Self-Realization, God-Realization, and Love for God

Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.

Haribol.

Everybody okay? Yeah?

So, I’ve been asked to speak on meditation, and the title says The Art of Loving God. And I’ve been asked to also mention about the three different aspects of God, or the way in which He manifests. Sound okay? Okay.

In the path to try to come to know God there are two things: one is the living being, and the other one is the Supreme Living Being. So, in Sanskrit when we speak of the living being we are speaking of, in Sanskrit what they call the atma. This word atma means the self. It’s actually a much better word than soul, because for most people soul is actually malabo [not clear, vague], and I’ll explain why.

Most people, even if they embrace or accept the idea that there is a soul, if you ask them, “What is the soul? Can you talk to me about it?” or you ask some preacher or pare [priest] in the church, “Can you speak to me about the soul for 10 minutes,  Oh, baka mahirap iyan 5 minutes nalang [oh, that might be a hard one, I’ll give 5 minutes instead]?” and usually people wouldn’t know what to say, apart from the line that, “We have a soul, I have a soul.”

So, at that point I would say, “No, that’s absolutely wrong. If you say you have a soul, then my question is, Well, then who exactly are you? And what is this soul that you possess?” You have a soul. And if you ask that question, everybody’s just like—you watch their mind, it’s just like spinning. It’s like, “What do I say?”

So our fundamental message, the foundation of all spiritual life, is the appreciation that I don’t have a soul, that I am the soul, and that’s a whole different idea. And in Sanskrit they would use this term, as I said, “atma” which means the self, who you truly are, the one residing within the current body, but overwhelmed, thinking the body to be me. So I think I am male or female, I think I’m Pinoy [Filipino] or Chinese or American, whatever, all these—based on the way the body looks.

But even though we spend our whole life utterly absorbed in the idea that the body is me, there will come a point when I will be forced to leave. Like it or not. This is the only outcome of what we call life. The only outcome, the only result, is what’s called death.

The good news is you don’t die. You can’t die. It’s impossible. You are eternal. You leave. The body dies. That’s what’s left behind, the empty shell, but the person has moved on. The understanding of our spiritual essence: one of the characteristics is that we are a person. The body is not a person. Or is it?

You see somebody that has died, and you go there to the coffin, and you look inside, somebody that you know, and you know that there’s nobody home. It’s just—it’s an empty shell, and it’s no longer attractive. You’re even a little bit repulsed by it.

But we falsely think the body is who I am and this is what constitutes the person, but actually the person resides within. The person lends the personhood to the body. It’s a temporary loaning of something. We are, on the most foundational level, we are a person. We are a spiritual being, a spiritual person. And God is the Supreme Person.

So, the Vedic teachings—I’ll just step back for a sec.

These are the two things that we need to come to know: We need to come to know our own spiritual identity, who we truly are apart from the body and the mind which controls us through most of our life. And I must come to know this transcendental personality who is addressed by this word God.

But even though people use the word, people don’t actually know very much about God. Do you think? Or not? If I ask you to talk to me for 15 minutes, and intelligently tell me who is this transcendental personality, most people will have very great difficulty.

The individual soul comes from, or emanates from, what we call the Supreme Soul. Just as the living being is called the atma, the Supreme Soul is called the Paramatma. Param means supreme, the Supreme Self or the Supreme Spirit Soul.

The Vedas teach us that we have a lot in common with God because we are a part and parcel, we are an emanation from Him. The same spiritual energy of God is manifest in the living being, but only to a tiny degree. We have the same qualities, spiritual qualities as God, but quantitatively there is a vast difference.

So therefore, in the philosophy that was taught by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He taught that the living being and God are simultaneously and inconceivably one and yet different. This is a very deep idea, that there is this extraordinary oneness, spiritual oneness, but at the same time there is a distinction.

In the ancient Vedic texts called the Upanisads, in two of them, the Svetasvatara Upanisad and the Mundaka Upanisad—I’m sorry, the Katha Upanisad, there is one mantra that begins,

nityo nityanam, cetanas cetananam

and translated it means

“He is the eternal amongst all eternal entities, He is the chief conscious being amongst all conscious beings. Among the many living entities, He is the chief, who fulfills all of the desires of the living beings.” [Śvetāsvatara Upaniṣad 6.13 & Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]

It is He who is fulfilling, by His potency, or power.

So, if we want to come—it’s not essential to do it in this order but it is helpful for clarity. If we want to engage in the process of self-realization and God-realization we need to first know what is the self, who am I? If I am only absorbed in the idea of the body as being me, my relationship with God will be materialistic.

