Lesson 360 – Dancing with Śiva

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

Should One Avoid Worldly Involvement?

ŚLOKA 50
The world is the bountiful creation of a benevolent God, who means for us to live positively in it, facing karma and fulfilling dharma. We must not despise or fear the world. Life is meant to be lived joyously. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
The world is the place where our destiny is shaped, our desires fulfilled and our soul matured. In the world, we grow from ig­norance into wisdom, from darkness into light and from a consciousness of death to immortality. The whole world is an āśrama in which all are doing sā­­dhana. We must love the world, which is God’s crea­tion. Those who despise, hate and fear the world do not un­derstand the intrinsic goodness of all. The world is a glorious place, not to be feared. It is a gra­cious gift from Śiva Himself, a playground for His children in which to interrelate young souls with the old—the young experiencing their karma while the old hold firmly to their dharma. The young grow; the old know. Not fearing the world does not give us permission to become immersed in worldliness. To the con­trary, it means remaining af­fectionately detached, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf, being in the world but not of it, walking in the rain without getting wet. The Vedas warn, “Behold the universe in the glory of God: and all that lives and moves on Earth. Leaving the transient, find joy in the Eternal. Set not your heart on another’s possession.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 360 – Living with Śiva

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

Vedānta and Christianity

Tens of thousands of America’s and Europe’s younger generation have come to believe in the basic tenets of Hinduism. There are hundreds of thousands of the older generation who believe in reincarnation and the laws of karma. These two beliefs have pulled them away from the Abrahamic religions. But unless the Hindu organizations in every country who teach reincarnation and karma take these fine, dedicated half-Hindu people one step further and convert them fully into the Hindu religion, a disservice through neglect has been committed.

Yes, native-born Americans want to know more about karma and reincarnation and God’s all-pervasiveness. They have not been satisfied with the postulations taught by the Abrahamic faiths. They do not believe in a wrathful God who punishes souls in Hell for eternity. They do not believe that non-Christians will suffer forever for their “wrongful beliefs.” Many Americans are adopting the Hindu view of life. Even scientists are looking to Hinduism for deeper understanding as to the nature of the universe. Ironically, born Hindus are trying to be like Western people just when Westerners are appreciating the beauties of Hinduism. Yes, hundreds of thousands of sincere seekers in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and elsewhere are turning toward Hinduism, pulling away from their former religions and finding themselves in an in-between state, an abyss which offers them no further guidance from Indian swāmīs or community acceptance by Hindu groups.

It is postulated by some that Vedānta makes a Christian a better Christian. Because of that postulation Vedānta has been widely accepted throughout the world. “Study Vedānta,” seekers are told, “and it will make you a more enlightened Christian.” This is simply not true. When you study Vedānta, you learn about karma and reincarnation, you begin to understand that God is within you and within all things, and that the immortal soul of man is one with the Absolute God. These are not Christian beliefs. These beliefs are a strong threat to Catholic and Protestant Christian doctrine, so strong, in fact, that in 1870 the First Vatican Council condemned five beliefs as the single most sensitive area threatening the Catholic faith of the day, and even in recent times the Vatican has described their encroachment as a grave crisis. Among those condemned beliefs is the belief that God exists in the world, in all things. To believe that God is everywhere and that all things are His Sacred Being makes an individual an apostate to his religion, according to the mandates of the Catholics and most Christian churches.

Isn’t that interesting? Certainly the Catholics do not agree that studying Vedānta makes one a better Catholic. Certainly the Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans and evangelicals do not hold that the study of Vedānta makes one a better Christian. Quite the opposite, the study of Vedānta will make a Christian a heretic to his own religion. So successful were the Vedānta swāmīs in promulgating the notion that Vedānta can be studied by people of all religions, that they have become a threat to the existence of the Catholic and Protestant churches. That is how different Christianity is from traditional Hinduism.

