Merging with Siva

Merging with Siva

Affirmation Is a Power

The power of affirmation changes and remolds the putty-like substance that makes up the subconscious areas of the mind. For years we have repeated sayings and statements, attached meaning to them in our thoughts and through listening to ourselves speak. This has helped form our life as we know it today, for the subconscious brings into manifestation the impressions we put into it. Therefore, to change the subconscious pattern and increase the spinning velocity of it, we must remold with new ideas and new concepts its magnetic forces. This can be done through the power of affirmation.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Affirmation Is a Power 2

Affirmation, when used in wisdom for spiritual reasons, is a power, and should be understood through meditation. Before beginning to work with an affirmation, we must understand completely from within what we are doing, being sure that when our subconscious has been remolded we can take the added responsibilities, the new adventures and challenges that will manifest as a result of breaking out of one force field and entering into another. Only when we face and accept fully the new effects of our effort should we proceed with an affirmation. First we must understand the nature of this power.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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An affirmation is a series of positive words repeated time and time again in line with a visual concept. Such a statement can be repeated mentally or, preferably, verbally. Words in themselves, without a pictorial understanding, make a very poor affirmation. To choose the affirmation best suited to our needs, first we must realize what we do not want, and then we must take steps to change it, in the very same way we would discriminate in giving away or throwing away our possessions in order to purchase new ones. Whether one is dealing with home and possessions, thoughts and concepts, self-created inhibitions, or blocks and barriers of the subconscious, the principle is basically the same. If one feels, “I can't,” he cannot. If he is always criticizing himself and lamenting over what he cannot do, then he has to reverse this pattern and change the flow of magnetic mental force, enliven its intensity by saying orally and feeling through all the pores of his body, “I can. I will. I am able to accomplish what I plan.”
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Reprogramming Old Patterns

In applying this tantra, begin by repeating the affirmation fifty or a hundred times a day. In watching your reactions, you may find that the subconscious will not accept these three statements, “I can. I will. I am able.” You may still have feelings of “I can't. I won't. I am not able.” This then begins a period to live through where the mind's magnetic forces fight with one another, in a sense. The aggressive forces of your nature are trying to take over and reprogram the passive ones that have been in charge for so many years. Of course, the aggressive forces will win if you will persist with your verbal and visual affirmation. You must not give up saying, “I can. I will. I am able,” until you find the subconscious structure actually creating situations for you in which you can and are able to be successful, happy and acquire what you need, be it temporal goods or unfoldment on the inner path.

Here is another positive affirmation that might be helpful for you: “I am the complete master of all my forces. My spiritual energies govern and control the force fields wherever I am for the highest good. Through understanding, being pure, full of spirited life, I am filled and thrilled with unlimited power, now and forever. I will be what I will to be. I will do what I will to do.” Affirm this affirmation each day this week for seven days. Repeat it three times each morning, three times at noon and three times each evening.

You have perhaps often heard friends repeat the same complaint over and over again. They were not only making an affirmation, perhaps unknowingly, for their own subconscious mind, but for yours as well. Therefore, it behooves us always to be with positive people, spiritual, life-giving people, in order to be positive ourselves. It behooves us to listen to that with which we want to live, and to be the changer rather than the changed. The affirmations which violence sets up in the subconscious reactionary habit patterns in the minds of men cause them to fight and kill by spinning emotional force fields out of control. Fear then holds them in these brackets of mind as they react to what they have done. It takes great courage to go from one force field of the mind to another, for this means tearing up long-accustomed patterns and facing a period of adjustment while new subconscious patterns are recreated. It all has to do with changing the subconscious patterns. This is a power. You can change the patterns of your mind yourself. Try it. It is not too difficult.

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Availing the Higher Energies

Each day we make affirmations with our thoughts and our feelings–and the very words that we speak stabilize these patterns. But as the inner light begins to dawn its life-giving rays, a new, positive power comes into our words, our thoughts and the feelings that well up from the subconscious, making new manifest patterns in the force fields of the conscious world for us to meet and speedily experience. An affirmation can alter your life by creating mentally the patterns and moods of each day through which you will subsequently move. Here is one that can be used to dynamically begin each day. “I am now open to a flow of spiritual energy in which I perceive the most worthy course of action for this day. My service, being selfless, opens new doors of supply, making available all of the tools required so that my work will be beautiful, energetic and influential to the highest degree.” The subconscious mind is like a piece of clay that can be impressed. These impressions go into the subconscious from the conscious mind and remain there vibrating until changed. The intuitive mind, which we call the superconscious, works through the subconscious when the channels of the subconscious are open. Hence, in impressing the subconscious mind, we must be very careful to create positive channels, and not to create a negative block. You can also write your own affirmation, but it must always be positive and carefully worded.

The power of thought is very strong, but only strong for a short time. It is the power of feeling that awakens the knowing consciousness. For example, suppose we repeat an affirmation such as this: “All my needs will always be met.” And we repeat it again, “All my needs will always be met.” In the initial stating of this affirmation, we understand something about it. However, unless we gain a conscious mental picture of what the words mean, they mean little more than nothing, for they do not reach deep enough to make contact with the limitless powers of your inner self.

Get into the rhythm of the affirmation. This causes strong feelings and impressions deep in the inner mind. Each word has a certain rate of vibration. Feeling is greater than visualization. Although each word of your affirmation may have a certain meaning to you intellectually, the rate of vibration of the word may not impress your mind in the exact same way in which you think it should to produce the result that you desire. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Utilizing the Power of Feeling

An antidote to this is to use affirmations in this way. Repeat the affirmation, “All my needs will always be met,” and feel how it is to feel after all of your needs have been met. Until you find this feeling, you should not expect the affirmation to work. Every time that you have a need and that need is met, a certain feeling is then produced in you. That same feeling you have to feel the very instant you speak the affirmation. You then open a channel that instant to your own intuition through which all good comes. In this state of mind one has inspiration and will. It is from the intuition that, at the eleventh hour, fifty-ninth minute, fifty-ninth second, every need is met.

The next time you have complete feelings from the innermost sources of your being that your every need will be met, quietly repeat that affirmation over again: “All my needs will always be met.” Simultaneously think, visualize and feel deeply with an inner, all-encompassing knowing that each need will be met. This is the esoteric secret of making an affirmation work.

People say affirmations work for them but sometimes they do not. Why do affirmations only work sometimes? It is because the subconscious is receiving the affirmation at a psychological moment, and a greater knowing, visualization and feeling has been awakened to some extent. However, at the times when an affirmation did not work, there was no knowing, no visualization or feeling attached to it. Just words. When affirmations are repeated over and over again without feeling or visualization, occasionally negative results are produced, as the vibrations of the words themselves may not register what is intended in the subconscious.

Here is another affirmation: “I am the master of my body.” Sit and feel that you are the master of your body. Say to yourself over and over again, “I am the master of my body.” Now, quietly, without thinking, feel and visualize that you are the master of your body. Really know that you are director of your physical vehicle. In repeating this next affirmation, “I am the master of my body, my mind and my emotions,” feel and visualize exactly what these words mean. Then repeat time and time again, “I am the master of my body, my mind and my emotions,” all the while visualizing and feeling exactly what you eventually want to be like, because what you cause now you cause in your future. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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All Your Needs Will Be Met

This ancient tantra is often used in gaining the material things of life. Affirmations do work in this respect, maybe even a little better than in gaining spiritual awakening, because the material desires are often stronger. If you need some material possession, and if it will do only good for yourself, your family and your friends, use the power of affirmation and see how quickly your need is manifested through one external channel or another. Distinguish carefully a material need from a desire. Desires are dangerous because it is easy to manifest material desires, but it is not as easy to assume responsibility for what the fulfillment of the desire might entail. That is why people sometimes do attract to themselves material possessions through affirmations and suffer the complications produced in their lives. This happened because they did not understand the full responsibility of having the desired possessions.

An example of a material need is having sufficient money for necessities. Generate the feeling and the picture that you now have sufficient sums of money to meet every human need, but not necessarily every human desire; just the needs. Then practice this affirmation: “I will always have sufficient money to meet all my needs.” Repeat it once. Now stop affirming. Remain quiet, know, visualize and then feel how it is to be open to a sufficient flow of money to meet your every need. Get that feeling! It is a secure feeling, not a flamboyant, reckless feeling, not a feeling that now you can go out and have a good time. No, this is a quiet, secure feeling–born of being in a judicious state of mind.

Let us look closely at this feeling again: “I will always have sufficient money to meet all my needs.” Now resolve to hold yourself open to ways and means by which you will have money to meet your every need for yourself and for your family. Be open to ways in which you can better budget the money you now have. Live by the ethic, “Waste not, want not.” Soon you will find that you begin to become secure within yourself as the vibrations of your verbal, visual feeling of this affirmation ring through you entirely. Today you will begin handling the funds you have more judiciously, and soon you will begin attracting abundance from unexpected creative sources. Be open to new ideas, new people, new opportunities, expectant and ready to handle the wealth you have proclaimed as yours. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Consistency Is Essential

You can write many kinds of affirmations and use them for many different purposes, but remember, they are powerful. They should be carefully worded, and only used in a way which enhances your spiritual life. To be effective, they should be repeated regularly on schedule, five minutes in the morning, at noon and five minutes at night for seven days to begin with. You will surely benefit by the results you cause spiritually, emotionally and materially. The greatest emotional security is brought about through the affirmation, “I'm all right, right now,” which quiets not only the conscious but also the subconscious instinctive fears, bringing forth an immediate influx of spiritual energy through the subconscious, giving peace and contentment to the entirety of the mind by expanding consciousness. As we expand our consciousness through the conscious control of spiritual energy, we become aware of new attributes and possibilities within our nature. Also, we become aware of the realms of knowledge within us that can be tapped during meditation, or the conscious use of the intuitive mind, to not only solve problems that confront us in our daily activity, but to derive creative solutions from the inner recesses of our own mind.

