Don't let down. Success comes with consistency of conduct. Improve and control our mind and behavior standards twenty-four hours a day. Monistic Theism, our tradition, is a dual approach. Worshiping God on the outside; claiming and realizing God on the inside. Going deep within to find That which does not change. The path of Saivism: "Bhakti-raja-siddha yoga leading to oneness."

Master Course, Living with Siva, Merging with Siva, Dancing with Siva, Lesson 7.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

Reading some from today's Master Course lesson, Lesson 7:

"Every Temple Made of Brick.

"How strong you must be to find this Truth. You must become very, very strong. How do you become strong? Exercise. You must exercise every?muscle and sinew of your nature by obeying the dictates of the law, of the spiritual laws. It will be very difficult. A weak muscle is very?difficult to make strong, but if you exercise over a period of time and do what you should do, it will respond. Your nature will respond, too. But?you must work at it. You must try. You must try. You must try very, very hard. Very diligently. How often? Ten minutes a day? No. Two hours a day? No. Twenty-four hours a day! Every day! You must try very, very hard."

How do we try twenty-four hours a day; that's a good question. So, obviously by trying twenty-four hours a day, it doesn't mean we're supposed to do homa twenty-four hours a day, chant Sri Rudram twenty-four hours a day. It means we're supposed to control our mind twenty-four hours a day. That's what Gurudeva's talking about. That we don't let down.

Some people are very professional, very refined at the office and then they go home and argue with their spouse all night. You know they let down; they don't maintain the same standard of behavior throughout the day. And then Gurudeva, in one of his writings, he scolds the monks. He said: You have to even uphold your behavior in your sleep. You know, you have to control your dreams, can't go to the wrong place in your dreams. So, when you start to get into your dreams they you're extending it another eight hours there, six hours.

So that's the basic idea is we maintain a consistency of conduct, shall we say. Consistency of conduct throughout the day even when we're asleep. We don't become a different person when we're asleep. We don't become a different person when we go home from work. We're the same person throughout the day; that's what we're trying for. And that's what Gurudeva says takes a while. Because we have to build new habit patterns. If we're not in the habit of doing that we have to build new habit patterns. And building new habit patterns, Gurudeva's comparing it building a muscle. It's a slow process. And just as with building muscle success comes with consistency, right? You can't do your exercises for three hours one day, skip the next, half an hour then skip the next. Nothing will happen. You need consistency to build a muscle.

So, likewise, to make new habits, to improve the behavior standard we want to uphold, requires consistency. We don't want to try hard for one month and then give up.

"Preparing you for the realization of the Self is like tuning up a violin,?tightening up each string so it harmonizes with every other string. The more sensitive you are to tone, the better you can tune a violin, and the?better the violin is tuned, the better the music. The stronger you are in your nature, the more you can bring through your real nature; the?more you can enjoy the bliss of your true being. It is well worth working for. It is well worth craving for. It is well worth denying yourself many,?many things for--to curb your nature. It is well worth struggling with your mind, to bring your mind under the dominion of your will."

Then from, "A Path Of Love." This is a great sentence here at the beginning.

"The path of Saiva Siddhanta is worshiping God on the outside and realizing God on the inside, and when the two come together--transformation!"

So that's our Monistic Theism or our approach is a dual approach. Gurudeva, as I've explained a number of times, made it simple for the monks. We have two rooms. We have Kadavul Temple and the Guru Temple. When Kadavul Temple we come and we're great dualists. We're great bhaktars. There's God and we're worshiping God. So, we're worshiping God on the outside.

Then we go around the corner, we have an hour meditation in the morning. And we're claiming God on the inside; we're great monists. So it's both. Or, more specifically, we have to be a great bhaktar or great dualist to become a good monist in our tradition. One is based on the foundation of the other. But, we're also not trying to do just one or the other. We're not trying to simply worship in the temple, call it good. We're not trying simply to meditate and call it good; we're trying to do both. That's Gurudeva's point.

"The path of Saiva Siddhanta is worshiping God on the outside and realizing God on the inside, and when the two come together--transformation!"

Then he goes on to explain.

"That means that you're different than you were. (That's a definition of transformation. What is transformation? Well becoming different than you were.) You have different desires. You have different motivations, different goals in?life, because you've been transformed. You look at your previous life and you say, 'That's another person.' Why? Because you have found?something real on the inside of you. Thoughts on the inside of you--they're not real, they're always changing. Feelings on the inside of you--they're not real, they're always changing. Siva on the inside of you is right there--never changes. Those of you who hear the nada, it's the same?inner sound, morning, noon and night, 365 days a year. The light that lights your thoughts, 365 days a year, twenty-four hours a day, is the?same. It lights up your dreams also. And the energy of your body--all coming from Siva."

So, Gurudeva's talking about the inside of us, what it's like to experience the inside of us and that we have to go that deeply within to find something that doesn't change. Otherwise, we're going in and we're finding our thoughts and our feelings and they're constantly changing. So, we have to go deeper than that to find that part of us that doesn't change.

This is Sloka 7 from Dancing with Siva.

"What is the Deeply Mystical Saiva Sect?"

So it's defining the, it's going through each of the four sects of Hinduism, so it starts with Saivism.

"Saivism is the world's oldest religion. Worshiping God Siva, the compassionate One, it stresses potent disciplines, high philosophy, the guru's centrality and bhakti-raja-siddha yoga leading to oneness with Siva within."

What in the world is "bhakti-raja-siddha yoga?" I looked it up in our glossary. It's not?there. Tried to find it again. It's the only time in the whole Trilogy that Gurudeva uses this phrase. And he doesn't define it. "...bhakti-raja-siddha yoga leading to oneness..."

Well he's saying the same thing as he did a little more overtly in that last sentence. First we worship God on the outside and then we claim God on the inside. So, he's saying the same thing but he's condensing it. Bhakti yoga is first. Our devotion is first. Then raja yoga, meditation, comes after that. And then that leads to attainment or siddha. Siddha means attainment. Certain realizations, certain powers even. But based upon bhakti you do raja and based upon raja you become a siddhar or one who is attained. "...leading to oneness with Siva within."

So it's a very nice sloka there defining the whole essence of what we're doing.

So have a wonderful day.