conference by yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru
Time devours everything except those who have attained immortality. We can say that the human being can approach God when he consecrates everything he does. The moment he offers the fruits of his actions to God, and God receives this gift, as a fruit which is not to be used by the one who does the action, but by God, in that moment, the being becomes close to God, to the Eternal, and lives, to a certain extent, in the same way as God does. In this moment the human being can feel the embrace of God as Father, and he can realise what it is like to embrace God.
It is an essential thing, and we should not forget to offer the fruits to God; so we will be able to feel this divine state. After the consecration, we will feel that God Himself manifests through us, and in that way, we can feel his inspiration, grace, power, and we will be freed from the chains of Karma.
Many people are afraid of their actions. Why? Because actions, made without a consecration to God, enchain people. Sooner or later, in this existence or in a future one, these actions will oblige their author to suffer the consequences. If the action was bad, the fruits will be bitter. But even when the person performed good actions, he will be obliged to incarnate, to return and receive its fruits.
In the vision of sages and saints, even this situation is an enchaining. That is why Jesus, through the parable of the wine, makes us realise that we can attain liberation, even through action. That is why, if we offer the fruits of our action to God and if God receives them, that is if we feel that God will accept these fruits, feeling the grace of the Divine who receives these fruits, this gift, through this action, we shall feel the divine grace and, in the same time, these actions won’t tie us. In these situations we won’t incarnate. But if we forget this we’ll be obliged to get these fruits, whether we like it or not. Even if we are to receive wonderful fruits and we reincarnate in a blissful life, we still can’t avoid them.
The human being can witness the state of supreme bliss, can feel a great charge and feel the Divine manifestation. The only condition is that we should not forget to consecrate our main actions to the Divine.
And because we discuss this aspect, it is very important for you, especially when you are together with your lover before lovemaking, it is very important that you consecrate, even if your communion will be ecstatic, sublime or wonderful. But if you do perform the consecration correctly and you do get an answer from the Divine, this consecration is valid for 24 hours, in other words you can make love repeatedly with the same person, for 24 hours without consecrating again.
I am telling you about this because, there are still persons, even in advanced years of yoga, and I must admit, even among the yoga instructors, who fail to make this consecration. This means that even now, they don’t understand that it is essential to consecrate such moments. If you have to deal with such a person, I suggest that you stop, no matter what feelings you have or what the circumstances are. You should avoid making love to such a person, even if you risk being labelled as “strange”, because if you do this, from a spiritual point of view, you have understood correctly what consecration means.
Through consecration, the two lovers can attain really blissful states, but the one who forgets to consecrate does not centre himself in God, and does not help you do that (in case you have intended to). In such circumstances I suggest that you simply stop, it will have good effect on you and even on that person who wants to tempt you in a karma-ic trap.
This problem is very serious, even if you are tempted to consider it superfluous. It is important for you to know that if you have not consecrated an amorous act, even if it is with continence [without ejaculation-ed], even if this continence is very successful and gives rise to huge energies, if you don’t get liberated in this life, you’ll have a good chance of reincarnating 4-5 times for each act of lovemaking without consecration. Thus you have to taste the sweet and compulsory fruits of your action.
I insist very much on this because there are still yogi-s who count on their fragile continence and sometimes they even dare to come to me and tell me that it was a spontaneous act, that they felt God anyway, that there was no need for consecration, etc. But all these are aberrations. When speaking about karma, the traditional texts mention that the only moment when the human being can be absolved of karma is when he clearly and distinctly consecrates the fruits of his action to God. All other manifestations are deviations, even if someone might tell you that you don’t need to offer your fruits to God.
I also want to warn you of a foolishness of another kind: there are some that say: I forgot to make the consecration before, but I make it after lovemaking. Such a consecration is totally misplaced, and has absolutely no value, even if you make it for 5, 8 or 10 hours ceaselessly. This is because there is a law of the beginning, which says that God involves Himself in what you do simultaneously with Him. God will not change anything that you have done egocentrically, foolishly.
There are some questions about consecration, which I am going to answer, because I regard this as an extremely important issue. But before answering, I want to draw your attention to another very important aspect: some people think that if they made a consecration in the morning for the whole day, it will not be necessary to make consecration when they are about to make love for instance. This is absurd – the morning consecration is only a global consecration that refers to your global integration during the day, but important actions as lovemaking require a special, distinct and precise consecration. So, taking into consideration that such a consecration will not take more than 5 minutes (one minute for less important actions) I suggest that you make it. This will have a paramount influence on your spiritual evolution and will integrate you in what is called Karma yoga, i.e. instantaneous yoga which permits you to be close to the infinite and to God.
