The Two Perfections of Our Soul, Part One
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: The three perfections of our Supreme God Śiva: Paraśiva, Satchidānanda and Maheśvara. Two of God's three perfections, Pure Love and Consciousness and Personal Lord are inherent in the soul of man. The soul body, not the essence of the soul, is maturing. It matures through experience and sadhana. Until it reaches an advanced stage of maturation it is not able to realize Parasiva; the inmost core of the soul. We are That. We do not become That. The part of us that is Śiva, timeless, causeless, spaceless, is beyond the mind, is not the ego, the intellect or the emotions. Satchidānanda is pure refined form, pure consciousness, pure blessedness or bliss, our soul’s perfection in form. Satchidānanda is not the ultimate realization, rather as the perfection experienced in savikalpa samādhi. Paraśiva is the perfection known in nirvikalpa samādhi. "Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva, Lessons 323, 324.
Transcription:
Good morning everyone. We are starting a new chapter in "Merging with Siva" today, chapter forty-seven entitled " The Two Perfections of Our Soul" which was from 1981. So the last chapter we read was 1978 so we're moving forward three years here.
Lesson 323
"Śiva’s Three Perfections
"We shall now discuss the three perfections of our Supreme God Śiva: Paraśiva, Satchidānanda and Maheśvara. Isn’t it wonderful to know that two of God’s three perfections are inherent in the soul of man? What are those three perfections? The great God Śiva has form and is formless. He is the immanent Pure Consciousness or pure form; He is the Personal Lord manifesting Himself as innumerable forms; and He is the impersonal, transcendent Absolute beyond all form. We know Śiva in His three perfections, two of form and one formless. First, we worship His manifest form as Pure Love and Consciousness, called Satchidānanda in Sanskrit. Second, we worship Him as our Personal Lord, Maheśvara, the Primal Soul who tenderly loves and cares for His devotees—a Being whose resplendent body may be seen in mystic vision. In our daily lives we love, honor, worship and serve God in these manifest perfections. Ultimately, in perfectly simple, yet awesomely austere nirvikalpa samādhi, we realize Him as the formless Paraśiva, sought for and known only by yogīs and jñānīs. We cannot speak of His Absolute Reality which is beyond qualities and description, yet knowable to the fully matured soul who seeks God within through yoga under the guidance of a satguru.
"For the sake of understanding the mysteries of the soul, we distinguish between the soul body and its essence. As a soul body, we are individual and unique, different from all others. Our soul is a self-effulgent body of light which evolves and matures through an evolutionary process. This soul body is of the nature of God Śiva, but is different from Him in that it is less resplendent than the Primal Soul and still evolving, while He is unevolutionary Perfection. We may liken the soul body to an acorn, which contains the mighty oak but is a small seed yet to develop. Even when God Realization is attained, the soul body continues to evolve in this and other worlds until it merges with the Primal Soul, as a drop of water merges with its source, the ocean. This is the destiny of all souls without exception."
[Bodhinatha comment on Maturing]
So an important concept here to understand is the idea of maturing which Gurudeva also calls as evolution. So, when we talk about evolution we're in the Darwinian concept of evolution, science, concept of science of evolution is the physical world. So this has nothing to do with the physical world, has to do with the soul body and not the essence of the soul, the soul body. The soul body is maturing. How does it mature? It matures through experience, through sadhana. So that's why experience and sadhana are important and it's to mature the soul body. And the soul body is not able to realize Paraśiva as Gurudeva says until it reaches an advanced state of maturation. So Paraśiva is within everyone but they don't have the ability to find it until the soul reaches certain maturation.
So, back to the text:
"At the core of the subtle soul body is Satchidānanda, or immanent Love, and at the core of that is Paraśiva, or transcendent Reality. At this depth of our being there exists no separate identity or difference—all are one. Thus, deep within our soul we are identical with God this very moment, for within us are the unmanifest Paraśiva and the manifest Satchidānanda. These are not aspects of the evolving soul, but the nucleus of the soul, which does not change or evolve. They are eternally perfect and one with God Śiva. From an absolute perspective, our soul is already in nondual union with God in His two perfections of Satchidānanda and Paraśiva, but to be realized to be known. Satchidānanda is the superconscious mind of the soul—the mind of God Śiva. Paraśiva is the inmost core of the soul. We are That. We do not become That. There exists no relation between Satchidānanda, which is pure form and consciousness, and Paraśiva, which is without form. Paramaguru Siva Yogaswami taught us, “You are Śiva. I am Śiva. All are Śiva. Even as Śiva is immortal, so too are we.”
