AtmaJyoti.org is a service of Atma Jyoti Ashram (Light of the Spirit Monastery), which is located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA, presenting the path of meditation and practical spiritual life.
Q: In Gaudiya and other Vaishnava traditions, the view seems to be that the devoted bhakta eventually goes to Vaikuntha to be eternally with the Lord, whereas they believe the lesser, advaita way of doing things will leave the advaitin to merge with “the void/Brahman” instead of enjoying Vaikuntha.
On the other hand, Advaita Vedanta seems to advocate that all will essentially merge with Brahman, regardless of the path. Could you help explain your views on all this? I am feeling somewhat lost in the big city that Hinduism can be.
You are right, Hinduism is “the big city,” but that is because it is all-embracing. Every possible truth and view of that truth was long ago set forth by the sages of India. However in contemporary India we can find a lot of errant nonsense, for some parts of the big city have become slums and others are really outside the city limits even if they appear to be inside.
The truth as set forth in the upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita is the same: the goal of the individual is to unite with Brahman the Absolute. Then, like Brahman they can do/be whatever they like. Just as Brahman is both with and without qualities and both with and without form, so they can be. To say that one is superior or more ultimate than the other is to miss the point: Brahman is beyond such distinctions, for Brahman is absolutely ONE. In fact, Brahman transcends anything that can be said about It. The wise seek the Goal and leave the talk to others. As they say in the American South: “The empty wagon rattles the most.”
The upanishads and Gita affirm the eternal, divine nature of the atman-self. It, too, is part of Brahman. This perspective is essential to right understanding of any philosophical point.
You mention both the personal, and impersonal aspects of God in an article. You say that since Brahman can manifest as the transient universe, then obviously he can manifest as a deity (according to the particular devotee) as well. I certainly agree with you. My only thing is, the existence of the personal god in that way seems dependent upon an individual to perceive and need such a thing.
Again, remember that Brahman and the jiva are really one and inseparable and in a sense interdependent. Consequently as the jiva moves toward the Goal, whatever it needs will come to it or arise in its consciousness.
Are paths like bhakti and the impersonal advaitic path of yoga and meditation, equal? Do they all lead to the same thing?
Certainly, because there is only the One to realize. The Bhagavad Gita affirms this unequivocally.
Are a personal god and the impersonal brahman on the same level, or is one more ultimate than the other?
There is only The One. Our distinctions rise from our limited, unenlightened consciousness.
[Note: We have been working with our email service, Benchmark, on the problem where the day after a blog post goes out, an empty email is sent. Hopefully this issue is a thing of the past. Thanks for your patience.]
Q: How is yoga just the stopping of thoughts in the mind? Is that all there is to it?
No. It is much more sophisticated than that. It is also pretty technical, but there is no avoiding that.
“Yoga is the suppression of the modifications of the chitta,” is the beginning statement of the Yoga Sutras as well as being Patanjali’s definition of yoga. Meditation establishes our consciousness in the true self and renders the chitta (mental energy, mind substance) free from outer-caused modifications or vrittis (waves). We should look at this further.
“To the purusha the chitta is the sole object in the form of its modifications. And chitta with its modifications [vrittis] inhibited [suppressed] would no longer be an object,” according to Shankara. The spirit, whose nature is consciousness alone, experiences the modifications of the mind (chitta) and mistakenly identifies with them. Though it seems to see many things, the only thing it ever really does see is the chitta as it dances before it in the form of ever-changing waves (vrittis). It is this objective consciousness that is the root of bondage–actually is the state of bondage.
For Vyasa comments on Sutra 4:22: “Though unmoving and unchanging, the purusha-experiencer has as it were entered into the changing object [of the chitta and its many forms or objects] and conformed itself to its function” by false identification with it. Shankara, considering the same sutra, says: “A wave in the mind, by merely arising, becomes an object for the purusha,…[although] its true nature is pure awareness.” Therefore, over-simple as it may seem, it is the removal of such objective consciousness that is liberation. And meditation is the direct means to remove such a binding consciousness.
