Vidyas

Vidyas

There is a difference between jnana and vidya. Jnana means “wisdom,” but vidya means “body of knowledge.” The vidyas are living bodies of knowledge. They are all goddesses. They are shaktis. A person who does medicine, astrology, music or something like that – a person who is really doing it – is not actually doing anything other than getting out of the way so that the vidya can act through him or her. So, as long as the vidya is acting through you, you can be a lot more confident that whatever is going on through you is something beneficial, because the vidya will be facilitating your intuition to work.
— Dr. Robert Svoboda, Ayurvedic doctor and Jyotishi

A few notes:
Shaktis are divine flows or powers. This is much more subtle than astral influences as I discussed here.
Jnana is often used in the context of the path of the intellect or discrimination.
And technically, Sanskrit does not use “s” to pluralize so “vidyas,” like sutras or vedas is an Anglicization.

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35 Comments

  1. Carl Smuda

    Years ago I read a quote from Christine McVie, from the Fleetwood Mac rock band. She talked about when they played she could feel sometimes how the music took over and flowed through them. And that quote was published in a fanatical Christian fundamentalist book that wanted to make a point about devil possession; so they weren’t exactly fans. Things that make you go ‘hmmmm…’ 🙂

    1. Yes, there are certainly fine lines that are easily confused until the bigger picture dawns.

      I’ve seen research that shows how this is common of top performing athletes, musicians, and academics. And many of the worlds great inventions and scientific breakthroughs have come this way also.

      Yet some Christian fundamentalists allow themselves to be taken over by spirits? Hmmm indeed.

  2. Carl Smuda

    Over the years of growth I begin to understand it. We were fanatical and dogmatic because very little was experiential knowledge. So the intense scrutiny of King James was pretty much all ego. And when we started exercising spiritual manifestations the ignorance was dangerous. I’ve wondered if speaking in tongues is a kind of Yagya?

    1. It is very common to be a “keener” early on, telling everyone how wonderful X teacher or teaching is. At some point, we get bitten by the egos at play, competing for position or rightness, etc. We may even go through a falling away and period of disillusion.

      That can lead to throwing the whole thing out. But it can also lead to a maturity of approach, better discrimination and wisdom.

      No, I’d place speaking in tongues as a form of astral entanglement. Something that would be more hazardous these days.

      A Yagya is a prescribed performance to enliven laws of nature related to the divine. On the other hand, most of how it’s done these days is superficial and ineffective. The point is to express the divine through the performance but that requires a connection.

    1. Carl Smuda

      Someday I would like to be able to read, with 3rd level energetic literacy, what’s happening with Christians when they are operating manifestations of the holy spirit. 🙂 First things first: I want to become 3rd level energetically literate.

      1. Hi Carl
        3rd stage energetic literacy has all kinds of interesting uses. Practical, too.

        As for Christians, you’ll probably find it varies. Some may actually be expressing the flow of the divine. But many will be inviting astral entanglement.

        It’s good to have discrimination skills before you engage in that sort of thing.

        1. Carl Smuda

          Absolutely. It’s been 20 years since I’ve had regular Christian fellowship with manifestations of the spirit. (speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophesy). A lot of Christian groups went down in flames in the late 80s that did not get National attention. It was sad. So I did return to my TM program. And I love my TM program. But then I went into spiritual addiction and astral entanglement. so you see how truly grateful I am to both you and Rose. 🙂

  3. If I may make another observation to add to your observations today, here, on the road home…

    Note that Dr. Svoboda is a specialist in the ancient arts of ayurveda and jyotish. Vidyas from earth before the Shift, in 2012, into The Age of Awakening.

    So much is different here now, according to my research. I agree entirely that it USED to be true that we would just get out of the way.

    Wrote about it a fair amount in “Empowered by Empathy.” That first of my books for empaths has been withdrawn from sale because it is so outdated, now that we’re in the Age of Awakening. As you know, I’ve replaced it with a series of four books that are more current, given that we’re living now in The Age of Awakening.

