The most important thing is always to remember what is most important. When we take Refuge, for us it is the great nature of the Mind. Sahajya, the deity Dattatreya, the principle of the Guru, Dharma, and Sangha. All of this constitutes our guiding principles and our ideals.
As the years of practice go by, these guiding principles should deepen and grow stronger, not weaken. In a good sadhu, faith does not weaken but becomes stronger. In a sadhu who leads an improper way of life, faith weakens and becomes blurred. He encounters the Advaita view and thinks, “Ah, everything is one.” And instead of practicing with even greater zeal, he slips and finds a loophole for the kleshas—everything is one, so one can indulge in this a little.
A good sadhu does not make such mistakes. His samaya deepens, his faith deepens, his attentiveness to himself deepens, his self-criticism deepens, his exactingness deepens, his clarity of understanding deepens, his devotion deepens—everything deepens for him. This is a good and proper sadhu; he is following the right path. One must always remember this.
The most important thing is to cultivate devotion to your deity and devotion to your Higher Self in your heart. Without devotion, it is difficult to traverse the spiritual path, and for some it is impossible.
Suppose that by nature I am a jnani, and for me devotion expressed itself as total jnana. That is, it was total devotion to jnana; that was the form my devotion took. But in reality, not every one of you is a pure jnani. If you were, you would have a different, total path. With jnana alone, people would become very detached from humanity. Jnana led me to complete renunciation—what thoughts, what emotions, what friends, what husbands, what society, what world at all? Samadhi for the rest of one’s life, silence for the rest of one’s life, solitude for the rest of one’s life—that is all. This is devotion to jnana: the world has, as it were, disappeared; even the body is unimportant—everything. For me, this was devotion to jnana.
But you have a different path; you must combine your path with jnana. That is, if you follow a different path, you may fail to realize yourself, and your karmas may not dissolve. Nevertheless, one must work with egotism, overcome the kleshas, and liberate oneself from samsaric meanings. When you have the spirit of faith, the spirit of devotion, then even while living in the world, you practice well; in that case, you do not need total external vairagya—you can have inner vairagya. Inner vairagya always arises when you have bhakti, the principle of service, and a power that transcends you.
All of this grows into faith. Always think of Dattatreya, recite this mantra inwardly, and serve its powers and manifestations. This will always balance your contemplative practice, self-liberation, and awareness. Always think of Refuge, of service, of the saints, of Anugraha, of the sacred powers.
The Experience of Samadhi and Returning to the World
By nature, I am a hermit, very distant from people. I do not need to withdraw from people; I have gone so far away from them that for the last 25 years of my life, on the contrary, I have been trying to restore the connections and links that bind me to people. I desperately try to play along with them. Before, I was completely unable to do so; now, it seems I have learned.
After samadhi, you forget not merely this world—you forget your name and even that you are a human being. You do not struggle with either desires or kleshas. You simply walk around; you shoot out of this world like a cork, and that is all. This is samadhi. The world comes to an end. Everything comes to an end—birth, embodiment. But if you want to remain adequate, you need to return and learn to speak the language of people and think as they do. It took me 20 years to understand how people think in general. Because I stopped identifying myself with a human being.
And my entire life is, as it were, a return, an attempt to speak to people in their language, to learn, to convince people that I am just like them. But this is not the way out. That is, my goal now is not to leave the world—I left the world long ago. My goal is to enter it, to enter it in order to accomplish certain aims—to help others. As for leaving, all of that has already been accomplished. In other words, I desperately try to portray myself as being just like other people. And I carefully watch to make sure that I have not made any mistake.
Why do I do this? Because I need to. This is my goal, my task in life. Because there are certain vows and obligations to help other people. If it were not for this, neither I nor Divya Loka would exist. Therefore, my goal is not to leave the world. My goal is to try to change it.
But in order to attain true jnana, we must pass beyond the world. We must understand that we need to attain this completely renounced, detached inner space. And it is not easy for us to do this on our own—simply impossible. It must be done through samaya, ishta-devata, the proper space of service, through surrender, overcoming selfishness, and serving the divine forces. Which is what we are engaged in.
