A tale of two forces

 

The lotus flower is only a symbol in the olden times. One of the names of the Lord used to be Kamal Nayana, meaning having eyes like a blossomed lotus. In the same way, the kundalini has been represented symbolically as a snake in the mythological stories. It is said that mother Earth rests upon the hoods of the serpent sesha naag.

What does this actually mean? What does the sesha naag mean? It symbolises the centripetal and the centrifugal forces. Our Earth is supported by two kinds of forces. These forces do not move in a linear direction. These forces act in a circular fashion. A snake also never travels in a straight line.

The movement of the serpent is propelled by centripetal and centrifugal forces. The sesha naag symbolizes the two forces that the Earth is supported by. It does not literally mean that the Earth is resting upon the hood of some giant serpent. No, it is not, so at all. The sesha naag here is not some actual living being. It is actually a giant, supportive force or power.

Similarly, when we say that there is a lotus flower within us, it means that when the mind blossoms and becomes soft, supple and refined, then we experience the subtle consciousness in us. When the mind is stuck in inertia, then we cannot experience any energy or power in us. That is why our scriptures advocate the practice of mitahara, meaning exercising balance and restraint while eating. They advocate proper rest for the body. Then the body becomes tuned and conducive to experience this subtle phenomenon.

If you are reading this, you may be a lucky one

 

Some of the religious paths create this fear of hell and heaven that puts people into such a turmoil of guilt and fear that the mind can never calm down. Meditation can never happen. This is very unfortunate. So even though such followers are aspirants, they are not really getting the path.

These people don’t get access to the knowledge: ‘Come on, the mind is like a river, what are you holding on to? Don’t hold on to it. All the events are gone, drop it and move on. Live in the present moment‘. This knowledge is not available to many people (who aspire to walk the spiritual path). They go on repenting about the past, feeling guilty, and the mind becomes a mess.

Of course they do pray. Their prayers do help, and they get some blessings. Blessings come to everyone, no doubt, but the knowledge, the right path and liberation remains a distant dream for them. Peace does not happen in their life. They sit with the hope that one day they will go to heaven. And so these souls get trapped with desires and fear.

They got a human life to be free from all this. So they will have to come back again to work out all these things. Again they will get into meditation.

So, a human birth, desire for a path, and the path being available to them (Maha Purusha Sannidho: getting a Spiritual Master), these three things are rare and difficult to get. If you have all three, you are lucky.

Symbolism behind Ganesh Chaturthi

 

Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated on the day on which Lord Ganesha is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees. Though it is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the symbolism behind the festival is much deeper. Though Ganesha is worshipped as the elephant-headed God, the swaroop (form) is just to bring out its parabrahma roopa (eternal divine formlessness). 

Ganesh Chaturthi marks a unique art of reaching the formless paramatma called Lord Ganesh by the repeated worship of his manifest form. Even the Ganesh Stotram, the prayers recited in the praise of Ganeshji, conveys the same. We pray to Ganesha in our consciousness to come out and sit in the idol for us for a while so that we can play with Him. 

After the puja, we again pray, asking Him to go back to where He came from – our consciousness. While He is in the idol, we offer back whatever God has given us through the puja of the idol.

Ganesha is the lord of all the good qualities in us. So when we worship Him, all the good qualities blossom in us. He is also the Lord of knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge dawns only when we become aware of the Self. When there is inertia, there is no knowledge, no wisdom, nor is there any chaitanya (liveliness) or progress in life. So, the consciousness has to be awakened, and the presiding deity of consciousness is Ganesha. That’s why before every puja, the Lord Ganesha is worshipped to awaken the consciousness. 

Therefore, install the idol, worship it with infinite love, meditate and experience Lord Ganesha from within. This is the symbolic essence of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, to awaken the Ganesh tattva, which is masked inside us.

And in the end, say, ‘You have come from my heart, and you will get back into my heart.’ Like that, saying that, Ganapati, the idol, you leave it in the ocean or in the water, from where you took it. The Visarjan is for you to understand that Ganapati is not just in the idol. He has come from your heart into the idol. The prana has come there, and then the prana gets back into you after fulfilling your desires. 

Putting forth your desires in front of Ganapati, you then say, ‘Ganapati, you are back in my heart.’ Then you leave that idol in the water.

The ritual of immersing (visarjan) the idols after a few days of worship reinforces the understanding that God is not in the idol; He is inside us. So, experiencing the Omnipresent in the form and deriving joy out of the form is the essence of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. In this way, such organised festivity and worship leads to an upsurge in enthusiasm and devotion. 

