March 07, 2014 - Lesson 329
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Sloka 19 from Dancing with Siva
What Is the Nature of the Primal Soul?
Parameshvara is the uncreated, ever-existent Primal Soul, Siva-Shakti, creator and supreme ruler of Mahadevas and beings of all three worlds. Abiding in His creation, our personal Lord rules from within, not from above. Aum.
Bhashya
Parameshvara, "Supreme Lord," Mother of the universe, is the eternal, sovereign one, worshiped by all the Gods and sentient beings. So loved is Siva-Shakti that all have an intimate relationship. So vast is His vastness, so over-powering is He that men cringe to transgress His will. So talked of is He that His name is on the lips of everyone--for He is the primal sound. Being the first and perfect form, God Siva in this third perfection of His being--the Primal Soul, the manifest and personal Lord--naturally creates souls in His image and likeness. To love God is to know God. To know God is to feel His love for you. Such a compassionate God--a being, whose resplendent body may be seen in mystic vision--cares for the minutiae such as we and a universe such as ours. Many are the mystics who have seen the brilliant milk-white form of Siva's glowing body with its red-locked hair, graceful arms and legs, large hands, perfect face, loving eyes and musing smile. The Agamas say, "Parameshvara is the cause of the five manifest aspects: emanation, srishti; preservation, sthiti; dissolution, samhara; concealment, tirobhava; and revelation, anugraha." Aum Namah Sivaya.
Lesson 329 from Living with Siva
Inner Bands Of Steel
If you ever become discouraged and wonder about the path, remember that there are three pillars of Hinduism that will keep you on the path: the satguru, the temple and the scriptures. Go to the temple, strengthen your relationship with your guru and begin studying the scriptures. Discouragement will go away and courage will come. Dark hours will go and bright hours will come. Problems will bend down as the intelligence from the spiritual force begins to come up. This is the way of the mysterious Nathas, who don't follow the way of words.
Nathas don't have any hype. We are not beating a drum or selling a mantra or selling a seminar or selling a promise. We just are who we are, doing what we are doing, and if anyone comes along to help, that is our karma at that point in time. We do the very best that we can with the facilities that we have. We don't sell healing. We make no promises. Nathas do their job on a very broad scale and pay attention to every small detail at the same time. That's the working of the spiritual force that has come from Sage Yogaswami, Chellappaguru, Kadaitswami, the mysterious Rishi and those that preceded him, back to Tirumular and Maharishi Nandinatha and those that preceded them and those that preceded them and those that preceded them, for as long as people have walked on this planet.
Yes, there are three pillars of our great religion: satgurus, temples--Siva temples, Murugan temples, Ganesha temples--and the oldest scriptures in the world. But it's the spiritual force of the satguru that makes the religion come to life in the individual. Would we all be sitting here today if when I went to the Jaffna Peninsula to find my guru he wasn't there, and I just worshiped in a few temples for awhile and came back to the United States? No. We would not all be sitting here today. The temples don't give you that kind of spiritual force. The scriptures don't give you that kind of spiritual force. It is only the satguru that gives you the sustaining, spiritual force that makes life on this planet worthwhile and gives you the ability to prevail over all challenges and make a lasting difference, not only in yourself but in the lives of others.
Now we are all working together to bring Hinduism, especially Saivism, into the twenty-first century. It is going to take all of our energies collectively to make that next big step, because there will be many changes. It is our job to bring the best of tradition into the twenty-first century, with clarity of thought and, most importantly, with the spirit and mysticism that go along with it.
Spirit expressed in a simple example would be, "I want to do my hatha yoga! I want to get up in the morning and meditate!" Lack of spirit is, "I have to do my hatha yoga. Oh, do I really have to? Maybe just today I won't get up and meditate." That's the instinctive mind talking. That's not the superconscious mind talking. "I want to"--that's the spiritual force. "Do I have to?" or "I should"--that's the instinctive-intellectual force.
