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deal of patience is required. Your haste... and His heart will be closed. Even rushing things is an act of aggression.
Hence those who set out in search of God, their life-style is contained in two words: prayer and patience. So the scriptures begin with prayer and they end with awaiting. The search therefore, begins with the prayer.
The first line of this scripture says:
OM! I BOW DOWN TO LORD SHIVA -- THE ONE WHO IS SELF-LUMINOUS, DELIGHTING IN HIS OWN BEING.
And now, the beginning of the Shiva Sutra.
Let this salutation penetrate deep in you because if you miss the door, you will not be able to understand me when I start describing the palace. Push aside the male within you, a little. Drop your aggressive attitude a little. This understanding is not going to come out of intellect, it is going to rise from your heart. This understanding will not depend on your logic, it will depend on how much love there is within you.
You will be able to understand this scripture; but this understanding will not be the same as following a mathematical problem. The understanding will be similar to the one you have from appreciating poetry. You don't pounce on poetry. You enjoy poetry leisurely, sip by sip, just as you enjoy drinking tea. You don't swallow it just in one shot as if it were some kind of bitter medicine. Rather, you relish its taste bit by bit; you let its taste dissolve slowly.
In order to appreciate even a single poem you need to read it over and over again... which is not the case with a mathematical problem. You don't need to go over it again once you have understood and solved it -- then the problem is done with. Poetry never ends, because the heart is limitless. The more you love, the more it unfolds.
That's why in the East we don't study scriptures -- we read them over and over. Scriptures can't be studied anyway. To study means: once you have understood, you throw the book away in the garbage. Now that you have understood it, what is the need to go through it again. So you feel you are done with it.
Patha, reading over and over means you will need to go over this scripture savouring in unhurriedly
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