Vol. 47 No. 6 - Beloved Ishvara - February 08, 2004
On Behalf of the Hindu Trinity
On Behalf of the Hindu Trinity
An Understanding of a Very Personal God
I AM Ishvara. I speak on behalf of the Hindu Trinity. I may be to you in one moment Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit as defined by Shiva.1 This threefold flame, which you acknowledge in your heart, I portray to you as divine incarnation of the Trinity, so that when you would look at the three plumes you would see Brahma in the blue, Vishnu in the yellow, Shiva in the pink.
Thus, you begin to converse not merely with plumes that are flames dancing but with the Trinity of God within your heart. This is the meaning of the Atman.2 This is the meaning of the face of the Mother in the white sphere that supports the Trinity.3
And so wherever you call me, wherever I am, whenever you need me, I AM Ishvara. And I provide for you an understanding of the Godhead, which is the personality of God rather than the simple Spirit of God, which is often conceived in the West as a vapor, vaporous and something that cannot be touched or worshiped, perhaps imbibed and perhaps even loved.
These traditions are very ancient. All the little [Hindu] schoolchildren know the names of the Gods and the demigods and all of the battles that have been waged between forces of good and evil, including the conversion of evil forces by the power of the Godhead.
Acquaint Yourself with God As a Living Presence
And so you have heard of Krishna.4 And so you give as a fiat even the name Shiva! Shiva. Indeed, God is a consuming fire,5 and in the fire again you shall know the image of Ishvara. I come that you might acquaint yourself with the God within as more than the threefold flame, a God that represents three aspects in one, as I have said—[not only as this] but also as a living Presence.
It is unfortunate that many think the people of India are engaged in pantheism. It is not so, beloved. The people understand the individuality of God in so many forms and in each form that God is worshiped, such as Ganesha.6 So the elephant God is the beginning of every project. And it is well to sing to Ganesha, for surely he does endow a new cycle, and thus Indians turn to him.
There are many who worship Krishna. Krishna, Krishna. So, that Krishna is the great Guru. He is the great God. Let us say he is the Cosmic Christ. He does represent all of the souls who are feminine, the gopis.7 And so they come and they are his chelas. This is another way of talking about role-playing.
There is no argument as to who is the supreme God. This is like arguing who is greatest, Christ or Krishna. There are none who are greater or greatest. For the allness of God, whether in Krishna or in the tiny babe you now hold in the womb, [is in all]. All have that same Presence.
And therefore do not look to the Hindu pantheon as flesh and blood but as form and formlessness, as revealing a certain Presence that in the very moment of crisis you need. And you need that certain and specific one—such as Kali8 for the binding of the demons who assail you.
Each one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, celestial Buddhas, comes to antidote the poisons that are found, as experienced through the five senses. There is a movement of identity and yet even now you come to sense Amitabha. Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha. You sense them. You know them. And you know them by their mantras and their seed syllables.9
Yes, beloved, there is a knowing of the strains of God, as though you were to stroke the hairs of his head, as in silken white, and be able to touch the hair and know what in that vibration you are deriving of a new understanding in God. Thus, Hinduism provides a very rich lore of many. And it shows how those who are the leaders of light convert the demons and bring them to the feet of God.
See the Joy in Bringing to the West
the Profound Wisdom of the East
So, beloved, it is well to study Hinduism. For you will enrich yourself in an understanding of a very personal God, an impersonal God and so forth. God is in many ways: the breath of spring, the fragrance of roses, the lilting of the waters in the stream, the starlight and the love that leaps from heart to heart and the bonding of centuries and the joy of being.
Unfortunately, in the West, God is a god of condemnation, hellfire, brimstone. It is sad, beloved, that Protestantism and even Catholicism have brought to the world such a vapid view of the Universal Presence all-loving, all-loving. Karma is his law. Karma—it is that law. All are subject to that law. All know it. All are equally informed in the East. And they understand sowing and reaping and the consequences thereof, and they do not blame God. For he has set his law in motion and man is free to obey or not obey.
Karma is its own punishment and good karma its own glory and self-transcendence. Thus, all must make their peace with God and his law. Those who do not and choose not to, they know the consequences in advance. What a pity! Can you not see the tremendous joy in bringing to the West the profound wisdom of the East, the ancient wisdom?
Be Natural with Children about What Is So Real to Them
Can you not see how the little children in their schools can benefit? For they, above all, remember their past lives, often up to the age of six and seven. They commune with elementals. They see angels. They read auras. And many of them never speak about it so that you would never know it.
Now, isn’t it realistic, beloved, when the soft spot is not yet covered over and the child is still united in the etheric octave, to explain to him what is so self-evident in those early years: “You were not born yesterday to die tomorrow, but you have lived forever in God. You have come through the ages. You have a mission. You have a momentum in your causal body. You have what you can give to the world. And we are your parents and we are here to help you.”
This is a wonderful thing for little children, to be natural about what is so real to them and to be told early, before that door closes and they are thinking with the intellectual left brain and they no longer know whether it is true or not, for now they have reached the age of indoctrination.
