Lesson 347 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Is the Nature of the Charyā Pāda?

ŚLOKA 37
Charyā is the performance of altruistic religious service and living according to traditional ethical conduct and culture, by which the outer nature is purified. It is the stage of overcoming basic instinctive patterns. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Charyā, literally “conduct,” is the first stage of religiousness and the foundation for the next three stages. It is also called the dāsa mārga, meaning “path of servitude,” for here the soul relates to God as servant to master. The disciplines of char­­­yā include humble service, attending the temple, performing one’s duty to community and family, honoring holy men, res­pecting elders, atoning for misdeeds and fulfilling the ten classical restraints called yamas. Within a strong society, one performs char­yā whether he wants to or not. Young or rebellious souls often resist and resent, whereas mature souls fulfill these obligations most naturally. Right behavior and self-sacrificing service are never outgrown. The keynote of charyā, or karma yoga, is sevā, religious service given without the least thought of reward, which has the magical effect of softening the ego and bringing forth the soul’s innate devotion. The Tirumantiram ex­plains, “The sim­ple temple duties, lighting the lamps, picking flowers, lovingly polishing the floors, sweeping, singing the Lord’s praise, ringing the bell and fetching ceremonial water—these constitute the dāsa mārga.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 347 – Living with Śiva

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

Upholding Your Faith

The clothing we wear shapes our attitudes, cultural behavior and the friendships we hold. Clothes do affect our moods and emotions and make a declaration of who we are. My recommendation is to be who you are and let the world know it, even in the workplace, unless a dress code does not permit this, of course. This includes wearing the sacred forehead marks and Hindu jewelry, wedding pendant, toe rings, earrings and beads. The message is: don’t be afraid to be a Hindu, which includes dressing like a Hindu.

Boldly proclaim your faith to the world. Others proclaim theirs. I will never forget seeing the many spiritual and parliamentary leaders in Moscow at the Global Forum on Human Survival in January of 1991. Many were dressed in Western suits and ties, and it was hard to tell who among them were from the West, or from Africa or India, and harder still to tell who was a religious person and who a politician. But at the Millennium Peace Summit of Religious Leaders at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York in 2000, there were so many, perhaps most, who wore their native dress. I knew instantly who they were, where they were from and what they represented. They carried the stronger message and showed by their clothes that they were proud of their tradition, and that they intended to preserve it. That kind of strength is good to see in a world that has mistaken drab uniformity for security.

This is what temple societies and elders and swāmīs and gurus are all thinking deeply about—“Should my aśrama look like a hippie commune, or a serious place of yoga? Should our temples look like advertisements for Levi-Strauss acid-washed jeans?” Many say, “Well, God in the temple doesn’t care how I’m dressed. It’s how I am on the inside that counts.” This is a weak excuse. We cannot be one way on the inside and another on the outside. It’s all us, inside and out. Even in elegant restaurants, a coat and tie is required. They will lend these to you at the door. Just as is done today at temples in Bali, we loan wrap-arounds and shawls to those who walk into our temples wearing T-shirts and shorts. Perhaps the way things are heading, one day the Gods in the temples will have the dress of the day: a baseball cap turned backwards, a T-shirt, baggy pants. Perhaps that would satisfy the issue and end the controversy. What do you think?

Women say that they think and act and move differently when they are dressed in a sārī than in Western casual clothing. Another point—men look nicer in the traditional Indian outfit than they do in Western coats, shirts and trousers. But many are shy to wear Hindu clothing, especially the men. They need not be. Last summer a girl we know was scared to death to go to college in her puñjābis. But she tried it. Within four days some of the American coeds came up and asked, “What do you call that outfit? We want one like it, too. It’s so beautiful.” So much for our fears!

Swami Vivekananda noted, “The sārī of our women and the choga and turban of our men defy comparison as regards beauty in dress. The tight dresses cannot approach in loveliness the loose ones that fall in natural folds.” Hindus dressed like Hindus behave like Hindus. Don’t underestimate the power of our dress, how it influences our attitudes, feelings and even the company we keep. This is food for thought, isn’t it? Think about it.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 347: OVERNIGHT STAYS WHEN TRAVELING
My Śaiva monastics while traveling may reside and take meals in āśramas, temples, hotels or homes of worthy initiated families of our Saiva Siddhanta Church. Their sojourn in homes must never exceed three nights. Aum.