Hinduism has come a long way in North America and Europe through the tireless efforts of the Vedānta swāmīs, the Sivananda swāmīs and others. They are to be commended for their efforts and insight, and for succeeding in putting the precepts of Hinduism on the map of the world’s consciousness. However, one step further must be taken.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 360: THE BROTHERHOOD OF RENUNCIATES
All those in saffron robes who have braved death to the world are the brethren of my swāmīs, who appropriately honor authentic male swāmīs older than themselves and touch their feet in homage. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 360 – Merging with Śiva

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

The Process Of Evolution

When a beginning devotee comes to the temple to worship Śiva, he sees Śiva as a man, a person, not unlike himself, yet more than a man, for He is a God, the God of Gods, so powerful, so aware and complete within Himself that He is the center of endless universes. In coming to worship Śiva, this devotee prostrates himself before the Deity just as if he were in the presence of the grandest potentate or majesty imaginable. Śiva is that to him. We know how wonderful it can be to approach a distinguished and honored personage. It makes us feel special. It brings out the best within us. The same thing happens to this man. He feels himself in the presence of the Supreme Lord, and he brings the best of himself to the temple.

If he has a problem, if something is not going well in his family or in his business, he will come to the temple with special offerings. The priest takes that offering into the inner sanctum for the pūjā. During the pūjā it is blessed and then some of it is returned to the worshiper to take back to his home, carrying the vibration of the temple into his everyday life. During pūjā he will concentrate his efforts on opening himself to the divine influence of Lord Śiva. And as he leaves the temple, he will look for a break in the problem, for a new perspective to arise as a result of his worship in the temple. He will look for some telling signs from his environment—the way the lizard chirps, how many crows come down, and even what kind of people walk by his house. Perhaps the solution to his problem is simply a new way of seeing it, a different perspective that gives him the insight to handle the matter, or there may be a change in his external circumstances.

As this man worships, he grows more and more devoted, becomes capable of a profound understanding of the rituals and practices of his early saṁskāras. From the practice of putting holy ash on his forehead and the feeling that goes through his nervous system whenever he does that, he begins to discover sound reasons for doing it, reasons he can confidently tell his children. His worship leads him little by little into new realms of consciousness.

Another man, more refined and awakened, may have worshiped during the exact same pūjā. This devotee came to worship the same Deity, but to him it was not only an ethereal being external to himself. He perceived it also as an essence pervading the universe, a oneness of pure consciousness flowing through all form, and he worshiped that Sat­chid­ānanda in the sanctum and equally within himself. As the energies of the pūjā reached their crescendo, he could feel that pure essence of consciousness as himself. After the pūjā, he went to a secluded corner of the temple, there to meditate, to bask in the kuṇḍa­linī energy awakened in him through his temple worship until he knew himself as one with that vast sea of pure life energy and light. He went home feeling peaceful and calm and just at one with everyone and everything that came along in his life. He has no awareness of time and just lives fully in the intensity of the moment. When he applies holy ash at the temple or in his shrine room at home before he sits down to meditate, he sees it as the ash of those forces which hold him in individual consciousness—the forces of karma and ego and desire. He applies the ash so that it makes three distinct lines across his forehead. They are lines to impress him with the need to keep these three forces subdued in his life.

This man lives in tune with the worship of Lord Śiva and the dar­shan he receives, and opens up within himself from that worship. Everything in his life flows smoothly and harmoniously. He is in touch with a divine voice within himself and he follows it as his own will. His life is simple. And he feels himself complete. Neither fretting over the past nor worrying about the future, he lives totally in the present. His evolution is steady and graceful. He grows greater in his capacity to hold those moments of dar­shan he feels until he carries that dar­shan steadily through every aspect of his life. That is his only experience. He is a witness to what goes on around him—doing it perfectly but detached from the doing. He sees light within his head when he meditates. And that grows until he knows that the light is more real than anything he considers himself. That way his un­fold­ment continues. He comes to be purer and purer, more and more aware of the real.

A third man, living under strict vows and the guidance of his sat­guru, having long ago perfected the harmony and discipline that allowed him to see himself as the Pure Consciousness within all beings, is immersed within states of contemplation, whether in a mountain cave or before a temple sanctum. His goal is to find the source of that energy, and the source of that source, and the source of that, until he realizes That, Paraśiva, the Absolute, beyond all form. He experiences himself and Śiva as one.