And, oh, what a terrible thing it is, for all are “experts” in the West on religion, yet most know but a thimbleful of what they are talking about. This is the tragedy and the travesty of it all: that these children, sometimes older and wiser than their parents at birth, yet must spend a portion of a lifetime to seek and find the thread that they once held, and now must find it here.
So, you see, beloved, our emphasis on illumination, our emphasis on the power of God through the first-ray masters to secure that illumination, to secure the cities, to secure the children, to secure the people lest they become so weak, so sick that they are simply dependents on society.
Every Life Is a Mission
Thus, we come back to diet. We are all concerned. And we see what the people of India eat: the rich indulging themselves, the poor having little and using drugs and things to neutralize a very unhappy existence. Praise God that they have the rudiments of a path that is ancient, that consoles them even when they are sick and dying.
In the West, more often, what do you hear? Someone has died, the soul is in heaven with Jesus, and there is no mourning or no questioning. But, alas, life is not so simple. And the schoolroom to which the soul is assigned may or may not be in the etheric octave, according to past karma.
When the religion of the sixth root race has been reduced to such a simplicity and such an easiness, whereby one is immediately “saved” simply by a confession, how do you turn back the clock to the complexities and responsibilities of life that karma brings? It is almost as impossible as taking away from people in a welfare state that which they have become used to.
But since nations are going bankrupt from the welfare state, perhaps once again many lifestreams will have to forge their own life, their own prosperity or lack of it, and their own way. Thus, earth shall return to what was intended—a rugged individualism based on communion with the Inner God, an obedience to the inner voice, and a forging ahead on one’s mission.
For every life is a mission. Yours is that mission also. Go within. Find it. Embrace the manifestation of God that is closest and dearest to your heart. Call to me. And see to it that you do not fail that mission, neglect it or turn it aside for the easy way and the broad road of destruction.10
I AM Ishvara. I bow to the light of the Lord Christ in you and I say, teach those who think that the walk to heaven is an altar call and no more. This is the danger of a root race.
I commend you in your efforts to achieve these goals. And I bless you as Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva—Ishvara.
[28-second standing ovation]
Background on Ishvara
From a lecture by the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet
delivered on June 30, 1995, in the Heart of the Inner Retreat
Ishvara is a Sanskrit word meaning “Lord of the universe” or “Lord.” In Hinduism, Ishvara is seen as the “immediate personal aspect of the supreme impersonal Godhead” (R. S. Nathan, comp., Symbolism in Hinduism [Bombay: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, 1989], p. 13).
This is the core of Hinduism. We cannot know God unless we know him personified, and God personifies himself in extensions of himself to whom he gives form—spiritual form and physical form. In Hinduism we know the many gods are simply rays of light from the one central Source. It’s not really a pantheism. It really is the one God who appears to us in his many manifestations, which are the profile of the service of that one. So when you need a certain service, you go to a certain likeness, but in reality there is only one God.
The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion explains that “the God of Christianity and of Islam, as well as all the deities of Hindu mythology, are aspects of Ishvara. Our human reason can conceive of divinity only within some form; thus, we need the concept of Ishvara.... The most widely disseminated form of Ishvara in Hindu thought is the trimurti, the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.”
Ishvara is usually personified as one aspect of this trinity. Various Hindu sects identify Ishvara with the highest figure in their pantheon—whether it be Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva. As described by the Hindu sage Ramanuja, “Isvara ... has an infinite number of supreme and auspicious qualities.... He has a most perfect body, which is eternal and immutable. He is radiant, full of beauty, youth, and strength.... He is omnipresent; he is... the inner ruler of all” (Klaus Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism [Albany: State Universtiy of New York Press, 1989], p. 377).
You can think of Ishvara as being one with the great Atman, the Presence of God that is part of and in your threefold flame.
In the Shiva Purana, a Hindu scripture, Ishvara manifests as Shiva. Ishvara says, “Behold, I am Ishvara, who appears for the protection of his worshiper, on whom he always bestows safety and happiness” (W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology: Vedic and Puranic, 2d ed. [Calcutta: Rupa and Co., 1990]).
Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood write: “What is important is the concept of devotion.... Devotion to a personal ideal of God brings with it a natural inclination to humility and service.... If we set ourselves to serve Ishwara, if we dedicate our actions and surrender our wills to him, we shall find that he draws us to himself.” He draws us to himself as we give ourselves to him. “This is the grace of God, which Sri Ramakrishna compared to an ever-blowing breeze; you have only to raise your sail in order to catch it” (How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, translated with a commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood [Hollywood, Calif.: Vedanta Press, 1981], pp. 53, 54).
To this date, Ishvara has given only one dictation, which he delivered through me September 4, 1977. He appeared to me in a magnificent crystal filigree spiral of light as the representative of the hidden man of the heart, the Holy Christ Self. In that dictation Ishvara said:
“I AM the One, Ishvara.... I AM in the light of the Holy of holies, in the within of the flame and in the secret chamber of the within. Come and find me in the center of the One that is thy life. Come and seek me to know my name and thus know the inner key to the release of that energy which will only give to thee life and life everlasting.”
