“The Vedas call our universe ‘Brahma’. There were other Brahmas before the present universe, and there will be more Brahmas after our universe ends. Our present Brahma is called Shatanand. Out of the trinity of Gods, Lord Vishnu is the Maintainer of Life, Lord Brahma is the Creator of Life, and Lord Shiva is the Destroyer of Life. Lord Vishnu is the Eternity that lies beyond our universe, the transcendental, unmanifest realm beyond birth and death. Out of Vishnu’s navel, Lord Brahma is born, in the same way as the Big Bang took place: Divine Light burst into creation and manifestation, and our universe was born! Out of Lord Brahma’s 100 yearlong life-cycle, we are now living during the first day of his 51st year. However, compared to our relatively short human life span, the life span of Lord Brahma is immensely longer! One day of Brahma consists of 14 so-called Day-Manvantaras during which He spreads his creation, and 14 Night-Manvantaras during which He absorbs creation back into Himself. One Manvantara consists of 71 Mahayugas. One Mahayuga consists of 1 Sat Yuga – Spiritual Spring (40%, or 1,728,000 years), 1 Treta Yuga – Spiritual Summer (30%, or 1,296,000 years), 1 Dwapara Yuga – Spiritual Fall (20%, or 864,000 years), and 1 Kali Yuga – Spiritual Winter (10%, or 432,000 solar years). So the total Mahayuga span lasts 4,320,000 human years. And one Manvantara lasts a whopping 306,720,000 years! Anyway, science has discovered that our universe is about 155 billion years old. This is equal to the present age of Brahma, where we live during the first day of his 51st year! And equal to Lord Brahma’s life cycle, our soul also incarnates into a material reality, and then dissolves back into the highest realms of eternity to recuperate for its next incarnation. And on an even smaller scale, we are active during the day and we rest during the night! And on a micro level, we breathe out and we breathe in! Only on the level of Vishnu, the transcendental level of existence, does our soul nature exist eternally and immortally, beyond birth and death. This trinity of existence – creation, death, and eternity – exists as much on the macro level of existence as it also exists on the micro level of existence! We can give in to duality or we can transcend duality to experience the bliss of the eternal and immortal world! We either stay caught in the cycle of reincarnation or we transcend our limiting beliefs and energy blocks in order to experience the unsurpassing peace and happiness of the transcendental, eternal realms!”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
“In the science of ultimate consciousness, the Vedas, there exists the truth of all of existence in the form of the three gunas: tapas (evil, darkness, destructive, chaotic), rajas (passion, action, desire, confused), and sattva (goodness, light, constructive, harmonious). Guna means fiber or strand and implies that, like strands of a rope, the gunas are woven together to shape the objective universe. All three gunas are constantly present in all of existence, in all beings and objects surrounding us, but vary in their relative amounts. The theory of the gunas explains what our universe is made of and how it came to manifest itself as consciousness and matter. This trinity also manifests itself in the three realms of existence: the transcendental realm (Rishi or in the Christian teachings, God, the Father), the electromagnetic or psychoenergetic realm (Devata or the Holy Spirit), and the physical realm (Chhandas or the Son). Rishi is the subjective aspect of God, pure consciousness aware of itself, and Chhandas is the objective aspect of God, the material world or creation. Devata or the Holy Spirit is the continuum between Rishi (God) and Chhandas (Son of God), the process by which both aspects of God interact. – Every one of us has these three gunas interplaying within ourselves at all times, each guna in varying amounts. If we feel like we are on a downward spiral, we have an excess of tapas. If we feel constantly on the go without feeling we are getting anywhere, we might have an excess of the rajas energy. If we feel wonderfully constructive and in harmony with ourselves, our surroundings, and the universe, then we are fortunate enough to have the sattvic forces carry us though life. Sattva can be increased by working in harmony with the laws of nature and the universe, instead of violating them. It starts with staying in tune with healthy sleep cycles, and continues with upholding the purity of nature, and with treating others as we would want them to treat us, namely with loving kindness! Sattva empowers us, tapas destroys us. A sattvic person increasingly displays the so-called Siddhi powers or supernatural powers. Instead of depending on outer technologies to advance one’s life, a sattvic person can eventually perform miraculous acts without any help