Lesson 312 – Living with Śiva

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

Temple Metaphysics

Our Supreme God Śiva has created the Mahādevas, the Gods, to help us, to protect us, to inspire us—such as Lord Murugan, Lord Gaṇeśa and many others. Gaṇeśa, above all others, is the God, the great Mahādeva, to be invoked before every act and especially worshiped and prayed to when changes occur in our lives as we move from the old established patterns into new ones. Lord Gaṇeśa is always there to steady our minds and open the proper doors as we evolve and progress. He never, ever fails. He is always there for us when we need Him. Lord Murugan was created by God Śiva’s śakti and given a vel of spiritual discernment, a lance of divine intelligence. Pray to Lord Murugan to unravel the great mysteries of the universe. Pray to Lord Murugan to make you a spiritual person. Pray to Lord Murugan to release you into the arms of Lord Śiva by teaching you more about your Śaivite religion.

The understanding of the reality of God and the Gods may help you to appreciate the importance of prayer and worship. Take, for instance, our hymns and chants—our Devarams and bhajanas, our japa and the many other ways we express the praises and love of God Śiva that we feel in our hearts. These hymns are actually heard by the subtle beings. Devas in the Second World come, hover around and near us and rejoice in our singing. If we are deeply devoted and inspired, then even the Mahādevas of the Third World will hover above the devas in their magnificent bodies of light, showering blessings to those who are singing or chanting prayerfully.

You may not be able to see these subtle beings, but you can feel their presence, feel a holy atmosphere around you. I’m sure that many of you here have felt this, perhaps while chanting Aum Namaḥ Śivāya. As long as somebody is saying “Aum Namaḥ Śivāya,” the Śaivite religion exists on the planet in full force. Wake up in the morning saying “Aum Namaḥ Śivāya, Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.” Go to sleep at night saying “Aum Namaḥ Śivāya, Aum Namaḥ Śivāya,” and through the night you will leave your physical body and travel in the celestial spheres, where we are all together, learning, meditating and advancing ourselves spiritually.

On this Earth plane the Gods have a special home, and that is the holy temple. It is in the sanctified temple, where regular and proper pūjā is being performed in a pure way, that the Gods most easily manifest. You can go to a Hindu temple with your mind filled up with worries, you can be in a state of jealousy and anger, and leave the temple wondering what you were disturbed about, completely free from the mental burdens and feeling secure. So great are the divine psychiatrists, the Gods of our religion, who live in the Third World, who come from the Third World to this world where our priests perform the pūjās and invoke their presence over the stone image.

Hindus do not worship stone images. Don’t let anyone ever convince you of that. It is absolutely false. Those who say such things simply do not understand the mystical workings of the temple, or they seek to ridicule our religion because they feel insecure about their own. Hindu priests invoke the Gods to come and manifest for a few minutes within the sanctum of the temple. The Deities do come in their subtle bodies of light. They hover in and above the stone image and bless the people. If you are psychic and your third eye is open, you can see the God there and have His personal darśana. Many of our ancient Śaivite saints, as well as contemporary devotees, have seen such visions of the Gods. They know from personal experience that God and the Gods do exist.

When we go to the temple, we leave with our mind filled with the śakti of the Deity. We are filled and thrilled with the śakti of the temple in every nerve current of our body. When we return to our home, we light an oil lamp, and that brings the power of the temple into the home. This simple act brings the devas in the Second World right into your home, where they can bless the rest of the family who perhaps did not go to the temple. With a little bit of study of the mysticism of Śaivism, we can easily understand how the unseen worlds operate in and through us.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 312: CAUTION AGAINST DABBLING IN THE OCCULT
My devotees may spontaneously experience but do not practice clairvoyance, clairaudience, astral projection, lucid dreaming, trance mediumship, mind-reading, fortunetelling, magic or other distracting occult arts. Aum.

