ŚLOKA 58 Social law, or varṇa dharma, consists of the occupation, duties and responsibilities we must fulfill as a member of our nation, community and family. An important aspect of this dharma is religious and moral law. Aum.
BHĀSHYA Every human society defines a complex stratification of community interaction. Scholarly, pious souls of exceptional learning are the wise brāhmins. Lawmakers and law-enforcers are the guardian kshatriyas. Bankers and businessmen are merchant vaiśyas. Laborers, workers and artisans are śūdras. In addition to these four classes, or varṇas, are hundreds of castes, or jātis. In Hindu societies, class and caste, which dictates one’s occupation and community, is largely hereditary. However, these birth-imposed categories can be transcended by the ambitious who enter new careers through education, skill and persistence. Social dharma is fulfilled in adherence to the laws of our nation, to our community responsibilities and to our obligations among family and friends. A comprehensive system of duties, morals and religious observances make up God’s law at work in our daily life. Rightly followed, varṇa dharma enhances individual and family progress and ensures the continuity of culture. The Vedas say, “When a man is born, whoever he may be, there is born simultaneously a debt to the Gods, to the sages, to the ancestors and to men.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.
Nintendo—it’s a toy, but it’s not a game. Toys have real influence in shaping young minds and emotions, more than parents realize. When kids play in an open field or in the woods, they are experiencing nature and learning how to relate to natural things. So many messages are going into their minds, so much information is being absorbed. It’s very different when our kids spend their hours alone with popular video games like Nintendo, which work within the subterranean stratum of the subjective mind, aligning vāsanās in the chitta to kill, kill, kill.
Nintendo—it awakens the desires to succeed through intimidation and force. Nintendo—it teaches kids that the world is full of enemies to be slayed, opponents to be conquered, attackers to be attacked first. Nintendo—it complements a strategy to develop a nation of terrorists within every home that harbors this asuric mechanism. For those who don’t know, Nintendo is a Japanese-produced video computer system that plays a variety of arcade-type games. And there are many other such games that you can buy on CD-ROM or play interactively on the Internet.
To develop sattvic youth for a brave new world, we have recently asked moms and dads and the youths themselves to disarm themselves of toy guns and knives, and of Nintendo and all other kinds of computerized killer games. Among the families in our fellowship, this has been accomplished. Lots of seven-year-old children have burned their guns and dismantled or sold their Nintendos in the name of ahiṁsā, the dharmic principle of not harming others—even in one’s mind, even in one’s dreams—physically, mentally or emotionally. The big games, Nintendo and Genesis, and all the similar computer and video games and toy guns and knives and cannons have been taken out of my followers’ homes and thrown into the garbage cans.
Instead of learning the “us-versus-them” world, our children are learning about the “us-helping-them” world of civilized society. It took a little courage, because these games are amazingly popular, and children become attached to them, even addicted. But our homes have all been disarmed, with no more violence masquerading as fun. What about your home? These video and computer games, as well as toy guns and knives and other weapons of death and destruction, educate children that this is the way to live on planet Earth. They learn that to solve a problem, it’s “bang, bang, bang, you’re dead.” You don’t have to reason with anyone, negotiate, compromise or use any form of intelligence. “Bang, bang, bang, you’re dead” solves the problem. Is that what we want them to learn? Playing like this hour after hour teaches children that life is cheap, meaningless. Those with the bang-bang-you’re-dead subconscious mind, how will they ever learn that life is precious? How will we ever teach them that living with asuras is different from living with Śiva?
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 213: DRAWING WITHIN, RELEASING THE WORLD Śiva’s devotees who are dying concentrate on their mantra and find solace in the holy Vedic teachings on the soul’s immortality, ever seeking the highest realizations as they consciously, joyously release the world. Aum.
You can only detach yourself from your odic physical body when you know that a higher you exists, when you have gained stability by identifying yourself as actinic force. Don’t mistake your personality or ego for your actinic individuality.
Often the two terms individuality and personality are taken to be synonymous, but this is far from true. In classical yoga teachings we look at individuality as being the actinic energy, or the clear white light, the pure energy substance of the mind, which is constant, ever unfolding itself, peaceful and controlled. The personality we consider as the various masks or personae which cover the individuality. The personae which are heavy, dark and glued on to one’s face, so to speak, are those of an intense ego, congested odic force. They are most difficult and rather painful to drop off, or even to pull off. The personae which are transparent allow the clear white light from the actinic being to shine through. One can have many of these personalities and have fun using them constructively in the world, doing things of the world, always recognizing that the clearness of actinic vision shines through the mind-constructed personality of the individual’s race, occupation, social background and various accomplishments.
