Lesson 280 – Living with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Ahiṁsā in Business

I was once asked for my insights on applying ahiṁsā in the business world. Ahiṁsā in business is taught in a reverse way on American television: Titans, The West Wing, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Dallas, LA Law—popular shows of our time. Their scriptwriters promoted hiṁsā, injuriousness, in business—“Save the Falcon Crest farm at any cost, save South Fork, save the corporation.” Now the national news media reports attempts to save Microsoft, save the tobacco industry, save the hand gun manufacturers. The fight is on, and real-life court battles have taken the place of TV sitcoms which have long since been off the air. In both the TV and the real-life conflicts, whatever you do to your competitor is OK because it’s only business. The plots weave in and out, with one scene of mental and emotional cruelty after another.

The Hindu business ethic is very clear. As the weaver Tiruvalluvar said, “Those businessmen will prosper whose business protects as their own the interests of others” (Tirukural 120). We should compete by having a better product and better methodologies of promoting and selling it, not by destroying our competitor’s product and reputation. Character assassination is not part of ahiṁsā. It reaps bad benefits to the accusers. That is practiced by many today, even by Hindus who are off track in their perceptions of ahiṁsā. Hindus worldwide must know that American television is not the way business should be practiced. As some people teach you what you should do and other people teach you what you should not do, the popular television programs mentioned above clearly teach us what we should not do. The principles of ahiṁsā and other ethical teachings of Hinduism show us a better way.

Many corporations today are large, in fact larger than many small countries. Their management is like the deceptive, deceitful, arrogant, domineering king, or like the benevolent religious monarch, depending on whether there are people of lower consciousness or higher consciousness in charge. Cities, districts, provinces, counties, states and central governments all have many laws for ethical business practices, and none of those laws permit unfair trade, product assassination or inter-business competitive fights to the death. Each business is dharmically bound to serve the community, not take from the community like a vulture. When the stewardships of large corporations follow the law of the land and the principles of ahiṁsā, they put their energies into developing better products and better community service. When the leadership has a mind for corporate espionage, its energies are diverted, the products suffer and so does customer relations. The immediate profits in the short term might be gratifying, but in the long run, profits gained from wrong-doings are generally spent on wrong-doings.

Ahiṁsā always has the same consequences. And we know these benefits well. Hiṁsā always has the same consequences, too. It develops enemies, creates unseemly karmas which will surely return and affect the destiny of the future of the business enterprise. The perfect timing needed for success is defeated by inner reactions to the wrong-doings. A business enterprise which bases its strategies on hurtfulness cannot in good judgment hire employees who are in higher consciousness, lest they object to these tactics. Therefore, they attract employees who are of the same caliber as themselves, and they all practice hiṁsā among one another. Trickery, deceitfulness and deception are of the lower nature, products of the methodology of performing hiṁsā, hurtfulness, mentally and emotionally. The profits derived from hiṁsā policies are short-term and ill-spent. The profits derived from ahiṁsā policies are long-term and well spent.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 280: WITHDRAWING FROM ERRANT MONASTICS
My devotees know that any monastic who abandons his sacred vows and leaves the monastery or is dismissed should be shunned and treated as an outsider until he rights himself with his preceptor. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 280 – Merging with Śiva

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

Mutual Appreciation

Tremendous confusion can exist within the family if the man and the woman think that they are the same and are flowing through the same areas of the external mind. The only area that they should flow through together is the sushumṇā, the spiritual. And when they are both intently in the intuitive mind, they will unravel deep and profound things together. She is in the home, making things nice for him. When he returns from his mental involvements in the world, it is up to him to get out of the intellectual mind and into the spiritual currents of his superconsciousness in order to communicate with her at all, other than on a subconscious, physical or materialistic level.

For harmony to prevail between a man and a woman, he has to live fully within his own nature, and she has to live fully within her own nature. Each is king and queen of their respective realms. If each respects the uniqueness of the other, then a harmonious condition in the home exists.

