Understanding the pillars of the Path to Arhathood
The path to Arhathood is embarked according to the teachings of a qualified spiritual teacher/Master. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui has also taught these pillars to his students. Every spiritual aspirants should follow these pillars to progress on the spiritual path. However, accurate understanding of these pillars is vital, therefore these pillars must be understood correctly. These pillars are 5 in number and have been extracted from the Yoga Sutras of Rishi Patanjali. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui adopted these five pillars from Rish Patanjali and simplified it for present day disciples.
In this article, we will first name the five pillars and then go into each of the pillars in details. These five pillars are as follows:
Devotion and obedience to God (Ishvara) and the spiritual Master
Inner and outer Purification
Meditation (Dharana and Dhyana)
Spiritual study of Esoteric books
Sacrifice and service to Humanity (Karma Yoga)
– Extracted and Modified from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a textbook of Yoga, meaning spiritual union. Not the yoga as in Physical exercises. But, the Yoga or the union of the incarnated Self with the higher self. Rishi Patanjali taught this system of union in a very systematic way in the Yoga Sutras. And, therefore these five pillars were created as guidelines of the path.
First Pillar- Devotion to God (Ishvara) and obedience to the spiritual Master
“Through devotion to Ishvara the goal of meditation (or samadhi) is reached.” – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Devotion is the fundamental quality to be cultivated in any Esoteric Path. If one has no devotion spiritual progress is impossible. Devotion is related to inner conductivity to one’s teacher and the Higher beings without which there is little flow of spiritual energy or Shakti. For example there are many students who know hundreds of Techinques of meditation and they practice them everyday with minimal effect. This is because the Spiritual Shakti or energy from the Guru, Higher soul and God is lacking. Therefore Devotion is of utmost importance.
There are some students who misinterpret this verse and become fanatical in claiming that just having devotion and praying to God and Guru is enough. They claim they don’t need to meditate or purify or do anything else because they have devotion. That is not true devotion but a form of inert worship. There is a difference between worship and devotion. True devotion makes us act. A student who is truly devoted to the teacher listens and practices the teachings of the teacher. Else what kind of student is one if they worship the teacher and don’t follow the teachings? This is what Jesus meant when he said to some people who praised him “I never knew you.”
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ – Matthew 7 21:23 (ESV)
Therefore one who has devotion towards the teacher will also follow the teachings and guidelines of the teacher by meditating, purifying oneself, studying and by doing Karma Yoga to help others. True devotion is therefore a state of being that drives us to emulate the great ones and be like them contrary to superstitious worship of a deity that leads to inertia. A disciple must have a fearless devotion that works not an empty devotion that talks.
The five Pillars were given by Rishi Patanjali as guidelines on the spiritual path. He did not give us options to cherry pick our favorite pillar. That would be a big mistake. Many students make this mistake. One pillar should not contradict the other pillars. If they do, there’s something deficient in our understanding which needs correction. Our development on the spiritual path must be balanced. Negligence of one pillar will result in imbalanced spiritual development. In terms of Devotion we should always remember:
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” – James 2:26 (NKJV)
Second Pillar- Outer and Inner Purification
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the outer purification is carried out through simple pranayama and physical exercises. Rishi Patanjali never recommended any Hatha Yoga postures since they are not appropriate for New Age disciples. However, other esoteric exercises like simple Chi Kung, 5 Tibetan Rites, Simple physical exercises and simple workout can help us purify our physical body and facilitate the flow of chi energy within the body. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui specifically recommended the 5 Tibetan Rites.
Apart from Physical exercises one should practice simple pranayama every morning. There are some spiritual schools who advocate intense breath work sessions that go up to one hour. Esoterically such practices can be highly injurious to health. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui and other spiritual teachers used to advocate simple Pranayama that is practiced rhythmically for a short duration of time. Doing this pranayama rhythmically for five minutes every day can purify our system.
