The Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas is a worldwide movement of spiritual enlightenment and culture based on the teachings and mercy of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (pictured at right). Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the incarnation of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa for Kali-yuga, the current historical period of the Vedic calendar.
About 5,000 years ago, Lord Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally descended and appeared on this planet in what we now call India. He exhibited manifold ecstatic transcendental pastimes for 125 years and then returned to the spiritual world. A long dark age of materialism, ignorance and exploitation called Kali-yuga followed, during which most advanced transcendental knowledge was suppressed, especially in the West.
This materialistic darkness began to dissipate only 500 years ago when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa as His own devotee, appeared in Bengal. All the improvements in the human condition since then have been blessings derived from His merciful appearance. But now we are at a crossroads: the Age is turning.
Here's what's going on according to Vedic Astrology: Kali-yuga is also divided into sections called chakras. We have been in the Kali-chakra of the Kali-yuga for the past 5,000 years. Kali-chakra of Kali-yuga is the most degrading period, almost like Kali-yuga squared. Thankfully, since around 2000 we have been in the transition to the next chakra of Kali-yuga. The next section will be the Satya-chakra, in which conditions will resemble the Golden Age of Satya-yuga.
Unfortunately in the transition to this Golden Age of Lord Caitanya, the planet must go through a convulsive Singularity of transformation and purification centered on the year 2012. There will be a lot of confusion and misunderstanding around this change, because a big component will be ontological, or on the level of meaning and consciousness. The consciousness of the entire humanity is changing, accelerating to a new tempo of enlightenment, quickening to the sound of the Holy Name.
Of course, the establishment does not like this. They have thoroughly gamed the system and wish to remain in their dominant positions. But meaning, the very foundation of human society, is undergoing as seismic change. Many, many people are seeing that our ways must change if we are to have a sustainable civilization. That is the question, and all Humankind is now engaged in a debate on the meaning of it all. We saw this existential ontological crisis coming years ago. Everything is going to change.
But in what direction? Great fortunes can and will be won and lost based on the answer to that question. Foreknowledge is very valuable, and we find that foreknowledge in the cyclical and fractal view of time. In other words, history does not repeat, exactly, but it does rhyme. What we are going through has already occurred many times over, just in a different context. We have to be intelligent to apply the Vedic wisdom to our situation. And the basis of this knowledge is time.
The actual history of this planet and the original complete philosophy and practices of spiritual life are given in the Vedic culture. The Vedas are the most ancient spiritual writings, civilization and living tradition on this planet. The Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas is eternal, but it was written down by Śrīla Vyāsadeva (another incarnation of the Lord) around the time of Kṛṣṇa's appearance. Our esoteric school and spiritual community are situated in direct disciplic succession from Kṛṣṇa and Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Our founder and spiritual master Gaurahari Dāsānudās Bābājī is an initiated senior disciple of His Divine Grace Bhaktivedānta Svāmī, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the greatest world spiritual teacher of recent times. Unfortunately, Śrīla Prabhupāda's organization (ISKCON) emphasizes only a partial view of the entire spectrum of bhakti-yoga, so we had to start a separate mission. Our community is deliberately small, personal and intimate, with no connection whatsoever to any other religious organization.
What sets our Esoteric Teaching community apart from other similar groups is that we accept only pure devotional service: uttama-bhakti as defined in Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, the ontological architect of our movement, in his masterpiece Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
"One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service." [Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11]
kleśa-ghnī śubhadā mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt sudurlabhā
sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā
“The unique characteristics of pure bhakti are: its ability to destroy suffering; its bestowal of auspiciousness; its disregard for liberation; its rarity of attainment; its manifestation of concentrated bliss; and its ability to attract Kṛṣṇa.” [Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.17]
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī writes in his commentary on Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.10:
“In the First Wave of the Eastern Division, first the characteristics of uttama-bhakti, pure bhakti will be discussed. The whole of bhakti will not be discussed, to describe clearly the superior position of bhakti. When bhakti is covered by desires for karma and jñāna, its strength is limited. The extraordinary characteristics of bhakti appear only partially in such impure bhakti. Thus mixed bhakti cannot be used to show the supreme nature of bhakti.”
Śrīla Jīva and Rūpa Gosvāmīs do not accept mixed devotional service, where one performs devotional activities while remaining attached to fruitive activities, material enjoyment, mental speculation, mystic powers, liberation or any other selfish material desire. Pure bhakti is the best method of spiritual progress. For this extremely high and rare (sudurlabhā) method of pure, unalloyed devotional service has extraordinary results extolled in the scriptures as
- cessation of all material misery (kleśaghnī),
- bestowal of great happiness and auspiciousness (śubhada),
- divine exaltation exceeding even the power of liberation (mokṣa-laghutākṛta),
- delivering condensed transcendental bliss (śāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā) and even
- attracting Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself (śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī).
Gaurahari Dāsānudās Bābājī our founder and Master Teacher is a talented musician, researcher and writer, who from childhood had a great desire to meet God face-to-face. He inquired into the world's great knowledge until he found Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas. He struggled for many years in ISKCON, finally left it and finished his sādhana on his own. By Śrīla Prabhupāda's personal blessings and Kṛṣṇa's extraordinary mercy, he attained complete self-realization, and now teaches others the same eternal spiritual truths and powerful methods of pure bhakti.
Our spiritual community builds a bridge between contemporary materialistic civilization and the timeless Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas. The Bridge Community values feature direct access to a self-realized soul and the original texts of the Vedas, open communication, honesty and transparency, consensus and accountability, delivering what we promise, straightforwardness and avoidance of politics and diplomacy. Our online community embodies the Vedic varṇāśrama system of four occupational divisions and four spiritual stages of life, along with unique educational and economic systems that protect the community form the corrupting influence of mass-market economy and politics. The relationship between the Bridge Community and its members is based on a mutual lifetime commitment to these spiritual values.
The Esoteric Teaching Bridge Community is centered on the University of Higher Knowledge. Its six Degree Programs take a disciple from the beginning of spiritual life to its highest success: complete self-realization or full Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone is welcome to become a bona fide student of the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, solve the problems of human life and attain eternal bliss in the spiritual world by practice of pure devotional service to the Lord. Please set aside some time to go deeply into our background and teachings, meet our community members, and experience this great Esoteric Teaching and its profound spiritual benefits for yourself.
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