Real Happiness

Attain Substantial, Permanent, EverIncreasing Material and Spiritual Happiness by David Bruce Hughes (Gaurahari Dsnuds Bbj) Published by

Esoteric Teaching Seminars, Inc.

www.esotericteaching.org
is work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You are free:

To Share to copy, distribute and transmit the work To Remix to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution: You must attribute the work (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work) by providing a link to: http://takethisbookandreadit.com Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. e best way to do this is with a link to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral or legal rights.

Table of Contents
PrefaceWhy I Wrote is Book...................................................................4 IntroductionEverything You ink You Know is Wrong...........................7
Real Happiness...................................................................................................................7 Unlearning the Past...........................................................................................................8 e Real Happiness Method.............................................................................................9 Benets of the Real Happiness Method..........................................................................9 What is Real Happiness?.................................................................................................10 Love and Intimacy ..........................................................................................................13 Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction: Your Choice. ...............................................................14

Part 1The Big Picture........................................................................17

2012...............................................................................................................18 e Big Lie.....................................................................................................19 e Singularity..............................................................................................24 How to Learn.................................................................................................28
Learning how to learn.....................................................................................................29 Foreground and background..........................................................................................30 Misunderstood terminology..........................................................................................31 How to nd your misunderstood terms.......................................................................32 Clearing misunderstood terms......................................................................................33 Modeling...........................................................................................................................33 Sources..............................................................................................................................34

Part 2Material Happiness................................................................35

Dreams and Goals.........................................................................................36
Find Direction and Take Back Your Life.......................................................................38 Setting Your Goals...........................................................................................................38 Goal Setting Tips.............................................................................................................41 Achieving Your Lifetime Goals......................................................................................42

Economic Independence...............................................................................43 Spiritual Community....................................................................................44 Self-Suciency..............................................................................................45

Part 3Spiritual Basics.......................................................................46

Knowledge versus Experience........................................................................................46 Easy is Right.....................................................................................................................47

e Source of Our Knowledge......................................................................55 Secrets of the Soul.........................................................................................58 Soul is Consciousness.................................................................................126 Spiritual vs. Material...................................................................................127 Laws of Karma.............................................................................................128 Transcendental Knowledge.........................................................................129

Part 4Spiritual Practices................................................................130 2

Chanting......................................................................................................131 Vegetarian Diet...........................................................................................132 Celibacy.......................................................................................................133 Intoxication.................................................................................................134 Gambling and Speculation.........................................................................135 Service Attitude...........................................................................................136 Bona Fide Guru...........................................................................................137

The Next Steps....................................................................................138

Find Your Guru...........................................................................................139 Join a Community.......................................................................................140 Do It Today!.................................................................................................141

PrefaceWhy I Wrote This Book

is may well be the last self-help book you ever need to read. Everything you need is here. It depends how much faith you have. If you just read it, get it and run with it, this book has everything you need to know. is book could be just the beginning of an adventure of researching and exploring the best life has to oer. Or it could be just another unfullled dream that you never get around to realizing. It depends on the choices you make and how much you want to get out of your life. With faith, all things are possible. So those who have faith, and are ready to make a move, can get immediate benet. But if you still have doubts aer reading this, thats OK; do the research and nd out more before you act. You will nd that everything we say here is both factually correct and very practical. ats because this book comes out of my and my students direct personal experience. Its not just theory or doctrine; its a distillation of our life experiences. We found out and did all these things for ourselves, because we had to. Now were sharing them with you, because we want to. Why? Because we want to be surrounded by very strong, very smart people who understand what is going on in the world and in themselves, and why, and how to deal with it all. e knowledge in this little book is the key to taking eective action, both for yourself and those you care about. ere is a secret to life and happiness. It is a secret because it is hidden by many common misconceptions. Many, if not most of these misconceptions are deliberately promoted by people who want to hide the truth to make other people weak and exploit them. Like most people, I was very unhappy until I found this secret. To nd it, I had to transcend many wrong ideas about life and the worldideas that most people accept without thinking. ese misconceptions, and the actions based on them, are why I was unhappy, and why most people are unhappy. If you want real happiness and success, you are going to have to get over them. ats why the Introduction is subtitled Everything You ink You Know is Wrong. ere is a lot to unlearn on the path to complete fulllment in life.

In this book I talk a lot about spiritual truth. I have to, because a big part of real happiness is understanding that we are spiritual beings, and living that truth. Taking care of your spiritual needs is basic to real happiness. Spiritual does not mean religious; in fact, organized religion is one of the major things that deceives people, traps them and keeps them unhappy. e dierence between religion and spiritual truth is that people manufacture religion for their own purposesmostly to control and exploit otherswhile spiritual truth is the real underlying nature of life, the universe and everything. Religions always have a beginning in time, but spiritual truth is eternal; religions are many, but spiritual truth is one. Like the laws of physics or the weather, spiritual truth just is what it is, whether its convenient or useful, easy to understand and accept, or not. Real Happiness and real life come when you recognize and accept spiritual truth, and act according to it. To attain Real Happiness, you will have to take an uncommon stand. You will have to do it for no other reason than because it is right. And you will have to defend your views and actions against the majority. In the process, you will have to go against common ideas, attitudes and even so-called common sense. You denitely will have to change your lifestyle and relationships. If you dont have the courage and stamina to do this, then maybe you will have to settle for something less than the best that life has to oer. You will get the real truth here. I will not coddle, spoon-feed or delude you. Nor will I talk down to you or patronize you. Sometimes my advice will sound tough, but thats only because your mind is weak from years of sloppy thinking and wrong living. If you put this advice into practice, you will see for yourself that its the only way it could be, and the only practical way to attain the ultimate in happiness. Im sharing my truth because I have lived it myself, from a very unhappy beginning in life all the way through to a very happy end. But when I walk the dirty streets of this world and see how miserable people are, I cannot rest without doing something about it. I have nothing to gain except the satisfaction of doing the right thing. Im not aer money, disciples or followersI already have enough of them, thank you. If there is anything for me in writing this, it is the satisfaction of knowing that those who come aer me and follow the advice in this little book will live a happier life in a happier world. And that is enough. 5

IntroductionEverything You Think You Know is Wrong

Why are you reading this book? You want to solve the problems of life and attain real happiness. at implies that you are unhappy, or at least not as happy as you would like to be. ats OK; everyone starts from there. We understand, and can help you with that. So lets get going. Real Happiness What do we mean by Real Happiness? e following phrase expresses it nicely: secure, substantial, permanent, ever-increasing material and spiritual happiness. Life is never completely without happiness, or it would be unbearable. ere is some shadow of happiness even in hell, because at least one may hope to be released someday. But were not talking about the shadow of happinesswere talking about Real Happiness: secure, substantial, permanent, ever-increasing material and spiritual happiness. Every soul desires this unconditional happiness. What kind of happiness is that, and how do you get it? Well one thing is sure: you dont have it now, or you wouldnt be interested in this book. Whatever youve been doing to obtain happinessand I would argue that practically everything we do is intended to obtain happinessits not working. At least, its not working perfectly, because you dont have the kind of Real Happiness were talking about; youre still unsatised. Admitting this to yourself is the rst step to attaining Real Happiness. Whatever you have been thinking, saying and doing to attain happiness up to now may have given you some small taste of happiness. But it hasnt given you the Real Happiness you crave. e next step is recognizing that whatever you have been thinking, saying and doing so far doesnt result in Real Happiness. As they say in Texas: If all you ever do is all youve ever done, then all youll ever get is all you ever got. erefore if you want Real Happiness, you will have to change what you are thinking, saying and doing now, and do something new and dierent: something that does result in Real Happiness. 6

e proof of this is that although you have been doing so many things to attain happiness, you still dont have Real Happiness. erefore if you really want Real Happiness, you are going to have to start thinking, saying and doing dierent things: things that do provide Real Happiness. In other words, you will have to change. e beginning of that change is accepting that everything that you think you know about attaining happiness is wrong, and be ready to learn a dierent way of thinking about the world, yourself and your life. ats the bad news. e good news? Fortunately, I happen to be an expert on that particular subject. ats why Im writing this book. I have attained Real Happiness, and I want to share the method with you. It took me a long timealmost 60 yearsto unlearn what I was doing wrong, and to discover and implement this method. But I made a lot of mistakes, and wasted a lot of time guring out what went wrong and recovering. My students are making much faster progress, because they can benet from my experience and avoid time-wasting errors. Actually, if you knew exactly what you were doing, and followed the Real Happiness Method perfectly, you or anyone could attain Real Happiness in six months or less. e problem is, you dont know what youre doingif you did, you wouldnt need this booktherefore you cant follow the Real Happiness Method perfectly. So realistically, some period of preliminary instruction is required before you can realize the benets of the teachings in this little book. How long that takes depends entirely upon you: how motivated you are to ditch the ideas and actions that have not worked, and implement new ones that do. Unlearning the Past Because you have an interest in this book, we can take it as given that whatever it is you have done up to now has not brought you Real Happiness. Otherwise you wouldnt be reading this. So thats settled. If you really want Real Happiness, that means you must be willing to change. You need to get used to the idea of change, because it is your only hope of attaining Real Happiness.

ere are so many things that we cant change: other people, human nature; the ways of life, the laws of the universe; time, death and God. But there are quite a few things that we can change: what we think, say and do. Especially our thoughts: what we think pretty much determines our possibilities in life. For example, if I am convinced that I cant learn Spanish, then for sure I cant. But if I believe that I can, then it becomes possible for me. With faith, all things are possible. Get this: simply by changing our thinking and our faith, so many new things become possible. ings that were impossible before. Like Real Happiness, for example. But changing your thinking is far from easy. In fact, it may be much harder to change your thinking than to quit smoking or other bad habits. e reason is that we become conditioned to limiting modes of thought, just as we become used to a particular diet, though it may actually be bad for us. inking dierently may seem literally inconceivable, yet that is exactly what we have to do to attain Real Happiness. e ideas expressed in this book give you a radical new point of view, and a practical method to change your thinking from limited and temporal to unlimited and eternal. Along the way, you will also nd that many of your beliefs are actually ctions, created by powerful elites to subjugate the masses. You have accepted them as true because of cultural and environmental inuences, and never really examined the assumptions behind them. We call these ctions e Big Lie. If you follow our Real Happiness Method, you will be able to overcome this limiting, disempowering thinking and cra a new way of thinking that allows you to actually attain Real Happiness. The Real Happiness Method ere are four steps in our method: 1. Learn the background knowledge and methods in this book. 2. Ditch the wrong ideas and actions that keep you suering. 3. Learn and practice our special methods. 4. Experience the benets for yourself.

e main sections in this bookParts 1 through 4correspond roughly to these four steps. Benets of the Real Happiness Method ese are just some of the benets of our program:

Finally know who you really are Be happy and secure in any situation Freedom from fear, anxiety and uncertainty Financial independence, live anywhere in the world Remain safe and secure even in the greatest calamity Know why the events in your life turn out the way they do Recover your education and the ability to learn new things Understand why you and other people are the way they are Understand the world situation and why things are so crazy Be able to see the future clearly, both for yourself and others Avoid the situations and people that cause suering and pain

e dierent parts of our method support one another, making the result far greater than the sum of its parts. If you can implement all of our suggestions in practice, your life will be completely transformed. You will feel like you are living in another world! And indeed you will be, because your knowledge, energy and possibilities will expand far beyond their present limitations. Introduction to Real Happiness All beings want happiness, and avoid pain and grief. e question is, What is Real Happiness? as we have dened it: secure, substantial, permanent, ever-increasing material and spiritual happiness. If Real Happiness actually exists, it must have some symptoms, characteristics or structure that we can identify. Any attempt to attain Real Happiness without understanding the exact nature of the goal is futile. 9

Most people consider happiness to be sensual pleasure. According to them, the search for happiness means searching for the pleasures of the senses. e question What is Real Happiness? does not arise in their hearts, because they think that life full of sensory enjoyment is automatically a happy life. Because of this materialistic attitude, it is widely considered desirable to lead a life of material attachment: work hard, earn money, eat sucient food and enjoy life as much as possible. e government sponsors programs to increase productivity, stimulate commerce and develop industries and material science. Politicians preach the materialistic ideal that when everyone will have nutritious food to eat, abundant clothing and a modern home with all material facilities, then all will be happy. But will life really be happy by having all these comforts? If so, then the people who already have material comforts should already be happy. If this theory is correct, the developed countries of the world, where most people already possess these comforts, must be full of happy, peaceful people. However, we nd that everyone on this earth, even in the so-called developed countries, is disturbed, impatient, unhappy, afraid and worried. In fact there are more crimes, murders and suicides in the so-called developed countries of the world. e idea that material advancement alone will make us happy is a myth, spread by those who will prot from materialistic development. It is therefore necessary to reconsider what Real Happiness is. Some people say that Happiness does not lie in objects of enjoyment; it lies in our values and attitudesnot in what we have, but how we look at our lives. For example, a man has a two-story house; on his right is a vestory house and on his le a small cottage. When he looks to the right he feels unhappy, and when he looks to the le he feels happy. His happiness and unhappiness come from comparing his own house and possessions with others. is kind of happiness does not lie directly in possession or enjoyment of sensory objects, but in their relative values. If I see myself as more fortunate than others, then I consider myself happy. People who hold this view advise us to look towards those who have fewer possessions, count our blessings and be happy. If we look towards people having more wealth and possessions, we will always be unhappy.

10

But this theory is also imperfect, because it is based on material possessions. Seeing such poverty-stricken people, even worldly-minded people feel compassion and pity. To regard oneself happy by imagining that one is better than the poor and the unhappy is unkind. is attitude also gives a sense of pride in ones possessions. ese impure emotions cannot be called Real Happiness. Does happiness lie in the cottage, so by looking at it one can get happiness? Of course that is a foolish idea. Unless we nd where Real Happiness actually lies, we cannot really be happy. Pleasures from temporary sensual joys cannot be considered Real Happiness. And the theory that happiness lies in our values or point of view implies that Real Happiness does not exist concretely, but is only a mental phenomenon. at conclusion is also unacceptable. Also we experience that sometimes material enjoyment makes us feel happy, and sometime the same experience fails to make us happy. Furthermore, what one person considers to be enjoyable is not enjoyable to others. It is therefore clear that in fact, sensual pleasures derived from material possessions are imaginary, a matter of our relative values and perceptions, and Real Happiness must be something quite dierent from them. Some people say, Happiness means that your desires should be satised. If you get the desired objects you will become happy. ey regard happiness as satisfaction of desires. But it is impossible to satisfy ones desires completely, because there are countless desires of billions of people, and material resources are limited. Not everyone can become a millionaire. Also as soon as the previous desires are satised, new ones arise. e current of new desires in the mind continues forever. It is certain that our ever-changing desires can never be completely satised. e conception of achieving happiness by satisfaction of desires is merely a mirage in the great desert of material life. e pleasure arising out of satisfying our desires is not Real Happiness. Desire is actually unhappiness because it makes us restless, which makes us feel disturbed and unhappy. Happiness means complete ease and lack of restlessness, and the restless pursuit of pleasures of the senses and fulllment of desires does not give that mental ease. And material activities create karma that makes us suer later. erefore whatever we enjoy with the help of the senses is actually happiness in name alone. Real Happiness

11

cannot be experienced from sense objects. Real Happiness does not lie in the satisfaction of desires, but requires the absence of desire as a condition. If we want to nd Real Happiness, we have to search for it where it is actually located. We cannot nd it where it is impossible for it to exist at all. For example, consciousness is an attribute of the soul, and can be found in the sentient soul alone, not in dull material entities like the body. Likewise, happiness is also an attribute of the soul, not of inanimate things, because it is a quality of consciousness. Happiness can therefore be found in the soul alone, not in inanimate material objects like human bodies, possessions and sense enjoyment. Our lack of happiness is actually because we do not know that we are a spirit soul. Similarly, the root cause of our unhappiness is the attempt to nd happiness in material objects. How can we nd Real Happiness if the direction of our search for happiness itself is wrong? For Real Happiness, we have to see within, plumb the depths of consciousness and know our own spiritual being, for Real Happiness lies within ourselves. e soul is an unlimited treasury of eternal bliss, full of everlasting joy. erefore if we want Real Happiness, we should turn our attention and eort toward realizing our spiritual nature. Real Happiness is not found in words or actions, desires or material pleasures, but in the direct conscious experience of the souls true nature. It can be experienced only by being introverted in meditation, cutting ourselves o from all external entities and entering into deep contemplation of the soul. Since the soul is full of happiness, direct experience of the soul is the source of Real Happiness. Just as one cannot achieve direct awareness of the soul without conscious experience, in the same manner one cannot get Real Happiness without the experience of the soul as pure consciousness. If we ponder the question deeply, we can realize that the soul itself is made of Real Happiness, is nothing but Real Happiness. e soul himself is Real Happiness incarnate; he does not have to nd happiness somewhere else. Happiness cannot be possessed; it has to be experienced, to be enjoyed by the pure soul within himself. It is not necessary to torment ourselves with desire or to work very hard to attain Real Happiness. e restlessness of desire and the trouble of pursuing desires actually produces unhappiness. ere is no trouble or restlessness at all in Real Happiness. If we want Real 12

Happiness, then we should not cultivate any desire for happiness apart from spiritual happiness, for material desires and their pursuit automatically make us unhappy. erefore Real Happiness is absence of material desires and the complete attainment of spiritual self-realization. ere is only one answer, only one possible solution to questions like What is happiness? Where is happiness found? How to get happiness? and that is the direct experience of the soul itself. is book provides everything you need to know to attain this experience for yourself. But you will have to do the work of implementing the Real Happiness Method given herein. For the nal answer to our quest for Real Happiness is in complete self-realization, when the soul realizes his eternal transcendental nature and ecstatic relationship with God. Love and Intimacy We may ask, But what about love and intimacy? Arent these a form of happiness too? Indeed, dissatisfaction is a form of isolation, when we are separated from the objects of our desire. Studies have found that isolation is a health hazard. Women who felt isolated were three and a half times more likely to die of breast, ovarian or uterine cancer over a 17-year period than those who didnt. Men who felt unloved by their wives suered 50% more angina over a 5-year period than those who felt loved. Unmarried heart patients were 3 times more likely to die in ve years than those who were married. ose heart patients who lived alone were twice as likely to die within a year. Even the best material relationship is temporary and imperfect, but even a person living alone can nd intimacy and love in spiritual life. What we commonly call love today is external love. It means loving and being loved by other people. Enlightenment, on the other hand, could be described as internal love, or an experience of spiritual presence. Sensing this inner presence ranges from the experience of self we get during meditation on the nature of the soul, to the profound ecstasy we experience when we sense the presence of God and experience His inner peace. You can best understand this by doing it. Sensing the spiritual presence of the soul or God is dierent from thinking about them; it is being directly aware of their presence. You are being intimate with them in the present by using your spiritual faculties. If you 13

do not know how to use your spiritual faculties, you will not have a clue what we are talking about, because you will be on the mental platform, thinking about the soul and God instead of being directly conscious of them. If you can sense yourself as a conscious soul in the intimate presence of God, you can easily focus on and experiencenot think aboutthe presence of inner peace. Spend some time every day being aware of Gods presence; this is real spiritual consciousness, beyond the empty words of philosophy and the external rituals of religion. Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction: Your Choice. In me you will have peace, in the world you will have tribulation. [John 16:33] Which would you choose: being satised or dissatised? Some unintelligent people enjoy being dissatised; they love to complain and blame others for their dissatisfaction. Of course, this simply ensures that they will remain dissatised. More intelligent people wish they could live a satised life, but dont know how to do it. e most intelligent people understand that satisfaction is a state of consciousness, and know how to change their consciousness to eliminate dissatisfaction and attain satisfaction. Like Real Happiness, satisfaction depends on understanding the question rather than knowing the answer. e dissatisfaction that most people feel is not caused by the events in their lives, but by the way they think about those events. Peoples pain and acting outabuse, anger guilt, abandonment, low self-esteem, addictions, codependencyresult from trying to blame others for their condition. ere is only one cure for all emotional pain and the resulting dysfunctional behavior: nding the Real Happiness we are looking for inside, not outside of ourselves. Spiritual intelligence means discovering how to close the doors of the senses, quiet the mind and nd our Real Happiness in contemplation of the soul. When you are at peace, you see, hear and act dierently than when you are feeling insecure. We become empowered, feel in control, successful and proactive by looking inside, at consciousness. is is a shi in orientation from diagnosis to treatment, from seeking causes to seeking the cure. Counselors generally use two approaches: diagnostic-oriented or treatment-oriented. e diagnostic approach is low-mood and symptom 14

directed. e counselor listens to the client, diagnoses the problem and oers outside solutions to resolve them. is clinical approach puts the client at eect. e treatment approach is high-mood and cause-directed. It puts the client at cause, creating an atmosphere where problem-solving can be done by the client and his community. People tend to become fascinated with diagnosisobsessively trying to place the blame for their condition on some external causewhen treatment is needed to make actual progress. Instead of trying to nd some external cause for our condition, we can endure, outlast and overcome dicult situations with the spiritual strength of hope, joy, humor, wisdom, peace, and love. And then by the same spiritual power, we can go on to manifest our deepest desires and attain our highest dreams. It is not a matter of knowing techniques and mechanics, but understanding the dynamics of consciousness and experience. If you understand the dynamics of a problem, then you will not need an outside professional or authority tell you what is needed; you will automatically understand what you need to do to solve it. You may be looking for a quick xa simple, easy technique to solve your immediate problembut thats not what this book is about. Quick xes are called crash programs, because they always crash. Stephen R. Covey devotes a whole chapter of his book, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, to a story which illustrates this critical point. A man comes upon his friend late in the aernoon sawing a log. What are you doing? he asks. I have been sawing all day. I wont have any wood for my re if I dont nish. You need to sharpen your saw if you want to get it done. e man replies, I cant sharpen the saw: I dont have time. You have the choice at every moment whether to be happy and satised, or unhappy and dissatised. It is really very simple: by cultivating material desires, we become more and more unhappy and dissatised; but by cultivating spiritual consciousness and our eternal relationship with God, we become more and more happy and satised. is is the greatest secret of Real Happiness: it is found within by meditating on the nature of the soul as pure consciousness. So you can saw all day with a dull saw and not get the job done; or you can spend some time to sharpen the saw, and complete the work quickly and

15

easily. Similarly, you can try to nd causes and assign blame for the conditions in your life, or you can educate yourself on the radical Real Happiness Method presented in this book, then use it to solve your problems and attain your highest lifelong goals and dreams. e choice, as always, is entirely up to you.

16

Part 1The Big Picture

Most people are like a boat without a rudder on a stormy sea. ey get pushed around by the winds and currents, and have no clue where they are going or why. ey are always in damage-control mode, putting out one re aer another, just trying to maintain the status quo. Of course they are very unhappy, because their expectations are completely out of line with the reality of how the world works. To know which way to sail your boat to get to a certain destination, you need a map. An ocean chart is just a big map of the ocean that shows where the land and currents are, and how to avoid the rocks. It allows you to make better decisions than you could never make just by seeing the ocean before you. Similarly, real knowledge of the big picture is like a map of the territory of life. Decisions that we make today inuence where we wind up in the future. To make good decisions, we need a map that shows us the consequences of our actions far into the future. is requires very advanced knowledge. is section gives you a high-level view of the world situation. Its like a big map of time and reality. It will give you a new viewpoint, like a map that shows the layout of the roads and towns on your route. is map will let you see where you are, and make the decisions that will transform your life, because it shows the way out of the trap.