Lesson 359 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

How Can a Benevolent God Permit Evil?

ŚLOKA 49
Ultimately, there is no good or bad. God did not create evil as a force distinct from good. He granted to souls the loving edicts of dharma and experiential choices from very subtle to most crude, thus to learn and evolve. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
From the pinnacle of consciousness, one sees the harmony of life. Similarly, from a mountaintop, we see the natural role of a raging ocean and the steep cliffs be­low—they are beautiful. From the bottom of the moun­­tain, the ocean can appear ominous and the cliffs treacherous. When through meditation we view the universe from the inside out, we see that there is not one thing out of place or wrong. This releases the human concepts of right and wrong, good and bad. Our benevolent Lord created everything in perfect balance. Good or evil, kind­ness or hurtfulness re­turn to us as the result, the fruit, of our own actions of the past. The four dharmas are God’s wisdom lighting our path. That which is known as evil arises from the instinctive-intellectual nature, which the Lord created as dimensions of experience to streng­then our soul and further its spiritual evolution. Let us be compassionate, for truly there is no intrinsic evil. The Vedas admonish, “Being overcome by the fruits of his ac­­­tion, he enters a good or an evil womb, so that his course is downward or upward, and he wanders around, overcome by the pairs of opposites.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 359 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

One Duty To Perform

Every Hindu has but one great obligation, and that is to pass his religion on to the next generation of Hindus. That’s all he has to do, pass his religion on to the next generation. Then that generation passes it on to their next generation. If we lose a single generation in-between, the whole religion is lost in an area of the world. How many religions have existed on this planet? Thousands of them. What happened to the Zoroastrian religion? It barely exists now. What happened to the religion of the ancient Greeks? They must have missed several generations. The ancient Mayan, Hawaiian, Druid and Egyptian religions are all virtually forgotten but for the history books.

The great men and women in our history have withstood the most severe challenges to our religion and sacrificed their energies, even their lives, that it would not be lost to invaders who sought to destroy it. It is easy to be courageous when an enemy is on the attack, because the threat is so obvious. Today the threat is more subtle, but no less terrible. In fact, it is really a greater threat than Hinduism has ever had to face before, because an enemy is not destroying the religion. It is being surrendered by the Hindus themselves through neglect, through fear, through desire for land and gold, but mostly through ignorance of the religion itself. If Hindus really understood how deep into their soul their religion penetrates, if they knew how superior it is to any other spiritual path on the Earth today, they would not abandon it so easily but cherish and foster it into its great potential. They would not remain silent when asked about their religion, but speak out boldly its great truths. They would not hesitate to stand strong for Hinduism.

How can Hindus in the modern, mechanized world pass their religion to the next generation when they are not proud enough of it to announce it openly to business associates and all who ask? When the Muslim seeks employment, he is proud to say, “I worship Allah.” The Christian is proud to say, “I worship Jesus Christ.” But too often the Hindu is not proud to say, “I worship Lord Gaṇeśa.” In our great religion there is one Supreme God and many Gods. The average Hindu today is not proud of this. He feels others will reject him, will not employ him, will not like him. Of course, this might be true. It might be very true. Then he should seek out people who do respect Hinduism. These are the people to associate with.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 359: REMAINING APART FROM FAMILY MATTERS
My swāmīs do not participate in births, weddings or other intimate householder events, always remaining aloof from such activities. Nor do they attend funeral rites, except those of brother monks and satgurus. Aum.

Lesson 359 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Impetuous, Impatient

The final goal of human life is realization and liberation—realization of the Absolute, Unmanifest, Paraśiva, Nirguṇa Brahman, and liberation from birth. This realization cannot be brought about solely by an effort of the mind, by any discipline or method. Sādhana and tapas and bhakti are necessary for purifying the mind and body in preparation for God Realization, but it is by the grace of the satguru that it is attained.

