Chapter 9: Love of God

 

You will remember from Chapter 2 that the great Vedic scripture known as the Srimad-Bhagavatam describes an assembly of sages who were concerned about the highest truths and the spiritual welfare of humanity. When these wise men inquired about the most profound spiritual knowledge, they learned that the yuga dharma, or the supreme spiritual activity for this age, is pure, unconditional love of and service to God. Such love is not dependent on externals or on various rituals, but is based on consciousness.

Longing for the Lord

We are all ultimately looking for a relationship with God. In our day-to-day activities, as well as in spiritual life, we are looking for a particular rasa, or “taste,” of relationship. Rasa is different in various relationships. For example, the rasa between friends is different from the rasa between parents and children or the rasa between lovers. In the material world, such connections are a pale reflection of the deep, loving varieties of rasa we can have with the Lord. As we become more genuinely loving, accepting more of our divinity and connecting more with God, we can have powerful relationships, far exceeding anything we have ever known in this lifetime.

Our purpose as human beings is to fall back in love with God and return to the land of divine love, where we can experience our natural state. Anything else is unnatural. If we are not totally absorbed in divine love, we remain subject to the bondage of lust and the sufferings of old age, disease and death-all part of the material environment and not in alignment with who we truly are.

We must ultimately understand that we exist completely for the Lord. When we have such an understanding, we love God totally with our entire being. Such a loving state does not erode our own identity; on the contrary, it expands it, increasing the depth of our experience as we offer our love to the Lord and then receive it back in reciprocation. Our expression of love brings more love.

We can never be fully satisfied until we are back in our natural state in the spiritual kingdom, where relationships are all God-centered. That is why a daily spiritual practice is so important. It prepares us for the intense love and service of the spiritual world. We should practice with complete dedication and devotion, far more intensely than if we were a violinist preparing for the most important concert of our lives.

When we love others, we suffer deeply if we do not see or hear from them. We desire to know everything about them; we yearn to speak with them confidentially, to spend time with them and to receive letters from them if they are away. If we have all of these feelings here in the physical world, imagine how much more intense these longings are when they are directed toward the Lord.

If we make spirituality our top priority, we can make contact with the spiritual realm right here and now. The truth is that God and His agents want to connect with us far more than we want to connect with Them. When we sincerely put God first in everything we do-one hundred percent, not just partially, theoretically or occasionally-we begin to experience what we have previously only read or heard about. The spiritual world becomes a part of our own reality.

Love of God Is Not a Demand

Although everyone wants to experience love, when problems arise we often become resentful and discouraged. The real test is to remain firm in our love of God no matter what. Otherwise we are simply viewing Him as a menial servant whose role is to fulfill our desires and whims. In such circumstances, we are like spoiled children, turning away or throwing tantrums if He does not give us what we want. Love of God must go beyond such an attitude.

Many of us do not understand the necessity for pain and suffering in our lives. “If there is a God,” we ask, “why is there evil in the world?” “If there is a God, why doesn’t He give people-and me in particular-whatever is necessary to be happy?” “If suffering is a reality,” we conclude, “God cannot exist.” This outlook, based on self-centered desires for gratification, assumes that God should be responsive to our wishes at all times. It does not take into account our own misuse of free will and the karmic consequences of our actions, nor does it acknowledge the educational value of our experiences, including the difficult ones.

In literature, the tragic hero often learns through various types of adversity, eventually emerging a stronger person for the experience. The same process of growth is available to us through the Lord’s infinite mercy. Indeed, if our bond with the Lord does not get stronger in times of adversity, then we are not operating from a platform of deep love.

Fear of God

Many people believe that fear of God is a prerequisite for spiritual life. A case in point is the reaction to an address made a few years ago by the president of Ghana (some say as a result of my influence) to an assembly of priests, entrepreneurs and politicians. In his speech, he mentioned that instead of fearing God, he was learning to love God. The churches condemned him roundly for this pronouncement, saying, “What kind of man is this? How can he be our President? How can people vote for him-a man who does not fear God?” These religious leaders did not understand that a connection with the Lord can exist that is far deeper than fear.

