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In material consciousness we always are torn between desire and lamentation. We desire what we do not have and lament for what we have lost. Tossed between desire and lamentation, we never have a moment’s peace.

This torment of material existence is due to the illusory conception that “I am this body.” Therefore the first point of the Esoteric Teaching is that “No, we are not this body, we are spirit soul.” If we can realize even this first point, then we immediately become free from desire and lamentation.

We do not even know what our real desire is. Our real desire is for a perfect body. Everyone has a unique conception of what their perfect body would be; but this desire for a perfect body is the root of all other desires. A perfect body is unattainable in the material existence, but in the spiritual existence it is our natural state and our birthright.

Therefore if we want to be happy, we must give up the fruitless effort to attain a perfect body by material means, and embrace the spiritual path of life. In material life, perfect happiness is impossible to achieve. There is always some imperfection. The main imperfection of material existence is that everything material is temporary. So even if we attain some happiness or perfection, it is always slipping away.

This is the material condition: torn between desire and lamentation, caught in the illusion that the material body is the self. As soon as you accept the material body as the self, then you become subjected to desire and lamentation. Time always separates us from the objects we crave. When they are in the future, we desire them; when they are in the past, we lament over them. Therefore both desire and lamentation are due to separation by time.

But in the spiritual realm, the influence of time is conspicuous by its absence. Everything in the spiritual existence is eternal and changeless. How do we know this? Kṛṣṇa states:

“Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both. Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” [Bhagavad-gita2.16-17]

In other words, temporary objects like the material body do not really exist, because they are impermanent. Things that actually exist are eternal. The soul really exists because it is imperishable and indestructible. We can understand this by studying the nature of the soul.

What pervades the entire body? It is consciousness. The consciousness we have today is the same as the consciousness we had in the past, even though our body and mind have changed.

Bodily and mental changes result from the action of time on the material existence. But consciousness is unaffected by time, just as the vast sky is unaffected by the wind that blows through it. Sometimes the wind is calm and the weather is clear; at other times, the wind becomes violent and the sky is obscured by clouds. Nevertheless, the sky is always open and spacious, containing all but never affected by its contents.

Similarly, consciousness is never affected by its contents. Good times and bad times come and go. We are at one time a helpless infant, at another a strong and independent adult, then again we become crippled by old age and disease. But consciousness is always the same. We are the same persons that we were in childhood, and we will remain the same persons even unto the very end of our lives. The material body changes but the soul remains the same.

So when the soul leaves the present body at the time of death, our consciousness remains the same. Death is just another stage of the changes in the body due to the influence of time. So if the previous changes, from babyhood to youth, to adulthood and old age do not affect the soul, why should the final change of death affect our consciousness?

It should not and it does not. The contents of consciousness may change, but the nature of consciousness itself remains the same, fixed and unalterable. Nothing that happens to us in this temporary material world can really affect the soul or its primary symptom, consciousness.

The Esoteric Teaching is the ancient science of consciousness, taught in the Vedic literatures such as Bhagavad-gita, Vedanta-sutra and others. If we simply follow this science, both in theory and in practice, then the desire and lamentation of material life cannot touch us. This is the great value of the Esoteric Teaching.

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