The Secret of Guru-Disciple Spirituality

Gurucharanam Saranam

The Secret of Guru–Disciple Spirituality

By Swami Navananma Jnana Tapaswi, Santhigiri Ashram

Guru-Disciple Spirituality is a discipline to be learned by individuals in their life. It is not a matter of rituals; it is a way of life through practice. Therefore, there should be an authority to learn from. Spirituality is not a philosophy to be learned from books. Instead of books, the spiritual philosophy is decoded through the way of action (karma) and the status embedded in the spirit is known.

As the law of science defines – ‘for every action, there is a reaction’, the bodily action is considered as a reaction of the energy status of the spirit and vice versa. As the law of nature presents, every thing is part and parcel of the canvas of the nature and is the exhibition of different spiritual statuses in different forms. That is why in the world everything exhibits its own quality being the nature incorporated in the concerned bodies or materials. Whatever the energy status manifested through different bodies, it has a basic instinct which is subject to changes. This Will of the Ultimate is applicable for human spirits also. That is why Indian spirituality says that human beings are animals having ‘ashta raagas’ (eight-fold cravings) and the capacity to do ‘mananam’ (capacity to think). That means the capacity to think about time. To think about time means, think about the past, present and future. Therefore, the evolution of the spirit from the level of human happens through the development of knowledge or ‘jnaanam’ (ultimate spiritual realization).

But each and every individual with a spirit lives on this earth through the evolutionary track of the spirit which is embedded with a quality accumulated till now. Spiritual status of the individual is determined according to the karmic instincts in the spirit earned through different incarnations. Spirituality has to free the individual from these basic instincts and limitations. This is possible only when an individual is capable to do action (karma) with an appropriate knowledge so as to nullify the bad effects carried by the spirit. This appropriate knowledge is considered as dharma and this is to be learned from the embodiment of dharma – a Seer.

The very traditional concept of Upanishad was this learning process. It means, sit beside the Guru and learn the secrets of life from the mouth of the Guru. This is the very live practice of sharing the good and bad or the pleasure and pain with a person who is an authority of the spirit, i.e. an Aatmajnaani. Aatmajnaani, being an evolved spirit, by perfecting all karma and dharma and hence freed from them, is considered as the very incipient status of a Guru. In the above said state, the spirit attains ‘ashta aishwaryaas’ – the eight-fold fortunes. This is the level which transcends the status of devi-devaas (celestial gods) when the spirit attains the planes of rishis (the abode of seers), sanyaasis (the abode of ascetics), jnaani (the abode of perfected seers) and the state of bhakta (the abode of ardent lovers of God) reaching where the spirit becomes eligible for mukti – liberation. Such a spirit which has attained liberation is considered as the ultimate Guru.

In Sanatana Dharma, the Guru is considered as the embodiment of Brahman, the Almighty and termed as Brahma Jnaani (knower of Brahman). And the Brahma Jnaani being a trikaala jnaani (perceiver of three-fold time), is the authority to guide one towards mukti (liberation) from the spiritual stages beginning from man, deva, rishi, sanyaasi, jnaani, and bhakta. Whenever a person gets such a Supreme Guru for God realization, it is the way of dvaita to attain advaita, i.e., to attain the formless attribute-less state through the medium with attributes. This is the noble concept and true practice of Guru-Disciple order, which bestows God realization. When a disciple is lucky enough to lead life with such a Guru and do his duty combining bhakti (devotion) and the power of vigilant concentration (yogabala) that becomes the natural way of spirituality. Hence this Guru-disciple relationship is the very natural, true way of life by blending karma, yoga, jnaana and bhakti and which flows uninterruptedly through the advancement of disciples and their spiritual perfection. This is the very secret of Guru–Disciple spirituality.

The True Light of God

Gurucharanam Saranam

Mukundan P.R.

The man with the power of clairvoyance slowly opened his eyes and said: ‘When I observe your life, I see a bright light, which is very rare. It is the true light of God. I am able to see the essence of all souls who come to me. But I have never seen such a Blessed Light with any other people’. Shaji and his wife looked at each other in amazement when the clairvoyant said this.