What do I mean by materialistic? The foundation of materialism—you know, many people, if you ask them, “Well, anything wrong with materialism?” Most people will say, “Yeah, it’s not good.” And if you ask what people mean, they will think about people being too greedy to get lots of different things, that they’re materialistic.

But actually, our understanding of materialism is more foundational. It is the framework, the foundation of materialism, it is the idea that I am material, the idea that this current body I am occupying is me, and my identity is as male or female, the ethnic identity, the age, the size, the colour of the hair, whether the hair is short or long. All of these things I hold to be my identity. Yet all those things are only labels attached to the body, and eventually I will leave this behind; and yet in my whole life I was absorbed in the bodily identity, all of these different labels. This is what I thought of, this is how I related to the world, how I related to others.

Malalaki’ng problema ’to. [This is a big problem.] If I really think this is me, and then I leave, and that thing is left in a box, and they have to put it in the ground reasonably quickly or put a lot of preservative there, formaldehyde, otherwise it gets really smelly, and it blows up and begins leaking and dissolving and breaking down. It’s like—And I spent my whole life absorbed in that as being who I am?!

This is considered by the great spiritual teachers and great yogis to be a massive tragedy. This is the foundation for all unhappiness that you experience in this world. For all suffering, is founded on the idea that the body is me. This is a big subject. I promise it’s true. So, the foundation of spiritual life is the understanding that I am spiritual, I am not the body. I am not the mind. I am an eternal spiritual being. That’s who I actually am. And so, the attempt or endeavour to come to understand my true spiritual identity, I must answer the questions: What is my essence? What is my position? And what is my natural function?

So what does that mean? Essence means basically, what am I made of? If I’m a spiritual being, what does that mean? What is spirit? What does that actually mean? Like many people think, for instance, a ghost is a spirit. No, this is just a form of subtle material energy. People think, oh, if I go to the bukid [countryside] or I’m going to the mountain or by the ocean, and I’m enjoying nature, that’s spiritual. No, this is a form of subtle material experience. Spiritual is something different. Those natural environments can be conducive to make it so a person becomes more interested and drawn to that which is spiritual, but in and of itself it is not spiritual. So what is my essence fundamentally? What am I made of? What does it mean to be spirit?

What is my position, means where do I fit, me and this world? What is, what should be my relationship to this world? What should be my relationship to other living beings in this world? Where do I fit in relation to that? And if there is a higher transcendent or spiritual reality or God, what’s the connection? Where do I fit in relation to that? And then all of those things together. So the word position: “What is my position?” means where do I fit in relation to all of these things.

The third thing is what is my natural function? If I take a pure spiritual being that is no longer covered by the body, it is no longer covered by the mind and all the stuff in that thing called the mind, in my pure state, what do I do? What is my natural expression? What is it that will I will most naturally do as a pure and eternal spiritual being?

We must answer these three things and actually come to experience the reality of these things to be what is described as self-realized.

I am an eternal spark of God, an eternal spiritual being. That is my essence. I am not supreme. Big problem in this world is everybody wants to be a mini god. I talk in possessive pronouns. My parents, my children, my husband, my wife, my friends. I see everything in relation to me. My whole life is absorbed with me at the center, and I strive to build a little kingdom where I bring into it all of the people that I think are going to be important, and I try to get enough money, and I try to get enough resources so I can live this perfect life with me at the center. That’s a big problem. That’s actually a spiritual problem.

This is the foundation of the consciousness, of material consciousness, that’s so pervasive. It is why there is conflict. All forms of conflict and disagreement arise out of me seeing myself at the center of my life.

The reality is, this world is not mine. I actually cannot claim it. It was here before I showed up in this body, and it will be here after I leave and I cannot bring anything with me, any material possessions. So, whose property is this? There is one beautiful verse in another Upanisad:

īśāvāsyam idaḿ sarvaṁ
yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat

It begins like that. It states that,

Everything animate and inanimate, moving and non-moving, everything animate and inanimate is owned and controlled by the Supreme Lord. One should recognize that He is the owner of everything, and I should only accept that which is set aside as my quota, and I should not try to grab other things knowing well to whom they belong. That is the message. And so we are encouraged to look upon this world, not as mine to grab and to get and to exploit and to use, but as actually God’s property.

And if I have control, or temporary control, or influence over any of it, I see myself as a caretaker. I am a caretaker of God’s property. And so right away, nobody’s thinking about wanting to get this, “Akin ’yan, akin ’yan, akin ’yan.” [That’s mine, that’s mine, that’s mine.] They’re not laying claim to anything. They are very respectful in how everything is—we relate to and use everything.