Children who fear their parents and teachers only behave properly under a threat of punishment. If the external pressure is removed, these children will do anything and everything. It is the same in our relationship with the Lord. An affiliation with God based on fear cannot be very strong. It remains on a superficial level, preventing us from developing the deeper understandings necessary for true spiritual realization.

Fear prevents us from giving ourselves freely or developing deep connections with others. Instead, we direct our primary focus to avoiding unpleasant consequences. Love, which is an expression of free will based upon appreciation and spontaneity, cannot thrive in such an environment. Unfortunately, many religious traditions operate on the basis of fear, worshiping a God who punishes violators of His laws. Followers of such traditions expend their energies more to avoid chastisement than to express love.

Yet fear can play a useful role in the early stages of development. When children are young, parents must resort to rewards and punishment. At this initial level of dealing with authority, children are self-centered and motivated mainly by fear. Later they begin to understand at a deeper level, saying, “I love Mommy and I don’t want to do that because it will bother her.” Or: “Daddy will be very unhappy if I do this, so I won’t do it.” As they mature, they learn to perform actions based on love. It is the same in our relationship with God. At first, we may fear Him-often a necessary step, because at least we recognize His existence. Eventually we develop a broader understanding, discovering that spiritual life is not merely a matter of rules and regulations, but of the soul’s communion with the Divine.

Doubts about God

As long as we are in the material world, we will continue to have doubts about God. If we had no doubts at all, we would no longer be human, and would not require a material body or a material consciousness. We would already be residing in the spiritual kingdom.

We should not be concerned about our doubts. As we saw in Chapters 3 and 4, the mind and the senses like to be in charge. When the mind and senses discover that we are tuning in to transcendental energies, the mind, under the control of the senses, throws tantrums to draw our attention away from higher realms of experience. Eventually, though, we realize that the mind plays these “doubt games” in order to avoid being controlled or ignored. When we understand this, we will not take the mind’s tricks so seriously.

Instead, we must strengthen our spiritual practice so that our intelligence, in contact with the soul, will direct the mind. Then our faith and understanding will be strong, and we can let the doubts just be. As our faith and understanding increase, the doubts will fall away-making room for new ones, of course! Eventually, though, the more we allow the soul to emerge, the less disturbing our doubts will become.

Although we must overcome our doubts, we must also remember that religion is not just a matter of blind faith. It is true that faith is necessary in everything that we do, materially as well as spiritually. But properly directed faith should turn into realization-in other words, into direct experience. Spiritual life is an exacting, sublime science, and we have certain keys to make that science work for us. Without leaving this body, we can make contact with the spiritual world. If our practice does not yield results, either we are not being expert in this practice or our faith is based on an improper belief system.

Levels of God-realization

People on various spiritual paths refer to the ultimate goal in different terms: nirvana, samadhi, cosmic consciousness, entering into the mind of God or becoming one with God. Yet all these terms pertain to energies of the spiritual realm that emanate from the Lord; they do not refer to the Lord Himself. When we bake a cake, we can smell the fragrant aroma throughout the house without ever seeing the cake in the oven. As another example, although we have never visited the sun, we can experience its warmth and bask in its radiance. In the same way, without meeting the Lord face to face, many spiritual practitioners aspire to experience the divine energies of the Lord.

But this is only one aspect of spiritual life. As we study spirituality more deeply, we discover that there are different levels of God-consciousness. As we said, the process of becoming God-conscious is extremely scientific. At the level just described, that of experiencing the Lord’s effulgence, we begin to feel a oneness with all creation and with the Lord’s energies. Beyond this is another level of God-consciousness in which we discover the Holy Spirit, or the Supersoul-the presence of God in our hearts. Yet higher is an experience of God in which we enter into the spiritual realm. Even here there are different levels and divisions, as Jesus indicated when he said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.”

We Need Deep Spiritual Experiences

Many of us are starving spiritually. Because we lack deep spiritual experiences, or because we do not have role models who have such experiences, we tend to become mechanical, dry and faithless. As pleasure-seeking beings, if we do not experience pleasure from spiritual sources, we will eventually start filling the void with material activities.