The first question:
How is the consecration of an action performed effectively?
It is performed, primarily, with a total sincerity, and it is like an offering that is given to God, like a gift given to Him, the fruits of the action are given to Him. If we are to give an example, let us start from something simple. Let us say that, at a certain moment, you wake up in the morning and decide to buy milk for your mother. You get dressed, take money and a bag in your hand, and go to buy milk for your mother, thinking: the fruit of the action I am doing now is for my mother, who will be very happy that I buy milk for her. This action is not for me, I don’t even like milk, but I do it anyway because my mother likes milk and she will be glad when she comes back from work and sees 2 litres of milk which I bought for her. When she comes I will tell her: “Mother, I give you these 2 litres of milk. They are yours.” In this case even our action of going to buy milk and even the milk we bought is used to please your mother. The fruits of this action belong to your mother. We can be glad within ourselves that mom will be glad, but even so, this Joy that she will feel because we bought her milk belongs entirely to her.
The same way, in the situation when we offer the fruits of an action to God, we should, with the candour of a child, consecrate what ought to belong to us, or what should follow after that action, so that it will not come to us because it is offered to God. If we do this, even if we do not know complex metaphysical theories, in the moment when we give or think that we are to give the fruits of the action to God, we shall feel inside an ineffable state of communion, of charging with a transcendent, ecstatic flow, which always manifests in our being from top to bottom. We feel how it gets through the top of the head and pervades us and makes our being be flooded by this flow of grace. This is the answer that what we offered as a fruit is accepted by the Divine.
This state confirms that this consecration is successful, and then we know that the action we are going to perform, is inspired by God, is sustained by Him, belongs entirely to Him, we being only an instrument through which God’s power is manifesting. So we are only the instrument and God is the one who benefits. The fruits belong to Him, both those which will come after one hour and those which will come after 5 years, 10 years, 100 years, 200 years, 800 years; all these fruits belong entirely to Him.
We have to offer the fruits of our actions to God, in a state of sincerity, with anticipation. And we feel this transfiguring, elevating, ecstatic answer, which gives force, strength and perhaps even thoughts which help us improve the action we are going to perform, we can say that we have truly consecrated the fruit of our action to God, and it was received.
In the situation when your consecration is not followed by this answer, it means that the Divine does not accept the respective action and we should not make it. We stop, because something is wrong. If God does not accept this gift of ours, this means that something is not in harmony, either in us or in the being with whom we want to perform that action or the respective moment can be a bad time for that action. This absence of the answer of integration makes us understand that this offering is not received. Then we should stop because, if we do it anyway, its fruits will necessarily enchain us and we shall have no other possibility to receive them except through a future reincarnation. This is inevitable.
If we consecrate, does that mean that the particular action will no longer have
This statement is true, provided that this consecration is correctly done and, of course, that God answers. It is not enough to say: “God, I offer to Thee the fruits of my actions today!” If we do not feel afterwards the answer as a state of ecstatic communion with Godt, then it cannot be said that we have truly done the consecration and that we will not be enchained by the fruits of our action. Because of our action we will be obliged to reincarnate in order to eat the fruits of this action. karma-ic effects?
Therefore, it is not enough to consecrate, we also have to feel that our consecration has been received; and this does not necessarily manifest as the appearance of an inner voice, which says:” Yes, son, it is all right”. It is an inner state, an inexpressible state which appears clearly and doubtlessly, like something elevating, transfiguring, which makes us divine for a fraction of a second or even for several minutes continuously, and which really shows that we can go on and make that action because, as I said before, an action which has already been performed, can never be consecrated to God afterwards. It is impossible and you can be sure that God never receives the bad actions which you make saying: “If I consecrate, it has no importance, for now I am consecrating to God the act of black magic which I perform to kill my neighbour who gives me troubles. If I do this, God will receive it and even help me and I will not even have karma and I will be a feared black magician because all my evil actions belong to God. The only thing I do is to have benefit, because God killed the man with my help.” No!
Please do not feed such delusions in your foolish mind, because such a thing is out of question. God does not sustain such actions, and even if you consecrate them, the answer will be NO. The same is with aberrant, paranoiac actions, which you might get inspired to do by other demoniac or satanic forces. It is not enough to offer, this offering of your actions must also be received, because you must not think that the Divine will accept any deviation.
