Yoga and Your Soul

[Recorded on Nov 18, 2014.]

A student asked Guruji about Kriya yoga.

Guruji replied: “I will give you the definition in one sentence: You will be able to make your conscious mind unconscious, and your subconscious mind conscious. When that happens a new world will open up! This is the climax, or the biggest achievement of Hatha yoga. No other system in the world comes even close. This practice will always remain a mystery, and open only for very sincere seekers.

“Who cares for their own soul? They are ready to give it up.  Both God and the Devil are after your soul; nobody is telling you to keep it. As a yogi, I say it is the only immortal substance you have; don’t give away your soul. Make it your friend. It can tell you so many things from the other side! No religion in the world, not a single one, actually tells you or teaches you who created your soul.

“In Gorakhbodh, in the conversation between the two great gurus of yoga, Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath, Guru Matsyendranath made a fantastic statement: A state will come when the soul becomes the guru and mind becomes the disciple. Then the real journey will begin. So, I can guide you to that level and after that your soul will take it further.

“No religion talks about the origin of the soul. Only our line of yoga teaches you to how make your soul your friend. And it may start liking you and tell you its secrets. Why? Because only friends share secrets. The world says you are my disciples but I consider you my friends. Why? Because only friends share secrets. A friend is a friend.”

Be Conscious of Mother Earth: The Supreme Soul


Guruji:
“[.. continued from before] we talked about ātmā (soul) and paramātmā (the Supreme Soul, God). You have a soul. Then what is the Supreme Soul? Which is the soul of your soul, or, in other words, that on which the existence of your soul depends. Based on that, Mother Earth is the Supreme Soul. We are supposed to realize the supreme soul, and instead a vague concept of a distant, hypothetical God living in skies has been handed over to us. People say God is omnipresent: go anywhere in the world, Earth is everywhere! And don’t know when we’ll go in outer space, even there land will be needed.”

Q: “Then Guruji, what should a person do? It must be so hard to communicate with Mother Earth.”

Guruji: “A person should live a very natural life, and should try to tune with the mind of Earth, or tune with the life-force – the force of life – of Earth. That’s all. Without tuning in, will not understand the union, as we’ve discussed before. Tuning is necessary.

Q: “So it is mainly a thinking process?”

Guruji: “It’s not a thinking process. When the actual tuning happens it will make the difference, not just by thinking that. Like the old swamis and vedāntīs (propagators of Vedas) proclaim, ‘I’m brahma (supreme universal spirit, Godhead)!’. They even argue to prove they are brahma! But just by saying can they be brahma? They eat food, need to go to the toilet, they shiver in cold and yet continue to claim they are brahma! Can brahma shiver in cold, or can it get indigestion? The important thing is to understand reality. Reality can be harsh, but isn’t it equally beautiful as well?

“You can do this meditation of mother Earth [..]. Nobody meditates on Earth. Have you seen anyone do that? Has any so-called god-man ever said that you should meditate on Earth, that she is our mother, the basis of our existence? Meditate on Her, then only you will develop an understanding of your own existence.”

Q: “Guruji, you had mentioned that you were looking into some methods to communicate directly with Mother Earth?”

Guruji: “Yes, the research is going on. You can say that the success is just looming on the horizon; can already see it, just have to reach there. Have discovered a few techniques and processes after doing a major research; now I’m looking for the original touch. There are also some mantras of Earth, and fire rituals. They are very rare to find.”

Q: “That’s probably why they are hidden.”

Guruji: “They are hidden because they are not in convention; nobody cares for them. People are worshiping the goddess of wealth, Vishnu, or some other gods. But nobody cares about our real god.

“My mind is opening up. See, I received a natural-found śiva-liṁga. But ultimately it was given by Mother Earth only! I’m worshiping the śiva-liṁga, offering milk to it, etc, so in a way, I’m worshiping her as well. Also the female signs of śakti that we found: they were given by Earth herself. It’s not like they fell out of the sky.

“One most astonishing thing has happened here: we are totally stunned, and amazed as well. You remember the Neem tree next to the hall? It actually had menstrual periods! And it happened on the first day of Navarātri. Aren’t these the signs of Mother Earth?”

* * * * * *

Q: “Guruji, I read the first chapter of jñāna khaṇḍa. It’s amazing! There’s an argument in there that as long as there are responsibilities a man can never be happy.”

Guruji: “These are great discussions of great people. And see, immortal beings are discussing! Can you imagine their point of view, how far would that be?

“In a way, the only emancipated person is the one who is immortal. Since everybody depends on Earth, from gods to a common man, an immortal man can do anything they desire. They are totally free. They don’t have to worry about changing their form, and nobody can cause them any harm either. Once Mother accepts you as her own, nobody can harm you in the entire world, because Earth is everywhere. It’s a marvelous and very significant concept.

“Immortal beings must be the most relaxed people on Earth.”

Q: “Mother Earth’s standards must be pretty high, she probably doesn’t accept just anybody.”

Guruji: “Who knows? She is a mother. She looks after even those who don’t care for her. If somebody cared for her, who knows what she’d do for them!

“All the riches come from Earth, all the knowledge comes from her. Our existence depends on Earth. If such a divine being starts favoring you, then there’s no end to happiness.

“It’s a major realization, that’s why we have started so many Earth related activities. Even found her meditation form in texts: A brown-skinned, supremely beautiful woman, who’s donning green clothes and whose hair are also green, and who is feeding a sprig of wheat or rice to a parrot. That’s her human form.”

