Occupy The Self: The Importance of Inviting Auspiciousness

It was a typical trick. Bait and switch. It was not minutes since i had realized i had been swindled off $1200. I was lured in with the promise of an employee discount which was yanked away when I went to renew my apartment lease, and then further increases were added on as my state has a lack of rent control laws. Yet, the cycle of emotions that followed afterwards amazed me to the bone.

For about ten days, I have been playing with a few meditation principles that deal with beginnings and ends. Whether its a project or a simple emotion that arises causing pleasure or pain, if we can control for the beginning and end of the thought process, the outcomes are amazing.

Shri Mataji advises in 1985 on success and happiness in endeavors of all natures on the occasion of Guru Purnima festival and celebration in Paris, France. The thoughts that follow, are heavily derived from the guidelines by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi on this occasion, and several other occasions.

In many endeavors in our lives we are sometimes deprived of opportunities, sometimes we are confounded by overinformation, both to the end of being mislead and entrapped by stronger entities like corporations, who know better about laws and use their knowledge to exploit us. The result is the failure of our endeavors, the failure of our efforts and wasted time & energy. The solution is to ensure the beginning and the end are divine-compliant.

The Beginnings of Endeavors
The beginnings have to start with not just a ritual to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, but a genuine, heartfelt invitation for him to be involved in what is to follow. That could be something as short and quick as a contemplation or something long drawn out like a project. The involvement of the Lord of the first chakra brings auspicious grounding for the purpose and the success.

The Middle and the End of Endeavors
And, as far as the end point of endeavors is concerned, the question remains, how do we measure our success? Again, in something as short as a few minutes of introspection or a decades long endeavor of any nature. We cannot manage, something we cannot measure. We cannot declare the end of an endeavor unless we feel we have failed or succeeded. The benchmarking process is simply to check vibrations at the milestones along the endeavor. The check is simple and effective because the measure is a summative variables of all and any variable deemed relevant to success: Vibrations. The pleasing flow of energy through us, which is calm and soothing. This corresponds to the pleasing of our inner energy, the Mother Kundalini.

So simply, we begin, progress and conclude by checking vibrations.

However, the process has a pleasant side effect. It helps our behavior evolution through substitution. Nature abhors a vacuum. So when we are idle, we are very much susceptible to become a devils workshop, because the vacuum in us is quickly occupied by one or more of the six enemies: greed, fear, anger, hate, lust, pride. That is exactly what was happening to me, when I learnt of my latest swindle at the hands of the corporate juggernaut that our apartment owners are.

I was upset, angered and helpless. And when I sat down to sulk and pamper my feeling of anger, I applied the new routine of dealing with endeavors: invite Shri Ganesha to my process and check for cool flow as I introspect. Normally I would have spent days cursing my destiny, the heartless corporate types holding us hostage and the inevitable days of mourning that destiny. Yet, just the simple act of inviting the deity of innocence to my thought process made sure the negative feeling and emotions were kept away from my introspection. I was certainly dejected, but felt in a shell of temporary remorse, rather than a prolonged self-torture by harboring hatred towards the faceless enemies.

Thank you Shri Mataji for rendering the advice so clear and practical, that a so-called formerly atheist mind like mine can not only understand, but bring into practice the true knowledge of inner peace.

Acquisition Instinct

What is the first thing that goes through my mind when I see a friend driving a new car, or a relative with a swanky new abode or a talented person? For long having seen a desire rise up to have something similar in life, something that would maybe give fulfillment, but would surely make others jealous. That is the right definition of an acquisition instinct, which is perverted by a goal which is not noble. The purpose of human made things are to give joy, at least that is how they are advertised. They don't give joy, just the occasional happiness of seeing someone else yearning for them. Thus begins the ceaseless journey of perverted acquisitions.

Communities built upon feeding such instincts are of shallow character. Spiritual systems that condone this instinct are the bane of the world and individuals who become active drivers of pandering to this instinct are surfing just the base nature of humans. The journey that takes us farther away from enlightenment.

At the subtle level, the acquisition instinct is the first reaction we have to things we perceive in other's possession. He we react to things we perceive is highly dependent on our discrimination. A Hamas chakra is balance will enjoy a perceived object irrespective of ownership. For instance, there are times when I look at my aging car and I feel the need to acquire a better one, or I look at my child and I worry about his upbringing, or I look at my apartment and the anxiety of rising rents consumes me. But when I have returned from a wholesome afternoon in the company of the meditation community, the reactions are quite different.

I would look at my possessions and feel thankful, I would look at my apartment and enjoy the nature outside, I would look at my offspring and relive my own childhood. Same perceived objects, different cognition. The Hamsa chakra, is triaging the sensori input correctly into higher thought.

