Preface—Why I Wrote This Book

This 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. This book could be just the beginning of an adventure of researching and exploring the best life has to offer. Or it could be just another unfulfilled 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 benefit. But if you still have doubts after reading this, that’s OK; do the research and find out more before you act. You will find that everything we say here is both factually correct and very practical. That’s because this book comes out of my and my students’ direct personal experience. It’s not just theory or doctrine; it’s a distillation of our life experiences.

We found out and did all these things for ourselves, because we had to. Now we’re 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. The knowledge in this little book is the key to taking effective action, both for yourself and those you care about.

There is a secret to life and happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). 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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) until I found this secret. To find it, I had to transcend many wrong ideas about life and the world—ideas that most people accept without thinking.

These misconceptions, and the actions based on them, are why I was unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), and why most people are unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). If you want real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and success, you are going to have to get over them. That’s why the Introduction is subtitled “Everything You Think You Know is Wrong.” There is a lot to unlearn on the path to complete fulfillment in life.

In this book I talk a lot about spiritual truth. I have to, because a big part of real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) is understanding that we are spiritual beings, and living that truth. Taking care of your spiritual needs is basic to real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).

Spiritual does not mean religious; in fact, organized religion is one of the major things that deceives people, traps them and keeps them unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). The difference between religion and spiritual truth is that people manufacture religion for their own purposes—mostly to control and exploit others—while 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 it’s convenient or useful, easy to understand and accept, or not.

Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and real life come when you recognize and accept spiritual truth, and act according to it. To attain Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), 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 definitely will have to change your lifestyle and relationships. If you don’t 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 offer.

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 that’s 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 it’s the only way it could be, and the only practical way to attain the ultimate in happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).

I’m sharing my truth because I have lived it myself, from a very unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) beginning in life all the way through to a very happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) 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. I’m not after money, disciples or followers—I 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 after me and follow the advice in this little book will live a happier life in a happier world. And that is enough.

Introduction—Everything You Think You Know is Wrong

Why are you reading this book? You want to solve the problems of life and attain real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). That implies that you are unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), or at least not as happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) as you would like to be. That’s OK; everyone starts from there. We understand, and can help you with that. So let’s get going.

The Big Lie

The 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 difficult to see beyond it. There are many people who are born, grow up, live, work and die within the borders of the large cities of the world. They never go outside and see what is beyond the borders of their town. Similarly, most people live completely within The Big Lie, never contacting any source of information that is free from it. Thus they never see themselves, the world or life as they really are.

So, what is The 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. There’s no God in control, no right or wrong, good or bad.

Life is what you make of it. The biggest dog gets the bone. So come

on—let’s party!”

That’s it: The Big Lie. You might be asking, “Well, what’s 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 The Big Lie.

The matter with The Big Lie is that it’s a lie. It’s not just false; it’s so twisted that it’s actually evil. If you believe it, if you base your life or values on it or make decisions according to it, you will suffer. In fact, following The Big Lie is the cause of all our suffering in life.

Influenced by The Big Lie, we are taught to think that life evolved over millions of years, finally 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, indefinitely.

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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com); that there is no God, or if there is, He is so far away and so utterly transcendent that He has no connection with our ordinary lives; that after 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 The Big Lie? Just about everything. It is completely false, a concocted story just to disempower you and make you a terrified 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. This 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 fine without it, thank you very much. Trading our happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and independence for false material security and a life of slave labor is a terrible deal; yet that is exactly what The Big Lie gets us to do.

It would be impossible to recognize The Big Lie as a lie at all, if it were not for the existence of the Absolute Truth. Like The Big Lie, the Absolute Truth is seldom directly stated all in one place at one time. That’s because it is a great secret. But there are bits and pieces of it in all the best and most beneficial thoughts that humans have held dear throughout eternity.

There is a very dedicated confidential Order that protects and propagates the Absolute Truth down through history. Unfortunately, they are very much outnumbered by the people who propagate and believe The 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:

“The aim of life is to attain spiritual realization. We humans, like all living beings, are invisible subatomic particles of pure consciousness—spirit souls. We are eternal, wise and happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) by nature, but because of ignorance of spiritual life, we are trapped in these miserable, temporary material bodies. There is an infinitely powerful, wise, loving and beneficent God in control, who wants to help us get out of the mess we’re 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 suffering that comes along with them. But when we finally 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. This 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 it’s 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 The Big Lie, this world would be a totally different place; a much better place to live.

Well, don’t 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 The 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 The Big Lie. And it is very difficult to change one’s 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. That is why we wrote this book.

How do we know about The 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. The 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 The Big Lie say these fragments tell us? That ‘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. They are available on our website, and the story they tell is very interesting. These ancient records are called the Vedas, and they go back hundreds of thousands of years. The 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 different story of the origins of civilization than The Big Lie is feeding us.

The books of the Vedas are more than 5,000 years old—some of them are much older. They tell a story of a very advanced, flourishing worldwide culture and technology based on spiritual principles. That culture abruptly was destroyed about 5,000 years ago when evil elements infiltrated the highest levels of its government. There was a terrible battle in which all world leaders perished, leading to a time of great confusion, ignorance and decay. This Dark Age has lasted from 5,000 years ago to the present day.

In the Dark Age, the evil forces have the advantage. They wanted to erase all knowledge of the previous high civilization, therefore they created The Big Lie to cover it up. That way people would not know that there is a much better way to live than by being slaves of a worldwide corporate empire. The 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. They want to keep everyone in the dark so they can continue to exploit them.

That Dark Age is almost over, but it will not pass without a struggle. The 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. Therefore they are sowing seeds of discord and chaos everywhere. This chaos will only increase until it peaks in 2012 and for some time thereafter.

After 2020 or so, things will settle into a new cycle that we call the Golden Age. The darkness of materialism will be vanquished, the knowledge of the 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.

The 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 fight the necessary changes. Your most powerful ally in surviving the coming changes is the knowledge in this book. Things 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.

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 flow only one way. Similarly when we talk about ‘The 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 infinite. Another way of saying it is that during the Singularity, anything that can change, will. That infinite 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.

There 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 infinite change: it breaks down and goes mad. The only kind of consciousness that can deal with infinity in any form is transcendental, or spiritual consciousness. Therefore if we want to survive the Singularity with our sanity intact, we much change our consciousness to the transcendental platform.

What’s going to happen when change becomes almost infinite? Everything that can change, will change. That means the politics, the economics, the technology; we’ve already seen proof the technology is changing faster and faster. The scientists and engineers have a very narrow point of view. They think, “We’re driving the changes.” And the politicians think the same way. But no; they’re the effect of the change, the effect of the time, just like everybody else. Their whole so-called advancement can be finished overnight.

The ancient Vedic civilization had a continuity of over four million years. During that time they built up a very impressive technology. That whole technology was finished in one night. How? There was nothing wrong with their knowledge; it was just that everything changed—even the laws of nature. So that technology didn't work anymore. It’s 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 finished. There would be chaos. The 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 finished—because the laws of nature changed. All of a sudden that technology didn’t 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 doesn’t work anymore.

That’s the nature of the material world: everything changes. Whether it changes slowly or it changes fast, it’s still the same, it all changes. When things change too fast for us to keep up, then all our plans are ruined. That’s why the Mayan calendar and the Vedic calendar go in very large cycles. The universe goes through different 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.

That’s life in the material world. That is the law of God. It’s supposed to be that way. Because if things went too smoothly, we would become complacent and we would forget God: “Oh, we don’t need God, everything here is so nice, is going so smoothly, we don't need to make a big effort to find 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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).