Some people used to get disturbed that my spiritual mentor constantly repeated the same theme in his books and lectures: “You are not the body.” They wanted him to address more confidential, esoteric subjects. He did not comply with their requests, though, because such matters are not meant for extensive discussion. They belong instead to the realm of immediate experience.

If we use our intelligence and our mind to speak of experiences that actually belong in the soul’s domain, we can become confused and distort the truth. Just as words cannot describe colors to a blind person, they cannot fully give us an understanding of the esoteric realm. That can only come from direct experience. In order to gain such understanding, we must work on our character, dissolve our impurities and increase our devotion, so that eventually we become worthy of transcendental knowledge and bliss.

In spirituality, there is always a higher level to attain. No scripture by itself gives us sufficient information to reach the spiritual world. That is why teachers and spiritual guides are necessary. To avoid being misdirected, we must be sure that the messages of our teachers are aligned with the scriptures and with other realized practitioners of the path. When they are, we can feel comfortable with them as mentors. If we practice properly, we will gradually obtain the results described by the saints and scriptures, gaining windows into the spiritual world and becoming more eager to attain even higher experiences.

In order not to sidetrack our spiritual development, most elevated souls do not parade their mystic abilities. They realize that such demonstrations would attract people to their powers rather than to their devotion, and they do not want to encourage the belief that spiritual life is just a matter of certain tricks or techniques. Sometimes we think that seeing God is a matter of knowing a particular formula. We wonder, “How can I see God? How can I hear the universal sound? How can I have a guide?” As long as we persist in our belief that spirituality is a matter of technique, remaining unwilling to go more deeply into what we already have and resisting the need for self-examination and self-purification, we will stay on the surface of spirituality.

It is our state of consciousness that matters in spiritual life, not just external religious forms or practices. The language we use for prayer is not important, nor is where we pray-in a barn, a cathedral, a temple or our bedroom. All the externals are details to help us attain greater inner experiences. If the internal spiritual connection does not develop, the externals become almost a waste of time.

But if we do not have role models to offer us proper reinforcement and coaching, we may settle for mediocrity. By so doing, we cheapen the scriptures and teachings of our path, because we imply that high spiritual attainments are not possible in our tradition. Such an attitude minimizes the genuine accomplishments of the many qualified spiritual teachers and practitioners who do exist and allows us to feel comfortable with a low level of attainment.

Look for the Inner Teachings

Every tradition has inner teachings. Each of us should try to learn more about this deeper knowledge in our own tradition, for it helps us see beyond the external aspects of religious life. The Lord’s love and compassion are universal. Those who are caught up in external, exoteric practices tend to become sectarian, and sectarianism is responsible for many of the world’s problems, setting one group against another and causing untold suffering. As we go more deeply into the inner teachings, we discover the common foundation of all spiritual traditions.

This is one reason we should never read the scriptures as if they were merely sources of factual information or compilations of interesting myths and stories. We do not turn to scriptures just to get some data or to be entertained. The scriptures are as alive as we are; they are literary incarnations of God. That is why highly advanced souls can fall into a state of ecstatic trance after merely reading a passage. For them, the scriptures are not just words; they serve as connections to a whole realm of spiritual experience. When we read scriptures and other devotional literature with great love and care, we are looking through a spiritual window into the transcendental realm.

Certain teachings have existed on this Earth since the planet was created. Among these are the Vedas, some of the oldest scriptures known to humanity, which are based on realization and actual application of inner spiritual teachings. Even today, Vedic practitioners are available to transmit this knowledge to others in living, experiential form. These teachings can yield the same kind of results as they did in the past, provided we are willing to apply ourselves sincerely.

Love of God Is Intoxicating

Spiritual life is not about dry theories or constant struggle, strain and self-denial. It is about profound experiences and exhilarating intoxication. Why should we cheat ourselves? We all want to love and be loved. We all want to experience the heights of pleasure. Ultimately, reduced to its simplest form, that is what spiritual life is about: the highest enjoyment, the greatest pleasure and the most intense sense gratification-but far beyond the material level. We perform various austerities, rituals and practices to prepare ourselves to transcend the shadows and images of this material world and attain the glories of the spiritual realm.