“The Summit Lighthouse Sheds Its Radiance o’er All the World to Manifest as Pearls of Wisdom.”
This dictation by Ishvara was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Friday, June 30, 1995, during the 11-day conference, FREEDOM 1995: “Soul Evolution—A Fusion of Mind and Spirit,, held at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana.
1. The Hindu Trinity (trimurti), is defined in the Hindu scriptures, the Puranas, as consisting of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). All three are manifestations of Brahman—God in the Beginning with the Word. Devotion to the Trinity is not widespread among the Hindu people, but the ascended masters teach that the Hindu Trinity is parallel to the Christian Trinity. Brahma, as Creator, is parallel to God the Father. He is the Divine Lawgiver, the source of all knowledge. Vishnu, as Preserver, is parallel to the principle of the Son in the Western Trinity. As the Son, Vishnu embodies Cosmic Christ wisdom. He is also the Mediator, or bridge, between the human consciousness and Brahman, Absolute Reality. Shiva, as Destroyer, represents the stripping action of the Holy Spirit, whose love consumes the forces of ignorance and anti-Love. Shiva is not only the destroyer of the universe: he is the destroyer of evil, hatred, disease, worldliness, evildoers and demons. Shiva is also known as the Regenerator, and in this aspect he is a nourisher; he bestows long life but he will not give that nourishment until he has cleansed the vessel.
2. Atman [Sanskrit, breath, self, soul, Universal Self, supreme Spirit]: in Hinduism, the inner essence of each individual, the immortal self, the indwelling God, the supreme universal Self, absolute consciousness identical with Brahman.
3. “The face of the Mother in the white sphere that supports the Trinity.” In Hindu philosophy, Shakti is the name given to the Feminine aspect of a male deity, often personified as his spouse or consort. She is the dynamic, activating energy of God in the universe. The Masculine counterpart is viewed as the quiescent, unmanifest aspect of Spirit, requiring the activating force, the Feminine aspect who is Shakti, to release the God potential from Spirit to Matter.
4. Krishna, one of Hinduism’s most widely revered deities, is known as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, the Second Person of the Hindu Triad. His story is told in the Bhagavad Gita, the most popular religious work of India, composed between the fifth and second centuries B.C. and part of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes himself as “the Lord of all that breathes” and “the Lord who abides within the heart of all beings.” He says: “When goodness grows weak, when evil increases, my Spirit arises on earth. In every age I come back to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness.” Favorite depictions of Krishna include the mischievous/ miraculous Baby Krishna, the beautiful cowherd youth who plays an enchanting flute, and the Divine Teacher of the Bhagavad-Gita (Arjuna’s friend and charioteer).
5. Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29
6. Ganesha. In the teachings of Hinduism, Ganesha, or Gan. apati, is the son of Shiva (the Third Person of the Trinity of the Godhead) and Parvati; in one legend Ganesha is the son of Parvati alone. Ganesha is the god of wisdom, patron of learning and letters, and the chief of the many classes of minor gods who serve under Shiva. He is worshiped as the remover or destroyer of all obstacles; hence he is traditionally invoked at the beginning of any undertaking, religious or secular, and at the commencement of the writing of books or compositions to ensure the success of the endeavor. Ganesha is depicted with the head of an elephant. Author Alain Daniélou explains that “Gan. apati stands for one of the basic concepts of Hindu mythological symbolism, ... the notion that man is the image of God.... Gan. apati is represented as an elephant-headed man to express the unity of the small being, the microcosm, that is man, and the Great Being, the macrocosm, pictured as an elephant” (The Gods of India: Hindu Polytheism [New York: Inner Traditions International, 1985], pp. 292, 293).
7. gopis [Sanskrit, literally ‘cowherdesses’]: In Hinduism, the gopis are the playmates and devotees of Krishna; they represent the soul’s intense love of God.
8. Kali. In Hinduism the fourarmed goddess Kali (Sanskrit, “the black one” or “the power of time”) symbolizes the fierce aspect of the Divine Mother. She is a consort of Shiva, the Destroyer, i.e., the Transformer of the energies of Darkness to the original polarization of Light. As Third Person of the Hindu Trinity, Shiva is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit whose action in the world of form is crystallized through his Shakti, or feminine counterpart. Kali is usually depicted with a terrifying countenance, her tongue protruding, wearing a necklace of human skulls or heads and a belt of severed arms. In one hand she holds a sword, in the others she may hold the severed head of a demon, a shield or a noose; her hands may also make the sign of fearlessness and offer blessings and benefits. Kali’s dread appearance symbolizes her boundless power. Her destructiveness is seen as ultimately leading to transformation and salvation. She shatters delusions of the ego as well as the form and substance of human creations (with the white-fire, blue-lightning and Ruby-Ray action of her sword) that are not aligned with the will of her consort, thus blessing and liberating those who seek the knowledge of God.
9. The Five Dhyani Buddhas, their mantras and seed syllables, and the poisons they antidote. See Pearl of Wisdom no. 5, footnote 4, this volume.
10. Matt. 7:13, 14.
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