Vladimir Antonov
The New Upanishad.
Structure and Cognition
of the Absolute
Translated by
Mikhail Nikolenko
Corrector
of the English translation
Keenan Murphy
2nd edition
© Antonov V.V., 2011
www.swami-center.org
The author of this book is a scientist-biologist who dedicated his life to studying non-material forms of life in the universe and has published many books on the methodology of spiritual self-development. Being a theorist and practitioner, he has attained direct knowledge of the Creator in His Abode. In this book, he explains the meaning of life and the means of its realization in a precise, laconic, and easy-to-understand language. In addition, the author describes the principles of studying the multidimensional structure of the Absolute, thereby making this book unique.
This information is addressed to those who seek the meaning of life, who want to understand what God is and how we should live on Earth.
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The term Upanishads (which means "insights" in Sanskrit) denotes short philosophic-religious treatises of ancient Indian origin, where different authors expressed their ideas about the essence of Divinity and about the religious Path of spiritual seekers. These texts were written before the coming of Avatar Krishna to the Earth. Together with the four Vedas, they provide the basis of the philosophical system known as Vedanta.
Sathya Sai Baba says that in total 1180 Upanishads were written. But most of them have been lost or forgotten due to their insignificance or being too complex for readers to understand. Today only 108 Upanishads remain, and only 13 of them are well known.
Studying the ancient Upanishads, one can notice different levels of competence of their authors: some of them had really high spiritual achievements, while others were engaged in philosophical speculations, "playing on words", and fantasizing.
From the existing Russian translations of about 15 Upanishads, the most interesting ideas can be found in the Katha, Brahmanubhava, Kaivalya, Mundaka, and Shvetashvatara Upanishads. The author of the first one knew even about the threefold structure of the Divine Fire of Brahman. (It is interesting that the author of the commentary to this text, which was published in Russia, interpreted this idea according to his level of understanding, namely, he said that a person has a father, a mother, and a guru…).
The authors of the ancient Upanishads had four possible sources of religious information: a) personal meditative experience (if any), b) three or four Vedas filled with religious fairy tales and containing no specific information about the Creator, c) personal contacts with other seekers of the Truth, d) written sources, like already existing Upanishads.
The Upanishads as a whole do not provide consistent definitions of the basic terms that are used in them, such as Brahman, Atman, purusha, and Absolute. Instead each one of these terms was used in different meanings and also the same essence was denoted by different terms. Due to this lack of clarity of definitions, Vedanta adepts faced obvious difficulties when they wanted to create a clear methodology of spiritual self-realization (this can be seen even today in the activity of many sects of Indian origin).
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Definitive terminology and integrity of the general concept was given to people by Avatar Krishna through the Bhagavad Gita.
Specifically, Krishna explained that there exists Ishvara (God-the-Father, the Creator, the Highest Purusha, Paramatman), Whose Will is realized through Brahman (the Holy Spirit, the Supreme Purusha).
God is also EVERYTHING: the Creator coessential with His Creation.
God can also appear before people as an Avatar (God-the-Son, Messiah, Christ) by incarnating a Part of Himself into a human body.
Besides that, within the Absolute there is physical matter (prakriti), as well as evolving individual souls (collectively called purusha). There is also akasha — a diffusive state of prakriti and purusha (so-called protoprakriti and protopurusha). Protoprakriti and protopurusha represent material for creation of matter and souls.
The Creator abides in the deepest (as related to physical matter) layer (loka, eon, spatial dimension) of the One multidimensional Body of the Universal Absolute, which also includes all the manifested (i.e. material) worlds of countless galaxies.
The Absolute is a boundless Universal Organism. It is multidimensional, i.e. It consists of several layers (lokas).
The Life of the Absolute is Its development, Evolution. The mechanism of this Evolution consists in qualitative and quantitative growth of individual consciousnesses (souls) as elements of purusha living on prakriti (matter of planets) in bodies, which are also composed of prakriti. Souls have to develop themselves qualitatively and quantitatively, seeking to attain Divinity, to merge with Brahman and with Ishvara.
