The Laws of Spiritual Development
Now we are going to discuss the laws of yoga formulated in part by our predecessors and in part — in the process of work of our School.
But first about what is yoga. In the last decades of the deepest spiritual depression in this country (Russia), the word yoga was understood at best as hatha yoga and at worst as occultism and magic. Our average man imagines a “yogi” standing on the head or sitting in the lotus pose, who is also capable of lying on broken glass or nails, drinking acid and so on.
But in reality yoga is, first and foremost, Love. The word yoga is translated from Sanskrit into English the same as the Latin word religion — that is mergence, union of man with God. Yoga is movement towards God. The basis of this movement, of yoga is Love. Love with capital “L”. Love in the sense that Jesus Christ, Krishna and other Messengers of the Creator spoke of it.
Love is that which unites man with man, allows one to find harmony with the whole of the environment in the multidimensional space that which fully developed allows one to reach the union with God.
Man has no other possibility to realize the supreme religious precepts set forth in the New Testament and in the Bhagavad Gita, other than through developed Love.
That School is the School of the true yoga which professes Love.
“God is Love”, taught Jesus. What does it mean? It means that if we are to fulfill the principal precept of the New Testament: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”, we must here, on the Earth, in these bodies, develop the Divine Love in ourselves. We have to learn to love each other, all beings, the whole Creation. We have to learn to love in the way God loves us, God Who is Love.
The same ideas of Love-bhakti are expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. It says about the same concept of Love as the New Testament. That is, first one has to master Love through interaction with elements of the Creation, with elements of the Absolute, in order to redirect later this Love to the Creator.
So yoga is the Path of Love, through which we can reach Mergence with God.
Both Krishna and Jesus spoke of this blending, Mergence. The Bhagavad Gita, in particular, has the following words of God: “Direct your thoughts to Me, submerge yourself as a consciousness into Me — verily then you will live in Me”. Jesus told the same to His disciples (it is written in The Book of Thomas the Contender Writing to the Perfect of apostle Thomas): through our religious efforts we must merge with the King (that is God-the-Father) forever [54]. The same was taught by Babaji and is being taught now by Sathya Sai Baba [28,33].
So the Teachings of Jesus Christ and the Avatars of India agree in what concerns both the final Goal as they define it and the methodology of the spiritual progress. The New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita complement one another very well. The same truths are stated in them in slightly different language, and this helps us to comprehend them.
So what is the Divine Perfection that we have to achieve? It comprises three major aspects: Love, Wisdom, and Power. These three qualities are inherent to God. This is why striving to the Divine Perfection we have to develop ourselves in these three directions.
There is a very good image, described in the Bhagavad Gita: man as a field covered with sprouts. These sprouts are our qualities. Man is a field composed of qualities. And these sprouts-qualities are numerous. On the Path to the Divine Perfection one has to grow to maturity by all sprouts of the essential plants; each of them has to be grown to maturity. And the vices-weeds have to be rooted out.
It is very important to understand that we have to develop not in a single particular feature but in a number of them. This should be emphasized, because some religious directions simplify very much the concept of human spiritual development. In reality we have to develop in many directions: to go in for sports (it is especially important for children) in order to lay a foundation for further development of power; to receive a broad education so that in the future Wisdom may get formed on the basis of various specific knowledge and developed thinking ability; the sphere of the reproductive activity is needed as well, especially child-rearing — this helps us to lay a foundation of that love which later has to transform into the Divine Love. No one can become perfect without having mastered all of this. And the more experience of trials, errors, and victories we accumulate the closer we are to the Perfection. The whole spiritual experience — positive and negative — of other people is also useful for us; we can learn not only from our own achievements and mistakes but from someone else’s as well.
According to the three main aspects of the Perfection, there are three directions of the spiritual work. The first is the ethical one, represented by two stages: karma yoga — the teaching about ethically correct action, and bhakti yoga — the teaching about Love. The second is the intellectual direction: jnani yoga. The third is the psychoenergetic direction represented by hatha yoga (preparatory stage), raja yoga (work with the organism’s energies) and buddhi yoga — the stage where the work with the energy of consciousness is performed. Buddhi yoga is the highest stage of yoga, on which one may realize, in particular, the following words of Jesus: “God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” [25]. It means that man having mastered the ability of acting not through the body but directly as the energy of consciousness, should aspire to the Divine Consciousness.
Now we can consider the laws of yoga.
