Читать книгу Aryans and We - Archi Devi Dasi (Ekmekchjan Adelaida) - Страница 4

The toughest problem of a human life is the desire to avoid reactions in response to free activities. One wants to behave freely and to be happy. But the material world has got the cause-and-effect structure and there works the law of respective reaction to certain activities. We do not always see how it works because it functions from life to life and appears in the form of destiny. Due to ignorance, one has got the impression that the law in force is: the one who is stronger wins, the one who wins enjoys. The Aryans prove the unfairness of this view by pointing at initially unequal conditions of existence which indicate the cause of their appearance in the past life. We make sinful and saintly deeds which make up the basis of our destiny in the future life. In general, this is the idea of destiny which can be explained only if the reincarnation concept is accepted. Otherwise, we have to accept that either conditions of our life are given to us incidentally (by the blind nature) or God, if He exists, is cruel and inexplicably gives such different starting conditions which doom one to a certain life. Some concepts suggest the idea of reactions for sins of the forefathers which cannot be accepted because it violates the principle of justice: the one who committed sins should suffer.

There is the contradiction between the blissful nature of an eternal soul and endeavors to satisfy it by violence (major or subtle). Ones who behave freely suffer next life from bad living conditions. Those willing to get rid of chains of miseries shall learn to consider other living beings. As mentioned above, for the Aryans the material world is the place of residence for those envious souls who cultivated the desire to enjoy and to rule without God. For these persons, the desire to act independently is practically insuperable. In the spiritual world, living beings naturally subordinate their desires to God’s wishes. Being the perfect Personality, He is capable of giving anyone everything that brings happiness. When actuated by endeavors to act independently, a living being starts the material existence,  initially it seems that one will be able to compel to his/her will the Lord’s energy called maya-shakti (as was already mentioned, this energy hides the existence of God). This energy, with any activity which is not connected with God’s will, acts in such a way that we would understand how much we are not able to control God’s energy  so that it would give us pleasure. Simultaneously, we get entangled in reactions of our activities which so far do not let us exit the material world.

The soul is blissful and finds no suffering acceptable. In the spiritual world, all desires of the soul are fulfilled but they are not fulfilled in the material world. In the material world, everything deviates from the truth and lacks harmony, is full of anxiety because of the contradiction between the nature of the soul and materia (a temporary body and the subsequent fear, power-hungry living beings and suffering resulting from competitiveness, ignorance and subsequent violence).

The soul is active and therefore it wants to communicate. Various desires are soul’s inherent nature. The spiritual body is eternal and that is why when interacting no living being can harm it. Spiritual communication is harmless for existence and therefore it is blissful. In the material world, the soul gets in a very difficult situation: to reach happiness, it seeks communication but a vulnerable body itself contains the danger of death (or suffering). This contradiction causes the need to divide all living beings into friends and enemies. Everyone who contributes to pleasures of a material body is a friend and those who may be dangerous for its existence are enemies.

Communication takes place on the basis of knowledge. Any communication includes knowledge, communication on the basis of this knowledge and the level of doer. Depending on which laws of nature these three components are, various types of communication appear:

1) communication full of goodness, bringing peace;

2) mixed communication, causing either joy or disappointment;

3) destroying communication, causing suffering.

Respectively, if one cultivates knowledge in goodness, then applying it during communication, such person certainly gets results of goodness. This is the endeavor of any individual, any society. However, the reality is much more difficult. It is the greatest problem to instate one on the platform of goodness (acquiescence). Material consciousness is egocentric and a temporary body is the guarantor of development of greed. Therefore, mostly doers are influenced by the laws of passion or ignorance. Such doer even if given the perfect knowledge or a correct activity will treat all these in accordance with the own performance level, i.e. in accordance with his/her desires. The material communication lacks harmony and this causes the need for patience which is absolutely alien to the soul. Spiritual communication is spontaneous, free and blissful as all spiritual beings are perfect and free from the desire of mutual exploitation. In the material world, these very jivas strive for superiority, hence exploitation. On the other hand, conditioned souls are of the imperfect nature and therefore any communication at first gives them some hope and then brings disappointment. One is given the possibility to rise to goodness just when such person appears to be able to endure this disappointment. Less reasonable persons try to search for another communication hoping to reach happiness. But reasonable persons realize that this problem is initially unsolvable in the material world. They understand that it does not matter (or to be exact it matters very little) with whom to communicate, all objects are imperfect anyway. Less reasonable persons at first think they have met some pleasant communication and then lose their temper because of faults. A wise person knows that everyone has got some faults and tries to rely on advantages (the principle of a bee collecting only nectar from all flowers) looking for good qualities in everyone and being forbearing toward deficiencies. This is the psychological condition which ensures the peaceful existence of all imperfects beings in the material world. But living beings want to enjoy. When consciousness is secular, namely self-centered, and one thinks that he/she lives only once, such person does not understand the reason for enduring. Such people are able to sacrifice everything for the sake of their own pleasure and then society is composed of lonely people where everyone looks for acceptable objects of sense pleasure. Such society is based on the race or competition in the struggle for the greatest sense pleasure. It seems to such person that he/she gets more pleasure when fighting for them. But the experience has shown that both success and defeat do not depend on the amount of effort. They depend on luck. And what is luck if it is not God’s will which is displayed in accordance with our merits?

