Impediments to Spiritual Practice

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date: Posted 3 years before Aug 09, 2016

MiBeloved 3 years ago

Siddha Swami Nityananda, on the astral side this morning made some remarks about my breath infusion and meditation practice. These remarks might be useful to others.

He said:

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One should not allow the impediments to kill off spiritual practice. Do not think that a time will come when the social hurdles will be removed, when the spiritually-destructive associations will cease. Even for the ascetics who go into isolation, there is the possible of psychic attacks. Sometimes an ascetic is attacked by the devata supernatural rulers who for one reason or another do not feel that a certain ascetic should be allowed to ascend into another realm or zone.

They say to their assistants, “He is in my jurisdiction. Where does he think he is going?”

There are many histories in the Puranas about great yogins who were tempted to give up spiritual practice, and who lost the footing on the austerities. It does happen. The student should bear on with the impediments and be sure to practice no matter what. When the impediments assert themselves, then do your practice and when the impediments disappear then also do your practice?

There is this social account of owing this and owing that due to services received from others in past births. There is also the present ancestral account for services which the people in the present ancestral line received. All of this might confront the yogi, like when a farmer is challenged by the king’s men who claim that the farmer must pay a percentage of his farm yield as a tax. This will happen but do not give it a thought, just pay up and continue with your practice.

Alfredo 3 years ago

Thank you for the reminder. Very appropriate!

I have a question. Besides the case you used of a somehow jealous supernatural devata ruler, it is a fact that there is a recrudesce of attacks when one tries to improve his spiritual lot, by adverse or negative forces, those that Sri Aurobindo called outright hostile vital - or astral - forces, verily what in Hindu lore are called Pishachas or Rakshasas. Is this also your experience? And what to do in this case? And what's the purpose of these hostile forces, in the economy of things?

MiBeloved 3 years ago

Alfredo's Query:

MiBeloved’s Response:

For me this is not a problem even though it is a real challenge for others. Pishachas and Rakshasas are entities with criminal or abusive intent. These could use material bodies or they could just be astral factors. Usually even in the astral world, I do not meet these entities but on occasion, I do.

My usual response to these entities is one of friendship. When that is not possible then I take action to remove myself from the environment where I encountered them. This is the best procedure and it tallies with an instruction which the Creator-deity Brahma got from his Deity who was Lord Mahavishnu.

Brahma was advised to move from the dimension where such entities were manifested. As soon as he did so their presence was no more.

As for their purpose, look at it in this way: What is the purpose of a criminal, in say, New York City?

What is the purpose of an alligator in a tropical swamp?

Location! Location! Location! It cannot be over-emphasized.

In cases where these entities attack a yogi either in the physical or subtle dimensions, they usually do so for one of two reasons:

· Wanting something the yogi has

· Wanting to hurt the yogi because they feel that his presence is a threat

If the student has nothing which these entities desire, then he won’t have to deal with them

If the student does not put himself or herself in a position which these entities perceive as a threat, then they won’t get any satisfaction from interfering with him.

To reach a stage where one is not envied by these entities, one has to perfect the yama and niyama restrictions and approved behaviors which are listed by Patanjali. If somehow a student can master that, then these entities will not perceive him as a threat.

There is a story in the Puranas where some Rakshasas cannibals were in the process of attacking Manu, the Prajapati Primal Forefather. They were killed by his son (grandson) Yajna.

So why did they attack such an elevated person.

Reason is that they were hungry and wanted to eat his body. In other words he has something which they wanted.

Again there was the rakshashi ogre woman, Shurpanakha who wanted to kill and eat Sita, but Shurpanakha’s ears and nose were sliced off by Lakshman, Sita’s brother-in-law. So why did Shurpanakha think of hurting Sita. The reason is that Sita had Rama for a husband, someone who Shurpanakha loved passionately.

Again it was because Shurpanakha wanted something.

There is the case of Khara and Dushan two brothers of Ravana. They used to harass the yogi rishis who were living in seclusion in the forest. Their main activity was to pollute the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies performed by these rishis. But they were not doing it just for the heck of it. Ravana sent them to live in the area just for the purpose of upsetting the religious ceremonies because Ravana felt threatened by those activities.

In a way we can see that these persons usually react in defiance to something or because they desire to have something.

Thus if a yogi does not have anything which they desire and if a yogi does not act in a way which makes them feel threatened, then they won’t bother him.

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Now a more important consideration is that even though Ravana and Kansa felt threatened by the religious behavior of the rishis, they did not feel that way towards Narada, who is also a rishi. Narada is a celestial rishi from the highest astral heavens.

What is it about Narada which does not make them feel threatened in his presence?

Kansa disliked Krishna even before Krishna appeared. But Narada was a good friend of Kamsa as far as Kamsa was concerned.

Let us study Narada’s behavior. When the oracle told Kamsa that the eight child of Devaki would cause his death, Kamsa thought it over. When he consulted with his political friends, they all agreed that every precaution should be taken to stop the would-be assassin.

Soon after this Narada once went to see Kamsa. Kamsa really liked Narada and so he confined in Narada what the oracle said. It went something like this.

Kamsa:

“I do not know if you have heard the bad news but a reliable oracle predicted that the eight child of Devaki would kill me. Just imagine that. At least I got some warning ahead of time. I can protect myself from this assassin. In defense I will kill the eight child of Devaki as soon as it is born. What do you think of my plan for self-preservation?”

Narada replied,

“Yes, I heard about this, how on the wedding day of Devaki and Vasudeva, a voice suddenly boomed out something to that effect in the sky. This was a disembodied voice, proving that it was a supernatural person.

“If you care to protect yourself, then listen carefully to what I have to say. I have gone to those supernatural places where that embodied voice projected from. I can tell you this. The people in that place do not think the way you do. They do not count in the way earth people do, in terms of consecutive numbers like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8. If you value your life you will consider all children of Devaki to be threats. The supernatural people count any which way. Your count beginning from one but with them time has no meaning so they could begin their count at the second child, in which case then if Devaki has 8 children total, the first child will be the eight child. Or suppose they began counting from the sixth child, then the fifth child will be the eight child. As your good friend, I alerted you. Now you can do as you like.”

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So why did Narada do that because he knew darn well that it was the eight child in the usual order of numbers which would kill Kamsa?

So anyway, that example is given to show that Narada had no enemy. The worse of the criminal elements was his dear friend.

Alfredo 3 years ago

Thank you, very thorough and helpful answer!

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