01.25.07
Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 10:56 by David Bruce Hughes
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andham tamah pravisanti
ye ‘sambhutim upasate
tato bhuya iva te tamo
ya u sambhutyam ratah
SYNONYMS
andham—ignorance; tamah—darkness; pravisanti—enter into; ye—those who; asambhutim—demigods; upasate—worship; tatah—than that; bhuyah—still more; iva—like that; te—those; tamah—darkness; ye—who; u—also; sambhutyam—in the Absolute; ratah—engaged.
TRANSLATION
Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.
PURPORT
Sambhuti is a name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the completely independent Absolute Truth. The Sanskrit word asambhuti, translated here as “demigods,” refers to those who have no independent existence. The Absolute Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, clarifies the relationship between sambhuti and asambhuti as follows:
na me viduh sura-gana
prabhavam na maharsayah
aham adir hi devanam
maharsinam ca sarvasah
“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]
The Supreme Personality of Godhead delegates a small portion of His inconceivable, unlimited power to the demigods, great sages and mystics for their service unto Him. Although their powers and intelligence are far beyond those of ordinary human beings, they are still limited. It is very difficult even for the demigods and great sages to understand how Krsna, the unlimited Lord, can appear in this world in a human-like form. So it is commonplace for ordinary human beings to misunderstand Him, and mistakenly worship demigods or the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth.
Philosophers, theologians and even many Vedic rsis, or mystics, attempt to discriminate the Absolute from the relative by their own speculative intellectual power. This inferior process can only reach a negative conception of the Absolute: “It is not this, it is not that.” Definition of the Absolute by negation leads one to imagine a formless Absolute without qualities. Such a nihilistic conception is simply the antithesis of relative material qualities, and is therefore also relative. Definition of the Absolute by negation is incomplete. It is powerless to reveal the positive aspect of the Absolute, defined in Mantra 1 of Sri Isopanisad as the Complete Whole. By searching for the Absolute through negation of the relative, one can at most realize the impersonal spiritual effulgence of Brahman. But one cannot progress to realizing the indwelling Paramatma or Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead, or uncover one’s original eternal spiritual identity, without positive knowledge of transcendence.
Therefore people addicted to the speculative process of negation of the relative cannot realize the complete Absolute Truth. They do not know that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krsna, that the impersonal Brahman is the expansive effulgence of His transcendental body, or that Paramatma is His all-pervading plenary expansion as the Supersoul. They cannot understand that Krsna has an eternal form of perfect bliss and knowledge, and that they also have an eternal spiritual identity. The asambhuti, dependent demigods and great sages, mistakenly assume Krsna to be a more powerful demigod. They consider the Brahman effulgence to be the Absolute Truth. So what to speak of ordinary human beings who worship the demigods or the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth? Krsna says,
“Those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures. I am in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul. As soon as one desires to worship the demigods, I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to some particular deity. Endowed with such a faith, he seeks favors of a particular demigod and obtains his desires. But in reality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.20-22]
Unintelligent persons bewildered by strong desires for sense gratification worship the demigods for temporary relief from material problems. Actually it is Krsna who awards their benedictions through His servants, the demigods; but materially entangled living beings cannot understand this.
Permanent relief from material suffering is available only in the spiritual world of eternal life, complete knowledge, and perfect bliss. Therefore Sri Isopanisad counsels us that worshiping dependent demigods, who can bestow only temporary benefits, is a waste of time. Rather, we must worship the all-powerful, all-attractive Absolute Personality of Godhead, Krsna. The devotees of Krsna realize that He is the Absolute Person by surrendering unto Him with unalloyed devotion. Such devotees continuously render loving service unto Krsna, the independent fountainhead of everything. The ability of Krsna to reciprocate our loving service directly from within the heart is well known to such surrendered devotees. He also can bestow complete freedom from material bondage and suffering by taking us back home, back to Godhead.
Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.23]
Human beings with advanced consciousness naturally want to visit other planets and stars, either by demigod worship, mystic powers or spaceships. The easiest way to reach other planets is by worshiping the demigod presiding over a particular planet. In this way one can go to the moon planet, the sun or even Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, in the next life. However, all planets in the material universe are temporary; the only permanent planets are found in the spiritual sky, where the Personality of Godhead Himself predominates:
abrahma-bhuvanal lokah
punar avartino ‘rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate
“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.16]
Sri Isopanisad correctly points out that from the point of view of the spiritual world, even one who attains to the heavenly planets by worship of the demigods still remains in the darkness of the material universe. This enormous material universe is covered by a still more gigantic shell of material elements, like a coconut with a very thick shell. Since this material covering is sealed, the interior is completely dark; therefore the sun and the moon are required for illumination.
Outside the material universe is the unlimited brahmajyoti effulgence, or spiritual sky, filled with innumerable Vaikuntha planets. The greatest planet in the spiritual sky is Krsnaloka, or Goloka Vrndavana, the residence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. Although Lord Sri Krsna dwells there with His eternal associates, He is also omnipresent throughout the material and spiritual cosmic manifestations. This has already been explained in Mantra Four of Sri Isopanisad. The Lord is present everywhere although situated in one place, just as the sun spreads its rays everywhere although it is located in the center of the solar system.
The real problems of life—birth, old age, disease and death—cannot be solved by going to any planet in the material universe. Even Lord Brahma, the secondary creator, has to leave his body at the time of universal dissolution. Therefore Sri Isopanisad advises us not to aspire to any destination within this dark material universe, but to try our best to attain the self-effulgent kingdom of God. There are many pseudo-spiritualists who pose as teachers, but actually present whimsical speculative nonsense only for the sake of their own material advancement. Such phony spiritualists have no desire to leave the material universe and reach the spiritual sky; they have no idea that the spiritual sky even exists.
Atheists and impersonalists cheat such foolish pseudo-spiritualists by preaching atheism, misleading them into the darkest regions. Atheists foolishly deny the existence and power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and impersonalists support such atheistic views by misinterpreting the Vedas and Upanisads to stress the impersonal aspect of the Supreme Lord.
However, all such misinterpretations are based on ignorance of the real context of the Upanisads. All the Upanisads are led by Sri Isopanisad, the first Upanisad, and none of the mantras of Sri Isopanisad deny the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In fact, Mantra Fifteen clearly states:
hiranmayena patrena
satyasyapihitam mukham
tat tvam pusann apavrnu
satya-dharmaya drstaye
“O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and reveal Yourself to Your pure devotee.”
The impersonal misconception of the Supreme is a very dangerous form of nescience derived from misinterpreting the Vedic knowledge, motivated by material benefit. The impersonalists are certain to enter into the darkest regions of the universe in the next life, because they mislead their followers and divert them from actual spiritual truth. The impersonalists even falsely pose themselves as incarnations of God to cheat people who have no Vedic knowledge of the actual qualifications of divine incarnations. Therefore, a little Vedic knowledge in their hands of such foolish rascals is far more dangerous than mere ignorance of spiritual life.
The real question we need to solve is how to obtain a permanent life in the spiritual world. The Lord states that anyone who reaches Him attains complete freedom from the bondage of birth and death. The path of devotional service given in the Esoteric Teaching is the only way to approach the Personality of Godhead successfully. Salvation from material entanglement depends fully on the principles of knowledge and detachment derived from the process of devotional service revealed in the Esoteric Teaching.
The mundane religionists have neither knowledge of the soul nor detachment from material activities. They want to remain locked in the golden shackles of material bondage under the guise of mundane philanthropy disguised as religion. They maintain a pretense of ritualistic religious services while covertly indulging in immoral activities. Thus they masquerade as spiritual masters and devotees of God by hiding their sinful activities behind a false display of religious sentiments.
Such devious perpetrators of religious fraud have no respect for the actual holy teachers in disciplic succession from Lord Krsna Himself. They ignore the Vedic injunction acaryopasanam: “One must worship the spiritual Master Teacher as My plenary representative.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.8] And who is the bona fide spiritual Master Teacher?
Krsna clearly states: evam parampara-praptam, “This supreme science of God is received through disciplic succession.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.2] Instead of following this instruction and accepting a spiritual Master Teacher in the lineage from Krsna, the mundane impersonalists become so-called gurus themselves, but they follow neither the spiritual standards nor moral principles of the actual Master Teachers.
These rogues in the guise of so-called spiritual teachers are the most dangerous elements in human society. They escape punishment by the law of the state because in the present historical era of Kali-yuga, there is no religious government. But they cannot escape punishment by the law of the Supreme Lord, who has clearly confirmed this mantra of Sri Isopanisad in the following words:
“Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated birth amongst demoniac species of life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.” [Bhagavad-gita 16.19-20]
Thus Sri Krsna and Sri Isopanisad agree that the impersonalist pseudo-religionists are headed toward the most horrible destination in the universe because they conduct their phony spiritual master business simply for materialistic sense gratification.
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01.24.07
Posted in Transontology at 19:45 by David Bruce Hughes
Transontology, a convenient contraction of ‘transcendental ontology,’ is the master key to understanding the science of consciousness. With Transontology, for the first time we can logically map different states and qualities of consciousness, and accurately predict the symptoms and outcomes of conscious states. The theory of Transontology explains all states and manifestations of mind and consciousness: from deep sleep to superconsciousness, and from the pathologies of neurosis and psychosis to advanced stages of meditation, creative visualization, so-called mystic powers and transcendent God-realization. Transontology literally demystifies these aspects of consciousness, bringing them for the first time into the domains of empirical scientific inquiry and even engineering.
