Nala the cook (to Swami Muktananda for decades on end)  said:

My all-time favorite Shiva Sutra is "Nartaka Atma". The Self is the Actor.
The whole SHIVA SUTRA is here.

Consciousness alone has become all the diverse forms that we can
possibly observe with the senses.

That's what makes a human birth a great gift. Without a human body, we
couldn't experience that great Divinity Essence that lies at the core of our
existence.

Lakshman Joo in his book on the ancient Shiva Sutras comments on this sutra.

I love this particular comment: "Yes, it's all just a play of the One
Consciousness, but are you a PLAYER in the play, or are you PLAYED by the play?"

Most of us in human form are "played by the play". We are the victims
of our reactions to what we observe with our senses and minds, and we keep creating our own
world of "melodramas" by the way in which we observe the outer world and our
experience of it.

That brings me to another one of the great Shiva Sutras: "The world is
as you see it". Another way of putting it might be, in my humble opinion, "What you see
is what you get".

So, we've been given a human birth, which is really a great gift if we
use that great gift, because it is ONLY in a human body that we can have the EXPERIENCE of
our own Divinity. Grace = Revelation. The two are synonomous, the same...................ONE!

I wear a mask of personality. My costume in this "play" is this body
and this personality; however, through the discipline of steady meditation as prescribed by my
Guru, Swami Muktananda and his successor to the Siddha lineage, Gurumayi
Chidvilasananda, I have come to experience within that I am NOT this body, and I am NOT this
personality. Guru's Grace has shown me that only the One Consciousness exists.

Nala is a fiction, a story that I'm used to carrying around in my head
and believing that the body and personality are what describe me.

As Nala, and as Philip, I have been told by many people at many
different stages of this life, "You talk too much". You know what? They were right! Part of
this personality mask is that I am a Sagittarian with a cluster of planets in my Sagittarian
mid-heaven, which is actually a lot of crap as far as describing who it is that exists in
this ephemeral body. I couldn't possibly know it without Grace!

It's there, IF I choose it, but it requires some digging if I am going
to mine the "gold" that is already there.

In meditation, I can lose all words. The power of words in Sanskrit is
"Matrika Shakti". We keep spewing out words with our active minds, and creating our own
universe with those very verbal descriptions of it.

Talkative Nala discovered, by Grace, that extraordinary Inner Silence
which never ceases to exist, and the power of that silence wiped out the need for a lot of
words. I take it to heart when I see  Baba's words: "The heart is the hub of all sacred
places. Go there and roam."

Most of us turn the heart off, like a radio. Cuz it
hurts if it's left on. We choose the toughness.
 
You mean, this dead heart is reversible? HOW?

a.) work your way back to life gently. Rescue a pathetic
cat or dog and take care of him. 

b.) fall in love with people who suffer, Dozens, not one.
 Not romance, just love. 

c.) watch soapy movies. 

d.) stop drinking coffee. It's like cocaine, a real mental
 stimulant and that deadens the heart.
 
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