Souls going astray from this Path or moving in the opposite direction doom themselves to suffering according to the law of karma (the law of cause and effect in the formation of one’s destiny).
These are the fundamentals.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna expounded the principles of ethical self-development of a person. He explained, among other things, that emotional love-devotion (bhakti) for Ishvara must be an essential element of one’s relationships with God. (Later Jesus Christ, Chaytanya, Babaji, Sathya Sai Baba, and Other Divine Teachers taught the same).
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But this information is not sufficient for full self-realization of spiritual seekers, because the only way one can merge with God is through the practice of meditation (performed on the background of bhakti) and provided that one is intellectually and ethically ready for such work. It is meditative trainings that make an individual consciousness agile, subtle, large, and strong. They also enable it to move easily from one loka to another — up to the Abode of the Creator, where He can be ultimately cognized.
And for this purpose, it is desirable that seekers have a chart, a detailed description of the meditative path, a "map" of the journey.
God did not make such "maps" available on purpose: by making efforts and overcoming difficulties seekers develop themselves in their search. It is in this way that the author of this text has developed himself and succeeded in making such a "map" after 30 years of very intensive work.
And now, on the verge of a new millennium God blessed me to publish it.
The main thing to be taken into account when viewing this chart (it is shown at the end of the book) is that it reflects the multidimensional nature of space. Therefore, that which is shown at the bottom of the chart corresponds to that which is located in the depth, in the subtlest lokas. And that which is shown higher on the chart corresponds to lokas of increasing density (or coarseness). In other words, the downward direction on the chart corresponds to the depthward direction in the multidimensional Body of the Absolute, and the upward direction on the chart corresponds to the direction toward the outer layers of the Absolute.
One must not view the sectors shown on the chart as really existing in the universe. In reality, these are not sectors but infinite layers of multidimensionality. And the chart does not show the layers themselves but rather the entrances into them.
Let me note that multidimensionality cannot be explored with material devices, because such devices cannot be brought from the material world to other lokas. The reality of non-material lokas can be perceived only by the refined consciousness of the spiritual seeker developed by means of Buddhi Yoga. Such a developed consciousness is capable of moving freely from one loka to another.
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Let us begin our analysis of the chart by looking at its bottom, which represents the deepest level of the multidimensional space.
In the universal void there exists the most subtle Consciousness of the deepest layer of the Absolute — Ishvara (God-the-Father, the Creator, Jehovah, Allah, Tao, Adibuddha: these and other words are used in different languages to name Him). On the chart, the entrance to His Abode is shown in the right bottom corner.
Now let us look at the solid vertical line. This line represents the Mirror, a sort of "membrane" that really exists. To the right of this line (on the chart), one can see entrances to three basic eternal components of the Absolute: to the Abode of Ishvara (Bridal Chamber, as the Apostle Philip, a disciple of Jesus Christ, called it) and (higher on the chart) to more dense layers of akasha — to the lokas of protopurusha and protoprakriti. These three basic layers are called correspondingly chidakasha, chitakasha, and bhutakasha.
To the left of the Mirror, the chart shows the derivatives of the basic states of the Absolute: the lokas of Brahman (Higher Purusha), of purusha, and of prakriti. They exist only during Kalpas in manifested worlds of the universe — on "islets" of the Creation, which appear at the beginning of each Kalpa and disappear at its end being consumed by akasha. When "the end of the world" (Pralaya) comes for such an "islet", its matter turns into protoprakriti, and individual souls, who did not want or did not manage during their numerous incarnations to achieve Perfection (i.e. to achieve Divinity and to merge with the Consciousness of the Higher and of the Highest Purusha) are disintegrated to the state of protopurusha.
