The lifeway of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the highest yoga knowledge. Vadim Zaporozhtsev. Lecture. Pt.7. 05.17.2008

Why did the higher yogas were closed for the profanes?

Today we have the next lecture from the series “The way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the highest yoga knowledge”. We examine lifestyle of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the little known yogas. These yogas are very powerful, quick and strong but they are unfortunately hard to understand. Just by this reason now there are few people using them.

These yogas may be likened with jet-propelled aircraft: they are very swift, they save on our time but nobody can use them in the same time. That’s because before to seat at a steering control of a plane it’s necessary to have at least rudiments of knowledge. Besides that it’s necessary to minimally observe the principles. That’s because there are very high speeds there. And those faults that are committed sometimes in classical approach in yoga can’t be done there. I.e. practicing usual yogas (Hatha Yoga, etc.) and smoothly going upstairs you may do some faults in practice, in methodology, in relationships with the world around, with your family and friends and so on. And these faults may be rather painless for you. Everything is different in Tantra Yoga, Amorousness Yoga, Sexual Yoga and other very subtle and powerful yogas because of their speeds and power.

Even if you drove your car and accidentally catch on a twig on a road then your car is hit or if the worst comes to the worst this twig smashes a windscreen. But when a plane is faced with even the smallest object or obstacle it may break into pieces. The same thing happens with yoga follower: he has to avoid certain things very carefully; otherwise he will fall short of his goal. Because of this reason the highest yogas were closed for the profanes. There were many pretenders but a few of qualified people. There were many conceited idiots which really seated at the steering control but couldn’t properly even take off.

So this is difficult topic. And the most difficult thing in it isn’t any dangers or difficulties of these practices structure; the most danger thing is a person by himself. Unfortunately people start practicing Tantra Yoga still getting rid of some karma imprints that they carry from their life in animal bodies. And so they gained high speed, behaved wrong and immediately got troubles. So it’s quite instructive for us to know about the life of those Yogins and Yoginis who handed us down this ancient knowledge. This helps us to understand and to get rid of our karma dirty spots that we carry till our lives in animal bodies. We shouldn’t blindly copy their way of living but we will find answers for many question there.

About the method in the way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the highest yoga knowledge

Do you remember that our scheme includes five main points? We have just examined THE PURPOSE, THE MEANS and THE METHOD. Today we will examine the next very serious principle – TO PAY SACRED DEBT. But before we speak about this principle I will remind you our previous lecture in brief.

Well without observing principle of non-doing harm, without observing principle of non-wasting your life on trifles you won’t work out those unnoticeable, smallest karma imprints that you carry from the time you lived in animal bodies. And at the most unsuitable moment stronger activity, such animal activity will wake up inside you for example. I.e. you will fall into fury, show amotivational aggression at a moment when this is absolutely out of place. It must be appropriate in animal bodies but it is absolutely improper in human body. And so ahimsa principle (principle of non-doing harm) will enable you clear yourself from these subtle karmic dirty spots little by little and control your actions, i.e. to control your activity.

Principle of non-wasting on trifles (brahmachari principle) will help you little by little to get rid of your karmic dirty spots which are very unobvious and subtle. This is that foolish, that inertness which we carry from our lives in animal bodies. I.e. sometimes we are inactive when we have to work actively. Or sometimes we begin to spend our energy, our forces on quite unreasonable things. As a result we spend up on trifles and we don’t have enough forces for the most important things. Thus we don’t attain anything, we die and we are born in the next life. And so we can wander for a long time from one life to another.

This method is not so much humanistic… though it’s bad indeed to do harm, it’s bad to be devoid of ideology and spineless, to live without life goal. But the question is raised differently: planning your goal you won’t simply attain it without using these methods. The point here isn’t that these are some moral principles. No, these principles are a part of your road or in different way they are also called “foolproof features”. There are a lot of foolproof features in yoga. They
write books with the most refined practices, with the most secret superabilities which a person will get if he practices yoga. But I don’t see very much that they succeed in this direction. And the reason consists in following: in yoga there are invisible protections that don’t allow to undeveloped soul to walk up too high. That’s because having these powerful forces it may begin to injure everybody.

These invisible foolproof features aren’t understandable sometimes by people. A person comes to me and says: “I want this pranayma for this and that things: for power, success and so on”. And in some other plan this person may be an absolute beast. So he gathers this energy and then begins to dominate in his company, in his family, in his country. But this happens in a way that he goes to his goal regardless of everything. The most annoying thing is that these techniques work but very quickly he receives a vawe of his negative karma which give up for lost everything. The principles of non-doing harm and non-wasting yourself on trifles are the technological principles. These are the principles of avoiding of traps on your road. They serve for foolish and undeveloped in spiritual sense people in order to avoid traps. If you started practicing yoga and have never heard about these two principles then you will feel some mismatchings in your life on your own back. And these mismatchings will indirectly teach you these principles in some way. They will teach you from one action to another, from one life to another until these principles come home to you. That’s why the most zealous yoga followers which are so pure and sincere come upon existence of these principles and rediscover them by themselves very quickly.