The first of them is the law of Love. From the very beginning and till the very end of our spiritual advancement we have to learn Love. It is not enough to desire to learn Love. It is not enough to learn the precepts of Love by rote. There is a love “from mind” and there is a love “from heart”. The former is a necessary preparatory stage on the Path of mastering Love: we have to develop a strong desire to become able to love and we should first try to comprehend this intellectually. But the love “from heart”, that is an emotion born in the anahata chakra is that stable foundation on which the Divine Love can be grown — that is the Love Divinely subtle, wise, and powerful.
The whole spiritual Path consists of mastering Love, for it is not possible to learn to love the Creator if we do not have a developed ability of emotional love. And let me repeat once again that love can not be developed unless we have a developed structure generating this psychical state — the spiritual heart. Therefore, harmonious development of a disciple of a spiritual School is ensured only in the case when work with this chakra is given the highest priority.
The second law is the law of gradual development. What is the difference between people? We are used to see the differences in age and sex of our bodies, color of the skin, nationality and so forth. But all this is not that important as, for example, differences in the psychogenetic age — the age of a soul, which lives many times in different physical bodies on the way to its final and full self-realization.
The knowledge about this was lost in mass Christianity, though Jesus Christ did teach this. For instance, Jesus said that John the Baptist is Elias who came but was not recognized. Due to this misunderstanding the modern mass Christianity lacks an integral, strictly scientific concept of man’s evolution as well as serious methodology of spiritual development.
So the principal “quantitative” distinction between people is the soul’s age. Another — “qualitative” distinction — is that how people used the possibility of self-development given to them in the incarnations. For example, some are diligent in study while others are lazy.
Owing to this knowledge, we can deeply comprehend the Wisdom of God, Who encourages the variety of the spiritual schools on the Earth. The more numerous they are the greater number of people can choose for themselves the program of self-development optimal at the given moment of one’s personal evolution. In this they acquire both positive and negative experience. At that, gaining the latter is no less important. Let us remember: only the wise can quickly advance on the spiritual Path.
So everyone needs one’s own methods at the given moment. And the fact that some people have gathered for having a class in yoga does not mean that all of them will come together to the Perfection. No. It only means that they may go a part of the Path together and after that most of them will disperse in search for their own specific roads. And again they will make both correct and erroneous steps, suffer because of the latter, watch mistakes of other people, learn from their mistakes — it is not so painful as learning from own mistakes.
No one is entitled to coerce someone else to go specific path, because everyone is free to choose one’s own path. God, in particular, precisely declared it through the Quran: there must be no compulsion in religion! [25].
There are various schemes reflecting the regularities in man’s spiritual growth. There are schemes of psychotypes expounded by Gurdjieff [70], or the scheme given by Yukteswar in his work The Holy Science [71], or the stages of psychogenesis described in the Bhagavad Gita [25].
Now let us consider one of such schemes known in Hinduism.
At the beginning any person — both in psychogenesis (development in a series of incarnations) and in ontogenesis (individual development within one incarnation) is a student. On this state people are unable to create anything on their own. He is learning. He is learning, in particular, by helping others in the capacity of a servant (in the widest and positive sense of this word, not just as a domestic help).
Later, having acquired a lot of knowledge and experience, having developed an intellect, one becomes a grihastha (householder).
That one can be called grihastha who having reached certain age in the current incarnation possesses own household and family, is able of supporting materially not only oneself but also others and has raised children. A person who is “standing firmly on the feet” — that one is grihastha.
But grihasthas can be of a different scale. That is a grihastha can be “minor” and “major”. “Major” grihastha is the one who, for example, heads a whole spiritual direction. For such a grihastha his or her “family” is all his/her followers, or all people of the Earth.
Many religious trends and Schools lack this idea of regularity of man’s development and make attempts to bring all adepts immediately to the state of sannyasi (monk) which is only detrimental for them.
In Hinduism there is one more scheme, described in the Bhagavad Gita — the stages of varnas.
The first stage in it is analogous to the stage of a disciple of the previous scheme. At the beginning man is capable of nothing on his own. His social role can be only auxiliary. Rendering help to others he learns. On this stage one is called shudra.
The next stage is vaishya. This includes peasants, craftsmen, merchants, that is people who are successful in managing own business. Such people are grihasthas.
Then they become kshatriyas — leaders. This is a still higher execution of the grihastha’s functions, ascent to the next stage of social activity. It is on this stage that such aspects of the Perfection as Wisdom and Power develop best, and also the background for expansion of Love is created.
A true grihastha-kshatriya must possess both strong intellect and power, which cannot be developed merely by lifting weights. Only then he or she can advance successfully.
One has to master all these stages in order to become able to cognize Brahman (the Holy Spirit) and become in this way a member of the brahman varna.
There are no stages leading to the Perfection other than these. That is why it is necessary to emphasize harmfulness of the tendency to abandon prematurely the social activity. After all, only by going through many “earthly” situations we can acquire that which is absolutely indispensable on the final stages of approaching to God.
