Something doesn't become factual because it says so in some scripture or because someone believes it. But something becomes factual by being eternal, transmitted knowledge descended in an intact disciplic succession - knowledge that can be investigated and confirmed by the proper method.

In the Vedic tradition there are 3 reference points to secure that the theology is right - guru, sadhu and shastra - ie. the spiritual master, the tradition and the scriptures. For something to be factual these 3 must correspond. Besides that, the Vedic Version offers a scientific process by which one can investigate the philosophy and have it confirmed.

In the modern natural science the object of study is matter and nothing else. One observes and studies matter in its endless variations and interactions. In the spiritual science one has consciousness as the object of study - one studies the influence of matter on the consciosness and the mind. So in the spiritual science consciousness is the object of investigation. One does not limit one's studies to that which is outside of oneself.

That's why the spiritual science is superior to material science. Material science is not sufficient to describe and understand the reality we live in.

And why is this so? Because none of the natural sciences have anything sensible to say about our conscious experience of the world. They only tell us about matter, they say nothing about our experience of matter. And it is our conscious awareness of the world which is the most fundamental aspect of the reality we live in.

Only the spiritual science can help us understand the self and its relation to the world and God. Therefore Krishna says:

Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth. (Bg 10.33)

Some people claim they don't need God to tell them what is right or wrong.
But if not God, we then have society, the law, family, parents, tradition, culture etc., to tell us the difference between right and wrong. Or we have our own minds to tell what we can or cannot do, but again that is based on what we have learned from others.

So it is merely a question of who we choose as our authority. Everyone has learned what is right or wrong by the culture they grew up in. Otherwise how do we know what's what?

Some claim they themselves can decide that, it's something you can feel, they say. But if one is one's own authority it's the same as no authority.
If it is merely up to the mind to tell us what is right or wrong, then anything can be right or wrong. Then it doesn't matter what we do, because we can always justify it in our own minds. And how can we be sure, what the mind tells us is right? How do we decide if what our feelings tell us is right? I mean, what if some psycho feels the impulse to attack people in the mall with a base-ball bat, is it then ok? If we are our own authority, it must be quite alright, right?

The real fact of the matter is that we wouldn't even know that 2 plus 2 is 4 if someone hadn't taught us, and they wouldn't know if someone hadn't taught them and so on. Mathematics is not something one speculates into being. It's something we learn from others as we grow up. We wouldn't know much of anything if someone hadn't taught us. Animals don't know that 2 plus 2 is 4 and they also couldn't care less.

So in the same way that we know 2 plus 2 is 4, ie. by learning it from someone who knows, we can also know who God is and the meaning and purpose of all things - by learning from those who know. And who knows God and the meaning of all things? The sages of the Vedic culture know these things, and their knowledge has been transmitted down through the ages via the disciplic succession. It's as simple as that.

Krishna says:

Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.
(Bg. 4.34)

Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine. (Bg. 4.35)

Even if you are considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries. (Bg. 4.36)

As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities. (Bg. 4.37)

In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time. (Bg. 4.38)

A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace. (Bg. 4.39)

But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next. (Bg. 4.40)

The Great Lie

 In the modern culture children are raised with a false conception of life. From the time they are old enough to hold up their heads by themselves, they are placed in front of the TV. Is it a positive thing to raise children with the fundamental lie that everything in the material world ends well? It is probably one of the most clichéd phrases in Hollywood movies  - "everything is going to be OK, baby, I promise, everything is going to be alright."

The truth is that nothing ends well. Everything always goes to pieces, because everything ends in disease, old age, and death.  And in the mean-time, while waiting for the inevitable, something always goes wrong - to one's nearest and dearest, to society and to the rest of the world. So when children are told throughout their whole upbringing, that everything is going to be Ok and end on a happy note, it is one big lie.

People nowadays are just  as misled and confused as in earlier times. Today people are just covered by a different paradigm. Before, people were kept in awe  and reverence by magic tricks and wonders , nowadays people are kept in awe by technology and unconsciousness-philosophy. By unconsciousness-philosophy I refer to the weird phenomenon that the vast majority of the world population believe: that by absorbing oneself in a culture of external mechanical matters  is the way to peace and happiness. In fact, everyone is being told that the present Western surface-culture is the pinnacle of all human knowledge, endeavor and advancement. From the earliest age children are being told that now a days we know, we have discovered the real world, and everything in the past people thought they knew is just superstition and myths.

