Mystic Yogis

Mystic yogis, by the practice of mystic or psychic powers, can do things that ordinary people consider very wonderful and miraculous. Such yogis then exploit the people, claiming that they are God Himself. And millions of foolish people believe such charlatans and blindly follow them. This is very unfortunate.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

Giving Up Vices Through the Practice of Bhakti Yoga

A person who tries to be a goswami is careful not to engage in those activities that are harmful to his spiritual development. For example, he refrains from taking intoxicants (including all sorts of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and so on); from having illicit sex; from gambling; and from eating meat, fish, and eggs.

If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga and yet continues to engage in activities that are detrimental to spiritual progress, his spiritual progress will be very slow. This does not mean that a person must be completely free of all bad habits before he can even begin the process of bhakti yoga. For example, in the Philippines, one teacher saved many young people who were addicted to heroin and other drugs by teaching them the process of bhakti yoga. It took some time before they could completely give up all drugs; but eventually they did.

Sometimes a person is still addicted to cigarette smoking or meat-eating. If he follows the process of bhakti yoga, then gradually he will be able to give up such habits. It is a question of tasting a higher taste. If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga, he will gradually begin to taste the higher spiritual happiness and he will be able to give up all vices naturally. After he gives up such bad habits, then his progress will be very rapid.

~ Chris Butler (Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa)
Science of Identity Foundation

Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.

~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Eleven

Some neophytes on the spiritual path may fall into the illusion that taking care of the body is somehow evil, or a sign of spiritual backwardness. Not only may they neglect the needs of the body, but they may go out of their way to actually damage the body. Such people actually hate the body. They see it as a source of misery, and thus they take out their anger on it. This is certainly a mistake.

~ Chris Butler (Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa)
Science of Identity Foundation

Masochism can never lead to spiritual perfection. The body is actually a most precious property of the self; it enables the self to engage in various devotional activities that can bring about a change in consciousness. A person's external activities affect his consciousness, and his consciousness affects his external activities. Knowing this, a bhakti yogi consciously chooses to engage in particular external activities in order to bring about the desired spiritual happiness and wisdom.

~ Chris Butler (Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa)
Science of Identity Foundation

Culture of Knowledge

The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.

~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Ten

For one who lives a hedonistic life, a life in which nescience is cultivated, the results are envy, anger, greed, impatience, disrespect for others, anxiety, depression, hatred, ever-increasing lust, forgetfulness, frustration, dissatisfaction, duplicity, fear of death, and so on.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

(On the other hand), for a person who cultivates wisdom or true knowledge, the results are inner peace, satisfaction, patience, respect for others, freedom from duplicity, compassion, joyfulness, remembrance of his spiritual identity, freedom from the fear of death, freedom from anxiety and depression, and so on.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

The negative social results of a society populated primarily by hedonistic people should be obvious to anyone. A society of self-centered, animalistic people who have no other interest than their own sense enjoyment cannot be at all peaceful or progressive—either materially or spiritually.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation


(On the other hand), the positive results of a society populated mostly by people who are serious about cultivating wisdom and spiritual understanding should be clear. If the citizens are peaceful, satisfied, respectful of others, compassionate, selfless, and so on, then society will be progressive both materially and spiritually.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda's "Dear Fanatic" song

Culture of Ignorance

Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.

~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra 9

Unfortunately, most of humanity spends the majority of its time in the culture of ignorance. We cultivate ignorance by serving our tongue, belly, genitals, and other senses like obedient slaves. The vast majority of our energy goes into this mad pursuit of sense pleasure. Left with frazzled nerves, frustration, anger, jealousy, envy, greed, hate, loneliness, and confusion; we seek an escape in alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and a myriad of other legal and illegal consciousness dimmers. This is the cultivation of ignorance.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

However, neither the Sri Ishopanishad nor any other Vedic literature recommends that we neglect bodily needs. The Bhagavad-gita states:

There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.

