Sunday, September 24 (Part 1 Introduced September 17)
Introduction
Apology for Last Week’s technical issue.
You will recall that we were analyzing the image of Shiva, the Cosmic dancer (anandatandava) which means the dance of non-dual love (bhakti) and you will recall that we discovered that there still a major confusion among inquirers about the difference between reflected awareness, the non-eternal jiva, and the Jivatma, the Eternal Jiva. We will go back to the analysis of Shiva and explain the basic features of manifest consciousness once we get clarity on the reflection teaching. So this week I will try to unfold it in a simple straightforward way. You will not get freedom and non-dual love without knowing in what sense the reflection and the original are the same and in what sense they are different.
To lead into our topic, please listen to the following emails that came in this week.
Dear Ramji,
Thank for your email.
I was quite shocked when you said in the recent ‘What is always good?’ teaching about Siva, that consciousness and matter existed before the creation, I have missed something fundamental.
I was also very happy when Brian asked the same question that I had and you explained it further. It’s a mind boggling concept and I will ask you about it further when I see you in Spain next week.
Thank you and best wishes,
Dearest Ramji,
I am so happy about the teachings on Shiva Nataraj!
I have introduced Nirvana Shatakam in my morning devotion and it just makes me happy.
Since my visit to your seminar in Tiruvannamalai in 2017, I have a Shiva Nataraj standing on my altar next to a Krishna with a flute, who came later, and I see this image daily. It is a simple stone figure made of red marble, typical of the area. Whenever I looked at it I thought I liked it and I read quite a bit about it, but it didn’t really ignite and it was always mainly a kind of duty to have it there. Generally, I find it hard to connect with icons, even if I like them. It’s the stories, the knowledge that connects.
My relationship with this figure changed abruptly with the satsang last Sunday. The figure started to shine. I knew Shiva mostly as the part of the Trinity responsible for destruction. But it is quite another thing to see this figure with the circle of fire, the “eternal” abode of the Self.
Ramji: Yes, spirit “in” matter and spirit “beyond” matter.
The true reflection of myself. Shiva Nataraj is the anchor of all mediation. His aura of eternal silent contentment spreads if you take it seriously and trust it. How beautiful it is to have this figure and this knowledge. Always in gratitude and love
The Three Parts of the Not-Self (refer to Nirvana Shatakam)
The Reflection Teaching (pratibimba vada) requires an analysis of the question, What is a Human Being? (a jiva)
It is…
A. Original Pure Consciousness: No life. No time. No reflecting medium.
No reflection. Matter (Space, etc.) is Potential or Unmanifest – Non-origination
&
A Reflecting Medium
Creation Teaching (Karya-Karana Vada) – What is the World?
B. Primordial Matter Manifests. No life. No time. Reflecting medium appears Macrocosmic Causal Body. (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas – Maya – Beautiful Intelligent Ignorance. Ignorance (not knowing) Creates. Ignorance does not mean that matter doesn’t exist. It means that matter isn’t real i.e. reliable. It does not solve insecurity.
Big Bang Stages (for teaching) – Omniscience
1. Panchikarana (division and recombination of the elements) Space, air,
fire, water earth. Macrocosmic Gross Body (8.3 Billion Years Ago)
2. Subatomic particles appear. (mesons, quarks, atoms, etc.)
Macrocosmic Subtle Body (5 Billion Years Ago) subtle body is matter
Volcanos 1. rajas – shattering and scattering 2. tamas – stasis, inertia.
3. sattva – potential reflection.
No conscious beings.
C. Conscious Beings Manifest.
(Cambrian Era – 500 million years ago)
3. Unicelluar organism (sattva manifests – all gunas manifest now).
Life appears as jivas (individuals) -multiplication by division of
unicellular to multicellular extroverted organisms
4. Plants
5. Insects
6. Birds
6. Mammals (huminoids) Featherless Bi-peds
a. Homo habilis to Homo erectus (humans) appears in 8 stages
(100,000-300,000 years ago)
Five Human Stages
1. Stone Humans (first tamas, some rajas, little sattva )
2. Plant Humans (some tamas, some rajas, some sattva)
3. Animal Humans (first rajas & tamas, more sattva)
4. Human Humans (balanced rajas, tamas and sattva,
Karma/Dharma/Samsara manifests)
5. God Humans (5,000-8,000 years ago)
Human Time (ages-yugas) – Bhagavad Gita
a. Sat Yuga (sattva first, rajas& second)
Rishis – Vedanta – Upanishads- 100%-samsara
Non-dual Bhakti – Rishis – Culture – Hunter/Gatherer
b. Treta Yuga (sattva first, rajas & tamas second)
Agrarian Age – Society – Politics
c. Dwapara Yuga (rajas & sattva first, tamas less)
Industrial Age – Business, Technology
d. Kali Yuga (rajas & tamas first, sattva less)
Service Industry – Working Class
7. Vedanta, A Word Mirror – Inference
Question: Who is it For?
Answer: A Qualified Inquirer
a. listening (sravana) predominant mental, emotional and physical sattvab. resolving doubts
b. (manana) predominate sattva and rajas (aware and thinking)
c. assimilating (meditation/nididyasana) predomiant rajas and tamas
(doing and grounding). Genie on a pole.
Notes
Non-origination and Karika – Freedom from and For the Jiva
***Oral tradition – agrararion era generated a need for script because memory
Wasn’t sharp any more. Age of neurosis – obsession.
