Consciousness and Self XIII

Books on Consciousness and Spiritual Life: 

Bible, Koran, Bhagavat...

Different books take different approaches to spiritual understanding. They may provide different accounts of an experience of the divine. Many self-help books, for example have been published that describe a recovery from sexual abuse, trauma, addiction, illness, or even near-death experiences. Many books pretend to heal our soul.

And yet may of these books lack a foundation for a true understanding of consciousness. This is understandable, since the original texts upon which the Judaeo-Christian culture are based are primarily interested in moral and ethical precepts, not truly spiritual ones. 

The Old Testament of the Bible is mostly a collection of texts written by various Prophets who are concerned with following the “law of God.” These laws are iterated again and again throughout the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus.

A “prophet” may be defined as, “a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. My Miriam-Webster dictionary gives, “a member of some religions (such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) who delivers messages that are believed to have come from God.”

Most of the prophets from the Old Testament were desert dwellers. 

They lived the among remote nomadic tribes of Arabia some two or three thousand years ago. 

Called by God and filled with God's Spirit, the biblical prophets spoke what they considered “God's word” to people who had in one way or another distanced themselves from God. A prophet was a preacher, even a zealot when he felt an entire tribe or nation had turned away from God, as defined by a denial of God’s law. 

Ancient Babylon

Ancient Babylon defied the will of God by constructing a tower to the heavens. Later the Prophet Moses rescued the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, and led them to the promised land. 

But after all, the “promised land,” was never considered to be a divine place in a transcendental world, but a real political landscape in the ancient world.

The God of the Old Testament was interested in restoring land to “His” people.

Moses was God's representative: he not only helped restore the land to the “chosen ones,” he also delivered the Ten Commmandments, the basis of Judaeo-Christian ethics.  But the Ten Commandments fall short of a deep meditation on spiritual truth.  Many such prophets people the Old Testament history books (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah), where prophets like Deborah, Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Huldah and others come forward to speak God's word or to establish his laws. The books they wrote reflect these ideas.

But in the end, it seems many of these prophets and teachers are pre-occupied with ethical and moral precepts, as for example, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”

Where it is necessary to teach “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” the citizens must be a barbaric people indeed.

The traditional religion of the Jews was honored the priests, who were involved in slaughtering, butchering and roasting the sacrificial animals brought by worshipers. Of course, "Thou Shalt Not Kill" did not extend to animal life in ancient Judea. Sacrifice was seen as an important aspect of worship, but the idea of sacrifice began to mean the sacrifice of animals. This animal sacrifice had to be paid for, and the priests also collected money from different pilgrims and often had to change the money from different currencies into the local coin.

Christ and the money-changers by Giotto

A priest's tasks went beyond the heavy physical work of dealing with thousands of animal sacrifices. A priest might also be needed to give moral and ethical guidance to the common folk. 

“Thou Shalt Not Kill,” “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” and “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” would seem to be the cornerstones of God’s law, as it was taught by the ancient Biblical prophets. And the priests were responsible for teaching God's law to the people (Leviticus 10:11, Deuteronomy 17:8-10, 33:10; Ezra 7:10).

And yet these precepts seem especially weak as any kind of serious understanding of the divine nature of the self.

Since these laws of God, “Don’t Kill, Don’t Steal, Don’t commit adultery,” were especially difficult for the common people to follow, the priests themselves often became corrupt and turned away from God, breaking his laws. 

Further Prophets came forth to preach the law, especially when the priests failed to teach God's law to the people. So, over the course of history, the Hebrew God called and spoke through generations of prophets as teachers and preachers as the society decayed. And as newer and newer laws were given and recorded, they became more difficult to follow. Here’s a collection of laws from Leviticus http://leviticusbans.tumblr.com/post/23730370413/76-things-banned-in-leviticus

In the New Testament, the greatest of all Biblical teachers is celebrated as the Son of God, Jesus, the Christ.

Jesus Christ reveals his prophecy at the beginning of the New Millenium, saying that where the prophets preached “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” he had come to preach the new law. When Christ was asked,  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” “Love the Lord thy God as thy heart and soul, and love thy neighbor as thyself.” 

His new doctrine of love had come to replace the old law of the prophets. And yet, many questions remain unanswered by his teachings. For example: If the power and presence of God are real and effective, what do they mean for human experience? What does God offer to men and women, and what does he ask in return? How do we recognize Him? How do we know Him? What is the self? And what relationship does the self have with God? If God exists, why is there suffering in the world? What is the soul and where does it come from? And how is Love to be practiced?

How is love to be practiced?

None of these questions are really touched on or answered in the Bible. It was left to Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas writing much later to formulate the Catholic theology that might begin to address questions like this.

But many of these questions are left answered only in parables. After all, Christ conversed with fishermen, with carpenters, and with prostitutes. While we value his sermons, especially those in the Gospels, would it be possible to go deeper?

The Koran claims to have been given in conversations between the final prophet, Muhammed, and the Archangel Gabriel. And yet these conversations are also deeply unsatisfying. The Koran’s insistence on law leads believers into an ethical-moral system with a great emphasis on a kind of Islamic social dharma called Sharia. And practicing Sharia law has little to do with a contemplation of the self. For a mystic tradition within Islam one may investigate Sufism. But while the Koran mentions the sufferings of hell and recommends salvation through obedience to the laws of God, no significant attention is given to the nature of consciousness and the soul in that ancient text.

