Читать книгу Aryans and We - Archi Devi Dasi (Ekmekchjan Adelaida) - Страница 3

This is a must for any society to have a philosophical concept based on which it forms its life style. The Aryan philosophy is presented in their Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita. It is the earliest scripture which complete presentation here may not be appropriate. In general, the ideology presented there may be described as follows.

One is born in this world and at first sight it does not depend on him/her in which conditions he/she is born. Someone is born dark-skinned and lives in Africa, someone is red-skinned and lives in America, someone is white-skinned and lives in Europe. One is born in a poor family, another is born in a rich family, one is beautiful, another is ugly, one is healthy, another is ill. All living beings are born in different conditions and they do not have an answer on the question: why does this happen? Despite differences in living conditions, all living beings in this world show three common tendencies:

1) The intention to exist eternally and have the perfect body.

2) The intention to be happy (via pleasures and power).

3) The intention to develop the knowledge (or be always able to acquire it).

By contrasting these three intentions to real conditions in which we live (a temporary and completely defective body; the whole chain of sufferings: birth, illness, ageing and death which cannot be escaped by anyone; imperfect senses which are not capable to give the objective information on the surrounding world), the Bhagavad-Gita leads us to search for a certain element which is the source of the above mentioned intentions of any individual.

This brings up the question: if we are only these bodies, then why are we striving for eternity? Be that, our consciousness would indifferently refer to the idea of disappearance like the dead (inanimate) matter. Why do we resist the idea of disappearance? Why did the Mother Nature (of course, if it was its initiative) have to give us temporary bodies and the desire of eternal existence? Where do these contradictions between our desires and capabilities come from?

Everything in the material world is imperfect because it is temporary. Nothing that is temporary can ensure in contact the perfect happiness which we are so striving for. Where from do we take this strive for continuous happiness? In fact, we do not stop to desire happiness even a single second. It never happens that a living being in the material world is looking for sufferings! On the other hand, though, in this world no living being has got the experience of such happiness. Where do we take such striving from? And why can’t any amount of suffering and disappointment make us stop to desire happiness? A comprehensive consideration of the given questions shows that striving for continuous happiness is the integral part of consciousness (i.e. life) irrespective of conditions of material body.

Our senses are so limited and imperfect that actually no one can tell which portion of truth related to the external world they might convey. For instance, the Sun seems to us the circle with the size of a simple coin but actually it is huge. Similarly, we are not able to hear certain sound frequencies, not able to see subtle energies, etc. Our body, therefore, is a very fragile and imperfect data transfer instrument, but our consciousness always strives to be knowledgeable about everything going on around us.

Having investigated the strivings coming from consciousness and having become convinced of their full contradiction with the abilities of the body, the Vedas came to the conclusion that consciousness (life) was not the integral part of the body (the dead matter). The Vedas put forward the idea of the soul, namely of an element which differentiates an alive body from a dead one and which is the carrier of consciousness. At a time when soul leaves body, the latter becomes the harmonic part of the nature (a corpse) with no any contradiction of it. A dead body like matter in general is absolutely indifferent to whatever is done to it. It has no more strivings for happiness, existence or knowledge. Consequently, it is vitally important to study the nature and the psychology of soul as only knowledge of its nature and understanding of its needs can resolve all differences in what is called “life”. In return, when the idea of soul is accepted, it means to answer such questions as:

1) What are the nature and characteristics of soul?

2) How did soul appear in the material world?

3) Where is its true home?

4) How can one return there?

To be fair, it should be noted that no other religious or philosophical concept in the world than the Aryans’ has got a more complete system of answers on the given questions. It is likely the reason why it has got a close attention of great minds of all times ever.

Now, according to the Aryan concept, if a living being is a spiritual parcel which is striving within us to eternity (as it is eternal), happiness (as it is blissed) and knowledge (as the knowledge is its integral part), consequently there should be the world where it possessed all these. Otherwise, where do all its strivings come from? And why did the nature endowed us with qualities which are absolutely unused in this world? A living being cannot strive for anything which is not known by it. Everything we are striving for is the proof that we are aware of it.

On the other hand, if a living being is of spiritual nature, why did it happen to be here? The answer on this question is in those intentions which a living being is trying to realize here. As have been already said, by its characteristics a spiritual parcel is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. At first sight, this statement sounds contradictory. If soul is eternal, why did it come to this temporary world where it has to obey the inviolable law of birth and death? Here one is suggested to carefully examine what soul strives to realize in the material world. This striving explains the reason of our appearance in this world which has become for us more important than eternity.

If we are attentive, we can notice that in the material world all living beings have the thirst for domination and enjoyment. To enjoy means for us to use all encountered objects (both animate and inanimate) for our pleasure. In fact, there is no one single moment when we stop striving for enjoyment. The term “dominate” means that we are able to obligate everybody (both animate and inanimate) to fulfill our will. In this situation, our attitude is rather interesting. Each of us thinks that his/her mentality is so perfect that by obeying it everyone can be happy (Freud called it “the sense of worth”).

If we are attentive, we can notice that if we do not make any efforts (based on upbringing and rules of conduct), we spontaneously “radiate” these very two moods. If we try to realize here our desire to bend other living beings to our will and use them for our pleasure, it means that we did not have such an opportunity in the spiritual world. At first glance, this statement sounds contradictory. This brings up the question, if we did not have any opportunity either to enjoy or dominate, then where does our striving come from? As a living being can strive only to the things which were seen or known.

At the beginning we have told that consciousness of living beings expresses the constant desire to be happy; then we noted that in the material world we try to realize this desire by means of power and pleasure. This fact points out that we did not have such an opportunity in the spiritual world. This, in turn, means that the bliss of living beings in the spiritual world did not depend on both abilities to dominate and enjoy. But then where do we take this striving for power and pleasure?

We were to know the One Who was able to enjoy and dominate in order to start striving for these by ourselves. Hence, we can make a conclusion, that in the spiritual world there is some living being who dominates and enjoys the possibility to associate with all other living beings who do not dominate but serve Him and feel the bliss from it. This personality is usually called the Supreme Personality of Godhead or God. According to the Aryan philosophy all living beings are inherent parcels of this Supreme Personality. They have the same qualitative nature as He does, but differ from Him quantitatively. This quantitative difference does not allow living beings to take upon controlling functions without creating disharmony. But the qualitative unity maintains this tendency in all living beings to take controlling functions. When this demand from living beings arises, God, so to say, has got two choices:

1) suppress this desire and bring into line with His will (violence).

2) give the opportunity to realize this desire (generosity based on the absence of envy).

One of the qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the complete freedom from envy. By virtue of this pure and sublime nature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gives all living beings free choice. Those living beings who misuse this freedom and prefer the material existence come to this world. The point is that the Aryans consider the material world as the place where living beings realize their desire to live without God. Where does this desire appear from?

According to the Vedic scriptures, the Lord in the spiritual world is surrounded by numerous devotees who have special feelings for Him. Many of them are called personal associates. They have got particular close relationships with the Lord. This intimacy depends on the extent of love they have developed for the Lord. The Lord treats all living beings equally and fairly. This means that He always exactly sees the “amount” of living being’s love for Him and always fairly responds everybody according to this criteria. It would not be possible that a novice devotee should receive the special attitude of the Lord and an elevated devotee – the neutral one. This is the true criteria of justice.

Living beings are very small and the Supreme Lord is infinitely great. Therefore, a tiny spiritual parcel is not always able to understand or correctly assess the Lord’s behavior and the motives of His deeds. This limited perception becomes the reason why some spiritual parcels fall into a state of disagreement with the Lord, “rebel’ and feel hostility toward Him. Thinking that the Lord is unjust, these jivas (living beings, spiritual parcels) feel the need to appear in such a place where He is not there and try to confirm their own ideas of justice. Such justice as a rule consists of the fact that a personality desires to see him/herself in the center of all events (the feeling of own sense of worth). This way, some part of eternal inhabitants of the spiritual world shifts their God-centered consciousness to self-centered. As said, the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s nature is completely free from envy. This means that when someone does not want to associate with Him or connect his/her happiness to Him, it does not make Him angry. He does not punish such personalities or taking advantage of His power force them to conform to His absolute power, but He gives them an opportunity to make their own society and realize their ideas of justice. For the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is not worthy to have a humble behavior and a psychologically browbeaten condition at the point of the sword of His power. He values only and only free ostents of love.

