2025 in Review – How did we do Spiritually? – Q&A Session

The question is—yesterday we talked about not just following your desires and your mind, and how does that sort of fit in with following your life’s callings or your interests, etc.

It really is important to establish some clear parameters for what constitutes spiritual life and what is material life. Material life, the foundation of material life, is the idea that I am material, meaning that this body which is made of material elements is me. And so that notion, that is the foundation of materialism. In spirituality, the foundation is that I’m an eternal spiritual being.

And so, when I look at what it is that’s tugging at my mind or my heart, I have to consider and question, “What is the purpose of this? And is this going to help in my spiritual upliftment? Or is it going to further bind me to the world?” And the answer to that question will basically tell you whether it’s something to follow or not.

But having said that, there is a clear acceptance and recognition of the reality that we are embodied, that we have a material body, and with that body comes responsibilities and duties. It also means that according to the nature of my body and mind, I will already have inclinations towards certain types of work and ways of expressing, you know what I mean, those things. And that’s all understood and accepted. But what—

There is a process called karma yoga. The word karma, it literally means action. Most people think of the result or the fruits of one’s action to be karma, but that’s called karma phalam or phala. That means the fruits of action. So, in the process of karma yoga, a person looked to integrate the activities of life as part of a service, an offering to some higher spiritual reality, or God, and in this way integrate their life’s activities with their spiritual journey. And so then, what would be normally classified as mundane activity can become spiritually uplifting and purifying because it is being offered as an offering to the Lord.

A good example of that—you know the Bhagavad-gita? So on the Bhagavad-gita, it is a conversation between a great warrior prince and Lord Krishna. And it’s occurring on a battlefield, which is quite extraordinary. And it’s sort of like, Oh! And Arjuna in the beginning, he asks Krishna, who is acting as His chariot driver—which is already something quite extraordinary because it was usually considered a very low-class position to be the driver of a chariot. It’s like you—I don’t want to say Uber driver, but (that might be very offensive) but it’s just like, that’s your job, just driving people around. And so it was quite, already quite startling that Krishna offered to engage in that role.

And Arjuna asked Him to bring their chariot down between the two great armies. They were massive armies. So many kings had become involved in this what was a family dispute. Arjuna and his brothers were considered very saintly and pious and acting for the greater good of all people, whereas their cousins were usurpers and exploiters. So, they were a little bit of an evil bunch in some ways.

But when Arjuna, when he came in the chariot down between the two armies, looking at both sides, he became overwhelmed. He was absolutely stunned that this was such a horrific fratricidal conflict that was pulling so many people involved, and it was going to result in an unimaginable loss of life, and there would be widows, there would be orphans. He spoke about brothers facing each other. He himself looked at two people in particular that he considered worshipable, his grandfather and his martial teacher, his martial guru, and he knew that he would have to meet them in battle and try to kill them, and he was just stunned by this idea. He wasn’t a coward. He was extraordinarily brave. He would face, himself, hundreds and even sometimes thousands of men, on a chariot. He was a fierce warrior. But now he began breaking down.

And he told Krishna, he began, it describes, he began shaking and he was crying. He said he felt like his body was on fire, and he said he could not even hold his bow. His hands were trembling so much, the bow slipped from his hands. And he sat on the chariot and literally wept. And he said it would be better if he would go to the mountains and renounce everything rather than engage in a war that was utterly, what he considered utterly sinful.

And Krishna’s response was quite extraordinary. He laughed, nicely. And He said, “You are speaking words of what should be an intelligent person, but yet you are proposing a course of action that will not uplift you. And because of the nature of your body and the mind that you have, this is the equipment that you’re working with, even if you try to become renounced and go off to the mountains, you will sooner or later again be drawn to come out and to engage in this life again, and in this way, as a princely warrior.”

