A Power of the Self that guides and teaches

Dear Jedi, I'm sure you know that this idea of us being instruments of the divine is not the idea of BBB!
It is implicit in the teaching of Krishna (God) given to Arjuna (the instrument) in the Gita, esp. in ch.13.

The idea of 'instrumentalizing' the entire being is one of the basic aims of Sri Aurobindo's yoga also.

Of course, as you say, we are all instruments anyway - but we can become more and more the conscious instrument. The divine will then act directly through us, rather than in a roundabout way through the powers and forces of nature.
This brings also a bliss, an ananda which surpasses everything we could get in the way of enjoyment by acting on behalf of the ego and its ever changing desires.

That's one reason we must always try to continue to develop ourselves on all levels, so that the instrument we offer to Him, or Her if you prefer the shakti, is a highly tuned one which can hopefully be of some use in the divine play, the lila.

Love.

BBB.

 

Does he say anything else on the subject? I'm rather partial to a bit of ganja and have always found that taken in moderation, it can raise one's awareness ..albeit temporarily. Indeed those ganga smoking sadhus are convinced it helps them find god. There is 'something' about it.

Some of my dreams recently have been about this planet, our physical home ... but is it also our spiritual home? Right now i'm considering that perhaps my body, soul and spirit belong to this earth ... that i am this earth. In my ego and separation i think i am not 'of this earth' and the kundalini comes to reclaim my awareness as it's own.
I'm sure it doesn't stop with this one planet though, ... after all there are whole universes out there but for the time being, this planet is fine as a guiding source. It surely knows that all life on this planet is one.
It seems natural to me that ego would not want this sort of thinking.

 

Hare Krishna !

From Liquidlight ..............

Quote:
On the subject of drug use, there's a passage in Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita where He says that 'men who smoke the hemp always know each other'

Does he say anything else on the subject? I'm rather partial to a bit of ganja and have always found that taken in moderation, it can raise one's awareness ..albeit temporarily. Indeed those ganga smoking sadhus are convinced it helps them find god. There is 'something' about it.

Some of my dreams recently have been about this planet, our physical home ... but is it also our spiritual home? Right now i'm considering that perhaps my body, soul and spirit belong to this earth ... that i am this earth. In my ego and separation i think i am not 'of this earth' and the kundalini comes to reclaim my awareness as it's own.
I'm sure it doesn't stop with this one planet though, ... after all there are whole universes out there but for the time being, this planet is fine as a guiding source. It surely knows that all life on this planet is one.
It seems natural to me that ego would not want this sort of thinking.


Dear Liquidlight,

Please do not make the mistake what the translation has made. What Shri Ramakrishna wanted to say in Bengali was to imply "Birds of the same feather flock together." He had nothing to do with 'ganja'. As far as I can recollect he always discouraged use of drugs in any form. He, like the Gita, always said that there is no short-cut. The temporary elevation of mind in the super-natural realm (By a short-cut method) can itself become an irresistable desire. Drugs, if taken on a regular basis, do not help after some time unless the dose is also gradually increased with the passage of time. Here lies the danger of becoming a drug addict. The deadly habit then slowly and surely devastates you mentally, physically and spiritually. People in that state forget about God or any revelations, they go mad for getting the drugs as the body systems cannot anymore do without it. Over dosage eventually becomes so fatal that it leads to total derangement or even death.

Dear, it is nice to read your post when you write that at times you feel you do not belong here on this earth, your address is somewhere else. This one thought alone is million times more useful than what ganja or any other drug can give you. You are the blessed one to get this thought. Now please go on the quest..... start the search to know where actually you belong. Please do not break your head over religions, their good and bad......follow the paths of the seers, the great saints and sages and you will receive the permanent,not temporary in tits and bits, grace of the Lord.

Drugs ? Please say a firm no to it.

Love and best wishes,

Kumar.