17

2012
From now through about 2020, centering on 2012, is the most important and inuential period in history. In one way, those who are living in this time are very fortunate, because they will get to experience huge worldchanging and personally transforming events. But change, opportunity, stress and danger always go together, so there will be many diculties. e knowledge in this book will help you prepare for and survive this dicult time, and even prosper and enjoy it. But to make it, you will have to be prepared to learn and change a great deal. We are at the junction of two great periods of history: the last 5,000 years, which we call the Dark Age; and the next 10,000 years, or the Golden Age. e conjunction of historical periods is always full of change. e changes around 2012 will be especially drastic, because in that year the Winter Solstice aligns directly with the Galactic Center. us very profound and powerful energies will be released into our world. Over the following decade, the current world culture, political and economic systems will be swept away and replaced with new ones. e deep corruption and ineciency that has grown up around the old ways will be cleansed and puried; new ways based on natural and spiritual law will replace them. is change is good and will lead to great improvement in the world, but it comes at the price of pervasive chaos. ere will be a period of great disorder and uncertainty, as the old ways and systems are replaced with new ones. It is likely that many people, perhaps the majority of the population, will be destroyednot by the changes, but by peoples inappropriate reaction to them. Most people do not like change, and they will resist the inevitable changes of the time. is will cause a lot of trouble for them and the people around them. is is why we advise you to get used to change and learn to go with it. e coming changes are so strong that if you ght against them, you will not survive. To deal with change eectively, you need a stable point of view that is beyond the range of the changes. You also need knowledge of the actual results of dierent kinds of activities. en you will be able to deal with, and even initiate, big changes with condence.

18

The Big Lie

e picture of life, history and the way things work that is painted by most media, educational systems and history is a complete fabrication; in other words, a lie. It is such a colossal lie, so well and consistently told, and woven so deeply into the structure of our social systems, beliefs and language that it is very dicult to see beyond it. ere are many people who are born, grow up, live, work and die within the borders of the large cities of the world. ey never go outside and see what is beyond the borders of their town. Similarly, most people live completely within e Big Lie, never contacting any source of information that is free from it. us they never see themselves, the world or life as they really are. So, what is e Big Lie? It goes something like this: Life is all about enjoyment. We humans are just sophisticated animals, the best and most intelligent creatures in a world made by chance. eres no God in control, no right or wrong, good or bad. Life is what you make of it. e biggest dog gets the bone. So come onlets party! ats it: e Big Lie. You might be asking, Well, whats the matter with that? Sounds pretty good to me! If so, the teachings in this book are not for you. You must have enough of a taste for the truth that you instinctively recognize the falsehood of e Big Lie. e matter with e Big Lie is that its a lie. Its not just false; its so twisted that its actually evil. If you believe it, if you base your life or values on it or make decisions according to it, you will suer. In fact, following e Big Lie is the cause of all our suering in life. Inuenced by e Big Lie, we are taught to think that life evolved over millions of years, nally producing Humankind; that early humans were primitive, with little knowledge or power; that modern science and technology have made us smarter and more successful than ever before; and that this are going to continue, getting better and better all the time, indenitely. It goes on: we are taught that we are this material body, and consequently the body and its senses are the only source of enjoyment or happiness; that there is no God, or if there is, He is so far away and so utterly transcendent 19

that He has no connection with our ordinary lives; that aer death there is nothing, therefore there is no need to follow traditional morality or religious principles. So we might as well just be good little workers and consumers, and work hard our whole lives just to make other people rich. What is wrong with e Big Lie? Just about everything. It is completely false, a concocted story just to disempower you and make you a terried slave of big governments, religions and corporations. Everyone is afraid that unless they go along with the program, make themselves completely dependent on the system and work like a dog their whole life, they cannot survive. is is complete nonsense. People had been living perfectly well for thousands of years before the materialistic empire of the military-industrial complex came along and enslaved everyone; and we can still get along just ne without it, thank you very much. Trading our happiness and independence for false material security and a life of slave labor is a terrible deal; yet that is exactly what e Big Lie gets us to do. It would be impossible to recognize e Big Lie as a lie at all, if it were not for the existence of the Absolute Truth. Like e Big Lie, the Absolute Truth is seldom directly stated all in one place at one time. ats because it is a great secret. But there are bits and pieces of it in all the best and most benecial thoughts that humans have held dear throughout eternity. ere is a very dedicated condential Order that protects and propagates the Absolute Truth down through history. Unfortunately, they are very much outnumbered by the people who propagate and believe e Big Lie. To hear the Absolute Truth, one has to be very determined and dedicated, intelligent and fortunate. And you must be extremely lucky to believe it and live your life according to it, because the Absolute Truth brings the greatest good fortune to those who believe and follow it. So what is the Absolute Truth? It goes something like this: e aim of life is to attain spiritual realization. We humans, like all living beings, are invisible subatomic particles of pure consciousnessspirit souls. We are eternal, wise and happy by nature, but because of ignorance of spiritual life, we are trapped in these miserable, temporary material bodies. ere is an innitely powerful, wise, loving and benecent God in control, who wants to 20

help us get out of the mess were in. So He creates and maintains this material world, which is actually a school of spiritual life. As long as we want to enjoy and control matter, we have to accept material bodies and the suering that comes along with them. But when we nally learn the lesson God is trying to teach us, we can get out of this temporary material world and live in the spiritual world, where life is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. To deserve this liberation, all we have to do is change the quality of our activities, from passion and ignorance to goodness and devotional service to God. So there you have it: the Absolute Truth. is is the same wisdom realized by every great saint who attains spiritual enlightenment. It is Truth because there is ample proof of all its assertions. It is Absolute Truth because its the eternal Secret of Life, true for all beings in every time and place, and in every condition. Naturally, if everyone followed the Absolute Truth instead of e Big Lie, this world would be a totally dierent place; a much better place to live. Well, dont hold your breath. It will be a long time before everybody follows the Absolute Truth. But you can follow the Absolute Truth. You can decide that from today, the purpose of your life is to attain spiritual realization. You can decide to opt out of the system that creates and propagates e Big Lie. You can learn the Absolute Truth, and be free. Of course, there is a lot more to know about the Absolute Truth and exactly how it exposes e Big Lie. And it is very dicult to change ones life and consciousness to actually live by its principles. It takes many years of study under the guidance of those who have walked this path before. Fortunately, the opportunity to study the Absolute Truth is available to you. Now. Today. at is why we wrote this book. How do we know about e Big Lie? We have information from before it was created. If you look over the history books of the world, you will see that recorded history goes back about 5,000 years, and then stops abruptly. e historical records of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews are the earliest complete histories available. Before that, there seem to be only fragmentary records, pieces of stone tablets found in ruins. What does e Big Lie say

21

these fragments tell us? at primitive humans existed before 5,000 years ago, but somehow they were destroyed before the improved modern age began. So there is no way we can know what really happened earlier. But what if we somehow got hold of complete historical records older than 5,000 years? What story would they tell us? Well, guess what: we do have those records, translated into English and other Western languages by our spiritual teacher. ey are available on our website, and the story they tell is very interesting. ese ancient records are called the Vedas, and they go back hundreds of thousands of years. e Big Lie says that the Vedas are only primitive mythology. But have you, or anyone you know, ever actually read them? We have, and they tell a far dierent story of the origins of civilization than e Big Lie is feeding us. e books of the Vedas are more than 5,000 years oldsome of them are much older. ey tell a story of a very advanced, ourishing worldwide culture and technology based on spiritual principles. at culture abruptly was destroyed about 5,000 years ago when evil elements inltrated the highest levels of its government. ere was a terrible battle in which all world leaders perished, leading to a time of great confusion, ignorance and decay. is Dark Age has lasted from 5,000 years ago to the present day. In the Dark Age, the evil forces have the advantage. ey wanted to erase all knowledge of the previous high civilization, therefore they created e Big Lie to cover it up. at way people would not know that there is a much better way to live than by being slaves of a worldwide corporate empire. e knowledge of the Vedas includes an advanced, sustainable technology that can solve all the problems of human existence. But the current leaders do not want people to know about the Vedas. ey want to keep everyone in the dark so they can continue to exploit them. at Dark Age is almost over, but it will not pass without a struggle. e demonic leaders who have oppressed Humankind for the last 50 centuries would rather destroy everything and everyone, including the planet and themselves, rather than see the return of better days for the people. erefore they are sowing seeds of discord and chaos everywhere. is chaos will only increase until it peaks in 2012 and for some time thereaer. Aer 2020 or so, things will settle into a new cycle that we call the Golden Age. e darkness of materialism will be vanquished, the knowledge of the

22

Vedas will be restored to prominence, and Humankind will relish a new, stable civilization based on real spiritual values. Peace and prosperity based on authentic spiritual principles and ecologically sustainable economic development will reign for thousands of years. Many people will attain true enlightenment and spread their wisdom to others. e problem is getting from here to there. Most people will not make it, because they will cling to the old materialistic values and ways and ght the necessary changes. Your most powerful ally in surviving the coming changes is the knowledge in this book. ings will never go back to the old ways; the changes will be accelerating and permanent. Knowing this will give you the ability to seek out, understand and internalize the values and lifestyle of the new Golden Age. You will be able to make the necessary changes to survive, even before they are necessary. You will be ahead of the game, and that advantage is the key to surviving the chaos of 2012 and beyond.

23

The Singularity
A singularity is an object that exists in a particular universe, but is not part of that universe. For example, a black hole exists in our universe, but it has such a strong gravitational pull that nothing can come out of it. It literally is a gateway to another universe, about which we can know nothing because matter and information ow only one way. Similarly when we talk about e Singularity, we refer to a moment in time that actually comes from out of time: from eternity. Such a moment is approaching in just a few years, in or around 2012. Predictions of such cosmic events are never exact or certain. But the event itself is predicted by several ancient and modern methods of calculation. As we approach the Singularity, the rate of change will increase radically, until for all practical purposes it becomes innite. Another way of saying it is that during the Singularity, anything that can change, will. at innite rate of change will last only a moment of ordinary time, but to our consciousness it will feel like an eternity, in which anything is possible. ere is no way to prepare for such radical and all-pervasive change except to change our consciousness. Our present consciousness is adapted to survival in the material world, but material consciousness cannot adapt to innite change: it breaks down and goes mad. e only kind of consciousness that can deal with innity in any form is transcendental, or spiritual consciousness. erefore if we want to survive the Singularity with our sanity intact, we much change our consciousness to the transcendental platform. Whats going to happen when change becomes almost innite? Everything that can change, will change. at means the politics, the economics, the technology; weve already seen proof the technology is changing faster and faster. e scientists and engineers have a very narrow point of view. ey think, Were driving the changes. And the politicians think the same way. But no; theyre the eect of the change, the eect of the time, just like everybody else. eir whole so-called advancement can be nished overnight. e ancient Vedic civilization had a continuity of over four million years. During that time they built up a very impressive technology. at whole

24

technology was nished in one night. How? ere was nothing wrong with their knowledge; it was just that everything changedeven the laws of nature. So that technology didn't work anymore. Its just like, say the laws of electricity changed. We wake up in the morning, and... Nothing works! Computers, cameras, cars, cell phones, even the toaster. Nothing works. Can you imagine what would happen to our civilization? It would be nished. ere would be chaos. e population would be reduced by 95% just from the failure of that one thing alone. Because to change back to horse-and-cart technology would be an incredible strain on the whole civilization. So imagine, the Vedic civilization had a technology even more advanced than ours. And it had been in place and operating for millions of years. And then in one night, the whole thing is nishedbecause the laws of nature changed. All of a sudden that technology didnt work anymore, so their civilization crashed. Now, the Vedic spiritual knowledge is still valid, because that never changes. But as far as the material knowledge, the technology part doesnt work anymore. ats the nature of the material world: everything changes. Whether it changes slowly or it changes fast, its still the same, it all changes. When things change too fast for us to keep up, then all our plans are ruined. ats why the Mayan calendar and the Vedic calendar go in very large cycles. e universe goes through dierent cycles. Just like the waves in the ocean. If you go to the ocean you'll see there are little bubbles on the waves; and then another wave will come and scatter them all over the place. And then the bubbles try to get back together, and then the next wave comes and smashes them again. ats life in the material world. at is the law of God. Its supposed to be that way. Because if things went too smoothly, we would become complacent and we would forget God: Oh, we dont need God, everything here is so nice, is going so smoothly, we don't need to make a big eort to nd God. So God makes these changes happen, by the force of time, to wake us up. So we see that this material world is not our real home. So we can understand the urgency that we need to go back to the spiritual world, if we want Real Happiness. Ignorant people who have no spiritual knowledge somehow rationalize this: Oh, we're here for experience. To gain knowledge! But the ultimate 25

knowledge of the material world is that everything changes. Where is the body I had when I was three years old? Where's the body that I had when I was fourteen years old? Even the body that I had when I was thirty years old. eyre gone, just like they never existed. e past is gone, you can never get it back. And the future is not here yet. So in the material world, everything is changing. Its just a question of when, and how much. Some things change slowly, some things change quickly; but wherever we look, we see the same cycles of change. If you look at the bacteria in the microscope, and theyre all ghting over food and territory. And if you look at the galaxies, sometimes the galaxies collide, and they ght and they tear o each others stars and take them away. e same things are going on, just on a bigger or smaller scale. e material world is always going to change and disappoint us. Its always going to ruin our plans. So the intelligent person concentrates his energy to nd God. Because thats the only stability, thats the only security, thats the only safety. We cant change the way the world is. We cant change other people. We cant change the laws of God or the laws of nature. We cant overcome the inuence of time; the changes of the Singularity are going to happen, whether we like it or not. e one thing we can change our activities. We can change what we eat, how we work, how we dress; how we think, what we do with our work, the results of our work. Our attitudes towards other people, towards God. We can change all these things and reap tremendous benets; it just requires knowledge. We give that knowledge in this book. But once you have that knowledge, you have to act on it, you have to do something. You have to make some changes in your life. I know it's dicult; I know 99.99% of most people do things the other way. I know, because I was there too, once. I started out just like you. Im not any dierent from anybody else. So if I can make it, you can also make it. e Real Happiness Method given in this book can help you change your consciousness to the transcendental platform, so that you have a much better chance of dealing with the Singularity successfully. ese methods are very powerful and eective, but they do require some time to act. e more time and energy you can devote to them, the more quickly they will

26

act. erefore the rst goal in our plan is to attain economic independence, so that you have the time to implement the other parts of the Real Happiness Method.

27

How to Learn
e most important and powerful thing that you can learn is how to learn. Once you know how to learn, you can teach yourself anything that you want to know. is article presents a simple method for teaching yourself any subject so that you can apply it in your life. You would think that the rst thing they would teach you in school is how to study. How to learn stu should be the rst thing you learn; then once you know how to learn, you can teach yourself anything you want to know. If you think this makes sense (and it does), then you don't understand how school really works. Here's the truth: the people who manage the educational system don't want you to learn independently; they deliberately make you dependent on the school system so they can teach you what they want you to learn, and to keep you away from the subjects that they don't want you to learn. For example, the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas. If you doubt this, then you should read up on John Taylor Gatto, a really great teacher who was named a Teacher of the Year in the New York Public School system in 1990. Then they fired him, because he started telling everybody what was really going on behind the scenes, why our schools are such a mess and why they don't really educate their students. On purpose. Gatto revealed that no public school has classes or courses on how to study or how to learn, because their purpose is not to help you learn, it is to train you to be obedient to authority. He documents the design and development of the current educational system, and proves his points from the actual writings of the architects of the public school system. I came to many of the same conclusions by observation and experience a long time ago. In fact, only the very best private schools and colleges like Harvard actually train their students in the scientific methods of how to learn. These are the schools of the social and economic elite, and they want their kids to actually be smart, to actually know how to do stuff, so they can continue their dominance of society. It is assumed that these kids are motivated to be obedient to the system, because they have so much to lose if they are not. So they are given the opportunity to actually become wise, 28

if they so choose. Everybody else is deliberately kept ignorant, and manipulated through the media, financial controls and corporations. Being wise not only means knowing how to learn, it also means knowing how to think for yourself. Most people don't really know how to think; they simply form opinions based on whether they like or dislike something. Thinking is a higher-level skill. Knowing how to learn comes first, because you have to know how to learn before you can teach yourself how to think. And you have to teach yourself how to think, because the very nature of thinking for yourself means that it is one of those things in life that nobody can teach youyou just have to figure out for yourself. I was fortunate to discover the method of actual learning and thinking independently when I was quite young. It helped me teach myself so many things. For example, I learned to play classical music and jazz at a professional level while still in High School. This accomplishment not only gave me a lot of personal satisfaction, but I also got to tour the USA and Canada with the All-USA High School Band, which was great fun. I also learned English, math, chemistry and physics well enough to get a perfect score on my college entrance exams and qualify for a scholarship to engineering school, which I rejected because I wanted to be a musician. But no problem, I was able to put myself through music school by earning money with these skills, and since then have never had any difficulty finding a job. I can just get some books on any subject, sit down and teach myself how to do it in a few days or weeks. So I know what I am talking about here. This is coming from experience, not just theory. Learning how to learn With the simple methods we present here, you can teach yourself any subjectnot just the theory, but a professional level of practical application. All you have to do is apply the method consistently, and you will get the result. It may seem dry and boring at rst, or too plodding and intellectual. But I will say it again: if you use this method you can teach yourself to understand and do anything. Anything at all! Of course we would rather that you use it to understand the Esoteric Teaching, but you get my point: just on general principles, everybody

29

should learn how to learn, so they can teach themselves whatever they want to know. is method has three parts:

Putting things in context Clearing misunderstood terms Modeling relationships and functions

Foreground and background e proper context is a requirement for consciousness or awareness of anything. For example, we will not be aware of a black cat on a black rug in a black room with the lights o at midnight. e same cat is easily visible on a white rug in a white room at noon on a sunny day. So everything has a proper context, and this context is the key to its real meaning. Every word, symbol, picture, sound, gesture, facial expression, experience, action, perception, sentence, discussion, feeling, idea and intention exists in some context. When we hold it in the wrong context, we miss the real meaning and become confused or frustrated. When we hold it in the right context, we see the real meaning and have an "Aha!" moment, a moment of insight into reality. For example, everyone has an experience of school. If we try to hold that experience in the context of learning, it doesn't make sense and we feel confused and frustrated. But if we read Gatto, we understand that we should actually hold our experience of school in the context of a social control mechanism. Aha! Now it all makes sense, and we can understand that if we want to become wise, we have to take responsibility for our own education. Similarly, if we try to hold our experience of life in the context of the ordinary materialistic understanding, it doesn't make sense and we feel confused and frustrated. But if we hold it in the context of the Esoteric Teaching, we will have not one but many "Aha!" experiences as we get insights into the real spiritual meaning of our existence and activities. So here is the principle:

30

If you feel confused or frustrated about learning, understanding or doing something, you are holding it in the wrong context. When we want to read a book, we hold it up to the light. Why? Because we can't read in the dark; we need the context of light to see the page. Similarly, if we are having trouble understanding or applying a subject, it is because we are holding it, or parts or pieces of it, in the wrong context or in the wrong relationship to the other parts. Finding the right context is both a science and an art. For those who are really into this, and want some advanced training, we will have links later on to our source material. But everyone can understand the dierence between foreground and background, content and context. If you can't get something, then try putting it in another context. e next two sections give some practical tips on how to resolve contextual problems while studying. Misunderstood terminology Misunderstood terms, words and symbols can stop you from comprehending a subject and discourage you from learning how to apply it expertly. In fact, the only reason a student becomes discouraged and gives up a study is because of misunderstood terms. Misunderstood terms are dierent from not-understood terms. Everyone can understand when they see an integral equation, or a big technical term like disestablishmentarianism, that they do not understand it, and look up the meaning in a dictionary or search engine. But when we think that we understand the meaning of a word or symbol, but actually don't, then we're in trouble because we will sail right on by it without realizing that we got it wrong. at is the denition of a misunderstood term. e main symptom of misunderstood terminology is that we are unable to expertly apply the subject or information we are studying. Other symptoms of misunderstood terms include degradation of consciousness or loss of comprehension; you feel that the information you are studying makes no sense; you have forgetfulness, short-term memory loss, or loss of comprehension of material immediately aer it is presented. You may also feel tired, sleepy, yawning, distracted, dreamy, dizzy, spinny, 31

lightheaded, tense, short of breath, intoxicated, introverted, fearful, panicky, paranoid, angry, belligerent or rebellious when there is no real reason to feel that way. You may have eye trouble: the page appears to go blank, or looks dark, you feel like something is in your eyes or see shadows moving in your peripheral vision. You may have a strong irrational urge to disrupt the class, interrupt your study, close the book or escape from the classroom or other learning situation. Some people may desire to project their irrelevant personal opinions or negative emotional reactions onto the material, the presenter or the teacher. All these symptoms have one and the same cause: You have encountered a misunderstood term or symbol and gone past it without getting it properly dened. Much of the terminology used in the material on any subject, and especially on this site, is extremely specialized, scientic or technical. e most important of these terms are in the Sanskrit language and may have no direct English equivalent. Some terms used on this site are so laden with signicance that thousands of lines of esoteric Sanskrit codes and years of esoteric study are required to dene and understand them completely. But most of those are easily recognized as not-understood terms, so they are easy to notice and get cleared up. e worst culprits of misunderstood terms are simple words that specify relationship, such as and, thus, if, such, that, which, up, though and so forth. We think that we know what these words mean, but on close examination we will nd that our concept of their meaning is so vague that we cannot describe it coherently. ese are misunderstood terms. How to nd your misunderstood terms When you are trying to learn something and you observe these symptoms, stop; realize their actual cause, then go back and nd your misunderstood terms so you can look them up and clear them. e misunderstood terms will always be before the point where you experience the symptoms. Go back to where you were doing OK and understanding everything clearly. en go through the material very carefully, word-by-word, until you nd a term that you cannot dene. at is your misunderstood term. ere 32

may be more than one. Note down your misunderstood terms so you can methodically clear them. Clearing misunderstood terms

Look the term up in a good dictionary, encyclopedia, technical manual, scripture or any source where you can nd a good denition. If the term has more than one denition, scan through the denitions until you nd the exact denition that applies in the context where term is used. Make up several original sentences using the term in the exact denition used in the context. By now you should feel a lot better about the term. If the denition includes other terms that are misunderstood, look those up, etc. until you are absolutely clear on the denition. If necessary, model the denition using clay or blocks, until you are clear about the denition of the term. (For more on modeling, see the next section.)