When you say to yourself, “I am all right, right now,” you immediately bring the forces of the mind together. All fears, worries and doubts cease. An influx of spiritual energy fills the subconscious, and a sense of dynamic security permeates your being. “Tomorrow I shall wake up filled with energy, creatively alive and in tune with the universe.” Say this several times to yourself and feel the spiritual force begin to move, the life force begin to move, within your body. You will wake up in the morning filled with creative energy, with a desire to be productive, to create. Answers to problems will be immediately unfolded from within yourself. You will experience finding solutions to questions that have been unanswered within your subconscious mind perhaps for years. A devotee having thus exercised this control over his mind to the point where when he commands the mind to be instantaneously creative, or puts a time limit on it–“Tomorrow I shall be creative, alive and in tune with the universe”–and his mind obeys, then has achieved a conscious cont rol of the intuitive forces of mind. He is truly all right, in every now. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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All Knowing Is within You

“I will be what I will to be. I will do what I will to do.” You can repeat these two powerful affirmations over time and time again and thus rearrange, restructure, the forces of your subconscious mind and create a great inner peace within yourself. Become acquainted with the spiritual energies and bring the forces of superconsciousness through your subconscious. This creates feeling, a feeling that you are what you say you are–positive, direct, full of life and energy and creative power. Your intuitive mind proves this through your conscious mind, not only through feeling, but you will find yourself acting out the part in all kindness and security, exercising the positive will of “I will be what I will to be” and “I will do what I will to do.” Feel the spiritual force permeating the entirety of your body. You are the security of your statement, and you accept it into your subconscious mind. As the days go by, you will become more creative and more consciously aware of your spiritual destiny. Find your spiritual destiny for this lifetime.

The greatest thing that a devotee must learn is that all knowing is within oneself. Therefore, go to the great superconscious school within you and bring forth knowledge. In order to do this, be confident within yourself. In order to be confident within yourself, have no fear. In order to have no fear, say to yourself, “I am all right, right now.” This will quickly bring you into the here-and-now consciousness. You will feel spiritual force permeating your body, and your intuitive state of mind will be active. Go ahead in full confidence that you are the knower of all that is known. This does not mean that you know everything that is to be known about the material plane, the emotional world of people, or what goes on within their minds. This means that you are nearing the source of all sources, that you understand the ultimate destiny of all souls–to unequivocally merge with Siva.

Spiritual destiny is manifested in the lives of those who stand out from the masses and actually do something, who live a creative life for the benefit of others. This last affirmation affirms an age-old truth and may be said several times before sleep and upon awakening: “I am not my body, mind or emotions. They are but shells of the infinite energy that flows through them all. I am this energy. I am its source. I am on my way to merge with Siva.”  - from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Unexpected Consequences

Desperate states of mind are disturbing many people these days. They are caught in emotional turmoil and entanglement, scarcely knowing how to get themselves out of it, or even fully realizing what state they are in. This condition, which often deteriorates as the years go by until nervous difficulties and mental illnesses set in, can be alleviated by the simple practice of meditation. Those who are content to live in a mesh of mental conflict, which is not only conscious but subconscious, will never get around to meditation or even the preliminary step: concentration. But a person who is wise enough to struggle with his own mind to try to gain the mastery of his mind will learn the vital practice of meditation. Just a few moments each morning or evening enables him to cut the entangled conditions that creep into the conscious mind during the day. The consistent practice of meditation allows him to live in higher states of consciousness with increasing awareness and perception as the years go by.

There are surprises, many of them, for the beginning meditator, as well as for those who are advanced–unexpected consequences that are often more than either bargained for, because on the road to enlightenment every part of one's nature has to be faced and reconciled. This can be difficult if the experiences of life have been unseemly, or relatively easy if the experiences have been mostly comfortable. What is it that meditation arouses to be dealt with? It is the reactions to life's happenings, recorded in the subconscious mind, both the memory of each experience and the emotion connected to it. Buried away, normally, waiting to burst forth in the next birth or the one to follow it, these vasanas, or deep-seated impressions, often come forward at the most unexpected moments after serious meditation is begun. It is the shakti power of meditation that releases them. There can be no repressed secrets, no memories too woeful to confront for the serious meditator. These experiences can be scary if one is “in denial” about certain embarrassing or disturbing happenings.

When this upheaval occurs for you, and it will, combat the paper dragon with the deep, inner knowing that the energy of the body has its source in God, the light of the mind that makes thought pictures recognizable also has its source in God, and nothing can or has happened that is not of one's own creation in a past life or in this. Thus armed with Vedic wisdom, we are invincible to the emotions connected with the memory of formerly locked-away experiences. When they come rolling out, patiently write down the emotional impressions of hurt feelings and injustices of years gone by and burn the paper in an open fireplace. Seeing the fire consume the exposed vasanas, the garbage of yesterday, is in itself a great release.
from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Mastery of The Mind

The experienced meditator seeks out the unwholesome areas within himself, endeavoring to expose and rid himself of each knot of karma. The beginning meditator may be shocked and shrink from even continuing the practice of meditation, as his inner mind plays back unhappy thoughts that impose themselves upon his shanti. Many stop meditating altogether at this point and turn instead to the distractions of modern life for solace.

But true meditation happens because of soul evolution. We evolve into meditative practices from bhakti, the yoga of devotion. The transition is earned through past good karmas, not chosen as an intellectual or recreational pastime. As the transition of external worship to internal worship is made, the devotee has to face all bad karmas cheerfully and honestly in order to resolve them and move forward.

Sitting in a state of real meditation, one must be more alive and alert than a tight-rope walker suspended without a net on a taut cable three hundred feet above the Earth. Do you suppose that this man is sleepy, that he allows his mind to wander? No, every muscle and sinew of his body, every thought, every feeling within him, is absolutely under his control. It is the only way he can maintain the balance which keeps him from plunging to the earth beneath. He must be the master of himself, all the while seeking to identify with his pure soul being, not allowing attention to be pulled here and there–to the physical body, to outside sounds, to thoughts of the past or to concerns about the future.

In meditation, you will feel the same intensity of purpose as the tight-rope walker. Every atom in your being must be alive, every emotion under control, every thought seeking to impose itself upon your mind set aside until your purpose is accomplished. If the man three hundred feet up in the air feels a gust of wind coming against him, he must exercise perhaps a hundred times more will and concentration to remain poised in his precarious condition. Likewise, in meditation your mind may be intensely concentrated upon a particular object or thought, and yet you find an opposing thought seeking to divert your attention. The opposing thought may simply be a wind from your subconscious. You must then put more effort into the object of your concentration so that the opposing thoughts will be set aside and not have power to topple your balance.

Upon entering a state of meditation, one may find that awareness is enmeshed in a struggle between two states of mind: the subconscious of the past and the conscious, external, waking state concerned with the present and future. The experienced meditator learns that he is the watcher, pure awareness. When concentration is sustained long enough, he dives into the superconscious, intuitive state of mind. It enables the meditator, in time, to unravel the mystery. An integrated, one-pointed state of being is the goal–a state of inner perception without vacillation, with the ability to move awareness through the mind's various states at will. To become the ruler of the mind is the goal. To then go beyond the mind into the Self is the destiny of all living on this planet, for most in a life to come. from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Odic and Actinic Forces

Meditation can be sustained only if one lives a wholesome life, free from emotional entanglements and adharmic deeds. Intensive, consistent meditation dispels the antagonistic, selfish, instinctive forces of the mind and converts those channels of energy into uplifted, creative action. The same force works to make either the saint or the sinner. The same force animates both love and hate. It is for the devotee to control and direct that one force so that it works through the highest channels of creative expression. When this soul force is awakened, the refined qualities of love, forgiveness, loyalty and generosity begin to unfold. In this ascended state of concentrated consciousness, the devotee will be able to look down on all the tense conditions and involvements within his own mind from a view far “above” them. As the activity of his thoughts subsides, he begins to feel at home in that pure state of Being, released from his identification with and bondage to lower states of mind. A profound feeling of complete freedom persists.

Meditation is similar to watching the play of light and pictures on television. Identify with the pictures, and emotion is experienced. Identify with the light, and peace is experienced. Both light and energy forms have their source in God. Begin this evening while watching the news on TV by keeping awareness more within the light than the pictures. By all means, begin this ancient, mystical art, but as you progress, don't be surprised when regrets, doubts, confusions and fears you hardly knew you remembered loom up one by one to be faced and resolved. Perform the vasana daha tantra: simply write down all the regrets, doubts, confusions and fears in as much detail as possible, then burn the paper in a fireplace or garbage can. Claim the release from the past impression that this tantra imparts. Begin searching within now.

There are two forces that we become conscious of when we begin to meditate: the odic force and the actinic force. Actinic force is pure life energy emanating from the central source of life itself. Odic force is magnetism that emanates out from our physical body, attracts and merges with the magnetism of other people. The odic force is what cities are made of, homes are made of. The actinic force, flowing through the physical body, out through the cells and through the skin, eventually becomes odic force.

As soon as we begin to meditate, we become conscious of these two forces and must be aware of how to deal with them. The odic forces are warm, sticky. The actinic forces are inspirational, clean, pure, true. We seek in meditation the actinic force.
from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Transmuting The Energies

When we begin to meditate, we have to transmute the energies of the physical body. By sitting up straight with the spine erect, the energies of the physical body are transmuted. The spine erect, the head balanced at the top of the spine, brings one into a positive mood. In a position such as this we cannot become worried, fretful or depressed or sleepy during our meditation.

Slump the shoulders forward and short-circuit the actinic forces that flow through the spine and out through the nerve system. In a position such as this it is easy to become depressed, to have mental arguments with oneself or another, or to experience unhappiness. With the spine erect and head balanced at the top of the spine, we are positive, dynamic. Thoughts race through the mind substance, and we are aware of many, many thoughts. Therefore, the next step is to transmute the energies from the intellectual area of the mind so that we move our awareness into an area of the mind which does not think but conceives, looks at the thinking area.