Let me note that during Kalpas (i.e. during existence of material "islets" of the Creation), the amount of prakriti grows (thanks to photosynthesis, among other processes) and the amount of purusha grows as well (because of the increase of the amount of energy of individual souls, which feed on prakriti). At the end of a Kalpa they replenish the cosmic resources of protoprakriti and protopurusha. Therefore, the amounts of the latter do not change significantly.
All that is shown on the chart above the first level represents the "sphere of activity" of Brahman or "Brahman's world" (in Sanskrit — aparabrahman, i.e. that which is not Divine Brahman).
Now let us look at the leftmost column on the chart. It shows states of souls during a Kalpa. Souls of different levels of subtlety-coarseness (in terms of emotional states in which they used to live during incarnations) are distributed over the layers of multidimensional space. The layer of subtler energy (the second layer on the chart) is called paradise, and the coarsest layer (the topmost one on the chart) is called hell. The layer between them contains souls in the intermediate state of being attached to the material plane. Most often this layer is called the astral plane.
* * *
Now let us look at the process of the evolution of souls in more detail.
When conditions on a planet become suitable for the existence of organic life (like conditions existing on the Earth), there starts the process of development of particles of purusha, which are formed of protopurusha.
This process begins on crystalline lattices of minerals and then continues in organic bodies, which also evolve along with the development of souls.
The digestive system in living organisms allows transforming prakriti into the energy of purusha, enriching in this way individual souls that grow in the embodied state. This ensures the quantitative growth of souls.
Possessing significant freedom of will, embodied souls of evolutionarily developed animal species and of human beings evolve, being subjected to the law of karma.
At the same time, the majority of them develop intellectual abilities: some people get a chance to begin conscious spiritual self-development and can become inhabitants of paradise or even of the Abode of the Creator.
But others remain materialists who are unaware of anything but matter and consider themselves material bodies. Their way of life is not different essentially from that of many animals.
Souls who habituate themselves to living in coarse emotional states go to hell, which is shown in the top left part of the chart. It is the outer darkness, in the New Testament’s language. Their destiny is to be embodied again in "hellish" conditions on the Earth or to be disintegrated to the state of protopurusha even before the Kalpa ends.
Thus, all people can be subdivided into three categories: a) the intermediate group of materialists, b) demoniac people, c) people advancing to spiritual Perfection, to Mergence with God.
In the case of the latter group, the main component of spiritual self-realization should consist in development of the spiritual heart. The optimal achievements for them are Mergence (as a consciousness, buddhi) with the Higher Purusha or even coming to the Abode of the Creator and Mergence with Him there. One has to learn to live in these states during life in the material body, having become an integral Part of the Highest Forms of the Divine Consciousness.
* * *
We have discussed the methodology and specific methods of the shortest Path of spiritual self-realization in other publications. Therefore we will give here only a brief description of this subject.
Having embodied, we remain under constant supervision and guidance of God in the aspect of Brahman (the Holy Spirit), Who is not somewhere "high above", "in the sky", but is always present everywhere, including beneath the matter of our bodies — in the subtlest lokas. (This is emphasized several times in the New Testament.) And the distance to the Abode of the Creator, as Jesus said, is not larger than the thickness of the finest paper. And nothing happens to anyone without the consent of the Creator.
Our task in this situation may look very easy: one just needs to learn to move to the depths of multidimensional space right here where the body is — and to reach the Abode of the Creator… But the problem is that one can come to the Abode only through secret passages, and the Creator reveals them only to His worthy disciples — i.e. to ethically pure and refined souls, who have demonstrated a fervent and sincere desire to cognize Him and to merge with Him. That is, we have to fall in love with Him and to prove that our love is steadfast.
What are the main obstacles on the way to the highest lokas? Krishna answered this question concisely: egoistic sexual passion, anger, and greed — i.e. attachments to earthly things, coarse emotional states, and egocentrism.
And what does lead us to Him? It is cultivation of various aspects of love, refinement of the consciousness, and correctly performed practice of meditation.