How is it anything but dogmatic to assume, that everything people knew before, millions of years ago, is merely superstitions and myths, and what we have learned about the world after the industrial revolution is factual knowledge?

That's another basic lie the modern human being is being indoctrinated with in the present consumer-culture, which unfortunately sets the agenda of the world. There has always been a ruling class, which has controlled the broad masses with propaganda. That's visible all the way down through history. Today people are told that what's in the peer-reviewed scientific journals is true, or it is true because a person in a white coat and ugly tie says so on a screen, and it is being backed by mathematic equations and a jargon that nobody comprehends one single syllable of. They talk about atoms and molecules as if it had anything to do with the reality people live in.

The fact is, that no one experiences atoms and molecules. Who cares that everything is but tiny little paticles of matter rotating  around in his brain, if everything is going to hell, or I can't get my desires fulfilled?

If I am in pain and suffering, what do I care what happens on the micro-level? If I'm in the middle of a divorce,  is it then what happens on the micro-plane, I first think of? Or if my child is sick or I've been diagnosed with terminal cancer, am I going to sit and analyze what happens on the atomic level? Is it at all relevant for my psychic well-being whether I know what happens on the micro-level?

Wouldn't it be better to have a program that can teach me the psychic aspects of life? It is on the mental level we experience happiness and distress, and that is why it is possible to control one's happiness and distress by controlling the mind through the Vedic program.

Krishna says:

One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

(Bg. 6.5)

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

(Bg. 6.6)

Maybe I can't get my desires fulfilled, maybe my life is chaos and I don't have any money, and the last thing that kept me going, my girlfriend, just left me. How does that feel? Then I probably think that if I could just fulfill my desires, then I would be happy.

But the fact of the matter is, that there are tons of people in the world who have all their desires fulfilled - the rich, the famous and the beautiful. They have gotten just the partner they always wanted, they have their desired job, the house they always dreamt about, just the right car, the one in the commercials, and just the right kids etc.etc. - but they are also frustrated. They also use drugs and commit suicide. They are also alcoholized. And in stead of worrying about the 300 bucks they don't have for the rent, they worry about 3 million bucks the don't have for a mansion. The worry and an anxiety is exactly the same. The pain and loss is the same. The disease is the same. And death is the same for all human beings no matter their situation or the body they inhabit.

It is the unavoidable experience of becoming sick, growing old and dying we have to learn how to process in our minds. That is not being taught in the modern culture. In stead, we are told, don't think so much about these existential matter, nobody knows for sure, anyway. Better forget about the whole thing. Why waste time thinking about the inevitable?

But it is only by knowledge of one's real center, one's true self, that one can obtain real success in life, and by success I don't mean economical success and social prestige. Real success is to remain satisfied in life regardless of one's social position or bodily features and constitution.

Modern science deals with external, physical forms, but not with internal, psychic forms, and it is this lack of a meaningful inner life, science cannot help us with, and which makes modern people frustrated.

If someone says, 'but I am not frustrated, I don't suffer', then what can I say? They are either lying or too young and inexperienced, or too unintelligent to understand they are suffering - like an animal. Or they have become too empty headed and thoughtless by drugs  and alcohol or by shear coziness with coffee and cake in front of the TV.

In former times it was priests and the sages who were the top class of society. To day that class has been replaced by the business class. Today merchants and industrialists rule the world. Who can deny that the world is run by money?  But the producers of  the consumer goods still need priests  or rather scientists (the new priests) to tell people what to think and believe. And besides, they need them to fabricate military equipment and technology. It should come as a surprise to no-one that the manufacturing of weapons is the biggest industrial enterprise in the world.

Everything that people are indoctrinated into believing has been made into one world-wide ideology, which has only managed to spread globaly due to TV and information technology. The global culture it is called. The only global thing about it is that now Coca-cola, MacDonald's, and Levis have made the whole world into their gigantic, all-pervading market-place. In remote villages in India you can't get pure water, but you can get Coca-cola. And before it used to be the Communists who were the enemy. After the fall of the Berlin Wall that enemy was replaced by Arab, Moslem terrorists.

