Gurudeva’s Message on 8th Dec.1990
Yoga is harmony and all problems of life are problems of harmony. In the three main departments of life, there is no yoga or harmony but there is viyog or divorce. There is divorce between rights and duties, there is divorce between politics and ethics, there is divorce between the secular and the spiritual aspects. In the west there were movements when the human spirit blazed new pathways of thought and action. In the field of human rights these movements produced such achievements as Magnacharta, the french revolution, the four freedoms of Wodrow Wilson and the United Nation’s Universal declaration of human rights. By these achievements man is entitled to have rights and freedom. There are two kinds of freedom. Freedom from injustice and inequality, freedom to express one’s own rights and responsibilities, yet it is far from realization, why? Because there is a divorce between rights and duties.
Julia Hausermann, the lady lawyer of London who is the founder and Director of Rights and Humanity, expresses her regret at this divorce and consoles her mind with the saying of Gandhiji. Gandhiji said, “If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek, if leaving duties unperformed, we run after rights, they will escape us like a will O the wisp. The more we pursue them the further they fly.”
The split between politics and ethics is essentially a modern phenomenon. It did not exist for Aristotle for whom politics and ethics were two subdivisions of the same work. Nor had the ancient Hebrew prophets recognized any demarcation of the two concepts. It did not exist for Basavanna who lived in the 12th century and who envisaged the possibility of a welfare state or Kalyana Rajya. It did not exist for Mazzini who was the exponent of duties; Nor did it exist for Gandhiji who involved the technique of Satyagrah to win Swarajya. In the modern post renaissance world, the subject has been bifurcated into two concepts of an amoral politics and an unpolitical ethics. If the civilization is to endure, the harmony between politics and ethics should be maintained.
The split between the secular and spiritual aspects is more glaring than either of the two. In fact the spiritual is the source and support of the secular. What then is the spirituality? It is an experience of the powerful presence of the Self or the Atman. Spirituality is not static but it is a dynamic process of growth and transformation, an integral part of human development towards maturity in the individual and collective spheres. Spirituality must not be perceived as something apart from life, rather the whole of life should be seen as being related to spiritual practice. A holistic global vision should permeate the secular as well as spiritual aspects.
The University for peace organized by the U.N.O. is rendering valuable service to the development of peace. But the organizers seem to have not yet taken into serious consideration this divorce, this widening gulf. Peace flames forth unchecked by any limitation only when this gulf is bridged over, only when this divorce given a decent burial. The eminent persons, the Nobel Laureats and the famous scientists are trying to build this earth planet on a secure basis. May God crown their efforts with success. Meanwhile let us console our minds with the words of Goethe.
” Build it again, great child of the earth.
Build it again with a finer worth.
In thine own bosom build it on high.
Take up thy life once more.
Run the race again high.
Let a lovelier strain.
Ring out than ever before.”
OM SHANTI | OM SHANTI | OM SHANTIHI
H.H.Mahatapasvi Shri Kumarswamiji,
Divya Sandesh (Divine Message)
Tapovan, Dharwad
8th Dec.1990
This article ‘Divine Message’ is taken from H.H.Mahatapasvi Shri Kumarswamiji’s articles published in, ‘Silver Jubilee Souvenir’, 1990.