MERGING WITH SHIVA

A Proper Foundation For Yoga

Many Hindu teachers in the West teach purely advaitic meditation, with no theism or religious practice, but most who have come to the West from India were raised in Hindu homes. They have within them a firm religious, cultural foundation for yoga. Many do not pass the religious culture on to their Western devotees, however. In an orthodox Hindu community they would most likely teach in a more traditional way.
Advaita philosophy is appealing to the Westerner. It does not require a change in lifestyle.

The nondual, advaita-based meditations do bring the devotees out of the conscious mind, but more often than not lead them into the subconscious.
It is here, within the subconscious, that unresolved problems with family and one's own personal ego begin to appear. Without a proper religious-cultural background and traditional Hindu belief system, these problems are difficult to handle. This turmoil is certainly not the purpose of advaitic meditations, but it is a by-product. The wise guru trains his devotees in traditional Hindu culture and values and teaches the beginning yogas, as well as temple protocol, music, the arts and dance. All these should be mastered to build a proper subconscious foundation within the mind. Karma yoga and bhakti yoga are the necessary prelude to the higher philosophies and practices.

Group meditation is all right, as the group can really help the individual, as does the individual help the group. Intense meditation awakens the samskaras, the impressions of the past, and intensifies the prarabdha karmas, bringing them into manifestation before their time. It has a greenhouse effect.

No one should perform intensive meditation alone until he or she can serve selflessly and accept praise and blame and criticism without complaint or resentment, but with a sweet smile. Only when a devotee has reached this stage is he or she firmly on the kriya pada, which will lead quite naturally to the yoga pada. Then, finally, raja yoga and other kinds of more refined, intensive sadhanas can safely be performed.
These will clean up the karmas of the past without mental pain, once the proper foundation has been set within the mind and character of the devotee.

The progressive sadhanas of karma yoga, bhakti yoga and then raja yoga are like clearing a path of its stones. First you remove the big stones.
Then you walk back along the path. You still see big stones, but they are half the size as the first ones that were removed, and you remove these as well. Then you walk back along the path and remove more stones that stand out as large, and on and on until the path is clear. It is a refinement process.