Lesson 315 – Dancing with Śiva

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What Is the Ultimate Goal of Earthly Life?

ŚLOKA 5
The ultimate goal of life on Earth is to realize the Self, the rare attainment of nirvikalpa samādhi. Each soul discovers its Śivaness, Absolute Reality, Paraśiva—the timeless, formless, spaceless Self God. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
The realization of the Self, Paraśiva, is the destiny of each soul, attainable through renunciation, sustained medi­tation and frying the seeds of karmas yet to germinate. It is the gateway to moksha, liberation from re­birth. The Self lies be­yond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling na­ture, beyond action or any movement of even the highest state of consciousness. The Self God is more solid than a neutron star, more elusive than empty space, more intimate than thought and feeling. It is ul­timate reality itself, the innermost Truth all seekers seek. It is well worth striving for. It is well worth struggling to bring the mind under the dominion of the will. After the Self is realized, the mind is seen for the unreality that it truly is. Because Self Realization must be experienced in a physical body, the soul cycles back again and again into flesh to dance with Śiva, live with Śiva and ultimate­ly merge with Śiva in un­dif­ferenti­at­ed oneness. Yea, jīva is actually Śiva. The Vedas explain, “As water poured into water, milk poured into milk, ghee into ghee be­come one without differentiation, even so the individual soul and the Supreme Self become one.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 315 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Emissaries Of Lord Śiva

Worship God Śiva and you will be filled with love. Become a member of the united Śaivites of the world, who love one another, who take care of each other in England, in South Africa, in Nepal, in North America, in South America, in Mauritius, in Malaysia, in Java, in Fiji, in Trinidad and Tobago, in Guyana, in Suriname, in Sri Lanka and in India. It is this Śivasambhandam, this inner association of Śaivites the world over, that is the strength for Śaivites wherever they find themselves. In this technological age this must become an outer association as well.

I urge all Śaivites, devotees of God Śiva, to worship Him as the God of Love and, in doing so, to become beings of love. The great saints of our religion were Śiva bhaktas. They changed the world through their love of God. They did not need vast institutions to spread their message. They did not need riches or carts filled with books to spread their message. They did not need radio, television or the Internet. Their message spread because their minds were filled with direct knowledge, direct experience of God Śiva. Their message spread far and wide, though they perhaps never left their native village. They just evolved within it. You, too, are emissaries of Lord Śiva, and your love for Him is your greatest message. Simply love God Śiva and let that love radiate out into the world.

We cannot forget that Lord Śiva is the uncreated God. He is the closest to you. He is nearer than your breathing. He is nearer than your heartbeat. He is the very Self of you, each and every one of you. Śaivites love Śiva in that very way, as the Self of themselves. Being in all things simultaneously, at every point in time, God Śiva is in your fingers, He is in your eyes, He is in your heart, He is in your mind. As our great satguru, Śiva Yogaswami, said, “There is one thing that Lord Śiva cannot do. He can do everything, but there is one thing He cannot do. He cannot separate Himself from me.” That is the only thing that God Śiva cannot do. He cannot take Himself out of you.

There are three things we must do: perform or attend pūjā every day in the home, attend a temple once a week and make a pilgrimage once a year. These three are the foundation of our Śaiva Siddhānta. Plus, for those who are able, meditation and certain sādhanas are part of this worship. External worship builds a vibration within us, and that vibration is taken within, into deep meditation—internalizing the worship in worshiping God and the Gods within you and contacting them within the higher chakras until you realize that you also have always been the all-pervasive energy that pervades the universe.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 315: SENDING PRAYERS TO THE INNER WORLDS
My devotees practice the ancient rite of sending prayers to the devas and Gods through the sacred fire, but only during auspicious times at Church missions and temples designated by the preceptor. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 315 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Yoking the Inner Worlds

An advanced adept can, in meditation, travel in the ākāśa, too. He can go to India, Sri Lanka, America, in three different ways: by projecting himself mentally “out there” in the ākāśa, by sitting and bringing Sri Lanka here, or by traveling in his astral body and actually being there. People would see him there if they were inwardly awakened. The great devas or Gods visit temples and participate in keeping the darshan vibration going strong. They help the satgurus, too. They help the disciples of the satgurus by giving a wonderful psychic protection. They can usually be contacted by ringing a bell.

