Lesson 2 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s real voice

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.

Lesson 2 – Living with Śiva

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

Spiritual Retreat

Does this seem too difficult? Can you just contemplate what it would take to seek the all-pervasive Śiva from hour to hour, throughout the day? One would have to be detached from all worldly responsibilities to a great extent in order to begin to bring this natural internal process through and into the external mind. The external mind is built up by an intellect formed from other people’s knowledge and opinions. This borrowed knowledge shrouds the soul, and the natural, childlike intelligence often does not filter through. Therefore, a period of detachment and regular spiritual retreat or separation from the external world is necessary.

On a pilgrimage we strive to see God around us, to intuit Him in the events that happen. During worship in the temple, we strive to feel Him, to experience Him more profoundly than during our normal activities. Eventually, as our spiritual efforts progress, we bring that same attention, that same one-pointedness, right into the everyday experiences that life presents to us, whether seemingly good or bad, whether causing pleasure or pain. This is the experience of the mature soul who performs regular sādhana after taking certain vows strong enough to cause a detachment of the intellect from seeing the external world as the absolute reality. All seekers hope for an occasional glimpse of Śiva during their yearly pilgrimage at some venerable temple. If they develop that little glimpse, it will grow.

Many have asked me whether everyone should worship Śiva both inside and out. Yes, that is the ideal according to our Śaiva Siddhānta philosophy, but which of these two comes more naturally depends on the nature of the disciple. The more introverted will meditate on Śiva within through their yogas, and the more extroverted will be inclined to worship in a temple or through music or religious service. The most awakened of seekers will do both with equal joy and ease.

God Śiva is within each and every soul. He is there as the unmanifest Reality, which we call Paraśiva. He is there as the pure light and consciousness that pervades every atom of the universe, which we call Satchidānanda. We also know that He is Creator of all that exists, and that He is His creation. All this we know. Yes, all this we know. Thus, we intellectually know that Śiva is within and without. This is yet to be experienced by the majority of people.

The nature of the worshiper develops through sādhana and tapas, performed either in this life or in previous lives. We must worship Śiva externally until compelled—as were the great ṛishis of yore—to sit down, to settle down, to turn within ourself, to stop talking, to stop thinking and thus to internalize our great energy of bhakti, devotion. This is how we evolve, how we progress along the path toward Śiva, diving deeper and deeper within. Everyone must worship Śiva externally prior to internalizing that worship fully and perfectly. We cannot internalize the worship that has not first been mastered externally.

When problems come in the family or workplace and emotions arise, it is only natural to forget Śiva. It’s so much easier to be involved in twoness rather than oneness. It takes a lot of inner strength to remember Śiva all of the time, to keep the love for Śiva flowing. We forget. We get involved in ourselves and others. It is impossible when our ego is attacked or our feelings hurt. So it’s easier, much easier, to forget Śiva and even regard Him as a God to be feared; whereas it is our own instinctive mind and our preprogrammed, nonreligious intellect that should be feared. That’s the demon in our house, the mischief-maker who causes all the trouble. If you want to remember God, then first learn to forget yourself a little.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 2: FOUR NOBLE GOALS
Śiva’s followers are ever mindful that life’s purpose is to wholeheartedly serve God, Gods and guru and fulfill the four traditional Hindu goals: duty (dharma), wealth (artha), love (kāma) and liberation (moksha). Aum.

Lesson 2 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy

Recording: Gurudeva’s real voice

Like a Child’s Self-Discovery

Look at a child standing before a mirror for the first time, feeling its nose and ears, eyes and mouth, looking at itself reflected in the glass. Feeling and seeing what has always been there is a discovery in experience. Paraśiva is the same. It is always there in each and every human being on the planet. But involvement in the externalities of material existence inhibits their turning inward. The clouding of the mirror of the mind—that reflective pond of awareness which when calm sees clearly—or the ripples of disturbance on the mind’s surface distort seeing and confuse understanding. Without a clear mirror, the child lacks the seeing of what has always been there—its own face. Paraśiva is an experience that can be likened to the hand feeling and the eyes seeing one’s own face for the first time. But it is not experience of one thing discovering another, as in the discovery of one’s face. It is the Self experiencing itself. Experience, experienced and experiencer are one and the same. This is why it is only registered on the external mind in retrospect.

