Steady Posture

[Guest guest]

Hi Marcus,

 

I'm taking a course on the Guru Gita. Do you have any historical references

to this particular shastra?

 

thank you,

Linda

[Guest guest]

asanasthah sukham hrade nimajjati

 

The yogi who is established in a steady posture

easily becomes immersed in teh ocean (of the heart).

 

Here the word asana does not mean a sitting posture, like padmasana or

siddhasana; it means the posture of true knowledge and understanding. Constant

awareness of the identity of the universe and the Self, of the all-pervading one

being, is the steady posture. Remaining firm in this posture, one need not

resort to other practices. He is continually reflecting, "I am Consciousness,

which is both immanent and transcendent." The yogis who are steady in this

contemplation rise above limited body-consciousness, shedding all their

samskaras, their past impressions, and becoming absorbed int eh bliss of the

Self. They are easily immersed in that ocean of nectar from which the universe

flows.

Those who have assumed this steady posture have no need to practice

concentration, fixing their gaze above, below, or in the middle; in from or

behind; right or left; on thigher or lower centers; inside or outside the body.

They don't have to turn their minds to some object of meditation. They don't

have to meditate on the senses or primal elements. Dissolving all duality in

unity with the Self and remaining in that condition is the state of liberation

known as nirabhasa, without appearance, without image. Such a state is possible

only as a result of the Guru's initiation, which awakens the inner Shakti and

stablizes the mind in the heart*, that vast ocean of bliss, the scene of

Parashakti's joyful reveling.

Devotion to the Guru enables the yogi to enter there. The yogi of steady

posture finds his entrance through meditation, and when he comes out from his

immersion in this ocean of the heart, he sees the sport of Parashakti int he

outer universe too. His natural meditation goes on whether he is seated or

standing, conversing or performing sense functions. he beholds the bliss of his

heart flowing all around him. This constant meditation comes only through the

Guru's grace.*

---Muktananda

 

*The heart referred to here is the heart of Consciousness (sahasrara,

brahmarandhra)

 

*There is the human Guru, also the guru resides in the higher realms

(Siddhaloka); the ultimate guru is the formless guru, or Shiva. Shiva is the

seven perceiver stations. As these stations ascend from the subtle to the gross,

Shiva resides in each of these levels of understanding as the formless Guru.

 

*It is important to remember that at whatever level, form or formless, the guru

is Shiva. The form is merely a vessel.

 

Mahabhakti

M