The general principle that ensures gaining of the fundamentals necessary for successful spiritual growth is Karma Yoga — service to God manifested as help provided to people in everything that is good, without expectation of reward, i.e. without self-interest. Instead of having self-interest, one must understand God's interests: He is interested that we evolve positively and dedicate our lives to helping Him in this.
Living according to this principle is the best way to develop such Divine qualities as Love, Wisdom, and Power.
And this way of life provides us with the best conditions for receiving help from God.
How does God help us in our development?
First, He gives to all people instructions on how to live righteously, which are recorded in the holy scriptures.
Second, when necessary He sends to us certain spirits or brings us to certain people who help us find correct decisions.
Third, He Himself takes part in it — guiding us, showing the way, advising, and teaching. He performs this through His Brahmanic Manifestations, Who are called collectively Brahman or the Holy Spirit.
Now, where can one find Brahman, how can one see, hear, or feel Him?
Brahman is the totality of the Creator's Manifestations, Who come out from His Abode to help embodied and non-embodied beings. This totality also includes those embodied people (Highest Mahatmas) Who have achieved oneness with Brahman.
Brahman is present inside and around our planet.
Having entered the lokas of purusha and prakriti, Divine Individualities can condense Their State to a certain level — in order to make it easier for the inhabitants of the corresponding loka to perceive Them. In other words, a Brahmanic Consciousness can exist in three states of different density that correspond to the three layers of the structure of the Absolute.
For example, Brahmanic Individualities can create Their giant anthropomorphic (i.e. resembling a human body) Forms (Mahadoubles). One can talk with Divine Teachers, Who accept such Forms, as with visible persons: one can see how expressions on Their faces change. They speak and use gestures to show and to explain different tasks. One can embrace Them, can merge with Them by entering the forms of Their energy Bodies.
Divine Teachers gladly present Their Mahadoubles for filling them with the consciousnesses of Their worthy disciples. It allows the latter to grow as a refined consciousness (chitta) most quickly and easily by moving gradually through the energy Body of the Teacher to the subtlest loka and merging there with Paramatman. This can be done most successfully at special places of power.
During the process of spiritual growth a disciple of God can cognize the Absolute in all lokas at both sides of the Mirror.
* * *
What are the criteria of self-check, so that one can correctly determine one’s own location in the multidimensional Absolute? The only tool that can help here is the ability to see with the eyesight of the consciousness. This ability is gained in the process of development of the spiritual heart, which moves to the depths of the Ocean of the Absolute and begins this path from the anahata chakra of the body.
By developing ourselves in this way we learn to see flame-like Consciousnesses of Divine Teachers — Holy Spirits. One of our tasks is to learn to be this living Light-Fire.
The Consciousness of Brahman is Perfect Purity. Having passed through the Mirror to the side of the Creation, It begins to look like Fire or subtlest Light.
Refined individual consciousnesses are also pure and light.
Astral souls are gray, and souls of the inhabitants of hell are black.
* * *
Using their Atmic energy Kundalini, which is stored in a special reservoir connected with the muladhara chakra, and gradually strengthening their presence (including self-awareness) in Brahman, having become one with Brahman, successful disciples of God get ready for the ultimate Mergence with Paramatman.
Exploring the akasha lokas on the other side of the Mirror, we first perceive there a state of calm resembling the state of a soft southern starlit night; this is protoprakriti. If we go deeper, we perceive a "pre-dawn" state with "lightened sky"; this is protopurusha. And going even deeper — we perceive clear and pure Atmic Light, similar to the light of the morning sun.
It is only at the stage of development where the Absolute is cognized to the extent described above (i.e. when the disciple has cognized the highest loka, learned to merge with Paramatman and to live in the state of this Mergence) — only then is it appropriate to say that the disciple has achieved the stage of development called advaita (union with the Higher Self, with the Self of God and with the Absolute).
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The Evolution (positive development) of the Universal Consciousness goes on through incarnation of particles of Its Energy into material bodies (on planets suitable for organic life to exist) and through development of them in these bodies.
