Transcriptions
Dev Priyānanda Svāmī Bhagavān
Video Link: YouTube
Namaste, and welcome to the next episode of Esoteric Teaching, The Anatomy of the Path.
Last time we talked about the anatomy of the Fall, and that should be fresh in your mind, so go back and look at that episode if you haven’t seen it already.
This time we’re going to talk about the Path as a process of becoming. You recall in the first video we showed how the Esoteric Teaching has two sides, the Fall and the Path, and how they are a complementary or mirror image of one another. Each step in the Fall becomes or is transformed into a step on the Path, and that ultimately brings us to Enlightenment or Self-realization.
So in this episode we’re going to talk about exactly how that works.
Just to review real quickly, Esoteric means
intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
The Esoteric Teaching is intended for those who are determined to attain complete Self-realization. So it’s a special or specialized branch of knowledge—or actually wisdom—because it’s from transcendental inspiration and intuitive intelligence. And it’s also derived from an ontological analysis of all known spiritual paths, that they all contain the structure of the Fall and the Path.
So therefore, it’s like a Rosetta Stone. It can map the structure of all paths to all others.
Now why does the Esoteric Teaching have so much power? Because it’s the Absolute Truth: the origin and destination of all authentic spiritual and religious paths, and the context that gives them meaning.
We went over this a couple of episodes ago, how context can not only give meaning, it can expand the meaning that’s already there. So the meaning that’s already inherent in a spiritual Path, when put into the context of the Esoteric Teaching, is amplified. It becomes more meaningful, and hence more useful and more valuable.
So in this episode, we’re going to discuss the anatomy of the Path and the ontology of the Life Cycle.
Now let’s take a look again at the diagram of the Esoteric Teaching. And once again, I just want to mention that this six-fold structure, coming from the I Ching, is also mirrored on both sides.
So the gestation stage resembles the instruction stage; birth is initiation; growth becomes karma-yoga; sex becomes bhakti-yoga; work becomes rāja-yoga, and what would normally be decay becomes jñāna, or knowledge.
Some people ask me, why do I say on my profile I’m not a guru, not a teacher? Because it sure looks like I’m teaching something, but actually no. Actually I’m simply reminding you of something you already know. Because you have been through all these stages in your life, coming into this world.
The process of manifestation requires going through these six stages, and you have within you the dormant knowledge of how to do all these steps. It simply has to be put in the right context so you can understand how you know these things, and uncover that knowledge and put it to use.
So in this way you can become enlightened. Right now you’re not enlightened. Well actually you are, but it’s covered up. So if I was a teacher I would be giving you information; but actually I’m taking information away.
What I’m doing is a process called in the scriptures neti-neti: showing how the so-called knowledge that we think we have is actually false and wrong. It’s illusion. It’s ignorance. It’s delusion.
I’m thinking, ‘this is something else.’ That’s delusion. So when we see what we call life, we think, ‘Oh, this is the truth. This is reality.’
But actually it’s not; it’s just a dream. And the proof is when you go to sleep at night, the whole thing disappears, and you have another dream in a different world with a different body. And then you enter deep sleep and the whole thing is gone. Only awareness remains.
Going out of sleep, it’s reversed. You go back into dreams and you have a dream body in a dream world with dream people. And then you so-called ‘wake up.’ Really all that happens is you go from one dream into another.
And so the whole world, the whole reality actually exists within ourself, within our awareness. And when we get to see that, that’s called Self-realization.
So first we have to get rid of so many wrong ideas, so many fixed concepts, and just get to the point where we can see the reality directly. Now some people may criticize, well, you’re using Rāmaṇa’s teaching as the background for this.
Yes, it’s true. These six stages—instruction, initiation, and especially karma, bhakti, rāja, jñāna—come from Rāmaṇa’s teaching in the Upadeṣa Undiyār.
Upadeṣa Undiyār means like the essence of instruction. In its Sanskrit version, it’s called Upadeṣa-sāra. Sāra means the essence, the kernel, the cream, the best. And in that, he lays out a scheme of these six stages. And so we’re following that.
Why? Because of all the spiritual teachings I have ever encountered—and I’ve gone through quite a few; not just from books, but from living teachers within the source cultures of those teachings. And what I found was that the most inclusive teachings are the most powerful.
And Rāmaṇa’s teaching is so inclusive, he has room for everything and everybody. He doesn’t reject or deny anything or anyone. So in this way, we have seen—by practical example also—that it’s completely open and effective for everyone and every possible orientation.
So now I’m going to read or basically review very quickly the verses from Upadeṣa Undiyār. And we already have a whole series on Upadeṣa Undiyār. But this one will be to show its specific applicability to the Path of the esoteric teaching.
So I’m going to start with the prefatory verse.
“Know that Upadeṣa Undiyār is a light of knowledge, jñāna, which our father Rāmaṇa composed and bestowed upon Murunagār; who entreated, ‘graciously reveal the secret of spiritual practice, sādhana, so that the people of the world may attain liberation and be saved by giving up the delusion of action, karma.’
