O.G. Torsunov

The Laws of Happy Life

The second bookThe Mighty Powers of the Universe

MoscowVedabook

2004

The Laws of Happy Life, the second book: 2003 Vedabook

Table of Contents

ForewordWho is to blame for our suffering?…………………………….........……………….Still, probably someone is to blame……………………………….............................Why should we change anything? Let everything be the way it is…………………..Life isn't bad, but when will we be happy?……………………………......................How do we fight with bad things that are everywhere?……………………………...Who will win and achieve happiness?……………………………............................

PrefaceWhat is needed for understanding this book?…………………………….................Additional requirements for studying this subject, which can really change our life……………………………………………..………………………………..........A few words about the style of this book………………………………....................

Chapter 1. The Gunas of Material natureThe first aquantence with these mysterious powers

Where can the uneasy road lead us?………………………………………………………............................................As you sow, so shall you reap: No one, besides us, is to blame for the way we live………………………….………………………………......................................Four types of evolution (from the monkey to the human and back)…………….……………….........................................................................You and I are tied with one rope….…………………………....................................A few words about traditional Russian cuisine………………………………...........What are the gunas of material nature?……………………………...........................Where do good intentions lead us?……………………………..................................Crawling in the guna of passion, flying in the guna of goodness……………………A clean conscience is an everlasting holiday…….………………………................Learning to think in the category of the three gunas………………………………..Who is hypnotizing people?……………………………...........................................

Chapter 2. Studying Different Types of Happiness“If you want a lot, you’ll get a little”……………………………..............................

If you start to love your work, your fate will also start loving you………………….A taste of happiness changes our whole life………………………………...............Four types of happiness………………………………...............................................The gunas of passion feeds us nectar………………………………...........................Sweet drinks are not always good for you………………………………....................The horrors of the terrible happiness in the guna of ignorance……………………….

Chapter 3. Knowledge is the Mightest PowerThe criteria of knowledge that brings happiness………………………………...........There was no sadness until sinful desires came………………………………............Offense and offensive moods………………………………........................................

Who is to blame for our suffering?Often, we blame others for our problems, but not ourselves. The opinion

that the people, who surround us are always trying to cause us harm, often dominates in the minds of people. Therefore, for hundreds of years we have been hearing about such things as evil eye, curses, charms, etc. not only in our days, but also in the old days, people have been searching for someone to blame for their problems. People felt that there is some pattern and law behind everything. It isn’t by accident that, suddenly misfortunes come into the life of a person. We always think that someone else is to blame for this, an not the person, who is suffering.

While studying the ancient Vedic literature, I found a clear answer to this question. The Vedas think that no one else is to blame for our suffering, except ourselves. That’s right, dear reader, this isn’t a mistake. We are the only ones to blame for all of our problems.

After doing bad things in the past, we are forced to obey the law of karma, which sends us suffering. Sometimes, bad things happen one by one, and sometimes they come together. We think that there is some outer evil reason for this.

However, the Vedas state that we are the only ones responsible for all of our problems. How can we understand this? How can the person, who is suffering be responsible for his problems? It’s easy - suffering comes to him because of the things he did in the past. In the past, this person caused the suffering of others. Which powers suddenly cause us to suffer, reacting to the sins we committed in the past? The Vedas say that there are mighty powers in the universe, called the gunas of material nature. These powers make us suffer according to our bad karma. They affect all the spheres of our life and activity, according to our fate. These gunas cause us to be in certain circamstances in our life, without allowing us to change anything quickly.

The gunas of material nature are not a “local police department”, they control the whole universe. No process in the universe takes place without their

participation. The gunas of material nature obey the eternal time and control everything that happens in the universe. This allows the universe to work harmoniously. Harmony means balance in everything - in happiness and in suffering. Thus, why do we need these mighty powers? If we want to make a tasty cake, all its components should be spread evenly. The gunas of material nature spead everything evenly. The tastiest cake will be the one that has components with matching tastes, one scale of taste. For example, vanilla and sugar are in one scale of taste, and dates and honey are part of another one. The taste of a cake with sugar will be better if we add vanilla, and a honey cake will taste better if we add dates. Similarly, the gunas affect all the processes and create harmonious circumstances in our life.

For every form of life, the gunas make special life circumstances. The hare is born in a place where there is cabbage, and the fox is born in a place where there are hares. We think that everything we need for life (food, air, water, earth, sun) appears by itself. The cockroach, who is “illegally” crawling on the kitchen table, also thinks the same way. Therefore, when we make the cockroach leave, he feels upset and thinks that we have been unfair to him. Often, when we don’t take into account the laws of the higher powers, we also don’t use the resources given to us correctly. This leads to suffering.

Pervading the whole universe, the gunas are mighty and unconquerable powers. Sometimes we see that, when people try to change their lives, they try to overcome the powerful gunas and don't acknowledge the universal laws, which control these unconquerable powers of nature.

If we don't change our own view of happiness, it will be impossible to overcome the negative influence of the gunas. However, if we change our world outlook for the better, we start doing good things, and automatically fall under the positive influence of the gunas. Then, the gunas stop affecting us negatively. If we change our understanding of happiness, the powers that affect us also change, without us having to do anything. Because of the importance of this matter, the whole book is dedicated to one subject: how to escape the unending circle, which we are in, how to learn to not be affected negatively by these mighty powers, which can destroy our progress.

Still, probably someone is to blame…

If, after my explanation, you still think that someone else is to blame for your suffering, this is normal. It is hard to even imagine that our own actions are the cause of our suffering. It’s even harder to believe in this. Even if someone explains this one hundred times, we still think that our problems arise because of our husband, neighbor, coworker, boss, etc. My case is the exception from the general rule. “He is the one that treats me bad, why am I to blame?”

According to our bad karma, the gunas of material nature not only affect our surroundings and create certain problems in our relationships. They also affect our intelligence and strengthen our negative life outlook. As a result, we think that everything in life is unfair and there is nothing we can do to change this. The gunas support this idea, and this idea strangles us.

Of course, we can say that the fact that these gunas exist can also be just a made-up idea. Actually, any thought can be a mistake. How can we know whether or not our thoughts are correct? This can be done only with the help of a very authoritative and unquestionable knowledge. Therefore, the only way to think clearly is to adopt a source of knowledge that can be trusted completely. Lately, a lot books have been written on this subject. How can we understand where the knowledge received from these books can lead us? Will it lead us to happiness or to suffering?

The best way to find out is to compare the received information with the sayings of great wise men of the past, which have been tested by time. If knowledge is true, then it has already lead many people to perfection. What is perfection? True knowledge gives a very practical answer to this question. Perfection is the achievement of the highest (biggest) happiness. Which knowledge should we accept? Which knowledge is of the best quality? Everyone knows that time is the best guarantee of good quality. Everything that doesn't bring happiness, is forgotten after some time.

no one in his mind will argue with this statement. If something hasn’t been forgotten for thousands of years, it is worth serious and thorough study. With the help of this principle, I have accepted the Vedic knowledge, which has survived a long test of unconquerable time and lead millions of people along the way of achieving happiness. Modern scientists assue that the Vedas are one of the most ancient teachings, and their age is at least 5,000 years old.

The Vedas talk about different spheres of knowledge. The knowledge about the gunas of material nature can be considered the foundation of all Vedic philosophy. The idea about the existence of the gunas is not a hypothesis. It is not a figment of my or someone else’s imagination. A sensible person can not just reject this ancient wisdom. However, at the same time, it is not that easy to accept the teachings about the affect of the gunas on our consciousness. Therefore, to correctly understand the truth that is proclaimed by the Vedas, we first need to thoroughly study this knowledge and test it in our lives.

Why should we change anything? Let everything be the way it is

Can the knowledge about the gunas of material nature change our lives? Is it really worth it to change anything in our life, if all our attempts are connected with pain and worries? “Why should we bring up the past and create new problems? We already have too many of them! If there is fate, we can not change anything, so it’s not worth trying”. This is a common point of view. We think that it’s enough to just drift with the river of life and not change anything. “My life is not worse, than the lives of others”. Therefore, if we feel satisfied, why do we need this knowledge about some new type of happiness?

The Vedas say that, according to the law of karma, our happiness can evaporate at any moment. Thus, when hard times come, we will not be able to understand anything, without deep knowledge, explained to us by a wise person. Some people hope that everything will be all right by itself. Intelligent people try to devote all their free time to searching for truth, and they do not think that this

time in their lives is spent worthlessly. The Vedas advise us to not be afraid of changes? But, we sometimes see

that, as a result of these changes families fall apart, people quit their jobs and become fanatic. The Vedas tell us that change will only lead to happiness in that case if the direction is chosen correctly. But, where is the guarantee that everything will happen like this?

Strong faith in the practicality and truthfullness appears after serious study. First, we need to find out what authoritative sources say about a topic, and then we should test whether or not this works in life. However, changes should not be rushed. The gunas of material nature change everything by themselves, or create the needed circumstances for changes. We should not get divorced, if everything is bad in our family, we should not leave our friends, if they have treated us bad. It is enough to just act according to the Vedic knowledge. Then, we will be able to avoid even the slightest risk of getting mixed up in our fate. Just like a captain, who can lead his ship through the most dangerous and unknown waters, a person, that has true knowledge, will get fate itself as his guide. It will graciously lead him the right way.

Still, people object to me: “Still, it seems there is a certain risk here”. I agree. Even to get to work is risky. If you are told that you shouldn't walk out of a flying airplane, there’s a reason for this. However, an intelligent person, who is used to following safety recommendations, can be sure that he will not fall out of the plane by accident. Therefore, despite all the safety reccomendations, some foolish person still thinks he is at risk of falling out of the plane, it will be better for him to sit at home and “live in his TV”.

As a result, we see that a special category of skeptics lives “in the TV”. They live their “romantic life, full of the most different events” inside the TV. Unfortunetely, there is no other reality for these people.

Life isn't bad, but when will there be happiness?

I’m sure this question bothers everyone. The Vedas say that even when we are satisfied with out fate, we still strive to become even happier. It is our nature. We want the happiness in our lives to constantly increase, otherwise we will feel disappointed. However, what is happiness? Everyone has his own understanding of happiness. If this understanding is incorrect or perverted, after many tries, the person achieves this type of happiness. Is this the meaning of human life? Therefore, I think you will agree with me that it is better to start our way toward happiness should be started with studying what is happiness.

At first, it seems obvious. Happiness is prosperity, health, a good wife and children, a well-paid job, a big and cosy house or apartment, a fancy car, success, fame, and respect. According to the Vedas, all of these are attributes of temperory material happiness. However, when a person seeks only material happiness, he often feels disappointed. This is connected to the fact that our nature is not material, it is spiritual. The Vedas say that, besides material happiness, there is a completely different type of happiness in this world. This is spiritual happiness.

Most people think that there is no other type of happiness besides material happiness. If I tell someone this is false, people will laugh at me. However, if all of us really know what is happiness, why are most people really unhappy deep inside? “Probably constant happiness does not exist. It always has to be replaced with suffering,” people say. However, the Vedas say that there is a constant spiritual happiness and its nature is eternal.

Spiritual happiness does not diminish - it constantly increases. It is not a secret. However, it is hard for most people to understand. However, it can be easily achieved for those people, who are capable of studying the subject of happiness. After understanding everything correctly, they strive for this type of happiness with all of their hearts. In other words, this secret can be opened for those who are sincere. What is this spiritual happiness and how can it be achieved? The Vedas say that first we should divert our attention from constantly trying to solve our material problems. This takes up all of our free time. But, who will solve these problems then? Spiritual happiness protects people from the unending current of material problems. When I tell people this, they usually ask the same question: “And you believe in this?”. You can believe this or not. I just checked everything. First I checked this in my own life, and then I saw how this works in the lives of many other people.

All those people who, like me, seriously study the Vedas, have come to the same conclusion that spiritual happiness never causes dissapointment and difficulties. It solves all the material problems. Spiritual happiness does not depend on health, success, financial level of a person, sex, and age. It is always increasing and slowly makes a person hundreds of times happier, than all the material joys put together.

«Excuse me, this is hard to believe,” people tell me. Of course it is. This is the reason that there are very few happy people now. If a person doesn’t believe in something valuable and, doesn’t even want to check whether or not it is valuable, he will never be able to use this and benefit from it. Besides this, intelligent people don’t believe something just because they heard others praise it. Therefore, if we want to achieve spiritual happiness, we need to practice everything we have heard and read about with knowledge and seriousness in our life. Faith comes only when we study something seriously and practically. Happiness is the dearest thing we have in life. Therefore this book is devoted to the subject of how to become happy.

How do we fight with bad things that are everywhere?

It is foolish to say there is no evil and no violence in this world. The presence of evil destroys happiness. At every step we see that the consioussness of youth is polluted with drugs and sex. There are terrorists everywhere. How can we fight this?

First of all, the Vedas advise us to understand the mechanism of fate, and the way it hooks a person to suffering. Actually, fate punishes a person for his own sins, which he committed in the past. How can we protect ourselves? The conclusion of the Vedas is simple – we need to free ourselves from sins. Then,

we will be able to get rid of the evil blows of fate.What is the most simple way to get rid of our sins? The Vedas say that a

person gets rid of his sins easier when he engages himself in spiritual practice. The person, who truly strives to achieve great and elevated happiness, will surely achieve it and, he will also be able to escape terrible suffering. Is this not a paradox? If everything is so simple, why do so many people suffer? People suffered before, they are suffering now, and it is unlikely they will be to change anything in the future. I also thought in such a way, until I tried following the recommendations of the Vedas.

It is rather easy to become happy, if we achieve the knowledge of how to act right. However, the process of achieving this knowledge is not simple. The Vedas say there are rather easy ways of getting rid of suffering. However, it is not so easy to find out about them because they are not connected to anything material. They are connected to spiritual practice, which most people don’t understand. For our reason, these ways of getting rid of suffering seem like something very secret. Therefore, the only difficulty is understanding that spiritual practice really does exist.

Someone might object: what secrets are there in our time? But, why not? A real secret has to have strong protection. Then, it will continue to be a secret even in our age, where there is a cult of information. The most amazing this is that the protection from understanding this secret is hiding in our own intelligence.

As soon as we hear that spiritual knowledge can quickly resolve any problem, this protection starts working right away, and we think: “What is this spiritual knowledge? The idea of spiritual knowledge is just nonsense. I don’t want to hear anything more about this. This is all just fairytales!” A lot of people are caught by the hook of negative thinking about things they don’t know. How about you, dear reader? Did this protection from believing in spiritual happiness work in your head? If it did, that means the quick way of achieving happiness is a secret to you for the time being.

Who will win and achieve happiness?

If spiritual happiness exists, then someone has to know how to achieve it. And the person who knows this, has already achieved success on this path.

Who will say no to happiness? If spiritual happiness exists, where are the people who have it? And how can we find them? Many people act as if they are happy. Now it has even become popular. However, after getting to know them, it becomes obvious that most of them are deeply unhappy.

The Vedas say that a truly happy person is satisfied within himself. Therefore, he doesn’t strive to show him happiness to everyone. He is not disturbed by the joys and sorrows of this material world, where everything is constantly changing. The person, who has achieved happiness, has already achieved everything, so he doesn’t have any reason to stand up and shout “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy! Look, how great I feel! I can also make you happy at the lowest price!!!”

We see that now there are a lot of people, who tell everyone about their

happy fate. They constantly make up new “methods of achieving happiness in 10 (20, 30) days.”

Why do they shout about their happiness so loudly? Of course, they do this to earn money and a good name with the help of those, who listens to them. If these people really can make someone happy, maybe this is for the best?

No, the Vedas say that happiness cannot be sold and cannot be bought with money. Only the person, who is able to build completely selfless relationships with those who surround him, will achieve happiness. Searching for profit and a consumer attitude don’t help in achieving deep harmony, sincere respect, and deep love between people. Without love and respect, even etiket is simply for show, it is something outer, like a candy rapper.

After hearing this, people usually say “If money, luksury, and a good job is all just a rapper of a candy, then it’s also not bad, and tastes pretty good.” As a result of such propaganda, people are constantly chasing after fame, success, and riches. All this is outer and not deep happiness. After getting hold of one candy rapper, they lick it and, after seeing there is nothing else to do with it, they begin chasing another one. But, who eats the candy? The one who ate the candy and is truly happy inside, never shouts about it. So, how can we find a truly happy person, who is satisfied with his fate?

The Vedas say that a person who is happy inside truly believes in God, has spiritual thoughts, shining eyes, a joyful voice, and a happy smile. Such a person also shares his happiness, but he does this selflessly and without seeking profit. Doing selfless acts, serving God and people, he is happy deep in the soul. Is this possible – getting happiness from inside ourselves? Yes. Everyone can see that happiness comes from inside to a person that performs good acts. Also, everyone that he has helped selflessly also start sincerely caring for his happiness.

Does that mean that if we care for someone, our happiness decreases? No, it increases. Spiritual happiness has its own math. One smile creates another one. This means that in the spiritual reality 1 – 1 = 2. The more selfless spiritual happiness you give, the more you receive it. In our day-to-day life, when a person gives material happiness (a candy rapper), his happiness decreases. When we give money, we have less of it. However, when we give a smile, even to a person we don’t know, we get a smile in return.

Because people don’t know about spiritual math, they try to take away happiness from each other. Driven by the idea of material success, most people try to take away the candy rappers of money, a high-class job, and a high position in society from each other. While they are chasing this, you and I, dear reader, will take our candy out of useless rappers and will start studying how to enjoy the nectar hidden inside of it.

