My brief excerpt on Holi was incomplete. I did not have a complete explanation of what was signified by the burning of Holika. I could not fathom the answer. Finally, yesterday, both Gurudev and Yogananda communicated the answer to me in the wee AM hours. They had to repeat the divine vibrations for a long time before it became an integral part of me.
Holika represents our sanskars ( a cummulation of our desires, tendencies, personalities etc). When “holika” or “sanskars” are burnt away, Bhakti starts.
In Yogamruta, in the opening pages, Gurudev has said, “God has placed a switch. When the switch is downward, we remain earthly bound and when flipped upwards we call it awakening of the Kundalini shakti”
This is very similar to what Raman Maharshi said. “There are only two choices. Either to look within or to look outside”
I now experience the Shakti as a “Switch”. It is not a switch but one truly has the ability to either look within or look outside at every step of the day. No wonder, Yogananda said, be actively calm and calmly active – meaning to be actively calm refers to with a little “effort” turned within. This should happen just at pure will. This is complete awakening of the shakti and also surrender to God and awakening of the true consciousness.
This growth into the true consciousness is a slow process.
Two of the most serious obstacles to staying in the true consciousness or complete awakening of the Shakti are 1) Our past karma 2) Our sanskars. Unless the past karmas are worked out completely, the shakti cannot remain open. For most disciples, when they work out their past karmas, they add an equal if not more amount karmas and this becomes a never ending game.
So, how do we prevent new karmas from being formed. Endure all events – good, bad and neutrals, silently, calmtly without being happy, sad or anguish. DO NOT HATE the circumstance or the cause of the circumstance. In time you will realize the cause of the circumstance was yourself. Also, you will realize if you protest or fight it, the situation will only last longer.
If you are truly surrendered to your Guru, as you make more and more spiritual progress, you will begin to love and appreciate the greatness of your Guru. Your whole way of thinking should change and be molded in the way your Guru thought – after all, you are being molded by Gurudev’s shakti.
Connecting with Kashinathdada or Hanumanji is now a lot easier. I would not say it is infalliable because I still have Karmas to work out. However, the progress is definately at the speed of a rocket
I will end by a quote of Gurudev in which he intentionally misspelt the words “Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana” He would say, “Yoga Vaha shrestha” meaning Yoga is the best. I cannot agree more!
Bhavin