If we want to consecrate a certain action which has our transformation as goal, for example, an action for mental purification, or whatever we consider that we need, what implications does such kind of consecration have?
If the fruits of the action are really offered to the Divine, then this consecration can have only Divine fruits, of complete liberation from the fruits of the action we are performing, and, in the same time, makes that God manifests through us and accomplishes what we have consecrated to Him. In this way we open ourselves to God. Consecrating, for instance, a session of asana-s and consecrating its fruits to the Divine, no doubt that we open even more to God and afterwards His grace, power, inspiration, energy will overflow in our being and the quality of the states we shall have will be extraordinary in this situation.
That is why it is so important that we consecrate the fruits of our actions to God. Then we can receive from the Divine the force, inspiration and all the support so that our action will be integrated in the concord of the Divine harmony. To forget to consecrate, would mean that the respective action, even if it is spiritual, will be made with one’s own forces, it will be an egoistic action which will also generate karma-ic links afterwards. In such a situation, we shall have to deal with the fruits of this action in a future incarnation in which we shall get the precise compensation for what we have done. In such a situation, if we did not reach liberation, we shall reincarnate and we shall be able to live, for example, in an ashram and benefit from the spiritual environment there, but this reincarnation will be compulsory. We will not be able to escape if, for example, we have give initiations in a certain cosmic power, forgetting to make the consecration once, twice, three times, five times; for example, let us say that we have initiated 6000 people, but we have done it egoistically; for this we shall reincarnate maybe 20 times in different ashrams of this planet, or other planets where we must benefit from this spiritual climate which we deserve. It is a compulsory matter, we cannot escape saying: “I don’t want it anymore! I’ve had enough!” So, whether we like it or not we will have to bear these consequences of our action.
In the situation when we initiate even 6 million people making the consecration, the energy comes from God, but we don’t feel exhausted, drained, finished, but we feel that we are integrated, that our action are fluid, that an infinite force sustains us, and finally we notice that we are free, that we cannot expect any consequence of our actions, because they do not give any fruit, we shall not be obliged to reincarnate like in the other situation when the one who gives the same initiation forgets to consecrate it to God.
There are two different actions which, seen from outside, can make an ignorant say: “It is the same thing.” The major difference is that one consecrates and the other doesn’t. Both make an initiation in Tara, for example, in two different cities. One will be finally exhausted, drained because he was working with his own energy, and the other will be able to initiate 10000 people more after he finished with the 6000. Why? Because in the first case, he functions with the energies which belong to him as ego, as individualised being while in the second case he is integrated from the divine standpoint and all the energy comes from that cosmic power. Whan he consecrates, he is already integrated in a circuit in which God manifests through him. In the other case, he is alone. He might contact that particular cosmic power, but his vitality of support can break.
For example, if somebody gives this initiation and stands on his feet for 8 hours, if he consecrates he will not feel tired at all. In the case he will do the same action but without consecration, he will notice that after 2-3 hours his legs will start to hurt. Even if he makes a spiritual action, his physical energy leaves him. Why? Because he functions with his ego, with his individuality. When he consecrates he functions with energy from God which compensates also what little he has at the individual scale; instead of sustaining him to stand 2 hours, it can sustain him to stay even 14-20 hours, because, actually, God sustains him and he only notices that he does not get tired and wonders how he made it. In the other situation, he gets tired and has to stop; why? Because he is not in communion with God.
In the case of an amorous act with a person who does not practice yoga, is it enough that only the one who practices yoga makes the consecration?
Yes, it is enough but compulsory. And if you are with a person, who is more suspicious and feels that it is strange that you have to hold hands for 3-4 minutes, you can make the consecration alone: you go to the toilet for exampl and you consecrate for her, visualise her face, even think that she is in front of you, holding your hands, and you feel the integration, the answer from God.
If the answer doesn’t come, then refrain from doing that action, because this shows that there is something wrong. Either that person is sick, or she has who knows what karma-ic past which makes that she is not allowed to do that action with you. God knows what is with her, but it is clear that you should not interfere. You should stop, even if it was exciting and passionate, talk about some other aspects and try again later or the next day, maybe it was not the right moment. If it is the same when you try again, it is clear that with that person one cannot make love with consecration and you should not do it.
