Vladimir Antonov

Jiva and Buddhi

Translated from Russian by Mikhail Nikolenko

        Jiva is a Sanskrit equivalent of the word soul.
        In its incarnate state, the jiva is attached to its material body. It lives in the body and perceives the world with the help of the body’s organs of sense; it thinks with the help of the body’s brain. This is why it is so difficult for embodied people to disidentify themselves — even mentally — with the body and the mind (manas in Sanskrit).
        When the material body dies, the jiva continues to live in non-material spatial dimensions: some jivas live in the eons of hell, some live in the paradisiacal abodes. This depends on in what state of the consciousness one got used to living in during one’s incarnate life. After the death of the body, those, accustomed to coarse (i.e. hellish) states of the consciousness, continue to live in these states among other souls similar to them; this is what hell is. Those who have accustomed themselves to life in subtle and tender states, who have ridden themselves of anger and other kinds of emotional coarseness — they appear in paradise. Also we should remember that in most cases life in non-incarnate states is much longer than life in material bodies.
        What is the purpose of these incarnations? Can the only purpose here consist in the idea that terrifying and fearsome God-Judge sorts us out between hell and paradise after the death of our bodies? Nonsense! Yet this is a belief of the followers of many primitive religious movements!
        No, in reality the Creator incarnates us in His Creation in order that we may develop ourselves intellectually, ethically, aesthetically, develop the power aspect, master in all the fullness the complex of emotions that are called in general by the word LOVE. The latter is the most important thing!
        Depending on whether we master it well or poorly, the Creator (through Holy Spirits) forms our future destinies (karma), which are perceived by most people either as good or bad. Good destiny is when He creates for us pleasant conditions for continuing our self-development. Bad destiny is created by Him so that we, having appeared in unpleasant conditions, begin to seek the way out (this concerns our worldview, first of all), so that we may understand the meaning of our lives on the Earth and begin to realize it as quickly as possible.
        Therefore we have to regard both good and bad destinies as a boon. It becomes more understandable if we start to regard ourselves in all situations — as the disciples of God, Who sends us to the Earth for learning. And He is not going to give up, teaching those of us who do not display to Him their perspectiveness, until they become worthy of merging with Him and enriching Him in this way!
        It is with this purpose, our Creator creates material worlds and sends souls into them — so that these souls develop and evolve. Just in this way, the process of the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness goes on!
        But in order to infuse into the Creator, we have to cognize God in all of His Aspects: as the Creator, as the Holy Spirits, and as the Absolute.
        However, while one remains a jiva (incarnate or non-incarnate), one cannot fulfill this task in fullness. Being jivas, we can only prepare ourselves for higher stages of development and to beginning the cognition of God. How do we do this? — by developing in ourselves all the aforementioned positive qualities and by getting rid of negative qualities. This task can be solved more easily with the help of the methods of psychical self-regulation, which are a part of knowledge called raja yoga. After all, we have to achieve, among other things, energetical purity of the organism and good health: while the body is contaminated with coarse energies, one cannot develop in the subtle and subtlest spatial dimensions. And the Creator, That we have to cognize, is the most subtle component of the Absolute!
        Preparing ourselves for the higher stages of self-development — to buddhi yoga — we have to make anahata the dominant chakra. It is this chakra that is responsible for producing the emotions of love! And nothing but these emotions allow us to refine ourselves!
        Emotions are the states of ours (as consciousnesses). And we have to master the subtle and subtlest emotional states, have to become used to living in them!
        Moreover, they are the emotions of love which allow the soul to become capable of MERGENCE! We learn this first by loving people and other manifestations of life in the Creation. Then we can direct our developed capability of loving — towards the Creator.
        … And what is buddhi?
        Contrary to the jiva, the buddhi is the part of the consciousness that is formed and further developed — with the help of the methods of buddhi yoga — in the subtle and subtlest spatial dimensions outside one’s material body.
        Development of the buddhi is ensured by direct growth of the spiritual heart, which is formed — in the beginning — on the basis of the chakra anahata. (One may describe it also as growth, expansion of the chakra anahata outside of the material body).
        So let the spiritual heart grow to sizes of meters, kilometers, and even more!…
        Then one has to supplement the developed anahata with the other chakras developed to the necessary degree. In this way one forms the structure called dharmakaya — “body of the Path”. The term dharmakaya denotes one of the higher stages of development of the buddhi (which is followed by several other important stages of self-development on the spiritual Path).
        Developing ourselves as dharmakayas, we gain even higher independence from the material bodies during incarnate lives. We become less susceptible to illnesses and other harmful factors. Also the power of the consciousness grows, which depends on the size of the consciousness and its ability to move outside the body. We learn to think without the use of the body, also to heal the body by influencing it from outside. But the most important thing is that it becomes easier for us to communicate with our Teachers — the Holy Spirits. And this is one of the important conditions for development of wisdom and for further self-improvement.
        He who has achieved the fullness of Perfection as a buddhi — merges with the Primordial Consciousness (the Creator); such a Perfect One can be called a Buddha*.
        Yet there is an even more attractive stage of development: when the Perfect Buddhi, merged with the Primordial Consciousness, substitutes completely the jiva embodied in the material body…            
 

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        Many people live without thinking about why they live. They live with primitive egocentric attractions and reflexes: they seek pleasures, seek satisfaction of their greed and aggression…
        The surrogate purposes, suggested to the members of the dominant religious movements, involve how to avoid hell and go to paradise through participation in rituals, through begging forgiveness from God for committed or non-committed sins, or even through killing infidels… But all mentioned is not helpful from the evolutionary standpoint.**
        God does not need anything like this — from us! He needs that we strive to become better, to become Perfect (Matt 5:48) — according to His Evolutionary Intention!
        … What can I suggest for everyone to do? To study and to accept the God’s Intention, to find one’s own place in the common Process of the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness — both in the aspect of mastering concrete methods of self-development and in the aspect of participating in this Great Process through one’s own service to other people in the material world.
        Life filled with such everyday work, which is a manifestation of our love for God, is truly happy and blissful!
        It is LIFE FOR GOD — life for Him rather than for myself!

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*     Let me note that the words buddhi and Buddha have the same root.

**   Another false way of “seeking spiritual self-realization” is the use of drugs, which do not contribute to one’s spiritual advancement but destroy both the body and the consciousness.

 

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Article from the book by Vladimir Antonov Anatomy of God.