Patience is the basis for communication of pious people, and society formed on such basis is called varnashrama-dharma. What does this term mean? Varnas are different social classes:

1) monks (priests) – brahmanas,

2) rulers and warrior – kshatriyas,

3) farmers and merchants – vayshyas,

4) laborers and servants – shudras.

Ashramas are also divided into four categories but they refer to different stages of life of the same individual. These stages are the following:

1) learning process – brahmacharya- ashram,

2) householder life – grihastha-ashram,

3) partial renunciation – vanaprastha-ashram,

4) full renunciation – sannyasa.

  1) Learning. The Aryan system started education at the age of five. In the process of learning, one received the Vedic system of values, studied the essence of the material nature and its structure, developed the deep knowledge of laws of gunas of the material nature and, mostly important, formed the correct impression of the meaning and value of life which later became the basis for patience. The knowledge was transferred verbally and carriers of any knowledge held a very high position in society.

  2) Householder life. Ahead of this stage of life, one carefully analyzed own desires. If the Vedic knowledge contributed to understanding the worldliness of this world, then right away a brahmachari accepted renunciation and the life style suitable for this stage. Such persons were called naishtiki brahmachari, i.e. ones who never ejaculated semen. These persons are special, strict, renounced and their meaning of life is only to comprehend the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and own relationships with Him. Naishtiki brahmacharis take sannyasa (renouncement). The presence of this ashram is very important for society. There are just very few renounced persons but they ensure the purity of the spiritual knowledge by means of their own realization. The spiritual knowledge at its highest level always assumes renunciation from this world and restoration of the spiritual consciousness. Very rare persons are able to follow this way till the end. A sannyasi is not the one who just reads spiritual literature, learns it by heart and declaims it before the unsuspecting public earning cheap glory. A sannyasi practices the spiritual knowledge in full renunciation from worldly fuss and really restores the lost connection with the Lord. Having proved the truth of the Vedic statements by own experience, sannyasis keep the spiritual knowledge without deviations. The purity of knowledge creates a real connection to the spiritual world, the connection which is the source of the strength of society. When society (nation) has no ascetics, it lacks the divine power and it is doomed to follow the path of sin, ignorance and suffering. Being sannyasi-conscious, the Aryans showed a special respectful attitude for them. The respectful attitude for all social classes was the characteristic feature of the Aryan society, but recanted persons were specially honored. When varnashrama-dharma is destroyed, there appear pseudo-recanted persons who are engaged only in “work” for their prosperity and glory hiding behind the recanted status. The great Aryan Bhaktivinoda told that there was nothing worse in this world than a religious hypocrite (a recanted person) who used that position only to get the material gain (money, fame, authority).

Ones who felt that during their learning period they could not overcome their material desires (both mind and body what is called claim rights) addressed the other stage of life, domestic (grihastha ashram). Regularities of this stage will be discussed separately. But meanwhile we can say that at this very stage there was effective the social structure arranged in accordance with individual’s qualities. The majority of society was composed of family people. All other ashramas were under the care of this ashrama.

3) Partial renunciation. At the age of fifty, religious figures and leaders left their families and went to the forest to get to self-realization. That allowed to keep society constantly in hands of young people protecting it from rigidity (conservatism). Though it has to be said that certain conservatism is always needed for society not to lose its achievements, but from time to time even scriptures are commented according to time and circumstances. The key truth does not change, but methods of its presentation can be modified. The ways to do it without any distortion are known only by very lofty recanted persons. At this stage a man started his renouncement. He left his social duties (retired) and started his self-knowledge far from his family but he would receive food from it while undergoing adaptation. At this stage, a man could take his wife with him.

4) Renunciation.Via partial renouncement, a man got used to ascetic life and became a pilgrim. Walking around holy places, he met saints and got spiritual knowledge from them. Recanted persons communicated with people of the worldly mindset only for preaching purposes. The luckiest among them met the Lord.

The Bhagavad-Gita presents characteristics of different components of activity which our happiness and suffering depend on (Chapter 18, verses 18-28):

Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action.

In accordance with the three modes of material nature, there are three kinds of knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them.

That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all existences, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the mode of goodness.

That knowledge by which a different type of living entity is seen to be dwelling in different bodies is knowledge in the mode of passion.

And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion-such unintelligent determination is in the mode of ignorance.

The regulated activity when done without any attachment, love or hatred or desire to get back anything is considered action in the guna of goodness.

Activity which requires many efforts aiming to fulfill own desires and dictated by the false ego, is called action in the guna of passion.

Activity caused by misbeliefs and in contradiction with instructions of holy scriptures without consideration of its enslaving consequences or activity with violence which cause suffering to other living beings is considered action in the guna of ignorance.

