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The Unity of Śiva and Śakti: Consciousness and Its Liberation

A spiritual discourse on the unity of Śiva and Śakti, human purpose, and the necessity of spiritual education.

"Śiva is within us; that means consciousness. That consciousness is ever-awakened, Chaitanya, which is spread throughout the whole universe."

"The human intellect needs a proper education... The higher education is spiritual education. Only through that can you achieve God consciousness."

The speaker explains the nature of Śiva as universal consciousness and Śakti as the individual soul and matter, describing liberation as their union. He argues that the unique human intellect requires correct spiritual education to realize its higher purpose of God-realization, critiquing modern culture for fostering distraction and individualism. The talk covers themes of cosmic unity, the barriers of illusion, the importance of purity, and practical aspects of yoga for prolonging life and refining consciousness.

Filming location: Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

Śiva is within us; that means consciousness. That consciousness is ever-awakened, Chaitanya, which is spread throughout the whole universe. That consciousness means Śiva. The liberation of the individual consciousness, merging into the cosmic consciousness, means becoming Śiva. The unity of Śiva and Śakti is Śiva. Śakti is the matter. Śakti is this Jīvātmā (the individual soul), and Śiva is the consciousness. Every individual soul has its destination towards the Supreme, to become one with the Supreme. Becoming one with the Supreme means one without a second, beyond time and space. It means this individual becomes one with the whole universe. You are throughout the whole universe, in every atom and in every part of the universe. That’s called becoming one with Śiva. Then there is no separation. Like one drop falls into the ocean and it becomes one. Or, like electric power: you get a connection. Each individual house, every single room, everywhere is connected to the powerhouse. So, everything is one with that. This individual consciousness merges into the cosmic consciousness; that’s called yoga—the union. The creator on this planet, Mṛtyuloka, has created 8.4 million different creatures, divided into three categories: Jalchar, Thalchar, and Nabchar—creatures in the water, on the earth, and in the space. All these different creatures make 8.4 million. Out of them, one is the human. The speciality, or the difference between other creatures and humans, is this: humans have more intellect. Human intellect can be trained endlessly. Human intellect also needs education. Education makes the human capable. There are different kinds of education. That’s jasa kare saṅg, vesa lāge raṅg: in which society you will be, that color you will take—meaning habits. Also, through society and education, you can become a criminal, or what they call in modern language a terrorist or a thief. It depends on how you educate it. The human intellect is manipulated in a positive way or in a negative way. Suppose you can’t drive a car and you go to a driving school. After some time, you will be capable of driving the car. What changed in you? You are the same person. Nothing changed physically, but your intellect is trained. That knowledge has appeared to you, and you have to follow the principles. If you do not follow, there will be an accident. Similarly, whether you become a doctor, an engineer, a gardener, or a yoga teacher all depends on your education. Similarly, there is cultural education. When you are used to being only in one culture and you happen to come to another culture, then you get a culture shock. It is very hard to maintain the life situation in another culture. Then you miss your own culture because it was one-sided. What means one-sided? You did not have any opportunity to see the other culture, and now you see it for the first time. They are also human, and you are also human, but you have different cultural education. In the same way, there is spiritual education. That spiritual education means to have the higher aims in life. We are not born only to eat, sleep, and create children. Animals can do this also, very well. Then there is no difference between animals and humans. So humans have a higher mission in their life, and that higher mission means God-realization. Many things happen in human life, good and bad, but the most terrible tragedy which will happen is that a human will die without God’s realization. This realization also needs education. Education here means to awaken in your consciousness the clear picture, so that it is very clear to you that you mean God consciousness. Unless it is in your consciousness, you will not have any interest. You need motivation. When this motivation is lost, then everything is lost. Now we are existing in two different cultures. One is the old culture, to which belong people whose age is about 45 years—40, 45, above this. They belong to the old culture. The modern culture is below 40 years. That’s why the third generation, which is about below 15 years, they do not understand anymore. They no longer understand the elders. What is older for us is not understandable—why someone is doing something, what we call morals and ethics. This young generation doesn’t understand this. They have not got this education. The entire education is changed. We are living in two cultures. One culture is at home, and one is outdoor. The outdoor culture is completely confusing, and the problem is this, that no one cares about that. In this Kali Yuga, in this iron time, dark time, money is God, and for money, humans are able to do anything. The female has become a model, a symbol of the commercial, a