time and the next time he would be going into samadhi. Then he awakens a strong current within himself that can bring others into samadhi. By dropping off unessential powers, he gains one great power. That is the one great power that those who have realized the Self want, the power to bring others into Self Realization. You can only do that by having first attained a pure Self Realization yourself and going into samadhi again and again and again. Remember, the sannyasin’s destiny is this: having realized the Self, bring others into the pure realization of the Self, and teach other sannyasins to go into samadhi and come out with a well-balanced mind, without deviating one way or another on the psychic planes.