“You may ask Me what physical exercises are useful in Agni Yoga. I advise a short period of pranayama in the morning, no longer than five minutes.” – Agni Yoga 166.
Now moving on to inner purification. Rishi Patanjali recommended disciples to observe a set of Yamas and Nyamas in order to practice inner purification. The Yamas are DOs and the Nyamas are DON’Ts on the spiritual path. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui also taught the same thing in his 5 Virtues and the Golden Rule.
The five yamas listed by Patañjali in Yogasūtra 2.30 are*:
- Harmlessness instead of harmfulness,
- Truth instead of falsehood,
- Abstention from theft instead of stealing,
- Self-control instead of incontinence,
- Contentment instead of avarice or covetousness.
– *Extracted from The Light of the Soul by Alice Bailey
Therefore a disciple on the spiritual path must purify oneself of the unwholesome qualities. This can be done using the Blue Tetrahedron and through *Evening Review exercise. This five Yamas by Rishi Patanjali is also the basis of the five virtues taught by Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui.
Without purification, spiritual progress is impossible because instead of becoming more virtuous the student will grow more unwholesome characteristics. This is because one can not put new wine into old bottles as the famous saying goes. If the student doesn’t purify internally and externally, it will result in negative character traits of the disciple getting magnified resulting in a spiritual fall. In order to receive the spiritual energy from God and the Guru, the disciple must purify ones aura. Else the energy will be distorted by the glamour, illusion and other impurities present in the disciple’s energy field. So purification is MUST.
Third Pillar- Meditation (Dharana and Dhyana)
Meditation is absolute necessity on the spiritual path. The practice of Meditation accelerates the process of rapid evolution of the soul. A student who is embarking on the path to Arhathood must meditate everyday. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali meditation is further divided into Dharana and Dhyana. One is concentrating on a particular object and the second is awareness. Concentration precedes total awareness. In concentration there is no total awareness because one’s awareness is limited to the object of concentration. However, concentration is used to focus one’s energy and bring a certain order within oneself so that there can be awareness later on. The relationship between concentration and awareness is scientific in nature and will be dealt with in a separate article. In that total awareness Samadhi is attained.
Thus, a student should meditate everyday. One very good way to start the day is by doing the Meditation on twin Hearts. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali it has been mentioned, through Meditation Samadhi is achieved. Meditation has many benefits, but we benefit from meditation only when we do it regularly. So the regularity must be maintained.
“The first labor to improve meditation is regularity in meditation. Many people do “rabbit” meditation. This is a symbolic way of saying that they are not stable or steady. One day they meditate; the next three days they do not. They start again, and then they stop.
If meditation is performed regularly, it expands your consciousness. Meditation is an effort to cast out limiting factors from your mind. If you are not regular, you cannot cast them out. If you are successful in pushing out the limiting factors, and then you stop meditating, they will return with stronger force, occupy your mind, and make it impossible for it to expand. Limiting factors are illusions, glamors, habits, hang-ups, and fanaticism, to name a few. Regular meditation clears these things.
In meditation you contact beautiful ideas or visions. But if you do not feed them regularly, they fade away. Every time you meditate, you nourish ideas that will bring more harmony and rhythm into the lives of all nations. Regular meditation keeps your highest visions, impressions, and inspirations alive.
Regular meditation builds subjective contacts between you and Higher Forces. Through regular meditation you refine your mind and gradually function on higher levels where creative forces exist. Creative forces are attracted to rhythm and harmony. Wherever there are rhythm and harmony, there are creative forces present which bring in more inspiration and fiery striving.
Creative forces are not interested in irregular, flickering lights. Such influences repel creative forces. This is why rhythmic and harmonious motions, invocations, singing, and dancing are performed in temples. Regularity, rhythm, and harmony attract Higher Forces.