Remember that all living entities seek love, happiness and pleasure, including people who behave in distorted or destructive ways. Can you imagine how intense your pleasure could be once all the barriers and limitations to its pure attainment were removed? We can gain a tiny glimpse of such a state when we experience a powerful, overwhelming feeling for someone we care about. So why should we hesitate to move closer to God and experience greater levels of pleasure?

When we begin to enter into higher states of consciousness, the physical body may not be able to contain the ecstatic experiences, which are literally beyond this material realm. Yet, although ecstasy is quite an intoxicating experience, it is only an initial aspect of the process of developing pure love of God. The feelings, symptoms and experiences of pure love of God are actually far beyond this level.

As we grow spiritually, we develop a sweet competition with God, in which the more we try to serve the Lord, the more He is eager to bless and receive us. In such a situation, we feel such deep love for and reciprocation from the Lord that we believe He cares for no one but us. In this state of consciousness, we do not mind whether we are in heaven or in hell, because we know that we are loved. Every moment is an experience of giving ever greater love to the Divinity and receiving it back in overwhelming quantity.

The beauty of spiritual life is that we can attract divine grace from the Lord and, once we have received it, we can share that grace with others. If we encourage other people by offering our experiences and realizations, they may think, “I want to experience this, too. I want to be free of my miseries, or at least not be bothered by them. I want to have balance in my life and not feel torn in different directions.” To lead a life on several different tracks is schizophrenic. We should not shatter ourselves like that, but instead integrate ourselves around these essential questions: How much do I love God? How much do I want His full grace and blessings?

Personal Association with God in the

World’s Traditions

God is more than energy, sound or light. Just as there is form in this material world, God also has a form-but His form is spiritual. This makes sense if we think about it. There can be nothing outside of God, including form. So why would He not have a form? All types of opulence, such as beauty, love or knowledge, come from the Supreme Lord and are part of His totality. The only reason we can experience them at all is because they are part of the Lord to begin with.

Because the Lord has a form, love of God is not just an abstraction, but an expression of a direct, personal relationship. The advanced inner teachings of many traditions emphasize deep levels of love in the most personal way. Examine your Koran or Bible closely. You will discover many references to personal relationships with the Lord. These scriptures, as well as the Vedic writings, speak of seeing God face to face.

For example, a passage in the Hadith literature of Islam explains that the highest experience in Paradise is to have the vision of Allah. The Muslim scriptures also describe the Prophet’s ascension, one of the peak experiences of his life. He was accompanied by the angel Gabriel from the lower to the higher planetary systems, until they reached a certain point beyond which the Prophet had to proceed alone to have a direct encounter with Allah.

In the Christian tradition also, God has a personal aspect. For example, the Beatitudes teach that the pure in heart shall see God. The Book of Revelations claims that those known as the children of God shall wear the sign of the Lord on their foreheads and see His face. In the scriptures of both Christianity and Islam, Sarah is described as treating God as if He were her beloved child. Abraham turned to God as to a friend. We cannot have formless energy as our child or as our friend. Parenthood and friendship imply a relationship based upon activities shared between distinctly different individuals, in this case one of them earthly and the other divine.

Spiritual Union

The world’s inner traditions connect us with deep levels of personal experience. Sex exists in the spiritual world in the form of spiritual union, but we cannot understand it in our present conditioned state. The physical sexuality of material life is merely a perverted reflection of the soul’s eternal, pure, rapturous relationship with the Supreme Lord. Although the reflection has certain attributes of the actual relationship, it is not the genuine article in its full reality. Sexual experience may seem pleasurable to us while we are in this conditioned state, but ultimately it does not give us the deep fulfillment we seek.

Yet we cannot simply categorize sex life in this material world as an illusion, believing that material life is unreal and that only spiritual life is real. Rather, the important distinction is that spiritual life is eternal and material life is temporary. Even an illusion is a reality in its own way: it is an actual phenomenon that takes on the appearance of something else. Although an illusion cannot stand on its own, we would be mistaken to deny its existence. For example, when we see an image of ourselves in the mirror, we understand that the image is a genuine two-dimensional reflection of a three-dimensional reality. The reflection has certain attributes of that reality, but it is missing many others. It is partial and imperfect. In the same way, the artificial, temporary experience of physical sex is an imperfect reflection of spiritual union. Although it does not give us what we ultimately want, it serves as a positive sign that the real, enduring experience of spiritual union does actually exist.

