Article Index

[These notes are from Babaji’s classes from September 2012 through March 2013]

Insights into Yoga

One does not transgress the laws of Nature, one leaves Nature behind.  This is the real meaning of levitation.

A special thing happens when the adept enters Sananda Samadhi, which is perception of individual bliss.  It is all-attracting, but the soul turns away and sees that its light is like a moon.  It is shining due to the presence of another Light.  The result of this perception is the beginning of Asamprajnata Samadhi.

The yogi says that if you have not connected the gross elements to the Cosmic elements then you live a disconnected life, a fragmented life.  The result of that is materialism.

There is a samadhi called jada, which results in stunned consciousness.  The main thing that stuns us there is finding out that all the realms lie within us.

Controlling the prana is controlling the senses on the way out, and the mind on the way in.  You control the senses so you do not get lost as they flow out towards the five elements.  The seers know that the best way to control the senses is by controlling the mind, for everything has come from it.

Your challenge as a yogi is to find Om, to dissolve everything back into It.

The Word is the portal into formlessness, as well as the portal back into form.

I have to become a seer if I want to go into deep sleep a seer and come back out a seer.

You do not have to believe in God to practice Yoga.  Just do the practice and along the way God will occur to you.

Where does the yogi's mind rest when he or she is not involved in something?  In Peace, and in the all-pervasive prana.

Prana travels along the nadis and takes the mind-soul out of the body.  This happens in dream, deep sleep, at the time of death, but best of all, in meditation.

In order to get into nirudha, you have to remain a very long time in ekagra, which means a non-reactive state — no reactions of anger, fear, etc. [Nirudha is mind in abeyance, vibrationless.  Ekagra is one-pointed mind.]

Regarding control of the senses:  If we have spiritual knowledge then we can control them.  Without this knowledge things go their own way, and we are dragged along with them.

One masters nature inside of oneself.  Does anyone ever master nature outside?  Nature is much bigger than we are.

What holds the universe of name and form together?  The New Agers say it is Love.  Scientists reserve their judgment.  Enterprising scientists, taking a risk, name that force Gaia.  In truth, it is the mind that holds the universe together.  It all came from the mind.  Your mind performs the solidification process, then diffuses all into particles in deep sleep.  Samadhi dissolves it all forever.

The yogi turns negativity into a positive force.

The mental asanas in yoga are the yamas and niyamas, and you have to master these before you sit.  When you sit cross-legged it opens the muladhara chakra, almost as a matter of course.  One has to be prepared for this.

You will never be able to think about Brahman or still the mind's waves if you cannot withdraw the mind from objects.

The way to get the mind off the objects is to take certain of them as alambanas.  Then one realizes how they connect to each other, and to the mind.  Before, you thought the objects were separate from each other, and separate from you.  You thought they were real and that they could fulfill you.  But later you find that you are connected to all of them, that they have all come out of you.

Ojas is a power that develops when one takes the mind off the objects.

 


 

The Curtain of Nescience (unknowing)

Lord Siva, in the Tantras, states that the veil of ignorance consists of fear, ignorance, and doubt.  And it is thickened by brooding on these three.  So what should be my sadhana?  To stop brooding.  I will deal with my fear of death, with my doubt, and with my ignorance later, but now I need to stop brooding and thin out the thickness of this veil.

Ganesha is the dispeller of obstacles in our spiritual life.  But will Ganesha dispel the problems of my daily life?  We remain immured in the veil of nescience by thinking that the world is more real than Truth.  But Christ told us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else will be added unto us.  If one focuses on Truth, ignorance will fall away and the challenges of life will be easily surmounted.

The curtain of nescience is thick until you bring the light of the teachings in.  Then poof!  Ignorance is dispelled, and you only need to keep your eye single and your mind focused.

A soul gets confused after death, caught off guard because, while embodied, it never studied higher Knowledge, spiritual Knowledge.  In the end, then, people have to say: "I never studied the eternal Subject; I studied the infernal object."

When mind expands, the universe is projected.  When mind contracts the worlds go away.

Swamiji points out: "We say, 'we are great, we are great'.  But we are really idiots!" Why did he say that?  Because we constantly forget our true nature and embody in ignorance.  Well, can we at least remember for the span of this retreat?  But then, will the three worlds go away as soon as you walk out the door?  Poof!  It only proves that you are all concerned with one world only again, the world of gross matter.

Put these teachings (curtain of nescience) in the context of our western world:  People only believe in one life, one world.  They do not know about karma, samskaras, etc.  This is why people fall into darkness and stay there for lifetimes.  The curtain of nescience explains a lot that we have only intuited.

The hound of heaven goes both ways.  It is your Soul coming to find you, or you going to look for your Soul.  Just be sure that it does not turn into Maya trying to trap you.