The force of the intellectual area of the mind is controlled and transmuted through the power of a regulated breath. A beginning pranayama is a method of breathing nine counts as we inhale, holding one; nine counts as we exhale, holding one count. Be very sure to maintain the same number of counts out as in, or that the breath is regulated to the same distance in as the same distance out. This will quickly allow you to become aware of an area of the mind that does not think but is intensely alive, peaceful, blissful, conceives the totality of a concept rather than thinking out the various parts. This perceptive area of the mind is where the actinic forces are most vibrant. Sushumna, the power of the spine, is felt dynamically, and we are then ready to begin meditation.

Meditate on awareness as an individual entity flowing through all areas of the mind, as the free citizen of the world travels through each country, each city, not attaching himself anywhere.

In meditation, awareness must be loosened and made free to move vibrantly and buoyantly into the inner depths where peace and bliss remain undisturbed for centuries, or out into the odic force fields of the material world where man is in conflict with his brother, or into the internal depths of the subconscious mind. Meditate, therefore, on awareness traveling freely through all areas of the mind. The dynamic willpower of the meditator in his ability to control his awareness as it flows into its inner depths eventually brings him to a state of bliss where awareness is simply aware of itself. This would be the next area to move into in a meditation. Simply sit, being totally aware that one is aware. New energies will flood the body, flowing out through the nerve system, out into the exterior world. The nature then becomes refined in meditating in this way. from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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The Benefits Of Meditation

After one has finished a powerful meditation–and to meditate for even ten to fifteen minutes takes as much energy as one would use in running one mile–it fills and thrills one with an abundance of energy to be used creatively in the external world during the activities of daily life. After the meditation is over, work to refine every attribute of the external nature. Learn to give and to give freely without looking for a thank-you or a reward. Learn to work for work's sake, joyfully, for all work is good. Find the “thank-yous” from deep within yourself. Learn to be happy by seeking happiness, not from others, but from the depths of the mind that is happiness itself.

And when in daily life, observe the play of the forces, the odic force as it plays between people and people, and people and their things. When it is flowing nicely between people, it is called harmony. But when the odic force congests itself between people and tugs and pulls and causes unhappiness, it is called contention. And then when the odic force congests within oneself, we become aware of unhappy, fretful, disturbed states of the mind. The odic force then is called turbulence. It's the same force. The meditator learns to work with the odic forces of the world. He avoids shying away from them. The out-there and the within are his playground.

The finest times to meditate are before dawn, at noon, sunset and midnight. All four of these times could be used, or choose one. The meditation should be from fifteen minutes to one-half hour to begin with. What to meditate on? The transmutation of the odic forces back to their source, the actinic force. Through perfect posture, asana, we transmute the physical forces and the emotional forces. Through the control of the breath, pranayama, we transmute the intellectual forces and move awareness out of the area of the mind that is always thinking–the great dream.

Then we become vibrant and confident in ourselves, feeling the power of our spine through which the actinic forces flow out through the nerve system. We learn to lean on our own spine more than on any other person, teacher, book, organization or system. Answers begin to become real and vibrant, hooked onto the end of each question. And these and many more are the dynamic rewards of the sincere aspirant who searches within through meditation. - from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Becoming Simple

When one begins to meditate, he should approach it dynamically, for it is becoming more alive. He is penetrating his awareness into the very source of life itself, for eventually he hopes to attain the ultimate goal, merger with Siva, the experience of the Self beyond all time, beyond all form, beyond all cause. The experience of Parasiva is attained only when one has become very simple, direct, uncomplicated. When a new nerve system has been built within this very body, strong enough to hold awareness within enough so that awareness itself can completely dissolve itself into its own essence, Satchidananda and Parasiva are experienced.

After that dynamic experience, man's heritage in this lifetime, one enters back into the mind which is all form–creating, preserving, destroying, completely finished in all areas of manifestation–and moves freely through the mind, seeing it for what it is.

Parasiva is the ultimate goal in merging with Siva, the realization of the Self in its totality. How does one know that one has experienced such an experience if you cannot speak of it, if it is beyond the mind, thought, cause, time and space? And yet one does know and vibrantly knows. There are various signposts. One is that one could go into Parasiva an ignorant person and come out wise. Another: the urgency, the goal, the quest is over. He loses something–the desire for Self Realization. Another signpost is that the Self, the very core of existence, is always his point of reference. He relates to the exterior world only as an adult relates to the children's toys. Parasiva is to be sought for, worked for and finally attained. But a lot of work must be done first.

Choose a time for your meditation. Sit up so straight and strong and dynamic that you feel you are at that very moment the center of the universe. Regulate your breath so precisely that awareness flows freely out of the realm of thought into the perceptive areas of the mind. Then begin meditating on the two forces, odic and actinic. Be like the spaceman high above the surface of the Earth looking at the odic forces of the cities. Look then, too, at the odic forces, the magnetic forces, that motivate your life within yourself and between people and you and things. Feel the actinic force flooding out from the central source of energy itself. And then turn awareness in upon itself. Simply be aware of being aware. Sit in dynamic bliss.

And in coming out of this meditation, next feel the power of the spine, vibrant energy flooding out through the nerve system, the hands, the arms, the legs, the head. Enter back into life joyfully, joyously. - from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Discipline And Success

It is very important to decide exactly what you are going to meditate on before beginning. Then stay with the decision throughout the meditation and make every effort to avoid the tendency to become distracted and take off in a new direction. The Shum language as a tool for guiding the meditator is very helpful because the individual's awareness is precisely held within the chosen area. This is similar to how we must discipline ourselves to be successful in outer activities. To become distracted is unacceptable. Successful people finish what they begin. It is possible to learn to meditate extremely well but be unsuccessful in practicing it if the meditator allows himself to become sidetracked once the inside of the mind has opened. To be successful, one has to be very, very firm with oneself when beginning a meditation. Each meditation must be performed in the way it was intended to be performed when the meditation was begun.

To be successful in meditation, we have to bring the mind into a disciplined state. Undisciplined people can never be told what to do, because they will not listen. Their awareness is wafted around by every little fancy that comes along. Those who really want to make progress in meditation and continue to do so and better themselves year after year after year have to approach this art in an extremely positive and systematic way. Here, again, the Shum language can be a great help.

Thousands of devotees have come and gone since the beginning of my mission in 1949. Each one of them was determined to go deep within and realize the Self, but many gave up along the way. This was because at times the shakti power became very strong within them and their inner nerve system was not ready to receive the impact. Others were successful because they were more disciplined, and when their inner power came up, they enjoyed its intensity by holding it steady within the spine. They rested in the bliss of awareness aware only of itself. They then continued the meditation as planned after the power began to wane.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Step One: Attention

The grand old man of the East who ordained me, Jnanaguru Yoganathan, Yogaswami of Jaffna, used to say time and time again, “It was all finished long ago.” It's finished already. The whole mind is finished, all complete, in all stages of manifestation. Man's individual awareness flows through the mind as the traveler trods the globe.

Now we come to the real study, and this applies right to you and to you personally: the five steps on the path of enlightenment. What are they? Attention, concentration, meditation, contemplation and Self Realization. Those are the five steps that awareness has to flow through, almost gaining strength each time, on the path to enlightenment. When we first start, awareness is flowing through many areas of the mind. And if it is a mature awareness, we will say it's a great big ball of light, flowing through the mind. And if it's not a mature awareness, it's like a little ping-pong ball, bouncing around. The little ping-pong ball awareness is not going to walk the path of enlightenment, so to speak. It's going to bobble around in the instinctive mind, incarnation after incarnation, until it grows to a great big ball, like a great big beach ball. Then finally it will have enough experiences flowing through the mind to turn in on itself. When this happens, certain faculties come into being. One of them is willpower. And we learn to hold attention. We learn to hold awareness at attention. Awareness: attention!

What is attention? Attention is the first of the five steps on the path, that is, holding awareness steady, centralized in only one area of the mind, and the area that we choose it to be in, not the area that someone else has chosen it to be in. Our awareness is moved around by other people through the mind at such a fast rate that we think we are moving awareness ourself, so to speak. That's a funny way to talk because I'm saying we move awareness as if awareness is something else other than us. But awareness and energy and willpower are all the same thing. So, we will just call it awareness from here on out. When other people move awareness through one area or another, we call that distraction, or worldly distractions. The mission is to move awareness yourself. How do you learn to do that? Holding it at attention.

How does attention work? Attention is awareness poised like a hummingbird over a flower. It doesn't move. The flower doesn't move, and awareness becomes aware of the flower–poised. The entire nerve system of the physical body and the functions of breath have to be at a certain rhythm in order for awareness to remain poised like a hummingbird over a flower. Now, since the physical body and our breath have never really been disciplined in any way, we have to begin by breathing rhythmically and diaphragmatically, so that we breathe out the same number of counts as we breathe in. After we do this over a long period of time–and you can start now–then the body becomes trained, the external nerve system become trained, responds, and awareness is held at attention. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Re: Merging with Siva

Sanmugan.this is a BIG topic.

Its the Core of Zen Buddhism too and evers authentic spiritual path.
Touching the realties of psychic, subtle realms as much as causal and acausal Sahaj Samdahi.

One of the most wonderful explanations I found in Tripura Rahasya. And some Zen Texts.

As much as some rare source texts of clasic martial arts.

Do you know the classis “Three pilars of Zen” edited and written by Philip Kapleau? Read it first time in 1979.

The introductory lessons of Yasutani Roshi summarized exactly your 5 steps! They were publsihed then for first time in history for Western readers and audiences. As much as experiences described from westerners in advanrced and beginning meditation.

Re: Merging with Siva

Tripura Rahasya

Re: Merging with Siva

I have been delayed in replying these both. I have seen both these Guru and disciple mentioned therein in our area but at that time I was not aware of these. Now only I am learning about these.  About  Tripura Rahasya, I have recently seen Tamil translation published by Thiruvannamalai, Ramana Ashram. I down loaded the English version when you introduced it to us in Gaia.  