By the resulting direct experience of our spirit-self, “ignorance comes to an end, and when that ceases there are none of the taints. With no taints, there is no karma-fruition. In that state the gunas have finished with their involvement and no longer arise before the purusha as perceived objects. That is the liberation of the spirit when the spirit stands alone in its true nature as pure light. So it is.” This is the conclusion of Vyasa.
This is a continuation of our extracts from Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ articles that originally appeared in East-West, Inner Culture, and Self-Realization magazines.
Satan can work as wrong subjective consciousness in man, or he can become the objective evil in Nature. Many people think this conception of Satan teaches duality and not the conception of one God, Who alone exists in the Cosmos. This is not true. In essence, in reality, there is nothing but Spirit, the only substance in existence, the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss.
As the ocean, when it is calm, can exist without the storm and the waves, so the Spirit, by withdrawing all waves of manifestation, can exist as the only One Goodness, as the only One Reality, but when the ocean is in movement we must acknowledge a second force, the storm, which divides the one ocean into many struggling, mutually destructive, big and small waves.
God, in creating the cosmos, has to use the independent Cosmic force of Satan’s delusion to produce in us the delusion of finite substances. As the waves do not change or hurt the ocean, in spite of the fact that big waves are destructive to small waves, so God, manifesting as finite imperfect waves of creation, is not affected or changed in essence, although finite objects are perpetually colliding and destroying one another. After all, the evil of delusion exists only in the form, not in the essence of the Spirit. As long as there is Creation, so long will there be the conception of imperfection, for the formal delusion which produces in the infinite substance the consciousness of finite phenomena is born of Cosmic delusion.
Man Must Attain Complete Understanding
Spirit is perceived as the only Reality, the only eternal substance existing, when one goes into deep oneness with Spirit and sees the ocean of Spirit without the waves of Creation. After attaining this realization, one is justified in saying that there is neither subjective nor objective Satan, but only ever-new, ever-joyous Spirit. However, as long as Creation only is perceived, one has to acknowledge the appearance of duality. God and Satan are facts, even if the latter exists only in delusion and not in reality. If you are dreaming and you hit your head against a dream wall, you will have a dream pain. While dreaming, you cannot deny the resultant pain of the collision of a dream head with a dream-conceived wall. In the same way, we are dreaming the delusion of the universe and cannot say that Satan or evil, or pain, disease, and matter do not exist. One who has wakened up in Cosmic Consciousness and forgotten the dream of Cosmic Delusion may say: “Ah, nothing exists but pure eternal goodness–one Spirit.”
While Jesus was striving to reach the final state of highest wisdom, the accumulated subjective and objective evil, born of delusive habits of incarnations, through memory of short-lived happiness born of contact with temporal finite things, began to tempt him and try to dissuade him from God.
Jesus did not deny this evil. He recognized it and destroyed its binding force by the sword of wisdom, saying: “Get thee behind me, Satan,” which means: “Let delusion be left behind my soul racing toward the Spirit.” Do not deny subjective or objective evil while you are in delusion, but watch the destructive patterns of evil everywhere as temptation within you and as imperfection and strife in Nature.
Rally your patterns of goodness in your conscience and reason, and in the presence of God, as beauty in all Nature. Strengthen your consciousness of goodness, and in its light drive away the darkness of evil. After successfully doing this say: “Nothing exists but the goodness of God.”
To the ordinary man, Satan appears as subjective ideas subtly alluring him through prenatal and postnatal bad habits. To the highly advanced, Satan takes objective form and uses vibratory voices in his last attempt to dissuade the Godward fleeing master who tries to remain completely beyond the net of satanic delusion.
Thus it was that when Satan saw Jesus nearing complete emancipation in God, he took an objective shape, talked to Him, and promised Him the temporal happiness which all his evil patterns of life could afford if Jesus would only forsake God. In the wilderness, when Jesus was enjoying the Divine Bliss contact of God, Satan used the wild beasts of passion, greed of possession, and so forth, to lure Him away from the complete attainment of Divine understanding.
