Spiritual Joy - (2)

Greater Kashmir
Srinagar

This is how we produce positive energy by having the temptation controlled...

This ascending journey needs the support of faith (sraddha). What is sraddha? When consciousness flows into the sahasrara cakra and becomes absorbed in it, the resultant state is called sraddha. Sraddha is a great craving, a great thirst. It is such a tremendous thirst that it cannot be quenched even by drinking the entire waters of the oceans. It is born at the level of the unconscious mind.

The upasaka or spiritual aspirant is one whose very bones and marrow are soaked in religion. The term asthi has two meanings, the bones and the spinal cord. How can love of religion be sustained in the bones and marrow? Are the bones and marrow in any way connected with sraddha and bhavana? Majja also means the thicker parts of the brain and the spinal cord. The essence of religion lies in sraddha entering into the spinal cord and the brain. It liter all centres into the spinal cord and the brain and gets em¬bedded there. Then only is it capable of bearing fruit. It bears fruit only when it has entered into the unconscious mind. A wavering sraddha, which often changes its course, is not sraddha in the real sense of the term.

A certain man once fell in love with a woman. He administered to her a magical herb as a result of which she became enamoured of him. She lost interest in everybody else and became mad after him. Her family became very much upset. They called a magician who said that the woman's passion for her lover had become so much deep-rooted that unless it was removed she will continue to be infatuated with him. The magician then applied a charm and eradicated her infatuation. It is not easy to extract the desires, which have become embedded in the unconscious. The Susumna channel and the sahasrara cakra are two powerful centres in the body. Experienced practitioners have attached great importance to them. When the faith that spiritual joy is the greatest joy takes root in the unconscious mind, the practitioner begins to feel the vibrations in the psyche, which are vibrations of positive energy.

Somebody asked Bhagavan Mahavira: "What do we achieve from religious faith?" The latter replied: "Religious faith brings to an end all kinds of curiosity." When spiritual vibrations begin, all curiosity about the material vibrations comes to an end. One of the methods of stopping curiosity about the sex-centres is to push up the energy collected in the sex-centres. The practitioner has to resolve and to pull the nerves of the area of the apana upwards. If this is done for fifteen or twenty minutes or for half an hour, the vibrations, which produce spiritual joy, will begin.