Unfortunately we don’t have the energy that ancient Yogins and Yoginis had. We became weaker and we became more dependent. Ex facte our life became more convenient than 200-300 years ago. But on the other hand 200-300 years ago every peasant could build his dwelling by himself in one summer and live in clover there. And we may live all our life in Moscow city without having a place of our own. I mean a place not even for yoga practice but simply for living. At first sight dwelling became very comfortable but on the other hand it became very difficult of access. The same thing concerns our food, heating, etc. We feel ourselves well and warm but the reverse side of this is that we became physically weak: the slightest draught provokes us to catch cold. I.e. we have to pay for everything and we are paying for our civilization. We don’t have that energy that was in ancient times because of these strict living conditions. That’s why we rediscover these laws not so quickly. So it’s better to know them beforehand than to run into them during our practice.

The sacred debt (to pay sacred debt) in the way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the highest yoga knowledge

Today we will speak about very important point. It is called “TO PAY SACRED DEBT”. It is one of the yoga cornerstones; it is also one of the traps as well as foolproof feature on the yoga road. But it is very unobvious and veiled. More over they maintain that India didn’t establish itself as a civilization just by the reason of non-observance of this forth point. India fell to the very ground and now it is the country of the third world. As compared with our European civilization India should have surpassed it by all the parameters. But India hasn’t done this and has been an ignominious failure. Strange as it may seem one of the reasons consist just in this item (to pay sacred debt). This item was one of the fundamental principles for Yogins and Yoginis holding the knowledge.

Human body received from our parents is the greatest treasure

A statement “to pay sacred debt” means the next thing. We happily live in human bodies, we were born as men or women. And the happiness of practicing yoga we get just because of the simple reason that we have human bodies. Having the bodies of dogs, cats, even some baboons we wouldn’t receive such opportunity. We wouldn’t be able to practice yoga without human body. We wouldn’t be able to use many-many very quick methods in yoga. That’s why human body is the greatest treasure that our soul could only have. And believe me if we look at this situation from the stand of life and death and passage between life and death then the happiness of getting human body isn’t able to be found at every corner.

A huge amount of souls queue up for an opportunity to get human body. And only those souls which have very good karma get this opportunity to be born in human bodies. If your karma is not good enough you will be never allowed anywhere near this queue. So the fact we live in human bodies already allows us to practice yoga. Without human bodies there would be no question of yoga. That’s why let’s bow from the waist to our moms and dads for they gave us our bodies.

We can love our parents or not, we can admire them or not but in any case we are eternally indebted to them because of the fact of our presence here. The fact that you are alive, the fact that you live on the Earth is enough for us to be very much obliged to our parents. That’s why the point of family continuation is very high and important in yoga.

Here we will draw one more parallel from the yoga stand. The purpose of Yogin or Yogini is to reach for the Higher. And the human body how wonderful it wouldn’t be by itself is only a possibility to attain the Higher. On the other hand without this possibility we won’t attain the Higher at all.

Breakup of India

Unfortunately this principle was forgotten in ancient times because of concurrence of circumstances. More precisely put it was altered at something not quite adequate especially in ancient India. As a result a collapse happened. During several generations there were highly developed souls. They were ready to live on the Earth in human bodies. But there was no possibility to receive these bodies. As a result civilization (India in the first place) began to degrade very quickly and fell into absolute decay.

The reason was philosophical doctrines that were wrongly understood. In addition there probably were such karmic circumstances as wars, epidemics, conquests, and so on. I.e. one fine time such idea became dominative in India: they have to renounce the secular world; they have to stop getting married and getting children. They should took themselves off somewhere to a cave for attaining their personal Samadhi, their personal Enlightenment, and their personal salvation. As a result of these erroneous views a great number of rather power, capable and potentially ready to carry yoga young men and women really took themselves off the secular world. They stopped to hold the key positions at all governing posts. They went away to their caves for mediation and attaining their personal liberation and salvation. Thus they bared civilization. The best from the worses began to take up positions in govern, in science, in culture, etc. And just they collapsed the civilization. They weren’t ready but wide powers were authorized for them. Well they didn’t know how to manage and disorganized everything. I.e. as soon as the next war began there was no commander who could win the war and hold cultural heritage against enemy attacks. But there was a commander who was less adequate and he lost battles. The same thing was with rulers. Instead of caring for people such ruler only filled his pockets. But an ideology of irresponsibility can’t exist for a long time. Well this machine still worked somehow during one generation, then it worked more and more slowly and then it broke down.