In the spiritual realm, union has nothing to do with physical bodies trying to stimulate each other, or genitals seeking pleasurable contact. Instead, spiritual union means that all aspects of the spiritual body unite with the beloved. As a matter of fact, in the kingdom of God, the spiritual senses do not have the limitations that our physical senses do. For example, in our physical bodies we must use our eyes to see, because we cannot see with any other organs. Yet residents of the divine realm can see with every part of their spiritual bodies. The same is true for the other senses. One sense can perform the activities of all the others, because there is no differentiation among senses such as there is in the physical world.

It is because the physical body is limited and cannot experience any eternal, pure relationship with the Supreme that material sexuality can never fulfill the longings of the soul. Yet, even in this world, we can engage in sex life in a way that takes on a liberating aspect. In the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 7.11), Lord Krishna says: “I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles.” Physical sex has a valid role in spiritual life when we approach it as a service to the Lord-one that allows souls to take birth in this world to continue their journey back home to God. If we have such an attitude of service, we can engage in sexual activity without compounding our attachment to the material world.

In modern society, most people have sex on their minds every day. Although they may not know it, they are really desiring the most sublime experience of all-the highest connection of the soul in its rapture with the Divine Soul, the ultimate Source of all souls. The problem is that those functioning on the bodily platform try to have union without union. That is, they seek physical intimacy without knowing who or what they are. Believing themselves to be physical bodies, they consider the purpose of life to be merely personal gratification and stimulation. Unfortunately, their ignorance of the soul causes them to seek the experience of union through physical means. Because all genuine union is spiritual, their attempts can only lead to frustration and disappointment.

Confidential Aspects of Spirituality

Any attempt to understand spiritual sex, or spiritual union, must go beyond the formal, majestic, awe-inspiring conception of God as the Supreme Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer. It must also leave behind the impersonal idea of God as light or energy. The deeper, more confidential aspects of spirituality involve an intimate, personal, rapturous relationship of the soul with God. When we are no longer bound to material consciousness and have no further desire for physical sense gratification, many types of intimate, sweet relationships with the Lord are possible. Such relationships form part of the inner teachings of any bona fide spiritual tradition, as experienced by the most advanced saints.

For example, the inner teachings of bridal mysticism in the Christian tradition include personal experiences with God, so that nuns in certain orders become brides of the Lord. In addition, the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross describe a mystical, conjugal, loving relationship with God in which the soul, feminine in nature, takes great joy in associating with the Beloved. In the ancient Vaishnava tradition in India, many of the great male goswamis also write about being feminine in spiritual consciousness, considering themselves lovers of the Lord.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, people have become so external that they consider scriptural accounts of spiritual experiences as mere allegory or myth. Yet this is not the case. For example, the Song of Solomon in the Bible talks about a personal relationship with God as a lover. If we were to ask a minister to explain these passages, we might hear many kinds of conjecture. Yet, the poet of the Song of Solomon is describing an interpersonal experience in which he actually sees himself as a female and thinks of the Lord as a lover. The poem, which is not allegorical, but factual, describes confidential aspects of the soul’s union with the Lord. It is a literal expression of a great saint’s dedication, love and ecstasy.

Loving exchanges in the spiritual world are not limited to these that occur face to face. Ultimately, expressions of love can be of two types: those that occur in the presence of the Beloved and those that occur when separated from Him. The love experienced in separation from the Lord is considered the deeper connection, because when the Beloved is not present the lover is completely absorbed in meditation on Him, anticipating the joys of reunion. This aspect of spiritual life demonstrates the great difference between physical sex life and spiritual union. Material sexuality relies largely on physical stimulation, whereas spiritual union considers the experience of separation to be even greater than the actual presence of the Beloved.

