Seeing how many people hear the words initiation, vow, obligation and become terrified or discouraged towards spiritual schools or practices, today I will deal with this question posed as the title of this Esoteric Bulletin. Personally, I have met many people who tremble and are afraid when they hear the word initiation. So I will ask again why Ego(ism) becomes terrified and reluctant at the very thought of receiving initiation or taking the initiatory path.
Firstly, this is because God’s Blessing, which is the basis of all initiation into the path of spiritual development, contains the power of exorcism that removes all psychic enslavement, both astral and mental. For this reason, all people inspired by not very pure astral or mental forces tremble before initiation and say all the worst things they can think of about the initiation paths. Psychics who rely on their own astral or mental power, as well as people influenced by spiritualistic powers, constitute a group of opponents of initiation (dikshan). They only recognize their own path of working on themselves at their own discretion. They do not want to allow the Holy Spirit to interfere in their development and guide their will. It would quickly turn out that Good God is freeing them from everything with which they are tragically connected to their own destruction.
Secondly, the power of Brahman, God’s Holy Spirit, immediately cleanses us of worldly influences, tendencies and inclinations. This makes us different in the perception of people in this world. The sensual world, feeling the Power of Heaven that kills the Ego (Anava) and all egoism, spontaneously reacts with opposition. Those initiated by the blessing hands of the spiritual Master are often attacked or harassed by worldly people. It takes great patience to endure this often great humiliation. Young aspirants of spiritual development, unable to bear these experiences, usually coming from people close to them, fall down, abandon the path, or isolate themselves from their family or parents if they manifest tendencies of dark egotism and aversion to everything that is divine and spiritual.
Anava, the Ego principle, strives for separation from all beings and existences other than itself. The power of spiritual blessing makes the structure of the Ego (I) more fluid and therefore easy to connect with other consciousnesses. Anava is always personal, individual, separate and similar. Anava creates ‘I’ and ‘mine’ thinking. In God (Brahman), all individual beings, all separateness merge into one organism, which is extremely supra-personal and beyond the individual. Demonic beings (rakshasas) focus on the development of individualism and personality. Divine beings, angels (devas) guide us towards compassion and mutual permeation, which is a step towards merging into one with the Divine All-Spirit. One mind, one heart, one spirit – this is the path of unity shown by God’s Heavens. The Kingdom of Heaven is an organism of divine awareness of the universal unity of all forms of being belonging to it. Only separating our egoistic existence from other forms of being makes us insensitive to their pain, suffering and striving. It is only because of selfish individualism that we are able to kill and destroy other forms of being. It is a sign of Ego(ism), a sign of deception in the trap of Anava.
Anava, the Ego is what keeps us trapped in the karmic prison and prevents us from having a more direct and conscious contact with the divinity of the Kingdom of Heaven, with the angels. The ego does not like the energy of initiation because then its empire of separateness shrinks and ultimately ends in what we call liberation or salvation, Kaivalya.
Before we enter Heaven to consciously commune with angelic beings, the Anava (Ego) principle must be purified, refined and dissolved. Anava, our egoism feels this as annihilation or self-loss (laya, fana). Many people, through egoic instinct, begin to fear death when they come into contact with the energies of God’s initiatory blessings. The experience of the mystical death of the Arhat (Perfect One), known as Avići, is the experience of the complete and final elimination of the element of egoism from the consciousness of a living being. The Master’s path leading from the fourth spiritual initiation (Arhat) to the fifth planetary initiation (Asekha) is the path of impersonality and selflessness. Seva, which involves impersonal service to others, is a kind of training that prepares searching souls to later undertake the actual spiritual training that ends with the Master’s internal spiritual initiation. The ego is removed in the Avići process, which is reflected in the spiritual interpretation of the heart circumcision ritual. The Ego principle is cut out of the heart and the being experiences a mystical death for a period of three earthly days.
The soul has so far evolved based on I Am. Now he is losing his sense of self (Ego). All that remains is I Am, Existence, Qayyum – as the Sufi masters call it. Now the heavens are always open, more real than the world before. Now the heart is spiritually circumcised and belongs to the world of the Empyrean to the unlimited light of 120,000 prophetic souls constantly sent by God to save the world, 84,000 of whom are siddhas (perfect ones) keeping watch between the heavens and the earth. A total of 144,000 sent souls live in the Empyrean, although in each period 24,000 remain in the Palace of Light to support bodhisattvas, messengers incarnating in various spheres of existence for the salvation of sentient beings.
The spiritual path (Brahmana Marga) in its essence is the path of death of the element of egotism, thanks to which we become so heavy that we fall into material forms of existence and even into hellish spheres of existence. Archangel Gabriel opened Muhammad’s chest, removing the foreskin of selfishness from it. He thus cleansed his soul and heart of any tendency to maintain existence in a karmic prison. Anava, in its essence, is the foundation on which the entire karmic tower of Babel was built during subsequent incarnations. The circumcision of the heart ultimately makes us full citizens of the higher than human Spiritual Kingdom, which is known as the Fifth Kingdom of Nature, next to the mineral, plant, animal and human stages of soul development.