~Bhagavad-gita 6:16

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation


Nor is sense gratification considered “bad.” Sense gratification comes and goes as a natural occurrence of the senses. For example, one cannot eat without tasting. The point is that a life that is centered around sense enjoyment, that makes sense enjoyment the goal, is a wasted life. Economic development is necessary for the maintenance of the body; so therefore it cannot be neglected. But to seek economic development simply for the sake of endlessly increasing sensual pleasure is foolish. No amount of sensual pleasure will ever really satisfy a person, so no amount of economic development will ever be considered “enough.” This is why people in modern Western societies are still not satisfied, even though they are so economically advanced and thus have so much facility for sense enjoyment. They always want more. As the late British economist E. F. Schumacher points out:

Is there enough to go round? Immediately we encounter a serious difficulty: What is “enough”? Who can tell us? Certainly not the economist who pursues “economic growth” as the highest of all values and therefore has no concept of “enough.” There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: “Halt! We have enough”? There is none.

What's really needed is to recognize the need for spiritual as well as material happiness. A society that has great material prosperity but lacks spiritual purpose is really a poor society. A body without the soul is a dead body—even if it is nicely decorated with fancy ornaments.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

*E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 25.

Karma

Everyone is engaged in action. The law of karma means that there are reactions to every action and that a person must endure the reactions to his actions.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

Yoga

According to yoga, every action, good or bad, produces some karmic reaction. Actions that are “bad” create bad karmic reactions. A person who engages in heinous criminal actions or who lives simply like an animal, exploiting others, will have to eat the bitter fruit of such actions in the future.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa on Dangers of the "I Am Godism" Philosophy

Bona fide Disciple

Narada is a perfect example of a bona fide disciple. Even though his guru, Lord Brahma, was immensely powerful, still Narada did not blindly accept him as the Supreme Lord Himself.

~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

"Who Are You? Discovering Your Real Identity", published by the Identity Institute. Author: Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda (Chris Butler)

The physical body is made up of countless numbers of tiny material particles called molecules and atoms. These material particles are constantly being replaced by material particles from the outside environment (in the form of food, water, air, and so on). Over a period of five to seven years, this process of metabolism brings about a complete change of the matter that makes up your body.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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The body is yours — but it is not you. The body is a garment that you are wearing, a machine that you are using, a vehicle that you are driving. The body is your possession. Just as a person does not identify himself as being the shirt he is wearing, he also should not identify himself with the body that he is wearing.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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No matter how much sensual pleasure people have, no matter how much they consume, they always want more. This endless personal craving manifests as ever increasing material consumption.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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The search for wisdom is a great challenge; to act on wisdom is an even greater challenge.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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Many people believe that a person is the brain or some part of the brain. You may be one of them. If so, the following should boggle your mind:

Recent studies on the turnover of the molecular population within a give nerve cell have indicated that … their macromolecular contingent is renewed about ten thousand times in a lifetime.*

In other words, the matter making up each brain cell is completely renewed every three days. Your brain — that mass of matter which is contained in your skull today — is not the same brain that was in your skull last week.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation
_{*Paul Weiss, “The Living System: Determinism Stratified,” in Arthur Koestler and J.R. Smythies, eds., Beyond Reductionism (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p. 13.}

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There is more than enough food, water, fuel and so on to satisfy the actual needs of everyone on the planet. But there is not enough to satisfy everyone's greed. Even if it were physically possible for you to consume all the food, water, and fuel in the world, you still would not be satisfied. "Material food" cannot satisfy spiritual craving. Since the materialist is never satisfied, he never feels that he has had enough.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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Let me ask you a few simple questions: Do you exist at this moment? Did you exist five years ago? Are you your body? Most people would answer "yes" to all three questions. But if you identify your body as yourself, and simultaneously accept that you exist now and also existed five years ago, then you have a problem: The body you had five years ago does not exist today. There is a dynamic turnover of atoms and molecules which make up your body. There isn't a single particle of matter — not one atom — present in your body today that was present five years ago. The body you have today is not the same body you had five years ago. It's not that the body you had still exists but has now changed somewhat. No. The body you had is gone. That collection of atoms appearing as flesh, bone, blood, hair, and so on no longer exists. Yet you still exist.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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If life is materially based, then why don't we see it springing from matter in the natural world? And why can't we create life from matter in our laboratories?
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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Perfection means being in tune with reality. The first thing we must understand is reality — the reality of my identity, i.e., my essence, position and function. Who am I? Just as a person does not identify himself as being the shirt that he is wearing, he also should not identify himself with the body that he is wearing.
~ Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation

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