by Michael Mamas | Friday, May 15, 2015 | The Gods |
Wednesday, May 13, was Hanuman’s birthday. It is one of my favorite days of the year. Everyone congregated in the shade of canopies beneath the warm sun at Hanuman Park to witness the ceremony. It is the only day of the year that we do abishekam for Hanuman. The feeling is so very sweet. It reminds me of my Sundays as a child when all the relatives would get together for a big pot luck, sit, talk, and enjoy the deep feeling of family.
At Hanuman Park, the ladies chanted as Panditji and Lakshmi poured milk and water over Hanuman, with all of us taking our turns to do the same. The fruits and flowers were offered as the exquisite feeling grew and grew.
I left feeling so full, so happy, so blessed.
Jai Hanuman!
Pictures are posted HERE.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, March 28, 2015 | The Gods |
I was asked the following question:
Is Ram a person’s name? If it is, is there any meaning by that name? Why do you use Surya Ram as the name of this meditation? Thank you!
To which I respond:
Beautiful question! All existence emerged from oneness… pure consciousness. Consciousness aware of itself as ‘other’ births duality. Consciousness continues to interact with itself birthing multiplicity. The structure is very precise… One to two to three on to infinity. The self interaction creates movement and vibration… a symphony of sound. Each sound carries a particular quality… a particular aspect of Oneness, of wholeness… of what is called the Veda… of what is called ‘Being’.
The sound ‘Ram’ is the quality of the resplendence and integration of the entire structure of Veda. It permeates everything in creation with the fullness of life found at the source of existence, your existence. Ram awakens all things to their essence… to oneness… to wholeness.
The sound ‘Surya’ means central Sun. Just as the sun is the source of our solar system, Surya emphasizes the central value as it emerges and holds together all of life and existence.
The difference between Ram and Surya is best studied by learning more of each of their natures. Everything in existence has a personified aspect. That is why it is natural to give your boat, car, golf putter, rifle, etc. a name. As your relationship with anything deepens, it takes on a personified quality. So Ram and Surya do have personified aspects which highlight the subtle distinctions between the two. At the same time, Ram and Surya are one and the same… they are both Oneness… pure consciousness.
However, meditation is a mechanic… a technology. It is the sound itself that resonates with the essential nature of the body, mind, and soul. So for the purpose of the mechanic, it is important that it is related to as simply a meaningless sound.
We use the name Surya Ram meditation to emphasize that this meditation awakens you to You… to YOUR true essential nature… to the central Sun of your own unique Being. It imposes nothing. It simply awakens.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, October 3, 2014 | The Gods |
Today is Vijayadashami. Victory Day. It is a good day to start new projects, businesses, etc. It is the day that Lord Rama defeated Ravana and the Goddess Durga defeated the buffalo demon, Mahishasur. But what does that really mean? And how could it be that Rama and Durga both happened to be victorious on the exact same day of the year?
Everything cycles. The sun rises and sets. When the sun shines, flowers bloom. Every season has it own unique influence. Similarly each hour of the day, and each day of the year have a unique influence. There are of course many other variables, many other factors, at work simultaneously. However, it is good to know when ‘the sun will be shining’ so you can ‘make hay while the sun shines’. There are also ‘Nodal points’. Like water freezing at 32 degrees.. not 33, 34, or 31. Today is a nodal point in nature called Vijayadashami, Victory Day.
But who is victorious on Victory Day? Those who act in harmony with the laws of nature will be supported toward victory on this day. This is a mechanic deep within creation. Rama and Durga are both very deep principles ‘woven within’ the very fabric of creation. This day then carries that influence, their day of victory.
Why would this be hard for some people to comprehend? People have no problem ‘believing’ that individual human beings exist because they see them in the physical body. But stop and think a minute here. People are born out of nature… ‘Right? So why is it so hard to understand that the intelligence that birthed personified beings (humans) also has personified aspects? Just because you can’t see it? Keep in mind we have no technology that can read a mind. Similarly, we have no technology that can ‘read the mind’ of the underlying basis of existence. But because people can’t see it or read it, they conclude it does not exists? Isn’t that rather arrogant? And why, too, is it so difficult to understand that some people, Rishis, have developed an ability to perceive that which others cannot? Isn’t that also rather arrogant? To question it is understandable. To insist that it is absolutely not true is absurd.
I am a scientist by formal education. I insist that things must make sense. At this point in human history, knowledge has advanced in so many fields of life, that by putting all the pieces together, the big picture can be logically derived. To those willing to entertain the possibility, I offer that compelling understanding.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, August 17, 2014 | Spiritual Evolution, The Gods |
Q: I humbly seek to understand the difference between the state of longing to be one with Shiva versus already being one with Shiva.