The third law is the law of three octaves formulated by Georgii Gurdjieff. It states that only that one can advance quickly and surely on the spiritual Path who works in three directions simultaneously. The first direction is concrete work on changing oneself. The second one is spiritual help to some particular people. The third direction implies taking an active part in the life of a spiritual association of people — a spiritual School, a community, a group — and experiencing oneself a member of it.
If one of the “octaves” is omitted, that is if we do not work in one of these directions, then unavoidably we come to a standstill in the development.
The fourth law is the law of sinusoid. It holds that each spiritual ascent is inevitably followed by the tendency of descent. This is manifested especially clearly in the psycho energetic aspect of the development. After we have had an achievement, we begin to lose the attained level. But if we desire, we can make efforts and super-efforts to come back to the height achieved. In this way we can secure ourselves on the levels we have reached. And thus God tests our yearning for Him by taking away our achievements for a time. By this means He also prevents us from moving at speed which is too high for us. In other words, this clearly shows how much we need our last achievements at the given moment.
And let us remember that it is God Who fulfills this law for us. It is He Who puts us to trial by taking away that which He has just given us Himself. For what reason? To make us stronger in our achievements, to make us firmer, so that we do not “break” under the burden, which is beyond our capacities yet.
But they who are capable and willing to advance quickly and ceaselessly can successfully go through the descending parts of the path if they know about this law and keep vigilance about it.
The fifth law is the law of moving into the depth of the multidimensional space on the Path to God. We know already that God is not in the sky and there is no sense in flying into space or climbing mountains in search for Him. There is no localized God. He is present there but not to a greater extent than elsewhere. The Divine Consciousness is present both inside and outside of our bodies. One can perceive Him only through mastering the ability to submerge into the depth of the multidimensional space.
This path starts with refinement of the emotional sphere, with refusing coarse emotional states, with mastering the ability of living in positive emotions only, with purging the organism of coarse energies (and this is impossible without switching to the “killing-free” diet, which is also in accordance with the Bible’s commandment “you shall not kill!”).
Contributing to the task of refinement is attunement with subtle states of nature, with corresponding works of art, communication with children, with spiritually advanced people.
Helpful for this is meditative work, techniques of raja yoga and later of buddhi yoga, including the work on places of power.
Only through this we can enter into the Abode of God-the-Father, settle there and dissolve in Him. In this way we come to the state which Jesus described by the words “I and the Father are one” [23,25].
Let me stress that only a strictly monotheistic outlook comprising the knowledge about the multidimensionality of space where the Creator is understood as the Primordial Consciousness existing in the subtlest plane of the universe — only such an outlook allows one to traverse this Path quickly.
The sixth law is the law of intellectual readiness. The higher truths that we are discussing now cannot be understood by people who are on the initial stages of their evolution in human bodies as well as by those who are moving with the “downward” stream. One has to have a preliminary intellectual readiness for encompassing each new portion of the high spiritual knowledge. At that, it is essential that the one desirous to receive new initiation into sacred knowledge develop harmoniously in all three directions: intellectual, ethical, and psycho-energetic ones. If this harmony is violated and development proceeds just along the latter line, it can be only detrimental. In particular, a weak intellect can break under the load induced by penetration into the depths of multidimensional universe.
Let me note also that adequate ethical development is not possible if the corresponding intellectual basis is absent. Otherwise one gains only superficial understanding of the ethical principles. An example of this is realization of the commandment “you shall not kill!”. Whom and when is it forbidden to kill? Only I must not be killed? Or I must not kill as well? But what if I am attacked? And what if a war is waged? And if my friends are attacked? And what about animals — not to kill them also? Is it permitted to kill mosquitoes? And what about killing plants for food and other needs?
Similar “difficult” questions can be asked concerning any of 10 commandments received by Moses. And all these questions God asks us in theoretical and practical tasks at the school called “Earth” as we are gaining maturity.
Another example — observance of the commandment “do not steal”. We can refrain from stealing money and property of other people. But to stop stealing their freedom when we impose our will on them — how many people reach this level of morality? And what if we consider the same approach for our relationships with animals? And what about stealing bioenergy from other people when we desire something from them?
And how can we reconcile the commandment “do not commit adultery” with the commandment of the New Testament “give to everyone who asks of you”?
Also, it is quite difficult to abstain from the sin of judging others! But first of all, it is necessary to understand the distinction between judging and critical evaluation of other people’s actions. And what about “righteous wrath”? Or the “right” of denunciation, which the Orthodox church “legitimatized” in contravention of the prohibition to judge? Do we realize that “exposure” and “righteous wrath” pave the road to hell just the same as the anger of judgment does? Not those go to hell who formally “sinned” once or several times but those who accustomed themselves while living in the body to coarse emotional states, who did not learn the emotional cordial love, did not refine themselves through tenderness, fearing maybe to “commit a sin”.