Sitting here today thinking about our wonderful lineage of gurus, about what they said and what they didn't say, you will find that we don't know what some of them said and what they didn't say. But what they did, that's the important thing. And how did they do it? Through continuity of the spiritual force--one thread and then another thread, one fiber and then another fiber and another fiber, until a rope was built up that was stronger than any humans could pull apart. Bands of steel, generation after generation, that's the Nandinatha way, unbreakable bands of spiritual force.
It is important that newcomers to the Hindu faith, the young people especially, realize that in ancient times as well as today the family unit is complete only when it includes an ordained spiritual mentor, a guru or pandit. It is to him or her that the family turns in times of joy and celebration. It is to him or her that the family goes when karmas are heavy, when difficulties and confusions are encountered on the path and the proper course is unclear. This mentor's firmness and clarity are a stabilizing influence in the family's year-to-year life. For most but not all Hindus, a family temple is also a necessity, as is a collection of sacred writings or scripture, often the teachings of contemporary masters.
We encourage all to receive, with enthusiasm, as one would a God, all Hindu religious leaders, when they come to your community. Show the proper protocol, rush forward, garland them with flowers, lay gifts at their feet in humble obeisance. They are the mainstay and powerhouse and source of all expressions of our beloved Sanatana Dharma and its followers.
Sutra 329 of the Nandinatha Sutras
First Things First
Siva's monastics tread the path of experiential yoga. They never allow intellectual studies or interests to overshadow their inner life. They are men of God and the Gods first, teachers, scholars or artisans second. Aum.
Lesson 329 from Merging with Siva
To the Depths Of Your Being
In your constant striving to control that mind, your soul comes into action as a manifestation of will, and you quiet more and more of that mind and enter into a deeper state of contemplation where you see a scintillating light more radiant than the sun, and as it bursts within you, you begin to know that you are the cause of that light which you apparently see. And in that knowing, you cling to it as a drowning man clings to a stick of wood floating upon the ocean. You cling to it and the will grows stronger; the mind becomes calm through your understanding of experience and how experience has become created. As your mind releases its hold on you of its desires and cravings, you dive deeper, fearlessly, into the center of this blazing avalanche of light, losing your consciousness in That which is beyond consciousness.
And as you come back into the mind, you not only see the mind for what it is; you see the mind for what it isn't. You are free, and you find men and women bound, and what you find you are not attached to, because binder and the bound are one. You become the path. You become the way. You are the light. And as you watch souls unfold, some choose the path of the Spirit; some choose the path of the mind. As you watch and wonder, your wondering is in itself a contemplation of the universe, and on the brink of the Absolute you look into the mind, and one tiny atom magnifies itself greater than the entire universe, and you see, at a glance, evolution from beginning to end, inside and outside, in that one small atom.
Again, as you leave external form and dive into that light which you become, you realize beyond realization a knowing deeper than thinking, a knowing deeper than understanding, a knowing which is the very, very depth of your being. You realize immortality, that you are immortal--this body but a shell, when it fades; this mind but an encasement, when it fades. Even in their fading there is no reality.
And as you come out of that samadhi, you realize you are the spirit, you become that spirit, you actually are that spirit, consciously, if you could say spirit has a consciousness. You are that spirit in every living soul. You realize you are That which everyone, in their intelligent state or their ignorant state, everyone, is striving for--a realization of that spirit that you are.
And then again for brief interludes you might come into the conscious mind and relate life to a past and a future and tarry there but for a while. But in a moment of concentration, your eye resting on a single line of a scripture or anything that holds the interest of the mind, the illusion of past and future fades, and again you become that light, that life deep within every living form--timeless, causeless, spaceless.
Then we say, "Why, why, after having realized the Self do you hold a form, do you hold a consciousness of mind? Why?" The answer is but simple and complete: you do not; of yourself you do not. But every promise made must have its fulfillment, and promises to close devotees and the desire that they hold for realization of their true being hold this form, this mind, in a lower conscious state. Were the devotees and disciples to release their desires for realization but for one minute, their satguru would be no more. Once having realized the Self, you are free of time, cause and change.