So, I am not the center of things. I am not the central enjoyer and controller of everything, although I want to be, and that’s what everybody’s trying to be. It is actually God who is at the center of everything. And when I want to do that, I am kind of showing that I’m a bit envious. I want to do that. Let me try, let me try to be the enjoyer of everything. Let me try to be the center. Let me try to get others to love me. Let them be here for me to love and try to enjoy. It’s just like, this is the whole picture. This is what everybody’s doing. Trying to be mini gods. When I understand that there is a Supreme Soul, a Supreme Lord, and I am a small part and parcel, then I understand, oh, I should not be trying to compete.

And the problem is, because it is part of your eternal nature to have this position of being subordinate to somebody much greater, even if you succeed becoming the president of the country, or a multi-billionaire, even if you succeed with all of these things, you will still feel alone and empty and sad. When you’re away from everybody and you’re alone in your bed at night, you will feel this emptiness. Because even if I attain so much control over others and this world and money and everything, it is not my position to be the center of everything.

In terms of my natural function, we all have something that makes us feel extraordinarily good. When you show kindness to someone, maybe it’s just a little kid got lost in the mall and you tell it, “No, no, come. It’s okay. Come. You lost your mummy. We’ll find her. Come on.” You know? “What’s her name? What’s your name?” You know, you’re trying to help.

I tell people in other places, it’s a little bit different here, but you know, everybody goes to the supermarket, and sometimes you’ll see a woman coming out of the supermarket, and she’s trying to carry all the stuff, and she’s got a baby and another kid, and she’s trying to handle it, and she’s trying to open the trunk of the car, and somebody can just say, “Let me help you,” and just come over and quickly open it and help with that. Even something that simple makes you feel really good. Somebody who’s fallen over, you know, an old person like me, fallen over on the sidewalk, and you rush over and you help them up. You share something with somebody in need. Don’t you feel something really good inside?

You see these YouTube videos sometimes of people sharing things. I saw one where there was this guy. He’s like a bum. He’s sleeping on a bench, and he’s got a couple of—he’s got a backpack, a small one, and a plastic bag, and he’s sleeping there. And some guy came over and put $200 in his pocket, sticking out. And then they were videoing from a distance, and he woke up, and he’s looking around. Then he looks down and he’s like shocked. And then he’s just like feeling so thankful. Then he goes to a department store just down the street a little bit. He buys a sleeping bag and a few other things to help him, you know, the way he’s living.

So then this other guy was, parang [like] it’s testing, the other guy, he’s walking now, one of the guys involved with the video, he’s walking and talking on the phone, and it’s like some big emergency, and the guy’s like really, really freaking out, and he doesn’t know what to do and everything. Then he sits there on the bench, and then the guy asks him, “What’s wrong?” and he tells him, he’s got some big drama, and he’s got this big problem, and he needs to quickly rush to the hospital. Somebody’s in the hospital, and he’s got to do all this stuff but he doesn’t have any money.

So, the guy’s just sitting there, the bum guy, and he’s just like thinking. Then he said, “Are you going to be here for a few minutes?” And the guy goes, “Yeah, I can’t go anywhere.” He said, “Can you just watch my stuff?” He said, “Yes.” He took the sleeping bag and the things he bought, and he returned it to the store and got money. Then he came back and gave the guy money.

And it’s just like people watch it, they almost cry to see somebody in such need, doing something that’s so kind. So then the guy reveals, “Oh, we’re just testing people, and it’s amazing that you’re so kind and everything.” So he ended up gave him $500. Then the guy’s crying, and he’s so grateful.

But when you see these kind of things, acts of kindness, they touch us deeply. The reason they touch us deeply is because this is very much connected to our spiritual nature. Our deepest spiritual nature is to love and is to serve, to show acts of kindness and service to others. And when we do that, we feel so good.

But this is opposite to how most people live in the world. Even if they do this sometimes, how they live in the world is, I’m trying to get. I feel empty inside. I feel basically I’m not—I recognize I’m not feeling happy. And I think if I can just get stuff and get people and bring them in close to me, somehow that’s going to make me fulfilled and happy. But it doesn’t matter how much I get, I’m still empty. I still feel there’s something missing.

Our spiritual nature is not to take but to give. And when we are in a corrupted state, when the spiritual being has lost the plot and is identifying with the body and absorbed in material consciousness, then all I’m thinking of is what I can take, and I’m desperate to grab as much as I can, to try and fill myself up and become happy

So self-realization means to realize my essence, position and natural function. This is the same for all spiritual beings. They’re not different in these three things. We are all—we have this common nature.