A good rule to remember: the man does not discuss his intellectual business problems with his wife, and she does not work outside the home. He solves his problems within himself or discusses them with other men. When he has a problem, he should go to an expert to solve it, not bring it home to talk over. If he does, the forces in the home become congested. The children yell and scream and cry.

A contemplative home where the family can meditate has to have that uplifting, temple-like vibration. In just approaching it, the sushumṇā current of the man should withdraw awareness from the piṅgalā current deep within. That is what the man can do when he is the spiritual head of the home.

A woman depends on a man for physical and emotional security. She depends on herself for her inner security. He is the guide and the example. A man creates this security by setting a positive spiritual example. When she sees him in meditation, and sees light around his head and light within his spine, she feels secure. She knows that his intuition is going to direct his intellect. She knows he will be decisive, fair, clear-minded in the external world. She knows that when he is at home, he turns to inner and more spiritual things. He controls his emotional nature and he does not scold her if she has a hard time controlling her emotional nature, because he realizes that she lives more in the iḍā force and goes through emotional cycles. In the same way, she does not scold him if he is having a terrible time intellectually solving several business problems, because she knows he is in the intellectual force, and that is what happens in that realm of the mind. She devotes her thought and energies to making the home comfortable and pleasant for him and for the children. He devotes his thought and energies to providing sustenance and security for that home.

The man seeks understanding through observation. The woman seeks harmony through devotion. He must observe what is going on within the home, not talk too much about it, other than to make small suggestions, with much praise and virtually no criticism. He must remember that his wife is making a home for him, and he should appreciate the vibration she creates. If he is doing well in his inner life, is steady and strong, and she is devoted, she will flow along in inner life happily also. She must strive to be one with him, to back him up in his desires and his ambitions and what he wants to accomplish in the outside world. This makes him feel strong and stand straight with head up. She can create a successful man of her husband very easily by using her wonderful intuitive powers. Together they make a contemplative life by building the home into a temple-like vibration, so blissful, so uplifting.

Lesson 279 – Dancing with Śiva

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What Is the Nature of Guru Protocol?

ŚLOKA 124
Guru protocol, as outlined in the Kulārṇava Tantra and Guru Gītā, defines the traditional ways of relating to one’s spiritual preceptor to draw forth his wisdom and blessings and fully understand his inner nature. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Guru protocol can be understood in three parts: devotional acts, codes of harmony and prohibitions. Devotional acts include serving the guru, prostrating daily and offering a gift in love, chanting his name and meditating on his inner form as the embodiment of the Divine, partaking of ucçhishṭa—waters from his holy sandals, and his food leavings—emulating his awakened qualities, seeking initiation and striving for Self Realization as he directs. Codes of harmony include seeking his blessings, obeying his directions, keeping no secrets and honoring his lofty presence. Prohibitions include never contradicting or arguing with the guru, never criticizing him, nor listening to criticism by others, not imitating his dress or deportment, not standing or sitting above him, nor walking or driving ahead of him; not assuming authority in his presence, nor uttering words of falsehood or contempt, and not initiating conversation or asking questions unless invited. The Kulārṇava Tantra explains, “Be always in service of the guru, ever in his presence, giving up desire and anger, humble and devoted, lauding in spirit, upright in doing his work.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 279 – Living with Śiva

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

Curbing the Lower Natured

The problems of conflict reside within this low-minded group of people who only know retaliation as a way of life. To antagonize others is their sport. They must be curtained off and seen for what they are. Improvement has to come through their own self-effort. But they are always overly stimulated by doing so many mischievous acts and misdeeds that self-effort toward any kind of improvement is never even thought of. Yet, they must learn from their soul’s evolution, and their own mistakes will be the teacher, for they are in the period of their evolution where they only learn from their own mistakes.

People of the lower nature cannot be made peaceful. They are not open to persuasion. They are sovereign in their own domain. There are many doors into lower consciousness, and if the Devaloka people get too involved with people of a lower nature, they may have violence awakened within them. Lower-consciousness people are always looking for recruits to bring into their world. This sounds like a sad story, but it is true nonetheless. You see it happening around you every day.