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Step Two: Concentration

Then we automatically move into the next step, concentration. The hummingbird poised over the flower held at attention, begins to look at the flower, to concentrate on it, to study it, to muse about it, not to be distracted by another flower–that is then awareness moving. Awareness distracted, here, is awareness simply moving to another flower, or moving to another area of the mind.

Give up the idea that thoughts come in and out of your mind, like visitors come in and out of your house. Hold to the idea that it is awareness that moves, rather than the thoughts that move. Look at awareness as a yo-yo at the end of a string. The string is hooked to the very core of energy itself, and awareness, flows out, and it flows in. Awareness might flow out toward a tree and in again, and then out toward a flower, and then in again, and down toward the ground and then in again. This wonderful yo-yo of awareness–that is a good concept to grasp in order to become more acquainted with awareness. Awareness held at attention can then come into the next vibratory rate and concentrate.

Take a flower and place it in front of you. Breathe deeply as you sit before it. Simply look at it. Don't stare at it and strain your eyes. But simply become aware of it. Each time awareness moves to some other area of the mind, with your willpower move awareness back and become aware of the flower again. Keep doing this until you are simply aware of the flower and not aware of your body or your breath. Then begin to concentrate on the flower. That is the second step. Think about the flower. Move into the area of the mind where all flowers exist in all phases of manifestation, and concentrate on the flower. Move from one area to another–to where all stems exist, to the stem of that particular flower, to the root that that particular flower came from, and to the seed. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate on the flower. This is what concentration is–remaining in the thought area of the particular item that you are aware of and flowing through the different color and sound vibrations of the thoughts. How does it work? The powers of concentration–it is only a name. Actually, what is happening is you are flowing awareness through the area of the mind which contains the elements which actually made that particular flower, and you are perceiving how all those elements came together. from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Step Three: Meditation

After we are able to hold awareness hovering over that which we are concentrating upon, we come into great powers of observation. We are able to look into and almost through that which we are concentrating upon and observe its various parts and particles, its action and its reaction, because we are not distracted. Even observation in daily life, as a result of regular participation in the practice of concentration, comes naturally. We are able to see more, hear more, feel more. Our senses are more keen and alive. Observation is so necessary to cultivate, to bring awareness fully into the fullness of meditation. 

This leads us then into our very next step, meditation. Meditation and concentration are practically the same thing, though meditation is simply a more intense state of concentration. The state of meditation is careful, close scrutiny of the individual elements and energies which make up that flower. You are scrutinizing the inner layers of the mind, of how a flower grows, how the seed is formed. You are observing it so keenly that you have forgotten that you are a physical body, that you are an emotional unit, that you are breathing. You are in the area of mind where that flower exists, and the bush that it came from, and the roots and the seed and all phases of manifestation, all at the same time. And you are seeing it as it actually is in that area of the mind, where the flower that you first put awareness at attention upon, then began to concentrate upon. Then you are meditating on the actual inner area of the mind where, in all stages of manifestation, that particular species actually is within the mind. - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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Striving and One’s Dharma
Many seekers want a future of wealth, family and friends and they want the very highest spiritual illumination, too. This is their spiritual pride setting an unrealistic pattern. We must remember that after one renounces the world, with his entering the higher chakras–vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara–the world renounces the individual. If married, he no longer can fulfill his purusha dharma, his family duties. He can no longer hold employment that offers benefits for longevity. His perspective of the world and advancement in it has been changed forever. As a ship floats aimlessly on the ocean without a rudder, so does the unprepared soul meander who has forced his way, uninvited through initiation, into the realm of the saints and sages of Sanatana Dharma. This is why householders and all who have not properly prepared themselves, been well schooled and tested by a competent preceptor, should not go too deeply into raja or kundalini yoga practices.
If they are prone to anger, jealousy, contempt and retaliation, they should abstain from any of the yogas of japa or exploratory meditation. These will only intensify and prananize the lower chakras that give rise to demonic forces. Rather, they should perform the always healing vasana daha tantra and confine themselves to karma yoga, such as cleaning in and around the temple and picking flowers for the pujas. These simple acts of charya are recommended, but should be not extended to intense worship.
Then, and only then, their life will be in perspective with the philosophy of Sanatana Dharma and begin to become one with Siva’s perfect universe. Brahmadvara, the door to the seven chakras below the muladhara, will then be sealed off as their experiential patterns settle into the traditional perspective of how life should be and each individual should behave within it.
The use of drugs is another foreboding danger, for certain stimulants set in motion the kundalini simultaneously into higher and lower regions. For instance, when the user of drugs, like an intruder, forces his way into the experience of the oneness of the universe, the totality of now-ness and all-being, by touching into the fourth chakra, anahata, simultaneously every other center below the anahata is stimulated, meaning svadhishthana and the first, third, fifth and seventh below the base of the spine–the centers of reason, fear, jealousy, selfishness and malice. Noticeable mood swings of those who rely on drugs hamper the person throughout life. Only severe prayashchitta, penance, can set the course toward spiritual healing.- Sivaya Subramuniya Swamy

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Closing the Door To Lower Realms
When at the moment of death you enter the astral plane, you only are in the consciousness of the chakras that were most active within you during the later part of your lifetime and, accordingly, you function in one of the astral lokas until the impetus of these chakras is expended. It is the chakras that manufacture the bodies. It is not the body that manufactures the chakras. Since you have fourteen chakras, at least three are the most powerful in any one individual–for example, memory, will and cognition. Each chakra is a vast area of the mind, or a vast collective area of many, many different thought strata. Generally, most people who gather together socially, intellectually or spiritually are flowing through the same predominant chakra, or several of them collectively. Therefore, they are thinking alike and share the same perspective in looking at life.
The chakras exist as nerve ganglia that have a direct impact on organs in the physical body, as psychic nerve ganglia in the astral body and as spinning disks of consciousness in the body of the soul, anandamaya kosha. The power to close off the lower chakras–to seal off the doorway at the lower end of the sushumna–exists only when the soul is presently incarnated in a physical body. All fourteen chakras, plus seven more above and within the sahasrara, are always there. It is up to the individual to lift consciousness from one to another through right thought, right speech, right action, showing remorse for errors committed, performing regular sadhana, worship, pilgrimage and heeding other personal instructions the satguru or swami might guide the person through. All this and more teaches the pranas of consciousness, and most importantly, individual awareness, the art of flowing up through the higher centers through the process of closing off the lower ones.
Spiritual unfoldment is not a process of awakening the higher chakras, but of closing the chakras below the muladhara. Once this happens, the aspirant’s consciousness slowly expands into the higher chakras, which are always there. The only thing that keeps the lower chakras closed is regular sadhana, japa, worship and working within oneself. This is demonstrated by the fact that even great yogis and rishis who have awakened into the higher chakras continue to do more and more sadhana. They are constantly working to keep the forces flowing through the higher centers so that the lower ones do not claim their awareness.
Now, all of this, perhaps, seems very complex and esoteric. But these are aspects of our nature that we use every day. We use our arms and hands every day without thinking. If we study the physiology of the hands, we encounter layer after layer of intricate interrelationships of tissues, cells, plasma. We examine the engineering of the structural system of bones and joints, the energy transmission of the muscular system, the biochemistry of growth and healing, the biophysics of nerve action and reaction. Suddenly a simple and natural part of human life, the function of the hands, seems complex. Similarly, we use the various functions of consciousness, the chakras, every day without even thinking about them. But now we are studying them in their depths to gain a more mature understanding of their nature.
Actually, there are more chakras above and within the sahasrara. Buddhist literature cites thirty-two chakras above. Agamic Hindu tradition cites seven levels of the rarefied dimensions of paranada, the first tattva, as chanted daily by hundreds of thousands of priests during puja in temples all over the world. Their names are: vyapini, vyomanga, ananta, anatha, anashrita, samana and unmana. I have experienced these higher chakras or nadis as they are, in this subtle region, as conglomerates of nadis. These force centers are not exactly chakras, as they are not connected to any organ or part of the physical body. They are chakras or nadis of the body of the soul, which when developed as a result of many, many, many Parasiva experiences, slowly descend into the mental and astral bodies. The mental body becomes permanently different in its philosophical outlook, and the astral body begins to absorb and be transformed by the golden body, or svarnasharira. - Sathguru sivaya Subramuniya Swami