Three Ways of Living in the World
I am a person who is not a person, but a sadhu, a jnani. But being among people, I must live as a human being. As soon as you start presenting yourself as not being human, people will not understand you. This is the meaning of one who carries out karma. Likewise, you must learn to combine these two roles.
Deep down, I am a religious fanatic. If you want to talk to me, we will speak only about Dattatreya and only about presence, only about self-liberation, and that is all. What else is there to talk about, what else is there to think about, what else is there to do? Twenty-four hours a day—and it would be better not to speak at all, but to remain in samadhi.
But when you communicate with others, you must take their consciousness into account, understand their souls, and establish proper connections and relationships. When you live in the world, you always have three ways:
The first is to live in this world like a spy, hiding
The second way is to actively manifest yourself, express yourself, project your values and culture outward, change this world, and engage in the work of transforming it. If this world does not conform to the Dharma, it can be improved, made more beautiful and wiser
The third way is to leave this world. To live outside cities, outside social connections, to create your own world and build it as monks do. Forests, villages, even the North Pole—leave all of this behind. This is samsara; what is there to do in it? Why is all this necessary? What is the meaning of it? Money? And why would a sadhu need money? There will be something to eat in any community. What else does he need? A career? A sadhu needs nothing in this world; it is all bluff and deception
Unless there is a goal of enlightening and illuminating this world, enabling it to develop, all other goals are worldly; they are simply an illusion. You must remember that you have fallen into a trap of meaning, that you have fallen into maya, and that you need to escape from it. What money, what career, what connections? Your soul has flown into a trap, into an entropy pit of chaos. Time is passing, the clock is ticking. It is all laughable. In other words, this approach is not the approach of a sadhu.
Three Paths for the Development of a Spiritual Community
There are three paths of development for these three seekers:
The first—if you live while hiding your convictions, without presenting yourself, and continue to develop, then this is some kind of secret Masonic dharmic lodge, modeled on European orders: highly influential, very secretive, elitist, selecting people who are worthy.
The second way is when you actively spread your faith, your values, your Dharma, and your path through culture and philosophy. Like this congress. When we change everything around us through everything, illuminating it all with our spiritual light. Then we immediately enter culture, reach the people, even politics and government—anywhere: into the family, child-rearing, and school education. In other words, the world greatly benefits from this. But this path is demanding, requires a great deal of work and total self-surrender.
The third path is when an alternative society, another civilization, a Vedic ethnic group, an Aryan ethnic group, its own settlements, its own country, is created—one founded on religious principles, on the principles of Dharma, on a new vision of the world, on the “Yoga Vasistha.” As though Divya Loka were taking place. These are the paths of development.
Some follow one path, while others follow a mixed path. In one way or another, you intersect with all three paths. And depending on which path you have chosen, you need to work in that direction and apply all your strength.
If we want to change society for the better, to give it a new world, a new culture, a new vision, we must make an effort, we must work. We must work without sparing ourselves, tirelessly, if we want to achieve something, if we want to convey certain values, to change a world that does not know how to move forward and has reached a dead end, to influence it in a better, positive direction. Our Congress is an attempt to do this.
If you want to leave this world and build another one, a positive society, you also need great tapasya. Divya Loka is the result of tapasya; if there had been no tapasya, nothing would exist. Everything in this world is attained through tapasya.
Three Congresses as the Embodiment of the Three Bodies
The two Congresses that take place are expressed sankalpas, so to speak, corresponding to the three bodies. The Advaita Congress is jnana-deha; the Aryan Congress is prana-deha, the body of blossoming, abundance, and manifestation. The future Transhumanist Congress, which I think will emerge among us, is siddha-deha. If these three Congresses continually provide strength, then my three mass illusory bodies will find embodiment through them. And behind all this there must be faith, sadhana, and an understanding of Dharma. If you understand Dharma, you have faith; you are a true and very good sadhu.