Is this okay?

So something that’s—when we talk about God realization this is like, ooh, okay this is a big one. And one thing that many people are not aware of is, because of the extraordinary transcendental nature of God, because He is filled with spiritual potencies, He is generally realized in three different ways. There are three different aspects to the nature of God. Some of you might have heard this idea of God not being a person but just being an ocean of spiritual energy and love and light.

It’s kind of weird because love, how do you love a light? Nobody can love a light. Love means persons.

And I’ll just say one thing that’s—I don’t know if it’ll upset you or not. There’s a pervasive idea in the world that came from the hippie times in the 60s and before that by a certain class of yogis in India, and it’s the idea that you can love yourself. This is nuts. Sorry if that offends anyone. If I love myself, doesn’t it take—isn’t love relationship between—can I love this pillow? I can say, “I like it.” And I might say, “Oh, I love it. It’s so nice.” But actually, can I have a relationship with the pillow? Can I have a relationship with my phone? Of course not. It’s not a person.

Love is an exchange between persons. We may loosely use the term, “Oh, I love my car.” But you don’t really love it. You just like it a lot. You don’t expect it to say sweet things to you and do nice things for you, that you’re going to do nice things for it. You don’t stop and ask it, “Oh, I’m going to Starbucks. You want java chip?” You’d be ready for the mental hospital if that’s what—how you’re behaving. So it’s necessary to get our terminology together.  Love is an extraordinary and wonderful exchange between people.

So going back to the three aspects of God, there is a feature of God that is a vast ocean of transcendental, or spiritual light. So sometimes you hear when people talk about near-death experiences and stuff, about going into a light, or they left their body, and they were in this ocean of light, and it was wonderful, and then they later came back, you know. They are often speaking about a particular feature of God that is impersonal. It is, is, just a great ocean of spiritual light and energy. And when one is able to connect with this, one is immediately relieved of all fear, and one becomes immersed in this wonderful experience, this awakening that I am an eternal spiritual—I—this is my essence. I am by nature spiritual.

There is a second feature of God that is the way in which God makes Himself available within the material creation. So, amongst the great yogis and spiritual teachers, they know that there is a form of God that resides within the heart of all living beings. The living being is called the atma, the self. This feature of God is called the Param Atma. He is also called in Sanskrit chaitya guru which means the guru within. A person can become guided by the Lord within their own heart. One can actually develop a relationship with and a connection to God who is accompanying the living beings as they journey through the material creation. He is actually your soulmate.

Another person in this world is not going to be your soulmate, even though you might have nice relationship. People still think—they like to hear, read books about romance. They like to watch, what do they call them, romcoms and romantic comedies or dramas. You know, people have an ideal love, and they feel that in my life, even though I may have people that I love and who love me, I do have a higher ideal. I do hope and wish for something greater, something better.

The reason you feel that way is because by nature you have an eternal connection with the Lord of your heart, the Lord who resides in your heart and who should be the Lord of your heart.

So there is a beautiful verse from another text called the Brahma Samhita, and speaking about the spiritual being it says,

“This jīva (they use this word jiva, don’t worry it means the spiritual being) this jiva is eternal and for all eternity and without a beginning joined to the Supreme Lord by the tie of an eternal kinship…” [Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā 5.21]

And this is like an amazing idea because many of us when we think of God, we think of somebody almost far away that I can maybe relate to, I can ask for help, I can turn to in my need, all of this kind of stuff. But we don’t think of God the way that we would think of a husband, or a wife, or a child, or a parent. We don’t see Him as a relative.

And here it is stated that we are intimately related with Him. We are coming from him. We are intimately connected by an eternal bond of bond of kinship, pamilya. We are of the same family, only He is great and I am small. But this is a very important point because it helps us to become more aware and focused on this need to revive this lost relationship. We are eternally connected to Him in kinship. But I have turned away.

In these Upanisads they use, and also in the Puranas they use the analogy that’s very sweet and very nice. They speak about two birds in a tree. When they talk of this, the body is being represented here as the tree. And these two birds sitting within the tree, one is you, the eternal spiritual being occupying the body, and the second bird is the Lord, who is your eternal companion. And it describes that one bird is busily hopping from branch to branch trying to enjoy all the fruits of the tree, but all the time feeling morose, unhappy and alone.

Is that familiar? This is what everybody feels.

I was talking with some friends in the weekend: You know the first and the foundational principle of advertising is the recognition that everybody feels empty. And what I have to do is take a product or an experience and I have to make the promise to you: “If you have this, you will feel filled up. You will no longer feel empty. You will have everything that you’re looking for.”