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Controlling Odic Force Fields
Occasionally, a devotee will come along in meditation and have sublime inner experiences. He’s experiencing the vishuddha chakra, and he has inner light experiences. He’s just on top of the world. A month later, he meets some karmic boomerang. He doesn’t have the stamina or the discipline to hold awareness within, and he starts flowing through the second chakra, and he’s saying, “I’ve never had any experiences at all. I wonder why? (the second chakra is reason) I wonder why I don’t have some inward experiences,” and why this and why that and why something else. “I wonder why I’m even doing meditation.” He’s wondering why all the way along, and he’s quite argumentative.
I say, “Don’t you remember the beautiful experience that you told me about? You came all wide open.” “Oh, no, no, no.” He doesn’t remember that at all. “What experience?” he asks. “Don’t you remember? You were right here in the temple,” I say, trying to lead him gently back to his experience, “and your head turned into a sea of light. You sat there for an hour and then came and told me all about it.” Then we pretend it only happened a moment ago, and he is back within again. This happens quite regularly. Therefore, to stabilize awareness, so it does not flow through the first chakra, the fifth chakra, the third chakra, the second chakra, to stabilize awareness, what do we do? Attention, concentration, meditation. Attention, concentration, meditation. Work daily within ourselves so we stabilize, and so that willpower and awareness become one and the same great motivating force, so we travel through the areas of the mind that we want to, not propelled by the forces of karma as they boomerang back, not propelled by those forces. We have to work within daily to stabilize the breath and the body so that will and awareness become one and the same great motivating force. Then, when the patterns and stumbling blocks of the past loom before us, we have the strength to stay within and maintain the continuity of one inner unfoldment after another.
These magnetic forces are either passive or aggressive in their manifestation. Business advertising is one example of aggressive odic force in use. Sexual magnetism is one example of passive odic force. Our physical body is composed of a subtle balance between active and passive magnetic forces. When the aggressive odic force becomes too active, the passive forces become disturbed and illness results, generally of a mental or emotional nature. When the passive odic forces become overstimulated, physical ailments of a purely physical nature result.
Odic forces are colorful and are of the conscious and subconscious world. Actinic force is colorless and very refined in color and is the vibration of deeper consciousness. When the mind is in a disturbed state, the odic forces are out of balance with each other. The trained yoga adept knows how to open himself to the inflow of actinic force, which then quiets or appeases the odic discharge. The evolution of the adept through meditation depends on the measure of his control and use of the odic forces as he enters into the consciousness of the actinic world. Many people start on the path of Self Realization in an almost involuntary way, simply by asking the fundamental question, “Who, or what, am I?” In so doing, they turn the mind fiber in upon itself and become tuned into the substance of actinic force.
Everyone has his own actinic wave length or actinic ray upon which, or within which, his awareness glides in the realms of expanded consciousness. A satguru’s actinic ray is actually heard as nada, the “eeee” sound. This mystic sound the guru hears as he tunes into his guru. His guru listens to the same sound to be one with his satguru, and on and on, back in time, which is within the “now.” To become one with, or of a similar vibration with, the actinic vibration of the satguru is synonymous to listening to the sound of the guru’s lineage. This is called the nada-nadi shakti. The devotee endeavors in this meditation to listen to his guru’s nada, not his own, but that of his guru, his guru’s guru and all the others back in time. This is oneness, the oneness of a devotee merging into the satguru’s lineage. - by Sathguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami.

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Creating the Golden Yoke

Each lineage has within it a nada of a different velocity of sound, varied in pitch and depth. This is Hindu mysticism. This is the magic of Hindu oneness. This is sampradaya. This is parampara. This is what I want you to do: in the beginning, don’t try to hear your nada. Try instead to hear mine. You will know you are hearing my nada and not your own when it is slightly louder. This is nada-nadi shakti. This is your first siddhi. It will bring many good benefits into your life, smooth out the karmas, bringing you from future to future, keep you inspired and on the subtle path, strengthening your psychic protection, strengthening your personal force field and that of all the loved ones connected to you, whether they themselves hear nada or not. 

There is a large religious movement in India whose one and only practice is to gaze at the founder’s picture and to listen to the inner sound, which is the followers’ connection to him and thus to the Divine in all. I’m hearing the nada now, as I speak, that of my satguru, Yogaswami; his satguru, Chellappaswami; and his satguru, Kadaitswami, and that of innumerable rishis, back to Tirumular and his satguru, Nandinatha, and those beyond and beyond and beyond, to the beginning of time, for there has never been a time on this planet or any of the earths the same distance from other suns in our galaxy or any of the others when our Nandinatha Sampradaya has not existed. Nada is always present and within divine lineages of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal path, the eternal religion, the eternal truth, more advanced than modern science, but not conflicting in any way with the discoveries of science, as these good souls penetrate into Sanatana Dharma and unravel its mysteries. 

There are advanced forms of communication and training that utilize these energy rays. Two people may be a continent apart, entirely separated from each other’s odic, conscious and subconscious force fields, and still be subject to actinic mind communication. This has been called soul communication. It is possible because in the superconscious mind, where actinic rays exist, time and space are conceptually different.

In the evolutionary cycle, man eventually becomes conscious of the actinic force as it flows through the odic areas of the mind. On these rays, education comes from the inside of himself out to the conscious mind. A person going through such an experience feels he has tapped a higher, intuitive resource. Psychically seen, an intellect developed in this manner, rather than through mere sensory observation, has a golden appearance. The education of the mind’s odic force field from its actinic source creates what I call the “golden yoke.” It is the yoke of liberation, because in its exercise one penetrates to the very depths of the inner being. In so doing, the inner awakening and knowledge brought forth from this superconscious realm registers on the odic force field of the conscious mind’s intellect. It is known that sages have learned languages, mathematics and all flows of knowledge in meditation. Uneducated men have become scholars by opening what Jnanaguru Yogaswami called “your own book.” 

Now, we can lose this expanded consciousness, once it has been gained, by allowing ourselves to become identified again with the odic world. As soon as we stop making the effort to penetrate the actinic realms, the ordinary forces of attachment, fear and desire force in upon us. It then requires extra effort to balance the forces and penetrate the life-giving, light-giving regions in meditation. When this happens again, one has the experience of seeing light within the cranium, the friction of the actinic force permeating and lighting up the odic force field. 

A guru-disciple relationship may be established on the actinic plane for years before a physical meeting and training takes place. The study and unfoldment begins when one turns within himself, creating the irrevocable “golden yoke” and attuning himself to the same actinic ray of consciousness in which the guru functions. Teachings can then be conveyed on these rays, as long as guru and disciple are in harmony. By working with this golden yoke, one’s karmic experiences are hastened, but at the same time they are encountered in a more orderly fashion. - from Satguru sivaya Subramuniya swami

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The State of Contemplation

The force field of actinic consciousness is one which a guru has worked perhaps for many years to enter. His awareness of it is his control of it. This mechanism works in the same way a corporate executive guides the forces of his business, through knowledge of the field and experience. A guru learns control of actinic force fields just as a businessman learns to control his odic force fields. 

The odic force and the actinic force make up this planet. The action and interaction of these two forces working together cause the life that we see on Earth. Quite often in meditation I see the planet as completely transparent, just like a tremendous, transparent, translucent sphere. It looks light, and it is floating in a clear space, a blue space. This space is called akasha. I am seeing the planet in the akasha, vibrantly seeing the collective odic and actinic forces working within and through it. 

Coming out of this state, one can see easily the way in which human beings are created. The woman holds the power of the odic force field. The man holds the power of the actinic force field. Between them they cause a chemicalization that brings through the soul and the physical and emotional body of a newborn child. 

Depending upon this chemical balance, they give birth to an old soul or a young soul. That is why it is so important for families to have a deeply religious life. What is a religious life? It is the balance of these two forces, the odic force and the actinic force. It is so important that there is an absolute harmony between the man and the woman. This guides and governs the inner currents of the children until the age of twenty-one. At that time, the inner forces dissolve from the family and are governed by their own superconscious mind. 

I have seen this all happen from the inside. It is a vast and beautiful picture. Of course, with vast populations now covering the planet, it is happening more than ever–more births, more deaths, more forces to contend with. At this time in the evolution of this planet, the actinic forces are breaking through the odic force fields due to the planetary configurations, making this an actinic age, an age of light and great illumination, an age of contemplation.

The state of contemplation is not just peacefully sitting and getting all jazzed up on the inside. It is as refined an activity as penetrating subtle thoughts and feelings on the superconscious plane until all intellectual structure dissolves in the atom’s essence within superconsciousness. If you have ever had the experience of tracing a vibration of consciousness to the point where consciousness is no more, you will know how subtle is the fiber of an actinic ray. The explosion of light so commonly associated with the contemplative state is only the first breakthrough. After this, an aspirant is ready to begin the study which will give him the mastery of these subtle forces. 

Striving in meditation for a continuing contemplative awareness, a strong actinic vehicle is built. The aura of a person who has created access to this inner world gives evidence of a higher energy source. This is what is behind the ancient myths wherein the Gods rode through the skies in golden chariots. The golden chariot is the actinic vehicle of the superconscious. A satguru must be able to control his travel on more than one actinic ray. In doing so, he is able to establish a continuity of contact in the deeper consciousness within his various disciples. It is on an actinic ray that intuitive knowledge is gained and passed along. 

At first the odic forces seem warm and friendly, and the actinic force registers more as an emptiness or nothingness existing inside of you. But if you can find out what and where this nothingness is, you will not have to think anymore about purging the subconscious, because the actinic flow will take over the outer mind and you will find yourself lifted in love, light and perception. - From Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya swami

Re: Merging with Siva

 
Heightened Sensitivity
People are worried about the world's coming to an end. Every
now and then a religious sect proclaims the new coming of the end of the world.
But although the Earth as we know it continues its steady progress around the
Sun, the conscious mind for thousands of people has come to an end, for the
simple reason that they are no longer interested in it. For them, the world of
inner sounds and colors has opened its far more attractive fare. But the job of
sustaining and maintaining expanded awareness is not accomplished by losing the
controls over one's powers of awareness. The actinic world is only attained and
sustained by initiating definite controls over the odic world. One state of
consciousness is controlled in the process of awareness moving and expanding into
another state.
As we progress along the path, we become more and more and
more sensitive. This sensitivity is a wonderful thing. It's like graduating
from being an old battery-set radio of the 1920s and '30s to a sophisticated,
solid-state television. This sensitivity that you will begin to recognize is so
refined and yet so strong. You communicate with yourself through the nerve
currents which extend out, around and through the physical body-physical nerve
currents as well as psychic nerve currents. Before we get deeply within on the
path, we're not too sensitive. But as this sensitivity develops, we begin to
see through our hands. We begin to hear feeling. We begin to see sound, and all
sorts of new faculties manifest.
Now, this can be very distressing, because we see things
that we ordinarily would not be able to see. We hear meaning in what people say
that ordinarily we would be unaware of, and we can become very disappointed in
life, in people or in ourselves. This may seem like falling into a bog on the
path, and we don't want to do this. We want to be sensitive, and yet we want
protection, psychic protection. Our dreams become more well defined, but we
don't want to be vulnerable to negative areas of the mind, disruptive areas,
experiential areas of the astral plane while we are sleeping. Neither do we
wish to be attacked on the astral plane by the mischievous beings, entities
that are on that particular side of life.
We need this astral protection. We need this psychic
protection. The group helps the individual and the individual helps the group.
The force field of a group of people on the path goes along at a certain rate
of intensity which is not broken, and this gives us tremendous psychic
protection. In the very same way, a positive group of people only admit into
their midst other positive people. A group of businessmen have a well-managed
force field, and generally only a businessman of their same caliber can come
and mix with them. A group of artists has a force field, and only artists of
the same caliber can get into it. Why? If they let everybody in, they wouldn't
have a force field. The business would fail. The art would go into chaos.
Friendships would be destroyed because of other influences coming in and
amongst the people.
Force fields protect and sustain not only our outer forms of
expression, but deep spiritual layers as well. When we go “out” into
superconsciousness, if we are sensitive and unable to protect our subconscious
mind, all sorts of other types of influences can enter. We don't want this to
happen, and it's not necessary. It is a deterrent on the path, for we then are
exposed to unseemly astral influences that detract us from our quest.
Make friends with those who are on the path. Be with fine,
positive people. Don't be with negative, complaining people who have no
relationship to what you are doing on the inside or who are criticizing you for
what you are doing. There's the old statement, “One bad apple can turn the
whole bushel rotten.” Maybe that will be reversed in the New Age; a lot of
things are changing in the New Age. Maybe at some time a whole bag of good
apples will make a bad apple good, but so far it hasn't occurred. Until such a
time, we have to be wary of a natural law of nature and live among others of virtuous
character and conduct, others who share spiritual insights and seeking.
Lesson 299 0f Merging with Siva by Sathguru Sivaya
subramuniya Swami of Himalayan Academy.com These lessons are drawn from
Gurudeva's 3,000 page trilogy on Hindu philosophy, culture and metaphysics,
available in the full-color volumes of Dancing, Living and Merging with Siva at
our Minimela online store.