from an outside source. A tapas-oriented person becomes increasingly overshadowed in regard to his true nature and purpose in life. Outer technologies become a crutch for him and distract him from realizing his own inner supernatural powers, like transforming one element (i.e. earth) into another (i.e. air) and thereby performing supernatural phenomena like flying through the air or levitating, walking on water, diving into the ground, walking through solid obstructions, etc. The Rishi aspect in us is our soul in absolute perfection and self-reliance. The Chhandas aspect in us moves us towards disempowerment and loss of self-awareness. And the Devata aspect in us is the constant process that binds these two aspects together and enables us to choose which direction we want to pursue: enlightenment (sattva) or spiritual darkness (tapas). On his way to enlightenment, however, a true Siddha or spiritual aspirant will often perform so-called tapas practices in order to facilitate his spiritual development, practices like living in solitude in order to minimize negative reactions to others, or other practices of self-discipline, in order to suffer through the karmic consequences he incurred, so he may be free of his karmic burdens and free to move towards the heavens of a karma-free, transcendental paradise. We can, however, grow towards ultimate self-realization in our daily lives without having to do extreme penance. We can choose our own direction in life at any moment, and we can work off our karmic debts by not reacting to negative stimulus from the outside world with any amount of self-discipline we can muster. We are the creators of our destinies – we can be like the Siddha who creates the life he wants – and the three gunas give us the understanding we need in order to find our way through the labyrinths of our often confused minds, back to the pristine fields of our ultimate, self-referral consciousness, back to our own powerful Rishi nature!”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
“The unified field of consciousness and existence is actually not a field of duality, but a field of trinity. The Vedas say it consists of Rishi (the field of pure consciousness, the subject), Devata (the process of knowing, the verb), and Chhandas (that which is known, the object). One can also speak of the three realms of existence: the Transcendental Realm (Rishi or in the Christian teachings, the Father), the Electromagnetic or Psychoenergetic Realm (Devata or Holy Spirit), and the Physical Realm (Chhandas or the Son). A sentence is considered a complete sentence for as long as it contains a subject, a verb, and an object. We speak what we experience, and what we experience is one of the infinite possibilities of consciousness giving birth to existence and perceiving itself as something other. – As the Rishi takes a step back to perceive himself as something else, he creates a distance between himself as the observer and the object of his observation, Chhandas. This distance is known as space. And as this process keeps multiplying itself to create several intersecting layers of existence, time is born. Within space and time, the individualized consciousness creates karma. And this karma is the reason we no longer fully identify with our pure and blissful Rishi consciousness. For as long as the Rishi aspect, who is also called the seer or observer, is fully awake, life is blissful and in harmony with all of life and the universe. As soon as the Chhandas aspect gets predominant, however, and the Rishi aspect in us gets overshadowed by his own creation and manifestations, life becomes miserable, as we feel increasingly victimized by the karmic consequences of our own past deeds. Then it feels more and more as if we are out of control over our lives, and forces outside of us can subdue, manipulate, and oppress us. Jesus taught that if someone strikes our cheek, to offer our adversaries the other cheek as well. He didn’t mean for us to become complete victims, but to stay self-referral and assume the responsibility for what just happened to us. Because a responsible person will always know that, even though he might not know the cause of his suffering anymore because it occurred a long time ago, maybe even in a past lifetime, we are the ones who created this bad karmic feedback for ourselves that has someone slap us now. And to get this over with, we don’t resist or even retaliate (which would create even more karma), but we endure and end our bad karma here and now, and for good. – Meditation helps us elevate our consciousness to higher planes of existence that are more suffused with the infinite intelligence and energy of pure consciousness. Like a cloth that we dunk several times into colorful water so it becomes completely dyed in that beautiful color at some point, we also suffuse our awareness increasingly with the