Embrace the symbolism of Lord Ganesha and let wisdom guide your path as you navigate the journey of life with awareness and grace.

What does awakening of kundalini mean?

 

Do not try awakening your kundalini by force. It is a natural phenomenon. Many people go crazy in doing so and ultimately lose their sanity. You should not do that. Meditation happens effortlessly when your kundalini is awakened. Whenever you meditate, you find that scintillating energy flowing all over your being. That is what kundalini is. 

When you do the Sudarshan Kriya, every cell becomes awake and alive. The awakening of energy happens very naturally. We should adopt the natural manner only. Otherwise you will lose sleep. 

If someone approaches you and tells you, “I will help you awaken your kundalini shakti”, simply thank them respectfully and move away. When a banana ripens on its own it is naturally sweet. If someone forcefully tries to ripen the banana, then it is no longer remains fit for consumption. So, if someone tries to awaken the kundalini shakti by force, there are high chances that one may lose one’s mental balance. Only those who have years and years of practice of yoga and deep knowledge about this can really practice these techniques properly without any side effects. 

Unfortunately, today people do not comprehend the sanctity of these powers. Someone learns a few techniques randomly and teaches it to others. They try to awaken the energy with these techniques but without much result; rather it creates more problems. The effect is akin to the fuse blowing up inside a bulb due to an excess and unchecked surge of energy. Some lose their mind, become deranged, or are unable to sleep. We should not try such things at all.

Once a lady visited a mystic, who told her to do certain things. When she did as instructed, she experienced a lot of difficulty and great discomfort. She told me, "Gurudev, I'm not able to go to the temple and my body is not in my control." It should be the opposite way around. You should be able to control even your involuntary system when you do sadhana. When you do wrong sadhana without proper guidance or just by reading books, then the voluntary and involuntary systems get messed up. So you should be careful about this. Key is proper guidance and effortlessness.

The energy should be awakened very naturally and effortlessly. When energy rises naturally and through proper technique, one experiences immense enthusiasm, joy, total belongingness. All these are signs of a true awakening of the shakti (energy). It happens spontaneously when you do Sudarshan Kriya. You feel as if every particle in your body has been infused with energy. That is what the awakening of kundalini is.

Chakras - your pathway to bliss

 

There are seven chakras or seven nerve/energy centers connected with different glands in the body — thyroid gland, the adrenalin glands, pituitary gland, pineal gland, etc. Science also agrees that these glands are responsible for our experiencing various emotions. Our ancient Rishis knew this fact thousands of years ago and mentioned it in the scriptures. 

The Rishis depicted each of the seven chakras in the forms of a lotus or different flowers. This is because when you go deeper in meditation, the consciousness becomes very subtle, and your mind becomes fresh like a flower. It becomes fresh, alive and soft. In such a delicate state of consciousness, you experience the rise of energy in the system. 

Lightness is connected with subtlety. Grossness is connected with inertia and negative sensations; negative feelings. When you are negative, when you are rude or rough in your behavior, there is a certain inertia, a certain heaviness in the system. 

When you feel all the positive sensations, you feel a sense of lightness. When the energy moves upwards, then the inertia transforms into enthusiasm and then next to creativity. From creativity wells up joy. When you are happy, you are naturally generous. Then the energy moves up further into the heart chakra where you only feel love for everybody around you. When you feel immense love, you feel an equal amount of gratitude and from this gratitude stems awareness. Awareness leads you to bliss.

Recognize duality to see unity

 

Some people misuse yoga for the fulfilment of their carnal instincts; this is wrong. It should be the other way around. Whenever there is a carnal instinct, it should be transformed into a divine inner experience. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit called atma rati, union with one’s being, rejoicing in one's self. 

There are two things, prakriti (nature) and purusha (consciousness). There is an interplay of nature and consciousness all the time. The union of your body and soul — your body is female (prakriti), and your soul is male (purusha) — is happening all the time. And, seeing that union within oneself is samadhi. 

That is why samadhi is considered to be a thousand times more joyful than carnal desires. Whatever joy sex gives, samadhi offers a thousand times more because there is no effort and no action there. It is only being and just being. When just the being, the play and display of consciousness come to one’s awareness, it becomes one’s experience — exquisite and beautiful! 

Don’t keep any corner of your existence away from divinity. The divine should be interwoven into every aspect of your life, and this is called brahmacharya, which means moving with the infinity, uniting with the infinity. In India, you find both aspects — Shiva and Parvati who symbolize prakriti and purusha, consciousness and matter — everywhere. First recognize the duality and then see the unity. They are not two, they are not different but two sides of the same coin.

