AGNI YOGA WEB TV
SERIES
INTRODUCTION TO AGNI YOGA
Broadcasting 1
Basics
Ladies
and gentlemen,
welcome
to our new Series “Introduction
to Agni Yoga”.
Today
and in the following Broadcastings, we want
present to you the most important teachings of
Agni Yoga.
This
Series deals primarily with the fundamental laws governing our lives and the universe as a whole. If you want to learn more about how to
practise Agni Yoga, please watch our Series “Experiment Immortality”.
1. What is Agni Yoga?
Agni Yoga
(in the West also called “Living Ethics”), is a Holy Scripture, comparable only
to the Bible, the Koran
or the Bhagavad Gita.
This
book consists of 14 volumes with some 5000 pages altogether.
Thus, it is about one and a half times
as voluminous as the Bible (Old
and New Testament put together). The
books can be read at http://www.agniyoga.org.
Agni Yoga
is the spiritual foundation for
the next 2000 years,
the age of Aquarius.
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Agni Yoga is a synthesis of science and religion: A religion on a scientific basis and
a science that penetrates with
new spiritual methods of knowledge into the
invisible, non-material spheres.
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Living
Ethics is a philosophy that
gives to everyone, regardless
of his faith, an answer to the existential
questions of human life, such as:
The meaning
of life, the meaning
of suffering, God,
good and evil, life after death, the
Supermundane Worlds, man's responsibility for his
thoughts, words and deeds, the expansion of consciousness,
psychic energy, etc.
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Agni Yoga
is a practice of
spiritual exercises that allows everyone, in what
circumstances ever he lives, to
lead a higher life. It is
a spiritual martial art.
In
ancient times the Shaolin or Samurai practiced
sword fighting in
order to defend their bodies.
Today, the warrior of the spirit needs spiritual weapons to defend
the life of his higher
nature, his soul.
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Agni Yoga is a
complete program for the renewal of
both the individual human
being and of human
society as a whole.
2. Historical Background
James Hilton, in his famous novel “Lost Horizon”,
tells us about Shangri-La, a remote valley in the Himalayas.
There, an order of
wise Mahatmas has discovered the secret of immortality and set up a culture in
which people live as in paradise: Without need, greed, violence, poverty and unemployment.
These Mahatmas of
Shangri-La, or Shambhala as we say today, really exist. They have appealed to
mankind in the last 150 years with three major initiatives:
Helena Blavatsky
The Russian Helena
Blavatsky received three years of teaching and training in an Ashram of the
Mahatmas in Tibet.
On this basis, she
published books such as “The Secret Doctrine”, “Isis Unveiled” and “The Voice
of Silence”. They form the scientific basis of Theosophy. He who reads these
writings recognizes: This vast knowledge did not originate from Mme. Blavatsky herself. It evidently comes from a higher
source.
In 1875, together
with Colonel Olcott, Mme. Blavatsky founded the
Theosophical Society, which exists up to today and spreads the teachings of the
Mahatmas.
Mahatma Letters
Inseparable from Mme. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society are the Mahatma
Letters: A unique documentation of the communication between beings of a higher
order, the Mahatmas, and individual members of the Theosophical Society. They
contain a wealth of teachings about the new world-view
and its practical application, as well as about the work of the Theosophical
Society.
The originals of
these letters are preserved in the British Museum in London and there available
for review to everyone.
Teachings of the Temple
The second great
initiative of the Mahatmas is connected with the name
of the American Francia LaDue. She received as of 1890 from one of the Mahatmas
the Teachings of the Temple. These are a real Holy Scripture with invaluable
instructions. They can be regarded as a preparation of mankind for Agni Yoga.
Together with
William Dower, Francia LaDue founded the community “Temple of the People” in
Halcyon, California. This spiritual centre is still in existence today and has
sections inter alia in Russia, England, France and
Germany.
Agni Yoga
Finally, the third
initiative of the Mahatmas was from 1921 to 1940 the handing over of the
teaching of Agni Yoga to the Russian Helena Roerich, the wife of the great
painter Nicholas Roerich.
