The Path to Wisdom: 16 Stages of Awareness and Overcoming Maya

Commentary on the text “Tripura Rahasya,” Chapter 17, “On the Futility of Fleeting Samadhis and the Path to Wisdom”

“The original cause lies in the knowledge of the perfection of the Supreme Essence. The idea of perfection is conditioned by the absence of parts. Parts can appear only through time, place, and form. However, the sense of completeness arises without these factors, which imply striving toward them, thereby giving rise to a sense of lack and need.

In time and space, limitations arise, and the fundamental cause of ignorance manifests as ‘I am.’ This is the embryonic seed from which the sprout of the body then appears as an individualized entity, subsequently growing into a gigantic tree in the form of the wheel of birth and death. The cycle of birth and death does not cease until ignorance is brought to an end. This can happen only through perfect knowledge of one’s own essence, and in no other way.

Such wisdom, which can eliminate ignorance, is undoubtedly of two kinds: indirect and direct. At first, knowledge is obtained from the Teacher and, through him, from the sacred scriptures. Such indirect knowledge cannot allow one to see the essence of the problem, since theoretical knowledge alone will not bear fruit. Practical knowledge is necessary, and it comes only through samadhi. Knowledge born through nirvikalpa samadhi gives rise to wisdom through the destruction of ignorance and objective indirect knowledge. In the same way, the experience of an accidental fleeting samadhi in the absence of theoretical knowledge will also not serve this ultimate goal. Just as a person unaware of the qualities of an emerald cannot recognize it in a treasure casket by its appearance alone, and just as another person will not be able to recognize an emerald if he has not seen it before, even if he possesses complete theoretical knowledge on the matter, so too theory must be supplemented by practice for a person to become an expert. Ignorance cannot be eliminated by mere theory or by an accidental fleeting samadhi of an ignorant person.”

According to the teaching on the 16 stages of the waxing moon of inner awareness, everything begins with dissatisfaction with samsara. Dissatisfaction with samsara, that is, with one’s way of life, one’s vision, and the status of one’s consciousness, inevitably leads to reflection. Until dissatisfaction with the samsaric vision has arisen in a person, of course, he is not capable of beginning such an analysis. Dissatisfaction with samsara means that a person becomes disillusioned with his way of seeing the world. At first, of course, he mistakenly attributes samsaric qualities simply to the external world. He believes that samsara is the world outside—that is, one’s wife, work, relationships, and so on. This is how samsara appears to him, and he thinks about how to get rid of it and begin spiritual practice, to live a freer life.

When a person is dissatisfied, he begins to reflect—this is the second stage. Then he realizes that his limitations are the consequences of global limitations. His life is limited by very deep laws that he did not create and does not even know where they came from, for example: old age; rebirth against his will; time, which flows along its own vector independently of a person’s will; space; and the five elements. He also depends on the biochemistry of the body, on his own destiny, and on thousands of different factors. All these factors give rise to threefold suffering:

• adhyatmika (suffering generated by one’s own mind and body);
• adhibhautika (suffering caused by external elements);
• adhidaivika (suffering caused by divine forces beyond the control of human will).

After a person has realized the limitations, he gives rise to the aspiration to go beyond limitations and to know that which is beyond limitations. An unconscious desire awakens in him to find a certain point that is not subject to any limitations. And then it is said that he begins to set out on the path of seeking God.

However, until a person encounters a master, a teaching, his search may be very prolonged and ineffective. For example, his life may come to an end, and he may still never arrive at even a remotely serious understanding of what it was he was searching for, nor achieve the result. Therefore, at the next stage, a fortunate seeker encounters a manifestation of Anugraha-shakti, the Spirit itself, which comes to him in the form of a master, a teaching, and so on. Of course, from the human point of view, such a meeting may be a meeting between two people. But from the point of view of the teaching, the master is always a conductor, or channel, of higher energies; and you yourself, in truth, are not what you think you are. Any meeting is not something worldly and ordinary.

Some time after such a meeting takes place, the disciple enters the transmission, connects to a certain spiritual lineage. It is like connecting to some transpersonal, suprapersonal source of energy, a powerful field of force. Then it is said that the disciple has acquired samaya, has entered the Guru-parampara, has gained a connection with the transmission lineage. Of course, if the disciple does not understand this quite clearly, or has no samaya, or somehow treats it frivolously, then such a connection does not occur. Nevertheless, in the true sense, to receive transmission means truly to connect to a subtle spiritual energy, a link with which did not exist until the transmission was received. It is like a person connecting the Internet or wireless services to a mobile phone—only, of course, on a subtle level. If the proper connection with the transmission is established, it gradually begins to work, and the disciple progresses on his own by working with the transmission.

