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The last few days we have been reviewing the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, which gives the overview of knowledge of the soul. This knowledge allows us to upgrade our ontology to begin explaining who we really are. Remember, our ontology is the collection of stories we tell ourselves to help us understand the world and the meaning of our experience.

By adding knowledge about the soul, we shift our point of view about who we are. Most people are falsely identified with the material body, but our aim in the Esoteric Teaching is to identify with the soul, or the consciousness residing within the body. The soul is who we really are in eternity; therefore the soul is our real identity.

Remember another thing Bhagavad-gita teaches us—and we’ll be returning to this again and again—is that temporary things like the material body do not really exist in the absolute sense of the term. Only eternal entities like the soul, and God, really exist. Also God’s spiritual energies and the spiritual world exist eternally.

So the Esoteric Teaching gives us a picture of ourselves as a conscious spiritual living entity, existing eternally in the spiritual world. It also tells us that we have an eternal spiritual relationship with God, or more properly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is our real life and real identity; our existence in the material world is just a temporary, inappropriate ontological condition of the soul.

The purpose of the Esoteric Teaching is to relieve us of this false, temporary condition of material consciousness, and restore our original, eternal spiritual consciousness. In the process we also gain relief from all the problems and suffering of material existence. And we attain our original spiritual identity and perfect spiritual body.

Following the methods of the Esoteric Teaching has so many benefits. And it is very easy; so easy that anyone can do it. The first step is simply to hear and understand a few facts about life. For example, we already know that everyone is trying to attain a perfect body. Everyone is already doing this; we are simply pointing it out.

We try to attain a perfect body by associating ourselves with different qualities, possessions, actions and designations a person with a perfect body would have, according to our conception. Therefore the method we are using to attain our conception of a perfect body is called the method of association.

But since we are thinking that our material body is our self, the method of association does not work. So even if we manage to associate our body with the qualities, possessions, actions and designations of a perfect body, we still will not be happy because the body is not the self. And in the material world, everything is temporary. So all our efforts to attain a perfect body, all our hard work, will be finished at the time of death.

But we know from the Esoteric Teaching that the self is actually the spiritual living entity, or soul. Therefore if we begin to identify with spiritual things, and build up associations with the qualities, possessions, actions and designations of a perfect spiritual body, then we will be successful. We will actually attain our perfect body, which already exists—we have just forgotten it. This will really make us happy, and it will also relieve us from all material miseries.

So the Esoteric Teaching is a really wonderful gift: it gives us real knowledge about the self, the soul, and the spiritual world. It introduces us to our eternal ecstatic relationship with God, and solves all our material problems. It eliminates our illusory identification with this temporary, imperfect material body, and helps us to discover our real, eternal spiritual perfect body.

Next: Don't Give Up