This profound book was written by the author in a few hours after coming out of a deep state of meditation. Feb 18, 2003 at 3:38 pm

May this ancient wisdom about the true self

and our eternal loving relationship with the persons

of the divine, bless you and bring you eternal happiness.

Forth Print 2025

Third Print 2016

Second Print 2005

First Print 2003

Dedication

This book is dedicated

to three great spiritual masters.

The first is Sriman Ananda Tirtha Madhavacarya,

the 11^th century mystic and visionary thinker

who revived the great Vedic doctrines

of eternal personhood.

The second is Kedaranath Dutt Bhaktivinode Thakur

(circa 1892), who was a Rasika Vaishnava saint and poet,

whose global vision brought the Vedic teachings

of eternal personhood to the western world.

Thirdly, I am eternally indebted to my own guru,

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,

who fulfilled the wishes of all those who preceded him,

by courageously delivering the truths of eternal personhood

to a world lost in materialism and impersonalism.

I am forever grateful to these and all other transcendental

teachers who have in any way upheld the torch of eternal

freedom and Divine Love.

Jeffrey Armstrong | Kavindra Rishi

Introduction

This book is a concise rendering of the philosophy of the Gaudia branch of Vaishnava Vedanta, as propounded by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the 15^th century bhakti Saint and Avatara. Veda means: “knowledge” and anta means: “the end or goal of.” The teachings of Chaitanya were subsequently codified in the Vedanta Sutra commentary known as “The Govinda Bhasya”, written by Baladeva Vidyabhusana.

It is only in the last 100 years that this great lineage of teachings about the potential of our eternal relationship with the Supreme Person, has been available outside of India. In the last fifty years, a great wave of this sublime wisdom has been distributed by my guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupada and through his various disciples. This book is my own small contribution to that stream of Vedic knowledge that is now flowing into various cultures and languages.

One of the great contributions of Vedic thought has been the concept of Oneness. To deeply understand that all that exists is One great Divine reality, is the spiritual equivalent of quantum physics proving that all matter is somehow interconnected. Most teachers coming from India to the West have emphasized this teaching of “Brahman” or Oneness.

For this reason, it is often seen that students of Yoga or various Eastern disciplines, believe that realization of Oneness is the complete understanding of the Vedic knowledge. In fact, it would be more correct to say that there are three great subjects to be realized through the Vedic knowledge of India.

· Oneness is the first of these.

· The second, is a proper understanding of karma or transcendental cause and effect.

· The third, is the study of the progress of our individuality from a material conception to a transcendental conception.

In other words, the third subject of the Vedas and Yoga asks the question: “Who am I when I leave the material world behind, where do I go, what are my activities and what is the nature of my personal relationship with both the Supreme Being and the rest of the eternal beings?”

Lineage

Brahma-Sarasvati-Madhava-Gaudia-Vaishnava Sampradaya. 

Madhvacharya, Chaitanya, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

May the Divines Bless you always.  Jeffrey Armstrong Kavindra Rishi