I remember when I first came to the Philippines, they always had this ad for sigarilyo [cigarette]. What was it? Hope. And then they had a girl, just her voice was like Karen Carpenter. Then she would sing this jingle, “There’s a kind of hope when you light a hope. There’s a kind of hope for you and me. At last you have found what you’ve been looking for in Hope, the luxury cigarette.” I used to hear this, and it would just like blow my mind. These guys are really— they just come right out and say it, you know, “At last you have found what you’ve been looking for.”

Dati na ’man [before it used to be] that Coke jingle. “Coke is it.” Coke is what? It! It—the thing you’re looking for. It’s subtle, but this is more or less the kind of promise. This is the idea.

So everybody is feeling morose. They’re feeling some emptiness, if we are honest.

I don’t have time—I’ve got a nice thing a woman wrote in a blog. Oh my God, you’re going to cry when you hear it. She’s talking about how she has everything, but she feels so alone. She’s just lying there in her bed at night. She can hear her husband breathing. She has everything that you could want. But, “I feel so alone and so unhappy, and I don’t know why.” You know, she’s speaking like this. And it’s like, okay, this is the reality.

So, you have these two birds. Wow, that was a big ikot [turn-around]. You have these two birds. One of them is busily trying to taste the fruits of the tree, but all the time feeling alone and empty and sad, morose, in spite of trying to enjoy all of these things. The other bird, it says, is the eternal friend of that first bird. And He is standing there in His own glory, simply waiting for that first bird to turn and recognize your eternal friend, so that now all the unhappiness, all the loneliness, everything will evaporate when there is this reconnection.

So, we understand that God does become involved with this world. His business is not to try and help you make a home here. No, this is not your home. You can’t make a home here. You can’t find complete protection and shelter here. You can’t.

The question is, where is our home? Where is that place, where we will feel just like a small infant in its mother’s arm, where it’s just feeling so comfortable and at home and protected? That is a yearning of the soul, of the spiritual being. We want to be in the embrace of God. We want to be fully protected. We want to be nourished. We want to be happy. That is our desire.

So, this is the second feature, the way in which God makes Himself available to people within the world, by traveling with all living beings alongside them in their journey through the material world, waiting for them to turn and recognize Him.

But there is also a third feature of God. So, we have what is called Brahman, which is this impersonal energy, and many people are attracted to the impersonal feature of God. They feel if there is a personal God, it’s somehow lesser and smaller and not as wonderful as this cosmic energy thing, but that is lack of understanding.

Then you have the feature known as Paramatma, the Lord within the heart of all living beings.

There is a third feature that is called Bhagavan. This term describes God, who resides within an extraordinary transcendental spiritual place, that is actually our home. It is not like what many people think of heaven.

Many people have kind of strange ideas about heaven, religious people. They think, “When I die, I’m going to go there. My mum will be there, and my dad, and my uncles and aunties, my friends, everybody’s going to be there, and we’re all going to be happy. And oh, by the way, God’s there also.” Right? Or not?

People don’t think, in their concept of heaven, of a spiritual realm of God at the center, and everybody is absolutely absorbed in an overwhelming experience of love. They don’t know about this, and it’s quite sad. Particularly here.

Mostly in the Philippines, people categorize themselves as Christian. But my experience is, if you ask people what is the most important teaching of Jesus Christ, more than half will get it wrong. More than half of people will say, “To love your brother or your neighbour as yourself.” No. Baaam! [imitating a beeper] Wrong answer. He said that is the second one, and it is like the first one. The first one: “To love the Lord thy God with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole soul, or being.”

But you ask people, what does that mean? What does it actually mean? What does it mean to love with your whole heart? This is not a divided love. “Oh, I like my husband or my wife, and I like the kids, and I love the new car I got, and I love the dog. Yeah, and I love God too.” Can that be with your whole heart?

What does it mean where you are so lost in a profound experience of love that your whole heart and your whole mind, your whole being, is given in this great, great and transcendental love? And what is that experience? Do I know anybody that’s ever experienced this? This is meant to be the greatest teaching. This is what everybody’s meant to be striving for if you say you are a follower of Lord Jesus Christ. But what is this? Do I know anybody that’s experienced…? What is the experience? How does it manifest? What does one feel? How is it experienced? How do you acquire this? How do you learn how to do this? Nobody knows what are the symptoms of a person who is such a lover of God? But that is what our business is.

So, while there are three aspects of God, they are not all equal. When a person has the realization of this ocean of energy or light, they can feel protected. They can feel free from all fear and anxiousness and actually be on this amazing transcendental experience.

