The light of yoga will illuminate Your path, Pilgrim to the Truth. The chalice is a vessel of the heart based on the solar plexus and open towards the thymus. The first stage of the journey is the flower of the cardiac plexus blooming right up. The whole luminosity of the fiery will of the thymic center focuses in this indeed upper part of the heart lotus. It is a bright radiance of trust without which one cannot even say about taking the first step on the spiritual path. Regular, rhythmic breathing exercises which are in essence accumulating the life force and care for the internal purity of conscience prepare our spiritual being to take the path of spiritual change. This is the foundation of the first great initiation, also known as the awakening in the spirit or the opening of the heart.
There are many mystical spiritual schools leading to the gates of this spiritual initiation, which, however, have nothing more to offer. You can call them a gateway yoga or a yoga of heart. In fact, their goal is just the beginning of the right spiritual path of a truly seeking pilgrim. Man need seven transformations, also known as seven incarnations, in order to complete the pilgrimage as a seeking man of the heart. The path of the seven seals or initiations ends in the temple of the eternal ocean of peace. Here we have the connection of the circle of throat centre with the solar plexus, which as a new circular light of peace surrounds the goblet of the heart. The one for whom the temple of peace has become an eternal place of residence, the one who has reached this unmovable peace of the soul, can say that he has reached the second stage of initiation into the inner truth.
When the waking spirit of human being begins a journey in the field of miraculousness and extraordinary experiences of the power of the divine being, then it is heading towards the third degree initiation. Only a few spiritual schools introduce adepts into the arcana of using the powers of divine magic, as one could figuratively call the charism of making miracles and creation by the will of supreme existence. Here the adept becomes a pure white bird, the swan, as great teachers of the spiritual mystery poetically call the initiated of the third degree. In the depths of silence, mighty spiritual power is reach, the power which rules over the material world. The five smaller initiation mysteries are passed by a student of the spiritual path before he wanders from the temple of peace to the lake of purity and spiritual power. Making miracles is the privilege of the saints and it is right that such a person is called a saint. First, the one is internally completely cleansed and free from all contaminations of own soul, in what he resembles a swan dressed in pure, brilliant white. Secondly, personal karma of the person has been incinerated in the cleansing fire of the spirit. The living saint is the one who went through the fire baptism in which all the weeds that normally grow within the human beings have been incinerated. The next mystery is the experience of total liberation from the circle of birth and death and it is called the initiation of the arhat, which completes the path to its practical end. Now the soul cannot in any way fall into the old material contamination and limitations. Only such an initiated being is truly a Guru – a luminous spiritual master. The being of the spiritual master has risen above the world of suffering of human existence. So we see clearly why a spiritual teacher who does even the greatest miracles does not have to be a fully developed spiritual master at all.
Of course, the truth is that the most novice adepts of the spiritual path of life usually want to be students of the greatest masters, which in practice hinders their current studies and studies under the guidance of more advanced adepts who are in turn older students than they themselves in hierarchy of initiations. Therefore, the title of guru or spiritual master is reserved in practice for the being who is, at best, the current head of the spiritual school, and more often even in relation to the founder of the entire spiritual teaching line. Such a master, however, works through the initiation succession of his older spiritual disciples. With them, therefore, one should take the whole spiritual journey. In practice, all spiritual schools that exist function this way. Those who have just completed a given stage of working on themselves are those who pass it on to others who are willing to follow. This is the principle of hierarchy or seniority. So if we really want spiritual advancement, we must remember that the easiest access to the teaching line of a given guru comes through taking root and establishing ourselves in the spiritual community established by a given spiritual master. If you worship your great guru, and you cannot stand his spiritual organization and the older students whom he sends as teachers for those who take their first steps, it means that you do not accept this guru into your heart.
Basic spiritual teaching is from the beginning to the end a community based teaching, consisting in participation in joint meetings of a group of adepts initiated in a spiritual school of a given tradition. Neglecting this fundamental part of spiritual practice means actually abandoning the spiritual path. This is because the spiritual path is above all a school of unity in spirit. ‘Be as one’ – here is the right indication. Stay together in prayers and meditations. Being one and together, with common action, is the basis for any further spiritual development.
