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Everybody’s doing it. Doing what? Trying to achieve a perfect body, of course. This is a powerful insight because the quest for a perfect body is the major parallel between mundane material psychology and transcendental spiritual psychology.

More than that, analyzing everything from the point of view of finding one’s perfect body puts us immediately on the ontological platform of philosophical inquiry. Remember, ontology is our collection of stories about the world, life and everything that we use to explain our experience and chart our decisions. And the search for a perfect body as a major motivational force is a major feature of both material and transcendental ontologies.

From there, though, the material and spiritual ontologies diverge radically. The material ontology portrays us as temporary bodies, and the spiritual ontology portrays us as eternal spiritual beings. The material ontology puts us in a clockwork universe bounded by entropy and time, while the spiritual ontology gives us an unbounded spiritual universe eternally maintained by a loving Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In most aspects then, the material and spiritual ontologies are literally worlds apart. But in the aspect that our most significant motivation is to attain a perfect body, they are in perfect agreement. For, whether in material or spiritual consciousness, this is what everybody is doing.

“Oh, no,” I can hear someone object, “I’m not trying to attain a perfect body; I’m diversifying my investment portfolio.” Someone else may say, “I’m getting an advanced degree,” or “I’m interviewing for a better job,” “I’m getting married in the spring,” or whatever.

But if you dig a little, start asking “Why?” you will find something in common among all these answers to the question, “What are you doing?” Everyone, without exception, is trying to attain their conception of a perfect body.

Wouldn’t you like to have a perfect body according to your conception? Of course you would; everybody would. It is absolutely the most universal thing that everyone has in common.

The problem is that, in the material conception of life, in the material ontology, this is an impossible task. Nothing in this material world is perfect. Kṛṣṇa says:

sarvarambha hi dosena
dhumenagnir ivavrtah

“Every endeavor is covered by some sort of fault, just as fire is covered by smoke.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.48]

In material affairs, everything is imperfect. Our senses, mind, knowledge and character are imperfect. Everything we try to do eventually will be undone by the force of time. Even this material body, of which we are so proud and to which we are so attached, will be vanquished by death.

So realizing that we can never achieve perfection in this material world, we try the next best thing: to position ourselves in relation to symbols of this perfection, so that others will think we are perfect, even if we’re not. So we buy the latest fashions, hang out at the ‘right’ clubs, buy the ‘right’ car, try to get the ‘right’ job or girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever.

Of course this is cheating; and especially it is cheating ourselves, because all this posturing and positioning will not really make us either perfect or happy. We are the ones who have to live our lives, and even if we can fool others into thinking that we are perfect, we will know quite well that we are not. So then the next step is to hypnotize ourselves into really believing that we are perfect, so that we can more sincerely deceive others.

And so on down the slippery slope we slide, until one day we come to a shattering realization: none of this is going to work, and we are going to die without ever having achieved perfection or happiness. Of course by that time, it is too late. And so we leave this body in a state of defeat, having failed to attain a perfect body; and therefore have to take birth again in a temporary, imperfect material body.

yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya
sada tad-bhava-bhavitah

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.6]

So it goes, until one day we meet a representative of the Esoteric Teaching, who informs us that we are not this material body. Nothing material is conscious, and the proof is that consciousness cannot be measured by any material experiment. Yet everyone automatically knows that he or she is conscious, and this fact proves that consciousness is unmanifest, immanent, subjective and spiritual in nature.

Therefore we are spiritual beings, conscious entities of a fundamentally different quality than this material body to which we are so attached. And because we are spiritual beings, we have a spiritual body. This spiritual body is already eternal and perfect, but because of our self-hypnotic attachment to material things, we have forgotten it.

So the Esoteric Teaching recommends various spiritual processes for remembering our original spiritual identity and perfect spiritual body, beginning with hearing the Absolute Truth from a self-realized soul. The next thing is chanting the Holy Names of God: om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. This chanting is actually a very advanced yogic process:

aho bata svapaco 'to gariyan
yajjihvagre vartate nama tubhyam
tepus tapas te juhuvuh sasnur arya
brahmanucur nama grnanti ye te

“O my Lord! Persons who chant the holy names of Your Lordship are far, far advanced in spiritual life. Even if they are born in families of dog-eaters, such chanters have undoubtedly performed all kinds of austerities and sacrifices, bathed in all sacred places, and finished all scriptural studies.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.8]

If the advanced stage of yogic practice is available to us, why should we remain content with the beginning stages? This is the great advantage of the Esoteric Teaching. The Esoteric Teaching at once gives us access to the most advanced yogic practices. Why should we remain on the neophyte platform of spiritual life when we can become advanced by studying the Esoteric Teaching? By following the Esoteric Teaching, we automatically rise to the advanced stage of spiritual life, and begin the path toward actually discovering our perfect spiritual body.