Being parcels of the Supreme Personality, living beings possess His qualities. The Aryan literature is the only one on the planet which contains comprehensive details about the Supreme Personality of Godhead: descriptions of His appearance, character, environment, behavior. This takes place because only they really communicated with Him! This is the uniqueness of this literature! The Vedic scriptures state that the Lord demonstrates 64 qualities:

1. His features are beautiful,

2. all auspicious marks can be found on His body,

3. His features are pleasing the eye,

4. He is effulgent,

5. He is strong,

6. ever youthful,

7. wonderful linguist,

8. truthful,

9. talks pleasingly,

10. fluent,

11. highly learned,

12. highly intelligent,

13. genius,

14. artistic,

15. extremely clever,

16. expert,

17. grateful,

18. firmly determined,

19. an expert judge of time and circumstances,

20. sees and speaks on the authority of Vedas, or scriptures,

21. pure,

22. self-controlled,

23. steadfast,

24. forbearing,

25. forgiving,

26. grave,

27. self-satisfied,

28. possessing equilibrium,

29. magnanimous,

30. religious,

31. heroic,

32. compassionate,

33. respectful,

34. gentle,

35. liberal,

36. shy,

37. the protector of surrendered souls,

38. happy,

39. the well-wisher of devotees,

40. controlled by love,

41. all-auspicious,

42. most powerful,

43. all-famous,

44. popular,

45. partial to devotees,

46. very attractive to all women,

47. all-worshipable,

48. all-opulent,

49. all-honorable,

50. the Supreme controller,

51. changeless,

52. all-cognizant,

53. ever fresh,

54. sat-chid-ananda (possessing an eternal blissful body),

55. possessing all mystic perfections,

56. He has inconceivable potency,

57. uncountable universes generate from His body,

58. He is the original source of all incarnations,

59. He is the giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills,

60. He is the attractor of liberated souls,

61. He is the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes,

62. He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Him,

63. He can attract all living entities all over the universes by playing on His flute,

64. He has a wonderful excellence of beauty which cannot be rivaled anywhere in the creation.

Among these, 54 qualities also belong to jivas (His inherent parcels, namely all the living beings). Depending on the extent of their love of God, these qualities are manifested in jivas fully or partially. Those who fully manifest these qualities, never come to this material world because they are protected by the “amount” of their love for God.

Those jivas whose attachment (trust) is not so strong often become unsatisfied as a result of misunderstanding the motives for His actions. In fact, no one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead – a limited spiritual parcel cannot perfectly understand the intrinsic motives for actions of the infinite Lord. The difference is that the close associates never mistrust God.

In general, it is the topic of very confidential talks which would be reasonable to discuss only with advanced believers. Here we will present the main concepts of the Aryan philosophy simply to have the opportunity to correctly understand their life style. Being qualitatively equal to the Lord, but quantitively infinitely small, some living beings feel envy of Lord’s confidential devotees. This is a specific feeling which appears when the Lord brings some of the devotees near to Him.

Very provisionally, it can be described as follows: a living being who does not possess such a potency to serve the Lord as a confidential devotee cannot understand why He has brought closer this devotee. This feeling becomes the basis for dissatisfaction or roughly speaking the feeling of injustice. A living being thinks that God does not “see” how he/she is devoted to Him. If He saw, then he/she would have been chosen as a confidential person not another one. Actually, this explanation is very rough and provisional. In the spiritual world the consciousness cannot be so rude. This is just a transient feeling, very keen but it is already called “envy” and with this feeling in the heart a spiritual parcel cannot keep staying in the spiritual world where everything is enlightened with love and no negative things can take place. Once such negative thing appears, a personality is already not in the spiritual world, practically this change of existence does not take any time once envy appears.

Envy lies in the basis of the material existence. This feeling devours all good qualities of jiva. Everybody in the material world is envious. Those free from envy do not come to this world (the exception is only for Lord’s servants sent by Him to open the way back home to all willing it). "I’m better, I’m more worthy". With this spirit, jiva cannot stay in the spiritual world any more. From these personalities, the Lord immediately “hides”, hides His devotees and gives the former the possibility to make their own society. This possibility is this very material world. One who does not understand the nature of envy will never be able to become an Aryan. One who does not accept this truth about the material existence will never be able to develop this system of values common for the Aryans. Therefore, having created the material world and given us the possibility to realize our desires, the Lord in fact becomes our servant putting at our disposal His material energy with which we can do whatever we want.

But this freedom of action becomes a heavy burden on the shoulders of a small living being who immediately loses the culture of relationships with other living beings attributable to the spiritual world and understands how in fact the Lord’s “job” is difficult. Trying to imitate God but not capable of being just, a living being gets entangled in the knots of sinful activities and becomes an eternally conditioned (i.e. deserving to stay in the material prison) jiva (soul) doomed to sufferings for causing sufferings to other living beings. Figuratively, the Aryans see the material world as a prison designated for envious souls. One way or another, this concept is supported by all religious movements.

There is one more question to be answered. What determines unequal birth conditions of all living beings? How to explain that one is born rich, another is born poor, another is healthy and another is ill and so on? The answer on this question is given only by the reincarnation concept. By nature, jiva is eternal. Having descended to this material world, it stays here for a very long time, practically eternally. As the result of various activities it gains certain amount of reactions becoming the author of its own destiny. For instance, in this life we eat bodies of many animals and in next lives these animals will have the possibility to eat us. Thus, the rule “as you sow so you reap” is implemented, not within one life, but from life to life. The fact is that in practice we can often see that a person commits what is known as sins without any punishment. The secret that lies beneath is that the punished for committed evil are all those who are born in poverty, born to bad parents, without opportunity to get education, who are ugly, have congenital diseases, who are under malicious state prosecution, etc. But that brings up the question: why cannot we remember our past lives? The answer should be found in the Lord’s noble nature. The Lord is merciful and He is not interested in artificial processes of jiva’s return to Him. Jiva itself is so much entangled in its efforts to take the Lord’s position by trying to predominate and enjoy that it is practically doomed to living in the material world forever. And yet, despite the amount of sufferings jiva does not stop wanting power and enjoyment, therefore it still desires to be in this world. To satisfy this desire, the factor of the memory loss about past lives is simply a must.

As an example, we can imagine that in the past life one was a man and he was very attached to women. Attached so much that at the time of death he was thinking about them. According to the reincarnation law, in the next life he will be born in the body of a woman. And now imagine that in the woman’s body one remembers the past man’s life. Could it be possible with this memory be a sane woman? Therefore, the Lord arranged it so that a wise person who eyes are balmed with the Vedic knowledge can clearly see the reincarnation law, but an ignorant and attached to material existence person simply reaps the fruits of actions “enjoying” their good and bad consequences. The memory loss, thus, is necessary for us to peacefully enjoy these fruits. The presence of the memory would cast us in horror. Paralyzed by the memory, we would immediately strive back to God but at this point we would not have solved the paramount problem: the problem of envy. Then getting to the spiritual world and coming to ourselves, we would promptly repeat the same mistake and have to return to the material world again.

But God does not need our forced return and as long as we want to live without Him, He will create all conditions to fulfill this desire. That is why He helps us to forget our past lives for us to “peacefully” reap the fruits of our activities and “enjoy” all those things which we have deserved in our past lives. This path is as eternal as spiritual existence. The spiritual life is directed to eternal ascension and the material life to similarly eternal degradation. Once falling into this world, soul is so much entangled in causes and consequences of its activities, that there is no other hope of deliverance but the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His confident devotees. The hope which is like a helping hand given to a drowning man in the sea.

Therefore, to sum it up:

1)There is the spiritual world which is the dwelling of spiritual parcels and God. There everyone is eternal, blissful and knowledgeable. Eternity is the consequence of the uniformity with the Lord’s nature, the bliss is the association with Him by means of devotional service and the knowledge is His mercy.

