Esoteric Teaching Seminars: Evening Darshans

Evening Darshans

The Evening Darshans are a regular feature of the Esoteric Teaching Master Course Retreat where Babaji shares his extensive spiritual wisdom with the participants. It is not a formal class, but a spontaneous, intimate glimpse into the mind and consciousness of a self-realized soul. The conversations explore an extremely wide range of topics. Nobody really knows what will be discussed next, since the whole thing is completely spontaneous. But the talks are always lively, interesting and insightful.

Index

June 2008

12 13 15 17 18 19 20 22 26 27

July 2008

1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 14 15 18

12 June 2008:
Devotees and Vedanta

Every evening we have sweet kirtan and stimulating discussions of Vedanta Philosophy, often while taking prasadam. These are very enjoyable and often the highlight of our day. We finally got the brilliant idea of recording them so we can share them with you. Here we talk about a question Laura asked about association with ISKCON devotees.

13 June 2008:
The Esoteric Teaching and Sectarian Religion

We had another evening darshan discussion, this time about the relationship between the Esoteric Teaching and sectarian religions like Christianity. I explain Vyasadeva's reasoning from Vedanta-sutra, and Florian makes some very good points.

15 June 2008:
Prophecies of the Cree Indians

Florian asks Babaji about the extraordinary prophecies of the Cree Indian tribe, who predict a world war in 2018, and have sent an emissary to all Native American tribes offering them shelter in their ancestral lands in the extreme northern part of Canada.

17 June 2008:
Evolution Theory and Vedanta

This evening darshan is a fascinating conversation about evolution theory, its lack of proof, the weakness of its arguments and how the Vedanta theory counteracts it. The theme is based on some research that Florian is doing for his German web site. I have to apologize for the sound quality; we had the brilliant idea of holding our evening prasadam outdoors on the patio, because the full moonrise is so strikingly beautiful and inspiring. But the background noise of bugs and frogs is so overpowering that even after equalizing and compressing the sound, it's really hard to hear. The intensity of the conversation comes through, though. It reminds of some of Prabhupada's morning walk conversations.

18 June 2008:
TIME Magazine Article on Consciousness

In this darshan we got talking about the recent TIME Magazine article on consciousness that Neville posted the other day. I didn't read it, but Florian did, and was really fired up about it. The ensuing discussion was quite interesting.

19 June 2008:
Sweet Kirtan and Resulting Silliness

This darshan began with a very sweet kirtan that I'm sure you'll enjoy. Afterward were in a delightfully silly mood, and derived great mirth from afflicting the Ever-Serious One, Hermit of Hermits, Defeater of Evolutionists, Sri Florian with many grievous and sore puns. Oh, and we debunked Santa Claus, discussed a little philosophy too, and the ineffable sweetness of child Krsna.

20 June 2008:
Nonsense Arguments, Vaidhi vs. Raganuga

Here we have another interesting, wide-ranging conversation about the nonsense arguments of the materialists, their lack of integrity, the difference between vaidhi-bhakti and raganuga-bhakti, ethics of forum and community management, levels of sannyasa, different spiritual destinations, the process of spiritual writing and much more.

22 June 2008:
Sweet Kirtan and Discussion of Mystic Yoga

In this darshan we had a very nice kirtan, followed by a very interesting discussion of mystic yoga and many other topics.

26 June 2008:
Spiritual Moods

The Christians' mood of devotion is neutrality, or at best servitude. The source of all suffering is separation from the Lord. Kṛṣṇa prefers intimate devotional service rather than formal worship at a distance. The delights of direct devotional service.

27 June 2008:
Lord Jagannath, Book Changes and More

Last night Conor asked me a question about Lord Jagganath, and that led to me telling the whole story of how He appeared. Then Florian asked a question about maryādā-vyatikrama [as described in the Purport of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.4.26], and that led to a discussion of ISKCON's changes to Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and the meaning of discipleship. It was raining very hard during this discussion, a typical evening tropical shower, and you can hear the thunder in the background.

1 July 2008:
Red Flag—Time is Running Out

The last few days I have had a very strong feeling that the window of opportunity is closing. We are running out of time to change our lifestyle, make spiritual progress, and organize our community. A long period of relative peace and prosperity is coming to an end. Storm clouds are on the horizon and approaching swiftly. I am very concerned that many of our students have not utilized this nicely. This is a warning to all who are awake.

2 July 2008:
The Vedas are Self-Evident

Last night we had a nice conversation about how the Vedas are self-evident and self-sufficient, what that really means and how it works. We also had lots of fun teasing Florian, but that's another subject!

3 July 2008:
The Craft of Spiritual Writing

Last night, as usual we talked about all kinds of things. The craft of spiritual writing, Unfortunately there was a graduation block party at the nearby local school, so some parts are hard to hear.

4 July 2008:
Bhaktivinod Disappearance

Today is the Disappearance Day of Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura, so we had a little class about him and the meaning of his teachings and activities.

5 July 2008:
Preaching Strategy, Community Management and Realizations

This Evening Darshan covers quite a bit of ground, from our search for a strategy to take us to the next level, through our realization experiences, to Practice of the Presence by Brother Lawrence, an esoteric Christian work I highly recommend.

7 July 2008:
Deceptions of the Atheists

We start off with the deceptions in the ingredient labeling on food products, and move on to an analysis of how atheists have subverted even religions into carrying their message. This is a very profound and important conversation, because it unmasks yet another layer of The Big Lie.

8 July 2008:
The Meaning of Babaji

Every once in a while, someone brings up the question of why I refer to myself as "Babaji." Usually such people are contaminated by association with my ISKCON Godbrothers or similar organizations. Unfortunately even if I explain, their neophyte level of realization does not permit them to understand. This is why we generally do not preach to people who have a background in ISKCON or other sectarian religious organizations. Anyway we had quite an interesting conversation about it.

9 July 2008:
Two Pillars of Vedanta

This Darshan begins with a short kirtan sung by Florian and Conor. They are getting good! In material consciousness, we live in a synthetic reality composed of the false names and forms, a deliberately fabricated lie designed to trap us in material existence by tricking us into performing sinful activities. Our only hope of escaping this trap is to receive transcendental knowledge from the Vedas.

11 July 2008:
Recognizing the Illusion

This Darshan discussion was about the illusion of material existence and how to recognize the abstractions of false names and forms overlaid on the reality of Brahman.

14 July 2008:
Pure Vedic Intervals

In this Darshan we got started talking about Vedic harmonic musical intervals, and at the end there is a little demo of the harmonic series and intervals derived from it. The real significance of all this is mentioned by Florian about halfway through: it opens the door to an absolute aesthetic of ecstatic transcendental emotion (rasa).

15 July 2008:
Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

In this Darshan we discuss the Vedānta-sūtra philosophy refuting the idea that because we see injustice and unfairness in the world, God is either not omnipotent or unfair. God appears to be biased towards His devotees, but this is not a disqualification for Him, because all apparently contradictory qualities are harmonized in Him.

18 July 2008:
Real Buddha, False Buddha

In this Darshan we got talking about the difference between the original Buddha incarnation of the Lord and Śakyamuni Buddha, who almost everyone now accepts as the real Buddha. But Buddha-avatāra appeared more than 4,000 years ago in India, whereas Śakyamuni Buddha appeared only 2,500 years ago in Nepal, then traveled to Bodh-Gaya where the original Buddha taught. Now there are four main schools of Buddhism, and their philosophies all disagree. This is another facet of The Big Lie.

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