What is needed for understanding this book?

The information about the gunas of material nature is very important and can be used practically, even though it can remain rather difficult for our understanding. Therefore, in the course of this book, we will discuss the same

matter (theoretically and practically) – how to come to the right understanding of the concept of “happiness.”

As we have previously discussed, knowledge is understood deeply when we try to use it practically. There are many different practices. All of us understand what is physical exercises; they are exercises for the body. Playing the guitar is exercises for our senses. And playing chess is a practice for our mind. All these activities make our body, senses, and mind become used to practical activities. However, practicing these things every day will not make us a lot happier. The Vedas say that only the practice of developing our intelligence and reason can bring real happiness into our life. Therefore, we need to learn to act through our intelligence. However, for most of us this is a difficult concept to understand.

It is difficult to understand how to act, while listening to our intelligence, but it is possible. This is possible for those people, who truly want to become intelligent. We are used to learning from our mistakes and from the mistakes of others. Thus, when we get life experience, we train our intelligence. However, the Vedas say that learning from mistakes is not the best way to strengthen our intelligence because there is a risk of getting mixed up in the difficulties of life situations. Most of us know that life can sometimes put us in such circumstances, when it is difficult to continue living.

The Vedas advice us to understand how the intelligence works, i.e. how it is cleansed by wisdom and how it is polluted by foolishness and, how our how life is transformed by its activity. To achieve this knowledge, there is only one condition – we need to develop a sincere desire to become happy. Why don’t we have a sincere desire? Because we are stubborn, selfish, and don’t want to make changes in our life. However, when we get a sincere desire to be happy, it destroys all our stubbornness, and makes a person start studying the knowledge he didn’t pay any attention to before. Thus, sincerity leads us out of the labyrinth of our unhappy fate, pointing to the exit, who is invisible for a person with a skeptical intelligence.

While studying this book, you will be faced with two serious obstacles, and they will test your sincerity.

You will notice that already understandable things are explained by the Vedas in a very unusual way. This newness can somewhat lessen your enthusiasm in studying this book further.

You will see that the whole book is devoted to one subject – how to become intelligent and happy. Thus, at first it will seem that further reading is a waste of time, as you have already read a lot about this matter.

A sincere person, after overcoming these two obstacles, will discover: If we accept a new approach at least theoretically and, despite that it

seems we already know everything about this topic, still if we continue our studies of Vedic knowledge, we will achieve a new and deeper understanding of familiar things.

If we repeat the material we have already studied, we start using the knowledge we have theoretically studied and thought about practically.

Therefore, the whole process of studying Vedic knowledge is based on repeating analysis of viewing the same subject from different points of view. This is done with one simple goal – to move this knowledge from the surface of the mind into the depths of our intelligence.

Additional requirements for studying this subject, which can really change our life

While studying the material in this book step by step, trying to overcome our косное мышление, отбросив предвзятость, we will be able to strengthen our reason and intelligence. However, to train our intelligence and achieve an opportunity to make real changes in our life, there are two additional things we need to do.

1. It is important to try and feel the unique taste of spiritual happiness that is hidden in the Vedic wisdom. Only a taste for spiritual happiness can really attract our intelligence. If our intelligence is attracted, we will have a strong enthusiasm that will inspire us to try using everything we have read about practically. Knowledge that we have gained and use in our life will lead us to убежденность, which will automatically change our whole life. If you have really felt spiritual taste, in your heart you will feel a strong desire for spiritual practice. Thus, strong enthusiasm is the main sign of sincere study. If you still don’t have a taste for studying the laws of happy life, don’t give up. Everything is ahead of you.

2. The second condition is a strong desire to follow the path of truth and not step aside from it. Truth is knowledge about the highest happiness. A person, who sincerely wishes to follow the path of truth, after feeling this type of happiness once, will always try to set aside some time for spiritual practice in his busy day. He will not отвлекаться on secondary things. However, if a person doesn’t have a strong desire to become happy and test everything he has learned in practice, will always say he is too busy and doesn’t have enough time.

“But we really don’t have free time,” people tell me. Ok, let’s find out whatwe spend our time doing. We spend it on the things we think are the most important. Therefore, only those who will decide that practical study of this material is important and vital, will get a real opportunity to become truly happy.

The rest of the people, who are skeptical, really will not have time to practically use what they have read about in this book. Therefore, they will be able to understand the Vedas only theoretically, and there is no guarantee that the sweet candy of true happiness will someday be chewed and swallowed by their constantly doubtful intelligence.

A few words about the style of this book

Traditionally, the material in this book is given in a dialogue between the

reader and the author. The questions my listeners usually ask on lectures are given here. I hope that a live discussion has helped this material become more practical, understandable, and interesting. My listeners sometimes ask rather uncompromising questions, which helps me explain the subject deeper. I am very thankful to them for this. You might think some of these questions are rather harsh. Thus, you can be sure in my sincere wish of allowing them to say everything they would like to say.

Chapter TwoThe Gunas of Material Nature

The First Aquantence with These Mysterious Powers

Where can the uneasy road lead us?

According to the Vedas, our universe has the form of a sphere. The lower half of this sphere is filled with a liquid substance. In the upper half of the universe (from the middle to the top) there are 14 planetary systems, which are only a part of the universe. This looks like there is a huge plant, which stretches from the surface of the water to the top of the universe, which looks like a sphere half-filled with water. This sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? However, if we study the Vedas seriously, we will be able to realize that this is not a fairy tale.

Each planetary system is like a disk. That which modern scientists call “galaxy”, the Vedas call “planetary system”. All the planetary systems are in a row, one above the other like 14 disks. “The milky way” is the next planetary system. From all these planetary systems, we are on the seventh level, in the middle. Above us, there are the upper planetary systems, and below there are the lower planetary systems. We can understand where is the top and where is the bottom by the Polar star above us. The Vedas describe each planetary system and the whole galaxy in detail. Reader: This sounds mysterious and interesting. However, in the previous book about the power of time and the necessity of following the day regime, you promised to tell me how our desire of being happy is protected by the powers of material nature, which have a strange name: “gunas”. Why do we need to spend time studying the structure of the universe? How is the placement of planets connected to the gunas of material nature? Author: Our desire of being happy is protected by the powers of the universe based on a simple principle. Having certain desires, each living entity is born on that planet of this universe, where its desires can be fulfilled. Each planet of the universe has its own unique combination of gunas of material nature. Thus, wanting to obtain a certain type of happiness, we inevitably get under the influence of certain gunas. Thus, we are born on the planet of the universe that is most suitable for obtaining what we desire. This is how the gunas of material nature protect and fulfill the desires of all living entities. Reader: Where is better to be born – on the upper planetary systems or on the lower ones? Author: On the higher planetary systems, living entities live millions of times

longer and have millions of times more happiness. Reader: Ok. Right now my desire is to be born on a higher planet. If my desire is protected by the mightiest powers of the universe, then I should die right after saying these words and be born on a higher planet. But, this isn’t happening. Author: Why do you think nothing is changing? On the contrary, everything is going as planned. Your desire has been recorded and now its power will affect your fate. Reader: Are you saying I have already died, but didn’t notice it? Author: No, I’m saying that your many past desires have not allowed you to die, which are also protected by the mightiest powers of nature. This new wish, which has entered your head just now, is also protected. Reader: I knew you would find something to say to oppose me. What else do these powers учитывают besides my past and present desires? Author: Besides your desires, the desires of all the living entities that you were connected with are also considered. Reader: What? I don’t understand this statement. Author: We have already discussed the fact that the powers of nature fulfill the desires of all living entities. If you do something, this will have an effect on someone else. In other words, your action will be evaluated by the higher powers. This evaluation will not only affect you, it will also affect the people that surround you. Every person that is connected to you will act somewhat differently with you than he did before you performed this action.

If, by our action we caused the suffering of others, we will have to suffer in the same way. On the contrary, if we have done something good and pious, we receive happiness as a reward. Each person is responsible for his actions. Thus, not only we are protected by the gunas of material nature, but also all the other people. This protection is equal for every one. Sometimes we do something good, and sometimes we do something bad. Thus, sometimes we suffer, and sometimes we are happy. Therefore, everything we have ever done to others are учитываются. Reader: I understand. So, it is better to sit and do nothing. Then, I can be sure I won’t harm anyone. As a result, fate will take into consideration only my desires. Now I understand how to become happy. Author: If you decide to do nothing, your kids will start dying from hunger one by one, and you will be responsible for this. Thus, the problem will not be solved if we simply do nothing. I told you, this subject is very difficult, and we will need to go over a lot of things. It’s not that simple: after we think and wish for something, our desire will come true. This happens only in fairy tales about the magic wand. Actually, where we will be born in our next life depends not only on the desires that come into our head, but also on our actions, which we did in this life and past lives. Reader: Is there a simple way to find out which desires did the people who surround me have in their past lives? Author: The Vedas give a clear answer to this question. According to their actions in the past, all people can be divided into three main groups:

1. If a person had mostly good desires and committed mostly good

actions, and tried to live selflessly, then he is mostly under the influence of the guna of goodness. This guna gives him a good and elevated personality, beauty, he is respected and surrounded by good people, he has good health, a good fate, and a sincere faith in God. These signs point to his elevated desires and pious actions, which he did in the past.

2. If a person committed both good and bad actions, his motives were always selfish, his consciousness is mostly affected by the guna of passion. As a result, he has an impulsive and суетливый character, emotional instability, he is inclined to different illnesses, financial problems, conflicts in relationships with people, he has medium looks, and his fate is full of ups and downs. Usually, if he asks for something from God, he asks only for himself. If he considers himself religious, he is usually against people, who are in other religions he is not used to. He thinks this is true faith in God. If you see that most of these signs are in a person’s character, you can make the conclusion that in his past lives he tried to not wish anything bad for others, but lived only for his own selfish interest.

3. If a person liked bad actions, and nasty desires didn’t leave his head, now he is mostly under the influence of the guna of ignorance. As a result, this person usually looks bad, has a bad character, he is violent towards others and doesn’t care about anyone, he is unstable financially, and has a very harsh fate. Such people usually don’t believe in God, or just претворяются that they are religious, but only to hide their bad actions under the mask of religion. If you know such a person, be sure he liked to cause suffering for others in his past lives.

Reader: I think this description will not be enough for me. Author: In this case, you can study the table at the end of this book. There, you will find a more detailed description of the effect of the gunas on these three catagories of people. Depending on which guna affects the consciousness of a person, he has a certain character, surroundings, family relationships, food habbits, speech, understanding of truth, and even appearance. However, it is hard to explain this briefly. We will need to study these subjects deeply and in details. Reader: Thank you for the explanation. However, you didn’t answer my question: “When will I be able to be born on a higher planet?” Author: If, all your life you will commit pious actions and have good desires, this question will be answered at the time of your death. The sum of your good actions and desires, from this life and past lives, has to be more than the sum of your bad actions and desires. Only in this case, you will get under the main influence of the guna of goodness. As a result, at the time of death of your harsh body, this power will take you in your subtle body to one of the higher planets. Reader: It is hard for me to understand how I will fly somewhere in my subtle body. This term – subtle body – although it has been discussed in the previous book about the power of time, is still hard for me to understand. Author: The subtle body consists of the mind, intelligence (or reason), and the

false ego of a person. This explanation is also hard for you to understand, but slowly, in the course of the discussion, you will easily understand all these terms. Reader: Which planet will I be able to go to at the time of death of my “harsh body”? Author: You will go to the planet you deserve to go to. However, this will not happen earlier than your previous life will end. Reader: Who decides when my life will end – also my past actions and desires? Author: You have somewhat forgotten our past discussion about the power of time. Time takes our actions and desires into consideration. At the time of conception, the cycle of a person’s life is formed. This cycle of life cannot be increased by our actions in the course of our life. Reader: So, to be born on a higher planet, I need to do good things all my life? Author: Yes. And you need to do so many good things, so that they will overpower all your past bad actions. Reader: You are pushing me to become a hero. Actually, I’m ready to do something heroic, if I start believing in all this. Is there any proof that what you have said is true? Author: Everything I am saying here is based on the Vedas, and for me they are a source of truth. The fact that our travelling from one planet to another one are caused by the influence of the gunas of material nature, is written in many places in the Vedas. For example, this is mentioned in the authoritative Vedic tractate – Bhagavad Gita (14.14-15, 14.18):

“If a person dies in the guna (under the influence of the power) of goodness, the living entity enters the pure atmosphere of the higher planets, where great wise

men live.”

“If a person dies in the una (under the influence of the power) of passion, the person is born amongst those, who are busy with ignorant actions (working for material happiness). If a person leaves his body in the guna of ignorance, he

enters the animal kingdom.”

“Those, who are in the guna of goodness, go to the higher planets after death; people in the guna of passion stay on planets like Earth; and those, who have

been swallowed by the nasty guna of ignorance, go to the planets of hell.”

Thus, those who did mostly bad things, live at the bottom part of the universe, closer to the universal ocean. There they lead a life full of suffering. Those who did bad and good things, live on the middle planets like Earth. Here, all of us have about the same amount of happiness and suffering. Those who have done a lot of good and kind things live on the higher planets. There, they lead mostly happy lives. “Bhagavad Gita” (14.16) says the following about this:

“If a person does good and pious things in the guna of goodness, he is purified. Things done in the mode of passion cause suffering. And actions in the guna of

ignorance steal his intelligence.”

Reader: Does this mean that these are the powers that make us be born in one of the planetary systems?Author: Yes, but they do this according to our past desires and actions, so there is no injustice. Reader: What about if I didn’t know that I was acting wrongly, will I still be punished?Author: Yes, of course. Punishment exists so that we will be able to understand something and learn.Reader: I agreed to talk to you about the laws of happy life. However, in the course of our discussion, I see that our life is by no means a game. According to your explanation, these powers are like Gestapo: each thought and each step is recorded. For example, we have decided to live right, but because we didn’t know a lot of things, we made a lot of foolish mistakes. If we made a mistake by accident or because we didn’t know something, then, instead of going to the higher planets, we will have to be punished for a whole life on the lower planets. This is not a joyous perspective.Author: You’re right, but the gunas act much wiser. If a person decided to go the right way, then, besides his bad actions in the past, he is still mostly under the influence of the guna of goodness. The effect of bad karma doesn’t take place right away. Instead, it is moved to a later time. Then, with the power of spiritual knowledge, a person can burn this moved karma. People who are progressing on this way and even saints sometimes have to go through really hard times. However, the guna of goodness gives them so much happiness that they are not troubled by the blows of fate.Reader: Does this mean that the guna of goodness can give credit for happiness to its favorite people?Author: Something like that, yes. If a person is determined to develop himself inside, then, his suffering will first be moved to a later time, and then he can burn them while understanding elevated truths and performing good deeds. Reader: Does this always happen, or can someone be forgotten?Author: Bhagavad Gita (6.40) says that those, who have started going the right way, are guaranteed complete protection from the results of past mistakes:

(6.40)

Reader: Is it really true that these words are spoken by God Himself?Author: Yes, this is an authoritative Vedic writing. In it there is a recorded discussion between a devoted servant of the Lord, a great полководец named Arjuna, and God himself, who came to this earth as Sri Krishna more than 5100 years ago. Reader: Was their discussion overheard by someone or did they record it on a dictophone? How do you know they were saying these words?Author; One wise man, named Sanjaya received an ability to telepathically see and hear everything that was happening during this battle from his spiritual master, Vyasadeva. Vsyasadeva could also hear this discussion with the help of

his mystical powers. He had perfect memory and wrote down this discussion in 700 verses. Sanjaya told the king Dhritarashtra about everything that was happening on the battlefield in detail. Thus, information about Arjuna’s and Krishna’s discussion came from two independent sources. Reader: Is it possible to remember so much information, having heard it just once?Author: At that time, 5000 years ago, most people had perfect memory. What to say of the great wise man Vyasadeva, who wrote several dozens of Vedic writings having known them by heart. Reader: Is there proof that this is an incarnation of God?Author: Yes. This was predicted by the Vedas. For example, Srimad Bhagavatam talks about this incarnation. Also, there are astrological расчеты, which say that only the Lord could be born at this time, and no one else. There are also many свидетельства of the people who lived at the same time He was here and they have described his life and superhuman powers and actions in detail. Reader: Many people now think that God can only come in one appearance.Author: That means that God can do less than we can, because we are constantly changing bodies. We always want to limit the powers of God. We are trying to measure God with our measuring. When our consciousness is under the influence of the guna of passion, we cannot understand that God can appear before us in a different way and with a difference appearance than we expect. Later, we will discuss this matter in detail. Reader: The quote from the Vedic writings, which you have mentioned is hard to understand. What does it mean that “if a person started doing good things, he will never die?” Author: This does not mean that the person will not die and will become immortal. In the Vedic times, the fact of reincarnation was obvious for most people and no one had any illusions about eternal life. It seems that this verse is speaking about something else. Such a person is guaranteed to not die on the way of knowledge (in his progress) and he will not be inclined to sudden degradation. Even if he slips, in his next life he will be born in a good family with everything needed for continuing the way of spiritual progress. The following verse of Bhagavad Gita (6.41) proves this is true.