2) Spiritual beings have always got a free choice. Envying the absolute position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or a more superior position of another jiva, some living beings express the desire to separate from Him in order to satisfy their desires, do justice instead of God. But because living beings are inherent parcels of God, such separation is not possible in fact. Being free from anger and envy, the Lord creates for such persons the material world where they get the opportunity to act according to their desires. In fact, the Aryans look at the material world as the evidence of the humble and generous nature of the Lord. The Lord creates this material world, places us here to fulfill our desires rejecting God and … “hides” from us in order not to stir our hatred.

3) Losing the visual presence of the Lord, a living being enthusiastically tries to realize its desires to enjoy and dominate. It does it by imitating relationships of the spiritual world. According to the Aryan philosophy, everything existing in the material world is only the perverted reflection of the spiritual world when we try to recreate spiritual relationships simply placing in the center ourselves not God. All beings who happen to be in the material world try to imitate God’s actions. The concept of God means the idea of uniqueness which is inherent only to the Absolute and One Truth. As long as there are too many beings willing to be God, there emerges the necessity of the sequence. Actually, time is the factor which puts on the queue all those willing to be God (the leader), so there appears the need of death (temporary), i.e. the sequence. Today the leader is me, tomorrow this opportunity will be given to you.

4) The material world is the prison of the spiritual world where envious and rebellious souls are placed. All laws applicable in the material world are intended to return us to our spiritual consciousness. Though the “punishment” enforced by God is very peculiar. He “punishes” us by granting all our desires. Our desires diverge from their spiritual harmony and thus are not able to bring us happiness we had in the spiritual world. Just to prove this truth, the Lord grants all our desires – desires fulfillment of which means violence against others with resulting sufferings. The original neutral material substance is called pradhana. Living beings come in contact with pradhana by their desires and as the result of this the material diversity appears. The material world is only the reflection of desires of all living beings existing in it.

5) Depending on the rudeness of consciousness, living beings in the material world are bound by three ropes (the gunas): ignorance, passion and goodness. These bonds are created by cause-effect relationships of actions of living beings, i.e. they form the time – the principle of the sequence.

6) Together with creation of the material world, the Lord takes care of our returning home, to the spiritual world. For this purpose, He gives inhabitants of material worlds the Vedas which contain the knowledge how to live happily in the material world and return back home to Godhead. Ones who follow instructions of the Vedas are called the Aryans (those going to God).

These are the general provisions of the Aryan theory. As said, the Vedas see that the most important psychological problem is the envy of the position of God and of other living beings in the spiritual world. This world where we all live is meant to solve this problem. This is the Aryan’s answer on the question: “Where does life come from and what is its meaning?”

A living being comes to this world to realize its desire to make decisions and independently enjoy in God’s capacity. In reality, it cannot be independent as it is the eternal inseparable parcel of God and is eternally dependent on Him. After leaving the spiritual world, this dependence is shown as the dependence on the material nature. The energy supplying living beings with all necessary things is called yoga-maya. When a living being does not want to associate with God, this energy covers consciousness of a living being with ignorance and creates the apparent independence imitating the semblant separation from God. The energy having this function is called maha-maya. It shows things that are not real but that we want to see, that is our independence from God. This is the transformation of the same energy, yoga-maya. While yoga-maya is the energy acting to give pleasure by revealing us more and more the sublime and attractive nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, maha-maya deceives, i.e. moves away from God and educates by means of sufferings.

Further we will see how the Aryans describe the laws applicable in the material world. The principle function of the material world is to correct the wrong desire of a living being to function as God (to control, dominate and enjoy). Any time when we try to realize the principle of our independence, the material world acts so as to prove how we are dependent as we are insignificantly small. Most insignificantly a living being feels under the influence of time (death). For an eternal spiritual parcel, there is no other more humiliating situation than to accept the necessity of destruction (death). Thousands and millions of people dreamt and tried to overcome the influence of time (death), but in due time death knocked at their doors regardless of their desires and plans.

The material world is described as the liaison world of the three gunas of nature (bonds of attachment and hatred). The nature obeys cause-effect laws. The spiritual world obeys the parallel law, there is no time factor there. In other words, there is always the present time there, where any event exists eternally. This is so because the spiritual consciousness never treats any one so that a reaction would be needed. For the unprepared reader this subject is very serious and difficult to understand. The material world obeys the law of sequence (the queue) as here contradictory desires should be realized. Such desires could not be fulfilled simultaneously. We all want to be God, but God is only one, therefore there is the need for the queue: today I have the chance to be God (the controller), tomorrow someone else will have it. Therefore, there is no present time here. Only the past and the future exist in the material world. The old has gone like the water running through fingers.

In the spiritual world, living beings show attachment to other beings and God. There such attachment is the source of bliss as it is addressed to perfect personalities. While in the material world, a living being remembers that the attachment was the source of the infinite bliss and tries to feel the bliss here by attachment to different personalities. But in the material world consciousness of all living beings is contaminated. This contamination makes them imperfect, but an imperfect personality from its inception is not able to give happiness. Soul cannot get rid of its ability to develop attachments. In fact, soul can never get rid of its nature of eternity, enjoyment and knowledge. In the spiritual world, all living beings associate with each other and the Lord. This association brings happiness. We subconsciously “remember” this happiness and remember that we got it via association. In the material world, this attachment trait puts us on the spot. The Bhagavad-Gita describes this process as follows (chapter 2, verses 62, 63):

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.

Thus, the material absorption starts with the misuse of our ability for attachment. Happiness of soul is infinitely dependent on its relations with the Lord. This very inclination to associate causes sufferings to conditioned persons with material consciousness. Egocentric material consciousness makes a person lose the spiritual perfection. In the material world, a person can be attracted by another person but in the process of association it is doomed for а disappointment. Indeed, any time when we look for happiness in association, we want to experience that feeling which we had in the spiritual world associating with the Lord and His devotees. Dissatisfaction which appears as the result of imperfect association degrades to violence via which we want by all means to get that spiritual enjoyment which we remember of. This state is like certain madness when we take someone by the scruff of the neck and say, “Give me happiness, hear me? Give it, just as you choose! Ah, do not you give it? Well, then take that! And that!", and there starts the chain of violence. While a conditioned living being has some hopes for happiness, it flatters, but when it loses the hope, it “goes beast-mode” when it is under the influence of ignorance; or becomes a philosopher if it is under the influence of goodness. In the material world, a living being gets entangled as it develops incorrect attachments and as a consequence becomes disappointed. This is what the material world is for, for us at every step to realize a simple truth: happiness came to us only from association with the Lord and His devotees. Although not all living beings come to this conclusion when disappointment or suffering (which is the same) knocks at the door. Personal attitude to suffering depends on which condition (the guna) one is under. Here we will try to briefly and easily explain the Aryan view point on cause-and-effect relationships functioning in the material world. Cause-and-effect relationships of the material world are called gunas. The guna means the rope. The guna, thus, is that law with which the material world ties us to the particular cause-and-effect mechanism of the nature according to our merits. To begin with, all living beings in this world have got four defects:

1)Imperfect senses.

2)The tendency to commit mistakes.

3)The tendency to cheat.

4)The tendency to be illusioned (be ignorant).

Our intelligence is imperfect. This is an unquestionable fact. Anyone based on intelligence can understand only part of the truth. One-sided perception of the truth cannot fully reflect it all and so a person based on own intelligence cannot make right decisions. We draw the special attention to intelligence as intelligence is the principal sense. The intelligence can be said to be the reservoir of our beliefs. The system of values available by it has spurs on to one or another action. As for other senses, the Aryans specify the two following levels of them:

1)Gross senses: the eyes (vision), nose (smell), ears (sound), tongue (taste), skin (touch). These five are called sense perceptions. There are also working senses: hands, legs, anus and genitals.

2)Subtle senses: mind, intelligence, false-self (“false ego”).

Gross senses serve to form perceptions of the material world and of objects of sensory pleasures which exist there. Gross senses do not qualify the information. They are just its indifferent conductors. This is evidenced by the fact that the same information has got a different value for different beings. For instance, a pig finds feces tasteful but for a human it is something disgusting. It means that acceptability of the information does not depend on senses but on preferences of the certain personality, therefore subtle senses are of more crucial significance.