  4. So, meaning no disrespect to the idea of having knowledge work through us, I propose this model. I wonder what you think of it.

    In this Age of Awakening, we can co-create with the Divine. We can bring forth new kinds of knowledge — for energy reading, for energy healing, and more.

    Don’t you think it is possible to bring forth entirely new bodies of knowledge, not known before on earth?

  5. Admittedly, your perspective is informed by the experience of Brahman Consciousness. So maybe “novelty” is a ridiculous concept to you.

    Still, I’m so curious.

    As Nobel Prizewinners discern entirely new technologies…

    As forward-thinking entrepreneurs (and America’s President Obama) aim to create space travel…

    Why would any of that have to be considered a vidya? Why discount the human collaboration in a new body of knowledge? Why, at this time in the development of consciousness on earth, would we need to “get out of the way”?

    1. Hi Rose

      You raise some interesting points.

      I would not say the ancient arts need to be replaced. However, how they’ve been understood and applied needs some updating. I’ve mentioned a number of examples on this blog over the years.

      Key to understand here is these shaktis or vidyas are divine impulses. The vidyas don’t change over time but their awakeness and expression do evolve, so we experience change.

      But as I mentioned in the post above and the article it links to, this is not describing a suitable relationship with astral dynamics.

      When we’re discussing energy and the astral, it’s very important to maintain discrimination and self-authority. But when it comes to the divine and consciousness, a major part of the process is surrender or “getting out of the way”.

      But in the case of the divine, this does not mean giving up self-authority because the divine doesn’t take it. But we all have long habits of trying to control and manage things. For us to become vehicles of the divine, we have to learn to get out of the way of the flows.

      This begins with Self Realization and gets progressively deeper, into layers we could not imagine prior to living it.

      However, even some people in advanced stages in consciousness may not yet be very aware of divine flows. As such, they can still be ensnared in astral entanglements, as you and I have both seen.

    2. The key is thus what we’re getting out of the way of. Just as we don’t let people push us around, we don’t let astral beings either.

      But working directly with the divine requires we work in their style, not as a me trying to control.

      One of the reasons I posted this quote is because it was a lovely description of what I experience with the writing.

      Some of it, like this quote or things that come up in correspondence, are routine writing. But some of it just shows up, outside of any plan or schedule. It writes through this form but does not come from what I know or understand. So I learn from it myself. But that doesn’t work if i try to manage it.

      While I don’t frame it as a co-creation, it does come through this vessel and context. It could be framed that way. But as I have the minor role, I give the credit to the divine.

    3. The approach of co-creating can be useful with some kinds of skills and at certain stages. But as we get deeper in, we recognize our divine aspects, our cosmic aspects and our local aspects. These are not different but aspects of one wholeness.

      From that perspective, there isn’t something else to co-create with. Rather, we become aware of our limiting aspects in the local and cosmic and work on letting those go or “getting out of the way” so the divine can more fully express.

      This is not a loss of self-authority but rather a growth of it. 🙂

      But I fully agree on the complications people have when they confuse the astral with the divine. What I describe can sound like channeling, for example.

    4. On the question of new bodies of knowledge?

      Certainly. In fact I’ve described that in a few posts. Shaktis that have been dormant or “asleep” for thousands of years are being woken in the current time. this brings new laws of nature and knowledge online.

      The second stage is where those laws integrate with other existing laws, creating new synergies.

      I would not say they are new knowledge, never before learned. But they are bodies of knowledge that have been missing for thousands of years. And their expression in the current time will be unlike anything in the current creation.

    5. I could say that on one hand, nothing is new under the sun.

      And yet on the other hand, everything is being recreated from scratch in ever moment.

      Life is a profound adventure of discovery. The more we discover, the more we realize there is to know. As friend recently said, we have barely touched our toe in.

    6. “Why discount the human collaboration in a new body of knowledge?”

      This is no discount at all. As I discussed in prior posts like on cognition or BC, there is no Brahman unless there is a knower of Brahman. There is no divine expressed in the world unless there is a vehicle to express it. (THAT is what has begun to change in a big way more recently)

      But – there is a difference been a shakti or pure vidya and applied knowledge, like how to build a vimana. Kind of like academics vs engineering.