“6.41”

Reader: How much can our happiness increase if we are born on a higher planet?Author: The Vedas say that there is 100 times more happiness on the planetary system higher than ours. Reader: Does that mean that 2 planetary systems higher, there is 10,000 times more happiness?Author: Yes, that’s about right. However, the living entities that live there have committed 10,000 times more good deeds than we have. Thus, everything is fair. Everyone lives in the place where he has earned to live. Reader: I would like to live in a higher galaxy at least for a while.

Author: For this, you need to do 10,000 times more good things than most people do on earth. However, the Vedas say that people, who want to go to the higher planets are not very intelligent. It is better to desire to go to the spiritual world, where there is billions of times more happiness.

Those who want to go to the spiritual world, will get an opportunity to go there. However, those who want to go to the higher planets, will have to be there for several thousands of years. After that, they might have different new desires. Maybe they will have to go back to planets like earth.Reader: Can the desires of those who live on higher planets change for the worse?Author: Yes. For example, they can become very proud and start acting selfish. As a result of this, they will lose their good qualities and will be forced to be born on the middle or even lower planets.Reader: Is it possible to go to the material world from the spiritual world?Author: Yes, if we get the desire to live for ourselves, and not for God. However, this is not likely. There, living entities don’t have a selfish perspective of happiness. They all feel happy when they serve God and other living entities. Reader: Ok. So, how can we get to the spiritual world? Author: To do this we need to repeat the Holy Names of God with love and devotion. These names are spiritual by nature and they have the ability to give us a taste for spiritual practice. In the spiritual world, there is no taste for material activity. It is not hard to repeat the Names of God. However, in our reason there is an obstacle that doesn’t allow us to do this.Reader: What is this obstacle?Author: It is jealousy towards God.Reader: For now this seems difficult to understand and unreal for me. There is no proof.Author: After some time, if you just continue to study the laws of happy life, you will be able to understand these subjects.Reader: Are you saying that for now I don’t have enough knowledge to understand all this?Author: What do you expect? Even for wise men, who have studied the Vedas, it is difficult to understand how to escape from the clutches of this material world. The power of the Holy Names of God is also a sacred and hard to understand subject even for such wise men. What to speak of us, who don’t even know about the existence of the soul!Reader: What do you mean by “the clutches of this material world”? This statement sounds like you are talking about a prison. Author: Because there is so much suffering in this material world, often the Vedas compare it to a prison for living entities, who desired to live a selfish life and willingly accepted the chains of this desire.Reader: It is hard for me to hear this. Are you saying we all live in a big prison?Author: Don’t let this upset you and don’t make conclusions yet. It is not that easy to understand the Vedas. We just need to continue studying them patiently. Reader: Thus, let’s continue discussion how the gunas work.Author: When living beings progress, moving from the lower planets to the higher

ones, their suffering decreases and their happiness increases. According to the Vedas, each next higher planet has about 100 times more happiness than the previous one. This means that, if a person desires to be born one planet higher, he needs to do 100 times more good things than other people do. Thus, it’s no surprise than living beings on higher planets have a very good personality. They are much more selfless than you and I. Their whole lives are dedicated to serving God and other living beings.Reader: Do the gunas influence them just like them influence us, and make them be born in the place they have earned to be born in?Author: Yes, but not always. Some pious living entities take birth on lower planets than they have earned. They do this because they desire to share elevated knowledge with us.

Conclusion: Without the knowledge about how the gunas of material nature work, it is impossible to understand the laws of happy life. Thus, those who care about their fate, should try to deeply understand the mechanism of how these powerful gunas affect our lives.

While studying the activity of the gunas, many people start to desire being born on the higher planets of the material world. However, the Vedas say that such people lack intelligence. A truly intelligent and reasonable person wants to go only to the spiritual world. To do this, the person needs to overcome his envy towards God. For our mind, this envy is invisible, but it does exist. Also, such a person needs to abandon all his selfish plans and devote his life to serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

As you sow, so shall you reap:No one, besides us, is to blame for the way we live

On the middle planetary systems, where our planet is, most living beings do everything for themselves and their family. Most people follow certain rules and laws of cultural life, and think about their own profit. The living entities on the lower planets, however, usually don’t take into consideration anything or anyone. They think only about their selfish desires. And they’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. They don’t have any laws or rules. They have a terrible personality. They think only about food, sex, sleep, and their own comfort. They hate everyone around them and that’s why they always suffer. Reader: I know a lot of people who live on Earth and act the same way.Author: Unfortunetly, that’s true. Many people around us prefer ignorant happiness. In their next lives, they will have to be born on lower planets or in the bodies of animals. Reader: That’s a “joyful” prospect. For example, what if I suddenly got the wrong understanding of happiness and, thus, I fell into degradation. How long will I have to live on the lower planets in this case?Author: The Vedas say that the time we spend on different levels of the universe is not the same and depends on many factors. It depends on our understanding of happiness that we have in our intelligence, i.e. what we think happiness is.

People, who strive to achieve an elevated and selfless happiness, slowly, while studying true sources of knowledge, achieve the understanding of how they should live. While trying to live their lives according to sacred writings, they slowly get rid of their sins, and in their next lives, they are born on higher levels of the universe. Depending on our actions, we achieve the lower, middle, or higher planets. However, in time, we will again be forced to change our residence. Reader: People say that hell lasts forever. What do the Vedas say about this? Author: Some living entities will have to live on the lower planets for a very long time, but not forever. A person can commit many sins, but sins cannot be endless. As we already know, there is no unfairness in this world. As our bad karma is destroyed, our life slowly changes for the better. However, the results of our pious actions also won’t last forever. These statements are also in the Bhagavad-Gita (14.10):

“ ”Reader: All this is logical. However, what if we still have a desire for happiness in ignorance even after long periods of suffering in hell? Is there really no other way out of this situation? Can’t we change our desires and start searching for happiness in the mode of goodness, and not ignorance?Author: There is no other way. Otherwise, we will have to live on the lower planets until a desire to search for happiness in goodness awakens in our consciousness. Our desires and dreams always come true in this world. The gunas of material nature are responsible for this. Thus, these gunas always protect our right to search for that type of happiness that we want to search for. Reader: But, not everyone can understand what they need to be happy. And not everyone can understand that first we need to at least desire to live differently. Author: That’s right, not everyone can understand this. That’s why the Supreme Personality of God or his close associates is incarnated on every planet of this world from time to time. Their goal is to help us understand the meaning of life and our search for happiness. They always leave a sacred writing after them, which is especially meant for people born at that age. Thus, if we have a sincere desire to find Truth, even if this desire is small, we will never be left in complete ignorance. True writings are always on earth. The one, who searches for them, will certainly find them. Reader: You easily talk about different incarnations of God, like you were a witness of these events. How do you know all this information? Who can prove this is not made up?Author: Everything I say is based on the authority of the Vedas. The fact that everything described in the Vedas is true is proven by historical facts and authoritative opinions of many scientists. As for different incarnations of God, the Vedas describe each incarnation in detail. In Bhagavad Gita (4.7-8), God talks about the circumstances of when He is incarnated in this world:

“ “

Reader: If God speaks about Himself so openly, then I have even more doubts

about His incarnations. Author: When you speak about yourself sincerely to someone, you also don’t believe yourself?Reader: I speak openly about myself only to my close ones, not to everyone. Author: Lord Krishna also spoke about this sacred knowledge to His close companion – Arjuna. It was not meant for those, who will later feel jealous.Reader: You think I am jealous? Author: What other reasons can there be for doubting another person’s sincerity?Reader: It’s just hard for me to believe all this, that’s all.Author: I explain everything to you according to the authority of the Vedas. I don’t make anything up. Reader: I doubt the authority of the Vedas. Author: Then, there is no meaning in our discussions at all. What is the use of discussing something that has already been rejected? If you want to continue our discussion, you need to accept that Vedic knowledge is true, at least as a hypothesis. Reader: All right, I’ll think about it. Thus, according to the Vedas, God comes to the material world rather often?Author: Yes, the Vedas say that this happens rather often. He accepts that form of life as those who he plans to preach to. The Lord always comes with a special mission. This mission is to establish the principles of justice and reveal the faults that have taken place in society. Usually the Lord himself comes when it is impossible to do without His presence. To reestablish true knowledge, the Lord often sends a saintly person.Reader: Although it is hard for me to believe in God, but, after comparing different sacred writings and looking at their history, this seems true. Jesus Christ came at that time when religious principles were violated by pharises, who often gave false explanations of sacred writings. Author: Are you the one defending God this time?Reader: After our recent discussions about the power of time, I started studying different spiritual writings and comparing them to each other.Author: What is the result of your research?Reader: Sacred writings are very much alike. The meaning is the same, but the words and languages are different.Author: That’s right. God comes in different ages and with different names, but he gives humanity the same knowledge – knowledge about how to become happy. Thus, we should not think that this world is unfair and no one helps us. However, our life now is the result of our past desires. Our desires are superior law for our fate. Therefore, if we don’t want to change ourselves, no one will bother us. Reader: Even God will not want to help us? Author: All sacred writings say that God always wants to help us. However, according to the judicious laws of this world, we always have freedom of choice – whether to listen and obey His holy words or not.

CONCLUSION: In order to deeply understand the laws of happy life, first of all we need to understand that no one, besides us, is to blame for all our suffering. It

is up to us to make a decision to change our life consciously. No one will do this for us.

The person, who has understood these truths, becomes calm and serene, even though the situation in his life will not change right away. The person, who has understood why it is so hard for him to carry his load and why he needs to carry it, will at least be mentally calm and undisturbed. Therefore, in order to become happy, we need to understand that the laws of this world are fair and just. We need to be ready to act and put our energy into achieving our happiness.

Four types of evolution (from the monkey to the human and back)

Usually when most people hear the word “evolution”, they think of Darwin’s theory of origin of species. However, the concept of evolution of living entities was described in the Vedas deeply and in detail long before the birth of the famous Charles Darwin.

The Vedic understanding of evolution means that there is no death for living entities. We just change an old body, which is no longer useful, for a new one. The Vedas also say that there is another - regressive - side to evolution. Sometimes, living entities can step back in their evolution to the lower forms of life, where they will try to find happiness.

Let’s discuss the Vedic understand of evolution in detail.Reader: Yes, it’s interesting to find out what the Vedas say about evolution.Author: Here is a simple, but understandable classification of evolution of living entities, which states the opinion of the Vedas about this matter:

1) The first way of evolution is for those lucky souls, who understood the eternal nature of living entities and how this eternal nature can be seen in our lives. Thus, they start serving God and all living beings with all their hearts. As a result of this completely spiritual activity, which is bereft of all selfishness, they slowly burn away all their sins. After death, these living entities go to the spiritual world. There, they live in a spiritual body and feel unbelievably happy.

2) The second way of evolution is for those living beings, who seek happiness in this world. With all their actions and even thoughts, they try to follow all the rules of righteous and good life. As a result, such people constantly progress, achieving higher and higher planets after each life. They accept more intelligent forms of life with each life. As a result of this type of evolution, selfish desires are burned away, but not completely. Thus, there is still a risk of degradation.

3) The third way of evolution is for those, who dream of happiness for themselves and their families. To some degree, they try to live in harmony and peace with the people that surround them. However, it’s hard for them to achieve this always. The reason for this is selfishness, which dominates in relationships between such people. As a result, they engage in a fierce battle for material riches. Such battles spoil their life, and they slowly become disappointed in the fairness of this world, and become hard-

hearted. As a result, they enter the fourth way of evolution. Until disappointment in their false moral values is fully established in their consciousness, they will continue to be born on the middle planets, life after life. However, they still have a chance to start their path of development and be raised one or two levels higher.

4) Those living entities, who try to get happiness while taking away freedom from others and exploiting them, fall into degradation more and more. They will go to lower and lower planets, where they will suffer terribly, or be born in the bodies of animals.

Thus, the first way of evolution quickly frees the living entity from the dangers of

material existence and brings it to the spiritual world. The following two ways don’t give us such a quick chance to enter the spiritual world. However, according to the Vedas, the living entities, who progress in the second way of evolution and follow the principles of righteousness in their life, are slowly freed from all sins. For them, it is much easier to get rid of material desires and understand their spiritual nature, than for the living entities, who are following the lower ways of evolution. However, people that are stuck in ignorance, and feel anger towards others, fall into degradation more and more, until they leave their foolish ideas. This is the fourth way of evolution. Reader: So, you don’t agree with Darwin, who says that all living entities in the universe constantly progress from the lower forms of life to the higher ones.Author: Have you seen proof of this in real life? Do you think that all the people, who surround you constantly progress and become better and better? Reader: Of course, I can’t say about everyone, but there are signs, which tell us that there is progress. Look how our economy and science are progressing! Now, we can see the whole world, without having to leave our house. We can find out what is happening in the farthest corner of earth. We can also talk to any person, no matter what country he lives in. Is this not progress?Author: This is technical progress. However, we are speaking about the individual development of living entities, not about computer technologies, which are getting more and more difficult to understand. Or do you think that, if most people are falling into degradation, this means that humanity is progressing?Reader: Of course, this is not true. You didn’t have to ask this question.Author: I agree. Thus, which collective progress are you talking about, when most people have practically lost all moral values? They live without any moral principles, they engage in sex with anyone, there is alcohol and drug abuse. People don’t even think about the true meaning of life. Reader: Do you think that all this didn’t exist in the past?Author: In the past, there were also people inclined to fall into degradation. However, degradation was not as deep as it is now. For example, let’s think of our life 20 years ago. Did we see so much drug abuse and immoral behavior as we do now? Was sexual revolution and other immoral things praised then? Did people think of divorce and unregistered marriages as normal like they do now? Did children watch violent and immoral TV programs all day? Were there so

many immoral children as there are now? Look how much humanity has fallen into degradation, despite the obvious

technical and economical progress. And all this in just 20 years. Because you usually do not trust my words, I didn’t mention how much human consciousness has fallen into degradation from the time of Vedic culture (more than four thousand years ago). However, you can see how much humanity has fallen in the last 20 years.Reader: All this is true. However, is the moral state of people the only sign of progress?Author: Of course. What other signs can there be? According to the Vedas, immoral people always fall into degradation. Also, they usually conceive immoral children. Such children don’t have a lot of chances to grow up into normal people. If people are slowly turning into animals and are quite satisfied with this situation, what progress of humanity are we talking about?Reader: But, there is technical and scientific progress. You won’t argue with this, will you?Author: Then, I don’t understand what you mean, when you talk about the progress and evolution of humanity. According to your words, it seems evolution of humanity is when people go around half naked, act like animals and engage in sexual intercourse at every corner. Still, if people’s lives are completely “automatic”, we should consider them progressive.Reader: I think that you are exaggerating. The future might not be like you have described. Author: I have only described the situation in many countries in our “age of free love”. This is happening now. I’m not talking about the future.Reader: What is real evolution of living entities then?Author: According to the Vedas, evolution of living entities happens somewhat differently then modern scientists have described. It doesn’t happen collectively. It happens individually. We can temporarily progress or fall into degradation. This depends on our actions. After this, we get a new body, which is more suitable for our state of consciousness. The sum of all our desires and actions determines the next body we will have to be born in. This can be a more perfect body than that of a human, or it can be more primitive – the body of an animal or a plant.

Degradation and suffering are also stages of evolution, because they teach us truth through tough experience. After a lot of suffering, each living entity sooner or later starts thinking about inner development. However, this doesn’t happen simolteneously for all living entities as a result of fighting for life, like Darwin said.

However, I will note that there are some common patterns of collective degradation and progress. Reader: Tell me, please, how do the Vedas explain the fact that so many people are affected by bad influence and start doing foolish things like drugs?Author: Many people notice that often our minds get under the influence of some overwhelming idea. This idea is not always good. People don’t understand that our consciousness is affected by mighty powers, so they often think that this is a result of the effect of a certain group of people, like Jews or Masons, which have

plans to conquer the world. Really, such collective influence on our consciousness happens because the effect of the gunas changes.Reader: Why do the gunas of material nature suddenly change their influence? We don’t live in a theatre, where one scene switches to another one, and all the actors change into new costumes and play new roles. Author: Still, this happens as a result of the effect of powerful eternal time. The power of time changes the influence of the gunas not only on our planet, but also on the whole universe. Thus, we have to live in different ages. This fact dictates different life circumstances, which are not always the best.

Just like during the year, there are four seasons; there are four ages of the universe, which make up one cycle. It is interesting to know that, in each next age, the circumstances for progress are less and less favorable. Reader: What happy life are we talking about, if there is only degradation in the universe?Author: No, that is not true. At the end of the four ages, there are cataclysms in the universe, after which the next four ages start. In the first age, which is called “The Golden Age”, living entities live just as happily as they did in the previous golden age. Reader: But, why does life get worse with each age? What is the meaning of this?Author: This is the effect of powerful time. It makes everything old. When everything becomes as old as it can get, a new cycle begins. This can be compared to the fact that we are always getting older. We are not getting younger. However, this doesn’t stop us from getting a new body, even if we are born in the age of degradation. We have discussed this when we were talking about the power of time. Reader: I remember our discussion about the power of time and the day regime. However, I don’t understand this matter fully. What is the reason of the degradation of the whole universe? Why doesn’t the universe progress? Author: Generally speaking, our sinful actions are the cause of this. They build up in the atmosphere of the universe and create processes of degradation in it. If we didn’t commit sinful actions, our planet would be transformed into heaven in a brief period of time. Reader: Do living entities on the higher planets commit sins just like us?Author: No, living entities on the higher planets practically don’t commit sins. Reader: That means that the whole universe is not fair. Why do those, who live on the higher planets, suffer because of our sins?Author: They don’t suffer for our sins. According to the Vedas, there are 14 planetary systems in our universe. The three higher planetary systems are not affected by degradation. Also, there are no cataclysms there, which happen on the other planets when the four ages end. Reader: Which of the four ages do we live in?Author: Our age is the last one in the cycle. It is called the age of degradation. It lasts 432,000 of years. After it ends, there will be a big cataclysm, as a result of which the atmosphere will be cleansed and the golden age (the first age in the cycle) will start again.