Modeling What are we doing when learning something? Actually when reading or studying we are constructing a mental model of the relationships and functions of the subject and its parts. When we get confused, stuck or discouraged in learning or cannot successfully apply the material, it means that our model is an inaccurate representation of the subject; it does not work the same way as the thing we are learning about actually works in real life. Sometimes we nd that even aer clearing our misunderstood terms, we still do not feel good about a subject or cannot apply it expertly. e best cure for this problem is to get the model out of our mind and into physical space where we can handle it directly. is is a simple but very powerful technique: Make a model of the thing you are trying to understand out of modeling clay, blocks or odds and ends. Label its parts and walk through how the thing works by moving the 33

model with your hands. Let's say you are studying Vedic astrology and having a tough time understanding transits. No matter how hard you try, clearing terms until you're sure you understand them, the subject still doesn't seem to jell in your mind. OK, it's time to get out the clay and make a model of the solar system. Label the parts and model what physically happens during planetary transits by moving the pieces, until something clicks in your head and you understand the subject. If you don't happen to have any modeling clay lying around, not a problem. Just gather a bunch of odds and endsrubber bands, paper clips, string, wood blocks, little plastic models, even pieces of paper with the names of the parts of your model written on them, whateverlabel them and and use them to make your model. I know it sounds silly, but try it; it really works. Sources Youre probably wondering why you never heard any of this before. Well, at the beginning of this article, I mentioned that one of the main purposes of the school system is specically to keep people from nding out how to learn independently. ey do this by keeping you distracted with busywork and by making learning such a frustrating experience that you give up on acquiring knowledge. So information on how to learn, along with a lot of other very useful knowledge, has been deliberately buried. is is part of the same disinformation program that brings you e Big Lie. But others have asked the same questions, and discovered some very interesting answers that led to the current solutions and actually much, much more. e most important reference I can give you is Alfred Korzybski. His monumental masterwork Science and Sanity gives the scientic reasoning behind these learning techniques. Yes, its very hard to read; Korzybski was trying to say something that had never been said before, at least in English, and he basically had to extend the language in ways that had never been done before. But slogging through Science and Sanity is well worth it. I read it when I was 20, and I guarantee that if you can get through it, it will permanently change your consciousness and your life. Highly recommended.

34

Part 2Material Happiness

No one can attain the optimum lifestyle, or make a radical change in consciousness, while working full-time as a wage slave. Such a debilitating existence sucks up our time and energy, dulls our intelligence and creativity, and steals the most precious material thing we have: our freedom and autonomy. is section details how you can cut the time and energy you spend on your material work to the minimum and still live very well, so that you have the time to execute the rest of our methods. If you only apply the knowledge in this section, you still will be much better o materiallyalthough it is doubtful that you will be able to survive the Singularity without completing our entire method.

35

Dreams and Goals

What are you doing with your life? Are you pursuing your dreams? If not, why not? Many people say, I have no time. No time? Everyone gets the same twenty-four hours every day. Some use it to attain their dreams, and others dont. What are you doing with your time? You might protest, Well, Im trying... But like Jedi Master Yoda said, Try? ere is no try. Do or not do! Either you are pursuing your highest dreams and goals, or you are not. If not, then you are wasting your time wasting your life! So whats your excuse? I have so many distractions, so many details I have to manage every day. People make so many demands on me. I have to nish school. I have to make a living. I have bills to pay, etc. etc. etc. All these excuses are nonsense. Are you living your life, or someone else? What you think, say and do are up to you, and no one else. Most people never realize that they have a choice between being reasonable and being unreasonable. You can be reasonable, and allow other people and circumstances to program the agendas for your life. Its understandable that you might accept the conventional way of life, where others set your goals and determine your actions. It is, in one way, easier. But is it acceptable? Do you really want to spend your life fullling someone elses dreams, or working to make someone else rich? Or you can be unreasonable, and insist that attaining your dreams should be your highest priority in life. Period. Everyone elses dreams will just have to wait. Aer all, at the end of the day its your life, your time, your consciousness and experience. ink about it. is is your life! Your time is all you really possess. What are you making of it? Do you have a grasp of the big picture of your life? What does it look like for you? If someone made a video of your life, would you (or anyone else) want to watch it? If your life is so fullling, engaging and exciting that you can scarcely wait to jump out of bed at the beginning of each new day, maybe this section is not for you. But if this question pierces your heart and disturbs your mind, then you need to consider it. Make the time to reect on what makes your 36

life meaningful. Dream a littleor a lot! Dreaming is one of the most powerful creative methods. Take an aernoon o just to dream. If you could do anything at all, what would you do? Connect with the real longings of your heart, be honest with yourself about the actual desires of your mind. Recognize your dreamsand resolve to attain them! And dont sell yourself short: if your dreams are meaningful and important to you, for that reason alone they are worthy of being brought to life. Your life! Dont discourage yourself by thinking that your dreams are impossible. If you can conceive it, you can achieve it. Call forth the power of your imagination to create a vision of what you most want your life to be. Take the time to live that life in your imagination. Visualize yourself attaining your dreams; feel yourself as you will feel when you attain them. Take enough time for dreaming so that you can visualize your dream in detail. When you are clear on what you want from life, you have the basis for saying No to choices and actions that pull you away from your dreams. Meaningful goals give you the courage to make empowering decisions. ey give you the power to resist being distracted and swayed by the agendas of others. You have choice at every moment. And you have the right to choose what is most important and best for you. en do something every single day to bring you closer to making your big picture a reality. As you begin each new day, take a few moments rst thing in the morning to connect with your dreams and goals. And as your rst and most important task of the day, do something practical to being yourself closer to those goals. As oen as you can remember, ask yourself, Whats the most important thing for me to do right now? And remember, whats most important for you is not usually whats most urgent for others. So put on your executive producers hat and cast yourself as the hero of your own feature lm. Make it as big and dramatic and powerful as you like. You be the producer, director and star. Be creative with your lifethis magical opportunity to experience your dreams. en watch yourself grow to ll this big picture of your life!

37

Find Direction and Take Back Your Life Setting goals is a powerful process for creating your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of the future into reality. Worldclass athletes, creative artists, successful businesspeople and high achievers in all elds use goal-setting techniques to develop long-term vision and short-term motivation. Setting clear goals focuses your knowledgeacquisition eorts, and helps you to organize your time and resources to make the most of your life. Setting goals is how you choose where you want to go in life. By focusing precisely on what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your eorts. It also helps you quickly spot distractions that might lure you from your course. Properly set goals are incredibly motivating. As you develop the habit of setting and achieving goals, youll quickly build self-condence that you can create the life you dream of. Setting sharp, clearly dened goals helps you measure your progress and take pride in the achievement of those goals. Milestones will help you see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless slog. Your self-condence will soar as achieving the goals that you have set reveals your ability and competence in life. Setting Your Goals You can, and should, set goals at dierent scales. First you create the Big Picture of what you want to do with your life, and dene your long-term goals. en you break these big goals down into smaller milestones and achievable targets that you hit on the way to your lifetime goals. Once you have your goals mapped out, you can act systematically to achieve them. You start by setting your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the things you can do today to start moving towards them. If your whole lifetime is too big of a dream for you just yet, thats OK. Just dream as big as possible: 5 years, 10 years, 25 years into the future. Later when you have more experience in meeting your goals, you will get the condence to dream bigger. So the rst step is to consider what you want to achieve in your whole lifetime (or at least, say, 5-10 years in the future). Setting Lifetime Goals gives you the Big Picture, the overall perspective that shapes all other 38

aspects of your decision-making. To make sure that you give broad, balanced coverage to all important areas in your life, try to set some goals in each of the following categories, or in additional categories of your own:

Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals or develop a particular talent? If so, what? Attitude: Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Does your behavior sometimes upset you or stop you from achieving other goals? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or nd a solution to the problem. Career: What level of nancial success do you want to reach? Do you want to do something else for a living? Do you want to retire early? Education: Is there any particular knowledge you want to acquire? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals? Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family? Physical: Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this? Pleasure: How do you want to enjoy yourself? You should ensure that some of your life is for you! Public Service: Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how? Spiritual: What are your spiritual aims and goals? How will you attain them?

39

Add more categories of your own that are especially important to you. Spend some time brainstorming these. Brainstorming is a great way of generating radical ideas. Brainstorming is a useful and popular way to develop highly creative solutions to a problem by generating many radical and useful ideas in a short time. During the brainstorming process there is no criticism of ideas, as free rein is given to your creativity (criticism and judgment cramp creativity.) Brainstorming is particularly helpful when you need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. You can nd better goals and solutions to the problems you face, and make better decisions. Brainstorming is a lateral thinking process. In brainstorming, you come up with ideas and thoughts that seem at rst to be a bit shocking or crazy. You can then change and improve them into ideas that are useful, and oen stunningly original. During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas: You are trying to open up possibilities and break down wrong assumptions about the limits of the problem. Judgments and analysis at this stage will stunt idea generation. Ideas should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session; you can then explore solutions further using conventional approaches. If your ideas begin to dry up, you can seed the session with a random word picked out of the dictionary. If youre comfortable with computers, its worth exploring the use of computer-based tools for brainstorming. As long as you're reasonably quick with keyboard and mouse, these signicantly improve the quality and eectiveness of a brainstorming session. Once you have a list of big goals, select one goal in each category that best reects what you want to do. en consider trimming again so that you end up with a small number of really signicant goals on which you can focus. As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want (if you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants, however make sure you also remain true to yourself!)

40

Goal Setting Tips e following broad guidelines will help you to set eective goals:

State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively. Become an expert surfer is a much better goal than Stop falling o the suroard. Be precise: Express your goals quantitatively, including dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. is helps you know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it. Set priorities: Give each goal a priority. is helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps direct your attention to the most important ones. Write goals down: is crystallizes them and gives them more force. You can also go back and review your goals to keep them fresh in your mind. Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive todays achievable goals from larger, more dicult ones. Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. ere is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected eects of government policy. In sport, for example, these reasons could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on performancedoing your personal bestthen you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. Other people (parents, friends, employers, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you, oen because of 41

ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Or you may set goals that are too ambitious, because you may not appreciate the obstacles in the way or understand how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance. Achieving Your Lifetime Goals Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25-year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. en create a 5-year plan, 1-year plan, 6-month plan, and 1-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan. en create a daily to-do list of things that you can do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. is will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting. Finally, review your plans to make sure that they t the way in which you want to live your life. Once you have completed your plan, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer-term plans, and modify them to reect your changing priorities and experience. Reading this book, and the results of doing the processes we give you, will also inuence your goals. Its OK to modify your goals and plans at any time; that means youre growing and changing.

42

Economic Independence
One side or aspect of economic independence is creating a business that you can literally walk away from, and it keeps on functioning and generating income without your further attention. e other side is living in a place with much lower expenses than the developed, industrial rstworld countries like Europe and the USA. Earning in dollars and spending in pesos or rupees gives you great economic leverage. Even better, living cooperatively in a spiritual community allows you to both minimize your expenses and reap the advantages of a supportive association of like-minded people. Finally, developing agricultural and other forms of self-suciency give you the security that even if the present civilization crashes and burns, you can continue to survive and even prosper.

43

Spiritual Community
Following a spiritual lifestyle or process requires compatible association. It is very dicult to be the only person you know who is trying to go beyond the normal ways of doing things. Other people will be threatened by the changes you are making, and will try their best to persuade you to remain in the trap with them. You will be tempted to cave in, go back to the old ways, and lose all the benets of the advanced knowledge in this book. You need the support of like-minded people who are making similar radical changes. A spiritual community can be virtual and online, based on occasional or regular meetings, or a full-time living arrangement. e degree of closeness and association you need will vary, depending on how strong and committed to change you are. In the beginning it is better to be somewhat loosely connected to a community, as you try out the dierent spiritual methods and clarify your understanding of the Vedic philosophy. But as you develop your understanding and practices, you will crave closer association and community. In time you may desire to live full-time in a community of people dedicated to spiritual life. Actually this is the best way to attain the highest benets of spiritual life, but then again, it is not for everyone. You will have to determine the best solution for your needs.

44

Self-Suciency
During the chaos leading up to and beyond 2012, it is likely that the nancial, food production and distribution systems may fail. If this happens, everyone who depends on the existing system for their nutrition is going to be in serious trouble. e only practical answer is to develop agricultural self-suciency. Obviously, this is only possible for a rural community. We have seen people speculate about repurposing abandoned urban sites for subsistence agriculture, but this is not very practical. Urban construction and living have polluted the land underneath them so thoroughly that crops grown in these locations are likely to be inedible and/or toxic. Urban land is also very expensive, even in third-world countries. e only practical answer is to move to the country and develop a large, productive garden.

45

Part 3Spiritual Basics

is section deals with the fundamentals of Vedic spiritual philosophy. You need to understand this so that you can practice the appropriate spiritual methods. ese methods are a very important part of your survival plan, because they eliminate bad karma and create lots of good karma, and you will need all the good karma you can get. Knowledge versus Experience Knowledge of words about something is dierent from experiencing the thing itself. is is especially true of spiritual subjects. For example, we tend to focus on the study of words and ideas about God, rather than experience God directly. People generally only want to know some fancy words to impress other people, rather than take on the adventure of direct inquiry and approach God personally. eology and philosophy do have their place; but when they assume an unnatural importance, its a destructive distraction from the real spiritual path. Consider the words of Paul: e entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will destroy each other [Galatians 5:14-15] and Timothy: Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. [2 Timothy 2:14-16] When so-called spiritual people spend more time and energy arguing with each other than praying, chanting, meditating or doing service, theres a problem. Stay away from that mindset and those people. ey will waste your time for no prot. Its far better to ignore the arguments and the arguers, understand the philosophy in a simple way, and concentrate on 46

the practice. at way you will learn something more substantial than just words. Easy is Right e more you are enlightened, the more you are easy and natural. Respect all other beings in your heart, with a very light, friendly respect. We should have respect for others, but also self-respect, ease and naturalness. We must live at ease, we must be natural so we can breathe, we can move, we can enjoy life. Otherwise, if we restrict ourselves and each other too much out of excessive formality and articial respect, we build a prison for ourselves and voluntarily enter into it. What is the good of becoming enlightened, if the result is becoming imprisoned and isolated like that? Not much fun, is it? Everyplace and everything is holy, because everything is ultimately Godmade. e original material for everything comes from God, so it is natural. Nothing is truly man-made except the terrible atmosphere that we create with our bad habits, wrong choices or failure to exercise choice. e choices we make in our lives make a big dierence. We are all equal as children of God, but because of the choices in our lives we are all dierent unique individuals. In fact there is more dierence between the consciousness of an enlightened human and an undeveloped human, than between an ordinary human and an animal. So now, if you have made the choice to recognize your real spiritual nature, its actually very simple! Just turn around. Turn your life; make a dierent choice now. ink what Jesus or the Buddha or Krishnawhoever your ideal Master iswould do now, or what a loving, compassionate enlightened spiritual being would do in this situation, in this circumstance. Every time you have to make a choice (which is every moment) think like that. Just act like a spirit soul, think like a spirit soul, speak like a spirit soul, and you are a spirit soul. Enlightenment is actually such a simple thing. You already are eternal, you already are a spirit soul! But you make yourself a material being when you choose to act like an idiot or devil, or an ignorant fool. You choose not to act like a spirit soul. ats your choice, and its all right because you have to suer the consequences, and nobody else. But then dont blame God when you suer from the consequences of 47

your ignorant choices. Dont blame me that you have not become enlightened aer you have read everything in this book but you still havent chosen to realize your original spiritual nature. Your state, your condition is always the result of your past choices and actions. ats the Law of Karma. Maybe youre trying too hard. You are already a spirit soul, so why do you have to search everywhere, read so many big thick books and endlessly debate philosophy to nd enlightenment? Why do you have to go here and there, seeking and searching? e truth is within you, if you know how to see it. eres nothing to nd; you already are a spirit soul! Your consciousness is already spiritual, because consciousness, the primary symptom of the spirit soul, is itself a spiritual phenomenon. You just have to recognize yourself as a spirit soul, and then start to think, speak and act like a spirit soul, a child of God. Choose Gods way. Choose your original spiritual consciousness and way of being. Be a spiritual person. Be what you want to be: a real child of God. Its your choice. Do whatever you want with your life; but if you really choose to be enlightened, then you must do something about it. You must act out that spiritual quality. ats the core of enlightenment. eres no need to become a spirit soul, because you already are a spirit soul. You must realize your spiritual quality, and then act on it. ats really all there is to enlightenment. Now, take the four regulative principles, for example: avoiding meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex and gambling. Its not that I or God want to impose them upon you. ey are a measurement so you know where you are, where you are going, and how far you have progressed up to now. Avoiding meat-eating is a spiritual or Godlike quality, or at least a noble human quality. If you are enlightened, you would not like to kill anyone or cause anyone else to kill on your behalf by eating meat. If you are a spirit soul, you wouldnt like to kill. You wouldnt like to take lives that God has created. God has not created life to be taken away before its time; as an enlightened being, you are expected to know that. If you really love God, then you dont like to destroy a life that God has created in His image. So that means no killing, under circumstances when it is avoidable. If you still think that killing is OK, you still have this vicious quality in your heart, still like to kill people or animals, or even disturb them just for your own 48

entertainment, then you must know that you have not reached the standard of enlightenment. So this principle is a measurement for you. If you have kept these four principles during your life, then you know your that your qualities and consciousness have been rened. You have become more noble, more enlightened. You have reached a state of consciousness closer to your original spiritual quality, similar to the quality of God. at is enlightenment. It is not that if you dont observe these principles, God will punish you. God doesnt have to do anything, because you will punish yourself. As a spirit soul you know what is right and wrong, and if you deliberately have done something against the principles of spiritual life, then youll feel terrible, miserable. Youll feel like you are godless, and that makes you suer. at is hell. Your self-punishment could be long or short. It depends on how deep your degradation is according to your own judgement, against the internal standard of your own absolute spiritual purity. at is what hell is. So make sure that you do not do anything that is less noble than God, less noble than a Buddha or a Christ or a Krishna. ats how you become enlightened. ats how you become a saint, master of your own self. It is a choice that you must make in every moment. e sum total of all those choices becomes your consciousness, your character, your destiny, your enlightenment or the lack of it. It is not for me or anyone else to remind you to be good, to be holy, to be pure, because you must do it. It has to come from your own self, your own will. ere is always a choice for you. If you want to become enlightened, if you want to recognize and realize your original spiritual quality, you must discipline yourself to return to the noble road that you have strayed away from. e four regulative principles help you measure your progress toward that ideal state. eres no need for me or anyone to tell you what to do. You know exactly what to do. Just ask yourself, and abide by the judgement of your own intelligence. Always check inside, and always have the integrity to see what kind of quality you have cultivated within yourself. ats why its good to keep a spiritual diary, set goals and have a life plan, so you can see every day how far you have come and how much further you have to go. e

49

path of enlightenment is very simple, even if it isnt easy. It all depends on the quality of your consciousness. To be an enlightened saint is very simple: just act like one, think like one, speak like one, because you already are a spirit soul. All you have to do is be it! If you refuse yourself, you deny your own compassion, your own love, your own sovereign power over your life, your own highest position, then of course even the one and only almighty God could not save you, for you deny yourself. ats why we have strayed from Godliness. ats why we have strayed from enlightenment and descended into a lower quality of existence. We put ourselves into hell, into a suering condition of life, because we deny ourselves, we deny our real spiritual nature and our relationship with God. But if youre fed up with it, you dont want to suer anymore, and you are ready to return to your original divine spiritual nature, then you must make a rm decision: its time to change, to return, to turn your head and walk back. Walk back to where you have come from, and thats all there is to the spiritual path. Previously, we behaved badly. We killed people, we stole from people, we slandered people, we did all kinds of bad things; now we have to return to our original purity. Go and sin no more. Just dont do these four thingsmeat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex and gambling and you become a saintly person, a spirit soul again. at is the basis of enlightenment. ats why you can become instantly enlightened. Just throw down the butcher knife, stop killing, give up the desire to exploit, and you become a saint. Just turn your head, look at life a dierent way, and thats it. Remember and walk back to your original state of being: very simple. eres nothing more to becoming enlightened than just return to where you come from, because you already are a spirit soul. I will continue to remind you of this until you realize it. ats my job; your job is to wake up and realize it. Keep trying to remember your original nature. Keep reminding yourself that you are a spirit soul and nothing less. Of course, its dicult. I wont cheat you and say that its easy, because your mind wont let you think that way. Your mental habits are binding because you think, Oh, Im so fallen. I'm so sinful. I have been so bad, how can I be a saint or how can I become enlightened? 50

You can! Just return. Just walk back to your original nature; thats it. It doesnt matter how far from home you have walked; just turn your head and walk back, and one day youll reach your goal. If you dont turn your head and walk back, you never will reach it. It doesnt matter how long I remind you to back home, you will never reach your home if you continue walking away from it. Very simple: just return. e journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And we begin to make that journey by our choices in every moment. Before we had bad habits; now we have to cultivate good habits. Before we thought low thoughts, evil thoughts; now we have to think noble high thoughts. In any situation, act just like a saint. Be noble. Be your real self. at doesnt mean you have to be passive, and give your head to everyone to chop if they want to. ats not the way. We have respect for others, and we also have respect for ourselves. You have to know what a master would do in any situation, or circumstances. ink about it and then do it. Especially in the beginning, maybe its not exactly as a master would do, but at least you try to cultivate the idea that you are a master, because you are on the path to being a master. You are a child of God, a master, a saint. What else are you? You have to recognize God and cultivate your lost relationship with Him. Our relationship is that we are similar in quality, but vastly smaller in quantity. We are from God; He is our creator, therefore we are similar in quality, just much smaller. Similarly, everything around you, everything under you, behind you, above you, is from God. Just divided in dierent ways. Its His energy, therefore it has the same qualities; its just innitely smaller in quantity. Nothing is actually dierent from God. Similarly, the persons you meet every day are all of Godly spiritual quality. But because they are individuals they choose to express their experience in a dierent way. So we get to choose whether to be good or bad. Bad means anything that we do against the Godly spiritual qualities, against the creative power within us. So if we choose the destructive path, the damaging path of the opposite, then we try to deny the almighty power of God, and deny our own spiritual nature. We think that we will like to live that way, but actually it is an illusion. ere is no enjoyment in denial of reality. en aer a long time in denial of the truth, nally we say, OK, thats no good. ats not a good experience. Ive suered, and other people 51

have suered for that too, so I better change it. is change of heart leads us to search for the path back to home. So if anything we do in our life is against the principles of spiritual life, then just change it, and go back to the original pure way. We might suer from the consequences, but the earlier we change the less consequences we have to bear. Change is the best repentance. Whatever you did, is done. Jesus said, Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more. eres no need to ask for forgiveness, just change your attitude, change your behavior. ats the real repentance, the most sincere. If you are repentant within your heart, God knows, All right. Good that we want to return to home. Were coming back to where we belong. en you will face your home and youll be come nearer to your home with every step. Just stop dong the nonsense. at is the best forgiveness that you can create for yourself. If anything we think is not Godly, if anything we do is wrong, just forget it; dont do it again, and do the opposite. Before you were stealing and hating people and now youre giving, youre forgiving people. ats it! at is Godly, that is saintly. God is love. God is forever forgiving because He loves us. Its that simple. eres no need to repent and take all kinds of trouble, and starve yourself for seven days in order to clean your sins (unless your sin is that youve been overeating!). ere's nothing to clean your sins except yourself, your determination to change. Its very simple to clean your sins by acknowledging that they are wrong, they are ungodly, unspiritual, they are not what a saintly person would do; and you just change them and do the opposite. Whenever you want to change, the situation will change. If you turn and walk toward home, you will see more and more things that remind you of your home. It has nothing to do with my forgiveness, my turning you, helping you or blessing you. You just walked the other way, and thats when your life changed. You can develop the determination to change your life by measuring yourself according to the regulative principles. If your life has changed for the better its because youre determined to return home. You walk back toward your home, so of course you see more and more familiar scenery every day and say, Great! Now Im going in the right direction. Of course; if you turn and walk to the right direction then you

52

are in the right direction, and that choice is the essence of the spiritual path. So remind yourself every day of the regulative principles and your spiritual goals. en you become more and more Godly, more saintly, more enlightened every day. I dont know what else I can tell you. Did you understand anything? If only you really understand it, it would be so good for you. Never mind, take your time. If you want to play the fool, its OK. Play around, waste your time, its OK. It gives me a job to do, to remind you of the truth. e problem is even though all the Masters say the same thing, You are children of God. Whatever I do, you can do better. You are the future saintly persons and Masters. You and I are equal, etc. etc. You still cannot realize it. at realization is the most dicult part. We know, but we cannot digest it, we cannot make it become the whole Truth within our being because of the mind, because of the accumulated worldly knowledge about everything and about ourselves: how bad we are, how bad we have been and things like that. e only solution is to forget the whole negative journey into illusion that you have been on, and just return to home. You have not done anything so sinful that cannot be forgiven. Because you wanted to experience the way of denial, now you know its no good, and you want to experience the real way of spiritual life. ats all right; you can do what you want, because God has given you free will. You have the right to experience suering, bad actions, ignorance, even hell, if you want to; because you are free. Do what you want, but know the consequences of good and bad actions are dierent. ats why enlightened people are rare. Not because people are not spirit souls. ey are. ey just dont make the choice, dont make the eort to get out of the mud, to clean themselves and be renewed, refreshed. ey think they cannot do it. ey think that the mud is too deep, the water is too much, their eorts are too little, and theyre too weak, etc. e more they remain there, the weaker they become, the more dirty they get, and the harder to convince themselves to get out. ats why the Master must come to rescue them out of the mud and tell them, Go wash and see yourself in the mirror. Youre not dirty like that. Take some vitamins, eat some food, then you'll be strong again. Look at yourself, youre OK.