Re: Merging with Siva

 
Undesirable
Influences
Being on the path is a marvelous thing, but it is a path.
There are jungles on either side, and if we wander off into the jungle, taking
too many liberties, continuity of the vibration of our unfoldment will begin to
wane. Suppose you are meditating regularly in the morning and at night, day
after day. Perhaps they're not long meditations, but they are regular. You are
generating a certain vibration out of it. If you then stop that routine and
take your awareness into feeling sorry for yourself or mentally arguing with a
friend, you lose the subtle thread of super consciousness. You're going through
an old, old pattern and it will be difficult to get back into the vibration of
meditation. Your dreams at night may become nightmares. Your circle of friends
may change. This is called, in a sense, spinning out into a different area of
the mind. If you have not yet experienced this yet, it's not a recommended
experience on the path. And if you have experienced it, you know what I am
talking about, and you know the importance of protecting yourself and your
meditations. Psychic protection, to sensitive people, is extremely important.
It involves every detail of life–your home, friends, clothes, diet, even your
dreams. You should live in places that are clean, very clean. Paint your place.
Assure yourself that the inner atmosphere is clean and unpolluted.
 
We have an outer atmosphere and we have and inner
atmosphere. The inner atmosphere can become polluted, too, just like the outer
atmosphere can. All sorts of influences from the astral plane can come in on
the inner atmosphere, and this we don't want. We want the inner flow of the
inner atmosphere, which is within this atmosphere of air and ether, to be
absolutely peaceful and sublime. How is this done? By keeping your house, your
meditation room, as clean as possible. By entertaining few guests and then only
people of the same caliber and nature. Guests should not stay more than three
nights. Why? Because otherwise they bring too much distraction, too many other
influences into the home. Finally, the whole atmosphere may be disrupted. Many
families have broken up and lost their home, and children have gone homeless,
simply because guests have stayed too long and worked into the inner atmosphere
and brought in too many influences of a distracting and disturbing nature. This
is an old, old traditional custom of hospitality that dates back many thousands
of years, and these old customs are based on sound judgment. If they are
understood and followed, they assure and protect our contemplative life.
 
Keep your environment positive, so that the inner feeling is
always content. Keep your home shrine or meditation space radiant, so that the
inner feeling there is always uplifting. As you advance along the path, the
radio mechanism will become highly tuned, very positive. Being positive, it
will register all types of influences. Influences that are distasteful to you
will come through as strongly as influences that are really magnificent. You
have to learn to shield out the static by finely tuning this mechanism. That is
why you strive for mastery of sadhana, mastery of concentration, your ability
to hold awareness where you want it, when you want it for as long as you want
it, and mastery of your ability to experience kaef, pure awareness aware only
of itself, by taking awareness out of the entire context into just being aware.
This practice of kaef is one of the fundamental protectors from psychic or
astral invasion, for when you are in that state, great clarity and willpower persist
and the lower states are transcended.
 
To attain and sustain kaef is a simple practice. You pull
awareness out of the thought processes. You pull awareness out of the emotion
processes. You pull awareness out of the bodily processes, and you're just
completely on that pinnacle of being aware of being aware. That's so necessary
to practice every day, even if you do it for a split second.
 
The experience of kaef can be attained by anyone on the face
of the Earth, at least for a split second, because it's so easy to be aware of
being aware. To hold that experience and to stabilize the physical and
emotional elements long enough to hold that intensity for even a minute takes
more practice–not too much, but consistent practice. To maintain kaef for two
minutes requires more effort, more will, more dedication to the life of
sadhana. Five minutes requires more. That's the test.
 
Lesson 300 from Merging with Siva, from Satguru Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami's trilogy: Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva  and Merging with Siva; 3,000 page trilogy on
Hindu philosophy, culture and metaphysics, available in the full-color volumes
of Dancing, Living and Merging with Siva at our Minimela online store.Kauai's
Hindu Monastery; Himalayan Academy.com

Re: Merging with Siva

Sensitivity and The Third Eye
 
When you meditate, you become inwardly strong. You become
extremely sensitive, and sensitivity is strength. But if you are not
psychologically adjusted to the things you may be hearing and seeing and the
depth to which you might see, you might see things that will be disturbing to
you, that will upset your nerve system. Now, it is true that if you are
centered in yourself completely enough to be all spine and just a being of
energy, you can go anyplace in any type of environment, inside or outside, and
the environment would be better for your having been there. You would not
absorb any of the distracting or negative vibrations. But until that day comes,
it is better to be wise and live in a positive vibration and among people who
can help stabilize the force field around you, so that your inner life goes on
without interruptions–of spinning out, having to crawl back, and spinning out
and then having to crawl back. Why go through all those frustrating experiences
which are inconvenient, time consuming and totally unnecessary?
 
Part of the psychic pitfall is the belief that in order to
be spiritually awakened, one must also be psychically awakened, seeing auras,
visions, hearing celestial music and such. We do not have to awaken the third
eye. To me, that is a translation error made in the old scriptures. This third
eye has never been asleep. It's always awake. We are not aware, however, of the
visual mechanism of the third eye. The artist doesn't have to learn to see to
distinguish hundreds of shades of color in a painting. He has only to learn how
to be aware of his ability to see hundreds of different shades within a
painting. The untrained eye cannot see such subtle variation of tones and hues,
but just looks at the painting.
 
It is the same with the third eye. It doesn't have to be
awakened. It's always awake. As we become more and more sensitive, the third
eye becomes more and more apparent to us, because we keenly observe through
that faculty more than we did before.
 
If you are standing on a crowded bus and another passenger
is just about to crash down on your foot with his foot, you will intuitively
move it out of the way. You have often noticed that you moved your foot or some
other part of your body out of the way of danger just in time. Well, your third
eye wasn't asleep then, and you didn't see that foot coming down on you with
your physical eyes. You saw it with your third eye.
 
We use this third eye all the time. When someone greets you
who is apparently looking fine and you sense otherwise, thinking, “I feel
he's disturbed. I wonder what's wrong,” you're seeing his inner condition
with your third eye. When you walk up to someone's house and you have the
feeling that nobody is home because you don't feel vibrations coming from the
house, you're seeing this with your third eye. We see and respond to things
seen with the third eye every day, whether we are fully conscious of it or not.

 
The third eye does not have to be awakened. In fact, it is
harmful to consciously make efforts to see things psychically–a big sidetrack
on the eternal path. We become sensitive to the use of it by using it, going
along with our natural meditational practices in a regular way, morning and
night, morning and night, when you awaken in the morning and just before you go
to sleep at night. All sorts of wonderful things come to you. Protect yourself
as you protect a precious jewel. Guard your awareness from coarse influences
and you will enjoy the bliss of the natural state of the mind–pure, clear and
undisturbed
Lesson 301 from Merging with Siva : from Satguru Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami's trilogy: Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging
with Siva; 3,000 page trilogy on Hindu philosophy, culture and metaphysics,
available in the full-color volumes of Dancing, Living and Merging with Siva at
our Minimela online store.Kauai's Hindu Monastery; Himalayan Academy.com

Re: Merging with Siva

Training from A Satguru
Several thousand years ago, a yoga master was born from his
own realization of the Self. He was born from his search within, where he found
Absolute Existence deep inside the atomic structure of his being. This master's
realization came as he controlled the mind and penetrated through it to the
very core of its substance. After Self Realization, his mind opened into its
fullness of knowing. This knowledge he then imparted, as needed, to the
students who came to him curious or eager to solve the philosophical and
metaphysical puzzles of life. The first esoteric universities formed around the
master in this way. Other masters have since come and gone. Each in turn
battled and conquered the fluctuating mind and penetrated into the depth of
being. Students gathered around them in a most natural sequence of events. Each
master brought forth from his intuition the related laws and disciplines needed
so that they, too, might attain Self Realization, emkaef, as it is called in
Shum, the language of meditation.
This is known as the guru system of training. It is personal
and direct. An advanced devotee is one whose intuition is in absolute harmony
with that of his master. This is the way I teach, not in the beginning stages
when my devotees are probing the subject matter for answers, but after they
have conquered the fluctuation of the patterns of the thinking mind. When they
reach an advanced level of control and rapport with me, they have become
shishya, dedicated their lives to serving mankind by imparting the teachings of
Advaita Ishvaravada–the nondualistic philosophy of the Vedas, the basic tenet
of which is that man merges into God.
Advice can be given freely, but unless the seeker is
dedicated to the path of Eternal Truth, it is taken only on the intellectual
plane and quoted but rarely used. Therefore, the wise guru gives
challenges–spiritual assignments known as sadhana–advice, spiritual direction
and guidance merge with the aspirant's own individual will. This causes daily,
recognizable results from actions taken to produce accomplishment physically,
emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Each seeker sets his own pace
according to his character, his ability to act with care, forethought,
consistency and persistence in the sadhana given to him by his guru.
There are five states of mind. Each one interacts somewhat
with the other. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind work closely
together, as does the sub of the subconscious with the subconscious, and the
subconscious with the subsuperconscious. The superconscious is the most
independent of them all. Being the mind of light, when one is in a
superconscious state, seeing inner light is a constant experience of daily
life. To attain states of this depth and still function creatively in the world,
a solid training under a guru is requisite.
The power to meditate comes from the grace of the guru. The
guru consciously introduces his student into meditation by stimulating certain
superconscious currents within him. The grace of the guru is sought for by the
yogis and is well understood by them.  - Lesson
302 from Merging with Siva by Satguru sivaya Subramuniya Swami