Reader: It seems we don’t have any chances of being happy. Author: That’s not true. Because the progress of each living entity happens individually, in our age everyone can develop individually, despite the tendency to degradation, which dominates in society. Reader: Does this mean that some people can degrade in the golden age?Author: Yes, despite the coming of the golden age, which gives so many opportunities for progress, some people will still fall into degradation. Thus, the process of evolution is not as simple as it seems. Reader: Does this mean that mostly, the residents of Earth are constantly degrading?Author: Not constantly, but in cycles. We can compare this to the processes that happen to all objects in this material world. All material objects are constantly aging. Usually, we change old things for new ones, which are better. Similarly, we change our old body for a new one, which is more suitable for making our desires come true. Reader: A new body must be better than the old one. Otherwise, why do we need it?Author: This isn’t always so. Our desires are not always progressing. We get a new body that is suitable for fulfilling our past desires. If, all of our life, we only thought about food, sex, sleep, and comfort, thus living like animals, and didn’t strive to find out what the meaning of human life is, it is unlikely than we will get a better body in our next life. Reader: Thus, the Vedas say that some living entities, before starting to progress, were first degrading in their previous lives.Author: To understand the necessity and power of cleanliness, many people first need to get really dirty several times. Others just need to be told about the truth, and they will make the necessary conclusions. Before understanding how to live right for achieving happiness, many living entities will search for happiness in the wrong places for millions of lives. Others can find happiness in the course of one life. Thus, according to the Vedas, the evolution of living entities is not as simple as it seems. According to the Vedas, individual evolution of living beings always happens in the four different ways, which we have talked about.Reader: According to Darwin’s theory, humans originated from monkeys. However, according to the Vedas, sometimes everything happens vice versa – a human becomes a monkey.Author: That’s right. Each living entity gets a body depending on the taste of happiness it chooses. Reader: What do people need to desire to be born a monkey in their next life?Author: The body of a monkey is meant for “free love”. Those people, who talk about sexual revolution and free love in this life, are born as monkeys in their next life. This type of body is fit for mating anytime and anywhere. Thus, think about the result of the propaganda of free love.Reader: Are you saying that everyone who believes in the idea of “free love” will get the bodies of monkeys in their next life?Author: This is what the Vedas say. Each desire of people forms their future body. If a dying person mostly had desires fit for a monkey, it is most likely he will get

the body of a monkey in his next life. Reader: When will he get the body of a human again?Author: If someone wants to go from a monkey’s body to a human body, he needs to have a taste for intelligent life. Only if this desire of intelligent life becomes bigger than all the other desires, the mechanism of development will start, and after some time, the living entity will receive a rare gift – a human body. Reader: What do you mean by “a taste for intelligent life”?Author: Of course, I don’t mean a taste for sex with anyone or a taste for drugs. I am talking about a taste for self-improvement and searching for the highest happiness. This is the only difference between us and animals. A human body has intelligence, and we have to use it. Our duty is to live according to those desires, which allowed us to be humans. This means we have to be intelligent. Reader: I understand this. Maybe you have already noticed that with my questions I’m trying to inspire you to explain what the Vedas consider evolution again.Author: Logically, it seems that all living entities are supposed to slowly progress and, at the end, go to the higher planets. However, everything happens somewhat differently. For example: someone has achieved a certain level of development and, as a result, was born on the middle or higher planets. However, as soon as this person starts being proud of his position, his progress comes to an end. Moreover, some of these people fall into degradation. It is very likely that in several lifetimes, they will go down to the lowest planets, despite all their previous knowledge and good actions.

It is also likely that such a person will continue falling into degradation and, in the next life he will be born an animal. There is no insurance from selfishness and stupidity. Thus, in the material world, progress and degradation often switch each other. This happens because of selfishness, which is present in all living beings in this material world. Reader: Does that mean that selfishness is the cause of degradation?Author: No, not only selfishness. There can be many reasons for degradation. For example, some living entities fall into degradation because they are too attached to food, sleep, sex, and comfort. Others – because of laziness and inaction.

The transition from degradation to evolution and vice versa can happen in the course of one life. Thus, we see that people, who try to live honestly and search for a higher purpose in life, slowly achieve success. Success can be seen as a high position in society, universal approval and respect, education, good health, wealth, prosperity, harmonious family relationships. All this is given to a person as a result of his good actions.

However, the highest and most visible criteria of success is the understanding that there is nothing higher than spiritual happiness. If a wealthy and famous person still doesn’t understand that the most important thing in life is understanding our spiritual nature, his progress is not obvious.

People who strive to live for the welfare of everyone and, when they know how to do this correctly, surely slowly become more and more happy. However, when these people get a high position in society, after becoming famous

scientists, doctors, or priests, they can sometimes become proud of their achievements. If this happens, their progress ends. Reader: Usually, I see different examples: proud and impudent people often achieve great success, and honest people suffer. What will you say to this?Author: Of course, this happens. However, your vision of their life is not complete. You can only see a part of their life. You make conclusions too early. An honest person can suffer for a certain period of time, but, after this, he is cleansed and feels more and more happy.

Actually, all the good things a person gets in this life depend on his past lives. Usually these rich people you are talking about have done a lot of good things in their past lives. However, now they have become proud of their achievements, and started slowly falling into degradation. The results of our actions don’t come right away. Seeing this, we sometimes think that fate is contradictory.

Thus, some people have riches, which they have earned in their past lives and also a spoiled character, which they have earned in this life by thoughtless actions. This means that a person has goodness in his character, which he earned in his past lives. However, he doesn’t know how to use this goodness. If these people don’t change and if they don’t stop living incorrectly, soon their supply of goodness will end. As a result, they will soon see that nothing is left from their riches and high position in society.

Everything I have talked about doesn’t happen in a second. It takes several lifetimes. Thus, it often happens that people are morally degraded, but they also enjoy the pleasures of materially happy and successful life. On the other hand, if a person started living an honest life, for some time he may still have sins he has to pay for. Therefore, despite an honest life, good people still have to suffer sometimes. Reader: These patterns of fate are rather interesting. They allow me to hope for future happiness.

CONCLUSION: Thus, in order for us to become happy, we need to deeply understand that the process of switching from progress to degradation happens slowly and usually it is hard for us to notice this. Only very attentive people, who have started the way of self-realization, can see changes in themselves and in others.

A person, who sincerely strives to do good things, sometimes becomes proud and temporarily loses his spiritual qualification. However, after he understands his mistakes, he will surely start his way towards truth again. Each intelligent person, who is studying the laws of the universe, starts noticing certain patterns in his behavior and the behavior of others.

Thus, through the work of self-realization, after some time, the person gets the desire to do only good things. Good actions give a certain protection from bad karma, which comes from our past. However, only the person who practices repeating the Holy Names of God or prayers every day, is capable of withstanding all the blows of fate.

“You and I are tied with one rope…”

Here on Earth, most people do the same things. Their behavior isn’t very different from each other. Most people are about equal in their mental and physical development. Reader: Actually, I think we are very different.Author: What do you think is the main criteria that says people are different?Reader: The appearance, character, and fate of people are very different. Why do you think that we are all the same?Author: Appearance and character are not indicators. Cars also have different forms, engine power, and appearance. However, all of them are meant for movement. The main criteria for finding out the difference between people is how they use their life.

We can see how similar we are by looking at what we strive to achieve in life. Most people have about the same priorities in life. They usually try to get an education, receive a good qualification, earn a lot of money, buy a good house or apartment, get happily married, raise good children, earn respect, preserve good health, and achieve financial independence. Reader: When we’re talking about desires, I agree with you. Most people on Earth have this kind of approach to life.Author: About 90% of people on Earth strive to achieve wealth, fame, respect, health, comfortable conditions of life, and happy family life. All these secondary goals come from one primary goal – the desire for material happiness and prosperity. Reader: I think that there are no other possible desires. Who will say “no” to prosperity? Do the living entities on other planets want something else?Author: We think that if everyone around us lives this way, then there is no other possible life for us. However, there are different goals on the higher planets. Their desires are better and more spiritual. Therefore, there most people strive to learn how to selflessly carry out their responsibilities and duties, live honestly, develop good qualities of character, and study the laws of happy life. All these desires can be named with one word – the desire for self-realization and self-development. Also, they try to understand their spiritual nature and are constantly learning how to serve God.Reader: Are there any differences in their desires and priorities?Author: On each planet living entities are united by similar interests. As a result, living entities on each planet of the universe have their own unique interests. Universally speaking, the interests of living entities are varied. Some seek progress, and some seek degradation. Reader: Now, I see a pattern. Thus, each planet is meant for a certain life style. Do some powers make us think similarly?Author: No, no one makes us think like each other and have a similar view of life. Everything is much simpler. We are always born on that planet, where we can make our desires come true. When we live on Earth, we need a guarantee that there is a life style here that suits our desires. The subtle powers give us this guarantee. They affect our reason and mind like invisible, but strong threads.

They try to make the life views of most people on Earth stay about the same. Reader: It’s just like in the Russian song: “You and I are tied together with one rope. We both became mountain-climbers.”Author: Yes. These powers are called ropes. In sanscrit – “gunas”. Reader: You promised we would talk about the powers that protect us in a hard time. Instead, you are talking about some invisible ropes, which tie our mind and intelligence with similar ideas and make us become like a herd of animals.Author: At first, it might seem that we live like robots. However, if we understand the gunas and look at life through Vedic knowledge, we get the answers to the following questions: “Why were we born on this planet? Why do we have similar interests? Why is it so hard to live differently from most people?” The Vedas teach us to think about the deep patterns of life so we can make an interesting conclusion: “Maybe the circumstances of my life were not given to me by chance. Maybe, this Earth is a place for those living entities, who are capable of living like this, and actually, this was their desire.”Reader: Do these patterns that make our life similar really exist?Author: It might seem strange, but the Vedas say this is true. We are all alike because in our past lives we had similar interests. This planet is very suitable for making our desires and dreams come true. The gunas of material nature protect these desires and make them come true. Reader: How do these gunas protect our interests?Author: When everything around us helps us achieve that kind of happiness, which we want, this is protection of our interests.

All our past desires have to come true. Therefore, the gunas of material nature create such an atmosphere around us that we rarely think about something else, besides everything that is meant to help us achieve our past desires.Reader: This matter about the gunas is slowly becoming clearer. And what are the interests of those living entities that live in the spiritual world?Reader: The residents of the spiritual world want only to serve God selflessly, with love and devotion. Nothing else interests them. There, love is the ruler. Love also controls their thoughts and desires. There are no gunas in the spiritual world because there is no need for them. Reader: But even love has mercantile interests. This means that even in the spiritual world there is competition. Everyone wants to posses the one they love. I think this means that quarrels are inevitable even there. Author: No, love in the spiritual world is very different. It doesn’t have even a hint of profit or gain. In the spiritual world, everyone tries to live for the object of their love, not for themselves. Thus, there no one wants to own or use the object of their love. Reader: So, they don’t take care of themselves at all?Author: They don’t even have the idea that they need to take care of themselves. Reader: It is hard to even imagine such things, what to speak of believing in them. Author: You’re right. It’s hard for us to believe in this, because our intelligence wants to gain profit (it is under the influence of the false ego), and their

intelligence is selfless (it is under the influence of the true ego). Because all the living entities have similar goals here, we think that there

can be no other reality. Even people, who think about a more elevated life, often think they will fail in their pursuit. Such people think that people are sinful by nature, and so, are mostly not capable of changing for the better.

These thoughts point us to the following conclusion: “If we were born in a human body, its abilities are limited with certain boundaries. Thus, we will not be able to rise higher than “human sinful nature”. All people are inclined to sin. Therefore, why should we strive to live an elevated life? “The one who was born to crawl will never be able to fly.” Sometimes, we see people that have great qualities of character from birth. Only such people can progress. The rest of us will have to accept our bad habits and flaws.” This is how these “philosophers” justify their desire to not change anything in their life. However, thinking like this will not make us any happier. Reader: I have heard such explanations of our sinful nature somewhere before.Author: Yes, this is likely. Now, this opinion is very popular. People think that we are tied up by our sinful nature and it is impossible to rise higher than this nature. Such philosophical thoughts always come from people, who are inclined to justify their sinful actions. They say: “Since it is impossible for us to live without sin, we need to repent our past sins and live on like we can.” This usually means we can continue living a life of sin. Reader: Are you reproaching those who repent their sins?Author: No, but a person truly repents his sins only when he tries to not repeat his sins again. However, I am against the idea that we can repent our sins and continue sinning further. Reader: Aren’t our sins forgiven when we repent them?Author: Usually, when we repent our sins, we are given a good opportunity to work them off. If it would be possible to wash off all our sins just by repenting them, sinful activity would become completely uncontrolled. Reader: This is what is happening now.Author: However, the reason for this is not the laws of the universe, but our own misunderstanding and errors. Thus, if we understanding this simple truth that we will have to pay for all of our actions, then it will be much easier for us improve and start living a good life. Reader: Are people really capable of living and good life without sin?Author: We are capable of achieving a sinless and happy life, this is true. Otherwise, what is the meaning of our life?Reader: I would like to understand this better. Let’s talk more about this.Author: Everything in due time. We will talk about this later. Now, let’s sum up what we have talked about.

CONCLUSION: In order for us to understand that happiness exists, we need to understand the difference between aspiration towards goodness, passion, and ignorance. For most people on Earth, it is hard to understand that there are desires and aspirations different than those that they have. However, the person that has understood thus and truly wants to become happy, easily says “no” to a

“happy sinful life” that is so popular amongst people. By understanding the taste of truly happiness, a person strengthens his intelligence and reason. After this, nothing will prevent him from starting the way of purifying his consciousness.

A few words about traditional Russian cuisine

The person, who truly felt the taste of higher happiness, will never again be attracted by low pleasures. A person, who tried honey, will not be attracted by treacle, even though he liked it before. Still, sometimes a progressing person is attacked by “animal” desires because of his past bad karma. These desires can distract a person from the pious way. However, the higher taste will still attract this person. Thus, this person, who once felt the taste of intense spiritual happiness will change completely and become a saint. The sweet taste of spiritual happiness is called “the higher taste” in the Vedas. Reader: What about the people who didn’t get a taste of honey? Will they continue to suffer?Author: Yes, if a person doesn’t want to try honey, he will continue suffering. This happens rather often. A person stuck in his problems thinks that life can’t be better. This happens because of the effect of the gunas. Reader: I think this is not fair. You said we have a choice – which kind of happiness to look for. Thus, we should all have an opportunity to choose what we strive to achieve. I think that if we have freedom of choice, all of us, who live on this Earth, should have a chance to change the way we look at life. I don’t understand why the gunas mercilessly tie us with common interests. Why not give us more freedom of choice? Author: We have complete freedom of choice. It is possible to live mostly under the influence of the guna of goodness on Earth. However, usually we don’t want to use this freedom ourselves. Reader: What prevents us from living freely and not concentrating only on material happiness?Author: There is a reason why we don’t choose the higher spiritual taste, but strive to achieve the low taste. This low taste takes away our opportunity to experience higher happiness than we have. This reason is inside ourselves – it is our tendency to use our independence (freedom of will) wrongly. Reader: I am interested in the practical aspect of this matter. Why don’t we want to choose the higher taste? What prevents us from choosing it? Please explain this in detail and with examples. Author: This is a rather difficult subject. I will try to answer your question with the help of comparison. Using an example from our life, let’s see how common interests and tastes tie people together.

Let’s imagine we are in an area where there are many restaurants with different cuisines: Russian, Chinese, Italian, Indian, French cuisine and so on. When it will be time for lunch, we will choose one of these restaurants. By the will of fate, there are also other people in this area that like the same cuisine that we do. It isn’t surprising that we will go to the same restaurant together. Now, we are sitting in this restaurant together and having lunch. Of course, the cuisine in this

restaurant seems to be the tastiest. We are thinking “Why go to another restaurant?” It is interesting to note that people that are sitting in other restaurants are thinking the same thing. All of us are free to choose where to have lunch. However, if we are attached to a certain taste, it is hard for us to understand that there is another taste, which is more attractive. We see that all of us have freedom. We can go to any restaurant. However, because we are enjoying ourselves here, we think: “It is best to have lunch here in this restaurant”. We also think this because all the people around us think similarly.