One who does one’s duty being free from influence of gunas of material nature and the false ego with great determination and enthusiasm, equally firm in success or misfortune acts in goodness.

If one is attached to activity and its results, spurred on the desire for enjoyment of one’s labor, being greedy, envious, impure, exposed to happiness and grief, he is said to be influenced by the guna of passion.

One who is constantly absorbed in activity which contradicts instructions of holy scriptures, being material and stubborn, cheating and constantly insulting others, lazy, all gloomy, postponing for the future, acts under the influence of the guna of ignorance.

Any cause-and-effect relation appears due to interaction of these factors: the knowledge, the known object and the knower.

The structure of society should be such that the above mentioned three factors would be in the guna of goodness. This is the only recipe for real prosperity of society. If any of these components “advances” towards the guna of goodness it “moves up” all the rest with it, and soon there appears the result in the form of happiness, prosperity, peace and so on. In fact, this knowledge is very comprehensive. Our aim is to show which particular regularities were considered by the Aryans for organization of their society. Everything begins from knowledge. As we have seen in the verses, goodness starts from awareness of the overall spiritual nature of all living things, consequently from the study of the relevant knowledge.

All problems arise from the point of view which makes us see the difference between living beings that hinders perception of their unity. The bodily concept makes to reject those who do not give us pleasure and seek for those with whom we can enjoy the world. This mood, in its turn, allows us to quietly kill those we hate and protect those we “love”. But perception of the uniform spiritual nature allows us to implement in practice the principle of justice. According to the above mentioned verses, when knowledge in goodness is developed, a person addresses regulating principles of behavior which control our sympathy and hatred (the basis of injustice). As a doer of activity, such person becomes resolute, exuberant and, mostly important, balanced in success and defeat. Such person is not proud (does no violence), when he/she wins (does not give rise to envy) and does not revenge when he/she loses (does not cause troubles).

Influenced by the guna of passion, a person differentiates living beings according to their bodies (not beautiful so not comfortable for pleasure, etc.). Under this condition, the basis for evaluation is pleasant/unpleasant people and whether happiness and grief, pleasures and danger are coming from these people. Such person is greedy, envious and impure (due to differentiation of living beings). Victory makes such person keep acting with great pains and defeat completely destroys the interest in activity. For purposes of society protection, such people cannot be relied on as their resolution is unstable. The main feature of a person in ignorance is that he/she considers his/her activity to be the only important thing. Such approach usually causes plenty of conflicts. Being doers, such personalities are materialistic, stubborn (in the negative meaning of this word), they like to resort to different types of force (for everyone to do what they want) and like to humiliate (give troubles). For the sake of their goal, they do not consider the amount of force they need to resort to and which suffering they cause to others. In society, such persons introduce the principle of the utmost injustice (a dictatorial regime).

Society is always composed of good, passionate and ignorant persons. Religious figures are truly full of goodness, rulers and warriors are of the mixed nature of goodness and passion, the mixture of passion and ignorance is inherent in merchants and producers and ignorance is inherent in servants and laborers. Accordingly, the first ones use their intelligence and control their senses; the second ones appeal either to intelligence or senses; the third ones appeal mainly to senses and sometimes to intelligence and the forth ones appeal to senses. And, respectively, they can be trusted certain types of activity. Advisors of society must be those who are strong in goodness. Protectors of society shall be persons who are of the passionate nature and like to act, but they are able to listen to advices and obey them. Producers shall be those who are apt to create material values and, thus, to money-making but at the same time they shall be ready to distribute accumulated wealth. And laborers and servants are those who lack the creative intelligence and can be only performers of someone’s will (constantly need guidance). These four types of people need each other. This need makes them cooperate for purposes of creating a harmonious society.

On the other hand, if people let themselves go (for the sake of enjoyment and power), then competition becomes the reason for a hard-fought battle. A person happens to accept cooperation and at the same time shows the mood of competition. This makes one’s life dangerous and full of anxiety with resulting suffering.

In the material world, a living being has got two forms of “egoism”. One is called concentrated egoism and the other is extended egoism. When a person fights for satisfaction of needs of own body and mind, such egoism is called concentrated. But when a person based on own attachments fights for well-being of the family, loved ones, members of society, nation and, finally, mankind, it is called the extended egoism. Any material activity is based on these two forms of egoism. When considering this fact from the point of view of the gunas of material nature, it can be said that those influenced by ignorance are interested in satisfaction of needs of their bodies and minds only. Those whose life is influenced by passion are interested in satisfaction of their needs and the needs of their loved ones. Those in goodness worry about well-being of society, nation and mankind in general.

