Self Realisation

The self-realized life is the ultimate lifestyle because it elevates the practitioner out of the realm of temporality, ignorance, and misery into the dimension of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. In this material world everyone is striving for this. However, due to a poor fund of knowledge they are striving for it in the wrong way. It is generally felt that money, power, and prestige can purchase happiness, but the anxiety-ridden lives of those who have attained money, power, and prestige proves that this is not where happiness is found. Sometimes those who have wealth, influence and fame may temporarily think they have attained happiness by these things, but sooner or later it becomes obvious that they have not. Sadly this is usually too late for them to be able to get free from their entanglement in the material energy to devote their energy fully to the self-realization process. Therefore it behooves one to solidly embark on the self-realization pathway as early as possible. In ancient times even the young boy, Prahlada, became a great self-realized soul. In fact he is celebrated even today as one of the twelve great Mahajanas, the most highly realized personalities of history. So how does one begin the self-realization process? The first thing you have to realize is that you are not your body. As long as we think that the self and the body are the same we can never become self realized. This illusory state of mind is called bodily consciousness. The devotee of self-realization must be firmly fixed in understanding, "I am not my body." The body is constantly changing. At every moment the old blood corpuscles are dying and new blood corpuscles are taking their place. Just as the water in the river is constantly changing, the cells that make up our bodies are constantly changing. What today is a water molecule of Mississippi River water was yesterday Ohio River water. Next week it will be Gulf of Mexico water. So what actually is the Mississippi River? It's a place that attracts the water molecules to flow through it. Similarly you are actually the atma, an eternal spiritual being, who attracts the molecules that constitute your physical body to conglomerate around you for a certain period of time until they flow somewhere else. Just as the water molecules in the Mississippi River constantly change, the cells that make up your body are constantly changing. To enter the supreme self-realization lifestyle you must completely discard the conception that you are male or female, black or white, old or young, Russian or American, etc. However, simply negating your physical existence is not sufficient. Mere negation is impractical. It does not give you any platform on which you can function. Therefore you must positively assert your spiritual identity. There are some philosophers who assert that the self is simply false. But if this is the case, who is asserting that the self is false? If they (according to their philosophy) do not exist, how can they assert that the self is false? They cannot do so. Therefore this absurd philosophy cancels itself out and cannot be accepted as valid. It is confirmed by Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita that we are not this body: dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati "As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change." Bhagavad-gita 2.13 We can remember experiences we had when we were small children even though the cells that constitute or make up the material body have all changed. Therefore it is obvious that I and my body are two, not one. At the time when someone dies we lament that they have passed away, but yet their body is lying there in the funeral home. It is obvious from our intuitive understanding at such moments that the self and the body and not the same. But yet every day we get up and look into the mirror foolishly wondering, "How do I look today?" We constantly identify the body as the self. This is our present state of illusion. By hearing the words of God from the authorized scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gita, and by hearing the words of self-realized souls who are situated perfectly in spiritual consciousness without any tinge of bodily consciousness, we can understand that we are not these bodies. And then if we can fully implement the instructions we receive from the Lord and from the spiritual masters, we will fully realize that we are not these through the complete awakening of our original consciousness as eternal spiritual beings.

Why are we suffering

Why are we suffering in the cycle of birth and death? This is the most important question to ask and the most important question to get answered. If you think that you not suffering wait a few a minutes, a few hours or days and carefully consider again if you are actually completely free from suffering. Suffering is constantly coming and going in this material world. It's always either fading in or fading out. It never fades completely out. When it fades in, depending on its degree, we are uncomfortable, unhappy or devastated. When it fades out to varying degrees we feel good or better because it's not as bad as it was before. But the suffering is still there. We are always being hounded by at least one of the three types of material miseries. These miseries are, 1) miseries caused by the mind and body, 2) miseries caused by other living beings, and 3) miseries caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. We like to imagine that the suffering is completely gone when it fades out, but the fact is that it is always there to one degree or another. Even if it is faded out, today or tomorrow it will surely fade back in again. The underlying dread of when the next fade in will occur is in itself a tangible suffering of the mind. Why do we suffer? Our suffering is due to false identification with the temporary body. We are not these bodies. We are eternal spirit souls fully blissful in nature. The body, on the other hand, is bound for suffering under the influence of the laws of material nature. So as soon as we foolishly think, "I am this body," we cast ourselves into a suffering situation that is incompatible with our actual nature and identity. When the eternal, all-knowing, and all-blissful living being casts himself into temporality, ignorance, and misery the resultant situation is bound to be intolerably dissatisfying. How does this false identification with matter take place? The spirit-soul originally exists with Krishna or God in a pure loving relationship in the spiritual world. But if he misuses his free will and becomes envious of the Lord wanting to compete with Him for supremacy, he is allowed entrance into this material world where he can aggressively compete with so many other imitation "gods" who share the same envious mentality. Such an awkward, untoward living condition is for convincing the soul to regain his original position of loving service to the Supreme Lord in the Spiritual Sky. Once we understand why we are suffering we can then undertake the proper remedial measures for reviving our dormant enlightened consciousness. This process of becoming enlightened is the sum and substance of our course. To come to the spiritual platform we need the mercy and guidance of someone who is already liberated. A drowning man cannot help a drowning man. It takes a man who is not drowning to rescue a man who is drowning. The person who is not drowning in this material existence is known as a bona fide spiritual master. By taking shelter of such a liberated soul we can quickly and easily regain our original, eternal, all-knowing, all-blissful nature. Therefore there is nothing more important than to find out such a qualified teacher. How will we find him? The good news is that the Lord within your heart knows your innermost yearnings perfectly well. When He sees that you are eager to become enlightened by a bona fide spiritual master, He will bring you into contact with one, so that the light of spiritual knowledge within your heart can become flipped on and you will for first time in millions of lifetimes see things as they actually are. Of course there is a qualification for such enlightenment. One must approach the spiritual master in complete humility, inquire from him submissively, and render service unto him. It's not that you can approach him as equal and argue with him. You must submit to his authority as a realized soul. If you will seriously adopt this prescribed method, what amazing revelations you will receive from him! By his mercy you will be awakened to your eternal spiritual identity as a servant of God and derive unlimited pleasure by serving God and by chanting and hearing the Lord's glories as much as possible 24 hours a day. You won't care a fig for ordinary entertainments such as cinemas, restaurants, sports, card games, or chess. You will be swimming in an unlimited ocean of nectar simply by fully absorbing yourself in Krishna Consciousness or God Consciousness.