If Jesus had been God on earth, He could not have been tempted, and would not have shown signs of mental struggle, as He did when He said: “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” He also said: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Even after His crucifixion, in the astral state, Jesus had to purify Himself of all vestiges of delusion. That is why He said to Mary, to whom He first appeared: “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” Jesus was freeing Himself from all delusion, and when that was finished He attained complete self-mastery and could materialize His body at will and thus appear for forty days to His disciples.
Q: You have written: “All spiritual life is self-initiated from within; we are both guru and disciple as Krishna and Arjuna symbolize in the Bhagavad Gita.” Do you believe Krishna to be a real person who came to earth, and spoke the Bhagavad Gita, or do you hold that the Gita is purely symbolical? I feel confused on the idea of what the avatars of Vishnu/Krishna really stand for. (Answer below photo.)
Certainly Yadava Krishna was a historical person as was Arjuna, and they were involved in the Mahabharata war–also a historical reality. But it is stretching it to believe that Krishna and Arjuna spoke to each other in poetic meter and that the several hundred verses of the Gita are a continuous conversation just before the battle.
We can be sure that Krishna spoke to Arjuna regarding the war and his obligations in relation to it, but it seems a bit silly to think that at that time he discoursed at length on such subjects as diet being a reflection of the predominant guna of a person, the constituents of Maya/Prakriti, and other technicalities of the sankhya philosophy.
Someone once remarked to Paramhansa Nityananda of Ganeshpuri: “In the Gita Krishna said…,” and Nityananda interrupted him, saying: “No. Vyasa said that Krishna said….” Although the Mahabharata war actually took place, Vyasa used it as a symbol of the battle that faces all serious sadhakas, and Krishna and Arjuna are symbols of the internal dialogue that takes place between the higher and lower “selves” of the individual.
The Bhagavad Gita is the supreme scripture; none are equal to it. Even the upanishads that are extensively cited in the Gita are not its equal, because they are only philosophical and the Gita is the perfect synthesis of philosophy, practical dharmic life, and yoga.
The Gita should be the daily study of the aspirant to liberation, because it not only presents the principles of truth, it also reveals the attitude, the entire psychology, of the person who is going to attain liberation. Many of the deluded and fraudulent yogis, masters, and avatars that abound in India and throughout the yoga world would not succeed if people looked at them with the perspective of the Gita on what is the real nature of enlightenment.
The rajor’s-edge path to the Supreme is extremely difficult to traverse because of the many ways in which our clouded and deluded mind can lead us astray or spoil our needed focus. The Gita alone keeps correcting us and holding us on the right path–provided that we do not approach it with preconceived, sectarian ideas.
There are two views on avatars:
That the Absolute manifests a body through Its yogamaya power and only appears to be born and live as a human being and eventually die.
A totally liberated jiva has attained such perfect union with Brahman that all differences (but not distinctions) have been erased between its consciousness and that of Brahman. When such a one is born–not by karmic compulsion but through its liberated will–practically speaking that jiva is an avatar. And since Krishna says in the Gita (9:15): “The countless god are only my million faces,” when a liberated being is seen to predominately reflect the traits of a “deity” he is often said to be an avatar of that god. But that should be understood psychologically, not literally.
Fortunately, authentic Sanatana Dharma is not dogmatic, so everyone is free to decide which of these two views they feel is correct. Since the real question is “Who am I?” it is a waste of time to go round and round as to who Krishna or anyone else might be.
“In all the world there are two things; the one is truth; the other falsehood is; and truth is that which is, and falsehood that which seems to be.”
Books upon books have been written on this subject. Life is like a motion picture. When the light shines on the screen we see colors, forms, and motion. People are born, live, and die right before our gaze. But they do not. Everything we see is only a modification of the single beam of light coming from the projector. But it passes through the film and overlays the screen as all we behold. When the movie is over the light is turned off and only the blank screen remains–unchanged. So God is the reality that underlies all illusion projected by our mind onto the screen of our awareness or by the cosmic will of God upon Himself. God is the great Magician, the great Illusionist–and we are little apprentices in magic and illusion.
