Human Destiny
The human predicament
The human predicament resembles that of Arjuna [from the epic Mahabharata], who with the vision provided by the Lord saw the Cosmic Form—the Vishwarupa. What is striking of the cosmic vision is that Krishna gave Arjuna the ability to see not only the four dimensions, but the fourth dimension of time was accelerated so much that he saw, “As the moths rush in headlong into the blazing fire for destruction, so do these heroes in the mortal world enter Your flaming mouths.” “Seeing this marvelous and dreadful Form of Yours, O Mahatma, all the three worlds are trembling with fear.” This is exactly the plight of humanity because of the “accelerative” thrust of change, the future shock.
Jonas Salk, the well-known research-physician biologist in his book, “Man Unfolding”, says, “Although man’s physical evolution has its own natural pace, man has so accelerated his cultural evolution as to make it seem that physical and cultural evolutionary processes are now taking place at intolerably different rates… In a world in which change has accelerated from its natural tempo to one in which man has made change the order of the day, change itself has become man’s principal problem.”
Arjuna, like the three worlds that trembled at the sight of the Cosmic Form, was also tormented with fear and he appealed to the Lord to have mercy on him and show him His former form. Is it any wonder that Oppenheimer, the famous nuclear physicist, who was responsible for the eventual manufacture of the atom bomb, remarked on seeing the first test bursting of the atom bomb that it looked like what Arjuna saw when he witnessed the Cosmic Form? “If there be the effulgence of thousand suns bursting forth all at once in the heavens, even that would hardly approach the splendor of the mighty Lord.” Oppenheimer must have trembled with fear at the unleashing of this fraction of tremendous power imprisoned within the atom. Humanity is waiting for the Lord for assurances that He gave Arjuna: “Seeing such a dreadful Form of Mine as this, be not perturbed or perplexed; with a fearless and complacent mind, behold once again the same Form of Mine, which drove your chariot.”
Arthur Koestler says: “Science turns out to be the most glorious achievement of the human mind—and its most tantalizing defeat. We have become a good deal cleverer since Pico-della Mirandola, but not much wiser in knowing what it all means.” He concludes, “The limitations of biological equipment may condemn us to the role of Peeping Toms at the keyhole of eternity. But at least let us take the stuffing out of the keyhole, which blocks our limited view”, says Koestler. Koestler speaks of the evolution of man and his brain, he says that man has three brains, reptilian, mammalian, and neo‑mammalian. “The rise of the human cortex is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ that it does not know how to use. The actualization of its reasoning potentials has been obstructed, throughout by the effect based activities of the phylogenetically older structures in the nervous system. Inadequate co‑ordination between old and new structures made man’s instinct and intellect fall out of step.
The wide range of intra-specific differences between individuals, races and cultures became a source of mutual repellence. Language increased cohesion within groups, heightened the barriers between groups. The discovery of death by the intellect, and its rejection by instinct became a paradigm of the split mind. Nature has let us down, God seems to have left the receiver off the hook and time is running out.”
The human destiny
It is against this background that we must understand the significance of the Advent of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the spiritual revolution that He is spearheading. In His message to Karanjia of the Blitz He declared, “Millions of years of upward struggle have produced the present human society; thousands of seers and sages in all lands have taught man to see the Truth that underlies the panorama of Creation, to adore the Creator, and to practice the virtues of humility, equanimity, and service so that the spark of God that is enshrined in his heart might reveal its full glory.
But man has brought human society to the verge of total destruction. He has used his intelligence to pollute the land he lives on, the air he breathes, and the water that is the very source of life. He has turned the mind that is the instrument of liberation into a chain that keeps him in bondage. He has used the methods of Education, Codes of Law, Systems of Politics, Modes of Commerce and the Results of Science to imprison himself in prejudices, creeds, and nationalities. The world is becoming smaller and smaller with every increase in the speed of communication, but neighborly love is nowhere evident.” Baba has confirmed what all the great thinkers have struggled to express.
The cure for the ills of humanity lies in the inevitable culmination of this process of shrinking of the world when mankind will be knit into one, when knowledge will percolate through all types of barriers, because we will reach a stage when there will be no barriers. Who can control mass communication when the satellites transmit television pictures all over the world? For the first time humanity will become aware that the only security lies in accepting each other as neighbors, and that national barriers and all barriers of caste, creed, or language will be irrelevant and invalid! What humanity is now witnessing is the death‑pangs of outlived modes of exclusive thinking, and the dead shells of rules and regulations that were relevant to the pre‑Atom bomb era. We see the last struggles of organized theocracy trying to chain segments of humanity by slogans and labels, empty shells from which the living force of the great Truths have disappeared.
Sai has come to redeem humanity at this crucial stage in the Ascent of Man. He has come to liberate man from the tyranny of organized religious institutions that bind him in rituals and dehydrated institutions! He has come to declare that there is only one religion, the religion of humanity. He declares, “The individual and society are intertwined inextricably. There must be illumination for both. Ananda [joy] must surge out of the individual and fill the lakes of `society’ and thence stream into the Ocean of Grace. Society is just a name for a group of individuals but it has no corporeal body. Individuals are the limbs that nourish and support the `corpus’ called society.”
