Secrets of the Soul 29

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras 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

This Esoteric Teaching is very important. We are trying to educate people to feel, or at least to understand clearly that they are not this body; they are spirit souls. But at the present moment, all our activities are going on in the bodily concept of life. That is called ignorance. Why?

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]

Identifying with this body is ignorance because when one is under the bodily concept of life, his interest becomes dictated by the imperfect senses of this body. And then,

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ
durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ
andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās
te ’pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ

“Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.31]

Because they are in the bodily conception of life, and subscribe to the materialistic ontology, they do not know what is their real self-interest. One who is in material consciousness cannot know actually what is good for him. Our real self-interest is to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is our eternal self-interest, eternal perfect happiness. But people do not know, because of a lack of spiritual knowledge.

They are trying to adjust things on the external bodily concept of life, and the so-called leaders are leading in that way. Yet despite so much effort expended in material plans and work, they remain in the same pitiable condition. The actual fact is that we are trying to be happy by political adjustment, but that cannot ever be successful, because our mistaken point is that “I am this body.” Everything based on that incorrect ontological assumption is intrinsically doomed to failure.

Therefore, simply changing the leaders every few years will not yield any improvement. Instead we must change our consciousness. Otherwise, the same fighting, the same antagonism, the same propaganda, barking and fighting like dogs and cats, will continue all over the world. Why? Because everything the political leaders are doing is based on the same mistaken, false bodily concept of life.

The educated first-class men of all countries assemble in the United Nations in New York. They have been discussing politics for generations, but is there any real improvement in the quality of human life? We see, generally, the only result of all this talking is simply increasing the number of national and political groups. Where is the unity of the so-called United Nations? So much political talking and fighting, but we cannot see that we are one family, all God’s children. That is possible only by advancement of consciousness through this Esoteric Teaching. The peace and prosperity we seek is not possible on the platform of bodily consciousness, because that always leads to unnecessary competition and fighting.

In the Esoteric Teaching there are students from all over the world: America, England, Canada, Africa, Australia and India. But they’re not thinking that “He’s Indian, American, or Australian,” or anything based on the bodily misconception.” They are thinking in terms of the spiritual wisdom of the Esoteric Teaching. Every sincere student of the Esoteric Teaching thinks, “We are all servants of Kṛṣṇa.” This is the Esoteric Teaching of Bhagavad-gita, and this is also the perfection of yoga.

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