This is the final video of a 3-part series called "Finding Myself" – The fundamentals of enlightenment.  

In the attempt to come to know who I really am (self-realization), it is necessary to answer three questions:  1) What is my essence?  2) What is my position? - meaning where do I fit in the big picture, and 3) What is my natural function?  

Everyone wonders if they have some higher purpose. The answer is yes and the quest to discover it takes us on an amazing journey. A significant part of our seeking self-realization, is to find an answer to the question “what is the natural and eternal function of the soul itself?”  

The answer is tied to the need we all have to both love and to be loved.  This need arises from our deeper self and is a spiritual need. It cannot be completely and unlimitedly fulfilled through the material world or material relationships. It is after all completely spiritual.   

The awakening of spiritual love is our higher purpose and is the ultimate spiritual experience.

This is the 2nd of a 3 part series called "Finding Myself" – The fundamentals of enlightenment.  

In the attempt to come to know who I really am (self-realization), it is necessary to answer three questions:  1) What is my essence?  2) What is my position? - meaning where do I fit in the big picture, and 3) What is my natural function?  

Since time immemorial people have struggled with material nature, seeking to dominate, own, and control the Earth and its resources.  We have similarly sought to control, dominate, and even own, others.   

While desiring to be in control, all people never-the-less experience how we tend to be controlled by our mind, with its infinite desires and wants, and even by our physical body, especially noticeable when it is sick or as it grows old.  

We desire freedom, to do whatever we want, whenever we want, and in many ways to be “number one”, to be supreme, but this is also a losing battle.   

We can experience harmony and peacefulness when we are able to realize our true position, or where we fit (as eternal spiritual beings) in the big picture.

This is the 1st of a 3 part series called "Finding Myself" – The fundamentals of enlightenment.  

In the attempt to come to know who I really am (self-realization), it is necessary to answer three questions:  1) What is my essence?  2) What is my position? - meaning where do I fit in the big picture, and 3) What is my natural function?  

In this talk, we explore how "you" are an eternal spiritual being, separate from, but residing within, the physical body and covered by the mind. To come to appreciate this reality is a huge thing and will completely alter how we see "ourselves", others, and the world.  In the talk, there is a mention of Silent Witness Meditation. This is a video link to it - https://youtu.be/sahWjLqFp1wand this is an audio link for those who prefer that - https://soundcloud.com/acharyadas/sil...

In this final talk in the series, we continue the exploration of the famous mantra: asato mā sad gamaya tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor māmṛtaṁ gamaya Oh Lord, lead me from illusion into the eternal reality.  Lead me from darkness into the light. Lead me from the realm of death into the nectar of immortality. - Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28  

We have previously examined the two sets of opposites; sat/asat (ultimate reality or truth/untruth or illusion) and tamas/jyotis (darkness/light). Now we examine mṛtyu/amṛta or death/immortality. In this world the only thing you can guarantee – death. Yet people don’t like to discuss or consider death and naturally there is little or no preparation for our own death.  

Some of the authoritative and enlightening Vedic texts I quoted: Yudhiṣṭhira Questioned by Dharmaraja - What is the most wonderful thing? The most wonderful thing is that although every day innumerable creatures go to the abode of death, still a man thinks he is immortal. - Mahābhārata  

Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality. - Śrī Īśopaniṣad mantra 11    From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.  Bhagavad-gītā 8.16  

In a dream one can see his own head being cut off and thus understand that his actual self is standing apart from the dream experience. Similarly, while awake one can see that his body is a product of the five material elements. Therefore it is to be understood that the actual self, the soul, is distinct from the body it observes and is unborn and immortal.   Bhāgavata Purāṇa 12.5.4  

A person does not actually take birth out of the seed of past activities, nor, being immortal, does he die. By illusion the living being appears to be born and to die, just as fire in connection with firewood appears to begin and then cease to exist.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.22.46  

Because the conditioned soul is always disturbed by the bodily necessities such as hunger and thirst, he has very little time to cultivate attachment to hearing the nectarean words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.29.41   

Even a moment's association with a pure transcendentalist (devotee) cannot be compared to being transferred to heavenly planets or even merging into the Brahman effulgence in complete liberation. For living entities who are destined to give up the body and die, association with a pure transcendentalist is the highest benediction.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.30.34  

O ultimate truth, one without a second, You are realized as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān and are therefore the reservoir of all knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 6.16.19

There are three kinds of spiritual processes for understanding the Absolute Truth—the processes of speculative knowledge (jñāna), mystic yoga (yoga) and bhakti-yoga (bhakti). According to these three processes, the Absolute Truth is manifested as Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān. Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 20.157  

Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself is the one undivided Absolute Truth, the ultimate reality. He manifests Himself in three features—as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 2.65  

The great sage Maitreya said: O warrior, the inquiry made by you is just befitting a saintly person because it concerns the incarnation of the Personality of Godhead. He is the source of liberation from the chain of birth and death for all those who are otherwise destined to die.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.14.5

See Youtube for full description.