Lesson 347 – Merging with Śiva

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

Earth Peoples’ Shared Wisdom

Reincarnation is a refining process, contributing to the evolution of consciousness. To the watchful observer, the evolution of man’s inner bodies can be seen reflected in the tone and form of his physical vehicle. Being a reflection of the inner bodies, the physical shell can and does pass through radical transformation as the spiritual path is followed. Some people seem to reincarnate within this very life, changing themselves so deeply through tapas and sādhana that they are totally renewed or reborn on the physical plane. Their new light and energy pass through the very cells of the body, invigorating and strengthening it. Still, the inner bodies are more malleable than the physical forces and generally evolve more quickly, becoming quite different and more refined in this life than the physical shell. In the next life, the physical structure will be entirely different, as the spiritual body manifests a new physical body more like unto itself.

Other theories propose that the soul remains on the astral plane after death. After reviewing all of our Earthly experiences on the playback, we release the astral body and enter the heavenly realms of consciousness, never coming back to the physical plane, or at least not for a long time. Many cultures, such as the Native American Indian culture, recognize this basic law of reincarnation in their “Happy Hunting Grounds” concepts. Also related to this theory is the belief that when something is destroyed through fire on the physical plane, whether animate or inanimate, it will be found again on the astral plane. For example, when an Indian brave died, his saddle, clothing and valuables were buried and sometimes burned along with his body so that he might continue using these possessions to live well on the inner, astral, plane. These theories of reincarnation assure us that we will meet our loved ones and friends on the inner planes after death. Similar traditions exist among the Hindus in Bali and the Shintoists in Japan.

By exploring the theories of various civilizations, we discover that man can either incarnate soon after his death, with little or no interlude, or he may remain for thousands of years on the astral plane, evolving in those force fields, just as on Earth he evolved from experience to experience. How long he will spend on the astral plane depends on how he has created or chosen what he wants to do while on Earth. If he left things undone and felt compelled to accomplish more, to see more, then he would return quickly to another body in fulfillment of the desire for Earthly experience. However, were he satisfied that life had taught him all of its lessons and wished to exist away from the physical plane in mental and spiritual spheres, he might never return to inherit another body.

If we study the Pyramids and explore the intricate ceremonies which the Egyptians provided for their dead, we find that they kept the body preserved with elaborate chemical and environmental treatment. When the elements of the physical body are kept intact and not allowed to decompose, the departed may remain consciously on the astral, mental or spiritual plane for as long as he wants. A contact can even be maintained on the physical plane through these laws. However, as soon as the physical body begins to disintegrate, awareness is polarized once again and pulled back to the lower chakras and the physical plane. Actually, as the elements of the previous body disintegrate, all of the instinctive-mind atoms form a force field around that body. This generates a power center. When the body is completely disintegrated, the force field is dissolved, and the soul reincarnates at that time. The Egyptians believed that if a body could be durably mummified, the deceased could enjoy a fine life on the inner planes for thousands of years. Modern science can freeze bodies and thus preserve them perfectly, thus opening up possible research into these principles one day.

Lesson 346 – Dancing with Śiva

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

What Are the Four Stages on the Path?

ŚLOKA 36
The path of enlightenment is divided naturally into four stages: charyā, virtue and selfless service; kriyā, worshipful sādhanas; yoga, meditation under a guru’s guidance; and jñāna, the wisdom state of the realized soul. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Charyā, kriyā, yoga and jñāna are the sequence of the soul’s evolutionary process, much like the natural de­­­­vel­opment of a butterfly from egg to caterpillar, from caterpillar to pupa, and then the final metamorphosis to butterfly. These are four pādas, or stages, through which each human soul must pass in many births to attain its final goal. Before entering these spiritual stages, the soul is im­mersed in the lower nature, the āṇava mārga, or self-centered path, bound in fear and lust, hurtful rage, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, con­science­less­ness and mal­ice. Then it awakens into charyā, un­selfish religious service, or karma yoga. Once ma­tured in charyā, it enters kriyā, devotion or bhakti yoga, and finally blossoms into kuṇ­ḍa­linī yoga. Jñāna is the state of en­light­ened wis­dom reached toward the path’s end as a re­sult of Self Realization. The four pādas are not al­ter­na­tive ways, but progressive, cum­ulative phases of a one path, San Mārga. The Tiruman­tiram says, “Being the Life of life is jñāna worship. Beholding the Light of life is yoga worship. Giving life by invocation is external worship. Adoration that displaces anger is charyā worship.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 346 – Living with Śiva

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

Double Standards

Devout Hindus have a hard time dividing life into the sacred and the profane. It is life, and it is all divine expression. Thus, Hindu art is sacred art, Hindu music is devotional music. Even business, for the devout Hindu, is not just livelihood but a way of serving God, the community and helping mankind.

