A Testament to the Eternal Teachings and their Practices
by Babaji Bob Kindler
UNDERLYING EVERY WALK OF LIFE, pertaining to all relative occupations, and contained within every philosophy — personal, collective or empyrean — there exists a fourfold axiom that is undeniable and most worthy of notice. Primarily, there is an Ultimate Truth that holds within It the eternal principles of existence. Secondarily, there is an impeding or resistant force — call it maya, ignorance, egotism, inertia or by other names — that impedes perception of this Truth and mystically obscures Its all-pervasive nature. Third, there are salient practices, prescribed the world over from time out of mind, that are effective in ridding the mental faculty of this chimerical yet diaphanous imposition. Finally, there are certain magnanimous inherent qualities or attributes which naturally and spontaneously come forth when these purificatory disciplines are resorted to. All life, whether wonderful, worldly or woebegone, occupying any locus in space, beset by any presupposed increment of time, dancing under all influences of action and outcome, proceed from and vibrate around this quintessential quadruple formula.
In this light, of singular importance to the embodied being is the knowledge of the inscrutable laws of karma and reincarnation, for upon these two relative truths is predicated the often problematic process of metempsychosis — the passing of the soul at death from one form to another. Knowledge, and, what is more, outright acceptance of these twin truisms, reintroduces the lost or confused transmigrating body/mind complex to its contiguous counterpart, the sempiternal Soul — the domicile of all that is truly Divine. Nonacceptance of the relative truths of karma and reincarnation, according to Lord Buddha and others, is proclaimed as primal ignorance, and is one of the grave causes for the continuance of all forms of suffering. Fortunately, once the mesmerizing nescience of primal ignorance has been detected, operating nefariously within the human thought process, the business of sadhana, spiritual disciplines designed to enervate maya’s hold upon life and mind, can be resorted to. These must be taught at a young age. Through preternatural grace combined with the positive karmas of past existences, an incipient ability to bring about an end to delusion attends upon the thinking consciousness and the embodied being is no more enmeshed in this timorous or tenebrous condition. This is the birth of viveka/vairagya — discrimination leading to detachment — and the body and sense-bound soul will never again be the same.
But grace is to be acted upon, and the gifts vouchsafed to aspiring beings must become utilized for their intended purpose. No one likes an inane nothingness; instead, everyone acclaims and extols beneficial being and eternal existence with every fiber of their innate awareness. It is not only nature that abhors a vacuum; all the many powers looking on do the same. Here is where suffering plays its part in the universal scheme, for all and anyone denying their divine inheritance will come up hard and fast against the inexorable laws of cause and effect — especially those who resist and even plot against the natural harmony of the universe. What to speak of a demeaning denial of the divinity of the eternal Soul, the ignorance of incredulity — inordinate fascination with this earth and body — must also be transcended. All that is factitious, apathetic, inadvertent and indurate must be abandoned. For those who are ready, whether they have become so due to a plague of untold miseries or a weariness with mundane existence, the lustral tried and true realm of spiritual striving awaits them. Here, they will remake themselves in the image of the Spirit, experiencing the sorely-desired refection long sought after previously but never attained due to complacency, compromise and prevarication. What was needed all along was to lift the curtain of maya from in front of the face of Truth using the irrepressible powers existing in the Self. Then, this world is seen with acuity as a relative but admissible reflection of Reality, an expression of Ecstasy — a mere simulacrum of the Original. As Sri Ramakrishna has stated, “If you want to read the book lying at the bottom of the stack, you must remove all the others off the top in turn.” The book of Brahman is what is needed and wanted, then, but the manuals of minutia, magazines of mayhem, and murder-mysteries of maya have been piled on top of it, possibly for lifetimes. One must exert to procure this most veracious of volumes. Thus, the exigency for and efficacy of engaging in purifying spiritual practice is recommended and confirmed by the wise in all times, territories and traditions.
The dual mind immured in incertitude may still remain incredulous to the need for spiritual disciplines, despite the words of the wise. Below, I offer a testament to the wealth of spiritual practices and attainments bequeathed to all beings as inheritance by the ancient luminaries of India. May it, as my guru often repeated, “prompt our minds towards the path of Truth and righteousness and dispel the gloom of death, fear, doubt and darkness. Om Peace, Peace, Peace! May peace be unto us. May peace be unto all.”