It would, of course, be wonderful to think that all people in this world are on the same level—and certainly they are in the deepest sense. But our sages and ṛishis, and wisdom itself, tell us that we cannot expect the same of everyone in this birth. By recognizing the differences in each soul’s maturity, we also recognize the process of reincarnation, which gives us young souls and old souls.

People ask me from time to time, from the Hindu point of view, how to curtain off the lower-nature people. My answer is that people are curtained off from each other through their beliefs and the attitudes that they hold. Believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that a person is of the lower nature and is incorrigible in this life would create the attitude of avoiding his company, not antagonizing him, and this is the best protection. Societies all over the world are trying to control these people who have come to Earth from the world of darkness. This is one of the great concerns of all governments.

However, the problem is not only with people of the lower nature, it is also with people of the higher nature. They tend to be lazy. The more conscious a person is, the more responsible he or she should be. Therefore, the people of the higher nature should carry most of society’s responsibility and not leave it to others. If the high-minded people really want peace, they have to all get to know each other and then join hands in love and trust and work together. In every religious organization on the Earth an emphasis to help people is put forward as a duty and a fulfillment. Many of the groups reach out for membership and bring people from the Narakaloka into their midst. It is not long before the lower-natured people turn their once-sincere and happy religious community into a devil’s playground. They always begin by pitting people within the group against each other. If that is successful, then they pit their religious organization against another one. So, you can see that the Devaloka people have to join together, break down the barriers between themselves, work together, love and trust one another and protect their groups from this kind of intrusion. This is the first big doing. Once this is done, the rest will take care of itself quite naturally.

National and international peace movements are beneficial in that they keep the decision-making governments of the world aware of what the people want. They help the higher-consciousness people to become acquainted and to forge new principles for a global dharma.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 279: WELCOMING BACK THOSE WHO RECONCILE
My devotees extend every effort to welcome and bring back into the lineage those seeking to reenter its fold, having formerly left, provided they show grief, remorse and repentance, and reconcile with the satguru. Aum.

Lesson 279 – Merging with Śiva

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

Nurturing Harmony

A woman living in the iḍā current goes through her emotional cycles, too. Her moods change regularly. She laughs, cries, sulks, enjoys. He has to be wise enough to allow her to have these ups and downs and neither criticize nor correct her when she does. If conditions become strained within the home, the man of the house becomes the example by feeling the power of his spine and the spiritual force of Śiva within it. He finds that he remains calm and can enjoy the bliss of his own energy. He finds ways and means to create joy and happiness and make odic forces that may have gone into a heavy condition beautiful, buoyant and lovely again.

Rather than arguing or talking about their cycles, the man who is spiritual head of his house meditates to stabilize the forces within himself. He withdraws the physical energies from the piṅgalā and the iḍā currents into sushumṇā in his spine and head. He breathes regularly, sitting motionless until the forces adjust to his inner command. When he comes out of his meditation, if it really was a meditation, she sees him as a different being, and a new atmosphere and relationship are created in the home immediately.

The children grow up as young disciples of the mother and the father. As they mature, they learn of inner things. It is the duty of the mother and the father to give to the child at a very early age his first religious training and his education in attention, concentration, observation and meditation.

The parents must be fully knowledgeable of what their child is experiencing. During the first seven years, the child will go through the chakra of memory. He will be learning, absorbing, observing. The second seven years will be dedicated to the development of reason, as the second chakra unfolds. If theirs is a boy child, he is going through the piṅgalā. If a girl child, she is going through the iḍā current and will go through emotional cycles. By both spouses’ respecting the differences between them and understanding where each one is flowing in consciousness, there is a give and take in the family, a beautiful flow of the forces.

The āchāryas and swāmīs work with the family man and woman to bring them into inner states of being so that they can bring through to the Earth a generation of great inner souls. It is a well-ordered cycle. Each one plays a part in the cycle, and if it is done through wisdom and understanding, a family home is created that has the same vibration as the temple or a contemplative monastery.