The most interesting thing is that the same precedent has just been in tradition of ancient India. But they had time to save it at the proper time. According to mythology the very first waves of bearers of ancient knowledge dates to the ancient Vedic knowledge. In Veda they elevated the principle “to pay sacred debt” to the level of emergency. It sounded approximately in this way: “Until a son hasn’t been born a houseowner wasn’t entitled to leave the secular world”. I.e. all the life was rather accurate regulated. At ancient Veda times there was a period spent as a pupil, a period when a person play the part of houseowner. After this period when his children have grown enough and become enough strong to take care about themselves by themselves such person could easily go away to the caves for meditation or doing whatever he liked. I.e. he has already paid his debt. As a rule such people attained high spiritual levels very quickly. Then the Vedic knowledge fell into decay by some obscure reasons. All these game rules were called in question. Many other very different philosophical currents and doctrines sprung up. The early Buddhism was one of these doctrines. It very badly understood the point of family continuation. More precisely put after his death Buddha couldn’t adjust spreading of his teaching and it took a sharp list aside and it was perverted. As a result a great number of Buddhism admirers went away to cloisters instead of remaining. In philosophical ideas of Buddhism they clearly said nothing about continuation of family. So they have forgotten about everything that wasn’t clearly said. They laid a stress on personal salvation.

I repeatedly heard from Hindus by themselves and read in books that the early Buddhism was the thing that really destroyed India. Though to the credit of Buddhism be it said that Buddhism realized his mistake very quickly. So it transformed to a doctrine called Nagarjuna’s Buddhism. This doctrine is more famous as Tantra Buddhism or Buddhism which is practiced or has been practiced on the territories of Tibet and Nepal. Buddhism on the territories of Tibet and Nepal isn’t so ancient and egoistic in his disbalances as Buddhism which unfortunately prevailed in India at one time.

Let’s return to the early Buddhism. There were several philosophical currents and each of them only worsened the situation. Well a soul is born in human body; this person begins to grow, faces life and begins to look for the sense of being. As a rule a person looking for the sense of being has a soul that just dominates. Such a person always wins in competition, he always holds leading posts. It is so not because he suppresses other people but because he simply has much greater abilities. And this soul with great abilities begins to be interested in philosophical currents. He may be faced with such a current where half-truth and half-lie combine with each other. More precisely put it’s not an evident lie but things became unobvious by long standing. But certain behavior canons just were created. Under these canons’ influence any promising Yogin or Yogini went away to any cloister and spent there all life. Such people naturally didn’t have children, they didn’t take a part in country government, they didn’t maintain yoga knowledge and didn’t pass it further or rather they did it but very faintly. Many of them didn’t attain Enlightenment in one life and died. And after their death they were faced with such a problem: they didn’t have a place to be born. It would be good for them to be born in India the next time and continue their practices there. But because they didn’t had family and children they couldn’t find potential mom and dad after death. They were born in families where there was such possibility. As a rule these were families where people were interesting in philosophy at least of all. Speaking about India the lowest castes didn’t ask themselves about the questions of being but simply procreated children and earned their daily bread.

And such thing happened. Instead of being born in Brahman’s family Brahman’s soul was born in family of Shudra. But this soul was more forward-minded and this caste system began to break down ignominiously. I.e. earlier the moment of caste was really observed: a soul of Brahman (highly forward-minded person) was born by parents who already were in this caste. They didn’t have to think about: the fact that a person was born in Brahman’s family guaranteed that this was a highly developed person. But after all these shocks there was no confidence that a soul of Brahman was born in Brahman’s body; that in Shudra’s body was born Shudra and not Brahman. This leaded to a great disbalance. As a result a flaw appeared in knowledge: teacher couldn’t pass his knowledge on his pupil and a pupil couldn’t pass it on further, further and further.

Just from these times the powerful knowledge of Yoga, Tantra and everything that we are interesting in began to fizzle out slowly. The reason arose during some generations before and it consisted in this call to lead life of monks. There is nothing bad in cloister living when it is limited by time. More over it is very serious school. And even in ancient Vedic times they called upon young men and women to pass this period of schooling in any way. This was the first period spent as a pupil. A person didn’t have sex during this period, didn’t allow any joys to himself but spent all his forces and energy on ancient knowledge mastery. Then he had to continue his family. And only after his children came of certain age he could drive his Kundalini, open the third eye and fly in the air.

So mass dissemination of ancient knowledge (it is called Vedic knowledge sometimes) became to fizzle out. There were desperate attempts of expound the same knowledge in other words in the networks of another tradition. These attempts had different success degree. As a result knowledge is disappearing during last thousands years even in India. In our days it is thawing before our very eyes like an ice in the sun. Those teachers who taught yoga as far back as twenty years ago now have gone. I could teach with them but today you can’t. And you didn’t even assume that they were on the Earth. They could walk by your side but you didn’t even know that they existed. Spiritual practices die out with high speed, even quicker than animals from the Red Book. There only a thin streamlet remained which has handed us down at least some sort of yoga knowledge. Now we study exactly these yogas which were handed us down nevertheless. Ancient Yogins and Yoginis understood this danger very clearly. That’s why non-admission of all these foolishnesses was one of the most important constituent parts of their way of living. More precisely put – non-yielding to these false doctrines. That’s why the fourth principle – to pay sacred debt – is one of cornerstones in yoga in any sense. Though it has nothing virtually to do with yoga but without following it there is no guarantee that you will receive human body after your death. You practice something in this life but if you die there will be no guarantee that you will receive human body in the next life. More precisely put you may even receive human body but – that won’t do! – according to “the list” as it is called. So you will be born where your karma will bring you to, for example single heir of down-and-outs. Well from one point of view this is also technological moment.