      Pure knowledge is the laws of nature themselves, like gravity. Applied knowledge is like coherent gravity that allows you to create independent gravitational fields and move at nearly limitless speed. 🙂

      To gain knowledge of the laws, we have to get out of the away and allow them to show themselves. To apply those laws means human attention and effort.

    7. “the experience of Brahman Consciousness”

      It’s worth noting that BC is not an experience as it is beyond the dynamics of consciousness. It is known by itself alone.

      For this reason I also consider the term something of an oxymoron so usually just use “Brahman.”

    8. Finally, I’d like to note that Dr. Svoboda and myself sit somewhere in that “academic” range. We have the gyani (jnani) inclination. And thus the shaktis often express here as vidyas. We’d also tend to see the same in others.

      However, others may experience the shaktis as divine power, inspiration, vision, flow, love, or pure happiness.

      Funny how the short posts sometimes create the most commentary. (laughs)

  6. Carl Smuda

    I am divided on the tongues issue. This is hard, I know I may not be thinking as clearly as I could. All the more to obtain 3rd level energetic literacy. To me it’s on my Rosetree list of choices for that “20 minutes of technique time tops” 🙂 I have never been a part of the chaotic disorderly crazy slain in the spirit activities that is commonly reported to come from charismatic churches, no. Mine was a calm decently and in order in small groups in the home. It’s not tongues’ fault it is held hostage by astral entanglement; or spiritual addiction. Over the decades mine is a sometimes prayer in the spirit that flows with heartfelt joy – very much like “rivers of living water out of the belly.” And I am always in control. It’s just that sometimes it flows like spontaneous utterance and sometimes it’s forced and dead. Only my TM program and study has given me a healthy perspective of this – thank God for Perennial Philosophy! What you’ve posted here about Vidyas is honestly precious to me. so much to learn and experience. I think it was you who wrote we keep coming back until we learn the lesson? All my regrets seem to be waiting for that. 🙂

    1. Hi Carl
      One of the reasons people get entangled with the astral is because it feels higher and better. And there are certainly plenty of aspects of the astral that are just fine. Like thinking, dreaming, and emotions. 🙂

      But it’s also a place where we can get sidetracked. And in the current time, those enticements are greater than usual so it’s easier to go astray. A spiritual teacher and good friend fell into this last year.

      There is nothing to regret here. There is no loss on the journey. Life brings us experiences to learn and help resolve what burdens us. In time we learn this and learn to work with life instead of fighting and blaming it. But we have ancient habits that keep protecting.

      Kriyas and such can include mudras and vocalizations. Thats fine but like the old instructions, we see them as something being released and let go of them. We don’t try and invest in it. I wouldn’t try to invite them either.

      I can also note that flow out of the belly indicates astral level energies. Again, nothing wrong with that but not divine.

      As other comments I’ve added mention, these vidyas are quite deep. They are what inspires rather than something we know like we learned in school. 🙂

  7. Sandesh Sheth

    Please help me understand the difference between learning a skill and Vidyas being channelled through the person. Or is the connect between the two that the learning of a skill removes the blocks that let Vidya flow through. If the connect is possible how is Iearning music removing the blocks.
    I read about Nisargadatta Maharaj spouting poems after his awakening (and hence his name – Nisarg is nature in Marathi language, his mother tongue). I also read about Rumi composing 50K+ poems after this awakening. I understand what you are saying. But how do we reconcile the Vidya versus practice based learning.

    1. Hi Sandesh

      Thanks for your comment. Vidyas are like laws of nature. Pure principles. They have to be brought down to be expressed.

      Skills are when we teach the body and mind how to do something specific.

      For example, I may be inspired by great music within. But if I don’t learn how to play an instrument or write the music down, it will be a lovely experience, then pass.

      Skills can thus allow easy expression. Blocks to the flow of vidyas (I avoid “channeled” as thats related to astral possession) are more energetic resistances we resolve through energy healing and samadhi. Skills then facilitate expression. Even a highly illumined teacher must learn how to teach.