Personal, daily practice and work on yourself is also part of the spiritual path that you choose, but isolation from the practicing community and the organization of spiritual master at best leads to the development of egoism and arrogance. Orient calls it entering a dead end. We pretend that we are developing, and we are really doing everything to get out of all kinds of development. Of course, we have the right to do so. No one is forced to follow the spiritual path. Although there is yet another fifth spiritual initiation for those who have already become great gurus, we do not need to consider at all whether our guru is above the level of a neighbour guru from a friendly path or spiritual tradition, or maybe is a bit “smaller”. Arhat comes through birth if he wants to return to earth because of the desire to help humanity, and so do teachers and students (in one person) of all previous levels. Only the guru of the fifth degree of initiation can return by appearing on the earth plane at once in a ready adult human form without going through the process of human birth. What’s more, in the same way, he can depart from among the physically living. Therefore, the fifth great initiation is called dissolution into the rainbow light. In this way, the esteemed group of the few creatures known to us, such as Guru Padmasambawa, Rabbi Jesus Nazarene, Prophet Elias, Patriarch Henoch, and Master Lao Tse, have left the earth. Certainly one can refer to these beings as the initiate in the mystery of dissolving into the rainbow body, so that no trace of the physical body is left to the posterity. You cannot find them in the grave. In very old times, long before these beings, the Guru Śiva was transforming in a similar way. Hence, to this day, this mystery is called initiation into the rainbow body of Master Shiva.
The name Siva, literally translated means exactly: “Gracious.” The greatest grace that comes to man is this Śivah, whose mystical symbol is the five-pointed star. The Guru Śiva is considered in the East to be the head of the entire so-called Higher Order, which gathers together all the saints of the living God. This means gathering above the third initiation: these “swans” and arhats. Let us remember that the smallest swan in that Kingdom of Heaven is the God’s saint full of power who has the charism of making miracles. Meeting such a being is therefore a rare phenomenon rather than a frequent. It is also necessary to know that the patriarchs and judges of old traditions come from swans, and rarely from arhats.
Most of the seekers are unfortunately just before the first spiritual change or in the working phase just after the great change called spiritual awakening or initiation. This means a trial path in the first case, where the main motivation is to achieve better health, well-being, improvement of the earth’s existence, and also the path of the seven smaller initiations in the second case. Candidates to take a spiritual path, as well as those who begin with it, have many tendencies to abandon the path for the most sinister reasons, to which they sometimes attribute great importance. It is really their own ego defending itself with all possible means and tricks against proceeding on the spiritual path. In the opinion of all gurus and murshids, it is the ego, the subconscious, the lower self – if it is not maintained under the control of consciousness and the will to fulfil the resolution of following the path, it is what causes the abandonment of the path. Every “reason” for such an ego is good, so that it becomes a pernicious energy of isolation from the community and path. This is one of the first and most difficult tests on the spiritual path of development. Many souls stumble and fall.
It is extremely important for the community pilgrimaging through seven changes to use the indications of yoga practice, as they are contained in the first part of “Yogasutra” by Guru Patanjali. The first class of yoga is “samadhi padah” – the Path of Focus. The next development steps usually have four phases that echo the four great initiations. We can call these steps the pillars of spiritual achievement. However, these pillars of four aspects should be practiced as one.
Introduction to the spiritual path is to get connected with the energy of God through His envoys. Entering the path requires making a completely clear choice, a bold decision. The power of heart, himma, must be powerfully awakened. Sympathy, compassion, joy and tolerance are four qualities of well-prepared heart of the Pilgrim to follow the path.
Forget all guilt and resentment. Forget about all sinfulness. Forget about being humiliated or offended. Just forgetting is the beginning of forgiveness, freeing oneself from the effects of past events. Do not mention past events if you have an unpleasant experience. Examine your conscience to forget that old memories lose their meaning if you want never to repeat similar events anymore. You will develop a heart capable of mercy, compassion, joy and tolerance. What is tolerance? It is to remain in peace to the depths of the subconscious mind. It is a kind of positive indifference that is warm and welcoming in its mercy. Upaksha is just such a peace of tolerance.
Sadness is just a baggage of excessive memories of unpleasant events from the past. In this way, the joy of life, which is the nature of the soul, has no possibility of natural manifestation. So avoid attachment to that what has already passed. Stop living the bitterness of old regrets and the grudges of the ego. Bitterness is always a poison of spiritual development.
Pilgrim’s refined personality, after going through seven phases of spiritual transformation, transforms into the image of the soul. Body, voice, thoughts, feelings, movements – all this becomes an image of the Self called higher or divine. The soul is the image of God Himself, the Supreme Being, and the whole figure of Pilgrim – who is building the house of peace – is the image of the soul. This is the picture of the adept of the second great spiritual initiation. He follows towards the power of God.
Hum!
Aćarya Lalit Mohan G.K.
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