Re: Merging with Siva

I was very interested in the entire article since you began writing July 2008.  I happened upon it today.  I have experienced teachings of Meher Baba who dropped his body in 1969.  Be Happy Do Not Worry.  I copied the affirmations from your posts today also, I liked them.  One thing I noticed in your Merging with Siva, you mentioned “celestial music”.  I hear it all the time inside my head.  What does it mean?  I have been meditating more lately and I can't remember noticing it before.  I wear hearing aids, but it doesn't matter whether they are in my ears or not.  I still hear the music.  Also I see blue indigo color when I meditate.  It is rather comforting.  Just thought you might shed some light on this.    Thank you.
Banti

Re: Merging with Siva

Thanks you very much for your interests and comments. These are extracts from Satguru Sivaya subramuniya Swami. he is  a devotee of Siva, so he will give prominence to siva. Otherwise it is all the same. Hearing celestial music is a step forward and itwill carry you to the next. Celestials are considered those who live in the heaven, normally all kinds of deities. In Sanskrit it will be 'Gandharva Ganam'. Do not worry, just proceed whatever you are practising and it will take you to other stages. Listen to your inner voice. You will be always be happy. That colour belongs to Maha Vishnu, who is a protector according to Hinduism. These posting s also to help others and answers also to take all on the same journey. Everything will be OK when the time comes.

Re: Merging with Siva

Thank you for your response.  Many blessings to you.  I enjoy reading your messages!
Banti

Re: Merging with Siva

Darshan's Mystic Power
Little is known of the guru's grace or the power of darshana in Western culture. Darshana (more popularly darshan) is a Sanskrit word meaning “vision, seeing or perception.” But in its mystical usage, it is more than that. Darshan is also the feeling of the emotions of a holy person, the intellect, the spiritual qualities that he has attained and, most importantly, the shakti, the power, that has changed him and is there constantly to change others. Darshan encompasses the entirety of the being of a person of spiritual attainment. In India, everyone is involved in darshan. Some at a temple have darshan of the Deity. Others at an ashram have darshan of their swami or on the street enjoy darshan of a sadhu. And most everyone experiences durdarshan. That's the word for television in India, meaning “seeing from afar.” Even this seeing, through movies, news and various programs of mystery, tragedy, humor, the fine arts and culture, can affect our emotions, intellect, pulling us down or lifting us up in consciousness. Seeing is such a powerful dimension of life, and it affects us in so many ways, inside and out. Darshan, in the true meaning of this mystical, complex and most esoteric word, conveys all of this.

The concept of darshan goes beyond the devotee's seeing of the guru. It also embraces the guru's seeing of the devotee. Hindus consider that when you are in the presence of the guru that his seeing of you, and therefore knowing you and your karmas, is another grace. So, darshan is a two-edged sword, a two-way street. It is a process of seeing and being seen. The devotee is seeing and in that instant drawing forth the blessings of the satguru, the swami or the sadhu. In turn, he is seeing the devotee and his divine place in the universe. Both happen within the moment, and that moment, like a vision, grows stronger as the years go by, not like imagination, which fades away. It is an ever-growing spiritual experience. The sense of separation is transcended, so there is a oneness between seer and seen. This is monistic theism, this is Advaita Ishvaravada. Each is seeing the other and momentarily being the other.

Darshan embodies shakti. Darshan embodies shanti. Darshan embodies vidya, perceiving on all levels of consciousness for all inhabitants of the world. It is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual perception. Hindus believe that the darshan from a guru who has realized the Self can clear the subconscious mind of a devotee in minutes, alleviating all reaction to past actions and alter his perspective from an outer to an inner one. Darshan is the emanating rays from the depth of an enlightened soul's being. These rays pervade the room in which he is, penetrating the aura of the devotees and enlivening the kundalini, the white, fiery, vapor-like substance that is actually the heat of the physical body in its natural state.

In the Orient, whenever the cloud of despair covers the soul of a devotee, the darshan of a guru is sought. Whenever it becomes difficult to meditate, his grace is hoped for to lift the veil of delusion and release awareness from the darker areas of mind to soar within. Consciously merge into the inner being of yourself, and you will know your guru when you find him.
- Lesson 303 from Merging with Siva by Satguru sivaya subramuniya Swami

Re: Merging with Siva

The Scent Of a Rose

If you were to travel through India on a spiritual pilgrimage, you would undoubtedly hear much about the Sanskrit word darshan. The religious leaders of the Orient are categorized according to the darshan they give, for there are various kinds of darshan. Darshan is the vibration that emanates from the illumined soul as a result of his inner attainment, be he a yogi, pandit, swami, guru or a rishi. Usually the yogi, swami, saint or sage attracts his following not so much by what he says as by the darshan he radiates. Hindus travel for miles to receive the darshan of an illumined soul established in his enlightenment. Perhaps he doesn't even speak to them. Perhaps he scolds some of them. Perhaps he gives the most inspired of talks to them. In any case, they feel the darshan flooding out from him.

A great soul is always giving darshan. The Hindus believe that the darshan coming from a great soul helps them in their evolution, changes patterns in their life by cleaning up areas of their subconscious mind that they could not possibly have done for themselves. They further believe that if his darshan is strong enough, if they are in tune with him enough, by its power the kundalini force can be stimulated enough that they can really begin to meditate. This is called the grace of the guru. The ability for one to meditate comes from this grace. You must have it before you can begin to meditate, or you must do severe austerities by yourself instead. Darshan is not well understood in the West, because the West is outwardly refined but not necessarily inwardly refined. The peoples of the Orient, by their heritage, are inwardly sensitive enough to understand and appreciate darshan.

Darshan and the unfolding soul on the path are like the rose. When the rose is a bud, it does not give forth a perfume. Unfoldment is just beginning. We admire the beauty of the bud, the stem and the thorns. We are aware that it has the potential of a magnificent flower. In the same way, we appreciate a beautiful soul who comes along, seeing in him the potential of a spiritual mission in this life.

In the life of a bud, nothing happens until unfoldment begins. The same is true for the fine soul. It happens occasionally that someone comes along and picks the bud. This means the fine soul is in the wrong company. Now neither the bud nor the soul can unfold. But when they are well protected in a garden or ashram by a careful gardener, or guru, the bud and the soul unfold beautifully.

With just their first little opening to the world, they begin to see the light of the outer and inner sun shining down into the core of their being. It is still too early, of course, for the rose to have a noticeable fragrance, or the soul a darshan. We might appreciate them closely, but we would detect little in this early and delicate stage of unfolding. At this time, the unfolding soul might say, “I can see the light in my head and in my body.” And the sun's rays keep pouring into the rose, penetrating into the stem and as deep as the roots. It is feeling stronger and unfolding more and more. If no one picks it because of its unfolding beauty, the rose continues to unfold until it opens into all its glory. Then a wonderful thing happens. The delicate perfume of the rose fills the air day and night. It is the darshan of the rose.

To some people, the bouquet of the rose is very strong; to others, it is rather weak. Is the emanation of the rose stronger at one time than another? No. It is always the same. It goes on and on and on, maturing all the while into a deeper, richer, more potent scent. Soon it is filling the entire garden. But to the one who comes into the garden with a stuffy nose, there is only the beauty of the flower to experience.

In the same way, one who is closed on the inside of himself misses the darshan of the awakened soul. He sees in the greater soul just another ordinary person like himself. The darshan is there, but he is too negative to feel it. But the darshan permeates him just the same. He goes away from the garden not having smelled a rose, but carrying the perfume of the rose himself. If you stand away from the rose, you smell less of its fragrance. Bring yourself really close, and more of its strong and sweet scent will penetrate your body.

Lesson 304 from Merging with Siva BY :Sathguru Sivaya Subrahmuniya Swami

Re: Merging with Siva

Sensitivity To Darshan

Darshan from a great soul, like the pollen of the flowers, can stimulate healthy sneezing and cleansing if one's subconscious happens to be congested. Call it, if you like, an allergy to flowers. Some people have allergies to gurus, too. The guru's darshan lifts repressed subconscious patterns that have been out of the flow of the cosmic pattern of regenerative life, bringing them up before one's conscious attention. Instead of feeling wonderful, the visitor to the garden feels miserable, as the fire is brought up from within, releasing his awareness to view the polluted state of the subconscious mind.

Some people are more sensitive to fragrance than others. Others are so selfless and sensitive, they can become the fragrance itself for a time. In such a person, the rose smells sweet through every pore of his body. He is not in the least aware of any subconscious congested area of the mind. He sits in the garden and goes deep into meditation on the subtle fragrance of the flowers. The same principle relates to the unfolded soul. Darshan pours forth from within the unfolded soul just as fragrance flows from the rose–stronger at some times than at others because some devotees are more in tune than others. For them, the room begins to ring and vibrate. Some people are so sensitive that when a great soul comes to the same town, they feel his presence. This shows their inner attunement to the constant flowing power of the darshan.