Most people try to experience God through other people. Disciples see a guru as God. Wives see their husband as God. Devotees see the Deity in the temple as God. But all the time, behind the eyes of their seeing, is God. The Self, Paraśiva, can be realized only when the devotee turns away from the world and enters the cave within as a way of life through initiation and under vows. We know the Self within ourself only when we fully turn into ourselves through concentration, meditation and contemplation and then sustain the resulting samā­dhi of Sat­chid­ānanda, pure consciousness, in hopes of finding, determined to find, That which cannot be described, That which was spoken about by the ṛishis, Paraśiva, beyond a stilled mind, Paraśiva that has stopped time, transcended space and dissolved all form.

Lesson 1 – Dancing with Śiva

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

Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

ŚLOKA 1
Ṛishis proclaim that we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
We are immortal souls living and growing in the great school of earthly experience in which we have lived many lives. Vedic ṛishis have given us courage by uttering the simple truth, “God is the Life of our life.” A great sage carried it further by saying there is one thing God cannot do: God cannot separate Himself from us. This is be­cause God is our life. God is the life in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the animals. Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God’s loving presence within us. We are the un­dying consciousness and energy flowing through all things. Deep inside we are perfect this very moment, and we have only to discover and live up to this perfection to be whole. Our energy and God’s energy are the same, ever coming out of the void. We are all beautiful children of God. Each day we should try to see the life energy in trees, birds, animals and people. When we do, we are seeing God Śiva in action. The Vedas affirm, “He who knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind—he indeed com­pre­hends fully the Cause of all causes.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 1 – Living with Śiva

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

Awakening Comes Slowly

My satguru, Śiva Yogaswami, was a great siddha, a master and a knower of God. He would say, “Liberation is within you.” He would order his seekers to “See God in everything. You are in God. God is within you. To realize the Supreme Being within you, you must have a strong body and a pure mind.” He was a powerful mystic from Sri Lanka, near India—perhaps the greatest to live in the twentieth century. His words drove deeply into the hearts of all who heard them. “God is in everyone. See Him there. God is overwhelmingly present everywhere. Regard everything as a manifestation of God, and you will realize the Truth” were his words. Simple words for a simple truth, but very, very difficult to practice.

As we go on through life, we see only parts of life. We don’t see the whole. We can’t see the whole. Yogaswami said, “How can a part see the whole?” So, we live with a small part, our small part. We seek to avoid the painful areas and attract to us the joyous ones. Most people live in this duality life after life, bound in the forces of desire and the fulfillment of it. Occasionally a more mature soul breaks away from this cycle of desire-fulfillment-pleasure-loss-pain-suffering-and-joy and asks questions such as: “Who is God? Where is God? How can I come to know God?”

God has no names, but all names are the names of God. Whether you call Him this or that, He remains Who He is. But in our tradition we call God by the loving name Śiva, which is only one of His 1,008 traditional names. Supreme God Śiva is both within us and outside of us. Even desire, the fulfillment of desire, the joy, the pain, the sorrow, birth and death—this is all Śiva, nothing but Śiva. This is hard to believe for the unenlightened individual who cannot see how a good, kind and loving God could create pain and sorrow. Actually, we find that Śiva did not—not in the sense that is commonly thought. God gave the law of karma, decreeing that each energy sent into motion returns with equal force.

In looking closely at this natural law, we can see that we create our own joy, our own pain, our own sorrow and our own release from sorrow. Yet we could not even do this except for the power and existence of our loving Lord. It takes much meditation to find God Śiva in all things, through all things. In this striving—as in perfecting any art or science—regular daily disciplines must be faithfully adhered to.

Śiva is the immanent personal Lord, and He is transcendent Reality. Śiva is a God of love, boundless love. He loves each and every one. Each soul is created by Him and guided by Him through life. God Śiva is everywhere. There is no place where Śiva is not. He is in you. He is in this temple. He is in the trees. He is in the sky, in the clouds, in the planets. He is the galaxies swirling in space and the space between galaxies, too. He is the universe. His cosmic dance of creation, preservation and dissolution is happening this very moment in every atom of the universe. God Śiva is, and is in all things. He permeates all things. He is immanent, with a beautiful form, a human-like form which can actually be seen and has been seen by many people in visions. He is also transcendent, beyond time, cause and space.

That is almost too much for the mind to comprehend, isn’t it? Therefore, we have to meditate on these things. God Śiva is so close to us. Where does He live? In the Third World. And in this form He can talk and think and love and receive our prayers and guide our karma. He commands vast numbers of devas who go forth to do His will all over the world, all over the galaxy, throughout the universe. These are matters told to us by the ṛishis; and we have discovered them in our own meditations. So always worship this great God. Never fear Him. He is the Self of your self. He is closer than your own breath. His nature is love, and if you worship Him with devotion you will know love and be loving toward others. Devotees of God Śiva love everyone.

