Living with Siva |
The Master
Course
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Pathyakramah
The |
Often the uninformed prefer to start on their spiritual path at steps seven and eight, ignoring the other six, and more than often wonder why no immediate and lasting results are obtained. Drawing upon over half a century of teaching and explaining, the trilogy articulates in no uncertain terms why you must begin at the beginning, with a firm foundation of philosophical clarity and good character, and proceed from there. Dancing with Siva, the first book of the trilogy, lays out the philosophical, Vedic-Agamic beliefs, attitudes and expectations of the Saivite Hindu religion, which are so necessary to understand, adopt and uphold in order to make true progress in the areas discussed in the other two books. Living with Siva, the second book of the trilogy, concerns itself with Saivite lifestyle, culture, family life, character-building and the overcoming of uncomplimentary habits that disturb others as well as oneself. It focuses on yama, niyama and, in a lesser way, asana and pranayama (hatha yoga). For the entire system of ashtanga yoga to work, a firm philosophical-cultural foundation, as found in Dancing with Siva and Living with Siva, must be subconsciously accepted by the devotee as his own way of looking at and living life, relating it to experience, solving problems, approaching worship and so forth. Merging with Siva, the third book of the trilogy, encompasses steps five, six and seven, leading to eight -- all of which is personally experiential once we learn to dance with Siva and live with Siva. This means having a good philosophical understanding, a solid commitment, as well as good character, and living the religion. Upon such a foundation, the yogic and metaphysical experiences described in Merging come naturally and are sustainable. The Master Course trilogy is a daily, lifetime study for my devotees worldwide to be explored year after year after year, generation after generation. Through great effort we have summarized this entire study of more than 3,000 pages into 365 Nandinatha Sutras of four lines each that make up Part Four of Living with Siva. The Master Course is a life-transforming study organized in 365 daily lessons. Devotees may begin at any time -- and whatever time lesson one is begun is the most auspicious time -- then continue right around the year until 365 lessons are complete. If you are ready to change your life, begin The Master Course today. If not, then perhaps tomorrow. There are three ways to study The Master Course: 1) Internet Study; 2) Home Study; and 3) Formal Correspondence Study. 1. INTERNET STUDY: The Internet Study can be begun immediately at any time. The current lesson of the day is found on the Internet at www.Gurudeva.org in the The Master Course Daily Lesson section. The course begins on the first day of the calendar year, but can be commenced on any day during the year. You need not wait for day one of the calendar year to roll around. Start with the current lesson, which might be number 132 -- and consider your year complete when you reach lesson 131. You will find the lessons filled with philosophical, practical and soul-stirring information potent enough to inspire even a skeptic to change his ways of thinking about life and the ultimate goal of existence on this planet. Begin now. Today is the most auspicious time. 2. HOME STUDY: The Master Course Home Study requires the ownership of the three books of the trilogy. Begin your daily reading with Dancing with Siva, shloka one and its bhashya. Then open Living with Siva and read Lesson 1. Next, turn to the Nandinatha Sutras in Part Four of Living with Siva and read the first sutra. Finally, open Merging with Siva and read the first lesson. Reading each day's lesson from the three books of the trilogy takes about twenty minutes. Because there are only 155 lessons (shlokas and bhashyas) in Dancing with Siva, when you complete lesson 155 of this book, begin again at the beginning. Then, when you complete the second reading, totalling 310 days, begin again with lesson one, and continue reading until lesson 55, to coincide with lesson 365 of Living with Siva and Merging with Siva. If you study these lessons each day for a year, you will have completed a profound sadhana, a personal odyssey into the interior of you and on into the depths of Hinduism, a practice sufficient to transform your life by transforming the way you look at life itself. The Master Course trilogy of Dancing, Living and Merging with Siva can be enjoyed by the entire family year after year after year, studied personally and read aloud at breakfast, dinner or in the shrine room after the morning puja. Proceed with confidence and without delay. 3. FORMAL CORRESPONDENCE STUDY: The Master Course Correspondence Study is for those who seek a personalized, supervised approach. This is a service offered by Himalayan Academy since 1957. It requires formal enrollment and qualification, openly describing the goals one wishes to accomplish and the details of one's background, education and experience. Correspondent students are required to purchase the color edition of all three books. They are given access to regular e-mail Cyberspace News reports, discounts on the yearly Innersearch Travel-Study Programs, access to a special Master Course website, as well as having questions answered first, before all others, by me on TAKA, "Today at Kauai Aadheenam," the internationally loved web page which displays the daily happenings at my home. E-mail MasterCourse@Hindu.org for more information. A word of advice: There is a strong tendency when a student first begins meditation to want to give up external things, to give up work and devote more time to making his meditation the perfect thing. But this is not the spirit of The Master Course. Many more forces that are negative would result from his turning away from the world as possibly already occurred in his work in the exterior world prior to his ever hearing about meditation. The thrust of The Master Course Correspondence Study is to improve all aspects of one's life. Step one is for the student to prove to himself that he can work positively in the world, performing his duties with full energy, intuiting how the whole mechanism of life is constructed -- the exterior world, his mind, himself. Then ten, fifteen or twenty minutes of good, dynamic meditation a day and The Master Course studies to guide the mind along in a step-by-step manner are more than sufficient. It comes down to readjusting our thinking and making our point of reference the reality within ourselves instead of the reality and permanence of the external world of things, forms and fancy. Once our whole philosophical structure is in line with Saiva Siddhanta thinking, it is easy to throw the mind into meditation. Then when we are working in our daily life, involved in external things and material affairs, the point of reference is that the energy within and the core of the energy and the Self itself are real. The key is to put more energy into each activity you are engaged in. Rather than renouncing it, really work at it. Put your whole self in it. Get enthusiastic about it. Then you are flooding more life force through the body, right from the center of life itself. Having the Self as a point of reality reference and not the material things, with the life force constantly flooding through these nerve currents, you are actually seeing what you are doing as part of the cosmic dance of Siva, as the energy of Siva flows in and through you. Through this practice you can cut through many of your deep-rooted subconscious hang-ups that were provoked in past lives without having them come to the surface, simply by creating a new habit pattern of facing and looking at yourself as a divine being performing your dharma in God Siva's perfect universe. You create the new habit patterns by doing everything as best you can, with as much forethought and as much energy as you can command. This approach will bring steady progress on the path of personal spiritual realization and transformation. Write or e-mail us for an application to begin the supervised sadhanas of The Master Course Correspondence Study. We welcome you. It won't be easy, but anything worthwhile is not easy. |