The Visitors’ Questions

I received a group of three visitors last week, we had tea and good talk. They randomly asked a few good questions I’d like to share my answers here. They asked me what I teach, I said that first is to clarify many terms and concepts of spirituality, which are distorted for the majority in the western world.

How to know Who knows God. I introduced our society’s library logo and collections, we take Swami Vivekananda’s advice, only read the books written by those who realized God. These are true masters. Then, how can we know this person knows God or he/she is a fake guru? I said, it depends on one’s power of discrimination, this power is contaminated and conditioned by one’s karma, so he/she can only recognize and be drawn to those, with whom one has the highest resonance, usually they are fake masters, it is inevitable, however, it is still beneficial to learn in such karmic life lessons. Then who is the true master? I said that Swami Sivananda Saraswati says the enlightened people are not rare, but the truly ready disciples are very few. When one’s heart is completely ready to surrender, his/her master will appear.

Pre-requisite to practise Tantra. I said if you open any great master’s book about Tantra, they all say that it’s even more essential than Yoga for you to first have a qualified Guru. Because the center of Tantra is Guru Devotion. Then, what is that so popular in western world, many hippies practise and they call it Tantra. I said this thing about all aspects of sexuality is beneficial for many people, they could give it a more beautiful artistic name, but they just borrowed the name Tantra. Without a qualified Tantric Guru, one will never make actual progress of realization in Tantra.

Affirmation. I said affirmation is very important, whatever we repeat many times everyday, we will believe it’s true. The foundation of practise of Vajrayana is affirmation thru imagination, finally one will believe he/she is the picked deity and will have all the deity’s power. I’m not created by anything, because, if I’m created, then before that I had no existence, and after that I will cease to exist. The right affirmation is, I’m existence consciousness bliss, I was never born, and will never die. This, is what Vedanta and many other paths tell us. If one affirms he/she is the individual being, he/she may raise some awareness but will not attain liberation, because all sufferings are rooted in the belief that I’m the body-mind the separate being. However, repeating right affirmation is not enough, one must keep having empowerment from Guru or God to acknowledge and strength the belief of truth, truthfulness itself is God.

The fruit of Karma Yoga. In selfless/love actions we gain good karma, good karma brings happiness, a lot of good karma make us want God. A mountain of good karma makes us only want to know God, then we will realize God. Karma Yoga is the best yoga in Kali Yuga(the dark ages), it does not require anything to progress, you don’t need any knowledge, any skill, you don’t need to believe God or attend any religion, you can practise anywhere anyway.

Bhakti Yoga. In all-hearted love to God, God reveals Himself. For Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga, we need long time to practise and accumulate then we will taste the Divine bliss. In Bhakti Yoga, from the beginning to the end, we keep tasting bliss, it is like a tree, the fruits of bliss grow from the ground to top, in every branch, every leaf, endless bliss. However, it’s difficult for many to practise Bhakti Yoga, because you can’t love someone you don’t know with all your heart.

There were a few minor topics too, one said “We all thoroughly enjoyed the visit. I think I would like to make a regular habit of coming by. Maybe every week or two. I am very interested in wisdom, in yoga, The Divine. I seek The Divine. There is very good energy on the property. I will return.”