In summary, woman is in the iḍā current predominantly and does not think or flow through the same areas of thought strata as the man does. If he expects her to think the same way that he is thinking, he is mistaken. Once they have a balance of the forces in the home, she is not going to be analytical. She will be in thought, of course, but she will not indulge in his ramified thinking. She is naturally too wise for this. If he wants to have discussions with her or use her as a sounding board, he is inadvisedly guiding her into the piṅgalā current. And if she is going through one of her emotional cycles at the time, she will become upset with him for apparently no reason at all. He has to realize that her intuition is keen, and that she will have, from time to time, profound intuitive flashes. She might explain to him spontaneously the answer to something he has been thinking about for days, without his having verbally expressed to her what was on his mind. This happens quite often in the positive, harmonious home.

Lesson 278 – Dancing with Śiva

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Are There Other Terms for Holy Ones?

ŚLOKA 123
Many terms name Hindu masters, teachers and aspirants including: jīvanmukta, ṛishi, muni, siddha, mahātma, guru, swāmī, sannyāsin, tapasvin, yogī, sādhu, sādhaka, paṇḍita, āchārya, śāstrī, pujārī, śishya and brahmachārī. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
A jīvanmukta is a liberated soul. Ṛishi refers to a venerated sage or seer. A muni is an ecstatic mystic, especially one living in seclusion or vowed to silence. Siddha refers to a perfected being or one who has attained magical powers. Mahātma denotes a great soul or renowned guru. The term guru usually describes a spiritual master, but can connote a teacher of any subject. A sannyāsin, or swāmī, is a formally ordained renunciate monk. A tapasvin is an ascetic seeking purification through rigorous disciplines. The yogī is dedicated to intense meditation for inner attainment. Sādhu is a general term for a holy man or wandering mendicant. A sādhaka is a serious seeker of the Self, and is often a monk. The āchārya, like the paṇḍita, is a respected teacher and advisor. Śāstrī refers to an expert in scripture. A pujārī is a temple priest. A śishya is a formal disciple. A brahmachārī is a celibate student, often under simple vows. Some titles have feminine equivalents, such as sādhvī, yogīnī and brahmachāriṇī. The Vedas explain, “The brahmachārī moves, strengthening both the worlds. In him the devas meet in concord; he upholds Earth and Heaven.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 278 – Living with Śiva

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

Two Kinds Of People

I have often been asked how it is that some people work for peace and others seem always to work for contention. There are two kinds of children or souls that are born on this planet and are spoken of in our Vedas and other scriptures. Some come to Earth from up down and others from down up. This means that the children who come to Earth from up down come from a place in the inner world of higher consciousness, and the children who come to Earth from down up come to Earth from a place in the inner world of lower consciousness. We call the place of higher consciousness the Devaloka and the place of lower consciousness the Narakaloka. The Devaloka is a heaven world and the Narakaloka is not.

The Narakaloka exists wherever violence and hurtfulness take place, whether in the inner or outer world. We see such things in action on television. On the astral plane the terrible deeds perpetrated by Narakaloka people are much worse than in the physical world. Children who are born into Earth consciousness from the Narakaloka will not respond to meditation, yoga or any kind of quieting controls. They are strangers to self-discipline and enemies to their own parents. The parents of these offspring do have a challenge, to be sure, and are bound by the karmic implication of neglect to face up to it and make every effort to reform, lift up and thus enhance the learning of the young souls whose forces of deception, anger and resentment are stronger than their responsibilities to parents and society. Many such parents wisely direct their difficult offspring into agriculture, farming and nurturing nature, thus allowing them to blend with the forces of nature and rise into higher consciousness as they learn from the slow processes of nature. Some well-meaning but mistaken families demand of them a high education and suffer the results of their upbringing for a lifetime.