refined vibrations of higher consciousness when we meditate on a daily basis. And as our Rishi awareness increases, we find ourselves at the head and on top of our creations, living the life of our dreams, and feeling infinitely happy and fulfilled. Our Siddhi powers increase and our dependence on abusive powers ceases. Meditation, like Raja Yoga, is the ultimate technique of self-improvement and self-referral realization. Raja Yoga teaches us how to intensify our focus and aim on enlightenment so as to shorten our captivity on planes of existence we no longer wish to experience. We don’t have to wait for the masses to be enlightened. Like the saints and sages of all time, we can abbreviate our suffering and find enlightenment in this lifetime instead. We can unresonate ourselves out of any unwanted reality, and lift our awareness to instead resonate with and encounter beings of a higher vibration, be it in our earthly world or beyond. When in the midst of our suffering and pain we stop finding and making excuses for why we are the victims, we might actually start to glimpse the reality beyond the veils of maya and illusion, to experience the infinitely powerful bliss of our unadulterated state of being: the Rishi aspect of our Divine nature. But to experience this beautiful state, we first have to stop disempowering ourselves by blaming outer circumstances and people for our suffering, and completely surrender to this highest, eternal principle within ourselves. Only then will the most powerful stream of life and consciousness sweep us off our established realities, away and on high to these sanctified levels of beingness no mortal man can ever enter into in any lasting way. Let’s therefore shed the layers of our misconstrued thoughts and actions from us, so we may enter those hallowed realms where our eternal Self resides in permanently; the only place our soul feels ultimately at home: the unified field of pure consciousness; being at one with the non-dualistic aspect of God, at one with our Divine Father and Mother.”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
“ At a time of intense influx of life-supporting, benevolent rays of life force streaming from the Great Central Sun, – our Golden Age of Enlightenment – and in a world suffused by the abundance of every good thing, enlightened rulers reigned, and paradise existed for the immortal souls of our world. Harmony and Divine order in all areas of life made it a joy to get up in the mornings and live through the days with endless amounts of bliss, highest purpose, loving relationships with members of our soul families, infinite energy and vitality, and overflowing abundance of everything that made us feel blessed and enriched! It was the time in which Dharma was lived by every expression of life, where righteous action was performed from the vantage point of highest awareness and purity of consciousness. Synonymous with the Divine Will, which wants the Best for us all, Dharma imparts Divine values to any and all areas of life, raising these to their highest, Divine levels of existence. Thus, man-made law (which is fallible) becomes eternal, Divine law and justice; immorality becomes Divine morality that is impartial and uplifts every expression of life; and education is raised to the level where students actually become masters over their usually self-jeopardizing subconscious tendencies in order to be able to create the life they desire and which alone makes them happy and fulfilled, rather than being clueless, feeling victimized, and often rebellious because of feeling misunderstood in their deepest aspirations. Dharma is a central concept in the ancient Vedic texts. It is the force that creates order out of chaos, and it is the guiding principle of Divinely attuned conduct, rituals, duties, and vocation. It is the ‘right way of living’, the path of righteousness, the path that leads to ultimate self-realization and enlightenment. The dharmic viewpoint always considers the ‘win-win for all’ over any and all egocentric impulses; it stays unattached like a true Divine monarch stays above the opposing viewpoints of a democratic political system, a Divinely attuned monarch who hasn’t seized or defended the crown or presidency title through force, exploitation, and violence, but has earned it by being an example of Divine mercy, generosity, justice, and being an endless fountain of Good for his/her people. From times immemorial, spiritual teachings speak of Dharma as the way to attain God- and unity-consciousness, since it is the Divine principle that brings order into chaos, light into darkness, and highest purpose into an empty wasteland of negative emotions. A world in which humans live according to their dharmic vocation, in which everyone is able to fulfill his/her own meaningful purpose in life, this world experiences collective peace, harmony, longevity, and prosperity, and is therefore a truly paradisiacal world indeed. India, the land of the Veda, has the Ashoka Chakra, the Dharmic Wheel, at the center of its flag, attesting to the superlative importance of Dharma over all life expressions. Dharma, like the unified field of consciousness, underlies and supports all of life, and whosoever can tap into this field of ultimate life force and Dharma, succeeds in all her/his activities that are geared towards ultimate fulfillment, abundance, and bliss. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that ‘Nothing is higher than Dharma. The weak overcomes the stronger (i.e. power-abusive) by Dharma, as over a king. Truly that Dharma is the Truth (Satya). Therefore, when a man speaks the Truth, they say, “He speaks the Dharma”; and if he speaks Dharma, they say, “He speaks the Truth!” For both are one.’ –Buddha’s teachings, also, recognize and aspire to the realization of Dharma in the individual’s life. In its ultimate form, Dharma is the Nirvana beyond all earthly concerns and suffering, the innate principle of harmony that holds life together, and renders it meaningful, happy, and incredibly worth living. Buddha left a world of partiality behind, a world of mass poverty and elitist super-richness, to experience the healing truth behind all transient, fleeting phenomena. And what he realized in himself was the path of Dharma, of highest self-realization and the anchoring of the soul in the state of non-duality, Nirvana, Enlightenment, Samadhi, you name it! Important is that Dharma guides us back and anchors us in a state of bliss that inherently is our own highest and truest nature. Therefore, look inside, and let Dharma show you the way to your ultimate fulfillment, doing what feels right and good for your longterm growth, for this will set you free, free to start enjoying life again the way it was intended for us from the very beginning of time! Dharma is the blissful unity of your own Free Will with the Divine Will for your life! Hallelujah!”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
“Every one of us has an inner voice that knows the difference between right and wrong, beneficial and disadvantageous, life-supporting and life-destroying. This voice is our conscience, and it is a daily challenge to live by this inner voice and not ignore or repress it because it might go contrary to our lower-self interests. It is easy to get distracted from listening to this inner voice, and to find justification and vindication for our rebellious, self-serving behavior. But all this does is lead us further and further away from our inner voice until one day we can’t hear it anymore. Then we are prime instruments for dark and evil forces who need people without a conscience to do the dirty work for them, dirty work like oppressing and harassing other people rather than helping and uplifting them. It is, in fact, a miracle to still be able to hear and feel one’s own conscience, for it is the voice of our Divine Super-Self trying to lead us back to our most immanent, eternal, blissful, and all powerful Self, that heavenly state of being where we feel the most at home. Our conscience is the super highway that connects our individual self with the universal Self; it is the agency that, according to the Vedas, connects the Atman (the individual Higher Self) with the Brahman (the Universal Self). According to the Vedas, Brahma, the Creator, created our universe and everything in it, but he did not create the soul, because the soul is eternal; it resides beyond all mortal, transient worlds in the realm of eternity and immortality. All souls are in fact of the same essence as Brahma Himself. Brahma is the ocean of super consciousness, and any and all souls are of that same super consciousness. It is up to the soul whether it identifies itself with a drop of water in the ocean of life and consciousness or whether it identifies itself with the whole ocean of life and consciousness. The challenge is to find back to this ultimate self-realization that Atman and Brahman are in fact one and the same on the highest level of perception and beingness. If Atman, the individual Higher Self, is able to dissolve all attachments to his/her own individuality and world experience, Atman can then experience himself/herself as Brahman, the Universal Self, unbounded and eternal in nature! Once enlightened on this ultimate level of existence, Atman and Brahman function as One, in the same way as Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita realizes Lord Krishna as an embodiment of the Highest, most absolute Godhead, the one God that comprises all individual souls in existence. And from this highest, Divine viewpoint, all action performed is dharmic and in alignment with the Highest Good for all souls and all life expressions, whether an individual can understand this from his limited