The Spiritual Rebirth of Russia
The world, and Russia in particular, is now at a crossroads. People are confused; they have no guidelines, values, or meanings. The best minds have been trying year after year to answer the question: “What is our future? What is the future of our people? What is the future of the Russian nation? Why are Russians degenerating? Why are other more life-loving ethnic groups actively displacing them?” and so on. This is because the subtle body of the Russian people is ill somewhere.
But illness is not always a bad thing. A crisis means that certain changes are taking place. Recovery follows a crisis. This illness has lasted for quite a long time. But I hope that the critical moment has now passed and that recovery is beginning. This means a turn toward new values and meanings, a new course, a new vision, a new culture, toward something higher, divine, beautiful, wise, and fantastic.
It is precisely at this time that we have appeared, with our Congresses, our values, and our goals. I believe this is a specific plan of divine beings who have their sights set on Russia and its people, so that a truly Vedic subethnos may be formed, followed by an ethnos, then a macro-ethnos, and finally a super-ethnos. In other words, the rebirth of the human being of the future, the divine human, cannot arise out of nothing, simply as an idea. Bearers are needed, depth is needed, a priority line and roots are needed, as is the ability to integrate society with culture. Our Congress sets precisely these tasks. I hope that all of you will accomplish them. We will all accomplish them together.
Two Commandments for Remembering Dattatreya
From the standpoint of spiritual practice, sadhana simply continues. Dattatreya is within everyone as their true Self. The main thing is never to turn away from him. The first commandment is to always remember Dattatreya; the second is never to forget him. If you have these two commandments, you have everything.
What does it mean to remember Dattatreya and not forget him? It means turning inward, toward one’s inner nature; not getting lost in this inner nature, not dissolving, but seeking it, questioning it, invoking it, and surrendering oneself to it.
A Shift in Emphasis within the Teaching
For ten years I expounded the Prajna-Yantra teaching and spoke about presence and self-liberation, but now I will no longer elaborate on this at length. I will speak more about tantric sadhanas, ishta-devata, mantra-sadhanas, and the teaching of the Yoga of the Illusory Body. This is because every teaching has its own karma and its own periods.
The Teaching has been set forth, but I believe that in order to understand it, one must possess great merit; to truly practice it, one must have great merit, and even to hear it. Those with little merit will not even hear it. Others will receive it in some other way. Although the Teaching is always unchanging, one can simply shift the emphasis. But now it will not be so easy for new students to receive certain instructions on contemplation. I will tell them: “The best concentration is on a point. How will that work for you?”
We must truly understand that what we have received is a great precious jewel. And for this precious jewel to advance within us, for it to work, we must make great efforts. We must be very demanding of ourselves and of our sadhana. This is a large advance payment on our potential. Now we must raise our potential to the level of this advance payment so that it can all begin to work.
We cannot always do this on our own; we must invoke grace, blessings, shaktipata, Anugraha. Then your sadhana will always be successful. And my blessings to you, so that your sadhana may be successful.
The Culture of Sadhus as an Integral Philosophy of Life
When we follow the spiritual path, we must increasingly become accustomed to the fact that we are following the path of religion, that we are spiritual people, that we are sadhus. At least, if we are not sadhus, then we aspire to become sadhus. And we must constantly ask ourselves: “What does it mean to be a sadhu? What does it mean at all? Who is this sadhu? How does he live? How does he think? What does he breathe? What are his values and goals? What is his environment? How does he conduct himself in general? Why does he do all this?” When we see this, we will discover that there is an entire culture of sadhus.
Being a sadhu is an entire culture, an entire philosophy of life and of the Universe. And we must learn it. Doing asanas in the morning and practicing Atma-vichara while going to work does not yet mean being a sadhu. Being a sadhu means having an integral vision, an integral philosophy of life. We must understand what it means to be a sadhu and cultivate these qualities. Because if we remain human beings, we will not achieve success.
For example, suppose there is a bear, and the bear is given a synthesizer—a Kurzweil or a Korg—the best equipment in the world, and it presses the keys. There will still be no music, even if it presses them for three years or five years; there will still be nothing. Because it is a bear. Korg and Kurzweil are designed for human hands, for human intelligence and human musical taste; for a bear, everything is the same. The bear will achieve nothing. The Korg does not play. It is a bad synthesizer.