With the feature of God who accompanies the living beings on their journey through the material world, one who connects with this feature of God, they generally see Him as being greatly powerful and majestic. There is some feeling of awe and reverence.

But in the feature of God called Bhagavan, the original manifestation of God, there is no majestic and power, and these types of things. There is only an ocean of sweetness, where the highest experience of love will be experienced.

This is a very big and wonderful subject.

Looking at the time, running out of time…

So a person may ask, “So how do we acquire this love? How do we learn how to love?”

I wasn’t overly joyed about the way we phrased, in hindsight, the way the title “The meditation and art of loving God,” because it doesn’t really touch on—to come to love God is not something that you learn how to do, or that you earn.

What is taught in the Vedas is: Within the core of your being, in the core of your being, your nature is to be absolutely lost, head over heels, in the most extraordinary experience of love with God, whom you are eternally connected with in a very intimate way. And because this love, this condition of love, it actually resides within your heart of hearts, it is eternally there. It is part of who you are.

Spiritual life is the process by which the heart is purified, the mind is purified, and this natural condition of love will automatically manifest. It will overflow from your heart once all the barriers are removed. The barriers are the material conditioning, ideas that I am this body, this world is my home, all of these things that we’ve been talking about.

So, there is one statement by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu where He says that:

“Pure love for the Lord, for Kṛiṣhṇa, is eternally established within the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source…”

You don’t gain it from anywhere outside of you. It’s there.

“…It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting the names of God, this love naturally awakens.” [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.107]

You don’t have to be special. You don’t have to have any qualification. You don’t have to do anything wonderful. It is already there as part of your eternal nature. You simply must engage in activity that uncovers it.  Para lumabas [so it will come out]. That is our business.

So real spiritual realization is not striving for something like you become  expert at something, like climbing a mountain or something, you know, Mount Everest. It’s actually what’s called a descending process, where a person engages in their life, in their meditation and their chanting, in a mood of deep humility, deep humility and surrender. And when a person does this, they don’t have to chase God. He comes to them and reveals Himself. We cannot force Him to reveal Himself to us. We don’t have the power. But if He chooses to reveal Himself, nobody can stop that.

And then, the last verse I will read:

“By chanting the holy name of the Lord, one dissolves his entanglement in material activities. And after this, one becomes very attracted to Krishna, and thus the dormant love for Krishna is awakened.” [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.109]

So this process, we refer to it as sadhana. Sadhana means the process to attain or to get or to acquire something—the practice by which we arrive at a goal.

And it’s connected to another word, bhakti. Bhakti is the form of yoga that is actually part of the eternal nature of the spirit soul. Bhakti is the condition of complete and surrendered loving service to God, where I am so deeply in love that all I am doing is loving Him.

The second commandment—to love thy neighbour as thyself—that comes automatically. When I become a lover of God, and I look, and I see all of God’s children, not only do I recognize that you are the children of God residing within those bodies, but the Lord is standing there within the core of your heart alongside of you. How will I not feel love for all other beings? How will I not feel deep compassion? It’s not possible. So love for others will follow the awakening of love for God—not that if I try artificially to love everyone, therefore I will be able to love God. No.

If I am looking at everyone as being the bodily form, and I am relating to them in that way, even if I am being very nice and very kind and very sweet and very so-called loving, still, I don’t have the vision of who they are as spiritual beings within that body. I don’t have a bigger appreciation.

But when I see that everyone is a spark of God, part and parcel of God, how can I not love them? Even my enemy—for one who has grown so much spiritually, they do not have enemies. Even if somebody hates them, their only feeling for that person is love.

Okay.  Yan tapos na [it is done] Sarap [taste good] or what? Yeah. Very nice.

So our job—we are trying to help our spiritual teachers. We are trying to help Chaitanya and Nityananda deliver this message and encourage people: find your true happiness, find actual love, find everything that it is that you’re truly looking for through this process, what I call sadhana-bhakti.

The process—the foundational activity of this process is the process of chanting. To chant together or alone, where we might sing these transcendental sounds, or we use beads. I think you’ve been taught how to use beads as part of your meditation as well.

And I’ll just make this point: meditation is not an activity of the mind. The mind is material. It is material energy. So being absorbed in a mental activity does not make it spiritual in any way.

I like to use the example, you go to the beach on a warm day, and the water feels warm, and you walk out into the water, and maybe you’re trailing your hands. You go out waist-deep in the water. Then you just fall back, just basking in the warm ocean.