No one denounces motion pictures as lies, false though they be. Why? Because they are not meant to deceive anyone. Everyone in the theater knows that only the screen is there. We, too, know this deep within, but we have blocked it out of our consciousness for time out of mind. The illusion is not evil–it is just illusion. And it has a purpose. Life is an educational training film if we will observe it and learn as we should. All about us is a mere appearance, but an appearance with an intelligent purpose which we must learn and benefit from. Becoming able to see through the illusion to the reality behind it is one of its major purposes.
Truth
“Now truth is aught, and has no cause, and yet it is the cause of everything.”
Usually we think of “aught” as meaning “anything” in an intentionally vague sense. But it also means one. When I was a child, older people sometimes spoke of the year 1917 as “nineteen aught and seven.” So Jesus is saying that God is the One that is the Cause of the Many (everything). Yet, God has no cause whatsoever, but is Self-existent. If we look to the depths of anything we will discover God as its source. Even evil? Yes, for evil is not an entity in itself but a state of the distortion of good. All things do originate in God and return to God whether that is readily perceptible or not.
Falsehood
“Falsehood is naught, and yet it is the manifest of aught.”
This affirms what I have just written, but is even broader. All that (at least in appearance) is not God is Zero. That is, it has no self-existence, but is only a modification of That Which Is. Why does Jesus call it falsehood? Because we see it falsely. If we “see true” we will see the True. Jesus is telling us that the world is real and true because it emanates from God; but our interpretation is false, so to us it is Falsehood. But only in our own minds. If we see with the Divine Eye it will be seen as a revelation of Truth. So we should not reflexively turn away or push away anything, but try to see its true nature. Then we may turn or push away, but with a right understanding. The Bhagavad Gita sums it up rightly: we should see all things in God and God in all things.
In India the elephant is King of Beasts because of its intelligence. Although elephants are often used in forestry, they can be taught amazing skills. Only recently I reread Mooltiki and Other Stories by Rumer Godden. The last story was about Mooltiki, an elephant that showed amazing intelligence and had a very definite (sometimes difficult) personality.
Mooltiki was living in a hunting camp on the border of Bhutan. It was essential that a fire be kept burning all night to keep away the many tigers and leopards that lived in the area. Mooltiki was the fire tender. Three times a night she brought small tree trunks, made a pyramid shape of them on top of the low-burning fire, and got them to blaze up, even moving the hot coals around with her foot. In the day she gathered the fuel, but if it ran out she went into the jungle in the deep of night and got more.
She never ripped leafy branches off trees and waved them about the way other elephants do. Rather, when she saw a particularly beautiful flower she would delicately pick it and carry it in her trunk. When she crossed a river she loved to put her trunk under the water and blow bubbles–another thing elephants do not usually do. Though Mooltiki was cantankerous and often unkind to Rumer Godden, still she liked going for jungle walks with Mooltiki because she knew she was with a real person, not a “beast” at all.
The photo above is Andar, the temple elephant of the Sri Rangam Temple in Tamil Nadu in South India, together with his mahut. Monks from Atma Jyoti Ashram met Andar during their visit to the Sri Rangam temple in 2003. Andar especially enjoyed the gift of cookies which the mahut gave the remarkable elephant for our monks. See Andar eating their cookies in our video of Temple Elephants which they filmed during that trip.
"Come here every now and then. A brass pot must be polished every day: otherwise it gets stained. One should constantly live in the company of holiness."
—Sri Ramakrishna
Q: In Gaudiya and other Vaishnava traditions, the view seems to be that the devoted bhakta eventually goes to Vaikuntha to be eternally with the Lord, whereas they believe the lesser, advaita way of doing things will leave the advaitin to merge with “the void/Brahman” instead of enjoying Vaikuntha. 
This is a continuation of our extracts from Yogananda’s 
articles that originally appeared in East-West, Inner Culture, and Self-Realization magazines.
The following is a 
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