The Hamsa chakra is an interesting little chakra. It is a part of the fifth energy center of the senses, the Vishuddhi Chakra. It is active when healthy, directing our sensori input from the five senses the correct subtle centers within the brain, which are connected to the subtle centers in our body. When malnourished, it is inactive and the processing of sensori input is now left to the willpower of the person, which is the balance of the left and right sides, the sympathetic channels.

Thus, when the person is well rested and at peace, the perception is processed well. But when the person is stressed out, the willpower is ebbing and the sensori inputs lead to perverted cognition. For instance, looking at something beautiful raises the instinct to acquire it, irregardless of social justice. Criminal behavior ensues and hoarding of objects results.

The hoarding that results from PAI (perverted acquisition instinct) is not just what we see on episodes of hoarders, but also in hoarding of mp3s, hoarding of ambitions, hoarding of options, hoarding of securities, hoarding of money in the bank etc.

The solution is recommended by the wise lady of the east, Her Holiness Shri Mataji, who has worked incessantly to break the chains of money-based systems on the human soul and elevate the human condition. The solution to any self destructive behavior is not in taboo or restraint. It is in finding a more powerful, fulfilling substitution. In the specific case of PAI, the recommendation is to become more involved in local flora and fauna. Replace the "cool knowledge" of where to find the best local deals and eats with the truly cooler knowledge of local trees and flowers. Spend the attention and time in knowing the living nature in the immediate surroundings and it heals our sensori processing.

So what local trees and flowers surround you?

Chakras are like flowers

They open up to the sunshine of the spirit

They close up when so surrounded by dark

They grow from small to large gradually, like all life

Fragrance and color are important  but not that important

They love being offered to the divine, and that fulfills their destiny

How else are flowers like chakras? Share your thoughts below in the comments, please:

About Gyaneshwara

Sant Gyaneshwara (Dyaneshwara) was an incarnation of Shri Kartikeya, who resides in the right Mooladhara chakra. His Guru was his elder brother, Shiva incarnate Nivruttinatha. His sister was Vishnumaya incarnate Muktabai. Bhramadeva incarnate Sopandev* was born between Gyaneshwara and Muktabai. they lived in the 13th century. Full biographies are online

Shri Mataji on Gyaneshwara on his 700th Birth Anniversary (Pune, 1996):

"Today I am going to tell you, we have within us all these powers. As Shri Gyaneshwara had described in the sixth chapter, that there is a force called Kundalini within us which when awakened gives you the self. But as you know everywhere, there are fundamentalist, we call them dharma martanda. And they said that “This is something that one should just avoid, this we cannot.” Because they can't do it. So that was not read anymore. Neither people ever tried to have.

But in these modern times, it is predicted that is going to happen to thousands of people... A specialty of this age, that it is happening all over the world. I am surprised Myself. This is the power that you have within yourself. I am not obliged. Neither you are obliged. It is your own power that rises and gives you this self-hood which is being described by Shri Sant Gyaneshwara. And this state of Sahajavastha is very easy to achieve."

Rajshri Productions produced an cheesy, yet informative animated short chronicling the life and work of the lives of these divine brothers and sister:



* 1988 Fatima Bi Puja, Switzerland

Realtime Righteousness in Second Birth

At the turn of the year, a yogi asked another yogi: What are your new year resolutions for 2010?

Yogi #2: Realtime Righteousness

Yogi #1: What's that exactly?

Yogi #2: Well, in the previous stage of growth in self-realization, righteousness and spiritual conduct had been establishing within me, but it was a process which entailed listening to the Guru's advice externally, mentally processing the advice into positive conditionings, eliminating negative conditionings and meditating for silence. The brain was an intermediary which instroduced necessary but inefficient brokering of righteousness. Necessary, because the inner being, the soul hasn't evolved enough for lesser brain and more heart based righteousness. The next stage is when the connection with the all-pervading is less riddled with doubts, fears and thoughts, so that the righteousness can just flow instantaneously. Just like dial-up and broadband internet.

Initially we needed to dial-up to the provider, we counted the minutes of use, downloaded data, wen't offline and processed it. It was inefficient, but the best approach at the time. Now that broadband connection is available, everytime you are working at the computer, it is impossible to do 90% of the tasks without a live connection. Thus, when the new bandwidth is available in our subtle system to handle the new age of spiritual conduct, we just jump onto that mode spontaneously one day, because our dial-up was too broken to fix and we needed to upgrade - no choice. Similarly, the first stage of offline righteousness had worked until December 2009, and the crumbling of the approach had begun. It was terrifying at the start, but the grace of the Comforter was standing by, assuring yogi #2 to witness the awesome creative power which destroys only selectively, and to make space for new spiritual infrastructure within. The accuracy of destruction is astounding as all innocent parts of the soul were retained and built around.