Q: “I haven’t found much about Mother Earth in religious texts.”

Guruji: “Nobody will teach this, no religion will talk about it. There are some hints in Vedas but not a whole lot of details. But it is an honest observation. It’s a blessing from guru mahārāja that this thing came independently to my mind.

“This is probably why the ancient ṛṣis used to live close to Nature. The farther we have gone from Nature, the more complicated life has become.

“Some time back, an archeologist, who had a PhD in this subject, came to visit. He had brought a small, knife-like stone instrument of the cavemen. He told us that it is not even possible to make such an instrument today – the way it was cut and had been given treatments. It makes us wonder whether the people who we call cavemen, were they really cavemen? Or were they so advanced that they had become one with Nature?

“The result of development is not that you keep building sky-scrappers and exploit the nature to such an extent that even your existence comes under question. That is not development. The ultimate development is that we become one with Earth, we merge with Earth. Remember, Mother Earth is the Supreme Soul!

“To become aware of Mother Earth is a big deal. Then only we’ll be able to say we are down to earth.”

[20100711-2]

Jivatma, Shiva and Shakti

Q: “Guruji, it is said that Brahma is Providence and governs us with the laws of karma. To which state does it continue?”

Guruji: “Brahma’s domain is only till the physical world. Nobody has any dominion over the real spirits in the spiritual world, except Shiva and Shakti. The spirits, bhuta, around Shiva-ji are so powerful that even Brahma and Vishnu are scared of them. They are only jivatmas – spirits in the purest form. They have gone beyond all bodies – physical or astral. People call them bhuta, preta, pischacha and they all stay around Shiva-ji. And they are all immortal.

Jiva is Shiva, and atma is Shakti. It’s a very subtle point. We are all ardhanarishwara (male and female) in a way, as both jiva and atma are in us. Atma is all female powers, like consciousness which is also a form of shakti. Atma and all such powers belong to the domain of Devi – Aadi Shakti. And jiva since it is a form of Shiva belongs to the domain of Shiva-ji. Even science says the same – we are half male and half female. The only difference is of a chromosome! All these things reflect on the physical plane to some degree, whether we can understand them or not.”

Q: “So Guruji when we say I, who do I identify with, jiva or atma?”

Guruji: “That’s what the whole effort is for, to understand who I am. It’s a matter of realization what our true nature is, who we are. Plainly speaking I’m Shiva, I’m also Shakti, I’m male, I’m female, I’m both. Our body has so much information recorded that if could decode all that we’ll become super knowledgeable. The entire history of human race, infact the history of entire physical creation is in it. As the old books say, ‘yat pinde tat brahmande‘. It’s a very profound statement. That means once you know yourself in entirety, and not just that ‘I’m Brahma’, etc, but also your body as well, that will be something! It’ll be a shocking realization. The data of the entire universe will become available to you. It’s a wonderful thing!

“That’s why the old yogis have said, ‘Go inside’. And only yogis have said that. Others only worshiped hypothetical gods whose name they cannot even pronounce. Here’s another horrible truth: We read that the devil is after your soul. Now soul is your immortal substance. Everybody’s after that immortal substance, whether you offer it to a hypothetical god or to the devil. In Christianity, for example, there’s description of the creation but who created the souls is not even described in the Bible.

“The soul must have some substance that even gods are after it. May be it makes them powerful – if immortals start worshiping you, you’ll also become immortal. That’s why the earthly plane becomes important, because that the only place where the soul forgets its true nature and get imprisoned in the body. At that time it’s easy to fool it. See why there are so many religions, so many cults on Earth? Because if you can influence the soul, you can do anything.

“Look at Shiva-ji instead. A yogi attains Shivatva (Shivahood). Shiva-ji doesn’t dominate. He’s a guru, and you become Him. Because jiva is already Shiva – immortal. The entire theory is different but that’s only in yoga.

“No other gods are like that. You don’t attain Brahmahood or Vishnuhood, or in Christianity become God or in Islam become Khuda. That is kufra (blasphemy) according to them. Mansoor used to say ‘anahalak’ – I’m He, so king Aurangajeb got him decapitated. According to them, nobody can become god, you can only become devotees. Only in yoga it is said that you can become Shiva. What’s bigger than that? And this way is open for everyone.

“Read that section in Mahabharata vol 6 where Upamanyu rishi is rebuking Indra, saying, ‘O fool! Don’t try to fool me with sweet words. Who is worshiped by all the gods? Nobody is born with a conch-shell or chakra, but with linga or yoni. But every male in the universe is stamped with Shiva’s symbol and every female with Shakti’s. It’s a universal phenomena, from a bacteria to an elephant, ant, or even human. That biggest evidence that the entire creation is Shiva’s and Shakti’s, that this creation is Maheshwari.’ And every man has the potential to gain Shivatva and every woman Shakitva (Shakti-hood).

“That book, History of the World, has a picture of a thousands of years old statue of a naked female. It represents the female principle of the Earth. Despite all their sweet-talking, people have only been suggesting to avoid our fundamental nature. Isn’t that contrary to what should be? Suppression is not realization. As I have written in Gita, these symbols are not just from somebody’s imagination. They are hints, left by the first people out of their compassion for the future generation, for those who are able to understand. That’s also why even from the ancient times renunciation has never been encouraged, because then you’ll never get blessings from Shiva.”

[20110324-3] Recorded: Jan, 2002