The process of growth of every such particle begins on lattices of minerals and then proceeds sequentially in vegetal, animal, and human bodies.
At the human stage of development — after many successful incarnations into human bodies — every such energy unit (unit of consciousness, soul), which is a "lump" of self-aware energy, can receive an opportunity to merge with the Creator and thus to enrich Him with itself. It is for this purpose that God creates material worlds in various parts of the universe.
Thus, the meaning of human life consists in conscious development of oneself (as a consciousness, soul) in qualitative and quantitative aspects with the goal of attaining Divinity and merging with the Creator.
The Creator provides people with information about this through prophets and by incarnating into human bodies Those Who have already attained Perfection and merged with God. He also directs the process of development of all embodied souls through the Holy Spirit and other spirits. (It is manifested, among other ways, as a realization of the so-called law of karma in the destinies of people).
The Creator is interested that only worthy souls approach His Abode. By providing people with the freedom to choose their paths (freedom of will), including slightly limited freedom to make errors, He can select worthy ones.
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At earlier stages of personal development, one can evolve through learning to control the body, through providing good living conditions for oneself and for others, as well as through reproductive activity.
At the next stage, one develops the intellect by acquiring and using scientific knowledge, through creative activity in science and business.
At the higher stages, one acquires esoteric and religious knowledge and masters methods of self-development. It is through meditative training that one learns to enter the subtle strata of the Creation and to settle there. The final step on this Path implies entering the Abode of the Creator and Mergence with Him there. One’s permanent establishment in this status constitutes almost the final end of the soul’s evolution.
The Creator is One, because All Those Who have merged with Him exist in the primordial eon in a mutually dissolved state. They all experience Themselves as "non-I" (i.e. as He) — or as the United I (which is the same as the United We). There are no individual souls-consciousnesses in the Abode of the Creator.
But such Perfect Souls may continue to help people by individualizing Parts of Themselves in the world of the Creation. As we have discussed already, they help embodied people either by acting from the non-embodied state or by becoming incarnate in human bodies.
They are many. The most well-known of Them at the current stage of the evolution on the Earth are Huang Di, Lao Tse, Krishna, Pythagoras, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Babaji from Haidakhan, Sathya Sai Baba.
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The prerequisite for walking the spiritual Path consists in accepting the principle of Love. "God is Love" — this fundamental formula was declared to people of the Earth by Jesus Christ. Sathya Sai Baba, Avatar of our days, constantly repeats and explains the same principle in His discourses.
So, from this formula, it follows that for the sake of self-development, for the sake of approaching the Creator — we should strive to transform ourselves into steadfast Love.
The call "to transform oneself into Love" acquires a concrete meaning if the nature of the human organism and the methods of its development are understood in a scientific way. In order to understand this, one has to accept the following basic principles:
1. An ordinary embodied person is not a body but a consciousness (soul) that lives in the body and is temporarily connected with it.
2. Emotions are states of the consciousness.
3. The organs responsible for generation of emotions are the chakras (not the brain). For example, the anahata chakra (the middle dantian), which is located in the chest, is responsible for generation of different variations of the emotions of love. The completely formed anahata occupies the whole volume of the thorax. This organ can be easily developed with the help of special psychoenergetical techniques by people who are ready for this.
Omitting many less important details, we can say that further development of a human on the Path to Mergence with God consists in growing as a spiritual heart that expands from the anahata chakra. This growth then continues in the space around the material body, then the spiritual heart grows to the size of our planet, and then — to cosmic sizes.
The development of oneself as a spiritual heart is the only way of approaching the Creator, cognizing Him, and merging with Him.
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We have mentioned that the positive evolution of individual consciousnesses has two main aspects: qualitative and quantitative.
We have discussed the quantitative aspect: it is represented by the direct growth of the "lump" of the energy of an individual soul — from small to cosmic sizes. This is not difficult to do if one has the necessary knowledge and knows the methods of this kind of work (including meditations at special places of power, as well as other techniques). It takes one or two years, sometimes even less.
