Revolution and Evolution
Baba declares that political revolutions cannot change human nature or ensure human liberation. Man has evolved from stone and plant, to tree and animal, and now he must evolve into the God that he fundamentally is. Each individual must initiate this process for himself and by himself. Man is now struggling at the level of animal desires and passions, impulses and instincts. As taught by the sages of all lands and all religions, he must now raise himself to the level of the Divine. Manava [man] must elevate himself into Madhava [God]; nara [man] must raise himself into Narayana [God]—that is the exhortation that Baba unceasingly gives us.
Only an avatar [incarnation] like Baba, with the might and majesty of Divine grace, untarnished and undiminished, can hasten this evolution of man into God. He is making millions aware of the truth that man’s soul is but an infinitesimal part of the universal soul that animates all that is. In fact, that universal soul has become all that is. So, man is a spark of God, part and parcel of Divinity.
This fact is forgotten or ignored by man, since he is immersed and involved in the sensual temporalities. The Vedas and the Upanishads [ancient sacred Hindu texts] have declared in clear and convincing terms that it is Brahmam, the Primal One, that has assumed all the multifarious names and forms for this drama of time-space-causation. When the mind that runs helter-skelter behind the senses and entangles man in the sensory world, is curbed and trained to obey the intelligence, it will lead man into the pathway of liberation. Baba has given us rules and methods by which we can approach the truth and realize it; He is Himself the truth that we seek for our liberation. Baba says namasmarana or, the constant recapitulation of God’s glory and grace, will facilitate this process of inner evolution.
The only method to achieve victory over the animal instincts that weigh us down is to surrender the mind to its source, its motivator. When we are filled with yearning to defeat them, Baba will certainly shower His grace on us and help our evolution forward. But how can we win that grace if we are satisfied with our animal nature? “Leave all your worries, anxieties, and troubles with Me; I shall give you instead, peace of mind, courage, and light.” Baba’s love is abundant, but we crave for petty desires and do not crave for that love. Once we have the desire to escape from the animal into the human, and from the human into the divine, Baba is ever ready with light and love.
When we pray to Baba, let us include this too, “Lord! We are ashamed of our animal nature; it is making us mean and miserable. Make us happier, more peaceful, more contented, more loving; let us evolve into You. Make our minds and intelligence into instruments fit to achieve the next and last step in our evolution.”
~G. N. Acharya
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1968
