September 2020 Chitra Puja

Jai Gurudeva!

Early this morning our monks gathered in Kadavul Temple to observe the monthly padapuja to Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Yogi Dayanatha and Yogi Haranandinatha performed the abhishekam while Satguru and other monks chanted Sri Rudram.

"Seeking for God in the depths of one's being through control of the mind, control of one's thoughts, feelings and emotions, gives birth to the highest qualities of nature." - Gurudeva

\"Many people think of the realization of timeless, formless, spaceless Parasiva, nirvikalpa samadhi, as the most blissful of all blissful states, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Gods, as a moment of supreme, sublime joyousness; whereas I have found it to be more like cut glass, diamond-dust darshan, a psychic surgery, not a blissful experience at all, but really a kind of near-death experience resulting in total transformation.\"

\"The bliss that is often taught as a final attainment is actually another attainment, Satchidananda, an aftermath of nirvikalpa samadhi, and a \

before-math.\' This means that Satchidananda, savikalpa samadhi, may be attained early on by souls pure in heart.\"'

\"It also means that one need not gauge the highest attainment on the basis of bliss, which it transcends.\"

\"In my experience, the anahata chakra is the resting place of dynamic complacency, of thoughtful perception and quietude. Those of a lower nature arriving in the bloom of this chakra are released from turbulent emotions, conflicting thoughts and disturbances. This to many is the end of the path, attaining peace, or shanti. Once one attains shanti as just described, in my experience, this marks the beginning of the path, or part two, the second level. \"

\"It is from here that the practices of raja yoga take hold, once shanti is attained. In the anahata chakra and vishuddha chakra, Satchidananda, the all-pervasive being of oneness, of the underlying being of the universe, is attained, experienced.\"

\"Does Self Realization bring bliss to the realized one?\"

\"Self Realization is in several stages. Realizing oneself as a soul—rather than a mind, an intellectual and emotional type, or a worthless person—gives satisfaction, security, and this is a starting point.\"

\"Realization of the Self as Satchidananda gives contentment, a release from all emotions and thoughts of the external world, and the nerve system responds to the energies flowing through the vishuddha and anahata chakras.\"

\"Realizing the Self that transcends time, form and space, Parasiva, is a razor-edged experience, cutting all bonds, reversing individual awareness, such as looking out from the Self rather than looking into the Self.\"

\"There are many boons after this transforming experience, if repeated many times. One or two occurrences does make a renunciate out of the person and does make the world renounce the renunciate, but then, without persistent effort, former patterns of emotion, intellect, lack of discipline, which would inhibit the repeated experience of Parasiva, would produce a disoriented nomad, so to speak\"

\"Therefore, repeated experiences of the ego-destructive Parasiva, from all states of consciousness, intellectual, instinctive, even in dreams, permeates the transformation through atoms and molecules even in the physical body.\"

\"It is then that the bliss can be enjoyed of Satchidananda—and simultaneously, I would say, Satchidananda and the rough, unrelenting, timeless, formless, spaceless ParaSiva merge in a not-merging way, such as light and darkness in the same room.\"

\"Someone asked, \

If realization in and of itself is not blissful, then what impels a soul that has arrived at bliss to strive for further realizations?\'\"'

\"We are all moving forward to our ultimate goal of merging with Siva. Bliss quiets the senses. It is the natural state of the mind when unperturbed by previous desires unfulfilled, desires yet to be fulfilled and the desires known to not be fulfillable.\"

\"As long as the anahata and vishuddha chakras spin at top velocity, the senses will be quieted, few thoughts will pass through the mind unbidden, and the understanding of the Vedas and all aspects of esoteric knowledge will be able to be explained by the preceptor. Many choose to remain here, as the explainers of the inexplainable, and not go on—deep into the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh chakras, into the beyond of the beyond, the quantum level, the core of the universe itself.\"

\"There comes a point when the powers of evolution move one forward, and even these desireless ones desire the greatest unfoldment, once they have found out that it is there to be desired.\"

\"Realizing Parasiva is merging with Siva, but it is not the end of merging.\"

\"At that pinpoint of time, there are still the trappings of body, mind and emotions that claim awareness into their consciousness.\"

\"Ultimately, when all bodies—physical, astral, mental, even the soul body—wear out their time, as all forms wear out in time, bound by time, existing in time, as relative realities, then vishvagrasa, the final merger with Siva, occurs\"

\"as the physical body drops away, the astral body drops away, the mental body drops away, and the soul—a shining, scintillating being of light quantums—merges into its source\"

\"As when a drop of water merges into the ocean, it can never be retrieved\"

\"only Siva remains.\"

\"Aum Namah Sivaya\"

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