Lesson 312 – Merging with Śiva

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

Temple and Home Shrine

Through darshan power, the guru is able to communicate with his disciples. Information is passed on these rays of darshan. Unfoldment is guided on these rays of darshan. A beginning student cannot feel the darshan. That means he is not inwardly connected or “hooked in.” He does not have that open line. That is why the satguru often puts out some sort of intellectual book or pamphlets, to hold the intellect in check until the student goes deeper within. After deep study of the guru’s works, they then begin to feel his darshan occasionally from a distance, but not all the time.

A devotee does not have to be with his guru physically all of the time to unfold as a beautiful flower on the path. But he does have to be with the satguru’s darshan all the time, for that waters, protects, guides the unfoldment superconsciously. The guru is within him—not the physical presence of his teacher, however holy, but the divine spheres of his guru’s superconscious being. The law is, though, that only his guru can bring him into this realization fully and permanently.

A temple can be prepared to emanate a certain kind of darshan as strong as, if not stronger than, a guru’s. When a Hindu temple is established, a satguru who has a strong darshan is invited to come and help the priests prepare the main altar in the temple, which initiates the flow of darshan and śakti. This is done through the use of actinodic force. Certain physical elements are magnetized with actinodic power within the shrine through the chanting of mantras and by various other means. This brings the vibratory state of the physical element that holds this new vibration to a high pitch. The darshan vibration penetrates the ethers.

In a similar way, you have magnetized your clothing without realizing it with your personal vibration. A very sensitive “medium” could be blindfolded and by holding in his hand a piece of your clothing identify it as yours and tell something about you. That is why a temple has to be visited with the proper attitude, for a minute part of your actinodic force is left in the temple as you stand in front of the altar feeling the darshan radiating from it. The altar darshan builds up over many, many years as devotees come and go and priests chant the sacred mantras, permeating the temple with this darshan force, storing it in a great battery which takes in and emanates out.

Darshan is extremely important in spiritual unfoldment, because it catalyzes the crown chakra. It catalyzes the refined, superconscious being of man, energizing and strengthening it, in the very same way a violent or sensuous movie and the vibrations of the people sitting within the theater catalyze the lower chakras. Darshan catalyzes the crown chakra, the all-seeing-eye chakra, the universal-love chakra and the chakra of direct cognition in a similar way. That is why once a temple has been established, it should be approached and treated in a certain sensitive way to keep its darshan flowing strongly and profoundly. It builds in power through the years and stabilizes the spiritual unfoldment of all pilgrims who know of its existence, especially those who pilgrimage to the temple to be blessed by it.

If you get a little cloudy, a little foggy, and karma becomes heavy to the point you feel you cannot handle it yourself, then you can tune into the temple darshan if you do not have a satguru, for it works much the same way. Each devotee should establish a shrine in his own home which is connected in vibration with the darshan of the temple, which is again connected with the guru who helped the priests begin the flow for the temple.

The home shrine can bring through some of the vibration by your simply using the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether. This would be taught by the wise elders. This, then, is the cycle of darshan: from the satguru, the temple, the home shrine and back to you. If you want to begin a little shrine yourself, you need a stone blessed at the temple, which holds the vibration of the darshan there, nice, fresh air; and you have to reserve a space, preferably a private room. It must be neatly arranged and be clean and clear of worldly vibrations, a room set apart from all others. In it you must have the five vibrations occurring: earth, air, fire, water and ether, and it must be connected into the darshan of the temple.

Lesson 311 – Dancing with Śiva

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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 311 – Living with Śiva

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

The Nature Of God Śiva

The most important teaching of God Śiva is that He has three perfections. He is not only timeless, formless and spaceless. That Absolute Reality, Paraśiva, is but one of God Śiva’s perfections. He also has an all-pervasive form which flows through all things—Satchidānanda. He pervades all form. There is no place that Śiva is not. And He has yet another perfection, which is a golden body of light in the Third World, a perfect body in which He is our Lord and Creator, the most wonderful and loving and perfect Being we can imagine. In the temple, when we invoke God Śiva, He comes in this golden body of light and blesses the people. He can see you. He can hear your prayers. He has created all the souls on this planet and all other planets in our universe, our holy scriptures tell us.