The North American Hindu—and in these words we include the Indian Hindu who lives in America, whether in the first generation, the second, the third or the fourth—often wants to begin at the end of the path rather than at the beginning. There is a distinct lack of patience on this side of the planet. Our desire, our lack of knowledge which breeds undue desire, impels us beyond our abilities and before our time. We want everything right now. We are impatient and perhaps unwilling to wait for the natural fulfillment of desire, for the natural unfoldment of the soul. We seek to force it, to strive for greater attainments than we are prepared to sustain. We want illumination, and we want it now. But results cannot be obtained unless we have the patience to begin at the beginning and to follow through systematically. We must take one step and then another. There are no shortcuts to enlightenment, but there are detours. Impatience with the natural process is one of them.

If you find a green melon in an open field, will it help to expose it to more sun? To more heat? Will it ripen faster and taste sweeter? No, it will not. It ripens from the inside out. The process cannot be forced. The melon will grow ripe without intervention. Similarly, the soul will mature in its time. I am not saying that you should not strive, should not make even great inner efforts. I am saying that impatient striving, the kind of striving that puts aside all common sense and says “I am going to get realization no matter what” is itself an obstacle to that realization which is not a something to get. Hindus in the West have much to learn from Hindus in the East when it comes to contentment with their karma and dharma. We must work to perfect an inner serenity that can accept spending a lifetime or several lifetimes in search of Truth, that can accept that some of us are by our nature and unfoldment better suited to service and devotion, and others to yoga and the various sādhanas. This is a far more enlightened perspective than the Western notion which subtly maintains that there is but a single life in which all the final goals must be reached.

The eternal path, the Sanātana Dharma, has been well charted by the great illumined minds, developed minds, spiritually unfolded minds, realized minds on this planet. No one can skip, avoid, evade or abstain from any part of that path. As Euclid could find for his impatient crowned pupil no special “royal road” to geometry or philosophy, so there is no privileged “royal road” to spiritual illumination. Similarly, a marathon runner cannot begin the race twenty miles from the starting point. A mountain climber cannot refuse to climb the lower, perhaps less challenging, cliffs. The natural laws known to all men do not allow it. The natural law, known to himself, his own conscience, does not allow it. It is the same on the spiritual path.

The eternal spiritual path, the way of God, is broad. It accepts all and rejects none. No matter where a seeker is in his inner development, the eternal path embraces and encourages him. If he is a simple man, the path for him is simple, unsophisticated, answering the needs of his everyday life, yet opening him to more and more subtle ways of worship and living. If he is an advanced soul, a mature soul, he will find within Hinduism the San Mārga, the pure path to the Absolute.

Lesson 358 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Is the Source of Good and Evil?

ŚLOKA 48
Instead of seeing good and evil in the world, we understand the nature of the embodied soul in three interrelated parts: instinctive or physical-emotional; intellectual or mental; and superconscious or spiritual. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Evil has no source, unless the source of evil’s seeming be ignorance itself. Still, it is good to fear unrighteousness. The ignorant complain, justify, fear and criticize “sinful deeds,” setting themselves apart as lofty puritans. When the outer, or lower, instinctive na­ture dominates, one is prone to anger, fear, greed, jealousy, hatred and backbiting. When the intellect is prominent, ar­rogance and analytical think­­ing preside. When the superconscious soul comes forth the re­fined qualities are born—com­pas­sion, insight, modesty and the others. The animal in­stincts of the young soul are strong. The intellect, yet to be developed, is nonexistent to control these strong in­stinctive impulses. When the intellect is de­vel­oped, the instinctive nature subsides. When the soul unfolds and overshadows the well-de­veloped intellect, this mental harness is loosened and removed. When we en­coun­ter wickedness in others, let us be compassionate, for truly there is no intrinsic evil. The Vedas say, “Mind is in­deed the source of bondage and also the source of lib­er­ation. To be bound to things of this world: this is bon­dage. To be free from them: this is liberation.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 358 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Are You A Hindu?

