Question: I am an Orthodox priest and I am pleased to hear that there are people who have reached “the other bank”. In connection with this, I’d like to know the following — not for the argument, but for a positive exchange of experience. In the given situation I am interested in the major issue — that of the purpose of life. For what sake do people suffer? Is it for the purpose of coming back into the state from which they came? Is there any profound meaning in suffering, enduring, and ascending?

Answer: An individual soul gets incarnated in order to master the next stage of its personal perfection. It is in a series of numerous incarnations that we evolve from the most primitive states — up to the divine ones. The final goal of the whole process for each one of us is to merge with the Creator. This is, in particular, what is written in The Book for the Perfect by apostle Thomas. It says that as a result of numerous incarnations we have to become one with the King, that is God-the-Father, and to stay in this state forever. Jesus also said that we have to seek the Divine Perfection: “Be perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect!” This same thought permeates the Bhagavad Gita — the principal source of yoga.

When speaking of yoga, I do not mean hatha yoga, of course. Hatha yoga is not yoga at all, this is rather “pre-yoga”. This is a culture of body, which helps one to make the body fit for further work and enables one to start the path of yoga properly.

The word yoga is translated as “mergence”, “union”, “becoming one”. Of whom with whom? — Of man with God.

There exist three basic directions of work in yoga — ethic, intellectual, and psychoenergetic one, in keeping with three major aspects of the Perfection, of which Jesus spoke.

What is the Perfection? No matter how many times people are told, “Be perfect! Be perfect!” — they are not going to become perfect just because of this, for they do not have any idea what the Perfection is. Some would say that one has to become a perfect mother: to give birth to a lot of children and raise them. This is great, but this is not all to it. Some believe that one has to become perfect in the art of killing, so they study martial arts for this purpose. Some see the perfection in domination over other people — which is typical for “satanic” schools of black magic and some occult schools.

So, what is the Perfection that Jesus was talking about? This is perfect Love, perfect Wisdom, and perfect Power. These three qualities are inherent in God. And so, aspiring toward the Divine Perfection, we have to develop ourselves along these three basic lines.

If Hindu tradition were to be considered, it comprises three major trends of yoga: bhakti yoga — the path of Love, jnani yoga — the path of Wisdom, and raja yoga and buddhi yoga — the path of developing Power through psychoenergetic self-perfection.

By developing ourselves along these trends we can get closer to the Perfection. And the Supreme Goal is to become one with the Father. The final stages of this Path are outlined in the Bhagavad Gita. It contains, in particular, such words: “Submerge yourself as a consciousness into Me, then you will live in Me!”.

But, what is consciousness? Consciousness is man himself. Starting our spiritual Path we have to realize — first intellectually, then empirically — that we are not bodies. Man is a consciousness! And we have to immerse ourselves as consciousnesses into the Consciousness of the Creator!

But, in order to understand this we have to also answer the question ‘what is God?’. There are pagan fantasies on this subject. But now we are interested in the monotheistic meaning. It turns out, that there are two of them. The first one is the Creator; He is also the Supreme Goal of man, the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Teacher. But the Creator created His Creation out of Himself, and in this sense God is Everything, or the Absolute (that is absolutely Everything).

Why is this so principal? Why did I emphasize this question? Because in some Oriental schools there is a notion that since God is Everything and I am a part of this Everything, — I am a part of God and — in this sense — I am already God. And if I am already God, why should I do anything then? Why should I make efforts on the Path to God that Jesus recommended? (I mean the words of Jesus, where He said that only those who make efforts can attain the Kingdom of God).

Yes, we are parts of All. But there is a very big difference between just believing in this in the mind and realizing this knowledge in the way Krishna taught, that is by submerging the consciousness into the Consciousness of Ishvara (God-the-Farther)! The effort, of which Jesus spoke, have to be made in order to attain first the Father’s Abode — the highest spatial dimension of the multidimensional Creation, and then to learn to merge into the Father with the consciousness. It is only then that we will be able to truly realize our oneness with God, having eliminated our separateness from Him.

But where, in what direction should we look for God-the-Father?

When the first astronauts started to fly to the space, atheists began claiming at once: man has flown to the sky, but have not found God there, thus God does not exist. The same primitive approach can be found also in some religious schools, in which people appeal to God, Who is up there in the sky. In reality, God is to be sought not above, not in the sky. “Heaven” should be understood not in the earthly sense, but as the highest spatial dimension. The multidimensional nature of the universe is reality, not mathematical abstraction. The space is really multidimensional! And the creation of the world began from the highest, the subtlest spatial dimension. It proceeded toward the creation of increasingly more dense layers of energy — down to the solid matter. In such a way the Creation was formed; this is how the “manifest” world came into being; it was designed to become a School for incarnated beings. In this School, we undergo development in the physical bodies and surrounding matter. And in the long run, we will have to become perfect. But this can be achieved not through cultivating arrogance, self-assumption, pride of one’s successes, but the other way around — through destruction of the “I”. There is a dilemma: “I — versus God”. If one’s ego is strong, one does not need God! For such a person God will be — at best — abstraction or abstruse reality. Such a person will think something like this: “Well, let Him be — this God. When I die, we will meet and talk. But meanwhile, let Him not prevent me from doing what I consider essential!”.

God truly appears to man only when he becomes humble, his pride, egocentrism, and self-importance destroyed. And in order to achieve this one has to really understand what God is. Only then will we be able to realize our insignificance and the insignificance of our affairs on the Earth — compared to the Ocean of His Universal Consciousness! He, who realizes this, will become capable of dissolving in this Ocean. Then remains only God, and there is no “me” anymore. In such a way man merges into God and becomes one with Him.

But one can accomplish this only having cognized the Abode of God, that is, having attained the highest spatial dimension with the consciousness. There exist special techniques of raja yoga and buddhi yoga for this purpose. But mastering them requires not weeks or months, but — at best — years of tireless work on oneself. One has to devote the entire life to this, combining esoteric practice with purposeful consolidation of what was mastered in the very thick of social life — otherwise no achievement will be stable.

So much for your question, I think.