The Vedic literature is not monolithic, but highly variegated. Nevertheless, all the various specialized departments of Vedic knowledge share a common transcendental ontology based on the science of consciousness: this is the Esoteric Teaching, Vyasadeva’s commentary on his own Vedanta-sutra.
The various specialized branches of Vedic knowledge, such as ayur-veda (medicine), jyotir-veda (astrology), dhanur-veda (martial arts), natya-sangita (dance and music) and hatha-yoga can be understood properly only within the universal framework of the Vedic spiritual ontology of consciousness.
All Vedic arts and sciences operate within a broad context of spiritual realization, using a standard system of background axioms: the Vedic transcendental ontology of the Esoteric Teaching. To study any branch of Vedic wisdom in isolation from its cultural and ontological context assures distortion of its meaning, misunderstanding of its instructions, and consequent failure to achieve the highest aim of its practice.
The most prominent example of this is hatha-yoga. Usually presented in the West simply as a physical exercise form, the actual practice of hatha-yoga consists of eight sequential stages: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. The original Vedic literature on Yoga states that the practice of Yoga has eight limbs or steps, beginning with yama and niyama, and that the aim of all yoga practice is samadhi, or complete spiritual enlightenment.
pumsam gatim mrgayatam iha yoga-margair
dhyanaspadam bahu-matam nayanabhiramam
paumsnam vapur darsayanam ananya-siddhair
autpattikaih samagrnan yutam asta-bhogaih“Sri Narayana is the form of the Lord which is meditated upon by the followers of the yoga process, and this transcendental form is pleasing to the yogis in meditation. It is not imaginary but factual, as proved by great yogis. The Lord is full in eight kinds of mystical achievement [or yoga-siddhis, therefore His beautiful transcendental form displays eight limbs], but full perfection in these achievements is not possible for others.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.45]
Teaching asana without the prerequisites of yama and niyama is irresponsible. Practicing asana and especially pranayama without yama-niyama will not lead to the intended result—samadhi or complete cessation of material misery and the attainment of cit-sakti or transcendental bliss—and may actually harm the unwary student.
For example, the very first item in yama-niyama is to accept initiation from a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher situated in one of the four authorized Vedic disciplic lineages. How many of you have heard this in your Yoga class? Thus before entering the study of any branch of Vedic wisdom, one should clearly understand the entire cultural context and spiritual ontology of which it is a part.
Similarly in authentic Vedic spiritual culture, Tantra is considered a very advanced and dangerous practice. The actual Tantric esoteric schools are secret, and students can enter the school by invitation only. No one is invited to study Tantra in India unless they first become highly qualified in Vedic wisdom.
Qualified candidates for Tantric study must have mastered at least two or three of the Vedic spiritual arts, such as Sanskrit, chanting mantras, temple worship, devotional music and dance, Vedic ritualistic ceremonies, Sankhya philosophy and so forth, and be accepted as a qualified brahmana before being considered. A brahmana is someone who has realized the mantra ‘aham brahmasme,’ or ‘I am an eternal spirit soul, a pure conscious entity different from my material body and mind,’ and attained the state of brahma-bhuta as described in Bhagavad-gita.
The prospective Tantrika must study the Tantras in the original Sanskrit language, and grasp their deep esoteric purpose. They must also be accomplished in the practice of sense control, including celibacy. Only such a highly qualified and self-realized person is able to practice Tantra successfully. Anyone who attempts to practice Tantra without these qualifications will certainly fail. The actual practice of Tantra must be performed under the close supervision of a highly self-realized spiritual master, as mentioned in the Tantras themselves, or his false practice of Tantra will consume him and destroy his spiritual life.
Very few teachers of Vedic self-realization practices in the West today are initiates or authorized representatives of the four Vedic disciplic lineages. Nor do teachers of hatha-yoga, Tantra and meditation reveal to their students that the techniques they are teaching are only partial, and that the methods are substantially altered from the original.
They fail to make the original Vedic source literatures of their spiritual disciplines available to their students, and they do not disclose that they have removed their techniques from the original cultural and ontological context for which they were designed. They do not inform their students that the results of practicing their partial, altered teaching cannot possibly be the same as practicing the original teaching in the proper Vedic context. Nor do they follow the message-transmission and error-correction protocols given in the Vedas to prevent alteration of their spiritual message.
All these factors guarantee that the Vedic practices taught in the West today will not produce the result for which they were originally intended. Western schools of Yoga and especially Tantra are in a degenerated condition. Despite this fact, the modern purveyors of derivative Vedic techniques retain the original name, such as Yoga, Tantra and meditation, even though their teachings have little or nothing to do with the original practices.
This is an old salesman’s trick called ‘bait and switch’: offer the customer a product of great value for little cost, then substitute an inferior item without the customer’s knowledge. If you fall for this, you are considered a mark, a dupe, a fool. Wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn?
Almost all Western presentations of Vedic subjects like Yoga, Tantra and meditation are commercially motivated, detached from their original source materials, subject to government disinformation and other interference, are disconnected from the four authorized Vedic disciplic lineages, and do not use the standard Vedic error-correction protocols in transmitting their teachings. Is it any wonder that presentations of the Vedic arts in the West have become distorted? In fact, they are almost unrecognizable.
Today, even if you go to India and search, it is difficult to find an authentic Vedic school of self-realization. Almost all of them are polluted with various materialistic misunderstandings, from the ridiculous idea that the goal of self-realization is ‘oneness with God’, to the nonsensical practice of material sense gratification as a so-called spiritual path.
When I was in my 20s, I did a comprehensive comparative study of all the Vedic self-realization methods available in the West. Let me share the results and save you some time. Only the school of the Esoteric Teaching has maintained the original high standards and complete fidelity to the spiritual teaching methods of the original Vedic tradition. All others take shortcuts that disempower their methods, dilute their knowledge and make them useless for actual self-realization.
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