Secrets of the Soul 20

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

“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-gita 2.13]

In the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was confronted with a problem whose solution was beyond the range of his own intelligence and resources. Therefore he surrendered to Kṛṣṇa and became His disciple. Bhagavad-gita records the dialog as Kṛṣṇa instructs Arjuna, who demonstrates the perfect example of how to accept a spiritual master. Arjuna puts relevant inquiries before Kṛṣṇa, but ultimately he accepts Kṛṣṇa’s answers without argument. Of course, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original and most perfect spiritual Master Teacher. But real acceptance of any spiritual Master Teacher means accepting him as a representative of God.

Of course, for the instructions of a spiritual Master Teacher to be effective, he must actually be a representative of God. If due to ignorance of what a spiritual Master Teacher should be, one mistakenly accepts a bogus person as representative of God, that is the greatest misfortune. What is the qualification of a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher? He has received the instructions of Kṛṣṇa through the disciplic lineage, understood them properly and realized them for himself, and he is passing on the exact same teaching to his disciples.

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.2]

The criterion of a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher is stated in Bhagavad-gita. He must be properly initiated into the Esoteric Teaching of the parampara system of disciplic succession, and he must teach the same principles to his students and disciples. This is called acarya, or one who teaches by example. Acaryavan puruso veda: one who follows the disciplic succession of acaryas knows things as they are [Chandogya Upanisad 6.14.2]. Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet: to understand the transcendental science, one must approach a bona fide spiritual master [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12].

Just as we have our sampradaya or lineage, the Esoteric Teaching, there are other bona fide lineages, such as the Rudra-sampradaya, Kumara-sampradaya and the Sri-sampradaya. So we have to accept the sampradaya, the lineage of the Esoteric Teaching passed down by disciplic succession, to receive real knowledge of the spiritual world. That sampradaya begins from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the original spiritual master of Lord Brahma, of Lord Siva, Narada and many other expert Vedic authorities. There are twelve principal Vedic authorities:

svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ
kumāraḥ kapilo manuḥ
prahlādo janako bhīṣmo
balir vaiyāsakir vayam

dvādaśaite vijānīmo
dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ
guhyaṁ viśuddhaṁ durbodhaṁ
yaṁ jñātvāmṛtam aśnute

“Lord Brahma, Bhagavan Narada, Lord Siva, the four Kumaras, Lord Kapila, Svayambhuva Manu, Prahlada Maharaja, Janaka Maharaja, Grandfather Bhisma, Bali Maharaja, Sukadeva Gosvami and I [Yamaraja] know the real religious principle. My dear servants, this transcendental religious principle, which is known as bhāgavata-dharma, or surrender unto the Supreme Lord and love for Him, is uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. It is very confidential and difficult for ordinary human beings to understand, but if by chance one fortunately understands it, he is immediately liberated, and thus he returns home, back to Godhead.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.20-21]

Svayambhu means Lord Brahma; his first son Narada Muni; Sambhu or Lord Siva; the four Kumaras, also sons of Lord Brahma; Kapila Muni, the son of Devahuti—not the atheistic Kapila; Manu, the progenitor of Humankind; King Janaka the ruler of Mithila; Bhisma the grandsire of the Yadu Dynasty; Bali, who was given mercy by Lord Vamanadeva; Sukadeva, the son of Vyasa; and Yama the Lord of Death, are all perfect authorities of the Esoteric Teaching of Vedic knowledge. So the indication of the Esoteric Teaching is that if you want to understand the transcendental science, the science of God, then you must seek out the instructions and follow in the footsteps of these great authorities of transcendental wisdom.

Just like Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita, whatever injunctions the Vedic authorities give, we accept without any argument. That is the way of the Vedic parampara. People in India sometimes argue: “Is it a Vedic injunction, that I have to accept it without argument?” Actually, that is the proper way of receiving Vedic spiritual instruction.

For example, the Vedas say cow dung is pure. Those who follow the Vedic principles automatically accept cow dung as pure; in fact, in India it is used to cleanse the temples. And if you make an experiment, you will find that it actually is pure. Cow dung contains powerful enzymes that digest bacteria. But if we argue, “How can it be? We already know that animal stool is impure, even human stool is impure. How is it possible that cow dung, the stool of an animal, is pure?” The Vedic principle may seem contrary to our established knowledge and logic. But actually, if we accept it, we find that the Vedic wisdom is perfect. Therefore if we accept it with trust and without argument, we get the benefit immediately.

Similarly, a conch shell is nothing but the bone of an animal. According to Vedic wisdom, if you touch the bone of an animal you immediately become impure and have to take a bath to purify yourself. But this particular animal bone, the conch shell, is so pure that it is kept in the Deity room, the most sacred place in the temple.

So with ordinary human logic, we find contradiction in the Vedic instruction. Because in the Vedas, in one place it says that the bone of an animal is impure; in another place it says that the bone of a particular animal, the conch, is pure. The Vedas say the stool of an animal is impure, but in another place it says that the stool of the cow is pure. If we analyze the Vedas with Western Aristotelian logic, we find apparent contradictions. But if we test and analyze these statements, we will find that they are all correct. But because the followers of the Esoteric Teaching accept the authority of the Vedas, we simply accept the Vedic statements and save so much time and effort. Because we trust in the authority of the Vedas, since they are the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we get the benefit without the necessity of empirically testing every statement.

tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet
samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham

“To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.” [Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12]

This is the injunction of the Vedas: if you are really interested in learning the transcendental science properly, you must approach a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher situated in the disciplic lineage, parampara. The word abhigacchet is in the vidhilin or imperative form of the verb. It is used in Sanskrit grammar when the meaning is, “You must do it.” You cannot argue, “I may choose to accept or not to accept.” That will not help you; you will be wasting your precious time. You must accept the instructions of the Esoteric Teaching without argument, as Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa’s instruction and went on to be victorious in the Battle of Kuruksetra. Then you can get immediate benefit. These are the injunctions of the Vedas, the source of the Esoteric Teaching and all other bona fide knowledge leading to the perfection of yoga.

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