And He said, “So if you artificially try to renounce everything, you will actually, actually be considered sinful.” He described to Arjuna that according to the nature of your body and mind, you have a duty to perform, and the great duty of warriors and leaders was they had to be prepared to lay down their life in order to protect the innocent people. That was considered such an extraordinary sacrifice that such warriors, if they were killed in battle, received the same result as someone who had become a sannyasi, a wandering monk. And that idea is like, whoa! because one seems almost like so wrong and the other one seems so right. But when we understand those things—

And so, through the entirety of the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna is explaining, He goes through all these different yoga systems, different processes of spiritual purification and upliftment, different angles of looking at life and spirituality. In the end, He told Arjuna, “If you simply surrender your life to Me, and you engage in this activity, not with a desire to cause harm or to celebrate victory, nor to be ashamed if there is defeat, but you act simply out of a sense of duty and do this for Me, then your undertaking is a spiritual undertaking.” And that’s just like, wow! That’s really radical. What you can, if you are and—have that calling, if that is the nature of things, and this is where you find yourself in life, and you embrace that duty, you can engage in what would normally be considered utterly sinful and degraded, and it can be spiritually uplifting, but the need to not be attached, but to do it with great focus and ferocity even.

And so that lesson is a lesson of how we should learn to utilize the tools that we have, our body, our mind, the kind of conditioning that we have, and direct it in a way that my entire life, my breath, my thought, everything becomes an offering to the Lord. And when one achieves that condition, they may appear to be like an ordinary person, but they would be actually a great transcendentalist.

And so, yeah, according to the nature of your body and mind, and your training and conditioning, or all of these things, you will have proclivities, you will have certain talents or abilities, but you should not undertake that activity simply to try and satisfy your own desires. You should undertake that activity as an offering to the Lord. And that way it becomes spiritually uplifting and purifying.

So, it’s like what I was talking about this morning, this complete shift, 180 degrees, away from, “It’s all about me, and who I think I am, and what I want to do”, to this other thing, “What can I do to please You, Lord? How can I serve You? How can I be helpful to others in a way that is pleasing?” And so that’s—that shift is monumental, and it is what spiritual life is all about, the shift from being completely self-centred to being utterly selfless and embracing a wonderful and surrendered mood of service.

Okay, does that answer the question?

Anybody else want to have a go? I mean, it can be a question, or it can be you may not have a specific question, but you might have something that you want to hear about.

[Audience question is missing]

So, this question is at the heart of two schools of thought. One school of thought is deeply traditional. The other school of thought, although it is very old, is not actually part of the original Vedic teaching. That idea that I’m speaking of was taught and propounded in the 7th century by a great spiritual teacher by the name of Adi Shankara, Shankaracharya, and he proposed the idea that, if I am a spark of the fire, then in all respects I am non-different from the fire. And that has been—idea has been embraced by numerous, vast amounts of teachers, which unfortunately ends up with people considering themselves to be indistinguishable from God, only we’ve lost the plot, we’ve forgotten it, and if we meditate and engage in spiritual activity, we regain our Godhood. And of course, that’s a ridiculous idea. Sorry, folks.

You know, I—You’ve seen a baby? It can’t even control its bowels. It’s just going to shit everywhere. You try driving down the street and not following rules, traffic rules, and see what happens to you. The proposal that I am supreme and all-powerful, I just got to get it together, is actually quite absurd on its face. And it’s not consistent with ancient teachings.

In the ancient teachings, there is one Upanisadic verse, it’s found in two different Upanisads:

Nityo nityanam, cetanas cetananam

[Śvetāsvatara Upaniṣad 6.13 & Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]

—that “There is one eternal conscious Being that is distinct and different than all the other individual beings,” and goes on to explain that that Being is actually the source of all other beings. And it is explained by ancient teachers that there is a qualitative oneness between the individual soul and God, or the Supreme Soul, as a drop of water from the ocean has the same quality as the ocean water, but there is a vast quantitative difference. I cannot swim in a drop of water, what to speak of put a whale in there or float a cargo ship, but the ocean can do that. So, there is a qualitative oneness, but there is a quantitative distinction. That quantitative distinction is not an illusion, it is a reality.