 

Your quite right - Sri Ramakrishna didn't promote use of cannabis or any other drug. Perhaps this is a mistranslation - I would have no way to determine that. But I take your word for it - as a Benagali you should know

But even if it isn't you are also right in saying that he meant to indicate something like the recognition of affinity between people - 'birds of a feather' is a good way to put it.

I'd also agree that drugs are often a trap - even if one gets some experience through using them, it is better to move on and find ways into the spiritual consciousness through non drug methods.
Also drugs can be very deceptive. It is easy to mistake the action of lower forces for the divine force, and in effect, that is what happens with many who continue to use them.
The other big problem is that even if you get some glimpse of the divine through drugs, usually it evaporates fairly rapidly.
That, in a way, is the story of the 'psychedelic 60's'. People like Gerry Garcia for instance were thought by many to be illuminated, but soon it all turned into the usual cocaine driven nightmare. Nothing much spiritual about that.

I don't know if this earth is our 'spiritual home'. It is the place these bodies have evolved. The soul doesn't belong to any particular place or time - it exists eternally, so it existed before the earth was formed, or any kind of life appeared. And when this planet is no more, still the soul will exist.

But you're right to say all life is one. I'm not sure that the earth itself knows this directly. Perhaps it is only through conscious beings that the earth has awareness.
If you truly awaken the kundalini shakti, you will know that life is only one outer manifestation of the eternal. Something that comes and goes again in time. And compared to the life span of the earth, our stay here is fleeting.
Since we can't stay here permanantly, it is better not to be too identified with the earth. We should certainly respect the earth and all the life forms on it, but always remember that one day - who can say when? - we will have to leave.

If you are interested to know what Sri Ramakrishna said, here's a link to an online translation of Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita http://www.kathamrita.org/KathamritaMain.htm

 

I'm considering that as long as the earth can support life we can keep reincarnating here as long as the earth can sustain. Why would we have an eternal spirit and the earth not also have an eternal spirit? When the earth dies perhaps it will also reincarnate and be born by some distant sun somewhere?

One of the dreams i had recently about the earth was of an area of land which belonged to my mother (for the purposes of the dream this was my own human mother this land belonged to) and on this land was the mouth of a cave ...with stalagtites and stalagmites, like teeth in that mouth. There were pools of water at the mouth entrance where my mother would wash her feet and in the pools were tiny glowing /phosphorescent life forms like tiny shrimp. I walked into the cave to have a look and it was lit up inside with light but apparently no source of light like torches. Just a wonderful yellow/orange glow.
In short, the dream speaks to me of the earth as a living entity ... physical on the outside and spiritual on the inside.

On a related topic ... kundalini. I had a full blown .. third eye opening, crown reaching kundalini experience when i was 27 and for me it was surrendering my ego and admitting that i was a human, sexual and loving being. I had lived in fear of women and sex ... and life itself up until that time and had unknowingly been simply abusing my body in my detatchment. These were things that i became painfully aware of in the year and a half prior to that experience. I knew i needed to STOP living this way and start a new life. The kundalini experience itself was the moment i actually stopped and made a commitment to a new life and it involved giving up a life of addiction to orgasm and pornography, dependency on cannabis and generally being a non commital and lazy human being. A surrender of my egoic old self. I had been living in my head in some idealised fantasy, detatched from reality and my real body. It was time for me to face my fear of the external world and walk into my reflection, so to speak, and have a look inside to know who i really was and find out i was connected to everything, and in doing so, let go of my fear of the illusion of separation... the fear of my reflection in the mirror.

Personally i don't go along with this stuff about 'life is suffering' (life is great if you let it be. ie. without ego), and of life on earth being some kind of training ground where we perfect ourselves and then leave forever to live in some kind of formless spiritual singularity. However i agree that that spiritual state is what we are in essence. We have created our bodies to live in a world of form and senses to enjoy in cooperation with spirit. Why choose to give it up and leave? Creation is great, it's what we DO with who we ARE and problems only arise when we get lost and stuck in the creation by forgetting who we ARE. Just ego messing up a good thing ...as always!

Time for a corny quote:
" He who holds onto a joy, does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses a joy as it flies, lives in eternitys sunrise."

So life and death goes on and forms come and go. If we are in touch with who we really are, this shouldn't be a problem. Don't get stuck in form, but don't deny it either. This is the balance of creation as i see it.

 

Very interesting post

I just can't say if planets re-incarnate or not! Some say they do - that the universe runs in cycles - the day and night of Brahma.This is explained in the Bhagavad Gita.

I think there's something we could call the world soul - probably it is an evolving entity. As I said before, I am not sure this is conscious in itself. It seems more likely that is is becoming conscious through the evolution of the life process, and successivly higher forms of awareness - plants, aquatics, reptiles, mamals, humans ......and next?

I myself don't subscribe to the view that life here is basically negative, or that it is an illusion that the world exists.
There is certainly much suffering and ignorance in the world, but I don't take the view that our only recourse is a kind of escape from it. Certainly, we have to escape from our present false and mainly ignorant consciousness. To try to detach from externals may be very useful in order to gain some inner realization.

I don't believe that our attempts to set the world right can succeed on the basis of the ego consciousness. To quote JC 'Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven' - ie the divine consciousness.

Myself I am mainly influenced by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, who prophesiesed that in the future a race of beings superior to humans (supramental beings) will evolve equiped with a higher apparatus of consciousness than we posses. The difference would be about the same as that between the animal and the human.

For myself, if such beings did evolve here, I'd be happy enough to re-incarnate in such a body. I don't at all like the idea of having to return as a human being - If one had transcended desire and ego, why would you come back? It could only be to serve the divine in one way or another.

In it's present stage here on earth, the creation may be great in some ways, but in other respects is very imperfect. Humans have created a very far from perfect world order which in just the last century gave two devastating world wars. Perhaps we'll succeed in destroying most of what we have developed before we are done.
No one has any solutions to the world's problems that have a cat in hells chance of success, other than a total transformation of consciousness leading to a total change of the whole way we are on this earth.

I feel that if it wasn't for the fact that divine powers guard the earth evolution, we would have destroyed ourselves before now.

So - I think we should definitely put all our efforts into realizing a higher divine consciousness - both for liberation from mental delusion under which we live in the ego consciousness, and also for the purposes of world transformation.
Only when we realize the divine in ourselves can we be doers of divine works.

Love.

BBB.

 

Agreed, "First seek the kingdom of heaven." (note that he says 'first' here), and thats kind of how it was with me, everything else could wait it seemed.

I also think the physical world is real ...as an 'extension' of spirit, if you like. It's the 'way' we see it that's the problem.
Living in the physical realm will always involve ego and as such there will always be an element of imperfectness in living in a physical duality. So we need to accept that it is there and always be aware of it and forgive it internally. This is why we need to find 'the kingdom of heaven' so we can keep checking in ... or maybe as we evolve further literally be in both worlds at once... a bit like Gopi Krishna perhaps, so we don't get stuck.
The term 'spiritualisation of matter' comes to mind here.

 

Heya

I think that this power, is YOu i think we have a self thats extremely powerful a soul with light ad love, so embrace it try to let it in your life, i i thin that offen when we are angry etc we forget who we are, thatswhy im happy about all people who have such experiences.

Bye salivrah

 

Hi Salivrah - yes we all have the Soul within us which has qualities of light, love and knowledge. It is the spark of the One divine which is in everything. We just have to reveal it, uncover it. Realize it. That is what Yoga is all about.

It can't usually be done in a flash - it takes time and effort and commitment. The ego throws up all kinds of barriers - not only anger, but attachment to it's own desires, demands etc.

We've forgotten who we are, and who God is. If we have trust and faith, and try with sincerity to awaken our dormant consciousness of the divine, we will be successful. We will get the divine Grace.

Love & peace.

 

Hare Krishna!

From BBB..........

Hi Salivrah - yes we all have the Soul within us which has qualities of light, love and knowledge. It is the spark of the One divine which is in everything. We just have to reveal it, uncover it. Realize it. That is what Yoga is all about.