Ignorant people who have no spiritual knowledge somehow rationalize this: “Oh, we're here for experience. To gain knowledge!” But the ultimate 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. They’re gone, just like they never existed. The past is gone, you can never get it back. And the future is not here yet.

So in the material world, everything is changing. It’s 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 they’re all fighting over food and territory. And if you look at the galaxies, sometimes the galaxies collide, and they fight and they tear off each others’ stars and take them away. The same things are going on, just on a bigger or smaller scale.

The material world is always going to change and disappoint us. It’s always going to ruin our plans. So the intelligent person concentrates his energy to find God. Because that’s the only stability, that’s the only security, that’s the only safety.

We can’t change the way the world is. We can’t change other people. We can’t change the laws of God or the laws of nature. We can’t overcome the influence of time; the changes of the Singularity are going to happen, whether we like it or not. The 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 benefits; 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 difficult; 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. I’m not any different from anybody else. So if I can make it, you can also make it.

The Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) 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. These methods are very powerful and effective, but they do require some time to act. The more time and energy you can devote to them, the more quickly they will act. Therefore the first goal in our plan is to attain economic independence, so that you have the time to implement the other parts of the Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) Method.

How to Learn

The 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. This article presents a simple method for teaching yourself any subject so that you can apply it in your life.

You would think that the first thing they would teach you in school is how to study. How to learn stuff should be the first 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, 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 you—you 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.

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 don’t. What are you doing with your time?

You might protest, “Well, I’m trying...” But like Jedi Master Yoda said, “Try? There 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 what’s 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 finish 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. It’s 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 fulfilling someone else’s 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 else’s dreams will just have to wait. After all, at the end of the day it’s your life, your time, your consciousness and experience.

Think about it. This 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 fulfilling, 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 reflect on what makes your life meaningful. Dream a little—or a lot! Dreaming is one of the most powerful creative methods. Take an afternoon off 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 dreams—and resolve to attain them! And don’t 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!

Don’t 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. They 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. Then 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 first thing in the morning to connect with your dreams and goals. And as your first and most important task of the day, do something practical to being yourself closer to those goals. As often as you can remember, ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing for me to do right now?” And remember, what’s most important for you is not usually what’s most urgent for others.

So put on your executive producer’s hat and cast yourself as the hero of your own feature film. Make it as big and dramatic and powerful as you like. You be the producer, director and star. Be creative with your life—this magical opportunity to experience your dreams. Then watch yourself grow to fill this big picture of your life!

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. The other side is living in a place with much lower expenses than the developed, industrial first-world 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-sufficiency give you the security that even if the present civilization crashes and burns, you can continue to survive and even prosper.

Spiritual Community

Following a spiritual lifestyle or process requires compatible association. It is very difficult 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 benefits 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. The 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 different 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 benefits of spiritual life, but then again, it is not for everyone. You will have to determine the best solution for your needs.

Self-Sufficiency

During the chaos leading up to and beyond 2012, it is likely that the financial, 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. The only practical answer is to develop agricultural self-sufficiency.

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. The only practical answer is to move to the country and develop a large, productive garden.

Knowledge versus Experience

Knowledge of words about something is different from experiencing the thing itself. This 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.

Theology and philosophy do have their place; but when they assume an unnatural importance, it’s a destructive distraction from the real spiritual path. Consider the words of Paul:

“The 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, there’s a problem. Stay away from that mindset and those people. They will waste your time for no profit. It’s far better to ignore the arguments and the arguers, understand the philosophy in a simple way, and concentrate on the practice. That way you will learn something more substantial than just words.

Easy is Right

The 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 artificial 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 God-made. The 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. The choices we make in our lives make a big difference. We are all equal as children of God, but because of the choices in our lives we are all different unique individuals. In fact there is more difference 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, it’s actually very simple! Just turn around. Turn your life; make a different choice now. Think what Jesus or the Buddha or Krishna—whoever your ideal Master is—would 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. That’s your choice, and it’s all right because you have to suffer the consequences, and nobody else. But then don’t blame God when you suffer from the consequences of your ignorant choices. Don’t blame me that you have not become enlightened after you have read everything in this book but you still haven’t chosen to realize your original spiritual nature. Your state, your condition is always the result of your past choices and actions. That’s the Law of Karma.

Maybe you’re 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 find enlightenment? Why do you have to go here and there, seeking and searching? The truth is within you, if you know how to see it. There’s nothing to find; 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 God’s 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. It’s 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. That’s the core of enlightenment. There’s 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. That’s really all there is to enlightenment.

Now, take the four regulative principles, for example: avoiding meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex and gambling. It’s not that I or God want to impose them upon you. They 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 wouldn’t like to kill. You wouldn’t 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 don’t 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 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 refined. 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. That is enlightenment.

It is not that if you don’t observe these principles, God will punish you. God doesn’t 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 you’ll feel terrible, miserable. You’ll feel like you are godless, and that makes you suffer. That 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. That 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. That’s how you become enlightened. That’s how you become a saint, master of your own self. It is a choice that you must make in every moment. The 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. There 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. The four regulative principles help you measure your progress toward that ideal state.

There’s 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. That’s why it’s 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. The path of enlightenment is very simple, even if it isn’t 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. That’s why we have strayed from Godliness. That’s why we have strayed from enlightenment and descended into a lower quality of existence. We put ourselves into hell, into a suffering condition of life, because we deny ourselves, we deny our real spiritual nature and our relationship with God.

But if you’re fed up with it, you don’t want to suffer anymore, and you are ready to return to your original divine spiritual nature, then you must make a firm decision: it’s time to change, to return, to turn your head and walk back. Walk back to where you have come from, and that’s 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 don’t do these four things—meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex and gambling— and you become a saintly person, a spirit soul again. That is the basis of enlightenment.

That’s 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 different way, and that’s it. Remember and walk back to your original state of being: very simple. There’s 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. That’s 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, it’s difficult. I won’t cheat you and say that it’s easy, because your mind won’t let you think that way. Your mental habits are binding because you think, “Oh, I’m so fallen. I'm so sinful. I have been so bad, how can I be a saint or how can I become enlightened?”

You can! Just return. Just walk back to your original nature; that’s it. It doesn’t matter how far from home you have walked; just turn your head and walk back, and one day you’ll reach your goal. If you don’t turn your head and walk back, you never will reach it. It doesn’t 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. “The 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. That doesn’t mean you have to be passive, and give your head to everyone to chop if they want to. That’s 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. Think about it and then do it.

Especially in the beginning, maybe it’s 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 different ways. It’s His energy, therefore it has the same qualities; it’s just infinitely smaller in quantity. Nothing is actually different 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 different 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. There is no enjoyment in denial of reality. Then after a long time in denial of the truth, finally we say, “OK, that’s no good. That’s not a good experience. I’ve suffered, and other people have suffered for that too, so I better change it.” This 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 suffer 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.” There’s no need to ask for forgiveness, just change your attitude, change your behavior. That’s 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. We’re coming back to where we belong.” Then you will face your home and you’ll be come nearer to your home with every step. Just stop dong the nonsense. That 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; don’t do it again, and do the opposite. Before you were stealing and hating people and now you’re giving, you’re forgiving people. That’s it! That is Godly, that is saintly. God is love. God is forever forgiving because He loves us. It’s that simple. There’s 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 you’ve been overeating!). There's nothing to clean your sins except yourself, your determination to change. It’s 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 that’s 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 it’s because you’re 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 I’m going in the right direction.” Of course; if you turn and walk to the right direction then you 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. Then you become more and more Godly, more saintly, more enlightened every day.

I don’t 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, it’s OK. Play around, waste your time, it’s OK. It gives me a job to do, to remind you of the truth. The 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. That realization is the most difficult 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.

