The Supreme Abode Of God🔗

Authored by

THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

When we understand that at higher dimensions, all that we see is destroyed and created continuously, we realize the futility of holding onto things, even our own body.

When at a higher dimension, we realize that all that we see is destroyed and created continuously, only one thing is neither created nor destroyed and that is the Ultimate Consciousness'!

That Supreme abode is said to be unmanifest and indestructible and is the Supreme destination. When one gains this state one never comes back. That is My supreme abode.

The abode where one will not return to refers to the state of the being when it transcends joys and sorrow.

In our concept of time and space, we see material things as permanent. We think we can control them. We want to have ownership over everything that is available. And the problem is everyone wants the same thing! Everyone fights to take charge of the same thing. We are like cats fighting over a piece of bread.

Please listen, we fight to catch hold of this body. We want to hold onto this body for as long as we can. Even at sixty or seventy, many people go in for plastic surgery. They do things to look young. Why? They do not want to accept the truth that the body is impermanent.

When you look around, you see that the Earth is stationary. It is not moving. When you look from the moon, you see the earth moving. When you go beyond the moon, you see that the moon also moves. Once we raise ourselves to higher dimensions, we see the actual truth.

As long as we limit ourselves to this space, we think the earth is stationary. When we change our concept of space and time, when we change our reference point in space and time, we realize that all we think of as permanent, all that we think is ours is not permanent. It is continuously being created and destroyed.

When we live in bondage to fear and greed, we continuously build saṃskāras. We create more and more desires. First of all, we are not trying to fulfill our true desires or prārabdha karma. Then on top of that, we build a whole new set of desires. In our concept of time and space, we think things are permanent. We think we own them and we should take care of them and control them.

When we understand that at higher dimensions, all that we see is destroyed and created continuously, we realize the futility of holding onto things, even our own body. Kṛṣṇa says that in all this creation and destruction, only one thing is neither created nor destroyed and that is the 'Ultimate Consciousness'!

SPACE

Appreciate and intranalyze the deeper meaning. Understand that whatever we see is transient. Nothing is permanent. It is like putting our hand in a river and trying to hold the water in our hand. What happens?

The river flows past, and our hand is empty. Once we realize this truth, our whole idea about time and space will change. We will see everything around us in a different way and understand the futility of the rat race.

The seven layers that the spirit travels through at the time of death. The first four layers are related to the physical body-mind system. They store emotionally laden memories: patterns related to desires, guilt and pain experienced during that lifetime. The fifth layer is experienced during deep sleep and when leaving the body. The sixth layer is associated with happy memories and the seventh layer is beyond sorrow and happiness; it is the Ultimate consciousness.

Even attachment to happy memories brings us back into the cycle of birth and death. It is not enough if we transcend pains and sufferings alone. Understand that happy incidents are also temporary and try to move beyond them.

Throughout the day, how many times do we think of God? Maybe before a meal, or before going to bed. Otherwise, it is only when we face some problem, that we think of God! But how many times do we think of some film actress or actor? Everything in the newspapers, on television or on the internet is about something with which we are not really connected.

Out of thousands of thoughts, less than one percent is probably related to God. Everything else is related to something external. Please listen, every thought is energy and we waste more than ninety nine percent of our energy on something that is not really needed for us. If we can channel this energy to look inward, to see the source of our existence, we explore a new dimension of our Self. We are ready to do anything other than think about God or our Self. Why? We think it is a waste of time. We always make business plans.

YOURSELF iN GOD

MATERIALS NEEDED:

PROCEDURE

Make a sketch of a shiva linga on a sheet of paper. Now glue one side of the match stick and place it inside the sketch so as to completely cover the image. Be creative in placing the dark tip of the matchstick to create design patterns on your shiva linga. Or you may cut out the dark tip before pasting the stick onto the image and use the cut outs for decoration.

SHIVA LINGA

INFERENCE

Encourage the kids to direct their creative potential in activities that involve visualization of the divine forms and imagery.

Make the divine part of your every expression!

PROCEDURE:

Let us list out five customs of the Hindus that encourage them to remember God constantly. Example. Hindu parents name their children after Gods, Ganesha or Guru is invoked before starting any task, divine leelas are great bedtime stories, all Hindu festivals celebrate life events of divine incarnations, etc.

INFERENCE:

We must find more and more ways to make the divine part of our everyday life. The only way to think of the Divine at the time of our death is by thinking about Him all the time.

Topic of discussion is "How does belief in the concept of finite time and limited space fuel misery?

Conclusion: We do not need to reduce the number of thoughts. Let the thoughts be of God. This purifies our inner space.

BOOK VIII, VOLUME VII

How To Pass In Light ?

Authored by

THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

if we have always lived with our attention focused towards higher consciousness, we will travel in that path and disappear into Brahman. We will become enlightened.

Those who pass away from the world during the influence of the fire god, during light, at an auspicious moment, during the fortnight of the moon ascending and the six months when the sun travels in the north, and have realized the supreme Brahman do not return.

When one passes in light, symbolic of times when our mind is totally balanced and when we are not agitated, he never comes back.

Reclaim your freedom! Declare your freedom! Raise your inner space to the peak joy, fulfillment, and excitement.

When we become aware of these root thought patterns and are free from them, we leave the body and become liberated.