53

Sometimes people remain so long in the mud, so frozen in the water that it takes some time to recover. ats the problem: enlightenment takes time. Sometimes it takes a longer time because we have remained too long in the water, frozen ourselves. All our systems have become rigid, dicult to revive. Dicult doesnt mean impossible, it just may take a little more time. But we are eternal spirit souls; we have as much time as we need. So get on with your job of recovery, and the doctor and nurse, the Master and the scriptures, are there to help you. But you must take your vitamins, you must eat your diet, you must take the medicine that the doctor has prescribed for you. If you dont take the prescribed medicine or the advice from the doctor then it takes a longer time, thats all. Not that the doctor will kill you or punish you. He probably feels sorry for you, and he has to work harder and longer to nurse you back to health. e only real problem on the spiritual path is if we dont try to help ourselves. Only you can do the work of enlightenment.

54

The Source of Our Knowledge

e source of our knowledge about Real Happiness and the Real Happiness Method is the Vedas, the ancient wisdom books of the East. ey were rst written down over 5,000 years ago, but the oral tradition of the Vedas is actually much older than that. Its important to note that we get our knowledge from the original source texts of the Vedas. e knowledge available in the West about the Vedas has been ltered through a screen of disinformation, such that it has become completely dierent from the original sources. ere are some very powerful people in this world that do not want this knowledge to become commonplace. Why? It would disturb their cozy political and nancial arrangements. e masses will never accept this knowledge, because they are too brainwashed by the establishment. But a few individuals here and there can slip through the maze of disinformation and nd the real truth. Why do I tell you this now? To help you develop faith in the Real Happiness Method presented in this book. What you can achieve in life is totally determined by your faith. Now your faith is divided; its scattered, distributed among many dierent things. Youre hedging your bets; you have a little faith in this, have a little faith in thatthinking that maybe one of them will pan out and be a big winner. But it doesnt work that way. To attain spiritual life, and especially to attain the highest destination of spiritual life, one must have full and perfect faith in a bona de means of deliverance, and this is the Real Happiness Method. So how do we have full faith in any one thing? Well its a slow process; it doesnt just happen overnight, its a step-by-step process. So now were going to begin this process by withdrawing your faith from false things and reposing your faith in something true, the Real Happiness Method. So you already have faith, the problem is that your faith is reposed in the wrong things: things that will cheat you, things that will not give you the highest benet, things that will keep you bound and illusioned in this material world. So rst you have to accept the bad news. What is the bad news? Its that everything you think you know about yoga, meditation and spiritual life is wrong. Everything you think you know has come to you from a tainted source, it has not come from the original teachings of yoga but from somebody elses concoction, of some new idea manufactured in 55

some human mind, or even from propaganda designed to give you the wrong impressions about the knowledge of the Vedas. e Vedas are the original source teachings of yoga and meditation. ey are perfect, and they lead to deliverance from all suering. But everything we know, everything we have encountered about yoga and meditation, religion and God in the West, has been put through a lter. We already discussed e Big Lie. Once you understand exactly how that works, youll come to see that everything you think you know about God, yoga, meditation, tantra and spiritual life is actually wrong; it's actually false, its actually a trap to confuse you and defeat you in spiritual life. Lets get down to specics. ere are three reasons why I say that everything you think you know about yoga and spiritual life is wrong:

One is, you have an insucient quantity of knowledge. Two is, whatever knowledge you do possess is inaccurate. ree is, the knowledge you do possess is the wrong quality of knowledge.

Ill explain all of these one by one. ere are compelling reasons why I make these assertions, and once you get through the entire book and actually try the Method, Im sure youll agree that what I say is correct. So bear with me and keep an open mind, and try to understand that although these concepts may be challenging, Im saying these things for your benet. e rst thing I said is that you have insucient knowledge. Whatever is known in the West about yoga, tantra, etc. is perhaps one tenth of one percent of everything there is to know about the subject. e source literatures of yoga and tantra simply havent been translated into English. Most of them are still in the original Sanskrit. Especially for tantra; tantra is a huge subject, a vast subject. ere are thousands and thousands of tantras on dierent things, everything from how to build a house to how to farm to how to make ower airplanes that y through other space dimensions. You can't imagine the breadth and scope of tantra. And by the way, in one tiny little corner of the tantric literature theres something about how to make love and how to make good quality children. So why is it that in the West all we know about the tantric teachings is about sex? Didnt that ever strike you as strange? It's because 56

only a tiny fraction of the tantras, yogas and other Vedic literatures have been translated into English, and very few of those have been translated accurately. Plus the people who think of themselves as controlling the culture of the Western nations want to make the Vedas look foolish, primitive and supercial, therefore instead of translating the really profound books of the tantras, they published something sensational about sex instead. erefore I say your knowledge is incomplete. Whatever you know about yoga and meditation is only a tiny fraction of what is really to be known. But the good news is now youre reading this book, and we will introduce you to the original source material on yoga, tantra, meditation and so many other things. You wont have to guess anymore, and you wont have to rely on imperfect translations, because we have perfect translations that are accurate and faithful to the original source. By the time youre done with this book, your current knowledge on yoga and meditation will be like looking through a knothole in a fence, compared to seeing the entire vista of the entire actual teachings. is book will open up for you a new perspective on life, yoga and spiritual life, and youll wonder how you ever got through the day without it. In the end you will be able to see the force of a powerful spiritual agency, the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, on human life over thousands of years of dierent civilizations coming and going. And all that time the Esoteric Teaching has remained the same, and it has remained the civilizing force thats driving all human history. So hang in here with me, and hear this story of how the Esoteric Teaching actually shapes the course of human civilization. Finally I promise you that by reading this book and applying its teachings in your life, you will have at least one Aha! experience where the whole room lights up and you realize Oh, thats why things are the way they are; thats why my life is the way it is! Probably you will have several or many of these experiences as we go on, because the things you going to hear here are things youve never heard before from any source, because were giving the original and complete Vedic Esoteric Teaching of yoga and meditation.

57

Secrets of the Soul

You are not your material body; you are the living soul within. You are eternal and transcendental to this material world by nature. You do not have to do something to attain eternal life; you already have it by nature. e real question is, what are you going to do with your eternal life? If you only engage in temporary, conditional material activities, you are not only wasting your time and building up karma that will result in future births and suering; you are also missing the most fullling joy of spiritual life. erefore to realize your actual spiritual existence and identity, you must perform activities of the same nature as your self. is is spiritual life or devotional service. As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, similarly the soul also passes into another body at death. e self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Every living entity is an individual eternal spirit soul. Nevertheless, the material body of each spiritual living entity is changing at every moment, manifesting rst as an embryo, then as an infant, a child, a youth, an adult, and nally as an old person. However, despite the constant changes of the material body, the spirit soul does not change. e individual soul nally changes the body itself, transmigrating from one body to another at death. And since the soul is sure to have another bodyeither material or spiritualin the next birth, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone on account of the death of the material body. is is the rst great spiritual secret revealed in Bhagavad-gita. e change of body does not take place only at death; it is taking place constantly. e material body is changing at every moment. If you measure a childs body today, tomorrow youll nd the child has grown or changed the body. Materialistic medical science also agrees that the body is constantly changing. But medicine does not understand that the cause and active principle of these changes is the spirit soul. e body is changing, but the soul remains always unaected by the bodily changes. Just like we all had a childhood body, then an adolescent body, and now an adult body, but we remember the activities of our childhood,

58

even though that body no longer exists. erefore I, the self or consciousness within the body, am permanent. Just the body is changing. What is the diculty to understand this simple truth? e body is changing, but I am not changing. I am eternal; therefore I am not this body. I am not changing, therefore I am dierent from this body. is simple truth is the rst esoteric instruction of Bhagavad-gita. Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. [Bhagavad-gita 2.12] Krishna says: You are an individual soul, and I am the supreme soul. All these kings and soldiers assembled on the battleeld are also eternal souls. We all existed forever in the past. Now you and they have changed bodies, and so we continue to exist in the present. And even if they are killed in the battle, they will change their bodies, but they will continue to exist eternally in the future without any interruption. is is the rst important instruction on the path of real spiritual life. e material body is changing, and the vivid example is that even in this life, we are constantly changing the body from boyhood to youth to adulthood to old age. So what is the diculty of understanding this simple truth that the soul is dierent from the body? Any normally intelligent person can understand it. is is also proof of the eternity of the soul. In childhood I was present as myself; in boyhood I myself also was present; in youth I was present as the same individual, and even in maturity and old age I am still present as the same person, the same consciousness and identity. If I am present as the same individual through so many changes of the body, naturally when I change from this body to another body, I still exist. When I change this body at the time of death, this body will be changed, but I will remain. e change of body at death is similar to the changes of the body during this life. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]. For example, now a young child is, say, one foot tall. When this child grows up to ve feet tall, will the father and mother cry, Oh, where is my child? Where is my child, my onefoot tall child? Of course not. e parents know that My same child is there, but she has grown up. Grown up means that she has changed the

59

body. e same person is there, but the body has changed. Everyone can understand this simple fact. Similarly, Krishna is teaching Arjuna that his argument against ghting in the battle is based on a false premise: You are lamenting on account of the bodies of your grandfather and teacher; but even if they change their bodies, there is no cause of lamentation because they will continue to exist. is is the beginning of the instructions of Bhagavad-gita, or the spiritual instructions of the Esoteric Teaching. Unless one understands this simple factthat the soul is dierent from this material body; the spirit soul is eternal and unchanging, and the body is temporary, always changingwithout understanding this, there can be no spiritual knowledge, advancement or realization. If one identies with this body, there is no possibility of understanding real spiritual knowledge. As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, similarly the soul also passes into another body at death. e self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Ordinary yogis try to realize the self by meditation. Yogic meditation means that rst one has to accept some process of bodily and mental purication (yama-niyama). e yogi then has to practice the dierent kinds of sitting postures, that help to concentrate the mind (asana), control the breath and life airs (pranayama) detachment of the senses from their objects (pratyahara), and then only can attain concentration of the mind on its real nature of pure consciousness (dharana). is is real meditation (dhyana). And if they can successfully concentrate the mind in meditation on its original nature (samadhi), then they can realize the soul as pure consciousness (cit-sakti). ese are the eight limbs of astanga-yoga. So according to yoga philosophy, am I this body, or am I pure consciousness? en if I am not this body, where am I located in this body? According to the original yoga-sutras, if we observe and analyze the self according to yogic methods, eventually if we are successful we will realize ourselves as pure consciousness located within the heart. e soul is located within the heart, and the Supersoul (Paramatma) is also there. erefore, the perfection of yoga is to see oneself and the Supersoul within the heart, and realize that I am an individual soul, a particle of pure spiritual energy in relationship with the Supersoul. 60

To attain such transcendental self-realization by means of ordinary yogic methods is a very long and dicult path. But if one follows the more powerful methods of the Esoteric Teaching given in Bhagavad-gita and similar Vedic scriptures, anyone can attain that perfection immediately. e yogis reach the spiritual platform aer much exercise and purication of the body and mind. But we are giving the same thing immediately, simply by the easy method of chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. You are already a spiritual being, an eternal part and parcel of Krishna. And Krishnas expansion is the Supersoul within our hearts. So why should we take so much trouble to nd Him within the heart by ordinary yogic methods? Simply calling out to Him by His Holy Names immediately invokes His personal presence and illuminates our original pure spiritual consciousness. is bhakti-yoga process is far more practical in this day and age than ordinary hatha-yoga or astanga-yoga. e Esoteric Teaching does not begin from the gross stage of bodily consciousness. Bhagavad-gita, although it is just the beginning of the spiritual instructions of the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, begins from the stage of realization that the jnanis, the philosophers and the yogis are trying to reach: I am a pure spirit soul in eternal relation with the Supersoul. And then the Esoteric Teaching goes on to progress to unimaginable heights of spiritual attainment, far beyond the neophyte stages of realization that any ordinary yogic method can deliver in the limited time we have available. Certainly astanga-yoga, jnana and meditation are bona de spiritual methods. But in the modern Western culture we have no time or facility to learn and practice them properly. In this age, it is very rare to come to the realization that I am not this body by ordinary yoga practice. Almost all the students who are practicing hatha-yoga, jnana-yoga and so-called meditation still think that their self is this body. ey are trying to exercise this body, and they mistakenly think that perfection of this physical body is the nal perfection of yoga. But the Vedic scriptures, the original source of all knowledge and practices of yoga, do not agree. ey teach a dierent truth, a very simple but extremely profound truth. Krishna, as the supreme spiritual authority, is presenting very simply: As in this body there are dierent changes, similarly the ultimate change is called death. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] But the 61

spirit soul, as he exists within this body in spite of all changes, will continue to exist even aer the nal change of this body. is is the simple truth; please try to understand it. is is the basic principle of all further spiritual progress. If one does not understand this point of view, there can be no further progress. is is ABC, that I am not this body, but the spirit soul inhabiting and animating it. is perfection of yoga is just the beginning of the Esoteric Teaching. As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, similarly the soul also passes into another body at death. e self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Arjunas rationalization for refusing to ght in the Battle of Kuruksetra was that If I kill the opposing ghters, especially Bhisma and Drona, my grandfather and teacher, then the society will become morally degenerate, and the sin I will incur will make it impossible to be happy. is was looking at the situation from a materialistic point of view. Arjuna was lamenting because he considered that death is the end of existence. Rather, considering his relatives as spiritual beings, he should have seen their changing bodies from old to new ones as rejuvenation of their life energy. Krishnas argument is essentially: Why are you lamenting over the body of your grandfather? Hes a grand old man. If he does not dieif you do not kill him in the imminent battlehow long he will live? Whether you kill him or not, soon he will die. You should be joyful because your grandfather is going to have a new body. Why are you lamenting? Krishna presented this argument, not to justify killing, but to encourage Arjuna to perform his duty of protecting religious principles. A child can hope for many things in the future. He has got a long duration of life just beginning, but what hope has an old man like Bhisma or Drona got? ey may live only ve or ten years more. So they cannot expect, or hope for anything great like this child. eir lives are nished. So Krishna is trying to convince Arjuna that ere is no question of lamentation for your grandfather. Your grandfather is going to have a new lease of life. Why should you be sorry for killing him? But although this argument is given by Krishna, the ultimate authority, nobody will agree to it because it seems contradictory to the principles of

62

ordinary morality. Lets look at Krishnas argument from another perspective. Changing the body is an eect of the Law of Karma. Such changes of body are meant to facilitate varieties of enjoyment and suering caused by the activities of the living entity in this life. So Bhisma and Drona, being noble souls in this life, were surely going to have either spiritual bodies in the next life, or at least life in godly bodies. Krishnas implication is: Now, so far your grandfather and teacher, Bhisma and Drona, are concerned, they are among the greatest devotees. So as soon as they give up this body, they are going to Vaikuntha, the spiritual world. Just as a cruel or otherwise sinful person has already prepared his path to hell, the devoted and spiritual person has already been awarded spiritual emancipation by elevated activities in this life. All this is in accordance with the Law of Karma. For the person who is destined to go to the Kingdom of God, the sooner he dies is better for him. So Krishnas actual argument is, Why should you lament for your grandfather and teacher? ey are so highly elevated, spiritually advanced. eir deaths will take place soon anyway, because this material body is temporary. Now they have come to ght as a matter of duty. ere is no guarantee of survival in war. So even if you kill them, there is no lamentation for anyone. is is the instruction Krishna is giving to Arjuna on the Battleeld. Whether Arjuna killed them or was killed by them, in either case there was no cause for lamentation. Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul, the Supersoul, and both material and spiritual nature, is called a dhira or a most sober man. A sober selfrealized person is not bewildered by this change of the body. Dhira means sober, undisturbed. A person who is not disturbed by paltry causes is called dhira. Another example of dhira is given by the great poet Kalidasa. He wrote that dhira is one who is not disturbed, even in the presence of provocation. When there is no provocation, one may remain undisturbed, but even in the presence of provocation, one who is not disturbed is called dhira. So Krishna says, ese persons who wish to ght you on the battleeld are highly elevated. Whether you kill them or not, soon they will die and be elevated to an exalted spiritual destination. You are also My friend. Why you are disturbed in this way? at does not look well. 63

A sober man, dhira, is never deluded by the change of bodies by the living entity. An ordinary man who experiences the passing of someone close may cry, Oh, my father is dead, or My friend is dead. But one who is dhira knows, What is this death? He has simply changed his body, so there is no question of lamentation. A real self-realized yogi knows his own spiritual nature beyond a doubt, so he understands that death is simply another stage of transformation of the body, and the eternal soul remains forever. How much spiritual education is required for the ordinary person to come to this point? O son of Kunti, the impermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance of winter and summer season. ey arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. [Bhagavad-gita 2.14] Now Arjunas question is, Yes, I understand that my grandfather is spirit soul and this body is material. Still, Im human. By nature Ill be unhappy if my grandfather and teacher are killed. Whether or not I realize the spiritual truth of the soul, Ill still be unhappy. Of course, even a selfrealized soul is unhappy to see the suering of this world. No one wants himself or others to die. So Krishna is instructing Arjuna that this kind of unhappiness and distress is natural in this world. You cannot avoid it. ese are necessary distresses. e example Hes giving is that severe heat and cold must simply be tolerated, because nothing can be done about them. In the winter season, the winter cold is very severe, intolerable. Just like in Canada it sometimes goes 30 degrees below zero. Does it mean that theyll close their oces and work, and stop everything? No, everyones business is going on as usual. Spiritual maturity means that one has to be able to tolerate suering patiently, without being disturbed. In the desert during the summer, the temperature is very hot. 110 degrees or higher is not unusual. e scorching heat is so bad, the street is like a frying pan. But still, one has to go to the oce, one has to go to work. ere are some cases of heatstroke. Still, nobody can stop his duty. Life must go on, and food must be cooked on the re in spite of the soaring summer temperatures.

64

Similarly, Krishna is advising Arjuna that, Even if you think that by discharging your duty as a warrior, your grandfather will be killed, still there is no cause of lamentation. Hell get a new body and rejuvenated energy. But even if your bodily conception of life is so strong that you are sorry, you simply have to tolerate the diculty, just as one has to tolerate extreme heat and cold in winter and summer. ere is no use crying, Oh, there is extreme heat, extreme heat. Will lamenting make it any cooler? What can you do? at is natures law. Extreme heatyet everyone is cooking. Nobody says, Oh, today is extremely hot; I cannot cook. Everybody is cooking, although there is suering. Similarly, in winter there is extreme cold, but everyone is going to work as usual. Lifes duty has to be done, regardless of circumstances. ere may be some suering, but it is temporary. Krishna never says, Oh, my dear Arjuna, you are My friend. You are feeling so sorry to have to ght your relatives. All right, I shall do it for you. Krishna is practical; He says, You have to do it. Although He also says, is battle is arranged by Me. eyre already killed by My will. Nobody is going back home. Still, you have to do it. So persons who are spiritually conscious, engaged in God consciousness or Krishna consciousness, should always know that everything is to be done by Krishna. We cannot do anything without Krishnas sanction. He is the actual doer and enjoyer in all bodies. But still, we have to do our own duty. Not that we should think, Oh, Krishna will do everything. erefore we need not try to perform our work. at is laziness, lethargy, ignorance. You have to do your own duty, but with detachment, depending on Krishna for the result. is is Krishna consciousness. You dont have to be sorry if there is failure, and you dont have to be too much jubilant if there is success. Everything is done by Krishna; this is the attitude of Krishna consciousness. We all have to do our own duty. Never mind whether it is suering or happiness. It doesnt matter. e important thing in this life is to attain self-realization. Everything else is unimportant. at is the transcendental consciousness that Krishna is imparting to Arjuna. O best among men, the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress, and is steady in both, is certainly eligible for liberation. [Bhagavad-gita 2.15]

65

ese are the signs, characteristics or symptoms of someone who is qualied to attain spiritual liberation in this lifetime. A person who realizes I am spirit soul, cannot be deviated or discouraged by the changing conditions of the material world. Both happiness and suering refer only to the material body. Spiritual existence is on the platform of eternal transcendental bliss. One who knows the state of spiritual being can never be deviated from his determination to achieve the transcendental world. He simply performs the process of spiritual cultivation given in the Esoteric Teaching, and patiently awaits the result. Just like we have accepted the duty of propagating the Esoteric Teaching, so we have to execute our duties faithfully, despite the ups and downs of material life. If we continue to perform spiritual duties despite changing material conditions, we can be certain that Krishna will give us the result we desire. erefore we should remain patient, steady and determined to make spiritual progress. When a young girl marries a boy, she may desire a child. But it is not possible for her to have the child right away. If she demands the child immediately, she will simply become frustrated. But if she has condence in the marriage relationship, and her husband is pleased and loves her, in due course of time, he will give her a child. So there is no need for her to become impatient; in fact, that will make getting the child more dicult. Similarly, we have taken to the path of the Esoteric Teaching, or Vedic spiritual life. e cultivation of spiritual advancement is a life-long endeavor. We cannot expect an immediate result. But we know from the experience of our predecessors, those who have gone before us on this path, that if we perform the process of the Esoteric Teaching faithfully, then in due course of time, Krishna will give the desired result and we will attain the pinnacle of self-realization. Dont be hesitant, doubtful or impatient. For anyone who follows the process of the Esoteric Teaching, progress is sure. Krishna assures us: One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna. [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]

