The only solution according to the highest level of yoga teaching is Bhakti Yoga and it is declared that this is the culmination of all yoga. ‘Bhakti’ means devotion or union with God, but union in a devotional relationship, a loving relationship. Just like in our material relationships, the more the devotion, the more the love – the more the sweetness of the relationship, the more they are tight, the more concrete, and the greater the pain when there is separation.
That is real, that’s how it really is. But here our relationships are temporary so the pain of separation ultimately will occur. Death will part everyone, if nothing does it before. When you get married, you take a vow, “I will stay with you and love you, and cherish you, and provide for you,” etc., etc., “until death do us part.” In other words, everybody knows it’s built in. We can only stay together so long and then we’re going to leave each other.
So we’re looking for that perfect relationship. Everyone knows in the core of their heart: this is what we need, that’s why we have our girlfriend, our boyfriend, our husband or our wife. The parents love the children; the children love the parents. It’s the relationships of love that we need. This is the food for the soul, this is what nourishes us, and if there’s any fulfillment within us in life, it’s that fulfillment. But it’s temporary and it’s not complete because we must be united with the Perfect Person and that is the Supreme Lord Himself.
So yoga brings us to that perfection of life. That is inner peace; that is inner perfection. I can achieve this while still in the material body, I don’t have to die and go to heaven. It’s not that kind of thing, “Okay, I leave this body and then I go to heaven.” No, now, you see that spiritual relationship can be cultivated and actually acted upon now.
In all the different yoga paths leading in that direction, ultimately they culminate in Bhakti yoga, and a person may ultimately choose that final journey to that ultimate perfection – the perfect love for the Perfect Person – and that will make it so the journey is over. Then, when we do leave the body at the time of death, we go back to the spiritual world, we go where our desires take us. So when our desire is to go and be with the one I love, I’m there.
The soul is not limited by material encumbrances. Here we travel at a slow speed. The soul is not restricted by all of these material interferences. Boom! and you’re there. Faster than the speed of the mind, with the mind you can be anywhere. You want to be in Japan skiing right now? Boom! You can be there, “Shweee!” just like that in a moment. The soul can be in the spiritual world faster than that. So the heart will become perfect. One who returns to the Supreme abode never comes back to this world.
The other night a person heard a little bit of this idea, came up to me after, and he said:
-So that’s the goal, huh, to go back to the spiritual world?
-Yeah, that’s the goal.
-Okay, and you’re gonna be happy?
-Yes, you’re gonna be happy there.
-Eternally? You’re gonna be there for eternity?
-Yeah.
-Sounds like it would be boring.
That is because everything we know in this material world gets boring, really quick. No matter what, it gets boring really quick. That’s why we always have to do something more, something more extreme, something more exciting, more adrenalin, more something, because what used to get me off doesn’t. The pleasure that used to be there has gone now. I have to do something to try to reach it again. Crack cocaine, I never took crack cocaine but I’ve been told that the first time you take it is the best, and after that the rest of your life you’re looking for that first experience, but you never find it.
And material life is kind of like that… Spiritual life is the opposite. It might even start off bitter. Maybe this message is bitter because you’re thinking, “Man, I don’t want to hear this stuff. I don’t like this, it’s bitter.” But gradually, as we become purified of our material disease, it becomes sweeter and sweeter, and sweeter.
It is unlimited. That’s the beauty of the spiritual realm and our spiritual life. It’s unlimited whereas the material world is always limited. Material life is always limited, spiritual life is unlimited. So I told this person, “It’s unlimited, you see? You’re relating it to your material experience, but the pleasure of the spiritual world is love, and there’s no end to love. You can’t love somebody to the end. No matter how much you love somebody, there’s unlimited amounts of their love, deeper love, greater love, more love. God, who is the source of love, said He never knows the end of love. That’s the beauty. That’s it! That is what the soul actually needs.
So if we can just realize this concept, the achievement of that can be found in yoga, and especially, in Bhakti yoga. This ultimate perfection is achieved through Bhakti yoga, and the activity that brings this about above all other activities is mantra meditation.