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                                                     ..:: Dharma ::..

                                                                                                          By

                                                                                   Alan Schneider

                                  –––––––– A Gift ––––––––

                                                         What is the Truth?
                                                              – Dharma –

                                                              Where am I?
                                                               – Karma –

                                                               What am I?
                                                                – Maya –

                                                               Who am I?
                                                               – Atman –

                                                               What am I?
                                                              – Brahma –

                                                              Where am I?
                                                              – Krishna –

                                                          What is the Truth?
                                                                – Yoga –

            Dharma is devotional service to God, including personal sacrifice, good works, and all forms of yoga, prayer, and meditation. Dharma is inherently rewarding – this action burns, or releases, Karma and also develops a relationship with the Divine Consciousness. For this reason, Dharma is to be performed without the consideration of either punishment or additional reward, but is simply offered in the awareness of a higher purpose in life – the Supreme Absolute Truth. My gift of these words is Dharma. 

            Karma is God manifesting in the multiplicity of forms which we experience with our senses as the physical universe of matter, energy, and action. Karma exists at every level from the most minutely personal – a subatomic particle –  to the most universal – the known cosmos itself. Karma is generated by willful action, or desire, and released through Dharma and non attachment to the material forms of the world around us. Karma is a condition of temporary,  separate manifestation that establishes where we are in our spiritual development. 

            Maya is the human sensory experience of Karma. Because Karma is a manifestation of God in multiplicity, or many separate forms, it cannot be known as the ultimate Truth of God by anything which is itself  separate – including the human physical form. Our senses can only show us reflected images of the Truth. We learn through culture and experience to assemble these images into a model of existence which we accept as reality. Maya is an illusion created by the senses – this is what we are without Enlightenment. Maya is driven by Karma and generates desire and attachment to that extensive and complex interaction of the senses which is the ego. We frequently believe that this ego is who we are, but this is simply another, more deceptive, illusion occurring in Maya.    

          Atman  is the Soul. This is the spiritual core or essence of God found in all the separate forms manifest in Karma. The Atman radiates from, and is part of, the Divine Consciousness. In this sense, even a common pebble has a Soul, or spiritual consciousness. The human form is a special creation, and has Atman which is very close to God, close enough to generate total Self awareness. Much of the time, this awareness is distracted by the attachment to Maya, but can be turned inward, away from the senses, through meditation. This process ultimately leads to the discovery of the Soul as a level of transcendental existence beyond the senses, originating in God. This is who we are. 

            Brahma is the Collective Soul, the sum total of all Atman manifestations. Brahma is the source of all Creation at every level of manifestation, including  Karma and Maya. Brahma is the Divine Idea radiating from, and within, the Divine Consciousness. As the process of meditation draws the personal human awareness into the Soul, a powerful and profound bond is established between the two which enables the direct knowledge of Brahma through the Atman. The senses are what we are in the separate Karmic reflection of Maya. Brahma is what we are as the collective Creation of God. 

            Krishna  means “Christ-like”, or “Pure in Form”, referring  to a condition which is not diluted by any type of  separation, specifically from Divine Consciousness through the expression of Karma. Brahma radiates from  Krishna –  the Personality, or Mind, of God – the literal Divine Consciousness. This Supreme Absolute Truth (SAT) is actually manifested in transcendental form as Krsna, and is not knowable in Maya. The addition of the “i” and “h” symbolically renders God’s Identity into a form which the human ego can describe. Krsna is the ultimate reality and unified condition of everything. Through Brahma, Krsna manifests in the multiplicity of Karma, and the individuality of Atman.

             This  duality establishes the dynamic relationship the ancient Chinese mystics called the Tao – the Divine Union of universal Female and Male manifestation which creates  all of the known forms of existence. The Female form of the Tao is called Yin, and is an expression of the Atman. The Male form is Yang, and is a complementary expression of Karma. The Yin is passive – the Atman exists in Divine Form, but resides in the background of human awareness, and must be sought out by that awareness. The Yang is active – the influence of Karma is immediate as dynamic action and literally generates Maya as a reflection in the foreground of awareness. However,  Maya  non-exists in the form of a separated (if persistent) sensory illusion. Krsna achieves the Creation of human awareness in this way as the ultimate Gift of Love in Free Will. The Tao establishes precisely the condition of balanced forces  required to enable our awareness to both seek and ignore the Truth on an independent personal basis. Krsna is total, complete, and unconditional Love and Acceptance, an infinitely powerful single Consciousness that also manifests  the ultimate challenge to consciousness – Karma! Just as Karma is where we are as an expression of separation, so it is that Krsna is where we are in reunification with the Supreme Absolute Truth. 

            Yoga literally means “yoke”, and is a reference to an ox yoke, used to harness one or more oxen to a cart. The spiritual meaning of Yoga is “union”, specifically, the union of human awareness with the Atman, thence Brahma, and ultimately Krsna. The use of the term “yoke” is very insightful. Like human beings, the ox is an expression of the separate condition of Karma, and it would seem that it would be in an ideal condition in a wild and unrestrained state. The paradox (pair-of-ox? paired-ox?) of Karma is that this separate condition is really the least satisfying state, creating a sensory manifestation that requires endless gratification as the price of temporary survival. In fact, the oxen and  human beings are both being guided in a better direction through Yoga. In the service of the carter, the ox is afforded a measure of care and protection not found in the wild. In the service of the Atman, the awareness is directed away from the doomed temporary manifestations of Karma and Maya, through Yoga as the vehicle of Enlightenment and higher consciousness. Our awareness is reincarnated through the agency of Karma at the level, and under the circumstances, required to regain the highest level of consciousness attained in the previous incarnation. 