The bell is one of the things that penetrates in vibration into the ākāśa. If you trace the evanescent tones of a bell in and in and in, right into the light, it will be the last sound you will hear before soundlessness occurs. All other sounds will fade away, and you will only hear the bell, as the last overtone of sound. On the tone of a bell, you can bring a yogī safely out of deep meditation. He will begin to hear that sound and will come out into normal consciousness after a while. Otherwise you might talk to him, and he might not even hear you. You can awaken a sleeper out of deep sleep by ringing a bell softly. The soft tones of the bell will penetrate into the depths of his sleep or meditation and bring him out in a very nice way into physical consciousness. As a bell is the first, so the flame is the second thing that penetrates that deeply into consciousness.

The inner-plane being, once contacted, would then use the water on your home altar to put in all of the accumulated unwholesome vibrations found in the room. He would then charge the stone on the altar with his darshan. The inner-plane being or deva would come to the pūjā, summoned by the bell. The power of the flame would give him the ability to work within the room, and he would go around collecting all the negative vibrations from everybody, old karma and magnetic collections of thought and emotion, and put it all in the water. After the pūjā, the water should be thrown out. It may start to get cloudy. In the meditation room, the water should always be kept fresh, because it even collects odic force on its own.

The odic force is what causes all the problems on Earth. Water itself is odic force, so it collects the conflicting vibrations in its elements. The actinic forces do motivate odic forces, as well as create odic force. So, when in the large temples of India the ceremony is at a certain pitch and height, the darshan of the Deity that the temple is built for is felt because He visits the temple in his spiritual body. He might just come for a short period of time, but the vibration of the darshan is felt in a very dynamically uplifting way, a vibration similar to that of a satguru, but different because it comes from an inner plane. It protects one from old experiences coming up from the subconscious to repeat themselves, karmas that perhaps might take years to live through again. This inner protection is one of the many wonderful ways that darshan works for the good of people on the path.

Lesson 314 – Dancing with Śiva

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How Can We Learn to Dance with Śiva?

ŚLOKA 4
Dance is movement, and the most exquisite dance is the most disciplined dance. Hindu spiritual disciplines lead to oneness with God through self-reflection, surrender, personal transformation and the many yogas. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
To progress on the path, we study theVedas, other scriptures and our guru’s teachings and make every ef­fort to apply these philosophical truths to daily experience. We strive to un­der­stand the mind in its fourfold na­ture: chitta, con­scious­ness; manas, instinctive mind; buddhi, in­tellectual mind; and ahaṁ­­kāra, ego or I-maker. We per­form japa, meditation and yoga each day. Such spiritual discipline is known as sādhana. It is the mystical, mental, physical and devotional exercise that enables us to dance with Śiva by bringing inner advance­ment, changes in perc­eption and improvements in character. Sādhana al­lows us to live in the refined and cultured soul nature, rather than in the outer, in­stinctive or intellectual spheres. For consistent progress, sādhana should be performed regularly, without fail, at the same time each day, preferably in the early hours before dawn. The most im­portant sādhanas are the chal­lenges and practices given by one’s guru. The Vedas caution, “The Self cannot be at­tained by the weak, nor by the careless, nor through aim­­less dis­ciplines. But if one who knows strives by right means, his soul enters the abode of God.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 314 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Approaching The Temple

Devotees ask, “Why do we circumambulate the temple?” When we come to the temple out of the world, off the street, we are often shrouded by negative vibrations, which can actually be seen in our aura. Our nerve system may be upset, especially now, in the technological age, when we often suffer from stress and strain, the insecurity of so many changes and the rapid pace of life. In order to prepare ourselves to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, the great maṇḍapa inside, we walk clockwise around the temple very slowly. In this way we prepare our mind. We consciously drop off worldliness, letting the sufferings go, letting all disturbances leave our mind the best we can, and trying to reach deep inside of ourselves where peace exists eternally. We become as celestial as we can during the time we are walking around the temple, so that we can communicate with the celestial beings within the temple.