66

e Lord says, Anyone who has understood this Esoteric Teaching perfectly, aer leaving this body, will come to Me. is is His assurance. So we havent got any doubt that the Esoteric Teaching will lead to our spiritual emancipation, because Krishna has promised the result of our activities. Krishna is the supreme spiritual authority; His promise is never false. So our intention is to perform the process of the Esoteric Teaching perfectly, as far as humanly possible. Of course, we cannot execute anything perfectly in the presence of Krishna because He is innite, and we are nite. Our intelligence, energy, talent, and everything about us is nite. But if we try our best, then Krishna becomes satised and grateful even for a little service, if the quality of our service attitude is pure. Krishna gives the result based only on how sincere we are, how purely we perform the process of the Esoteric Teaching. is is Krishnas exalted character and His loving kindness upon us. Otherwise it is not within our power to serve Krishna perfectly, because we are very insignicant. But He assures us that the desired result will come if we act sincerely to advance in spiritual life by means of His Esoteric Teaching, the original yoga method given in Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures. ose who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance and of the eternal there is no cessation. Seers have concluded this by studying the nature of both. [Bhagavad-gita 2.16] is is a very important verse of Bhagavad-gita. We refer to it oen, because it summarizes the dierence between the material and spiritual natures. If we observe that something is changing, going through various transformations in time, then it must be material. Everything truly spiritual is eternal and unchanging, while the temporary material existence is in constant ux. ere is no endurance of the changing material body. at the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of dierent chemical reactions in its cells is conrmed by modern medical science; thus birth, growth and aging of the body take place. But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changing circumstances of the

67

body and mind. at is the dierence between matter and spirit. By nature the body is ever-changing and the soul is eternal and unchanging. is conclusion is accepted by all classes of transcendentalists, both the impersonalists and personalists. e constitutional nature of the spirit soul is eternal. at is accepted by all philosophers, both personalist and impersonalist. e dierence is that the impersonalist hypothesizes that aer liberation, the spirit soul merges with the Supreme Soul, becoming all-pervading without any individual existence. ey give the analogy that the small amount of sky within a pitcher or pot mixes with the big sky when it is broken. But any analogy holds true only if it accurately models the actual situation. Comparing the sky within the pot with the spirit soul is invalid, because the spirit soul is always an individual with his own identity. We remain the same individuals that we were in babyhood, childhood and adolescence, despite the changes of the material body. e spirit soul is always the same individual, even aer the death of the material body; even aer liberation, he remains the same person. e Esoteric Teaching says that the soul is always an individual person. So he cannot mix with the totality of spirit, but keeps his individuality eternally. It gives the analogy of a green parrot entering a green tree. When the bird enters the tree, nobody can see where the bird is, because the leaves of the tree are green and the bird is also green. But that does not mean the bird has lost its individuality. Its individuality remains, but we do not have the power to observe it. Just like when we see an airplane ying in the sky, if it goes too far away, it seems to us that the airplane has disappeared and merged with the sky. Actually, of course, it has not; its separate individual existence is still there. It is a limitation of our perception that we see it has merged with the sky. Similarly, in the daytime we cant see any stars in the sky due to the dazzling eulgence of the sunshine. But that is just an artifact of our limited perception; it does not mean the stars have merged with the sky. At night we can see millions of stars, because in the absence of proximity to the sun, we can perceive their individuality. Similarly, the impersonalists think that when the spirit soul attains liberation, he merges with the Supersoul; but this erroneous impression is

68

due simply to the limitations of their spiritual perception. However, a student of the Esoteric Teaching can clearly perceive the eternal relationship between the soul and the Supersoul, whether the soul is in the conditioned or liberated stage of spiritual life. is is because one whose spiritual realization is perfect is never bewildered by the dazzling eulgence of the Supreme. e Vedas also conrm this conclusion: O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the eulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I. [Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 16] e author of Isopanisad is petitioning the Lord that Please withdraw Your eulgence so that I can see Your real face. Just like we cannot see the sun globe perfectly, due to the dazzling sunshine. e sunshine is dierent from the sun globe, although they are related as cause and eect. But we perceive them as one due to the limitations of our vision. Similarly, our rst impression of the Supreme, Brahman, is similar to the glaring sunshine. It is so bright that we think that liberated souls merge into it. But when we become further advanced, in addition to the individual soul, we will realize the Supersoul, and when still further advanced, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan. [SrimadBhagavatam 1.2.11] e rst level of realization is Brahman, the impersonal Absolute Truth; the second level realization is Paramatma, the Supersoul; and the highest, most complete realization is the personal form of God, Visnu or Krishna. is truth also has been established in the Visnu Purana: Visnu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence. Brahmans real feature is Visnu, or the Supreme Brahman is Visnu. at is His personal feature. e supreme spiritual conception is the self-eulgent Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is also conrmed in Bhagavad-gita:

69

at supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by re or electricity. ose who reach it never return to this material world. [Bhagavad-gita 15.6] e words existent and nonexistent in Bhagavad-gita 2.16 refer only to spirit and matter. at is the version of all seers of truth. is section of Bhagavad-gita is the beginning of the Esoteric Teaching, transcendental instructions by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the inuence of ignorance. Removal of this ignorance means reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable Lord, and the consequent realization of the dierence between the living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. is dierence is primarily quantitative: we are limited, but the Lord is not. erefore one can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself. e dierence between oneself and the Supreme Being should be understood as the relationship between the part and the whole, the nite spirit soul and the innite Spirit Whole. In the Vedic scriptures, the Supreme is described as the origin of all emanations. e emanations of the divine are categorized as superior and inferior energies, or spiritual and material natures. e living entity belongs to the superior spiritual nature. Although there is no fundamental qualitative dierence between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is the Supreme and the emanated energy, or nature, is His subordinate creation. e constitutional position of the living entities therefore is always to be subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to grasp under the spell of ignorance. To drive away such ignorance, the Lord gives the Esoteric Teaching in Vedic scriptures such as Bhagavad-gita, for the spiritual enlightenment of all beings for all time. at which pervades the body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul. [Bhagavad-gita 2.17] Now, what is it that pervades the body? It is consciousness. e spirit soul is very small, atomic in size, but his inuence is so potent and pervasive that this tiny particle is the source and controller of the entire material body. Just like if you take a tiny dose of LSD, just a few micrograms which you cannot even tastestill you will feel its inuence all over your

70

body, and even in your mind. (Incidentally, this indicates that the mind, though subtle, is material and thus part of the body, because it can be inuenced by a material substance.) Such a small amount of a material substance, LSD, has so much power that it can inuence the functions of the entire body and mind. Similarly, although the soul, the spiritual self or spark, is such a small atomic particle, it is so powerful that as long as he is present within the heart, this body lives and moves, and is precious and desirable. But as soon as the soul passes from the body, the body immediately dies and begins to decompose. e soul is so powerful. If the inuence of a tiny amount of a material substance like LSD can pervade the body, why not the inuence of a tiny particle of spirit? e spiritual inuence of the soul is consciousness. Because I, the spirit soul, live within the heart of this body, the body lives and moves according to my will. I can feel any part of my body, due to the pervasiveness of my consciousness. is consciousness is the energy of the spirit soul. So by the pervasive inuence of consciousness, we can understand that there is a spirit soul present in the heart of the body. is verse of Bhagavad-gita (2.17) clearly explains the real nature of the soul. e soul is a powerful, indestructible energetic particle of spiritual energy whose inuence pervades the entire body. Anyone can understand what pervades the body; it is consciousness. Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body, either in part or as a whole. But the inuence of our consciousness is limited to ones own body. One soul cannot be directly conscious of another souls body. Consciousness is a property or quality of the soul. e spirit soul has other energies and qualities, including personality, identity, life energy, desire, will, aesthetics, love, discrimination, the power of manifestation and many more. Since the soul is eternal and can never be destroyed, its qualities are also permanent and unchangeable. So the personality and individuality of the soul are as eternal as the soul himself. Unfortunately, few people properly understand the nature of consciousness and these other qualities of the soul. For example, the Mayavadi impersonalist philosophers theorize, Yes, I am a small particle of pure consciousness. But as soon as this body is nished, my small consciousness will merge with the supreme all-pervading

71

consciousness, and I will attain oneness with God. at is the impersonalist theory. But we observe that in our present condition, our consciousness is limited to this body. We are certainly conscious, but no one can say that we are superconscious. Because our consciousness is limited to this body, we cannot feel the sensations of other bodies. You cannot argue that you are one with God, even potentially, because your consciousness is limited. But Krishnas consciousness is not limited like ours. He explains in Bhagavad-gita: O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its knower is called knowledge. at is My opinion. [Bhagavad-gita 13.3] e spirit soul is the knower of this body. erefore the soul is called one who knows this body. I am conscious of my body; you are conscious of your body. But Krishna is conscious of everyones body. erefore Hes also the Knower of the body as Paramatma, the Supersoul in all bodies. We cannot articially become God. God is eternally God, and we cannot become God by some mystic word jugglery or imaginary meditation. Krishna is already God; His consciousness is all-pervading. He is the knower in all bodies, because His consciousness is unlimited. We can never display the symptoms of all-pervasive consciousness, because our consciousness is fundamentally limited to our individual embodiment. Our constitutional nature is similar to Krishnas, but He is unlimited, whereas we are limited in all respects. at is the principal dierence between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, Krishna. erefore our real position is to act in service to the Supreme Soul, and thereby perfect our spiritual realization. e transcendental art of devotional service, as given in the great Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, is the key to this perfection of self-realization. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] We may temporarily possess this material body, but we are not its creator, proprietor or owner. We are simply the inhabitants. 72

Just like if you live in a rented house, the owner or proprietor is someone else. Everyone knows that the tenant is only the occupant of a rental property, a temporary resident, and the proprietor is a dierent person. e renter cannot claim proprietorship or ownership of the property. So I am the spirit soul inhabiting this body. I am not the proprietor or owner; I am simply the resident or occupant of the body. Materialists are very attached to the body, but they do not understand that the actual proprietor of the body is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God gives us a particular apartment, or residential situation, according to our capacity to pay rent. is is our position: we are only tenants in this body, and Krishna is the actual proprietor or landlord. Otherwise, why is everyones bodily situation so dierent? Everyone does not get a rst-class body, like a beautiful movie star body, or a rich mans body. A child born into a rich family is immediately rich. Another child born nearby at the same time is very poor. Why? ere must be some intelligent arrangement according to the individuals qualications. Otherwise there is no reasonable explanation of why one person is born rich and another, poor. is bodily inequality is the result of the path of material cause and eect. It is not due to chance. One child with little qualication is given a lowclass room, a cheap apartment, according to his lesser capacity of paying rent. And another child with better karmic qualication is given a very luxurious apartment, according to his greater capacity of paying rent. According to your karma, or previous lives work, you get a body exactly according to your qualication. So in each birth you get a particular type of bodyas the child of a rich man or a poor man, a dog or a cat, or a tree or plantaccording to your accumulated karma. is conception of the dance of material nature is the key to understanding our material situation. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita 2.12, Dont think we did not exist in the past or that we shall not continue to exist in the future. We existed eternally in the past, we are existing at present, and we will continue to exist in the future without any limitation. e spirit soul is eternal, but takes one temporary body aer another according to his qualication. If we increase our qualication, if we are able to pay more rent, we can transfer to a better apartment in the next life. Or if we cannot pay the present rent, then we

73

have to move to a less expensive apartment. So we are eternal; we are simply changing bodies from one lifetime to another according to our karma. is simple concept answers so many dicult questions about spiritual life. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Even in this life I experience that I have changed apartments so many times. First I was in an infants body; then I changed from that apartment into a boy body; then again I changed from that apartment into an adolescent body; then I changed to an adult body. Soon I will change again to an old man body, and when I vacate that apartment at the time of death, Ill have to accept another apartment, another body, according to my qualication. Why is it so dicult for many people to understand this science of the soul? e spirit soul in the material world is away from his natural home in the spiritual world. erefore he must possess a material body in which to reside. e body is simply an apartment in which the soul temporarily resides while in the material world. ere is no reason to be identied with the apartment, or to think the body is the self. A human being who identies this material body with his self, who considers the by-products or relations of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, or who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a cow. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.84.13] Just like an apartment building is made of bricks, stone and cement; similarly, according to Ayurvedic medicine this body is made of mucus, bile and air. So what is this body? Simply a complicated construction of material elements. What is the essential dierence between this body and an apartment building? No essential dierence. Just like in an apartment building there are so many bricks; the bones of the body are like bricks. And in the apartment building there are so many pipes full of water and other liquids; similarly, in the body there are many 74

pipes carrying blood, lymph and other materials within the abdomen. e electrical wiring of the apartment may be compared with the nerves and brain of the body. Similarly, if you think about it, this body is made of the same materials as the whole material manifestation. ere is no essential or qualitative dierence between the materials in this body and in the entire universe, simply a dierence in quantity. e body is a small quantity and the universe, a large quantity of the same material ingredients. e ants body, the human body, the elephants body, and this gigantic universewith its innumerable planets, suns, moons and the vast expanse of spaceare made of the same material ingredients. It is only a dierence of quantity: a big apartment or a small apartment, a cheap low-class apartment or an opulent, expensive townhouse. ats all. is is the material world. Karma means that everything is balanced; a zero-sum game. As soon as you make some prot on one side, there is a loss on another side. For example, if you want to construct a big apartment building, you must dig up the earth to provide the materials. Otherwise, you cannot create the bricks and other building materials. You have to dig material from somewhere else, process it and pile it up until the building is complete. And that is the advancement of material civilization: simply increasing the digging and piling up of material. e materialists do not think, Why am I uselessly digging and piling this material stu? Aer all, soon my karma will kick me out of this body, and then all my work of digging and piling will come to naught. ey too busy digging and piling up material to contemplate the real situation. ey cannot hear Bhagavad-gita or the Esoteric Teaching from a self-realized Master Teacher. ey are too busy with temporary material work. is is called maya, forgetfulness or the illusory concept of life. But just as the tenant of an apartment is qualitatively dierent from the apartment itself, the soul is qualitatively dierent from the body he inhabits. e body is constructed of material energy, and the soul is spiritual energy, conscious and personal. Anyone who wants to make tangible spiritual advancement must understand this point very clearly.

75

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] e soul is changing apartments according to his qualication. Even in this life, the soul lives in dierent apartments: the fetus body, the infant body, child body, adolescent body, adult body, old man body. And ones intelligence and consciousness develop according to the apartment, according to the body. When the living being, or the soul, gets a particular type of body, he develops qualities of consciousness inuenced by his association with that body. For example, a poor man living in a small cottage or unclean apartment in a bad neighborhood has a certain attitude and consciousness. Another man, a respectable gentleman living in a very nice house or apartment in a good neighborhood, has a dierent mentality. So, although the poor man and the rich man are both human beings, their intelligence and consciousness develop dierently according to their circumstances and experience. Similarly, although all living entities are spirit souls, according to the apartment or body a soul occupies, he develops a particular consciousness and mentality. e materialists say, I dont believe in transmigration of the soul. Well, one may believe or disbelieve, but natures work will go on according to these spiritual principles. If you have developed the karmic qualications required to occupy a rst-class apartment, then nature will give you a nice body. But if you use those good qualications only to pursue animalistic material activities, you waste the tremendous spiritual opportunity of this human life. So if you are fortunate, if you have good intelligence, good resources, a beautiful body, dont spoil it by simply behaving like cats and dogs; utilize it for understanding further good, and progressing in spiritual life. at is the message of our Esoteric Teaching. Bhagavad-gita says that you are misled, and simply stuck in bodily consciousness. erefore ght against this misunderstanding, as Krishna is urging Arjuna to ght his relatives who are sunk in material illusion.

76

Take this understanding and use it to think through everything. If you have the understanding that I am not this body; I am spirit soul, then you should also think, Why I am falsely identifying myself with this land? Under the aegis of nationalism, people think: I am a citizen of this country because I am born in this land. at is also illusion, a false concept. No land is originally America or Germany or France or England. People have falsely named it: is is America. Five hundred years ago, there was no America. e land was there, but the false material designation was not there. en some Europeans colonized it and then named it. ey accept the illusion: is land is America. at land is Mexico. You cannot cross without a passport. So nationalism, which is the cause of so much unnecessary ghting and suering, is based on false material designation. ese are just some of the terrible consequences of misunderstanding the science of the soul. Actually, the land does not belong to you or the government, but it belongs to God. e land was created by God, so it is Gods property. Where is the diculty to understand? You did not create anything. You did not create even your own body. e proprietor of the body is also Krishna. Because as soon as Krishna orders you, Please vacate, you must leave the body immediately. Just like when the landlord asks you to vacate a rented property, you have to vacate. Or if you have rented a house and the proprietor does not repair it, you voluntarily leave because it has become unlivable. is is the law of nature, the law of God. And how nicely it is explained in Bhagavad-gita. As we have changed the body so many times even in this life, the same change is happening at the time of death. But we cannot see how this change of body is taking place. erefore we think we remain in the same body throughout life. But actually it is not the same body. e body of the youth is dierent from the baby body; it is changing because the person, the soul, is living within the body. As long the soul is there, the body will change. But as soon as the soul is not there, a dead body will not grow or change. So we understand that even in this lifetime, we existed in the past in a dierent body. I existed, say, 40 years ago in a dierent body. en I was jumping and playing as a boy, but now I cannot jump like that. Now I have to move much more carefully. is is a dierent body. If I were still in the 77

same body, then I could still jump like a boy. But now it is not possible; so it is dierent body. Although it has changed imperceptibly over many years time, the body is dierent. So by thinking through the logic of this verse, try to understand: those who are intelligent and sober-minded, who understand the secrets of the soul and spiritual life according to the Esoteric Teaching, are called dhira. Ordinary materialistic fools and rascals cannot understand the mysteries of the soul, therefore the word dhira applies to those who can understand. erefore one has to become intelligent and sober, or dhira. Intelligence means that to facilitate spiritual understanding we have to create favorable circumstances. Just as to create healthy body, you have to eat and exercise properly so you will not fall sick; similarly, dhira means that one engages his intelligence to create favorable circumstances for spiritual growth. e circumstances most favorable for spiritual life are to be associated with a bona de mystery school under the direction of a living self-realized Master Teacher, such as this Esoteric Teaching. en there is every prospect for complete success in the perfection of yoga. Many people, both in India and the West, are under the mistaken impression that the Paramatma or Supreme Soul, and the spirit soul or individual soul are the same, and that therefore Brahman and Parabrahman are one. Certainly, the atma is the part and parcel of Paramatma, the Supreme Lord, but does this really mean that atma and Paramatma are one? If the atma is part and parcel of Paramatma, then does this mean that the tiny subatomic atma and the great Paramatma are identical? Some sectarian philosophers and religionists assert that the Bhagavad-gita is only a song of Lord Krishna, and the Vedas are the pure knowledge of Parabrahman. us they attempt to draw an articial distinction between the Vedas and Bhagavad-gita. Does the Esoteric Teaching follow the philosophy of the original Vedas, or are we following some other understanding found in Bhagavad-gita? Is there really any dierence or contradiction between the Vedas and Bhagavad-gita? Bhagavad-gita says, By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. [Bhagavad-gita 15.15]

78

e actual purpose of the Vedas and Vedanta is to help us understand Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. at is the relationship of Bhagavad-gita with all other Vedic literature, especially Vedanta. If you cannot understand Krishna by your study of Vedas and Vedanta, then it is srama, simply useless labor. e occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead. [SrimadBhagavatam 1.2.8] So if your hard work and study of Vedas and Vedanta or other scriptures, meditation, yoga and so forth do not lead you to understanding Krishna, then it is certainly just useless labor. Veda means knowledge, and anta means ultimate. us the ultimate conclusion of the Vedas is called Vedanta. e four original Vedas, Upanisads, Mahabharata and many other Vedic scriptures were compiled by Vyasadeva, who is also considered an incarnation of Krishna. erefore there is no actual dierence between the conclusions of the Vedas, Vedanta and Bhagavad-gita. All the Vedic literatures agree that ultimate knowledge is to know God. You may not accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the Vedic literatures certainly do. All the great Master Teachers in India, like RamanujMaster Teacher and MadhvMaster Teacher, accept Krishna. So all the great Master Teachers have accepted Krishna as the ultimate aim of the Vedic Esoteric Teaching. Many have written commentaries on Vedantasutra that accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So we have to follow the footprints of the great stalwart Master Teachers. One should approach a bona de spiritual Master Teacher. [Bhagavad-gita 13.8] Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not dier from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. e solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated self-realized person. Consequently, as the Vedas conrm, one should accept whatever progressive path the

79

Master Teachers advocate. [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 17.186]. If we follow the footprints of the Master Teachers, the great souls, then we nd there is no distinction between the philosophy of Vedanta-sutra and Bhagavad-gita. When most people speak of Vedanta, they are referring to the Vedanta-sutra commentary of SankarMaster Teacher, the Sarirakabhasya. But Sankaras impersonalist commentary is a comparatively recent invention; by the time Sankara wrote Sariraka-bhasya, all the great Master Teachers had already written commentaries on Vedanta-sutra, and they all disagree with and refute Sankaras impersonal interpretation. Actually, Srimad-Bhagavatam is the original commentary on Vedanta, written over 5,000 years ago by Srila Vyasadeva, the author of Vedantasutra. If anyone can understand the real meaning of Vedanta-sutra, it would be Vyasadeva, the original author. And he asserts throughout Srimad-Bhagavatam that Lord Sri Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam begins with a quote from Vedanta-sutra, and goes on to glorify the exalted position and qualities of Sri Krishna. O my Lord, Sri Krishna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I oer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krishna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who rst imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmaji, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in re, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krishna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1] 80

Vedanta does not mean impersonal godlessness. Vedanta means to know God, Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, bhakti-yoga or the Esoteric Teaching is the real study of Vedanta. is is the conclusion of all the Vedic scriptures and Master Teachers, from the original author of the Vedas and Vedanta, down through history to the present day. So, what is the dierence between Paramatma and spirit soul, spirit soul? It is not very dicult to understand. Just like a grown man is a father with a number of children at home. Because they are his children, their ingredients and qualities are the same or very similar to his; but still, the father is in a superior position, and the children are dependent. e children are not qualitatively dierent from the father, but still, the father is superior or senior, and the children are inferior or junior. e father and his children are qualitatively one, but quantitatively dierent. Similarly the spirit soul, or individual soul, and Paramatma the Supreme Soul are quantitatively dierent, but qualitatively similar: spirit soul is spirit, and Paramatma is spirit. But the spirit soul is a tiny subatomic particle of spirit, and the Paramatma is the unlimited, innite Spirit. is philosophy is inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and dierence. It requires transcendental logic to understand; ordinary two-valued Western Aristotelian materialistic logic can never accommodate the actual transcendental situation. We will examine this point in detail in later posts in this series. e spirit soul and Paramatma are one in quality, but dierent in quantity. We have some creative power, and God has creative power. erefore we are qualitatively one with God. We can create some tiny satellites and launch them into orbit around the earth. But the Paramatma has created millions of gigantic planets and stars oating in unlimited space. So we have got some very tiny quantity of creative power, but we cannot create like Paramatma. at is the dierence. e question is really very simple, and the answer is also very simple. Paramatma is very great; you are very small. Certainly, the spirit soul is part and parcel of the Paramatma. But Paramatma is a dierent individual person from the atma, and also vastly superior both in quantity and position.