But we must admit that not all Hindus live the life as fully as they might. There has evolved a double standard in the modern world. There are those who are consistent as Hindus in the temple as well as at home, whose home life is consistent with their behavior in the temple, whether they live in Europe or in an Indian village. There are also those who are Hindus when it is convenient and something else when it is not. A good, hard look at oneself once in a while is beneficial, especially at the time of year when many Hindus send Christmas cards. Do they send greetings to acknowledge the holy days of Islam or Judaism? No. But, having been educated in Christian schools, they feel it’s all right to send Christmas cards. Christian on the inside and Hindu on the outside—it’s a double standard. Rice and curry at the temple, a Big Mac beef burger on the way home. Of course, we would always encourage friendly gestures of goodwill and polite exchanges of good wishes with school mates, neighbors, colleagues, business and professional associates or customers who are members of another community, but that can be done without compromising our Hindu identity. There are perfectly neutral and secularized season’s greetings cards, devoid of religious expression.

Fortunately, the duplicity is changing. Hindus are getting more confident about living their culture, even in the West. A recent speaking tour in Canada and California brought to my attention an awakening in the older generation (for the sake of their children, they explained), and that is to be one hundred percent Hindu all the time, living the culture at home, in the workplace, the temple and even in dreams. One temple I visited in Toronto had set up a dress code for the devotees: elegant Hindu attire for ladies—no shorts, slacks, skirts, etc., and only traditional attire for men. Those who don’t comply are not admitted. Yes, there was at first some reaction, management told me. Even now, there are some who just won’t come to the temple if they can’t worship the Lord in T-shirts and tight jeans. But so many others who don’t appreciate the double standard and previously would stay away—because worshipers were dressing so immodestly—have since replaced the dropouts. The strictness has brought other boons along with it, such as a one-hour, absolutely silent meditation by two or three hundred people prior to the evening pūjā. The management prides itself on cleanliness, decorum and discipline. My group arrived there shortly after a feeding of several thousand. The kitchen was immaculate. So was the dining room. Similar efforts to bring forward the whole of our tradition are underway in other communities as well.

There is an old saying, “Clothes make the man.” And it must be equally true that clothes make the woman. Dress codes are a growing issue in many temples throughout the world, and in āśramas and maṭhas, too. This is being discussed not only in Hinduism but in other religions as well.

In international airports all over the world we see so many kinds of clothing. Airports are beginning to look like backstage at the opera—a flamboyant array—not of actors pretending to be who they are not, but an array of people whose clothing declares who they are. A materialist wears his shirt and tie. The Muslims are elegantly dressed. The colorful African tribals, stately Japanese Shintoists and modest Buddhists are in their traditional garb. Catholics dress demurely; Protestants informally. You can spot an existentialist just like that. And of course, you can never miss the punk rockers or the hippies. A kurta shirt, shawl and loosely fitted pants are definitely Hindu, and go well with the wife’s wearing a sārī or puñjābi.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 346: RECEIVING NO PERSONAL GIFTS
My Śaiva monastics do not accept personal gifts of any kind, but they may receive offerings on behalf of the monastery and support during pilgrimage, including fruit, flowers, food, lodging and travel expenses. Aum.

Lesson 346 – Merging with Śiva

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

Theories of Reincarnation

There are at least three basic theories or schools of thought related to reincarnation. At first they may seem to conflict or contradict one another, but further elucidation indicates that they all have merit. They are just different aspects of a complex mechanism. According to one theory of reincarnation, life begins with sound and color. Sound and color produce the first forms of life in the atomic structure of our being through binding the seed atoms together. At this point, life as we know it begins. It remains in a seed state or state of conception until the instinctive and intellectual cycles evolve into maturity through the process of absorption of more atoms into the astral body. This process continues until a physical body is formed around the astral body. But that is not the culmination of this theory. The cells and atoms of these bodies themselves evolve, becoming more and more refined as cycles of experience pass until complete maturity is reached in a physical body which is refined enough to attain nirvikalpa samādhi and begin the next process of building a golden body of light. According to this theory, the soul takes on progressively more advanced bodies, evolving through the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, slowly acquiring knowledge through experience. There may even be a life that seems to regress, such as a man incarnating as a cow to gain needed lessons of existence.

A second concept in this theory explains the lower evolutionary stage of animals, insects, plants and minerals. According to this principle, animals and lower forms of life function under what is called a “group soul.” They do not have an individual astral identity, but share a group astral atomic structure. That is one reason for the lack of so-called individuality among these groups and why animals move about in herds and birds live together in flocks—indicating the movement of the one group soul, so the theory goes.