A Śiva temple marks an agreement between God Śiva and the people on the Earth as a meeting place where the three worlds can consciously commune. It is the home of Lord Śiva and many of the other Gods. Specifically sanctified, it possesses a ray of spiritual energy connecting the First World with the Śivaloka. My satguru, Siva Yogaswami of Sri Lanka, proclaimed, “O Lord, O Primal One who gives blessings to devotees, who has become the embodiment of Love, O Supreme Lord, Transcendent One who dwells in the temple, make me to live here like a God. In this world we may acquire a multitude of siddhis, but never stray from bhakti’s path, nor disobey the words of bhaktars.” A holy Śiva temple must be approached with great reverence and humility, as God lives in the temple. Go into the temple as you would approach a great king, a governor, a president of a great realm, anticipating, with a little trepidation, your audience with Him.

The worship in the temple creates the culture in the land. The worship in the temple creates the wealth of the land. The worship in the temple creates the obedience to the divine law of God Śiva, the Śaiva Dharma. The ancient Tirumantiram conversely warns, “When in Śiva’s temple worship ceases, harm befalls the ruler, scanty are the rains, theft and robbery abound in the land” (518). The greatest temples in the world are the homes of God Śiva, and within them there are private rooms and sanctums for Lord Gaṇeśa, Lord Murugan and others of the 330 million Gods of our Śaivite Hindu religion. Pray to God Śiva. Flock to the Śiva temples, and God Śiva will reward you, each and everyone of you, abundantly, as you perform His worship.

We just visited the great temple of Chidambaram, where God Śiva dances. The priests at the temple had their inner sanctum, the garbhagṛiha, scientifically tested. Scientists from the West came, made certain measurements and found that the inner sanctum was not only radioactive, but it also had the highest level of gravity on the planet. Yes, things are very heavy in the inner sanctum, much heavier than any other place in the temple or the surrounding area. And it was radioactive. This great power has been built up by thousands of years of worship there.

Why are Americans converting to the Śaivite religion? Because they have actually seen these mystical things happen, even in the new temples that are being constructed in the West or in their own meditations. They have actually seen the God come and hover over His First-World image. They have actually felt the rays of śakti coming out of the sanctum, cutting through their body, cutting through their aura, and their mind being cleansed and their whole life, even the atoms of their body, being inwardly changed. Therefore, the Americans, who want everything, also want the greatest of all things—the blessings of God Śiva.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 314: DREAMS ARE TO BE FORGOTTEN
My devotees do not indulge in remembrance or interpretation of dreams, unless as a special discipline from their guru. They intentionally forget their dreams and positively concern themselves with waking life. Aum.

Lesson 314 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

The Power of Prostration

Prostration at the holy feet of the satguru has been performed in Hindu India and Sri Lanka for thousands of years. It’s an ancient custom and a very valuable one, because it separates the people who can prostrate from those who cannot. It separates the deeper souls from those still going through the intellectual and instinctive areas of the mind. It allows the aspirant himself to know where he is on the path, and it allows the satguru to know at a glance, without thought, where the seeker is on the spiritual path by the emanations out of the spine as he prostrates himself face down before him. Prostration issues forth definite energies when done before the guru or the temple Deity. The ego is naturally subdued, humility strengthened, and the soul of guru and disciple enjoy deep rapport in that moment.

Śaiva Siddhāntins have always had blind bhakti for God, Gods and guru. Their mothers and fathers are often included and showered with the same feelings of love. They are by nature very sweet people. Jnanaguru Yogaswami said, “Guru bhakti is the greatest blessing. Cherish it and relish it and be refreshed! Advance on the path of dharma. Call on the name of Śaṅkara Śiva. Know that there is not one wrong thing. And proclaim that all is truth. Seek for the grace of God. Repeat Śivāya Namaḥ. You must realize Self by self. In you will peace and patience shine, and you will be your own support. Let like and dislike be snuffed out. Ponder not upon past karma. Resolve to kill the three desires.”

Devotees often transfer to their guru whatever feelings they have for their mothers and fathers. This does not mean that they cease to love their mother and father when they accept a guru. It means that if they have problems at home, they will have similar problems with their guru. If they love and honor their parents, they will love and honor their guru. Devotees who have true bhakti are filled with love for all beings. Their children will never upset them. They care for their pets and love their mother and father. They do not go to a guru to escape unhappiness at home. They go to a guru because their mother and father have taught them all they know, and now they must move onward. Even in this move, the parents’ blessings are sought to either follow the family guru or another. This is the traditional way. This is Śaiva Siddhānta.