Everyone has some feelings radiating from within, but they are emanations that fluctuate. Because you feel these vibrations coming from them, you can intuit how they are feeling. They do not emanate a constant or a building flow. It is a fluctuating flow of emotional, or astral, energy. The darshan I am explaining is really the energies flowing from the deeper chakras, sahasrara and ajna, the seventh and sixth chakras, or psychic force centers, in the head, through the kundalini force within the spine. These energy flows do not fluctuate as the emotional odic-force energies do. They go on day and night and night and day through the illumined soul. Those devotees who are in tune with the guru can feel his physical presence when he enters their town because the darshan gets stronger. And it feels to them more ethereal when he is farther away.

These energy flows are very important to study, because it is possible to draw and enjoy a great darshan from an illumined soul if you approach him in just the right way. If you can become as a sponge when you approach him, you will draw out inspiring talks and gracious blessings from him. The Hindu is conscious that he is drawing darshan from his rishi or his satguru, just as you are conscious of drawing the perfume of the rose into your body. When approaching a soul who is known to give darshan, be in the same area of the superconscious mind that you feel he must be in. The guru does not have to be necessarily functioning in that same area. He could be externalized in consciousness at the time. This is not important. It does not stop his darshan at all. The guru, feeling you draw the darshan, would immediately go within and enjoy it himself. Once darshan is there in him, it is always there. - Lesson 305 from Merging with Siva, from Satguru Sivaya Subrahmunya Swami

Re: Merging with Siva

Protection and Stabilization

Hindu devotees are very careful not to upset their guru, for they do not want his forces strongly directed at them. It is the same darshan, however. At a time such as this, it is like a distilled perfume from the rose. It becomes too potent. Therefore, the devotee tries to maintain a good atmosphere around the guru so that his darshan is pleasant and natural. The darshan of a guru is the power that stabilizes the devotee on the path. The philosophies, teachings and practices that he is given to do are important, but it is the power of darshan that is his stabilizing influence, enabling him to unfold easily on the path of enlightenment.

Darshan is a mystical power emanating from the adept who has gone deep enough within to awaken this power. By stabilizing that power, he gives psychic protection to his disciples and devotees, even during their sleep at night. The same power grants them the ability to meditate without the prior necessity of extensive tapas. Satguru darshan releases the awareness of the devotee out of the area of the mind which is constantly thinking into sublimity.

A beginning meditator is usually aware most of the time in the area of consciousness where thoughts run constantly before his vision. He finds it difficult to go deeper. All efforts fall short of the divine life he inwardly knows he can live, as he is bound by the cycles of his own karma. The satguru's power of darshan releases the meditator's individual awareness from the thinking area of mind and stabilizes him in the heart chakra, and he begins to awaken and unfold his Divinity.

Devout Hindus sit before a satguru and in seeing him, draw the darshan vibration from him, absorbing it into themselves. They are sensitive enough to distinguish the vibration of darshan from the other vibrations around the guru. They also believe that any physical thing the satguru touches begins to carry some of his darshan or personal vibration, and that when away from him they can just hold the article to receive the full impact of his darshan, for the physical object is a direct link to the satguru himself. It is darshan vibration that makes a human being a holy person. When we say someone is holy or saintly we are feeling the radiations of that divine energy flooding through him and out into the world.

The inner life of a devotee has to be stabilized, cherished and well protected by the guru. The guru is able to do this through his well-developed facilities of darshan, even if his devotee lives at great distances from him. Unless the inner vibratory rate of the devotee is held stable, he will not come into his fullness in this life. If a plant is transplanted too often, it won't come into its full growth. If the bud is picked before it blooms, it will not flower or give forth its redolent fragrance. Yes, the grace of the satguru fires the ability to meditate in the seeker, the erudite Hindu believes.  - Lesson 306 from Merging with Siva, by : Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami

Re: Merging with Siva

Relationship With a Guru

A child living with his family who does right by his family in honoring his mother and his father reaps a reward–for that mother and father are going to gladly see to all his needs in the emotional, intellectual and material world. But if the child negligently begins to play with the emotions and intellect of his mother and father by not living up to their expectations, they will be relieved when he is old enough to leave home and be on his own. During the time he is still at home, they will, of course, talk with him and work the best they can with the negative vibrations he generates, as their natural love for him is a protective force.

As it is with the parents, it is much the same with the guru. A devotee coming to his guru who is evolved, honest and able is first asked to do simple, mundane tasks. If they are done with willingness, the guru will take him consciously under his wing for a deeper, inner, direct training, as he fires him to attain greater heights through sadhana and tapas. This darshan power of the guru will then be constantly felt by the disciple. But if the disciple were to turn away from the small tasks given by his guru, he would not connect into the deeper darshan power of the satguru that allows him to ride into his meditations deeply with ease. If the devotee breaks his flow with the guru by putting newly awakened power into intellectual “ifs” or “buts” or–“Well, now I know how to meditate; I don't need you anymore. Thank you for all you've done. I've learned all you have to offer me and must be on my way”–or if he merely starts being delinquent in his efforts, then the guru-disciple relationship is shattered.

Still a certain darshan power goes out to him, but the guru no longer consciously inwardly works with him as an individual. He knows it is too dangerous to work with this fluctuating aspirant, for there is no telling how he might take and use the accumulating power that would later be awakened within him. The satguru makes such a one prove himself to himself time and time again and to the guru, too, through sadhana and tapas. Sadhana tests his loyalty, consistency and resolution. Tapas tests his loyalty as well as his personal will, for he does tapas alone, gaining help only from inside himself, and he has to be aware on the inside to receive it. A wise guru never hesitates to put him “through it,” so to speak.

A guru of India may give tapas to a self-willed disciple who insisted on living his personal life in the ashram, not heeding the rules of his sadhana. He may say, “Walk through all of India. Stay out of my ashram for one year. Walk through the Himalayas. Take nothing but your good looks, your orange robe and a bowl for begging at the temples.” From then on, the guru works it all out with him on the inside for as long as the disciple remains “on tapas.” Maybe the guru will be with him again, yet maybe not; it depends entirely on the personal performance of the tapas.

This, then, is one of the reasons that it is very, very important for anyone striving on the path to first have a good relationship with his family–for the guru can expect nothing more than the same type of relationship eventually to arise with himself or between the aspirant and some other disciple. As he gets more into the vibration of the guru, he is going to relax into the same behavioral patterns he generated with his parents, for in the ashram, many of the same vibrations, forces and attitudes are involved. - Lesson 307 from Merging with Siva, by : Satguru sivaya Subramuniya Swami.

Re: Merging with Siva

The Devotee's Responsibilities

The aspirant may go to his guru and be one with him by preparing himself to receive his grace. As a result he may be able to meditate, to keep his personal karma subdued sufficiently to quiet the inner forces. Once a guru has been chosen, the aspirant must be loyal to him and stay with that one guru only. He should not go from one to another, because of these subtle, powerful inner, connecting vibrations of darshan and the training received through the power of a satguru's use of darshan. These inner, mystical laws protect the guru himself against people who wander from one guru to another, as well as warn the seeker against the fluctuating forces of his own mind as he creates and breaks the subtle yet powerful relationship with a holy person.

Satguru darshan opens psychic seals in the devotee by moving his awareness out of an area that he does not want to be in. Similarly, a blowtorch changes the consistency of metal. The satguru is like the sun. He is just there, radiating this very pure energy like the sun evaporates water. The satguru hardly does anything at all. It is the seeker who opens himself to the great accumulated power of darshan which the guru inherited from his guru and his guru's guru, as well as the natural darshan he unfolded from within himself through his evolution and practices of sadhana and tapas. It's all up to the aspirant at first.

A satguru doesn't do a thing. The guru can amuse himself externally with anything. It does not make any difference in his darshan when he is at a certain point in his unfoldment. If you are around him long enough, and if you are honest with yourself and persistent in the tasks he asks you to perform and directions he gives you, psychic seals lift after awhile. But you have to do your part. He does his in an inner way, and as he does, you will feel the psychic seals melt away under his fiery darshan, just like a blowtorch penetrates and transforms the metal it touches. - Lesson 308 from Merging with Siva, from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Re: Merging with Siva

Are You Ready To Turn Inward? Basic principles for a good foundation in our lives can be established through consistency. The consistency in approach to what you are doing, a good habit pattern in living our life–as we approach our inner life, the understanding of our inner life, the study of it and the experience of it–has to be on a day-to-day basis. To develop a contemplative lifestyle that is sensible, that is positively worked out, and program that into our complete pattern of daily life gives us a foundation strong enough to face decisions and the ensuing experiences and the reaction to those experiences in a way that they enhance our spiritual unfoldment. Remember, the lifestyle that we now have was programmed for you by mothers, fathers, religious leaders, teachers, people that we had just met along the way, and good friends. It's not a particularly good lifestyle in which to hold the perspective that we're an immortal being. It's a great lifestyle to hold the perspective that we're a temporal being, and we're only here a few years and then we die.

To develop a whole new lifestyle takes thought. Our desire has to be transmuted into doing that. In the ordinary lifestyle of human consciousness, our desires generally are for things, for emotional experiences, for intellectual knowing. And that's all good, but they're not organized. We have to organize the tremendous power of desire so that it's transmuted, and we desire the realization of the Self more than anything else. Then you'll have enough desire left over to get things, to get happiness and to get all the getting that humans want.

But the tremendous force of desire is transmuted. The perspective is changed. We see ourself as an immortal being, and we work consistently with our lifestyle day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Each decision that we make is an easier decision to make, and each reaction that we face, we face it joyfully. Each meditation that we hold is more profound than the last, and the spiritual being, the soul body, begins to merge with the physical body, as the elements of the instinct and the elements of the intellect that have been supreme life after life after life begin to give up and transmute their energies into the immortal body of the soul. - By: Sivaya Subrahmuniya Swami from: Lesson 20 from Merging with Siva