Issue 1

The Spiritual Hierarchy - Part 1

God is One. For all the planets in all the galaxies in the universe, there's but one God.

God, humans, animals, insects, plants... is that all there is to the hierarchy of beings? Not quite.

We observe many different life forms that seem to be below us on the evolutionary ladder. In other words, there's a substantial hierarchy of beings below us. If this is the case, could there not be a substantial hierarchy between us and God? But we don't want to accept this. We want to believe that humans are just one rung away from God. But the Siddhas say that the idea that there's God and then there are humans at the next level is incorrect.

Consider a company which employs a hundred thousand people. Now assume that all these people report to the company president. Wouldn't that be a rather wierd organizational structure? So is the notion that there's God at the topmost level and then there are humans at the next level.

The Siddhas say that there are many levels in the spiritual hierarchy between God and humankind.

It's important for spiritual aspirants to understand this hierarchy. Otherwise they would be bugging God for every little problem that they are beset with. Bugging God for every little problem is like approaching the company president if you run out of office stationery! Not a very smart thing to do!

Another important reason to understand the hierarchy is so that aspirants may respect and propitiate the evolved beings that occupy the various levels in the hierarchy. As humans, we must respect the spiritual hierarchy that has been crafted by God for our spiritual welfare.

The Siddhas say that listing the entire spiritual hierarchy will take an eternity. To start with, it's enough to know those levels in the hierarchy that are most pertinent to the human plane of existence. These are described below.

Trimoorthis

Tri = three, moorthi = lord.

The Trimoorthis are the three lords at the very top of the spiritual hierarchy just below God.

They are Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. They are respectively the lords of creation, sustenance and dissolution.

They manifest the very drama of the universe as commanded by God.

Siddhas

The Siddhas are reprints of God. They are representatives of God who want to uplift humankind to their level.

We have described Siddhahood elsewhere.

Devas

The Devas are highly evolved spiritual beings with much authority over humankind.

Indra is the king of the Devas. Yama is in charge of death, Vaayu of wind, Varuna of water, Agni of fire and Kubera of wealth.

There are millions of other Devas.

Nava Naayakas

Nava = nine, Naayaka = lord.

The Nava Naayakas are the nine lords who have been given control of all aspects of human life. They are also knows as the Nava Grahas.

These powerful spiritual beings are Soorya, Chandra, Angaaraka, Budhaa, Guru, Sukra, Sani, Raahu and Kethu. The first seven are respectively the spiritual energies that power the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The last two are esoteric beings that can assume the roles of any of the previous seven.

Pithrus

The Pithrus are highly evolved ancestral beings. They are beings who have been elevated to a very high level of spirituality and have been given the role of uplifting the souls in their blood lines.

Just like sales people are given quotas in our world of matter, pithru beings are given quotas in the spiritual world; that is, they have a responsibility to uplift a given number of souls in a given time period. They toil ceaselessly to meet this quota but humans do not perceive this because they work behind the scenes in sookshma (subtle) form.

There are many levels of evolution even among the pithrus, e.g., Vasu Pithrus, Rudra Pithrus, Aaditya Pithrus and so on.

Sathguru Venkataraman's teacher, Sri Idiyappa Siddha Eesa would say that if one can get the grace of but one pithru being, one can attain salvation. Such is the power of the pithrus.

The pithrus use the Sathgurus as a medium to uplift those souls that come under their umbrella. Thus the Sathguru works the affairs of the spiritual world in this world of matter. While the pithrus are highly advanced beings, they too bow down before the Sathguru and request his grace for the upliftment of the souls in their ancestral lines. Such is the preeminent role of the Sathguru in spirituality.

Pithru worship is an extremely important facet of spiritual life. We'll describe this in future issues of AUMzine.

To be Continued...

As pointed out before, there are many other levels in the spiritual hierarchy. For example, the Ashta Dik Paalakaas who are the eight protectors of the eight directions, the miilions of yakshini beings who attend on the Universal Mother, the millions of Boothaas who attend on Siva, the millions of Vaikunta Vaasis who attend on Narayana and so on. We'll explore the spiritual hierarchy further in future AUMzine issues.

These highly advanced beings described in this article have powers that humans can not comprehend. They can take any form they want to discharge their responsibilities. Their workings are inscrutable to humans and thus we are deluded into thinking that there's no spiritual hierarchy. Only the Sathguru knows the secrets of the spiritual hierarchy and only he can convey it to us. It's important that we understand what has been described above so that we can get and idea of our rather lowly place in the overall scheme of things and thus learn to be serious about our spiritual advancement.

To be continued...