The truth is that people now a days are not more happy and satisfied than they were before. It is not possible to find real happiness in a technocratic surface-society where everything has been reduced to atomic, unconscious processes.

Dissatisfaction and frustration just increase, and increase in such a society.  And all the while the population is being lied to - the lie that technological together with economical advancement is the solution to all problems. Existential problems are ever escalating in society. For instance, the sales of anti-depressant drugs have shot through the roof in the last few years, but still we are being told that everything can be solved by economical advancement and technology. We are fed an endless stream of movies from Hollywood where scientists and technology take care of all problems. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is no better description of how the psychic plane functions than the one we find in the Bhagavad Gita.  In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes nature in relation to the conscious, psychic and physical aspects of nature(the self, the mind and the body, and how they work according to the three modes of nature - goodness, passion, and ignorance.

By the aid of this science one can estimate exactly anyone's mental situation and guide oneself to become a more satisfied and wholesome person. One can use this science  to handle psychic problems in the form of depression, manias, boredom or whatever makes the Western society ripe with suicide and insane crimes.

Anyhow, by the science of self-realization described  by Krishna in Bhagavad Gita one can get a reading on nature, the body, and thoughts and feelings in the mind. The ruling class tells people that they can be happy by sense-gratification, technology and economic advancement, but is not true. Nobody, no matter how much sense-gratification and money they have had access  to in the modernized, technological existence have ever become happy and satisfied; on the contrary, all statistics point to the opposite.

Anyone who so desires can be take help from the Bhagavad Gita to learn how to live a wholesome and satisfying existence. Regardless of one's beliefs, the process works. All one has to do is to apply the program in one's life. Then enlightenment and satisfaction happens automatically.

Here, the analogy of the computer is appropriate. The body is the hardware, the mind is the software, and the self or the soul is the user. The mind is like a software which is meant to interact with material nature in such a way as to minimize suffering and maximize happiness. If one gets to know how to work this software, the beneficial effects on the mind become an empirical fact. It is a direct observable fact that the human mind works best when applied to the Vedic model.

In the present age of Kali, people are very unhappy and frustrated, and that is because they have created a mechanistic, impersonal conception of nature. But not all the wealth, bodily gratification, and power will ever be able to slake our thirst for happiness and satisfaction in life.

Krishna says:

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? (Bg. 2.66)

O learned Uddhava, those who fix their consciousness on Me, giving up all material desires, share with Me a happiness that cannot possibly be experienced by those engaged in sense gratification.

--Srimad Bhagavatam 11.14.12

The happiness for which we are all looking can only be obtained by knowing nature and God,  as they are.  Modern man is not being equipped to handle his own psyche. There are no programs for psychic welfare, none that work, anyway, except drugs manufactured by big corporations.  According to the Vedic Version it is our collective psyche that forms the material world. By manipulating one's own psyche one can manipulate matter - subtle matter in the form of thoughts, feelings, will-power, happiness, pain, etc.

We live in a culture dedicated to machines. In a better and more healthy culture, one learns how nature is a result of one's consciousness. That is not done by viewing nature as merely some matter meant for producing consumer-good and military equipment. A culture based on exploiting nature's resources in the interest of business-interests will not have peoples' welfare in sight.

In an ideal society, the ruling powers will be able to keep their citizens happy and satisfied.  A proper state based on God-Consciousness will secure nature's cooperation and in this way make sure that the citizens are not harassed by natural disturbances like catastrophes and horrible diseases.

But when trying to inform a misled world about the eternal Vedic philosophy and knowledge, which has practical solutions to all problems, and which has been passed down by ancient sages since time immemorial, one is dismissed as a fanatic sect-member, or it's being brushed aside as insane conspiracy theories.

But that is just the modern sly  strategy, which by one-sided propaganda maintains the ruling paradigm of the day, and  forces people into thinking in a certain way.  It cannot be denied that there has always been a ruling class of any society that control the masses.

People in the modern culture think they are not being controlled. They think they are enlightened have a say about government. Everything is run by democracy and equality. Yet another lie with which people are being indoctrinated in the consumer-society.