Mind. Mind has got five functions: to desire (want, do not want) (1), to feel (2), to think (3), to plan (4), to regret (5). A person communicates with the external world with these functions. The first and deciding function is to desire. Mind causes sense organs to contact with one or another material object according to its desires. To fulfill its desires, mind starts planning (dreaming). If plans (dreams) fail, it regrets or grieves. Grieving, therefore, is the function of the past, desiring is of the present and planning is of the future. Senses executing orders of mind contact with certain objects of the material world. Mind decides to what extent this object meets its desires. When mind has made its choice, the game is started by intelligence which is the most important element.

Intelligence. Intelligence has also got five functions: correct understanding (1), doubt (2), incorrect understanding (3), sleep (rest) (4), memory (5). Intelligence develops correct understanding only when it is based on the Vedas. The Vedas are God’s opinion on all of the issues related both to the material and spiritual worlds. The Aryans are very humble and modest personalities and they, thus, do not trust their experience and intelligence and refer with all issues to God. To defer to His opinion, one should know Him well. It is remarkable that the dominating belief in the Aryans’ society was that God never leaves living beings without His care in any matter. Indeed, we can find that practically for any matter the Vedas have got the respective sections with the comprehensive knowledge presented. The main idea is that an imperfect living being cannot create a perfect knowledge. Such knowledge can be given only by the One Who has created all these because only He or the one authorized by Him perfectly knows how He has done it. The Aryans, therefore, made great efforts to put intelligence of all members of society from the very childhood under control of the Vedas. Such dependence ensured noble human qualities which were very important for the Aryan society. The knowledge which was not based on the Vedas was considered incorrect. At first glance it seems that such approach actually limits human capabilities to experience. But there arises the question: what is the pleasure of thinking unlimitedly free but equally unlimitedly wrong? The fact is that the Aryans knew how to bring up personalities with very noble qualities and developed intelligence. When we read about such personalities, from the position of our “development”, we can say only, “It is a fairy-tale. It cannot be true”. In this way we endorse our infirmity.

The other very important function of intelligence is doubt. When mind and senses present new information to intelligence, the latter meets it with the function of doubt. Further, to develop the correct understanding of the information received, it is necessary for intelligence to have the correct system of values. The Aryans, therefore, laid special emphasis on education. Education determines the system of values which enables to correctly accept or reject the information received, and a correct choice determines the whole life of a person. The quality of intelligence determines actions, the destiny, the place of stay after death. If consciousness is poorly armored, it becomes a toy in the hands of mind. Such personalities happen to be slaves of their tongue, stomach and genitals; they do not have any system of values except for satisfaction of the needs of their bodies. The Aryans did not accept such personalities in their society, they called them mlechkhas, yavanas, rakshasas, i.e. persons who were dependent on the dictate of senses being at the level just above animals.

In the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 15, text 15) Lord Krishna says:

I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.

For correct understanding of the Aryan civilization, this text is very important. When we understand the importance of knowledge (the system of values) for making society and try to make all members of society learned, we face an interesting phenomenon. People turn out to have different “perceptive apparatus”. The modern science cannot give reasons for or likely tries to explain this phenomenon with genetics. Here one can find the answer on this question. As already said, one of the backbones of the Aryan philosophy is the concept of reincarnation. We have mentioned this concept but have not given it enough consideration. In fact, this concept is the basis of the behavior of the Aryans. Now it is time to discuss it in more detail.

We have noted above, that there is no any other concept in the world but for the Aryans’ that answers the question: why living beings of the same form of life are born in different conditions. For instance, people are born in Russia but one is born in a rich family and another is born in a poor family, one is beautiful and another is not, etc. It is a very important point. The correct understanding of this aspect determines the correct direction of our efforts. What does the concept of reincarnation change when accepted? The most important thing – the object of accusation. When a source of problems is known, it is easy to find how to settle them and get rid of troubles. Usually when we are happy, we do not raise the question why we are happy, maybe we do not deserve this happiness? On the contrary, we always think that the destiny has finally estimated us according to our merits. But in trouble, we very often think that we have not deserved this suffering, why is it chasing us? When the concept of reincarnation is accepted, all these questions are removed from the agenda and become pointless. I exist. There exists the material world, my desires, efforts focused to fulfill these desires, sins made during this process. And there exists the Witness of my actions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who silently and patiently looks at what I do. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not responsible for pious or sinful actions of living beings. A person can be pious and get to heaven or can commit sins and go to hell. Based on personality’s actions, He decides who this personality will be in the next life, what will be his/her destiny, what body he/she will be born in, whom to be born with, what kind of children he/she will have or he/she will have no children. But all His decisions depend on this person. There exist I, He, my actions in this life and past lives, this world and eternity. Such mentality has a significant impact on the human’s behavior. This very behavior was the distinctive feature of the Aryans. They did not believe that they were eternal but they lived this way. Consequently, the idea of the eternity refers us to our own inner world to seek for reasons of our sufferings. It is not the escape from life as some incompetent people assume but the correct approach to it. Neither personality nor situation can accidentally come to our life. Everything what happens to us is the result of our pious or sinful activities in our past lives. We get consciousness in accordance with these activities. The level of consciousness acuity depends on memory and the memory is granted by God. He specifies the power of our consciousness in accordance with efforts and actions made in past lives.

Sleep (rest) is required for consciousness to remove the excess information collected during a day. The more one is concentrated on some topic, the less sleep is needed. Sleep is the aspect of the guna of ignorance. The more goodness affects a person, the better his/her consciousness performs. The guna of goodness is favorable for development of the true knowledge moving us closer to God. Thus, the system of values of consciousness is gained via upbringing. And the extent to which everything given by upbringing is perceived depends on the pious reserve coming from past lives. This perception allows us to accept or reject impulses received from our sense organs and mind. When acceptance or rejection has happened, there is the turn of the “false ego”.

“False ego”. “False ego” is a very interesting component. In fact, this is the very component with which the material world deceives the spiritual parcel. “False ego” means such consciousness by which an eternal soul identifies itself with a temporary material body. This consciousness by means of the concept of death brings soul the sense of fear. This very fear becomes the force driving actions of soul in this world. There starts the struggle for existence which is expressed as the belief in superiority of the own right for existence. Such belief allows a living being to keep its own life by the means of life of another living being without any feeling of guilt. The roughest occurrence of this mood is meat-eating. In the Aryan society, meat-eating was only attributed to members of lower social strata and only in the strict compliance with certain limitations. Those attached to uncontrolled meat-eating lived outside of the Aryan civilization and were considered uncivilized tribes. Identification with “false ego” divides all beings into well-wishers and enemies. Enemies are all those whose actions threaten our existence or pleasures, and friends are those who maintain our existence or pleasures. So living beings become slaves of desires and dislikes. This is the greatest problem for a conditioned soul. To solve this problem is the intention of all Aryan (like any other) philosophy. The Aryans understood that attachments (desires) and hatred (envy) would destroy in a personality in particular and in society in general the principle of justice. Therefore, the Vedas focus on the way how to solve this problem. Violation of the principle of justice leads to unjust sufferings and the subsequent desire for revenge.

In the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 3, Verse 36-37) Arjuna asks:

O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

And the answer is:

It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of all beings in this world.

The Vedas describe three gunas (modes) of the material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. Goodness is the preserving principle of this world, passion is the constructive principle and ignorance is the destructive power. The Universe is divided into three parts: higher (the place where pious persons live), middle (the place for those who are guided by desires) and lower (the place for those who deserve suffering only) planetary systems. Higher planetary systems are the home for demigods, the middle ones are for people and the lower ones are for demons. But this is a schematic description. Let us now see the internal structure of gunas.