viewpoint at a certain point in time or not. If an individual manages to align his/her thoughts and actions with this ultimate highest Good for all of life, he/she has succeeded in aligning his/her own free will with the Divine Will that supersedes all individual and mortal understandings. Such an individual is fortunate indeed, for he has managed to attach himself to the fastest, most powerful Divine force field that can lift us up from the swamps of our self-created miseries, lifting us towards the heavens of ultimate freedom and bliss. The Divine plan for our lives is magnificent; it organizes our lives for maximum growth benefit, growth towards our full potential for happiness and fulfillment in every area of our lives. Our conscience tries to keep us following this path of self-transformation to become our Higher, eternal Selves. It is not always the most comfortable and easy path, but it is definitely the more rewarding one. Too many times we have ended up with the necessity to reincarnate in order to pick up the karmic pieces and shards we left behind from our past lifetimes. Deep inside we yearn to be done with the creation of more pain and suffering. Yes, deep inside we yearn for reunification with not only our own Higher Selves, our Atman nature, but also with our Universal or Cosmic Self, the Brahman state of our ultimate, unbounded existence. In this state, we experience unbounded joy, happiness, and bliss, for it is where our souls are ultimately at home! And in this state, we are the creators of our own world experiences; we exercise and live according to our own free will, which on this level coincides with the Divine Will. Nothing in life is predetermined for the ones who have aligned themselves with the Good in every living thing; they are free to create according to their own desires, and their lives cannot be predicted, for their manifesting powers are unfathomable. Only individuals who violate the laws of nature and transgress against any or all life forms, find their life experiences limited and on a downward spiral. Their misfortune can easily be predicted like the trajectory of a heavy object falling to the ground. Only a miracle seems to be able to alter the fatal course of certain miscreations, and for this miracle to be able to happen, the individual would have to start changing inside himself to be able to attract better things into his life. For we attract the kind of circumstances, people, and things we most resonate with. As inside, so outside! Our outer life is a mirror reflection of our inner life, and if we manage to trust and listen to our conscience and begin to align ourselves with the Divine Will, then we will begin manifesting a life for ourselves that will be unbounded in all the good things we wish to experience! Then our Atman nature is again reunited with our Brahman nature, and we have once again become the infinitely powerful creators of our own life experience! Totally worth every effort along the way!”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
“Every one of us has the seed of greatness within ourselves, waiting to be awakened so we may shine in all our Divine glory. Considering that time is relative and multiple universes coexist at all times, we know that there are no social differences between us that are lasting or non-reconcilable. Still, our mortal selves try to put up walls and insist on differences that allow one group to think of themselves as superior or inferior in regard to others. Creation is diverse and varied, pleasing our senses with a cornucopia of colorful impressions. Each of us is unique, but our inner essence makes us all united and equal in the Divine Supermind. Obviously there are individuals that are in different evolutionary phases of their soul developmental process back to the wholeness of our Divine Selves. These differences are reflected in the purity and vitality of our life force centers, the chakras. Different people have certain chakras going strong, and other chakras are weaker because of impurities and energy blockages. One can say that those whose Muladhara, or root chakra, is the strongest tend to be concerned with survival issues; they labor hard and toil the land for food. Others, whose Swadhisthana, or navel chakra, is the most pronounced tend to be creative in how they go about earning their living, as in being a tradesman or artisan. The ones whose Manipura, or solar plexus chakra, shines the brightest are often interested in exercising their power, mostly over others. They tend to want to lead others and subjugate them to their will. If the Anahata, or heart chakra, is well developed, we can either have warrior-like people whose courageous hearts fight for the just causes of mankind or a leader who might have a merciful and giving heart that benefits his subjects. A pronounced Vishuddha, or throat chakra, enables a