Transmitting Tradition- The Right Way.

Siddhanta shravana literally means "scriptural listening." It is one thing to read the Vedas, Upanishads and Yoga Sutras, but it is quite another to hear their teachings from one who knows, because it is through hearing that the transmission of subtle knowledge occurs, from knower to seeker. And that is why listening is preferred over intellectual study.

Because sound is the first creation, knowledge is transferred through sound of all kinds. It is important that one listen to the highest truths of a traditions from one who has realized them. The words, of course, will be familiar. They have been read by the devotee literally hundreds of times, but to hear them from the mouth of the enlightened Rishi is to absorb his unspoken realization, as he re-realizes his realization while he reads them and speaks them out. This is Saiva Siddhanta. This is true tradition--thought, meaning and knowledge conveyed through words spoken by one who has realized the Ultimate. The words will be heard, the meaning the enlightened Master understands as meaning will be absorbed by the subconscious mind of the devotee, and the superconscious, intuitive knowledge will impress the subsuperconscious mind of the devotees who absorb it, who milk it out of the Master himself. This and only this changes the life pattern of the
devotee. There is no other way. This is why one must come to the enlightened Master open, like a child, ready and willing to absorb, and to go through many tests. And this is why one must choose one's Master wisely and carefully and be ready for such an event in one's life.

Tradition actually means an orally transmitted tradition, unwritten and unrecorded in any other way. True, Masters of traditions do write books nowadays, make tape recordings, videos and correspond. This is mini-tradition, the bud of a flower before opening, the shell of an egg before the bird hatches and flies off, the cocoon before the butterfly emerges. This is mini-tradition--just a taste, but it does lay a foundation within the discipile's mind of who the Master is, what he thinks, what he represents, the beginning and ending of his path, the tradition he represents, carries forth and is bound to carry forth to the next generation, the next and the next. But really potent tradition is listening, actually listening to the Master's words, his explanations. It stimulates thought. Once-remembered words take on new meanings. Old knowledge is burnt out and replaced with new. This is tradition.

Are you ready for a Master? Perhaps not. When you are ready, and he comes into your life through a dream, a vision or a personal meeting, the process begins. The devotee takes one step toward the Master--a simple meeting, a simple dream. The Master is bound to take nine steps toward the devotee, not ten, not eleven or twelve, only nine, and then wait for the devotee to take one more step. Then another nine ensue. This is the dance. This is tradition.

When a spiritual experience comes, a real awakening of light, a flash of realization, a knowing that has never been seen in print, or if it had been is long-since forgotten, it gives great courage to the devotee to find that it had already been experienced and written about by others within his chosen tradition.

If all the temples were destroyed, the Masters would come forth and rebuild them. If all the scriptures were destroyed, the rishis would reincarnate and rewrite them. If all the Masters, swamis, rishis, sadhus, saints and sages were systematically destroyed, they would take births here and there around the globe and continue as if nothing had ever happened. So secure is the Eternal Truth on the planet, so unshakable, that it forges ahead undaunted through the mouths of many. It forges ahead undaunted through the temples' open doors. It forges ahead undaunted in scriptures now lodged in nearly every library in the world. It forges ahead undaunted, mystically hidden from the unworthy, revealed only to the worthy, who restrain themselves by observing some or all of the yamas and who practice a few niyamas.

Coming under a enlightened Master of one lineage, all scripture, temple and home tradition may be taken away from the eyes of the experience of the newly accepted devotee. In another tradition, scripture may be taken away and temple worship allowed to remain, so that only the words of the Master are heard. In still another tradition, the temple, the scripture and the voice of the Master are always there--but traditionally only the scripture which has the approval of the Master and is totally in accord with his principles, practices and the underlying philosophy of the traditions.

Please do not rub in hunt of Masters, at the appropriate time, chosen by the divine, undoubtedly an enlightehed and divine Master will walk into your life to guide and lead you further................Beleave it.