      Each of us however are a unique emphasis of laws of nature so how that will flow here varies. One musician will find expression in the voice, another on piano, another in sitar ragas.

      And of course, there are also learning skills for living itself. Developing skills that support our quality of life.

      Make sense?

    1. Oh yes, there are many people waking and a % of those are being called to express as I do or in art or music, or even as true teachers.

      Some of those are much more applied than I am. We’re still very much in the early stages.

  8. Sandesh Sheth

    A very dumb question / confession: I keep listening to your batgap interview time and again. I am unable to explain the fascination and somehow never get bored. One possible explanation – I guess I long to have the same experiences as you do. But I should have got bored. Or is it something else? Just to clarify – I am not awakened. I only understand theoretically ‘I am that’.

    1. Hi Sandesh
      No, not dumb. I’d suggest there is layers to this. For one, there is what I’d call resonance. Something beyond the words “speaks” to you.

      Also, there is likely some fascination by the mind too. And perhaps some inspiration.

      You will never have the same experiences I do just as I’ll never have your experiences. Each of us are unique perspectives of the whole, here to have unique experiences.

      There are many influences that will steer the way we personally experience the process.
      https://davidya.ca/2016/04/16/styles-of-enlightenment/

      Keep in mind the unfolding I described in the interview took place over decades. Most of the life was involved with the usual mundane things.

      But yes, it has been an interesting journey…

  9. Sandesh Sheth

    Thank you for the response.

    Another question which has me stumped for various years – most of the awakened and spiritualists seek to share their knowledge to make the world a better place or maybe to awaken the others to the true reality. If this is the intention, then per my limited understanding, the maximum impact could be made by the awakened by participating in politics, getting elected and creating policies that would be force multiplier and reach out to vast majority. I am sometimes peeved by the awakened by not doing so. Somehow the response ‘This world is an illusion – there is no one’ does not appeal. Because if the world is an illusion, the awakened are still trying to share their knowledge with the others. So why not go the whole nine yards.

    Just imagine if it were people like you and others who we have as candidates to cast our vote for.

    1. Hi Sandesh
      This is drifting more off-topic but it is a good point.
      For someone awake, the maximum impact is through simple being. Acting as a lighthouse in consciousness. So its important they take care of themselves, ensure they’re rested and so forth.

      But yes, there is also practical value in stepping into the community.

      There has been a dominant “world as illusion” meme in some spiritual circles. It’s also the truth at a certain stage of development. But as more people move past that, more involvement will unfold.

      The trick is – what are the laws of nature and what is being called of the person? For example, I’ve been called to write. A friend has been called to teach. Politics would not be a good fit for either of us. (my former wife would more than concur there (laughs))

      I do know several of the very awake who’ve gotten involved in politics but it’s still rare in any field. This is something that will grow in time.

  10. Carl Smuda

    I have just received “The Greatness of Saturn” by Dr. Svoboda. And I’m dying to plow through it! But my respect for the ways are immense. So by his direction for therapeutic reading the best reading is (as Dear Rose would say) Technique Time. 🙂 And I want to read it the way Dr. Svoboda recommends. David, can you comment on this quote from the book that follows your quote above: “Each vidya is a goddess, a muse who must be patiently and tirelessly worshiped until a personal relationship between the student and the vidya develops, a mutual relationship in which the one possesses the other. Only when you are possessed by the muse can you possess the wisdom.” I cannot wait to begin my reading program with his work on Lord Saturn.

    1. Whoa – powerful book. Just keep in mind most people don’t have as an extreme a Saturn transit of their moon. (this happens about every 29 years) 🙂

      On the quote, it’s kind of like what you put your attention on grows stronger. A vidya can be seen as an aspect of knowledge. What you study will grow until you master it. But for you to master it, it must also master you. You must embody it.

      Some people do experience the personalization of knowledge but for many, the above is a bit devotional.

      Here’s another perspective on this from the author of Eat, Pray, Love
      https://fornow.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/your-elusive-creative-genius/

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