It is more difficult to ensure the qualitative development of the soul. It includes three components: ethical and intellectual ones, and refinement.
The ethical component implies a compassionate and caring attitude toward all positively evolving forms of life, including plants, animals, and people. Making animals suffer or killing them for the sake of satisfaction of one’s gluttony or for the sake of vicious whim to have clothes made of fur or leather taken from their bodies — this is not compatible with true love, with aspirations to spiritual progress.
Ethical self-correction implies also total elimination of all qualities of the soul that are incompatible with the principle of love: i.e. various forms of anger, violence, arrogance, self-admiration, egoistic sexuality, and other manifestations of human egocentrism. It is done by means of conscious repentance, self-control, and the art of psychical self-regulation.
On the contrary, by all means one should cultivate love in its various aspects: care, tenderness, willingness to give rather than to take, self-sacrifice for the sake of the evolutionary progress of others.
The ethical component of the development of man also implies cultivation of love for the Creator and devotion to Him, also gradual replacement of self-centeredness with God-centeredness. However, first one has to understand what God is. Then — through many initiations into meditation techniques and mastering of them — one gradually cognizes the increasingly subtle strata of the multidimensional Absolute and learns to merge with the Consciousness that abides in them. Thus one comes to the deepest stratum — to the Abode of the Creator — and there, as a drop merges with the sea, one can merge with the Creator — with the Boundless Universal Ocean of the Primordial Consciousness.
Intellectual development also has three components: enrichment of erudition, a creative component, and the ability to discriminate between false and true views. For acquiring these qualities it is helpful to receive education, to participate in various social activities on helping other people in everything good, to study the religious experience of many schools, and to have personal religious experience.
The third component of the qualitative aspect of soul’s development consists in refinement of the consciousness. It is by the level of subtlety-coarseness that spatial dimensions of the multidimensional Absolute differ between themselves. They are like discreet radio frequency ranges. The subtlest layer of the Absolute is the Primordial Consciousness. On the opposite end there is the abode of devils and demons; it is hell.
Spatial dimensions are not mathematical abstractions. For a developed and subtle consciousness, they represent quite visible layers. The boundaries between them look like the boundary between water and transparent oil contained in a glass vessel.
After disembodiment, an individual soul settles in the layer that corresponds to the state which the soul became accustomed to during its life in the body. (The author knows this from his own experience of two clinical deaths). Therefore, we have to hurry to eliminate all coarse emotional states in ourselves and to cultivate subtle states by all means — because the death of the material body is nearing every day. Subtle emotions can be cultivated by means of attuning to the subtlest phenomena of living nature, to sublime works of art, also in harmonious sexual relationships and parenthood.
However, a quick transformation of the emotional sphere and control of emotions can be gained only with the help of the methods of psychical self-regulation based on working with the emotion-generating organs of the human organism — the chakras and some main meridians. One such system of psychical self-regulation was developed and tested by us for many years.
It is important to emphasize that a person can improve his or her status in the multidimensional space only during life in the embodied state: because crystallization of the energy of the consciousness (i.e. its accumulation in every new mastered eon) can be performed only with the help of the structures of the material body responsible for transformation of energy.
The power of the consciousness (personal power) is directly related to the size of the consciousness and also to the ability to move and to act with the consciousness, and not with the body. A developed consciousness is like a giant amoeba, which freely extends its arms-tentacles (indriyas) at long distances, obtains the required information there and acts if necessary. Or one can move to another place with almost the whole of oneself as a consciousness, leaving only a small part of oneself in the material body. This move happens almost instantly.
The mechanism of diagnosing and healing consists exactly in this. Telepathic contacts are also usually established using the same principle, and not through the electromagnetic radiation of the brain. The efficiency of a telepathic contact depends on the size of the participants as consciousnesses. (Another mechanism consists in using the help of non-embodied consciousnesses).