The clairvoyant’s wife also was sitting with him in the small room with portraits of gods and goddesses. The couple had gained the power of clairvoyance after returning from a long pilgrimage to the famous Palani Hills, the temple town connected with Lord Subramanya. Apparently, during their long spiritual wanderings, the husband and wife had met some spiritual masters or had become possessed by spiritual entities who gave them the power of reading the minds of other people and their soul imprints. They performed their meditations and conveyed the extra sensory perceptions to the occasional visitors who came to them seeking special information or guidance for resolving perplexing problems. The middle-aged couple belonged to a farmer community and led a rustic life in a village near Kottayam in Kerala.

Shaji and his wife had made a few visits to this clairvoyant couple with the puzzling questions of their life. The couple would sit in the small prayer room and reveal everything about a family, its problems, the past and present and suggest suitable remedies and rituals. Shaji was a devotee of Subramanya, known also as Karthikeya, the son of Lord Siva. A chemical engineer, Shaji lived in Kottayam with his wife and small daughter. His brush with spirituality came when he was in service at Kozhikode.

One day Mata Amritanandamayi came to the city. Shaji joined hundreds of other people who went to see her. She hugged the assembled people and he also got a hug from her. He felt the spiritual vibration of the hug. At that time, spiritual curiosity was only in a budding state in him. So he had not taken to spirituality as a passion in life. However, a change occurred when an acquaintance brought him a few publications of Santhigiri Ashram. Normally, he would have just stashed them up somewhere. But these books caught his mind. He felt attracted to them. He read them again and again and felt a wish to visit Santhigiri Ashram at Thiruvananthapuram.

It was the calling of his spirit. Soon the opportunity came and he went to Santhigiri Ashram. His wife along with their little daughter accompanied him. His wife had delivered the child with an agonizing medical problem. She had the problem of fibrosis. The delivery took place after a nine-month medical confinement with the fear of risk factors. Somehow, the delivery took place and the doctors categorically ruled out the possibility of another child and advised removal of the uterus. The visit to Santhigiri Ashram had coincided with this period of trauma. Though Shaji was very inclined to follow the rituals and prayers at the ashram, his wife stayed back from all this. She refused to enter the Prayer Hall and just stared at him while he did his prayers. She said that she was not willing to take a human being as God.

In the meantime, arrangements were being made for the hysterectomy (operation to remove the uterus). Just when the date for the operation was being confirmed, Shaji mulled over the possibility of an Ayurvedic cure for fibrosis. He had heard that Ayurveda was effective for curing some diseases. So he decided to stall the operation and seek an Ayurvedic remedy. The desire for sons and daughters is an incurable problem with worldly people. Marriage is not an arrangement for mutual convenience in life, as it has become in Western societies and lately among married couples in India. In the frenzy of making the insecure life secure, for most of the working couples, the birth of a child has become the last priority. However, the trend is slowly reversing. People have begun to realize that they want children to inherit their hard-earned wealth and possessions. This is only a material aspect. Very few are really aware of the spiritual aspects behind the necessity of having progeny. A child birth is some sort of a bridge between the living souls and the dead, in the sense that it is linked with the genetic chain and astral fields of the living in the fulfillment of the life mission and aspirations of the chain of souls in a genetic tree.

Shaji was not prepared for a never-again situation about childbirth and therefore did not want his wife to undergo the operation as advised by doctors. He thought of undertaking another visit to the
Ashram. As usual, his wife sat outside the Prayer Hall while he prayed. Her mind was in a dilemma. It is the duty of a wife to follow the ways of the husband. It is her dharma to be of support to the husband in all his auspicious endeavors! But how could she compromise on her faith and rational beliefs?

After a few months of their return from the Ashram, Shaji’s wife conceived again. This time, she did not experience the problems associated with fibrosis. She felt normal throughout the pregnancy and in due course delivered a boy child. It was a stunning experience for the couple in view of the prognosis of the doctors and the traumatic experiences during the previous pregnancy.