Contemporary research into consciousness is stymied because it insists on trying to study consciousness using the same ontological framework as the physical sciences. This will never produce satisfactory results because consciousness is not mundane or physical, but a transcendental object with completely different properties. Existing scientific ontologies lack a proper set of categories for transcendental objects. Therefore the difficulties in consciousness research stem from the fact that consciousness can only be observed, measured and manipulated by entities of equivalent ontological nature and qualities―in other words, by similarly conscious entities.
Transontology eliminates this heretofore intractable difficulty by introducing a complete background ontology of such conscious entities drawn from the Esoteric Teaching of Vedanta, a very ancient tradition of transcendental consciousness research. Transontology is the first mathematically precise definition of consciousness and the conscious living entity against the background of other spiritual entities, such as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual world.
Transontology is a special type of ontology that describes transcendental objects and phenomena. If you are conscious, then you are a transcendental entity; as such, to understand yourself requires Transontology. Against this transcendent background, it is easy to design and implement protocols that produce clear-cut experimental results. In other words, for the first time, Transontology makes consciousness amenable to methodical empirical research.
Ordinary materialistic ontology and logic cannot account for, or correctly reason about, transcendental phenomena such as consciousness, individuality, personality, living force (prana, ki), desire, choice, intention, initiative, imagination, creativity, love and many other human qualities we experience every day. We need Transontology to understand these phenomena because existing ontologies were developed to support materialistic ways of looking at the world. Transontology helps us to correctly evaluate the immanence of spirit, consciousness and the inner life of the soul.
Transontology is important because it is the only way of giving appropriate meaning to the transcendental aspects of human consciousness, experience and life. To understand ourselves as spiritual beings, make tangible advancement in spiritual life and develop our consciousness to its highest potential, we need to understand Transontology and apply it in our lives.
The Ontology of Consciousness
Consciousness is the primary issue in human life. Indeed, without consciousness, there are no other issues. Consciousness and its corollaries are fundamental to every thought, word and action. Yet how strange it is that no universally accepted, comprehensive theory of consciousness exists in Western science. The reason for this is clear: science intentionally restricts its domain to empirical investigations of the manifest objective world, whereas consciousness is intrinsically subjective and immanent.
Consciousness is the primary experiential fact. Without a practical theory of consciousness, science cannot adequately explain our experience or the world in which we live. Any observer must be conscious, and therefore the consciousness of the observer is critical to the outcome of any quantum experiment. However, so far Quantum Mechanics treats the observer’s consciousness as a ‘black box,’ as if consciousness were proscribed from serious scientific inquiry. And the consciousness research done so far tries to isolate consciousness, as if it were a physical substance that could be poured into a test tube.
This is a perfect example of how language and theory can differ from reality. Just because it is possible to isolate the word ‘consciousness,’ it does not follow that one can isolate the thing consciousness. In reality, consciousness is not a thing, but on the internal side it is a quality inseparable from the living entity: he who is conscious of being conscious. On the external side, consciousness is never found separate from senses, form, mind and personal identity. Any attempt to treat consciousness apart from its structural relationships with the living entity, form (whether material or spiritual) individuality and identity, is futile. Such crippled theories can never lead to any practical result because they fail to recognize the actual structure of consciousness as a transcendental quality of the living entity or soul.
Transontology is derived from the ancient theory of consciousness of Vedanta, a spiritual tradition of vital living importance to hundreds of millions of adherents and practitioners all over the world. Our research reveals an unexpected deep congruence between the Vedic model of consciousness and current trends in pure mathematics and the philosophy of science. It provides a practical and efficient model for understanding all consciousness-related phenomena and techniques that have so far eluded scientific exploration.
Although the Badarinayana-sutras of Vedanta certainly make reference to the Upanisads, they cannot be interpreted by reference to the Upanisads alone. Vedanta can be understood properly only in reference to Bhagavad-gita (Gitopanisad) and Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata-Purana), the natural commentaries on Vedanta-sutra by the same author. Any attempt to interpret Vedanta without reference to these works will lead only to an intractable regression into nihilism, similar to Theravada Buddhism or existentialist philosophy. Although such disempowering misinterpretations are popular today, they are useless for understanding and realizing the true potentials of consciousness, for they attempt to deny the indelible structural connections between consciousness and its concomitant transcendental qualities, such as individuality and personality.
Axioms of Transontology
The following axioms and their corollaries are derived from the Vedic Esoteric Teaching of Vedanta, as described above. For a formal mathematical presentation of these ontological axioms in the OWL notation, see our site http://transontology.org
- Axiom: All energies are emanated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient spiritual source of everything.
- Corollary: The qualities and quantities of the energies are a subset of the qualities and quantities of their source, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; He is infinite, but His energies are limited.
- Corollary: The spiritual world is the internal energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the material world is His external energy, and the living entities are His marginal energy.
- Corollary: Both the spiritual and material energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead possess form and other qualities; however, the spiritual energy is eternal, living, conscious, individual and personal, whereas the material energy is temporary, impersonal and inert.
- Axiom: The spiritual energy (consciousness) is fundamental to existence; in fact it is the root substance of all other manifestations (Brahman).
- Corollary: All manifestations and phenomena are simply transformations of consciousness.
- Corollary: Consciousness is transcendental to the limitations of Aristotelian logic, specifically the Law of the Excluded Middle, because it is simultaneously, inconceivably one with and different from everything else.
- Corollary: Conscious entities cannot be described by the categories of conventional ontology nor their behavior predicted by Aristotelian logic; this requires the transcendental ontology and logic of the Esoteric Teaching.
- Axiom: The living entity is a fundamental particle of spiritual energy.
- Corollary: Consciousness is the primary symptom or quality of the living entity.
- Corollary: Individuality, personality, intention, mind, memory, desire, initiative, emotion, creativity, living force (prana, ki) etc. are also qualities of the living entity and thus concomitant with, and inseparable from, consciousness.
- Corollary: The living entity’s potency is infinitesimal because he is subatomic in size.
- Axiom: The living entity has an eternal ecstatic loving spiritual relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which is his natural constitutional position of pure consciousness in the spiritual energy.
- Corollary: The living entity is eternally related with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five primary relationships: neutrality, servitude, friendship, parenthood or conjugal love.
- Corollary: The living entity is temporarily related with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of seven secondary relationships: laughter, compassion, anger, chivalry, dread, astonishment and ghastliness.
- Corollary: Whether in the spiritual or material energy, the consciousness and experience of the living entity are determined by the character and flavor of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Axiom: The living entity has complete freedom, thus he may remain in his natural home, the internal spiritual energy, or may be covered by the external material energy.
- Corollary: The living entity can be conscious of the spiritual energy at any time; he becomes conscious of the material energy by rebelling against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Corollary: When the living entity rebels against his natural constitutional relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this original relationship becomes pervertedly reflected in the material energy, causing the consciousness of the living entity to become conditioned by the qualities of material nature.
- Corollary: When the relationship between the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is in a normal healthy condition, the living entity is happy; when the living entity rebels against this relationship, he becomes unhappy and suffers because he is in illusion and denial of his constitutional nature and real identity.
- Corollary: When the living entity in conditioned consciousness realizes the cause of his suffering, and again accepts his constitutional relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is reinstated in his original consciousness, ends his suffering and returns to the spiritual world.
- Axiom: The living entity is always accompanied by the Supersoul (Paramatma), a plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Corollary: The Supersoul is the eternal friend of the living entity, and remains always faithful and affectionate toward him, constantly maintaining him in all conditions of existence.
- Corollary: The Supersoul manifests and operates the material or spiritual body, senses and environment of the living entity, in cooperation with the living entity’s desires.
- Corollary: The Supersoul desires the living entity to be happy, and thus when the living entity is in the material world, always tries to invite him back to his real home in the spiritual world.
- Axiom: The living entity may indirectly cause various manifestations by petitioning the Supersoul, who according to His perfect judgment, may create the desired effects with His omnipotent will because of His eternal affection for the living entity.
- Corollary: The apparent creative potency of the living entity is actually the power of the Supersoul responding to the petitions of the living entity.
- Corollary: Prayer, meditation, energy work, creative visualization, worship, mantras, devotional service, yoga, exercise, mental training and various other material and spiritual disciplines are simply different direct and indirect methods of petitioning the Supersoul for the manifestation of the living entity’s desires.
- Corollary: The living entity’s petition is more effective and easily granted when it is consonant with the purposes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Corollary: When the living entity’s petition is against the purposes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he becomes responsible for the karma of the manifestation and has to accept an unintended but equal reaction in the same mode (ignorance, passion or goodness); this is the cause of all suffering.
- Corollary: When the living entity’s petition is in harmony with the purposes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no karmic reaction.
- Corollary: The living entity can literally create miracles by dovetailing his will with the purposes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; this is the actual basis of creative visualization and so-called mystic powers.
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01.19.07
Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 11:20 by David Bruce Hughes
Listen
vidyam cavidyam ca yas
tad vedobhayam saha
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva
vidyayamrtam asnute
SYNONYMS
vidyam—knowledge in fact; ca—and; avidyam—nescience; ca—and; yah—a person who; tat—that; veda—knows; ubhayam—both; saha—simultaneously; avidyaya—by culture of nescience; mrtyum—repeated death; tirtva—transcending; vidyaya—by culture of knowledge; amrtam—deathlessness; asnute—enjoys.
TRANSLATION
Only one who simultaneously knows the processes of nescience and transcendental knowledge can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.
PURPORT
We should understand clearly what is knowledge (vidya), what is ignorance and what is nescience (avidya). Cultivation of spiritual realization is vidya, and the lack thereof is ignorance; but development of material knowledge, wealth and power without relationship to spiritual principles and goals is nescience, avidya. When material knowledge and work are dedicated to supporting spiritual culture, then vidya and avidya are in balance, and we can attain the highest purposes of human life. Unfortunate people whose consciousness is conditioned by the material bodily concept of life cannot understand this simple concept. Instead they work very hard trying to establish a permanent settlement for happy life in this world. But material nature forces everyone in this world to taste the bitter sting of death.