And they who try in some Catholic countries to deprive others of the right to abortion “sin” — are not they sinners even greater than the ones having abortion?
All these are complicated questions of ethics; to solve them one has to have a developed intellect. And it is so easy to frighten people of weak intellect by their “deadly sin”, cast them into the deep of chronic fear and thus dooming them to hell!
And so many difficult questions arise to those who are getting acquainted with life in other spatial dimensions! It is so easy to become confused and get lost there!
There is no sense in trying to teach junior schoolchildren the things that are studied in universities. The same is true for the spiritual work. To receive confidential knowledge a student should be mature enough. First the student has to master the skills of a grihastha. Only a kshatriya can become a brahman!
The seventh law is the law of power in subtlety. It is important to know that we should develop not the coarse power, but the subtle one. Therefore, one should be taught first the refinement and only then — power. In other words, it is better to make powerful the subtlety rather than the coarseness.
A harmonious development of the function of power begins with making the body healthy, lithe, pure, physically strong. This can be achieved through hatha yoga and other systems of body training.
The second stage is the development of bioenergetic structures of the organism: chakras and hara. This is a stage of raja yoga.
The third stage is buddhi yoga, where a student, who is prepared in every aspect, crystallizes the consciousness and practically cognizes the highest spatial dimensions.
Let me emphasize that it makes sense to develop the aspect of Power only if considerable potentials of Love and Wisdom are accumulated. Otherwise, possessing power may be extremely harmful.
The eighth law is the law of being directed to God. Let me remind you the words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Direct your thoughts to Me, submerge yourself as a consciousness into Me — verily then you will live in Me”.
In Hinduism there is a very valuable likening of our senses (functions of the organs of sense) to tentacles (indriyas). When looking we stretch from our eyes “tentacles” and touch the objects with them. When listening we do the same from our ears... Even when we think about an object, we direct the indriyas of the mind to it.
On the religious Path, the task is to direct the indriyas of the mind and later of the consciousness towards God in order to merge finally with Him as a Consciousness. The latter is realized through the methods of buddhi yoga: it is they that allow one to solve this problem radically. But now I am not going to discuss these methods in detail: they are revealed only to the ones on the “homestretch”...
The ninth law is the law of destroying the “I”. The ultimate goal of man — Mergence with the Creator — can be achieved only through destruction of the “I”. This is realized with the help of special techniques of buddhi yoga. A preparatory stage for it is mastering the state of Nirodhi — one of the steps of Nirvana, when consciousness is transferred into the state of “non-I” or total reciprocity. But it makes sense to strive to realization of this task from the very beginning of the Path by fostering humility, humbleness in oneself.
There is a formula in the highest Tibetan yoga: an individual Atman first has to be expanded to the infinity and then destroyed. When man who has mastered the highest Love and Wisdom and has developed oneself as a consciousness up to the cosmic scale in the highest spatial dimensions, disappears — this means such a man merges with the Creator.
The tenth law is the law of breaking ties with the Earth and the earthly. Realization of this principle results in attainment of the state of Mukti (Moksha). It is reached through renunciation of all “earthly” attachments, through mastering the techniques of working with the indriyas and destruction of the “I” in the state of Nirodhi.
Let me underline that it makes no sense to try to realize this without having mastered the preceding stages of personal growth in “earthly” affairs and on the path of the spiritual ascent. The state of Mukti can be achieved only through the methods of buddhi yoga preceded by the stages of raja yoga.
Merging with the Creator must be necessarily preceded by fulfillment of the tenth law.
On all stages of the spiritual ascent man may remain involved into the social life, what was demonstrated in particular, by Krishna, Gautama Buddha and after Them — by Jesus, Rajneesh, and others. The social role of such people becomes more and more perfect as they go forward, because they act not out of personal interest or attachment to the activity itself but for the good of all, using the ever-growing Wisdom.
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Perhaps, the following prayer-meditation written by one of our students Oleg Mikhailov can help many to learn to love God:
O Supreme Ishvara, Who created me!
I am grateful to you and love You very tenderly!
Come into my heart! Come! Come!
Teach me Wisdom, Power, Love!
So that with your eyes I may look at the world,
So that with You Tenderness I may warm everyone!
I beg You, my Beloved, manifest Yourself,
So that I can fall in love with You very passionately!
And, having embraced You, I will find peace...
Having settled in You, I will learn to be You...