Many people become attached to their personality and suffer when it changes. One cannot, however, be attached to his individuality. In identifying the difference between personality and individuality, we can say that man’s individuality is the actinic, superconscious mind, which is constant, permanent, ever-unfolding and secure, and deep within, at a more intense rate of vibration than his odic conscious and subconscious mind, which make up the ever-changing personality. It is conceivable that man can have many different personalities, but he can have only one constantly unfolding individuality. And so it is the ego or personality masks we must identify as being the unreal and impermanent, and the actinic individuality as being the permanent, secure, ever-unfolding and refined actinic phase of the mind. This week do an internal concentration on the words personality and individuality. Try to locate your individuality by identifying your several masks or personalities that you have created in this life and write your findings on why you can get attached to personality but cannot get attached to individuality.
You perhaps have had a series of good, positive and constructive experiences. They have gone deep into your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has reorganized itself, giving you a more positive, constructive, fruitful outlook on life. As a result, several weeks later your friends say to you, “You look different. Your face has a glow. You appear eight years younger.” These compliments also go into your subconscious mind, and you begin to feel good about your physical body. These good feelings, constructive, healthy feelings, again go into the subconscious mind and build from within itself a new atomic structure for the physical body. You take a new lease on life. Your body grows younger because your mind has had good impressions placed within it.
Think on this. Be renewed by a change of your mind, and seek for the constructive experiences with a positive reaction. Allow the reaction to bear fruit within the subconscious mind. Concentrate and feel the good feelings permeating the nerve currents running through the physical body, thus being renewed actinically from within. Good feelings are like food to the physical body. Food from deep within the nervous system, fed out through the circulatory system, right out to the skin, makes for an inner glow which can be seen on your face and through the rest of the body. This constitutes happy organs. In other words, all of the organs of the body are working in perfect timing, one with another, being proportionately fed by actinic energy and the vital odic forces. A good, well-balanced “force diet” makes for healthy organs and controlled, calm, central and sympathetic nerve systems.
ŚLOKA 57 Universal law, known in the Vedas as ṛita, is cosmic order, God’s rule at work throughout the physical province. It is the infinite intelligence or consciousness in nature, the sustaining cosmic design and organizing force. Aum.
BHĀSHYA Ṛita is the underlying divine principle and universal law regulating nature, from the voyage of stars in vast galactic orbits to the flux of infinitesimal subatomic energies. Ṛita is the Tao. It is destiny and the road to destiny. When we are in tune with universal dharma, and realize that man is an integral part of nature and not above it or dominating it, then we are in tune with God. All Hindus feel they are guests on the planet with responsibilities to nature, which when fulfilled balance its responsibilities to them. The physical body was gathered from nature and returns to it. Nature is exquisitely complex and orderly. The coconut always yields a coconut tree, a lotus a lotus, a rose a rose, not another species. How constant nature is, and yet how diverse, for in mass producing its creations, no two ever look exactly alike. Yes, the Hindu knows himself to be a part of nature and seeks to bring his life into harmony with the universal path, the sustaining cosmic force. The Vedas proclaim, “Earth is upheld by Truth. Heaven is upheld by the sun. The solar regions are supported by eternal laws, ṛita. The elixir of divine love is supreme in heaven.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.
A human teacher would know the student’s state of mind and special gifts or needs, and society would guide him. While teaching English, French, German or any of the fourteen major languages of India, all the teacher’s good qualities go into the student, enriching and blessing him, along with the experience the teacher has gained through the years. When the magic happens, a certain amount “rubs off,” and a life is transformed. This is real education. This is training through sampradāya—people to people, heart to heart, mind to mind, soul to soul. This is how it used to be and how it still can be.
In a student-teacher relationship, the novice must deal directly with a human, talk to a human, be with a human, and love or hate this human, as the case may be, depending on the student’s evolution or spiritual development, not to mention that teacher’s own personal qualities. But school classes, from the lower grades to the highest are tending to dispense with human contact by replacing humans with machines. These are not just machines to write letters on, design buildings with or do the many other things this remarkable technology can do, but machines of learning that do not have a heart, machines which the child has total control over, machines which parents and teachers sometimes use to subdue or occupy a child for hours, and thus simplify their own duties.
That’s the big problem—the complete isolation. He can turn it on. He can turn it off. He can disagree with what is being taught or totally misunderstand, and no one ever knows. These children are deprived of life’s most precious gift, the passing down of knowledge, with respect and love for the knowledge imparted, at certain psychological moments in a child’s life. These children are deprived of the fulfillment gained by learning from a person with a heart, a person yearning to fulfill dharma and pass on his knowledge and, most importantly, his knowing earned through experience and his passion about the subject he ardently wishes to convey to youthful minds. This can never, ever be programmed into any software on the Internet or burned into a CD-ROM.