No one wants to become old or diseased, or die; that is natural because we are actually eternal spiritual beings. However, the laws of nature and the force of time make everyone with a material body experience the suffering and embarrassment of old age, disease and death. No amount of advancement in material knowledge can solve these problems. Material science may have the power to develop weapons that artificially accelerate the process of death; but it can never give us a cure for old age, disease and death, because everything in this world is temporary.
Ignorant people foolishly try to conquer cruel death by acquisition of material power and advancement of so-called scientific knowledge. Sometimes they undergo severe austerities and penances trying to force God to grant their wishes. They may attain some limited mystic powers, but ultimately they are interested in money, power and women, and they want to enjoy life by becoming immortal. Even the most powerful materialists can never become free from death by their faulty plans. They do not understand that material knowledge and power can never grant immortality. The death of the material body is born along with its birth; therefore all their so-called scientific education and power are useless to prevent it.
tad-artham kurute karma
yad-baddho yati samsrtim
yo ’nuyati dadat klesam
avidya-karma-bandhanah
“For the sake of the body, which is a source of constant trouble and which follows him because he is bound by ties of ignorance and fruitive activities, he performs various actions which cause him to be subjected to repeated birth and death.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.31.31]
This mantra of Sri Isopanisad instructs us that any attempt to win the struggle for existence by material means is useless. Worse than useless, actually, because the ultimately fruitless material actions we perform according to the nescient schemes of avidya simply deepen our entanglement in the network of material cause and effect, or karma. Everyone in the material world is struggling for existence, not realizing that we are already immortal spiritual living entities. The laws of material nature are so powerful that no one can evade them. The only way to attain a permanent life is to realize our spiritual nature and go back to our real home in the spiritual world.
The path back to Godhead is revealed by the spiritual knowledge of the Esoteric Teaching. Its practical implementation has to be learned from a self-realized soul by a process similar to apprenticeship. To obtain complete transcendental knowledge we must study the sacred teachings from one who has personally realized them. By offering our dedicated service to a fully self-realized Master Teacher, we can become happy in this life, and attain a permanent blissful spiritual life after leaving this material body.
The conditioned living beings have mistakenly accepted this temporary material existence and identity as real because they have forgotten their eternal relationship with God. The living beings cannot be happy in the material world because they are spiritual entities; they can attain happiness only by returning to their spiritual home. Therefore the merciful Lord personally speaks the Esoteric Teaching, and provides other scriptures through His trusted servants, to remind the forgetful human beings of their eternal home in the spiritual world and deliver them from nescience.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead sends His dear eternal servants and eternal associates from the spiritual kingdom to convey this Esoteric Teaching to the beings suffering in the material world. Sometimes the Lord even comes Himself to spread this Teaching, by which we can return to Godhead. The Lord is more concerned than we ourselves to see the constant suffering of His beloved parts and parcels in this material world. Since all living beings are actually spiritual, the miseries of this material world should remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities, understanding these reminders, engage in the culture of transcendental knowledge (vidya). One who does not take advantage of this opportunity for self-realization, squandering his valuable human life on transient material activities (avidya), is considered a complete failure.
The path of advancement of material knowledge for sense gratification simply leads to repeated birth and death in the material world. Actually, the living entity is eternal and spiritual. Birth and death apply only to the material body, the temporary external dress of the spirit soul. Birth and death are like putting on and taking off an external garment. But it is painful because in the process, we identify with this external covering and, forgetting our real self, become attached to a false identity. Foolish people absorbed in the culture of nescience think there is nothing wrong with this cruel process. They repeatedly undergo the same miseries, not learning anything from the harsh experience of material life.
The ignorant living entities in conditioned material consciousness do not know that they have eternal spiritual bodies complete with perfect spiritual senses. In material existence, the original spiritual form of the living entity is covered by the material body and mind. The imperfect material body and senses are perverted reflections of the original pure senses of the spiritual body. Material existence is therefore a diseased condition of the spirit soul. Unrestricted material sense enjoyment is a path leading to ignorance and death. Real sense enjoyment—perfect eternal pleasure—is only possible when we cure the disease of materialism with the medicine of the Esoteric Teaching.
One who is suffering from a serious disease cannot enjoy sense pleasure. He must regain his health before he can experience pleasure again. Advancement of material knowledge without concomitant advancement of spiritual knowledge simply aggravates the material disease. This is a sign of avidya, or nescience. The trend of material civilization is to increase the temperature of the already feverish material condition. Sri Isopanisad warns that we must not follow this dangerous path leading to death. To recover his health, a diseased person should take medicine to reduce his temperature to normal. The aim of human life should not be to increase material sense enjoyment, but to cure the material disease completely, ending the suffering of material existence forever. Therefore the Esoteric Teaching is essential for those who want the highest benefits of human life.
This does not mean that we should neglect the proper care of the body. A doctor treating a feverish disease does not try to reduce the patient’s temperature to zero. The culture of spiritual realization requires a sound body and mind; therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required even on the spiritual path. The point here is that optimum spiritual health requires a harmonious balance between material and spiritual culture.
The great Master Teachers of the Esoteric Teaching give us a balanced program of spiritual and material knowledge to correct the misuse of human intelligence for material advancement alone. The Esoteric Teaching is a complete spiritual culture including religion, economic development, sense gratification, and spiritual training ultimately leading to liberation from material existence. Unfortunately, less intelligent people have no interest in religion or liberation. Their principal aim in life is sense gratification, and to achieve it they make plans for economic development. Such misguided materialists think that if religion has any value, it is to assist the economic development required for sense gratification. Thus they maintain some superficial system of religious observance to guarantee sense gratification in this life and even after death in heaven.
But material benefit is not the real purpose of religion. Religion or spiritual life is actually meant for self-realization; we need only enough economic development to maintain a healthy body and mind. Too much economic development leads to unrestricted sense enjoyment, which is poisonous to spiritual advancement. Therefore “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” [Gospel of Matthew 19:24] All bona fide spiritual authorities agree that this life is not meant for culturing avidya and working hard like an ass just for temporary sense gratification. One should lead a simple but healthy life, and save time and energy for cultivating good intelligence by training the mind to realize vidya.
The path of vidya is most perfectly presented in the Esoteric Teaching, which directs us to dedicate this human life to inquiry into the Absolute Truth. The sincere student of the Esoteric Teaching realizes the Absolute Truth in three stages as Brahman (the eternal spiritual effulgence), Paramatma (the indwelling Supersoul) and finally Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Krsna. The intelligent student of the Absolute Truth attains spiritual knowledge and detachment from material life by following the eighteen principles of the Esoteric Teaching given by Krsna in Bhagavad-gita and described in the purport to the previous mantra.
The ultimate purpose of culturing spiritual knowledge is to attain transcendental devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore we encourage everyone to learn the art of devotional service by practicing the principles of spiritual life. The culture of vidya is summarized in the following words:
tasmad ekena manasa
bhagavan satvatam patih
srotavyah kirtitavyas ca
dhyeyah pujyas ca nityada
“Therefore, with one-pointed attention one should constantly hear about, glorify, remember and worship the Personality of Godhead, who is the protector of the devotees.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.14]
Unless religion, economic development and sense gratification aim for the attainment of devotional service to the Lord, they are all simply different forms of avidya, or nescience, as Sri Isopanisad will emphasize in the following mantras.
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01.08.07
Posted in Community News at 20:27 by David Bruce Hughes
The Future of Vedic Wisdom in the West
Dear Students and Friends,
Happy New Year, and a very warm welcome to the first edition of the Esoteric Teaching Community Newsletter!
As I write this, I face the challenge of addressing the interests, needs and concerns of a widely diverse community. Looking over the subscriber list, I see old friends with years of experience in Vedic teachings and lifestyle, dedicated disciples of various Vedic lineages, and also unfamiliar names of those who may be brand new to the whole concept of the Vedic Esoteric Teaching. How can I write something that will benefit all of them?
In response to this challenging assignment, I am inspired to explain something of interest to all levels of students and readers: Why do we call our Vedic spiritual community “The Esoteric Teaching,” and what exactly is its significance? There are several approaches to this topic, and I would like to touch on a few of them briefly, for a complete discussion is far beyond the scope of a short newsletter. If you feel a need to know more, you can always reply with your questions or post them on our open discussion forum.
The short answer is that we are trying our best to make the way clear for the future development of Vedic wisdom teachings in the West. For a more detailed explanation, please read on.
The roots of the unique design of our teaching mission lie in the severe difficulties experienced in the organization of our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. From the very beginning of our association with that organization, it was clearly apparent that the leaders were pursuing policies that would alienate the public and eventually destroy the credibility of both the organization and its teaching. I am speaking, of course, of their deceptive, exploitive book distribution and other preaching and fund-raising tactics.
Despite my high-level professional background in advertising and public relations, years of negative public opinion and critical feedback from many senior devotees, the leaders of this organization remain completely unresponsive to any suggestions to change. Out of loyalty to my spiritual master, I remained associated with his organization and served it faithfully for many years. Unfortunately, the behavior of the management reached a point where I could no longer justify this connection, either by the concept of loyalty or by my personal need for association with fellow disciples.
Therefore after a long period of agonizing soul-searching, I separated from the organization of my spiritual Master Teacher and the association of fellow disciples. I resolved that my personal spiritual teaching and mentoring would be done on a platform that would prevent the many ills we experienced in that organization. With that purpose in mind, I proceeded to research spiritually healthy organizations. What I found in this research led to several very interesting conclusions.