In another theory, when man dies, he goes on to the astral plane after breaking the silver cord which binds him to the physical body. During out-of-the-body experiences, this silver cord is often seen as a cord of light connecting the physical, astral and spiritual bodies. When awareness leaves the physical body, it passes through one of the chakras. If our life has been one of baser emotion and reason, we would exit through one of the chakras near the base of the spine, either the mūlādhāra or svādhishṭhana, and begin a conscious existence on a lower astral plane. From there we would work out various experiences or reactionary conditions caused by congested mental and emotional forces which impressed our subconscious mind during the course of our lifetime. On the astral plane, we relive many experiences by reactivating them, creating for ourselves heavens or hells. When the lessons of that life had been learned and the reactions resolved, we would be drawn back into a family, into a new physical body, in order to gain more experience in the light of the new knowledge acquired while on the astral plane.

If we have evolved to the point that our life was one of service, understanding and love, then we would exit through the next higher chakras, for that is where awareness has been polarized, and our astral existence would be of a deeper, more refined nature. However, if we had discovered and practiced a dedicated spiritual life, then our exit would be through the top two chakras, which do not lead awareness onto the astral plane but take it into the Third World of divine existence, never to reincarnate again into the physical world. After nirvikalpa samādhi is attained and perfected so that the mahāyogī can go into it at will, he leaves the body consciously through the door of Brahman, the center of the sahasrāra chakra above the pituitary gland at the top of the head. This depends on whether or not the golden actinic causal body, which has been developed after Self Realization, is mature enough to travel in actinic force fields on its own.

Lesson 345 – Dancing with Śiva

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

How Does One Best Prepare for Death?

ŚLOKA 35
Blessed with the knowledge of impending transition, we settle affairs and take refuge in japa, worship, scripture and yoga—seeking the highest realizations as we consciously, joyously release the world. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
Before dying, Hindus diligently fulfill obligations, make amends and resolve differences by forgiving themselves and others, lest unresolved karmas bear fruit in future births. That done, we turn to God through meditation, sur­render and scriptural study. As a conscious death is our ideal, we avoid drugs, arti­­fi­cial life-ex­ten­sion and suicide. Suicide only postpones and in­­ten­­sifies the kar­­ma one seeks escape from, requiring sever­al lives to return to the evolutionary point that existed at the mo­ment of suicide. In cases of terminal illness, under strict com­mun­i­ty reg­ulation, tradition does allow prāyopa­ve­śa, self-willed re­ligious death by fasting. When nearing transition, if hospitalized, we re­turn home to be among loved ones. In the final hours of life, we seek the Self God within and focus on our man­­tra as kindred keep prayerful vigil. At death, we leave the body through the crown chakra, entering the clear white light and beyond in quest of videhamukti. The Vedas affirm, “When a person comes to weakness, be it through old age or dis­ease, he frees himself from these limbs just as a mango, a fig or a berry releases itself from its stalk.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 345 – Living with Śiva

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

A Religion Of the Future

Many years ago I was given a beautiful description of Śaivism. I was told that Śaivism is like ghee. The cow eats grass all day and from it produces gallons of white milk. The dairyman separates out the rich cream. The cream is then churned into sweet butter. Finally, the butter is boiled to produce a tiny amount of ghee, the essence of milk. Like ghee, Śaivism is the essence of religion.

In the past decades I have found that instead of preserving and enjoying this ghee, people are pouring it into a brass pot and diluting it with Western rationalism, diluting it with liberal Hinduism, diluting it with unorthodox practices and beliefs of all kinds. That precious ghee has been turned into a greasy water which is not fit for anything except to be thrown out. Therefore, I call upon the united Śaivites of the world to protect, preserve and promote the Śaiva Samayam by bringing a stop to this dilution of our religion. This dilution is caused by Western influences, by the efforts of alien religions to convert our members, by liberal-Hindu thinking which seeks to destroy the traditions of temple worship and sectarian customs and, most importantly, by our own neglect.

Only the united Śaivites of the world can solve these problems. It is not enough to understand these problems or to complain about them. Objecting is not enough. We have to have a plan, a purpose, persistence and push. We have to put that plan forward with a positive mind, a practical approach and a dynamic will in order to make Śaivism the religion of the future, bringing it out of the agricultural era and into the technological age.

Here in Sri Lanka there is a misconception that in order to progress, in order to move into the age of technology, we have to abandon our religion, give up our culture. That is a false concept. Religion does not conflict with technology, but enhances it, gives it balance and purpose. As soon as a young man or woman gets a Western education, he or she assumes that the old traditions don’t apply anymore and becomes ashamed to worship God and the Gods. Where are the spiritual leaders who can explain that this need not be so? It is too bad that our religious leaders aren’t teaching the fact that Śaivism is the one religion on the planet best suited to this great age, which agrees most closely with the most advanced postulations of modern science, yet it is itself even more advanced.