“Hope for the best but expect the worst”

People coming into yoga and venture its highest peaks used to decide for them: “I will attain the high levels at maximum during this life and after I couldn’t care less what happens. I will remain in Samadhi, I will feel good and I won’t care about other people even if all of them they die off”. I.e. we can see so strong push: a person wants to have everything at once: “I won’t wait many lives but I will attain Enlightenment, Samadhi during this life”. This is very noble and strong intention to wish to attain everything that Buddha, Shiva and all the yoga teachers have attained – and just in this life, not in the next. We should live with such aspiration. If future yoga instructors having another aspiration come to me I don’t simply admit them to study in our University for future instructors. Do you remember what did Shura Balaganov answered the question of Ostap Ibragimovich Bender “How much do you need for being happy?”[*] He named the sum of approximately ten thousands rubles. And Ostap Ibragimovich told to this: “Shura, I’m going different ways with you” (because the sum was too big).

Venturing in such way you can’t follow quick methods in yoga. But on the other hand you should “hope for the best but expect the worst”. All of us should be prepared to live five billions of lives more and in every life we will grow in yoga little by little. And we should be so glad to live these five billions of lives as if we attain the Higher at the end of this life. I.e. hope for the best but expect the worst. And the worst thing from yogin’s stand is continuous train of births and deaths and life at surface of karma where everything revolves in a circle. We should be ready for it. And you have to think: “Well, I will walk up a certain stair in yoga. But then I will die and where I will be born?” You will be born according to your karma. If you prepare next generation, have children then you will conformably get possibility to receive human body and even possibility to be born in yogin and yogini’s family. You will be able to get over all the difficulties very quickly and continue your road. It is said in aphorisms of yoga that “there is no biggest happiness than to be born in yogin and yogini’s family”. There is no higher happiness. All the other births are nonsense and rubbish. I.e. whether you were born to be a heir to the throne or a great poet this is rubbish all the same. This happiness of being born in human body in yogin and yogini’s family you will receive only in one case: if in previous life you were yogin or yogini by yourself and took care about continuation of family, about children. And if you don’t take care about it then you will be born in all sorts of places and in circumstances being due to you according to your karma.

That’s why the principle “to pay sacred debt” is technological principle. It is the same foolproof feature on your road like ahimsa principle – non-doing harm – and the principle of non-wasting of your life on trifles. I.e. observance of these principles points to responsibility of yoga follower, to his long-term interests and to awareness of a goal at which he makes a stab. This goal may require to be born in human bodies many thousands times. And we should take it as happiness if such birth leads you to the higher purpose.

There were disbalances in India in ancient times and black holes appeared there. In families of not quite developed souls people didn’t ask themselves philosophical questions. Quite the contrary they procreated posterity: the more the better. A great disbalance happened as a result. All the highly developed souls went away from India. And only souls which were still very immature in spiritual sense remained there in abundance. They were born there in abundance and continue to be born now. Today India is a record holder by the birth rate growth. By any year of twenty first century (I don’t remember it exactly) India will beat all records and will become the most populous country in the world. I.e. there are such tendencies now that all the other countries with baby boom (like China, Nigeria, etc.) will be far behind. It seems we should be happy: Yogins and Yoginis will have a place to be born at long last! But you should understand that being born somewhere in slums, being born on the lowest social level give up for lost your education and everything else. This is very well understandable now by governors in Indian political circles. They understand that it is useless to struggle against poverty or illiteracy if now you have twenty millions of the poor and the next year you will have twenty five millions of the poor in your country. I.e. unlimited birth is a scourge for them. The majority of nascent souls aren’t quite forward-minded. As highly forward-minded soul would think five times before being born in a family on a very low social level. So this is the very serious disbalance.

They say sometimes that big population size is good. But it is good only on condition that each individual in this population is a soul on certain development stage. Otherwise you won’t even be able to help these throngs of people on a low development stage. They begin moaning now because the world is on the verge of famine, because in Africa people begin to die of starvation. And why? African people were fed in previous years and they didn’t do anything by themselves. And now the cost of food increases and it becomes an expensive treat even for sponsors to feed them. Big charitable institutions sponsor really big money. But this leads people to stop doing anything at all instead of trying to struggle out by themselves. That’s because these are the souls without awareness.

On the one hand uncontrollable birth of such souls aware of themselves is a blind alley for a state. But on the other hand absence of birth is much more serious deadlock for it. And all the development goes only on the razor’s edge. This was quite well understandable in Yogins and Yoginis groups. That’s why all the extremes were rejected. And to make this long-term rejection they brought in the principle “to pay sacred debt”.

