Secret Teachings of Jesus

So homeopathy, flower essences, sacred geometry, Ayurveda, so many different areas of gradually becoming popular, because it works. I mean acupuncture, for example is derived from the Vedic knowledge of Nadis. Nadis are energy nodes related to chakras, but because people in general are not intelligent, they use a mechanical system to regulate the chakras indirectly, by stimulating the Nadis. But a real Yogi knows how to control his own chakras by changing the energy levels. And if we have time in these seminars, we’ll go over that.

Right now what I’d like to do is go into the preliminary knowledge of the three modes of nature. For example Ayurveda is based on these three modes. Does anybody know Ayurveda?

Audience: Vata, pitta, kapha!

Babaji: Vata, pitta and kapha are three types of physiology, three types of metabolism. You and I are kapha, he is pitta, he is vata. Well, it’s very easy to tell once you know. So these three kinds of physiology are based of the three modes of material nature. Just like for example in the human body we see circulation, and also in the earth, in the currents in the oceans, there is circulation. In the atmosphere there is circulation.

So similarly we see the three different modes in the body as these three different kinds of physiology, we also see the three different modes in the universe. So let’s go into this subject. Are you ready for a new subject?

Audience: Yes!

Babaji: Let’s do the intro first. Let’s turn on the projector.

Audience: Are we going to talk about the Book of Gethsemane?

Babaji: Well, we can talk about it, but I don’t have the book available in Spanish. We can just talk about it for five minutes.

Audience: How about in the next session?

Babaji: In the next session! I don’t think we’ll have it translated by then.

Audience: May be you can prepare something for the next session?

Babaji: Well, I wrote it, so I can talk about it as much as you like! It’s 13:30pm, we won’t have much time to cover the whole subject, let’s do the introduction and then see if we have questions or whatever, may be we’ll do this next time.

OK, in the Vedas, especially in Bhagavad-gītā are given the three modes of material nature, but the whole Vedic teaching is pervaded by these. What’s the point? We’ve talked about changing our consciousness from material to spiritual, as the solution to our problems. But how do we do that? OK, every moment, we are collecting impressions; in Sanskrit this is called samskaras. A samskara is a picture in the mind. For example if we remember something that we did last week, it’s like a picture in our mind. This is a samskara, or impression.

So every moment we’re getting impressions from all the senses, and we’re also manufacturing impressions in our mind. So what is the quality of these impressions? Most of the impressions that we get are material in quality, therefore our consciousness becomes covered by material qualities; but when we hear the Holy Name for example, or we meditate on spiritual philosophy, then we’re collecting spiritual impressions. So by increasing the amount of spiritual impressions, we change the quality of our consciousness from material to spiritual.

It’s just like watching different channels on television. If you don’t like the show on one channel, you can change to a different channel. So we can change the qualities of impressions by changing the quality of our activities, and changing the quality of our knowledge. If we accept spiritual knowledge and spiritual activities, gradually we fill our mind with spiritual impressions. That changed the quality of our consciousness. Everybody follow that?

Audience: Not very much!

Babaji: What’s the problem?

Audience: So that means that we have to make many positive impressions, so we’ll get elevated. Through chanting for example?

Babaji: That’s a good idea. But what do we mean by positive exactly? I’m going to give more scientific definitions, so that we know what is considered positive or good, and what the karmic result of different kind of activities is. Let me explain; there are three modes of nature. Matter is actually a type of energy; there are different qualities in this matter. When we accept impressions of these qualities, it has different affects on our consciousness.

So the three modes are: ignorance, which leads to degradation of consciousness; passion, which leads to mediocre ordinary consciousness; and goodness, which leads to elevation of consciousness. When we act in the mode of ignorance, we create impressions that degrade our consciousness. When we act in the mode of passion, we create impressions that keep our consciousness about the same. And when we act in the mode of goodness, we create impressions that elevate and purify our consciousness.

Everybody remember the last time you got drunk? That creates many impressions of ignorance. Remember the story about the drunk looking for the car keys?

Uddhava das: Yes!

Babaji: Remember the story? The guy, the drunk is looking for his car keys, he is under the street light. Remember that story?

Audience: No!

Babaji: I’ll tell it again. The drunk is looking for his car keys. He is under the street light. His friend comes and says “What are you doing?” “I’m looking for my car keys!” So the guy says “Where did you lose them?” “Back there behind this bar!” So his friend says “Why are you looking under the street light, if you lost them back there?” “This is where the light is!”

Ignorance, right? Ignorance. Is that clear? So he is creating so many impressions of ignorance in his own mind, because he is covering his intelligence with intoxication. Now consider a businessman, like a salesman: “This is the greatest product in the world, and we have really special deal this week for everybody, come on it’s going to last only for two days, we’re almost out of stock and if I don’t make that sale, I’m going to get fired, I need to make sure that the deal goes through, are you ready to sign the order? Right? Right? Right?”

OK, what am I? I’m in the mode of passion. It’s passion, I’m driven by material goals. I’m trying to achieve a specific result, and if I don’t achieve the result, I know there is going to be suffering. So I’m very motivated under lots of pressure. So I’m driven by passion. But lets say my goal is to understand the eternal philosophy of the soul, then I’m studying very carefully all the scriptures, learning the ancient knowledge, serving my Guru, praying, chanting. This is goodness, so I’m driven by goodness.

Our motivation is very important, because the quality of the karma that we generate with every action is of the same quality as the action we perform. Commonly people understand the law of karma as being good and bad. Good actions get you good results, bad actions get you bad results. But what’s the definition of good and bad? Might be different things to different people. So a more scientific definition is based on the modes of material nature.

Those activities that degrade our consciousness are in the mode of ignorance. Those activities that keep our consciousness about the same are in the mode of passion. And those activities that elevate our consciousness are in the mode of goodness. Is that more clear? And the way it works is through generating impressions. Let me give you an example.

The sky is space, just open space. But sometimes we see clouds in the sky, sometimes there is wind or rain, lightning, dust, dirt, smells. But then again it becomes clear, and the sky is open and empty again. So everything that happens to the sky, does not really affect it. Similarly everything that happens in our lives does not really affect our consciousness, but it can cover it. Just like when there are clouds in the sky, you can’t see the sky. Does that mean the sun is not there? Of course not, but he clouds can cover our eyes.

So when our consciousness is full of impressions of ignorance or passion, it covers our real intelligence and keeps us from seeing god. But when we fill our minds with impressions of goodness, this cleans all the other stuff away, and it’s like the clear sky. We can see the sun.