Now the family visited the Ashram with the newborn. Shaji’s wife for the first time entered the Prayer Hall and prayed with her husband. There was piousness and sincerity in her approach. She prayed in front of the Guru – in the main Prayer Hall, in the Parnasala of Guru and in front of the only portrait of Guru at Sahakarana Mandiram kept for public worship in the Ashram. She bowed reverently in front of the Sishyapoojitha, the Gurusthaneeya (Guru Apparent), and sought her blessings for the newborn.

Shaji noticed the change in his wife. He thought it was probably due to her happiness at the birth of a boy, that too without any traumatic troubles like the last time. However, the truth was not that simple, as disclosed by his wife later. During their visit to the Ashram just before she conceived for the second time, his wife had made a prayerful resolve sitting outside the Prayer Hall. She had taken an oath on that day that if she could get a second child, a son, she would accept Guru as God and worship Him as the Supreme. The Almighty Guru heard her prayers and granted her desire, not to reveal His power of miracle or divinity, but to save a family from spiritual waywardness and guide it to a new faith fragrant with love and spiritual experience.

Obsolete Spiritual Legacies and Dogmas

Gurucharanam Saranam

Obsolete Spiritual Legacies and Dogmas

Mukundan P.R.

If the present age is witnessing unprecedented clashes and turmoil arising out of socio-economic disparities, religious fundamentalism, plunders of nature and natural resources, it is because man has failed to comprehend the original spiritual script of the Creator. Unless humanity understands the correct spiritual perspective behind life and Creation, which has an un-patentable universality, the world will, as we see today, go on in opposite directions giving torment to the inhabitants of this planet. How can there be multiple truths of Creation about a single universe, the single human family? Diversities have come due to the narrowness and ignorance of people and societies. Spiritual homogeneity, therefore, is going to be a vital aspect in the new millennium.

Nature has supported whenever such unifying spiritual movements took place; and it destructed too the societies which stood against this. India is an example; against the eternal egalitarian monotheistic teachings (Sanatana Dharma) of Sri Krishna, Sri Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Nanak and many others, when India chose to follow the Brahmin centered caste theory and polytheism (popular Hinduism which follows Vedic rituals for propitiating gods) God Almighty sent messengers in other parts of the world like Moses, Jesus and Prophet Mohammed. The social forces that emerged out of these spiritual movements crushed and pillaged the spiritually and socially fragmented India. India became a subject country under colonial rulers.

The planetary system revolves around unalterable cosmic truths. So too are the spiritual truths behind man’s life and evolution. It is because of its eternal, universal nature, the rishis and sages called these laws as Sanatana Dharma, the eternal spiritual laws. Time is one of the fundamental aspects in this. Time is the other name for evolution, perpetual change. It means that humanity has to constantly evolve to higher spiritual truths spun by the wheel of time. Man’s refusal to accept this truth and his clinging to particular sets of belief systems born out of the necessities of a distant past is the cause of present turmoil and conflicts. Human lungs are gasping for the fresh breath of a new, all embracing culture and spiritual experience. However, the spiritual and cultural overlords want to chain this new age under obsolete spiritual legacies and dogmas.

Mankind has become culture conditioned forgetting the immense potential for spiritual discovery in this glorious age of Kali. If the Muslims and Christians are clinging to the medieval spiritual experiences of Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed, the Hindus are living with a prehistoric spiritual culture of Dwapara and Treta yuga, blissfully unaware that in this time zone (Kaliyuga) changes occur in the methods for spiritual realization. The object of worship in the Dwapara and Treta yuga were the devas, the celestials, but in the Kaliyuga, because of the evolving yuga cycles, mankind evolves one step higher in the spiritual hierarchy. Every yuga has a unique spiritual authority through whom this spiritual transition takes place. People in this new millennium will reject all religious dogma and seek truth.