For those who still have problems with continence, both men and women, you should take into account that a consecration received by God helps immensely to improve your continence. There were even some persons who, after having consecrated for the first time, told me that although their continence was quite weak, after they consecrated the fruits of their amorous fusion to God or to a certain Cosmic Power, they noticed that their control improved very much. Some said that there were moments when they were very close to the point of no return and they wondered how come they did not ejaculate – as if a miracle something helped them, sustained them so that they could go on making love without losing their control.
It is worth keeping this aspect in mind because it can help you immensely. Even the state you get when you consecrate the fruits to God or to a Cosmic Power changes you very much for the better. The person with whom you make love becomes more harmonious, he or she will also feel a state of greater happiness. The final feeling of harmony, of communion, of fulfilling, of expansion of the consciousness is much more intensified and the refinement of the states as well. All these aspects are to your benefit.
The only thing is that the fruits of this action does not belong to you, but the benefits which you get are immense, and this should determine you never to forget to consecrate and, of course, to begin only after this inner answer comes.
Can the androgynous state only be obtained after you reached the state of perfection?
You should know that the androgynous state marks the attainment of the state of perfection. The one who reaches the androgynous state attains simultaneously the state of perfection, and you don’t have to reach the state of perfection before you attain the androgynous state. The one who wants it very much can reach it through a couple relationship, and in the moment when the androgynous state will be thoroughly realised within himself, that man and woman will realise, in the same moment the state of perfection.
Of course, to reach only the first steps of androgynity does not mean to completely actualise the Androgynestate. And to attain it in the couple does not mean that both lovers will necessarily attain it. There are situations when the woman can attain the androgynous state and the man does not, or the other way around. Why? Because one of them may not yet have spiritual inclinations, he is not interested. This does not mean that the one who wants to attain the androgynous state should be handicapped because the other one does not want it. The the androgynous state can still be attained it this case, provided that continence is perfected. Don’t fool yourself by saying “even if I am not continent, I can still accomplish the androgynous state .”
Recently was published the book Japa Yoga (by Swami Sivananda, in Romanian translation – transl. note) in which there are some secret Mantra-s. Is it advisable to take information from there and use it?
If you have the initiation in the respective mantra-s, you can use them. Those of you who have not received the initiation, even if you want to use them, if you do not have a certain level of spiritual evolution and especially if you did not reach perfection in Yoni Mudra, then you will see that you will use them but those mental utterings will not be fruitful. If you have attained perfection in Yoni Mudra, you can use any mantra, with the exception of Para Béja, which requires an exceptional inner preparation, about which I will not speak here. So, if you feel capable of performing Yoni Mudra perfectly, you can do it.
But whenever you use a mantra you should try to go with it until you clearly obtain some spiritual progress, because otherwise you will find that you work with so many mantra-s that you will feel completely confused, because they are tens of thousands, and you should not forget that you have only one existence and if you keep on accumulating mantra-s, and if some entities from the Astral plane comes in your dreams and reveals 200 more mantra-s to you, you will only be happy that you have accumulated so many mantra-s and that is all. Some books are full of these mantra-s, but this does not mean that their authors have attained any high spiritual level. The same applies to you, who, let’s say, have 700 initiations in 700 mantras and know 700 forms of Laya Yoga.
It is more important to accomplish true spiritual progress using one mantra. If you are in the comic situation that you know 7 mantras of 7 Cosmic Powers, but you are still absent-minded, careless, jealous, confused, then you can say that you know them in vain. If you use at least one when you should, and you really achieve a fundamental, radical, inner, clear transformation which can be noticed and admired by others who will say: “You were stupid before and now you are clever! You were without vitality and now you are vital! Bravo!” Then it is very well. But if you go on accumulating mantra-s without going deep, you will notice that it is not a big deal.
Are martial arts a spiritual path?
Yes, to the extent to which they are really integrated as modalities of spiritual evolution. In the west nowadays, they are distorted and the spiritual message is lost. When one who trains in Karate has the idea: “I have an opponent in front of me and I have to kill, to destroy him”, this does not mean a spiritual path, but a deviation from an authentic spiritual path.
We do not have the necessary time to present how things are with the martial arts as a spiritual orientation, but if you want, you can read in the traditional books about martial arts and you will notice the discrepancy between what they are in reality and what is practised now. Erroneously the karate practitioner today is full of ego and very proud that he can beat 20 people and has a disharmonious Manipura; there is a very great difference between them and how the real masters were, who had attained a high spiritual level.
