2012: Matrix Singularity

Part 9: Care of the Soul Transcription

Babaji: What does it mean to take care of a soul? The soul is eternal, it's indestructible, can never be harmed by anything material. So what does it mean to take care, or feed the soul, or to nourish the soul? It means that we cultivate impressions of spiritual quality. Now this is something that I'm always surprised to find, that people misunderstand, again and again: what is the difference between material, and spiritual?  

Tangible/intangible, temporal/eternal, manifest/unmanifest, objective/subjective; remember earlier we talked about subjective? Spiritual things are always subjective. External/internal [is the] difference between matter and spirit. So matter is always changing; spirit is always the same. We don't ever change our spiritual Identity;  but our material Identity is changing all the time. Material truth is relative; spiritual truth is absolute. 

So when we fill our mind with material impressions of the senses, we're not feeding the soul, we're feeding the body. The bodily conception of life, the bodily identity, and activities and so on. But when we fill our minds with truths that have impressions of these qualities, that's spiritual truth, absolute truth. That is called feeding the soul, or caring for the soul. We need spiritual activity, spiritual knowledge, spiritual impressions to nourish our real identity, our real selves. When we see who we are against the background of knowledge of God, then we realize who we really are. Our spiritual self is defined by our relationship with God. 

All of these things combine to take care of the soul. We need some spiritual process, or some spiritual activity. What does God want from us? Love. But what if we can't do that? Then what? We have to follow the rules in the scriptures. That's how we know God, that's how we come to love God. OK, what if we can't do that? Everybody tells me: "I can't give up eating meat." [laughs] So what if you can't do that? He says "Work for me." That means giving up the results of your work to advance the cause of God. Building churches, publishing scriptures, sponsoring courses, festivals, all these kind of spiritual activities that benefit humanity. Everyone should give some percentage of the results of their work, for God's work. Otherwise our work drags us down. 

This is another thing I've seen again and again and again over many years: that if someone does not dedicate their work for God, at least some percentage of it, they can't maintain their spiritual practice. Over time they'll dry up. They wont be able to continue the chanting. I've seen this again and again and again. And if we can't do this, then what? Cultivate knowledge. Not just any knowledge: knowledge of God. That's the only real knowledge. Absolute Truth, Absolute Truth. 

And if you can't do that, [writes "duh..." on whiteboard, and laughs] There's not a whole lot we can do for you. So this is God's priorities for us.  This is given in Bhagavad-gita. He says "Love me and surrender to me completely." That's what He really wants. If you can't do that, it's OK. "Follow the rules in the scriptures." So that means chanting, giving up meat, intoxication, illicit sex, gambling, speculation, studying the scriptures, and so on and so forth. And if you can't do that, then work for him. There's a wonderful story about my spiritual master. He came to the United States, he was very poor. In fact he was homeless for some time. He was living in the Bowery in New York. It's a heavy neighborhood, like the Barrio.

Audience member: Barrio [chuckles]

Babaji: Yeah. So he met many other homeless men. So one day after he got his temple, and he had some disciples and things were going, he's sitting there giving class, and this homeless man comes in. And you know, this guy's a homeless man. He's a mess, you know, he smells bad, everything right? He comes and he has a box of toilet paper, and he comes in the room. Walks right in front of everybody. Goes over to the bathroom, put the toilet paper [motions downward]. And then he walks out. "See ya Swami!" [chuckles] And what did Prabhupada say? Did he say "Oh throw him out he is disturbing the class!" No, no. He said "Now he is working for God, just see." Because he could take that, take the toilet paper and sell it, and get whatever he wants. But he didn't do that. He brought it to the temple, because he knew they needed toilet paper. 

So even a bum can work for God. Because you can't take it with you folks! [laughs] But you can take the spiritual merit that you earn. So even if you can't do this, you can't work for God, then cultivate knowledge. Because by cultivation of knowledge you'll realize, "Oh, life is temporary, everything material is going to go away. So I have to cultivate spiritual life. So I better do this" [points to work for him on the whiteboard] "And this" [follow scriptures] "and this." [love God] But if you can't cultivate knowledge [points to duh...] I don't know. There's not a lot we can really do to help someone, unless they're at least willing to hear. 

[End Tape]