The souls are guided to the ultimate truth of the Almighty through the ladder of cyclic astral changes as exemplified by the cosmic time concept - Manvantara time order mentioned by the ancient Indian sages. The great spiritual debacle of India lies in the mix up of Vedic idolatry with the path of the spiritual masters of India, who followed monotheism. And only monotheism can be the true basis of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion of mankind. The priest class of India, who is not even five percent of Indian population, will never agree to such a proposition, because that will take away their status as a special people, superior to the natives. It is the racial discrimination of Vedic Brahmins, which fragmented Indian society and brought the country to such disgrace, past and present, and perished it!

The second great sin of Vedic Brahmins is that they kept Indian spirituality under the celestial gods (devas), ignoring the spiritual leadership of the great rishis and sages who incarnated from time to time. India always stood for spiritual discovery - God realization through Guru-Disciple order, which is the path shown by the sages and for which India is well known. But the Brahmins stood in between and led people to Vedic ritualism and deity worship establishing themselves as its unquestionable authorities. Honest Hindus should realize this mess up, this spiritually treachery if they wish to see their glorious country prosper spiritually and socially. But how could it happen! Hindus are under the deep spell of a dirty sleep for ages.

The basic problem is people are not well familiarized with the concept of spiritual hierarchies. If one spiritual aspirant experiences an angel, deva or demigod, they think that they have attained everything in spirituality. There are millions and millions of such spiritual beings in the astral world, who can manifest in front of us. They can be channelized and some of them can give us enormous power to perform miracles. Patanjali advises the seekers to be extremely cautions of such celestial beings, because the aspirants might get misled from the path of God realization. Gods and angels are astral beings, in between God and the human world. They are like stranded travelers who have put up camps on the path and depend upon the upcoming seekers.

Today the Hindus, be it a Brahmin or Sudra, are unable to distinguish between the Sanatana Dharma of the Rishis and the outdated Vedic tradition. Almost all Hindus are ignorant about this spiritual pollution of India. Even the pundits of Hinduism are unable to distinguish this truth clearly. Of course, the wisdom of the Rishis are scattered in the Vedic literature in an inseparable way, like water in milk, which is confusing the spiritual aspirants for thousands of years now. This has to change and people must realize the truth. It is time that the Hindus begin to think, lest they be subject to the most grievous wrath of the Almighty.

Sishyapoojita – The Most Revered Among Disciples

Gurucharanam Saranam

Sishyapoojita – The Most Revered Among Disciples

Mukundan P.R.

The concept of ‘Sishyapoojita’ is an original contribution of Santhigiri Guruparampara to the spiritual fraternity. Sishyapoojita, meaning the worshipful among disciples is the highest accolade bestowed by Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru, the founder Guru of Santhigiri Ashram to the chain of spiritual authorities in Santhigiri Guruparamapara, Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini being the foremost after the physical departure of the Founder Guru.

Sishyapoojitha Amritha Jnana Thapaswini wrote about her early days in the Ashram and the plethora of spiritual experiences and vision she experienced:

“I was able to meet Guru for the first time when I was nine years old. I was much inclined towards the worship of God right from childhood. I had a secular outlook and used to go to mosques, churches, temples and ashrams to pray. At the very first meeting with the Guru, my mind was brimful with reverence. "A tranquility not born out of any emotion" may be the right thing to say. I could even think of Guru at par with God. This Divine Form, clad in immaculate white, appeared in all mortal and immortal dimensions, affluent with great kindness and compassion. This form filled my mind always, never fading away.

Guru guided and rectified my spiritual experiences. But both physically and mentally, I was unable to bear the strain or the after-effects of these visions. This made me to think about living in the presence of Guru in the Ashram, because I knew that through His Prakasham - Spiritual Light - the adverse after-effects of the visions could be annihilated. Thus my life as an inmate of Santhigiri Ashram commenced in 1972. Those were the days when the Ashram was a bee hive of activities like the reception of asareeri (Divine Revelations); prayers extending to weeks non-stop in accordance with revelations; culmination of tasks of divine dicta as per Divine Will, known as Poortheekaranam, always marked by non-stop chanting of prayers for days, etc.