People are as strictly controlled and manipulated as they have always been. Today people are just being brain-washed in a different fashion than before - first and foremost by the mass-media .  in former times people were controlled by religion, in the modern world people are being controlled by politics, and brain-dead TV-entertainment.

Modern people are largely well-educated technocrats, and they have created an entire culture around it. But these well-educated enlightened people are no less manipulated, controlled and exploited than a primitive,  illiterate jungle-dweller. They still follow the masses, going with the flow, as they are being trained to by ungodly forces, who have been given dispensation to rule in the age of Kali. And the only way out of this is genuine God-Consciousness.

And you don't have to take it on my mere say so. The Bhakti-process advocated in the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavat Purana is a scientific process, that work's whether you believe it or not. You can know that Krishna is God with same finality as you can know that two plus two is four. All you have to do is test the process and verify it.

Krishna says:

Now hear, O son of Pritha, how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt.  (Bg. 7.1)

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (Bg. 9.2)

Service - the eternal engagement

If one wants to gain a core understanding of an object or a subject one must understand the essence of that object or subject. The essence, or the inner inseparable quality of  a thing is in Sanskrit called dharma. Dharma  is the innate property of a thing that makes the thing what it is. In other words dharma is the very principle that gives meaning to a thing. The dharma of salt or the meaning of dharma is to be salt; a stone’s dharma or the meaning of a stone is to be hard; water’s dharma is to be wet, fire’s dharma is light and heat, the dharma of sugar is to be sweet and so on. There is no meaning to fire if it doesn’t burn, and honey is meaningless if it is not sweet. This is all self evident.

One might then ask what is the dharma of a living entity. Or what is the meaning of the soul’s existence? What is it that makes a living entity what it is and that cannot be separated from the living entity? The answer the Vedas give us is service. Service or to serve is the inherent quality that cannot be taken away from the soul. The soul or the particle of consciousness, which is an eternal part of Krishna, is simply meant to serve Krishna. In our conditioned state, where we exist separately from Krishna, this service is expressed in so many other fashions, but the serving tendency inevitably shines through in all circumstances. Vi all have to serve someone or something.

As parents we serve our children, we serve society by paying taxes, we serve the boss at work, we serve our spouses. It can almost be said that service equals love. In any case, service is an integral aspect of love, because without service there is no love. Without service love is just empty or at best fancy talk, that which poets write about. A man might declare his love to a woman, but if he never does anything for her, if he never shows her his love by buying her flowers or nice dresses, what then is the value of his love? And if a woman loves a man she will also be eager to please him in all kinds of ways by cooking his favorite dishes for him etc. In other words, we serve the ones we love. This urge to serve is so strong that even people who have no loved ones to serve, like some old people who have lost all their relatives or some lonely people often get themselves a canary or a little dog they can serve.

They serve the bird by cleaning its cage and feeding it with fresh water and food, or they walk their dog and pick up its droppings in a plastic bag to dispose of later, and sometimes they spend half their pension on veterinary bills. These are all symptoms of the loving service that are always manifested in the living entity. Even in animals we find this service although in lesser degrees. And even in people, who are very selfish, who care for nothing and no one, who claim that they feel absolutely no necessity to serve or care for anyone, we find that they still have to serve. They serve the urges of their bodies, they are forces to it. They have to eat, they have to sleep, they have to mate, there is just no way they can escape serving their bodies. Or they will serve their minds’ demands for name and distinction. In all circumstances everyone is serving.

 When the Vedas speak of dharma in connection with human life, the word in English is often translated with religion, because religion is said to be the essence of human existence. Even an atheist will have some belief system or moral and ethical codes he adheres to. But religion or faith can change. A Christian can change and become an atheist, a Moslem can convert to Hinduism, so religion or faith describes only the temporary dharma we follow as human beings. It doesn’t describe that dharma or service which is eternal.

A better translation of the word dharma is the word duty. Duty is inextricably connected with human life. But we don’t have the same duties. We have different duties according to the body we inhabit. Thus the Vedas describe different types of dharma in terms of our different bodies and their inherent abilities. There are different dharmas for women, for men, for children, for old people and for all the different types of people and social orders.