In this talk we continue the exploration of the famous mantra: asato mā sad gamaya tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor māmṛtaṁ gamaya Oh Lord, lead me from illusion into the eternal reality.  Lead me from darkness into the light. Lead me from the realm of death into the nectar of immortality. - Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28   

Last week we examined sat/asat – eternal truth as opposed to untruth or illusion. Now we get a very graphic/ descriptive phrase as to what constitutes sat/asat which is light and darkness.   

In Sanskrit “tamas” means – darkness, gloom, mental darkness, ignorance, illusion, error; whereas its opposite “jyotis” means – Light (of the sun, dawn, fire, lightning, etc.), brightness (of the sky) light as the divine principle of life or source of intelligence, intelligence.   

The many Vedic texts I quoted: Covered by the mode of ignorance in material nature, the living entity is sometimes a male, sometimes a female, sometimes a eunuch, sometimes a human being, sometimes a demigod, sometimes a bird, an animal, and so on. In this way he is wandering within the material world. His acceptance of different types of bodies is brought about by his activities under the influence of the modes of nature.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.29.29  

When the living entity is covered by the mode of ignorance, he does not understand the individual living being and the supreme living being, and his mind is subjugated to fruitive activity. Therefore, until one has love for Lord Vāsudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from having to accept a material body again and again.   Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.5.6  

When the sun rises it destroys the darkness covering men's eyes, but it does not create the objects they then see before them, which in fact were existing all along. Similarly, potent and factual realization of Me will destroy the darkness covering a person's true consciousness.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.28.34  

This Bhāgavata Purāṇa is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purāṇa. - Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.43  

Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries….  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.1.2  

Because a person who has been covered by ignorance since time immemorial is not capable of effecting his own self-realization, there must be some other personality who is in factual knowledge of the Absolute Truth and can impart this knowledge to him. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.22.10  

…. My dear Lord, You are the supreme spiritual master of everyone; therefore all conditioned souls covered with the darkness of ignorance can be enlightened by You as the spiritual master. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.24.52  

Dear master, kindly enlighten us in transcendental knowledge, which may act as a torchlight by which we may cross the dark nescience of material existence. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.31.7  

Invocation  oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge.

(Speaking of the materially entangled soul) …. In that state he becomes almost perpetually like a blind man who has fallen into a dark well of ignorance.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.14.21

For the full description see Youtube.

In this talk we begin by exploring of a very well-known Upaniṣad-ic mantra.  

Auṁ  asato mā sad gamaya tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor māmṛtaṁ gamaya Auṁ śānti śānti śāntiḥ  

Oh Lord, lead me from illusion into the eternal reality.  Lead me from darkness into the light. Lead me from the realm of death into the nectar of immortality. Let there be the peace of spiritual enlightenment! - Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28  

What does it really mean? - “Oh Lord, lead me from illusion(untruth) into the eternal reality.”    

The Sanskrit word “sat” (reality, truth) and “asat” (nescience, ignorance, untruth)  in this mantra references the extraordinary way the ancient sages looked at this world, relationships and the self.   Some of the verses I quoted: Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary as eternal, the impure as pure, misery as happiness and the non-self (the body or mind) as the real self.   Yoga-sūtra  2.5  

Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality. - Śrī Īśopaniṣad mantra 11

What lies at the very heart of war?  The great sages saw the cause as being a spiritual ailment. There are often symptoms of, personal ambition of a leader/leaders which often manifests as a quest for power/wealth; and the “Them and US” mentality which is a breeding ground for a lack of empathy or even hated of others.  

The sages have stated that there cannot be peace without inner peace.  Some of the verses I quoted are:  

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. Bhagavad-gītā 2.70  

One who is not connected with the Supreme can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?  Bhagavad-gītā 2.66  

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego—he alone can attain real peace.  Bhagavad-gītā 2.71  

Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong. Śrī Īśopaniṣad mantra 1  

The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]. Bhagavad-gītā 5.18  

A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles, stones or gold—as the same.  Bhagavad-gītā 6.8  

He is a perfect yogī who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and their distress, O Arjuna! Bhagavad-gītā 6.32  

Let us move now from the practical how to the theoretical why: Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says, "love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—or else? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. - Martin Luker King Jr.

I was asked by some people to address this question after they read about an interview with Pope Francis where he was asked why he thought God would allow children to suffer. The Pope said, "I have no explanation for that.”  

Many people jump on the honesty of the Pope to bash religion or to disrespect him, but I ask people to please not do that. This is a very serious and important subject which I have attempted to address from the Vedic perspective.  