Once, a declaration came forth from the Absolute that all were to bathe and pray and the manifestations would be at 5 p.m. The Supreme Power, with all compassion, came and declared that the thing of its aspiration for so many Yugas had fructified. Also that Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru’s Parampara would be perennial. The Guru was endorsed to be the Soul that has accomplished every known task for Yugas and is saturated with the essence of all types of karmas. This lineage had been favoured with the right to ask and understand anything from the Almighty, unlike the others. So saying it, all were blessed…..”

In the history of avatars and prophets nowhere one could find the continuity of the stream of clairvoyance, leadership and guidance among the disciples after the lifetime of the masters. Secondly, a woman has never been able to climb the heights of spiritual hierarchies as in the case of Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, beyond certain celestial stages in conventional religious traditions, for example the trinity tradition. This twin contribution of Santhigiri to the ancient Indian Guru-Disciple order is one of the uniqueness of Santhigiri’s spiritual movement.

Santhigiri Ashram will be celebrating Poojitha Peedom Samarpanam-10 from 13^th February to 22^nd February, 2011 in commemoration of the great spiritual elevation of Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, the present spiritual head of Santhigiri Ashram.

Spiritual Cleansing of Indian Society

Gurucharanam Saranam

Spiritual Cleansing of Indian Society

Mukundan P.R.

It would be outrageous if it is stated that the problem of poverty in India is due to her spiritual background. Indian people are known for their great spirituality, but spirituality when practiced not in agreement with Yugadharma or as per the evolutionary character of the ages (Manvantara order), it becomes counterproductive, like the usage of expired medicine. The problem of poverty, in its social and individualized nature, has a spiritual aspect because poverty is the expression of the subjective deficiency in a person or society. The gross world of our experience springs from or is a reflection of the subtle dimension of our thoughts, beliefs and actions. In other words it is the status of the soul or the subjective dimension which determines the quality of our life and environment.

We cannot change the scenario of poverty without a qualitative change in the soul status. For example, many homeless people in Kerala were given homes free of cost by a government scheme. Age-old miseries and spiritual ignorance had made quite few of them pathetic drunkards. Within a short period, they sold their houses and became homeless again. A house under the canopy of the Creator is a divine blessing. We can help a homeless person. But the most enduring help would be elevating persons and societies subjectively so that the blessings of life never depart from them.

If religious beliefs lead to fundamentalism and extremism, if it causes fissures in the society, if it produces poverty and moral depravity, if it does not uplift human spirit to the vitality of truth, then it means that a spiritual distortion has taken place, calling for a positive social intervention. It necessitates a new method, to revitalize and rehabilitate the human spirit. We have found from our experience that what is needed is not the revitalization of old doctrines, but a spirituality that could practically uplift us to a new height of social and spiritual transformation in accordance with the evolutionary character of this age, Kaliyuga.

Whenever, whenever societies have come under the weight of regressive traditions and belief systems, they have suffered socially, politically and economically. We all know that the pagan ancient religions of Rome, Greece and Egypt were replaced with new monotheistic doctrines and belief systems, bringing about great social change. It was after this cultural and spiritual renaissance, the western societies evolved to play a leadership role in the world. Almost the entire world has now come under the influence of western culture. In the medieval period, the Arab and Persian civilizations became formidable when Islam crushed the pagan tradition and began to follow monotheistic religion. Similarly, no one can deny the strong influence of Buddhism in the rise of Japan, China and other countries in the Far East.

The relation between spiritual movements and economic and socio-political development is very obvious one. The common thread in all the above examples is a departure from the old customs and beliefs and courting of a more egalitarian spiritual path based on the belief in a monotheistic vision of God. All these are historical examples for the upgradation of the subjective status of societies through spiritual intervention. However, India remained isolated from this spiritual emergence after the time of Buddha. India remained locked in an island of cultural and spiritual malignancy. The history of her cultural and political enslavement and the depressed state of the majority of her people continues to this day. The economic and social deprivation of the underprivileged should be studied in this historical context of cultural and spiritual isolation.