The same applies to Dharma: if a person accepts a mantra, mudra, or pranayama, but does not possess the qualities of a sadhu, does not live like a sadhu, and does not think like a sadhu, it does not work. So this must be practiced within a particular vision and a particular philosophy of life; then it will work.
The Sadhu as an Alternative Civilization
Our task is to use this time to become sadhus, complete sadhus. Many seekers fail on the spiritual path after initially becoming enthusiastic, because they did not understand. They did not understand that a human being cannot achieve anything. A human being is a human being. What can he achieve? He will always remain a human being. Only a sadhu can attain these things through the methods of yoga.
What is written in the “Shiva Samhita,” the “Narada Samhita,” the “Shat Chakra Nirupana,” the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” the tantras, and the “Laya Amrita Upadesha Chintamani” is not for ordinary people; it works for sadhus. A human being? No, this is not for you. It is for another class, another race, another type of civilization. If you want it to work, you must learn, understand, and develop the qualities of a sadhu—and then it will work.
When we become, or try to become, sadhus—when we learn to be sadhus—it is a very substantial undertaking. It does not necessarily have to be done in retreats or in the form of techniques; it is an inner work of purifying the mind, renouncing egoism, and changing one’s values and meanings. Because a sadhu does not live according to the categories and values of the human world; fundamentally, he is a different personality. He does not live according to human categories. A sadhu is another race.
There is a snowman, and there is an ordinary person—they have completely different meanings of life, views, ethics, culture, values, and truth. There is also the race of extraterrestrials. That is an entirely different civilization, an alternative parallel world. A sadhu is likewise a world alternative and parallel to human civilization. It is invisible. There are very few sadhus on Earth. People are the overwhelming majority, while sadhus make up no more than 3%. You can see many of them only at the Kumbh Mela; otherwise, there are not many of them.
The dominant civilization on this planet is that of humans. A sadhu, however, is a different class of being. Their culture, ethics, meanings of life, values, state of prana, chakras—everything is different. That is why they can practice sadhana. We need to understand what it means to be a sadhu. What does it mean to be a sadhu? How can one change oneself and begin working in order to become a sadhu?
The Sadhu’s Path in the World
When we become sadhus, everything works out for us. Sadhana works, the methods work, and service is carried out. Being a sadhu does not mean merely living in a monastery; being a sadhu is an inner state, a state of the soul. It is a life lived according to a particular vision, particular values, and particular meanings.
Sometimes extraterrestrial beings live among people, taking on their form, perhaps with some hidden aims. And no one suspects anything until they reveal themselves in some way. Sadhus live in the same way—in the world, but not of this world.
Family Sannyasa and Service to the World
Those who choose the path of family sannyasa, of karmic sannyasa, are sadhus who live in the world with a specific purpose. They evolve through communication and social connections, trying to change this world.
Monks will not change this world. They simply will not; that is not their path. I will not tell them to do so. It is not their dharma. They emerge from the monastery, come here, accomplish something, and hide back inside. That is all. This is a monk’s dharma. If they want too much, they will not be understood; that is the nature of their status. It is a different status. They must nurture and deepen their own path.
But changing the world falls on your shoulders. If you want to develop through this, it is service, spiritual work. As long as such karmas exist, they should be used.
Monks enlighten the world, but in their own way. They influence it, but in their own way, inwardly, within themselves. They meditate in their cells, radiate spiritual vibrations, write treatises, and reveal depth. But they are detached; they live from a different perspective. It is another civilization.
Action with Blessing
This is your battlefield, the field of your spiritual struggle, the field of self-improvement. You must always learn to act with blessing and wholehearted dedication. As soon as you begin acting on your own, you immediately understand that the forces will be unequal. You are alone against the wheel of samsara. Not a single chance.
When you act not on your own, but as a conduit for higher forces, higher energy, blessing, and Refuge, all the saints will always be behind you. You will never suffer defeat; all your sankalpas will be realized.
