Secrets of the Soul 14

dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]

Here is the solution for all the problems of material life, including the problem of death. The suffering of material existence is due to the constant changing of the body, beginning from conception up to death. Yet the spirit soul is eternal and indestructible, and does not die when the body dies. A sober person who knows this Esoteric Teaching perfectly is relieved from all the anxieties of material life.

So spiritual education or enlightenment means, first of all, we must try to understand the jiva or spirit soul. Because each jiva is a subatomic particle of the Lord, by that study we can also understand the spiritual qualities of the Lord to some extent. Just like if you test a small particle of gold, then you can understand the properties of a large mass of gold. And if you test a little drop of water from the ocean, you can analyze the chemical composition of the entire sea. Similarly, if you analyze the ontological characteristics of the living entity, then you can at least begin understand the characteristics of God.

Therefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand one’s self. Realizing one’s eternal spiritual nature is called self-realization. How can we attain self-realization? We have to take transcendental knowledge from the Esoteric Teaching. To acquire actual transcendental knowledge, we must learn it from a qualified teacher. Therefore, one should approach a qualified self-realized Master Teacher and patiently hear the Esoteric Teaching from him, along with sincere inquiries and service.

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.34]

So here is the supreme teacher, Kṛṣṇa, speaking the Esoteric Teaching in Bhagavad-gita. And Arjuna, after hearing Bhagavad-gita from Kṛṣṇa, also accepts Him as the Supreme Person:

arjuna uvāca
paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma
pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān
puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam
ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum

āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve
devarṣir nāradas tathā
asito devalo vyāsaḥ
svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me

sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye
yan māṁ vadasi keśava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktiṁ
vidur devā na dānavāḥ

“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.12-14]

Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the supreme teacher not only by Arjuna, but also by great Vedic sages like Vyasadeva, Narada, Devala, Asita, Sukadeva, Suta and all other great sages. And in the modern age, He is accepted by great Vaiṣṇava acaryas like Sri Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Visnusvami and even Sankaracarya.

More recently, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the powerful devotional incarnation of the Supreme Lord who appeared only five hundred years ago, also accepted that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His immediate followers and disciples, such as Sri Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, Ramanada Roy, and Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis of Vrndavana, are the architects and senior Master Teachers of this lineage of the Esoteric Teaching. Our linage includes such great spiritual luminaries as Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur and Narottama das Thakur, Bhaktivinod Thakur and our own spiritual Master Teacher, Abhay Caranaravindam Thakur.

All these great sages and acaryas came from India. So if you already have some taste for Indian Vedic spiritual culture, you are fortunate because you have some contact with these great sages of the Esoteric Teaching. We have to follow the acaryas to attain perfect knowledge of transcendence. And all these acaryas accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord.

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ
kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam
indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ
mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

“All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28]

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

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

“Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.” [Brahma-samhita 5.1]

There is so much evidence in the Vedic scriptures that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the final verdict of the Esoteric Teaching. So we also accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And by practicing His instructions, we can also have direct experience of Kṛṣṇa. So there is no doubt about it.

But why is it that some people do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Why do so many important scholars and big scientists refuse to accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead? That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita:

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ

“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.15]

Those who do not accept Kṛṣṇa are called duskrtina. Krti means meritorious, and dus means misusing. So, duskrtina means miscreants, those who are meritorious only for making mischief. Everyone has got some merit. The mischief-makers also have merit, but they use their merit for making mischief. In other words, they are rogues and thieves. When a thief steals, he requires intelligence to plan the heist. So he’s applying his intelligence, how to steal very tactfully, how to be a great rogue tactfully, how to become a smuggler. Criminals also require good intelligence, but their intelligence is misused for mischievous activities. The more intelligent they are, the more mischief they perform, because their intelligence is directed toward criminal activities. Such misdirected people are called miscreants, duskrtina.

Another class mentioned in this sloka is mudha. Mudha means ass. They have less intelligence, or no intelligence. The ass works very hard all day carrying clothes for the washerman, and at the end of the day is satisfied with a little grass, which is actually obtainable anywhere. Yet he is working so hard unnecessarily. And naradhama means the lowest of the mankind, uncivilized aborigines and savages. Finally, mayaya apahrta-jnanah means those whose knowledge has been stolen by maya, illusion. They are cheated by false teachers and useless teachings. And asuram bhavam asritah means those who take shelter of the atheistic nature of demons.

So those who are duskrtina, mudha, mayaya apahrta-jnanah or asuram bhavam asritah do not recognize Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These are very strong terms. But we are not manufacturing these words, we are not making up these statements. These words are there in the Bhagavad-gita. If we study Bhagavad-gita sincerely, we have to accept the statements of Kṛṣṇa as the supreme spiritual teacher. And He condemns those who do not surrender unto Him with very strong language.

Bhagavad-gita means the speech that is delivered, or the song that is sung by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If Kṛṣṇa is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then Bhagavad-gita has no meaning, because the opinions of an ordinary man are full of imperfections. So the Esoteric Teaching is delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and passed down carefully through the lineage of great sages, acaryas and incarnations. Therefore the perfection of yoga is found by attaining self-realization by following the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gita and other literatures of the Esoteric Teaching.

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