Archi Devi Dasi (Ekmekchjan Adelaida)
Aryans and We
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.