This afternoon we had a nice visit with a fine young man here at my āśrama in Sri Lanka. During the conversation, I encouraged him to stand strong for Hinduism. “When you stand strong for your religion, you are strong,” he was told. Today there are many Hindus from India and Sri Lanka in the United States and Europe who when asked, “Are you a Hindu?” reply, “No, I’m not really a Hindu. I’m nonsectarian, universal, a follower of all religions. I’m a little bit of everything, and a little bit of everybody. Please don’t classify me in any particular way.” Are these the words of a strong person? No. Too much of this kind of thinking makes the individual weak-minded. Religion, above all else, should bring personal strength and commitment to the individual. When a Hindu is totally noncommittal, releasing his loyalties as he goes along through life, disclaiming his religion for the sake of so-called unity with other people or for business or social reasons, he can easily be taken in, converted to other people’s beliefs. Even when it is just a way to get along with others, by seeming uncertain of his path, he opens himself to alien influences of all kinds.

In America the beautiful, the land of the money, anything is possible. It is possible to get money. But to get it at the expense of disclaiming one’s religion to the public is a very great expense. Young adults hear their parents disclaiming their religion by saying, “Oh, I am a Christian. I am a Muslim. I am a Buddhist. I am a follower of all religions. All religions are one.” All religions are not one. They are very, very different. They all worship and talk about God, yes, but they do not all lead their followers to the same spiritual goal. The Christians are not seeking God within themselves. They do not see God as all-pervasive. Nor do they see God in all things. Their religion does not value the methods of yoga which bring Hindus into God Realization. Their religion does not have the mysticism of worshiping God and the Gods in the temple. Jews, Christians and Muslims do not believe that there is more than one life or that there is such a thing as karma. They simply do not accept these beliefs. They are heresy to them. These are a few of the basic and foremost beliefs that make our religion and theirs very, very, different indeed.

Many Asian Hindus traveling to America, Europe or Africa for business reasons think that in order to fit in, to be accepted, they must deny their religion. The Jews, Christians and Muslims did not deny their faith when they found themselves in alien countries, yet their businesses flourish. But too many Hindus say, “I am a Muslim. I am a Jew. I am a Christian. I am a Hindu. I am a universalist.” These are very naive statements. The Muslims do not think these Hindus are Muslim. The Jews do not think that they are Jewish. The Christians know they are not Christians. And the Hindus know they were born Hindu and will die as Hindus, and that they are disclaiming their own sacred heritage for the sake of money and social or intellectual acceptance. How deceptive! How shallow! The message should go out loud and strong: Stand strong for Hinduism, and when you do you will be strong yourself. Yes! Stand strong for Hinduism. Stand strong for Hinduism. Religion is within your heart and mind.

If there were no humans with thinking minds on the planet, there would be no religion at all. Religion does not exist outside of a person’s mind and spirit. Religion lies within the human mind. If we want to preserve the world’s oldest religion, the Sanātana Dharma, which goes back in time as far as man himself, then we must preserve it within our minds, protect it in our hearts and then slowly, steadily spread its great wisdom out into the minds of others. The dignity of the Hindu people must be preserved, not surrendered on the altar of material gain.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 358: MY SWĀMĪS DO NOT SPEAK OF THEIR PAST
My swāmīs never speak of their past or the personal self they have renounced. Those who know tradition do not ask, for one never looks for the source of a ṛishi or a river. These always remain shrouded in mystery. Aum.

Lesson 358 – Merging with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Wisdom of The Ages

Religion as it is known today is an offshoot of various ethnic groups that gathered together in the twilight of human history and forged systems of law, worship, culture and belief. The unique circumstances of geography, language, communications and race isolated one group from another, and differences were born and preserved: differences of belief and custom. As these small communities varied, so did the systems which satisfied each one. From their inception they absorbed the singular thought patterns postulated by their culture and their leaders, and these distinctions were perpetuated from father to son, from guru to disciple, from one generation to the next. The leader was the shaman, the priest, the āchārya, the philosopher-king. He was well versed in religious matters among them and naturally became the authority, the tribal priest. Religion in the early days was tribal, for man’s early experience was tribal. Being tribal, religion was political. The political character has been preserved, as we find it today, in the world’s many religions, which are, for the most part, the common beliefs of the various races and/or nations on the Earth.

Five, ten thousand years ago in the Himalayas and across to the Indus Valley, ancient ṛishis and sages studied and meditated upon the eternal truths passed down to them and in conclaves jointly concurred as to the results of their personal findings on the inward path. Following an already ancient tradition, they were sent on missions—to Kashmir, China, Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, South India, Southeast Asia and to every traversable part of the world—with the same message, digested and concise, given out with the power and force of their personal realizations of the final conclusions.