commercial object. If we care about it, we will not do it, but we do not care. We don’t want our family members to be projected there. Your wife or your daughter, if she appears on that screen, you will be very unhappy. You will say, "My God, how could this happen to our family?" But when outside you see differently, you don’t feel any attachment, anything. There is a difference between modern culture and ancient culture. So perfect education was the ancient culture. This modern education is a destructive education. It destroyed humanity. It destroyed the environment. It destroyed the peace. And it destroyed the relationship of the humans. The human has become very individualistic, so that they say, "We don’t care." That’s a great pity. So the human intellect needs a proper education. To get this education back again—what is a higher education? It’s not so easy now. Before 50 years, to drink water from a bottle was a joke. There were only alcohol bottles. Now, in every house there is a mineral water bottle, in every car, in every pocket. Before 15 or 20 years, when mineral water began, it was in glass bottles, and now it is in these ugly plastic bottles. But what to do? Even the water loses its quality when it’s in plastic bottles. The radiance of the plastic is different than the glass, but no one can [avoid it]. Because plastic bottles are light, and you can use them many times. So we don’t think of the healthiness, but we think of something which is easier. So many things, if we think of our diet, are also like that. This has destroyed the human intellect. Humans are developing towards distractions. That’s the result of this modern education. So the higher education is spiritual education. Only through that can you achieve God consciousness. God is God. There are not two gods; there is only one God. There is no God of Hindus or God of the Christians or God of the Muslims. Every God is the same God, with some little differences in preaching. Or, like water from Slovakia, or water from Japan, or water from America, or South Africa, or from India. Water is the water. It can be a little different in some qualities or minerals, but the water element is the same. There are many ornaments: earrings, necklaces, rings. They are different ornaments, but the reality of it all is one, that is gold. Everything is made out of the same gold. So, spiritual consciousness means to see equality in everyone. Otherwise, you adore God, and the same God you criticize. Then, this is the problem: why in the world is the restlessness? So, tolerance in culture, religion, understanding for every nation, and respect for every culture is a step toward world peace and toward purifying the consciousness. It is Śiva who is the author of all knowledge, education. The education, the Vidyā, began with Śiva. Vidyā means knowledge. Vidyā means what you learn in school. Vidyā means any techniques, and Avidyā is ignorance. So it is said in the Upaniṣad: Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya—"Lead us from the darkness to the light." Darkness of ignorance and the light of knowledge, the light of wisdom. Svetlost znanja, svetlost mudrosti. This human consciousness, which is in the darkness, is covered by ignorance, Avidyā. Through education, it becomes knowledge. Knowledge, Vidyā, is knowledge. That is wisdom. Vidyā is happiness. Vidyā is contentment, and Vidyā is liberation. Vidyā is clarity, and therefore this Vidyā means Śiva consciousness. Lord Śiva, who is Svayambhū—what we call in the beginning of all creation in this universe, even when our Earth planet was still not existing—from that time, the manifestation that began to take place was with the sound, the resonance. Yoga is that old. At that time, there were no religions. The oldest religion, what we call Hinduism, was also not there, and not Judaism. Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam are very young religions. At that time there was only one religion: God, humanity. Humanity began very, very late, after many billions of years. To come to this knowledge and education, it took a long time. The universe and universal consciousness—balance between these two. We don’t say "consciousness universe," but we say "universal consciousness." The universe is your mother principle. All space, what you see, endless space, is a mother. That’s the cosmic mother, and within this space is the cosmic consciousness. It’s called the golden embryo. So first is the mother principle, and within this mother principle is the father principle. Balance between these two is called yoga. Where there is a balance, there is harmony. All the elements in this universe, visible or invisible, are balanced and harmonized. Harmony means yoga. Where there is balance and harmony, there is union or unity. Finally, yoga means union—the union of the individual consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness. With this big sound, the resonance of OṂ, the Cosmic Consciousness has divided itself into billions of parts, different cells, and now this again desires to come back. That is the purpose of yoga, which helps us to come back. The yogīs in the Himalayas—why in the Himalayas? Why not somewhere in Rajasthan or down somewhere else, in the desert? Because this all was under the water, or under the ice. The peak of the mountains was outside. There, at that time, there were different kinds of humans. Also, humans who were behaving like animals—living, eating, everything, like animals. But there were some developed, civilized ones. We call them yogīs, or ṛṣis, or hermits, or holy saints. They came to this point: how should the individual one again become, or come to, the universal one, the cosmic one? Because barriers are created between the cosmic one and the individual