81

Because we are similar to Paramatma in quality, we have some independent will. Paramatma has supreme independence, complete and unlimited independence. We are completely dependent on Paramatma, but have a little independence also. But when we misuse that little independence, both individually and collectively, to go against the purposes of Paramatma, we create havoc. e living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. But due to materially conditioned consciousness, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind. [Bhagavad-gita 15.7] Paramatma is certainly responsible for the creation of both the jivatmas and this material world, but He is not responsible for our misuse of our tiny independence. Just like a father certainly creates his children; but if the child becomes a thief, does it mean the father is responsible? e living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. is is due to his association with that material nature. us he meets with good and evil among various species. [Bhagavad-gita 13.22]. You are independent. You can associate with dierent qualities of material nature, but then you have to accept the karma generated by your material activities. us your misuse of your minute independence leads to the suering experienced by all living entities in the material world. erefore Paramatmas instruction is Give up all dierent types of religion and just surrender to Me. [Bhagavad-gita 18.66]. But you do not abide by that. You create your own independent path; therefore you suer. e father loves his son and gives him good advice: My dear boy, do like this. Youll be happy. But the son does whatever he likes, and gets into trouble. en who is responsible for the sons travails, the father or the son? Our experienced advice is that if you work according to the simple, clear instructions of God in Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures, then youll be happy. at is the value proposition of the Esoteric Teaching. Many people who hold the impersonalist view that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual soul are identical, also say that there is no dierence between service to human beings and service to Paramatma. But the Vedic scriptures do not agree with that philosophy. 82

As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satises the demigods, who are parts of that Supreme Personality. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.31.14] If you water the leaves of a tree, it will gradually dry up; but if you put water on the root, the whole tree is nourished. You simply waste your time if you water the leaf, because you cannot make the tree ourish and produce fruit that way. If you water the leaf, you simply think that you are doing service, but you are doing nothing. But if you water the root, automatically the branches, twigs and leaves ourish, and everything becomes invigorated. We may help a few individuals by serving one person at a time; but this is like pouring water on the leaves of the tree. e best service is to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of transcendental sound vibration. Of the great sages I am Bhrgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental om. Of sacrices I am the chanting of the holy names, and of immovable things I am the Himalayas. [Bhagavadgita 10.25] erefore the Esoteric Teaching recommends to chant the Holy Names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as ones principal form of yoga and spiritual service. at will be most eective in reviving our original ecstatic spiritual consciousness. en once we are in the normal healthy state of spiritual consciousness, we can really help other people. When we hold the relationship between spirit soul and Paramatma in the proper context of simultaneously one and dierent, our conception is properly aligned with the actual reality. is transcendental ontological conception is the actual active ingredient in spiritual progress, and will help us to attain the perfection of yoga very quickly. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] 83

e soul is a particle of conscious energy. What kind of energy particle has properties like consciousness? A fragmental particle of the Supreme Consciousness. When Arjuna asked Krishna, How are You controlling the whole cosmos, Your power and energies? Krishna explained His energies to Arjuna in detail, but nally He concluded: But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe. [Bhagavad-gita 10.42] e whole material world is sustained by a partial manifestation of Krishnas energies. Tthis temporary phenomenal material cosmos is only one fourth of Gods total energy. e other three-fourths of His energy is the eternal noumenal spiritual world. Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. [Bhagavad-gita 8.20] Krishna emanates two classes of energies, material nature and spiritual nature. e material manifestation is temporary, but the spiritual nature is described as eternal and transcendental to this material nature. e ingredients of material nature are also described in Bhagavad-gita: Earth, water, re, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false egoall together these eight constitute My separated material energies. [Bhagavad-gita 7.4] ese eight types of material substancesearth, water, re, air, sky, mind, intelligence and false egocomprise material nature. e material energies are separated from Krishna; in other words, they are of dierent quality. Krishnas transcendental body is completely spiritual, and is never in contact with material nature. Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature. [Bhagavad-gita 7.5]

84

ese material energies are inferior. But beyond this inferior material nature, there is another, superior nature. What is that? e living entity or spirit soul. So the living entity or soul is the spiritual energy of the Supreme Lord, just as in the example of the sun and the sunshine. Sunshine is the energy emanated by the sun globe. What is the sunshine? It is a ood of very small shining subatomic particles, photons. It looks homogeneous, but actually the sunshine is composed of small individual particles. Similarly, we living entities, are energies emanated by the Supreme Lord. is spiritual energy is composed of many individual small particles of the Supreme Lord. erefore we are similar to the Lord in quality. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] e living entity, or soul, is an energy of the Supreme Lord, just like the sunshine is the energy of the sun globe. e sunshine appears homogeneous, but is actually composed of tiny shining subatomic particles. Similarly, we spirit souls are also miniscule particles of the Supreme Lord. e living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. [Bhagavad-gita 15.7] We are a small particle of conscious living energy. How small? e size of the spirit soul is also described in the condential scriptures of the Esoteric Teaching: If we divide the tip of a hair into a hundred parts, and then divide one of these parts again into a hundred parts, that very ne division is the size of the numberless living entities. ey are all cit-kana, particles of spirit, not matter. [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 19.140] e dimension of the living entity is given as one tenthousandth of the tip of a hair. e human hair is about 100 microns in diameter, and the tip of an uncut hair tapers to about 10 microns, or 10 millionths of a meter.

85

erefore according to the Vedic scriptures, the size of the particle of the spirit soul is about .0001 microns, or .1 nanometers. Western science is very proud of creating sensitive measuring instruments. But here is information from the Esoteric Teaching of the measurement of the living soul. Now, you cannot perceive such a tiny particle with your eyes, or measure it even with the most powerful microscope, even if it were visible to material vision. So the spirit soul is an invisible particle of transcendental energy smaller than a material atom and beyond the resolution of any material instrument. Because the materialistic scientists cannot observe or measure the spirit soul, they say he is formless and impersonal. Nevertheless, we all experience ourselves subjectively as conscious, personal entities. So this is really an ontological problem; the materialists cannot understand themselves because they are looking for the soul in the wrong way. (e transcendental ontology of the soul is discussed in detail on our site Transontology.org.) So-called objective material empirical investigation can never reveal the real form or nature of the spirit soul. How then can we ascertain the existence and transcendental form of the Lord? Both the Supersoul [Paramatma] and the atomic soul [spirit soul] are situated on the same tree of the body within the heart of the living being. Only one who has become free from all material desire and lamentation can understand the glories of the soul by the grace of the Supreme. [Katha Upanisad 1.2.20] Spiritual realization or enlightenment means, rst of all, to understand the spirit soul. Because the spirit soul is a small particle of the Lord, we can understand the quality of the Lord by understanding him. Just like if you test a small particle of gold, then you can understand the composition of the gold bar from which it came. Similarly, if you test a little drop of water from the ocean, you can analyze the chemical composition of the entire sea. If you analyze the characteristics of the living entity, then you can at least begin to understand the qualities and characteristics of God. erefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand ones own self and the ontological position of the soul. is self-realization is the perfection of all yoga practice.

86

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Here is the solution for all the problems of material life, including the problem of death. e suering of material existence is due to the constant changing of the body, beginning from conception up to death. Yet the spirit soul is eternal and indestructible, and does not die when the body dies. A sober person who knows this Esoteric Teaching perfectly is relieved from all the anxieties of material life. So spiritual education or enlightenment means, rst of all, we must try to understand the spirit soul. Because each soul is a subatomic particle of the Lord, by that study we can also understand the spiritual qualities of the Lord to some extent. Just like if you test a small particle of gold, then you can understand the properties of a large mass of gold. And if you test a little drop of water from the ocean, you can analyze the chemical composition of the entire sea. Similarly, if you analyze the ontological characteristics of the living entity, then you can at least begin understand the characteristics of God. erefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand ones self. Realizing ones eternal spiritual nature is called self-realization. How can we attain self-realization? We have to take transcendental knowledge from the Esoteric Teaching. To acquire actual transcendental knowledge, we must learn it from a qualied teacher. erefore, one should approach a qualied self-realized Master Teacher and patiently hear the Esoteric Teaching from him, along with sincere inquiries and service. Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. e self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth. [Bhagavad-gita 4.34] So here is the supreme teacher, Krishna, speaking the Esoteric Teaching in Bhagavad-gita. And Arjuna, aer hearing Bhagavad-gita from Krishna, also accepts Him as the Supreme Person: Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, 87

transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa conrm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O Krishna, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality. [Bhagavad-gita 10.12-14] Krishna is accepted as the supreme teacher not only by Arjuna, but also by great Vedic sages like Vyasadeva, Narada, Devala, Asita, Sukadeva, Suta and all other great sages. And in the modern age, He is accepted by great Master Teachers like Sri RamanujMaster Teacher, MadhvMaster Teacher, Visnusvami and even SankarMaster Teacher. More recently, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the powerful devotional incarnation of the Supreme Lord who appeared only ve hundred years ago, also accepted that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His immediate followers and disciples, such as Sri Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, Ramanada Roy, and Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis of Vrndavana, are the architects and senior Master Teachers of this lineage of the Esoteric Teaching. Our linage includes such great spiritual luminaries as Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Visvanath Cakravarti akur and Narottama das akur, Bhaktivinod akur and our own spiritual Master Teacher, Abhay Caranaravindam akur. All these great sages and Master Teachers came from India. So if you already have some taste for Indian Vedic spiritual culture, you are fortunate because you have some contact with these great sages of the Esoteric Teaching. We have to follow the Master Teachers to attain perfect knowledge of transcendence. And all these Master Teachers accept Krishna as the Supreme Lord. All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. e Lord incarnates to protect the theists. [SrimadBhagavatam 1.3.28] at is the acceptance of Krishna as the Supreme in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Similarly, Lord Brahma also accepted Krishna:

88

Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes. [Brahmasamhita 5.1] ere is so much evidence in the Vedic scriptures that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. is is the nal verdict of the Esoteric Teaching. So we also accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And by practicing His instructions, we can also have direct experience of Krishna. So there is no doubt about it. But why is it that some people do not accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Why do so many important scholars and big scientists refuse to accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead? at is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita: ose miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me. [Bhagavad-gita 7.15] ose who do not accept Krishna are called duskrtina. Krti means meritorious, and dus means misusing. So, duskrtina means miscreants, those who are meritorious only for making mischief. Everyone has got some merit. e mischief-makers also have merit, but they use their merit for making mischief. In other words, they are rogues and thieves. When a thief steals, he requires intelligence to plan the heist. So hes applying his intelligence, how to steal very tactfully, how to be a great rogue tactfully, how to become a smuggler. Criminals also require good intelligence, but their intelligence is misused for mischievous activities. e more intelligent they are, the more mischief they perform, because their intelligence is directed toward criminal activities. Such misdirected people are called miscreants, duskrtina. Another class mentioned in this sloka is mudha. Mudha means ass. ey have less intelligence, or no intelligence. e ass works very hard all day carrying clothes for the washerman, and at the end of the day is satised with a little grass, which is actually obtainable anywhere. Yet he is working so hard unnecessarily. And naradhama means the lowest of the mankind, uncivilized aborigines and savages. Finally, mayaya apahrta-jnanah means

89

those whose knowledge has been stolen by maya, illusion. ey are cheated by false teachers and useless teachings. And asuram bhavam asritah means those who take shelter of the atheistic nature of demons. So those who are duskrtina, mudha, mayaya apahrta-jnanah or asuram bhavam asritah do not recognize Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ese are very strong terms. But we are not manufacturing these words, we are not making up these statements. ese words are there in the Bhagavad-gita. If we study Bhagavad-gita sincerely, we have to accept the statements of Krishna as the supreme spiritual teacher. And He condemns those who do not surrender unto Him with very strong language. Bhagavad-gita means the speech that is delivered, or the song that is sung by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If Krishna is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then Bhagavad-gita has no meaning, because the opinions of an ordinary man are full of imperfections. So the Esoteric Teaching is delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and passed down carefully through the lineage of great sages, Master Teachers and incarnations. erefore the perfection of yoga is found by attaining selfrealization by following the instructions of Krishna in Bhagavad-gita and other literatures of the Esoteric Teaching. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] e Esoteric Teaching is a living mystery school meant to preach all over the world that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead [SrimadBhagavatam 1.3.28]. You are searching aer God; that is why you are reading this. You are taxing your brain so much, trying this kind of yoga and that kind of meditation, going to this teacher and that seminar, and reading many dierent books. But in spite of making so much eort, you are still unsure what is the truth. Your mind is full of doubt and uncertainty. So, sometimes you think that ere is no God, or God is dead, or Everyone is God, and so on. And then later on you change your mind and think something dierent. But our value proposition is: Why you are taxing your brain? Why are you trying so hard, studying so many dierent

90

contradictory teachings? Here is God, Krishna. e proof is that He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by great spiritual authorities, by the Vedic scriptures, and by His unparalleled activities when He appeared on this planet 5,000 years ago. If we read the life of Krishna as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Visnu Purana and other authentic Vedic scriptures, we can see that Krishna displays all the symptoms of God, from His very His birth. God is not manufactured by some mystic power or speculated by some tricky word jugglery. No one can become God by any kind of meditation. God is always God, and the spirit souls are always innitesimal. A tiny spirit soul cannot become God; similarly, God cannot become a spirit soul, just like the sunshine can never become the sun. at is ontologically impossible. Krishna was God from the very beginning of His earthly pastimes. As soon as Krishna took birth, He appeared in His four-handed Visnu form. But when His mother prayed to Him to become an ordinary child, He assumed a human-like infant form with two hands. at is God; He displays all the power and other symptoms of God from the very beginning. It is not possible that one can become God by discovering some secret knowledge or attaining some arcane mystic power. You certainly have some powers that are similar to Gods because every one of us is a part and parcel of God. erefore we do have some godly qualities, but in minuscule quantity. You can never become equal to God; that is absolutely impossible. e ontological positions and relationships of all the incarnations, demigods and living entities have been analyzed by great Vedic scholars, and they have found that only Krishna displays all of the qualities of God to an unlimited extent. All of the above-mentioned incarnations [listed in SrimadBhagavatam] are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Bhagavan Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28] ere are many gods who are worshipable by ordinary human beings. Most of them are demigods, but demigods are not the one Supreme God, or Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavan svayam. Demigods are ordinary living entities who have been empowered to perform specic

91

duties of universal administration. Many other incarnations and aspects of God (such as Narayana, Paramatma and Visnu) are either expansions, or expansions of expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but only Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes. [Brahmasamhita 5.1] We are speaking of the isvarah paramah, or Paramesvara. Isvara means controller, but paramesvara means the Supreme Controller; similarly atma means soul, but paramatma means the Supreme Soul or Supersoul. e prex param means the supreme, and indicates God. We jivas are brahman or spirit; but the Supreme Lord is Parabrahman, the Supreme Brahman. So all these names of the SupremeParabrahman, Paramatma, Paramesvara are applicable to Krishna alone. Aer hearing Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna declared: Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. [Bhagavad-gita 10.12] at is the position of Krishna. Similarly, Lord Brahma states: Govinda, Krishna, is the original person and the Supreme Enjoyer. He alone is worshipable. [Brahma-samhita 5.29] Lord Brahma is the rst Master Teacher in our line of the Esoteric Teaching. erefore we who are initiated into the Brahma sampradaya follow his conclusion. Krishna also says in Bhagavad-gita, Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages. [Bhagavad-gita 10.2] Devanam refers to demigods like Brahma, Siva or Mahesvara, and lesser demigods like Indra, Candra, Varuna and many more. So Krishna says, aham adir hi devanam, I am the origin of all the demigods. Krishna is not only the source of the demigods; Hes the origin of everything.

92

I am the source of all worlds. Everything emanates from Me. [Bhagavad-gita 10.8] In Vedanta-sutra [1.1.2] Brahman, the Absolute Truth is dened as [e Absolute Truth is] He from whom everything emanates. us Vedantasutra also conrms Krishnas description of Himself in Bhagavad-gita. So this is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. From all angles of visionby Vedic scriptural evidence, by spiritual authorities and Master Teachers, by His opulence, by His unmatched power, unprecedented beauty and uncommon pastimesBhagavan Sri Krishna is conrmed as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because Bhagavan or God means that He is complete in six opulences. What is Bhagavan? He must be the richest. He must be the strongest. He must be the most famous. He must know everything. He must be the most beautiful. He must be the greatest renunciate. [Visnu Purana 6.5.47] is is the Vedic denition of God, Bhagavan. at Lord Sri Krishna ts this denition perfectly denition is conrmed by Lord Brahma: Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. [Brahma-samhita 5.1] Isvara means controller. Unless one is powerful, how he can control? Every one of us jivas is a tiny controller. We control in the oce, in family life. Somebody controls a few factories. So the jivas are limited controllers. But nobody can say, I am the supreme controller. e only supreme controller is Krishna. is Esoteric Teaching means that we are linking up in yoga, making a personal connection and enjoying a service relationship with the Supreme Controller, Krishna. We do not wish to become the controller; we want to be controlledbut only by the supreme controller Krishna, not by others. at is our value proposition. We are tiny controllers, so we must be controlled by some bigger controller. But we do not want to accept any control except directly from the Supreme Controller. at is the meaning and the practice of the Esoteric Teaching. Just like if one has no money and must work a job, if he is intelligent, he tries to get an appointment to the government service. Because it is natural to feel that If I have to serve somebody, why work for some petty merchant? Let me take a position in the government service. 93

So that is our proposition, that we have to serve. We cannot do anything but serve, because that is our constitutional ontological status. Every one of us is serving someone or something at every moment. Our proposition is that since you must be a servant of someone in any case, why not become a servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead? at is our value proposition, and that is also the perfection of yoga and the conclusion of the Esoteric Teaching. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] e more we consider that I am this material body, the more we become bewildered by the suerings and anxieties of material existence. Aer many, many lifetimes of being kicked by the constantly shiing, illusory qualities of material nature, by some causeless good fortune we come into association with a great soul, a Master Teacher of the Esoteric Teaching. At that time we can understand the real situation: O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of material lusty desires. Although I have rendered these desires so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to obey the unwanted orders of these desires, and I now come to You to surrender myself at Your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me. [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 3.2.35] So we do not wish to accept the control of the senses or the mind, but we are willing to surrender to the unconditional, unlimited eternal loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Controller. Otherwise, As long as the conditioned soul accepts the material body and is not freed from the contamination of material enjoyment, and as long as he does not conquer his six enemies and come to the platform of self-realization by awakening his spiritual knowledge,

94

he has to wander among dierent places and dierent species of life in this material world. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.11.15] In ordinary materially conditioned consciousness, we are servants of our own limited mind and senses, and thus we are aicted by six enemies: lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride and envy. en, dictated by our impure intelligence, false philosophies and material desires, we are willing to do anything abominable in their service. We jivas are all servants; everyone without exception is serving someone or something at every moment. erefore, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, It is the living entitys constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krishna because he is the marginal energy of Krishna and a manifestation simultaneously one with and dierent from the Lord, like a ery subatomic particle of sunshine. [Caitanyacaritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.108-109] Our constitutional ontological condition is that we are eternal servants of God, Krishna. is spiritual service is our real eternal nature. But in material conditioned consciousness, we are trying to become the master. at is the cause of the competitive struggle for material supremacy. Everyone is saying, I shall become the master. I shall become the Supreme. But our actual position is servant. at ontological misconception is called illusion. I am not a master; I am a servantbut I am trying to become master articially. at is why we have to struggle for existence in this material world. And mukti, or liberation means giving up this wrong idea that I am a master of the material world, and trying to become the servant of the Supreme. at is real liberation. Liberation does not mean that aer liberation well have a gigantic, powerful form or many hands and legs. Liberation means to become liberated from illusory materially conditioned consciousness, and to give up being controlled by temporary material desires. e consciousness that I am master is illusory. We have to change this consciousness to attain liberation. at is the meaning of the Esoteric Teaching. One has to understand thoroughly, on a practical level, that one is not a master but a servant. 95

We are completely dependent on the supreme will of the Lord. If we do not surrender to the loving control of the Supreme Lord, then we have to surrender unto the harsh will of maya. In any case we have to remain a servant. If we reject the service of the Supreme Lord, then we have to become the servant of the material mind and senses. at is maya. Actually, the whole world is serving the senses, serving dierent concocted desires. erefore they are suering in material illusion. e Esoteric Teaching is not manufactured by us. We get it from Bhagavadgita: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. [Bhagavadgita 18.66] Krishna says that You give up all these nonsense desires. Just surrender unto Me. at is the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gita. We are controlled by dierent types of desires dictated by maya, and we want to falsely become a master. is is called illusion, or maya, and this illusory conception keeps us trapped in material consciousness. Actually, we are not masters. How we can articially become masters? We may be very scientically advanced; we may manufacture very wonderful machines and powerfully destructive weapons, but aer all, we are subjected to the rules of maya: e perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease [I hereby declare to be knowledge]. [Bhagavad-gita 13.9] You cannot get out of these four principles of mayas machinery: birth, death, old age and disease. erefore a dhira, a sane and sober man who is actually learned, surrenders to Krishna, as recommended in the Esoteric Teaching. Aer many, many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare. [Bhagavad-gita 7.19] When one actually becomes wise, he surrenders to Krishna. Otherwise, if you think, I am as good as Krishna; I am God, that is maya. at is not

96

actually knowledge, but the greatest ignorance. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, [Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lords lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted dierent processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahma and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. ey fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.32] e impersonalists think that they have become liberated, become Narayana, or God. Maninah, they are only thinking like that. Actually, they are not at all liberated, because they are in material consciousness and therefore are controlled by material nature. ey cannot get out of the clutches of illusion, or get free from birth, death, old age and disease. Who can get out of the trap of maya? Krishna says, Anyone who surrenders unto Me. is divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is dicult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it. [Bhagavad-gita 7.14] is Esoteric Teaching is based on Krishnas authority. erefore it is a very authentic spiritual school, and helping this Teaching is the most glorious welfare activity for all kinds of people. We are spreading this Esoteric Teaching all over the world, but our only ambition is to place Krishna in everyones heart as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We dont want to become Krishna; we want to become the most obedient servants of Krishna. at is our value proposition. We invite everyone, from all backgrounds and from all parts of the world, to take up this wonderful Esoteric Teaching and get the benet. We request everyone to join this esoteric school, study the spiritual ontology and philosophy, and attain liberation from all material suering. For this Esoteric Teaching of spiritual consciousness is the ultimate perfection of yoga.