So, we have almost all of the characteristics, almost all, some we don’t, but almost all of the characteristics of our source, of God. But quantitatively, we are vastly different.

Audience member: [Indistinct]

Acharya das: In theory, but that doesn’t work either. There is another ancient verse

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
[Sri Isopanisad Invocation]

I will read, just so I don’t get it wrong. So, this mantra says that this Aum, the Absolute Truth,

“…is the complete whole, is perfect and complete. And because He is perfectly complete, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, however, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”
[Sri Isopanisad Invocation]

So, this is like a pretty extraordinary idea, that if you have the original fire and so many sparks come from it, that somehow the fire has become a little depleted; that is the case in the material world and in the material environment, but the transcendental reality is not ruled by the same laws of time and space. And so you can have this purnam, this complete whole, that is emanating so many complete wholes, the sum total of who never make up the original complete whole that they are emanating from. Neither does that complete whole become depleted.

Like if I take one piece of paper and I rip it into 500 pieces, tiny pieces, I no longer have the piece of paper, and I’ve just got all these little tiny pieces of paper. And I think if I can just maybe stick them all back together again, then I’ll get the original sheet. Yeah, that is the reality of the material world, but in the transcendental reality, that is not the case. So yes, we are the sparks of the fire, but it doesn’t matter how many of us get together, we never become the fire.

Audience member: [Indistinct]

Acharya das: You’re very welcome.

This is actually a crucial point.

And the problem is, the idea that I can then speculate and think that I have become God, that really appeals to the corrupted state of consciousness where I’m thinking it’s all about me. This is the epitome of the material condition, is I’m at the centre, it’s all about me. And when I hear an idea that I can get it together and through meditation or certain practices, I can become God, oh my God, that’s attractive. That’s attractive to a corrupted consciousness. For one in pure consciousness, that is absolutely revolting idea. So, we understand, and it is stated, that those who take up that philosophical idea, they are actually considered spiritually fallen, and they have lost the plot, and it is most unfortunate.

Audience member: This thinking is also faulty? Or this is the…?

Acharya das: The thinking is faulty? No. We have a natural and eternal connection. Were you here yesterday, or no? No? Yes? Yes. Okay, so one of the things I mentioned, in the question of who am I, I need to answer the question of what is my essence, what is my position, and what is my natural function. And so that’s what’s being addressed here.

There is a genuine form of spiritual realization where certain categories of yogis may raise the life air through the practice of this kundalini exercises, and raise the life air to the top of the head and leave, and leave the material dimension and merge into an ocean of great spirit—an impersonal ocean of light and energy. When a living being has that experience, they become unaware of their individual existence. But the fact that they have become unaware, it doesn’t mean they have lost their individual existence. It is just not part of the realization and experience.

And what happens when one becomes merged in that great ocean of light, the Brahmajyoti, eventually they will fall again. And they will fall for the reason that part of our nature is to be active. Part of the nature—that is why we get agitated just sitting around. We’re driven to seek activity. And so even in that state of merging into the Brahmajyoti, eventually the individual atma will again desire activity, because it is part of me that I cannot suppress (maybe for some time.) And when that happens, one is considered already to have fallen from that state. And they will become embodied again.

Audience member: [Indistinct]

But then, wasn’t that the whole point of the meditation? [Acd: Well—] [Indistinct] from this world and get into the higher being—

Acharya das: Yep. So there are—now we’re cooking with gas. Those three realizations of self-realization, my essence, my position, and my natural function, actually correlate with three forms of God-realization. It is stated in the Bhagavat Purana that the Absolute Truth is manifest in three features. One is as this ocean of light, the Brahmajyoti.

