We are all trying our best to attain a perfect body. The trouble is, we don’t really know how. The usual guesswork and trial-and-error method produces mostly error, and we waste our limited lifetime in bumbling failure. That’s because our ontology—our background assumptions about the meaning of existence—is inadequate to explain the way life really works.
The usual method of associating our material body with the symbols of our conception of a perfect body cannot be successful. First, everything in the material world is impermanent and imperfect. So no material arrangement can lead to complete happiness. Plus, the material body is not the self. So even if we get a perfect material situation, it will not satisfy us.We are not this material body but the soul or consciousness within it. Material knowledge can never explain or predict consciousness. But the fact that we are conscious means that we are spiritual beings, with spiritual needs. Without complete knowledge of spiritual science, we can never understand why our efforts to attain a perfect body don’t work out.
An important part of our quest for a perfect body is our search for a perfect beloved. Sex is a powerful force in our lives, but even more powerful is the need for love. This makes the search for a beloved a major factor in most people’s lives.
We need to give and receive love because we are spiritual beings, and the essence of spiritual existence is love. Love is a sacred feeling, and the adoration of love is akin to worship. When we are in love, we see the beloved as perfect, and that puts us in touch with our own perfection.
But in material existence, is our beloved ever really perfect? Can our love really be perfect and eternal? Sadly, no: in this material world, everything is temporary and imperfect. So our efforts to find perfect love in this material world are doomed to failure.
We have all experienced the truth of this statement. Over time, friendships and love affairs lose their ecstatic, transcendent edge, becoming dull and routine. The person we thought was so perfect turns out to have hidden flaws that drive us crazy. The lover we wanted to spend all our time with, and therefore married, becomes a different person over time, and we can hardly wait for any excuse to get away.
This is love in the material world. Even after experiencing the imperfection of material love, somehow or other we convince ourselves that perfect love is possible, and go on searching against all odds. Finally we grow old and bitter, and go to our deaths feeling cheated by life.
But wait a minute. Maybe we are looking for love in all the wrong places, to coin a phrase. We are looking for perfection and eternal bliss in the material world, which is by nature imperfect and full of various kinds of suffering. Why do we think that we could find love in such a place?
Maybe our ontology is insufficient; maybe we don’t know where else we could find the love we need.
The fact is, we human beings need a quality and quantity of love that other human beings cannot provide. And the qualities we seek in a beloved just are not found in ordinary human beings.
Everyone in this material world is imperfect, mortal and limited in every way. Even if we could find a perfect person in this world, sooner or later they—and we—are sure to grow old and die. Whoever we love in this material world is sure to disappoint us. They cannot give us the perfection we seek.
The Esoteric Teaching holds that, because we are spiritual beings, the actual perfect object of our love is God. God is the perfect Beloved, because He is not subject to the imperfections of material existence. This is true even when He appears in this material world in His various incarnations.
In the Esoteric Teaching, God is called Bhagavan. Bhagavan means “one who possesses all opulence.” There are six kinds of opulence: wealth, strength, beauty, knowledge, fame and renunciation. A material person may possess a small amount of this opulence for a limited time, but only God eternally possesses all six kinds of opulence in unlimited quantity.
Why don’t we love God instead of fallible, limited, imperfect human beings? Maybe it’s because we don’t know how. Ordinary religion teaches that we should love God, but it cannot teach how to love God. That is because ordinary religion has lost the keys to the Esoteric Teaching.
Every religion starts out as a new revelation of the Esoteric Teaching, but over time it degenerates into a mere shadow of a real esoteric school. Formality and ritual replace spiritual substance and authentic enlightenment, and the loving connection with God is lost.
The Esoteric Teaching gives us the actual key to love of God: the cultivation of love of God begins with controlling the tongue.
Are you surprised? Astonished? Who could have thought of such a thing? This is beyond human intelligence. The art of love of God begins from controlling the tongue.
First of all, this means a pure vegetarian diet. No one whose body is polluted with meat, fish and eggs can become self-realized. These foods require killing sentient beings, and the karma from this killing blocks our spiritual perceptions. So controlling the tongue begins from vegetarian diet.
Next is chanting. You’ll notice our theme music contains a mantra: om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. In the Vedic literature this mantra is called the dvadasaksara-mantra: the twelve-syllable mantra. You should chant this mantra as much as possible. Chant it softly out loud so you can hear yourself.
Mantra chanting is another means of controlling the tongue. And what are we doing by chanting? We are calling God, bhagavate. Bhagavate means “unto Bhagavan,” unto Him who possesses all opulence. If we call Him, He will surely hear us, and respond. There is much more, but this is the beginning. And if you have a little faith, you will get tremendous inspiration from this simple practice.
By calling out to God, Bhagavan, we are beginning our relationship with Him. When we see someone who is attractive that we would like to know, how do we begin? By calling out to him or her, calling their name if know it.
Similarly, by calling God’s name, Bhagavan, we are starting to get to know Him. God is unlimited. He can supply an unlimited amount of perfect, unconditional love and affection. And He is also the perfect Beloved. He is unlimitedly opulent, and has many more super-excellent spiritual qualities not found in any other being.
So God is the perfect Lover and Beloved. And by calling out to Him, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, we are reviving our lost love relationship with Him.
This relationship with God is a very deep topic. Gradually we are building the ontological foundation for explaining this ecstatic spiritual love relationship with God. So stay with us, and step-by-step we will provide everything you need to rebuild your perfect relationship with the perfect Beloved, Bhagavan Vasudeva.
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