The Information Highway is an uncensored, unsupervised world. In all previous methods of conveying knowledge to children, there was a responsible adult involved, be it a teacher or librarian or parent. But the Internet’s vast spectrum of information is equally available to every individual with access—at last count hundreds of millions. Sadly, we are developing a generation—or two generations, for one is already established—of heartless children, deprived of love: an unhugging, cool, calculating, computer generation exposed to worldly sights that even most adults did not encounter ten years ago. Where will it all lead? That is a question Hindu families around the world are beginning to ask.
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 212: FORGIVING AND SEEKING FORGIVENESS Śiva’s devotees facing death perform vāsanā daha tantra, reconcile with and seek forgiveness from anyone they have offended, lest they leave unresolved kukarmas to go to seed and bear bitter fruit in future births. Aum.
Did you know that the physical body reflects the higher states of your consciousness and actually registers the flow of actinic force? There are advanced yogīs who can look at the physical body of a beginning seeker and observe how evolved he may be on the spiritual path. He would also be able to intuit from his observation the remaining subconscious seed experiences that yet must be worked out either physically or mentally.
Your physical body will express the highest that is within you when the actinic forces are flowing freely through it. Often the physical body reflects the lower nature when the odic forces are turbulent and in or out of control. The best way to keep the actinic force flowing through the physical body is practicing the art of giving, doing little things for others that you have not been asked to do. This keeps you creative, and being creative is actinic, superconscious and religious. Giving, doing without thought of return, affectionate detachment, creates an odic vacuum which your actinic, spiritual forces flow into and fill. As you practice this bhakti and karma yoga art, your relatives and friends, even strangers, will recognize your unfoldment, for the actinic forces, the real you, will permeate your physical body, making each of your features alive.
Here is a five-minute routine for rising in the morning that will help keep the actinic forces flowing. 1) As soon as you awaken in the morning, take a deep breath, slowly exhaling. Say aloud, “Jaya Gaṇeśa! Anbe Sivamayam, Satyame Parasivam.” Then, to move the vital health body into action, stretch out the fingers of both hands so that the palms are flat, then close the fingers into the heel of the palms pressing with a firm pressure, and scrape the fingertips up the palm of the hand until the fingers are again extended straight. Do this several times with a firm, even pressure. This stimulates the vital prāṇic body and the subtle nerves. 2) Again extend the fingers of both hands out straight. Slowly move first the little finger in toward the palm of the hand, followed by the next and the next, making a fanlike motion until all the fingers are again parallel and pressing into the heel of the palms. Again scrape the fingers up across the palm of the hand and extend them. Each finger is connected to vital nerves which govern one of the organs of the body. Through stimulating the movement of the hand, you are actually organizing and awakening the odic forces in the entire body. 3) The next exercise is also done before you get out of bed. Clasp the hands behind the neck and with knees straight and toes pointed, raise the body, touching the right elbow to the left knee. Lower the body slowly to the prone position, then raise again and touch the left elbow to the right knee. Practice this each morning, to strengthen the abdominal muscles and stimulate visceral activity, until you can do sixteen to twenty repetitions with ease. 4) Next clasp the hands behind the back of the neck, lifting the head up six or eight inches, pulling the elbows down toward the chest. 5) Next, rotate the ankles around and around. Do this eight or ten times, then point the toes down, pull them back, down and back. These exercises will contribute to moving the vital health body into action. They bring vital health odic force and prāṇa into the muscles, the bloodstream and the vital nerve currents of the body. This entire series of exercises should take about five minutes, after which time you should feel like jumping out of bed and facing an actinic day. This series of exercises immediately breaks up the astral congested, instinctive odic forces of the mūlādhāra that may have accumulated during sleep, flushing the vital fluids into the circulatory system and on into the muscular structure. A strong, healthy body is an emblem of a stable, well-balanced conscious and subconscious mind.
ŚLOKA 56 Dharma is the law of being, the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. Dharma is of four main divisions, which are God’s law at work on four levels of our existence: universal, human, social and personal. Aum.
BHĀSHYA When God created the universe, He endowed it with order, with the laws to govern creation. Dharma is God’s divine law prevailing on every level of existence, from the sustaining cosmic order to religious and moral laws which bind us in harmony with that order. We are maintained by dharma, held in our most perfect relationship within a complex universe. Every form of life, every group of men, has its dharma, the law of its being. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the Truth that inheres and instructs the universe, and we naturally abide in closeness to God. Adharma is opposition to divine law. Dharma prevails in the laws of nature and is expressed in our culture and heritage. It is piety and ethical practice, duty and obligation. It is the path which leads us to liberation. Universal dharma is known as ṛita. Social dharma is varṇa dharma. Human dharma is known as āśrama dharma. Our personal dharma is svadharma. Hinduism, the purest expression of these four timeless dharmas, is called Sanātana Dharma. The Vedas proclaim, “There is nothing higher than dharma. Verily, that which is dharma is Truth.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.