The second is in an expansive and all-pervasive feature that manifests within material creation. Within the heart of each living being resides the Paramatma. Within the bodies of these trees, within all living beings, this feature of God is actually manifest. And the principal way the majority of yogis used to engage in meditation was to seek to reconnect with their source in an intimate and personal way.

The third feature of the Absolute is a feature of a most divine and extraordinary personality that is so extraordinary that if a yogi encounters them, they will be lost in an ocean of ecstatic experience, overwhelmed in great spiritual ecstasies, because everything about this personality is so utterly divine and beautiful and lovable in the most intense ways. So now we’re talking about union, but the nature of the union is not to become that person, but now to fall in love with that person as lover and beloved and to serve that person, the highest object of their love.

And so, when we talked about position, it is the recognition that I am not all-powerful. I am an eternal spiritual being, and I have many of the qualities in a small way like God. I have a heritage, a spiritual heritage that I should be seeking to regain. But that can manifest in a connection with the feature of the great ocean of spiritual light and energy, with the all-pervasive feature of God as is experienced within material existence, and separately, in a transcendental dimension.

It’s actually a lot more far out than that. That’s the summary. So yeah, the goal is to reconnect. But then the question is, what is the nature of that connection?

Next question. You’re on a roll. You might as well keep going.

Audience member:

Acharya das: I mean, don’t you think this is quite far out? And it’s unexpected.

Audience member: But then, like, you imagine this would be so. [more, indistinct]

Acharya das: Well, one of the issues with the first feature of God realization, where you’re only experiencing this impersonal aspect, this ocean of transcendental light and spiritual energy, where one becomes overwhelmed with a form of happiness and transcendental experience that is so great that anyone that even experiences a tiny drop of it loses all attraction to this world, it was so extraordinary. But we also see in these extraordinary texts, they describe the great happiness that one experiences from merging into that ocean of light, the impersonal feature of God, can be compared, the happiness can be compared to the amount of water in the hoofprint of a cow compared to the ocean; that when one experiences a mature and profound transcendental connection and relationship, that ecstatic experience cannot even be compared to the happiness found in merging into the impersonal feature of God. That comes from those who have experienced both. It’s not just a theoretical idea.

Audience member: [Indistinct]

Acharya das: Yeah, I was talking a little earlier, one of my spiritual teachers, he used to use the English saying, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” You may have an amazing looking dessert, but it could be total crap. And you’re not going to know until you taste it, and you find out whether it lives up to it.

So, what we have been asked to do—the idea of blind acceptance in the Vedas is completely rejected. Even if it is the blind acceptance of a great spiritual teacher that’s teaching the truth, if you are simply blindly accepting it, it is like a belief system, that will not bring about a change in consciousness. You will not have, or you will not achieve, self-realization and God-realization.

It is necessary for you, as an individual, to go through the process, to take the steps, to become transformed, again to become freed from material consciousness, and experience that which is purely transcendental, to experience God. And nobody can do that for you, because the thing that separates us from our original spiritual condition is our state of consciousness; and one of the difficulties that everybody struggles with is we do not clearly see how profoundly we are impacted by our own state of consciousness. Our state of consciousness acts like massive filters. And so everything that comes in through the filters becomes distorted. And everything that emanates from it is also a distortion. It is not pure in essence.

And so, the path of spiritual practice and realization is a path by which this consciousness, the contaminating external influence, gradually melts away, gradually dissipates, and your true nature as an eternal spiritual being becomes known to you. You actually discover who you are, which is already extraordinary. And when one draws close to God, one experiences unimaginable spiritual delights that are very extraordinary. It cannot be adequately described in mundane language, nor can it be conceived of, because the only thing we’ve got to work with is our experience in this world. So the great teachers, they will use these examples, like the amount of water in a hoof print of a cow compared to the amount of water in the ocean. It kind of gives you some—something to sort of appreciate.

Audience member: Thank you. [Indistinct]

Acharya das:  You ran out?