The natural activity of the soul is to be in constant rapturous union with the Beloved, or to be making arrangements for that union. This is another radical distinction from material sexual activity, which only occurs when humans feel the desire for it. In spiritual life, the soul is always experiencing blissful union, even more so when separated from the Beloved. Although this makes no sense materially speaking, it makes perfect spiritual sense, because union in the spiritual realm has nothing to do with physical bodies.

The difference between union in a spiritual body and sex in a material body is similar to the difference between water and oil. Although these are both liquids, if you drink oil you will die, whereas if you drink water, you will live, risking death only if you do not drink it. Another analogy is the difference between an altruistic, righteous citizen and a vicious, selfish convict. The citizen and the convict are subject to different laws and have different fields of activity. The prisoner’s lifestyle and environment are perverted replicas of actual society. The convict’s universe is the prison, while the citizen is free to go anywhere. Prisoners who forget about their incarceration and try to maintain their habits in prison without changing their criminal frame of mind can forfeit their parole. Similarly, if we persist in identifying with the physical senses in this material prison, we forfeit our ability to free ourselves from material energy.

The Realm of Eternal Romance

The highest level of the spiritual world is a realm of eternal romance centered around selfless loving exchanges in which we play the role of lover, parent or friend to the Lord. The closer we come to a hot stove, the more warmth we feel. Similarly, the more we know about the transcendental realms, the closer we come to the Godhead. The greater our harmony with God, the stronger our contact with divine love. As we deepen our knowledge of the Lord’s magnanimity, omnipotence and omniscience-not just in theory, but in realization-we experience God’s love in increasing measure.

An analogy may help clarify the nature of true loving connections in contrast to self-centered lustful associations. If we love someone deeply-a spouse, a child, a friend-we care about what happens to that person. We rejoice in the individual’s successes and mourn the losses as if they were our own, and we want to help in any way we can. In spiritual union it is the same, yet at a higher level. The individual who serves another with love and dedication experiences as much, and often more, pleasure than the recipient of the action. For example, the Vedic tradition explains that the servants of Srimati Radharani, Lord Krishna’s devoted consort, experience millions of times more enjoyment than even Krishna Himself. This is the nature of true loving relationships, in contrast to self-centered, lustful behavior that merely seeks personal happiness, stimulation and pleasure.

Imported into this material world from the higher dimensions, divine love is often beyond our understanding, because much of what we call love in this world is still based on egocentric concerns. We need help to experience it. Divine love reaches us through the agency of higher beings who come from the spiritual realms to teach, uplift and guide us.

The humility of divine agents can be difficult to understand. An accomplished martial artist knows the power of his hands and feet. He can take a life in a matter of seconds. Because of this, he has a natural sense of humility, knowing the harm that can result from misuse of his skills. He also realizes that he will be held accountable for what he does. In the same way, divine messengers are aware of their great responsibility.

In the material sense, great power coupled with great humility may seem contradictory. A humble person is often considered docile-a wimp-and not powerful. But spiritually, these two qualities are quite compatible. Although the Lord’s representatives wield enormous power, their humility is based upon great love for those who are in a state of amnesia, suffering unnecessarily lifetime after lifetime despite the availability of keys to end their unhappiness.

Spiritual messengers are humble for another reason: their performance is being monitored, and they will suffer the consequences if they do not execute their activities properly. Yet another cause for their humility derives from their dependence on the Lord. They recognize that He is the source of all power and love, not themselves.

Many bona fide teachers have the mission of aligning their followers with certain specific aspects of God’s kingdom and not others. That is why teachers seem to differ from one another; they are summoning souls to experience different facets of love and service to God. Sometimes people will misunderstand this, believing that God has sent only one prophet or son. However, Jesus himself said that he could give people the power to become sons of God. If we follow any of the bona fide prophets with dedication and commitment, we can also become conscious sons and daughters of the Lord. Unfortunately, as we have seen, religions fail to understand this and fight each other to defend the exclusivity of their particular doctrines.