When he works with the transmission correctly, following all the instructions, rasa appears in him—the first “taste” of nondual awareness. Such rasa inevitably leads to the opening of nonconceptual consciousness and to the disciple’s attempt to clarify it completely. When he reflects on it, asking questions and investigating, this is called manana—contemplation, the cutting off of uncertainties and doubts.

Finally, when time passes and the disciple has become established in the taste of nondual consciousness and has more or less cut off all misunderstanding, he intensifies his practice. By that time he becomes an experienced meditator and strives at all costs to experience rasa in all its fullness. This is nirvikalpa samadhi.

The Importance of Attention and the Right Approach to the Teaching

“Again, lack of attention is a serious obstacle, for a person who simply stares at the sky cannot recognize individual constellations. Even an educated scholar will be no better than a fool if he does not pay attention to the thing being explained to him. On the other hand, if, even without being a scholar, a person nevertheless attentively listens to everything concerning the planet Venus, and confidently sets out to search for it, knowing how to find it in the sky, then he will eventually find it, and then he will be able to recognize it every time he sees it again.”

Thus, having heard about such things as innate primordial awareness, the single Sphere, the natural state (prajñāna), primordial awareness, a person must gather his thoughts, very carefully contemplate all the instructions, and develop a strategy for spiritual life, an intention to clarify and attain this state through intellectual study and meditative contemplative practice. When a disciple intends to attain, he must approach it seriously. He must cast aside his fantasies and ideas about it; he must seriously study the sacred texts and what the master of the transmission lineage says, and then apply this to his experience, to his life.

One person who wished to become a disciple wrote the following letter: “I feel that what the guru says is very positive. It helps me in my practice, and I experience similar things. But I also feel that the master is within me. I would like to become a guru-friend. Could I come to the monastery on such terms?” And the signature was: Self-Born Buddha. I am glad to have many friends; I am not against that. However, when it comes to training, the principles are different, and this does not help, because a friend is one thing (it is interesting to talk with him and drink tea), and a disciple is another. I am glad to have a cup of tea with a person and converse, but what benefit will he receive from it? That is, a meeting of two minds similar to transmission will not take place; it will simply be a meeting of two acquaintances. What sense is there in asking questions if you sign yourself as Self-Born Buddha?

Of course, divine pride within us must be nurtured, and deep down we must be convinced that we are the Self-Born Buddha. But when you are learning, it is better not to tell others this. In other words, different principles apply here, and one must know which side of one’s soul to manifest, at what time, and with whom. If you approach some master and say, “Give me instructions, but actually, I am the Self-Born Buddha,” the master may say, “Excuse me, you are a buddha, and I am an ordinary person. How can I teach you? I feel uncomfortable giving you instructions.” That is, the disciple must understand his tactics and strategy: how to behave, how to think, how to build his life in order to benefit from the teaching and from communication with the teacher.

If you encounter a teaching but do not make use of it, and at best merely take note of it, you will not benefit from it either. A yogin thoughtfully examines everything and decides to experiment through his own experience, in his own body and mind: “What is this sankalpa? I should try it. I will practice it for six months in a row.” One must truly live through all of this within oneself; otherwise, it will remain nothing more than beautiful formulas or someone else’s experience. For example, when Atmanadi was a younger monk, after reading the teaching of traya-sankalpa, he began to practice it in his own way, imagining that the practice of sankalpa consisted of certain formulas that had to be carried in one’s head. Only after some time, having clarified the principles of self-liberation and presence, did he understand how sankalpa should actually be maintained, and this brought him great benefit.

The Stages of Birth, Nurturing, and Upbringing

When a disciple progresses in precisely this way, he eventually comes to the discovery of empty consciousness. This is called birth. At the stage of birth, he truly reveals the principle of nonduality; he truly removes the dualistic veil in the stream of his consciousness. In the analogy with Zen, the stage of birth is satori. Birth means that the Supreme Source has finally been born in your own body and mind. You conceived it during transmission; you carried it while clarifying it; and through practice it was born in you. However, by analogy with a child, simply giving birth is not enough. If a newborn child is not fed and cared for, it is unlikely to survive. In itself, a brief experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, a genuine experience of shunyata (emptiness), of continuous consciousness, does not yet liberate.