These aren’t just fine words. These are a literal request to Rāmaṇa, who had realized the ultimate Absolute Truth, to grant the secret of spiritual practice.
So it’s a secret. It’s not well-known. In fact, it’s hardly known at all, even among followers of Rāmaṇa. This secret is the essence of sādhana. And the essence of sādhana is that there are these different levels of spiritual practice, all going on simultaneously.
That’s right: although we have to express it in a linear way, that’s just because of the nature of our language. But what really happens is that there are different levels of consciousness existing at all times. And we are participating in various ways with those levels of consciousness.
So we want to make this all conscious. In other words, like Jung said, to “bring the unconscious into the conscious, or make the subconscious conscious.” And this is part of the spiritual Path. And this is what we’ll be doing.
So reveal the secret of spiritual practice so that the people of the world—not just the people of India, not just Hindus, but the people of the world: that means everybody, so no one is barred from this Path. No one is excluded from this Path.
And this is one of the great secrets, the things that make this the Absolute Truth. So the people of the world may attain liberation and be saved. Saved from what? Liberated from what? Saṁsāra: the compulsion to take one material body after another according to desire, ignorance, and delusion.
So this is a very powerful teaching because it puts everything in the proper context, bringing out the correct meaning. And in this way, it synergizes and makes more powerful all these different methods because they work together.
Let’s take a look at the spiritual Path given in Upadeṣa Undiyār. It resembles a spectrum, or like a rainbow, with kāma or lusty desire, activities based on seeing the body as the self, all the way through the different yogas up to Self-realization where one realizes the actual Self, the universal Self, Brahman, or pure consciousness.
So we have to do a self-assessment and say, ‘Well, where are we on this Path?’ And I’ll tell you right now, 99% of the people watching this video are going to be in kāma. Even if they are engaged in some kind of spiritual activities, they have not attained the initiation, which is based on Right View.
So the purpose of this video series is to give you the Right View so that you can overcome the wrong views that keep you from realizing these actual yoga methods. What usually happens is people will start out on the Path, they’ll latch on to one technique or another, and they’ll practice it until they get stuck.
And at that time they become depressed, and fall down and go back again to kāma or lust, karma or action and reaction in the material world. In other words, they don’t attain liberation. They stay in saṁsāra.
So we have to give the Right View so that people can practice and go all the way and reach the actual Self-realization. That’s what this series is all about.
So what’s the problem with kāma or karma? Let me read the verses.
Can karma be God, since karma is insentient? Karma gives fruit by the will of God, the ordainer, karta. In other words, God is the doer. We are not the doers.
This is the first thing we have to take away. This is the first wrong view we have to eliminate. We are not the doers. If we think we are, we become subject to karma, or the reactions to our activities. And that keeps us in material existence by creating causes for further embodiments; so after this body is used up and finished, then we have to take another one, and so on.
The next verse:
The fruits of action, perishing by being experienced in the form of pleasure or pain, become seeds and make one fall into the ocean of action, hence will not give liberation.
Ordinary religion is simply morality, right and wrong, good and bad. And it’s also a basis for authority and control. So in other words, they make lip service to God. And there’s some rituals and stuff that mention God. And a few very basic spiritual practices are given; but this truth is not given:
That as long as one engages in material activity, that he has to suffer the results. And the ultimate result of all this activity, one has to be born again in another material body.
So the spiritual Path begins when we give up karma, when we give up kāma, lust. When we act out of lust, when we act out of desire, when we act selfishly and try to grasp pleasure and cling to it, then we create suffering for ourselves in the future. What is that suffering? Old age, disease, death, and rebirth in another body. This is saṁsāra; this is the ocean of birth and death.
So liberation means getting free from this ocean. That’s what we’re doing. That’s our aim here.
So the first thing we have to do is give up acting selfishly, accept a guru, and get instruction from the guru on how to have Right View. Success on the Path depends on Right View. If we don’t have Right View, as we mentioned earlier, you’re going to try some spiritual method, but because you’re doing it selfishly, you’re going to get stuck.
It’s going to stop working, and you’re going to fall down. You’re going to be right back where you started, or maybe a little bit worse, because now you become cynical: “Ah, this spiritual stuff is a bunch of hooey. It doesn’t really work.”
Well, yeah, it does, if you have Right View. So the wrong views are the cause of getting stuck. How do you get beyond them? You have to find a realized guru—not an ordinary teacher, not an ordinary religious personality—but a realized person, a jñānī, and they can coach you.
They’re not going to tell you what to do, and they’re not going to instruct you, because there are so many books already available with the Right View in it. They’re just going to guide you. They’re going to say, ‘Read this, try that, and see what happens.’
And when they are convinced that you have Right View, they will give you the initiation. The initiation is like an approval, saying, “Okay, you got it. Go ahead and practice now.” Because if you practice before you get Right View, you’re wasting your time.
So this initiation is not a ceremony. It’s something that happens automatically. When the guru approves that you have the Right View, then whatever you do will be successful.
So in the next section, we’re going to continue this analysis.