The 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 it’s no good, and you want to experience the real way of spiritual life. That’s all right; you can do what you want, because God has given you free will. You have the right to experience suffering, 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 different.

That’s why enlightened people are rare. Not because people are not spirit souls. They are. They just don’t make the choice, don’t make the effort to get out of the mud, to clean themselves and be renewed, refreshed. They think they cannot do it. They think that the mud is too deep, the water is too much, their efforts are too little, and they’re too weak, etc. The more they remain there, the weaker they become, the more dirty they get, and the harder to convince themselves to get out. That’s why the Master must come to rescue them out of the mud and tell them, “Go wash and see yourself in the mirror. You’re not dirty like that. Take some vitamins, eat some food, then you'll be strong again. Look at yourself, you’re OK.”

Sometimes people remain so long in the mud, so frozen in the water that it

takes some time to recover. That’s 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, difficult to revive. Difficult doesn’t 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 don’t take the prescribed medicine or the advice from the doctor then it takes a longer time, that’s 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 (Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). The only real problem on the spiritual path is if we don’t try to help ourselves. Only you can do the work of enlightenment.

The Source of Our Knowledge

The source of our knowledge about Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and the Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) Method is the Vedas, the ancient wisdom books of the East. They were first written down over 5,000 years ago, but the oral tradition of the Vedas is actually much older than that. It’s important to note that we get our knowledge from the original source texts of the Vedas. The knowledge available in the West about the Vedas has been filtered through a screen of disinformation, such that it has become completely different from the original sources. There 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 financial arrangements. The 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 find the real truth.

Why do I tell you this now? To help you develop faith in the Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) Method presented in this book. What you can achieve in life is totally determined by your faith. Now your faith is divided; it’s scattered, distributed among many different things. You’re hedging your bets; you have a little faith in this, have a little faith in that—thinking that maybe one of them will pan out and be a big winner. But it doesn’t 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 fide means of deliverance, and this is the Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) Method. So how do we have full faith in any one thing? Well it’s a slow process; it doesn’t just happen overnight, it’s a step-by-step process. So now we’re going to begin this process by withdrawing your faith from false things and reposing your faith in something true, the Real happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) 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 benefit, things that will keep you bound and illusioned in this material world. So first you have to accept the bad news. What is the bad news? It’s 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 else’s concoction, of some new idea manufactured in some human mind, or even from propaganda designed to give you the wrong impressions about the knowledge of the Vedas.

The Vedas are the original source teachings of yoga and meditation. They are perfect, and they lead to deliverance from all suffering. But everything we know, everything we have encountered about yoga and meditation, religion and God in the West, has been put through a filter. We already discussed The Big Lie. Once you understand exactly how that works, you’ll come to see that everything you think you know about God, yoga, meditation, tantra and spiritual life is actually wrong; it's actually false, it’s actually a trap to confuse you and defeat you in spiritual life.

Let’s get down to specifics. There are three reasons why I say that everything you think you know about yoga and spiritual life is wrong:

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One is, you have an insufficient quantity of knowledge.

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Two is, whatever knowledge you do possess is inaccurate.

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Three is, the knowledge you do possess is the wrong quality of knowledge.

I’ll explain all of these one by one. There are compelling reasons why I make these assertions, and once you get through the entire book and actually try the Method, I’m sure you’ll 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, I’m saying these things for your benefit.

The first thing I said is that you have insufficient 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. The source literatures of yoga and tantra simply haven’t been translated into English. Most of them are still in the original Sanskrit. Especially for tantra; tantra is a huge subject, a vast subject. There are thousands and thousands of tantras on different things, everything from how to build a house to how to farm to how to make flower airplanes that fly 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 there’s 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? Didn’t that ever strike you as strange? It's because 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 superficial, therefore instead of translating the really profound books of the tantras, they published something sensational about sex instead.

Therefore 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 you’re reading this book, and we will introduce you to the original source material on yoga, tantra, meditation and so many other things. You won’t have to guess anymore, and you won’t have to rely on imperfect translations, because we have perfect translations that are accurate and faithful to the original source.

By the time you’re 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. This book will open up for you a new perspective on life, yoga and spiritual life, and you’ll 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 different civilizations coming and going. And all that time the Esoteric Teaching has remained the same, and it has remained the civilizing force that’s 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, that’s why things are the way they are; that’s 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 you’ve never heard before from any source, because we’re giving the original and complete Vedic Esoteric Teaching of yoga and meditation.

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. The 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 suffering; you are also missing the most fulfilling joy of spiritual life. Therefore to realize your actual spiritual existence and identity, you must perform activities of the same nature as your self. This 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. The 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 first as an embryo, then as an infant, a child, a youth, an adult, and finally as an old person. However, despite the constant changes of the material body, the spirit soul does not change. The individual soul finally changes the body itself, transmigrating from one body to another at death. And since the soul is sure to have another body—either material or spiritual—in the next birth, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone on account of the death of the material body.

This is the first great spiritual secret revealed in Bhagavad-gita. The change of body does not take place only at death; it is taking place constantly. The material body is changing at every moment. If you measure a child’s body today, tomorrow you’ll find 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.

The body is changing, but the soul remains always unaffected 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, even though that body no longer exists. Therefore I, the self or consciousness within the body, am permanent. Just the body is changing. What is the difficulty to understand this simple truth?

The body is changing, but I am not changing. I am eternal; therefore I am not this body. I am not changing, therefore I am different from this body. This simple truth is the first 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 battlefield 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.”

This is the first important instruction on the path of real spiritual life. The 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 difficulty of understanding this simple truth that the soul is different from the body? Any normally intelligent person can understand it.

This 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. “The 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 five feet tall, will the father and mother cry, “Oh, where is my child? Where is my child, my one-foot tall child?” Of course not. The parents know that “My same child is there, but she has grown up.” ‘Grown up’ means that she has changed the body. The same person is there, but the body has changed. Everyone can understand this simple fact.

Similarly, Krishna is teaching Arjuna that his argument against fighting 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.” This is the beginning of the instructions of Bhagavad-gita, or the spiritual instructions of the Esoteric Teaching. Unless one understands this simple fact—that the soul is different from this material body; the spirit soul is eternal and unchanging, and the body is temporary, always changing—without understanding this, there can be no spiritual knowledge, advancement or realization. If one identifies 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. The 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 first one has to accept some process of bodily and mental purification (yama-niyama). The yogi then has to practice the different 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). This 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). These are the eight limbs of astanga-yoga.

So according to yoga philosophy, am I this body, or am I pure consciousness? Then 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. The soul is located within the heart, and the Supersoul (Paramatma) is also there. Therefore, 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.”

To attain such transcendental self-realization by means of ordinary yogic methods is a very long and difficult 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. The yogis reach the spiritual platform after much exercise and purification 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 Krishna’s expansion is the Supersoul within our hearts. So why should we take so much trouble to find 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. This bhakti-yoga process is far more practical in this day and age than ordinary hatha-yoga or astanga-yoga.

The 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 fide 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. They are trying to exercise this body, and they mistakenly think that perfection of this physical body is the final perfection of yoga.

But the Vedic scriptures, the original source of all knowledge and practices of yoga, do not agree. They teach a different truth, a very simple but extremely profound truth. Krishna, as the supreme spiritual authority, is presenting very simply: “As in this body there are different changes, similarly the ultimate change is called death.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.13] But the spirit soul, as he exists within this body in spite of all changes, will continue to exist even after the final change of this body. This is the simple truth; please try to understand it. This is the basic principle of all further spiritual progress. If one does not understand this point of view, there can be no further progress. This is ABC, that “I am not this body, but the spirit soul inhabiting and animating it.” This 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. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]

Arjuna’s rationalization for refusing to fight in the Battle of Kuruksetra was that “If I kill the opposing fighters, 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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).” This 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.

