{"id":115,"date":"2026-04-13T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/?p=115"},"modified":"2025-04-19T17:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T03:00:04","slug":"lesson-2-living-with-siva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-2-living-with-siva\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 2 \u2013 Living with \u015aiva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/LwS-Lesson-2.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Recording: Gurudeva&#8217;s cloned voice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Spiritual Retreat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Does this seem too dif\ufb01cult? Can you just contemplate what it would take to seek the all-pervasive \u015aiva from hour to hour, throughout the day? One would have to be detached from all worldly responsibilities to a great extent in order to begin to bring this natural internal process through and into the external mind. The external mind is built up by an intellect formed from other people\u2019s knowledge and opinions. This borrowed knowledge shrouds the soul, and the natural, childlike intelligence often does not \ufb01lter through. Therefore, a period of detachment and regular spiritual retreat or separation from the external world is necessary. <br><br>On a pilgrimage we strive to see God around us, to intuit Him in the events that happen. During worship in the temple, we strive to feel Him, to experience Him more profoundly than during our normal activities. Eventually, as our spiritual efforts progress, we bring that same attention, that same one-pointedness, right into the everyday experiences that life presents to us, whether seemingly good or bad, whether causing pleasure or pain. This is the experience of the mature soul who performs regular s\u0101dhana after taking certain vows strong enough to cause a detachment of the intellect from seeing the external world as the absolute reality. All seekers hope for an occasional glimpse of \u015aiva during their yearly pilgrimage at some venerable temple. If they develop that little glimpse, it will grow. <br><br>Many have asked me whether everyone should worship \u015aiva both inside and out. Yes, that is the ideal according to our \u015aaiva Siddh\u0101nta philosophy, but which of these two comes more naturally depends on the nature of the disciple. The more introverted will meditate on \u015aiva within through their yogas, and the more extroverted will be inclined to worship in a temple or through music or religious service. The most awakened of seekers will do both with equal joy and ease. <br><br>God \u015aiva is within each and every soul. He is there as the unmanifest Reality, which we call Para\u015biva. He is there as the pure light and consciousness that pervades every atom of the universe, which we call Satchid\u0101nanda. We also know that He is Creator of all that exists, and that He is His creation. All this we know. Yes, all this we know. Thus, we intellectually know that \u015aiva is within and without. This is yet to be experienced by the majority of people. <br><br>The nature of the worshiper develops through s\u0101dhana and tapas, performed either in this life or in previous lives. We must worship \u015aiva externally until compelled\u2014as were the great \u1e5bishis of yore\u2014to sit down, to settle down, to turn within ourself, to stop talking, to stop thinking and thus to internalize our great energy of bhakti, devotion. This is how we evolve, how we progress along the path toward \u015aiva, diving deeper and deeper within. Everyone must worship \u015aiva externally prior to internalizing that worship fully and perfectly. We cannot internalize the worship that has not \ufb01rst been mastered externally. <br><br>When problems come in the family or workplace and emotions arise, it is only natural to forget \u015aiva. It\u2019s so much easier to be involved in twoness rather than oneness. It takes a lot of inner strength to remember \u015aiva all of the time, to keep the love for \u015aiva \ufb02owing. We forget. We get involved in ourselves and others. It is impossible when our ego is attacked or our feelings hurt. So it\u2019s easier, much easier, to forget \u015aiva and even regard Him as a God to be feared; whereas it is our own instinctive mind and our preprogrammed, nonreligious intellect that should be feared. That\u2019s the demon in our house, the mischief-maker who causes all the trouble. If you want to remember God, then \ufb01rst learn to forget yourself a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>NANDINATHA S\u016aTRA 2: FOUR NOBLE GOALS<br>\u015aiva\u2019s followers are ever mindful that life\u2019s purpose is to wholeheartedly serve God, Gods and guru and fulfill the four traditional Hindu goals: duty (dharma), wealth (artha), love (k\u0101ma) and liberation (moksha). Aum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spiritual Retreat Does this seem too dif\ufb01cult? Can you just contemplate what it would take to seek the all-pervasive \u015aiva from hour to hour, throughout the day? One would have to be detached from all worldly responsibilities to a great extent in order to begin to bring this natural internal process through and into the <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-2-living-with-siva\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-with-siva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4577,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/4577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}