The mechanism of major siddhis (like dematerialization, materialization, teleportation, and levitation) also can be threefold:
The first case is a personal influence of the Consciousness settled in the Abode of the Creator.
Other cases involve miracles performed by God around a worthy person, even without the latter knowing about it. The purpose of this is to attract people’s attention to this person’s positive activity and to direct people’s minds to seeking the Truth beyond the material world. Examples of this kind are described in the autobiography of Uri Geller.
But it also happens that "miracles" are performed around people who have not approached God at all. This is a result of activity of strong coarse spirits who "serve" sorcerers.
* * *
God points out the necessity of restoration of the tradition of true monasticism for those few who, possessing sufficient experience from previous incarnations and great spiritual potential in the current incarnation, devote their lives completely to spiritual self-development and to helping other people in this, and who have achieved significant progress on this Path.
God says that true monasticism consists not in wearing a particular uniform or haircut, not in participation in the rite of "initiation", and not in getting new names. All these represent just religious games.
The true monastic status cannot be purchased for money but can only be acquired as a result of one’s love and devotion to God and one’s personal spiritual efforts.
True monasticism has nothing to do with a parasitic way of life. Parasitism is a characteristic feature of pseudo-monks of degenerated religious schools.
Monasticism is incompatible with drinking alcohol, smoking, with other kinds of drug addiction, as well as with eating "killed" food (i.e. meat and fish).
True monasticism does not imply celibacy (abstaining from sexual contacts). Sex should be neither prohibited nor suppressed; there should be another solution: sex must not hinder one’s spiritual work and must not distract one’s attention from it. The attention of adepts should be totally focused on God as the Goal of their lives and on serving Him by helping other people in their evolution.
And only those adepts who walk the spiritual Path together can form a married couple. "Group sex" and other entertainments like this, which are presented sometimes in a religious form and practiced by people who play religion, are not acceptable on the true spiritual Path.
True monasticism also does not imply withdrawal from society, life in a monastery or in seclusion, as well as abandonment of the basic social duties.
In true monasticism there can be no segregation or discrimination based on ethnical, sexual, or other characteristics. True patriotism must be understood as a consolidation of all the devotees of God (the Highest Pater) under His guidance.
True monasticism implies that one is totally devoted to working for the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness. The most important part of the work of every monk and nun is continuous efforts on transforming oneself (as a consciousness) according to the Intent that God has for His children and helping other people in this. The formula of self-development of man was suggested by God through Avatar Babaji: "Truth — Simplicity — Love — Serving God by serving people — Abandonment of egocentrism for the sake of Mergence with the Consciousness of God".
Success on this Path can be achieved with the help of studying the historical spiritual experience of people of different countries, full acceptance of the Teachings of God presented to people by Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Babaji, Sathya Sai Baba and Other Messiahs, prophets, and successful spiritual adepts, through ethical self-transformation based on these Teachings of God, with the help of mastering the methods of psychical self-regulation and meditation.
The main direction of meditative training consists in the development of the spiritual heart.
In this educational process, significant attention should be given to studying ecology and psychology, as well as to learning the basics of medicine and the principles of maintaining good health.
On the true spiritual Path there can be no perversions like "mortification of the flesh" through renunciation of basic hygiene and medicine, exhaustive fasting, wearing chains, or self-mutilation.
The monastic status is incompatible with craving for material wealth, all kinds of selfishness, violence, aggressiveness, falsehood, feeling of self-importance, egoistic sexuality, or the ability to be angry, envious, jealous, or gloomy.
The main virtues of the true monk or nun are aspiration to spiritual Perfection, including intellectual pursuits, caring for others (without being obtrusive), harming no one (as possible), and self-sacrificial service for the benefit of other people.
For an ordinary person, work is an activity on getting money and material wealth for oneself and for one’s family (or for close friends). But for a monk, work is an activity for the sake of God, for the sake of the positive evolution of individual consciousnesses.