Can the prayer “Our Father” said before an action replace the consecration?
No. It can, at most, create in our being a state of communion with God, but cannot replace consecration, because consecration is our offering given directly to God, to whom we offer the fruits of our actions. It does not have any connection with the prayer. I can say “Our Father ” to feel close to God, but this does not exclude to offer Him the fruits of my action also. They are two different things. We should not make this confusion. If you feel that it is difficult to open towards God to realise the consecration, before that you can say “Our Father”. You say “Our Father”, you feel that state of empathic communion, of embracing which God gives you when you say “Our Father” with feeling, and after that you make the consecration as such.
To say “Our Father”, to feel the state of communion with God, and after that to say: “OK! I have consecrated, now I can make love with my lover. I consecrated and God answered me” does not have any efficiency from the standpoint of karma-ic unconditioning, because the act of offering the fruits of our actions is a distinct act which has nothing to do with “Our Father”. “Our Father” is “Our Father” and the consecration of the fruits of our actions to God is something else. They are distinct things and they should not be mixed up.
Is it enough when we consecrate to say “In the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” and to make the sign of the cross three times?
No, because this is an action of integration in the Trinity. If after we do this, we say in ourselves and even with loud voice: “Heavenly Father, I offer You the fruits of the action which I am about to perform, I implore You to make me understand and realise if You accept it!”, then it is correct. After that. wait in a state of interiorisation to feel if this divine transfiguring flow, like a reaction, like a sublime, ecstatic breeze comes and floods your being. If this comes, this means that your consecration was received, the fruits of the action you are going to make are really offered to God and He accepted them.
To say only “Our Father” or “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” making the sign of the cross three times and then do the action, this gesture asks only for supplementary help from God for the action which you are going to do, but its fruits belong to you. God can take the fruits only if you clearly and distinctly offered them to Him. Consecration is an act of Free Will. And to see how clear things are I will tell you a story to make you understand how consecration functions even in the infernal worlds.
When I was in prison, I stayed in the same cell with a man who was sentenced to death for his crimes. Knowing that I was practicing yoga, he became more inclined to confessions. Once he told me that long ago he had been attracted by a sorcerer somewhere in Transylvania, who saw in him some special endowments which would have allowed him to become the magician’s successor and thus transmit his malefic initiation. The magician became confidential with him and taught him this horrible practice. In one occasion he noticed something which not even the sorcerer could explain. This is the story:
One day they were to kill someone with witchcraft, and the one who asked for that action brought the sum of money and 7 black hens, as the magician asked. Afterwards the hens were put in a room where a demon was to come and eat them. The hens were offered as a pledge for the malefic act that he was going to perform. The apprentice entered the room together with the magician and noticed that it was a totally dark room, with the windows nailed shut and covered with thick blankets. The hens were closed in the room, and the man asked in wonder: “What will happen now? Will the spirit come and take the hens?” The wizard answered: “I am not allowed to enter and see what he is doing. If you want, you can stay here at the door and listen, but if you enter, he will kill you.” The man remained and listened at the door.
What be heard was exactly as if someone would have appeared and chased the hens al over the room. He heard strange noises, the hens that were clucking and screaming, a sign that something terrible was going on, as if they were really taken away, one by one. And after that, silence. There was an interval of time in which they could not enter into the room. The wizard said: “We cannot enter now, but after the forbidden period, we can open the door”. And so they did, and to the bewilderment of our man, nothing was there. Not even a feather. The man asked: “If the spirit has so much power, why doesn’t he take the hens himself? Why does he need somebody to bring them and to put them in this room, why doesn’t he take them by himself?” “Well, he cannot.” answered the sorcerer. Why? The sorcerer didn’t know, but I tell you the reason: because these creatures have been consecrated to this demon, he could take them. As for any other hen that was not specifically consecrated to him, the demon had no power upon it, he could not get it. In the moment when they were consecrated to him, he could take them. It is clear that he made them disappear, he dematerialised them, he translated them in another dimension. They were no longer there, and it was out of the question that they would ever re-appear. So, nobody knows where they went, but they no longer existed.
I did not tell you this story so you can follow this terrible example, but so you can understand the importance of consecration. You realise that the disappearance of the hens was possible only due to the fact that they were offered to some infernal forces, and only after they had been offered could they be taken and not otherwise.