In the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 15, text 15) Lord Krishna says:
I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.
For correct understanding of the Aryan civilization, this text is very important. When we understand the importance of knowledge (the system of values) for making society and try to make all members of society learned, we face an interesting phenomenon. People turn out to have different “perceptive apparatus”. The modern science cannot give reasons for or likely tries to explain this phenomenon with genetics. Here one can find the answer on this question. As already said, one of the backbones of the Aryan philosophy is the concept of reincarnation. We have mentioned this concept but have not given it enough consideration. In fact, this concept is the basis of the behavior of the Aryans. Now it is time to discuss it in more detail.
We have noted above, that there is no any other concept in the world but for the Aryans’ that answers the question: why living beings of the same form of life are born in different conditions. For instance, people are born in Russia but one is born in a rich family and another is born in a poor family, one is beautiful and another is not, etc. It is a very important point. The correct understanding of this aspect determines the correct direction of our efforts. What does the concept of reincarnation change when accepted? The most important thing – the object of accusation. When a source of problems is known, it is easy to find how to settle them and get rid of troubles. Usually when we are happy, we do not raise the question why we are happy, maybe we do not deserve this happiness? On the contrary, we always think that the destiny has finally estimated us according to our merits. But in trouble, we very often think that we have not deserved this suffering, why is it chasing us? When the concept of reincarnation is accepted, all these questions are removed from the agenda and become pointless. I exist. There exists the material world, my desires, efforts focused to fulfill these desires, sins made during this process. And there exists the Witness of my actions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who silently and patiently looks at what I do. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not responsible for pious or sinful actions of living beings. A person can be pious and get to heaven or can commit sins and go to hell. Based on personality’s actions, He decides who this personality will be in the next life, what will be his/her destiny, what body he/she will be born in, whom to be born with, what kind of children he/she will have or he/she will have no children. But all His decisions depend on this person. There exist I, He, my actions in this life and past lives, this world and eternity. Such mentality has a significant impact on the human’s behavior. This very behavior was the distinctive feature of the Aryans. They did not believe that they were eternal but they lived this way. Consequently, the idea of the eternity refers us to our own inner world to seek for reasons of our sufferings. It is not the escape from life as some incompetent people assume but the correct approach to it. Neither personality nor situation can accidentally come to our life. Everything what happens to us is the result of our pious or sinful activities in our past lives. We get consciousness in accordance with these activities. The level of consciousness acuity depends on memory and the memory is granted by God. He specifies the power of our consciousness in accordance with efforts and actions made in past lives.
Sleep (rest) is required for consciousness to remove the excess information collected during a day. The more one is concentrated on some topic, the less sleep is needed. Sleep is the aspect of the guna of ignorance. The more goodness affects a person, the better his/her consciousness performs. The guna of goodness is favorable for development of the true knowledge moving us closer to God. Thus, the system of values of consciousness is gained via upbringing. And the extent to which everything given by upbringing is perceived depends on the pious reserve coming from past lives. This perception allows us to accept or reject impulses received from our sense organs and mind. When acceptance or rejection has happened, there is the turn of the “false ego”.
“False ego”. “False ego” is a very interesting component. In fact, this is the very component with which the material world deceives the spiritual parcel. “False ego” means such consciousness by which an eternal soul identifies itself with a temporary material body. This consciousness by means of the concept of death brings soul the sense of fear. This very fear becomes the force driving actions of soul in this world. There starts the struggle for existence which is expressed as the belief in superiority of the own right for existence. Such belief allows a living being to keep its own life by the means of life of another living being without any feeling of guilt. The roughest occurrence of this mood is meat-eating. In the Aryan society, meat-eating was only attributed to members of lower social strata and only in the strict compliance with certain limitations. Those attached to uncontrolled meat-eating lived outside of the Aryan civilization and were considered uncivilized tribes. Identification with “false ego” divides all beings into well-wishers and enemies. Enemies are all those whose actions threaten our existence or pleasures, and friends are those who maintain our existence or pleasures. So living beings become slaves of desires and dislikes. This is the greatest problem for a conditioned soul. To solve this problem is the intention of all Aryan (like any other) philosophy. The Aryans understood that attachments (desires) and hatred (envy) would destroy in a personality in particular and in society in general the principle of justice. Therefore, the Vedas focus on the way how to solve this problem. Violation of the principle of justice leads to unjust sufferings and the subsequent desire for revenge.
In the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 3, Verse 36-37) Arjuna asks:
O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?
And the answer is:
It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of all beings in this world.