This highest
knowledge ever made accessible to mankind is today being cultivated, practised and spread by numerous Agni Yoga- and
Roerich-Societies in many countries all over the world.
3. The core Statement of Agni Yoga:
“Immortal Man”
If we were to try
to summarize the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament with one sentence, we
would probably choose:
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Matthew 19,
19).
Likewise, we can
reduce the essence of the vast ocean of Agni Yoga to just one core statement:
Immortal man — is this idea not worthy of the future?
(AY 553)
Or, scientifically
speaking:
We are infinite, not temporary. (Heart 515)
Agni Yoga paints a
completely new picture of man: We are not perishable, mortal - we are eternal,
immortal creatures.
Man should believe in immortality, he is entitled to
it, it is in accordance with his nature. (Goethe to Eckermann,
04.02.1829)
What is the
foundation of this epochal message?
All nations, the
cultures of all times know: Man consists of two parts, a material, visible body and a non-material invisible soul. Our spiritual being,
the soul continues to live on after the death of the body.
When one is seventy-five years old, it cannot fail
that one sometimes thinks of death. This thought leaves me in complete peace,
for I have the firm conviction that our spirit is a being of an indestructible
nature; it continues to act from eternity to eternity. It is similar
to the sun, which seems to go down only to our earthly eyes, but which,
in reality never goes down, but ceaselessly continues to shine. (Goethe to Eckermann, 02.05.1824)
The body is only a
transitory tool which allows the soul to appear and to act on the material
level. Once it is no longer usable, it is cast off like a worn
out coat.
Just as a man giving up old worn out
garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up
old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies. (Bhagavad Gita II, 22)
The knowledge of
the immortality of the soul is the common basis of all religions
Agni Yoga goes one
step further: If man is made of a mortal and an immortal part, we should take
the eternal part as our true self. We should identify with our soul, not with
the body.
With the "visible" man we have nothing to
do. He is to us only a veil that hides from profane eyes that other ego with
whose evolution we are concerned. Our
greatest trouble is to teach pupils not to be befooled
by the outward appearances. (Mahatma Letters No. 43, February 1882)
Do not think: “I
have a soul”, but: “I am a soul.”
To know the real do not think you have a soul, but the
soul has you. (Teachings of the Temple Vol.2, Lesson “Life and Death”)
It is not the man who has the soul, but the Soul who
has the man. (Teachings of the Temple, Vol. 3, Lesson "Center
of Light")
By thus adjusting
your consciousness you are able over time to transform from a material, mortal
into a spiritual, immortal being.
Sometime man will become fully conscious of his own
real identity, whereas he is now only conscious of a body and mind, which he
mistakenly terms Self. (Teachings of the Temple, Vol. 2, Lesson
"Reincarnation")
The aim of Agni
Yoga is a higher level of evolution: a New, immortal Man who creates a New
World.
The New Man is an
eternal individuality. As such, he is invulnerable, because nobody and nothing
can do him any harm; invulnerable he is invincible; invincible he is entirely
fearless; and fearless he is completely free, from which results a new dignity.
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The New Man
rejoices at his death, as his soul then enters a higher, better world.
He overcomes the
material sorrows: They are vain and small from the point of view of the eternal
path on which he walks.
The New World
The New Man builds
a New World: We overcome the main evil of our time: selfishness. Only the
immortal man can act completely selflessly, because he does not have to fear
for his existence.
We replace egotism
by cooperation and service to the common good. Communities of immortals create
a higher culture, in which there is no greed, violence, poverty or
unemployment.
For the details of
how we can transform into immortals and create a New World, please watch our
Series “Experiment Immortality”.
4. What does Agni Yoga teach?
Let me now give you
a brief summary of the basic teachings of Agni Yoga.
We shall discuss the details in the following Broadcastings:
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Reincarnation: The
immortal soul, our true, spiritual individuality leads an eternal life. It
walks an infinite path through a great variety of material and non-material
worlds, planets, times, cultures and levels of
existence. The most natural concept is that it returns to earth as long as it has something to learn here.