The main guna of the material nature is passion (desires). All living beings communicate with the material world by their desires. There are two ways to fulfill desires: divine and demoniac. The divine method is applied by pious people who subordinate fulfillment of their desires to the Lord and following His instructions they achieve fulfillment of desires without troubling others. Demoniac persons always put hopes on their own strength. To raise possibilities to fulfill their desires, they develop science. Their only goal in life is sensory pleasures. To get pleasures they do not consider whom and how much trouble they give. Such “pleasures” are of extreme temporary nature and sure to bring to the material nature’s measures aiming to “break” in a person his/her tendency to violence. We think that this world has been created for our enjoyment. In fact, it has got only one function, the function of reeducation. Influenced by passion, people impelled by desires develop the attachment to fruitful activities. Such persons are very active. Uncontrolled senses push them to illegal activities. Regardless of sufferings and troubles giving to others, they are busy only satisfying their own desires. They always search for the ways to fulfill their desires. They create anxiety, suffering and disorder in society. At the beginning they hope for happiness and then suffer. The material world is the jail and its main function is to restore the deviated consciousness of a living being. In our zeal for happiness without God we must suffer until we understand that we are not able to find the recipe of this happiness. This function is never tiresome for the material nature. What helps to restore the deviated consciousness? First, it is willingness to be responsive to desires (needs) of other living beings; secondly, sympathetic attitude to their sufferings; and finally, acceptance of the own quantitative nothingness (as an eternally small fragmental part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and dependence. The first goal can be reached when a person understands that other living beings similarly look for happiness and avoid sufferings. This happens when a person suffers. By suffering, one understands what the other felt when he/she caused this suffering. And by being happy, one understands that the other did not want to lose it like he/she does not want to lose it now. When one understands the necessity not to cause others sufferings, he/she passes to a realization of a higher condition: not to hurt even after being hurt (the ability to forgive) and let others be happy when you are yourself unhappy. Such behavior is only possible when we understand that those who cause us sufferings and make us happy do not do it incidentally. There are some higher powers allowing us to do it in accordance with our deeds in past lives. This mindset lets us subordinate our existence and behavior to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Let us see the example from the life of the Aryans. Five thousand years ago on our planet there lived the family of the spiritually elevated Aryans, the Pandavas who were the children of King Pandu. They had one wife Draupadi. For modern people this fact would be difficult to accept. But this fact has got its own background. Young Draupadi worshiped demigods with some religious rituals with the aim to get a good husband. When demigods were satisfied, they appeared before the princess and asked what she needed. The confused princess repeated her request five times. Then demigods blessed her to have five pious husbands. When it was the time to select a fiancé, there was also Arjuna, the middle brother of the Pandavas among the aspirants. He won the contest. Having got the beautiful Draupadi as his wife he came home with her. Coming to his mother, he said, “Look, what treasure I’ve brought”. No turning back, Kunti answered her son, “Good for you, all that you have brought equally divide among your brothers”. Saying so, she looked back and saw Draupadi and the confused Arjuna. A problem ensued. For the Aryans their word had a special meaning. The mouth of mother Kunti had given the order that was meant to happen: Draupadi was to become the wife of five brothers. But Draupadi herself did not agree to it. All disputes in the Aryan society were settled by seeress brahmanas (priests). They could give an advice for any situation. The same thing was also done at that time. They cast Draupadi’s horoscope and said, “This girl worshiped demigods and was blessed by them to have five husbands. This was the decree of providence for this blessing to fulfill”. Everyone became quiet and Draupadui agreed to become the wife of the five Pandavas. Later she gave birth to five children from the brothers. When the war on the battlefield of Kurukshetra started (it was the bloodiest battle in the human history where religious and demonic persons confronted each other), the son of Pandava’s spiritual master beheaded Draupadi’s five sons while they were innocently asleep. Arjuna chased Ashvatthama and captured him. He brought the captive to the feet of the great Draupadi who was in the inexpressible grief and wanted to behead the offender. Mother Draupadi stopped her husband by saying, “He is the only son of his mother and I do not want her to feel the same pain like me”. This is the example of nobleness of the Aryans. In their practical life they showed great soul qualities which were based on the perception of the equality of all living beings in the face of sufferings and happiness. Nowadays the patience is called on when someone else has suffered and measures to revenge are taken when we ourselves have suffered.

For the human form of life, the Aryans highlighted the great meaning of devoutness. They thought that when suffering would knock our door, the destiny would treat us the same way as we treated those in suffering around us. The Bhagavad-Gita notes many times the importance of the attitude to sufferings and happiness of this material world. A commoner differs from a self-realized person by the attitude to these two aspects.

In life we often have to encounter sufferings of living beings. When we express our compassion to them, we gather the so called pious reserve which gives God the ground to be compassionate to us when it is our turn to suffer. A pious person is able to overcome the desire for revenge when suffering comes (and it is typically caused by other living beings) and to rise to the guna of goodness (that is when one gets the ability to forgive). This is how a person progresses. But if while satisfying passions one only enjoyed and ignored others’ suffering, then when he/she suffers, God does not ‘offer His hand” to him/her and the person degrades to the guna of ignorance by means of envy and anger and refers to violence in attempts to keep enjoying. Thus, devoutness (compassion, mercy) is the basis of advancement but uncontrollable pleasure of senses accompanied by arrogance, that is the callous attitude towards other living beings (including animals), is the basis of degradation.

In the material world a living being appears in a difficult situation. On the one hand, one wishes to enjoy independently from God, but on the other hand one has got the nature of His eternal servant, that is dependence. This contradiction is the underlying cause of all sufferings of a living being.

Caged in this material world, living beings choose methods of fulfillment of their desires and accordingly get under the influence of certain gunas. The Bhagavad-Gita describes gunas as cause-and-effect mechanisms of this world. As it has been said, the Aryans consider the material world the place where living beings try to fulfill their desires – to enjoy and prevail – independently from God. And they try to realize these two desires via the three modes. The most spiritually elevated persons get the power in order to enjoy a little by themselves and do few good things to others, those lower than them strive for power in order to enjoy and acquire wealth by using other living beings and persons with the lowest level of consciousness take away the power to abuse. How can all these be understood? It means that pious people are very attached to ethical principles and understand that only by means of such principles in this material world a relative quiet and prosperous life can be provided. By ethical principles the Aryans did not mean those principles which are set based on the history or the experience of some or other nation, but the principles which are set by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Such mindset is natural for people who accept existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, dependence on Him and who give special importance to His opinion. Pious persons are always focused on the Vedas (the art how to connect in different situations to the Lord and solve problems via Him) and their consciousness is enlightened by this knowledge. They understand well characteristics of the material world and know how to govern society for it to be happy as far it is possible in this world.

The basis of the activity of pious persons is the sense of duty, the external regulating force is honor and the ultimate goal is liberation. What does “the sense of duty is the activity basis” mean? When one is sure that he/she is the eternal spiritual parcel, he/she can easily understand all delusiveness of the connection with this world. From this point of view, one’s attitude to life and situations formed around the life is greatly different from the atheist’s attitude. When one knows his/her eternal nature and understands the reincarnation concept, such person becomes free from miserly thinking which is generated by the death (destruction) anxiety. The concept of our own eternity gives us the strength to sacrifice our one life without degradation of our virtues, if the life has not happened to be very successful from the point of view of material happiness and welfare. It is a very important mood and it is not be possible to be an Aryan without it. The atheist’s heart is filled with envy and the consecutive hatred which one starts to nourish to all people successful from the point of view of material welfare. The ultimate goal of an Aryan is to restore the spiritual consciousness. Such person has to solve various psychological problems which require а balanced condition. Such person understands that the more his/her behavior is instable and heedless, the more he/she will be entangled in material existence, in the cycle of birth and death. That is why, on the one hand, one tries not to have extra false attachments to temporary (from the point of view of soul) objects of sensory pleasures (as we can see it is the internal attitude); on the other hand, one sets a high value on the necessity to fulfill duties (the external behavior). Such person understands that it is not by mere chance that he/she has got into a certain situation and he/she tries to behave in a way so as not to attain such outcomes which could cause sufferings to him/herself and others. Activities of really virtuous people are based on their high conscience of their own duty. We need to highlight that the Aryan society was different from all other civilizations by its ability to bring up these very personalities. Nowadays the ability to bring up well-doers is also the main problem which people are trying to solve but to the best of our belief they have selected the incorrect route.

The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter 3, Verses 18-21) says:

A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his duties prescribed by the Vedas, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.

Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.

Even kings like Janaka and others attained the perfectional stage by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.

Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.

As we see, the determining factor in people’s upbringing was the example given by the leaders of society. Society can never be virtuous, if its leaders are not. Therefore, the Aryan society paid a great attention to the purity of religious figures and state leaders. The higher caste which a person belonged to was, the stricter requirements were applied to him/her in terms of qualities of this person. The least significant requirements were applied to commoners.