God Śiva is in all things and everywhere simultaneously, at every point in time. And yet, Śiva as Maheśvara, the Divine Dancer, Naṭarāja, has a body not unlike yours or mine, a body in which He can talk, a body in which He can think, a body in which He can see you and you can see Him, a body with legs, a body with arms. In this body He dances the eternal dance. I had a vision, once, of Śiva Naṭarāja dancing. I could hear the bells on His ankles. I could see His feet and legs. He is a beautiful dancer, and He dances in the Third World.

God Śiva is so close to us. He is closer than our breathing, nearer to us than our hands or feet. Yes, He is the very essence of our soul, and yet He has a body just like ours that lives in the Third World. In this body of light He can come into the inner sanctum of the temple, and He can look at us, and we can feel His śakti, His power and presence. He is our great God, the ruler of this universe.

Sometimes we hear the misconception that if you worship God Śiva He will take everything away from you. That is not true. That is anti-Śaivite propaganda. It is not true at all. God Śiva gives you everything, because He is the universal God described in the Vedas as the Life of your life. This unfavorable propaganda, which exists primarily in the north of India, but elsewhere, too, postulates that Śiva is only Rudra, the Destroyer. It makes people afraid of Śiva. There is never a reason to fear Śiva. He is a God of love, of compassion for all He has created.

Nothing has ever been destroyed by God Śiva but that He creates, constantly changes the form of and absorbs back to Himself His creations. For is not the ultimate absorption, after eons of time, the ultimate destruction of what was once created? This is the goal, is it not, for all to merge in oneness with our God Śiva? We are not destroyed by doing this. We are fulfilled! He does not take anything away from us, but that which would harm us. God Śiva takes from us greed and gives abundance. God Śiva takes from us lust and gives contentment. God Śiva takes from us anger and gives love. God Śiva takes from us jealousy and gives self-confidence and security. God Śiva is an ever-fulfilling God.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 311: AVOIDING THE ADVICE OF PSYCHICS
My devotees do not counsel with trance mediums, clairvoyants, past- and future-life readers or psychic mentors. Nor do they consult astrologers or palmists other than those approved by their preceptor. Aum.

Lesson 311 – Merging with Śiva

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

The World As Your Guru

Those on the āṇava mārga, the path of the external ego, often claim to be their own guru. Some untraditional teachers even encourage this attitude. However, being one’s own guru is a false concept. Traditionally, one would be his “own guru” only if he were initiated as such, and his guru left the physical body. Even then, he would be bound by the lineage within the sect of Sanātana Dharma he dedicated his life to, and would still maintain contact with his guruji within the inner world. Therefore, he would not really ever be his own guru at all. Being one’s own guru is a definite part of the āṇava mārga, a very important part. It is raw, eccentric egoism. A teenager doesn’t become his own teacher in school. A medical doctor doesn’t become his own professor and then get a license to practice, signed by himself. Nor does a lawyer, an engineer or even an airline stewardess. So, logic would tell us that those pursuing something as sensitive, as personal and final as the path to perfection cannot on their own gain the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful in this endeavor.

Well, we are having fun here, aren’t we? But it is also a serious subject. Think about it. In the realm of training and responsiveness, we can say that there are two basic mārgas, or stages: the āṇava mārga and the jñāna mārga. Those on the jñāna mārga know they need someone in their life who has already attained what they are seeking to attain, who can see ahead of their seeing and consciously guide them. This is the traditional path of Hindu Dharma leading to Self Realization.

Those on the way of external ego have met many teachers, tested them very carefully, and have found them all not meeting up to their standards. They are the devotees of Śrī Śrī Śrī Viśvaguru Mahā-Mahārāj-jī, members of his Bhogabhūmi Āshram, place of pleasure. The regular daily sādhana is stimulating the desire for sex, for money, for food, for clothing.

