Putting spirtuality and “religion” in its proper perspective

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The question of what is the true spiritual path to follow was asked of me years ago. When I voiced my opinion, I did not get any arguments but for many, they had never heard anything like it.

It is normally taken by people that religion means a type of faith, but this is not how I saw the real meaning of religion. There is a Sanskrit word ‘sanatan-dharma’, which is different from the English word ‘religion’ in that it might put into perspective what religion really is.

Generally, we think of ‘religion’ in connection with a particular sect, but ‘sanatan-dharma’ refers to the eternal function of the eternal living being in relationship with God, aka the Supreme Lord.

Religion conveys the idea of faith and that faith may change. One could have a faith in a particular process, but the person may change that faith and adopt another. Sanatan-dharma refers to that activity which cannot be changed. Just like liquidity cannot be taken from water and heat be taken from fire, the eternal function of the eternal living entity cannot be taken away from the living entity.

What this means is that the eternal quality of the eternal living entity cannot be taken away from the living entity. So, what part of the living being does not change? It has already been validated that the cells of the material body change every seven years. That being said, it points to the fact that while the material body changes every seven years, the eternal soul within the body does not change and that is the true identity.

So, if a person changes their faith from Christian to Jewish or Moslem, these are just added labels to the temporary body, which has a beginning and an end. So, what was there before you started calling yourself a Christian, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu, or a Buddhist? The eternal spirit soul! You cannot take this quality away from yourself any more than you take liquidity from water, or heat from fire.

The second characteristic of the living being is that the living being is rendering service and feeling love or affection. It’s obvious that lower animals serve human beings as servants serve this master. There is no exception in the society of living beings to the activity of service.

The politician presents actions to the public to convince them of his service to them. The voters then give the politician their votes thinking that he/she will render valuable service to society. The shop-keeper serves the customer, the worker serves the capitalist, the capitalist serves the family, and the family serves the state. What this means is that no living being is exempt from rendering service to other living beings.  This means that the rendering of service is the eternal religion of the living entity.

So, if you eternal by nature and your eternal function is to love and serve someone, then obviously your activities should be in connection with the Supreme Eternal Living Being, beyond the bodily conception of life.

If you can stop being a Christian, Jew, Moslem. Hindu or Buddhist, then that is not actually religion because it is not eternal.

Actually, the different faiths are ultimately meant to wake a person up to his actual, eternal, religious condition. In other words, whatever process one is following, if it doesn’t have the effect of bringing a person to the platform of understanding his eternal identity as spirit soul and his eternal relationship with the Supreme Soul, that has no meaning. Instead of helping a person come to the platform of actual religion – love for God – the person begins to identify his particular faith as religion itself and becoming a member of a ‘team’, and all of this ‘team’ fighting is the greatest enemy of mankind.

The Christian considers the other ‘team members’ to be his enemy and vice versa. This has all to do with bodily identification and never seeing the person for who he really is. Why do the blacks and whites fight? Because they only see with their material eyes and not with their spiritual eyes. All they see is a black body and a white body and not that within those bodies are the children of God.  And, despite all talk of religion, the vast majority are actually following the faith of materialism and identification with the material body, regardless of what they may call themselves.

Like in Webster’s Dictionary, Krishna is described as ‘a Hindu God’. God is God. God means Number One. Krishna means The All-Attractive One. There can only be only one Number One. Allah –All- Compassionate; Jehovah – All-Powerful; Eloi – True- Friend; Abbah – Heavenly-Father.  So, while you may call God by one name or different names doesn’t mean there is another God. And, that misunderstanding equates to endless fighting.

So, the first point of religion is that you must understand that you are not the body, but the eternal spirit soul within the body. Once you understand this, you will immediately realize that you are not white or black, American or Russian, Christian or Jewish, or any external designation.

The second point is that your position is dominated so you are not the Supreme Spirit, but part and parcel of the Supreme.

This brings you to the third point, your natural function, which is engaging in His loving service. At the end of the Bhagavad-gita-as-it-is, Krishna states:

“Give up all varieties of religion or faith and just love Me.”

The real meaning of religion is somehow trying to develop your love for God and solidifying an eternal relationship with Him!

The human form is the only form that has a choice. You can be in the world and OF the world riding the sense gratification roller coaster and experiencing endless ups and downs or you can be in the world but NOT of the world focusing on developing a relationship with your Heavenly Father and engaging in activities that are pleasing to Him.

Doing that puts you on the path toward eventually being in the spiritual world and not dealing with the endless ups, downs and frustrations of the material world. And it all begins by chanting and meditating on his Holy Names.   

Gopala Govinda Rama Madana-Mohana

Gopala – the Supreme Protector, the Shepherd, the Friend of the cows.

Govinda – He who gives pleasure to the cows, the senses and the holy people. The Shepherd and Protector.

Rama – He who gives transcendental pleasure to those who lovingly serve Him.

Madana-Mohana – He who is so attractive that He attracts Cupid.

Haribol! (Praise and chant His Holy Name)

Sources:

Bhagavad-gita-as-it-is

Sri Isopanisad

Srimad Bhagavatam   

Hesh Goldstein
When I was a kid, if I were told that I'd be writing a book about diet and nutrition when I was older, let alone having been doing a health related radio show for over 36 years, I would've thought that whoever told me that was out of their mind. Living in Newark, New Jersey, my parents and I consumed anything and everything that had a face or a mother except for dead, rotting, pig bodies, although we did eat bacon (as if all the other decomposing flesh bodies were somehow miraculously clean). Going through high school and college it was no different. In fact, my dietary change did not come until I was in my 30's.

Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.

After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.

Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.

I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.

So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".

Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.

I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.

But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.

The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.

But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.

So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.

Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.

I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.

Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.

A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.

In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.

My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.

I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.

Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.

The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.

Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.

For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.

Namaste!