This is how God Śiva can be seen everywhere and in everyone. He is there as the Soul of each soul. You can open your inner eye and see Him in others, see Him in the world as the world. Little by little, discipline yourself to meditate at the same time each day. Meditate, discover the silent center of yourself, then go deep within, to the core of your real Being. Slowly the purity comes. Slowly the awakening comes.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 1: LIFE’S HIGHEST PURPOSE
Śiva’s followers strive for God Realization as the first and foremost goal of life. They learn to dance with Śiva, live with Śiva, merge with Śiva. Deep within, they discover their eternal, immortal oneness with God. Aum.

Lesson 1 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s real voice

Paraśiva, Life’s Ultimate Goal

Never have there been so many people living on the planet wondering, “What is the real goal, the final purpose, of life?” However, man is blinded by his ignorance and his concern with the externalities of the world. He is caught, enthralled, bound by karma. The ultimate realizations available are beyond his understanding and remain to him obscure, even intellectually. Man’s ultimate quest, the final evolutionary frontier, is within man himself. It is the Truth spoken by Vedic ṛishis as the Self within man, attainable through control of the mind and purification.

It is karma that keeps us from knowing of and reaching life’s final goal, yet it is wrong to even call it a goal. It is what is known by the knower to have always existed. It is not a matter of becoming the Self, but of realizing that you never were not the Self. And what is that Self? It is Paraśiva. It is God. It is That which is beyond the mind, beyond thought, feeling and emotion, beyond time, form and space. That is what all men are seeking, looking for, longing for. When karma is controlled through yoga and dharma well performed, and the energies are transmuted to their ultimate state, the Vedic Truth of life discovered by the ṛishis so long ago becomes obvious.

That goal is to realize God Śiva in His absolute, or transcendent, state, which when realized is your own ultimate state—timeless, formless, spaceless Truth. That Truth lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling nature, beyond action or any movement of the vṛittis, the waves of the mind. Being, seeing, this Truth then gives the correct perspective, brings the external realities into perspective. They then are seen as truly unrealities, yet not discarded as such.

This intimate experience must be experienced while in the physical body. One comes back and back again into flesh simply to realize Paraśiva. Nothing more. Yet, the Self, or Paraśiva, is an experience only after it has been experienced. Yet, it is not an experience at all, but the only possible nonexperience, which registers in its aftermath upon the mind of man. Prior to that, it is a goal. After realization, one thing is lost, the desire for the Self.

Lesson 365 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Does God Ever Punish Wrongdoers?

ŚLOKA 55
God is perfect goodness, love and truth. He is not wrathful or vengeful. He does not condemn or punish wrongdoers. Jealousy, vengefulness and vanity are qualities of man’s instinctive nature, not of God. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
There is no reason to ever fear God, whose right-hand gesture, abhaya mudrā, indicates “fear not,” and whose left hand invites approach. God is with us always, even when we are unaware of that holy presence. He is His crea­tion. It is an extension of Himself; and God is never apart from it nor limited by it. When we act wrongly, we create negative karma for ourselves and must then live through ex­pe­r­iences of suffering to ful­fill the law of karma. Such karmas may be pain­ful, but they were gen­­er­ated from our own thoughts and deeds. God never punishes us, even if we do not be­lieve in Him. It is by means of wor­ship of and meditation on God that our self-created sufferings are softened and assuaged. God is the God of all—of the be­lievers within all religions, and of the non­­believ­ers, too. God does not destroy the wicked and re­deem the righteous; but grants the precious gift of liberation to all souls. The Āgamas state, “When the soul gradually reduces and then stops altogether its par­tici­pa­tion in darkness and inauspicious powers, the Friend of the World, God, reveals to the soul the limitless character of its knowledge and activity.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 365 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

You Can Make A Difference

It is important that all of you here with me tonight band together and do what you can to make a difference. It is important that you immediately refrain from following the patterns taught to you or your parents by the British Christians. One such pattern is that if one person in the community comes up, cut him down, malign him, criticize him until all heads are leveled. In the modern, industrial society everyone tries to lift everyone else up. People are proud of an individual in the community who comes up, and they help the next one behind him to succeed as well. They are proud of their religious leaders, too. Not so here, because if anyone does want to help out spiritually they have to be quiet and conceal themselves, lest they be maligned. Nobody is standing up to defend the religion; nobody is allowing anybody else to stand up, either. This has to change, and change fast it will.