            Yoga begins with  the simple practice of Asana, or physical postures, and then advances through successively more refined techniques, including  Dharma. Yoga dispels the attachment to the illusion of Maya through this ongoing  Enlightenment process. When we have achieved the advanced state of Enlightenment in which Krsna is experienced everywhere as Life in Divine Manifestation, and all Karma and attachment have been released, we have come home to the Truth.  

            All suffering is the result of attachment to Maya, although this cannot be known from  that perspective. The great challenge of Dharma is to live in Enlightenment through Yoga, and without forming attachment to the senses and subsequently directing our actions through the motive of desire. The essence of desire is the illusion of gratification through manipulation of  the senses. This approach to living may seem to be successful for a period of  time, but only generates more Karma by reinforcing the illusion  that we are separate from  the objects of our desires, and in a separated condition, when we are all ultimately united in Love by God. I give you this Gift.

__________________________________________

            This expression of devotional Yoga was written by myself in 2005.  It appeared spontaneously during the process of a Buddhist “walking meditation” exercise – needless to say, I was in a significant state of trance at the time! I suspended the meditation as soon as the full text of the document had appeared, and wrote it down immediately and literally as it was given to me by Spirit, fonts included.

            This document still stands as one of the really remarkable spiritual statements that it has been my privilege and honor to convey to the consciousness environment present on the Physical Plane of manifestation, although there are a few areas of Spiritual Ascension Theory that could probably benefit from some clarification in it, at least in terms of my current level of understanding.  

            Krishna, or Krsna, is one of the incarnations of Vishnu, the Hindu Preserver expression of God, or the Logos (in Western terminology). Along with Brahma, the Creator expression, and Shiva, the Destroyer expression, Vishnu establishes the Trinity of the manifestation process that accounts for the world perceived in the senses on the Physical Plane. Whenever things become too corrupt in any sense of the term, for any reason, Vishnu assumes an appropriate incarnation for the Age and circumstance involved, and appears on the Physical Plane to set things right again, thus reestablishing the Cosmic Balance that enables manifestation there. Krishna is such an incarnation in Kali Yuga, one of Hinduism’s darkest Ages, and the one in which we live today.  

            The Hare Krishna movement holds forth Krishna as “the Supreme Personality of the Godhead”. Now, Vishnu is significantly more “distant” from human perception than the entity customarily sensed on the Physical Plane – Shiva, who is Himself customarily encountered in the form of one of his female Shakti expressions – generally Kali, Durga, or Parvati. Kali is the Black Goddess of Chaos and Destruction (focused on the Freudian ego state), while Durga is the Destroyer of Demons (i.e. negative emotional states and conditions), and Parvati is the symbolic carrier of the Kundalini Energy, something synonymous with the Freudian libido, or universal human sexual energy. Tantra characterizes Parvati as longing for reunion with her husband Shiva, who resides in Sahasrara, the Seventh, or Crown, Chakra, located above the head. The Kundalini Energy is initially present in dormant from in Muladhara, the First, or Root, Chakra, located at the base of the spine. Parvati’s longing is said to account for the development of all spiritual consciousness as she moves up through the Chakras toward her beloved Husband in Sahasrara.  Once this process is fully consummated in the supreme state of Samadhi, no more need take place, at least in the Shavite, or Shiva worship, tradition.  

            The Vaishnava tradition worships Vishnu as its primary deity,  and has a different view of Ascension and Kundalini Yoga. For the Vaishnava’s, humanity must be periodically set back on course for spiritual development by an Avatar or Incarnation of Vishnu. Not many people will be so determined in their spiritual practice that they will attain Samadhi in life, but anyone can attain the perception of the current Avatar or Incarnation of Vishnu, through the correct rituals or Pujas, as the Hindu tradition calls them.  As has been stated here, Krishna is such an Incarnation in the current Age.  

            There is much theoretical argumentation in Hinduism with regard to the relative importance and significance of the many Deities worshiped in that tradition. Alongside Krishna, Ganesha, the elephant-headed Son of Shiva and Parvati, and Remover of life’s obstacles, is one of the most revered Hindu Deities, as is Hanuman, the monkey-faced Servant and Soldier of Rama, the first Hindu ruler of India, himself a mythical-historic figure in Hindu legendry. The Hindus worship according to what is uppermost in their consciousness, as determined by cultural tradition and personal circumstance.  

            The general account of the Creator/Preserver/Destroyer Trinity is more or less universally accepted in Hindu tradition, but is itself presumed to have a definitive pre-existing manifestation represented by The Brahman – an all-inclusive pre-manifest state of Spiritual Being that exists beyond everything knowable on any level, and yet is present in all things and processes knowable. The Trinity itself emerges from, and returns to The Brahman. The Creator God Brahma is not The Brahman, although He emerges from It. The Brahman can be thought of as the Spiritual Essence of the Logos – in this sense, even God has a Soul!  

            It is quite probable that the limited consciousness of the non-ascended human being needs a human image to connect to the Logos in a meaningful context. Krishna is such an image, as is the Christian Christ. Along with such an image, a humanly assessable and comprehensible code of conduct is also necessary. Hindu tradition sees this as the Laws of Manu, while Christianity sees it as the Bible, Judaism as the Torah, and Islam as the Koran, and there are many, many other codes and documents describing what God seeks for human beings on the Physical Plane.  

            So it is that my personal theoretical discussion of the Hindu Aspects of God emerged as a miniature moral framework for each of us to consider as we struggle through this life of many challenges – and  also opportunities – to learn and grow in the spirit, and develop as spiritual beings! Namaste...                                                                                         

                                                                                     - With Love, Alan -

                                                                             (CR2008, Alan Schneider)

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