Merging with Shiva Bhakti Question

[squidgirl]

Lesson 143 from Merging with Siva

Bhakti Is the Foundation


Bhakti is a state of mind, an arrival at an inner state of consciousness. People who become angry, people who become jealous, people who are fearful, people who get confused are living in the asura loka. They are the ones who upset others and experience revenge. They have yet to come up even to the anava marga and attain a little appreciation of themselves. They have yet to experience being secure in their own identity.

They have yet to "be their own person," "find their own space." They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities.

I am definately living in the asura loka.
"They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities."
How does one close the door?
I am a simple person and will greatly appreciate small words here...

[izi]

Focus on an aspect of divinity well documented in the vedas and adopt them as your ishta dev (chosen face of god), worshipping as best you can. If you do this correctly (humbly, attentively, focused on proper and thorough research) you will soon get what you wish for. Ask for the important stuff - enlightenment, wisdom, knowledge, humbly and appropriately. It is my advice that you do your best not to beg, for instance by saying "Hey siva if you get me this job/thing/money I will give you this offering." Have you read the poems of Akka Mahadevi?

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Squidgirl: In the trilogy you are studying, this is the third, and by far the most advanced. The second, Living With Siva , all the keys to closing the doors are given. Its in your behaviour, in lifestyle, in daily practices like breathing. and worship. It's in the character building outlined in another thread.

An example is anger induced by alcohol. If the person didn't drink, he or she would be less likely to get angry. That said, it outlines an ideal, and I think it is unrealistic to expect all of us to never get irritated ever, and I don't think that was the intent. One of the first steps in that is not to be too harsh on yourself, yet have a goal in mind of reducing anger.

Best wishes.

Aum Namasivaya

[surrenderindailylife]

[quote=Eastern Mind;91583]Vannakkam Squidgirl: In the trilogy you are studying, this is the third, and by far the most advanced. The second, Living With Siva , all the keys to closing the doors are given.


Namaste EM, Thank you for sharing above knowledge. Can you share more information on the "first" of the trilogy and if possible on this (overall) scripture.

[Twilightdance]

Lesson 143 from Merging with Siva

Bhakti Is the Foundation


Bhakti is a state of mind, an arrival at an inner state of consciousness. People who become angry, people who become jealous, people who are fearful, people who get confused are living in the asura loka. They are the ones who upset others and experience revenge. They have yet to come up even to the anava marga and attain a little appreciation of themselves. They have yet to experience being secure in their own identity.

They have yet to "be their own person," "find their own space." They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities.

I am definately living in the asura loka.
"They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities."
How does one close the door?
I am a simple person and will greatly appreciate small words here...

I think the this trilogy is in the net serves the purpose of finding out if you are attracted by subramuniyaswami's vision of saiva siddhanta. I don't believe parts of this book can be used to achieve some self-conceptualized spiritual target.

I don't mean that facts and tools in the book are not useful, but rather, for them to be useful, one needs to be serious about following subramuniyaswami's vision.

Thus one needs to formally start following the religion from the basics of how to lead the daily life. You are unlikely to find a key to remove anger if you don't follow his siddhanta way of living otherwise.

But if you are seeking other possibilities, you might want to know that not everyone [i mean traditional systems] think anger is a big evil, doorway to hell, attractors of asuras etc etc.

[Eastern Mind]

Namaste EM, Thank you for sharing above knowledge. Can you share more information on the "first" of the trilogy and if possible on this (overall) scripture.

Vannakkam surrender: The first is Dancing With Siva and is a philosophical treatise of monistic Saiva Siddhanta. Each of the books is 365 daily lessons, meant to be studied thoroughly, and slowly. All are free on line.

As Twilgiht dance has mentioned, they are the works of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, and from His viewpoint. But they are generally well respected outside that tradition as well.

Aum Namasivaya

[squidgirl]

I think Dancing with Shiva IS the first in the Trilogy....
I was led to believe that these were the best and simplest books to follow. I did not understand that these are someone's opinion... I guess this was the best route for me though since I live in an area where there is not a Guru I can go talk to. The books make complete sense to me...and I am not trying to make a specific goal of closing off chakra doors...it was merely a question that came up when I was reading. My overall purpose is to Learn Hinduism from something I can easily understand and practice. I was completely UNRELIGIOUS up until last month and was spoken to suddenly by Ganesha and I am merely following his lead(hopefully in the right direction!). I also am reading Loving Ganesha and earnestly following daily practices as best I can.
Thank you for all your replies!
I have also signed up for the monitered Master Course through Kauai's Hindu Monastery and started that yesterday. I am truly honest in my search to better know God.

[Viraja]

Squidgirl,

I think you are talking about cultivating gentleness of thought (Sattwaguna). Not many people on earth are abounding with sattwa guna, most are mix of sattwa, rajas and tamas of varying proportions. To increase one's sattwaguna, I have learned that the following practices are helpful:

1. Waking up early (b/w 4 -5) and worshipping god at that time.

2. Eating vegetarian food and eating less food.

3. Eating food offered to god first.

4. Speaking truth mostly.

5. Visiting the temple as often as possible, observing fasts and doing donations to Brahmins for rituals performed.

6. Offering last rites and yearly rites to the departed elderly in the family without fail.

There may be other practices we are all aware of (like charity), but the above are ones for those concentrating on Bhakti marga, which I think you are.

Namaste.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~


namast�


squidgirl writes,

I am definately living in the asura loka. "They must first close the door on channeling asuric entities." How does one close the door?

All the ideas offered ( by others) above are well and good. All make sense. Yet let me offer you this. Darkeness in one's character is removed by light.

Let me give you a simple example. Let's say you have a table and you move it from point A to point B. All one needs to do is pull on one leg of the table and the whole table comes along to the new location.

We are like this table... we need to find the one thing that will bring us to that new location. To take one from dark to light. What is that one thing? It is sattva. Let me offer you a few definitions of this word.

sattva सत्त्व

• being , existence , entity , reality
• spiritual essence , spirit
• the quality of purity or the essense of goodness
• some know this sattva as īśvara , 'the existence of the Supreme Being' - this
  is why the first defintion was offered 'being , existence , entity , reality' becasue
  the essense of our existence is the Supreme.

Now the question is where does one find more of this sattva? If this is of interest we can continue... if there is confusion then it is good to stop and answer questions that are top of mind.

Yet I can tell you this, much of HDF's posts are about bringing a better understanding to one's mind and intellect - this is the beginning. To understand and comprehend, then choose a course of action to infuse more of this sattva into one's daily life. It is beyond just acting and doing; it is the very core of one's existence, so there is no need to go shopping.

praṇām