Experience is the best learning | Ishan Shivanand

What are the rules to follow in Shivayog? Rules is a very dirty word, and the best thing is we talk about rules when we do something that we do not enjoy. What are the rules when you go to school? What are the rules when you are in university? And each time somebody tells us the rule, we become apprehensive towards the happiness that may come. More than rules, Shiv Yog believes in becoming. Because again, I tell you, if I tell you rules, then the next thing that comes is how to break those rules. Because in Navaratra, they say the rule is not to eat the anna. So if you cannot eat anna, then how to break the rule? Okay, I will eat kutukka atta because technically it is not anna. If I tell you the rule is not to eat salt, a person will say, okay, I will eat sendha namak because technically that is not salt. And that is why rules are when I am trying to impose something upon you. But the best thing is in Shiv Yoga, we realize when you will come, you will meditate, you will experience. Generally how it goes is it goes by first dharma, then dhyana, then samadhi. Dharma means they say that you have to change your intention, after that only you can sit in dhyana meditation. And after the Dhyana only can you really experience Samadhi, the deepest state of Sadhana. But the trouble comes is when we try to change our intention, our mind will rebel. If I tell you right now, think positive, think, think, think, think, think you are rich, think you are rich, think you are rich, the best part is the mind will say, no, you are not, no, you are not, no, you are not. So in the first step only, so many people, they give up and they say, I could not follow the rules. In Shivayog, we go in reverse. The first thing that we practice is we practice Samadhi in the presence of our Guru. We first experience, we taste, we enjoy the Divinity. When in the 5-day Shivayog you come, or the 3-day Shivayog you come, You sit with the Guru from day until night, where the Guru honestly teaches you and sincerely makes you experience. If the Shivaratri is for 5 days, 5 days myself or my Guru would be sitting with you and sincerely, honestly, truthfully in Shivayog, the Guru teaches, and through his Tapo Agni, through his power, we do the Kundalini Sadhana, where we experience Samadhi. Once we have enjoyed Samadhi, then Dhyana becomes easy. Just like when you are going to play golf, then it is not a necessity, it is a joy, it is a hobby. Then golf is not a medicine, it is something you do because you enjoy it. And that is why in Shiva Yuk, first Samadhi, so that we learn to enjoy spirituality. From that enjoyment will come the power to do the dhyana, because then dhyana becomes our hobby because we benefit from it, we enjoy it. And once we start benefiting from our dhyana, automatically our chetana, our dharana, it starts changing. People become more positive. Because they realize what is the need of negativity when I can get so much more in being positive. People become more successful, their creativity increases because now they are not wasting their energies in unnecessary thoughts, going in a same loop again and again. Now they are utilizing their energies. Rules come when a negative person is trying to be positive. So we are telling that person, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this. But when a positive person is trying to become divine, then there is no rules. There is just happiness. There is what we say, Har Haalume Kushi. And this is something which you will have to experience. And that is what people become so excited when they come to a Shiva Yukteswar, because we are so very happy people. We are so very joyful. In the Shivir, we are chanting, we are dancing, we are meditating. You will find in a Shivir of Babaji, one minute people would be singing in full force, the second minute they would be in the deepest state of Samadhi, in the third minute they would be in the highest level of ecstasy, and in the fourth minute they would be laughing profoundly on the jokes which Babaji makes. Because that is what reality is— experiential. And I know it may sound funny, but once you are in the same state, you will realize this. A person who is learning to drive needs a lot of rules to guide him, but when a person becomes expert, then he doesn't even need to drive. It is in his blood. His subconscious takes over. And that is what Shivayog does. It is not making you a novice who is an expert in rules, but it is making you an expert who is a super expert in life itself. Bless you. Namah Shivaya.