It can't usually be done in a flash - it takes time and effort and commitment. The ego throws up all kinds of barriers - not only anger, but attachment to it's own desires, demands etc.

We've forgotten who we are, and who God is. If we have trust and faith, and try with sincerity to awaken our dormant consciousness of the divine, we will be successful. We will get the divine Grace.

Love & peace.


Dear BBB,

Very well said, it could not be better. Thanks.

Love,
Kumar.

 

There is no us, to think that we are individuals is what defines "Maya". When we consider ourselves as individual entities, we are experiencing Shiva's consciousness in descent as the Devi. This is Maya. When She returns back to Her source, Her ascent, we are then Shiva with Her as one consciousness, which is all there is ever here to begin with. All is only God. In effect, we don't possess a consciousness, all reality is only the consciousness that is God/Paramshiva/Parambrahma. Love

 

Shiva then would be the Self - that's really what I was trying to get at in this thread. Others might say Krishna is the Self - that would also be true.


I'd also say that there is a difference between what we call 'individual' and what we call 'personal'. Because Krishna is personal, doesn't mean that He is an individual like us, or as we think we are in the ordinary consciousness.

On the subject of Shakti or Devi - Sri Ramakrishna had a nice saying: 'proceed to the sun's disc through the suns rays'. The sun being Ishwara, it's rays being Shakti.

Shanti.

 

Your right on it, my Transcendent Brother. Iswara projects Iswari, and they are One.
Love Service Ananda

 

Yes. I don't think I could add any comment to the very concise way you have put that truth.

It's very good to have you on this forum my friend.

 

Your lucky, it took sitting in prison for something I was charged with that didnt fit the actual 'crime' to wake me up :tongue:
Namaste

 

A big turning point for me came many years ago when I too was a prisoner.
Often it seems, it takes some kind of crisis or extreme situation, and momentarily the veil is lifted a little.

 

Exactly gentlemen. Karma is "a pre-requisite for experience", an experience that the Vimarsa covering the atma that is disguised as ones mind, must undergo.
Karma does not happen to us, it is part of us as the mental shell that we must spiritually evolve out of.
Shiva as Isvara pushes Himself away from himself as the Devi, Isvari. He becomes Her, and She lives as his sacrifice in separation from Him in Her creation as "our reality" of life.
This sacrifice of Hers is our experience of Karma. When enough of it is undergone, questions arise in the convered "self". Then we turn within, inquire and seek a way out.
Shiva then draws His extended Self, His love, the Devi, "US", back to Himself.
We see it as our own will seeking the answers to life. Love Ananda Service

 

Once more, thanks for your input.


I think there is a resonance between what you say and this, quoted form "The Mother" by Sri Aurobindo.

'In all that is done in the universe, the Divine through his Shakti is behind all action but he is veiled by his Yoga Maya and works through the ego of the Jiva in the lower nature.
In Yoga also it is the Divine who is the Sadhaka and the Sadhana; it is his Shakti with her light, power, knowledge, consciousness, Ananda, acting upon the Adhara and, when it is opened to her, pouring into it the divine forces that make the Sadhana possible. But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary.'

(EDIT - just to make this more understandable to those with little knowledge of terms used in Yoga philosohy -Sadhana = spirtual practices, Sadhaka = one engaged in such practice, Jiva = 'individual' soul, Adhara = lower nature comprised of the physical, vital and mental planes, Ananda = Divine Bliss.Yoga Maya = veil of illusion which separates our conscoiusness from that of the true Divine Consciousness. These are only brief working definitions)

 

Actually i was charged by a partner of being selfish and treating her like a sex object. She ended the relationship and stonewalled me. She had a point i guess but her reaction was an overreaction and extreme ...coloured by her own past experiences. It seems i took the brunt for everything bad that had ever happened to her.
I felt misjudged and wrongly accused but like i said she did have a point but she wasn't very understanding or compassionate ... i ended up just having to forgive myself ...and her. We were just two people trapped in our stuff.