Go Deeply into Your Own Tradition

Problems arise when people do not remain faithful to their bona fide traditions, because they never go deeply enough into any teaching to gain meaningful spiritual understanding. But if they do stay true to a bona fide path, the scriptures and practices can open the door to God. If you feel most at ease with Catholicism, that is fine. This means that Catholicism is perhaps your way. If you like being a Muslim, then Islam may be your spiritual direction. Once you have made a choice, though, it is important to remain loyal to your scripture and practices, so that love of God can unfold in the proper sequence.

Paradoxically, we cannot respect other traditions without sufficient belief in our own. There can be no “interfaith” without faith. If people in different traditions do not have deep faith in their own scriptures, teachers and practices, they will approach their own spirituality on a superficial level. Consequently, when dealing with other faiths, they will merely focus on the differences in external practices and be blind to the unity that exists beneath the surface.

What have people gained who wander from one path to another? Nothing more than frustration, a basement filled with books and a bank account drained by all the checks they have written for conferences and workshops. They have not learned to give up their selfishness and their body-conscious approach to life, nor to develop any deep level of love and compassion. Instead, they have persisted in going outside themselves to find what actually resides inside.

Spiritual advancement requires love, commitment and devotion if we are to gain the stability and understanding to go beyond sectarianism. When we have sufficient depth, we can appreciate any bona fide tradition. A deep experiential knowledge of our own teachings and practices allows us to respect others, at the same time remaining chaste and faithful to our own path.

Never forget this point: We cannot serve the all-complete God in a myopic state of consciousness. We must not be fragmented or partial. We cannot be limited and sectarian while claiming to be messengers of love. If we are genuine messengers of love, we remain loving at all times and in all places, sharing what we have with others. If we find ourselves unable to share willingly, then we have work to do on ourselves. It takes someone who is God-like to be able to connect with God.

How beautiful it is to hear people praying in other ways-what a wonderful orchestra! How rewarding it is when people of different faiths, races, genders and nationalities work harmoniously together! If we think otherwise, we are accommodating the fragmentation that creates the world’s most intractable problems in such places as Bosnia, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi, Northern Ireland or the Middle East. We must learn to align with people at a deeper level based on similarities in consciousness, rather than focusing on differences of dress, language, race or religious practices.

Spiritual Life Is Our Rightful Claim

Spiritual life is our birthright and is accessible to each of us. To shed these material shackles, we must first realize what is available and then understand our responsibility to claim our rightful heritage. If we believe that the spiritual realm is beyond our competence to attain, or just too much trouble to seek, we are blocking our own progress. Spiritual consciousness is our natural state and is available to each of us if we genuinely want it.

When God becomes our first priority, we willingly do our part to purify ourselves and be of service. Then the mercy of the Lord’s servants is always accessible, helping us conquer one obstacle after another and shed layers of karma so that we can progress rapidly in our devotional service. Unfortunately, most people tend to advance gradually, if at all. When we move too gradually, we may not be able to outrun the material energies that are pursuing us with great intensity.

Everything has a price. In mundane life, the price of a particular goal may be just too high to be worth it. But in spiritual life, the ultimate outcome is eternal love and bliss, for which we must renounce our material attachments and egocentric struggles, which only bring suffering anyway. Is this so difficult?

Think about it. We have been wandering from life to life, from body to body, over and over again, thousands or millions of times. From this perspective, if we decide to dedicate this life to ending that process once and for all, we are not sacrificing very much. The attainment of the kingdom of God is worth whatever price we must pay. Even if we had to live every single day in anxiety and frustration, misunderstood by the entire world, such suffering would be insignificant in comparison to what we would attain eternally.

If the goal were not so wonderful, or if it were not permanent, perhaps the price might be too high. But the endpoint is both wonderful and permanent: no more death, disease, old age or struggle-just bliss, ecstasy and constant loving exchanges in the kingdom of God. We can put all our suffering behind us by dedicating this lifetime to God with no strings attached. Why not do it?

Questions and Answers

Question: The Bible frequently speaks about fearing the Lord. Why is this emphasized?

Answer: There is a difference between heaven and the spiritual realm. The Bible, particularly in its present form, teaches us how to prepare ourselves for heaven, which consists of the higher material planets and the abode of the angels-not the spiritual world, which is the kingdom of God. The angels do not live in the kingdom of God. Entrance to this heavenly realm is generally postulated on the idea of fearing the Lord in order to avoid going to hell. That is why so much of the Bible’s teaching is about the horrors of hell or the fear of God. If children are insubordinate, one must encourage them to do the right thing to avoid being chastised. That kind of pressure makes them stop and think about what they have done wrong and why they should do the right thing.

