Vladimir Antonov
The New Upanishad:
Structure and Cognition of the Absolute
St.-Petersburg, 1999
The author of this book is a scientist-biologist who devoted his life to studying non-material forms of life in the universe. Dr. Antonov has published about thirty books on methodology of spiritual self-perfection. Being a theorist and practitioner, he has attained direct knowledge of the Creator in His Abode. In this book, in a precise, laconic, and easy to understand manner, he explains the purpose of life and the means of its realization, as well as — which makes this book unique — presents a complete scheme of the multidimensional structure of the Absolute. The latter has never been published before. This book is addressed to those who seek the purpose of life, who want to understand what God is and how we should live on Earth.
The "Upanishads" (which means "insights" in Sanskrit) are short philosophic-religious treatises of Indian origin, in which different authors expressed their ideas about the essence of Divinity and the religious path of spiritual seekers. These texts had been written before coming of Avatar Krishna to Earth.
Together with the four Vedas they provide the basis of the philosophical system known as "Vedanta". Sathya Sai Baba says [15], that in total 1180 Upanishads were written. But most of them have been lost or forgotten due to their being considered insignificant or too complex for understanding by readers. Today, only 108 Upanishads remain, while only 13 of them are the best known [15].
If one studies ancient Upanishads, one will be able to notice a different levels of competence of their authors: some of them had really high spiritual achievements, while others were simply engaging in philosophical speculations, "playing with words", and fantasizing.
From existing Russian translations of about 15 Upanishads [16 and others] the most interesting ideas can be found in the Katha, Brahmanubhava, Kaivalya, Mundaka, and Svetasvara Upanishads. The author of the first one even knew about the threefold structure of the Divine Fire of Brahman. (It is interesting that the commentator of this text interpreted this idea according to his level of understanding, namely that a man has a father, a mother, and a guru).
The authors of the ancient Upanishads had four possible sources of religious information: a) a personal meditative experience (if any), b) three or four Vedas, filled with religious fairy tales and containing no specific information about the Creator, c) personal contacts with other seekers of Truth, d) written sources, like already existing Upanishads. The Upanishads as a whole provide no consistent definitions of the basic terms, such as Brahman, Atman, Purusha, and the Absolute: on the one hand each term could be used in different ways, on the other — the same meaning could be assigned to different terms. This lack of clarity of definitions created obvious difficulties for Vedanta adepts in terms of development of a clear methodology of spiritual self-realization (which can be seen in today�s activity of many sects of Indian origin).
Definitive terminology and harmony of the general concepts was given by the Avatar Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita [6]. In particular, Krishna explained that there exists Ishvara (God-the-Father, the Creator, the Highest Purusha), Whose Will is realized through Brahman (the Holy Spirit, the Supreme Purusha). God can also appear before people as an Avatar (God-the-Son, Messiah, Christ), by incarnating with a Part of Himself into a human body. Besides that, there are physical matter (prakriti) and individual souls (purusha) that evolve. There is also akasha — that is, a diffusive state of prakriti and purusha (so called protoprakriti and protopurusha). Protoprakriti and protopurusha are the materials for creating matter and souls.
The Creator abides in the deepest (as related to physical matter) layer (loka, eon, dimension) of the Unified multidimensional Body of the Universal Absolute, which also includes all "visible" (i.e. material) worlds of countless galaxies.
The Absolute is a Unified Universal Organism of incomprehensible for human beings immense size. It is multidimensional, i.e. it consists of several layers (lokas).
The Evolution of the Absolute constitutes Its life. It consists in qualitative and quantitative growth of individual consciousnesses (jeevas, souls), as elements of purusha, — on prakriti (planet matter) in the bodies, also composed of prakriti. These souls should develop qualitatively and quantitatively, seeking to attain Divinity, to merge with Brahman and Ishvara. Souls, which deviate from this Path or move in the opposite direction, doom themselves to sufferings according to the " law of karma " (the law of cause and effect in the formation of destiny).
These are the fundamentals. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna set forth the principles of ethical self-perfection of man. He explained, in particular, that emotional Love-Devotion (bhakti) for Ishvara should be an essential element of a person�s relationships with Him. (Later Jesus Christ, Chaytanya, Babaji, Sathya Sai Baba, and Other Divine Teachers taught the same [6,9]).
But this information is not sufficient for the complete self-realization of a spiritual seeker: because the only way one can merge with the Creator is through practice of meditation (performed on the background of bhakti). It is this meditative training that renders one�s consciousness agile, subtle, expanded, and strong, as well as enables it to move easily from one loka to another — up to the Abode of the Creator, where He can be ultimately cognized.
And for this purpose, seekers need a scheme, a detailed description of the meditation Path, an "itinerary" of their practice. Without this �map� one cannot succeed.
God did not make such "maps" available before on purpose: since seekers develop themselves by making efforts, and overcoming difficulties in their search. It is in this way that the author of this text has developed himself and succeeded in making such a map after 30 years of a most intensive work.
And now, on the verge of the third millennium since coming of Avatar Jesus Christ to Earth, God blessed me to publish it.