Yes, the tide has to change. It has to change, no matter how painful it might be to praise people rather than criticize them, and to support and to protect them. The tide has to change. It has to change no matter how painful it might be to admit that we worship many Gods as well as one supreme God. The time has come for Hindus to be openly proud of their religion—the oldest religion on the planet. The time has come for Hindus to proclaim their beliefs and to defend their beliefs. The time has come for Hindus to stand up for Hinduism, no matter what the cost. The results will be a younger generation which respects the older generation again. The results will be a younger generation proud to be called Hindu. The results will be a younger generation eager to pass the tenets of Hinduism on to the next generation in a proud and a dynamic and a wonderful way. The time is now—begin!

Western nations are becoming truly pluralistic. These are days of truth. They are days of correction of wrongdoing, days of Self Realization, which cannot be hidden under a cloak of deception. Believe me, no Christian or Muslim looks at the Vedic-Āgamic goal of ātmajñāna, Self Realization, in the same way Hindus do. The days are gone when it is necessary to observe Christmas in the āśrama and sing non-Hindu hymns at satsaṅga. There was a time to hide the Vedic Truth beneath a basket and behind a cross, but now is a time to shout Self Realization from the rooftops. Self Realization is, in fact, what all people on the planet have come here to experience.

The Self within all is the sustainer of all, yet it acts not in that sustaining and is itself unsustained. It sustains our thoughts, our emotions, our physical universe, yet it lies mysteriously beyond them all, perfectly obvious to the knower, perfectly invisible to most. It is and yet it is not. Hindus need nothing else to hide behind than this Paramātman. Certainly we no longer need to define ourselves in a Christian or a Muslim way, or any other way but our own. So, no need to send out Christmas cards this year or have a tree in the āśrama, right?

In looking back on all the wonderful aspects of Hinduism that have been spoken of tonight on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, it is clear that Hinduism is the answer for the future generations on this planet. It is the answer for the New Age, for the dawning Sat Yuga. The gracious Sanātana Dharma, our great religion, has all the answers. It has always had all of the answers in every age, for there was never an age when it did not exist. The time has now passed for many and is quickly passing for everyone when they can deny their Hindu heritage, when they can be afraid to admit their belief in Hinduism or even the simple fact that they are a Hindu. The time has come for Hindus of all races, all nations, of all cultures, of all sects to stand up and let the peoples of the world know of the great religion of which they are one of the staunch adherents. Take courage, courage, courage into your own hands and proceed with confidence. Stand strong for Hinduism.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 365: THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Numberless successors of the Nandinātha lineage have gone before me. Numberless shall follow. I have woven these 365 threads of wisdom, but there is infinitely more to know of the mysterious Nāthas. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 365 – Merging with Śiva

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

Eternal Questions

Many people think of the realization of timeless, formless, spaceless Paraśiva, nir­vi­kalpa samā­dhi, as the most blissful of all blissful states, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Gods, as a moment of supreme, sublime joyousness; whereas I have found it to be more like cut glass, diamond-dust dar­shan, a psychic surgery, not a blissful experience at all, but really a kind of near-death experience resulting in total transformation. The bliss that is often taught as a final attainment is actually another attainment, Sat­chid­ānanda, an aftermath of nir­vi­kalpa samā­dhi, and a “before-math.” This means that Sat­chid­ānanda, savikalpa samā­dhi, may be attained early on by souls pure in heart. It also means that one need not gauge the highest attainment on the basis of bliss, which it transcends.

In my experience, the anā­hata cha­kra is the resting place of dynamic complacency, of thoughtful perception and quietude. Those of a lower nature arriving in the bloom of this cha­kra are released from turbulent emotions, conflicting thoughts and disturbances. This to many is the end of the path, attaining peace, or śānti. Once one attains śānti as just described, in my experience, this marks the beginning of the path, or part two, the second level. It is from here that the practices of rāja yoga take hold, once śānti is attained. In the anā­hata cha­kra and viśuddha cha­kra, Sat­chid­ānanda, the all-pervasive being of oneness, of the underlying being of the universe, is attained, experienced.

But unless brahmacharya, chastity, is absolutely adhered to, the experience is not maintained. It is here that relations between men and women play an important part, as in their union temporary oneness occurs, followed by a more permanent two-ness and ever-accumulating distractions, sometimes along with insolvable difficulties. Those who practice sexual tantras, seeking Self Realization through this path, will agree with this wisdom.