Audience member: For now. [Acc: No,no…] For now.

Acharya das:  Yeah, yeah. Well, feel free. I mean, one of the wonders of the Vedic system, when I encountered it, was how everybody is encouraged to question. And actually, questioning is absolutely required. There is one verse in the Bhagavad-gita, in the fourth chapter, the 34th verse, where it describes that one can know the truth by approaching a self-realized spiritual personality, and one should both inquire submissively and render service to them in order to come to know the truth. There is very deep meaning with that.

One of them, submissive inquiry, doesn’t mean you’re not challenging. If you say, “I don’t get it,” or, “I have a hard time with that one, I really don’t get it, I’m not even sure that that’s true,” that’s all fine. But when one begins to question, where they think they know the answer, and the answer they’re getting is not in their framework of understanding, this is not how one should approach a spiritual teacher. And then the idea of—this is called submissive inquiry. Submissive inquiry doesn’t mean blind faith or just blind acceptance. It means, “Yeah, I understand. I don’t know, and I do want to know. And I’m not comfortable with that answer. And I don’t know if it’s due to my lack of understanding, or maybe you don’t know. Could you please help me understand that?” You could even speak that way, and a real transcendentalist is not at all disturbed. They would be delighted with such sincere inquiry. It’s not an affront. It’s not offensive.

But when somebody thinks they know, and so they begin to question, to try and trip you up, to try and see if you’ve got it together or not, but they’re doing it from the platform of thinking they actually have it together, and they know, and they are capable of making that judgment, that puts a person in a state—it means they’re in a state where they cannot actually perceive spiritual truth, because they are too corrupted by a sense of so-called self-importance. It’s a self-centredness where I think that I’m so important and I got it together.

And the problem is that when I use the pronoun “I”, I don’t even know who I am. I’m fully embracing my body and my mind. And, “I don’t believe that.” Yeah, it’s like, well, shit, who are you? Can you answer that one? Who are you? What’s going on there? Do you understand what the mind is? Do you understand how it works? Do you understand the nature of influence and conditioning upon the mind and how it affects consciousness and causes you to see things in a certain way? You don’t even know any of that. And then you’re going to sit there, “I think…”

But to ask in a very strong way is good, with a great desire to know what is the truth. “I want to know what is the truth. I want to experience that truth.” That is encouraged. And with it, when one recognizes that this person has something that I don’t have, they do have a clarity—See, what was important in approaching someone to ask the question, you have to know who to approach.

So, what is the standard? I mean, is it the way they look, whether they got the bald head or they got the long hair or whether they got the beard or clean shaved or whether they’re wearing this kind of clothing or that, this kind of a body, you know, an Indian body, and you couldn’t possibly be Japanese and know the truth. It’s kind of like, what!? That’s just so weird, and it’s so contrary to spiritual truth and reality.

So, in the Vedic system, there were three authorities, shastra, guru, and sadhu. Shastra means the revealed ancient texts that deliver true transcendental wisdom and vision. Guru means one who is actually an empowered and self-realized spiritual personality, and they must have specific characteristics, and they must have specific qualities, and they must be in a bona fide or authentic lineage by which this knowledge is delivered and they were taught and trained how to come to the point of self-realization.

So, when one—there is a fourth confirmation, this feature of the Lord that sits within the heart of all living beings, and one can in great sincerity turn inward and ask the question, “Can I trust this person? Is this person actually representing You?” And if you have a doubt after asking that question, run. At least step back and go like—Don’t, don’t get—

It’s kind of like a couple trying to get together, and they’re kind of like looking from a distance, and they go, “Oh, I like the package.” But then when you find out—I mean, this is the epitome of material existence. Everybody’s into the package. Just because it shows up and it’s nicely gift-wrapped, the assumption is it contains something wonderful. It could be just full of dog shit, but it’s nicely gift-wrapped, and it’s got a ribbon and everything. [Audience member: (Indistinct)] That’s the experience everybody has. You know, “If I knew you were like that, I would never have moved in with you, or married you.” It’s kind of like, oh my God, are you really that dumb? You’re so overwhelmed by the package, you can’t even recognize the content.