As said above, the external regulating principle of the Aryans’ behavior was their honor. This factor played a great role in the Aryan society. When Arjuna refused to fight, Krishna told him (the Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 2, Verses 31-36):

Considering your specific duty as a kshatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.

O Pārtha, happy are the kshatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets.

If, however, you do not perform your duty of good fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter.

People will always speak of your infamy, and for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death.

The great generals who have highly esteemed your name and fame will think that you have left the battlefield out of fear only, and thus they will consider you insignificant.

Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words and scorn your ability. What could be more painful for you?

These texts in fact give the component by which one can reach eternity in this material world. In the material world our eternity is the glory. A virtuous person understands that he/she does not possess independence in this world. We are connected with people by familial bonds and our glory is their honor and our disgrace is their dishonor. Upon a closer view, it can be seen that actually in human society honor plays a great role. The sense of dignity which is felt by a well-reputed person cannot be changed for anything. Good reputation makes the life of a person and his/her family comfortable. Honor, thus, in the Aryan society was more valuable than wealth. For the sake of honor, people without a moment of hesitation gave their lives. The most disgraceful act of the Aryans was so called “civil death”. This ceremony was very humiliating. In the Aryan society, honored men wore ancestral jewelry, grew long hair and moustache. When a man acted inappropriately in his position, he was taken off his jewelry, got bald-headed, got his moustache and eyebrows cut off. This ceremony was very difficult to pass through. Mostly such persons left the Aryan society and became members of less developed communities. Aborigines found these persons divine but in fact they were only human driftwoods of the Aryan society. It took only a little time for such outcasts to exhibit their vicious nature. As a rule, these persons mixed with natives and eventually completely lost their pious (Aryan) nature. But natives composed legends about them and handed them down from generation to generation. The Eastern wisdom tells, “The camel, even when dead, is the burden for seven donkeys”. Similarly, these persons even though they had been expelled from the Aryan society and could not fit to live in it, for those who lived outside the Aryan society were simply gods. There are many examples when such “fallen” Aryans came to some societies and impart to local aboriginal people the knowledge that they had got and became authoritative persons alongside with gods. In some cases such an event even became the basis for the whole civilization still in existence until now. We would avoid giving specific examples in order not to raise discontent of representatives of this civilization. The greater importance is placed on the positive attention to the values of the Aryan society than the necessity for an unprepared person to accept an unusual truth requiring historical evidences. We have mentioned it only for the purpose to note this very fact as we are interested only in the ethical value system of the Aryans. Therefore, please kindly forgive us dear readers that we have not proved the above said by examples.

What is the reason for loss of sublime qualities? It usually happens under the influence of pride or lust. The guna of goodness gives rise in a person a peculiar superiority complex and it is dangerous. If a person does not use the power of mind to overcome this superiority complex (pride), he/she becomes vulnerable. Pride or, in other words, contempt to other living beings makes a person cruel. Acts of cruelty cannot keep one under the influence of the guna of goodness. One’s heart is filled with improper amount of lust which triggers degradation. This happens because the material nature has got the educational function. Once a living being in the material world overestimates some fact, the nature acts in such a way so as to devaluate it. It is a very important secret when perceived it helps a person to be fixed on the guna of goodness. The pious activity starts from the self-control when one freely accepts instructions of the Vedas as regulating principles for behavior. If one uses happiness and enlightenment coming from the guna of goodness as the privilege and the chance to humiliate and despise others, he/she degrades.

Virtuous people understand that everybody wants to realize his/her desires. But they also understand that one should not be ruled only by animal instincts because one has got the intellect. Impious people use their intellect to achieve more “perfect” methods for fulfillment of their desires but pious people use it to get relief from the claws of material miseries and have successful ending of life in the human form. What did the Aryans consider as successful ending of life? They thought it was the successful performance of their duties in accordance with their social position and reaching a higher position in the next life. Aryans’ holy scriptures state that one who has lived the life in goodness after death will go to heavenly planets and live there enjoying justly from the viewpoint of a human life nearly eternally. Heavenly planets also are located in the material world, they are simply a place where there are born virtuous people, sages, ascetics, religious people who strive for piety (they are not transcendentalists who deal only with the divine, spiritual energy). They receive rather comfortable bodies which remain healthy for life, have various mystic powers (for instance, the ability to fly, to appear in any place, to dictate desires to others and affect others’ desires, to become lighter than a feather and heavier than a planet and so on), that means that demigods have such bodies which practically do not give them any trouble. The only suffering they have got is mental anxiety. Demons constantly claim possessions, positions and powers of demigods. For this reason demigods are sometimes concerned how to maintain all these. There are multiple descriptions coming from the remote past which point out that demigods visited our planet very often and even had children with earthly women. Generally, descriptions of such events are called epics, though it is not very clear to us why ancient scriptures known as the Old Testament are accepted as descriptions of true events but similar scriptures of other nations are considered epics. This violation of principles of equal acceptance of ancient scriptures does not contribute to uncovering the truth. Meanwhile, we only acknowledge that according to the Vedic scriptures the best of the Aryans were descendants of demigods from heavenly planets.

As for people who are under protection of the guna of goodness, it can be stated that knowledge, enlightenment, modesty, soundness, justice are the best jewels of the character of such persons.

This guna appears in consciousness from the moment when one understands that dependence on feelings leads only to suffering and chaos. It is very important to understand inevitability of suffering as a consequence of uncontrolled sensual pleasures. If a living being suffering from life to life simultaneously accumulates a reserve of virtuous activities, he/she is able to accept regulating principles of behavior. This system of principles is called varnashrama-dharma. It is the basis of the social order of the Aryan society, but when misunderstood and applied incorrectly, it forms the unjust caste system of privileges and humiliation. This happens because of the wrong perception of internal values of the Aryans when there are only attempts to imitate external form of behavior. In such case in the value system of the Aryans there appear components of passion (the desire to use the system to affirm one’s own superiority) and ignorance (the system is used to apply force) which will turn it (varnashrama-dharma) into a source of suffering for those whose position is lower. And sooner or later suffering leads to rebellion which as a rule ends up breaking the system. The basis of varnashrama-dharma is knowledge and development ways given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead for harmless existence in this world and its goal is to satisfy this very Personality. That is, the Aryans were well aware that without religion there would be no piety or virtue. But by “religion” they meant the desire to satisfy the Lord. The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter 17, Verse 2) says:

According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kinds-goodness, passion or ignorance.

Depending on the type of the developed faith, a living being goes to the respective region of the material Universe. Ones who worshiped demigods (worship in the guna of goodness) would go to heavenly planets. Those who worshiped demons (worship in the guna of passion) would go to middle planets, those who worshiped ghosts (worship in the guna of ignorance) would go to hell. And those who served the Lord (but did not try to “use” Him) would raise to the Lord’s abode.

The Vedas only provide connection between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His immediate surroundings. The guna of goodness, therefore, serves as a serious platform for restoration of the communication culture present in the spiritual world. The key mood is the sense of duty, the ability to be responsive to wishes of other living beings and patient while suffering.

The material world includes three types of anxiety (suffering):

1)Anxiety (suffering) that comes from body and mind. Various congenital diseases, infirmities, unfulfilled desires.

2)Anxiety (suffering) that comes from other living beings. During our material existence we meet different living beings. They can be envious living beings under the influence of ignorance, violently inclined for the sake of fulfillment of their desires, or just wild animals and so on.

3)Anxiety (suffering) that comes from natural disasters. Floods, earthquakes, tsunami, volcano, twisters and other phenomena.

We are doomed to contact with these types of sufferings during all our material existence. Virtuous people know that sufferings that come from nature take place due to violation of nature laws. For instance, during the Vedic period people knew that weather depended on satisfaction of demigods. Priests made different sacrifices for their satisfaction, that is why even the weather was known beforehand for the whole year. If some deviations happened from the expected plan, people understood that priests and the king had not been able to satisfy demigods. Sacrifices play a great role in the guna of goodness. Through them the Aryans contacted with demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The guna of goodness is mainly the guna of demigods, but when the Aryan civilization was present, goodness also prevailed on our planet and people developed qualities and strength worth of demigods. There are plenty descriptions of splendid victories of the Aryans over demigods in consequence of which the latter endued the Aryan warriors with their divine weapon and blessings.