Does Self Realization bring bliss to the realized one? Self Realization is in several stages. Realizing oneself as a soul—rather than a mind, an intellectual and emotional type, or a worthless person—gives satisfaction, security, and this is a starting point. Realization of the Self as Sat­chid­ānanda gives contentment, a release from all emotions and thoughts of the external world, and the nerve system responds to the energies flowing through the viśuddha and anā­hata cha­kras. Realizing the Self that transcends time, form and space, Paraśiva, is a razor-edged experience, cutting all bonds, reversing individual awareness, such as looking out from the Self rather than looking into the Self.

There are many boons after this transforming experience, if repeated many times. One or two occurrences does make a renunciate out of the person and does make the world renounce the renunciate, but then, without persistent effort, former patterns of emotion, intellect, lack of discipline, which would inhibit the repeated experience of Paraśiva, would produce a disoriented nomad, so to speak. Therefore, repeated experiences of the ego-destructive Paraśiva, from all states of consciousness, intellectual, instinctive, even in dreams, permeates the transformation through atoms and molecules even in the physical body. It is then that the bliss can be enjoyed of Sat­chid­ānanda—and simultaneously, I would say, Sat­chid­ānanda and the rough, unrelenting, timeless, formless, spaceless Paraśiva merge in a not-merging way, such as light and darkness in the same room. This is different than the concept of sāyujya samā­dhi, which is maintaining the perpetual bliss within the fourth and fifth cha­kra and stimulating the sixth and seventh. For this to be maintained, a certain isolation from worldly affairs and distracting influences is required to prevent the reawakening of previously unsatisfied desires, repressed tendencies or unresolved subconscious conflicts.

Someone asked, “If realization in and of itself is not blissful, then what impels a soul that has arrived at bliss to strive for further realizations?” We are all moving forward to our ultimate goal of merging with Śiva. Bliss quiets the senses. It is the natural state of the mind when unperturbed by previous desires unfulfilled, desires yet to be fulfilled and the desires known to not be fulfillable. As long as the anā­hata and viśuddha cha­kras spin at top velocity, the senses will be quieted, few thoughts will pass through the mind unbidden, and the understanding of the Vedas and all aspects of esoteric knowledge will be able to be explained by the preceptor. Many choose to remain here, as the explainers of the inexplainable, and not go on—deep into the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh cha­kras, into the beyond of the beyond, the quantum level, the core of the universe itself. There comes a point when the powers of evolution move one forward, and even these desireless ones desire the greatest un­fold­ment, once they have found out that it is there to be desired.

Realizing Paraśiva is merging with Śiva, but it is not the end of merging. At that pinpoint of time, there are still the trappings of body, mind and emotions that claim awareness into their consciousness. Ultimately, when all bodies—physical, astral, mental, even the soul body—wear out their time, as all forms wear out in time, bound by time, existing in time, as relative realities, then viśvagrāsa, the final merger with Śiva, occurs, as the physical body drops away, the astral body drops away, the mental body drops away, and the soul—a shining, scintillating being of light quantums—merges into its source. As when a drop of water merges into the ocean, it can never be retrieved, only Śiva remains. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 364 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Is the Consequence of Sinful Acts?

ŚLOKA 54
When we do not think, speak and act virtuously, we create negative karmas and bring suffering upon ourselves and others. We suffer when we act instinctively and intellectually without superconscious guidance. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
We are happy, serene and stable when we follow good conduct, when we listen to our conscience, the knowing voice of the soul. The superconscious mind, the mind of our soul, knows and inspires good conduct, out of which comes a re­fined, sustainable culture. Wrong­doing and vice lead us away from God, deep into the darkness of doubt, despair and self-condemnation. This brings the asuras around us. We are out of harmony with ourselves and our family and must seek com­pan­ionship elsewhere, amongst those who are al­so crude, unmindful, greedy and lacking in self-control. In this bad company, burdensome new karma is created, as good conduct cannot be followed. This pāpa ac­cum­ulates, blinding us to the religious life we once lived. Pen­ance and throwing ourselves upon the mercy of God and the Gods are the only re­lease for the unvirtuous, those who conduct them­selves poorly. Fortunately, our Gods are compassionate and love their devotees. The ancient Vedas elu­cidate, “The mind is said to be twofold: the pure and al­so the impure; impure by union with desire—pure when from desire completely free!” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.