Morality and ethics lead one to conventional life, heavens, and ancestors.  Dharma leads one to parents that will assist one's liberation.  Dharmic parents are interested in waking their children up from ignorance.  These couples are rare, especially in the West.

If one gets high enough in the Himalayas one can see the curvature of the world.  But Buddha got high up in the Himalayas of True Mind and saw the curvature of Time.  He saw that time is a cycle.  These cycles are so long that people cannot remember that all is based in cycles.  There is nothing like transcendence.

What has all your activity here done for you but route you back to worldliness?  Why not take to dharma and impress your mind with Truth so that you take it up again in your next life?

If one is afraid of something one cannot have mastery of one's consciousness.  Everything has come out of you.  If you fear something you have ignorance of it.

 


 

Brahman is the Reality

There is no other use for action than knowledge.  Have you seen how many busy people have died and no one remembers them?

If you can live in the body in knowledge of your true nature then you will live a dharmic life, a divine life, and you may realize the state of Enlightenment.

In India, they have always thought in terms of that which is transcendent of cycles of time.

Reality is Changeless, so if you are seeing change, you are not seeing Reality.

Without getting rid of ignorance one will not be able to love or know what to love, nor how to think.

If you lose your connection with formlessness you will get lost among objects.

We come into the body and start seeking the world.  We do not seek God.  But didn't Jesus say to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven within?

Q: Do my actions matter?
A: No – not to Brahman, which is transcendent, and not to Maya, which is insentient.  But to you, in the middle, dharmic actions matter.

They asked Swami Vivekananda: "Have you seen God?"  He replied, "I have seen naught but God all my life, nor have you."  All you see is God.  And if you meet an enemy on the path, that too is Brahman.  You have obstacles?  Those are Brahman also.  You can call it Maya for a while, but when Maya is removed from the picture you see that it was all only Brahman all along.

If you get attracted to experiences, then you are just a pleasure-seeker.  Extract the essence from your experiences and be a seer.

This solves everything:  It is either all unreal or it is all Real.  If it is unreal, you can easily renounce it; you cannot own something that is unreal.  If it is all Real, then that is what you are and there is nothing to renounce.

Here in the West most beings are pleasure lovers.  But Sri Krishna says that what we really want is that which is sour in the beginning and turns sweet later.  That is spiritual practice, and few want to do it.  So they lean towards pleasure seeking.

When you inspect the nature of suffering you find that it is unreal.  Then you can have compassion — then you stop projecting the unreal on God and Guru and you can help without being a part of the problem.

All these experiences mesmerize us.  We get distracted by their rising and falling.  But the Witness sees the vast expanse of water but does not get distracted by its waves.

Did we come out of dust?  The Soul is birthless, deathless, all-pervasive.  Can you create a soul?

How do I start any sadhana without breaking the rules of Advaita?  Can I adopt a mental asana of nonduality before starting?  These are beneficial questions.

One cannot see the highest from the lowest.  One needs to raise the mind to see Pure Reality.  Holy Mother said that you have to take your mind with you all the way to Brahman.

Ahimsa Koan: Thou cannot kill
Student engages in manana (reasons about this) and returns to the teacher.
Student:  I think I understand.  You cannot kill because the Soul is eternal.
Teacher: Yes, the Soul is birthless and deathless. [Next koan]: It is an eternal Existence.
Student (after more manana): If the Soul is birthless and deathless, then there can be no divisions to it.  There must be only one.
Teacher: Yes, You cannot kill another because there is no "other."

 


 

The Seer & the seen

Shunyata, emptiness, means empty of name and form, but never empty of the Witness. "You can deny everything, but you cannot deny the existence of the denier." How do we know there is a void?  Because someone saw it; otherwise how would we know about it?  Nothing doesn't exist.  No one says "I don't exist," they say "I am, I am!"  Even when one is dying, one is experiencing "I am-ness."  We know we have had a series of lives because we were there to witness our births and deaths.  Sanskrit has words for this, like smriti betu — a causal memory around inner functions and formlessness.

The Seer is able to see a plethora of principles operating — no matter how they are masquerading — like domination, gaining/securing/protecting wealth, the tattvas, the siddhis, etc. — as a result of being able to range widely in the Cosmic Mind.  This ability is based upon nonviolence, which has proven that the Self is birthless and deathless.  Therefore, he is no threat to others, and nothing can threaten him.  This, combined with trigunatita (which means the ability to put the mind on or off objects at will) grants mental acuity and insight with great flexibility in perception.

We teach the kids that Spirit and matter do not mix by using a jar of oil and water.  We have them shake up the jar.  Do they mix? "Yes" they say.  But 45 seconds later it has separated again.  Those 45 seconds might as well be 45 lifetimes if the soul does not recognize the difference between nature and the Soul.

Patanjala, Sankhya, Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta are all non-theistic.  If one likes God with form one can anthropomorphize the cosmology and populate states of awareness with deities and call them heavens.  But you can take all this from the standpoint of Consciousness and its levels as well — all formless.  Still, it cannot be denied that the mind has power to congeal things.

