Shiv has his state because he is shant (at peace). If Shiv is not shant, there is pralay (destruction). And Shiv is inside us. So if there is ashanti inside us, one can well imagine the consequences…
As you progress in yog, you attract both positive and negative entities. And though there is a shield around yogis, sometimes in deep sleep, there may come a vulnerable moment when negative energies can enter. Therefore, whenever we are travelling, someone does mantra jaap by the window at night when I sleep.
On one of the trips, we were staying on the topmost floor of a reputed hotel. The walls of the hotel rose vertically with no relief whatsoever. There were windows, but all of them were sealed. Since I cannot stay in air-conditioning, we had taken special permission to open the window to our room. The sadhak who was on duty at night saw a rat sitting on the window ledge. The instant reaction of the sadhak was to shut the window and bolt it lest the rat comes inside. Then he wondered, how did a rat manage to climb up a plain wall to reach the topmost floor with all windows closed, especially in such a renowned hotel where no breach in hygiene is tolerated? The sadhak opened the window to check if the rat was still there. It had disappeared.
The sadhaks who travel with me, when they do mantra jaap, they are able to interact with devs and devis. So when the rat disappeared in thin air, the sadhak asked the devs what happened to the rat. The answer he got was – If a gyani comes in your contact and you hold him tight, and if he has some state, then you will be able to reach that state. But after reaching there, whether your karmas allow you to enter or not, depends on you. For those whose karma’s don’t allow, for them, the doors to higher dimensions shut the same way, as they shut upon this rat!
In the morning, sadhak told me about his experience…he was perturbed. I explained to him that karma is the basis of creation. Shiv gives opportunity to all. The ones who become opportunists and think they have arrived are unable to enter. To enter that dimension of Shiv, you need to have karm.
Creation, and every aspect therein, is temporary and constantly moving towards ashanti. The more ashant creation becomes, the more men take the unreal to be real. This leads to destruction, and destruction can be physical or spiritual. Physical destruction is apparent and easily understood. Spiritual destruction, people are unable to comprehend. At the time, they think they are fine and those who are telling them otherwise are fools. They forget how they reached the door, they are surrounded by ashanti. The more ashant a person is, the more he is embedded in the physical, further he is from the truth, and the closer he is to destruction. Today you may be blessed with everything you need/want in the physical, but it is with you today only, it won’t be there for long. You take that temporary or physical or ashanti to be reality, that is a sign of agyan (ignorance). Rat is an agyani. It is said when there is a fire in the jungle, the rat is the only one that survives because it hides in the hole. Rat takes the body to be reality and is able to save the body…for some more time. But the rat is still a rat, and the body will destroy very soon. Whenever we want something in physical, we create ashanti of that level and when we want something in spiritual, we create shanti of that order. The difference in shanti and ashanti is the difference between sukshma (subtle) and sthool (gross), vidya (reality) and avidya (unreality), and Shiv and Maya. When you do sadhna under a Guru, these experiences become real for you. You start interacting with devs and devis. And if you are with your Guru, you get a warning every time you are about to get into ashanti. That time, the wise heed the warning. The fool…well, there is no dearth of fools.
Strive for shanti. Surya (sun) is shant, hence its state. It may appear to be volatile, but that is the sun’s frequency of shanti. Every aspect of Creation- sun, moon, earth, various dimensions, all has their frequency of shanti. When this frequency is disturbed, there is chaos/destruction. Sthool (physical), avidya (falsehood) and asmita (ego) are signs of ashanti. Utpatti (creation), vidya (discernment) and gyan are signs of shanti. The one who is shant, nothing is impossible for him, no matter the circumstances or surroundings. Disease is because of ashanti. If you think you can get away by disturbing someone, you are mistaken, for the seed of ashanti is sown, and it is bound to come back to you. Striving for shanti does not mean one should tolerate injustice.
Once we were in Hyderabad and we were on our way to a gaushala when I saw a woman and man being beaten mercilessly on the road by a crowd. I got off the car and stopped it, within minutes the crowd disappeared, without having hurt anyone or getting angry – it was a controlled reaction. In Vedic martial arts, one is taught to internalize and awaken certain energies to generate fear in the opponent, there is no need to hit. On another occasion, the devs revealed to a sadhak, “daya ka path padhao, swayam nirdayi ho jayo (teach the lesson of mercy, become merciless yourself)”… because you are a gyani and you know how to release aggression in a controlled way to put down the enemy /adharmi. Others are ignorant, so teach them tolerance. For example, when sadhaks go on the front, they have to save the animals at all costs and also ensure criminals are punished. At that time, they cannot soften on the criminal.
Whether you are 18 or 80, whatever time is left for you, spend it doing positive deeds. A negative act is what you do for yourself. For yourself, you only do it to get pleasure, and pain is an equal and opposite reaction. There is nothing wrong with pleasure, but simultaneously generate so much positive karma to balance out the pain. Any disturbance is a product of your own karma, it cannot be undone with upayas or quick fixes. Karma is the basis. Disease is a manifestation of a negative karma you performed, its purpose is to wash off that karma. Bring shanti within you, such that no person or situation can make you unstable. Shanti is the basis of Vedas, it was given 50- 60 thousand years back, when there was no religion, for the entire mankind. Karma is the basis of creation and also the basis of your births and rebirths, helping those in pain and distress will get you higher births and looking away, lower births and pain for yourself. You cannot escape the laws which run creation, they are the basis and also the fundamentals of life and death, birth and rebirth. To experience their reality first begin the basic practice of Sanatan Kriya, it will bring you to a state of balance and from there you would be able to peep into the real world, go from darkness to light, tamso ma jyotirgamaye…
Put your life in karma, don’t forget the rat. If you don’t have karma, the door will be shut on you. When the door is shut, the wise rat would sit for tapasya then and there. The foolish one would go down to start all over again. Better to improve your karma from day one.