You have all met the new, cool, calculating computer generation, about which I have an observation. And it is truly the human right of every soul on the planet, at this time in the Kali Yuga, to make observations and comment on them. Furthermore, it is the duty of concerned men and women to speak out on what they observe, to thus reaffirm the dharma. My observation is that learning from computers is taking youth in the opposite direction from sampradāya, the imparting of wisdom person to person, heart to heart, mind to mind, teacher to student, satguru to śishya. The teacher passes on not only information, but the mature refinements of attitude and behavior through personal guidance and healthy association.
Young people used to love and respect, honor and extol their teachers. They would work to qualify to get into prestigious schools and vie with one another for the privilege of sitting before an Einstein or a Bose. Now they can buy advanced teachings on a CD or order them up freely on the World Wide Web. Maybe soon they will be able to download their diploma, to sign, frame and hang on the wall!
In 1993, Prodigy, one of the largest producers of computer educational material, said that 300,000 of its two million online users are children. There they find encyclopedias, games, chat forums and interactive books and magazines, such as NOVA, National Geographic and more. There are several “homework helpers” that can access volumes of data at the click of a mouse. The Software Publisher’s Association, a research group based in Washington, D.C., says the market for CD-ROM educational software is skyrocketing. For example, entranced before the computer, a child can explore every inch of an eighteenth century warship, displayed in cross-sectional views, meet the crew, study navigational tools and search for the young stowaway hidden somewhere in the hull.
“What’s wrong with that?” you might ask. In itself, nothing. I am not against computers. We have dozens of them in our monasteries. My concern is that the student who learns predominantly from the computer receives too little person-to-person nourishment, and is not even obliged to express human feelings anymore. The feelings of love and appreciation, respect and adulation, of thankfulness, acceptance and responsibility can all be suppressed or, worse, never developed during the formative years of life.
Since the computer craze began, when Apple produced the Macintosh and Microsoft began marketing software, I have observed the impact on youths of learning mainly from computers rather than people. The outcome is a cool, calculating, almost robotic individual with a blank look in his eyes. He can just turn the computer off anytime and be the smartest one in the family. Does anyone really yet know what registers in the objective and subjective mind of a youth being educated by the computer, who spends nearly all of his waking hours glued to a computer screen? Does anyone care?
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 211: FACING THE PAST TO PREPARE FOR DEATH Śiva’s devotees give spiritual counseling to the terminally ill who are blessed with the knowledge of death’s approach, showing ways to resolve the past so that Śiva consciousness is their bridge during transition. Aum.
Introduce yourself to your physical body by looking into a mirror today, a full-length one if possible. Say to yourself aloud, “I am not my physical body. I am much greater than my physical body.” You will immediately see this to be true if you approach the mirror and stand before it with these two thoughts in mind. Then listen to yourself saying, “I am not my physical body. I am much greater than my physical body.” The physical body is only one of the vehicles through which your highest being functions. To gain a concept of how much greater you really are, you must first begin bringing those several vehicles under your conscious control. This is done first by using the power of understanding, which is about fifty percent of the application of control when it comes to the world of the mind.
Quite often new aspirants coming to me to enter the classical yoga path will say, “I am sick of this body and its desires. I want to renounce it and live entirely spiritually.” There is nothing wrong with such a resolve, except that usually the aspirant really means, “I have no control over my body. I don’t understand it, nor any of my emotional drives. They control me, and somehow I can’t get away from the consciousness of them.”
As long as you react to your physical body, despising or cherishing it too much, you cannot progress well in sādhana or religious life. However, through the practice of concentration of the flow of thought forces, and through the deliberate use of your willpower, the power of cognition, deep understanding will unfold within you, acting as a controlling agent of the odic forces that sometimes can be so turbulent.
As an exercise in concentration, locate the different parts of your physical body through feeling while sitting still. Feel all of your muscles. Feel each bone. Locate them with your mind’s eye. Feel every organ, your heart, your liver, etc. Feel your circulatory system, the warmth, the flow. You are using the feeling faculties of the subconscious mind, the part of the subconscious that governs the involuntary processes of the body. The other part governs the involuntary processes of the mind, such as habits. In feeling the various parts of the body you are actually becoming consciously conscious of odic force, using the aggressive vibration of this force to become conscious of the physical body.
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.