Individual satisfaction depends on the external world and that is why one is in want of communication. Originally communication is the source of bliss of the soul. Bliss comes from the contact with perfect living beings, and in the spiritual world everyone is as such . Whatever our emotions might be, when we approach the Lord and His confidential servants, the result is the bliss only. In the material world, according to the principle of reflection, the emotional approach to any object causes many troubles, disappointments, tension and other negative feelings which are not inherent in the soul. This happens because of the imperfect consciousness of living beings in the material world. Expectations of sense pleasure, self-centered consciousness make communication devoid of bliss. In the spiritual world, the soul strives to satisfy everyone approaching it and in the material world it strives to satisfy the self using capabilities of other living beings. In the material world, therefore, there appears the need for regulating principles of behavior which are called the etiquette. This happens for the simple reason that material consciousness in the uncontrolled state strives to subdue everyone to its will. When all are obsessed with this desire, there appears the need for the “queue”. The Aryan philosophy states that the “queue” acts from life to life: today I’m a master – you are a servant, tomorrow it will be vice versa.

The low position or, in other words, bad destiny causes envy. The superior position or good destiny causes arrogance. This is the basis of all psychology of the material world. These two positions transfer human relationships to the field of enmity and humiliation. Psychology of a living being in the material world is the expression of the desire to be God and includes the aspiration for leaderiship battle and the inability to accept higher position of another individual. What does leaderiship provide? The pleasure to be the supreme enjoyer and ruler. And what is unwillingness to accept another’s position driven by? By the desire to be in his/her shoes. Those who reach leaderiship develop pride and “enjoy” the pleasure to dictate their will to others. Those who fail develop envy and hatred to lucky ones. If society does not follow certain rules of behavior, these two feelings will make society filled with violence and make people’s life impossible. When people are uncivilized, the natural selection law is in place where the strong oppress the weak. Subsequently, the weak understand that by uniting they can get the strength to overthrow the strong. The weak, therefore, try to unite and the strong do their best to prevent it. This happens when society is secular or pseudo-religious. According to the Aryan concept, humanity does not make progress but degrades from God-centered, and consequently from the civilized society, to society that has rejected God and, consequently, is uncivilized. This topic will be considered in the chapter “Epochs and Qualities Manifested in them”.

Material consciousness seeks for power and enjoyment; if no regulating principles of behavior are accepted, it gains the liberty to get desired things through violence. If behavior rules are accepted, they always focus to put envy and arrogance under control. A secular society solves this problem with the help of two ideologies:

1) Power and enjoyment belong to the elected and commoners are meant to serve the interests of elected ones. The basis of this concept is violence (a dictatorial regime which inevitably implies revolutions).

2) Power and enjoyment belong to the strong, gifted, skillful, rascals (depending on the social system) and are available to all those who are capable to take possession of them (“democratic” states which often change their leaders giving the possibility for many to enjoy the power).

Piousness contains the component of awakening the spiritual consciousness which is based on faith. With such consciousness, a person can quietly face the other’s superiority and when meeting such personality think that the Supreme Ruler had some grounds (past lives) to reward that person with one of the six opulences: beauty, noble birth, education, strength, wealth, renunciation.

The Aryan society was based on the guna of goodness and searched for satisfaction of needs of all members of society but since it was God-centered it subordinated such satisfaction to Lord’s satisfaction. When there is no any personality capable to focus everyone on the self due to unique qualities (God), the fight for sense pleasure gets started which excludes the principle of justice. A strong individual attains the power and then begins to use this position and power to keep it. The God-centered society has got very interesting specifics. In the secular society, the one who is in power loses fear and develops the mood of all-permissiveness. But the God-centered society due to the real communication with God does not let such mood be developed even by world rulers because everyone understands the dependence on God. Such consciousness significantly reduces the competitive spirit. People with the secular habit of mind destroy each other in this competitiveness, but to get the same result a God-centered person tries to be pleasant to God. To destroy rivals, vicious qualities are required but to satisfy God pious qualities are required. In one case a person tries to destroy all pious qualities to be able to withstand harsh laws of competitiveness and in the other case a person tries to destroy all vicious qualities to be able to appease the Lord. From the point of view of the attitude and the target, these positions are absolutely different.

In this world, the material body obliges everyone to solve the problems of existence (food), peace, reproduction and protection. There are two types of activity which ensure the settlement of problems of existence: subtle (activity of mind) and gross (activity of body). Activity of mind ensures knowledge. And on the basis of this knowledge activity of body ensures existence. Influenced by different gunas, people refer to different knowledge and, respectively, solve problems by different methods and get different results.

Animals solve these problems according to their bodies in which they have appeared using that very little intelligence that is given to them and being under the power of respective instincts. Instinct is God’s help to those living beings who lost the possibility to use their intelligence as the result of their sinful activity.

Humans are different from animals in the level of development of intelligence and the ability to have faith in God. In all other desires, humans and animals are alike. They want to exist, rest, be protected and reproduce, but unlike animals humans base themselves on intelligence. For existence they develop agricultural and industrial sectors, for rest they build homes (motherland), for protection they make weapons, for reproduction they amass riches. When these four types of activities are done with the intention to enjoy and have domination over the nature, society is secular, but when the same activity is done in compliance with religious principles and for the sake of achieving the highest objective of religiosity, society is called the Aryan or God-centered. This is the difference between a secular and God-centered society. A secular society is focused on the search for all kind of new methods of sense pleasure, but a God-centered (the Aryan) society is focused on application of principles of liberation from this world. The only goal of a secular and pseudo-religious society is sense pleasure.