Similarly, in life it often happens that people like to live the way they are used to living. They have a certain style of life, which they have been used to for a long time. In each group of people, even if it small, there is a certain unique taste of happiness. All the people in this group believe that this taste is the best and they don’t want to change it. All this is thoroughly organized by the gunas of material nature. Reader: Thus, the gunas organized this whole show for us. As a result, we cannot be distracted from our interests like a bee cannot be distracted from nectar?Author: I’m glad that you are beginning to understand the essence of this matter. The gunas create all the circumstances so that we achieve that type of happiness that we wish to achieve. Therefore, the gunas create an opportunity for people to be happy about the same taste of happiness. Reader: However, we don’t always feel happy. In our life, we also have to work, be sad, suffer, and be sick. However, you are talking only about happiness. It seems that everyone is happy and there is no sorrow. Author: You are right. Problems still exist. After choosing a certain cuisine, the person, we have to accept those difficulties of life that are in it and have been in it from the start. For example, if I want to go to a very good and expensive restaurant, we will have to learn how to earn a lot of money. In other words, we just wanted to taste a dish from the cuisine we chose, but it turned out that we also need to work a lot to achieve this. This means we have to say no to other pleasures. Reader: Is this a problem? We can always choose a cheaper restaurant.Author: Each person wants to have a little more happiness, than he can afford. We are attached to the type of happiness, which seems a little difficult to attain, but still can be attained with some effort. Therefore, it isn’t an accident that we are sitting in an expensive restaurant now.

Some people think that they entered this restaurant by accident, so they don’t think about going to another restaurant. However, if they do go to another restaurant, they can’t find the taste they are looking for there. Some restaurants are too expensive, others are cheap, but the food isn’t tasty. Therefore, sooner or later, we have to return to the restaurant that we are supposed to be in by the will of fate, if our desires are logical and consistent. Therefore, because a certain taste of happiness is prevailing, the gunas tie us up with this taste and make us live in a certain way.Reader: In other words, you mean to say that it isn’t by accident that we choose a certain taste?

Author: Yes. Nothing happens by accident. Our choice always depends on our previous tastes. Our previous actions (karma) always lead us to a certain life style, which we have chosen before. The cuisine that we chose is actually the taste of happiness we have chosen a long time ago. That’s why we don’t want anything else and we are sitting in our restaurant surrounded by people with the same interests as us. We are inclined to think only about the interests we are used to. We honestly think that another life isn’t possible for us. Besides this, we think it’s dumb to live in another way. Reader: What about those people who live like predators: molesting, killing, and robbing people?Author: Yes, they also think that they made porridge that is very taste. However, sooner or later they will have to eat this porridge. (A Russian saying)Reader: How does this happen? Do we first enter this restaurant that is very dear to us, savoring the low taste of these dishes, or do we first choose a certain restaurant? Reader: This happens differently for everyone. There might be some wavering or not enough understanding which taste is suitable especially for you. Still, sooner or later, a certain taste of happiness attracts us more than all the others. Thus, the time will come when we will go to “our” restaurant and accept the conditions of its cuisine. However, it is important to remember that, after choosing a certain taste, we will have to accept those conditions of work and activity and that life style, which is dictated by this cuisine.Reader: I understand the matter about different cuisines, but what does all this have to do with our life?Author: The same thing happens to us when the gunas choose a certain planet for us to live on.Reader: Why do the gunas choose a certain planet for us?Author: We are looking for happiness. The gunas choose that planet for us, where the is a taste for happiness, which we chose in the past.

Think about it. There is no other goal in life other than to look for happiness. Therefore, the gunas help us achieve and enjoy the taste of happiness, which we have dreaming about for a long time.

Different types of happiness are called different “tastes” of happiness in the language of the Vedas. A taste of happiness in Sanskrit sounds like “rasa”. Each person strives for a certain type of happiness, which has its own unique taste (rasa). This desire pushes us to commit certain actions to achieve our happiness. Material happiness means that we have as material riches as possible. Therefore, to achieve material happiness, we have to work a lot and sometimes we even get sick because of this.

If our work takes too much of our time, our family relationships can suffer. This doesn’t happen by accident. The taste of material happiness, which we have chosen a long time ago, attracts us with a great power. As a result, we have to accept a certain life style with all its ups and downs. Reader: We wanted to be happy. Why do we have to suffer too? What is this lie?Author: There is no lie. If the taste of happiness we chose brings suffering to the people around us, according to the law of justice, we will have to suffer too.

Reader: Are there really such tastes of happiness that make others suffer?Author: Of course. The principle of selfishness is based on this. Selfishness means that we want to be happy ourselves. We don’t really care about the happiness of others. Therefore, because of our selfishness, we are inclined to use force for achieving the things we desire.Reader: Therefore, this means that if a person is suffering, his taste of happiness was incorrect. Or, in other words, it was somewhat perverted. Author: Yes, that’s exactly right. Only the taste for spiritual happiness is completely pure and true. This taste is completely selfless. Therefore, it never appears in presence of the false ego (selfishness). Only after we understand the meaning of the true ego (feeling happiness when we selflessly serve others), the person achieves the ability to stop committing sins.

Because we are inclined to use our freedom of will wrongly, the gunas of material nature create this world of variety. The whole creation, which we are living in, was created with one goal – to practically teach us how to choose the taste that will lead us to true happiness. Reader: You have opened a secret to me. I always thought that life on Earth isn’t bad. Now I understand that on other planets there are other tastes of happiness, which are more elevated and selfless. This means that the living entities there are much happier. Therefore, I want to try all this out. But, how can I try these higher tastes of happiness? In this life I won’t be able to go to the higher planets.Author: Again, I would like to advise you to develop a desire to go to the spiritual world rather than the higher planets of the material world. The higher our goal is, the faster we will achieve the maximum result, which is the highest happiness.Even on the higher planets of the material world, suffering still exists, even though it’s less there. For example, living entities on the higher planets will have to die and be born again, just like us. Often, it is a lot harder for the habitants of the higher planets to leave their body. However, time cannot be conquered. It never makes exceptions for anyone.

As for your desire to feel the higher and spiritual happiness, I can tell you this problem is easy to solve. All the tastes of happiness are here on Earth. Here we can find tastes of happiness that are in the spiritual world, on the higher planets, and also on the lower planets. They can be seen in different life styles. These different life styles on Earth can be compared to different types of cuisines, which we have talked about.

According to the Vedas, these types (tastes) of happiness affect us from different levels of the universe. By their effect on our consciousness, they can give a taste of happiness, which is present on different planets of the universe. This is the reason why there are so many different life styles on Earth. We will be talking about these powers, which support our taste for living a certain life style throughout our discussion about the activity of the gunas. While studying these powers, we will understand how closely connected are all the planets in the universe and how strongly they affect each other.Reader: That’s great! In that case, there is no sense in trying to go to the higher planets or to the spiritual world. We can enjoy all the types of happiness fully here on Earth.

Author: You’re right to some extent. However, everything is not as simple as it seems. While we are living here on Earth, we cannot fully enjoy the taste of happiness on the higher planets or in the spiritual world, just like we can’t completely feel the power of sunlight while we are on Earth. Here on Earth we can only be happy to the extent that is allowed in the conditions of this planet. Life on Earth is not meant for complete spiritual happiness. The recepies of Russian cuisine can be somewhat like that of Vedic cuisine. However, if we want to fully enjoy the dishes of Vedic cuisine, we need to go to a Vedic restaurant. Reader: While thinking about your statements that on each planet there is a unique understanding of happiness and that another type of happiness is hard to achieve there, I came to the following conclusion. According to everything you said, it seems that we cannot transform our planet into heaven. Is my understanding correct?Author: Your understanding is correct. However, we have to try to change life for the better. And we need to start with ourselves. If we always keep this idea in mind, no matter what we do, then very soon we can expect positive changes in our fate. If we act this way, in our next life we will be born in much better circumstances. However, if a person is busy with economic and political reforms, and doesn’t pay any attention to his inner problems (doesn’t change his character), he will ineviatably suffer. Reader: I think that many people don’t understand this. This goes for me too. I often lose my temper at home and at work. Most people, including me, think that we can achieve happiness if we try to change everyone, who surrounds us. Because of this, so many quarrels take place. Is it really so hard to understand that we need to start with ourselves?Author: Yes, for those who live on Earth, it is really hard to understand this. As for quarreling, this is one of the responsibilities of the gunas – they create a negative attitude to those who surround us. As a result of the effect of the gunas of material nature, we think that everyone accept us is responsible for our problems. It isn’t by accident that the gunas cause this attitude in us. Before, we really wanted to live this kind of life and now we will have to “enjoy” it.Reader: So, this dish with a scandal taste is also included in the menu of people on Earth?Author: Yes, you’re right. Earth gives us the opportunity to think foolishly and, as a result of this, do bad things, and live our life in ignorance. On the higher planets, usually no one lives like this. We need to understand that on Earth people will always have such inclinations, because this planet was created for those who seek the taste of passion and ignorance. Therefore, it is probably not very wise to make every effort for creating heaven on Earth. However, the Vedas say that if even one tenth of the Earth’s population takes to spiritual practice, in a short time our planet will be transformed into a heavenly planet. Reader: Why doesn’t this happen?Author: This is because we had a desire to live a style of life, which is present on Earth. As a result of this, we got under the influence of certain gunas of material nature. As a result of this, we were born in certain life circumstances, in which we don’t have a desire to change our view on life. Even if someone tries to tell us

that we need to live differently, because of the effect of these gunas, we don’t pay any attention to this person. Moreover, we consider him crazy. Therefore, everyone who stops going to “our restaurant” we consider really strange.

Thus, we are not the ones who choose our life circumstances. Material nature is responsible for this. It uses the gunas of material nature to do this. As I said before, this stability and similar interests are there only for our ability to enjoy and experience the taste we have chosen. Reader: Is it really true that we cannot create heaven on Earth?Author: Why should we try to transform Russian cuisine into Vedic cuisine? This is foolish.Reader: So that everyone will live better, we can include spiritual taste in every cuisine. Thus, there will be no low tastes. Author: Of course, this is a good idea. However, until a person gets a desire to start living differently, no one in this world can make him improve.Reader: Therefore, this means that the gunas of material nature create different types of tastes, which can easily be obtained with only one goal – to satisfy our desires, which are connected to a certain type of happiness. Author: That’s right. This is the power of the gunas. They will always work this way, making sure that our desires will be achieved. Therefore, in each place of the universe there is a unique mixture of these mysterious powers, which are called the gunas of material nature. Reader: Therefore, everything that happens in this world happens because of the powers of material nature? Author: Yes, that’s right.Reader: Before this, you tried to prove something very different. I would like to hear proof of such a revolutionary idea. Author: This is said in the Bhagavad-Gita (13.20):

Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.

Reader: But, before you always said that the cause for all the changes that happen to us is our desires!Author: Yes, the reason for our happiness and suffering is our desires and actions. However, the momentary changes, which take place in our body, mind, and intelligence are caused by the gunas of material nature.

Our desires are a certain starting mechanism, which causes a certain influence of the gunas on our life. Then, according to our desires and actions, we get under the stable influence of certain gunas of material nature. Because we once had a desire to live like we do, it will be very hard for us to quickly change everything for the better. All the changes in our life are caused by the gunas of material nature. Our past desires affect the gunas more than our present desires. Reader: Why do past desires have a greater effect?Author: Because, before we had many similar desires. Together, they have a much greater effect. Reader: And this is called “Laws of Happy Life”! We have lived so many lives.

We don’t know which desires we had. And now we have to pay for all this as many lives as we have lived. I would like to know that this knowledge about the gunas will not make me completely unhappy; otherwise it will be very hard for me to continue studying this further. Author: Knowledge about how these powers work brings happiness and the highest perfection to people. Otherwise, what is the meaning of studying this subject, which is hard to understand? This is stated in the Vedas, in Bhagavad-Gita (14.1). In the beginning of the 14th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita, in this writing, which came from ancient times, God Himself guarantees that everything will be ok:

“The Blessed Lord said: Again I shall declare to you this supreme wisdom, the best of all knowledge, knowing which all the sages have attained to supreme

perfection.”

Reader: You have studied Bhagavad-Gita really well since for every doubt I have, you give a quote from this writing.Author: Bhagavad-Gita is a very deep knowledge. A lifetime won’t be enough for me to study is well. If you have no other doubts, let’s give the conclusions of this discussion.

CONCLUSION: Knowledge about the effect of the gunas of material nature on our life is a very important and wise knowledge. If a person will be able to understand this knowledge, all his suffering will come to an end right away. However, during our studies will not always have a sweet taste, sometimes the taste will be bitter. Thus, to feel all the sweetness of spiritual happiness, we will first have to try all the cuisine, which we have prepared.

What are the gunas of material nature?

The word “guna” means “rope”. The whole universe is penetrated with invisible powers. Considering our past desires and actions, they force us to accept that lifestyle, which we have strived for in the past. It turns out that desires are very important. It seems to us that our desires don’t play a big part in our fate. However, according to the Vedic knowledge, the circumstances which we are in, directly depend on our past desires and actions, which came from these desires.

According to the Vedas, the whole body, mind, and intelligence are made from past desires and actions, which came from these desires. In other words, the subtle body of the mind is filled with past actions and desires. This is why the mind is also called “the body of desires”. By interacting with the intelligence, mind, and body, the gunas of material nature immerge the person in the inner and outer surrounding, which he earned according to his understanding of happiness. The influence of the gunas on our consciousness (on the level of the coarse (physical) and subtle body) constantly changes. It is almost impossible for an inexperienced person to notice this.

Reader: If I understand you correctly, you said that when the gunas, which influence our consciousness, change, our mood also changes. Author: Not only our mood, but also our understanding of everything. While affecting our consciousness, the gunas invisibly change our whole existence.Reader: Does this mean that the gunas also form our organism and psyche?Author: Yes, they do this according to our past desires and actions. Therefore, just by looking in the mirror, a wise and sinless person will see which gunas is his personality made of.Reader: When I look at myself in the mirror, I think that I am made from pretty good gunas. When I look at my face, I often think of my good qualities. Honestly, I don’t see a lot of bad qualities. Author: You are very truthful. The rest of the people, while looking in the mirror think practically the same way. However, it is rare when people can tell others about the way they see themselves.Reader: I think that people, who are mostly in the mode of goodness, see the positive traits in their personality and love themselves for this.Author: Yes, many people see their good qualities and love themselves for this, however people, who are truly in the mode of goodness usually see flaws in themselves, and good traits in others.Reader: Are you saying that people in the mode of goodness are inclined to self-reproach?Author: No, they are striving for self-development. In order for us to improve, we first need to learn to see our flaws.Reader: If people in the mode of goodness don’t see their good qualities, this means they lack self respect.Author: No, they have more self-respect than people in the mode of passion, which try to see only good traits in themselves. People in the mode of goodness respect themselves only when they do good things.Reader: Does this mean that people in the mode of goodness never admire themselves?Author: When they want to admire themselves, the guna of goodness stops them. It tells them that self admiration is not the right way to look at ourselves. It will not help us achieve true happiness. Therefore, unlike people in the mode of passion, those in the mode of goodness are protected from self admiration by the guna of goodness, which affects their consciousness. Reader: Are you saying that if I have a tendency to admire myself, I am mostly under the influence of the mode of passion?Author: If you are beginning to understand this, that means that from this moment you are now mostly under the influence of the mode of goodness. A passionate person will never admit his flaws. The guna of passion, which always affects the consciousness of this person, doesn’t allow him to stop admiring himself. Therefore, most people in the mode of passion can’t criticize themselves. Reader: I have understood all this only because of this discussion.Author: That’s right, only knowledge can lead a person away from the lower gunas and bring him under the influence of goodness.Reader: Therefore, right at this moment the influence of the gunas, which affect

my consciousness, has changed. But, I didn’t notice this. Author: Besides elevated wise men, no one on Earth can understand how one guna stops affecting his consciousness and another guna starts affecting him. The effect of the gunas of material nature is very hard to notice. This is why most people don’t notice the flaws of their character.Reader: Does this mean that most people don’t notice their flaws because the gunas of material nature don’t let them?Author: That’s right. However, if we systematically study the influence of the gunas on our consciousness, we will be able to understand which guna affects us at the present time. Reader: This is interesting.

CONCLUSION: The gunas of material nature penetrate our whole existence and make us “enjoy” the type of happiness we have earned. If we don’t try to achieve those desires that lead to true happiness, we will not be able to feel satisfied in the future. Therefore, in order to act correctly and have correct desires, we first need to get knowledge about true happiness. The Vedas say that the most important responsibility of people is to talk about how to achieve the highest happiness.

Discussions about the work of the gunas of material nature bring understanding of how to change our lives. In the course of such discussions, the guna of goodness establishes itself in the hearts of those, who are discussing the eternal truth. The only condition of such discussions is to constantly back up all our words with the opinion of the sacred writings. When a person learns to see the world through sacred writings, he sees the world not through the prism of his imagination, but as it is.

Where do good intentions lead us?

Of course, good intentions lead us to happiness. However, it is important for the intentions to really be good. We may want to say: “If intentions and desires are so powerful, then I want to be the most selfless and happy person, and I want to be born in the most beautiful and perfect body in my next life.” Isn’t this an intelligent desire? However, we should not forget that this desire will be taken into consideration along with those desires, which we had in our past lives. Can we choose the place we will be born in our next life right now, with the help of our desires? Yes and no. This can be done only if our desire to be born in a certain place becomes stronger than all the rest of our desires.

However, besides desires, there are also actions. Both desires and actions are taken into consideration in our fate. If we desire a certain type of happiness, we should not prevent other living entities from achieving their happiness. Therefore, in the end, both our bad actions and our bad desires, which made others unhappy, prevent us from achieving that type of happiness, which we are looking for.