Those who know the supreme Divine attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the influence of Agni, the fire-god, during light or at an auspicious moment of the day, also during the fortnight of the waxing moon or during the six months that the sun travels in the north, referred to as uttarāyaṇaṁ.

Understand, these are not chronological calendars. If it were a chronological calendar, then at uttarāyaṇaṁ time, all of us can commit suicide and be done with it, that’s all! But that is not what is meant here. All these things have metaphorical meanings. When He says uttarāyaṇaṁ, Kṛṣṇa means when our mind is totally balanced and when we are not agitated.

In the Mahābhārat war it is said that Bhīśma Pitāmaḥ waits for uttarāyaṇam to leave the body. Don't think he waited for January. He waited until his mind settled down from the agitations and incompletions, and he establishes himself in the space of completion.

He had fallen in battle and was lying down on a bed made of arrows. He must have felt agitated. He must have felt, 'My grandson, whom I taught everything, for whom I did everything, did this to me.' He would have been disturbed. So he waited until the agitation settled down. That is what is meant by the words, 'he was waiting for uttarāyaṇam.'

Don't think these are chronological concepts. They are psychological. If it were chronological, then do you think that the millions of people who die in those six months become enlightened? Enlightenment is not an accident! It is a pure conscious choice. So be very clear, when He says agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ.

He means if we are conscious ... agnir jyotir ... means when your being is conscious ... when your being is fully alive, awakened, naturally you go up. (śuklaḥ means going above, kṛṣṇa means going down). If we live throughout life centered on the eyes, our energy leaves through the eyes. At the last moment, we open the eyes and the soul leaves. If we live throughout life centered on the tongue, eating, our mouth opens and the soul leaves through it. So if we live throughout life centered on higher consciousness, our energy leaves through the sahasrāra, the crown cakra, the energy center on the top of our head.

Next, Kṛṣṇa says that the person who passes away from this world during smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning moon or those six months when the Sun travels in the south, referred to as Dakṣiṇāyaṇaṁ, reaches the Moon but comes back again. Again, this is psychological. They can't say that in these six months nobody can become enlightened. They can't say, 'During the six months of dakṣiṇāyaṇaṁ, the Enlightenment gates are locked, no entry. Only at uttarāyaṇaṁ time, the gates are open. Come at that time.' No! They can't say, 'Dakṣiṇāyaṇaṁ time is non-working hours and only uttarāyaṇaṁ time is working hours.' There are no working hours for enlightenment. It is purely because of the conscious choice of one's being.

DARKNESS

If you look inside, the reason for your low inner space, powerless inner space will be some root thought pattern. Break that! Reclaim your freedom! Declare your freedom! Raise your inner space to the peak joy, fulfillment, and excitement.

Please understand, when Śwetaketu, a young seeker mentioned in Upaniṣads, was initiated by his Guru, his Guru said only nine times — 'Tat Tvam Asi! Tat Tvam Asi! Tat Tvam Asi!' (thou are that), and Śweta-ketu became enlightened. Why then, even if you listen to 'Tat Tvam Asi' nine-thousand times, you don't become enlightened? Carry the right inner space! On the rock, seed can not sprout as a tree.

In the right fertile ground only, the seed can become a tree. In the right inner space only, the teachings can become reality. Right inner space means where all the root thought patterns of suffering are destroyed. Listen! All root thought patterns are destroyed where your inner space is fertile for experiencing the higher ideals and ideas.

When we become aware of these root thought patterns and are free from them, we leave the body and become liberated. This is what He means by light. He says that when this happens, the being does not return to the body.

❖ What is the meaning of the verse "Tat Tvam Asi!"?

LIGHT AND DARK

MATERIALS NEEDED:

PROCEDURE

Request each child to Select two pictures from the internet that depict two contrasting ideas. If a child does not have internet access, let them contribute ideas to the topic:

• Each picture must represent an idea that you would consider as “Light” versus another that you would consider “Dark”. Make the contract as stark as possible. • Here are a few examples to help you visualize the contrasting ideas you are looking for, like the blue sky versus a night sky, a new budding leaflet versus a dried up leaf falling to the ground, a smiling face versus a tear rolling down a face etc.

PROCEDURE

Paste the pictures on to your google doc and title the collage "Dark versus Light". Share with the Group by taking a printout or posting a PDF of the Google Doc to your class WhatsApp group.

INFERENCE

The contrasting ideas of light and dark is often used in literary and artistic works to symbolically denote the levels of consciousness or life positivity expressed. Becoming aware of one's darkness or root thought patterns is the first step towards bringing in light or becoming free from them altogether.

PROCEDURE:

Write down all your root thought patterns that torment you eg. unfulfilled desires, fears, guilt, etc. in your notebook. The notebook is private to you and should not be shared with anyone. And complete with all your root thought patterns by symbolically visualizing that you are dropping them at the feet of the master and offering a prayer that you be freed of them.

INFERENCE:

Topic of discussion is: “Tat Tvam Asi!” meaning “You are that!”

CONCLUSION: When we become aware of our root thought patterns and are free from them, we leave the body in restful awareness and become liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

Conclusion: What Kṛṣṇa says: This is the path on which a man can easily leave and liberate himself, and also the path on which he can suffer and destroy himself. Both ways are now shown by Kṛṣṇa.

BOOK VIII, VOLUME VIII