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yas tu sarvāṇi bhūtāny
ātmany evānupaśyati
sarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁ
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 Kṛṣṇa’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 Kṛṣṇa 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-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

“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 dhṛdaye yaj jño
brahmaitad brahma-vādibhiḥ
na muhyanti na śocanti
na hṛṣyanti yato gatāḥ

“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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