Unlike other āśramas, here there are no apparent boundaries or clear-cut guidelines. Followers are free to do as they please. All classes are open to everyone, from the most high-minded studies to the most devious and low-minded. Advanced low-level classes feature how to “do in” your enemies and remain undetected; how to access pornography on the Internet, one of the great tools of the āśrama, and then participate in the pleasures it recommends. There are courses on effective ways to beat the children, abuse the wife or husband, to maximize domestic chaos. Executive education includes how to climb a corporate ladder, the pros and cons of saving face when rightly accused, and downing your accuser as misinformed or as a perpetual liar. One whole department is dedicated to self-indulgence. Advancements in technology provide never-ending novelty. There is experiential training in crime and punishment, in terrorism and being terrorized, revenge, retribution and the quest for forgiveness. Viśvagurujī has licensed assistant teachers all over the globe, in every city and small community in every country. In fact, every facet of our lovely planet participates in his training programs at every moment in time.

Mid-range subjects include politics, how to lose and still gain in the process. Love and relationships is very popular, with intensives in promiscuity, marriage, infidelity and divorce. How to find your little self and make it big—name and fame—is among the top ten pursuits. There are numerous variations on the acquisition and loss of property. Suicide and threatening suicide to get your own way have many students. Certain subjects are compulsory, including the quest for health and longevity, and the reality of decline, death and dying. The emotional wing is always full, especially the sessions on joy and sorrow. Anger is overcrowded, and jealousy, too. The list goes on and on. How to be totally committed to being noncommitted keeps many from advancing into higher grades. Keeping your children from becoming interested in religion, lest it hamper their education and job possibilities, has lots of apparently intelligent advocates. Making a living is one of the largest branches, with a recent addition on remaining sane while holding three jobs. Understanding your rebellious teenager and other parenting challenges are very big. How to have a family and neglect it at the same time (subtitled “latch-key kids”) is the latest rage.

Most ashramites, or bhogīs, are swamped with so many subjects, they struggle twenty-four hours a day and still never catch up. This is a very tough school, and the odd thing is, enrollment is automatic; even without applying for a course, you wind up studying it. It’s the default when the guidance of other gurus is rejected. Viśvaguruji has many doors for entering his āśrama and only one for exiting. Gradually, eventually, and it may take many lifetimes, everyone comes to see that he is leading them to an understanding that every freedom has its price, every action its reaction, that the path to perfection is up and up and up.

So, you can tell your friends, “I have a guru and you have one, too. Everyone has a guru, whether they know it or not.” All three gurus—parents, family guru and Viśvaguruji—unanimously say, “It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.” Viśvaguru’s school of hard knocks eventually delivers all errant seekers back to a satguru, shaman, rabbi, priest or minister. In order not to repeat his training, you either learn through the tough reactions of his courses or gentler lessons under the guidance of the two other traditional gurus. All gurus are conspirators in the evolution of the soul, and Śrī Śrī Śrī Viśvaguru Mahā-Mahārāj-ji is no exception.

Lesson 310 – Dancing with Śiva

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Who Are the Most Recent Kailāsa Gurus?

ŚLOKA 155
Sage Yogaswami, source of Natchintanai, protector of dharma, was satguru of Sri Lanka for half a century. He ordained me with a slap on the back, commanding, “Go round the world and roar like a lion!” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
Amid a festival crowd outside Nallur temple, a disheveled sādhu shook the bars from within the chariot shed, shouting, “Hey! Who are you?” and in that moment Yogaswami was transfixed. “There is not one wrong thing!” “It is as it is! Who knows?” Sage Chellappan said, and suddenly the world vanished. After Chellappan’s mahāsamādhi in 1915, Yogaswami undertook five years of intense sādhana. Later, people of all walks of life, all nations, came for his darśana. He urged one and all to “Know thy Self by thyself.” It was in his thatched, dung-floor hermitage in 1949 that we first met. I had just weeks before realized Paraśiva with his inner help while meditating in the caves of Jalani. “You are in me,” he said. “I am in you,” I responded. Later he ordained me “Subramuniyaswami” with a tremendous slap on the back, and with this dīkshā sent me as a sannyāsin to America, saying, “You will build temples. You will feed thousands.” I was 22 at the time, and he was 77. In fulfillment of his orders have I, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, composed these 155 ślokas and bhāshyas, telling an infinitesimal fraction of all that he infused in me. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 310 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