A real religious society is based on understanding of the soul eternity, the connection with God, temporality of the material existence and it is quite differently oriented. In this context, the material world is perceived as a temporary place to stay where living conditions are not very important and, respectively, tolerable. Society in general and each individual are centered on the idea of liberation from this material captivity. This intention restrains their malign desires. Today people have gained the liberty to act sinfully and virtue has lost its significance. Virtuous people feel oppressed. People are glorified not for virtue but for the ability to please senses as perversely as possible. In the real religious society, vicious people feel constrained (reserved), but righteous people are free to be in their nature of goodness. Society cannot encourage vice and hope for pious results. Such hope is absurd. The truth is that the material world is created for habitation of vicious souls, but it is also the truth that here God offered codes of conduct which would help us overcome our vicious nature and return to the spiritual world, our eternal abode. The eternal nature of the soul (freedom from the fear of death) in the spiritual world is the guarantee of a peaceful life of all living beings. A spiritual body is eternal and no one wants to do harm to it and, most importantly, no one can do it. A temporary body contributes to maintaining the atmosphere of struggle for existence because everyone who wants to do harm can do it and the reincarnation concept makes it possible to realize the need to consider each other.

From birth, people are usually gifted with certain qualities. There are those who possess the ability for mental labor, others – for physical labor, others – for manufacture and trade and others should be under the guidance of more skilled persons as they have no creative capabilities but can realize others’ ideas at a very high level. When person’s mental abilities serve to satisfy the propensity for sense pleasure, such person is considered learned. When physical strength serves materialistic goals, a person starts abusing others, a nation does it with other nations in order to use others’ benefits and achievements for own interests. By means of power, they impose upon others their way of thinking. When creative power serves materialistic ideas, a person tries to impose upon others the own world perception which usually does not make anyone happy or solve any problems. When one is capable of simple work, such person tries to sell this work as dear as possible.

Any society faces the need to ensure the harmonious interaction of these capabilities of people. Harmony means the use of such mechanism which enables to control and if possible completely destroy arrogance of the strong (the propensity for humiliating the weak) and envy of the weak, their desire to make revolutions to destroy the strong and take their place. If society has got the mechanism which allows to solve this problem and at the same time to ensure people’s happiness both in this life and the next one, such society can be considered perfect. These problems cannot be solved by ordinary people because whoever they are they belong either to proud or envious men and, accordingly, protect interests of their group. Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead can affirm the principle of justice as He is unbiased. What is the nature of God’s equity? In fact, all living beings are God’s parcels and, respectively, are equally precious for Him. All other living beings are subject to cause-and-effect relationships of desire and hatred or sympathy and antipathy and therefore they are not able to be just. The Lord is the solely one who can cope with the need to develop mechanisms for satisfaction of those souls who have developed the desire of leaderiship (material consciousness) and at the same time to solve the problem how to restore the spiritual consciousness. According to the Aryan understanding, this is the main problem and the main difficulty.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna says (chapter 4, verse 13):

According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.

When a person (or society) suffers enough on the way to reach sense pleasure, one (or society) tries to accept certain regulating principles of behavior. This attempt already contains the component of virtue. From now on, a person is able to accept the system offered by the Lord which is intended for step-by-step sequential transformation from material to spiritual consciousness.

The above mentioned capabilities of people in society provide execution of four social functions. Mentally-developed persons are usually thought leaders of society. Ones with physical strength and strength of mind are its protectors. Producers ensure economic growth and laborers and servants help other social classes realize their ideas. Figuratively speaking, these four functions constitute different parts of one body and have their own terms in Sanskrit:

1) Intellectuals – religious figures (brahmanas) – the head.

2) Leaders-warriors (kshatriyas) – the arms.

3) Farmers-producers (vaishyas) – the belly.

4) Laborers-servants (shudras) – the legs.

No one can arrange functioning of society when neglecting these four classes. For harmonious functioning of society, there are required:

1) Intellectuals who advise and indicate ways of society development;

2) Producers (farmers) and merchants who create material values and provide food;

3) Laborers who do hard work;

4) Rulers who ensure the harmonious collaboration among these three classes and warriors who protect everyone from enemies from within and without.

