The avatars and
messiahs of God appear when there is utter emotional unrest or social
dissatisfaction in the society. At the summit of such social and spiritual
turmoil, a messiah appears as the guide of man, who inspires the hope of his
betterment and salvation. God, that Master Craftsman who conceived and
projected this universe, presides over human evolution through the medium of
such spiritual masters. We know that all religions in the world have originated
from such messianic movements. However, the truth is that despite the work of
any number of such gurus and prophets, humanity is still groping in the dark
unable to get on to the path of universal peace and spiritual fulfilment. Today
people are getting more and more convinced about the desirability of evolving a
universal spiritual culture and harmony.
There is an underlying
unity among religious doctrines although the rituals and attires differ, said
Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru. The evolution of a universal spiritual culture
depends upon the discovery of such a unifying belief system, which can bind the
humanity in a common bond. The life mission of Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru
was the rediscovery, reinterpretation and revitalization of this unifying
spiritual concept that would constitute the basis of a universal religion. In
the Indian spiritual tradition, this concept had already existed, which the
sages called as Sanatana Dharma, i.e.
the eternal religion. However, this differs in a major way from the concepts of
popular Hinduism.
A universal spiritual
culture can evolve only on the premises of universal spiritual truths that can
stand the test of time and science. The disagreement between different
religions and schools of thought on the basic concepts about God, the origin of
creation, its purpose and the scheme of divine dispensation in the human world have
led to the present conflicts. The sages of India had brought to light
convincing ideas about the origin of the universe and about the existence and
evolution of man through many cosmic ages. The avatar theory in the Hindu
scriptures points to the gradual evolution of man. In the long course of a
cosmic age, there are many cosmic dawns and dusks corresponding to the origin
and dissolution of different human civilizations. The rishis in India had known about these cosmic ages and the process
of human evolution occurring through the unending play of cosmic energy. No
other religions have revealed so much about the cosmic age calculations and the
scheme of evolution as the rishis in
ancient India did.
According to creation
myths in various cultures, when the creation of human universe started, God
first conceived himself in the form of a human. However, this does not happen
in an earthly level. It is an astral process. Then God halved himself as a man
and woman. In the mystical language, this archetypal human is known as Manu
from whom proceeded the subsequent creation. (The concept of Adam has some
resemblance with this idea of an archetypal human). However, this does not
happen on the earthly level. First, it happened in the astral level, equivalent
to the Sankhya concept of purusha and prakriti and its subsequent cosmic processes resulting in the evolution of the physical universe. The concept
of Manu, the archetypal human ancestor and his pairing as a man and woman
mentioned differently in the creation myths of various cultures is related to
this initial cosmic process. It is this astral pairing that has caused the
pairing of all living beings in the form of male and female in the world.
The age of the universe
is equivalent to the age of fourteen archetypal Manus, from whose conception
emerges human civilizations during successive cosmic ages. Hence, in the Indian
tradition, the age of the universe is calculated in terms of Manvantara after the name of Manu. The
human universe evolved from the conception (sankalpam)
of Manu in association with the seven primal rishis. These primal rishis
could be the planetary spirits constituting the architecture of the solar
system. The planets are the primary nodes with specific qualities and cosmic
functions in the ordering of the solar system and life in it. Life manifests
and evolves with the help of life-giving cosmic rays from the sun, moon and the
surrounding planets and stars.
The rishis had discovered through their
inner vision that God is achintya and
avyakta, i.e. God is the
unintelligible and indefinable Principle, which they named as Brahman. The understanding of the rishis is proving to be scientific
verities. Now science has discovered that there exists a God Particle, an
‘invisible field’ from which the universe has sprung up. The good part of such
scientific advancement is that it would lead to the convergence of science and
spirituality compelling man to cast away all atheist and rationalistic pretensions
and accept a universal theory about life and creation. It would also dismantle
the dogmatic beliefs of those who try to appropriate God within the rigid walls
of their religions.
For the bodily
manifestation of life on the earth, there should be the five gross physical
elements (fire, air, water, earth and sky - the panchabhutas). There are a few more collateral elements like mind (manas), time (kaala) and the four directions (dik)
etc. required for the soul’s existence and mobility. The soul further gets
enclosed in five wrappings known as panchakoshas.
These five sheaths are the food sheath, energy sheath, mind sheath,
intelligence sheath and the bliss or consciousness sheath. Enclosed inside
these physical as well as metaphysical enclosures, the soul has now a form and
starts experiencing pain and pleasure through the medium of five sensory
perceptions (sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell – panchendriyas) in accordance with the threefold qualities or gunas (satva, rajo and tama). The
evolution of the soul means going back to its source breaking the conditioning associated
with each astral stage. The soul gets awakened to its pure nature only after
innumerable births and deaths expanding its horizon of consciousness. This is
in short the architecture and the life science of our soul or atma.
Like the sunrays that
help to evolve a flower from a bud, an external agency is required to evolve a
soul from its unconscious state to more evolved states. GURU is that external
agency, which illumines or evolves the souls, as the sun does to a budding
flower. These earthly gurus preside over the transformation of individuals and
society during the successive cosmic ages. This is the basic framework of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal universal
religion, in which there is a place for the chronology of all gurus and
prophets. The religious tolerance of India is rooted in this concept of
spirituality. Conflicts arise when the different messiahs and their followers
refuse to accept the truth of this ever-evolving divine dispensation, which is
not static or limited to the work of earlier messengers, who had appeared at
historic intervals for specific spiritual missions.
Navajyothisree
Karunakara Guru exhorted us to move on to the path of rishis or gurus coming under the cosmogony of Manu. Guru said that
the spiritual power of devas was
relevant in the yugas of Treta and Dwapara, while the way of the rishi
or guru belonged in particular to the Kaliyuga
as this is the order according to the path established by Manu and the Gurus in
his line. The eternal divine
dispensation of Manu is extinct now because of the dominance of the Trimurti tradition in India, which has
placed Manu below the Trimurti gods,
through the mythology in the puranas,
tantras etc. The monotheistic teachings in the Upanishads, Bhagavat Gita,
Guru Gita and philosophical systems such as Sankhya
are inseparably mixed with the puranic
teachings that complement the Trimurti tradition,
which makes it impossible for the development and independent existence of
monotheistic jnana tradition. The
glorious spirituality of India is stuck here.
While almost all major
religious movements in the world since the dawn of Kaliyuga have already done away with the dependence on gods and
goddesses for salvation, the Hindu tradition is limiting itself to the Trimurti tradition. Because of the
trilateral split in its cosmology, it is impossible to find spiritual unity
among the followers of the Trimurti tradition.
For a society to progress and retain its culture, spiritual unity is the
foremost requirement. Although there is a deceptive sense of spiritual unity
among Hindus, the Trimurti tradition
undermines the spiritual unity of people at a subtle level, when it comes to
the question of basic beliefs. One of the major challenges before India towards
the goal of social integration and harmony is this spiritual disunity, which is
further worsened by the worn-out caste order devised by the unscrupulous vaidikas thousands of years ago.
Navajyothisree
Karunakara Guru’s mission is related to this ideological deviation and the
consequent degradation in the practice of spirituality. Although this spiritual
perversion pervades the whole republic of religions in different forms, the
work of spiritual reorientation should begin first from India, where the
spiritual distortion is stronger. In order to initiate the intended spiritual
reorientation and social reformation, it is imperative that India becomes
acutely aware about these spiritual distortions. It is imperative that all
people, irrespective of their religious affiliations, accept the secular cosmogony
of the soul and the universe for the transition to a universal spirituality.
Mukundan
P.R.
