Vishnu Swami - Eternal Dharma: How to Find Spiritual Evolution Through Surrender and Embrace Your Life’s True Purpose

ETERNAL DHARMA

How to Find Spiritual Evolution Through Surrender and Embrace Your Lifes True Purpose

VISHNU SWAMI

The Maverick Monk

Copyright 2017 by Vishnu Swami

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

ETERNAL DHARMA

EDITED BY JODI BRANDON

TYPESET BY PERFECTYPE, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Cover design by Ian Shimkoviak/ thebook designers

Cover image by WICHAI WONGJONGJAIHAN/shutterstock

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I dedicate this book to the most important person in my life: my beloved Guru, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Goswami Maharaja.

It is only by His loving guidance and affectionate mentorship that I feel that I am able to understand, advance, and grow on this ever-sweet spiritual path.

First, I express my gratitude and affection to my most beloved Guru Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja. He is my life and soul; I am forever grateful to Him and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for all that they have created and taught. It is only because of them that I am on this spiritual path and I love them dearly.

As I write this, I am humbled and elated at the sheer thought of the divine masters of my beautiful Gaudiya lineage. My gurus come from a rich lineage of spiritual preceptors, all of which have given invaluable and unique insights to the spiritual path and spiritual domain. I offer my respects and gratitude to all of them.

I thank all the members of Iskcon and the Gaudiya Math and all Vaishnavas of the past, present, and future. Though as a maverick I have my qualms with certain cultural approaches to the spiritual, it is a fact that I would know nothing of the spiritual without having had the sweet association of the various Vaishnava communities. I am forever grateful to them.

I would like express my deepest appreciation to Bill Gladstone, my wise and inspired book agent, whose guidance and support in this endeavor of creating Eternal Dharma has been invaluable. He continues to surprise me with his wisdom. Rick Freshman is a ball of energy and book production genius. Thank you for helping catapult this book to the next level.

Thank you Michael, Adam, Lauren, and all the wonderful people at New Page Books. You have been fabulous and tolerant. I admire your clarity and tenacity in bringing this book to market in the best possible light. Michael, your mentorship was amazing; and Lauren, thank you! A little blurb like this is too short to express my admiration and appreciation for everyone at New Page who so diligently have done everything to make this book wonderful, so I will just send you all one big thank you!

Thank you to Berny Dohrmann and my CEO Space family.

To my friend Joel Roberts, what can I say? Thank you just does not do it. You dug deep into me and inspired and guided me on how to share my core with the world at large. You are a communication master. Thank you!

I could write a book on how cool everyone who was key in creating EternalDharma is. But we will keep it short, for you have a mind-blowing book to read.

Sita, Rasik Mohan, Devananda, Mallika, Acyutananda, Nityananda, Daniela, Dr. Woody, Dr. Jonathan Glass, and BV Vaikhanas Maharaja, thank you for your thoughts and insights to my writing.

Sripad Premananda Prabhu, BV Madhava Maharaja, BV Tirtha Maharaja, BV Sridhar Maharaja, Srimati Syamarani Didi, Harold (Hari), Lani, Alexandr Aguet, Racitambara Mataji, Veda Sara, Alex Carrol, all our Gaudiya Sanyasis, and all other monks and friends and supporters, thank you for being an inspiration, guide, and friend.

My dear friend, welcome. You are about to embark on a splendid journey. I applaud you, for not everyone is willing or ready to embark on such a spiritual journey. By simply opening a book entitled Eternal Dharma, you have already earned my respect, for it takes a special kind of person to be looking to grow both spiritually and practically.

You probably have already begun your spiritual journey. You probably have begun to introspect and search to find meaning, connection, clarity, purpose, and inspiration in life. Yet, I am 99.99 percent confident that wherever you are on your spiritual path you will find this book helpful, because the wisdom, tools, and practices presented here are both ancient and unique.

I anticipate that in our time together a lot will happen. We are going to cover a lot of ground, some of which will be light and imbued with warm and fun feelings of felicity. Some will be deeply philosophical, dealing with the fundamental questions of life that have plagued thinkers, philosophers, and spiritual seekers for millennia. All of what we cover will be practical, and is designed to immediately empower you in both Effective Action and on your path to passionate enlightenment.

We often feel powerless. We have many desires we wish to fulfill. We want tangible results, such as more cash, better health, more time, and sweeter relationships; and many of us are constantly seeking new, better, and more effective ways to execute our plans. Many of us are seeking how we can better live, be, and do things in the world. We seek new tool sets, tricks, and mindsets so that we can be much more effective.

A question we may ask is: What can I learn that will increase my effectiveness to create better results in my life and business, while having a more joyful experience in the process? I believe that the 5,000-year-old spiritual wisdom of India presented here in this book is the ultimate, best, and most powerful system for Effective Action. Being a continual student of self-help, personal growth, and business effectiveness has been very helpful, but never left me completely satisfied. I wanted a system of understanding life and effectiveness that was completethat took everything in existence into account.

Everything in existence is quite vast. There are physical things that you can touch and measure, such as earth, water, airplanes, rocks, houses, and so forth. There are also subtle things such as emotions, ideas, information, and desires. All of existence also includes galaxies, business, relationships, economies, brands, healthcare, actions, plans, music, events, the spiritual domain, rubber duckies, and chocolate bars. In reality all of these things exist together in the same world, in unison, and in reasonable harmony. I wanted a knowledge system that acknowledged and capitalized on this natural coexistence.

There many systems in the world: There are health systems like yoga, acupuncture, and neurosurgery. There are fighting systems like jujitsu and swordsmanship. There are knowledge systems such as architecture, race car driving, scuba diving, war, politics, sex, business, investing, agriculture, astrology, astronomy, and education. I wanted a personal growth and empowerment system to work in synergistic unisonin harmony with all these other knowledge systems. I wanted to find the intrinsic truths that prevail in all things in existence and all knowledge systems of the world.