Our Vedic spiritual tradition necessarily must be passed down in an hierarchical manner from self-realized spiritual Master Teacher to his personal disciples. However, that does not imply that a religious organization based on these teachings must be managed in the same way. This extremely dangerous unconscious assumption led to an hierarchical model of organization. But we see from history that wherever leadership positions are based on seniority and loyalty instead of merit, abuse of the concentrated power inherent in such an organization inevitably ensues.
Srila Prabhupada attempted to decouple the management of his organization from its spiritual leadership by insisting (in a landmark 1969 document entitled “Direction of Management”) on democratic election of the temporal management and regular rotation of the spiritual leadership. He also designed a network of autonomous temples with strong local leadership. Unfortunately his neophyte students rejected this excellent and eminently practical concept, instead instituting a flawed centralized management scheme mirroring the corrupt ecclesiastical structures of the past. Not only that organization, but any organization based on this outmoded management model will, by its very nature, generate corruption, nepotism and other abuses of power. Basing advancement on loyalty and seniority rather than merit always leads to stagnation, and to sacrificing intelligent and talented people simply because they question the established order.
Any organization needs new ideas, talent and fresh energy simply to keep up with the times and avoid attrition of its membership. Hierarchical organizations are simply too rigid to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. Yet our spiritual Master Teacher often insisted that our presentation of the Vedic tradition must be consistent with the time and harmonious with changing circumstances. Therefore in my research into organizational models, I identified several alternate structures that avoid the natural deficiencies of hierarchies, while maintaining the spiritual integrity of the disciplic succession system. I determined to implement these in my own spiritual teaching work to avoid the inevitable deficiencies and tragic flaws of the hierarchical management model.
It is gratifying, in a way, to see many disciples of the Vedic teachings gradually adopt positions and attitudes we already held, and sacrificed much for, back in the 1970s. Better late than never, I suppose. But what really would be rewarding would be to see our Godbrothers and -sisters transcend the broken management model that is, more than anything, responsible for our difficulties in the parent organization. Instead we see them go to other organizations structured according to the same defective model. Unfortunately, that will have exactly the same result.
If the Vedic tradition has any future in the West, it will be in a form that is acceptable to Western ideas of organizational management. At the very least, it must change to include principles of democratic leadership and participatory management. At best, it will become a purely spiritual community managed by consensus and facilitating mutual respect, understanding and love among its members.
In planning my spiritual teaching activities, I also performed methodical market research into public opinion on Vedic organizations in the West. What I discovered is that public opinion of Vedic spiritual organizations had reached a new low and was still declining. A well-known principle of marketing is that when the public loses trust in a brand due to bad publicity, the product’s faults must be corrected, and then it must be re-branded to establish a new image and regain its customers. Therefore I concluded that along with changing the management structure to avoid the failings of hierarchical organizations, I had to rename the Vedic teachings I received from my spiritual Master Teacher to avoid the ‘brand names’ that had fallen into public disrepute.
Please note that changing the name of a spiritual teaching does not necessarily change the teaching itself. Any name is just a word, and is different from the thing it represents. We still use the exact same philosophy, source materials and practices that we received from our spiritual Master Teacher; we simply have changed the terminology to avoid the negative associations in the public mind. This was not done lightly nor arbitrarily, but only after applying a deep study of semantics and ontology to the subject.
It is easy to criticize something one does not really understand, just on superficial appearances. And many of our fellow disciples do criticize our work without really understanding it. Our predecessor Bhaktivinod Thakur rejected this shallow approach in the following words:
“…all religious works and philosophical performances and writings of great men… suffered from the imprudent conduct of useless readers and stupid critics. The former have done so much injury to the work that they have surpassed the latter in their evil consequence. Men of brilliant thoughts have passed by the work in quest of truth and philosophy, but the prejudice which they imbibed from its useless readers and their conduct prevented them from making a candid investigation.” [Light From the Beautiful Bhagavat, 1869]
Anyone who actually reads and researches deeply our rendition of the timeless Vedic teachings will certainly perceive its integrity and recognize its fidelity to the original source. We beg the intelligent and enlightened reader to kindly excuse the bad behavior of some of our fellow students, whose understanding and of the subject is hampered by their intellectual blinders, and whose realization has been deviated by personal ambitions for wealth, followers and power. Our purpose from the beginning was only to present this great tradition in a light that would enable everyone, especially intelligent and sensitive souls, to benefit from its self-effulgent spiritual teaching. We hope that despite the inevitable flaws of such a pioneering effort, we have made some small progress in this direction by recasting its nomenclature in a form more acceptable to intelligent people in contemporary Western society.
That, in brief, is the story of ‘The Esoteric Teaching.’ Thank you for your continued interest in our work.
Love,
Gaurahari Dasanudas Babaji
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01.04.07
Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 11:56 by David Bruce Hughes
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anyad evahur vidyaya-
nyad ahur avidyaya
iti susruma dhiranam
ye nas tad vicacaksire
SYNONYMS
anyat—different; eva—certainly; ahuh—said; vid-yaya—by culture of knowledge; anyat—different; ahuh—said; avidyaya—by culture of nescience; iti—thus; susruma—I heard; dhiranam—from the sober; ye—who; nah—to us; tat—that; vicacaksire—explained.
TRANSLATION
The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.
PURPORT
Cultivation of nescience results in increasing bondage and suffering in material existence. Cultivation of vidya, real knowledge, results in liberation from material existence and suffering. Krsna describes the culture of spiritual knowledge through the Esoteric Teaching:
“Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; non-attachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.8-12]
Now we will discuss these 18 items of transcendental knowledge one by one.
Humility: A student of the Esoteric Teaching should be a perfect gentleman, humbly offering respect to all, especially the Master Teachers and fellow students of the Absolute Truth. He should not seek out controversy or engage in fractious debate.
Pridelessness: A neophyte on the spiritual path should not pose as a spiritual teacher simply for name and fame. We see many unqualified and unrealized people making a business out of teaching so-called spiritual knowledge. All this business is simply a waste of time. The real pride of a disciple is in following the instructions of a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher.
Nonviolence: Real nonviolence means that we should avoid causing anxiety to others by the body, mind, or words. The real spiritual teacher removes all our anxiety by engaging us in the lifelong work of devotional service to the Lord.
Tolerance: We should be tolerant and mild, even in the face of deliberate provocation. All the great saints throughout history demonstrated this good quality in their personal dealings with their opponents.
Simplicity: One should be straightforward, avoiding all duplicity and politics. Sometimes when dealing with intractable people, it is necessary to be a little diplomatic; but such diplomacy must be kept to an absolute minimum.
Approaching a bona fide spiritual master: The serious student of the Absolute Truth should make a comparative study of different teachings and teachers, to find a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher who can actually lead him to complete spiritual realization. To realize the benefit of the Esoteric Teaching, one must fully surrender to a qualified Master Teacher, render favorable service and make relevant inquiries.
Cleanliness: There is no question of approaching the actual platform of self-realization without following the regulative principles given in the revealed scriptures. They are: pure vegetarian diet, abstention from intoxication, illicit sexual affairs, gambling and speculation.
Steadiness: One should understand everything through the ontological viewpoints and philosophical conclusions of the Vedic scriptures, especially those comprising the Esoteric Teaching: Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta and the books of the Six Gosvamis of Vrndavana.
Self-control: A serious student of the Esoteric Teaching completely refrains from practices that are detrimental to the interest of self-realization. Anything that artificially increases the material needs of life should be avoided.
Renunciation of the objects of sense gratification: As discussed in Mantra 1 of Sri Isopanisad, one should not accept more possessions than the minimum required for the maintenance of the body.
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01.01.07
Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 21:19 by David Bruce Hughes
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andham tamah pravisanti
ye ’vidyam upasate
tato bhuya iva te tamo
ya u vidyayam ratah
SYNONYMS
andham—gross ignorance; tamah—darkness; pravisanti—enter into; ye—those who; avidyam—nescience; upasate—worship; tatah—than that; bhuyah—still more; iva—like; te—they; tamah—darkness; ye—those who; u—also; vidyayam—in the culture of knowledge; ratah—engaged.
TRANSLATION
Those who engage in the culture of nescience shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
PURPORT
Mantra 9 contrasts vidya and avidya. Avidya, ignorance, is dangerous, because an ignorant person has no idea of what they are, or the goal and purpose of human life. But Isopanisad also warns that when vidya or knowledge is based on a wrong platform or used for misguided purposes, it is even more dangerous. And lest we think that Sri Isopanisad is a dated text referring only to the ancient world, this mantra is more salient today than ever.
Materialistic civilization has made great strides in educating the masses; but the result is that people are more and more unfortunate, unhappy and frustrated. This is because modern so-called education is concerned only with material advancement, and neglects the most important aspect of life: spiritual wisdom. Real vidya, or actual education begins with the understanding that the Supreme Lord is the owner and controller of everything. The more a person ignores this most important fact, described in Sri Isopanisad as isavasya, the more he deviates from the actual truth. Therefore, a godless civilization cultivating advancement of so-called knowledge on the basis of spiritual ignorance is far more dangerous to our well-being and happiness than a traditional spiritual culture, where people are less advanced in material and economic advancement, but have a healthy consciousness of the Supreme Lord.