India is the ancient land of the wisdom of sages, whose spirits enliven the spiritual sky of the world. Her development and progress is aligned to the egalitarian path of the Rishis. The spiritual heart of India needs regeneration. Her people should be liberated from the negative spiritual and cultural influences of the past, competing sects and castes. The befuddling ideology of unity in diversity is a meek expression of the helplessness of Hindus in particular and of others in general. India continues to remain in the secondary school of primitive (pagan) worship. India should graduate to a strictly monotheistic tradition under a strong spiritual leadership. It can help India emerge as a global spiritual power. But it is quite understandable that the question of spiritual leadership is not a simple one.

The Indian culture is based on the spiritual regime of the Rishis. India venerated Sri Ram in the Treta Yuga and Sri Krishna in Dwapara Yuga as they were the spiritual authorities of those ages. But when it came to Kaliyuga, India lost its spiritual track. It wallows still under the serfdom of devas unable to understand the true message of Sri Krishna, Sri Buddha and other sages regarding the worship pattern of Kaliyuga. Puranas state that in Kaliyuga 'naama samkirtanam' or chanting of God's name is the way. But whose name? One has no proper information on this. One view is that the name of the Supreme Guru of this Kali age should be chanted. But that Guru should have crossed all spiritual planes and realized the truth of Brahman. That Guru should at least have fulfilled and crossed the trimurty stage (deva stage) in spirituality and should function as per the Will of Brahman .He should function with the knowledge of three fold cosmic time and also should be receiving 'darshan' or spiritual vision from the Light of Brahman to guide mankind in all matters. After Sri Krishna in Dwapara Yuga, we do not know which spiritual master and his lineage has been born in this Kaliyuga fulfilling these conditions.

When India falters, the whole world gets spiritually lost. If it is stated that all the problems of the world today have originated from the spiritual error of India, it would be too difficult for us to comprehend. But believe beyond doubt that India is the spiritual center of the universe. It is God’s Will. Let us not forget that the world is established on spiritual truths of cosmic dimension. and India alone is the custodian of that spiritual wisdom. This Kaliyuga has brought India good tides of luck through the birth and life mission of Navajyoti Sri Karunakra for the spiritual cleansing of Indian society, to evolve it into its true pristine spiritual status.

A New Powerful Age of Spirituality

Gurucharanam Saranam

A New Powerful Age of Spirituality

Mukundan P.R.

How beautiful is the idea of the Upanishadic rishis who declared that ‘by knowing which everything becomes known, know that as the Truth’. How scientific is this declaration, which sounds like the computer terminology in the modern age. The rishis could understand the true nature of human problems of diversity, contradictions and conflicts in life through such abstraction. The myriad confusing experiences and pictures of life could be condensed to a few fundamental truths and traits of human beings. When we casually glance through the data, sounds and pictures that are being incessantly thrown up through all types of media around us, we become acutely aware of the tremendous diversities of human mind and pursuits. The cyber world has become a virtual waste basket in which everyone can litter one’s thoughts and mind bits. When we flick through this vast junk of bottomless thoughts, the truth becomes clear that humanity is far distanced from the abstract thinking mode of the rishis.

Those few who do think are still in the thinking mode of a distant past. Those who do not think are blissfully enslaved in the cage of a sensual world. The thinkers and philosophers have no new coats to wear. The prime movers of the society are not the market forces - industries, business houses, politicians and so on. They are only vendors and collaborators of consumerism. The march of mankind depends on radical ideas and philosophy of life. Human civilizations indeed are hinged on the spiritual discoveries of mankind. But what is the state of spirituality today? The present day spirituality is like a stagnated pool on the surface of which are the morass of past ages and the stink of an unworkable spirituality. Unworkable because it cannot lift the colossal weight of the ignorance of the present day human society to a new uplifting spirituality and social transformation because it is either time barred or emasculated of all spiritual strength.