If your meditation is not regular, cyclic, rhythmic, and harmonious, the Higher Forces know that you are not yet geared to the natural laws of rhythm, harmony, and cycles. Because of this, They consider contact with you to be dangerous to you and to those around you.
Regular meditation disciplines your bodies, your nervous system, heart, and brain. It disciplines your emotional body, and it makes your mental body focused, concentrated, awake, and creative.
When you forget to meditate for a few days, the old habits of your bodies return. Your emotional habits sneak in; your mind feels that it is time to be as it was before – scattered, unfocused, rebellious, and foggy. Then when you resume your meditation, you have a hard time because you must fight against the limitations of your bodies. Eventually you will give up under the pressure of your age-long habits.
Regular meditation helps your mind concentrate, focus, analyze, and synthesize without drifting. Regularity disciplines the mind. Regular meditation makes your etheric centers more receptive and sensitive to higher impressions. In regular meditation, you feed your centers with higher substances and charge their central fires. You create synchronization within the centers and between the centers. Sensitive centers receive and transmit more energy. Through energy, you serve; you keep yourself healthy and dynamic so that you are able to offer yourself for greater sacrificial service. Regular meditation builds a magnetic and protective sphere wherever you are doing your daily meditation, and you develop a magnetic aura which attracts the interest of the Great Ones Who can impress and reach you.
During meditation, your psychic energy flows out and accumulates in the place where you sit, in the walls around the spot you are sitting. Your lofty thoughts increase the beauty of the electromagnetic sphere which is building around your room. When you enter that room, you feel the power of the sphere. In this sphere, you can more easily contact creative forces which not only inspire you with great visions but also protect you from various attacks from mental and astral sources. This sphere requires regularity to build itself. Every time you forget to meditate, the sphere dissipates, melts away, and eventually evaporates.
Your sphere of energy is your temple. Energy spheres remain only when the Law of Compression is used or applied. Continuity creates compression and increases density because it exercises heavy pressure on existing spheres.”
-Torkom Saraydarian
Education as Transformation vol.1
Pillar 4- Study of Esoteric Books
This pillar is often neglected and it is one of the most important ones. If we want to practice the teachings, we must know and learn the teachings first. One can not practice the teachings, if one doesn’t study the teachings. So study of Esoteric literature is inevitable and is equally important as the other pillars. Study of esoteric books gives us the right guidelines. Study gives us new understanding, it broadens our thinking, it helps us to handle our problems we face on the spiritual path. Study is not just intellectual exercise. It may be limited to the intellect if we are studying solely for puffing our intellect with more information. But, if we are studying spiritual books to learn new things and get teachings from an awakened master who has passed away and apply the teachings in our life, then study becomes a bridge to spiritual awakening.
We have a list of Esoteric Books on our site. If you want to start your study, we recommend you to start with this list of esoteric books and read according to your level of understanding and development.
Pillar 5- Sacrifice for Humanity and Karma Yoga
Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui once said, there is no use of having big chakras if one is not using them to serve others. Therefore, selfless service towards humanity is very important for a developing disciple. A disciple who can not serve is of little use to the Master and such a disciple has minimal devotion. Because a disciple who is truly devoted will do something for the teacher and to serve humanity.
“Austerity, study, and the dedication of the fruits of one’s work to God: these are the preliminary steps toward yoga.” – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Dedicating the fruits of one’s work to God is Karma Yoga, that is doing something for others without expecting anything in return for oneself. A disciple can choose to help or serve humanity in any way he’s capable. Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui recommends us to do it with both money and skill. A disciple can donate money to the poor and the suffering and secondly the disciple can use his/her skills to help others for free without expecting any money or anything in return for their service.
All true disciples server humanity. In fact they are more concerned about others than they are concerned about themselves and their personal problems. And that is a sign,one is evolving spiritually.
“No one can progress if he does not help others progress. No one can be beautiful if he does not make others beautiful. No one can be healthy without caring for the health of others. No one can be joyful and successful if he does not make others joyful and successful.”