We have a chair in the waking state and in the dream state.  But what is it in the deep sleep state?  It is an idea that has not vibrated yet.  Think of deep sleep as a Cosmic Chest of Drawers presided over by the Mother of the Universe.  She hands conditioned awareness over to the Trinity, and out comes the worlds.  The reason one remembers nothing in deep sleep is that nothing is vibrating.

Satya/truthfulness, svadhyaya/study of scripture, aparigraha/non-receiving of gifts, and asteya/non-coveting of objects — together, these equal nondistraction.  If you have these you will be able to remember your past lives.  Why am I suffering? Why don't I remember my past lives?  By not observing these one remains attached to the world, its objects, and is therefore constantly distracted.

 


 

The Mother and Lord of the Universe (Ishvari/Ishvara/Saguna Brahman)

Mother is the generative power in the Word and all Mantras.

Whereas the Avatar is not interested in descending to the lowest levels with you, Divine Mother will.  She is even present at the muladhara chakra, at the base of the spine.

Practitioners sometimes say, "My life is balanced.  I feel fine but I don't feel enlightened."  Then they go to their teacher who advises: "Increase your devotion to God and expand your knowledge (of scripture and philosophy)."

How do you get the will to do spiritual practice?  Generate it within yourself.  Appeal to Mother who is the Grace behind all Will.

What is the difference between idol worship and Deity worship?  In the former case you have taken the image and made it separate from you and raised it above you and worship it.  But in Deity worship, the image stands for the Self.  All is equal, and "Thou Art That."

Christ did not come to die for your sins.  He came to reveal the Truth to you.  The Truth is that you have no sins.  You have no birth.  You do not even have a life.  You only have an eternal life, and that is lived by your formless Essence.  If you do not come to know It, then birth, life, sin, and death become real to you, and God exists somewhere outside of you.

Salvation is getting to the Son.  Liberation is getting to the Father through the Son, and not stopping at the Son.

 


 

Cosmic Forces, Lesser Deities, & Powers

People are insane.  They are chasing after money.  Maybe you are not evil like politicians who have skewed intentions, i.e. chasing money in order to dominate over others, but the principle is the same if you come under their auspices.  Move away from mundane convention that hides evil intention.

Cosmology, philosophy, spirituality - we cannot do without any of these.  We must not pull the rug out from under people's feet.  Cosmology includes ritual and worshipping the gods and goddesses.  The ancient rishis worshipped the gods and goddesses for millennia, then decided they did not want to be under their control anymore.  They wanted out of the cosmic process.  Besides, they found the gods and goddesses within themselves and thought, "Why should I put myself under the press of my own projections?"

The lower deities want beings as their votaries.  Vedanta states that you do not want to be under their control. They exist in you; they are your powers.

We are creating, preserving and destroying all the time.  We are playing with inner objects and senses and turning them outwards in play.

Miscellaneous

Antahkarana, the inner cause, consists of the following:
Manas: the mind based in duality that is bringing up my problems.
Chitta: the mind's thoughts, which brood on my problems.
Ahamkara: the sense of separate "I," that is the source of my problems.
Buddhi: my intelligence, the solution to my problems.

The face and body is where we see our prarabdha karma — what is generally called instinct, heredity, genes, etc.

Sankhya is our cosmology and science.
Patanjala is our methods, disciplines, and psychology.
Vedanta is our philosophy, Truth.

You cannot express Truth; you can only express Wisdom.

Sattva is a masquerader of the Peace that passes all understanding.  It is not sempiternal, everlasting.

Science used to be more true to the search for Truth.  But now the search is based upon the fallacious assumption of a utopian world and the money that will come from it.

Meditation is not meant for purification.  Jnana purifies the mind.  Bhakti purifies the heart. Karma purifies the body and senses.  But meditation is for my meeting with God.  Meditation — you cannot have it until you have purified everything else, otherwise it is just an effort at concentration.  Meditation is not for health, longevity etc.  It is for meeting God within.

To be or not to be — that is not a question.  You cannot not be; nothing doesn't exist.  To detach or engage — this is the real question.

Q:  People want the fast track — the best practice, most intense, and best teachers, and others want the lazy person's way.  Is there a way to accelerate illumination?
Babaji: Only Consciousness is the accelerator of Consciousness.

The jnani sees that people love the world for the wrong reasons.  Stripped of real knowledge, and devoid of attraction to the path of indifference, they love beings and the world for their own sake.  The jnani loves them for their Essence.  People think he is aloof, but he loves them too, but with an impersonal love, a truer love.

Mind is really Original Mind.  How is that spelled?  What acronym do you get with this? OM!

When we approach a Wisdom Tradition from a Faith Tradition, we get our questions answered.

Reality TV is a contradiction in terms; it is relativity TV.








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