That type of idea is how we should approach meditation upon the holy name. It is the process, or the act, of just letting go and bathing or immersing oneself in the ocean of spiritual sound. It is not a process where you’ve got to struggle to make your mind focus. No—just let go and just take in the sound. Bathe in the transcendental sound. Meditation, as I said, is not a mental activity. It is the process of bathing or immersing ourself in that which is spiritual, that which is transcendental.

And when we do that, our heart, our mind becomes purified. Gradually, our identity becomes awakened. We reconnect with the Lord of our heart. There is an awakening of love and a desire to serve Him very sweetly for all eternity, and that overflows to everybody we come into contact with.

Okay, anybody have a question? Does this sound like a good proposal, what I’m offering? This is hope. Not the sigarilyo. [cigarette] This is real hope. This is real.

Spiritual life is real. It’s not sentiment. It’s not a fantasy. It’s not—it’s a real thing. And all of you are able to achieve it. All of you can experience love for God. It is part of your nature, your spiritual nature. You simply must uncover it.

That’s hopeful. I don’t have to become really galing [good] at anything or, you know, a big-time yogi or a meditator. I just chant nalang [instead].

Can I just say—in case anybody has a question—sometimes people have a question, and they get all sort of dyahe [shy]. They don’t want to ask, “baka it’s medyo weird or….[maybe it’s a bit weird or…] What will others think? Don’t be like that. There is no such thing as a dumb question or a stupid question. If you feel that there is something that could help you, you know, knock down some barriers and more deeply become immersed in this process and this activity, yeah, you should ask. And you usually find the question that you have, that you’re worried maybe it’s a dumb question or what—most other people are also thinking the same thing.

So, anything goes. You don’t have to have a question, but if you want.

Yeah.

Audience: Hello, sir. Thank you. My name is Jill.

Acharya das: Your name is Jill? Jill.

Jill: Hello And thank you very much for being here and for teaching us, and for clearly explaining what’s taught in the Vedas about God’s nature and our nature—very clear, even in this small chunk of time.

I don’t know if others are thinking this too, when you explained our nature being eternal and spiritual, it can feel like we’re so far from it. It’s like the opposite, and it’s something that we’re aiming to go to or return to. [ACD: Yeah.] Versus, if you’re eternal, then there’s no start and end. But I’d like to hear—how did we get here? How did we descend from our [Acd: How did we get here?] eternal nature into [Acd: Okay] material thinking? And more importantly, how do we ascend back to or return to our nature? Thank you.

Acharya das: It’s actually quite a deep question. [Jill: I know, just few minutes] We will address it in a simple way.

I mentioned earlier that the thing that most keeps you away from God is what is called envy of God—the desire to be like Him, to be the center of my life, of my world. I don’t even think there’s anything wrong with that, because everybody’s like that.

You know, in the biblical story, when they speak of Lucifer, what was his problem? He wanted to be like God. Is that any different than any of us? Isn’t that what we’re trying to do?

Like when people—if they’re athletes—they want to be able to cross the line with their finger up: “Yeah, I am number one.” If it’s a beauty competition, they want to be number one. If it’s being really galing [good] at math, they want to be number one. Everybody is aspiring to be number one. Everybody wants to be the rock singer and have all the fans cheering to them. Everybody has these fantasies.

This is the problem. This is actually the original sin, because that, in biblical terms, happened before even the Garden of Eden. This is the original sin: to display envy of God.

And it doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily evil. It’s just a corrupted way. I am trying to do something that is actually—because I am part and parcel—like if I take a drop of water from the ocean and I test it in the lab—is it the same water as in the ocean? All the tests that you do, you go, “Yes, it’s exactly the same.” But with a drop of water, can I float a bangka [boat] there? No. Can I find a fish swimming in a drop of water? No. A whale? No. Because while it’s qualitatively the same, quantitatively there is a big difference.

God’s nature is to be the center of everything. Because I am part and parcel of God, that nature is going to be there in a small way. If I choose to focus on that and try to become the center of everything, then I am considered fallen, because that is not my position. My position is to be an eternal servant of God. But if I want to try and be the central enjoying agent, and get and get, and everything is about me, I see myself at the center of everything, that is a corrupted condition.

So don’t ask when does it happen and how does it happen? I’m just giving you some little glimpse of what the process is and what is it that’s wrong.

So it’s not a long way back, because what am I talking about going back to? Simply uncovering again my eternal spiritual nature and aligning my thinking and my actions with my eternal spiritual nature, rather than this false hope that I can somehow be like God and I can create my own little world and that I’m at the center, and I’m going to live happily ever after in this little world that I want to try and create. Okay? Klaro na [clear]?

