Select quotations from
Siva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening, revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo
Impurity is the ignorance of undifferentiated nature and knowledge of differentiated nature. That ignorance is the cause of the sprout of samsara (repeated births and deaths). Because of this ignorance, you are filled with differentiated, not undifferentiated knowledge and you become bound in the wheel of repeated births and deaths. This contraction or limitation is caused by Siva’s great illusive energy. This is the great force of illusion that has risen by the power of his freedom. By this energy of his freedom, he conceals his nature and reveals this limitation in his own self just for play, not in trying to satisfy some deficiency or for pleasure. (p. 19)
Bondage is a result of your freedom, your own free will with which you have bound yourself: When by your own freedom, your own free will, you become worthless, powerless, incapable of anything….When you think, “I am not the real self, I am not universal consciousness,” that is bondage. But that is not the only bondage. When you insert ego into your body, that too is bondage…..Not knowing your own nature is bondage, and knowing your body as your own nature is bondage. (p. 20)
Whenever you do any action, it will be a good or bad action. With good actions, you will fall, with bad actions, you will fall. There is no way of rising with any action. (The only way of rising is shedding this ignorance and the realizations of one’s own Self as the Supreme, Independent Siva). (p. 25)
The one who has attained ‘the Absolute’ has only to observe that nothing is to be done. Just to be is enough. (p. 33)
There is no difference between a mystical trance (Samadhi) and the world of action when the world of dualistic perception is completely digested in one’s own consciousness (p. 35)
When a yogi is completely one-pointed in meditation, that is the waking state….When one-pointedness is breaklessly maintained as the continuity of one thought that, for the yogi, is the dreaming state….Higher still is the state of deep sleep. This state exists when both the state of objectivity and the state of subjectivity instantly vanish. This is Samadhi, the thoughtless state of consciousness, and it is deep sleep for yogis. (p. 41)
With one-pointed attention, you must feel and perceive that this universe and your body are simultaneously one with God consciousness. Then the rise of that supreme God consciousness takes place….For such a yogi who has this kind of perception, this world is a playground. Always filled with joy, he is never sad. Doubtlessly, he is liberated while living (Spanda Karika. p. 55)
Elevated yogis are always focused in their own supreme way of God consciousness. They do not care for [yogic] powers or for matters of the world. (p. 60)
The yogi realizes, “I am the whole universe. I am not only my body, I am one with the universe.” The yogi then attains the glory of the lord, by which glory he becomes master of the universal wheel of energies (sakticakra). (p. 66)
When the yogi desires to reside in his own state of God consciousness, peacefully, without creating universal agitation outside or inside: By the attentive continuity of meditation on the great ocean of consciousness, the supreme I is attained. (p. 68)
When he meditates on that supreme God consciousness by diverting all the flows of his organs to the introverted, not the extroverted state, he obtains the state of supreme I (mantra virya). (p. 68)
Effort (towards God consciousness) must be absolutely natural, filled with intense desire and fervent longing, and originating from the center of your heart. (p. 79)
IF you want to perceive the state of Lord Siva as it ought to be perceived, in its real sense, you must enjoy this universe. You won’t find the real state of Lord Siva in Samadhi, you will find his nonvivid formation. You will find the exact state of Lord Siva in the universe. (p. 101)
The whole universe, beginning from the energy of consciousness and ending in the most vivid energy of action is no universe at all. In other words, it is the expansion of your own nature, nothing else. (p. 101)
Creative energy – where the mind is fully aware, without any differentiated thoughts. Differentiated thoughts do not arise. (p. 104)
The energy of action of Lord Siva entangles Lord Siva in the individual state of life. And when Lord Siva realizes the nature of this energy of his own self, then it will cease to entangle him. It entangles only when it is not realized. Once it is realized, you are freed from all the bondages of life. (p. 113)
When all the five elements, all the organs and all the perceptions of the organs, including one’s mind, are offered in the fire of the great voidness with sacrificial ladle of awareness, that is, in the real sense, the great fire sacrifice. (p. 115)
Bondage is differentiated perception. And when that differentiated perception is carried in God consciousness by great saiva yogis, it does not live, it expires…..In that state, where he carries all differentiated perception into one God consciousness and digests it, not only are differentiated perceptions digested but along with differentiated perceptions, death, time, all actions good or bad, all changes of life, all perceptions good or bad, and all discussions of the question of monism or dualism are also digested in that supreme oneness of God consciousness. (p. 116)
Always maintain awareness in all your activities. (Spanda Karika 3.12. p. 117)
If you meditate more and more, and expand your awareness in meditation, then initially you will enter samadhi through the dreaming state because the dreaming state is subtle than the waking state and you can maintain awareness more easily in that state. Initially, you will always enter by way of the dreaming state. When your awareness is fully established, then you can also gain entry into Samadhi while in the waking state. (p. 120)
Do not become attached to yogic powers, be detached from them. (p. 123)
The one who is always completely aware to apprehend the essence of Spanda in each and every movement of life quickly gains entry in God consciousness in the very state of wakefulness (Spanda Karika 1.21. p. 123)
Why does the individual soul move in repeated births and deaths? This happens when he neglects the knowledge of his own real nature. This individual being moves in various wombs, by possessing at different times either a (sattvika) pure state of thought, a (rajasika) active state of thought, or a (tamasika) dull state of thought. And when at the time of death he is situated in the sattvika state, he moves to a higher life. When at the time of death he is situated in a rajasika disposition, he enters into those lives filled with luxuries. And when he is situated in a tamasika mood, he enters into beasts, trees, or into other states of deadened consciousness. This is the nature of this atma, which is the substance of individual being. (p. 130).