Without recognizing
the continuation of the life of the spiritual part of our being after the death
of the body, there is no meaningful existence.
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Next Karma: The
free will distinguishes us from the animals. It is a great achievement.
However, it requires necessarily responsibility. Freedom without responsibility
would be a cosmic monstrosity.
Karma works like
the physical law of cause and effect: If we do good today, we improve our own
destiny in the future. Everything wrong we do, we
shall have to make good later.
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Evolution: This is
the very basis of our existence. Our eternal being was a stone millions of
years ago. It then developed into a plant and from there into an animal, before
it reached the level of man. It will continue to evolve during its infinite
future existence to a Mahatma and to further, still higher levels.
There are no limits
to the growth of the soul. Our higher spiritual self is endowed with a gigantic
potential for the eons of evolution to come, which only calls for being
unfolded.
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From the law of
evolution follows the principle of the hierarchy of souls: Man stands above
animal, animal above plant and plant above stone, because the divine spirit
dwelling within all of them is expressed more perfectly on each further step.
The hierarchy of
souls knows higher steps than man. Evolution has produced elsewhere in the
universe far higher creatures and worlds. The real existence of these higher
beings is the scientific basis of each religion.
Nature makes no
leaps. The different levels develop naturally from their predecessors.
Therefore, man is not separated from the levels above him. The actual
connection of at least some well developed
human beings with creatures of a higher degree of evolution is another
scientific basis of each religion.
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The Higher World:
Nowhere are the conditions in the spiritual world, from where the soul comes
and into which it returns after the death of the body, described more
accurately and vividly than in Agni Yoga.
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The meaning of
life: Nothing of what the soul accumulates in good and bad properties during
its life on Earth is ever lost. We take all this with us on our further,
eternal path. This enables us to grow infinitely.
The path of the
soul - or the meaning of life - is the unlimited amelioration of these
accumulations and the continuous ascent on the ladder of Hierarchy, in order to reach ever higher steps of human development and
to exploit our immense potential.
Like the children
you sense within you the natural desire to grow, to become greater. The next
level is that of a “Great Soul” - a “Mahatma”. The great teachers of humanity
such as Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed, and many saints and spiritual heroes have
already reached this step. They show the way to little
soul like us.
Man is on the path to God. (Fiery World II, 369, 370)
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Finally, joy: The
earthly life, and especially difficult conditions, offers countless
possibilities to the soul to make progress on the spiritual path of the ascent
to God. That is why the New Man rejoices at every single hour, regardless of
how the circumstances look like.
Joy is a special wisdom. (Community 156; Agni Yoga 293
i.a.)
5. Unification of Religions
Finally, a very
important point: We do not wish to found another sect,
on the contrary: Agni Yoga advocates the unification of all religions!
The great teachings
of all faiths all originate from one and the same source. They differ slightly,
because only that could be revealed what a certain people of a certain time at
a certain place with a certain cultural background was able to understand.
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Contrary to the
belief of the fanatics, religious knowledge, too, is progressing: About 4000
years ago, Moses was able to impart the very simplest commandments only. Jesus'
teaching to love your neighbour 2000 years ago went a big step further. Today,
the time is ripe for an even greater disclosure of the one, eternal truth. Agni
Yoga is the synthesis and contemporary continuation of all previous religions.
But even with Agni
Yoga, no end is reached. If humanity over the next 2000 years understands and
implements in daily life what has been transmitted, then another, even higher
revelation will follow.
6. In-depth Reading
In a video, we can
only briefly summarize a topic.
Therefore, we
recommend for in-depth reading the booklets “Introduction to Agni Yoga”,
regarding this Broadcasting Booklet 1 “The Immortal Man”. These booklets
contain the most important quotations from the books of Agni Yoga regarding all
the central themes of this teaching.
You can read them
online at
www.lebendige-ethik-schule.de/hefte.htm.