In the end, it seemed like the bird had been hatched out of the egg. The destruction was only the temporary protective egg shell, which was bound to break one day, anyways. Now the bird is out, can see reality directly, rather than interpret indirectly it from the sounds and words of the Mother outside and above. Now, in the lap of the Mother - not as an egg, but as a bird ready to fly fearlessly and do all that the Mother wishes Her offspring to do.

So its not the end, just the beginning of a new stage, which may also reach saturation one day and be abandoned in favor of newer, higher life. Like a rocket, dropping off propulsion stages on the way up, the ascent goes on, the old keeps burning up and dropping off and we attain higher and higher orbits. We only need small correction jets once we've escaped the ocean of illusion. We don't feel guilty for the initial noisy and hot state because we start seeing it as a temporary necessity. Now the old one is dead, burnt up and dropped off and the new life begins in second birth, where the only worry is "are we having fun"?




JSM!

Photo Credits: flickr users' Creative Commons photos
1. Erica Marshall of muddyboots.org (we are all connected)
2. chidorian (egg/bird)

Correction and Hurt

 When we want to correct someone, there is a chance that we will hurt them. But when we go out to hurt someone, there is no chance we will correct them.

CC licensed photo by photomequickbooth

The Ship Hath Sailed

One of my favorite proverbs is

"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." Grace Hooper

Our agnya chakra is the most critical, most delicate and most easily affected. A person with no conflicts of any kind is either realized or completely oblivious. Conflict resolution approaches are the best way to test a person's agnya chakra. Without conflict, there is no way to confirm who will survive the new age that is rapidly closing in.

As the grand illusion, the Mahamaya, separates the wheat from the chaff, she sets up these serious games for our personal learning. These serious games can be harmless as long as we are not involved in the emotional aspect. Because it starts of with small seeds of discontent amongst a so-called brotherhood, which ultimately erupts in a fight which will for a part of the collective to leave. The reaper is at work testing people who can truly humble themselves and forgive others.

Last Monday, it occured to me in a morning meditation that the one quality I still lack as a Sahaja Yogi, is the ability to express love. I had genuine love for most acquaintances, but my failing had been the ability to express it. I did develop the ability to express it for seekers over the past few years, because that genuine love is the only thing that a seeker of truth can feel. However, there was a serious lack of ability to express love openly to other enlightened souls. Since the morning meditations were now regular and improving, I felt courageous to ask for this new ability. As the Chinese say, be careful what you ask for, because it may just come true.

The very next day, I played good cop/bad cop to pull over a organizationally speeding brother and issue a spiritual ticket. What I got in return was the culmination of his months long plan to slow poison our common friends. This slow poisoning was successful only because of, guess what, my total lack of ability to openly express love and adoration of my fellow realized beings. This comes partly from my Indian descent, where I leave communication with ladies to my wife or other female representative of the family. The passive aggressive negativity had thrived in the brain of my weak friend, and had him sow seeds of discontent quite discretely so that some of my other weak friends were starting to cut off their time with me. I suspected something, but the "speeding ticket" brought out the complete masterplan.

Like the unfortunate cop who gets shot by a druggie on a stop-and-bust, I was repeatedly shot down in the back multiple times as I asked for the drivers license and registration. A routine stop and check had turned fatal for me.

Now came the real part - will I give in to the ideas of hatred or bring down my ego, make the ultimate sacrifice of pride and humbly apologize, even though there was a clear violation of natural law. Like many ironic court cases of America, the process started with me issueing unconditional apologies to the poisoned friends for anything done unknowingly in the recent past. Asking for forgiveness. And as that started, they their poison revealed to me. If I had aggressively pursued the matter with the poisoned innocent, they would have frozen up and confirmed the trash talk about me.

Honestly, I was surprised by my mind's ability to express unconditional apologies and ask for forgiveness and acceptance. This could be the greatest jump in evolution of all the fantastic jumps I have seen this Fall of 2009. I am tempted to analyze the motivations of my malefactor, but the mind simply refuses to co-operate with thoughts of hatred. I would have never discovered this depth granted by Sahaja meditation, the blessing of the agnya chakra to humble down immediately. I would have expected that it would take me months before I would consider leveling with them. But the stakes are too high. The social capital we build is more precious than our fragile egos and one cannot implement this self-belief in any other system of yoga meditation. This is simply Sahaja, simply unique and simply amazing.

As the proceedings proceed, I sometimes feel distinct "working out" of negativity in different chakras. Clearing of this nature usually takes years. I am happy that this dynamic training environment exists within Sahaja Yoga where our false knowledge is actively removed, our theoratical learning is tested and corrected -- all without an institutionalized system of education.

Once you begin Sahaja Yoga, your ship, i.e., your being, will truly sail off the harbor into the wild seas and your captainship will be tested, improved and blessed.



CC licensed photo: symera_serin