And at the next stage we must begin nurturing it, that is, continuous contemplation of the mind (nididhyasana). After the birth of the disciple in nonduality, his further task is to make the “great decision.” Somewhere deep within, on a subtle level, he makes the “great decision” to remain constantly in nonduality. He decides to enter the “great non-doing.” Making the “great decision” is the boundary that divides the disciple’s life, as it were, into two parts. Before making the “great decision,” he was a subject, ahamkara (ego), a doer, an actor, striving for the fruits of action; and even if he had certain experiences, he was often distracted from them. After making the “great decision,” everything proceeds from the natural state, and every action is reunited with it.

Whoever has been born in nonduality, then begun nididhyasana, and made the “great decision” to enter the “great non-doing,” has gone beyond conditioned vision and strives to remain continuously in pure vision. Life in the “great non-doing” is nothing other than play. It is not the ordinary behavior of a deluded being. A person who maintains non-doing cannot be misled. Abiding in such non-doing is nurturing. Nurturing means that we must protect our natural state like a small child. We must guard it from passions and from external influences as from poison, in order to give it the opportunity to gain some strength.

“Inattentive people are simply fools who cannot comprehend the samadhi that recurs again and again in their lives. They are like a person who knows nothing of the treasure beneath the floor of his house and goes out every day to collect alms. Thus you see that samadhi is useless for such people. The mind and intellect of infants always abide in an unchanging form, and yet the infant does not comprehend his essence. It is certain that nirvikalpa samadhi will never eliminate ignorance. Therefore it is necessary to seek savikalpa samadhi in order to eliminate it.”

So, it is said here that if a person has experienced emptiness, attributeless and formless samadhi, he must emerge from it in order to move on to the practice of samadhi with qualities. In our terminology, this is called sahaja. If the experience of samadhi among qualities has not been acquired, and only the experience of qualityless samadhi has been acquired, this does not truly help in realization, since such realization does not possess the ability to unite.

In the teaching on the 16 kalas, after nurturing comes the stage of training. For example, a yogin has nurtured his uninterrupted presence and achieved some success in it: he can remain in it from morning until evening without being distracted. But the question is whether his state will be maintained or not if his activity becomes more intense, if he is subjected to some kind of influence: pain, suffering, illness, criticism, pleasures, exertion, or the external influence of the five elements. Therefore, at the next stage, the yogin begins training. Training means that the yogin must learn to manifest flexibility in the natural state, to unite with circumstances, and to connect it with all the realities of life.

And the best means for such training is the monastic environment, in which a variety of situations arise, yet they never get out of control. When you build relationships, perform practices, follow the Vinaya, engage in service—all these are new situations you find yourself in. If you regard them not merely as following certain principles, but also as training, as a genuine practice of unification in which your awareness is trained, you gain great benefit. If you do not regard this as the training of your awareness, as something beneficial to you, but see it as ordinary activity, then you can often get into trouble and lose awareness. In other words, situations will sometimes bring you joy, and sometimes confusion.

For example, earlier, understanding this principle, I often recommended that practitioners, especially in the monastery, change their service, or I would first appoint one manager and then another. Not all monks understood why I did this, what the point of such personnel reshuffling was, because service often suffered greatly as a result. Nevertheless, consciousness only benefited, since the training of awareness presupposes that you are not attached to your activity, not attached to your status—you know what you are working on, and regard everything else as games, as lila. When I appointed a young monk to be in charge of some service, I saw that people refused to take him seriously, that they did not accept him as an authority, that they ignored him. But what had changed? The performance was still going on! So why do you perceive all this in such a way? Yet the inertia of people’s consciousness is much stronger than practice. Only those who were aware could relate to all this very calmly. If you notice the arising inertia of consciousness and movements of the soul while remaining in contemplative presence, this helps greatly in spiritual life.

However, the human mind is very strongly subject to stereotypes. One who is not vigilant, not aware, who acts from the doer and selfish motives, is always caught on the hooks of his own stereotyped consciousness. And the question of training is the overcoming of such stereotyped consciousness. If this is a genuine practitioner, he will certainly choose the victory of awareness and detachment from stereotyped consciousness. But if this is a false practitioner, if he still thinks in stereotypes, he can very easily succumb to stereotyped thinking and old karmic data. When practitioners succumb to stereotyped consciousness, I usually say: “The main thing is that you observe the principle of samaya. The principle of samaya surpasses your stereotyped consciousness; it will protect you from mistakes.”