The Hindu Forehead Dot

Why do we wear the pottu, the red dot between our eyes? The dot worn on the forehead is a sign that one is a Hindu. It is called bindi in the Hindi language, bindu in Sanskrit and pottu in Tamil. In olden days, all Hindu men and women wore these marks, and they both also wore earrings. Today it is the women who are most faithful in wearing the bindi. The dot has a mystical meaning. It represents the third eye of spiritual sight, which sees things the physical eyes cannot see. Hindus seek to awaken their inner sight through yoga. The forehead dot is a reminder to use this spiritual vision to perceive and better understand life’s inner workings—to see things not just physically, but with the “mind’s eye” as well. With our third eye, we can see into the future. With our third eye, we can see into the next world, the Devaloka. With the third eye, we can see into the Third World, the Śivaloka. With our third eye, we can see into the past. It is an eye that we were born with and which is eternally awake, but we are usually unaware of its many functions. In most people it is clouded over with intellectual ignorance and disuse. When we are in a state of meditation and our entire mind is concentrated in the area of the third eye between our eyebrows, we see a red light begin to form. When we put a red dot between our eyebrows, the pottu, or bindu, as we are taught to do in the temple and at home, this enhances the use of the third eye, just as eyeglasses enhance the use of our two eyes.

There are many types of forehead marks, or tilaka, in addition to the simple dot. Each mark represents a particular sect or denomination of our vast religion. We have four major sects: Śaivism, Vaishṇavism, Śāktism and Smārtism. Vaishṇava Hindus, for example, wear a V-shaped tilaka made of clay. Elaborate tilakas are worn by Hindus mainly at religious events, though many wear the simple bindi, indicating they are Hindu, even in the general public. By these marks we know what a person believes, and therefore how to begin and conduct our conversations.

For Hindu women, the forehead dot is also a beauty mark, not unlike the black beauty mark European and American women once wore on the cheek. The red bindi is generally a sign of marriage. A black bindi is often worn before marriage to ward off the evil eye. The bindi is sometimes used as an exotic fashion statement, its color carefully chosen to complement the color of a lady’s sārī. Ornate bindis are sometimes worn by actresses in popular American TV shows.

It is common in many religions to identify one’s beliefs by wearing distinctive religious symbols. Often these are blessed in their temples, churches or synagogues. Jewish men wear the round skull cap, yarmulka. Christians wear a cross or medal on a necklace or coat lapel. In some countries, Muslim women still cover their face with a veil.

So, do not hesitate to wear the bindi on your forehead in the United States, Canada, Europe or any country of the world. It will distinguish you from all other people as a very special person, a Hindu, a knower of eternal truths. You will never be mistaken as belonging to another religion or to no religion at all. For boys and girls, men and women, the dot can be small or large depending on the circumstance. Recently a Canadian TV documentary distinguished the bindi by calling it a “cool dot.” Times are changing, and to proudly wear the symbols that distinguish and define us is totally cool!

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 310: FATHOMING OUR SUBTLE NATURE
My devotees study these three to discover the mysteries of being: the subtle bodies of man, the aura, which is a rainbow of thought and feeling, and the twenty-one chakras, or centers of consciousness. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya

Lesson 310 – Merging with Śiva

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

Loyalty to One’s Satguru

A devotee on the path who has a satguru should not seek darshan from another guru unless he has permission from his own guru to do so. Why? Because he should not become psychically connected with the other guru. The darshan develops inner psychic bonds. Another guru does not want to influence the unfoldment of the aspirant either. However, if he has permission to absorb darshan from someone else, then of course, there has been an inner agreement between the two gurus that no connection will result, and the disciple will not be distracted from his sādhana by conflicting new methods.