I very often meet different Yogins and Yoginis telling nonsense. They say they devoted all their life attaining the Higher. I was always very glad hearing it. But at the same time they always added that they would renounced the secular world, went away to the next cloister or ashram and would spent there all their life fasting and praying; they would only practiced yoga at the best. And this is the most serious disbalance. I wonder where such Yogin picked up these “life-asserting” views. May be his life remained unsettled? May be any shock happened with him and he decided to leave the secular world? But it always appears that he is simply disappointed with the secular world and doesn’t want to see and hear anything anymore. I.e. this is such “noble” way of escaping the world. It becomes clear that there were no shocks and so on. It was simply painted in bright colours in any clever book that people living such life are so splendid, they are all so spiritual; they spend all their time in opening the third eye and driving Kundalini. Throngs of such people wander now in India and Nepal. Earlier it was harder to get there, but today it became much easier. Such yogin may live in one cloister then in another. Well he lived a year in certain cloister. I begin to speak with him and realize that he doesn’t even know yoga axiomatics. Well, sometimes it is useful to plunge into this world, in these places of power. But after a certain time has passed it turns to “eating yourself” in a circle. Unfortunately this negative tendency exists and develops in leaps and bounds in many countries including Russia. The most vexing thing is that in India they realized this tendency long ago and they struggle against it. And we only begin to trigger a backflash at which nobody triggers any more even in India. The only reason is that we have a lot of myths how Yogins and Yoginis lived and how we should live. But we have to live in a way that we believe necessary.

What did they mean saying “to pay the sacred debt”?

The principle “to pay sacred debt” means the next things: to have your own children or to help those people who have them (because people may have very different karmas). You may have your own children or you may help your like-minded people in yoga or simply your family and friends having children. This depends on your karma. There was no accent in yoga that you had to have children just by yourself. That’s because very different karma may be: someone has one karma, another person has other karma. But in any case you have to work at this point. And even more serious: you don’t have to call importance of having children in question from your point of view in yoga.

Unfortunately this also occurs very often in spiritual schools of different kinds. There a monk of any yogic community has greater status than any layman or houseowner. Even the way a question is put is reputed to be criminal because it creates a certain aura. And this aura guides immature mind of people to a wrong direction. Well if we want to become similar to the ancient Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the higher knowledge then God us forbid from making a protest against children, against family and family continuation. And once again: there is no matter whether these are your own children or children of your “comrades in yoga” or friends and acquaintances. That depends on your karma.

Who Yogins and Yoginis were looking for family continuation?

There is one more peculiarity here: for creation and continuation of family Yogin or Yogini was looking not for a wife or a husband but for a mother or a father of his or her children. This is rather serious accent. Having children seems to be remarkable, it’s universally recognized value. I mean western values now. But this essential reservation turns everything upside down because in western civilization future parents aren’t very responsible when choosing mother or father for their future children. They think: “The most important thing is my own happiness. I have a girlfriend or a wife (or a husband). She pleases me, I like her. And children – no matter what they will be”. From one stand everything is very good and seems to be rather logical. But this is selfishness. A child is born and then you realize that you and your husband (or wife) can’t stand each other. You live in permanent squabbles and rows, sorting things out, permanent war. And children become small change in this war. They become means of manipulation.

The most typical situation is when spouses divorce; as the saying goes “there is only one step from love up to hatred”. Yesterday they make much of each other and now they hate each other. But they just have their children and these small beings understand nothing. Mother and father are equally dear for them. Their parents may have many shortcomings but children reach intuitively for mother and father all the same. But parents aren’t able to stand each other. They begin a life-and-death struggle and such children receive big wound in their souls. This principle engenders sufferings. Formerly we touched this principle. There is no suffering in this world. There is only delight energy (or energy of happiness) which somebody divided into two parts and set these parts at loggerheads.

There is no worse suffering for a child then when his mom and dad begin to sort things out. Child’s own joy, happiness and love to his mom and dad begin to be set loggerheads, he struggles to cope with his mom and dad. This is called “problem family” sometimes. Strange as it may seem the possibility of appearing of a problem family was built in that point of communication. We rashly choose partners in sex for ourselves (a woman if you are a man or a man if you are a woman) but pregnancy comes sometimes unexpectedly, it may be unplanned.

Nobody knows Sexual Yoga but Sexual Yoga always begins with contraception. I mean here contraception at a level of thoughts and then all the other. There are many bad scenarios: a man and a woman get married, have children and then conflicts begin developing into hate. Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy has still said: “Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. The most important moment making all these possible is the next: we choose a companion for ourselves in life for our own happiness and we push happiness of our children to the background. So children pay for it.

In Yogins and Yoginis environment people became spouses if they fitted each other in the sense of family continuation in the first place. Undoubtedly they should have been in sympathy with each other. We may reach for someone we like. Spending time with someone we like may be interesting for us but we have to choose people with whom we are going to have children. This point was very clearly traceable and respectable among Yogins and Yoginis.

These strategies penetrated of course into the common society. But as you slightly leave this razor’s edge and go aside then immediately everything turns into perversion and degenerates. This principle penetrated into the common people and as a result they engendered a thing that now is known as marriages entering by parents for their children. I.e. here is a man and here is woman. Now we will marry them, sanctify their marriage and make it indissoluble. Let’s make everything for our children to let them avoiding sufferings. So freedom in choose husband or wife fizzled out.