97

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is verse of Bhagavad-gita gives the rst criterion of understanding spiritual life. People generally do not understand that there is another aspect of existenceconsciousness or spirit soulbeyond this material body. Generally, people are under the mistaken impression that I am this body. I am American, or I am Indian. Why should I think that I am American, Indian, or belonging to some other country? Am I supposed to think like that only because this body is born in a particular country? Should I think Im an American because my body happens to be born in America? If so, then I think I am American, Indian, or whatever, simply based on the accidental country of birth. is bodily misconception of life, is very common all over the world. is bodily identication is ignorance. Real knowledge means that one knows he is not this body but a spirit soul. So one is a real jnani when he is freed from the material bodily misconception of life and understands his real spiritual nature. Otherwise, he is ajnani or ignorant of the actual spiritual truth. e so-called jnanis are so much proud of their knowledge. In India, there are the so-called Mayavadis. ey think of themselves as jnanisampradaya, or practically having a monopoly on knowledge, and that the followers of the Esoteric Teaching are ignorant. But what is their so-called jnana? ey think: I am a Hindu. I am an Indian. I am a sannyasi. ey call this their jnana; but actually it is ajnana. If you think yourself that you are American or Indian, if you think yourself as Hindu or Christian, if you think yourself as a high-caste brahmana, or a low-caste sudra, a rich man or a poor man, or a material male or female, then you are ajnani. You are not jnani, because you are identied with the temporary material body; therefore you are ajnani. Jnani means pandita, and panditah sama-darsinah: e humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste] with equal vision. [Bhagavad-gita 5.18] 98

One who is actually jnani, who is actually pandita, will not see: He is an Indian; He is an American; He is a Hindu; He is a Muslim, or Here is a cat. Here is a dog. Instead he sees them as eternal spirit souls in various temporary stages of material identication, because he does not consider the external supercial bodily identication. Just like if you dress in a white shirt and tie, and I dress in dungarees and tshirt, it does not mean that you are more intelligent than me. If you think we are dierent simply on the external basis of dress, then that is ajnana, ignorance. When an intelligent gentleman talks with another gentleman, neither consider that I am this dress. Similarly, if you consider your identity on the basis of this temporary bodily dress, then are you not ajnani? Yes, you are ajnani, because you do not know your real identity as a spirit soul. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is very important sloka of Bhagavad-gita teaches us the rst step of real spiritual knowledge. ose who understand their eternal identity as spirit soul are truly situated in knowledge, jnana. But to consider ones identity solely in terms of this material body is ignorant, ajnana. If you consider your identity on the basis of this temporary bodily dress, then you are ajnani, ignorant. You are ajnani because you do not know your real identity as a spirit soul. erefore the Esoteric Teaching says, A human being who identies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, and who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a cow. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.84.13] According to Ayurvedic medicine, this body is a combination of kaphapitta-vayu: mucus, bile, and air. So the Vedic sastra says that if anyone identies himself with this bag of kapha-pitta-vayu, bones, esh, blood and stool, his own kinsmen, his wife and children, worships the land of his birth, and goes to a place of religious pilgrimage but does not approach an

99

actual Master Teacher for spiritual instruction, then sa eva go-kharah: such a person is no better than a cow or ass. us the Esoteric Teaching enjoins that our identication with the material body is simply animal consciousness. An animal, like a dog, knows only that he is this material body. If a human being, with so-called advanced intelligence, also thinks like that, then how is he more advanced than an animal? He may have much so-called knowledge, but his consciousness is no better than the cats and dogs. is whole sorry material world is going around on the basis of that wrong impression, the misidentication with the material body. erefore because of this misunderstanding there is ghting between one nation and another, one person and another, and so many unnecessary problems and useless suering. So a jnani means one who is above the primitive animalistic bodily concept of life. He alone is a jnani who understands that I am an eternal spirit soul. Ultimately I have nothing to do with this temporary body. erefore to help Arjuna become a true jnani, the rst instruction Krishna gives to Arjuna is, You are not this body. My dear Arjuna, you are declining to ght because you are infected with the bodily misconception of life. You are hesitating to do your duty as a responsible king because of your bodily, blood relationship with the Kurus, namely your cousin-brothers, nephews and others. But that is a wrong conception because you are not this body. When Arjuna was puzzled by the dicult situation on the battleeld of Kuruksetra, he lost his will to ght, although he was the greatest hero of his time. He became adhira, lost his composure, and was bewildered by the need to ght his close relatives. erefore he thought it wise to accept Krishna not as his friend, but as guru. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] In the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was confronted with a problem he could not solve with his own intelligence and resources. erefore he surrendered to Krishna: Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to 100

tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me. [Bhagavad-gita 2.7] When Arjuna was puzzled by the dicult situation on the battleeld of Kuruksetra, he lost his will to ght, although he was the greatest hero of his time. He became adhira, lost his composure, and was bewildered by the need to ght his close relatives. erefore he thought it wise to accept Krishna not as his friend, but as guru. Of course he remained Krishnas friend, but at the same time, he accepted Him as his spiritual master. Sisyas te ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam: the duty of the disciple is to fully surrender unto the spiritual master. Unless you can surrender, you should not accept anyone as spiritual master. If you want the spiritual master to abide by your order, then that acceptance of spiritual master is a farce. It is phony; actually, it is not acceptance but rejection. Actual acceptance of spiritual master means that one should surrender unto him and follow his instructions. Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. e self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth. [Bhagavad-gita 4.34] If you want to learn that transcendental science, tad viddhi, you have to understand it from a self-realized soul. Pranipatena: by approaching a bona de self-realized spiritual Master Teacher. How? Prakrsta-rupena nipata: full surrender to the bona de guru means accepting him as the representative of God, falling at at his beautiful lotus feet: My dear Sir, I surrender completely unto you. Pranipatena pariprasnena: aer oering complete surrender and sincere service, then you may inquire about all questions of spiritual life and get complete satisfaction. According to the principles of the Esoteric Teaching, nobody has the right to question a Master Teacher unless he is accepted as a spiritual master. To ask out of simple curiosity is a waste of time; you will not get any benet from such casual inquiry. Spiritual life is not just curiosity; it is literally a matter of life and death. If you want to question a Master Teacher or selfrealized soul, you must accept his answer and follow his instruction as your

101

very life and soul. You cannot argue, although you certainly can and should continue to submit sincere questions until you understand. e self-realized Master Teacher can initiate you into real spiritual consciousness, because he has personally realized it. Spiritual knowledge is necessary, but not sucient for transcendental realization; we also must purify our hearts by spiritual service. Finally, we must perform the mysterious process of yoga, or linking our limited individual consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness: Brahman, Paramatma or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. e perfection of yoga practice is attainable through the study of this Esoteric Teaching, although this study is only the beginning of the process of self-realization. How to actually attain the perfection of yoga is a great mystery, and the doorway to this mystery is opened within our own hearts by the spiritual inuence of the Master Teacher. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] In the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was confronted with a problem whose solution was beyond the range of his own intelligence and resources. erefore he surrendered to Krishna and became His disciple. Bhagavadgita records the dialog as Krishna instructs Arjuna, who demonstrates the perfect example of how to accept a spiritual master. Arjuna puts relevant inquiries before Krishna, but ultimately he accepts Krishnas answers without argument. Of course, Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original and most perfect spiritual Master Teacher. But real acceptance of any spiritual Master Teacher means accepting him as a representative of God. Of course, for the instructions of a spiritual Master Teacher to be eective, he must actually be a representative of God. If due to ignorance of what a spiritual Master Teacher should be, one mistakenly accepts a bogus person as representative of God, that is the greatest misfortune. What is the qualication of a bona de spiritual Master Teacher? He has received the instructions of Krishna through the disciplic lineage, understood them

102

properly and realized them for himself, and he is passing on the exact same teaching to his disciples. is supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. [Bhagavad-gita 4.2] e criterion of a bona de spiritual Master Teacher is stated in Bhagavadgita. He must be properly initiated into the Esoteric Teaching of the parampara system of disciplic succession, and he must teach the same principles to his students and disciples. is is called Master Teacher, or one who teaches by example. One who follows the disciplic succession of Master Teachers knows things as they are. [Chandogya Upanisad 6.14.2]. To understand the transcendental science, one must approach a bona de spiritual master. [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12]. Just as we have our sampradaya or lineage, the Esoteric Teaching, there are other bona de lineages, such as the Rudra-sampradaya, Kumarasampradaya and the Sri-sampradaya. So we have to accept the sampradaya, the lineage of the Esoteric Teaching passed down by disciplic succession, to receive real knowledge of the spiritual world. at sampradaya begins from Krishna. Krishna is the original spiritual master of Lord Brahma, of Lord Siva, Narada and many other expert Vedic authorities. ere are twelve principal Vedic authorities: Lord Brahma, Bhagavan Narada, Lord Siva, the four Kumaras, Lord Kapila, Svayambhuva Manu, Prahlada Maharaja, Janaka Maharaja, Grandfather Bhisma, Bali Maharaja, Sukadeva Gosvami and I [Yamaraja] know the real religious principle. My dear servants, this transcendental religious principle, which is known as bhgavata-dharma, or surrender unto the Supreme Lord and love for Him, is uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. It is very condential and dicult for ordinary human beings to understand, but if by chance one fortunately understands it, he is immediately liberated, and thus he returns home, back to Godhead. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.20-21] Svayambhu means Lord Brahma; his rst son Narada Muni; Sambhu or Lord Siva; the four Kumaras, also sons of Lord Brahma; Kapila Muni, the 103

son of Devahutinot the atheistic Kapila; Manu, the progenitor of Humankind; King Janaka the ruler of Mithila; Bhisma the grandsire of the Yadu Dynasty; Bali, who was given mercy by Lord Vamanadeva; Sukadeva, the son of Vyasa; and Yama the Lord of Death, are all perfect authorities of the Esoteric Teaching of Vedic knowledge. So the indication of the Esoteric Teaching is that if you want to understand the transcendental science, the science of God, then you must seek out the instructions and follow in the footsteps of these great authorities of transcendental wisdom. Just like Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita, whatever injunctions the Vedic authorities give, we accept without any argument. at is the way of the Vedic parampara. People in India sometimes argue: Is it a Vedic injunction, that I have to accept it without argument? Actually, that is the proper way of receiving Vedic spiritual instruction. For example, the Vedas say cow dung is pure. ose who follow the Vedic principles automatically accept cow dung as pure; in fact, in India it is used to cleanse the temples. And if you make an experiment, you will nd that it actually is pure. Cow dung contains powerful enzymes that digest bacteria. But if we argue, How can it be? We already know that animal stool is impure, even human stool is impure. How is it possible that cow dung, the stool of an animal, is pure? e Vedic principle may seem contrary to our established knowledge and logic. But actually, if we accept it, we nd that the Vedic wisdom is perfect. erefore if we accept it with trust and without argument, we get the benet immediately. Similarly, a conch shell is nothing but the bone of an animal. According to Vedic wisdom, if you touch the bone of an animal you immediately become impure and have to take a bath to purify yourself. But this particular animal bone, the conch shell, is so pure that it is kept in the Deity room, the most sacred place in the temple. So with ordinary human logic, we nd contradiction in the Vedic instruction. Because in the Vedas, in one place it says that the bone of an animal is impure; in another place it says that the bone of a particular animal, the conch, is pure. e Vedas say the stool of an animal is impure, but in another place it says that the stool of the cow is pure. If we analyze the Vedas with Western Aristotelian logic, we nd apparent contradictions. But if we test and analyze these statements, we will nd that they are all correct. But because the followers of the Esoteric Teaching accept the 104

authority of the Vedas, we simply accept the Vedic statements and save so much time and eort. Because we trust in the authority of the Vedas, since they are the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we get the benet without the necessity of empirically testing every statement. To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with rewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and rmly devoted to the Absolute Truth. [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12] is is the injunction of the Vedas: if you are really interested in learning the transcendental science properly, you must approach a bona de spiritual Master Teacher situated in the disciplic lineage, parampara. e word abhigacchet is in the vidhilin or imperative form of the verb. It is used in Sanskrit grammar when the meaning is, You must do it. You cannot argue, I may choose to accept or not to accept. at will not help you; you will be wasting your precious time. You must accept the instructions of the Esoteric Teaching without argument, as Arjuna accepted Krishnas instruction and went on to be victorious in the Battle of Kuruksetra. en you can get immediate benet. ese are the injunctions of the Vedas, the source of the Esoteric Teaching and all other bona de knowledge leading to the perfection of yoga. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Arjuna was bewildered by the necessity of ghting with his relatives, so he accepted Krishna as his spiritual Master Teacher to help him solve his problem on the Battleeld of Kuruksetra. In the beginning, they were talking like friends. But friendly talking is not very helpful for solving dicult problems. at kind of argument is called vitanda. e word vitanda indicates that a debater, not touching the main point or establishing his own point, simply tries to refute the other persons argument. at sort of argument has no value, because friends are on an equal level; they may discuss endlessly and never come to a rm conclusion.

105

But when we discuss our problems with an authority, the spiritual Master Teacher, as a representative of God, Krishna, then we cannot argue. We have to accept his advice or decision. Sadhu-sastra-guru-vakya: one has to ascertain the right path for his activities by following in the footsteps of great saintly persons and books of spiritual knowledge under the guidance of a spiritual Master Teacher, accepting the gurus determination as nal. Guru-vakya, you cannot deny or reject the words of the guru. e gurus advice or order may not be agreeable to you in the beginning, or you may not understand it properly at rst, but you cannot deny it. at is the Vedic system of parampara or disciplic succession. In Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna has accepted Krishna as his spiritual master. Sisyas te aham: I become Your disciple. Until now we were talking as friends, but this will not decide the case. My question is very serious. My duty is to ght, but I do not want to ght with my relatives. My aection for our family relationship is deterring me from ghting, making me a coward in the face of my enemies. erefore it is a very dicult position, and I nd that You alone can make a solution of this complex situation. I therefore accept You as my spiritual master. And I fall down under Your lotus feet as Your disciple. Sadhi mam prapannam: I am surrendered. Now You kindly protect this surrendered soul. [Bhagavad-gita 2.7] So here in Bhagavad-gita 2.13, Krishna is instructing Arjuna about the nature of the spirit soul. First of all, He chastised Arjuna: My dear Arjuna, you are speaking like a very learned man, but I nd that you do not know when to lament and when to be joyful. [Bhagavad-gita 2.11] Indirectly, Krishna said that You are not pandita, a learned man; you are a fool. Because you are arguing that If I kill my cousin-brothers the Yadus, their wives will be widowed, and they will become prostitute and there will be varna-sankara, unwanted population. Actually, Arjunas doubts are very salient. If women are unprotected by their husbands or other male relatives, they will be exploited by unscrupulous men; then the resulting ospring will be varna-sankara, or unwanted children. ese unwanted children become a nuisance in society. Narakayate: if varna-sankara or the population of rogues and thieves is increased, then the whole society becomes hellish, riddled with crime and exploitation. Actually, that is the condition of human society at the present moment. erefore, according to the Vedic system, sacred marriage is 106

required. Without marriage, the increase of population results in varnasankara. [Bhagavad-gita 1.42] Arjuna presented these arguments, but they were not the central question. e main case was whether Arjuna was to ght and to kill the opposing party, composed primarily of his relatives. His questions show that he was thinking very seriously. So Krishna in the beginning said, You are lamenting because you think that your cousin-brothers, your grandfather and your teacher will die. [Bhagavad-gita 2.11] e general understanding of people is that, I will die, and you will die. But Krishna reveals that na hanyate hanyamane sarire: nobody dies, even aer the destruction of this body [Bhagavad-gita 2.20]. is sloka, Bhagavad-gita 2.13, is the beginning of Krishnas Esoteric Teaching about the perfection of yoga. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is sloka of Bhagavad-gita is the beginning of real spiritual education. Now where is this knowledge of the soul being taught? We have traveled all over the world, but we have never seen any university or other department of education where this simple truth is presented: na hanyate hanyamane sarire: e soul does not die when the body dies. [Bhagavad-gita 2.20] ere is no actual spiritual instruction, even in the churches or the socalled yoga centers. Just try to understand how people are being kept in ignorance in the name of education, religion and yoga. ey are thinking that hanyamane sarire, hanyate: aer the death of the body, when the body is nished, the person is also nished. is is ignorance of the real self. Once I was talking with a university professor, who said: Aer the destruction of this body, there is nothing more. Everything is nished. So just see, a big professor, an educator responsible for the intellectual development of so many persons, has no knowledge about the soul, or the dierence between the soul and the body. His understandingthat aer this body is nished, everything is nishedis supercial, and it is not a fact, because the soul is fundamentally dierent from this body. So persons who do not know this basic, simple fact are becoming leaders and educators, are becoming so-called yoga teachers and spiritual masters, and their understanding is polluted by false materialism. So how will the 107

people in general gain this pure spiritual knowledge, when their teachers and leaders are also in ignorance? Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into the ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they take birth again and again, suering the threefold miseries of materialistic life. [SrimadBhagavatam 7.5.31] So where is the education on the real nature of the spirit soul? is Esoteric Teaching spoken by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita is the beginning of real education. Whatever Krishna says must be accepted as real spiritual knowledge, and whatever contradicts that instruction is certainly ignorance. erefore in the mystery school of the Esoteric Teaching, our process of accepting knowledge is the parampara system. ere are two ways of acquiring knowledge, aroha-pantha or the deductive process, and avarohapantha or the inductive speculative process. Knowledge coming down through the parampara from qualied authorities is perfect. And knowledge acquired by the empirical experimental process is not perfect, because we are imperfect. Big scientists and professors are trying to understand things by aroha-pantha, the inductive process, or going up by the speculative method. But our process of knowledge is the Vedic process of receiving knowledge from the guru through the parampara. To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with rewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and rmly devoted to the Absolute Truth. [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12] erefore, spiritual knowledge should be taken only from a properly qualied, initiated and self-realized spiritual Master Teacher, who in his turn has received it from Vedic authorities through the parampara system.

108

One should approach him oering service and relvant inquiries, and be willing to abide by his order without argument. is is the correct and practical method for attaining the perfection of yoga. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] We students of the Esoteric Teaching do not speculate or manufacture spiritual knowledge. at would be bogus. Knowledge of spiritual life has to be accepted and understood from the explanations of great authorities. Lord Krishna is the greatest authority of spiritual knowledge because He is God Himself; therefore we study His Bhagavad-gita very carefully. How can any human being manufacture perfect knowledge of spiritual life? We are imperfect in four crucial ways. It is said, To err is human. Human beings must commit mistakes. Also, we must be in illusion because of our materially conditioned consciousness. Our senses are imperfect by nature, and we have a propensity to cheat. ese four defects are human nature. Anyone who is not mukta-purusaa liberated soulmust have these four defects. Human beings, even great human beings, must commit mistakes. For instance Mahatma Gandhi, even though he was such a great personality, also committed so many mistakes. On the day of his death, he was warned not to go to the meeting. His friends foresaw danger, but he went there anyway and was killed. So human beings are always committing some mistake: To err is human. at is not our fault, because it is human nature to commit mistakes. We are also in illusion. Illusion means that, although we are actually spirit souls, we think that we are these material bodies. Aham brahmasmi: I am eternal spirit. But we are identied with this temporary material body. One man thinks, I am Indian; another is convinced, I am American; someone else thinks, I am a brahmana; but his brother thinks, I am a sudra; one soul thinks, I am a man; and another identical spirit soul thinks, I am a woman. is is illusion, because this body is only our temporary home.

109

And our senses are imperfect. We cannot see even what is on the other side of a piece of paper. We cannot hear what dogs and cats can hear, or smell what they can smell clearly. If we are le outside without clothing or other protective covering, we will quickly die of exposure to the elements. Our senses are not even as good as those of ordinary animals. To commit mistakes, to be in illusion and to have imperfect senses are intrinsic parts of our human nature; and we also have a propensity for cheating. Actually, we do not know things as they are; still, we write big books on philosophy and religion. Big important scholars, with no clear ontological thought process, no clear epistemological understanding, still write books to educate people on spiritual life. But it is all just their opinion. Any scientic theory is actually just a hypothesis. ey propose, Perhaps; it may be like that, and writing big books on anthropology, astronomy and physics, with no real proof, and people are taking knowledge from that book as if it is the truth. What is the value of knowledge based on a hypothetical theory: Perhaps; maybe? e whole eld of material science is like that. Our senses are imperfect, we are in illusion, we commit mistakes, and we have a cheating propensity. e cheating propensity means that even though we have no perfect knowledge; still, we want to give knowledge, to become a worldfamous expert in the eld. What is the value of writing books if you have no perfect knowledge? But we do that because we have a propensity for cheating. But Vedic knowledge, the Esoteric Teaching, is not like human knowledge. ere is no cheating, imperfection, illusion or error, because Vedic knowledge comes from sources higher than ordinary human knowledge. e original author of Vedic knowledge is Krishna, or God Himself. He gave the Esoteric Teaching to Arjuna and all other great spiritual Master Teachers. It is stated in the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam: O my Lord, Sri Krishna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I oer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krishna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who rst 110

imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahma, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in re, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krishna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1] Lord Sri Krishna imparted the knowledge of the Esoteric Teaching, sabdabrahma or pure transcendental knowledge, unto the heart of Lord Brahma. Even Brahma, the greatest demigod, is not self-sucient. Not even he can perceive the spiritual realm directly. Lord Brahma is the rst Master Teacher in our Esoteric Teaching lineage. But actually the knowledge we accept is not originally from Brahma; Brahma got the knowledge from Krishna: tene brahma. Actually all knowledge is coming from Krishna. e epistemological standard of the Esoteric Teaching is that, considering the intrinsic faults of human knowledge, we should not receive any spiritual knowledge from human sources. Instead we receive transcendental knowledge, in the form of this Bhagavad-gita, from Krishna directly. As long as we keep it the same and do not superimpose our imperfect human misunderstanding, Krishna can give us perfect knowledge of spiritual life directly through this book. So we have to accept Bhagavad-gita as it is. We cannot interpret Bhagavadgita in our own way, because we are defective in so many ways. at would not be the same Bhagavad-gita; that is something else. ey take the Bhagavad-gita and add their own conclusion to it. But that is not Bhagavad-gita. If you want to study Bhagavad-gita, then you should study it as it is originally spoken by Krishna. en it is perfect; otherwise we have to take so-called spiritual knowledge from some defective human being. If we do not accept Bhagavad-gita in terms of the statements given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then it is simply a useless waste of time. One cannot make any meaningful commentary on Bhagavad-gita based on fallible human knowledge. Bhagavad-gita is not very dicult to 111

understand. It is written in very simple Sanskrit language, and the philosophy is very clearas clear as sunlight in the clear sky. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] In the Bhagavad-gita it is said in many places that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages. [Bhagavad-gita 10.2] I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. e wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts. [Bhagavad-gita 10.8] is divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is dicult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it. [Bhagavad-gita 7.14] So these are the authoritative statements of Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. And the conclusion is that to solve all the problems of life, we should surrender completely unto Him alone. Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. [Bhagavadgita 18.66] If we do not accept Bhagavad-gita in terms of the statements given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then it is simply a useless waste of time. One cannot make any meaningful commentary on Bhagavad-gita based on fallible human knowledge. Bhagavad-gita is not very dicult to understand. It is written in very simple Sanskrit language, and the philosophy is very clearas clear as sunlight in the clear sky. ere is no question of needing a ashlight to see the sunlight. When the sun is out, there is enough light to see the sun and everything else very clearly. en if somebody brings a ashlight and says, Now I shall show 112

you the sun, it is ludicrous. Similarly, Bhagavad-gita is perfectly clear all by itself. Bhagavad-gita does not require any human interpretation to explain Krishna or the Esoteric Teaching. To get the full benet, we must try to understand Bhagavad-gita as it is, without any false interpretation. Otherwise, we will be misled. Just like in the beginning of the Bhagavad-gita King Dhrtarastra said, O Sanjaya, aer my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, desiring to ght, what did they do? [Bhagavad-gita 1.1] It is perfectly clear. Kuruksetra is a place where religious rituals are performed. It is there still; and it is still a dharma-ksetrapeople go there on pilgrimage and to perform Vedic sacrices. And Vedas state that kuruksetre dharmam acaret: One should go to Kuruksetra and perform religious rituals there. So it is dharma-ksetra both by Vedic injunction, and by practical example: dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre [Bhagavad-gita 1.1]. So simple, so direct; this is Bhagavad-gita. But some interpreters insist that Kuruksetra means this body. We would like to know in which Vedic dictionary they found that meaning. at kind of speculative misinterpretation of Bhagavad-gita is very widespread. But our value proposition is that if you really want to be beneted by reading Bhagavad-gita, then you should avoid such malinterpretation. Why associate with merely human-level intelligence, when you can get the original knowledge from the greatest intelligence? us the Esoteric Teaching of Bhagavad-gita is the gateway to the highest perfection of yoga. Study Bhagavad-gita as it is, without your or anyone elses bogus misinterpretation; then you will be beneted. Kuru-ksetre dharma-ksetre [Bhagavad-gita 1.1]. It is a fact: Kuruksetra is a dharma-ksetra. Samaveta yuyutsavah: and the persons assembled there, namely, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, wanted to ght. Yuyutsavah: the same word as Japanese jujitsu, ghting. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]