In Bali, the technological age did not conquer religion. Rather, Śaivite religious leaders harnessed technology to serve their distinct way of life. There the Śaivite traditions have been valued and protected. On American national television a few months ago, a beautiful program on Bali’s Śiva festival, Ekadaśa Rudra, was shown—a massive celebration held for ten days only once every hundred years. A Balinese high priest was interviewed. He was proud to be a Śaivite and told the reporter, “We use technology here in Bali. We are not overcome by technology.” I am afraid to say that technology is overcoming many of us here in Sri Lanka. It is a dangerous trend. Unless we reverse it through education, it will gather momentum, and changes will come more and more quickly, not positive changes, but negative ones that destroy the religious character of people and nations.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 345: NURTURING NEW MONASTICS
Śiva’s monastics look upon newcomers to the monasteries as their potential spiritual heirs, to care for, tenderly nurture and train. They know it is their duty to pass on the wisdom of their years. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 345 – Merging with Śiva

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

Desire, Death And Rebirth

Where are we born after we die? How do we become born again? You are born again in the same way you died. After some time, the astral body cannot stay on the astral plane anymore, because the seeds of prāṇic motion have to be expressed on the physical plane again due to one’s activity on the astral plane. A new physical birth is entered. Generally, this happens through a newborn child’s body, but a more advanced soul who has his spiritual body well developed can pick up a body which is fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old and go right along in life from that point.

In what country do you become born? It all depends upon what country you were thinking about before and when you died. If you had a desire to go to Canada, most likely you will be born in Canada next time around. If you had been thinking about going to South America a year or two before you passed away, you would be reincarnated in South America, because that was your destination. If you were very much attached to your own particular family and you did not want to leave them, you would be born back in that immediate family again, because your desire is there. The astral body is the body of desire.

Students probing the mysteries of reincarnation often ask, “If reincarnation is true, why can’t I remember my past lives?” They might just as well ask another question: “Why do we not remember everything in detail in this life?” The memory capabilities, unless highly trained, are not that strong, especially after having endured the process of creating a new body through another family and establishing new memory patterns. However, there are people who do recall their past lives, in the very same way that they remember what they did yesterday. Former-life memory is that clear and vivid to them.

However, it is neither necessary nor advisable to pursue events, identities or relationships that may have existed in previous lives. After all, it is all now. We don’t think it important to remember details of our childhood years, to wallow in happy or unhappy nostalgia. Why pursue the remembered residue of what has already come and gone? Now is the only time, and for the spiritual seeker, past life analysis or conjecture is an unnecessary waste of useful time and energy. The present now is the sum of all prior thens. Be now. Be the being of yourself this very moment, and that will be the truest fulfillment of all past actions.

The validity of reincarnation and its attendant philosophy are difficult to prove, and yet science is on the threshold of discovering this universal mechanism. Science cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence, the testimony of thousands of level-headed people who claim to remember other lives or who have actually died and then returned to life, and the impressive literature spanning Hindu, Tibetan, Buddhist and Egyptian civilizations. Thus, the pursuit of various theories continues in an effort to bring theory into established law according to the reason and intellectual facilities of man. Those living in the heart chakra, anāhata, are able to cognize and know deeply the governing mechanism of rebirth from their own awakening.

Lesson 344 – Dancing with Śiva

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

How Should We View Death and Dying?

ŚLOKA 34
Our soul never dies; only the physical body dies. We neither fear death nor look forward to it, but revere it as a most exalted experience. Life, death and the afterlife are all part of our path to perfect oneness with God. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
For Hindus, death is nobly referred to as mahā­pra­s­thāna, “the great journey.” When the lessons of this life have been learned and karmas reach a point of in­tensity, the soul leaves the physical body, which then re­turns its elements to the earth. The awareness, will, memory and intelligence which we think of as ourselves continue to exist in the soul body. Death is a most natural ex­pe­r­ience, not to be feared. It is a quick transition from the physical world to the astral plane, like walking through a door, leaving one room and en­tering another. Knowing this, we approach death as a sādhana, as a spir­itual op­­portunity, bringing a level of detachment which is difficult to achieve in the tumult of life and an ur­­gency to strive more than ever in our search for the Di­vine Self. To be near a realized soul at the time he or she gives up the body yields blessings surpassing those of a thousand and eight visits to holy persons at other times. The Vedas explain, “As a caterpillar coming to the end of a blade of grass draws itself together in taking the next step, so does the soul in the process of transition strike down this body and dispel its ignorance.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.