Sometimes we admire India. India is a wonderful country indeed, it has the great future. There are governors who carry on a life-and-death struggle to get the country out of all this spiritual nihilism. Though the country by itself has so high spiritual peaks that all the rest of mankind should teach at Hindus. And everybody understands it. Well in this wonderful country the great majority of marriages aren’t love-match marriages but they are made in different ways. These may be marriages inside caste when parents get together, decide and marry their children. Or they may use more subtle methods. But this scenario when future husband and wife meet each other for the first time on a courtship display isn’t a fairy tale for Hindus. And such scenario when people can freely choose a husband or a wife is some kind of exotic for them. That’s why you have to understand that our country is much freer despite all its shortcomings. But freedom means responsibility as well and we aren’t responsible enough.

In India and other eastern countries they look at our western freedom and seeing its shortcomings stronger tighten the screws on their patriarchal traditions. Why? That’s because we set them a negative example. This is of course a great disbalance awful and terrible. There was no such thing in Yogins and Yoginis environment. A husband looked for his wife and a wife looked for her husband proceeding from non-selfish principles in the first place. Under selfish principles I mean the next one for example: I want to be happy in this life, I want to have a beautiful wife and I want everybody to envy me. Or I have so clever husband and let everybody envy me.

Your future life (and not your current life) comes to the foreground. And it is fully determined by your karma in current life. The most important component of your karma in this life is continuation of family. But this question isn’t even raised for undeveloped people, for people aren’t sophisticated in spiritual sense. They propagate with anybody they like, where they like and when they like. If they are a little bit more respectable people then everything is ok. And if they are more indecent then the gloomiest state of affairs may be. People beginning to come up in spiritual sense approach more deliberate to this moment. But the reverse side of this deliberation is decrease of a birth rate. Decrease of a birth rate is a danger not only for a state. In the first place this is a danger for us. In the next life we will have to be born no one knows where, no one knows among whom.

Neither children nor family are an obstacle for spiritual development

Sometimes I hear the next statement which bred everywhere as a result of dissemination of myths and stories about yoga. I don’t even know how to struggle with it. More precisely put we shouldn’t struggle with it but we have to supplant this dull knowledge by the right one. I think that is the only thing being in our hands. I.e. we should not to fight, not to struggle against these obscurantists but simply give the real knowledge. And we should give real ancient knowledge which will “wash off” all these ravings.

They say very often: “I won’t acquire a family and children because they will prevent me in my spiritual practices including yoga practices”. This is such delusion that caps the globe. Among Yogins and Yoginis they believe that neither family nor children are an obstacle for your spiritual growth or practices. More over they are any kind of foundation and jumping-off place facilitating your spiritual growth. It is said in our yoga school of Anandasvami tradition: “Neither family nor children are an obstacle for spiritual development”.

That’s why when the next time someone tells me: “I won’t do it, not in the very least” I always reply: “Well, you won’t do it by yourself – it’s ok, people may have different karma. But don’t oppose it then. Otherwise it happens that you don’t want to have family and children and more over you look down upon the rest of mere mortals. And these mere mortals get an inferiority complex because they feel themselves as orphans and cripples in comparison with you”. Look, any monk dressing up in orange clothes comes. He shows off his intelligence and teaches everybody how to live. He has many followers falling down at his feet. But this is only Vasja Pupkin from the next front door. He visited India, dressed up like a clown and began to teach everybody. He called himself a monk because no woman could live with him because of his bad character. He didn’t get children because he would had to take care about them and earning their living. So sometimes very strange creatures appears is spiritual areas and you shouldn’t buy that.

The most important mistakes will be traced in your next birth and in the birth after next one. As regards sexual practices for Yogins and Yoginis they may practiced with any number of partners according to their purpose. And we remember that the purpose was to understand the Higher. All these quick and secret ancient yogas were intended for established personalities and not for children. So they may practices with whoever they liked even if with harem full of women and men.

But Yogins and Yoginis were inclined not to have intimacy at all than to have intimacy with no matter whom. Our next lecture will be devoted to this point. Now such a laisser-faire happens: people couple like flies. I don’t already tell about certain diseases because this is not safe. Do you realize that you get an imprint from every person with whom you slept? One classic said about vodka: “You may drink it but you have to know with whom to drink”. The same thing happens here. It is better not to have sex at all than to have it with no matter whom. It’s better even if you have sex beyond yoga practices (beyond Tantra Yoga and Sexual Yoga where everything is regulated very strictly). That’s why even in our everyday life we should be a little bit more discriminating. Otherwise we may get an imprint needless for us.

Living with husband or wife that Yogini or Yogin has chosen for family continuation is equal to asceticism

There is such a strange situation: a family is very stable, it is organized around the children. Husband and wife there are rather companions-in-arms, they do everything in the name of children. They are very intimate people, if they have wish or need to practice with somebody else then – go ahead! – if not then don’t. I.e. on the one hand there is no sanctimony and on the other hand there is an utmost chastity. But this is a theme of the next topic “What to do?”. And now let’s return to the principle “to pay sacred debt”.