The ego is afraid of this final metamorphosis exactly as the proverbial devil is afraid of holy water, which carries the wave or energy of divine blessing (unless, of course, the priest is a spiritual and spiritually initiated person). When our loved ones and relatives instinctively feel that the interests of the Ego are threatened, they begin to turn against what we do, which leads us to higher levels of evolution. When other Egos accompanying us feel that we are starting to become a vessel with holy water, then their aggression becomes even stronger, as they can even destroy such a vessel. Therefore, the sages advised hiding the Light of God’s Spirit rather than spending it thoughtlessly. You don’t give what is holy to dogs, they said, and you don’t put your pearls before swine.
Even Christian esotericism recalls the prophetic words from the mouth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of ME.” Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For in this way they persecuted the prophets (paghambar) who were before you.” (Mt. 5, 11 and 12). The more the world is against you because of your Guru or other Spiritual Teacher, the greater is your Blessing and Reward from God. And if such things happen, like nonsense made up by people that falls on your head, even more know that the spiritual guidance you are reaching for is more true and authentic. This is not an encouragement to bring all the plagues and slander upon your head, it is only to recognize the signs of truth scattered throughout the world. It is good to consider and remember these words of the preacher of good news, the Apostle Matthew, written down as a statement of the Master Jesus, so as not to be surprised by the events that come as a result of our spiritual aspirations. The battlefield of Śri Arjuna reminds us of the war against the world of dark forces that we must fight while traveling on the spiritual path. Arjuna ushered in and represented the Spiritual Kingdom, the Kingdom of Love, Peace and Truth. The world declared war on Him without any possibility of negotiation or settlement. There is much to be learned from this, for Arjuna’s fiercest opponents were his near and dear relatives. This is how sometimes the Egos of people close to the spiritual Pilgrim (Parivrajaka) react to his spiritual, inner efforts to establish more sympathy, peace, love and harmony in life. They declare war, as we say figuratively, on the side of the devil and his dark demons. Particularly characteristic is the fact that all so-called religious fundamentalists join this camp, and so willingly, regardless of the denomination they come from. Therefore, on a truly spiritual path, Pilgrims with Hindu roots do not differ in their situation from Pilgrims coming from the religious circles of Islam or Christianity. Those who worship God only with their mouths willingly side with opponents of spiritual development, spiritual healing, mysticism, esotericism, the new age, yoga or Sufi, even contemplative prayer circles of their own faith. This is how this powerful spiritual law functions, which Jesus repeated, among others, as a reflection on Arjuna’s fight on the Field of Kuru (Bhagavad Gita), which took place three thousand years before He was born. This law can be called the reactionality of Egoism.
In this context of the reaction and fight of Egotism with spiritualization and the evolutionary growth of self-awareness, the words of Jesus, which he utters as the Loggia (Sentence), can be more easily understood: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a son against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a MAN’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mt. 10. 34-36). In the context of Arjuna’s spiritual and real fight on the Kuru Field, we can have absolute clarity that the blessing of Initiation, this Transmission of the Holy Spirit and accepting the Master (Christ in the spiritual sense) into one’s heart, entails the appearance of the sword of separation, polarization of the so-called household and loved ones for or against the powers of the Spirit. The more we become Human in the true, spiritual sense of the word, that is the more we mature spiritually, becoming a fully developed human being, the more we can experience the sword of spiritual warfare instead of peace. This means the path to harmony through conflict, as paraphrased by Hazrat Inayat Khan, a great Sufi mystic and sage from the beginning of the 20th century. Ego(ism) is always a great obstacle to spiritual development, both from the outside and from the inside.
YAMA means control or mastery, dominion. It is controlling the Egoism of one’s own Self. Thanks to initiation, the Divine Spirit begins to rule over the lower, egoistic nature, which is the root and support of previous pre-existence. The influence of the Divine Spirit spreads around the initiate in an esoteric spiritual school, and the reactionary forces, the forces of darkness and fundamentalism, stubbornly oppose all spiritualization and evolutionary, even physical or mental progress, if we have undertaken training in the spiritualization of the body or the improvement of the mind. Hence all the reluctance of the environment and the so-called worldly people, as well as household members and families, towards those who have made the effort to realize full humanity, in the image and likeness of God according to the intention of the Creator (Brahma). That is why Tantra calls the spiritual path a spiritual struggle, which was not unknown to both Arjuna nor Jesus. Hum!
Many Blessings on your Path to Awakening and Realization!
Om Namaśśivaya! Hum!
Aćaryaćarya Swami Lalita-Mohan G.K.
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