Shiva Sutra 3.8 – Expanding into the Entire Universe
Jagrat-dvitiya-karah
Our Real nature is God consciousness, the Oneness, Parabhairava. As we move
along the path Home, our Real nature within continues to expand, moving our
awareness ever further and deeper out into this entire universe.
Everything and everyone in all the myriad worlds, even energies we might judge
as evil or negative, all are manifestations, extensions of the one God
consciousness of which we as individuals have always been a temporal expression.
“Whatever is found in this universe is existing in universal consciousness. So
there is nothing to eliminate, nothing to separate from your consciousness.
[SLJ]”
The Sanskrit word jagrat means the
‘waking state’ and this sutra says that for the yogi who has understood the
Reality of the ubiquitous all-pervading Oneness, the waking state is just
another form of God consciousness and an expanded awareness of our Self.
“In speaking of the waking state, the dreaming state and the state of sound
sleep are also included. So for such a yogi, these three states, which are
experienced in daily life, are not other than universal God consciousness.
[SLJ]”
There comes a moment in our journey when every moment and everything in life
becomes sacred. God is everywhere, permeating everything. Even the simplest acts
and perceptions of our daily routine life can be experienced as God
consciousness and therefore can provide entry into the subtle blissful states of
our Real Being – Samadhi.
Play each note as if it is a universe…
India’s traditions consider the world sacred. In a recent biography of the
greatest living master of the bamboo flute, the bansuri, Hariprasad Chaurasia,
there is a wonderful example of this understanding of the sacred in the mundane.
In search of the deepest subtleties of classical Indian music, the raga,
Hariprasad found his guru in Annapurana Devi, the wife of the famous sitar
player, Ravi Shankar. Hariprasad was already quite successful and famous in
India’s film world when he approached this reclusive lady for instruction. She
made him prove his dedication as if he were a beginner, making his every effort
an arduous challenge.
His patience was rewarded with her superlative wisdom. Annapurana taught
Hariprasad that he must play each note as if it is a universe.
How would this kind of superhuman concentration and focus of our five-sense
attention manifest in our own everyday life? Wouldn’t time slow, and each and
every moment become the potential for God to reveal Its concealed beauty and
bliss in every bit of sensory data transmitted from the external world to our
brain. We would see and hear God everywhere. We would move through our days
nestled in peaceful bliss.
“Beneath the curtain of each atom lies concealed, the life increasing Beauty of
the face of the Beloved. [Mahmud Shabistari]” God is not found only in places of
worship, in grand cathedrals or magnificent temples; nor is God confined to our
limited ideas of what we imagine to be sacred. God is everywhere. Everything and
everyone is sacred. When the Heart is opened - the universe and every atom in
it, is felt sacred.
The universe is the Creator’s Cosmic Sacrifice. God ‘sacrifices’ Its Oneness in
the expanding and contracting, revealed and concealed manifestation of infinite
energies, power and will. When we offer God anything, our prayers or a flower,
we are returning that ‘sacrifice’ to the Source of its origin. When we surrender
our small identity ego and offer our limited consciousness to the God within, we
are returning the sacrifice of what is manifested into the Ocean of
Consciousness. We are going Home.
“In this universe, there are only two aspects found – energy and the energy
holder. Of these two, it is energy that is held in each and every part of the
universe because this universe is, in fact, the existence of energy. And the
energy holder is Maheshvarah (the Great Lord, the One) himself alone. [Sarvamangala
Shastra – SLJ]”
***
When you become that which you always were and are, God consciousness, you will
not need to read or listen to the Sanskrit texts or other sources of wisdom.
They will no longer hold your interest. In the Bhagavad Gita II.52, Krishna
says: When with an enlightened intelligence
(buddhi), you have crossed over the
delusion-thicket (moha-kalilam), then
you will be disenchanted – the Sanskrit word actually translates as disgusted -
with the teachings you have already heard, and even those you have yet to hear.
As Swami Lakshmanjoo has said: When you actually understand what I am teaching
you, then you will not want to listen.
Swami
Lakshmanjoo
**
Hariprasad Chaurasia, Romance of the Bamboo Reed, A Biography by Uma Vasudev;
Shubhi Publications, Gurgaon, Haryana, India, 2005.
MAHMUD SHABISTARI: The Secret Garden, translated by John Pasha; The Octagon
Press, London 1969.
God Inside Out, Shiva’s Game of Dice, by Don Handelman and David Shulman; Oxford
University Press, 1997.
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