Great article Mr. Subramanian, along with the comments it brings up many important aspects of what is actually happening here on material planet earth. I remember hearing that it was a common practice in India for an individual to turn from concentration on an earthly life to a life devoted entirely to the spiritual once they are of a certain age.
This is not to say that our relationship with the divine should be put off until we are older but that a renewed sense of urgency towards the spiritual is a natural consequence of ageing. So a life devoted to finding the truth of our situation is all the more pertinent once we are at the end of our lives and soon to face the end of a particular incarnation. My good friend a devotee of Krishna refers to something he calls our “constitutional position” which is that place where we truly fit in God’s creation. When we are in our constitutional position we are being true to what we are and the easiest way to express that is to say we are servants of the most high God the original Personality of Godhead. And remarkably or not this is the same goal that Christians are taught to follow. Jesus came as a servant and taught that philosophy by modeling it for us. He showed us what God would be like if He were in the flesh like us and what did He do he washed His disciples feet in a rather amazing and transcendental display of humility to show God’s love for us. Since I have investigated both Christianity and Hinduism I tend to blend them and see the commonalities rather than the differences. To my understanding Christianity paints worldly success as a hindrance to spiritual advancement, because the world as a whole is deceived into believing a lie by the father of lie’s Satan who is basically matter personified and plays the role of Maya master of illusion. In order to understand our world I think that what Jesus says to the crowds makes the point rather conclusively. Jesus asks why they are trying to kill Him and then He answers for them “it is because I say your world is evil, that is why you are trying to kill me. Obviously we do not want to see our world as evil and when it comes down to it most of us prefer illusion to hard truth even when that hard truth comes from the mouth of God. But the Bible says there will come a time when God will look into our hearts and those who have no love of truth God will put under strong delusion. From this I think we can deduce that the primary goal of a human incarnation is to seek truth and at the end of everything is the truth of God. Note that Jesus puts it this way, “when you are weary come to me and I will give you rest” which seems to indicate that being weary is a qualification. Until we are sufficiently world weary our motivation to seek God with sincerity is hampered because we still hold out anticipation for a material solution. We cannot worship God and this world at the same time just as we cannot worship money and God at the same time one must take precedence. This reminds me that when God tells Moses to build an alter He says that it should be of unhewn stones. Why unhewn stones? I believe it is because God knew that once we started putting our stamp on God’s alter it would change from an alter to God and become a homage to mans ingenuity, think of the great cathedrals. |
Now thousands of years later we find ourselves completely entranced by our many accomplishments, science and along with it a firm believe in materialism has become our object of worship. Now we readily worship ourselves and the things made with human hands without a thought of God just as He knew we would.
If we want an example of just how misguided and deceived we really are just take a look at the state of the worlds religions. Presumably all of the major religions worship the same God but they can’t even get along with members of their own religion not to speak of the others without fragmenting and violence. What do the major religions tell us without exception? That we are spiritual beings with spiritual concerns would be my first choice. This is what separates them from the worldly materialists who believe in matter and death and shun the notion of the spirit completely. In fact this is stated in the scriptures as one of Christ’s main purposes for coming to the material world in the first place. His mission was to defeat Satan the deceiver and in doing this overturn his lie that we are temporary earth beings who should eat drink and be merry while we still can. The materialists who believe life is one shot and then eternal darkness have an entirely different view than those who recognize the Spirit and the continuation of that Spirit after material death. Once a soul recognizes God’s omnipotence and the Spirits presence in all things everything is changed, it is a whole new paradigm. For if you believe in God you know unequivocally that He knows what you are thinking; there is no fooling God. So if you want to cheat and lie to get ahead in this world you may be able to fool others and get away with it but you know God knows you are a cheat and a liar and Karma will hold you responsible. Of course the materialist has no such compunction and is free to spin lies and commit all manner of sins without consequences as long as he doesn’t get caught, that’s what he thinks anyway. Just look at the west in the last fifty years, how many lies have caused how many wars where God’s children suffer and we don’t seem bothered by it in the least? Which brings me to how religions become tainted with materialism over the passage of time. Take the caste system in India for example, originally it was the breakdown of humanity into categories that expressed the various inclinations that humans have by nature and at that stage it makes perfect sense. But over time it became a sham as a person wholly unsuited for a particular category was placed there based not on inclination but by virtue of what family they were born into. It was not merit that made you a Brahman any longer it was simply a matter of birth like an aristocracy even though the person concerned may be a lowlife thug. Just look at what the west has done with God’s gift to them Christianity; it’s nothing short of appalling. Right from the beginning it was hijacked and modified to justify anything and everything from slavery to wars and torture; people did what they wanted and then said God gave then approval for whatever bestial behavior they engaged in. |
Fortunately God saw the future from the past and predicted this decay in scripture so that we would understand what was happening and not be thrown completely for a loop. Thousands of years ago God had a prophet say that religion would become nothing more than a tradition that people held onto but never looked beyond the surface of, they would worship God but only superficially with their lips while their hearts and understanding were far from Him.
And that’s where we stand today a nation that calls itself Christian but behaves as if it has never heard of Jesus even a little bit. Undoubtedly there are sincere Christians out there but they are a small minority and don’t appear to have any influence when it comes down to it. In the west now judging from our actions we are rank materialists, worshippers of money and power and God has nothing to do with how we go about our daily business. If all the people who call themselves Christians were really Christians things would look entirely different from the reality we see today there is no doubt. But that is not the case and I dare say we are becoming more materialistic with the flow of time; we are getting further from the truth not closer. The mass of humanity has no interest in following God’s instructions they are independent players looking out for themselves and making up the rules as it suits them. The Bible talks of a time when Satan sees that his time is short and so he ratchets up his propaganda trying to lure everyone into his dissention, his rebellion from God. As I understand it God aids those who are seeking spiritual knowledge by using the Holy Spirit which is ever present in all of creation and not separate from God Likewise Satan has those who are committed to his rebellion from God, people who hold anti-Christen views and those people he actively inspires and aids. For Hitler to so spectacularly rise to the top and mesmerize the people into committing unbelievable horrors was a devilish plan there is no doubt. In Germany they took him for a god but he was an anti-Christian god, a pagan god revived from the past to prove the superiority of one race over another. The Nazi philosophy was a polar flip from Christ’s teachings and illustrates how easily the European heart of Christianity for hundreds of years could revert to its pagan past. So it seems western man may flirt with God occasionally but most of the time we are worshipping elsewhere at the alter of money and power. And all of our actions support that conclusion; God and spirituality have no substantial influence in how we do business, how we conduct foreign policy, and most of all how we treat each other. We are for all intents and purposes a heathen country pretending to be righteous but it’s a fraud that cannot be exposed to the light of day without showing the cracks. Our national portrait of Dorian Grey is dark and getting darker, one lie leads to another, one cover-up to the next; it’s like quicksand pulling us down. Spirituality is for children say we, adults know better, as we smash, corrupt, pollute, rape, burn, slaughter and slash each other and the planet to pieces for fun and profit. We are dangerous creatures and under the heavy influence of anti-God (matter) we are destroying the earth and ourselves. And that is the story the Bible paints, a rebellious humanity marching to their own drummer and then reaping exactly what they have sown in the end. Does it seem unfair for God who has given us free will to make our own decisions to allow us to see the results of our actions play out? So it’s not entirely surprising to see evil gaining ground in our world that’s simply the consequences of our choices moving us in that direction. Decay on a large scale is something that is happening and building steam, and we are the witnesses of this collapse of the corrupt Babylon System; it should be interesting. |