Krishna’s argument is essentially: “Why are you lamenting over the body of your grandfather? He’s a grand old man. If he does not die—if you do not kill him in the imminent battle—how 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? They may live only five or ten years more. So they cannot expect, or hope for anything great like this child. Their lives are finished. So Krishna is trying to convince Arjuna that “There 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 ordinary morality. Let’s look at Krishna’s argument from another perspective.

Changing the body is an effect of the Law of Karma. Such changes of body are meant to facilitate varieties of enjoyment and suffering 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. Krishna’s 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 Krishna’s actual argument is, “Why should you lament for your grandfather and teacher? They are so highly elevated, spiritually advanced. Their deaths will take place soon anyway, because this material body is temporary. Now they have come to fight as a matter of duty. There is no guarantee of survival in war. So even if you kill them, there is no lamentation for anyone.” This is the instruction Krishna is giving to Arjuna on the Battlefield.

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 self-realized 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, “These persons who wish to fight you on the battlefield 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? That does not look well.”

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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and distress, and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance of winter and summer season. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.14]

Now Arjuna’s question is, “Yes, I understand that my grandfather is spirit soul and this body is material. Still, I’m human. By nature I’ll be unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) if my grandfather and teacher are killed. Whether or not I realize the spiritual truth of the soul, I’ll still be unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).” Of course, even a self-realized soul is unhappy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) to see the suffering of this world. No one wants himself or others to die.

So Krishna is instructing Arjuna that this kind of unhappiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and distress is natural in this world. You cannot avoid it. These are necessary distresses. The example He’s 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 they’ll close their offices and work, and stop everything? No, everyone’s business is going on as usual. Spiritual maturity means that one has to be able to tolerate suffering patiently, without being disturbed.

In the desert during the summer, the temperature is very hot. 110 degrees or higher is not unusual. The scorching heat is so bad, the street is like a frying pan. But still, one has to go to the office, one has to go to work. There are some cases of heatstroke. Still, nobody can stop his duty. Life must go on, and food must be cooked on the fire in spite of the soaring summer temperatures.

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. He’ll 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 difficulty, just as one has to tolerate extreme heat and cold in winter and summer.” There is no use crying, “Oh, there is extreme heat, extreme heat.” Will lamenting make it any cooler? What can you do? That is nature’s law. Extreme heat—yet everyone is cooking. Nobody says, “Oh, today is extremely hot; I cannot cook.” Everybody is cooking, although there is suffering. Similarly, in winter there is extreme cold, but everyone is going to work as usual.

Life’s duty has to be done, regardless of circumstances. There may be some suffering, but it is temporary. Krishna never says, “Oh, my dear Arjuna, you are My friend. You are feeling so sorry to have to fight your relatives. All right, I shall do it for you.” Krishna is practical; He says, “You have to do it.” Although He also says, “This battle is arranged by Me. They’re 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 Krishna’s 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. Therefore we need not try to perform our work.” That is laziness, lethargy, ignorance.

You have to do your own duty, but with detachment, depending on Krishna for the result. This is Krishna consciousness. You don’t have to be sorry if there is failure, and you don’t 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 suffering or happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). It doesn’t matter. The important thing in this life is to attain self-realization. Everything else is unimportant. That is the transcendental consciousness that Krishna is imparting to Arjuna.

“O best among men, the person who is not disturbed by happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com)

and distress, and is steady in both, is certainly eligible for

liberation.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.15]

These are the signs, characteristics or symptoms of someone who is qualified 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(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and suffering 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. Therefore 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 confidence 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 difficult.

Similarly, we have taken to the path of the Esoteric Teaching, or Vedic spiritual life. The 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.

Don’t 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]

The Lord says, “Anyone who has understood this Esoteric Teaching perfectly, after leaving this body, will come to Me.” This is His assurance. So we haven’t 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 infinite, and we are finite. Our intelligence, energy, talent, and everything about us is finite. But if we try our best, then Krishna becomes satisfied 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.

This is Krishna’s exalted character and His loving kindness upon us. Otherwise it is not within our power to serve Krishna perfectly, because we are very insignificant. 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.

“Those 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]

This is a very important verse of Bhagavad-gita. We refer to it often, because it summarizes the difference 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 flux.

There is no endurance of the changing material body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of different chemical reactions in its cells is confirmed 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 body and mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. By nature the body is ever-changing and the soul is eternal and unchanging. This conclusion is accepted by all classes of transcendentalists, both the impersonalists and personalists.

The constitutional nature of the spirit soul is eternal. That is accepted by all philosophers, both personalist and impersonalist. The difference is that the impersonalist hypothesizes that after liberation, the spirit soul merges with the Supreme Soul, becoming all-pervading without any individual existence. They 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. The spirit soul is always the same individual, even after the death of the material body; even after liberation, he remains the same person.

The 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 flying 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 can’t see any stars in the sky due to the dazzling effulgence 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 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. This is because one whose spiritual realization is perfect is never bewildered by the dazzling effulgence of the Supreme. The Vedas also confirm 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 effulgence 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]

The author of Isopanisad is petitioning the Lord that “Please withdraw Your effulgence so that I can see Your real face.” Just like we cannot see the sun globe perfectly, due to the dazzling sunshine. The sunshine is different from the sun globe, although they are related as cause and effect. But we perceive them as one due to the limitations of our vision. Similarly, our first 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.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11]

The first 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.

This truth also has been established in the Visnu Purana: “Visnu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence.” Brahman’s real feature is Visnu, or the Supreme Brahman is Visnu. That is His personal feature. The supreme spiritual conception is the self-effulgent Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita: “That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.6]

The words existent and nonexistent in Bhagavad-gita 2.16 refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth. This 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 influence 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 difference between the living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This difference is primarily quantitative: we are limited, but the Lord is not.

Therefore one can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself. The difference between oneself and the Supreme Being should be understood as the relationship between the part and the whole, the finite spirit soul and the infinite Spirit Whole. In the Vedic scriptures, the Supreme is described as the origin of all emanations. The emanations of the divine are categorized as superior and inferior energies, or spiritual and material natures. The living entity belongs to the superior spiritual nature. Although there is no fundamental qualitative difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is the Supreme and the emanated energy, or nature, is His subordinate creation.

The 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.

“That 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. The spirit soul is very small, atomic in size, but his influence 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 taste—still you will feel its influence all over your 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 influenced by a material substance.)

Such a small amount of a material substance, LSD, has so much power that it can influence 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.

The soul is so powerful. If the influence of a tiny amount of a material substance like LSD can pervade the body, why not the influence of a tiny particle of spirit? The spiritual influence 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. This consciousness is the energy of the spirit soul. So by the pervasive influence of consciousness, we can understand that there is a spirit soul present in the heart of the body.

This verse of Bhagavad-gita (2.17) clearly explains the real nature of the soul. The soul is a powerful, indestructible energetic particle of spiritual energy whose influence 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 influence of our consciousness is limited to one’s own body. One soul cannot be directly conscious of another soul’s body.

Consciousness is a property or quality of the soul. The 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 finished, my small consciousness will merge with the supreme all-pervading consciousness, and I will attain oneness with God.” That 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 Krishna’s 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. That is My opinion.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.3]

The spirit soul is the knower of this body. Therefore 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 everyone’s body. Therefore He’s also the Knower of the body as Paramatma, the Supersoul in all bodies.

We cannot artificially 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 Krishna’s, but He is unlimited, whereas we are limited in all respects. That is the principal difference between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, Krishna. Therefore our real position is to act in service to the Supreme Soul, and thereby perfect our spiritual realization. The 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.

