Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 5:08 PM
Divine Character *C.L. Gulati,
Whenever the General
Elections are announced, the political parties swing into action on making
alignments and equations for winning the elections and gaining power. While
blaming each other, every party paints a rosy picture for the public at large.
Feeling pulse of the people, the parties promise to add to their purse by way
of multiple perks.
The major political parties
usually bring out Manifestos in order to gain popularity and to attract more
votes. They announce their respective policies and programmes in the event of
their coming to power and getting a chance to govern. This way, each party
highlights certain issues and in its political wisdom tries to offer the best
possible solution for it. In fine, the end statement of all the Manifestos
would mean purity, peace and prosperity or in other words, health, wealth and
happiness which can be termed as the Charter of Demands of the People.
Now, concentrating our
attention on this statement, we find that health, wealth and happiness are
inseparable. They all go together and cannot be enjoyed in the true sense if
only some have and others do not have them. If there is a disease, poverty or
unrest in any part of the country, we can not have complete peace. These have
to be in abundance for all the people to experience the joy of life.
The rosy picture
shown by the political parties would only be a fleeting phenomenon, if divine
virtues are not ingrained in human character. Therefore, either it must be a
divine sovereignty and everyone an embodiment of divine virtues or it would
only be a moth-eaten hollow society devoid of any real substance. But we find
that no party comes out with any such Manifesto which talks of man turning
divine or the society a divine sovereignty.
Little does any party realize that all its promises to the electorate would
remain unfulfilled if the citizens of the country are not persons of divine
character.
The most important and urgent
problem facing the Brave Society today is the crisis of character.
Materialistic values and outlook have weakened the fabric of society to the
point where selfishness has become endemic in all walks of life. The higher
human values that spring from the awareness of the spiritual basis of our being
must be re-awakened, if the crisis is to be resolved. The spiritual and moral
development is essentially required in order to bring about a non-violent
spiritual renaissance.
So, the era which the
political parties promise to usher in would remain a dream only as long as
nature of the people is not given divine touch. This is the task which they can
not perform because they do not have that magic wand of Divine Knowledge which
transforms human nature into divine one. They do not have such know-how or
expertise which would help to accomplish this superhuman task. God alone can do
this. He, through his Prophet, places before mankind the party-less Manifesto
of complete purity, peace and prosperity, as also the divine sovereignty,
irrespective of their race, religion, caste and culture. By revealing
Fatherhood of God, the prophet establishes spontaneous brotherhood of mankind
This Divine Knowledge provides divinity to human character- which leads to
harmony in the house, order in the society and eventual peace in the world.
The religion is a vehicle of
spiritual enlightenment, moral consciousness and cultural values which are best
suited to address the problems of life in all forms on our beautiful planet earth.
It is for this reason that in the past, the kings and emperors used to have Raj
Gurus to give religious touch to their politics. But now, when the religion has
lost its gravity and has been totally eclipsed by politics, self-transformation
holds the key to social transformation and it is up to each one of us to make
an informed choice in favour of higher human values needed for a better society
at large.
Self-transformation
is decidedly a panacea for all social evils and holds a promise for global
peace and progress. But its achievement is not that simple as it looks to be.
Explaining the intrigue, Nirankari Baba ji who stands for human integration
through spiritual awakening explains that every human being is an amalgam of material
body and the soul-guided mind residing therein. The natural phenmenon is that man
should link his soul with God and body with the materialistic world for its
maintenance. But there is a patent short-circuiting in that the man has linked
his mind with mundane world and body with certain rites, rituals and outer
ceremonies in the name of God. Man thinks his physical body to be the be-all
and end-all of his life. He spends more time looking in the mirror than looking
in his mind to strike a balance for an ideal life. With this short-circuiting,
men are running berserk like excited molecules of gas.
Every human being comprises
of five material elements i.e. the earth, water, fire, air, sound plus the
soul. The first five elements form the body while the sixth represents the
individual unit of consciousness. Whenever there is a deficiency of any of
these five elements in the body, some sort of disease or disturbance takes
place. However, the deficiency of one element cannot be made good by any other.
For example, the necessity of water cannot be met with by earth, fire, air or
sound. Exactly on the same pattern no material element can replenish or
substitute the sixth i.e. the soul or the individual unit of consciousness.
The human body
fulfils its material needs from their counterpart mainstreams of earth, water,
air, fire and sound abundantly available outside it. Likewise, all pervading
God, the mainstream of individual unit of consciousness (soul) exists outside
the human body also. In the absence of establishing relationship between the
individual unit of consciousness (soul) with the mainstream of consciousness
(God), those who materially lack nothing in life, feel disturbed and, at times,
find themselves face to face with situations, when they feel that they have
lost everything. Physical death of a person is painful, but more painful than
that is the situation when the man lives with his soul lying deadly neglected
within. For an ideal life, self-transformation
is another name for self-realization based on reunion of soul with God. When
God dwells in our mind, we are protected from evil ways and that marks the
beginning of much needed social-transformation. Saint philosophers Augustine of
Hippo writers, "Restless are our souls until they rest in Thee my
God."
An enlightened person
perceives God in all and all in God. He believes that all his assets, material
and mental, belong to God and he, as a trustee, is ordained to use them for the
common good of the whole human race. This spells a living above narrow
prejudices and dogmas of caste, colour and creed. Thereby, one becomes
respectful towards other's mode of dress, diet and culture and leads a
purposeful self-reliant family life and maintains order in the society."
This spiritual
attainment is a perennial bliss which brings saint Kabir living in a hutment
earning a Takka (two paise) a day by weaving and Raja Janaka living in palaces,
on the same ecstatic wave length despite their being poles apart socially and
economically. There is no line of demarcation separating the rich from the
poor. Spiritually speaking Haves are those who are spiritually awakened and
Have-nots are those who are bereft of Divine-knowledge. which is the only key
to purity, peace and prosperity. There is Biblical warning, "What shall
avialeth a man if he gains the whole world but loseth his own soul!" The Prophet
brings security and equality through spirituality.
The unity of divine thought
and action leads to the humanism of the first water and forms a unique base for
the best administered Government. All the Manifestos of the political parties
can not match the divine path shown and the divine character built by the
party-less True Master. He represents the mainstream of spirituality carried on
by saints and sages, down the ages, reiterating and translating into action the
same bold message, "Man is a man, when he is human. He is human, when
the entire mankind is his family. Mankind is his family, when the all pervading
God is his home. God can be his home when he actually knows Him and blissfully
identifies himself with Him by living upto the divine message of the Prophet.
It was exactly this religion in his mind, when William Burke
claimed that the religion is the foundation of the society, the basis on which all
true civil Governments rest, and from which power derives its authority, laws
their efficiency and both their sanction. If it is once shaken by contempt, the
whole fabric cannot be stable or lasting.
Population explosion, magnified power of technology and
psychological attitudes becoming a way of living on earth – all these factors
combined, we are behaving as if the planet is a business in liquidation. There
is a collusion between our civilization and the earth. Leading scientists in
the world are openly giving a call that we probably have short time left in
which to make a dramatic change in the pattern that now represents business as
usual. Yes, we can fulfil the task but we will first have to change attitudes
and awareness and recognize it as a spiritual issue, a challenge that goes to
the core of who we are as human beings. In such a situation, awareness is important
warmth is important and spirituality has a game-changing role to play in
reminding us of our humanity.
*C L Gulati is the Secretary of Sant Nirankari Mandal, Delhi-9
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