Living with Siva

[Guest guest]

Dear People

 

I have been one of the very fortunate souls given an advanced copy of Satguru

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's new book "Living with Siva" for review. It is pure

gold and I recommend it to all as something well worth buying. The small cost of

this book pales into insignificance to the wisdom to be found on every page.

Divided into 365 daily lessons it covers most topics of mundane life from

marriage, raising children, education, money, and even the modern dangers of

being addicted to sex and endlessly surfing the internet for porn. It also

answers many of the questions that the spiritual seeker needs answering.

 

Gurudeva discusses all of the topics that create so much trouble in the modern

world in an open and informed manner in over 1000 pages of this great work. Many

people have sought my advice on Vedic astrology and other matters. I hope you

trust my judgement and advice in recommending this along with Gurudeva's other

book "Merging with Siva"

 

These works are the sum total of 50 years of spiritual teachings since Gurudeva

became enlightened in 1949. Below is Lesson 281 from the Chapter titled "The

Power of Forgiveness" I actually opened the book to this page on thinking of

what to write about this great work. I'll take that as a good omen to post the

following------

 

"THE ART OF FORGIVENESS"

 

The Vedas are full of verses which speak of the divine within man, and therefore

Hindu Dharma today implores us to let go of grudges, resentment and especially

self-contempt. Most people are working harder to correct the faults of others

than they are their own. It is a thankless job. It truly is. Most are trying to

recreate the relatively real world into being absolutely real. Another thankless

job. The wise implore us to accept things as they are, to be happy and content

at every point in time. They tell us not to be discouraged in seeing the

failings of others. Rather, let it help awaken your understanding of them as to

where they are in consciousness and the suffering they must be going through. If

others hurt you in thought, word or deed, do not resent it. Rather, let it

awaken compassion, kindness and forgiveness. Use it as a mirror to view your own

frailties, then work diligently to bring your own thoughts, words and deeds into

line with Hindu Dharma.

 

The secret is we have to correct all matters within ourselves. We have to bear

our karmas- the reactions to our actions- cheerfully. And what are the apparent

injustices of life but the self-created reactions of our past actions in this or

a former life? The person of perfect understanding accepts all happenings in

life as purposeful and good. We must be grateful to others for playing back to

us our previous actions so that we can see our mistakes and experience the same

feelings we have caused in others. It is in this way we are purified and trained

not to commit the same adharmic acts again. All the great ones have preached the

art of forgiveness. First we must learn to forgive ourselves, to accept

ourselves as we are and to proceed with confidence. Many people live their whole

life immersed in guilt. It's like a passive fear, different from a threatening

fear. Certain religions push people into fear and guilt. Therefore if they don't

feel guilty, they don't feel that they are being religious.

 

Mary Baker Eddy once said God is love and was viciously attacked for it by the

Christian Community of her day, who believed with a vengeance that God is

wrathful, fear invoking. Families who live in guilt pass it on to their

children. People who live in a state of guilt don't give a lot, they don't

produce a lot, they don't move forward spiritually very far. New energy is

released for a healthy future when we forgive ourselves. Yes, forgiveness is a

powerful force. We must start with ourselves, for as long as we hold

self-contempt, we are unable to forgive others, because everyone else is a

reflection of ourself. We react to what we see in them that we are not ready to

face up to in ourselves.

 

It is a great power to be able to look beyond ourselves and see others as they

really are, how they think and how they really feel. When we are wrapped up in

our own individual ego, this is hard to do. We surmise that those we know are

exactly like us, and we find fault with them when they are not. But once we

break the shell of the ego- an act symbolized by smashing the rough, dark brown

coconut in the temple, it reveals the beauty of the pure, white fruit inside

which represents our pristine spiritual nature. It takes a hard blow to subdue

our ego, and this is never without pain. But we can remove the ego's hard shell

painlessly through absolute surrender to Hindu Dharma, absolute surrender to our

own soul, to God within us. External worship and internal worship, external

surrender and internal surrender bring about the softening of the ego and the

unveiling of spirit.

 

For more great Hindu Dharma visit www.gurudeva.org or order your copy by

emailing books or see my other review at my site at

www.fortunecity.com/victorian/coldwater/83 new surfers please note if my site is

hijacked by adverts please refresh the page to remove them.

 

thanks

 

Andrew