Piety, therefore, is the main guna of the Aryans. Attachment to duty fulfillment was raised from childhood. And the wish fulfillment technique was sacrifice made by priests (brahmanas).

Virtue supposes strictly regulated behavior. That is why at first it requires efforts and then rewards with happiness. Truly virtuous persons distinguish well religiosity from irreligiousness. They know well that religious are not the ones who show compassion to improvement of the material welfare of living beings, but those who are free from the impact of material concepts, who have felt the taste of liberation and eternity and are capable to guide all those who are willing to go this way by showing compassion only to the need of soul. That is, they address a person to such activities which do not refer to mundane values, whether be it a beloved one, a child, family, nation or others. All kind of material situations were considered by the Aryans temporary and problematic. The Bhagavad-Gita teachings start from this very point. The Pandava brothers were involved in a large-scale war. On the surface, it seemed they had to fight for the sake of the power. King Pandu had to die, he left the kingdom to his blind brother and went to the forest for self-improvement. He had five sons. The condition was that Pandu’s brother was to reign till the adulthood of his sons. When it came time, Pandu’s brother refused to hand over the power to its real owners. He started intrigues in order to kill his nephews and hand over the power to his sons. Krishna interfered in the situation and His opinion was deciding. When all diplomatic methods of settlement of the conflict were exhausted, Krishna arranged the war in the consequence of which according to His intention its participants had to die. Everybody except for the Pandavas. And now there is the battle field. Pandu’s middle son, Arjuna, in his chariot is preparing for the battle. Krishna does not take part in the fight. He has sworn not to take weapons in His arms. Even from the material point of view, He was so powerful that the party which He would fight for would have won. To avoid causing the unbalance, He decided not to fight but He took the place of the charioteer of His friend Arjuna. When before the battle Arjuna saw his teachers (whom he adored and who wanted him to win despite their necessity to fight against him as his enemies), brothers, relatives and other folks, his firmness was shaken. He wanted to refuse fighting and lay down his arms. He did not see the sense in the battle. He was ready to concede the kingdom to his cousin brothers and become an anchoret. His arguments were very interesting. The principal point was that he doubted: if there was any sense in taking the sin of killing so many people upon himself for the purpose of gaining the power? And his answer to himself was “no”. For Arjuna it was important that his actions should be right. He did not state that he had got such a number of valuable ideas by which the prosperity of the country could be achieved (though it was the absolute truth) and for the sake of which it was worth to sacrifice human lives, but he placed great importance on that price which should be paid for it. In that case, Arjuna found this price unacceptable and he refused to fight surrendering to Krishna with the hope to get His advice how to correctly come out of the existing situation. And Krishna answered. This answer became the most abstruse instruction for our epoch providing liberation to all who want it.

Everything which seems important to us has no value from the point of view of the eternal soul. Krishna explained to Arjuna that one who understood the nature of soul would be never indulged in the influence of desires (attachments) and hatred (envy). The key mood in this world should be patience. There is a more sublime condition than serving material values. This condition restores the spiritual consciousness of a living being and affirms one’s spiritual bliss which lies in serving the interests of the Lord. What are His interests? Restore the harmony with the Lord through revival of the spiritual consciousness of all living beings who are materially captive. Those who try to use religion to fulfill their material desires are only virtues people and those who use religion to restore their spiritual relationships with and satisfaction of the Lord, are transcendentalists and have already nothing in common with this material world full of miseries. On the surface, it seemed that Arjuna had good feelings. But when Krishna expressed His opinion, it became clear that Arjuna’s arguments referred only to the material compassion and respectively they were limited by material values but the intended purpose of religion is to end the material existence of a living being.

We have presented these all in order to show the difference between piety and transcendence (the true religiosity). The common religiosity, in the initial stage, aims to affirm a person in piety by following the system of religious prohibitions and incentives. And the second stage of religiosity pursues the aim to remove a person from material existence and restore his/her spiritual memory. This level of transcendence played a significant role in life of the Aryans.

We highly appreciate our various attachments to other living beings. Parents, beloved ones, pets, friends, business partners, children, nation, motherland – this is the incomplete list of those values for the sake of which we do good or evil deeds often sacrificing ourselves or devoting them all our lives. Influenced by illusion, indulged in temporary values and serving them, we forget the certainty of death. Once the greatest Aryan king Yudhishthira met the incarnation of the religion Dharma and answered his questions. One question was very interesting. He asked, “What is the most wonderful thing in this world?” King Yudhishthira answered, “The most wonderful thing is that all people see that all die but everybody lives in such a way as if they were to live forever”. Soul perceives it is eternal because it is indeed so. The material mind influenced by soul acts in such a way as if a material body was eternal. Dreams, plans, regrets and sorrows under the influence of mind are our typical conditions. The Bhagavad-Gita considers all these processes of mind as our most dangerous enemies. In fact, egocentric desires of mind are the flow of time. By desires of mind, a living being activates the latent material energy and creates different situations. If one manages to stop this activity of mind, this person is not influenced by the time anymore and becomes a liberated person. The more we try to use this world to oppress other living beings, the more suffering we get. The world seeks the equilibrium (that is to restore the spiritual atmosphere). One who breaks this equilibrium provides the basis for appearance of the counteractive force and it is only the matter of time for this force to appear. That is why virtuous people make efforts to balance fulfillment of own desires and desires of other living beings. Such efforts create an atmosphere of total peace when a person can ensure the right course of life.

The main characteristics of the guna of passion are out-of-control desires. This is the very central mood of this world – to see the world as the source of sensual pleasures and make more and more efforts to get them. The Vedas call such people mudhas, that is, pardon us, donkeys. Customarily, to make a donkey walk faster, a rod is tied to the donkey collar with some carrots and grass. Seeing food in front of its eyes, a donkey starts to walk faster with the hope to get the food but the food remains at the same distance, a donkey tries to get the food but in fact it carries the cargo faster. With our common negative attitude to a donkey, this comparison is not pleasant for us but this example clearly reflects the reality. Therefore, not aiming to offend the dear reader, we would propose to look at this as the most accurate example of the psychology of living beings in the material world.

In the material world all objects are imperfect, but we approach them in accordance with our memory about the spiritual reality where all objects are perfect and any contact with them gives pleasure. Thus, in the material world we also approach all objects with the hope to find happiness (same like a donkey hopes to reach food). When finally the contact with the object happens, it begins to expose its deficiencies and then we see that happiness has remained at the same distance as before when we had reached this object. Sensible persons understand it well and therefore as a rule they are more pragmatic. More sensual persons get disappointed and suffer from the dissatisfied longing for perfection. With this, we usually expect perfection from others (this is that very real demonstration of the memory of the perfection of the Lord). One can notice that pragmatic persons as a rule are more successful in material aspects. Why is it so? Because they do not overestimate any material occurrence and only try to enjoy the material energy insofar as it can give “pleasure” and ideally adapt to the imperfection of the material world. Such attitude is a good basis to avoid the necessity for the material world to “break” the overestimated system of values. Any aspect (either a woman, a man, a child, a family, humanity or other) if overestimated by us becomes the source of our sufferings.

The Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 2, verse 57) says:

In his material world one who remains unattached under all conditions, and is neither delighted by good fortune nor dejected by tribulation, he is a sage with perfect knowledge.

In this, the word “dejected by” is presented by “dveshti” which means envy. The latter is the main mood of people in the guna of passion: neglecting others’ sufferings when happy and being envious while suffering.

We have already mentioned that the Aryans considered that the foremost problem of living beings in the material world was their misuse of their ability to become attached. This very inclination makes the basis of the guna of passion. Sensual pleasures, the flow of desires constantly heard in our mind: want to be beautiful, do not want to become old, want to be the strongest, want to be the richest, want to be a president or a movie star, want everyone to love me, want, want, want, all these various “wants” are the basis of our behavior. If in goodness one uses his/her position to protect others and agrees to follow divine rules to satisfy desires, in the guna of passion the situation is quite different. Notice that the guna of passion is usually not God-centered. Here one is ruled only by endeavors to satisfy own desires. The modern civilization develops under the influence of this very guna. Even if people in the guna of passion approach the Lord, they do it only to satisfy their desires. The consciousness of such people thinks that even the Lord is supposed only to serve them. If a virtuous person tries to coordinate desires with requirements of the Lord, a person influenced by passion is guided only by fulfillment of own desires. Behavior of such people is very chaotic. This happens because based on their opinion they try to regulate their lives and the life of society.