“Only by this can the removal of ignorance be achieved. God, inherently present as the supreme Self, is pleased by praiseworthy actions that continue to be performed over several births, after which the desire for liberation arises, and not otherwise, even if millions of births are experienced. Good fortune is necessary, among all possible things in the universe, to obtain birth in the form of a sentient being. Even then, considerable merit is required to obtain a human body. Whereas something utterly extraordinary is required to become a human being endowed with both virtuous tendencies and a sharp, discerning intellect.”

Trials and Obstacles on the Path

People who do not realize the preciousness of human birth waste their lives. Although they have good potential, their time is squandered on bustle and worries. If they do not attain immortality, then in the end they suffer defeat in the game called “life.”

The human body can be compared to the handset of a mobile phone to which the “life” service is connected. As soon as the balance runs out, this service is disconnected, and no one asks the subscriber whether he wants it or not.

Often a person is afraid to take radical steps in spiritual practice, to undertake intensive sadhana, the practice of obedience, renunciation of the world. But in reality, one should fear the opposite: life in samsara, absorption in sensory pleasures, and the absence of practice.

As I see it, worldly life is what constitutes true heroism: one has to be mortal and yet behave so recklessly; to spend one’s pranas without thinking, to engage in empty actions, not to think about the future — this is colossal fearlessness. A person behaves this way when he is very confident in himself, believing that when he comes face to face with karma, with the god Yama, with impermanence, he will easily destroy all of it with a snap of his fingers.

Therefore, from this point of view, there is no particular heroism in monastic life: monastic life is simply the common sense of a normal person who engages in spiritual practice for his own benefit.

“Take note, O Brahmin, that moving creation is only a small fraction of the unmoving, and that human beings form only a small fraction among all that moves, while most people are only slightly better than animals, not knowing what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is not.”

Karmic Visions and Tunnels of Reality

Of course, we must look at everyone in pure vision. This is not about you cultivating arrogance and thinking: “What animals! What do they know about Dharma?!” In fact, even animals should be seen as manifestations of deities — that is the best view. Nevertheless, in the relative sense, these words are not mine; they are from the “Tripura Rahasya.”

Every living being lives in its own tunnel of reality, in its own karmic vision. It has its own evaluation and its own value system. It does not even suspect that, besides its own, there are many other karmic visions.

For example, in Russia it is customary to consider one’s country a mighty power. America considers itself a stronghold of freedom and democracy, and in their karmic vision, that is exactly how everything is. However, for Third World countries, America is a world gendarme, a policeman who interferes in other people’s affairs. For the countries of the Muslim world, America is an enemy, a stronghold of evil, a spawn of hell. In European countries, Russia is not very much loved, to the surprise of Russians.

Orthodox Christianity has a very exalted attitude toward its religion; however, in the eyes of the volkhvs, followers of the ancient Slavic religion, Orthodox Christianity is an antagonist and persecutor. Millions of people live in the tunnel of reality of Islam, considering all others infidels, while other millions of people consider Islam a source of fundamentalism, Islamic extremism, and a threat to the world community.

When we analyze the variety of tunnels of reality and karmic visions, we will see that there is no single picture of the world inherent in all people. Every living being is in its own karmic vision and in its own tunnel of reality, creating it throughout life and considering it truly correct.

People as a species consider themselves the crown of creation on earth; however, gandharvas, yakshas, asuras, and gods of passion do not think so at all. If they were told that a human being is the crown of creation, they would laugh. But a human being does not even suspect the existence of beings such as yakshas, gandharvas, gods of passion, and so on. This is the state of fundamental ignorance. And every living being, identifying with its own circumstances, creates such a tunnel of reality.

Entering nonduality frees us from dependence on any tunnels of reality. Even when we operate with signs, symbols, and words, we do not identify with them; on the contrary, we self-liberate them.

The Path to the Heavens and Pure Lands

“Among sensible people, the majority rush in pursuit of the pleasures of life, striving to fulfill their desires. Only a few educated people are marked by a strong desire to reach heaven after death.”

To reach heaven after death, a person must accumulate sattva throughout life. He must put an end to the actions of tamas within himself, then free himself from rajas and continuously become established in sattva. The following help one reach heaven in the next life:

• a vegetarian diet;
• celibacy;
• making donations to shrines, saints, and monasteries;
• creating yantras, thangkas, mandalas, and statues;
• accumulating virtuous deeds;
• constantly nurturing within oneself the four infinite states of Brahma;
• sincere repentance for bad thoughts, bad deeds, and impure vision;
• conduct that does not allow impurity in external communication or external actions;
• modest, respectful behavior accompanied by bhava imbued with a sattvic state;
• performing practices with gods and deities;
• maintaining a minimal level of meditative presence.