So Yogins and Yoginis looked for a wife or a husband in the first place as mother or father of their future children. These were more subtle, deeper relationships between a man and a woman. Considering “What to do?” we will examine it more in detail but now I want also to tell some words. Practicing Tantra Yoga methods or Sexual Yoga methods with great number of partners your lifestyle, mode of communication with them goes according to some criteria. And your relationships with your husband or wife with whom you are living for your children are deeper, they are more confidential. A husband or a wife with whom you are living for the sake of children is your most intimate person indeed. He or she knows all your weak spots. He or she is that person to whom you can show your strong points as well as your shortcomings.

All sexual yoga practices are created just according to this principle: to hide all your shortcomings as much as possible and to show all your positive points as much as possible. The idea of these practices is built on this by itself. This is so called “methods of maya overcoming”. Method of maya overcoming is to create another instrument that would defeat maya. Very serious, large and hardly understandable philosophy masterminds this. But this philosophy works really quickly and makes spiritual growth incredibly quick. That’s why sexual practices considered to be the most powerful method. There is a sort of “positive maya” but you fully uncover yourself before your husband or wife. Before them be what you are. And you will be able to keep your patience for your husband or wife only in one case: if you were aspired to him/her from the very beginning, if you loved him/her, love now and don’t turn a blind eye to his/her shortcomings. You should understand that this is your nearest friend. You mix with each other. You clean him and he clans you. Such statement follows this principle “to pay sacred debt”: life a husband and wife chosen by each other for family continuation and joint upbringing of their children is equal to asceticism.

I want to make an accent once again on diametrical opposite of our views with views of ancient yogins. It usual when a youth and a girl fall in love with each other, acquire children and family, have honeymoon and so on. They believe that they need each other only for delight. They think that they found their happiness and their life now will be joyous and nice. But life puts everything into place and clashes begin. This youth and his girl weren’t initially ready for these clashes. They expected paradise but they found themselves into hell. They expected that everything came to them without their efforts and now they are required to work. Among yogins and yoginis living in family and family in the name of children was equal to the strictest asceticism. Once again: you may practiced Tantra Yoga in these schools with partners you liked but having children considered to be more serious deeper stratum. So ancient yogins and yoginis chose at first mother or father of their future children and secondly partner in asceticism in the person of future spouse.

Making the grade together always passes in clashes: somewhere you have to yield, somewhere you have to put up, somewhere you see shortcomings and have to help to get rid of them. This looks like a fairytale or happy life least of all. But when we get married we are expect just this happy life and by no means asceticism. A great negative happening then comes from these expectations indeed.

Yogins and yoginis were devoid of sanctimony. Yogin loved his wife, yogini loved her husband but for all that they might practice with so many partners as they liked. At the same time they firmly and patiently endured all so called tricks of another spouse (as a rule a yogin or yogini as well). That’s because this was asceticism and they needed spouse for children and joint practice. In the most long-term perspective Amorousness Yoga examines such relationships. Who has the right to such amorousness? These are the people who went through this asceticism. You may practice with many partners but in this or in the next life the third stage of Amorousness Yoga (so called well-deserved amorousness) will open up to you. And it will open up quite concretely, through quite concrete channel or quite concrete person. It opens only in case if a person went through asceticism phase and really merit it. As you see accent shifted some more.

Who should be chosen as husband or wife?

I (Vadim Zaporozhtsev) may be in the wrong but it seems to me that for yogin in ancient times it was easier to find yogini for family and children than now. And for yogini was also easier to find yogin. Now it became more difficult. In their lifestyle they considered that the most perfect variant was choosing mother or father of your future children, partner in asceticism from the environment of congenial souls, from people sharing your views and having the same purpose as you had.

Unfortunately this also depends on karma in many respects. And it goes further according to priority as they say. Very different states of affairs may be. Let us suppose yogini is very seriously interested in the Higher and her husband is in sympathy with the Higher but not very much. It may comes to such a state of things when one partner aspire for the Higher very a lot but another partner is absolutely indifferent not only to yoga but to everything else. There are a lot of karma nuances… It happens differently at every family. All the people with whom fate brought you together, with whom you have children you should consider in the light of your future asceticism in any case. You shouldn’t expect your husband or wife to share your views all the time. But children make everything sacred because they are your future in yoga in your next birth.

“Until ancestors are dissatisfied with you you’ll never get near the enlightenment”

Figure 1. To pay a sacred debt
(Having done your work practice with every reason!)

If you really decided to venture everything and to attain the Higher in this life you don’t have to think about your future (where to be born). This is not simple question because you have millions of ancestors and you should also give them possibility to be born in bodies of your children. So there is a conception of “Patrimonial Yoga”. Our yoga school of Anandasvami tradition belongs particularly among patrimonial yogas as they say. What does “Patrimonial Yoga” mean?

Patrimonial Yoga means that going higher and higher you will see on the upstairs your forefathers and they are yoga teachers. And this fact doesn’t depend on who are you, who are your mother and father and mother and father of your mother and father and so on.