Yogic texts like the Upanishads, on the other hand offer us answers to these questions that were never addressed by the prophets of the Bible and Koran. If it is true that " the whole yoga system is based on the premise of concentrating one’s mind on the Supreme Self and leaving aside the fascination for the objects of the senses," We might prefer a text that delves deeper into the nature of reality over one that simple reads like a recipe book of laws to obey.

The Imitation of Christ is one of the most popular Christian writings of all time, treasured by believers throughout six centuries and across the denominations. It has been printed in more than 2,000 editions. In his work on the Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis stressed a kind of Christ-yoga by fronting the idea that one might become Christ-like by following His example. 

What if there were a group of Christ-like men? What if such a group met with similar truth-seekers? What if the greatest prophets, yogis, thinkers, and Christ-like men got together and had a conversation? 

What kind of conversation would they have? What kind of book would they write? What if we could read that book?

Picture yourself in the ideal forest for meditation.

 It’s green and filled with fruit trees. One can never get hungry here for the forest is rich with mangos trees. There are groves of coconuts. This is not a harsh wilderness with beasts of prey. Cow graze peacefully and are happy to give milk to the saintly persons who live quietly here in grass huts by the river. 

The saints and sages have come here on pilgrimage and pursue their meditations quietly. Brahmanas keep the sacred fire and welcome anyone who needs comfort, advice, or the warmth of the hearth. 

The nearby river is sacred and provides pure, clean water. The water is not too cold; just perfect for bathing. Pilgrims pass through and offer nuts, berries, fruits, rice, and cakes to the holy men who dwell here in search of truth. 

You have arrived in Naimisharanya. Set your time machine back a few thousand years. The quality of the silence is pristine. You can hear a leaf dropping from a tree in the mango groves. This forest is ancient. You are close to the banks of the Gomti River of somewhere between the Panchala Kingdom once ruled by Drupada and the Kosala Kingdom ruled by Raghava Rāma, so long ago.

The Mahābhārata war was a great and bloody conflict, resolved not so long ago by the Sons of Pandu. Pariksit ruled peacefully, but succumbed to the snakebite of Takshaka, having been cursed by a brahman. 

And now, the greatest of all saints have gathered together to discuss the meaning of life. A conclave of sages headed by the sage Saunaka, have arrived for a sacrifice to the cause of world peace. Great yogis, expert and learned brahmanas, and Rishis, seers of the truth are there. They sit in a circle on mats of kusha straw and listen to the speaker.

The great and learned disciple of Vyāsa himself, Ugrasrava Sauti has narrated the entire Mahabharata, the story of the great kings of Bharata dynasty before the sages, headed by Saunaka. They have heard the elaborate history of the Kurus and Pandavas and their battle at Kurukshetra known as the Kurukshetra War.

Sauti, or Suta Goswāmi as he is known by this great company of yogis and saints, has unfolded the tale in 100,000 verses of Sanskrit poetry.

His teaching of the Mahābhārata has comprised not only the history of India, but the history of the universe and the workings of karma. Within the Mahābhārata are the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, and the sages heard of God, the cosmos, time, the soul, and karma, as well as many other deep truths. 

And yet even while Pariksit, the grandson of Arjuna had ruled in peace, the story of the great battle between the Kurus and Pandavas has left the sages unsettled. They know that a new age is dawning: the age of Kali, the iron age of war.

And so they have begun their great sacrifice for peace, one that will last for years. Their elders had approached Brahmā the creator as they were worried about the dawn of the age of iron. Knowing that human civilization was about to enter a time of conflict and doubts, of war and spiritual darkness, they had asked the four-headed creator, Lord Brahma to show them a holy place untouched by the effects of Kali. 

At that time Brahmā created a disk from his own heart and rolled it upon the earth saying, “Wherever this chakra stops will be an auspicious place for your sacrifice. The sages followed the chakra. After rolling through the four directions it reached the forest (aranya) in a place called Naimisha, an ancient place of pilgrimage and of Sanskrit learning which has attracted sages, scholars and laymen alike since time immemorial. 

So, when the chakra stopped in the groves of the Naimisharanya forest, the sages settled there as the place of their sacrifice for peace and self-realization.

Now the sacrifice had been going on for some time. The sages had heard the histories of the Mahābhārata, but still they were not entirely satisfied. Great souls had gathered there: Kashyapa, Atri, Vashista, Vishvamitra, Gautama Maharishi, Jamadagni and Bharadvaja, the seven great Rishis. They all listened carefully to the talks held by Suta. Nārada himself is said to have visited there during his lectures. Still, something about the Mahābhārata was inconclusive. The discussions of Suta Goswāmī had left them wanting something more, something deeper.

Of course, Nārada knew that Vyāsa had composed a more meaningful literature, one that left no room for external “religious” ideas. He knew that Vyāsa himself had been unsatisfied by his own work. After all, Vyāsa had come to him for spiritual advice after composing the Mahābhārata and Nārada, the guru of the gods, had instructed him to give the deeper truths of the Bhāgavat Pūrāna. But he had come to hear Suta’s version, to see how he would represent the ideas of his teacher, Vyāsa. 

For their part, the yogis and sages gathered there had elected Śaunaka, who was the oldest and wisest, to represent them. They had some specific questions for Suta.

They were especially curious to know, “What is the absolute good?” and “What is the essence of scriptural knowledge?” Some sages wanted to understand about how and why God appears, in what form and for what purpose. They were particularly interested in understanding more about Krishna, and how the Personal Godhead manifests, not only in different incarnations and avatāras, but “Why does Krishna appear Himself?” and “What are the pastimes of Krishna?” and “What are the purposes of his incarnations?” Also they wanted to know the true meaning of dharma especially in the iron age.