113

Study Bhagavad-gita as it is, without your or anyone elses bogus misinterpretation; then you will be beneted. Kuru-ksetre dharma-ksetre [Bhagavad-gita 1.1]. It is a fact: Kuruksetra is a dharma-ksetra. Samaveta yuyutsavah: and the persons assembled there, namely, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, wanted to ght. Yuyutsavah: the same word as Japanese jujitsu, ghting. ats all right, because the Vedic ksatriyas duty is to ght to establish religious principles in human society. Where is the need for any interpretation? It is history. ey selected a nice place, Kuruksetra, a dharma-ksetra or place of religious pilgrimage and sacrice, and there they fought to settle the family feud over the succession. So the meaning is perfectly clear. Why there should be any interpretation, like e Pandavas are the ve senses and Kuruksetra means this body? ere is no necessity of allegorical interpretation of Bhagavad-gita. Interpretation is required when the meaning is not clear. Even then, there are rules of interpretation according to subject and context. But when the meaning is clear, there is no need for interpretation. at is the Vedic system. Amongst Vedic scholars, if things are clear, there should be no interpretation. In each and every verse of Bhagavad-gita, the meaning is very, very clear as clear as sunshine. So there is no question of interpretation. erefore the only edition of Bhagavad-gita that we can recommend is Bhagavad-gita As It Is, in the original 1972 Macmillan edition by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. We stress this because there are at least 640 dierent editions of Bhagavad-gita, and almost every one of them puts forth a dierent interpretation. Even the editions of rla Prabhupdas Bhagavad-gita As It Is printed later than 1972 contain unauthorized editorial changes that distort the meaning. at is the system going on now. Most authors present Bhagavad-gita in their own way, but not a single person became a self-realized devotee of Krishna by reading all those books. Now since the Esoteric Teaching of Bhagavad-gita is being presented as it is, thousands of people are becoming devotees of Krishna. Our lineage presents Krishnas words in Bhagavad-gita as the message of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and intelligent people accepted it because there is no adulteration. 114

Our value proposition is to understand Bhagavad-gita without adulteration. Try to understand Bhagavad-gita as it is originally presented by Krishna, without any bogus human interpretation. en you will get real knowledge of spiritual life. Otherwise, you will remain in the same ignorance, before reading Bhagavad-gita and aer reading Bhagavad-gita. is is the value proposition of the mystery school of the Esoteric Teaching, for it leads naturally to the perfection of yoga. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Here in Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says dehino smin yatha dehe. Deha means this body, and dehi means the owner or occupant of the body. Who lives in this body? e embodied spirit soul is considered the owner of the body. Now, modern scientists and philosophers may be very highly materially educated, but they do not know that this body is not the person; the person is the spirit soul within the body. Asmin dehe: within this body, there is the proprietor of the body, or the soul. en, kaumaram yauvanam jara: the changes that take place in the body do not aect the owner of the body, but transform only the outward, external bodily shell. Just like if you live in a house, when the house needs some repair, it does not mean that you are becoming ill or need an operation. Even if the house is demolished, the owner of the house is not aected. Similarly, the changes of the body do not aect the soul, but they are due to the fact that the soul is transmigrating through dierent types of bodies, from infancy to youth to adulthood to old age. Similarly, the soul transmigrates to a dierent body at death. Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati: there are 8,400,000 dierent forms or species of material bodies, and the eternal spiritual living entity transmigrates from one body to another, to another, to another. As it is stated in the Padma Purana: asatims caturams caiva laksams tan jiva-jatisu. Jiva-jati: there are 8,400,000 dierent forms of material bodies in material existence, and one has to pass through all of them from the beginning. Jalaja nava-laksani: 900,000 species of aquatics, and 2,000,000 kinds of plant life. Krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam: there are 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and 1,000,000 species of birds. 115

Finally, trimsal-laksani pasavah catur-laksani manusah: there are 3,000,000 varieties of beasts, and 400,000 human species, from vastly intelligent and powerful demigods like Lord Brahma down to the most primitive aborigines and apes. So we must pass through 8,000,000 dierent forms of material bodies before we can come to the human form of life. Because of this, the human form of body is very rarely obtained. [Prahlada Maharaja said:] One who is suciently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life in other words, from the tender age of childhoodto practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. e human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection. [SrimadBhagavatam 7.6.1] Manusam durlabham janma: this human form is very rarely obtained. erefore, it should be properly utilized for devotional service pursuant to the instructions of the Esoteric Teaching. In the human form of life one should try to understand that I am Brahman. I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. is is the beginning of the Esoteric Teaching of Bhagavadgita. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] Krishna says in this sloka that the soul, dehi, is passing or transmigrating through dierent types of bodies, even within this life. First of all, he gets a small body, a fetus within the womb of the mother. It starts out as a simple blastocyte, then develops through many other forms resembling more primitive reptiles and animals. When the human form is complete, the body comes out of the womb as an infant. en again the body changes from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth. ese changes continue throughout life, culminating in death. In this way, the living entity is changing his body constantly. e living entity is not changing; he is simply changing the body in dierent ways.

116

at is explained in this sloka, Bhagavad-gita 2.13. e point was to convince Arjuna, Do not lament because your grandfather will change the body. So He was presenting the argument logically: Now, even if your grandfather is killed, why should you lament? Hell get a fresh, new body, another youthful body. Rather you should become joyful that your old grandfather is going to have a new body. at was Krishnas argument to Arjuna. But the actual point we should take away from this, is that we should not identify our self with this body. at bodily identication is ignorance, because it is not a fact. We should understand that I am Brahman. I am an eternal spirit soul, dierent from this temporary material body. Otherwise there is no advancement of spiritual education, self-realization or enlightenment. erefore, in Bhagavad-gita youll nd that as soon as one realizes that he is not this bodythat hes Brahman, spirit soulthen he attains the exalted state of brahma-bhuta: One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me. [Bhagavad-gita 18.54] When one becomes brahma-bhuta or self-realized, understanding that I am not this body, immediately one becomes jubilant, prasannatma. Actually, because of being identied with this body, we are suering. e brahma-bhuta stage is complete spiritual happiness, without the disturbance of desiring what one does not have, and lamenting for what one has lost. e joy of brahma-bhuta is described in the Esoteric Teaching: Always engaging in the activities of devotional service, devotees feel ever-increasingly fresh and new in all their activities. e allknower, the Supersoul within the heart of the devotee, makes everything increasingly fresh. is is known as Brahman realization by the advocates of the Absolute Truth. In such a liberated stage [brahma-bhuta], one is never bewildered. Nor does one lament or become unnecessarily jubilant. is is due to the brahma-bhuta situation. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.20.30]

117

is spiritual realization is the perfection of yoga attainable by the Esoteric Teaching. All our troubles and suering are simply due to identication with the material body and its imperfect senses. e world is complete, because it is created by the Complete; but because we have identied with this body, we are thinking, I am American, I am Indian, I am an Englishman, We are German, or Russian, and we have demarcated: is is my country, and that is your country. is is ignorance, based on the misconception that the body is the self, and the country or land of birth is the homeland. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is sloka gives the situation of the soul in relation to the material body. e next sloka describes the internal state of non-identication with the body and senses. O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. ey arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. [Bhagavad-gita 2.14] All our troubles and suering are simply due to identication with the material body and its imperfect senses. e world is complete, because it is created by the Complete; but because we have identied with this body, we are thinking, I am American, I am Indian, I am an Englishman, We are German, or Russian, and we have demarcated: is is my country, and that is your country. is is ignorance, based on the misconception that the body is the self, and the country or land of birth is the homeland. erefore, there is so much unnecessary division and ghting all over the world. For example, now there is a worldwide war being fought between the Christians and Muslims. ey both articially declare, We are right, and you are wrong, and there is an unnecessary ght. Actually, both the Christians and Muslims are religious people. ey should understand that all people are children of God. Why should they ght? But because of this 118

nonsense bodily identication, they are ghting, and unnecessarily destroying so much property and losing so many lives. So if you want actually peace and prosperity in the world, then you must advance beyond the false bodily identication, and come to understand Lord Krishnas Esoteric Teaching. Otherwise, there is no possibility of either peace or prosperity. Without coming to the Esoteric Teaching, you will continue to have only useless competition and ghting. In the stage of bodily consciousness, national consciousness, religious or community consciousness, you cannot become happy or peaceful at any time. ese false identications are the cause of all the conict and suering in the world. One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me. [Bhagavad-gita 18.54] You have to become brahma-bhuta; that is the result of practicing the Esoteric Teaching. Brahma-bhutah prasannatma; youll be happy, and others will be happy. Without coming to the stage of spiritual identication, you cannot be happy, because your whole life is based on the false premise that you are the body. Identifying with this body is ignorance because when one is under the bodily concept of life, his interest becomes dictated by the imperfect senses of this body. Because they are in the bodily conception of life, and subscribe to the materialistic ontology, they do not know what is their real self-interest. One who is in material consciousness cannot know actually what is good for him. Our real self-interest is to go back to home, back to Godhead. at is our eternal self-interest, eternal perfect happiness. But people do not know, because of a lack of spiritual knowledge. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13 is Esoteric Teaching is very important. We are trying to educate people to feel, or at least to understand clearly that they are not this body; they are 119

spirit souls. But at the present moment, all our activities are going on in the bodily concept of life. at is called ignorance. Why? ose miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me. [Bhagavad-gita 7.15] Identifying with this body is ignorance because when one is under the bodily concept of life, his interest becomes dictated by the imperfect senses of this body. And then, Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suering the threefold miseries. [SrimadBhagavatam 7.5.31] Because they are in the bodily conception of life, and subscribe to the materialistic ontology, they do not know what is their real self-interest. One who is in material consciousness cannot know actually what is good for him. Our real self-interest is to go back to home, back to Godhead. at is our eternal self-interest, eternal perfect happiness. But people do not know, because of a lack of spiritual knowledge. ey are trying to adjust things on the external bodily concept of life, and the so-called leaders are leading in that way. Yet despite so much eort expended in material plans and work, they remain in the same pitiable condition. e actual fact is that we are trying to be happy by political adjustment, but that cannot ever be successful, because our mistaken point is that I am this body. Everything based on that incorrect ontological assumption is intrinsically doomed to failure. erefore, simply changing the leaders every few years will not yield any improvement. Instead we must change our consciousness. Otherwise, the 120

same ghting, the same antagonism, the same propaganda, barking and ghting like dogs and cats, will continue all over the world. Why? Because everything the political leaders are doing is based on the same mistaken, false bodily concept of life. e educated rst-class men of all countries assemble in the United Nations in New York. ey have been discussing politics for generations, but is there any real improvement in the quality of human life? We see, generally, the only result of all this talking is simply increasing the number of national and political groups. Where is the unity of the so-called United Nations? So much political talking and ghting, but we cannot see that we are one family, all Gods children. at is possible only by advancement of consciousness through this Esoteric Teaching. e peace and prosperity we seek is not possible on the platform of bodily consciousness, because that always leads to unnecessary competition and ghting. In the Esoteric Teaching there are students from all over the world: America, England, Canada, Africa, Australia and India. But theyre not thinking that Hes Indian, American, or Australian, or anything based on the bodily misconception. ey are thinking in terms of the spiritual wisdom of the Esoteric Teaching. Every sincere student of the Esoteric Teaching thinks, We are all servants of Krishna. is is the Esoteric Teaching of Bhagavad-gita, and this is also the perfection of yoga. It is such a simple point, but even so-called educated people cannot understand. erefore it is mentioned here, dhiras tatra na muhyati. Dhira means a sober, cool-headed man, really intelligentand the opposite is called adhira. Adhira means low-class intelligence, or rascal. Dhira means sober; the exact translation is gentleman, dhira. ose who are not gentlemenuncultured, rascalscannot understand, though they have materialistic so-called education. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is is the very beginning of Krishnas Esoteric Teaching in Bhagavad-gita. It is such a simple point, but even so-called educated people cannot understand. erefore it is mentioned here, dhiras tatra na muhyati. Dhira

121

means a sober, cool-headed man, really intelligentand the opposite is called adhira. Adhira means low-class intelligence, or rascal. Dhira means sober; the exact translation is gentleman, dhira. ose who are not gentlemenuncultured, rascalscannot understand, though they have materialistic so-called education. eir problem is an insucient ontology. Otherwise what is the diculty? How plainly, how clearly and easily Krishna explains that kaumaram yauvanam jara: there are three stages of life. From birth to the eenth year is called kaumara; from the sixteenth year, begins yauvanam, youthful life up to the fortieth year. en aer y, one becomes jara, old man. erefore it is advised in the Vedas that pancas ordhvam vanam vrajet. Pancas means y. So aer y years of age, one should retire from family life and go to the forest (vana), or dedicate ones life to spiritual realization. Prahlada Maharaja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vrndavana, where only Krishna consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.5] So those who are dhiragentlemen, sober-minded, cool-headedcan understand that I have changed my body. I remember how I was playing when I was a boy, wasting my time in all nonsense up to the eenth year. en I became a young man; how I was enjoying life with my friends, wife and family members. Now I am an old man, and it is time to leave this dark well of family life and attain self-realization before it is too late. To remain attached in family life and career, entangled in material aairs and possessions aer the age of y, is considered spiritual suicide. One who dies in such a state of material identication and attachment is considered most unfortunate. We attained the age of y in 1997. Since then, we have dedicated our remaining time in this world to deepening our realization of the Esoteric Teaching and helping others attain self-realization to the best of our ability. is lifestyle of Vedic spiritual culture is the best solution to all the 122

problems of life, especially repeated birth, old age, disease and death within the material world. e Esoteric Teaching is therefore the best prescription for overcoming all diculties, attaining lasting happiness and reaching the nal perfection of yoga. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] In the previous verse [Bhagavad-gita 2.12] Krishna said, All of usyou, me, and all these soldiers and kings who are present hereexisted eternally in the past, are existing now, and shall continue to exist eternally in the future. In other words, the spirit soul is immortal. But people who subscribe to the materialistic ontology, who are identied with their material bodies, object: How can you say I was existing eternally in the past? I was born only a few years ago. Before that, I did not exist. At present I exist; so thats all right. But as soon as I die, again I will not exist. So how can Krishna say that all of us existed, and shall continue to exist, eternally? Is Krishnas statement contradictory? No, it is not. But Krishnas statement in Bhagavad-gita 2.12 rests on the fact that the spirit soul is dierent from the material body. e soul inhabits the body, but the body is temporary. erefore we existed eternally in the past, but in a dierent body; and we shall continue to exist in the future in dierent bodies. Tatha dehantara-praptih: this must be understood clearly. Deha-antara means, of transference of the body; and praptih means achievement. I am means my bodily identication. Dehi means the proprietor of the body, the owner or occupant of the body, and deha means the material body itself. Krishna gives the example, kaumaram yauvanam jara, dehantara praptih: formerly I was a boy; then I became a young man; now I am an old man. e body changed, but I am still existing as dehi, the proprietor of the body. I remain the same person, but the body has changed. So where is the diculty to understand? Dehinah means of the proprietor of the body. e body is changing; I can understand that my body has changed. Similarly, in the next life the body will change again.

123

e body will change. I may not remember; but that is another thing. Just like I do not remember what was my body in my last life. Forgetfulness is our nature, because we are so easily overwhelmed by the material energy. But just because I forget something, that does not mean that it did not take place. For example, in my early childhood I did so many things. I do not remember; but my parents remember. So my forgetfulness does not mean that those things did not take place. Similarly, death means I have forgotten what my body was in the past life. Otherwise, as spirit soul I have no death. Suppose I change my mode of dress. In my boyhood, I wore a dierent style of dress. In my youth, I wore another kind of dress. In my old age, or as a sannyasi, I wear a dierent dress. My style of dress may change, but that does not mean that I have changed, or that I am dead or gone. No, the wearer of the dress is dierent from the dress itself. en why is it so dicult to understand that the spirit soul is dierent from the material body that he wears like a suit of clothes? As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] is simple concepttransmigration of the soulis explained very clearly in Bhagavad-gita. And all living entities are also eternal individuals. ere is no question of our mixing together or merging into the Supreme. Everyone of us is an individual by our spiritual constitutional nature. God is an individual, and we are also individuals: e Supreme eternal conscious spiritual individual, the Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable eternal conscious spiritual living entities, in terms of their dierent situations according to individual work and reactions of work. at Supreme Personality of Godhead is also, by His plenary portions, alive in the heart of every individual living entity. Only saintly persons who can see, within and without, the same Supreme Lord can actually attain to perfect and eternal peace. [Katha Upanisad 2.2.13] All spiritual beings are eternal and individual. e dierence between the living entities and God, is that God does not change His body. But even

124

that is only in this material world. When we go to the spiritual world, there is no more change of body. e souls existence is eternal. As Krishna has His eternal bodya purely spiritual form that is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge and pleasuresimilarly, when we go back to home, back to Godhead, we also get a spiritual body similar to His. Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.[Brahmasamhita 5.1] at is the dierence. When Krishna comes to this world, He does not change His body. erefore Arjuna mentions His name Acyuta, the Infallible One. He never changes or falls down under the control of the material energy, maya, because He is the controller of maya. But we are controlled by maya. at is the dierence between ourselves and God, Krishna. We are controlled by the material energy, but Krishna is the controller of the material energy, the spiritual energy, and all other energies. erefore oering devotional service to Krishna according to the instructions of the Esoteric Teaching is the clear path to the perfection of yoga.

125

Soul is Consciousness
e soul or self is both conscious and consciousness. All the symptoms of lifeperception, desire, energy, activity, identity, individuality, personality, mind, intelligence, initiative, emotion, etc.derive from consciousness. Without consciousness, there is no life, no activity, no existence, nothing. erefore the conscious soul is fundamental to all existence. It is not possible that consciousness comes from some combination of matter. Rather, the material must come from a conscious entity. Matter is inert and has no ability to move or organize itself. us the original creative impulse, as well as the universal laws of nature, must come from God, the Supreme Soul or original conscious entity. We are similar in quality to God, but vastly inferior in quantity. God is unlimited, and we are very tiny in comparison. is is what is meant by Man is made in the image of God. Not that we are supreme, or the original cause or creator of anything, but that we are similar in our transcendental qualities, just dierent in size. We are persons, for example, because God is a person. e dierence is that He is the Supreme Person, and we are tiny insignicant persons.

126

Spiritual vs. Material

127

Laws of Karma

128

Transcendental Knowledge

129

Part 4Spiritual Practices

So far we have talked about the philosophy of spiritual life, now we present and discuss the various practices.

130

Chanting
Chanting mantras containing the Holy Names of God is the most powerful and eective spiritual practice. e benets of all other spiritual practices are derived from the chanting process. ese benets are both material and spiritual.

131

Vegetarian Diet
If you really want to benet from spiritual practices, you must be a vegetarian. ere are two main reasons for this: you cannot make spiritual advancement as long as you are killing animals, directly or indirectly; and food resulting from killing animals is not suitable for oering to God. Incidentally, the vegetarian diet also oers tremendous health benets, but those are secondary to its spiritual benets.

132

Celibacy
Anyone who is serious about spiritual life should become celibate. In material consciousness, sex life is considered to be the highest enjoyment. But holy men and women down through the ages have always opted for the life of celibacy, because it frees us from the distractions of family life. Aer all, family life is based on the bodily concept of life, and spiritual life is based on the concept of the soul. ere is a great dierence between them. erefore the greatest spiritual personalities are generally celibate, whether or not they are formal renunciants or monks. Celibacy may seem dicult at rst, but once you get used to the practice, you will nd that spiritual life is actually much more enjoyable than materialistic pleasure. is is because spiritual pleasure is not based on the temporary body, therefore like all truly spiritual things it is eternal and unconditional. Spiritual pleasure is very subtle, and unlike material pleasure it is steady, so in the beginning it is dicult to realize that it is there. However as soon as our consciousness is in touch with a genuine spiritual object, we immediately feel spiritual pleasure. And the more we contemplate spiritual philosophy and meditate on actual spiritual objects, the more this pleasure grows. Aer some time of daily spiritual practice, it becomes tangible, satisfying and ever-increasing. Once we realize this unending spiritual pleasure, we have no more need for temporary, articial material pleasures.

133

Intoxication
Intoxicationalcohol, tobacco, drugs, even foods like coee, caeinated tea, onions and garlicmakes you stupid. If you have ever gone out and got drunk the night before a big exam, you have experienced this. Your mind gets taken over by the eects or aereects of the substance, and you are not yourself. You become preoccupied with the contents of your min and the objects of the senses. Simple things seem dicult to do; dicult things become impossible. Intoxication simply removes a whole range of activities from the realm of possibility. e problem is, the most rewarding and important of all human skills and activities fall within that range: meditation, spiritual realization, truly creative thinking, learning new things, remembering the past accurately, or any activity that demands great skill or energy, such as surviving the Singularity. e aim of all our methods is to increase your intelligence and enhance your consciousness. Intoxication completely negates the results of all this hard work. No one ever solved an important problem by taking intoxication; they just helped themselves forget about it for a while. And when they come back to their senses, the problem is still thereonly it has grown because problems only increase with time, plus we have decreased our intelligence by using intoxicating substances. Dont waste your time.

134

Gambling and Speculation

ere is no such thing as a fair casino; the odds are always rigged in favor of the house. What makes you so special that you think you can beat them? Answer: nothing. So dont waste your time and money gambling. If that easy money is burning a hole in your pocket, ne: just send us a donation. Its tax-deductible and will help a worthy cause instead of lining some Maosis bank account. Gambling always creates a nasty mood; it attracts all kinds of illicit and criminal activity: drinking, drugs, meat-eating, organized crime, prostitution, money laundering, etc. Wherever there is gambling, there is also cheating, lying, violence and other types of crime. You will not nd spiritually-minded people in a gambling establishment; therefore it is best to stay far away from such dens of sinful life. Similarly, speculating about what is going on in the world, or within yourself, is just gambling with your life. Instead of guessing about the truth, look it up in the Vedas. We have a downloadable, searchable archive of the Vedic literature available to readers of this book. Get it, use it to educate yourself and stop the guesswork.

135

Service Attitude

136

Bona Fide Guru

137

The Next Steps

138

Find Your Guru

139

Join a Community

140

Do It Today!

141