The supreme Self, Sri Krsna!

What is spirituality? Spirituality is defined as a sense of connection to something greater than ourselves and the quest to understand the meaning and value of life and existence. Spirituality has been a term used to describe a person’s belief in transcendence, the soul, life after death, god or goddess etc. Spiritualist seek to see commonality between all religious systems and a spiritual person often includes ideas from multiple spiritual traditions

I, however, would like to narrow the concept down to a single fundamental principle, the Self. The study of the self is the actual root of the term spirituality because the self is what is known as spirit. Spirit is an English word derived from the Latin word "spirare" which means “to breath” this is a word that is hinting at life. Life is the fundamental truth of our universe if our universe didn’t bring forth life then there really would be no universe, or at least that is to say, without anyone to experience the universe, does it exist? My opinion is no. 

 Life, therefore, is the basis of our reality and because of that, it is in itself, the creator of the world. God is life.

There is a great song by the great Sufi poet Rumi, he said “I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.”

Many Dualistic persons will find this knowledge difficult to swallow, and it must be taken under the right context lest you dissolve your individuality completely and lose the opportunity for prema. However, it should be understood properly as it gives bhakti a very wonderful flavor. In the Gopala Tapani Upanishad, The great sage Durvasa muni while instructing Srimati Radharani narrates a conversation between Lord Narayana and Brahma at the beginning of creation, Narayana says

“He who from the very beginning of creation takes the living entities, known as the gopas, as his very self is verily Gopåla. One should think: The truth is identical with the sacred syllable om, and I am he. I am he who is the Supreme Brahman, the essence of whom is Krsna, whose only form is one of eternal bliss. That Gopåla is the unobstructed Supreme Truth. Thinking, “I am he,” one should take control of the self and concentrate the mind. One should then meditate on the self, thinking, “I am Gopåla.” Verily Gopåla is unmanifest, infinite, and eternal”

This sense of oneness is a key to understanding the true value of Bhakti. We do not worship a tyrant god who only likes us if we submit and surrender to him. We cannot find love in such a relationship and therefore the Sastras have declared emphatically to worship the one as the Atman. By doing so, the complete picture of our current predicament is clear, no one is to blame for our forgetfulness than ourselves and we have moved away from our authentic and eternal Self in pursuit of the shadow self, Maya. As the authentic eternal Self is the only one capable of completely controlling maya, the minute we move away from him we succumb to her illusions and continue our endless mission to find our self.

This might sound very contradictory but when we understand the nature of that Self fully and the energies He contains we can then understand our own individual existence in context to him. As he is endowed with unlimited energies he cannot be measured or fully described, however these energies have been categorized in three different ways; the Internal, the marginal, and the external.

Everything that is immediately related and composed of only Self-nature without any tinge of materiality and action independent of his pleasure is his internal potency. That potency which can relate to both the internal and external is known as marginal, this is what We the innumerable separated individuals are as we are intrinsically composed of Self-nature yet endowed with the ability to forget it to enjoy maya the external potency composed of the world of duality and external phantasmagoria.

As this Central Self is the Self of all it emanates unlimited minute selves that are endowed with a perspective of being separate from the whole. This, however, is impossible in a total sense as the Whole remains the complete whole at all times despite apparent separation. Each individual is a spark of the great self, eternally separate yet not entirely distinct from the absolute Self of all Selves. In the Bhagavat Purana, it is stated 10.14.52-55

Know this: This Krishna is the Self of all selves. For the benefit of the world, he has appeared here by his illusory potency, as though an embodied being. Those who know things in their truth see Krishna in all conscious and unconscious manifestations. They see everything as the form of the Lord and do not see any substance other than him. There is a meaningful essence present in all things, but the essence of that essence is Lord Krishna. Please tell me if you can identify anything that is not him.”

Let us begin to relate to ourselves and our world as the beloved Sri Krsna himself and stop believing the lie that we are low, destitute, and fallen. The tricks of Maya cannot hold us any longer as we find the bliss emanating from Krsna pouring forth from our hearts.

Again to understand this deep philosophy of Acintya bedha bedha tattva it imperative that one understand properly its intention, Selfless loving service to the divine and infinite Self without a care for any reward as the love for the Self is the reward in itself!

Make Love the keystone and the brambles of Advaita, Maya vada, and sunyavada cannot corrupt the knowledge and experience of divine supremely blissful Bhakti Rasa.

Hearing about the pastimes of Sri Krsna, Singing the names of Krsna, remembering Sri Krsna, and living either mentally of physically in the manifest places where Sri Krsna and performed his pastimes, and especially associating with those who are connected in love to Sri Krsna, constitute the true and most powerful means of awakening our Spirituality.

I worship the supreme self, the heart of hearts and goal of all goals, the true controller, maintainer, and destroyer of unlimited universes, and the embodiment of sublime and effortless love. His name by pure definition is Sri Krsna and he is my dear most Self. I am his and he is mine, eternally, without beginning or end. Victory to Sri Krsna!