Pathways Within ~ Discovery

The Teachings of Yama: A New Light on the Ten Commandments (Part 1)
Janaka Stagnaro

The sound of waves crashing became louder as we walked through the sparse coastal woods. Then we broke free of the trees and found ourselves walking by the steep cliffs. Thousands of sea birds jostled and squawked on the nearby rocky islands. Yama and I sat down on a bench and watched in silence awhile.

DISCIPLE: Yama

YAMA: Yes?

DISCIPLE: Why do you walk with me?

YAMA: I walk with everyone; it’s just that most people don’t want to remember that. They are hoping I am far away. Because of your meditation practice of cutting away all that is transitory you have found the wisdom to face the fact of your body’s mortality.

I kept silent and watched an otter smash an urchin with a stone and gobble up the meat inside.

DISCIPLE: You have talked about the need for us to become human, that just because we have a human body there is still a lot of work to do. For most of us we struggle between following our instincts, which consists of basic survival needs or chasing after the pleasing and running from the painful, and this inner urge to find ultimate freedom where we are not caged by time and space, or more importantly, caught in the snares of identifying one’s Self with the body or mind.

YAMA: Yes?

DISCIPLE: Well, I was just reading the Bible and came across the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses, as well as the manifold rules the Israelites were commanded to observe. I see nothing freeing in such edicts; in fact, I find them suffocating. I would rather die than live under such restrictions. Jails, for goodness sake, offer more freedom!

Yama laughed.

YAMA: Talking like that in times past would have given you a great collection of stones!

General rules can be very tricky, for everybody has their own path in the end. However, in the beginning, just as in school, groups of souls will have general lessons to learn and master before moving to the next grade. Then there is graduation and all the members of the group go their separate ways, with Life giving each an abundance of lessons unique to their own learning needs.

The Ten Commandments were such a group lesson plan, helping to mold a race of people for specific reasons for the body of humanity. However, there exist different levels of understanding as well, from gross to subtle. Just as the poet may sing about becoming drunk with the wine of love, some will take that as the partaking in the sensual pleasures of the body, while another will see it as a call for drinking in the sweetness of devotion for God.

DISCIPLE: Please elaborate. I seek to understand the subtlest form of truth.

YAMA: Then listen with your heart, and feel it as a breeze of knowing.

What is the first Commandment?

DISCIPLE: You shall have no God other than me. Now, I have statues of Shiva and Ganesh and chant names of gods of many traditions. Would this be considered a sin?

YAMA: If you see God as a force outside of you then there will be conflict. But if you see God, the I AM THAT I AM, which is the Holy Name of Jehovah, as both within and without, that everything is included in God, and that God moves through all things, whether the gross things of the world or through the subtle worlds and their denizens, including the gods, then everything becomes an expression of God, with none able to represent the ineffable quality of God. For instance, Shiva is an expression of God to remind us to not be attached to any form, to go deep into the Infinite Self, or the I AM THAT I AM; Vishnu is that form of expression to uphold the good and the beautiful, and to inspire devotion; and Brahma is that aspect that shows the creative dynamic quality of the Divine. Yet all of them are simply one of the million faces of Brahman, the formless, the changeless.

In other words, if you think that any form of God is the true form then that is ignorance. There is no separation between you and God since God is everywhere, including yourself. Even though sometimes even I have a hard time believing my last statement is true.

He smiled.

YAMA: Next.

DISCIPLE: Well the next one states that we should not make any images of anything created, whether in heaven or on earth. And if there are any images created then there shall be no worshipping of these images because God is a jealous god. Well I am guilty of this in a big way, as are most artists, not to mention a whole host of religions. From what you said about not seeing God as outside my Self, then I can understand that I should not worship any image outside of me. Yet, what of the first part of the rule?

YAMA: This was an edict specific for the followers of Moses to counter the traditions of the other religions in the region who worshiped images of gods, and who even sacrificed to them. These idol worshipers actually believed that these gods were separate from themselves and not an aspect of the one Mind of Consciousness. Buddhists, for instance, use statues of the Buddha, or of various deities, not to propitiate but to meditate upon to bring such qualities through them. They are viewed as qualities of Mind. To see the stillness of the statue of a Buddha reminds one to find the calmness within. Another point is that no matter how one paints the world one can never show the truth of what anything is. To place an image of a man on the cross can only convey a small fraction of who Jesus is or what he did. But if someone says that one must worship that image to worship Jesus, than that is just ignorance. The Navaho and Tibetan Buddhists will create sand paintings, spending a long time with each piece. And when it is done either they wipe it away with a stroke of the hand as with the latter, or let the wind blow it away. In this way there is no grasping of the image as real, but only as a means of focus. Nothing more than a beautiful thought.

The Truth is jealous. You can only worship the Infinite or the finite. If you focus on one the other goes to the background. If you worship the Infinite than all the finite is naturally included. God or mammon.

DISCIPLE: Thank you. The third I recall is about not saying God’s name in vain. Please elaborate.

YAMA: Your scientists are slowly discovering that everything vibrates. Sounds create forms. In the Bible Joshua destroyed the walls of Jericho through the power of sound. The walls of ignorance can equally be knocked down by the Name of God.

DISCIPLE: Well what is the true Name of God?

YAMA: Just as you are called by many names so too is God. Now your wife can call you one thing and your son another. You will answer to both. The problem comes when others might hear one of them calling you and see you answer. Then they run off to their people and say that your name is Honey Dear. But others who had heard your son address you will go to their camp and say you are called Pops. Debates ensue. Passions get heated. Wars begin. Saying a Name of God as the one Name is vanity and will not bring the desired effects of knocking down the walls of the ego because it is the ego which is now manipulating the use to create confusion and division. You can rest assured that when the mind shouts "I know the Answer. I know the Truth." It is nothing but ego. Truth is very humble.

DISCIPLE: Then how should one speak a holy Name?

YAMA: With reverence, because not only are you reminding yourself that there exists a Power way beyond the little thing you believe you are, but one is actually affecting both subtle and physical matter. Today scientists can show actual forms created by various sounds. Or even by thought, which is a more subtle form of sound. Quantum physics shows that the viewer affects the subjects viewed through preconceived ideas. Sound and thought are condensed ideas. Chanting Holy Names and mantras vibrate one’s self and the world (which is only natural if you know that there is only the One). This is why one’s speech and thoughts are so important and one must be vigilant of every word and thought, since these are what are vibrating one’s world.

We returned to the silence as I wanted to take in what my guide had said before continuing. The waves crashed amongst the cliffs below in thunderous claps. It seemed the whole earth rattled with each wave, just as a lover shivers with the touch of his beloved. The silence and the waves, the bench and my body--the boundaries disappeared.

This concludes Part I (The previous listings of the Ten Commandments are not verbatim of any translation of The Bible)

Yama is the name of the Hindu god of Death as well as a name for Dharma, which may translated as doing what one is allotted to do. It can also mean following the Still Small Voice instead of the loud urgings of the ego. Yama has said in my book (unpublished) that he comes as Death when we do not listen to him as Dharma. When we are following him as Dharma there exists no Death for we are in the Eternal Flow of Creation. Yama came to me after a dream a few years ago which inspired the fore mentioned book, The Teachings of Yama: A Conversation with Death. Yama is not a channeled entity. Yama is only a point of focus in the ocean of inspiration. I am fully conscious and there exists no separation between Yama and me. Please visit my site Triliving: Celebrating Truth, Beauty and Goodness at www.janakastagnaro.com