Thus, the place of our future birth will be determined by the power, which combines all our desires and actions. This power is completely rigid and

inflexible. It is like a rope that pulls us to the place we are supposed to be in according to our fate. Reader: Does this mean the gunas force us to be born in a certain place?Author: The gunas are not pirates, they simply make our desires come true. Their actions are completely fair. Depending on the place we have earned, this will be the place we will be born in.

You and I were born on the middle planets of the universe. This means that we desired happiness in the mode of passion (selfish happiness). Therefore, we are now under the influence of the mode of passion. In other words we want happiness for ourselves, our family, our country, our faith, our Earth, our profession, our house, our view on life, our style, our body, etc.

First, we get a certain desire, which involves a certain benefit for us, and then we are ready to work for anything. We think: “If my efforts are not connected to my welfare, but are directed towards someone else’s life, someone else’s family, other countries, people, who have a different faith, other planets of the universe, then I don’t know why if my efforts are worthwhile.”Reader: Are there people who don’t live for the welfare of their own family, but live for the families of others and give them their salary? If there are such people, I think they are crazy.Author: Of course, if we rob our loved ones and give happiness to someone else – this is crazy. However, I am talking about something else now. If the whole family selflessly helps other people and feels happy while doing this, rather than material gain, then the guna of goodness looks after the material welfare of this family. Therefore, such a family, which selflessly does good things, does not rob itself. Moreover, such families in the mode of goodness usually have a much better income than those families that are in the mode of passion. Reader: I don’t agree with you. If a person doesn’t take care of himself, no one will take care of him. How can a person, who doesn’t think of himself have a better salary than those who don’t forget about themselves?Author: A person in the mode of goodness takes care of himself. Such a person tries to help everyone around him because he feels much happier when he does this than when he buys something for himself. This is how he takes care of himself. He does everything selflessly, because he deeply understand that happiness is not connected to money.

According to the law of justice, if a person serves people selflessly and with love, the gunas will give him back everything that he gave. Because he helps people with their needs, the guna of goodness will answer and help him with what he needs.

When a person understand this law of happy life, a person in the guna of goodness does not worry about himself. With great enthusiasm, he tries to live for the benefit of others and for God. He doesn’t want anything for himself. People in the mode of goodness know that, if they live in such a way, they will be happy both in spiritual and material life. Thus, they live under the assurance of the unconquerable guna of goodness. Everyone who associates with such people, also slowly get under the influence of the guna of goodness and get the enthusiasm to live a selfless life.

Reader: Of course, at first glance this seems true. However, let’s think about thу following situation together. I selflessly give my greedy and nagging neighbor money. My neighbor is happy with this gift and takes the money. Then, he comes to me for money again. With love, I give him money again, but he uses it to buy alcohol. After that, he gets used to that his simple-minded neighbor should give him money for alcohol. If I don’t give him money, he will get mad at me and think I am a bad guy.

In our life, such situations happen often. For example, it sometimes happens that parents spoil their children. Usually, these spoiled kids don’t understand that they should be thankful to their parents. They usually turn away from their parents, when they are not capable of helping their kids. The parents need help themselves. There is a good saying about this: “Good intentions lead to hell.”Author: We know a lot of saying like this one. For example: “Work is not a wolf, it won’t run away,” or “let the horse do the thinking. Its head is bigger.” However, not all sayings speak the truth. However, your reasoning is right. You talked about a situation, where we increase the our own suffering and the suffering of others. This happens because, when we do such things, we spoil a person instead of helping him. Because of this, such actions are not in the mode of goodness. However, I am talking about help, which is seen rarely today, where we don’t spoil a person, but actually help him. Reader: Now we understand each other. Today, people try to use charity for their own welfare. Therefore, there is no one we can help selflessly. This is what usually happens in life. Thus, what selfless loving service to people are we talking about?Author: You are right. However, it is impossible to live in the mode of goodness without selfless actions. Without the guna of goodness, there is no real happiness. If I’ll agree with you now, then it is time to say: “This is the end of our discussion. In it, we have reached the common conclusion that happiness does not exist.”Reader: Are you saying that there is a way to do selfless things and not spoil people?Author: That’s right. Despite the fact that most people are in the mode of passion and ignorance, we need to learn to do truly kind things. However, in every case we need to know which action will be useful, and which action will be useless. Therefore, without knowledge, it is impossible to become a truly good person.Reader: So, we need serious study.Author: I am glad to note that now you often come to very good conclusions by yourself. It is true that there cannot be goodness if we don’t have knowledge about how to behave in different situations. Thus, let’s think about how we can learn to do good things without spoiling people and how to truly help them. Only if we are selfless and know what to do, will we be able to get in touch with the mode of goodness. As a result, the guna of goodness with take care of us by itself. It will help us and even push us towards those things, which will allow us to be truly happy. Reader: Does this mean that even the guna of goodness can push us towards

something without our will?Author: Yes, this happens when we stumble and do something bad, without meaning to do this. If, however, we live a life in the mode of goodness, but accidentally leave the righteous path, the mode of goodness places us in a difficult situation, which helps us repent our sins and choose the right path again. Reader: This I understand. However, according to what you said, before doing good things, we need to learn to do this right. Thus, is I don’t know how to help a person correctly, despite all my selflessness, I will not be under the protection of the guna of goodness. If I selflessly help a person, but don’t do this right, this means I am doing something bad. Thus, the guna of goodness will not affect me. Only bad karma will affect me. This bad karma will lead to degradation. Therefore, if I understand correctly, you are saying that it’s not so simple to do good things. To me it seems we can’t do this by ourselves.Author: Wonderful! This time you quickly understood a very hard subject by yourself. Reader: On the contrary, I got mixed up in this subject. Before, you said something very different. You said that we need to do good things for others, without worrying about anything. In this case, the guna of goodness will give us happiness. Then, you said that we need to be careful and do good things only for those people, who deserve it. And now, you are agreeing to my last opinion that it’s practically impossible to do good things. You really love to get me mixed up!Author: Yes, this is a difficult subject. You really are mixed up and so we will have to talk about this subject some more. In your last sentence, you said that it is impossible to do good things by ourselves, not that we can’t do anything good. This is what I agreed with. A person can do things only if guided by sacred writings, constantly seeking help and support from saintly people and asking advice from a spiritual teacher or mentor (if we have one).

Now, let’s talk about prudence when starting something good. The Vedas say that we need to live a selfless life lovingly try to help everyone achieve happiness. However, this doesn’t mean that we have to do everything we are asked to do. Only the action that is approved in the sacred writings will truly be in the mode of goodness.

Thus, we need to be careful and do good things in such a way that in the future this will bring happiness to others, not suffering. We should also understand that a person with knowledge can bring happiness to everyone, even to liars and negative-minded people. Good things can be done for everyone. However, the same thing can be nectar for someone, and for someone else it will be poison.Reader: What do the Vedas say about my neighbor, Ivan Semenovich, who is a chronic alcoholic and hates me because I don’t give him money to buy alcohol? How can I do something good for him?Author: The Vedas say that, when you give money to people in the mode of ignorance to buy alcohol, your act of charity is in the mode of ignorance. The result will be only suffering: for him and for you. If you really want to help a person in the mode of ignorance, you just need to wish him happiness. Or, if he is hungry, give him some food. However, always try to avoid useless talks with

such people. Reader: Is feeding an alcoholic an act in the mode of goodness?Author: Yes, the Vedas say that feeding any hungry person is an act in the mode of goodness. Reader: But, he doesn’t want food from me. He wants money. If I don’t give it to him, he says I am greedy. Author: First, invite him to your house and ask him to sit down at the table. Say that if he doesn’t eat, you will feel wounded. After feeding him, honestly tell him that you will not give him money because you are against heavy drinking. Be friendly and tell him that you are always happy and ready to treat him to something tasty. After this, he won’t have any reason to say that you are greedy.

Of course, he can whine and complain, but in this case you can say that today you have very little time and will talk to him later. Thus, a person in the mode of goodness knows how to donate something to different categories of people. Thus, he can always do the right thing.Reader: I cannot do the thing you recommended, because I am very mad at him.Author: This means that you got under the influence of this person because you talked to him in the same way he talked to you. As a result, you got under the influence of the same gunas as him. If you want to get rid of this influence, you need to wish him happiness every evening and early in the morning for 5-8 minutes. When you do this, concentrate and do this with feeling. Repeat: “Ivan Semenovich, I wish you happiness!” It is even better to also repeat the Sacred Names of God, which easily cleanse our consciousness from all sins. Reader: How can we wish happiness to a person we don’t like? If I start doing this, my wife will surely think I’m crazy. Author: Yes, when we are under the influence of passion, all actions in the mode of goodness seem crazy to us. For example, if someone starts wishing happiness to everyone in a bus, people will think he is crazy. However, if someone tells a low-lived joke, people will think he is communicative and funny. A person in the mode of goodness needs to learn to do good things so that people in the modes of passion and ignorance don’t notice him.

If you want to learn to commit austerities (deprive ourselves of something willingly) in the mode of goodness, then we need to wish happiness to everyone every day, no matter if you like someone or not. Also, we should not pay a lot of attention to what other people think. Reader: How can we wish happiness to everyone in our home, amongst our families?Author: Experience shows us that at home, amongst our loved ones, we should wish happiness to everyone quietly, without attracting a lot of attention. It is best to explain why this is needed to our family members.Reader: Will wishing happiness to everyone change the way others treat me?Author: Surely. Many of my aquintanses used this method, and their relationships with family members and co-workers changed for the better. Reader: Does this mean that when we wish happiness to someone, there a connection between us and the person we are thinking about appears?Author: No, there already was a connection between you. If you are mad at

someone, there is a connection between you and the person who you are mad at. This connection can destroy your health and fate. If you start wishing happiness to this person, this negative connection becomes positive. Reader: How is this possible, if our mind is deep inside of us?Author: According to the Vedas, our mind, which has a subtle nature, is not limited to its functions in our brain. Actually, its influence is distributed around us. Therefore, it is enough to just think about someone and we become connected to him with the help of our mind right away. Reader: This is amazing! I would like to know more about the mind.Author: This is a very deep and serious subject. We will talk about the nature of the mind more seriously; however the subject of our discussion is somewhat different. Reader: All right. I have a question: Are there a lot of instruction in the Vedas about what we have to do and how we have to do it for people from different catagories?Author: There are a lot of these instructions in the Vedas. However, if a person deeply understands the influence of different gunas on our consciousness, he will be able to know all this by himself. This won’t be a problem for him. There are many good actions, which are recommended by the Vedas for different life situations. We will slowly go over this subject in our discussions. Reader: This means that the most important thing is to understand how the gunas affect people with different views about life. Then, this knowledge will give us the understanding how to act in different situations. Author: Yes, you have understood me correctly.Reader: What do the Vedas consider to be the most pious action?Author: The best action is to repeat the Holy Names of God with love and devotion. A person receives even more piety when, after feeling the highest happiness from repeating the Holy Names of God, tries to share knowledge about this rare spiritual taste with others. When a person acts like this, he slowly burns away all his sins, which he has accumulated from many past lives. Reader: Unfortunetly, I can’t understand this now. Author: However, this doesn’t mean that I have to keep quiet and hide the truth, even if it is hard to understand now. Theoretical knowledge has never been unnecessary in the beginning. CONCLUSION: While studying the Vedic wisdom, a person, who is striving for goodness, slowly becomes more and more useful for his loved ones and for the whole society. As a result, the unconquerable guna of goodness takes him under its full protection. Therefore, the road, which is truly filled with good intentions, will surely lead us to the highest spiritual happiness by the grace of God.

Crawling in the guna of passion, flying in the guna of goodness

Often we think something is crazy, but actually it will lead us to happiness. For example, we don’t understand why we need to help a person become sure of the faith and religion that he is meant to be in by fate, rather than making him accept our faith and religion. We don’t always think that it’s wise to selflessly help

other families, not only think about our own family. Also, we forget to make sure that other people are not hungry, not only think about our own hunger. We think that it’s not very wise to help our friend marry a beautiful and good woman, rather than trying to make this girl leave him and marry us. In all the different aspects of our life, we think only about our own profit. The guna of passion makes us think that this craziness is actually a sign of common sense. Of course, there is a tendency to do selfless things in each one of us, however, you will probably agree with me that this tendency is not visible often. Reader: However, we don’t want to violate the laws of people, who lead an honest life. Yes, it’s true that most of us want to live for ourselves. However, you will probably agree that most people honestly earn their loaf of bread and thus, they follow the laws of descent and fair life. Besides, I think that most people treat others well.Author: You are right. However, we can add to this that usually, if we have the opportunity to use the results of someone else’s work without having to do anything ourselves, we usually take advantage of such an opportunity. This is how the guna of passion works. Because we wanted to enjoy life according to these views, we have been born on Earth.

As you already know, there are three main types of gunas, which affect all the processes that happen in the universe. These are the gunas of goodness, passion, and ignorance. However, this is actually one power, and it acts differently, depending on the taste of happiness we have. Reader: You are saying that some powers make me do something. I agree that sometimes they make me get sick, and bring me luck or misfortune. However, I think that mostly in my life I do everything by myself. If I want to do something, who can prevent me from doing this? What do you think about this matter?Author: It’s true that if we want something, no one will be able to stand in our way, except our own past desires and actions, which were committed because of our desires. Past desires are a strong power, which constantly influences us. According to your last words, it seems you don’t accept the fact that our past actions help create our present desires. I have told you about this several times, however, the understanding of how the mechanism of karma works is still hard for you to understand. Therefore, you don’t clearly understand what it means to “want something”. Reader: Again you are talking about things I don’t understand. Can it be true that if I want something, this is not my desire, but the desire of someone else?Author: No, but often our desires appear as a result of the effect of the gunas of material nature. Despite the fact that a desire can appear as a result of past karma, it seems to us that it appeared just now. Before, we had a certain desire, but this desire comes into our ahead because of the gunas at the moment when there are favorable circumstances for this desire to manifest. Reader: Again, you are talking about things that are hard to understand. How can my past desires affect my present desires? Author: This just proves to us once more that no one besides ourselves prevents us from living happily in this world. Usually we don’t understand that our recent desires are often caused by our past thoughts and actions. This is how the gunas

lie to our consciousness. They make us think that our past desires are actually our present desires. Reader: It is hard for me to understand how our present desires are connected to our past desires. Does someone decide which desire will occur in our mind?Author: The managers of our desires are the gunas of material nature. In their actions, they take into consideration all our desires and actions, not only our present desires. There is a good Russian saying: “Not all days are holidays”. This means that the gunas act despite our present desires. They are meant for fulfilling all our desires.

For example, if a prisoner wants to come out of jail, this doesn’t mean that they will let him out right away. However, if his desire becomes strong, he will understand how to act correctly, and everyone will see that he improved his behavior. In this case, it is likely that he will be let out of jail earlier than planned.

Thus, our desires are taken into consideration, but we have to prove that our desires expectancies are strong. “Bhagavad-Gita” (13.21-22) says that the gunas of material nature control all the processes in this material world:

“Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.”

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.”

Reader: How many forms of life can we change in this universe? Can our universe give us a wide variety of tastes of material happiness?Author: Not that much. According to the Vedas, there are 8,400,000 forms of life in our universe. 400,000 out of these forms of life are intelligent, the rest 8,000,000 are not intelligent. Also, each form of life has differences. For example, in the human form of life there are many nationalities. Every nationality has its own traditions and customs. Because of the affect of the guna of passion, people, who were born in different countries, think that their nation is the best. All the nations are trying to prove to the other nations that the taste of happiness they chose is the best. Reader: Actually, I sometimes think that my nation is the worst. Author: You see, we want to think that our nation is the most in something. The best or the worst – it doesn’t matter. This is how the gunas of passion and ignorance affect our consciousness. They don’t allow us to clearly see things and make us enlarge everything that is connected to us. Reader: I understand what you are trying to say. It is surprising that we want to be unique even in the worst things. Often, we are even unconsciously proud of it. Author: Yes, this is how the guna of ignorance affects us. The gunas of passion and ignorance don’t allow us to see things clearly, just to allow us to fully enjoy the taste that we are striving to achieve.

Reader: Does this mean that if a person thinks that his nation is the best or the worst or the most in something, it is practically impossible to explain to him that his nation is not really different from other nations?Author: Until a person starts seriously studying how the gunas of material nature affect his consciousness, no one will be able to convince him that his judgment is partial and prejudiced. Reader: Even wars happen because we think that we are the best. Does this happen because of the influence of the gunas?Author: Yes, unfortunately, that’s right. The gunas of passion and ignorance blind people. People start thinking that they and everything connected to them is special. Reader: Then, how can the gunas protect our interests if they make us kill each other? Author: Some people (who are humble and intelligent) can understand the truth just by hearing wise advice. Then, the guna of goodness starts protecting them. Thus, they naturally avoid being pulled into a war. Others have to undertake a lot of suffering before they start understanding how to act right. There are a lot of people who have are striving for the wrong things and have a strong desire to live incorrectly. They cultivate these ideas in themselves and they don’t even want to hear about the fact that they need to change. Such people don’t pay attention to the advice of wise people and, thus, they fall deeper and deeper into degradation. Do you think it would be fair if the gunas allow such a person to completely fall into degradation? Therefore the gunas try to show the truth even to those, who are inclined to fall into degradation. To show us how to live right, they can use both rewards and punishment. Reader: I think you are right. If a person is lost, it isn’t right to leave him without knowledge. Now I understand that punishment can also be useful for a person. Through punishment we become closer to understanding things correctly. However, if we were born to crawl in the guna of ignorance, will we ever be able to fly in the guna of goodness?Author: Yes, this is possible if we truly want to achieve this. However, if this happens, the process of changing our consciousness will not happen fast. Reader: Again, you are saying general things. Tell me clearly, what are the symptoms that a person is under the influence of the guna of goodness?Author: The influence of the guna of goodness can be seen by different signs. However, there is one clear sign, which means that the consciousness of a person is under the influence of the guna of goodness. Such a person always obeys the voice of his consciousness. Another sign is that such people have the desire to selflessly do good things. This desire is much stronger than the desire to use the services of others.