The reason for this question is: If I am intensely longing to be one with Shiva and feel MY being not as My being, but Shiva’s, then am I already one with Shiva?
If so, then that ONENESS should resonate as already existing. This state or feeling of ONENESS is abstract and internal, whereas the body is physical and external and it is this body where my being, my soul, resides. Therefore again, the soul is longing to be one with Shiva, to be dissolved in Shiva.
Hence, I am lost. Will I ever be enlightened enough to stop longing for ONENESS? Or will the longing still continue even after ONENESS with Shiva?
A: Everything, everyone, is already one with Shiva. A rock, however, has no conscious awareness of this. A human being may know it intellectually and even feel it emotionally with great intensity. Yet an enlightened individual knows it as a direct experience that transcends thoughts and emotions… transcends even the deepest feeling one can experience. To describe that experience is something that has been attempted by most every enlightened individual throughout history… but without success. It is likened to attempting through description to give someone who has never tasted a strawberry the experience of how a strawberry tastes. It cannot be done. However, the attempt to do so will point in a direction and thereby give some sense of the experience. Hopefully this will clarify things somewhat.
Though it comes gradually, there is a moment of abrupt transition when enlightenment comes. In that moment, even though everything goes on just as before, everything is forever changed. It is as if suddenly, everything is seen to be a projection on a screen, a virtual image, like the picture on a television. The screen is pure Being, YOUR being…. YOU. At the same time, it is God… Shiva. In that moment, He has no name… no words… no opinion… no comments… no thoughts or feelings… He just is…. Though the personality you that was there before remains exactly as before, the real You is the only thing that really is… the rest is a projection, not really real. It is maya. To intellectually know all about maya… to have memorized the Vedic texts about maya… that is one thing. To experience it directly is completely different.
The early experience of pure Being is the crux of the matter. It is the backdrop of all that is. If until that moment, you never even believed in God, the only word you could find to name it would be ‘God’. At the same time, you would know that the way all of humanity uses the word ‘God’ is not exactly accurate. You are That. At first this experience can be most disconcerting and confusing. How is it possible that you can be That, while at the same time, That is as if someone else (namely God… Shiva)? But that is undeniably your experience. Liken it to looking at the same diamond from different angles. You see something a bit different from each angle, but it is the same one diamond. However, the paradoxical experience of it being you and also being God happens simultaneously.
It is not that your Being is experienced as not your being but instead as Shiva’s. Perhaps that would even be easier to accept! Your Being remains your Being. At the same time, that personality being ceases to be the dominate Being that You are. The personality self continues just as it did before enlightenment, but it is insignificant (for lack of a better word) compared to your True Being, the Self, that you have awoken to. And that Self is one with God… one with Shiva. The life, thoughts, emotions, and moods of the personality self go on just as before. Yet it is all different in the context of the transcendental Self that has emerged and, without a word, has overtaken everything.
Some think that the moment of enlightenment is a moment of total clarity after which you live happily ever after. That is not so. It takes time to sort out and to get accustomed to. In fact, all of the higher states of consciousness are really just levels of getting more accustomed to, more familiar with, the enlightenment that has overtaken you… the ‘You’ that has overtaken ‘you’.
Life exists on many levels. In the state of enlightenment, the level of life that longs for nothing is always there. It is the transcendental level of Oneness with Shiva that you have become. It is the level of freedom… freedom of the soul, freedom from wanting, freedom from desire, freedom from longing. At the same time, there are the other levels of life where desire and longing remain. Life goes on. This is a matter of confusion for many people. To become enlightened and have no desire on any level is simply a state of overwhelm with the new found enlightenment. In time, it integrates with the other levels of life… the field of duality… relativity… the world of wanting.
Yes, after enlightenment, life goes on as it did. Completely the same… just totally different.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, June 29, 2014 | The Gods |
A great saint was once asked why the universe manifested. He responded by saying, “It didn’t.”
Everything is Oneness, Consciousness. There is no “other.” When the oneness of Consciousness became conscious of itself, it was perceived as ‘other.’ This is called “Maya,” illusion, the illusion of separation. Inherent in the nature of separation is some discomfort, some pinch, a longing to unify, i.e., to come back into balance, to return to oneness. It is the power of Maya that created this universe and compels it to move. It is the gravitational force that returns all to oneness that keeps the universe in motion. That force is called Shakthi.
Shakthi is everywhere. Shiva is Consciousness. Shakthi is the consort of Shiva… the power that compels the universe to move. The entire universe can be viewed as the dance between Shiva and Shakthi, the male and female principles.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