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 different person. The 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. This is our position: we are only tenants in this body, and Krishna is the actual proprietor or landlord.

Otherwise, why is everyone’s bodily situation so different? Everyone does not get a first-class body, like a beautiful movie star body, or a rich man’s body. A child born into a rich family is immediately rich. Another child born nearby at the same time is very poor. Why? There must be some intelligent arrangement according to the individual’s qualifications. Otherwise there is no reasonable explanation of why one person is born rich and another, poor.

This bodily inequality is the result of the path of material cause and effect. It is not due to chance. One child with little qualification is given a low-class room, a cheap apartment, according to his lesser capacity of paying rent. And another child with better karmic qualification 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 qualification. So in each birth you get a particular type of body—as the child of a rich man or a poor man, a dog or a cat, or a tree or plant—according to your accumulated karma. This conception of the dance of material nature is the key to understanding our material situation.

Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita 2.12, “Don’t 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.” The spirit soul is eternal, but takes one temporary body after another according to his qualification. If we increase our qualification, 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 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. This simple concept answers so many difficult 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 infant’s 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, I’ll have to accept another apartment, another body, according to my qualification.

Why is it so difficult for many people to understand this science of the soul? The spirit soul in the material world is away from his natural home in the spiritual world. Therefore he must possess a material body in which to reside. The body is simply an apartment in which the soul temporarily resides while in the material world. There is no reason to be identified with the apartment, or to think the body is the self.

“A human being who identifies 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 difference between this body and an apartment building? No essential difference.

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 pipes carrying blood, lymph and other materials within the abdomen. The 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. There is no essential or qualitative difference between the materials in this body and in the entire universe, simply a difference in quantity. The body is a small quantity and the universe, a large quantity of the same material ingredients. The ant’s body, the human body, the elephant’s body, and this gigantic universe—with its innumerable planets, suns, moons and the vast expanse of space—are made of the same material ingredients. It is only a difference of quantity: a big apartment or a small apartment, a cheap low-class apartment or an opulent, expensive townhouse. That’s all.

This is the material world. Karma means that everything is balanced; a zero-sum game. As soon as you make some profit 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. The materialists do not think, “Why am I uselessly digging and piling this material stuff? After all, soon my karma will kick me out of this body, and then all my work of digging and piling will come to naught.” They too busy digging and piling up material to contemplate the real situation. They cannot hear Bhagavad-gita or the Esoteric Teaching from a self-realized Master Teacher. They are too busy with temporary material work. This is called maya, forgetfulness or the illusory concept of life.

But just as the tenant of an apartment is qualitatively different from the apartment itself, the soul is qualitatively different from the body he inhabits. The 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.

“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]

The soul is changing apartments according to his qualification. Even in this life, the soul lives in different apartments: the fetus body, the infant body, child body, adolescent body, adult body, old man body. And one’s 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 influenced 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 different mentality. So, although the poor man and the rich man are both human beings, their intelligence and consciousness develop differently 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.

The materialists say, “I don’t believe in transmigration of the soul.” Well, one may believe or disbelieve, but nature’s work will go on according to these spiritual principles. If you have developed the karmic qualifications required to occupy a first-class apartment, then nature will give you a nice body. But if you use those good qualifications 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, don’t spoil it by simply behaving like cats and dogs; utilize it for understanding further good, and progressing in spiritual life. That is the message of our Esoteric Teaching. Bhagavad-gita says that you are misled, and simply stuck in bodily consciousness. Therefore fight against this misunderstanding, as Krishna is urging Arjuna to fight his relatives who are sunk in material illusion.

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.” That is also illusion, a false concept. No land is originally America or Germany or France or England. People have falsely named it: “This is America.”

Five hundred years ago, there was no America. The land was there, but the false material designation was not there. Then some Europeans colonized it and then named it. They accept the illusion: “This land is America. That land is Mexico. You cannot cross without a passport.” So nationalism, which is the cause of so much unnecessary fighting and suffering, is based on false material designation. These 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. The land was created by God, so it is God’s property. Where is the difficulty to understand? You did not create anything. You did not create even your own body. The 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.

This 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. Therefore we think we remain in the same body throughout life. But actually it is not the same body. The body of the youth is different 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 different body. I existed, say, 40 years ago in a different body. Then I was jumping and playing as a boy, but now I cannot jump like that. Now I have to move much more carefully. This is a different body. If I were still in the same body, then I could still jump like a boy. But now it is not possible; so it is different body. Although it has changed imperceptibly over many years’ time, the body is different.

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. Therefore 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 health (Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com)y 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. The circumstances most favorable for spiritual life are to be associated with a bona fide mystery school under the direction of a living self-realized Master Teacher, such as this Esoteric Teaching. Then 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. Thus they attempt to draw an artificial 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 difference 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]

The actual purpose of the Vedas and Vedanta is to help us understand Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That 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.

“The 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.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 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. Thus the ultimate conclusion of the Vedas is called Vedanta. The four original Vedas, Upanisads, Mahabharata and many other Vedic scriptures were compiled by Vyasadeva, who is also considered an incarnation of Krishna. Therefore there is no actual difference 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 fide spiritual Master Teacher.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.8]

“Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ 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. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated self-realized person. Consequently, as the Vedas confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the Master Teachers advocate.” [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 17.186].

If we follow the footprints of the Master Teachers, the great souls, then we find 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 Sankara’s 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 Sankara’s 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 offer 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 first 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 fire, 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]

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. This 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 difference between Paramatma and spirit soul, spirit soul? It is not very difficult 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. The children are not qualitatively different from the father, but still, the father is superior or senior, and the children are inferior or junior. The father and his children are qualitatively one, but quantitatively different.

Similarly the spirit soul, or individual soul, and Paramatma the Supreme Soul are quantitatively different, 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, infinite Spirit. This philosophy is inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference. 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.

The spirit soul and Paramatma are one in quality, but different in quantity. We have some creative power, and God has creative power. Therefore 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 floating in unlimited space. So we have got some very tiny quantity of creative power, but we cannot create like Paramatma. That is the difference.

The 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 different individual person from the atma, and also vastly superior both in quantity and position.

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.

“The 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?

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life,

enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association

with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among

various species.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.22].

You are independent. You can associate with different qualities of material nature, but then you have to accept the karma generated by your material activities. Thus your misuse of your minute independence leads to the suffering experienced by all living entities in the material world. Therefore Paramatma’s instruction is “Give up all different 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 suffer.

The father loves his son and gives him good advice: “My dear boy, do like this. You’ll be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com).” But the son does whatever he likes, and gets into trouble. Then who is responsible for the son’s 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 you’ll be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). That 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 difference between service to human beings and service to Paramatma. But the Vedic scriptures do not agree with that philosophy.

“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 satisfies 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 flourish 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 flourish, 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. The 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 sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names, and of immovable things I am the Himalayas.” [Bhagavadgita 10.25]

Therefore the Esoteric Teaching recommends to chant the Holy Names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as one’s principal form of yoga and spiritual service. That will be most effective in reviving our original ecstatic spiritual consciousness. Then once we are in the normal health (Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com)y 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 different, our conception is properly aligned with the actual reality. This 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]

The 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 finally 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]

The whole material world is sustained by a partial manifestation of Krishna’s energies. Tthis temporary phenomenal material cosmos is only one fourth of God’s total energy. The 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. The material manifestation is temporary, but the spiritual nature is described as eternal and transcendental to this material nature. The ingredients of material nature are also described in Bhagavad-gita:

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.4]

These eight types of material substances—earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and false ego—comprise material nature. The material energies are separated from Krishna; in other words, they are of different quality. Krishna’s 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]

These material energies are inferior. But beyond this inferior material

nature, there is another, superior nature. What is that? The 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 flood 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. This spiritual energy is composed of many individual small particles of the Supreme Lord. Therefore 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]

The living entity, or soul, is an energy of the Supreme Lord, just like the sunshine is the energy of the sun globe. The sunshine appears homogeneous, but is actually composed of tiny shining subatomic particles. Similarly, we spirit souls are also miniscule particles of the Supreme Lord.

