A View of Santhigiri Ashram

A View of Santhigiri Ashram
Lotus Parnasala and Sahakarana Mandiram , Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Monday, January 12, 2015

What is God's System of Spiritual Administration



There is a homogenous, scientific and unitive spiritual law that governs man’s life. Spirituality is the effort to know that universal spiritual law. This spiritual law or spiritual knowhow cannot be known only by reading scriptures, repeating some prayers or rituals and the like. It can be known only through a Guru, a person who knows the spiritual secret, who has the experience of truth. Since God is in the nature of Light and Consciousness, only through the medium of a human, God can communicate with human beings. Therefore, God has commissioned a brotherhood of spiritual masters or mahatmas, who come under the governance of Manu. Who is this Manu? Manu is the architect of our solar system, the first human archetype or the Adam of human race. It is through the medium of Manu, a cycle of human life is initiated in the solar system or solar family. Manu is the spiritual head of a solar family guiding the spiritual evolution of humanity. Nobody can bypass this spiritual system.

There are fourteen such Manu cycles or Manvantaras, one after the other, in a single episode of creation known as kalpa. This explains the probable existence of many other solar systems. The present age belongs to the seventh Vaivaswata Manu, whose spiritual era began approximately 120,960,000 years ago according to the system of Manvantara, the Indian cosmic calendar. The spiritual masters coming under Manu are magnificent souls who have ascended higher spiritual planes and unified with the Light of God through their effort spanning several births. They are known as Avatars. Avatar means one whose soul has ascended or transcended the stellar regions. They remain as luminescent souls in the astral world. It is said that the innumerable stars in the distant sky are such souls, whether we believe it or not. These spiritual luminaries occasionally adorn human forms and come down to the earth plane for the spiritual guidance of man.  Mankind has received spiritual wisdom only through such souls. These spiritual authorities have their own spiritual incumbency according to their spiritual merit and the commission of God. Their spiritual incumbency may be for 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000 years etc. according to the civilizational requirement related to man’s spiritual evolution. 

So it is wrong to say that one particular guru or prophet is the last messenger of God. There would be many such Godly incarnations even now and in future too for the spiritual evolution and spiritual guidance of man in every age. There is a calculation to the number of mahatmas who would come in this way. This spiritual system is known as Sanatana Dharma (means Eternal Religion) in Indian spirituality. In this system, all spiritual authorities that have come in the world have their own place in the historical march of humanity, but not limiting to them. That is why Indian spirituality is tolerant to other faiths and other spiritual masters too. Only such a cosmology can be the basis of a unitive religion that would take the human race to ultimate peace and harmony. This lost spiritual awareness has been restored to us in this era of spiritual churning through a great spiritual Master, Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru. 

Mukundan P.R.
 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

How God Created This World?




Although we might have disagreements on the idea of a God with attribute, some basic facts are common, which can take us forward to a unitive idea of God.  For example, let us examine the idea of Adam and Eve. The Bible has not been able to explain the myth of Adam and Eve in depth and therefore, rational minds cannot digest it and reject them as mere myths. The idea of God manifesting as a human archetype is much older than Bible as it comes from earlier civilizations. This idea is related to a cosmic system, which any person can perceive in the nature around us. Our family is an atomized version of this cosmic truth. What makes a family? A family is made up of a man and woman. From the union of husband and wife a third comes into being, the child.  This new life is born through the sweat of man and woman in the waters of the womb. 

The sages mention that a similar concept lies behind the creation of solar system. Our solar system is another family unit. In it, sun is the intelligence principle and the moon mind. The sun is the father and the moon mother. The earth is the child from their union because it is the sweat of the sun and moon in the form of sun rays and moon rays that sustains life on earth. In a macro level, these examples show the possible way how life is produced and sustained in the world. The same principle works in a micro level or astral level.  Echoing this cosmic truth of creation, the ancient Indian seers revealed thus in the Upanishads: 

‘God Himself took the form of an egg. He remained in it for a year and divided it into two. The lower part is the earth and the upper part was the sky. In the middle of it, God in the form of a Divine Person existed with thousand feet and thousand hands. This Divine Person brooded. Then from His forehead a ball of sweat fell down. That sweat became the waters and pervaded everywhere. In those waters, there arose a golden sphere, in the form of an egg. From that egg, the four faced Primal Father - the First Born of God was born. He then divided himself into a man and woman. All created beings have their origin from them...’ 

The name of that Divine Person in Indian spirituality is known as Manu, the human archetype, after whose name the cosmic time is calculated in terms of Manvantara, the age of a Manu. This Manu or Adam is not an earthly entity. It is an astral entity or spiritual authority governing our solar system. Life on earth began in a scientific way in line with the theory of evolution. A scientific view of creation is provided by the ancient Indian sages in the Sankhya philosophy as well as in the Vedas and Upanishads much before the birth of modern science by way of revelations or mystical experiences. The same creation myth is found adapted in many other ancient civilizations with minor differences. We cannot entirely negate all this as mere myth because it is the inherited spiritual wisdom of humanity. God has not created the world through a magic wand. He has adopted a perfectly scientific method to create and evolve life, which science would prove in the near future. God has not hidden any truth from Him. It is man who is ignorant.

 Mukundan P.R.