As it is impossible to say which part of the body is more important, so it is impossible to say which social class is more important. Once the matter of priority rises, any system turns into the system of privileges and humiliation. Considering the psychology of persons influenced by the three gunas of material nature, it can be said that success of society depends on which guna persons carrying out these functions are influenced by. If, for instance, a person under the influence of ignorance executes duties of a counselor, society develops according to principles of violence and cruelty within the state and conducts an invasive foreign policy. If a counselor is influenced by the guna of passion, then such a person is sure to divide society into friends and enemies (clans). And if one is influenced by the guna of goodness, such a person will lead society to the overall equality and become the source of overall happiness (without creating unnecessary conflicts). People influenced by ignorance abridge people’s freedom because they think that only they have rights for enjoyment and domination over this world (dictatorial rulers). Those in the guna of passion lead society to freedom of senses (I can do what I want) for the sake of sense pleasure (democratic states). In goodness, moderation of senses is proposed for the sake of freedom from suffering and anxiety (the Aryan society). There is one more category of people, the Lord’s devotees, who suggest the freedom of senses but for the sake of the Lord’s satisfaction (inhabitants of the spiritual world).

While performing activity, as said above, the result achieved depends on the knowledge. Development of knowledge is the duty of brahmanas. Due to God-centered system, the Aryan society especially valued development of the spiritual knowledge as it is the basis for a person’s release from vice. Vicious persons cannot connect with the Lord. The Lord is the absolute purity and He does not contact with anything impure. The Aryan society was based on the Vedas which are composed of different parts discussing various material problems and specifying godly ways of their solution. The main idea is that all living beings depend on the Lord and have to satisfy Him or His representative to solve arising problems.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna says (Chapter 3, verses 10 and 15):

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna (sacrifice) because its performance will bestow upon you a life of ease and, eventually, liberation.

Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.

To satisfy the Lord, it is required to make sacrifices and for these sacrifices to be accepted pure persons are needed. These pure persons are brahmanas. The condition of society was dependent on their qualifications. Where qualified brahmanas live, God Himself lives. Brahmanas have got different qualifications. The simplest brahmanas were those who studied the karma-kanda section of the Vedas, lived a pure life and made sacrifices for fulfillment of material desires by religious methods. They were responsible for material prosperity of society and the minimal spiritual development.

Sacrifices were the axis of the activity of the Aryan society. Here the subject for a serious discussion is raised. In fact, the Vedic literature is full of descriptions of sacrifices; for a modern man their process and especially the results are unclear and unreliable. So, there is the need for the answer on the most important question: what was God-centeredness of the Aryan society based on? The answer on this question hides the difference between pseudo-religious and the Aryan societies. The Aryan literature is full of descriptions of meetings with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No any other ancient and even more modern literature contains detailed descriptions of the personality of Godhead, the demigods and other personalities coming to us from different planets. It seems so impossible that modern scientists declare such descriptions fiction or revaluation of really existing “lesser mortals” who had displayed some incredible capabilities and therefore were worshiped on the same basis as gods. On the one hand, the Vedic literature includes very serious knowledge and till now its secrets have remained inaccessible to modern scientists, philosophers and ordinary people. On the other hand, incredible events, from our view point, are described there. Such contradiction makes the Vedas something unclear for people with secular mind habits.

In order to look no fool, people try to select from the Vedic literature aspects which seem to them believable and clever and reject those things which look like a fiction. The chaos is created in which the final goal of the Vedas remains inaccessible to the majority except for those who study them under the guidance of a genuine spiritual master. The secret is the Vedas shall be conceived comprehensively for their intrinsic meaning to unfold. Otherwise, they cannot be applied but can only serve as the basis for different philosophic contentions. In fact, things in the Vedas which seem incredible are the results which one receives by following them. If one follows the principles described in the Vedas, such person really gets those results which are described by the Vedas and which seem incredible to us. In fact, if there are no such results, then there is no need to follow the Vedas.

If Vyasadeva (the author of the Vedas) was such a serious personality that he described the most innermost secrets both of the material and spiritual knowledge, then why at the same time would he describe events which make the Vedas look like fiction? If the person’s goal is to be accepted and to create a serious scripture, then what is the reason to fill this scripture with fictions or exaggerations which can be appropriate only for sentimental people and might also raise doubts in the minds of pragmatists? If the author is a serious person and his goal is to be useful, he will try to write about the truth acceptable for serious people. So what is the reason that Vyasadeva safely writes that demigods and God (Vishnu) personally attended the sacrificial arena, if they became satisfied? Why did Vyasadeva need this senseless fiction? Either he is a lying swindler and one who believes him is a fool or he tells the truth and then we must try to understand him. With regard to the author of such philosophic tractate as Vedanta-sutra it is not possible to apply the term “lying swindler”. All that is left is to accept descriptions of unaccustomed events as real and then we have to try to understand why these events took place in the past and do not happen now?

Any civilization leaves behind the descriptions of that reality in which it existed. Nowadays, for instance, the Lord never visits the planet and that is why there are no such descriptions. If even in one thousand years our descendants find the remains of the modern literature or scientific tractates, they will never contain description of God as in the modern life there are merely no contacts with God by representatives of various religions. The Hebrew book (the Old Testament) describes as some ascetics heard God’s voice or saw Him as the flame, but there are no descriptions of His personality anywhere. The Ancient Greeks communicated with demigods and respectively described such communication but there are no descriptions of communication with God because there was no such communication, the same was with the Egyptian civilization, etc.

