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12/5, Hawaii – Fourth Class: Kundalini Yoga with Babaji


Peace of mind - That is absence of vibration, is it not? This is the penultimate attainment because it leads, eventually, to Samadhi. If you can achieve that deep sleep state of no vibration during meditation then you have attained the vibrationless state consciously. It is no good, spiritually speaking, just doing it unconsciously, as in deep sleep.  That only gives one good rest.  Consciousness of the mind with absence of vibration results in the Witness state.

Sankalpa, according to Sri Krishna, is a positive evil: khilbisa. No one attains Samadhi without giving up sankalpa. But others - contemporary teachers and magazines - are proposing sankalpa as a "world is your oyster" activity, a kind of promotion of the occult powers. The seers and saints use the power of projection, if they use it at all, to get back into the body to serve humanity, and to free bound souls who are suffering.  So Atmic Sankalpa or Mayic Sankalpa? - that is the question.

Prana and desire - these are the causes of the mind's thoughts, called chitta. So, if you want to stamp out erratic vibrations you have to get a hold of the prana via conscious ingestion of food blended with mantra practice and sadhana so as to overcome desire.

Here is a problem in spiritual life and practice: when human beings feel healthy and energized from the onset of mukhyaprana, being in perfect health, they then take that energy and use it for mundane pursuits, merely pouring it back into the world. But we must remember this: the world doesn't exist. Only Brahman exists.  So we should use the energy we get from food to realize our eternal nature, not relax in material nature.

Words are important and they carry a very great power in them. There are low grade and middling mantras, like "how's the weather" or moral/ethical statements from dualistic scriptures beginning with "Thou shalt not," etc. But when you talk about the revealed scriptures you are talking about Advaita, and you are seeking to realize Atman via the power of Intelligence.  This is Mahashakti's realm. In all the various sects, you find the presence of Divine Mother, the Mahashakti, and She is not only talked about in terms of devotion, but also as Intelligence. When you begin to recognize this supreme Shakti running through everything as Intelligence, you develop great devotion for Her. This special Love begins with Wisdom.  "In all the worlds there is no greater purifier than Wisdom."

There are so many one-sided people. People cling to just one yoga, saying "I'm a bhakta; I am a jnani," etc. But Swami Vivekananda wanted contemporary aspirants to incorporate all the yogas.  Thus came some of his writings: "Š.I have clear light now, free of all hocus-pocus. I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in tile sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it."

What is an object? It is your thought made concretized.

The ordinary person thinks that the senses and objects are all separate things: five separate senses (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling), and five separate objects (space, air, fire, water, earth). But the yogis see that these are all inner principles which we project outward. The senses come first, then solid objects, and the senses are all connected to the mind.  When you truly see the mind, then you finally meet the creator of the universe.  God, Reality, is acreate.

You, as Atman, are really the manager of the mind and senses. In one of his wisdom songs, Ramprasad chastises his mind, "...what a petty potentate you have become" for succumbing to the snares of egocentricity and externalized consciousness. Christ told us that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. And 2 - 3,000 years before Him the Vedic seers stated "All knowledge lies within."  Should we not search for it then?  In his poem, then Ramprasad asks us, "What Will You Do Then?"

Consider the foolishness of the game
You are playing , O mind,
And be ashamed.
You, the noble black bee, should drink only
The purest nectar,
attracted by the intense fragrance of Mother Kali,
Whose Wisdom Feet are vast lotus-blossoms.
Yet heedlessly you quaff the poison
of egocentric gratification.

O mind, you are infinitely more refined
than the organs of action and perception.
You are the natural sovereign
in the kingdom of awareness.
Yet you accept as bosom companions
the most limited and negative intentions.
What a petty potentate you have become!
Bloated by arrogance, inflated by flattery,
your royal gracefulness has disappeared.
You resemble instead some minor official.
Only when the body lies trampled and abject
Beneath Death's cruel feet
will you learn your devastating error.

The seasons of childhood, youth and maturity
pass with deceptive slowness, O mind.
You suffer the subtle anguish of self-obsession
like a solitary prisoner in a narrow cell.
Only the person who lives in prayer and ecstasy
can be released from confinement
and exist in freedom as a warrior of Truth.

Laughing aloud, this liberated poet cries
to all the spiritually careless ones:
"When you grow sick or old
and Death draws near
to deal its terrible blow -
what will you do then?"

There exists one indivisible Soul, not four billion individualized souls.

Early in spiritual life blissful experiences can occur. It is like Divine Mother is saying "Yes, yes, keep going." But what generally happens is that the beginner then starts seeking for those experiences and stops his or her practice. But the Self is an ocean of Bliss. Are you going to trade that for a few bliss-baubles? If so, then the very thing that would mature you becomes your obstacle. Store up spiritual power instead; that is the yogic way. You cannot be weak and realize God, nor can you keep up your practice or overcome the obstacles living on the thin surface experiences of preliminary bliss.

The Self is immovable and all-pervasive. This, then, should become your asana, not the mere position of the body.

[Babaji presented the chart "7 Causes and 10 Impediments in Kundalini Yoga." Among students of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the 9 impediments are familiar and match, for the most part, the list given for Kundalini Yoga. These impediments are such things as disease, heaviness, trembling of the limbs, doubt, delusion, failure to attain higher states of consciousness, and others. The causes for these impediments is another fascinating and useful list for practitioners. These seven are given below, some with notes from Babaji's running commentary:]
1. Daytime lassitude - This is tamas, causing the mind to wallow in inertia, procrastination, and laziness.

2. Night time excess - This refers to squandering the energy gained from ingesting food by expending it via the senses and not giving the body proper rest.

3. Unchecked sexuality - If you check the sexual drive, then you may bring its energy "up the spine." The U.S. used to have this modality of remaining celibate in youth. People could then concentrate on being students. That is, this sublimated energy increased their intellectual powers. This was the norm in ancient India. Sublimation is the key. Use energy for higher pursuits. Practice this even if you want family life.  Dharmic parents use it to bring forth a child with real substance, with intelligence, even devotion, by such sublimation.

4. Frequenting crowds - This is generally a worldly habit that increases distraction of the mind.  Silence and quietude are not usually sought, thus the mind becomes erratic.

5. Untimely elimination of waste - This is about keeping the bowels and their movements regular, and not allowing action or distraction to force one into holding on to the body's waste material for long periods of time.

6. Unwholesome food - Contrary to popular thinking, this is not just about eating organically or being a vegetarian.  "Unwholesome food" is any food, even organic food, which is 1) not purified by mantra, 2) consumed in an erratic or restless/slovenly state of mind; 3) not used for higher purposes like spiritual practice, selfless service, and meditation.

7. Erratic condition of prana and mind - Fear, brooding, doubt, weakness, tentativeness, indeterminacy - how did the human race end up with these kinds of elements in the mind?  Lack of control of prana and mind is mostly to blame.  In other words, growing up with no spiritual discipline, both in family life and in school, leads to lack of control - especially when we are confronted with life's trials.  Yoga, union, is the result of such control.  All other forms of control - like trying to control other beings, nations, and nature - only add to this erratic condition of prana and mind.

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