In contrast, children who are born into Earth consciousness from the Devaloka do respond to meditation, yoga and all kinds of methods of self-control. These are the gentle people. Self-control and personal advancement are the reasons they have taken a birth. There are ways to tell the difference between these two types of people. The mere fact that someone becomes penitent would show us that he is really a Devaloka person. This is because Narakaloka people don’t become penitent. There is another way to tell the difference, and that is by looking into the eyes of the person. Narakaloka people generally have dull or sullen eyes, whereas Devaloka people have bright, clear, wide-open eyes. The former come from the world of darkness, the latter from the world of light. It is difficult to tell the difference at times, because the Narakaloka people are very cunning, and they will try to appear in the way they feel they should to measure up to your standards. They must be tested.

Peace will only come when the Narakaloka people are lifted up and made to obey the new standards in the world, standards which must be set by the Devaloka people. It is when the Devaloka people are in charge that peace will truly come; it can come in no other way. So, if the Devaloka people really desire to have peace on Earth, they should not be shy but take charge.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 278: WHEN TO STOP SHUNNING
My devotees who refuse to shun those who should be shunned should themselves be shunned. But none shall shun those who have reconciled with the preceptor and been publicly welcomed back into association. Aum.

Lesson 278 – Merging with Śiva

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

How Forces Go Awry

Odic force is magnetic force. Actinic force comes from the central source of life itself, from Lord Śiva. It is spiritual force, the spirit, pure life. The blend of these two forces, the actinodic, is the magnetic force that holds a home together and keeps everything going along smoothly. If a family man and woman are both flowing through the aggressive-intellectual current, the magnetic-odic forces become strong and congested in the atmosphere of the home, and inharmonious conditions result. They argue. The arguments are never resolved, but it is a way of dissipating the odic forces. If the man and the woman are flowing through the passive-physical current, the magnetic odic forces are not balanced. They become physically too attracted to one another. They become unreasonable with each other, full of fear, anger, jealousy, resentment, and they fight or, worse, take their frustrations out by beating, calling names and hurting, in many other ways, each other and their own children who came trustingly into their family. True, it is within the child’s prārabdha karmas to experience this torment, but it is the duty of the parents to protect him from it, creating an environment in which unseemly seeds will not germinate. True, it may be the child’s karma to experience torment, yet the parents do not have to deliver it. Wise parents find loving means of discipline and protect themselves from earning and reaping the unseemly karmas through improper hiṁsā methods of punishment.

However, if each understands—or at least the family man understands, for it is his home—how the forces have to be worked within it, and realizes that he, as a man, flows through a different area of the mind than does his wife in fulfilling their respective, but very different, birth karmas, then everything remains harmonious. He thinks; she feels. He reasons and intellectualizes, while she reasons and emotionalizes. He is in his realm. She is in her realm. He is not trying to make her adjust to the same area of the mind that he is flowing through. And, of course, if she is in her realm, she will not expect him to flow through her area of the mind, because women just do not do this.

Usually, it is the man who does not want to, or understand how to, become the spiritual head of his house. Often he wants the woman to flow through his area of the mind, to be something of a brother and pal or partner to him. Therefore, he experiences everything that goes along with brothers and pals and partners: arguments, fights, scraps and good times. In an equal relationship of this kind, the forces of the home are not building or becoming strong, for such a home is not a sanctified place in which they can bring inner-plane beings into reincarnation from the higher celestial realms. If they do have children under these conditions, they simply take “potluck” off the lower astral plane, or Pretaloka.

A man goes through his intellectual cycles in facing the problems of the external world. A woman has to be strong enough, understanding enough, to allow him to go through those cycles. A woman goes through emotional cycles and feeling cycles as she lives within the home, raises the family and takes care of her husband. He has to be confident enough to understand and allow her to go through those cycles.

The piṅgalā force takes man through the creative, intellectual cycles. Man brings through creativity from inner planes. He invents, discovers, foresees. We normally consider it as all having been created within his external mind, but it is done through his piṅgalā force operating on inner planes of consciousness. He is not going to be smooth always and living in superconscious states, for he has to go through experiential cycles. He must be inspired one day and empty the next. He must succeed and fail. He is living his destiny and working out karmas.