Remember that much of the Old Testament narrates the story of the children of Israel who deny the Lord, commit offenses, become hypocritical, indulge themselves or generally stray from the path of righteousness. Also, one of the basic prayers in the Bible is: “Lord, give us our daily bread.” This is not the platform of unconditional, unmotivated love, but rather one of hoping to receive a boon from the Lord in exchange for worship. However, someone who reads the Bible more deeply will gradually come to the point of understanding that the most important prayer of all is, “Thy will be done.”

The fire-and-brimstone type of fear has its role, because people who stray from the spiritual path must be motivated to stop their improper behavior before they can understand the need to live in another way. Anticipation of punishment can be a powerful stimulus to changing one’s habits.

Question: Each spiritual tradition teaches us to chant in a different way. The Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and Hindus all have their own special mantras. Which is the correct one?

Answer: Sound itself has an effect on matter and consciousness: it can stimulate, purify, challenge and elicit attention. When we call someone’s name, we are establishing a line of communication and exchange, inviting that person to associate with us. Similarly, as we chant different mantras, we are making a spiritual connection.

Mantras are powerful and can act as swords, cutting away negative energy that surrounds us. Different mantras have different purposes. Sometimes a spiritual teacher will give the disciple a basic, universal mantra that is helpful in almost all situations. At other times, the teacher may provide very specific mantras to address a particular circumstance. Practitioners of some traditions chant specific mantras to open spiritual ceremonies and others to close them. There are mantras for protection, and others to awaken an intimate connection with God.

Members of the Krishna consciousness movement use beads as a support for chanting the mantra, just as Muslims, Buddhists and Catholics do when reciting their particular prayers. The chanting allows the mind to become absorbed in the sound vibration. If we repeat the mantra audibly, its vibration enters the ear and has a cleansing effect. If we chant silently, we fix the mind on the mantra so it can purify us.

Ma means mind and tra means to deliver. The type of mantra determines what we are being delivered from. Universal mantras that call upon names of the Lord-such as Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare-simply mean that we are asking to be released from the material world into the Lord’s care and engaged in His service. Such mantras, being general appeals to the Divine, are all-inclusive and can help lift us up out of almost any situation. When we rely on these vibrations, we will feel the difference, physically, mentally and spiritually, because of the mantra’s power to penetrate various layers of impurity and resistance.

Question: You mentioned that we should always be aware that God is our Father, and that everything belongs to Him. We also hear the same statements in reference to the attainment of earthly wealth: God is our Father, and since all the world is His, it is in fact ours, and we can attain it. That creates a paradox for me. Could you please clarify it?

Answer: At different levels of God-consciousness there are different degrees of love. When our love is not deep, we look at the object of our love in terms of what that person can do for us. It is like business. People in such a consciousness can have a kind of devotion to God that sounds like this: “I have prayed; I have meditated; I have chanted; I have made charitable donations. Now, Lord, it’s your turn. What are you going to do for me?” This approach is not based on love, but rather on what one can get. As we said earlier, although such an attitude is not at a high level, it is better than no interest in God at all. Gradually, with persistence, the material contamination will be eradicated and the person will gain a more authentic experience of spirituality.

When we approach a fire, at first we get warm, then we get hot, and finally we get burned. The fire absorbs what has entered into it. In a similar way, spiritual life gradually burns away our material desires. The Bhagavad-gita explains that even if we still have such desires, we can offer the fruits of our work to the Lord. As we advance further, we follow a progression that moves from working directly on behalf of the Lord to following devotional principles to, eventually, fixing our mind on the Lord and surrendering to Him completely. There is never a time when we have reached the pinnacle of spiritual life; there is always something higher. By increasing our desire to love and serve more, the Lord in our hearts will arrange for these experiences to happen. Transcendental spiritual life is an eternal romance in which every exchange gets explosively sweeter and sweeter.