Also, it is important to note that the guna of goodness makes us see that happiness and justice exist not only in fairytales, but also in real life. Besides this, with the help of the guna of goodness, a person slowly starts understanding the harmony and perfect organization of our world. As a result, sooner or later, this person realizes that the existence of God is not something made up, it is real.

Reader: Thus, everything starts when a person in mode of passion gets a consciousness and he slowly accepts the idea that God exists.Author: Something like that. However, it is important to know that we always had a consciousness. It doesn’t appear from nowhere, when the guna of goodness influences us. Every living entity has a consciousness. It is our eternal companion. It doesn’t belong to any of us individually, it is for everyone.

Most people on our planet are mostly under the influence of the guna of passion. This has a certain effect on the person’s relationship with his consciousness. People, who are mostly under the influence of passion, usually try to make excuses before the voice of their consciousness. They try to protect themselves from all guilt and inner discomfort.

As a result, the mind of a person in the mode of passion becomes like a snake. To excuse his incorrect behavior, often a person in the mode of passion says that other people live even less righteously than he does. As a result, such a person starts spreading rumors about other people. Besides this, such a person constantly tries to prove to others and to himself the following idea: “I always do the right thing.”Reader: Are you hinting that I have this idea?Author: No, I am not hinting at anything. I am just talking about the behavior of people, who are in the mode of passion. As soon as they hear the truth about themselves, they immediately start defending themselves. Reader: I am not defending myself. I just think that often you are trying to expose me. Author: No, I am not talking about you personally. People, who are in the mode of passion often think that someone is blaming them for something. However, this is not true. Therefore, such people often get into conflicts and arguments. Therefore, selfish people often try to protect themselves from the voice of their consciousness, which blames them. Reader: Does this mean that all attempts to make excuses is a fight with the voice of our consciousness and this fight is under the influence of the guna of passion?Author: That’s right. If there is no sincerity, there is no guna of goodness. A person in the mode of goodness usually doesn’t make excuses for himself, because he wants to find his flaws and fight with them. Reader: If someone blames a person in the guna of goodness, he doesn’t feel any pain?Author: Everyone, except completely saint people, feels pain when someone blames them. However, a person in the mode of goodness has a taste to fight with his flaws. Passionate people can also try to achieve something, in sport for example, to try to prove that they are better than others. There is suffering in such things. However, people in the mode of passion do such things either for fame or for money. When such people have these “accomplishments” while fighting for their rights in this world, none of them can stand it when someone is blaming them even a little bit. Reader: What if someone is blaming us wrongly?

Author: One someone is blaming us wrongly, it is hard to understand whether or not it is wrong. A person in the mode of goodness understands this, so he apologizes just in case. When someone blames a person in the mode of goodness, he accepts this as an opportunity to fight with his flaws.Reader: Why is it necessary for them to torture themselves like this?Author: The taste of victory over our flaws is much sweeter than the taste of victory in the most popular contests with the greatest awards.Reader: Now, I understand how the guna of goodness works much better than before. While working on improving their character, people in the mode of goodness don’t feel such suffering as other people do. When looking forward to happiness, a person doesn’t pay attention to problems and, therefore, easily achieves his goal. So, it’s not as bad to be in the mode of goodness, as it might seem at first. Author: Is it really true that you understood the secret of the guna of goodness?Reader: It turned out that it’s not that hard to understand this secret.Author: If you understood this, then let’s be in the mode of goodness and stop worrying about our salary. Let’s just work with love, think only about the welfare of others, and try to tolerate all the insults from other people.Reader: Again! If I won’t think about my salary, who will think about it? Who needs my salary other than me?Author: A person in the mode of goodness doesn’t need to think about the results of his work. The guna of goodness will take care of everything by itself. We need to think only about the welfare of others. If we truly believe in the fairness of this world, then what is the use of thinking about the rewards? They will come anyway. Therefore, we need to think only about the happiness of others, live selflessly and do good things. Taking all this into consideration, tell me honestly, are you ready to stop worrying about your salary or not?Reader: Let’s say that I’m ready. How will you know this?Author: If you truly are under the influence of the guna of goodness, if you didn’t receive your salary in time, you will not suffer because of this. Love for people and love for your work will not give you any time to think about money. Reader: I think that if I truly want to be under the influence of the guna of goodness, I will be able to tolerate all this humiliation. Author: A person in the mode of goodness doesn’t feel humiliated if he didn’t receive his salary in time. Therefore, he doesn’t need to use his will power to tolerate this. He loves his work so much that he doesn’t have time to think about his bad luck. It’s temporary. Moreover, such a person knows that bad karma can come at any moment. He is ready to tolerate this.Reader: Are there really people who are capable of this?Author: Everyone, who is influenced by the mode goodness are capable of this. Reader: You are probably speaking like this because you have never been broke. Author: I am speaking like this because I have studied this matter seriously. I have seen many examples in the lives of many people. However, it will be hard for you to believe this right away. Are you really ready to act like I described a person in the mode of goodness would act?

Reader: Frankly speaking – no. I don’t believe that if I don’t take care of my salary, some kind man will take care of it instead of me.Author: Whether you think about your salary or not, these thoughts will cause nothing but suffering. Whether you think about it, you will get it when it is time, and whether you don’t think about it, you will get it when it is time. Then, why should we think about our salary? It’s better to think about the welfare of others. Our salary makes us happy once a month, but thoughts about the happiness of others make us happy every second. Reader: Can we think about the happiness of others and about our salary at the same time?Author: Yes, we can. However, this will not be a big achievement. Sooner or later, the person will stop thinking about the welfare of others and will concentrate on his salary. Then, he will only think about his own welfare.Reader: Yes, I think you are right. However, it is practically impossible for me to stop thinking about my salary.Author: This is because of the mighty power of the guna of passion. When this guna sees that we have a selfish taste for happiness, it makes us think about our salary, rather than about the welfare of others. Therefore, don’t think that it’s so easy to achieve the guna of goodness.Reader: I understand that this subject is difficult, however I thought I understood it. Now, I don’t think I do. How can I understand this subject deeper and start feeling the influence of the guna of goodness, which brings happiness?Author: If you understand what the taste of goodness is only theoretically, then it is naïve to think that you will get under its influence right away and will start enjoying selfless happiness of happy life. If we want to achieve the protection of this power, we need to put some effort into making this work in our life.

We have discussed that it is hard for a person in the mode of passion to reject thoughts about his own profit. For a person in the mode of goodness this is easy. It is even harder for a person in the mode of passion to reject thoughts about his image and reputation. If this person has a position in society, than he will think that all remarks and comments about him are an insult. Thus, he doesn’t have any opportunity to remove his flaws. On the contrary, a person in the mode of goodness always wants to find out what he is doing wrong and, as soon as he finds this out, he tries to improve everything. Reader: No matter is a person is in the mode of goodness or passion, if some young boy allows himself to make negative remarks about a person, who has a position in society, is this not an insult?Author: Of course, this is an insult. And the person who behaves this way will surely suffer for this. However, a person in the mode of goodness doesn’t consider himself very significant and, thus, doesn’t pay a lot of attention to negative remarks, unlike the person in the mode of passion. The gunas always punish people who insult others. If a person understand this law, it is impossible to make him upset by insults. Who will get mad at the person who is breaking the very branch that he is sitting on?Reader: I see that life is much easier for people in the mode of goodness. How can I achieve the protection of the guna of goodness in my life?

Author: Start by strictly following the day regime and wishing everyone happiness. Follow this path without waiting for any result. Still, the result will come. You will start feeling happy, but not because of the achieved results. The process of self realization and self improvement will make you happy. Reader: From your speech I wasn’t able to understand, when I will start feeling happy.Author: You will achieve happiness when you start to like following the day regime and wishing everyone happiness. At that moment you will achieve the protection of the guna of goodness. As soon as we start being proud of our achievements and start waiting for profit, the guna of passion starts affecting us again.Reader: I’ll try to remember these changes of consciousness. They will help me understand myself better. Author: Yes, try to remember everything that is connected to the work of the gunas. Slowly, you will learn to find out which gunas are affecting you at the present moment. However, only a sinless (saint) person can completely understand the influence of the gunas on our consciousness.Reader: You mentioned that the influence of the guna of goodness on our consciousness starts when we accept the voice of our conscience. Therefore, I would like to deeply understand what our conscience is. Could you explain the opinion of the Vedas on this matter? Author: This important subject will be discussed in our next talk.

CONCLUSION: The person, who thinks that it’s very easy to achieve the guna of goodness, soon rejects this path, when he faces inevitable difficulties. In order to achieve something, we need to put forth our effort. This often scares us. However, it is important to understand that difficulties on the path of achieving happiness are always beneficial. Studying the highest knowledge is joyful for those, who understand this secret. All the circumstances needed for achieving this knowledge also bring joy to these people. Therefore, even people, who were born to crawl in the guna of passion, despite all the difficulties, can still slowly learn to fly in the mode of goodness.

If we want to taste the highest happiness, we need to find out what efforts are needed from us. The secret of how to achieve the guna of goodness will be opened for those, who felt the sweet taste of fighting with the flaws of their character and for those, who felt the even sweeter taste of serving people. If you have a strong desire to achieve the guna of goodness, then only time stands before you and your goal. Therefore, each of us can get rid of the influence of the gunas of passion and ignorance. However, it is very rare to see a lucky soul, who felt the taste of the highest goodness – selfless loving service to God.

A clean conscience is an eternal holidayIn order for us to have a chance to compare our opinion with absolute

(unmistaken) truth, each of us has a power that we call conscience or intuition. The Vedas say that this power comes from the Higher Soul. The Higher Soul gives us correct understanding of things. The higher soul is an aspect of God. It

is located in our body, near our soul. Thus, the source of conscience is the Supreme Personality of God. This is said in the Bhagavad Gita 13.23:

“Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.”

Reader: It is very hard for me to understand that my conscience can belong to someone else, even if it’s God Himself. It is even harder to understand that he authorizes everything I do. I think that my conscience is just one of the traits of my character. Author: If it is just a feature of your character, that why does it argue with you when you do something wrong?Reader: Because deep inside I understand how to behave correctly, but my thoughts can lead me away from the right path. Author: If you understand the truth (the right path) deep inside or in your thoughts, then you will never make mistakes. The truth exists either way, no matter if we understand it or not. It always says that happiness (the higher justice) exists inside of us. If we start listening to our conscience, it will show us the way to happiness. No one has ever denied happiness, and no one wants to suffer. Therefore, the person, who knows the truth, will never want to lead a life full of mistakes. Reader: So, you say that my conscience is not a truth that belongs to me, which I can verify my actions with?Author: Now, you are speaking almost correctly. However, it is not you, who verifies your actions with your conscience. Your conscience makes you verify your actions with the truth (the right path). The conscience authorizes your actions.Reader: Does this mean that the conscience is an independent power, which acts inside of me?Author: Yes, that’s exactly right. The conscience is a quality of the Higher Soul. The Higher Soul lives in your body just like you (the soul).Reader: Is it really true that God acts in me and shows me his personality?Author: Do you think that only you act in your body?Reader: Who else can act in my body? If I want to go for a walk, I do it. If I want to watch TV, I do this. Who can go for a walk instead of me and who can watch TV instead of me? Author: Can you always use your body according to your desires?Reader: Yes, of course.Author: What if your legs become paralyzed? Will you be able to go for a walk then?Reader: Your examples are always strange. “Marry a robot”, “be paralyzed”. I can always use those organs that work to do what I want. Author: Who makes the decision whether which organ will or will not work in our body?Reader: I don’t know who makes this decision. I think this happens by accident. I

know that if I become disabled, I won’t be able to go for a walk like most people. However, this just means that the body can no longer do this function (go for a walk). I can only use those organs, which are functioning properly.Author: Can you really?Reader: Do you have any examples to prove that people can’t do this?Author: I don’t have any examples where people can use their body completely independently. I have a lot of examples, where the functions and action of our body depends on the Higher Soul. According to our karma, the Higher Soul decides, which functions of our body we will be able to use perfectly, and which functions we won’t be able to use at all. We cannot see and understand most of the functions of our body. All the cells in our body function besides our will. You cannot deny this fact. For example, tell me, how often do you control the process of extracting bile from the liver?Reader: People say that with practice we can control even this process.Author: Who controls this now, when we don’t have any practice?Reader: The sub consciousness controls all the functions of my organism. Author: “Sub consciousness” is a very convenient word. It easily explains all the processes in our organism that are hard to understand. Tell me, what if a driver lets go of the steering wheel when he is driving? Will his sub consciousness also control the movement of the car?Reader: No, the car will crash into something. Cars don’t have a sub consciousness. If people make a computer control for the car, it will keep on driving in the right direction, even if the driver lets go of the wheel.Author: Will this computer be controlled by someone or will it control everything by itself?Reader: It has a program, which starts working when the car is turned on. Author: Thus, someone controls the computer, programming it to do certain things in a certain succession. Reader: Ok, at first someone controls it. I don’t understand why you are asking this. Author: If even automatic actions of a car are being controlled, this means that spontaneous (automatic) actions do not exist. We have already discussed this topic in the book “The Power of Time”. Still, you think that you are the only one, who controls your body. To justify the ridiculous idea that processes in the universe appear spontaneously, people made up two words: “sub consciousness” and “automatic”. These words can explain anything. The planets “subconsciously” or “automatically” revolve around their axis. Also, none of the planets crash into each other. “Scientists” say that a favorable atmosphere (biosphere) was created “subconsciously” or automatically on our planet for the life of living beings. Also, this atmosphere is being supported automatically or “subconsciously”, despite our “conscious” attempts of ruining it. All the functions in our organism work like a clock. This also happens “subconsciously”.

All these delirious ideas seem to be the only possible way to explain everything that is happening around us, despite the fact that objects made by people are never able to support themselves in an active and working state. People really want to prove that the idea of perfect “subconscious” self-control

can exist in life. People are constantly trying to invent an eternal engine. For example, people have created knives that cannot become blunt. They have called these knives self-sharpening. However, they actually just become smaller and smaller and grind off. These knives will also become useless, just like those knives, which have a different metal structure and don’t grind off, but lose their sharpness. Both of these types of knives will become useless in about the same amount of time. There are no facts to prove that something created by people can function eternally. Everything that is created by people needs support and control.

When we think that everything in our organism is supposed to happen “subconsciously”, we sometimes find ourselves in a situation when something in our body stops working. Because we believe that some enemy is preventing the subconscious processes from working, we start blaming our fate, modern medicine, bad ecology, anything and anyone except ourselves. Despite the fact that such behavior cannot change anything for the better, we keep on believing in the spontaneous laws of our sub consciousness.

I think that the common sense of people who made up the words “sub consciousness” and “automatic” failed them. I just don’t understand whether this happened subconsciously or automatically. Reader: Then, what controls the activities of our organism?Author: “What” is not something living, it has no consciousness, therefore it cannot control anything. Our organism is under full control of the Higher Soul. It acts inside of our body, because the soul wants to act. It controls all the functions of our organism, which we think happen automatically and independently. Because we don’t understand that this world is perfectly arranged, we sometimes try to simplify everything. This may sound mean, but such things point to lack of intelligence. For example, a cockroach can also think that the foot of a person, who is trying to crush it, is also falling down on him automatically and is just a exhibition of the power of nature.Reader: Thus, God, as the Higher Soul, controls the actions of our organism. Author: Yes, however it is more correct to say “in His aspect of the Higher Soul”. Reader: Thank you for the remark, however I don’t see a big difference between the two phrases. Why does God do this in His aspect of the Higher Soul?Author: He is the eternal friend of all living beings and is always helping us. He allows us to enjoy ourselves in this world by making bodies that we want to have. God allows all living beings to be in material bodies with only one goal – to be happy according to our desires. Reader: Does this mean that the soul lives inside the body just because God allowed it to live in it?Author: Yes, that’s right. Your question indicates that you are very keep. Many scientists cannot even imagine such questions. Reader: Why haven’t scientists guessed this yet?Author: Because we all have a false ego (in the gross and subtle body). When the false ego hears the word “God” it starts protecting itself and makes the reason start arguing.Reader: Yes, there are a lot of arguable things about God. For example, how can

he be inside every living entities body at the same time?Author: Yes, this statement is hard to understand. However, if something is hard to understand, this doesn’t mean that it’s false. We just need to study it deeply.Reader: I don’t think that all statements that are hard to understand should be deeply studied. For example, I understand the modern theory, which says that the universe appeared from a big explosion. This theory seems real and true.Author: You don’t have any doubts about this theory?Reader: Which doubts can there be? Author: The logic of this theory is defective from the start. For example, we can assume that the universe appeared from a point. However, if there was nothing before this point, where did it come from? How can something appear from nothing? Reader: I agree that this seems strange. However, this doesn’t worry me a lot.Author: This is the problem. The idea that the universe came from emptiness doesn’t worry us. However, the idea that it may have appeared by the will of God, worries us a lot. This is how the ego of people works – we don’t want to accept the very idea that God can exist. Reader: Why is this?Author: Because the word “God” means that there may be someone better (more powerful) than us. Because of this thought of the false ego, these selfish ideas can enter our consciousness, which is actually meant to help us understand the truth. Therefore, it is hard for most people to accept the existence of God and higher powers. Reader: It is hard for me to understand such terms as “reason” and “ego”. Could you please explain why it is hard for us to understand that God does exist and accept his existence at least as a hypothesis using other words?Author: It is hard for people to understand the existence of God in the bodies of all living beings because our view of the world is limited to 3D space. I’ll try to explain this with comparison. There is only one sun, but everyone can relate to it because it spreads its light everywhere. Therefore, despite the fact that there is only one sun, it has an individual relationship with all of us.