Today I am going to speak about Hinduism and the conclusions drawn by its early sages and saints as to the orderly evolution of man’s soul and the ultimate spiritual goal of that evolution, the culmination of the countless accumulated passages of the soul on its journey to Truth. The ancient ones, the ṛishis and sages who formulated these final conclusions, recorded them as scriptures which still exist today. They were not interested in preserving a sectarian view of religion. Rather, they laid down their conclusions for all mankind. They had realized God within themselves, and from that inner realization they spoke out with boundless humility and undeniable authority. These teachings were recorded in the early Vedas. They blossomed in the Upanishads. They were detailed in the Āgamas. They came to be known as the Sanātana Dharma, the Eternal Path.

According to ancient Hinduism, all is Śiva, all is God. God is both immanent and transcendent, both saguṇa and nirguṇa, with and without form. There is but one God. He manifests variously as the formless and Absolute Reality, as the rarefied form of Pure Consciousness, Satchidānanda, Pure Energy or Light flowing through all existence, and as the personal Lord and Creator, the Primal Soul. As the Immanent Lord, Śiva created the soul, and the world of form and experience, that it might evolve toward and merge with the Absolute.

The Śvetāśvatara Upanishad (2.16; 3.1-2 upp, p. 121) speaks of God as both immanent and transcendent, and I would like to quote for you from it. “He is the one God, present in the North, the East, the South and the West. He is the Creator. He enters into all wombs. He alone is now born as all beings, and he alone is to be born as all beings in the future. He is within all persons as the Inner Self, facing in all directions. The One Absolute, impersonal Existence, together with His inscrutable māyā, appears as the Divine Lord, the personal God, endowed with manifold glories. By His Divine power He holds dominion over all the worlds. At the periods of Creation and Dissolution of the universe, He alone exists. Those who realize Him become immortal. The Lord is One without a second. Within man He dwells, and within all other beings. He projects the universe, maintains it, and withdraws it into Himself.” Elsewhere the Śvetāśvatara Upanishad (3.8-9 ve, p. 734) speaks of God as the Primal Soul, “I have come to know that mighty Person, golden like the sun, beyond all darkness. By knowing Him, a man transcends death; there is no other path for reaching that goal. Higher than Him is nothing whatever; than Him nothing smaller, than Him nothing greater. He stands like a tree rooted in heaven, the One, the Person, filling this whole world.” And the Muṇḍaka Upanishad (2.1.2 mc, p. 57) speaks of God as the unmanifest, Nirguṇa Brahman: “Self-resplendent, formless, unoriginated and pure, that all-pervading Being is both within and without, anterior both to life and mind. He transcends even the transcendent, unmanifest, causal state of the universe.

Lesson 357 – Dancing with Śiva

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

Why Do Some Souls Act in Evil Ways?

ŚLOKA 47
People act in evil ways who have lost touch with their soul nature and live totally in the outer, instinctive mind. What the ignorant see as evil, the enlightened see as the actions of low-minded and immature individuals. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Evil is often looked upon as a force against God. But the Hindu knows that all forces are God’s forces, even the waywardness of adharma. This is sometimes difficult to understand when we see the pains and prob­lems caused by men against men. Looking deeper, we see that what is called evil has its own mysterious purpose in life. Yes, bad things do happen. Still, the wise never blame God, for they know these to be the return of man’s self-created kar­mas, difficult but necessary experiences for his spiritual evolution. Whenever we are injured or hurt, we un­derstand that our suffering is but the fulfillment of a kar­ma we once initiated, for which our injurer is but the instrument who, when his karma cycles around, will be the injured. Those who perform seemingly evil deeds are not yet in touch with the ever-present God consciousness of their immortal soul. The Vedas rightly admonish, “Borne along and defiled by the stream of qualities, unsteady, wavering, bewildered, full of desire, distracted, one goes on into the state of self-conceit. In thinking ‘This is I’ and ‘That is mine’ one binds himself with himself, as does a bird with a snare.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.