“The 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? The size of the spirit soul is also described in the confidential 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 fine division is the size of the numberless living entities. They are all cit-kana, particles of spirit, not matter.” [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 19.140]

The dimension of the living entity is given as one ten-thousandth of the tip of a hair. The 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.

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Therefore 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. (The 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, first 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. Therefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand one’s own self and the ontological position of the soul. This self-realization is the perfection of all yoga practice.

“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. The suffering 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, first 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.

Therefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand one’s self. Realizing one’s 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 qualified teacher. Therefore, one should approach a qualified 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. The

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, after 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, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa confirm 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 five 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 Thakur and Narottama das Thakur, Bhaktivinod Thakur and our own spiritual Master Teacher, Abhay Caranaravindam Thakur.

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. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28]

That is the acceptance of Krishna as the Supreme in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Similarly, Lord Brahma also accepted Krishna: “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]

There is so much evidence in the Vedic scriptures that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the final 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? That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita:

“Those 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]

Those 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. The 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 he’s 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. The 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. They have less intelligence, or no intelligence. The ass works very hard all day carrying clothes for the washerman, and at the end of the day is satisfied 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 those whose knowledge has been stolen by maya, illusion. They 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. These are very strong terms. But we are not manufacturing these words, we are not making up these statements. These 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. Therefore the perfection of yoga is found by attaining self-realization 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]

The Esoteric Teaching is a living mystery school meant to preach all over the world that “Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28]. You are searching after 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 different books. But in spite of making so much effort, you are still unsure what is the truth. Your mind is full of doubt and uncertainty.

So, sometimes you think that “There 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 different. But our value proposition is: “Why you are taxing your brain? Why are you trying so hard, studying so many different contradictory teachings? Here is God, Krishna.” The 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 infinitesimal. A tiny spirit soul cannot become God; similarly, God cannot become a spirit soul, just like the sunshine can never become the sun. That 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. That 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 God’s because every one of us is a part and parcel of God. Therefore we do have some godly qualities, but in minuscule quantity. You can never become equal to God; that is absolutely impossible. The 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 Srimad-

Bhagavatam] 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]

There 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 specific 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. The prefix 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 Supreme—Parabrahman, Paramatma, Paramesvara —are applicable to Krishna alone. After 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]

That 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 first Master Teacher in our line of the Esoteric Teaching. Therefore 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; He’s the origin of everything.

“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 defined as “[The Absolute Truth is] He from whom everything emanates.” Thus Vedantasutra also confirms Krishna’s description of Himself in Bhagavad-gita.

So this is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. From all angles of vision—by Vedic scriptural evidence, by spiritual authorities and Master Teachers, by His opulence, by His unmatched power, unprecedented beauty and uncommon pastimes—Bhagavan Sri Krishna is confirmed 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]

This is the Vedic definition of God, Bhagavan. That Lord Sri Krishna fits this definition perfectly definition is confirmed 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 office, in family life. Somebody controls a few factories. So the jivas are limited controllers. But nobody can say, “I am the supreme controller.” The only supreme controller is Krishna.

This 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 controlled—but only by the supreme controller Krishna, not by others. That 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. That 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.”

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? That 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]

The more we consider that “I am this material body,” the more we become bewildered by the sufferings and anxieties of material existence. After many, many lifetimes of being kicked by the constantly shifting, 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,

he has to wander among different places and different 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 afflicted by six enemies: lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride and envy. Then, 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. Therefore, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says,

“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krishna because he is the marginal energy of Krishna and a manifestation simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, like a fiery subatomic particle of sunshine.” [Caitanyacaritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.108-109]

Our constitutional ontological condition is that we are eternal servants of God, Krishna. This spiritual service is our real eternal nature. But in material conditioned consciousness, we are trying to become the master. That 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. That ontological misconception is called illusion.

I am not a master; I am a servant—but I am trying to become master artificially. That 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. That is real liberation. Liberation does not mean that after liberation we’ll 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.

The consciousness that “I am master” is illusory. We have to change this consciousness to attain liberation. That 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.

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. That is maya. Actually, the whole world is serving the senses, serving different concocted desires. Therefore they are suffering in material illusion.

The 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.” [Bhagavad

gita 18.66]

Krishna says that “You give up all these nonsense desires. Just surrender unto Me.” That is the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gita. We are controlled by different types of desires dictated by maya, and we want to falsely become a master. This is called illusion, or maya, and this illusory conception keeps us trapped in material consciousness.

Actually, we are not masters. How we can artificially become masters? We may be very scientifically advanced; we may manufacture very wonderful machines and powerfully destructive weapons, but after all, we are subjected to the rules of maya:

“The 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 maya’s machinery: birth, death, old age and disease. Therefore a dhira, a sane and sober man who is actually learned, surrenders to Krishna, as recommended in the Esoteric Teaching.

“After 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. That is not 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 Lord’s lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different 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. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.32]

The 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. They 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.”

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.14]

This Esoteric Teaching is based on Krishna’s authority. Therefore 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 everyone’s heart as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

We don’t want to become Krishna; we want to become the most obedient servants of Krishna. That 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 benefit. We request everyone to join this esoteric school, study the spiritual ontology and philosophy, and attain liberation from all material suffering. For this Esoteric Teaching of spiritual consciousness is the ultimate 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]

This verse of Bhagavad-gita gives the first criterion of understanding spiritual life. People generally do not understand that there is another aspect of existence—consciousness or spirit soul—beyond 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 I’m 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.

This bodily misconception of life, is very common all over the world. This bodily identification 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.

The so-called jnanis are so much proud of their knowledge. In India, there are the so-called Mayavadis. They 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? They think: “I am a Hindu. I am an Indian. I am a sannyasi.” They 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 identified with the temporary material body; therefore you are ajnani. Jnani means pandita, and panditah sama-darsinah:

“The 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]

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 identification, because he does not consider the external superficial bodily identification.

Just like if you dress in a white shirt and tie, and I dress in dungarees and t-shirt, it does not mean that you are more intelligent than me. If you think we are different 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]

This very important sloka of Bhagavad-gita teaches us the first step of real spiritual knowledge. Those who understand their eternal identity as spirit soul are truly situated in knowledge, jnana. But to consider one’s 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. Therefore the Esoteric Teaching says,

“A human being who identifies 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 identifies himself with this bag of kapha-pitta-vayu, bones, flesh, 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 actual Master Teacher for spiritual instruction, then sa eva go-kharah: such a person is no better than a cow or ass.

Thus the Esoteric Teaching enjoins that our identification 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. This whole sorry material world is going around on the basis of that wrong impression, the misidentification with the material body. Therefore because of this misunderstanding there is fighting between one nation and another, one person and another, and so many unnecessary problems and useless suffering.

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.” Therefore to help Arjuna become a true jnani, the first instruction Krishna gives to Arjuna is, “You are not this body. My dear Arjuna, you are declining to fight 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 difficult situation on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, he lost his will to fight, although he was the greatest hero of his time. He became adhira, lost his composure, and was bewildered by the need to fight his close relatives. Therefore 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. Therefore 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 difficult situation on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, he lost his will to fight, although he was the greatest hero of his time. He became adhira, lost his composure, and was bewildered by the need to fight his close relatives. Therefore he thought it wise to accept Krishna not as his friend, but as guru. Of course he remained Krishna’s 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. The

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 fide self-realized spiritual Master Teacher. How? Prakrsta-rupena nipata: full surrender to the bona fide guru means accepting him as the representative of God, falling flat at his beautiful lotus feet: “My dear Sir, I surrender completely unto you.” Pranipatena pariprasnena: after offering 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 benefit 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 self-realized soul, you must accept his answer and follow his instruction as your very life and soul. You cannot argue, although you certainly can and should continue to submit sincere questions until you understand.

