God created this world. This world with everything in it is a marvelous and fascinating world. This world is good. It has come to the stage it has come at the moment because of the gross abuse and misuse of the most precious gift of freedom God has given to humans who have been assigned the responsibility and the task of taking care of this world. For freedom many humans over the years have given up their own lives. The abuse and misuse of freedom happen when self-centered leaders of nations with narrow and limited vision cater to the sensual pleasures of humans. We are spiritual persons bound in body with its senses that are driven by pleasures. For instance, men and women are naturally and seemingly irresistibly attracted to one another for completion, fulfillment, and perpetuation of the species; there is no relationship that is more intense and pleasurable than a marriage relationship. Yet this relationship is frequently abused due to lack of respect for each other and violation of trust, human rights, and freedom. The simple reality is that our spirit has to compete with the body directed by the powerful pleasure-seeking senses. In this competition often the spirit loses. Because overwhelming majority of persons is guided by bodily comforts; the spirit governed by principles and values often suffers. That is why Christ said that he was rejected by this world; he also said similarly his disciples will also be rejected by this world. James an apostle of Christ said friendship with this world is enmity with God.
Yet we know that truth will finally triumph, that light will put out darkness, and that good will win over evil. This means we who are guided by the spirit will have to be brave against all odds to stand for truth and justice, for love and altruism. This world can only be transformed by teaching early on the correct formation of conscience on the basis of the true value system guided by the spirit. God sent from time to time prophets and sages to correct the course of humanity led astray by the world’s evil forces. Christ by giving us the Golden Rule: “Always treat as you would like them to treat you” gave predominance to the law of unconditional love that should guide all our thoughts and actions. Buddha found through his sadhana (spiritual exercises) that our unrealistic desires lead us to unhappiness, frustration, and aggression. So he wanted us to regulate our desires in such a way that we desire only what we can attain. To reach this goal he proposed the eight-fold path where all the eight factors (paths) of belief, aspiration, speech, action, living, effort, thought, and concentration need to be right. Gandhi’s experiments with truth in practical life led to non-violence understood as perfect love. All spiritual masters focus on fellow human beings and altruism.
The world goes astray when the world is dominated by narcissistic, self-centered persons who seek pleasures at others’ cost. The world does right when it is altruistic and is concerned about the pleasure and happiness of all. Well-being of all is the true destiny of this world. Since the world is often dominated by evil forces arising out of the bodily senses and baser elements, some persons have wrongly concluded that the world is ruled by these forces. The true purpose and destiny of the world is spiritual. The rational and spiritual forces can never be subdued for long by forces such as power and control related to the irrational, animal forces coming from selfishness. Our task in this world is to move from awareness to further awareness until we reach enlightenment that does not need to be all that difficult, as many think it to be, once we figure out our true goal in this world. For this we need discipline guided by our strong will.
Swami Snehananda Jyoti
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