So there are two forms of dharma or duty  associated with human life. There is the dharma we have in relation to our body and culture and there is the dharma we have as a spirit soul. One is the duty we have to perform as conditioned, embodied souls, and the other is our duty as liberated soul. The first is a temporary duty in relation to our specific body type, which takes on a myriad of forms and the other is our eternal duty as pure souls in relation to Krishna. Here also is a distinction between the duties that are laid down for us by God and the sages through in the holy scriptures like the Vedas or scriptures from other cultures and the duties we fabricate ourselves as is evident in the modern culture. It is clearly stated in the Bhagavad Gita that if one neglects to perform the dharma that are described in the shastra and acts whimsically according to self constructed rules, one cannot expect to be happy either in this life or the next.

“He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.” (Bg. 16.23)

“But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.” (Bg. 4.40)

If one follows the dharma as directed by the Vedas it leads to happiness and welfare in life and one will gradually be promoted to increasingly advanced forms of life on the higher planetary systems. That is, one can become a demigod, a siddha, a sage or any of the other sublime forms in the universal hierarchy. But if one neglects to perform his designated duties as a human being, one will not only create a hellish existence individually and collectively, but if one insists on breaking with the natural balance of life in this way one will gradually sink down to the most abominable life forms.

Thus the essence of all life is service. Generally it can be said that this service is expressed through the performance of our duties, and in relation to our status in life – body, age, position, culture etc. – we have different duties to perform. These duties are ultimately given to us by God, as prescribed in the different religions, with the expressed purpose of allowing us to live in harmony with nature and thus advance in happiness and prosperity. Some people have the idea that the duties given to us by God are a nuisance and a hindrance to our enjoying life, but it is simply irrational to suggest that God wants us to suffer. He wants us to become happy and satisfied and therefore he has given the directions how to do exactly that, and it is obvious to any dispassionate observer that as the modern culture has discarded the rules of God of invented its own rules for becoming happiness, exactly the opposite has occurred – the modern civilization has turned the planet into a dump and everyone without exception is disturbed and miserable to the max. That’s the unavoidable consequences of ignoring the rules and regulations established by God.

But besides the dharma we have to perform as human beings, ie. The different duties we have to perform if we want to live a good life in harmony with nature and all other creatures not only in this life but the next one as well, we also have an eternal dharma, which is constant, and that is our direct service to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Vedas it is said, that the original position of the soul is to be the eternal servant of Krishna. That service to Krishna is performed by the soul in its liberated state after its been freed from the necessity of having to exist in a physical body and it is being expressed by the soul allowing itself to be enjoyed by Krishna. When the living entity no longer have any desires to enjoy selfishly, i.e. when it no longer wishes to enjoy separately from Krishna, he serves Krishna by unconditionally by performing all activities to please Him. By such service the soul expresses its love for Krishna.

Such love is the eternal dharma of the soul and it is totally without hankering and lamentation and it continues forever. This type of love can be experienced even when the soul is still situated in his material body, for such pure devotional service is without any tinge of material properties and is thus not dependent on whether the soul is situated in the material or spiritual world. In fact, when the soul serves Krishna with his body, mind and words he is to be considered liberated even if he is within a material body. So one does not have to wait until leaving his body to serve Krishna purely.

iha yasya harer dasye / karmana manasa gira

nikhilasv apy avasthasu / jivan-muktah sa ucyate

"One who acts to serve Krsna with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person, even within this material world." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.187)

The method by which to become engaged in such service that is inherent in the heart of all living entities is to simply invoke it by calling to Krishna for it, and that is done by reciting or meditating on the Hare Krishna mantra:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

By chanting Krishna’s name one engages in the eternal dharma of the soul, and by doing that one’s life becomes sublime regardless of whether one is rich or poor, ugly or handsome, clever or not so clever, it doesn’t matter what material situation one may find oneself in, as soon as one calls for Krishna one is immediately transported to the transcendental plane. This truth can be realized by anyone irrespective of  religious or cultural belongings. It is not even a question of giving up this or that or changing one’s lifestyle, all one needs to do is simply to add Krishna to one’s life, and this is done very easily just be chanting His name. From that everything else will manifest and one will experience that satisfaction for which we are al hankering, and which further more is the topmost goal of life.