Lust (endless desires) pushes a person to a very vigorous activity. This activity very often evades the Laws of the Lord. Influenced by passion, a person makes laws for others and always foresees back channels for him/herself. The main desire of such people is to get the pleasure from everything surrounding him/her, be it a cheerful conversation, wealth, sensual pleasures and others. The axis of their activity is sexual pleasure. With this, sexual pleasure does not mean only sexual relationships literally, but also everything providing them. Absorption in these pleasures makes problems.

In the Vedas there is one story which clearly describes the attempts to solve problems by satisfying needs. In a small hut there lived one yogi (a person who tries to reach perfection in self-realization through physical and breathing exercises). A mouse intruded into his hut and started to distract him from meditation process (mind concentration). Once he met a friend and complained to him. The friend advised to get a cat which could catch the mouse. The yogi did as said. After a while he met the friend again. The friend inquired about his things. The yogi complained that then the cat mewed all day long in his ears asking for milk. The friend advised to get a cow. The yogi did as said. But the care for the cow took much time, then the friend advised to bring a wife who would take care of the cow. The yogi, thus, got married. Soon the wife gave birth to children and the yogi left his practice and immersed in activities to support them. One day sitting on the porch he thought, “I’d rather have tolerated the mouse’. This is a good example showing which circle of activity one will get trying to solve problems by satisfying needs.

Passion, therefore, is based on envy and lust and “grants” temporary pleasures and constant worries and miseries. In this guna one cannot distinguish religiosity from irreligiosity because he/she does not see any difference between them. For such person all living beings are simply different material bodies with the need for food, rest, sex and self-defense and that is why any talks about perfection are not serious.

The guna of ignorance is based on illusion. This guna leads to violence, madness, laziness. This is the guna of people who reject any behavior restrictions (ethics). Violence, stubbornness, rudeness, habits to hurt others, vengefulness arising from self-righteousness is the short list of the qualities of people influenced by this guna. If the intellect in the guna of goodness distinguishes well religiosity from irreligiosity, the truth from a lie, and in the guna of passion the intellect does not distinguish these, then the intellect in the guna of ignorance is confident that it is right though it takes irreligiosity for religiosity, a lie for the truth and so on. This is the type of existence when the truth is hidden from a living being to the uttermost. The most typical specimens of this type are animals.

The Bhagavad-Gita sees lust (desires) as the most important defect and the state of a living being is defined by its availability. A virtuous person satisfies “innocent” desires and keeps those desires which can cause inconveniences to others. A passionate person looks for ways to satisfy all desires. An ignorant person without a second thought satisfies desires using violence. A virtuous person follows godly laws, a lustful person considers in his/her actions opinions of necessary people, an ignorant person just do what he/she wants not keeping with any law. Thus, a virtuous person builds a God-centered society, a lustful person builds a secular or pseudo-religious society and an ignorant person builds an atheistic or demonic society. A virtuous person likes to follow the laws of the Lord, a lustful person likes to use the Lord for satisfaction of desires and an ignorant person simply does not believe in His existence and acts as he/she wants to.

According to the Aryan philosophy, respectively, virtuous persons on death go to heavenly planets awarded by the highest material pleasures. With the “help” of these pleasures, they burn the piety reserve and return again to the middle planets (like the Earth) to proceed with their material existence.

Those in the guna of passion are born on the middle planets like ours in order to be able to “build their future” by means of a vigorous activity. And ignorant persons are born on hellish planets. Having passed through the purgatory, they are born on middle planets in the animal world and going from life to life through the evolution process are born again in the human form of life.

Speaking mathematically, the truth is similar to the sequence of natural numbers, where minus infinity is a form of life under the influence of the guna of ignorance and violence reigns there. Rudeness, unwillingness to consider others, rejection of other ways of thinking, enforcement of own way of thinking, enjoyment of violence, causing others’ sufferings for the sake of power is the incomplete list of qualities inherent to such people. From the influence of this guna, animals get away by evolution from life to life passing away different forms of animal life up to the human form and people get away by a more elevated communication. This way they get to the guna of passion. The guna of passion appears in the vigorous activity, various desires, satisfaction of needs of the tongue (want delicious food), the stomach (want much food) and genitals (want physical intimacy with the opposite sex). Hunger for love, pursuit of passion, need for wealth, envy, arrogance, contempt, intrigues are the qualities inherent for people living in the guna of passion. The initial dream eventually becomes a misery. As the result of miseries via envy and anger a person descends to violence, that is the guna of ignorance. With the same miseries, a person via compassion (do not want the other to suffer like me) goes up to the virtuous state. Virtue (piety) is based on the sense of duty and knowledge (wisdom). Patience, care, compassion, reasonableness, purity, good morals (decency), justice are the qualities inherent in this guna. Development of these qualities first requires efforts (internal work, especially to learn to consider others) and then they bring happiness. In the material world this is the elevated condition ensuring a quiet life. Degradation from this condition to the state of passion happens via the sense of superiority (to the point of contempt).

Realizing worldliness, a person in piety starts to strive for liberation. The basis of liberation is the realization of one’s spiritual self. Oppressed by the material world, soul gets a great pleasure realizing that in fact it is eternal. When one perceives that he/she is an inherent parcel of the Lord, he/she enjoys the own eternal nature but it is not yet in the position to accept the Lord’s will. Actually, this is a condition when one is free from the material world but without the access to the spiritual world yet, the “zero” state which is called “liberation”. At this level, the material sense organs and mind are passivated but spiritual senses have not been activated yet.

The next stage is when the all-pervading and all-controlling aspect of the Lord is realized. At this stage, soul restores its knowledge and the resultant feeling of respect and fear of the Lord. One sees everything depending on the Supreme Personality of Godhead and realizes His power and capabilities. The next stage is to overcome the feelings of worshiping and respect and restore close relationships with Him which can be only by means of the devotional service to the Lord. At this stage, a living being perfectly restores the entire nature (eternity, knowledge and most importantly fullness with bliss). This is the way to the infinite bliss the nature of which cannot be understood by our poor material intellect. A living being through the Lord’s mercy restores the relationships with Him; and His beauty, perfection, pleasure of communication with Him again and again grant us with happiness with no limits.

We have outlined the philosophic concept of the Aryans. It should be noted that each feature of this concept can become a topic of a comprehensive book. Not aiming to reveal the Aryans’ philosophy in depth and to give arguments which could support this concept, we have limited ourselves just to the sufficient description of their world view. Though, it should be mentioned that for a thoughtful reader the given information contains rather deep secrets of psychology. One who possesses this secret can become an Aryan him/herself and make the same anyone with who he/she gets in contact.

In order to return from the material world to the spiritual world, the Aryan literature provides four ways which are called karma-yoga, gyana-yoga, dhyana-yoga and bhakti. The word “yoga” means the union with the Lord. The processes uniting with the Lord are, respectively, actions, mind, intelligence and emotionality (soul). Karma means actions. This is the process when one tries not to control senses but to satisfy them with religious methods, in other words, this way is to unite with the through actions. Alternatively, karma-yoga is called varnashrama-dharma which is the social system regulating behavior of an Aryan. Living in the system of varnashrama-dharma, one finally comes to renouncement. At this level one is based on the knowledge and tries to control desires refusing to communicate with objects of sensual pleasures. This process is called gyana-yoga. When a yogi has attained perfection in renouncement and sitting in one pose he focuses the mind on the Lord it is called the process of dhyana-yoga. But all these processes ultimately do not solve the main problem. Soul gas got an active nature. In the material world this activity is misdirected. By subordinating activities arising from the active nature of the soul to the laws of varnashrama-dharma, one regulates activities but misdirected desires still remain. With the help of gyana-yoga one restrains material desires but then the active nature of soul remains unsatisfied. The active nature of soul is satisfied only with bhakti-yoga. This is the perfect system where both activities and desires attain the right direction through the devotional service to the Lord.