person to speak his/her truth and to become an inspiration to their fellow men. And once the Ajna, or Third Eye chakra, is opened, we start seeing the beauty of the inner worlds, connecting with our Higher Selves and sharing these illuminating realities and visions with those around us who are interested in these higher, celestial worlds. The Sahasrara, or crown chakra, is the bridge to our Higher Selves. Once the crown chakra opens through the practice of spiritual techniques that purify and transcend the mind, we are able to connect with the essence of our ‘I Am’ presence, uniting with larger and larger aspects of our all-encompassing Divine Self. The Vedas speak of these different developmental phases within the Self, ascribing certain predominant qualities to certain dharmic groups or states of being. Thus, the so-called Shudras are associated with the root chakra and comprise the laboring class; the Vaishyas, associated with the navel chakra, comprise the class of the more creative workers, the artisans, merchants, tradesmen, etc.; the Kshatriyas (also called Rajanyas), on the other hand, are associated with the solar plexus and can overlap into the heart chakra. They are the rulers, warriors, and administrators. People who mostly function out of their higher chakras are the so-called Brahmins, the priestly people who speak the truth of the Divine Source and convey their heavenly visions to the unenlightened. The Vedas don’t ever state that these differences are non-changeable for any spiritual aspirant. Only because an individual is born into a lower developmental class does not mean that he cannot rise within this lifetime to become a Brahmin. Nor do the Vedas exclude that an individual who was born into a Brahmin family can, through bad actions and behavior, not fall towards the bottom levels of existence. Whether a person rises or falls in his development is entirely up to him and to the decisions he makes in every moment of his life. At least this is the ideal that the Vedas, being a source of ancient knowledge, advocate. Buddha, as well, believed in this ideal that gives the individual the keys to his own self-transformation. Nowadays, however, we find ourselves living during Kali Yuga, the spiritual winter season, and during this time, the power that governs this planet is concentrated in the hands of power-hungry, self-serving, often destructive, individuals who live by the creed: ‘Divide and conquer’. It serves them well to instill a sense of difference and inequality in people, to give preferential status to a small elite, a certain amount of rights and advantages to the class that produces goods and services and also manages the laboring class, the members of which, being at the bottom of the food chain, are often left without any chances of rising up in their careers, often exploited financially and left with indebtedness that reminds of slavery, as well as often left without the opportunity to own their own land. Whether we look at the caste system in India (especially when it was still under British rule) or at the slums of American cities, the conditions are similar and portray a governing mindset that tries to keep the masses in the oppressive conditions that force them to give it their all without hardly anything in return except their survival. These limiting conditions can turn lower class members into rebels or drunkards, indicating frustration or resignation in the face of an unmovable, overpowering force that keeps people trapped in a hopeless situation. In order to counter any violent uprisings from amongst the oppressed masses, further division and brandmarking as outcasts and criminals is imposed to guarantee that the individual does not find any support for his cause amongst his fellow men. The Vedas mention the so-called four Varnas, but history and its declining moral values has turned these Varnas, which solely describe the four developmental states within each individual throughout his spiritual journey, into thousands of subcategories, like the thousands of jatis in India (but this segregation principle is not limited to India alone). Segregation begets hopelessness and powerlessness. Unification begets empowerment and motivation to be one’s best under any circumstances. We can, in fact, choose at any moment which inner trend we want to follow: either give in to hopelessness or take matters into our own hands, and this way change our lot and status in life. As within, so without! If we choose to cleanse our chakras, develop our spiritual wisdom and strength, be whole and unified within ourselves, with all energy meridians flowing freely and unblocked, then we escape hopelessness and develop instead our own higher faculties that place us onto the higher levels of existence. Freedom is a state we earn through spritiual practice. And this truth is very liberating!”
― Maha Devi Li Ra La