There are emanations that come out of the spine wherever the individual is functioning, different types of instinctive, intellectual feelings or those of superconsciousness. The meditator works with those forces. He transmutes his energies to the crown chakra. You must work diligently to get there, and then you have it for eternity. This is the great heritage that is your right to receive by living on this planet.

Transcendental beings who have nerve systems so highly developed that they do not need a physical body in which to function and help those on Earth, can give a vital and a vibrant darshan which will help and stabilize you on the path. These are delicate, subtle, actinic beings that have once lived on the Earth and, just like you, have meditated, worked with their forces, attained Self Realization, brought forth darshan and finally dropped off the physical body, vowing to serve the people of the Earth. Hindus call them devas, Gods or Deities. All of them are right here, because everything is in one place. Everything of a same or similar vibration is in one place in the ākāśa. The great actinic bodies of all these evolved beings are right here. You can invoke the darshan of the Gods, too, if things really get rough for you on the path up the spine.

Lesson 313 – Dancing with Śiva

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What Is Meant by “Dancing with Śiva”?

ŚLOKA 3
All motion begins in God and ends in God. The whole universe is engaged in a whirling flow of change and activity. This is Śiva’s dance. We are all dancing with Śiva, and He with us. Ultimately, we are Śiva dancing. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
The world is seen as it truly is—sacred—when we be­hold Śiva’s cosmic dance. Everything in the universe, all that we see, hear and imagine, is movement. Galaxies soar in movement; atoms swirl in movement. All movement is Śiva’s dance. When we fight this movement and think it should be other than it is, we are reluctantly dancing with Śiva. We are stubbornly resisting, holding ourselves apart, criticizing the natural processes and move­ments around us. It is by understanding the eternal truths that we bring all areas of our mind into the knowledge of how to accept what is and not wish it to be otherwise. Once this happens, we begin to consciously dance with Śiva, to move with the sacred flow that surrounds us, to ac­cept praise and blame, joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity in equanimity, the fruit of un­­der­stand­ing. We are then gracefully, in unrestrained surrender, dancing with Śiva. The Vedas state, “The cosmic soul is truly the whole universe, the im­mortal source of all creation, all action, all meditation. Whoever discovers Him, hidden deep within, cuts through the bonds of ig­­no­r­­ance even during his life on Earth.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 313 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Talking to God During Pūjā

Many have wondered what the priest is saying when he is chanting in the Sanskrit language, which is the language of the devas, the celestial beings. When he is in the shrine chanting and performing pūjā with water, flowers and other offerings, you may wonder about the meaning of those very complex rituals. The priest’s craft is very important to the proper working of the temple in our lives. He must be pure and follow strict disciplines so that the Gods will be drawn to the sanctum. Through his chanting, he is speaking to God and the Gods, saying, “O God, I am going to perform this pūjā at such-and-such a temple located in such-and-such a place in your universe of forms, and this pūjā will be for the purpose of such-and-such. I hope that you will consider this worship auspicious and grace it, and that you will grant our needs and our wishes and bring good things into the lives of everyone in this community. I pray that we will please you with our worship, making no errors and forgetting nothing that should be done. But if we do, Lord, please forgive us and make the blessings of this pūjā just as powerful as if we had done it perfectly, without error. We beseech you to come to this temple and hover over the stone image with your body of light and bless the people. Thus, I am offering you rice. I am offering you fruits and flowers. I am offering you all the fine things that we have, so that you will come and stay for awhile.”

The priest’s initial chants are basically letting God know the place and purpose of this day’s worship. He intones, “We hope we are pure enough in our performance of the pūjā that we sanctify the atmosphere here, so that you will come and be our honored guest in this temple.” Then he bathes the Deity image, dresses the Deity in fine clothes, and worships the Deity so that the God from the Third World will come into this finite body in the First World, this body made of stone. Our bodies are made with bones, but we are not our bones. The God’s body in the temple is made of stone, but He is not that stone body. His Third-World form is a body of light. He is a great soul, just as we are also souls.

