 |
||
   |
||
|
|
|
|
||||||
Mandala One; Self Realization
Who Am I? Where Did I Come From? SHLOKA 1 BHASHYA We are immortal
souls living and growing in the great school of earthly experience in which
we have lived many lives. Vedic rishis have given us courage by
uttering the simple truth, "God is the Life of our life." A great sage
carried it further by saying, there is one thing God cannot do: God cannot
separate Himself from us. This is because God is our life. God is the life
in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the animals.
Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of
God's loving presence within us. We are the undying consciousness and energy
flowing through all things. Deep inside we are perfect this very moment, and
we have only to discover and live up to this perfection to be whole. Our
energy and God's energy are the same, ever coming out of the void. We are
all beautiful children of God. Each day we should try to see the life energy
in trees, birds, animals and people. When we do, we are seeing God Siva in
action. The Vedas affirm, "He who knows God as the Life of life, the
Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind--he indeed
comprehends fully the Cause of all causes." Aum Namah Sivaya. SHLOKA 2 BHASHYA We have taken
birth in a physical body to grow and evolve into our divine potential. We
are inwardly already one with God. Our religion contains the knowledge of
how to realize this oneness and not create unwanted experiences along the
way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers,
discovering the mystical meaning of the scriptures. The peerless path is
commitment, study, discipline, practice and the maturing of yoga into
wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer until we learn. Learning leads us
to service; and selfless service is the beginning of spiritual striving.
Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to meditate deeply
and without distractions. Finally, meditation leads us to surrender in God.
This is the straight and certain path, the San Marga, leading to Self
Realization--the inmost purpose of life--and subsequently to moksha,
freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely affirm, "By austerity,
goodness is obtained. From goodness, understanding is reached. From
understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed
from the cycle of birth and death." Aum Namah Sivaya.
SHLOKA 3 BHASHYA The world is
seen as it truly is--sacred--when we behold Siva's cosmic dance. Everything
in the universe, all that we see, hear and imagine, is movement. Galaxies
soar in movement; atoms swirl in movement. All movement is Siva's dance.
When we fight this movement and think it should be other than it is, we are
reluctantly dancing with Siva. We are stubbornly resisting, holding
ourselves apart, criticizing the natural processes and movements around us.
It is by understanding the eternal truths that we bring all areas of our
mind into the knowledge of how to accept what is and not wish it to be
otherwise. Once this happens, we begin to consciously dance with Siva, to
move with the sacred flow that surrounds us, to accept praise and blame, joy
and sorrow, prosperity and adversity in equanimity, the fruit of
understanding. We are then gracefully, in unrestrained surrender, dancing
with Siva. The Vedas state, "The cosmic soul is truly the whole
universe, the immortal source of all creation, all action, all meditation.
Whoever discovers Him, hidden deep within, cuts through the bonds of
ignorance even during his life on earth." Aum Namah Sivaya.
SHLOKA 4 BHASHYA To progress on
the path, we study the Vedas, other scriptures and our guru's
teachings and make every effort to apply these philosophical truths to daily
experience. We strive to understand the mind in its fourfold nature:
chitta, consciousness;
manas, instinctive mind; buddhi, intellectual mind; and
ahamkara,
ego or I-maker. We perform japa, meditation and yoga
each day. Such spiritual discipline is known as sadhana. It is the
mystical, mental, physical and devotional exercise that enables us to dance
with Siva by bringing inner advancement, changes in perception and
improvements in character. Sadhana allows us to live in the refined
and cultured soul nature, rather than in the outer, instinctive or
intellectual spheres. For consistent progress, sadhana should be
performed regularly, without fail, at the same time each day, preferably in
the early hours before dawn. The most important sadhanas are the
challenges and practices given by one's guru. The Vedas
caution, "The Self cannot be attained by the weak, nor by the careless, nor
through aimless disciplines. But if one who knows strives by right means,
his soul enters the abode of God." Aum Namah Sivaya.
SHLOKA 5 BHASHYA The realization
of the Self, Parashiva, is the destiny of each soul, attainable through
renunciation, sustained meditation and frying the seeds of karmas yet
to germinate. It is the gateway to moksha, liberation from rebirth.
The Self lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling nature, beyond
action or any movement of even the highest state of consciousness. The Self
God is more solid than a neutron star, more elusive than empty space, more
intimate than thought and feeling. It is ultimate reality itself, the
innermost Truth all seekers seek. It is well worth striving for. It is well
worth struggling to bring the mind under the dominion of the will. After the
Self is realized, the mind is seen for the unreality that it truly is.
Because Self Realization must be experienced in a physical body, the soul
cycles back again and again into flesh to dance with Siva, live with Siva
and ultimately merge with Siva in undifferentiated oneness. Yea, jiva
is actually Siva. The Vedas
explain, "As water poured into water, milk poured into milk, ghee into
ghee become one without differentiation, even so the individual soul
and the Supreme Self become one." Aum Namah Sivaya.
Lead me from
unreality to reality. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to
immortality. He is the
Supreme Brahman, the Self of all, the chief foundation of this world,
subtler than the subtle, eternal. That thou art; thou art That. One should
meditate on the atman, which consists of spirit, whose embodiment is life,
whose form is light, whose essence is space, which changes its form at will,
swift as thought. Subtlest of the
subtle, greatest of the great, the atman is hidden in the cave of the heart
of all beings. He who, free from all urges, beholds Him overcomes sorrow,
seeing by grace of the Creator, the Lord and His glory. Perishable is
matter. Immortal, imperishable the Lord, who, the One, controls the
perishable and also the soul. Meditating on Him, uniting with Him, becoming
more and more like Him, one is freed at the last from the world's illusion. I am the Supreme
Brahman! I am the Lord of the universe! Such is the settled conviction of
the muktas. All other experiences lead to bondage. When the Self is clearly
realized not to be the body, the realizer gains peace and becomes free from
all desires. Realize the Self
always to be neither above nor below, nor on either side, not without nor
within, but to be eternal and shining beyond the sublime world. That which is
neither conscious nor unconscious, which is invisible, impalpable,
indefinable, unthinkable, unnameable, whose very essence consists of the
experience of its own self, which absorbs all diversity, is tranquil and
benign, without a second, which is what they call the fourth state--that is
the atman. This it is which should be known. On the emergence
of spontaneous supreme knowledge occurs that state of movement in the vast
unlimited expanse of consciousness which is Siva's state, the supreme state
of Reality. When the Creator
dances, the worlds He created dance. To the measure that He dances in our
knowledge, our thoughts, too, dance. When He in heart endearing dances, the
several elements, too, dance. Witness in rapture surpassing the dance of Him
who is a glowing flame. O God of mercy,
who performs the dance of illimitable happiness in the hall of inconceivable
intelligence! The Rig and the other Vedas are thundering forth in words,
announcing to us that all are thy slaves, all things belong to thee, all
actions are thine, that thou pervades everywhere, that this is thy nature.
Such is the teaching of those who, though they never speak, yet broke
silence for our sake. To buy the book
or to read more on "Dances With Shiva" please go to the
Himalyan Acadamy's Website. |
|||
