This is David G and welcome to another step on our journey.
Let's find a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
Gently feather your nest.
And together let's take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
And let's effortlessly let that go.
Allow your eyelids to gently float closed and let's take another deep breath in.
And release it.
Now just follow your breath in and out.
In and out.
The greatest translator of Advaita Nandulism,
Adi Shankara.
It was when Shankara first met his guru,
Sage Govinda Parah,
And his guru asked him a simple question.
Who are you?
And Adi Shankara responded with what is now known today as the Dasa Sloki or Nirvana Dasakam.
Essentially the ten shlokas or ten verses.
The legend goes that upon fielding the question,
Who are you?
Shankara replied,
I am not earth.
I am not water.
I am not light.
I am not wind.
I am not ether.
I am not sense organs.
Nor am I a combination of these because they don't always exist.
I am simply Shiva,
The self.
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
I am not the caste.
I am not the caste rules.
I am not stages of life.
I am not rules.
I am not the just conduct.
I am not meditation.
I am not yoga practice.
For the concept of I and me destroy all these.
I am simply Shiva,
The self.
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither the mother nor the father,
Neither the celestial gods nor the earth,
Neither the Vedas nor the fire sacrifice nor the holy waters they say exist in sleep.
But there is no void in sleep either.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither the Sankhya principle nor the doctrine of Shaiva nor the principle of Pancharatra nor the doctrine of Janas nor the principles of Mimasa are unique experiences for the soul is the purest known truth.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither white nor black,
Neither red nor yellow,
Neither large nor thin,
Neither short nor tall,
And neither with a form is the soul,
For this soul is the form of the light.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither the state of waking nor the state of dream nor the state of deep sleep is for me.
Neither the earthy feelings nor the glorified feelings of dreams nor the feeling of wakefulness in sleep am I.
For these are the souls of Avidya and I am the fourth,
The Turiya,
Which is beyond these.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither the origin of knowledge nor the books of knowledge,
Neither the disciple nor the teacher,
Neither you nor me,
And nor this world am I,
For this is not tolerated by innate realization.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Neither above nor below,
Neither inside nor outside,
Neither the middle nor the across,
Neither the east nor the west am I.
For like the all-pervading ether I am spread everywhere.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
Being all-pervasive and goal-oriented,
Being dependent on its own nature,
Then depending on any outside thing,
This world is trivial as it is different from self.
So I am simply Shiva,
The self,
For this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out.
It is not even one and how can it be two,
Neither is it unique and nor not unique,
Neither is it a vacuum nor something different from it,
For it is the essence of non-dual reality.
So how can I tell about what is established by all philosophy?
That's Adi Shankara's Dasa Sloki translated by P.
R.
Ramachander.
We can pretty much distill the ten shlokas down to a few basic concepts.
Your sacred soul is ageless,
Changeless and enduring.
Your sacred soul is carliless,
Genderless and raceless.
Your sacred soul is the eternal witness.
Your sacred soul transcends all teachings,
Philosophies and wisdom.
Your sacred soul touches everything in existence.
Your sacred soul is shapeless and formless.
Your sacred soul is mahasat,
The pure knower of all truth.
Your sacred soul is universal,
Individual and the merging of both.
Shankara wrote this around 800 A.
D.
And this is one of his greatest contributions towards the study of Advaita non-dualism.
Rather than looking for the differences between us,
Finding that one sacred connection that runs through you and runs through me and has run through everything since the beginning of time and will continue to run through eternity.
These ten shlokas put everything in context,
Allow us to understand our connection to the divine,
Allow us to see that there is no difference between our souls and the universal spirit.
Our souls are just inside our jiva body and so they are our earthly expression of the divine.
In every moment you and I are expressing the divine.
It's come into our awareness through our senses,
Through our thought,
Through prana and it flows out in the form of an emotion,
A word,
An action,
Some type of expression.
We breathe it in and we breathe it right back out.
Let's float for a little bit as we feel this ageless,
Changeless and enduring energy ripple through us.
Try to feel it at your most subtle level and just float.
And now let's take it just a little bit deeper.
The last line of each of those verses that ends with I am simply Shiva the Self where this remains even in sleep after everything is taken out is chanted in Sanskrit like this.
Tade ko vashishta Shiva ki valoham or Tade ko vashishta Shiva ki valoham.
So let's use this as our mantra.
Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham Shiva ki valoham And now begin repeating it silently to yourself and continue to repeat it.
I'll watch the time and I'll ring the chime at the 10 minute mark.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Let's begin.
Shiva ki valoham.
Shiva ki valoham.
Sit gently with your eyes closed and let the stillness and silence settle in.
And now take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
And now let's gently let that go.
Let's do that one more time.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
And never sit gently,
Let that go.
And now let's chant,
Om,
The hymn of the universe.
Just one time,
Take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
Om.
If it feels comfortable,
You can slowly open your eyes.
You can look around at those who you shared this collective consciousness with.
Place your palms together,
Raise them into your heart,
Bow your head just a bit,
And say namaste.
Namaste.
I honor the divine light in you that's also in me.
We are one in that space,
And I'm in that space.
We are one.
Namaste.
And we were just in that space together.
So the next time someone says,
Who are you?
You can answer by chanting the ten shlokas.
The first line in shloka number ten is,
It is not even one,
And how can it be two?
It is the essence of non-dual reality.
Mind-blowing.
So as we move throughout the day,
Our meta-moment is to remember it is not even one,
And how can it be two?
In your less-than moment,
That's just when you're about to bark at someone or shut down,
Just about to lose it or react.
And instead,
Remember,
Everything around you is pure,
Unbounded spirit,
Wearing a different disguise.
So don't get sucked into the drama of the moment,
Just as that moment is about to explode from you.
Instead,
Remember,
Shiva ki Valoham.
I am simply Shiva,
The Self,
For this remains even in sleep,
After everything is taken out.
Knowing that your sacred soul is ageless,
Changeless,
Enduring,
Colorless,
Genderless,
Raceless,
The eternal witness,
Transcending all teachings,
Philosophies,
And wisdom,
Touching everything in existence,
Shapeless,
And formless,
The pure knower of all truth,
Universal,
Individual,
And the merging of both.
From the sweet spot of the universe,
This is David Chi,
Wishing you an amazing day of connection to your sacred soul.
Aham Brahmasmi,
Baby.
I'll see you in the gap.
De ko vasishtha Shiva ki Valoham.
De ko vasishtha Shiva ki Valoham.