There is an epochal change which beckons a new powerful age of spirituality. The rishis called it as yugadharma, aeonic spiritual change as per the whirling wheel of time. And this spiritual transition is gleaming increasingly like the faint rumble of lightning in the distant horizon. Hearken! The tongues of fire emerging from thither are the words of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru. The time of divine downpour is coming! Be ready, O’ men! The freshness and fragrance of Guru’s teachings emit a new ray of hope, full of beauty and spiritual joy. It can bind humanity together, in a single thread, like the idea of the Upanishadic rishis that seeks abstraction in the idea of the Divine.

Impending Spiritual Transition of Humanity

Gurucharanam Saranam

Impending Spiritual Transition of Humanity

Mukundan P.R.

True globalization can happen only on the foundation of a global spiritual vision, a spiritual vision that does not balkanize spirituality. What we require today is a path of spiritual discovery that helps our transition into a higher plane of consciousness. Only standing upon the plateau of such a higher spiritual consciousness, the modalities for peace, value and progress could be evolved for a just global order. This age demands such a spiritual transition. The present day conflicts, disparities and disquiet are not indicative of a hopeless future, but are the signs of an impending spiritual change as per a perfect cosmic plan governing the universe. We only have to open our eyes to discover its presence, coming out of our spiritual ghettos. Perhaps, the present day talk of globalization, though on a wrong footing, may be a prelude to that change.

Well known Theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote that human civilization originated from what she called as ‘Root Races’. According to her, there are seven root races in a cycle of creation. The present one is the fifth Root Race progenerated from Vaivasata Manu. She further explained that each Root Race has its distinct characteristics according to a pre-destined plan in the evolution of human civilization. Blavatsky was only affirming the Manvantara order mentioned by the ancient Indian Rishis. However, the Manvantara order as per the Indian spiritual schools differs slightly from Blavatsky. While Blavatsky described that the present Root Race of Vaivaswata Manu is the fifth root race, according to Indian schools of thought, it is the 7^th Root Race.

It is mentioned to drive home the fact that human race has a common origin from a common progenitor and therefore, the oneness of humanity is an inherent truth in nature. The racial and geographical fragmentation of humanity occurred because of an ideological slip in the Root Race many aeons ago. The consequent ideological spilling caused identical balkanization in customs, habits and culture of man. Human movements across land and sea further developed into different racial and ethnic communities. It is ideology that separated humans at the root level which manifests in all levels of human civilization beginning from an individual to a family, society and to nations in the world.

The world today appears steeped in so much diversity. To harmonize humanity into the concept of Oneness, one has to begin from the ideological aspect. Man has to retrace his steps from the ideological diversities to the original source where harmonizing of diverse ideologies take place. Even a single global language could be a reality if man retraces his steps to the source of oneness. Only such an ideological base can unite mankind. Of course, humanity has to travel a long distance before reaching that shore of ideological oneness. Therefore true globalization can take place only when this ideological integration is reached. The present economic globalization is perhaps the forerunner of such an integration. One cannot also deny that the present changes brought about by economic globalization, however unpleasant that may be, is helping humanity to evolve from the local versions of human exploitation and retrogressive ideologies.

Human civilization is in the threshold of change. A great evolution in the spiritual thinking of man is taking place. Sri Aravind Ghosh referred this as the Supramental transformation of human race. Mankind has to lift itself gradually from the lower spiritual levels in which they are currently locked in to higher spiritual embankments. The cosmic time order is propelling humanity to such a spiritual transition. It is a journey to Root Consciousness through multi-layered chests of consciousness. The present spiritual and ideological perplexity and the consequent disquiet in the world are due to mankind’s dislocation from that basic source. The ideology of Navajyoti Sri Karunkara Guru is to rouse humanity to that impending spiritual transition for a global world order based on true dharma peculiar to this age.