When describing the social life especially referring to ways how to settle arising problems, the Aryan literature says that the Aryans tried to solve these problems with the help of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the demigods (aliens). There was the method by which the Aryans invited them to their planet and asked to resolve emerging problems. This method was the sacrifice. When it was accepted, the Lord together with the demigods visited the arena of sacrifice. What did Lord’s satisfaction depend on? First of all, it depended on the brahmanas’ qualifications. There was the requirement for their perfect purity, both external and internal. Secondly, there was the requirement for the purity of the environment and attributes offered to the Lord and the demigods. Gold is deemed to be a pure element and therefore for Vedic sacrifices it was needed in great amounts. During the process of sacrifice the Lord and demigods were offered gold, grains, melted butter, etc. In some cases there were sacrifices of a horse, a goat or a bull. But Vedic sacrifices were in principle different from modern ones. By sacrifice, not only material problems were solved but brahmanas proved their purity and the wonderful power coming from it. The peculiarity of the Aryan society was that it was God-centered on the basis not only of faith in God but the real communication with Him. This statement sounds for modern people as if mocking their life experience. But until this difference is understood we won’t be able to comprehend why the Aryan system of values and their social structure are more preferable. The unique trait of this society is in this very fact that it is in the position to assert the real connection with God and His servants (demigods) and solve arising problems with their help; this indeed makes the Aryans unique (not the type of the head, skin tone or heroism).

The life of the Aryans depended on meetings with God. For His satisfaction, the purity was required. Such purity was possessed by brahmanas (priests). For ordinary people, the idea of God is mysterious. Christ was “made” to work wonders all the time for his preaching to have any effect. Ordinary people manifesting desires for sense pleasure are egocentric and as a rule have got a limited focus of interest. It is a very hard labor to direct such people to the sphere of the spiritual life. The system of varnashrama-dharma is proposed to living beings inhabiting the material world by God Himself and it exists in order to provide a happy life and the minimal spiritual progress. Brahmanas’ duty is to establish the connection between the society and God by means of sacrifices. Ordinary people do not like to accept regulating principles of behavior. We can see that typically a religion cannot keep people within virtue limits (certainly if it is not done through violence). But they are greatly impacted by a miracle. In the Aryan society, there also took place such a miracle which kept all its members within the limits of certain behavior. During the sacrifice, a horse, a goat or a bull could be offered as a sacrifice. If this sacrifice was accepted, before everybody’s eyes the animal got a new body and came out of the fire.

One may raise an objection that it was simply fiction or fraud of cunning brahmanas striving for the power over people. But here it is important to consider that it was before the eyes of the whole society how brahmanas lived a completely pure and ascetic (full of deprivations) lives. They were usually very ascetic, lived in privacy and possessed otherworldly powers which removed the need for a lie or trick. They could simply affect people to get what they wanted like modern paranormalists do without showing any miracles. Then, there was no need for a lie. Here there is one very important circumstance. Material consciousness (strive for sense pleasure and power) requires a limiting factor. In the Aryan society, laborers-servants, producers-merchants were controlled by the power of leaders. Leaders were controlled by priests. And who controlled priests themselves? Priests were controlled by God. This point is very vulnerable. For hundreds of years, pseudo-religious persons made people unhappy in that very point. If a priest like a very common person is influenced by desires (attachments) and hatred (enmity), then religion is the most comfortable way to control people. All religious personalities did and do it this way except for ascetics. Ascetics take a renounced lifestyle and eventually their hearts are purified from binding ties of attachments and hatred. The Bhagavad-Gita describes the specific mood as the symptom of self-realization (chapter 2, verse 56):

One whose mind remains undisturbed amidst misery, who does not crave for pleasure, and who is free from attachment, fear, and anger, is called a sage of steady wisdom.

From the viewpoint of common values, this verse is very puzzling by offering to tolerate happiness just like suffering! At first sight, this proposal is very strange. Soul’s blissful nature instantly enjoys everything which brings us happiness and rejects suffering. What does Krishna mean? In fact, the material happiness delays the return of the soul to the spiritual world just as suffering. This verse suggests us that only one who is free from attachments and hatred can keep balance both in happiness and suffering.

Attachments appear in communication. An ascetic brings communication to the possible minimum. Due to it, ascetic’s heart becomes free from material impurity and gets a balanced nature. A human life can be entrusted only to this balance, while brahmanas were advisors of society and, consequently, they were responsible for the course and the result of a human life. When a brahmana reached the perfection in purity, sacrifices made by such brahmana were like a miracle, and this circumstance helped society to trust this brahmana. When the Lord together with the demigods visited the arena of sacrifice, He showed everyone that advices of this brahmana could be trusted. When the Lord or the demigods did not come, their dissatisfaction became obvious and society expected troubles. The Vedic literature also contains such stories. Hence, the chain of control became perfect, the assessment of the activity of all links in the social chain was given at that time. If the Lord was satisfied with the interchange of all society layers, He appeared and satisfied everybody’s desires. When a brahmana is not pure, such person is not able to invite the Lord, and then society has to satisfy its desires by material methods. Contest and fight begin, thus the balance is broken. How do these religious figures act to hide their own deficiency? They declare that to see God is not possible .