Those who are engaged primarily in activities of material sense gratification are called karmis. In modern Western materialistic civilization, 99.9% of the population are engaged in such temporary activities. These nescient activities have attractive names like capitalism, industrialism, economic development, altruism, idealism, activism, and so forth. But since all these activities are based on satisfaction of the material senses, they neglect the cultivation of God consciousness as described in the first mantra of Isopanisad. Therefore Krsna speaks of them in disparaging words:
na mam duskrtino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam asritah
“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, 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]
Krsna calls the karmis who are engaged in gross sense gratification mudhas—literally, asses, the very symbol of inertia, stupidity and ignorance. According to Sri Isopanisad, those who simply pursue material gratification without any spiritual aim of life are worshiping avidya, or ignorance. And the so-called intellectuals who help engineer the infrastructure of this destructive civilization are actually doing more harm than ignorant people on the platform of gross sense gratification.
The Vedas compare the advancement of learning by godless people to a cobra decorated with a valuable jewel. A beautifully decorated cobra may superficially seem very beautiful, but it is still dangerously poisonous.
“The advancement of education by godless people is compared to decorations on a dead body.” [Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya 3.11.12]
In many cultures, people hold a funeral service for the comfort of the bereaved relatives, featuring a nicely dressed and decorated dead body. But what is the use of decorating a dead body? No amount of gorgeous decoration can make a poisonous cobra safe, or a dead body alive again. Modern materialistic civilization is a patchwork of temporary activities meant to cover over and distract us from the perpetual miseries of material existence. All such activities aimed at denial of the real situation involve an artificial increase of sense gratification.
But the Esoteric Teaching shows us that the mind is above the senses, intelligence is above the mind, and the soul is above the intelligence. Therefore the real aim of education should be realization of the spiritual nature and values of the soul. Education which does not lead to such realization, or even attempts to negate it, must be considered avidya, or nescience. And according to Sri Isopanisad, actively cultivating such nescience leads only to the darkest regions of material consciousness and ignorance.
Material objects are like so many zeros, and Krsna is like 1. If we place the zeros in front of the 1 (01, 001 etc.) no matter how many zeros we add, the value remains the same. But if we put the 1 first, every zero we add increases the value by a power of ten (1, 10, 100 etc.). Therefore no matter how many material qualifications we may have, without Krsna their value is just zero. But when we put Krsna first, the value of our material qualifications increases astronomically because they are in proper relation to Him.
yam imam puspitam vacam
pravadanty avipascitah
veda-vada-ratah partha
nanyad astiti vadinah
kamatmanah svarga-para
janma-karma-phala-pradam
kriya-visesa-bahulam
bhogaisvarya-gatim prati
“Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.42-43]
Krsna labels the mistaken mundane educators as veda-vada-rata, so-called followers of the Vedas or purveyors of counterfeit knowledge. Later on in Bhagavad-gita 7.15, He calls them miscreants (duskrtina), atheistic demons, dwellers in hell (naradhama), the lowest of humans. Those who are veda-vada-rata pose themselves as very learned in various subjects, but unfortunately they are completely diverted from the purpose of the Vedas. And what is that purpose?
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
“I am to be known by all the Vedas; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.15]
Krsna declares that the purpose of all Vedic literature and all cultivation of knowledge is to know the Personality of Godhead and serve His purposes, but the false intellectuals of this world are not interested in serving the Personality of Godhead. They want material fruitive results, such as wealth, power and the attainment of heaven. Instead of serving God, they want God to serve their material desires, and wrongly think they can compel Him to do so by means of religious sacrifices.
Sri Isopanisad states in Mantra 1 that the Personality of Godhead is the proprietor of everything; therefore we should be satisfied with the quota of the necessities of life allotted by our karma. The purpose of the Esoteric Teaching is to awaken God consciousness in the forgetful materially conditioned living beings. This same purpose is presented in the scriptures of the world in various ways to accommodate the understanding of spiritually ignorant people. The difference is that the Esoteric Teaching is the complete and original science of God consciousness.
The ultimate purpose of all religions is to bring all living entities back to eternal existence in the spiritual world. But the neophyte students of the Vedas take it for granted that the attainment of heavenly pleasure for sense gratification is the ultimate end of the Vedas. But this lust for material enjoyment is the cause of material bondage and suffering in the first place. Therefore such confused people simply increase their entanglement in material affairs because they misinterpret, misunderstand and misapply knowledge in general and the Vedic literature in particular.
Sri Isopanisad condemns such false followers of the Vedas in this mantra by the appropriate words vidyayam ratah: “those engaged in the study of the Vedas.” The materialistic students of the Vedas are impressive scholars, but remain ignorant of the actual purpose of the Vedas because they disobey the Master Teachers in the lineage of the Esoteric Teaching. Instead of taking shelter of the authorized instructions of the Esoteric Teaching, they whimsically assign speculative meanings to every word of the Vedas. They do not understand that the Vedic literature is a collection of extraordinary transcendental literature originally spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The divine mystery of the Vedas can be understood only by following the chain of disciplic succession from the original source.
To realize the actual purpose of the Vedas—reviving the forgetful soul’s relationship with the Personality of Godhead—one must approach a self-realized spiritual Master Teacher in the lineage of the Esoteric Teaching, and understand the transcendental message of the Vedas from him.
tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet
samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham
“To learn the transcendental subject matter, one must approach a spiritual master, offering fuel to burn in sacrifice. The symptom of such a spiritual master is that he is expert in understanding the Vedic conclusion, and therefore he constantly engages in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12]
The veda-vada-ratas have their own spiritual teachers who are not in the chain of transcendental succession. Thus they misinterpret the Vedic literature and progress into the darkest region of ignorance. They fall even deeper into ignorance than people who have no spiritual knowledge at all.
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Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 21:12 by David Bruce Hughes
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sa paryagac chukram akayam avranam
asnaviram suddham apapa-viddham
kavir manisi paribhuh svayambhur
yathatathyato ’rthan vyadadhac chasvatibhyah samabhyah
SYNONYMS
sah—that person; paryagat—must know in fact; sukram—the omnipotent; akayam—unembodied; avranam—without reproach; asnaviram—without veins; suddham—antiseptic; apapa-viddham—prophylactic; kavih—omniscient; manisi—philosopher; paribhuh—the greatest of all; svayambhuh—self-sufficient; yathatathyatah—just in pursuance of; arthan—desirables; vyadadhat—awards; sasvatibhyah—immemorial; samabhyah—time.
TRANSLATION
Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone’s desire since time immemorial.
PURPORT
In this mantra, Sri Isopanisad reveals some of the transcendental qualities of the Personality of Godhead as directly perceived by the self-realized soul. The Supreme Lord is not formless, but His form is transcendental, or made from pure spiritual energy. This transcendental form is completely different from the material bodies of the mundane universe. The conditioned living entities of the material world are trapped in machines made of material energy; but the transcendental body of the Supreme Lord has no veins, bones, muscles or nerves, because He is the reservoir of unlimited pure transcendental existence, consciousness and bliss.
Because Krsna is the Complete Whole, there is no difference between His mind, His body and Himself. He is never forced to accept an external covering body by the law of karma like the materialistic living entities. When the mantra says that He is unembodied, it means that His body is not material but spiritual, and that His body and soul are not separate entities.
isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
“Krsna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His transcendental form is eternal, full of unlimited bliss and pure consciousness.” [Brahma-samhita 5.1]
Sac-cid-ananda-vigraha means that He is the complete transcendental form of eternal existence, all-pervading knowledge and inexhaustible bliss. Therefore He does not require a separate body or mind, as we do in material existence. Because the Lord’s transcendental body is of a completely different quality from ours, sometimes the Vedic literature describes Him as formless or without qualities. This does not mean that He has no form at all; it means that His form is not separate from Himself.
Brahma-samhita further states:
angani yasya sakalendriya-vrtti-manti
pasyanti panti kalayanti ciram jaganti
ananda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth and substantiality, and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.” [Brahma-samhita 5.32]
In other words, the Lord can walk with His eyes, accept offerings with His feet, see with His elbows, eat with His ears, etc. These are not contradictions for the Absolute Lord. In mantras 4 and 5, Sri Isopanisad also describes how the spiritual qualities of the Lord sometimes appear paradoxical and contradictory. The Lord can effortlessly do the impossible, as confirmed in this mantra by the word sukram, omnipotent. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna expands an unlimited number of divine forms like Baladeva, Ramacandra, Nrsimha and Varaha. All these spiritual forms, collectively known as visnu-tattva, are different transcendental bodies of the same Absolute Personality of Godhead.
Similarly, the arca-vigraha or Deity form worshiped in Vedic temples also expands from the original form of the Lord. The Lord is invited to appear in temples in this form by fully self-realized Master Teachers described in mantra Seven of Sri Isopanisad. Out of a desire to interact with and encourage His devotees who are still in the material world, the Lord accepts a worshipable form called the arca-vigraha or Deity, apparently made of material elements.
The arca-vigraha of the Lord is not just any doll or statue; He appears at the request of a Master Teacher. Although this form is ostensibly made of metal, stone or wood, He is qualitatively identical with the original form of the Lord. The Lord manifests this special form so that we can easily approach Him by worship of the arca-vigraha in the temple. The Lord expands His omnipotent internal energy into the Deity form to kindly appear before us and accept our service.
People who are not self-realized and have no knowledge of sruti-mantras like Sri Isopanisad wrongly consider the arca-vigraha to be made of material energy. Foolish people or neophyte students of spiritual life see the Deity form as material because they are looking with imperfect material vision. But this form is worshiped by Master Teachers and other completely self-realized pure devotees. They know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can perform any kind of action with any one of the senses of His transcendental body. He can effortlessly transform matter into spirit or spirit into matter. Besides, God is omnipresent; so He is certainly present everywhere, even in a Deity apparently made of matter.
“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be. Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.” [Bhagavad-gita 9.11-12]
One can realize the Supreme Lord only as much as one surrenders unto Him. The Lord does not reveal Himself to the fallen conditioned souls. The suffering of the living entities in material existence is due only to forgetfulness of their relationship with God. Such spiritually ignorant persons cannot understand or appreciate the omnipotence of the Lord. The Lord regrets that His spiritual children have fallen into such ignorance that they deride Him when He appears in this world. Out of His loving kindness, He does not interfere with their autonomy. Nevertheless, such recalcitrant souls suffer as a result of their struggling against the spiritual purposes of the Lord.
Many Vedic mantras clearly state that the Lord is the maintainer and supplier of all necessities to His created living entities. The Lord responds to one’s desire in proportion to his qualification, but it is not a mechanical process. For example, one who wants to be a doctor or lawyer must first acquire the necessary qualifications; then he can apply for a license to practice. The qualifications are necessary, but not sufficient, to practice; the license must be awarded by a superior authority. Similarly, the Lord reciprocates with the living entities according to their surrender, but good qualifications are not sufficient without the mercy of the Lord.
Unfortunate people whose consciousness is conditioned by material nature act against their actual self-interest and waste valuable time by asking the Lord for fallible material boons. Ordinary living beings do not know what kind of benediction they should ask from the Lord. They pray for cheap, temporary material things that will be vanquished in due course of time. But a self-realized soul never asks for anything material; he begs for the association of the Lord to render eternal transcendental loving service unto Him.
vyavasayatmika buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-sakha hy anantas ca
buddhayo ‘vyavasayinam
“Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.41]
Spiritual intelligence aims at attaining liberation from material entanglement by the devotional service of the Lord. Mundane intelligence is divided into many conflicting and contradictory aims.
Prahlada Maharaja replied: “Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Krsna are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both. 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 7.5.30-31]
People who are fascinated by temporary external pleasure forget that the real aim of human life is to go back to Godhead, back to our eternal spiritual home. Material enjoyment is like chewing what has already been chewed, because anything we may aspire to enjoy has already been enjoyed by other living beings. Nevertheless, the Lord is so kind that He allows the forgetful living entity to continue in this way without interference. Thus this mantra uses the word yathatathyatah, indicating that the Lord responds to the living entities appropriate to their desires. If someone wants to go to hell, the Lord does not interfere, and if he wants liberation, the Lord helps him to go back home, back to Godhead.
Therefore He is described here as paribhuh, the greatest Master. No one is greater than or equal to Him. The Lord supplies everything the living entities need. Only the Supreme Lord is self-sufficient; all others are simply beggars seeking their necessities from Him. If the subordinate living entities were omnipotent and omniscient, they would not need to beg benedictions from the Lord, even for liberation. But in fact we are completely dependent upon His good will.
Lord Sri Krsna appeared on this planet about five thousand years ago, displaying His complete manifestation as the Personality of Godhead. He proved His identity by performing many wonderful activities. Even as an infant He killed many powerful demons, though He was far too young to acquire mystic powers. He lifted Govardhana Hill without ever practicing weightlifting. He danced with the gopis without social restriction and without reproach.
Nevertheless, the Lord is always pure, therefore this mantra of Sri Isopanisad describes Him as suddham (transcendentally pure) and apapa-viddham (free from all sin). The Lord is free from all sin because even if He superficially appears to act sinfully, His actions are all-good and most beneficial for all concerned. The sun extracts moisture from many untouchable places on the earth, yet it remains pure. In fact, it purifies all impure things by the power of its association. If the sun is so purifying, then we can only imagine the purifying power of the Lord. He is so pure that any impure person can become purified just by hearing and chanting His Holy Names.
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Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 21:09 by David Bruce Hughes
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yasmin sarvani bhutany
atmaivabhud vijanatah
tatra ko mohah kah soka
ekatvam anupasyatah
SYNONYMS
yasmin—in the situation; sarvani—all; bhutani—living entities; atma—the cit-kana, or spiritual spark; eva—only; abhut—exist as; vijanatah—of one who knows; tatra—therein; kah—what; mohah—illusion; kah—what; sokah—anxiety; ekatvam—oneness in quality; anupasyatah—of one who sees through authority, or one who sees constantly like that.
TRANSLATION
One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, knows things as they are. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?
PURPORT
This mantra of Sri Isopanisad introduces us to the point of view of the self-realized soul. Ekatvam anupasyatah means to see the qualitative unity of all living entities with one’s intelligence by hearing from the revealed scriptures. In the beginning such clear and certain realization of the Absolute Truth may seem far off, but it is readily attainable through the guidance of the Esoteric Teaching.
A person in material consciousness is always in illusion, because the senses of the material body are imperfect. For example, our sense of sight can be interrupted by a mere sheet of tissue paper; the frequency range of our hearing is less than a dog’s. Because of our imperfect senses, we do not know things as they are; in other words, we are in illusion. Because we are in illusion, we make mistakes, but then we try to deny our imperfections because we have a tendency to cheat.
The only remedy for the imperfections, illusions and anxieties of material existence is to take knowledge from a source that is not subject to illusion; the Vedic Esoteric Teaching is that perfect source. The Esoteric Teaching is originally spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. When we become sincere disciples of the Esoteric Teaching, accept the instruction of the Lord and surrender unto Him, all illusion, misunderstanding and anxieties are vanquished because we attain direct consciousness of the Absolute Truth.
Even though the neophyte disciples of the Esoteric Teaching (kanistha-adhikaris) are striving to realize the spiritual nature of the self, they are still in material conditioned consciousness (the Exoteric Circle). The madhyama-adhikaris of the Mesoteric Circle actually realize the transcendental spiritual position of the living entity (jivatma or soul). But only the uttama-adhikaris, the Master Teachers of the Esoteric Circle, have complete realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The living entities inherit the spiritual qualities of the Supreme Lord, just as the sunshine inherits the qualities of the sun. But the sunshine cannot equal the sun in quantity, for the emanated energy can never quantitatively equal its source. The self-realized students of the Esoteric Teaching see the soul as one with the Lord, but only in the sense that everything is the energy of the Supreme Lord. The sense of oneness comes from the qualitative similarity of the energy to its energetic source.
The sunshine is simultaneously quantitatively different from, and qualitatively one with, the sun. Similarly, the infinitesimal living entity is simultaneously quantitatively different from, and qualitatively one with, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This simple idea is incomprehensible to ordinary materialistic Aristotelian logic. Therefore the Esoteric Teaching includes a complete system of transcendental ontology and logic, presented in Vedic scriptures like Vedanta-sutra and Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, allowing us to think clearly and reason accurately about Transcendence.
The relationship between the individual soul and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is easy to understand by analogy. For example, the percentage of salt dissolved in a drop of seawater is qualitatively equal to the percentage of salt in the entire ocean. But there is no comparison of the quantity of salt in the drop to the quantity of salt in the entire ocean.
When two things are similar, some comparison can be drawn between them. But when they are vastly different, no comparison is possible. It is meaningless to compare the amount of salt in a drop with the amount of salt in the entire ocean, just as it is meaningless to compare a grain of sand with the whole universe. Then what is the use of trying to compare the subatomic spiritual spark with the Complete Whole? It would be like dividing infinity by zero.
Yet, according to the transcendental ontology of the Esoteric Teaching, the individual spiritual sparks display 78% of the known qualities of the Complete Whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Of course these spiritual qualities are present in the living entity in minute quantities, because he is but a minute part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
The impersonalist school tries to misinterpret the word ekatvam in this mantra to signify the complete identity of the individual spirit soul with the Supreme. But their theory fails to explain how the living entity is overwhelmed by the material energy. If the living entities were equal to the Supreme Lord—both qualitatively and quantitatively—they could never come under the influence of illusion in the first place.
Mantra Four of Sri Isopanisad states that no jiva soul can equal or surpass the Supreme Being in any way—not even the powerful demigods. If ekatvam meant that a living entity is completely equal to the Supreme Lord, Sri Isopanisad would be self-contradictory. However, there are no such errors or imperfections in the Esoteric Teaching.
Ekatvam does imply that there is a common interest among the Supreme Lord and His parts and parcels, the living entities. The interest of all members of a family, nation or other organization is one. The members receive the benefits of belonging to that family or organization by serving their common interest. Every spiritual living entity is the energy of the Supreme Being because they emanate from the marginal potency of the Lord. Because they belong to the family of the Supreme Being, there is a strong common interest. And when they serve this common interest, the living entities derive the benefits.
yaj jnatva na punar moham
evam yasyasi pandava
yena bhutany asesani
draksyasy atmany atho mayi
“And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that all living beings are but part of Me—and that they are in Me, and are Mine.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.35]
apareyam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi me param
jiva-bhutam maha-baho
yayedam dharyate jagat
“Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine: all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.5]
What is the common interest of the Supreme Lord and the living entities? The constitutional nature of every living being—both the Supreme Lord and His parts and parcels—is eternal pleasure-seeking. The pleasure principle is the prime motivation for all spiritual entities because they are meant for ananda, bliss and enjoyment:
ananda-mayo ‘bhyasat
“[The word] anandamaya [in the Vedic literatures must refer to the Supreme Brahman, for it is] repeatedly used [to describe Him].” [Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12]
Anandamaya means that the very nature of the Lord is that He is full of bliss. All living entities seek pleasure, because that is the nature of their source, the Lord. Living beings who are conditioned by the material conception of life constantly seek pleasure, but they are looking for it on a temporary platform. We want eternal bliss, unending pleasure, but can never find it in this temporary material world. However, unending enjoyment is available in the spiritual world, where the Supreme Lord enjoys Himself eternally with innumerable associates.
In material consciousness there is always competition for the objects of pleasure because no one knows the the real object of enjoyment. In the spiritual world there is no competition because the center of enjoyment for everyone is the Supreme Lord. The spiritual living entities are meant to associate with Him in the spiritual world, enjoying eternal life with one center: Krsna—one transcendental interest: eternal pleasure pastimes with Him—and without any competition. This common spiritual interest is the real spiritual oneness, and once we attain that consciousness there is no more illusion, suffering or lamentation.
The heartless material culture sponsored by the modern politicians simply creates anxieties. Because it is based on the temporary material platform, it is unstable and can fall into chaos at any time. Such godless civilizations arise from the illusion of the imperfect participants, therefore its only result is loss and lamentation.
But Krsna says:
daivi hy esa guna-mayi
mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te
“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]
Those who voluntarily surrender at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord can overcome the laws of material nature by following the higher laws of the spiritual nature. The secret of conquering illusion and anxiety, transcending material suffering and realizing the unity of interest of all living beings, is to make God the center and object of all our activities.
The results of our work and other activities should be dedicated to serving the interest of the Lord. This process of dedication allows us to directly experience the atma-bhuta interest mentioned in this mantra in the line atmaivabhud vijanatah. This atma-bhuta interest is the same interest mentioned in Bhagavad-gita 18.54 (brahma-bhutah prasannatma) and Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.30.20 (brahmaitad brahma-vadibhih).
The supreme Brahman, the Lord Himself, is the supreme atma, or Paramatma, and the living entities are the minute atma. The Supreme Lord alone emanates and maintains all the individual living beings. Why? The Supreme Lord derives pleasure out of affectionate relationships with them. We see the same motivation in ordinary family life: the parents extend themselves through their children, and derive pleasure from maintaining them. If the children serve the common purpose of the family, their affairs run smoothly in a pleasing atmosphere. Similarly, when we serve the interest of the spiritual family of the Parabrahman, the Supreme Spirit, we enjoy life eternally in a very pleasant spiritual atmosphere.
The conclusion we should take away from this mantra of Sri Isopanisad is that the Supreme Lord is a person, just like the individual living entities. All transcendental personalities are naturally full of bliss, exalted consciousness and eternal life. Anyone who can realize this transcendental consciousness at once surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Being, Sri Krsna, and lives happily ever after in the spiritual world.
Such a great soul is very rare because complete transcendental realization requires many births of sincere and dedicated spiritual practice. But once we attain the spiritual brahma-bhuta consciousness, the miseries of material existence—birth, old age, disease and death—no longer affect us, and illusion and lamentation are completely vanquished. This prime interest of all living entities is attainable through the Esoteric Teaching of Sri Isopanisad.
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Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 21:06 by David Bruce Hughes
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yas tu sarvani bhutany
atmany evanupasyati
sarva-bhutesu catmanam
tato na vijugupsate
SYNONYMS
yah—he who; tu—but; sarvani—all; bhutani—living entities; atmani—in relation to the Supreme Lord; eva—only; anupasyati—observes in a systematic way; sarva-bhutesu—in every living being; ca—and; atmanam—the Supersoul; tatah—thereafter; na—not; vijugupsate—hates anyone.
TRANSLATION
He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.
PURPORT
This mantra of Sri Isopanisad describes the consciousness of a perfectly self-realized soul. One who is truly spiritually advanced sees everything and everyone in relation to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As we have discussed many times herein, consciousness of the Supreme Lord’s presence is realized in three stages: Brahman (the eternal spiritual effulgence), Paramatma (the indwelling Supersoul) and Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
There are also three levels of realization within the Esoteric Teaching. The students of the Esoteric Teaching may be members of the Exoteric Circle, the Mesoteric Circle or the Esoteric Circle. Members of the Exoteric Circle (kanistha-adhikari) are in the neophyte stage of realization. They consider themselves to belong to a particular religious organization and go to a temple, church or other place of worship according to their faith. Their worship or devotional service is performed according to scriptural injunctions.
Those in the neophyte stage consider that the Supreme Lord is present at their church or temple, and nowhere else. They think that their own religious organization’s philosophy is right, and all others are wrong or insufficient. They measure a person’s spiritual advancement in terms of recognition within their religious organization. They cannot actually tell who is a neophyte, intermediate and advanced in devotional service, because they cannot understand who has realized the Supreme Lord. Such devotees follow derivative liturgical forms, reciting the routine formulas. They often debate endlessly about arcane philosophical or doctrinal points, or which devotional practice is best. The members of the Exoteric Circle are actually in material consciousness. They are still working on reaching the actual spiritual plane, or Brahman realization.
The students who realize Brahman and understand their constitutional spiritual position have attained the second stage of realization: the Mesoteric Circle or madhyama-adhikari. Because these students have understood the nature of pure consciousness in themselves, they can directly observe the distinctions among the four categories of spiritual beings (tattvas) and treat them properly. Therefore the madhyama-adhikaris adore the Lord (visnu-tattva), considering Him the primary object of love. They also make friends with the devotees of the Lord; try to awaken the dormant love of God in the hearts of the innocent, who have no real spiritual knowledge; and they tactfully avoid materialists and atheists who deride the very name of the Lord, have no faith in the Lord and always try to disturb anyone engaged in devotional service.
Above the Mesoteric Circle of madhyama-adhikaris is the pinnacle of the Esoteric Teaching, the Esoteric Circle. The Esoteric Circle is composed of uttama-adhikaris, fully self-realized beings who see everything in relation to the Supreme Lord as described in this sloka of Sri Isopanisad. A devotee in this consciousness is so enraptured with pure sweet love of God that he does not discriminate between different kinds of living entities, but sees everyone as part and parcel of God.
He sees, for example, that ultimately there is no difference between a learned brahmana and a dog. Both of them are spiritual beings, living parts and parcels of the Lord, just covered to differing degrees as a result of their previous lives’ activities. The brahmana particle of the Lord’s spiritual energy invested his previous life’s energy in activities leading to self-realization; therefore he has been awarded a human body with advanced consciousness and spiritual wisdom. The dog particle misused his God-given independence to live an animalistic life of sense gratification only, thus developing animal consciousness and transmigrating to the form of a dog. The uttama-adhikari or fully self-realized soul tries to do good to both the brahmana and the dog without considering their previous actions. Such a learned devotee does not consider the external material covering, but sees the eternal living spark of consciousness, the spirit soul, within them.
Some so-called spiritual teachers try to imitate the uttama-adhikari by pretensions of ‘oneness with all’, or cultivating a false sense of universal fellowship. But then we see that they continue to think and act on the platform of the material bodily ontology. Those who are always after some material gain can never attain the acme of self-realization. An imitation spiritual teacher may serve his students’ whims to attain fame or material reward, but he cannot help them spiritually because he has no actual realization of the spiritual world.
Real universal brotherhood is only known to the uttama-adhikari, who can see the soul within and his eternal relationship with the Lord. It can be understood and taught only by people who properly understand the difference between matter and spirit, who know the personal, individual nature of the soul, and have personally realized the Supreme Lord’s expansion as Supersoul within the heart.
The Esoteric Teaching is not a mechanical process or a doctrinaire mundane religion, but a fully scientific approach to authentic self-realization. We find in this mantra the word anupasyati, meaning that one should observe phenomena in a systematic way. In other words, the students of the Esoteric Teaching must subject the teachings of the acaryas, the perfected Master Teachers, to systematic analysis and empirical verification. The Sanskrit word anupasyati is composed of the roots anu, to follow, and pasyati, to observe. Thus anupasyati means that one should not judge the Esoteric Teaching by one’s preconceived notions, but should follow the teachings of the Master Teachers and carefully observe the result.
We are conditioned by material consciousness for many births, but the Esoteric Teaching is completely spiritual. We cannot understand spiritual life properly due to our material defects. But we can enhance our understanding by hearing from a superior source, and the most perfect and complete source of spiritual wisdom is the Vedic Esoteric Teaching, originally spoken by the Lord Himself. The Esoteric Teaching comes down by disciplic succession from the Lord Himself to Brahma, from Brahma to Narada, from Narada to Vyasa, and from Vyasadeva to the four authorized lineages of the Esoteric Teaching.
Vyasa recorded the Vedas in writing approximately 5,000 years ago. Previously there was no need to write down the Vedas, because people had such sharp memories that they could understand everything simply by hearing once from a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher. But because of the degradation of human intelligence in Kali-yuga, Vyasadeva wrote down not only the four Vedas, but also the 108 principal Upanisads, Vedanta-sutra, Mahabharata, Bhagavad-gita and the 18 major Puranas, including the Bhagavat-Purana or Srimad-Bhagavatam.
There are many spiritual teachers, theological schools and commentaries on the Vedic scriptures, but only a few of them follow the line of philosophical conclusion coming from Srila Vyasadeva, the original compiler of the Vedic esoteric tradition. Srimad-Bhagavatam is Vyasadeva’s final, most perfect and sublime work, and it is also the natural commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. Srimad-Bhagavatam is considered the crown jewel of the Vedic literature because it contains the narration of Krsna’s most intimate pastimes in Vrndavana.
The most important Vedic scriptures are Vyasadeva’s Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, which was spoken by the Lord Himself and recorded by Vyasadeva. The disciples of the Esoteric Teaching consider any commentary or philosophical interpretation that ignores or contradicts the principles and conclusions of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam to be unauthorized. There is complete and perfect agreement among the Vedas, Upanisads, Vedanta-sutra, Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. But no one can realize this without accepting instruction from the Esoteric Teaching, which is Vyasadeva’s direct disciplic succession. The followers of the Esoteric Teaching accept Lord Sri Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and also accept the explanation of His diverse energies as given in Sri Isopanisad.
The inner state of the liberated soul is described in Bhagavad-gita:
brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param
“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]
According to the Esoteric Teaching, only one who is already on the liberated platform (brahma-bhuta) can become an uttama-adhikari devotee, a member of the Esoteric Circle, and see every living being as his own brother. This state of pure spiritual consciousness is very blissful. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam:
navyavad dhrdaye yaj jno
brahmaitad brahma-vadibhih
na muhyanti na socanti
na hrsyanti yato gatah
“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 [brahma-bhuta] by the advocates of the Absolute Truth. In such a liberated stage, one is never bewildered. Nor does one lament or become unnecessarily jubilant. This is due to the brahma-bhuta state.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.30.20]
The uttama-adhikari or Master Teacher sees every being as a spirit soul. He sees them spiritually, and treats them as spiritual parts and parcels of the Supreme by giving them transcendental knowledge, saving them from further suffering in material existence. This most excellent work is the exclusive occupational duty of the self-realized uttama-adhikari or paramahamsa, the Master Teacher of the Esoteric Teaching.
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Posted in Podcasts, Sri Isopanisad at 21:03 by David Bruce Hughes
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tad ejati tan naijati
tad dure tad v antike
tad antar asya sarvasya
tad u sarvasyasya bahyatah
SYNONYMS
tat—this Supreme Lord; ejati—walks; tat—He; na—not; ejati—walks; tat—He; dure—far away; tat—He; u—also; antike—very near; tat—He; antah—within; asya—of this; sarvasya—of all; tat—He; u—also; sarvasya—of all; asya—of this; bahyatah—external to.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
PURPORT
The Supreme Lord’s transcendental activities always seem paradoxical when viewed with mundane vision. But even the impossible becomes possible when executed by His inconceivable potencies. The apparent contradictions here are only artifacts of our limited materialistic system of representation and logic; they do not and cannot prove any contradictions in the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, who is all-perfect by nature.
“He walks, and He does not walk,” is a coded expression meant for those who know the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. It is a message from Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Vedas, to remind them that in some pastimes He appears like an ordinary human being, walking from place to place; in others, He appears suddenly out of nowhere. Accordingly, we will narrate some of these pastimes later on.
We cannot accommodate the paradoxical nature of multidimensional spiritual reality with the limited tools of Aristotelian logic. If we do, we will see the Lord in terms of our limited conception of reality. This inevitably results in trying to reason about spiritual objects with material logic, leading to erroneous conclusions.
Most modern philosophers assume that the Lord’s impersonal feature of unlimited existence and pure consciousness is the Supreme, and reject His personal form and activities. But the Esoteric Teaching is built on the perfect conception of the Lord; therefore we accept the inconceivable and paradoxical nature of His potencies. We can understand that Supreme means that He is the Complete Whole: both personal and impersonal. Supreme Personality of Godhead means inconceivable omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience.
Many people of ordinary intelligence take it for granted that because we cannot see the Lord, He has no personal existence. But Sri Isopanisad reveals that He is both far away, beyond our vision and also very near, within our very hearts. The abode of the Lord in the Spiritual Sky, the Kingdom of Vaikuntha, is certainly beyond the material sky, and we cannot find the limit even of this material sky. If the material sky is so great, then how can we understand the spiritual sky, which is altogether beyond it?
The spiritual sky is far beyond the material universe. Krsna says 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]
Nevertheless, He can appear before us within a moment. He can run—or fly—faster than the mind or wind, so swiftly that no one can surpass Him. Wherever you go, there He is.
Yet we have been conditioned by modern so-called education to neglect Krsna, the Personality of Godhead when He comes before us. We are taught to call His existence ‘mythological’ or ‘primitive superstition,’ and spiritual experiences are ‘all in your mind.’ The Lord condemns this ignorance in Bhagavad-gita, where He says that
“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.” [Bhagavad-gita 9.11]
Krsna is not an ordinary being, or even an ordinary spiritual being. Nor does He appear in this world in a mortal material body. His form is always spiritual, eternal and all-powerful, even as an infant in the lap of His mother. But He plays like that just to enjoy intimate loving relationships with His pure devotees.
The same so-called experts who assume that God is impersonal also contend that when the Lord descends to this world, it must be in a material body like an ordinary living being. They want to place Him on an equal level with themselves, refusing to acknowledge the inconceivable power of the Lord.
They do not realize that because God is the complete whole, with inconceivable and inexhaustible potencies, He can accept our service at any place or time or through any medium. Because He is completely transcendental, He can convert His different potencies according to His own will. In other words, one of His transcendental senses or potencies can perform the actions of another. Therefore He can eat by seeing, or appear in the form of a temple Deity. Nothing is impossible for Him, and there are no barriers to His will.
Those whose minds are insufficiently agile cannot accommodate such transcendental concepts. They cannot understand that the Lord can incarnate Himself or that the Complete Whole can appear inside His creation. They falsely reason that if He does incarnate, He must appear in a material form.
These false conclusions are nullified as soon as we the understand the Lord’s inconceivable potencies. He can be inside and outside, here and there and everywhere at the same time, with full consciousness, knowledge and potency.
Once we understand this, then we can understand that it is quite possible for the Lord to convert His material energy into spiritual energy. Since all energies are His, they can be utilized according to His will. For example, the Lord can appear in the worshiper’s mind, in a mantra containing his Holy Name, or in the form of the arca-vigraha, a Deity apparently made of clay, stone or wood.
These sacred deity forms, although sculpted from material ingredients, are not idols because they are representations of the transcendental form of the Lord. His name, form, abode, pastimes, qualities, associates, potencies, etc. are always transcendental, even when they appear in matter. Yes, they are symbols, but because they are symbols of a transcendental reality, they are qualitatively equivalent to the realities they represent. We can recognize the Supreme Lord in His Deity form or in the vibration of His Holy Names when our natural spiritual intelligence is cleansed from the covering of material existence by association with, and hearing from, the great souls.
Devotees who want to see the Lord by their material eyes are benedicted by the Lord when He appears in His beautiful Deity form. Although these devotees, are in the lowest stage of devotional service, they are not worshiping an idol. They are really worshiping the Supreme Lord, who after being invited by the congregation, has agreed to appear before them to accept their service. The arca-vigraha or Deity form is carefully crafted by long lines of devotee artists according to the detailed instructions of the scriptures. The Deity expansions of the Lord are eternally existent with all paraphernalia.
In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says,
“As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.11]
The Lord reserves the right not to reveal Himself to anyone and everyone, but He reveals Himself to souls who surrender unto Him with love. Thus He is always close by for the surrendered soul, whereas for the rebellious and demonic He is very far away and unapproachable.
The impersonalists like to think that the terms nirguna (without qualities, referring to Brahman) and saguna (with qualities, referring to the Supreme Personality of Godhead) are synonymous with spiritual and material, respectively. But saguna does not imply that when the Lord manifests a perceptible form with spiritual qualities that it must be a material form subject to the laws of material nature. His form is always manifested by His internal potency, and is spiritual, eternal and fully qualified with all the potencies of the Supreme Godhead.
There is no difference between the material and spiritual energies for Him, because He emanates both. He is never under the influence of His energies at any time; rather, He is the controller of all energies. We conditioned souls are under the influence of the material energy, but He controls His material energy, therefore He can use it for any purposes whatever without being influenced by its qualities.
In this sense He is nirguna, or without qualities. His energies inherit their qualities from Him, but He does not inherit their qualities. Nor does the Lord ever become formless. His impersonal aspect, the Brahman effulgence, is the spiritual radiance, expanding like the rays of the sun from His beautiful transcendental form.
The atheist king Hiranyaksipu asked his devotee son Prahlada Maharaja, “Where is your God?” Prahlada innocently replied that God resides everywhere. Then the father challenged Prahlada whether his God was within the pillars of his palace. When the boy said yes, Hiranyakasipu angrily shattered a pillar with his sword, and the Lord instantly appeared as Nrsimhadeva, the half-man, half-lion incarnation, killing the atheist king and saving His devotee Prahlada.
In one sense, the Lord is within everything. Through His inconceivable powers, He can appear anywhere to protect His pure devotee. Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared from within the pillar by the desire of His devotee Prahlada. He creates everything by His different energies, and He can appear anywhere in His creation at any time. An atheist cannot make the Lord appear, but He can and will appear anywhere and everywhere to show mercy to His devotee.
Bhagavad-gita says,
“I appear in My original form in millennium after millennium to deliver the pious, to annihilate the miscreants, and to reestablish the principles of religion.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.8]
The Lord appears in order to protect His devotees and vanquish the atheists. Of course, He can vanquish the atheists with His potent energies and agents, but He descends as an incarnation because it pleases Him to bless His devotees personally.
In the Brahma-samhita it is said:
“He is an undifferentiated entity, as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable from Him. All the universes exist in Him, yet simultaneously He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms scattered throughout the universe. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.” [Brahma-samhita 5.35]
Govinda, the primeval Lord, enters all the atoms of the universe by His plenary portion of Garbhodakasayi Visnu. He is outside everything in His virat form of Maha-Visnu, and He is within everything as Antaryami or the indwelling Supersoul. He witnesses everything, and awards us the results of our actions according to the laws of karma. We may forget the activities we performed in previous lives, but the Lord witnesses our actions and remembers everything. As long as we persist in trying to work for material enjoyment instead of serving Him alone, the results of our actions manifest by His will, and we have to undergo the reactions.
Ultimately there is nothing but God, inside and out. Everything we can experience is a manifestation of His different energies. His energies emanate from Him, like the heat and light emanating from a fire. He can do anything with any of His energies, and in this way there is a oneness among their diversity. His aspect of oneness, however, is not very prominent in the spiritual world, where the Lord enjoys all the pleasures of life unlimitedly in His personal transcendental form among His pure devotees.
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