And so, we can turn inward in a very prayerful way and seek guidance. This feature of God within the heart of all is called Chaitya Guru. Chaitya means internal, the guru within. It’s not us. You are not that guru. You are not that feature. But one can, in great sincerity, ask, “Please show me the way. Is this person to be trusted or not?” And then I have that confirmation. I watch the person. I see their character. And because I have some grounding in shastric, in scriptural, text and teaching, then I can hear whether that person is deviating or confirming in their speaking.

So, sadhu is the third one, which means saintly teachers. They may not even be from the lineage that you are seeking to connect with, but they are recognized saintly authorities, previous, what are called, acharyas. And they have faithfully represented the truth and taught. And so when shastra, guru and sadhu are aligned, we know that is true, or we can confidently accept it, even though we may not realize it.

So, the process of inquiry is important, but also the process of humility. Humility means I recognize my own shortcomings. False humility, that’s dangerous. Real humility is not.

Don’t get overwhelmed. I mean, we can really get into some stuff. We’re not even scratching the surface. But don’t get overwhelmed. You do not need anything special. You don’t need to be special, that only certain people can come to know God or to become self-realized. We are speaking about a process that uncovers your eternal nature, where you become reconnected with your transcendental, your spiritual source. And that means we are speaking of—everybody has this capacity because it is part of our eternal nature.

So that’s really important. Sometimes people look at themselves and they go, “Oh my God, I’m such a loser. I don’t have any control of my mind and my senses, and I’m attracted to things that are actually harmful for me and not good, and I’ve got all of these struggles and everything.” And it’s just like, oh, mellow out. You’ll be okay.

Although you are the one doing the walking, you are not the one providing the path. Nor are you the one providing the inspiration. That is all spiritual and transcendental. We are simply asked to embrace a process by which our eternal nature becomes uncovered, and we regain this lost connection. This is the meaning of yoga, or union, the union between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. So it is accessible.

We gone over time. Nobody waiting?

You know, when you sit here and you hear these things, number one, all the stuff I’m speaking of, none of it is coming from me. I’m an idiot, and have no good qualities. But by good fortune, I was led to my spiritual teachers. And I have attempted, even though filled with fault, I have attempted to embrace their instruction and direction. And it results in a wonderful transformation in my life and wonderful experience. And that which I share with you doesn’t come from me. I simply repeat what I know to be spiritual truth.

And when you hear it, everybody feels that—touched in some way, when you hear actual truth. You may doubt your ability to develop a spiritual practice or that kind of stuff. But everybody senses and they feel that there is something very true here, to different degrees depending on the individual.

So, know that all of you have an eternal spiritual nature. And all you have to do is cultivate the desire for it to become uncovered, the intelligence.  In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says, “Those who worship Me with love and devotion, I give the intelligence by with which they can come unto me.”

There are several verses like this where it’s kind of like you learn that all you have to be is a little bit sincere. You can be terribly fallen, but if you are a little bit sincere, you can be gifted with intelligence, you can be gifted with clarity, you can be gifted with the strength to take up a spiritual practice. That all comes from outside of you. All you need is some desire, a little desire.

Okay? Is that encouraging or not? Don’t, don’t—I mean, we can get into some just completely amazing stuff, and often the more you dig, the more you feel ill-equipped and unqualified. And it’s like, oh my God, when you hear about the lives of great transcendentalists, it’s like, “Oh, my—how could I ever be like that?” And that’s kind of like not the right way to think. And they all have the message: this is simply about you again uncovering your true and eternal spiritual nature.

So, let’s maybe just chant for a few minutes.

I’m trying to remember the key I usually use. I’m lost.