The Aryan society had such number of pure brahmanas of the highest qualification, thanks to them people saw the demigods and God, so that no question came up regarding His existence. The only problem was that everyone understood: the meeting with God was possible only thanks to the perfect purity which was provided by the perfect religious process. The Aryan society gained fantastic results only due to close relationships with demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The brahmanas’ power was the basis for the prosperity of the whole society.

With powers available, there is always the danger to misuse them (apply unjustly). Therefore, no brahmana can be considered a person who possesses superhuman powers but has no self-control. Self-control means not to use own capacities to satisfy personal attachments and hatred. Self-control helps a brahmana to develop the forgiving nature. Brahmanas, thus, were focused to reach the Supreme Personality. They reached perfection of self-realization by restoring their spiritual nature and could accompany ordinary people to God and their superhuman powers were by-products of their ascetism.

In the life of society, brahmana’s clairvoyance played a very important role. This is a factor without which no society can exist. In the material world, availability of superhuman powers is the undeniable fact. All that remains is to find the point of their correct application. A secular society also uses services of various clairvoyants whose advices are followed by many leaders. What is the difference between a typical clairvoyant and a brahmana? The difference is in the source of the power, the world view which is served by this power, the life style and respective results. Brahmanas affirmed in self-realization are persons who get their powers from demigods or the Lord. This is the guarantee of the truth of the received information.

Modern clairvoyants get their powers from ghosts or inhabitants of lower planets called asuras. Therefore, we can see that the life style of modern clairvoyants is no way different from the life style of ordinary people. All of them are under the influence of the gunas of ignorance and passion with respective habits and consciousness. Passion makes them have personal interests and ignorance makes them lie and do violence to satisfy these interests. A modern clairvoyant makes the best efforts for anyone who has got in his/her hands to feel the constant need for his/her services like a drug addict. At first, to get one proved in their powers, they very often make such person free from suffering and later entail new troubles for a person to repeatedly resort to them and be dependent on them. It becomes possible because society allows clairvoyants to live a secular life.

Brahmanas lived ascetic lives and the state of their minds was the proper one for religious people. As mentioned above, such life style allowed to become free from the impact of lower gunas of the material nature which in turn was the guarantee for their honesty and impartiality. The Aryan society required a very pious behavior from clairvoyants (priests). Those with superhuman powers but with low inclinations were expelled by society as dangerous persons bringing troubles. As a rule, such persons became “ornaments” of the demon society. The Mahabharata contains an interesting episode relating to this topic. Prior to the frequently mentioned battle between the Pandavas and Duryodhana, the latter unexpectedly faced some strange personalities from the lower planets (demons). At that time Duryodhana began to doubt the correctness of his behavior and right then they came up to him and said, “Do you think it is your battle with the Pandavas? No, you are mistaken. It is our battle with demigods for the power over this planet. We are very powerful and you will win under our auspices. Go and fight coolly”. Believing in their prophesy, Duryodhana fought until the last minute with confidence in his victory. When his mates came to him and told that the battle had been lost and there would be no sense to resist any more, he laughed in his mind and thought that they simply did not know things which were known to him. Similarly, for instance, Adolf Hitler, deceived by clairvoyants, believed up to the end in the prophesy they had made to him, but the result was ruination of Europe and his burnt body instead. A typical clairvoyant, therefore, brings anxiety in society (for instance, there was the prophesy from the most “reputable” astrologers that Britain in 1997 was to go under water), but a brahmana, on the contrary, brings appeasement.

Brahmanas’ advices always neutralized conflicts and promoted peace in society. They left their ascesis, came to the community in order to take out ordinary people from the influence of passion and ignorance and to validate virtue because brahmanas’ hearts were free from envy. That is why it is very important what powers are used by clairvoyants who rule human lives. This factor governs the destiny of an individual person, a nation and a country in general. Brahmanas were the source of virtue for society. No virtue can be distributed by one who is impure. The “prophesy” of such person is devaluated as it is not supported by his own experience and consequently is not able to assert anyone in virtue. The other important thing was that brahmanas did not strive for power. If society did not need them, they did not interfere in community affairs.

Thus, the Aryan society was headed by brahmanas. They were true religious persons having elevated pious qualities, knowledge and mystique powers. Their duties were to exercise ascesis to keep the purity of the body, mind and consciousness. Possessing elevated mentality, they developed incredible power (it is called the same way, brahma-teja, “brahmana’s power”) which was used only to ensure the connection of society with God. The Aryan culture categorically forbade people with impure consciousness (impure habits) to study the Vedas. Nowadays it is thought that brahmanas did so because of their arrogance. But it was not the case. Study of the Vedic literature by persons with sinful inclinations was forbidden in order not to let them speculate on this knowledge to excuse their sinful inclinations. It is said that people approach the divine knowledge out of the three motives: