This short introductory video course helps us get touch with our life's biggest problem and deal with our feelings about it. There are only three types of problems, and only three factors in every problem. A problem cannot be solved in the same state of consciousness in which we created it. Therefore the solution to all problems is to change our consciousness.

You don't have a soul — you are a soul!

Everyone has heard about the soul. But most people don't really have a good understanding of the soul. That is a cause of all kinds of misunderstanding, because the soul, or conscious living force, is who we really are. This amazing series of essays covers the most important aspects of the science of the soul: who and what the soul is, where he comes from, where his real home is, and his eternal relationship with God.

New print edition now available. Trade Paperback, 6 x 9" 120 pages, color cover, Creative Commons NC-AT-SA license.

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In August and September 2006, I wrote a series of 32 essays on Bhagavad-gītā 2.13. This is such an important śloka that my spiritual Master Teacher Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke on it more than any other verse of the Vedas. Therefore I selected it as the theme for my podcast for almost two months. The complete series is presented in this book.

To attain happiness, spiritual advancement or anything worthwhile in life, we have to understand our real identity. How can we be happy if we don’t even know for sure who we are? Most people take it for granted that we are this material body. Even people who are ostensibly religious think, “I have a soul.” But this is not true; you don’t have a soul—you are a soul. This subtle shift in viewpoint is the difference between material and spiritual consciousness, the difference between illusion and reality, between misery and happiness.

The science of the soul is originally given by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā. If one has not read, studied and understood Bhagavad-gītā, he cannot claim to be a civilized human being, because no other religious scripture or scientific literature in the world tells us who we really are. We advise everyone to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, which you can read online at our Vedic library at causelessmercy.esotericteaching.org

First, here is the original Sanskrit verse from Bhagavad-gītā:

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāram yauvanam jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

SYNONYMS

dehinaḥ—of the embodied; asmin—in this; yathā—as; dehe—in the body; kaumāram—boyhood; yauvanam—youth; jarā—old age; tathā—similarly; dehāntara—transference of the body; prāptiḥ—achievement; dhīraḥ—the sober; tatra—thereupon; na—never; muhyati—deluded.

TRANSLATION

“As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, similarly the soul also passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.13]

The ślokas of Bhagavad-gītā are so full of meaning that one could write not only one book, but many books about each and every one of them. Similarly, one can read Bhagavad-gītā again and again, and it is always fresh with profound insights. This is because Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thus it is the essence of the inexhaustible Absolute Truth.

Sri Isopanisad is the first (isa) of the Vedic Upanisads. Upa means near and anisad means sit down. So the Upanisads are narrations of disciples sitting down near an enlightened spiritual master, submitting their sincere inquiries about spiritual life and patiently hearing the answers. The Esoteric Teaching is so powerful because it is based on the original Vedic texts, not some third-hand misinterpretation like so many imitation spiritual paths. Sri Isopanisad, as the first of the 108 Upanisads written by Srila Vyasadeva, the original author of the Vedas, is a great place to start your exploration of the authentic Vedic texts.

Vedānta-sūtra is the ultimate knowledge of the Vedas. Vedic knowledge is very elevated, having issued forth from Mahā-Viṣṇu, the Supreme Godhead, at the time of creation. The Vedānta-sūtras are extremely recondite and esoteric, and are thus accessible to ordinary human intelligence only in the context of a commentary. The natural commentary on Vedānta-sūtra is the Bhagavata-Purāṇa or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, written by the same author, Śrīla Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsadeva, Himself recognized as an incarnation of God in the Vedic literature. The theistic commentary of Baladeva is included, along with additional comments by the author to bring the timeless wisdom of Vedānta-sūtra to bear on issues of contemporary importance. Trade paperback, 8.5 x 11", three volumes, 868 pages, perfect bound, illustrations.

Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma: The Thousand Names of Lord Viṣṇu (God) from the Vedic classic Śrī Mahābhārata. With original Devanagari text, Roman transliterations, English synonyms and detailed philosophical introduction. 112 pages, trade paperback, photos and illustrations. Designed to be used for the chanting practice. This prayer is very important; it can cure all of the material ills and spiritual afflictions of Humanity.

• Read or download the book [4.32 MB PDF]
• Hear recorded versions of the chants

Purchase the large, attractive new print edition for only US$14.95

The Big Lie. And you accept it. That’s right—you’ve heard it thousands of times, in many guises and contexts. You’ve heard it so many times, you probably don’t think of it as a lie. You might think you believe it, and might even defend it if someone were to call it a lie. So little by little, over many years and in many ways, you’ve been programmed—trained to believe The Big Lie, and so cleverly convinced that you don’t even know you’ve been duped.

We use the term 'Ontology' a lot on this website and in our teachings, and all students should be comfortable with its use. This short course introduces the student to the basics of Ontology, prerequisite to the study of Transontology. Anybody can go through this course and emerge with a clean understanding of Ontology.

The course is broken down into short sections, each of which contains an audio excerpt and its transcription, for careful study. If you would instead like to simply listen to all the audio lessons seamlessly joined into a single file, we have provided the audio below:

The Nectar of Devotion by Śrīla Prabhupāda is a summary study of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Rūpa Gosvāmī. It contains the essence of the instructions of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to Rūpa Gosvāmī, and is probably the most important scripture that systematically explains the science of devotion - from its incipient stages up to the exalted peaks of pure love of God - and it is the ontological analysis of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Here we have compiled a series of audio and video recordings covering a reading of this wonderful book, along with insightful commentary by Master Teacher David Bruce Hughes. Each recording covers no more than a chapter, and we are drafting entire transcriptions of the recordings for those who would like to read along or make a deeper study of this text and commentary. Most of the recording sessions include a live audience from around the world and lively question-answer sessions as part of the commentary. Some lessons also contain a link to a Sunday Satsang video in which the corresponding chapter from the Nectar of Devotion has been discussed.

Lately we have been broadcasting these sessions live Mon-Sat at 6:30PM Chile Time, as part of our Evening Darshan program, and we post the videos of these classes here.

We encourage everyone to take advantage of these resources to make a careful study of this important scripture. If you would like to volunteer to help with the transcriptions of these recordings, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Nectar of Devotion by Śrīla Prabhupāda is freely available online here.