You are complete. You are both man and woman. Getting rid of this label, ‘I am man’, ‘I am woman’ — getting out of your limited identity, this is the highest philosophy of the universe. We keep identifying ourselves, ‘I am a man’, ‘I am a woman’, ‘I am old’, ‘I am young’, ‘I am educated’, and ‘I am illiterate’. Throw away all these labels. What remains is pure consciousness. Just know that you are the consciousness.

Don’t go around saying I am nothing. Adi Shankaracharya once said, ‘One who labels himself as something is a fool and one who labels himself as nothing is a bigger fool.’ One who is nothing does not talk, so just keep quiet. How can you say, ‘I am nothing’, when you are saying something! There cannot be somebody there saying, ‘I am nothing.’ 

When you consider the basic necessities of food and sex as sacred, then aggression in you disappears and surrender, gratefulness and love dawn in you. That is when the devotee and the divine have become one. They have blissfully merged into one. But there is a difference between bliss and sex. Sex is energy consuming and draining while bliss is energy conserving. All emotions that you experience are nothing but energy moving through you, through the chakras in the body.

Sex is not a sin

 

Sex is a manifestation of kama or desire. ‘Sex is the original sin,’ this is what people have been made to believe in the past. Sex is not a sin. It is the basis of all life on the planet. There are two basic instincts in human beings, and these have been with you in all your lifetimes — food and sex. These have been with you in all your lives, even when you were an animal and now as a human being. You are born out of food and sex. 

It is so beautiful that in India we connect both of these to divinity. In the Upanishads, it is said ‘Food is God.’ When you consider food as God, you will not overeat. You won’t simply stuff yourself with food, but you will eat with honour. No festival in India is celebrated without delicacies, associated with that festival, being prepared in every household. When you go to a temple, the first thing the priest gives you is some prasad. Prasad is just a little bit of food that is given to the devotees. Without prasad, there is no pilgrimage and no festival. Food and God are connected. 

Similarly, sex and God are also connected. One often tends to keep sex separate from God. Sex is often thought of as part of material life. But here in India, the ancient people linked sex to God so that no aspect in us, even an instinct as basic as sex, remained away from God. When you honour sex and consider it as part of the divinity, then your obsession disappears, lust disappears and sacredness dawns. Also, the basic instinct of lust transforms into love. This is the ancient thought. 

The four principles - dharma, artha, kama, moksha

 

For spiritual blossoming in life, four principles have to be kept in mind — dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. These are the four aspects of Purushartha. Dharma is the nature, artha is the means, kama is the desire and moksha is the release from desire. 

The body has its nature. If the body wants to sleep, you have to provide it with rest. But, in reality what do we do when the body wants to sleep? We turn on the television to watch an interesting movie. We are going against the body’s dharma. Suppose the body has a desire to eat and even though you have eaten, the desire has not vanished. Your stomach is full, but the desire to eat still remains. This is where moksha comes in.

Moksha means release from the desire. Dropping of the desire is moksha. If there is no coordination between these four faculties, then life will be utter chaos; a misery. For example, you have a desire to go to the moon or to fly but your desire and means don’t coordinate with each other, then sheer dissatisfaction sets in. When desire and nature are coordinated, then the means and fulfillment are also coordinated. Fulfillment can also be taken to mean liberation. 

Once, there was a potter. He took a long time in making pots — spending long hours to make each pot artistic and even painting some of them. He put all the pots he made in a basket to take them to the market. The market was some distance away. The potter started daydreaming as he was walking along. He began to make various plans about what he would do with the money that he would earn by selling the pots. He imagined that he would become a millionaire, that his friends would respect him a lot. He would be able to relax and do nothing. While thus dreaming of relaxing on a chair, his hands let go of the basket and all the pots fell and were shattered. He did not even reach the marketplace! No coordination between the four — fulfillment, desire, means and one’s very nature, creates problems. 

Both artha (wealth and material comforts) and kama (desire or passion) arise in life from time to time, according to one’s needs. Fulfilling those needs to sustain one’s life, yet not getting entangled in too much greed or lust is the responsibility of dharma (righteous action) and moksha (liberation from suffering). 

In the course of our life, from time to time, we have to engage ourselves in the pursuit of artha and kama. Enjoy them but at the same time do not get caught up in them. That is why we should engage in actions that are aligned with our dharma and refrain from those actions that go against it. The same goes for artha too. 

Life cannot function smoothly if any one of the four aspects of Purushartha is missing. As life progresses, we must have moksha as our supreme aim; adhere to and uphold dharma at all times, and we will see that our pursuits for both artha and kama will also bear fruit in due course of time.