A monk or nun should value the time given to him or her by God for self-development in the material body. And he or she must not get distracted by pursuing earthly pleasures. He or she eats healthy and therefore tasty food not for the sake of pleasure, but in order to obtain energy necessary for self-development and for service.
The life of a true monk is a life of a spiritual warrior who constantly struggles with his or her own imperfections and seeks to help others. This life of service goes on in a happiness and joy that grows more every day as monks and their students approach the Creator.
* * *
At the final stages of development, a spiritual seeker can learn to switch the perception breadthwise upon entering every loka. It can be likened to the situation when we go down a ladder from a floor to a floor in an empty building, and in every floor we look around and study what is inside it. One has to fill the space inside each such a "floor" with oneself (as the energy of the spiritual heart), combining the states of "I" and "non-I".
Having explored in this manner all the "floors" one after another, one has to try to fill all of them at the same time — at both sides of the Mirror.
Or, for example, having expanded oneself (as a spiritual heart) over the Earth’s surface, one can enter it from below with oneself in the form of a Fiery Mahadouble — as if with a giant finger. Having moved with the consciousness into this “Finger”, one can move then from this “Finger” to its “Hand” and to the “Arm”; the “Arm” is stretched from the Universal Anahata of the Absolute — from the Abode of the Creator. All this is Me now.
This is just one of the meditations of Buddhi Yoga, which opens a door to even greater achievements.
* * *
In order to cognize the Creator in His Abode and to become firmly established in the state of Mergence with Him one has to do much more. One has to master two charts of studying the structure of the Absolute — on both sides: on the right and on the left. Then one can easily achieve Paramatman — thanks to using two entrances into Him and abiding between them.
In this way, we cognize the Fiery state of Ishvara, which is perceived as the “Sun of God” infinite in size.
However, the other state of the Creator — the calm of the United We — is cognized and mastered in a different way. This cannot be described in words. In this regard I can just mention the meditation Cross known from the Apostle Philip, which was taught by Jesus Christ to His closest Disciples.
* * *
Of course, the information presented in this Upanishad is not enough to easily achieve the described spiritual summits. And this is not necessary, because mastering of each successive stage of development of the soul takes time, during which one grows (crystallizes) the consciousness in new states. This may take days, weeks, months, years…
… And one’s advancement along the spiritual Path has to begin:
— with studying deserving literature and with ethical transformation of oneself in accordance with the Teachings of God,
— with cleansing the bioenergetical structures of the body with the help of the methods of Raja Yoga,
— with mastering the art of psychical self-regulation,
— with mastering the meditation “non-I” (total reciprocity).
And from a certain higher stage of self-development, one can use the meditative methods recommended by Thoth-the-Atlantean — Hermes Trismegistus.
* * *
So let us make a conclusion: those who have grown up in evolutionary development to the capability of falling in love with God, who can dedicate their lives to realization of this love through service to Him and cognition of Him in fullness, who can merge with Him and dissolve in His Love — they can accept this concise chart of the Path.
I wish you success!
Recommended books
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Ecopsychology. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Forest Lectures on the Highest Yoga. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.
- Antonov V.V.— How God Can Be Cognized. Book 2. Autobiographies of God’s Disciples. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008 (in Russian). (ed.)
- Antonov V.V.— Spiritual Heart: Path to the Creator (Poems-Meditations and Revelations). “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008 (in Russian). (ed.)
- Antonov V.V.— Spiritual Work with Children. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008. (ed.)
- Antonov V.V. — Sexology. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — How God Can Be Cognized. Autobiography of a Scientist Who Studied God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2009.
- Antonov V.V. — Anatomy of God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2010.
- Antonov V.V. — Life for God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2010.
- Antonov V.V. — Spiritual Heart. The Religion of Unity. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2010.
Chart for Studying
the Structure of the Absolute
Comment: the arrows show the dynamics of processes within the Absolute.