Audience: Thank you very much. Klaro po, [yes clear, Sir] thank you.

Audience:  I was going to ask one thing. Because earlier you did talk about the most important teaching of Jesus Christ and the first commandment. And in connection with that, though, we always get rebuttals or just other people saying, that no, because also Jesus taught that “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one goes through the father…”

Acharya das: Yeah. But what does that mean?

Audience: Yeah. I would like—

Acharya das: …is the big question—because he also says—and I’m paraphrasing, I’m not a biblical scholar, that on that day they will come to me saying, “Lord, Lord, in your name we have cast out demons. In your name we have healed. In your name we have performed miracles,” and I will say to them, “Away from me. You have not done the will of my father. You are workers of iniquity.” So that means you can be declaring allegiance and even performing miraculous works and be not pleasing at all, that Jesus Christ himself will reject you.

So, what does that mean that “I am the way.” So, what does that mean? They’re going to say it means, I just have to offer my allegiance and declare, “Jesus is my Lord and Saviour,” and that’s all I have to do. But Jesus says, “No, that’s not true. It’s not like that.” What does it mean, “You have not done the will of my father.” Oooh, the declaration of allegiance alone is not sufficient. It can be very far from what is actually needed.

So, a person—you know, the tendency of people that follow different religious paths is to do it—and I’m not meaning to be critical or to look down upon or to criticize anybody—but the tendency is for people to do it superficially, not really to find what it means.

Just like when I asked, what is the meaning to love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, there’s nothing left for anything else, your whole mind, your whole soul or being. What does that mean? You know, it’s not a superficial thing that somebody just makes some declaration and go to church and does some prayer. What is that actual condition?

And so, as he said, you’ll know a tree by its fruit. So if we are not seeing deep and ecstatic manifestation of this condition of great transcendental love, if we’re not witnessing that in people, it means, while they may have adopted practices and things, the fruit is not there. In fact, the fruit that’s most common is everybody’s still clinging to the idea that the body is self, that I will pray to God to get Him to do things for me: “Please help me with this. Please give me this. Please take care of my kids. Please help my parents.”

In that formula, I am at the center, and God is greater than me, but He’s out there, and I’m asking Him to do things for me. This is a relationship. It’s not bad. It’s not evil, but it’s back to front.

Rather than me only being concerned, what can I do for Him—which is really what love is—the manifestation of love is complete absorption in a mood of great loving service, and to see the Lord as being—wanting to see Him pleased always.

But mostly, the relationship people have: “I am at the center of things, but I can’t do everything I want, so I have to ask Him to help me to do all the things I want, to be happy the way I want to, to have all the things around me the way I want them to be.” I am at the center. So there is a problem there.

In the very early part of Christianity, some of the fathers of early Christianity, there are a few of them that spoke very profoundly on this subject, but you don’t hear it anymore. You don’t hear people discuss like this. People just think, “I will go to church every week. I will say my prayers. I will try to be good,” but it’s all about me.

Does that sufficiently answer that?

I don’t want to get into a big—People feel this way because they’re afraid. People often take to religion out of a desire for salvation. The desire for salvation means I want God to do me service: “Please save me.” I am at the center of that equation. Whereas one who is a true lover of God, he would feel, “I don’t care if I must go to hell, but I will serve You and love You, and I will seek nothing for myself, not even my own salvation.” Salvation, in one sense, is a form of self-centered desire. I am at the center of that desire: “Save me.”

So again, in the first 300 years after Jesus Christ, there were many extraordinary people that spoke about these kind of things. But now you never hear anybody speak about them. Everything has become self-focused.

It is pious. It is religious. It is good. It is good. It’s not bad at all. But when we are self-centered, we will not experience the highest possible experience of transcendental love.

Okay. So let’s chant a little bit, and then when we’re just hanging out afterwards, if anybody has a question, you can ask.

Ok, lang. [It’s okay.] Okay.

Audience: Yes, sir. Thank you so much.

Acharya das: So I will—you know the maha mantra or the Hare Krishna mantra? Yeah? You know, me, I frequently use the particular name of God. God has unlimited numbers of names. He doesn’t just have one.

But I am extremely fond of the name Krishna. It means that person who is all-attractive. All-attractive means that in their pure spiritual state, any spirit soul who encounters the Lord is overwhelmed with spiritual ecstasy. The heart melts. Spiritual tears flood from the eyes. Hair stands on end. They are just lost in this divine condition of love. And so, because the Lord is all-attractive, He has the name Krishna.