Let Good Fortune Jump on You!: Shiva Sutra 3.14, Part Two
3.14. yathā tatra tathānyatra //
This [absolute independence] is the same in the external world as it was in samādhi.”
Lineage Teacher Swami Rudrananda taught that enlightenment is not a level, but learning how to raise your level. Because as this Sutra teaches, no matter what level of awareness we have attained, as yogis we must continue to raise that level, again and again, through all the different stages and challenges of our life. This kind of pursuit goes beyond the mind, beyond the societal status quo, and into the realm of the reverence and receptivity. Ultimately, when we are able to maintain this kind of surrender both on and off the cushion, we arrive at the state of independence described by the Sutra.
Rudi taught that his enlightenment was not attaining a certain level, but learning how to work in order to continually transcend his current level of awareness. This sutra tells us the same thing in a slightly different voice. “Although he has utterly achieved the reality of independence, which is absolute freedom, he still must remain active for the whole of his life. This is a great task for such a yogī because for the remainder of his life, he has to remain absolutely active to realize the truth of reality again and again, again and again, so that in the end, he becomes one with Śiva.”
So we see that even if you have achieved the highest reality of independence, you must still practice constantly in order to have that realization again and again throughout your life. So our work is not about manifesting a certain reality, or a particular meditative experience, but of creating a mechanism that will grow us endlessly, through many different realities and experiences.
As Babaji taught in his book Spiritual Practice, “The goal of our practice is enlightenment. The goal is realization. It is a process that lasts for our entire lives. It isn’t something that we stop doing when we reach sixty-five. We don’t just stop. The process goes on in every stage of life. The young, the middle-aged, and seniors all experience different kinds of challenges. When students apply what worked in their practice when they were twenty after they turn sixty, it probably won’t work. The practice evolves as we use it over time. Even in the short time I was with Baba Muktananda, I saw changes in him as he approached the big conclusion of his life.”
As practitioners, we know that this kind of effort is unique. In our previous class we discussed the quality of Akrita, un-artificial effort. And here we expand that effort to encompass another characterisitc— that of reverence.
The Sutra teaches, “That reality of the self, where unartificial universal independence will shine, should be sought with great reverence.”
This ultimate reality can only be sought with great reverence, not through mental checklists or training certificates, this effort taps into the very essence of how we define God, the Universe, the Self— whatever we call it, this effort is our search for that highest reality. This is obviously beyond the mind, but it’s also beyond our current state of being— perhaps that’s why reverence is usually associated with bowing, a way of emptying our cup so that we can prepare to receive.
They say that when people would approach Nityananda, they would find themselves without words in his presence. Pure Reverence over took them.
In the Sutras, it has been taught that our work as yogis is precisely this— to empty our cup, to quiet our minds and open our hearts so that we may ‘prepare for the reception of grace’- which always occurs in a flash and spontaneously, so if you’re not prepared to receive it, it will no doubt flash by you.
As Paul reps put it in his picture poem, let good fortune jump on you.
When this sutra tells us that the realized practitioner experiences the state of samadhi on the cushion as well as off the cushion in their life, it tells me that these practitioners are not just preparing to let good fortune jump on them in their shrine in the morning, they are preparing to receive grace all day long. They bring the reverence of their shrine with them in their hearts. What makes them great practitioners it’s not the state they have realized, because as we’ve seen that state must be realized again and again and again— but what makes them siddhas is there consistent work of receptivity.