The Vedas describe three gunas (modes) of the material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. Goodness is the preserving principle of this world, passion is the constructive principle and ignorance is the destructive power. The Universe is divided into three parts: higher (the place where pious persons live), middle (the place for those who are guided by desires) and lower (the place for those who deserve suffering only) planetary systems. Higher planetary systems are the home for demigods, the middle ones are for people and the lower ones are for demons. But this is a schematic description. Let us now see the internal structure of gunas.
The main guna of the material nature is passion (desires). All living beings communicate with the material world by their desires. There are two ways to fulfill desires: divine and demoniac. The divine method is applied by pious people who subordinate fulfillment of their desires to the Lord and following His instructions they achieve fulfillment of desires without troubling others. Demoniac persons always put hopes on their own strength. To raise possibilities to fulfill their desires, they develop science. Their only goal in life is sensory pleasures. To get pleasures they do not consider whom and how much trouble they give. Such “pleasures” are of extreme temporary nature and sure to bring to the material nature’s measures aiming to “break” in a person his/her tendency to violence. We think that this world has been created for our enjoyment. In fact, it has got only one function, the function of reeducation. Influenced by passion, people impelled by desires develop the attachment to fruitful activities. Such persons are very active. Uncontrolled senses push them to illegal activities. Regardless of sufferings and troubles giving to others, they are busy only satisfying their own desires. They always search for the ways to fulfill their desires. They create anxiety, suffering and disorder in society. At the beginning they hope for happiness and then suffer. The material world is the jail and its main function is to restore the deviated consciousness of a living being. In our zeal for happiness without God we must suffer until we understand that we are not able to find the recipe of this happiness. This function is never tiresome for the material nature. What helps to restore the deviated consciousness? First, it is willingness to be responsive to desires (needs) of other living beings; secondly, sympathetic attitude to their sufferings; and finally, acceptance of the own quantitative nothingness (as an eternally small fragmental part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and dependence. The first goal can be reached when a person understands that other living beings similarly look for happiness and avoid sufferings. This happens when a person suffers. By suffering, one understands what the other felt when he/she caused this suffering. And by being happy, one understands that the other did not want to lose it like he/she does not want to lose it now. When one understands the necessity not to cause others sufferings, he/she passes to a realization of a higher condition: not to hurt even after being hurt (the ability to forgive) and let others be happy when you are yourself unhappy. Such behavior is only possible when we understand that those who cause us sufferings and make us happy do not do it incidentally. There are some higher powers allowing us to do it in accordance with our deeds in past lives. This mindset lets us subordinate our existence and behavior to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Let us see the example from the life of the Aryans. Five thousand years ago on our planet there lived the family of the spiritually elevated Aryans, the Pandavas who were the children of King Pandu. They had one wife Draupadi. For modern people this fact would be difficult to accept. But this fact has got its own background. Young Draupadi worshiped demigods with some religious rituals with the aim to get a good husband. When demigods were satisfied, they appeared before the princess and asked what she needed. The confused princess repeated her request five times. Then demigods blessed her to have five pious husbands. When it was the time to select a fiancé, there was also Arjuna, the middle brother of the Pandavas among the aspirants. He won the contest. Having got the beautiful Draupadi as his wife he came home with her. Coming to his mother, he said, “Look, what treasure I’ve brought”. No turning back, Kunti answered her son, “Good for you, all that you have brought equally divide among your brothers”. Saying so, she looked back and saw Draupadi and the confused Arjuna. A problem ensued. For the Aryans their word had a special meaning. The mouth of mother Kunti had given the order that was meant to happen: Draupadi was to become the wife of five brothers. But Draupadi herself did not agree to it. All disputes in the Aryan society were settled by seeress brahmanas (priests). They could give an advice for any situation. The same thing was also done at that time. They cast Draupadi’s horoscope and said, “This girl worshiped demigods and was blessed by them to have five husbands. This was the decree of providence for this blessing to fulfill”. Everyone became quiet and Draupadui agreed to become the wife of the five Pandavas. Later she gave birth to five children from the brothers. When the war on the battlefield of Kurukshetra started (it was the bloodiest battle in the human history where religious and demonic persons confronted each other), the son of Pandava’s spiritual master beheaded Draupadi’s five sons while they were innocently asleep. Arjuna chased Ashvatthama and captured him. He brought the captive to the feet of the great Draupadi who was in the inexpressible grief and wanted to behead the offender. Mother Draupadi stopped her husband by saying, “He is the only son of his mother and I do not want her to feel the same pain like me”. This is the example of nobleness of the Aryans. In their practical life they showed great soul qualities which were based on the perception of the equality of all living beings in the face of sufferings and happiness. Nowadays the patience is called on when someone else has suffered and measures to revenge are taken when we ourselves have suffered.
