August
Number 8 – Guru HarKrishan – Pranic Body
The Dharma of number 8 is purity, compassion, power to empower, being a channel for healing, connection through depth of being.
The Karma of number 8 is obsessions with cleanliness, abuse of authority, getting out of your depth, or avoiding your true strength.
It is a question of Burn out or time out – How to be a medicinal drop in the ocean of life. The Pranic Body is the link between our finite existence and the Infinity. It is the flow of the prana (life-force) through a web of channels known as nadis. When we are so busy with the content and details of our life then we forget to give awareness to the flow and the process.
A river needs to keep moving. In the same way there is an instinctive need in us to keep the flow going. Now what does it mean to go with the flow. It means to go with your own flow. To be in the flow of your own vital life-force (not to naively go along with the flow of others. Normally processes go on under the surface. But there are times when the depth needs to come to the surface. And there are times when we need to go to the depth.
The twist of the 8 suggests the tendency towards one polarity or another.
August is a holiday in many parts of the world, but is it healing. Do you find your self surfing and sailing along, or swimming but going nowhere, or even sinking down into whirlpools of emotional black holes. Seasonally it can be very wet (monsoon) or very dry (heatwaves). In both cases the issue is with the life-giving element of water. It is a month for knowing your vital and organic nature and adapting to maintain your water balance.
Energy takes many forms. Some of the most significant are Power, Money, Sex and Food. In each of these we can have ‘too much, too little or the wrong kind’ (Yogi Bhajan).
These are in continuous flux and August is one of the months of the year when they need to be kept in good measure and quality. This requires conscious execution of the discerning intelligence known as Budhhi mind (the awakened and upgraded version of instinct) Like using your well earned money wisely or wasting it on a holiday that creates more stress than it relieves. Honouring and tapping into infinity is the past time for this month. Sipping the air, not only sipping cool drinks. When life is too deep, learn how to float on the surface. When life seems too dry then breath, meditate and dive deep into the ocean of prana.
The mantra of the 8th stage of the Earth’s cycle around the sun is Akaal Murt: the undying, timeless, representation. Imagine being the threshold between life and death, between infinity and finite existence, between awake and dreaming, between form and formless, between the manifest and the non-manifest, between full and empty. Who are you then, what is your form, your identity. This is Akaal Murt. When we cleanse the mind of all fears about tomorrow and all stories of the past then we naturally arrive on the threshold of the timeless state. There is simple example of the pure compassion that is born out of the innocence that comes naturally to a child.
Guru HarKrishan was just such a child when he heard the news of a plague that was taking many lives in Delhi. He immediately requested to go there and upon his arrival insisted that he drink the water from one of the cities wells, knowing that it was impure and contained the spreading virus. He inevitably became sick and passed away within a few days. To the surprise of all soon after Guru HarKrishan passed away then all the people in Delhi started to heal and the water was found to be drinkable again. It is important to note that the healing he offered was not exclusive to his own family or disciples, but rather inclusive of all regardless of differences of religion, caste and so on. With his mind clear and clean there was no doubt or hesitation. Just an immediate empathy and readiness to be the channel for change.
This story may also remind us of Bhai Ghanaiya Singh who was found on the battle field giving water to the suffering and dying enemy. He did not see the enemy rather he just saw the need and he fulfilled it. It is a month to be the change you want to see in the world and remember others struggles and sorrows while you take time out of your busy life. To tune in around you and see the needs of others. To be a medicinal drop in the ocean of life.
Spiritual suggestions for the month:
– Meditate on time; it’s flow, it’s depth, it’s immediacy.
– Chanting Ashtanga mantras (mantras with 8 parts to them).
– Breathing in 8 steps, breathing out 8 steps.
– Be compassionate to yourself, then to others.
– Contribute to healing the gap between the soul and the supreme soul.
– Clean your house, your body, your mind.
Shiv Charan Singh is the founding director of the Karam Kriya School and Kriya centre for Kundalini yoga in North London. Scottish by birth, he is an outstanding and authentic spiritual teacher. Karam Kriya means ‘action in spiritual awareness’. Shiv Charan is deeply committed to guiding students in their spiritual growth so they can bring spiritual awareness into their everyday lives and develop their full potential as human beings. He is a skilled counsellor, author of several books on human communication, the mystery of numbers and poetry. He runs training programmes throughout Europe, Russia and the Lebanon.
For more information on Karam Kriya & Shiv Charan Singh please visit Karam Kriya UK, Karam Kriya Europe, or Quinta do Rajo.
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