[Bodhinatha comment on already One with Śiva]
Well Gurudeva's point is: Deep within our soul we are identical with God Śiva this very moment. That's helpful. Otherwise we have the concept that something has to happen, we have to do something to become one with Śiva at the level of Satchidānanda and Paraśiva. So what do we have to do? So, it's easier to think of it that it already exists, all we have to do is mature enough to find that part of us that is already one with God Śiva. So it's there all the time.
Lesson 324
"Form and Formlessness
"We must caution each and all not to think of the external mind as God, which would be a self-deception. Man’s personality or individuality is not God—neither is the ego, the intellect or the emotions. (So that's the idea of saying: "I am Śiva", part of us that's Śiva is not the external mind, the ego, the intellect or the emotions.) Though the unenlightened sometimes make this mistake, I believe you will readily ferret out the difference. Paraśiva, the Self God, lies resident at the core of man’s existence, far beyond the reach of the external phases of consciousness; yet these exist only because That exists, the timeless, causeless, spaceless God Śiva beyond the mind. The other perfection inherent in the soul of man is Satchidānanda—Being, Consciousness and Bliss. When mind force, thought force and the vṛittis, or waves of the mind, are quiescent, the outer mind subsides and the mind of the soul shines forth. We share the mind of God Śiva at this superconscious depth of our being. In entering this quiescence, one first encounters a clear white light within the body, but only after sufficient mastery of the mind has been attained through the disciplined and protracted practices of yoga. "
So that last sentence there is important to stress: "...only after sufficient mastery of the mind has been attained through the disciplined and protracted practices of yoga." So that's the idea it takes a long time. So we're dealing with the mind, the subconscious mind, it changes slowly. So we have to keep at it to create new habit patterns and new ways of going within ourselves.
"Hearing the vīṇā, the mṛidaṅga, the tambūra and all the psychic sounds is the awakening of the inner body... (This means hearing them inside yourself, not hearing the external ones.) Hearing the vīṇā, the mṛidaṅga, the tambūra and all the psychic sounds is the awakening of the inner body which, if sādhana is pursued, will finally grow and stabilize, opening the mind to the constant state of Satchidānanda, where the holy inner mind of God Śiva and our soul are one. I hold that Satchidānanda—the light and consciousness ever permeating form, God in all things and everywhere—is form, though refined form, to be sure. Satchidānanda is pure form, pure consciousness, pure blessedness or bliss, our soul’s perfection in form. Paraśiva is formless, timeless, causeless, spaceless, as the perfection of our soul beyond form.
"Though it is supreme consciousness, Satchidānanda is not the ultimate realization, which lies beyond consciousness or mind. This differs from popular interpretations of present-day Vedānta, which makes these two perfections virtually synonymous. Modern day Vedānta scholars occasionally describe Satchidānanda almost as a state of the intellect, as though the perfected intellect, through knowledge, could attain such depths, as though these depths were but a philosophical premise or collection of beliefs and insights. This is what I call 'simplistic Vedānta.'"
So one of the ways of talking about Paraśiva is as a nothingness, Gurudeva does that in "The Self God" right? Visualize above you nothing, to the left, to the right, dissolve yourself to this nothingness.
So I picked some Yogaswami quotes because he uses the idea of nothingness quite often:
"At the top there is nothing. (The top.) So you have to come down a little. Then you can enjoy."
"There is nothing. You are nothing. I am nothing. God is nothing."
"If you want to go beyond, you lose everything. There is no work; there is no you, no I, no God - nothing!"
"I climbed Mt. Everest in three days. There, there is nothing. No sun, no moon. Then you come down and there is dharma, adharma, and all things."
Back to the text:
"To understand how these two perfections differ, visualize a vast sheath of light which permeates the walls of this monastery and the countryside around us, seeping in and through all particles of matter. The light could well be called formless, penetrating, as it does, all conceivable forms, never static, always changing. Actually, it is amorphous, not formless. (So amorphous, a word to remember.) Taking this one step farther, suppose there were a 'something' so great, so intense in vibration that it could swallow up light as well as the forms it permeates. This cannot be described, but can be called Paraśiva—the greatest of all of God Śiva’s perfections to be realized. This, too, can be experienced by the yogī, in nirvikalpa samādhi. Thus, we understand Paraśiva as the perfection known in nirvikalpa samādhi, and Satchidānanda as the perfection experienced in savikalpa samādhi. By the word formless I do not describe that which can take any form or that which is of no definite shape and size. I mean without form altogether, beyond form, beyond the mind which conceives of form and space, for mind and consciousness, too, are form."
So beyond form is perhaps a clearer way of saying it because the word 'formless' has a number of meanings but if it's beyond form, we don't know what that means right? It doesn't fit to anything we know so we don't have a misconception as to what it means.
Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.