Transcriptions
Dev Priyānanda Svāmī Bhagavān
Video Link: YouTube
So, let’s begin. So, this is really going to be the last video for a while. I’m going on retreat, going up in the forest in the mountains of Sri Lanka. And probably you won’t see another video for like six weeks, at least. That is contingent on my having anything to say. But things usually come up during these retreats, so I probably will.
I just don’t want to be bothered by intellectual work, screen work, computer work. I just want to be out there in the woods with the birds and trees and animals, swimming in the stream and sitting with the monks and like that.
And the reason for this is not only do I usually take a retreat at the end of the year, a break or during spring, especially, which is now coming on really strong after the long rainy season that we had. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a longer change that’s playing out here. And I think after noticing it and confirming it, that it’s something worth sharing.
That is—well, let me back up a little bit. My whole life I have been an avid musician. And because my mother was a Tāntrikā, my mother and father, but especially my mother, I was always very much involved with sexuality and like that. And of course, religion, bhakti, devotion, all kinds of beauty. These were the mainstay of my life. These were the things that I turned to for shelter.
Because as you know, human life on planet Earth is very challenging, to say the least. Even for someone born in actually opulent circumstances, even though from the social point of view, we were lower middle class. Actually, from the global point of view, we had all kinds of advantages.
It’s like if you were playing baseball and you found yourself magically on second base, you know, so it’s a big advantage. And I would have to say that in the intervening time, many years of being on the spiritual path, I was able to advance to third base. And I had a lot of help. There were a lot of beings on my team, giving me all kinds of assistance, now that I look back on it. And finally, recently, I have come in contact with a source of beauty that makes all the others, music, sex, the beauty of math and science, even the beauty of meditation, emptiness, pale in comparison. What is that?
That’s the beauty of Śakti, the beauty of the Goddess, that She has revealed herself to me in a very special way. And what that means is that I have seen, I have realized that whatever there is that I could call “I”, myself, is actually nothing but Her.
See, She is all form. She is saguṇa-brahman. So all the forms of this world are actually Her. Her energy, Herself, She is energy, Śakti means the force; you know, “May the Force be with you,” or whatever. May Śakti be in your heart.
Well, She’s already in your heart. She’s the life energy. She is the body. She is Kuṇḍalinī. The power of sex, the power of life, reproduction, genetics, the intelligence, biological and intuitive intelligence. She is the one who keeps the body running while we’re asleep, off somewhere else. She is the basis of everything that we love and hold dear.
So all these things, all these beauties that were the nectar that kept me going through life, through all the difficulties, through all the betrayals and downturns and all this, you know, the stuff that happens in life. This was Her. The beauty of music as Goddess Sarasvatī, Mahā Sarasvatī Śakti, She is one of the Śaktis. And then the beauty of sex, that’s Kuṇḍalinī Śakti. The beauty of mathematics, see, of power, money, whatever kind of beauty you can find in this world. The beauty of emotions, of art, you see, this is all Her.
Oh, and it goes deeper too. The beauty of the mind, of beautiful thoughts, mathematics, the mathematics of music, especially the svaras and the beautiful emotions that these svaras release, transcendental emotions. These are also Her. She is the form of rasa. So these are all Her qualities, and even the consciousness. Consciousness is also Śakti; it’s called cit-śakti, will—icchā-śakti, you see?
So all the things that we value, all the things that we see beauty in, all the things that motivate us and bring us through this life, they are actually Śakti. In the moment of orgasm, one experiences Śakti directly, Kuṇḍalinī.
But She can also reveal Herself in a more long term way, a more persistent way. The bliss of orgasm only lasts a few seconds or a few minutes, if you know how to prolong it. But the bliss of contacting Śakti is eternal. It’s however, however long you want to stay in touch with Her, She’s available for that.
Because ultimately, what are we? Śivo’ham, aham brahmasmī, I am, therefore, I am Brahman. Because I am conscious—or not even conscious—aware, I have the potential for consciousness. But even without an object, which is required for consciousness, I am aware. I am aware that I am aware. I am aware that I am.
And that presence, that knowledge of one’s own existence, that’s Brahman. So deep down in the core, at the root, at the source, we are Brahman, all of us. We are Śiva, Sadāśiva, Parama-śiva. That’s who we are. And Śakti exists to serve Śiva. So we all get to desire what we want, especially at the moment of death.
I just want to show a little video here, showing the orbital period of an elliptical orbital body. So what we call “I”, the self, is actually simply a construct of thoughts, a constellation of ideas, abstractions, sankhārā, in orbit around a highly massive black hole that we call Śiva, or Brahman. And when we leave this body, we move towards perihelion.
And by the time we get to Śiva, we’re moving so fast that we don’t have the ability to change our course. But when we’re out at the extremity, at the aphelion, then we have sufficient momentum, sufficient energy, sufficient delta-V, to use the technical term, to change our course. And this is called sādhana.
So if we use sādhana correctly, we can change our orbit from an elliptical orbit to a direct path to Brahman. This is called liberation. So how do we do that?
Well, the best way, the way that has had the greatest results for me in my long life of trying everything, is simply remembrance of Śakti, remembrance of the Goddess, through Her names, through especially Her mantra, the Mahāṣodaśi-mantra, ṣodaśakśara-mantra, the 16-syllable mantra. And we’ve offered initiation into this mantra, basically to anyone who wants it, but very few people have responded. Those who have are very pleased.
So this is the ultimate teaching. This is what we feel is the best medicine for everybody. This is, in our experience anyway, the most powerful teaching, the most efficacious and powerful mantra. And so we wholeheartedly recommend that you should take this up. And we’ve given all the instructions here. I even made a series, a whole series of videos on it.
You can find those and watch them. And please take that teaching to heart, because it’s the best thing that I’ve ever found, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever appreciated. It makes all the other beauties like nothing.
I mean, just consider, for example, music, okay? To make beautiful music is a real pleasure. But in order to do that, you have to practice. You have to practice a lot and you have to keep up those skills. You have to maintain them. And as you get older, of course, the body, the mind, everything gets less sharp.
So it becomes more and more difficult to create that beauty. And if one is relying on that, if one is attached to it, then it becomes very difficult. And the same goes with the beauty of love, sex, or any of the other beauties, power, wealth, knowledge, even renunciation becomes more and more difficult as you get older.
But there’s no difficulty at all in remembering the goddess by Her mantra. [chants mantra] And as I do that, I can see Her in front of me in a form of light. So She is with us always.
And She is actually our Self. We are one with Her, because She is everything that we could identify as being ourselves. So this is the ultimate conclusion of all these researches, all these practices, all these studies. And you should take this up because, in my experience, this is the highest blessing.
ĀŪṀ, Tat Sat; ĀŪṀ Śakti ĀŪṀ.