In astrology there are special terms, which describe a person’s relationship with the sun as bad or good. Thus, each person has a unique relationship with the sun. The same thing goes for the Higher Soul, which communicates with each living being in a unique way and, thus, has a unique relationship with everyone.Reader: We see the sun. Therefore, this is easy to understand. However, why don’t we see the Higher Soul? Frankly speaking, I don’t want to believe in the existence of God at all.Author: If we see God, we will feel extraordinary spiritual happiness and we won’t have any desire to live in this material world any more. As a result, our material desires will be left unfulfilled. God is trying to fulfill all our material desires. That’s why He doesn’t show Himself. Also, this is why He makes us want to think that He doesn’t exist. Reader: Therefore, if we won’t have any material desires, God will reveal Himself and we will be able to see Him?

Author: You are a very quick-witted interlocutor. Reader: All this seems very cunning. But, still I don’t want to believe it. The thought that someone is a constant witness of all our actions is revolutionary for me. It is scary to even think about it.Author: It’s all right, soon it won’t be scary anymore.Reader: You said yourself: I have a choice. I can choose to believe in God or I can choose to not believe in Him.Author: All right, I won’t take away your freedom to choose. If it is so hard for you to talk about this, let’s delay the subject about the Higher Soul and talk about something else.Reader: Yes, let’s leave this subject about the Higher Soul alone for now. Is there a way to achieve the guna of goodness without studying the subject of the conscience and the Higher Soul?Author: This is possible, however, then God will need to create a fourth “guna of goodness without a conscience, a shameless guna of goodness”. Surely, this guna will bring a lot of happiness.Reader: Soon I will start being afraid of your jokes. I always I have a feeling that you will say something funny about me now.Author: You have a good intuition. It isn’t by accident that you declined to study this subject. For a person, who is under the influence of the mode of passion, it is easier and better to feel humiliated and mocked thousands of times than to feel unbearable pain, caused by our own conscience.Reader: I would have liked to study the subject of the conscience if it would include more complements for me. Don’t forget: we are just talking, this is not a indictment process. Author: Please excuse me. I promise that I’ll try to praise you more, if that’s what you want. “Bhagavad Gita” says that from thousands of people, only one strives to achieve perfection. I’m glad that I am lucky enough to talk to such a person.Reader: Now, I feel much better. Now, the subject of the conscience will be easier to understand. Author: It is a pleasure to talk to such an intelligent person. However, I don’t know what we are supposed to talk about now. Reader: I think that we need to continue the subject of the conscience. I always wanted to understand this matter better.Author: Then, analyze the following Russian saying: “The voice of your conscience becomes more quiet, if the voices that praise you are loud.”Reader: So, it is hard for us to hear the voice of our consciousness when someone praises us?Author: Yes, that’s right. Therefore, people in the mode of passion, constantly flatter each other or gossip about people. Thus, they subconsciously point to their superiority and praise themselves. Thus, they mute the voice of their consciousness. Reader: I think you’re right about some things. When we are studying the truth, it isn’t often there are a lot of compliments for us. Moreover, if there are no jokes, the subject will not be very interesting.

As for what you said, the conclusion is that if a person doesn’t praise us,

he is more humane, than if he does praise us. Author: Yes, that’s right. However, this statement is only about those, who strive to achieve the mode of goodness and have already started fighting with their flaws. A remark said with a kind heart, will only work when there is communication with people in the mode of goodness. If a person doesn’t want to change his life, it is better to not blame him a lot. All problems with such a person should be solved by complimenting his good qualities. If you talk about his bad side, there will be a lot of problems. People in the modes of passion and ignorance painfully react to the voice of their conscience. Reader: So, they try to not hear the voice of their conscience?Author: This goes only for people in the mode of ignorance. As for people in the mode of passion, they like to use their conscience to blame others. Therefore, the communication of such people is like in the Russian saying “many people are tormented by other people’s conscience, instead of their own.”

People in the mode of passion quickly suppress their conscience. They constantly make excuses for themselves. However, when someone else does something wrong, they don’t suppress the voice of their conscience. When they see a mistake, they become very mad and express “sincere” indignation. People in the mode of goodness behave rudely and uncompromisingly. They think that if they point to other people’s flaws with hostility, this is very noble. However, no one can give another person the needed understanding without kindness. This is impossible. First of all, it is important to give the person some of our kindness and happiness. Only after that we can give advice.

Therefore, quarrels often happen between people in the mode of passion. They show intolerance for others, but they think that their conscience makes them argue. Actually, they make excuses for their bad behavior by blaming others. Thus, people in the mode of passion unconsciously try to show their conscience that they are righteous people. They constantly gossip about the flaws of other people. As a result, they stop seeing their own flaws.Reader: Thus, when we talk to people, usually it is better to not talk about their flaws. Author: Yes, when we talk to a person in the mode of passion, we should not talk about their flaws. However, if a person is trying to achieve the mode of goodness, he needs to learn to hear about his flaws from other people. Either way, a person who tells people about their flaws, needs to do this with a kind heart. Reader: What if we are not in the mood and we can’t be kind now? Should we still tell people about their flaws in such a state?Author: No, we shouldn’t. If we are talking to a person in the mode of goodness, he will accept any harsh remark. However, if we do this, we will commit an offense. A person in the mode of goodness usually doesn’t pay any attention to offenses. However, people in the mode of passion and ignorance cannot accept rough remarks about themselves. Therefore, it is useless to try to improve them with irritation in our voice. Reader: Yes. We don’t even realize how foolishly we behave when we blame people. This just spoils everything.

Author: While we are in the mode passion, we will continue behaving foolishly. We won’t have any opportunity to stop being mad at each other. This is how the guna of passion affects our consciousness. Still, is we ever get the desire to achieve the mode of goodness; we will first need to start seeing our own flaws, not the flaws of other people. Reader: A strong will power is needed for this.Author: I want to answer with a Russian saying “Be the servant of your conscience, then you will be the master of your will.” A person, who doesn’t listen to his conscience will not strive for austerities, which strengthen the will power. It is easier for such a person to make up some “deep philosophical statement” that explains why austerities are not needed. Reader: Is the conscience really so important?Author: Like we said before, the first sign of the guna of goodness is the presence of a conscience. Reader: How can we start listening to our conscience more? Author: The mother of our conscience is honesty. Only when a person stops lying to himself and to others, he will be able to hear the voice of his conscience. If we are not in the mode of goodness, it is impossible for us develop good qualities of character. A person can develop honesty only if he correctly understands what self-esteem is. Reader: Please explain in detail what the correct understanding of self-esteem is. Author: When a person did something wrong, he thinks of himself as unworthy and thus, tries to improve and always do the right thing. As a result of this, his self-esteem is based on the true ego, instead of the false ego. On the other hand, he doesn’t take credit for the good things he does. He gives the credit to those people, who gave him knowledge. If a person behaves this way, he will become honest. Reader: I heard that we need to always consider ourselves good people, otherwise we will have to say “goodbye” to our self-esteem.Author: Yes, there are people, whose self-esteem is based on their false ego. Therefore, they constantly tell themselves “I’m good, I can do anything, I am great”. Even if someone comments their bad behavior, they will still continue to tell themselves: “I know better, because I’m good.” When a person’s self-esteem is based on the false ego, he will never be able to be honest. He also won’t be able to hear the voice of his conscience and intuition.

Now it has become very popular to conduct special training based on this “new” system of self-control. Actually, all selfish people know this so-called system of self-control. It is not new. The Vedas say that such self-control brings people to the mode of passion and causes him to suffer. Reader: Such theories seem very attractive. There was a time they attracted even me.Author: We need to understand that self-esteem is necessary. We should not think that we are bad and, thus, cannot change anything. We should think that even though we are bad, we want to be good. We will certainly change our life and become happy.Reader: I think that it’s hard to even imagine the time of self-esteem that you

recommend. Author: Everything that leads to happiness, is at first very uncomfortable. However, when we behave this way, we feel happy and satisfied. We just need to be determined to test this knowledge in life. Every person can be honest if he want to.

From all positive qualities, honesty is on the first place, because it is the “mother of our conscience”. Honesty is the most important and the first quality of character. However, kindness comes to us even before honesty.Reader: Is kindness the mother of honesty?Author: Now, you are speaking proverbs.Reader: How can we become kind?Author: To become kind, we need to start doing good things and slowly gather kindness in our heart. Slowly, the situation will change and our heart will no longer we made of stone. Only when the power of good things that we do overpowers the power of our sins, the cold heart of a cruel person will be transformed into the warm heart of a kind person.

A kind person sees more good in people than bad. Therefore, he stops being afraid of people and starts treating them with kindness. When he stops being afraid of people, he will be ready to hear the truth that people say about him. Thus, a kind person becomes an honest person. Honesty rids us of lies. Thus, we become able to hear the voice of our conscience. Reader: Everything you said now is very important. I would like to hear more about how to develop good qualities of character. Author: This is a very big and difficult subject, so we will look at it from different sides at another time in the future. Now, let’s continue our discussion about the conscience. Reader: You said that besides the voice of our conscience, the Higher Soul controls all the functions of our organism. Does this mean that there is a connection between our conscience and the normal functioning of our organism?Author: There are many such connections. For example, if a person is dishonest, then even the smell of his sweat changes, what to speak of the other, more important, functions of the organism. The immune system and the functions of the liver suffer because of dishonesty. If a person is shameless and immodest, his hormone functions are disrupted. As a result, his metabolism suffers and he becomes predisposed to inflectional illnesses.Reader: Is this the reason that shameless and lecherous people often get inflectional illnesses of the genital organs?Author: Yes, this is one of the reasons. People, who are engaged in debauchery have a tendency to changes in the immune system, and serious skin illnesses. Reader: Does this mean that if a person behaves according to the advice of his conscience, the functions of his organism are restored?Author: Yes, that’s right. Moreover, not only are the functions of his organism restored, the functions of his psyche are also restored. If a person admits his mistake, he feels relieved (life becomes easier for him) and becomes calm. If, however, he continues to argue with the voice of his conscience, then, first his sleep becomes disturbed. After this, serious physiological and even anatomical

changes happen in the organism. Reader: You mentioned that a person in the guna of ignorance completely stops hearing the voice of his conscience. Does this mean that he has less illnesses?Author: This means that illnesses will affect him on a deeper level of consciousness. The body of people in the mode of ignorance suffers much less than the body of people in the mode of passion. However, their intelligence falls into degradation very quickly. As a result, they quickly become animals that are in the bodies of people. Reader: What are the first signs of degradation of the consciousness?Author: First, a stable inclination for bad habits appears. Also, a person starts violating the day schedule. Then, the person stops feeling responsible for relationships with his relatives (feeling indifferent towards his kids, spouse, and parents). Then, he loses interest for work. Slowly, such a person starts hating people and gets a desire to use them at every possibility. Reader: What are the end results of degradation?Author: The end results are alcoholism, drug abuse, addiction to sex, neurosis, racket, immoral behavior, mental disorders. Reader: Now, I understand why talks about the conscience and the Higher Soul are so important for achieving progress and the guna of goodness. Author: Yes, without studying this subject, it is very hard to get the protection of the power of goodness. Therefore, in our future discussions we will come back to this subject again several times.

CONCLUSION: In His aspect of the Higher Soul, God gives us the opportunity to constantly compare our actions to the absolute truth. God speaks to us through the voice of our conscience for our own good. This is his way of trying to make us understand how we can live a righteous life and become happy. However, not all people use their independence correctly, and often their conscience becomes an obstacle in their bad behavior. An owl hides from the sun and never feels the joy that comes from sunshine. Likewise, those, who are hiding from the voice of their conscience, will never feel happy in their life.

Learning to think in the category of the three gunas

The gunas of material nature can influence our life in three ways. They can raise a person to the higher planets. This is how the guna of goodness acts. If a person is under the influence of the guna of passion, he has to live on the middle planets. Also, there is a chance of falling to the lower planets if the guna of ignorance affects us.

With the help of their unconquerable and invisible power, the gunas of material nature attach themselves to our consciousness and pull us in the direction of where we are meant to be by fate. All of the three gunas are able to affect us always, on each planet. For example, if a person gets under the influence of the guna of ignorance, even while he is on Earth, he will suffer as much as people suffer in hell. Also, if a person on Earth tries to achieve the guna of goodness, he experiences the taste of heavenly happiness even while he is

still here on Earth. Thus, the gunas tie us to the life style that we are striving for.Reader: Is there any device we can use to see the gunas?Author: The gunas are not ordinary ropes that we can buy in a store. They are very subtle powers. According to the Vedas, there is only one more powerful force than the gunas of material nature. This is the power of time. Only the person, who became a saint, can sometimes see (feel) the action of the gunas. No device, even if it’s perfect, can monitor its influence.

If a person could see the gunas, he would see an unusual picture: he would see transparent threads that tie some objects to other objects. The whole universe is woven from these threads. They tie us to those surroundings, which we always wanted to live in. There is only one way to free ourselves from the ties of certain types of threads, and get under the influence of other types of threads: we need to change our taste of happiness. Reader: Does this mean that our striving for happiness is stronger that the gunas?Author: Yes. No one can forbid us to be happy. The gunas just carry out the will of God and ensure a happy life for us. Because most living entities in the material world developed a mutilated taste of happiness, the need for the gunas of passion and ignorance developed. Reader: Please tell me in detail, how can we get rid of those gunas that cause suffering? Author: As soon as we change our understanding of happiness, the power that brings us closer to the type of happiness that seems more attractive to us, starts affecting us. Slowly, we get more and more attached to the type of happiness that we desire. This becomes the reason of great changes in our life. Slowly, the desire to live like we did before completely disappears. Reader: So, the main changes happen in our intelligence, and our fate slowly changes by itself. Author: Yes. Only the wisest people can understand that the most productive activity that can truly change our life, is the activity of our intelligence.Reader: If a person already changed his understanding of happiness, how long will he have to wait for changes?Author: The change of the gunas that affect a person can sometimes happen in one second, and sometimes in hundreds of lives. Everything depends on the power of our past desires and on the power of our present desire. We are tied with our past desires, which are protected by the laws of the universe. Reader: But, I think that if we really try, we can quickly change everything in our life for the better. Many people agree with me. Author: If someone thinks like this, let him in one second become rich and respected, and leave this planet, where most people are under the influence of passion. Let’s try to leave our planet and go to better planets, despite the qualities of character that we have.

This is possible only in fairytales. Only in fairytales, a person can achieve those life circumstances that he didn’t earn with his desires and actions. We say: “I choose where I live. I’ll go to any place that I want.” Yes, of course, this is true, but only according to the limits that there are on Earth. For example, let’s try to

go to another planet right now. How great does our desire to leave this planet have to be in order for us to leave it right now? It’s silly to even think that this is possible. Reader: Can we change our planet in our next life?Author: If the taste of happiness that we are looking for has changed so much that it is impossible to get this taste on Earth, then, then we change the planet we live on. Reader: It is hard for me to believe that I will live on some other planet.Author: However, the Vedas say that this is possible. If we study and cultivate higher desires than the ones we have now, the circumstances of our life will certainly change for the better. However, this usually happens in the next life. Usually, the gunas give us a chance to enjoy a certain type of happiness on this planet in the present moment. Sometimes we have to wait for the next life to fully enjoy the happiness that cannot be enjoyed on Earth. Therefore, we first need to understand which manifestations of material nature are favorable for us, and which are unfavorable.Reader: Ok. And after that, what else do we need to understand?Author: Then, we need to find out how to overpower bad qualities of character in ourselves and how to develop good qualities. To do this, we need to learn to analyze everything in the category of the three gunas.

- If we will be able to see how the gunas manifest, and also, how they affect our world-outlook, our thoughts, actions and so on, then, we will be able to understand which guna is affecting us at the moment.

- After understanding which powers affect us, we will get a deep understanding of happiness. Then, it will be evident, which qualities of character we need to work on.

Reader: You said that these powers are invisible. So, how will we be able to understand which guna is affecting us at the moment? Author: We will not be able to recognize the features of their influence right away. However, we can notice the changes in our relationships with the people that surround us, and the changes in our mood and personality. Reader: Thus, we need to know all the signs of the influence of each guna just as good as school children know the times table?Author: Yes, otherwise we will not be able to achieve happiness, just like it is impossible to see our ears without a mirror. However, the most important thing we need to understand is that we don’t need to use force to change our life. The gunas will take care of everything by themselves. We need to put all efforts to change our taste of happiness. Reader: I think that it will be difficult for many people to believe in this.Author: Of course it is hard. We are used to thinking of ourselves as rulers