All of this leads to rebirth in the pure lands.

Of course, if a person has had some non-dual experience, this does not yet mean that he has already attained liberation. This is impossible, because in the stream of his consciousness there are still many dualistic energies that he does not yet recognize. In the next life, this purified stream of consciousness will lead him to the pure land of the saints or siddhas with whom he was connected during his lifetime, and he will be reborn there. And if this does not happen, in the next life he will enter a pure maternal womb, be born into a family of practitioners, meet a spiritual teacher and sangha early on, and once again continue spiritual practice.

Obstacles of Maya on the Path to Realization

“The consciousness of the majority of these few is clouded by maya, and they cannot comprehend the unity of all and everything (the Creator and creation). How can all these unfortunate people, held in the embrace of maya, behold with their weak vision the exalted truth of unity? People blinded by maya are incapable of seeing this truth. Even when certain individuals rise high upward in understanding the theory, failure prevents them from becoming convinced of it through experience, for their desires toss them to and fro with a force greater than the wretched acquired theoretical knowledge, which, if strictly followed, should put an end to such desires that strive to refute the proposition of the unity of all that exists.

They try to justify their practical actions with erroneous arguments and disputes, which are simply a waste of time. Incomprehensible are the ways of maya that hinder the highest realization of such people; it is as though they had thrown away a bright precious gem, believing it to be merely a pebble.

Only those transcend maya whose devotion pleases the goddess of the Supreme Essence. Such individuals possess excellent discernment and abide in bliss. Being endowed by the grace of God with proper discernment and right aspiration, they become established in the transcendent unity and dissolve into the Supreme Essence.”

Here it is said: “Incomprehensible are the ways of maya that hinder the highest realization.”

Intellectual Obstacles

Maya can manifest as intellectual misunderstanding: that is, a person hears the teaching but does not remember it or does not penetrate to its essence; he picks up five percent of the information, or ten, whereas to understand it one must grasp at least seventy percent. This is one of the varieties of maya connected with a weak manas or buddhi. One who is subject to such maya should think about strengthening intellectual abilities or intuitive understanding.

Another variety of maya is a formal understanding of the teaching at the level of the intellect, an inability to understand it at the level of intuition, self-liberation, and atma-vichara. Why does this happen? Because strong rajas is a disturbing prana, and disturbing prana does not allow proper clarity. For example, in retreat a person studies the teaching with concentration, and something becomes clear to him. He says, “Yes, I have actually begun to feel everything that is written. I understand it.” But after leaving retreat, his mind again enters a rajasic state, and the knowledge again disappears from the stream of his mind. This is another obstacle.

Obstacles Arising from Neglecting Samayas

The third obstacle may arise from neglecting samayas or the teaching. A person has experiences, but cannot in any way relate them to the teaching. For example, according to the teaching, one must detach oneself from some experiences, while other experiences should be cultivated. But the person cannot understand how to do this, or inwardly does not agree with it and continues to be stubborn, clinging to his experience. It is very difficult to help such a person.

For example, one nun had many visions during practice in which she could converse with Babaji and so on. These visions captivated her very much. And no matter how I tried to explain to her the principle of self-liberation and detachment from visions, she did not listen to my advice and stubbornly refused to give up her visions, continuing to amaze everyone with her impressive mystical experiences. In my heart I laughed at her realization, although I sincerely felt sorry for her.

When I decided to find out from what level the spirits she was conversing with came, I saw that they were spirits capable of changing form; they can even assume the form of saints, although they themselves are spirits of a very low level. I was moved to tears with regret that this nun had exchanged the supreme dharma of the siddhas, like a diamond and a pearl, for such cheap experiences. This is precisely a misunderstanding of samaya, the absence of the spirit of practice; it is an obstacle that arises from neglecting the teaching.

Obstacles Arising from Kleshas and Ego

Other obstacles may arise from kleshas. A person may seem to sincerely strive toward practice, yet the kleshas take over. When the kleshas gain strength, such a person may waver. But a vira-yogin never wavers because of kleshas, since he knows how to work with them.

The next type of obstacles arises from selfhood, ego (ahamkara), pride. Such a person is not critical of himself. He has a strong clinging to his status, to his “I” and his own vision; that is, he is not capable of changing under the influence of criticism. When such a person is given instructions or is criticized, instead of changing himself he looks for excuses. But in that case such a person is told: “Please, we can refrain from criticizing you; that is, you may remain as you are. But who will benefit from that? After all, you do want to change yourself!” In other words, the person himself must understand whether he truly wants to change himself or wants to remain in the same status.

