Your Secret Journey (Spirituality for the Modern Youth Series)

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Foreword

"This is a well illustrated, easy to understand book and I know the author to have a genuine care for the well being of the young people of India, making him the true representative of the best friend of youths today. Using his years of experience in this field Radheshyam Prabhu, has managed to produce a systematic, highly effective study of Srimad Bhagavad-gita.

I strongly recommend that a serious study of these books is done to discover India's ancient heritage and wealth of Vedic wisdom. I am confident this study course will inspire and motivate many to delve more deeply into the fathomless purports of Srila Prabhupad's books."

Preface:

We are pleased see that the first two volumes of "The Spirituality for the Modern youth" series have been well received. 'Discover Your Self' dealt with the basics of knowledge of soul and 'Your Best Friend' gave a systematic understanding about the 'Supreme Personality of Godhead. This third book was supposed to be 'Pass the final exam'. But the work become so voluminous that we had to divide it into two books – 'Your Secret Journey' and 'Victory Over Death'.

One of the reasons that people take spiritual life lightly is a lack of knowledge of soul and reincarnation. Some who may know a little bit quite often lack faith in such metaphysical subjects. Others brush aside these subjects thinking them to be unimportant in the midst of the busy chores of a fast-paced life. Problems abound and man struggles spending his entire life in a vain attempt to sort them out by his own endeavor, not knowing the root cause of the problem – lack of spiritual knowledge.

Often people carry weird ideas about how life originated like: our ancestors were ape-men; life appeared from chemicals; man is just a highly complex molecular machine etc. While these ideas are freely floated in educational circles, the spiritualists deliver sermons saying that the soul is the source of life, God is the source of everything and that we belong to a different higher dimensional realm. We have made an attempt to clarify these concepts to bring out the essence of life.

In this book we have scientifically presented what life actually is and explained the process of reincarnation and the purpose of life. The first three chapters may appear to be a little scientific, but we have kept the subject as simple as possible for an average graduate to understand the subject. As one goes through the lessons one can realize the gravity of one's thoughts and actions and the importance of utilizing this human form of life for the supreme goal of self-realization. When one is convinced about these subjects one can learn to lead a pure life in Krishna consciousness that will take one back home, back to Godhead.

We hope your journey through the pages of' Your secret Journey will enliven and enlighten you.

The Vedic texts are the panacea for all problems for all times; they give a crystal clear understanding of all the fundamental and essential truths of life including who we are, what the true goal of life is and how we can attain permanent happiness.

Unfortunately however, in the modem times, the Vedas have generally been misunderstood to be books of sentiment and blind faith or a bunch of empty rituals. And due to such preconceived misconceptions, the scientifically minded youth have reservations in even approaching them. Also, these texts being in intricate Sanskrit are not easily accessible to them.

With these considerations in mind, a need was felt for a systematic and scientific presentation of the five essential themes of the Bhagavad-gita: ishvara (the Lord), jiva (the living entity), prakriti (nature), kala (time) and karma (activity). A humble attempt towards making such a compilation was first made in 1994. Those notes were based on the teachings of Srila Prabhupada, who is internationally acclaimed as an erudite Vedic scholar and as the greatest exponent of Krishna consciousness in the modem times. References were also taken from Back to Godhead magazine articles and from discourses by senior devotees of ISKCON like His Grace Devamrita Prabhu, His Grace Radha Gopinath Prabhu and His Grace Krishna Smaran Prabhu. Those notes were refined over the years as we came to know more about the nature of doubts and questions that youths generally have.

Now we are presenting those refined notes in a handy form as a series of five books, entitled the Spirituality for the Modern Youth series. The books in this series are 'Discover Your Self, 'Your Best Friend', 'Your Secret Journey', 'Victory over Death', 'and' Yoga of Love'.

We have been using these notes for vigorous youth preaching in Vedic Oasis for Inspiration, Culture & Education (VOICE), Pune. VOICE, Pune was started and is being run by the divine inspiration and blessings given by H.H. Radhanath Swami Maharaj, H.H. Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj, H.H. Lokanath Swami Maharaj, H.G. Devamrita Prabhu, devotees of Shri Shri Radha Gopinath Mandir, Chowpatty, Mumbai and Shri Shri Radha Kunjabihari Mandir, Pune.

The approach of having a systematic presentation of the Bhagavad- gita has produced amazing results in effectively conveying the message to the youth and inspiring them to take to Krishna consciousness seriously. VOICE presently has hundreds of engineering students, who are chanting Hare Krishna and leading a pure life free from all bad habits like meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex and gambling.

We hope that this book will therefore act as a beacon light for every sincere seeker of the truth, especially among the youth and the young at heart. It is our hope that the book will also serve as a useful guide for all preachers throughout the world in their attempts to take Krishna consciousness to the youth in particular and to the masses at large.

This book is nothing but a systematic presentation of the remnants of the bold preacher, Srila Prabhupada, and my beloved spiritual master. It is therefore a humble offering at their lotus feet. We will consider our humble efforts successful if this endeavor can assist in fulfilling their pure desire to flood the entire world with Krishna consciousness.