{"id":463,"date":"2026-06-04T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/?p=463"},"modified":"2025-06-10T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T03:00:03","slug":"lesson-54-living-with-siva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-54-living-with-siva\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 54 \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\/12\/LwS-Lesson-54.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\">Untying The Bonds<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The three malas that bind us are: m\u0101y\u0101, the ever-perpetuating dance of creation, preservation and dissolution; karma (our pr\u0101rabdha karma, brought with us to face in this life, along with the karma we are creating now and will create in the future); and \u0101\u1e47ava, the ego, ignorance or sense of separateness. M\u0101y\u0101 can be understood, seen through and adjusted to through the heart-chakra powers of cognition, contentment and compassion. Karmas can be harnessed through regular forms of disciplinary practices of body, mind and emotions, and the understanding of the law of karma itself as a force that is sent out through thought, feeling and action and most often returns to us through other peoples\u2019 thought, feeling and action. But it is the \u0101\u1e47ava mala, the mala of personal ego, that is the binding chain which cannot be so easily dealt with. It is the last to go. It is only at the point of death, before the greatest mah\u0101sam\u0101dhi of the greatest \u1e5bishi, that the \u0101\u1e47ava mala chain is finally broken. <br><br>If we compare this \u0101\u1e47ava mala, personal ego, to an actual m\u0101l\u0101, a string of rudr\u0101ksha beads, the purpose on the path at this stage, of mati, is to begin eliminating the beads, making the chain shorter and shorter. The m\u0101l\u0101 should be getting shorter and shorter rather than our adding beads to it so that it gets longer and longer. A warning: if the \u0101\u1e47ava mala\u2014symbolically a garland of rudr\u0101ksha beads\u2014has thirty-six beads and it steadily grows to 1,008 because of practices and the adulation connected with them within the psychic realms of the pseudoscience of parapsychology\u2014such as bending spoons, telepathy, channeling and ectoplasmic manifestations\u2014this 1,008 strand of rudr\u0101ksha beads could become so heavy, so dangerous to the wearer, that eventually he would trip and fall on his nose. The wise say, \u201cPride goes before a fall.\u201d And the still wiser know that \u201cspiritual pride is the most difficult pride to deal with, to eliminate, to rise above in a lifetime.\u201d The spiritually proud never open themselves to a satguru. The mystically humble do. <br><br>Mati has also been interpreted as \u201cgood intellect, acute intelligence, a mind directed toward right knowledge, or Vedic knowledge.\u201d Good intellect, in the context of a Hindu seer, would be right knowledge based on siddh\u0101nta \u015brava\u1e47a, scriptural study. Acute intelligence, of course, means \u201csee-through\u201d or panoramic intelligence which cognizes the entire picture rather than only being aware of one of its parts. \u201cA mind directed toward right knowledge or Vedic knowledge\u201d refers to the intellect developed through siddh\u0101nta \u015brava\u1e47a. The study of the Vedas and other scriptures purifies the intellect, as belief creates attitude, and attitude creates action. An intellect based on truths of the San\u0101tana Dharma is intelligent to the divine laws of the universe and harnessed into fulfilling them as a part of it. To this end, all the pr\u0101rabdha karmas of this life and the action-reaction conglomerates formed in this life are directed. The intellect, like the emotions, is a force, disciplined or undisciplined, propelled by right knowledge or wrong knowledge. It, of itself, processes, logically or illogically, both kinds of knowledge or their mix. What harnesses the intellect is siddh\u0101nta \u015brava\u1e47a, study of the teachings and listening to the wise of an established, traditional lineage that has stood the test of time, ravage and all attempts at conversion. <br><br>The intellect is a neutral tool which can be used for bad or for good purposes. But unlike the emotions, which are warm, and also neutral, the intellect is cold. It is the fire of the ku\u1e47\u1e0dalin\u012b force\u2014impregnating the intellect, purifying it, burning out the ignorance of wrong concepts, thought forms, beliefs, connected attitudes, causing an aversion to certain actions\u2014that forges the purified intellect and spiritual will of cognition, known as mati. Mati, in summary, is the harnessing of the intellect by the soul to live a spiritual life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NANDINATHA S\u016aTRA 54: COGNITION AND VOWS<br>All \u015aiva\u2019s devotees acquire mati, divine cognition and an indomitable will and intellect, under their satguru\u2019s guidance. They observe vratas, religious vows, rules and observances, and never waver in fulfilling them. Aum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Untying The Bonds The three malas that bind us are: m\u0101y\u0101, the ever-perpetuating dance of creation, preservation and dissolution; karma (our pr\u0101rabdha karma, brought with us to face in this life, along with the karma we are creating now and will create in the future); and \u0101\u1e47ava, the ego, ignorance or sense of separateness. M\u0101y\u0101 <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-54-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-463","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\/463","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=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4808,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/4808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}