one. Due to these barriers, there is no direct access. These barriers are known as the obstacles of the temptations—temptations, Māyā, illusion, desires. Again, we need purification. Spirituality means purity. Where there is purity, it is spiritual. Where there is no purity, there is no spirituality. So, pure consciousness, pure mind, pure thoughts, pure words, and pure actions are the signs of this spirituality. That should remove all the barriers. They came to the point that humans are able to do this. But humans have, again, human weakness, and that is again the cause of our weakness—suffering. They came to this point: only through human life can you come to the Supreme. In human life, to follow the spiritual principles—love, forgiveness, kindness, be good, don’t take away from anyone, do not steal, no violence—these all are the principles of yoga, which are adopted by all religions. Every religion speaks about God and to be good, be helpful, be kind. If we do this, this is already yoga. At the same time, this body is also a natural thing. The body has three principles: what we call Dharma—to be born, to grow, and to die. You cannot stop this. Yes, you can slow down the process. Some become older quickly. One who practices yoga becomes old slowly, but sooner or later you will be old. You can slow down the process, but you can’t avoid the process. So what will happen if you don’t realize God, or the cosmic union, and you die? Some believe in rebirth, and some don’t believe in rebirth. If you will not be born again, what is going to happen with this spirit, with this consciousness, with this intellect? This entire being—we have not only a physical body, we have different bodies: physical, mental, subtle body, causal body, and within that is thy Self. If the physical body is dying, it does not mean that all the five bodies will die. No. The physical body is here in Banská Bystrica, and you are dreaming that you are in Prague. Who is in Prague? You are with the astral body there. It is very clear. When the physical body is sleeping, it does not mean that the astral body is also sleeping. It does not mean that the causal body is also not active. It does not mean that the mental body is also sleeping. It is very clear. Therefore, after the death of this body, these five elements merge into the origin: water in water, earth in earth, fire in fire, air in air. But what’s happening with the other part of your being? Either you are stuck in the astral world because you don’t believe that you will be born again, and if you will be born again, you are not sure that you will be born as a human, because that soul and destiny are not depending on this one thing. So, what will happen if we don’t come back to this planet, or we don’t come as a human? Then, where is our chance to become one with the Supreme? Heaven and hell are just nothing. Heaven is a five-star hotel, and hell is under the bridge. That’s all. But how long will you stay in a five-star hotel? As long as you have credit on your card, then you have to check out. That’s it. But to merge into the Cosmic Consciousness, that is called everlasting, one without second. For that, one has to be realized. Yogīs came to this point: don’t die unless you have realization. But others said, it’s not in your hands. It’s a natural Dharma; the body will die. So they said, "We shall try to prolong our life, so that in this life we will achieve." What does "prolong" mean? A healthy life. One scientist, a philosopher, said, "Health is not everything. Health is not everything, but everything else is nothing without health." So our physical health means something. That breath can prolong your life. In yoga, it is said that for every individual, when one is born, one is given a certain number of breaths to take, and then one will die. Now look in your account: how much credit do you have still for your breathing? Try to save your breath. Deep breath, slow breath—you can only take a deep breath and a slow breath if you have enough oxygen in the body. So it developed the Prāṇāyāma technique, the exercise of the breath. That’s why breathing exercises are developed, Prāṇāyāma. Society is also a nourishment. Thinking is nourishment. Modern psychologists say, "Don’t think negative." If you have some problems, then look in the mirror. Look in the mirror and say, or think, "I look better today. My cheeks have a nice color today." You will see every day your health improves. We have to help ourselves with our thinking power. If someone says you are ugly, then you will go to the mirror and say, "I am ugly." How is it possible that someone tells me I am ugly? I am ill. My doctor told me that something is missing. You are thinking negatively, giving blackmail to yourself, and that will make you ill again. So the third power is the power of thoughts. That’s called telepathy. In yoga, there are 26 Siddhis, perfections. One of those is telepathy. While sitting here, I talk to you without a telephone, and you talk to me without a telephone. But if my telephone is functioning and yours is not, you cannot talk. Modern technology has made it possible that, without Siddhi, you can talk on the telephone. So this is the power of the thoughts, the power of nourishment, the movement, the breath, and mental power, or the thinking power. This all makes a complete program for the human. Within this, yoga is developed. The environment, the society, the movements, the diet, the breathing—these are major things to observe in life. Then the spiritual consciousness will awake in you. The consciousness is filtered, and you will have this God consciousness. It means that you will always think of God.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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