During the height of pūjā, the God comes with all of His devas, His celestial helpers. They take the problems or concerns out of your mind, harmonize the currents of your body and dissolve all the problems for you. When that happens, you walk out of the temple feeling you have been blessed, having forgotten the concerns that you went in with.

If you arrange for an archana—an optional personal pūjā generally held in-between the main pūjās of the day—the priest pronounces your name. He intones the name of your birth star, or nakshātra, and presents you to the God in a proper way. He says, “O Lord, this devotee humbly requests blessings for a particular problem or a special event. Please hear his prayers as he places them at your holy feet in the knowing that you will assist with the best possible outcome.” “Would this work just as well if the priest chanted in English?” you might wonder. Yes, it would! In your mind you can talk to the God in English or in any other language, and He will understand. But the Sanskrit language has its own power, a spiritual vibration. It is a most ancient language, and far more subtle in its ability to communicate spiritual ideas and meanings. That is why it gives a good feeling to hear the ancient mantras, even if we don’t understand them.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 313: SHIELDING FROM ASTRAL FORCES
My devotees are under the satguru’s psychic protection and remain untouched by negative occult forces. Those who are as yet susceptible to such afflictions should seek relief through pūjā, prayer and penance. Aum.

Lesson 313 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

“Catching” The Darshan

The advanced yoga adept can go inside himself through the practice of mahāyoga and awaken the flame at the top of his head and experience the five vibrations inside himself, deep within the psychic centers of the head, which is the inner temple. For the beginning meditator who has not done sādhana, this is difficult, and the outer temple and its darshan is a great aid. There are many catalysts on the path that aid in making you strong, so that you can lean on your own spine and bring through your own bliss. We must remember that the satguru is a helper on the path. His renunciate sannyāsins are also sometimes helpers, too. The meditator should not lean on his guru or the other disciples who may be stronger and more advanced in their sādhana. He must rely only on himself, lean on his own spine and unfold spiritually.

In the ākāśa, all form exists in all phases of its manifestation. A mystic sculptor can take clay or stone and bring forth an image of the satguru. As soon as he feels the darshan coming through the form, he knows he is nearly finished. Everything is in one place. It’s only the physical two eyes doing such wonderful things as to make us think things are in different places in the conscious mind of time and distance. But everything in the ākāśic plane of consciousness is in one place. So, all the mystic sculptor has to do to get the satguru darshan is to make the form of the guru in the exact same way it already exists in the ākāśa when the darshan was the strongest at the highest point in his life on Earth.

In a similar way, one can receive darshan through a picture of the satguru. The darshan does not really come from the picture, but from the ākāśa where the inner guru exists. The picture only acts as a point of concentration, but enough of a focal point to tune the devotee into the ākāśa at the exact moment, which is “now,” when that picture was taken or painted and the exact feeling of the darshan at that particular time and its accumulated effect up to the present moment. Then the totality of the satguru’s darshan is felt.

In intellectually knowing how the system of darshan works in many of its various phases, it is easy then to participate in it, and by meditating on some of these principles that I have outlined, you can catch the knack of it.

Lesson 312 – Dancing with Śiva

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Where Am I Going? What Is My Path?

ŚLOKA 2
We are all growing toward God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
We have taken birth in a physical body to grow and evolve in­to our divine potential. We are inwardly al­ready one with God. Our religion contains the knowl­edge of how to realize this one­ness and not create un­wanted ex­­periences along the way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers, discovering the mystical meaning of the scrip­tures. The peerless path is commitment, study, discipline, prac­tice and the ma­tur­ing of yoga into wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer un­til we learn. Learning leads us to service; and selfless service is the be­ginning of spiritual striving. Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to medi­tate deep­­ly and without distractions. Fin­ally, meditation leads us to surrender in God. This is the straight and certain path, the San Mārga, leading to Self Real­iz­a­tion—the inmost purpose of life—and sub­sequently to moksha, freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely af­firm, “By aus­terity, goodness is obtain­­ed. From good­­­ness, understanding is reached. From understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed from the cycle of birth and death.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.