The self-realized Master Teacher can initiate you into real spiritual consciousness, because he has personally realized it. Spiritual knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient 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.

The 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 influence 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. Therefore 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 Krishna’s 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 effective, 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 qualification of a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher? He has received the instructions of Krishna through the disciplic lineage, understood them properly and realized them for himself, and he is passing on the exact same teaching to his disciples.

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.2]

The criterion of a bona fide 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. This 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 fide spiritual master.” [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12].

Just as we have our sampradaya or lineage, the Esoteric Teaching, there are other bona fide 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. That sampradaya begins from Krishna. Krishna is the original spiritual master of Lord Brahma, of Lord Siva, Narada and many other expert Vedic authorities. There 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 bhāgavata-dharma, or surrender unto the Supreme Lord and love for Him, is uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. It is very confidential and difficult 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 first son Narada Muni; Sambhu or Lord Siva; the four Kumaras, also sons of Lord Brahma; Kapila Muni, the

son of Devahuti—not 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. That 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. Those 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 find 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?” The Vedic principle may seem contrary to our established knowledge and logic. But actually, if we accept it, we find that the Vedic wisdom is perfect. Therefore if we accept it with trust and without argument, we get the benefit 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 find 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. The 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 find apparent contradictions. But if we test and analyze these statements, we will find that they are all correct. But because the followers of the Esoteric Teaching accept the

authority of the Vedas, we simply accept the Vedic statements and save so

much time and effort. Because we trust in the authority of the Vedas, since they are the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we get the benefit without the necessity of empirically testing every statement.

“To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach,

with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the

Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.” [Mundaka

Upanisad 1.2.12]

This is the injunction of the Vedas: if you are really interested in learning the transcendental science properly, you must approach a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher situated in the disciplic lineage, parampara. The 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.” That 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 Krishna’s instruction and went on to be victorious in the Battle of Kuruksetra. Then you can get immediate benefit. These are the injunctions of the Vedas, the source of the Esoteric Teaching and all other bona fide 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 fighting with his relatives, so he accepted Krishna as his spiritual Master Teacher to help him solve his problem on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. In the beginning, they were talking like friends. But friendly talking is not very helpful for solving difficult problems. That kind of argument is called vitanda. The word vitanda indicates that a debater, not touching the main point or establishing his own point, simply tries to refute the other person’s argument. That sort of argument has no value, because friends are on an equal level; they may discuss endlessly and never come to a firm conclusion.

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 guru’s determination as final. Guru-vakya, you cannot deny or reject the words of the guru. The guru’s advice or order may not be agreeable to you in the beginning, or you may not understand it properly at first, but you cannot deny it. That 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 fight, but I do not want to fight with my relatives. My affection for our family relationship is deterring me from fighting, making me a coward in the face of my enemies. Therefore it is a very difficult position, and I find 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 find 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, Arjuna’s 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 offspring will be varna-sankara, or unwanted children. These 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. Therefore, according to the Vedic system, sacred marriage is 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. The main case was whether Arjuna was to fight 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] The general understanding of people is that, “I will die, and you will die.” But Krishna reveals that na hanyate hanyamane sarire: nobody dies, even after the destruction of this body [Bhagavad-gita 2.20]. This sloka, Bhagavad-gita 2.13, is the beginning of Krishna’s 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]

This 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: “The soul does not die when the body dies.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.20] There is no actual spiritual instruction, even in the churches or the so-called yoga centers. Just try to understand how people are being kept in ignorance in the name of education, religion and yoga. They are thinking that hanyamane sarire, hanyate: after the death of the body, when the body is finished, the person is also finished. This is ignorance of the real self.

Once I was talking with a university professor, who said: “After the destruction of this body, there is nothing more. Everything is finished.” 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 difference between the soul and the body. His understanding—that after this body is finished, everything is finished—is superficial, and it is not a fact, because the soul is fundamentally different 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 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, suffering the threefold miseries of materialistic life.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.31]

So where is the education on the real nature of the spirit soul? This 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.

Therefore in the mystery school of the Esoteric Teaching, our process of accepting knowledge is the parampara system. There 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 qualified 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 firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.” [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12]

Therefore, spiritual knowledge should be taken only from a properly qualified, initiated and self-realized spiritual Master Teacher, who in his turn has received it from Vedic authorities through the parampara system.

One should approach him offering service and relvant inquiries, and be willing to abide by his order without argument. This 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. That 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. These four defects are human nature. Anyone who is not mukta-purusa—a liberated soul—must 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.” That 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 identified 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.” This is illusion, because this body is only our temporary home.

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 left 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 scientific theory is actually just a hypothesis. They 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”? The whole field of material science is like that. Our senses are imperfect, we are in illusion, we commit mistakes, and we have a cheating propensity. The cheating propensity means that even though we have no perfect knowledge; still, we want to give knowledge, to become a world-famous expert in the field. 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. There is no cheating, imperfection, illusion or error, because Vedic knowledge comes from sources higher than ordinary human knowledge. The 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 offer 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 first 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 fire, 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-sufficient. Not even he can perceive the spiritual realm directly. Lord Brahma is the first 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. The 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. That would not be the same Bhagavad-gita; that is something else. They 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. Then 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 difficult to understand. It is written in very simple Sanskrit language, and the philosophy is very clear—as 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. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.8]

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult 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 difficult to understand. It is written in very simple Sanskrit language, and the philosophy is very clear—as clear as sunlight in the clear sky.

There is no question of needing a flashlight to see the sunlight. When the sun is out, there is enough light to see the sun and everything else very clearly. Then if somebody brings a flashlight and says, “Now I shall show 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 benefit, 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, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the

place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, desiring to fight, 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-ksetra—people go there on pilgrimage and to perform Vedic sacrifices. 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. That kind of speculative misinterpretation of Bhagavad-gita is very widespread. But our value proposition is that if you really want to be benefited 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? Thus 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 else’s bogus misinterpretation; then you will be benefited. 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 fight. Yuyutsavah: the same word as Japanese jujitsu, fighting.

“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]

Study Bhagavad-gita as it is, without your or anyone else’s bogus

misinterpretation; then you will be benefited. 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 fight. Yuyutsavah: the same word as Japanese jujitsu, fighting. That’s all right, because the Vedic ksatriyas’ duty is to fight to establish religious principles in human society.

Where is the need for any interpretation? It is history. They selected a nice place, Kuruksetra, a dharma-ksetra or place of religious pilgrimage and sacrifice, 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 “The Pandavas are the five senses and Kuruksetra means this body”?

There 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. That 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. Therefore 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 different editions of Bhagavad-gita, and almost every one of them puts forth a different interpretation. Even the editions of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is printed later than 1972 contain unauthorized editorial changes that distort the meaning. That 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 Krishna’s words in Bhagavad-gita as the message of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and intelligent people accepted it because there is no adulteration.

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. Then you will get real knowledge of spiritual life. Otherwise, you will remain in the same ignorance, before reading Bhagavad-gita and after reading Bhagavad-gita. This 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? The 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.

Then, kaumaram yauvanam jara: the changes that take place in the body do not affect 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 affected. Similarly, the changes of the body do not affect the soul, but they are due to the fact that the soul is transmigrating through different types of bodies, from infancy to youth to adulthood to old age. Similarly, the soul transmigrates to a different body at death.

Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati: there are 8,400,000 different 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 different 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.

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 different 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 sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life —in other words, from the tender age of childhood—to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The 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.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.1]

Manusam durlabham janma: this human form is very rarely obtained. Therefore, 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.” This 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 different 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. Then again the body changes from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth. These changes continue throughout life, culminating in death.

In this way, the living entity is changing his body constantly. The living entity is not changing; he is simply changing the body in different ways.

That is explained in this sloka, Bhagavad-gita 2.13. The 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? He’ll get a fresh, new body, another youthful body. Rather you should become joyful that your old grandfather is going to have a new body.”

That was Krishna’s argument to Arjuna. But the actual point we should take away from this, is that we should not identify our self with this body. That bodily identification is ignorance, because it is not a fact. We should understand that “I am Brahman. I am an eternal spirit soul, different from this temporary material body.” Otherwise there is no advancement of spiritual education, self-realization or enlightenment.

Therefore, in Bhagavad-gita you’ll find that as soon as one realizes that he is not this body—that he’s Brahman, spirit soul—then 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 identified with this body, we are suffering. The brahma-bhuta stage is complete spiritual happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), without the disturbance of desiring what one does not have, and lamenting for what one has lost. The 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. The all-knower, the Supersoul within the heart of the devotee, makes everything increasingly fresh. This 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. This is due to the brahma-bhuta situation.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.20.30]

This spiritual realization is the perfection of yoga attainable by the Esoteric Teaching.

All our troubles and suffering are simply due to identification with the material body and its imperfect senses. The world is complete, because it is created by the Complete; but because we have identified 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: “This is my country, and that is your country.” This 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]

This sloka gives the situation of the soul in relation to the material body. The next sloka describes the internal state of non-identification with the body and senses.

“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They 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 suffering are simply due to identification with the material body and its imperfect senses. The world is complete, because it is created by the Complete; but because we have identified 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: “This is my country, and that is your country.” This is ignorance, based on the misconception that the body is the self, and the country or land of birth is the homeland. Therefore, there is so much unnecessary division and fighting all over the world.

For example, now there is a worldwide war being fought between the Christians and Muslims. They both artificially declare, “We are right, and you are wrong,” and there is an unnecessary fight. Actually, both the Christians and Muslims are religious people. They should understand that all people are children of God. Why should they fight? But because of this nonsense bodily identification, they are fighting, 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 identification, and come to understand Lord Krishna’s 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 fighting. In the stage of bodily consciousness, national consciousness, religious or community consciousness, you cannot become happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) or peaceful at any time. These false identifications are the cause of all the conflict and suffering 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; you’ll be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), and others will be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). Without coming to the stage of spiritual identification, you cannot be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com), 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. That is our eternal self-interest, eternal perfect happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). 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

This 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 spirit souls. But at the present moment, all our activities are going on in the bodily concept of life. That is called ignorance. Why?

“Those 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, suffering the threefold miseries.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 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. That is our eternal self-interest, eternal perfect happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com). But people do not know, because of a lack of spiritual knowledge.

They 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 effort expended in material plans and work, they remain in the same pitiable condition. The actual fact is that we are trying to be happy(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) 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.

Therefore, simply changing the leaders every few years will not yield any improvement. Instead we must change our consciousness. Otherwise, the same fighting, the same antagonism, the same propaganda, barking and fighting 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.

The educated first-class men of all countries assemble in the United Nations in New York. They 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 fighting, but we cannot see that we are one family, all God’s children. That is possible only by advancement of consciousness through this Esoteric Teaching. The peace and prosperity we seek is not possible on the platform of bodily consciousness, because that always leads to unnecessary competition and fighting.

In the Esoteric Teaching there are students from all over the world: America, England, Canada, Africa, Australia and India. But they’re not thinking that “He’s Indian, American, or Australian,” or anything based on the bodily misconception.” They 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.” This 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. Therefore it is mentioned here, dhiras tatra na muhyati. Dhira means a sober, cool-headed man, really intelligent—and the opposite is called adhira. Adhira means low-class intelligence, or rascal. Dhira means sober; the exact translation is ‘gentleman,’ dhira. Those who are not gentlemen—uncultured, rascals—cannot 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]

This is the very beginning of Krishna’s Esoteric Teaching in Bhagavad-gita. It is such a simple point, but even so-called educated people cannot understand. Therefore it is mentioned here, dhiras tatra na muhyati. Dhira means a sober, cool-headed man, really intelligent—and the opposite is called adhira. Adhira means low-class intelligence, or rascal. Dhira means sober; the exact translation is ‘gentleman,’ dhira. Those who are not gentlemen—uncultured, rascals—cannot understand, though they have materialistic so-called education.

Their problem is an insufficient ontology. Otherwise what is the difficulty? How plainly, how clearly and easily Krishna explains that kaumaram yauvanam jara: there are three stages of life. From birth to the fifteenth year is called kaumara; from the sixteenth year, begins yauvanam, youthful life up to the fortieth year. Then after fifty, one becomes jara, old man. Therefore it is advised in the Vedas that pancas ordhvam vanam vrajet. Pancas means fifty. So after fifty years of age, one should retire from family life and go to the forest (vana), or dedicate one’s 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

suffering. 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 dhira—gentlemen, sober-minded, cool-headed—can 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 fifteenth year. Then 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 affairs and possessions after the age of fifty, is considered spiritual suicide. One who dies in such a state of material identification and attachment is considered most unfortunate.

We attained the age of fifty 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. This lifestyle of Vedic spiritual culture is the best solution to all the problems of life, especially repeated birth, old age, disease and death within the material world. The Esoteric Teaching is therefore the best prescription for overcoming all difficulties, attaining lasting happiness(Buy now from http://www.drugswell.com) and reaching the final 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 us—you, me, and all these soldiers and kings who are present here—existed 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 identified 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 that’s 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 Krishna’s statement contradictory? No, it is not. But Krishna’s statement in Bhagavad-gita 2.12 rests on the fact that the spirit soul is different from the material body. The soul inhabits the body, but the body is temporary. Therefore we existed eternally in the past, but in a different body; and we shall continue to exist in the future in different 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 identification. 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. The 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 difficulty to understand? Dehinah means ‘of the proprietor of the body.’ The body is changing; I can understand that my body has changed. Similarly, in the next life the body will change again.

The 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 different style of dress. In my youth, I wore another kind of dress. In my old age, or as a sannyasi, I wear a different 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 different from the dress itself. Then why is it so difficult to understand that the spirit soul is different 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]

This simple concept—transmigration of the soul—is explained very clearly in Bhagavad-gita. And all living entities are also eternal individuals. There 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:

“The Supreme eternal conscious spiritual individual, the Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable eternal conscious spiritual living entities, in terms of their different situations according to individual work and reactions of work. That 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. The difference between the living entities and God, is that God does not change His body. But even that is only in this material world. When we go to the spiritual world, there is no more change of body. The soul’s existence is eternal. As Krishna has His eternal body—a purely spiritual form that is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge and pleasure—similarly, 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.”[Brahma

samhita 5.1]

That is the difference. When Krishna comes to this world, He does not change His body. Therefore 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. That is the difference 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. Therefore offering devotional service to Krishna according to the instructions of the Esoteric Teaching is the clear path to the perfection of yoga.

Soul is Consciousness

The soul or self is both conscious and consciousness. All the symptoms of life—perception, 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. Therefore 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. Thus 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. This 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 different in size. We are persons, for example, because God is a person. The difference is that He is the Supreme Person, and we are tiny insignificant persons.

Spiritual vs. Material

Laws of Karma

Transcendental Knowledge

Chanting