Immortality and the Law of Love
Excerpt:
We’ll read one more from Swami Ramdas. I chose this one in light of the upcoming retreat. The title of this short essay is “Immortality is the Birthright of Mankind”. Have you claimed your birthright? Have you realized your immortality? How seriously do you take the truth of this, and the urgency of attaining it?
“Religion is the bedrock on which a true regeneration of mankind can be brought about.”
And interestingly all the religions created in Kali Yuga have one aim, which is to achieve immortality. Some of them say you only get it after you die to the physical body, but the Eastern religions are focused specifically on attaining it while alive. And say it can only be attained while alive; the mystical Christians and the Alchemists and the Kabbalists all agree.
“But this should bear all the characteristics of a universal religion” and indeed there is a universal religion, even though it goes by many names and has many folk inflections, there is only one truth that runs through all of the seemingly different religions. But the fact that they seem different creates conflict rather than unity.
So, the bedrock religion that must, and can only bring about regeneration of mankind, must be “based on the teachings of the great Masters from whose lips flowed the same wisdom and truth. Narrow dogmatism, blind superstitions, and outworn traditions, which have blurred the pristine light of spiritual culture through the years, must be shed.”
So, we have to give up that which is false and limited in those folk inflections of religions, which go by various names and denominations, and instead turn to the universal core that is present in every tradition.
“Real happiness depends on a well-ordered society based on moral and spiritual values. True religion should unite man” (I would say humans, man and woman, man and man, man and nature) “and man through the realization of the same indwelling Spirit in all. God has no caste. Castes and creeds are of our making. All differences and distinctions which, through the eye of ignorance, one beholds in this variegated show that is the world, disappear in the exalted, universal vision of the Divine.”
So indeed, in any social order there will be a hierarchy of functions, and management, and of special talents and abilities, etc., but it can only be held together when there is a core of unity, of the recognition that every being has within that spark of immortal light, and love, and beauty that is God-consciousness. And our job is to awaken that in everyone, so that that unity overcomes the apparent differences—in the same way that the trillions of cells of the body that keep you alive all have different functions, but every one is necessary, and every one is part of a single whole.
“The world is at present passing through a crisis.”
For him, the crisis was the birth of India out of the British Raj. For us it’s the birth of an entire new world, out of the death of Kali Yuga.
“The old civilization is crumbling to pieces. There is going on a reshuffling of the values of life. The lesson that the present situation holds for mankind is that unbridled lust for power and possessions leads to strife and war, that selfishness, greed, and pride, whether among individuals or nations, cause widespread suffering and misery.”
So, this theme has run through Kali Yuga, echoing down through the ages. But now reaching its culminating planetary-wide conflict.
“Out of the travails through which the world is passing, a new order is bound to emerge based on a knowledge of the universal Spirit. But this cannot be achieved by the efforts of politicians, diplomats, and administrators whose vision is warped by narrow considerations of personal, national, and racial self-interest. The transformation can be brought about only by divinely inspired saints and sages who have experienced the universal vision of Truth or God, who are perfectly selfless, egoless, and whose hearts are ever filled with love for all.”
So that’s the kind of person necessary to bring about world transformation—are you becoming such a being? Such an egoless manifestation of those divine virtues? This is our function.
Audio File: Immortality and the Law of Love – Audio File.MP3