The quotes I have used in this talk; I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. - NKJV 2 Corinthians 12:2  

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-gītā 2.13  

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. Bhagavad-gītā 2.20  

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. Bhagavad-gītā 2.22  

The caterpillar transports itself from one leaf to another by capturing one leaf before giving up the other. Similarly, according to his previous work, the living entity must capture another body before giving up the one he has. This is because the mind is the reservoir of all kinds of desires.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.29.76-77  

The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.  Bhagavad-gītā 15.8 

The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.  Bhagavad-gītā 15.9  

The endeavoring transcendentalists who are situated in self-realization can see all this clearly. But those whose minds are not developed and who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to. Bhagavad-gītā 15.11  

For one who is not renounced, the threefold fruits of action -- desirable, undesirable and mixed -- accrue after death.  Bhagavad-gītā 18.12  

The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.  Bhagavad-gītā 15.8  

For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. KJV Galatians 6:7  

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. KJV John 9:1-3  

Even though one is in the renounced order, one who is advanced certainly feels compassion for suffering living entities.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.8.10  CC Ādi 9.42 - "‘It is the duty of every living being to perform welfare activities for the benefit of others with his life, wealth, intelligence and words.’ CC Ādi 9.43 - "‘By his work, thoughts and words, an intelligent man must perform actions which will be beneficial for all living entities in this life and the next.’

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How is it that all living beings in the material world are bewildered by the powerful illusion that the body is the self? The Vedas explain that there is a pervasive and powerful, yet invisible, illusory energy named Māyā.  This is a bit esoteric for many people but it is a very important subject.  

We mention an ancient story of a warrior prince who was questioned by a mystical being and one of the questions put to his was; What is the most wonderful thing?  

With folded palms Yudhiṣṭhira replied, “The most wonderful thing is that although every day innumerable creatures go to the abode of death, still a man thinks he is immortal.“  The verses I have quoted in this talk are as follows: Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary as eternal, the impure as pure, misery as happiness and the non-self (the body or mind) as the real self.   Yoga Sūtra 2.5  

My dear Uddhava, the material universe that you perceive through your mind, speech, eyes, ears and other senses is an illusory creation that one imagines to be real due to the influence of māyā. In fact, you should know that all of the objects of the material senses are temporary.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.7.7  

Just as a dream is merely a creation of one’s intelligence but has no actual substance, similarly, material lamentation, illusion, happiness, distress and the acceptance of the material body under the influence of māyā are all creations of My illusory energy. In other words, material existence has no essential reality.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.11.2  

One should see that the material world is a distinct illusion appearing in the mind, because material objects have an extremely flickering existence and are here today and gone tomorrow. They can be compared to the streaking red line created by whirling a fiery stick. The spirit soul by nature exists in the single state of pure consciousness. However, in this world he appears in many different forms and stages of existence. The modes of nature divide the soul’s consciousness into normal wakefulness, dreaming and dreamless sleep. All such varieties of perception, however, are actually māyā and exist only like a dream.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.13.34  

Due to my feeling of false ego, I have been engaged by Your māyā and have identified myself with the body and consequent bodily relations. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.25.10  

O Lord, the people of this world, both men and women, are bewildered by Your illusory energy. Unaware of their real benefit, they do not worship You but instead seek happiness by entangling themselves in family affairs, which are actually sources of misery. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.51.45 

No one can overcome the Supreme Person’s illusory energy [māyā], which is so strong that it bewilders everyone, making one lose the sense to understand the aim of life.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.5.30  

The Supreme Lord’s Māyā makes men forget their real selves, and thus, taking the body for the self, they consider others to be friends, enemies or neutral parties.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.54.43

The original nature of every living entity is to consider himself the eternal servant of the Lord. But under the influence of māyā he thinks himself to be the body, and thus his original consciousness is covered. CC Madhya 24.201

Thus the yogī can be in the self-realized position after conquering the insurmountable spell of māyā, who presents herself as both the cause and effect of this material manifestation and is therefore very difficult to understand. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.28.44

If the illusory energy subsides and the living entity becomes fully enriched with knowledge by the grace of the Lord, then he becomes at once enlightened with self-realization and thus becomes situated in his own glory.  Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.34

It is often proposed these days that building one’s Self-esteem is the panacea for many issues plaguing our lives. But this can be an oversimplification of deeper issues and there can be many “weaknesses” is such a proposal.

We need to question the validity of this idea, at least to how it is often promoted. We live in a time when more attention is paid to people’s “mental health” than at any time in history, yet simultaneously seeing huge and unprecedented rises in depression, mental illness, suicide etc.

So maybe we need to consider other perspectives, more ancient and traditional perspectives.

Some quotes I used:

For one who has conquered the mind, the Supreme Soul is already reached, for they have attained tranquillity. To such a person happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same. Bhagavad gītā 6.7

One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contaminating association, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn’t care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and who is engaged in devotional service—such a person is very dear to Me. Bhagavad gītā 12.18-19

The saintly brāhmaṇa said: Everyone considers certain things within the material world to be most dear to him, and because of attachment to such things one eventually becomes miserable. One who understands this gives up material possessiveness and attachment and thus achieves unlimited happiness. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.9.1

In family life, the parents are always in anxiety about their home, children and reputation. But I have nothing to do with these things. I do not worry at all about any family, and I do not care about honor and dishonor. I enjoy only the life of the soul, and I find love on the spiritual platform. Thus I wander the earth like a child. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.9.3