Dancing with Siva Shloka 5

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What Is the Ultimate Goal of Earthly Life?

 

SHLOKA 5

 

The ultimate goal of life on earth is to realize the Self, the rare

attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi. Each soul discovers its Sivaness,

Absolute Reality, Parashiva--the timeless, formless, spaceless Self God.

Aum Namah Sivaya.

 

BHASHYA

 

The realization of the Self, Parashiva, is the destiny of each soul,

attainable through renunciation, sustained meditation and frying the

seeds of karmas yet to germinate. It is the gateway to moksha,

liberation from rebirth. The Self lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond

the feeling nature, beyond action or any movement of even the highest

state of consciousness. The Self God is more solid than a neutron star,

more elusive than empty space, more intimate than thought and feeling.

It is ultimate reality itself, the innermost Truth all seekers seek. It

is well worth striving for. It is well worth struggling to bring the

mind under the dominion of the will. After the Self is realized, the

mind is seen for the unreality that it truly is. Because Self

Realization must be experienced in a physical body, the soul cycles back

again and again into flesh to dance with Siva, live with Siva and

ultimately merge with Siva in undifferentiated oneness. Yea, jiva is

actually Siva. The Vedas explain, "As water poured into water, milk

poured into milk, ghee into ghee become one without differentiation,

even so the individual soul and the Supreme Self become one." Aum Namah

Sivaya.

 

Scriptures Speak on Self Realization

 

Lead me from unreality to reality. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead

me from death to immortality. Yajur Veda

 

He is the Supreme Brahman, the Self of all, the chief foundation of this

world, subtler than the subtle, eternal. That thou art; thou art That.

Atharva Veda

 

One should meditate on the atman, which consists of spirit, whose

embodiment is life, whose form is light, whose essence is space, which

changes its form at will, swift as thought. Yajur Veda

 

Subtlest of the subtle, greatest of the great, the atman is hidden in

the cave of the heart of all beings. He who, free from all urges,

beholds Him overcomes sorrow, seeing by grace of the Creator, the Lord

and His glory. Yajur Veda

 

Perishable is matter. Immortal, imperishable the Lord, who, the One,

controls the perishable and also the soul. Meditating on Him, uniting

with Him, becoming more and more like Him, one is freed at the last from

the world's illusion. Yajur Veda

 

I am the Supreme Brahman! I am the Lord of the universe! Such is the

settled conviction of the muktas. All other experiences lead to

bondage. When the Self is clearly realized not to be the body, the

realizer gains peace and becomes free from all desires. Devikalottara

Agama

 

Realize the Self always to be neither above nor below, nor on either

side, not without nor within, but to be eternal and shining beyond the

sublime world. Sarvajnanottara Agama

 

That which is neither conscious nor unconscious, which is invisible,

impalpable, indefinable, unthinkable, unnameable, whose very essence

consists of the experience of its own self, which absorbs all diversity,

is tranquil and benign, without a second, which is what they call the

fourth state--that is the atman. This it is which should be known.

Atharva Veda

 

On the emergence of spontaneous supreme knowledge occurs that state of

movement in the vast unlimited expanse of consciousness which is Siva's

state, the supreme state of Reality. Siva Sutras

 

When the Creator dances, the worlds He created dance. To the measure

that He dances in our knowledge, our thoughts, too, dance. When He in

heart endearing dances, the several elements, too, dance. Witness in

rapture surpassing the dance of Him who is a glowing flame. Tirumantiram

 

O God of mercy, who performs the dance of illimitable happiness in the

hall of inconceivable intelligence! The Rig and the other Vedas are

thundering forth in words, announcing to us that all are thy slaves, all

things belong to thee, all actions are thine, that thou pervades

everywhere, that this is thy nature. Such is the teaching of those who,

though they never speak, yet broke silence for our sake.

 

Tayumanavar

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Mahabhakti

M