It is not good for a student on the path to run around to various teachers and lecturers and gain reams of miscellaneous knowledge about the path and related occultism. He becomes magnetically attached to the students of the various teachers and sometimes to the teachers themselves. The teachers do not like this “browsing” on the part of the guru-hopper either, for it impairs the unfoldment of their own students, as it goes against the natural flow of unfoldment on the path. It is also energy draining and time-consuming for the guru or swāmī.

One must look at spiritual unfoldment in the same way one approaches the study of a fine art. If you were studying the vīṇā with a very accomplished teacher, he would not appreciate it at all if you went to three or four other teachers at the same time for study behind his back. He demands that you come and go from your lesson and practice diligently in between. By this faithful and loyal obedience, you would become so satisfied with the results of your unfolding talents that you would not want to run here and there to check out what other maestros were teaching and become acquainted with their students. Students run from teacher to teacher only when they do not obey the teacher they have.

The wise guru or swāmī who takes his mission seriously and knows human nature to its core makes it very difficult for a devotee who departed his fellowship to later return. First he requires a detailed written explanation of the reasons for leaving, and a full written confession as to what occurred during the time away. This is all verified through background checks and in-depth personal interviews. Then, to test the sincerity, penance, prāyaśchitta, is given and performed before readmittance can even be considered. Upon hearing of these soul-searching procedures (known as vrātyastoma), most will bow out without a word and seek less demanding groups, thus proving their insincerity. These time-proven methods prevent detractors from returning to further disrupt the group from the inside more effectively than they could from the outside. If the seeker is qualified to be readmitted after completing his prāyaśchitta, he must begin at the beginning study level and be given no special privileges, positions or recognition in respect for his prior association. The protection of the fellowship is of utmost importance for the benefit of each devotee, and for the continuing spiritual unfoldment of the guru or swāmī himself. One should not be so naive to think that disgruntled former devotees would not seek reentrance for the purpose of disrupting the organization, or be sent on a mission from an adversarial group to rejoin in order to disrupt. All this and more has happened to gurus and swāmīs since the turn of the century.

There are three kinds of gurus that are traditionally available to guide the soul. The first, of course, are the parents. Next is the family guru, or a guru chosen by the children. The third guru, often the most suave, the most attractive, but in reality always the most demanding, is Viśvaguruji Mahā-Mahārāj. He does live up to his name in all ways, for viśva means “everything and everyone in the world,” and guru, of course, means “teacher.” Mahārāj is “great ruler.” Viśvaguruji, as I call him, seemingly teaches so patiently, yet accepts no excuses and remains unforgivingly exacting in his lessons. Everyone living on this planet has a guru, whether they know it or not.

When the world becomes the teacher, the lessons can be rough or enticing, unloving or endearing, unpleasant or full of temptuous, temporary happiness. The world is relentless in its challenges, in the rewards it offers, the scars it leaves and the healing it neglects. The unrelenting Viśvaguruji works surreptitiously through the people you meet, as past-life karmas unfold into this life. He never gives direct advice or guidance, but leaves the lessons from each experience to be discovered or never discovered. His sūtra is “Learn by your own mistakes.” His way of teaching is through unexpected happenings and untimely events, which are timely from his point of view. Unnecessary karmas are created while the old ones that were supposed to be eliminated smolder, waiting patiently for still another birth. Pleasure and pain are among his effective methods of instruction. Viśvagurujī is the teacher of all who turn their backs on parents, elders, teachers, gurus or swāmīs, laws and traditions of all kinds. It is not a lingering wonder why someone who once abandoned a loving guru or swāmī would want to return from the world and go through the vrātyastoma reentrance procedures, no matter what it takes.