He explains the role of Society as follows: “Society shapes the individual, provides the arena for his development, and sets the ideals he should plant before Himself. When the individual is stronger, more intelligent, more service‑minded, and more efficient as a worker, Society benefits; when society is more aware of its role and of the need to cleanse that role with humility and wisdom, the individual benefits.”
In the interview given to Karanjia, Baba spelt out the nature and role of the Avatar [Incarnation] in the transformation of the world. He emphasized the basic tenet of Hinduism that is universally acceptable. Individual karma [action] is also bound with the karma of society, and today when we are moving toward one society of mankind, the individual karma is bound up with the karma of the world as a whole. Thus, the operation of the karmic law is an essential basis for shaping man’s destiny. But destiny is not an iron chain from which there is no liberation, because man shapes his destiny through the power of discrimination with which he is endowed, and this acts also on group karma and consequently group destiny! The destiny of a nation will thus depend on how individuals shape their individual destinies and in turn help to shape that of society. The crisis of choice is what affects individuals, big and small. The small men succumb, while the great ones defy the temptations of power. If society has more and more people who will rise above the temptations of the world, then that society will certainly lead. This is the role that Baba assigns to India when He declares, “India was for centuries teaching the world ideals of unity, peace, and tolerance, and once again she has to take the lead in this spiritual revolution.”
“A Revolution–more powerful and pervasive than any that man has undergone so far—neither political, economic, scientific, nor technological, but deeper and more basic is now on. It is the spiritual revolution. It sharpens the inner vision of man so that he can see his atmic reality. Its impact will surely envelop and enrich all human communities and transform mankind into a stream of sadhakas flowing smoothly to the limitless sea of destiny.”
In the Blitz interview, Baba further elaborated the strategy of His Mission. After detailing the dangers of an instant solution by using His Sankalpa Shakti [Will Power], He said: “The other and more effective alternative is long‑term whereby the Avatar leads the people themselves to a higher level of consciousness to enable them to understand the truth of the spiritual laws so that they may turn toward righteousness and steadfastly work for better conditions. This will relate them back to nature and the karmic law of causation. They would then transcend the cycle of cause and effect in which today they are involved as victims and thereby command and control the natural forces to be able to avert the calamities you mention (earthquakes, floods, drought, famine, and epidemics). Therefore, Man has to be UN‑MADE and RE‑MADE, with his ego destroyed and replaced by a transcendent consciousness so that he may rise above the karmiccycle to command nature and avert the calamities. This is the work of the Avatar that I am presently doing.”
The methodology for transforming the individual and society is through Love. “Love is my instrument and merchandise, whatever I do in the field of sociology or economics is sought to be done by and through love. Both the wealthy and the poor who want me can come to me only on a basis of equality and I use them to synthesize the existing socio‑economic contradictions into co‑operative brotherhood.”
Economists the world over are worried about the future of our non‑renewable resources and make forecasts that it may last a hundred or four hundred years. Humanity does not seem to realize that it has no right to squander away the Earth’s resources for fulfilling the insatiable desires created by man’s technological inventions. Jonas Salk has stated the problem as follows: “Desire is an instinctual force that propels man to experience, discover, and test extremes. Reason, based on knowledge and memory, acts concurrently as a moderator… Man often, becomes a battlefield when these opposing forces confront each other. The problem we face in many respects of life is that we do not know what we want. In other aspects the difficulty is in knowing and not being able to attain. Since desire is often more compelling than reason, it is important and necessary for man to know and manage his desire.”
Baba says, “The existing doctrines of equality, socialism, etc., have not succeeded in achieving equality of distribution of wealth and property. The difficulty is that you can equalize wealth, land, and property by legislation, but can this law bring about equality in the desires of the people? This requires the healing touch of spirituality.” Baba’s final summing up spells out the real challenge before humanity: “It is here that our insistence on a desireless life in which human wants are reduced to the minimum needs comes to the rescue as the only possible way of restoring the social and economic balance. Curb your desires, reduce your wants, live in spiritual austerity, and the available material will be sufficient for all humanity. More than that, the tensions of a competitive socio‑economic system will be dissolved, and peace of mind will be restored.”
This is possible if man understands what Baba has been advising us: “This is the true function of society–to enable every member to realize Atmic vision. The men and women bound by various ties in society are not merely families, castes, classes, etc. They are knit by the closest of family ties; they are bound, for all mankind is One–Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam as the Shastras declare; the whole world is one family. “Man truly lives when he feels one with all.”
Baba has declared that the destiny of man is to transform himself from manava into Madhava, from man to Godhood. This is possible only through raising his consciousness, a task on which Baba, as He Himself has declared, has embarked on. We must allow ourselves to let Him transform us. We must have full faith in His declaration: “Sai has come in order to achieve the supreme task of uniting the entire mankind as one family through the bond of brotherhood, of affirming and illumining the Atmic Reality of each being in order to reveal the Divine that is the basis on which the entire Cosmos rests, and of instructing all to recognize the common Divine Heritage that binds man to man, so that man can rid himself of the animal and rise to the Divine that is his goal.” “What I Will must take place; what I plan must succeed. I am Truth; and Truth has no need to hesitate, fear, or bend.”
~Dr. M. V. N. Murthy
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, May 1979