They say me sometimes: “You know it is hard for me purely emotionally sometimes. You are sitting and meditating to yoga teachers. But in my imagination they are any black and unpleasant Hindus and I don’t want to meditate on them”. Very different sympathies and antipathies people may have indeed. They use to put out a picture of any holy person and force everybody to worship it. Though now there are many semi-yogic semi-sectarian organizations with their teachers. And they say: “Here is our teacher. Go ahead! Drop to his legs, creep up, kiss a picture and crawl back”. This stirs up an obvious rejection of many people. These are disbalances as well but we (western people) “eat” everything.

It is said in tradition of patrimonial yoga schools: if you want to establish the closest links with your teachers and it is difficult for you to do this by meditating on images then in any time you may meditate on your mother and father or on your grandmother and grandfather and so on, further and further. You may do this regardless of your nation and religion. Patrimonial yoga tells that thus you will come to yoga teachers including teachers of our yoga school of Anandasvami tradition.

It is very strange conception at first glance but it is very powerful indeed. It gives us a hint about yoga knowledge. This knowledge isn’t something mechanistic. If we think that someone thought up any systemic abstract-philosophical current and began to impose it on us then a strong rejection appears. This conception shows us how we can enter yoga from another side – by means of our ancestors. This was reflected in numerous philosophical currents and cults of ancestors respect. In these cults there is one purely yogic notice with a jeer sounded approximately like this: “Until ancestors are dissatisfied with you you will never get your hand near the enlightenment”. Not our parents satisfied or dissatisfied are meant here. It is said here about forefathers in general. They supposedly look on you from subtle spheres: “Aha, you are going to the heaven, to the paradise? No-no, you aren’t worthy of it”. I.e. this moment that “you don’t worth of the Higher until you haven’t paid sacred debt” is meant everywhere.

Our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, our forefathers lived in quite terrible circumstances: wars, famine, permanent revolutions and so on. Reading history of Russia writing by Karamzin we see permanent revolts: one False Dmitriy changed another and so on. Just imagine how much our ancestors had to bear. Despite this they bought up the next generation not man-eaters clenching their teeth and kept something humanistic, kind and inspiring. They gave it to their children and thus you came into the world. We are indebted to them.

We can pay this debt only in one way: by giving possibility to practice yoga to those souls who couldn’t do it purely physically because they lived in terrible circumstances. It’s impossible to practice yoga when one conquest changes another, when at one moment there is famine in another moment there is epidemic and so on. What yoga can be there? You have to survive! So you have to give these souls a chance to practice yoga in better circumstances. Then they look from the heavens: “Well, you have paid your sacred debt you can attaint enlightenment now!”

Figure 2. A yogin hasn’t had time to pay sacred debt
and has been born in a body of fish.
a) Practicing yogin who doesn’t think about family continuation

(A cave and a cave yogin
– I’m connecting a forefinger with a thumb.
I’m placing my right leg on the left one…)

b) Occasionally he died somehow

(A cave. 350 years have passed. This yogin died
before paying sacred debt and attaining enlightenment)

c) His next birth in 49 days

(- I’m connecting my forefinger… A-a-a,
where are my fingers??? A-a-a
I’m placing my left leg… A-a-a,
where are my legs??? A-a-a…)

This doesn’t mean that they have to be your children without fail. We all go in such swarm or we all came from one monkey as evil tongues say. For example today you meet a person unfamiliar to you. But he may be your brother or sister, your husband or wife in previous life or may be your child. That’s why there is one more notice in addition to this theme. I like very much beautiful proverb of our (school of Anandasvami tradition) cousins from Tantra Buddhism of Tibetan trend: “One person can give a really spiritual knowledge to another person only in case if they were mothers of each other in the past”. I.e. in one life first person was a woman and gave birth to second person. In other life second person was a woman and gave birth to first one. So if there is this maternal link then you can receive spiritual knowledge with absolutely no frictions. So beautifully this principle is played up by them.

Of course we weren’t born yesterday and nobody is entitled to impose us any lifestyle. Even Yogins and Yoginis handed us down this ancient knowledge. More over they would dissuade us by themselves from blindly coping all this. But you must admit that there is a thing to think about. In any case analyzing it you can find an answer on certain questions in your private life. That’s because problems that tease you have appeared much earlier than yesterday or five years ago or ten or even ten thousands years ago.

Question: “What is role of the Teacher of practicing husband and wife?”

Vadim Zaporozhtsev: “A Teacher and a Mistress guided a couple as a rule. I.e. now people read books and practicing Tantra yoga. In ancient tradition this considered to be very conceited. That’s why Teachers leaded these practices to the needed course. A Teacher and a Mistress are thereto a Teacher and a Mistress to feel dangerous moments: when karma takes person away from his road and he flies like on a jet and if he only touches a top of tree by a wing he will get smashed up. This is not a topic of this lecture but their role is very important. Many people go to journey in Tantra at their peril, at their own risk but not all of them land and not all of them even take off”.

[*] Characters of “Zolotoy telyonok” (The Golden Calf) – novel of Ilf and Petrov.