By yogic exercises, such as purification of the body purification of the elementary field, purification of the breath, the diversion from objective pleasures to your own consciousness, one pointed concentration, meditation, and Samadhi, powers are attained and one attains mastery of the elementary field. This kind of temporary power is achieved by togis because they are covered by illusion and are not, in the real sense, directed toward the universal consciousness of self. IF you actually know your real nature, you will not care about these powers. These powers are brought into existence when a yogi’s consciousness is covered by the energy of illusion (maya)…..Due to these powers, the supreme consciousness of Lord Siva does not appear. (p. 145)
The dancer in this field of universal dance is his self of universal consciousness. What is this universal dance? It is everything that you experience in your life. It may be coming, it may be going. It may be birth, death, joy, sadness, depression, happiness, enjoyment. All of this forms part of the universal dance, and this dance is a drama. In this field of drama, the actor is your own nature, your own self of universal consciousness. This self of universal consciousness is the one who is aware, he is the actor in this universal drama. Those who are not aware are not actors; they are played in this drama. They experience sadness, they experience enjoyment, they become joyful, they become depressed. But those who are aware, they are always elevated; they are the real players in this drama.
It is a yogi who discovers that this world, as universal movement, is actually a universal drama taking place. Here the actor in this drama is only one, the interior self taking the part of so many beings, even rocks. This is experienced only by yogis, not by worldly people. Worldly people are overwhelmed by sadness, by pleasure, by pain, etc. Yogis are not overwhelmed in this way because they are absolutely aware of what they are doing in this world. The yogi knows that he is playing, and that this universe is just a drama, a play, filled with life, with death, with sorrow, with sadness, with joy, with happiness; filled with rising and with falling. He knows whatever happens in this world, it is just play. (p. 161)
The one who observes that there is no difference between the universe and its creator, the creator having become the universe and the universe having become the creator, this universe is not defective, but a playful amusement. Realizing this, he is always attached to his own reality of self-consciousness. There is now doubt he is liberated in this very life [jivanmukta] (Spanda Karkia 2.5, p. 172).
The one who has abandoned the world along with its diversity, including the perception of right and wrong, and who realizes that the lades of grass, leaves, rocks, both animate and inanimate from Siva to the element earth [prithvi], all existent objects and nonexistent objects are one with Lord Siva. He is never born again in this world. (p. 174)
When Lord Siva desires to manifest himself in this world, then svatantrya sakti is transformed into the energy of will. When that energy of will perceives that this is what is truly to be desired, then that energy of will is transformed into the energy of knowledge. And so, when that energy of knowledge actually wants this desire to be fulfilled, then that energy of knowledge becomes the energy of action. (p. 176)
The brahmarandhra is a subtle opening in the crown of the head. Through this subtle opening, the kundalini departs from the entanglements of this body. (p. 179)
Brarabdha karma is karma that has brought your body into being and is based on the actions of your past lives. When (the yogi) has become like Siva, that action (karma) that has brought his body into existence is ended by enjoying that action, not be casting it aside. Prarabdha karma cannot be overcome unless it is enjoyed. For an embodied being, prarabdha karma I unavoidable. He may be just like Siav or he may be an ordinary person; prarabdha karma must be overcome by being enjoyed. It cannot be cast aside or abandoned. So, for the remainder of his life, he must continue to exist with this physical frame. He must welcome whatever comes to him, whether it be good or bad. Whatever he gets to eat, he must eat. It is not worthwhile to caste his body aside. For such a yogi, this body is to be maintained until the time of death. His virtuous behavior is the maintenance of his body. (p. 191)
As long as you meditate upon and are aware that this objective world is not separate from God consciousness, it will be just like God consciousness. And so, you will not find any difference between God consciousness and objective consciousness. (p. 202)
Although (the yogi) creates, protects and destroys (withdraws) this universe, for him the reality of the self remains the same in creation, protection and destruction. This yogi is never separated from the state of the knower. (p. 206)
Although the expansion of ignorance is destroyed, the being of the self is never destroyed because that self is beyond creation (p. 206)
A yogi experiences the state of pleasure and pain with “this-consciousness”, not “I-consciousness”. For example, he does not experience joy thinking “I am joyous” and sadness thinking “I am sad.” Rather, he experience “this is sadness” and “this is joy,” just as an ordinary person experiences external objects in his daily life….The yogi experiences his joy and sadness just like an object, separate from his being….He experiences, “I am always in myself, the same in happiness and sadness.” (p. 208)
Those yogis who have crossed the boundary of individuality, who have achieved the real state of universal being and are established in the state of universality, although in their daily lives they experience pleasure and pain, these experiences do not affect them at all. There is no apprehension that pain and pleasure will rise in them because the cause of the rise of pain and pleasure is individuality and they have destroyed individuality. They are apart from that and so, in the experience of pleasure and pain, they experience the real state of supreme beatitude, supreme bliss, which is actually more than bliss. (p. 209)
Reality exists in that universal state where there is no pain, no pleasure, no object, no subject and not even the negation of these. (Spanda Karika 1.5, p. 209)
This whole universe has come into existence just to carry you to God consciousness. It is not meant to push you down. This universe is meant for your upliftment. (p. 222)