Obstacles Arising from Karmic Creditors

The next obstacle is connected with pranas. If a person has many karmic creditors, this obstacle manifests in the form of bad dreams and an imbalance of pranas. All these are varieties of maya that hinder the practitioner.

Obstacles Arising from the Mara “Son of a Celestial Being”

Finally, there is an obstacle connected with the manifestation of the mara “son of a celestial being.” These are already pleasant obstacles, since they bestow upon the yogin clarity, wisdom, siddhis, high position, power, attractiveness, and creative abilities. And the yogin may mistakenly become fascinated by them, considering this to be the final realization. But it can be said this way: if a person becomes captivated by his creative abilities, siddhis, and high position, he exchanges an enormous mountain of gold for a handful of copper coins.

For example, one student wished to lead a Laya Yoga group, but before that he had already been a Hatha Yoga instructor. Because he considered himself an instructor and identified with this status, he could not fully become a student; he constantly had some kind of friction with other students. When I recommended that he pass the stages in order to truly progress, he said, “Well, I present myself as a yoga mentor, and if I pass the stages, everyone will think that I myself am still a beginner. Therefore it is inconvenient for me to take the stage examinations.” I thought, “Well, that is your business. You still need to figure it out: do you want to be a student or a yoga mentor? If you are a yoga mentor, then that is your business. But if you are a student, pay close attention to my words and listen to them. Consider this: the guru can make you Brahma, the creator of the universe, while you are clinging to the status of some mentor of a group of eight people. What is that? It is not serious at all!” When I hear such things, tears come to my eyes. I think, how can people fall for such maya. And this was not the only such case.

It happens that a person is very seriously ill with the disease of Ishvarism—the desire to mentor, to lecture, to rule, to be the central deity. He is ready to gather even ten dogs, as long as they listen to his instructions, so that he can “play mandaleshvara” a little and feel like Ishvara. And he is ready to forget his teacher, to forget the dharma, just to express himself and feel his “finest hour.” But this is simply ridiculous, because both the gods, the siddhas, and the saints will see it. It will not last long, for in order to be a genuine mandaleshvara, to generate a mandala, to constantly guide and maintain it, realization is needed. And if there is no realization, the mandala goes out of control.

In other words, declaring oneself a mandaleshvara is a responsibility; this status necessarily implies that you must take responsibility upon yourself. You can, of course, declare yourself Bhagavan. But then the gods will come and say, “All right, since you are Bhagavan, then save the planet, save living beings, develop a new theory of dharma, manifest various powers. Please, act!” Therefore, it is impossible to declare oneself a mandaleshvara without possessing his qualities. One of the saints says, “If you undertake to manage a monastery without possessing the corresponding abilities, it is like an old woman trying to hunt hawks.” This is an obstacle arising from the mara of the “son of a celestial being.”

In reality, if you enter the guru’s transmission lineage, then the guru, the transmission lineage, and the system of training will take care that you occupy a status corresponding to your karma. The guru himself is glad to make you a mandaleshvara, and not only a small one, but the greatest one possible, for this is precisely what he exists for. Since the guru is a conductor of the energy of the gods, he also wishes everyone to attain divine status and divine qualities. However, this must be done correctly: through training and the cultivation of qualities within oneself. But if it is done prematurely, it simply becomes maya.

More than once I have observed how a person, burning with the desire to teach yoga to others and train them, having grasped a few things from the teachings and fragments of lectures, begins to do so. He teaches and trains very diligently, without having received a blessing, without having a samaya connection or a transmission lineage. Then obstacles arise for him, other people’s karmas affect him, his head begins to ache, not very joyful dreams appear, and then he complains to me. I tell him, “You should have been ready for this, because spiritual influence on others means that you must consciously take on their karma. Are you ready? Then please take it! Such is this service. If you can feed on karma, as I do, then do it in good health. But if not, you will get nothing but obstacles.”

There are many such unfathomable paths of maya that obstruct supreme realization. This is precisely why we have the rule of samaya, detailed instructions, and so on. This is not an empty formality; it is a technique of spiritual safety, by following which you will certainly come to final realization.

Thus, it is said here:

“Only those surpass maya whose devotion pleases the goddess of the supreme Essence. Such persons possess beautiful discernment and abide in bliss.”