The nature of the universe, the colour of the universe is dark. You cannot say it is white. White is perceived in the dark as a glow. That is the cosmic reality, the burst of white light in the infinitely dark space looks like fireflies flashing on and off at night. This sets the tone for the manifest creation, prakriti.
Similarly, adharma is dark, dharma is just a spark of light in the darkness of adharma. It has been proved that adharma cannot be eradicated and that dharma cannot be established permanently. The day Krishna died, dharma died and adharma came back. The day Rama died, dharma died and adharma came back. The day Buddha died, dharma went and adharma came. Similarly, at a cosmic level, there is darkness and a burst of light. This level of experiencing and existing is more adharma with a burst of dharmic lights.
When we come down to the level of the mind, the first thing that is identified is ahamkara. The second thing that is identified is the intelligence to recognize, experience and respond. Another thing that is recognized are impressions, something that you have already gone through. It always relates to the past, and manas is the fourth strata. Prakriti is conditioned, tamasic, formed. Everything is identified: a tree, birds, sunlight, rock, metal.
In the human history, the entire humanity has gone through a process of continuous, communal education and has evolved because of that. Communal education means, society as a whole coming up together. From Stone Age to agrarian society, it was not one person’s imagination, it was a group. Each one in the group contributed, from the agrarian society to communities. Then walled cities started. Thoughts and ideas of protection, surviving, managing, maintaining and developing came. This was all a group mentality. The industrial revolution was a group mentality. Everybody was affected by the changes that were taking place.
Do we have a group mentality now, in the world? Is it a group? There is an event, an idea, a situation that carries everybody forward and becomes the catalyst for development. Previously, only a few people knew how to light a fire. Today, we have many tools to light a fire: from matchbox to lighter to many others, and these are accessible to everybody. Electricity created a global revolution from the first bulb that Edison lit to the number of bulbs that are switched on every year. The same applies with every other invention. All these unique situations provided a platform for the mind to go to the next level.
For the next level, science is looking at planets, the solar system, the moon, the possibility of life, similar environment, existence of water and air. This search seems to have gone beyond the planet Earth. On Earth, there does not seem to be any other common focus for everybody, for society at large, but earning, surviving, enjoying. There is nothing that tells us, ‘Okay, let’s take the next step for the betterment of society.’ Fifty or seventy years ago, the quality of brain was different; there were hardly any radio waves or electrical waves in the environment. Now we are living in an ocean of waves. We are swimming in it practically every moment. That has subtle effects on the brain.
Previously, we used to play drums to convey messages. Now, we use the phone and receive the electrical radiation right in the ear. One may not get cancer or epilepsy due to this exposure, still there would be some effect and influence of that electrical wave that is going around in your ear. Fifty years ago, when we looked at the globe of the world at night from images captured by satellites, Earth used to be a dark place with only a few areas on the globe well lit. Now if you see the picture of Earth at night, there is no dark area any more except the oceans. The land is all lit up. There is so much light.
All these waves that are there in the environment, how do they contribute to either human evolution or human regression? Is evolution possible? Or is regression possible? In the past, there has been evidence that globally people are shrinking from what their forefathers and the ancient people used to be. The average height of people has reduced. Now again people are picking up due to high proteins and other rich diets, that is another matter, but it is not natural. In natural living, the average height has come down. Paramahamsaji had said that as the pollution in the world increases, the height of people will decrease. As the power, the energy of the elements is depleted, the body has to shrink to maintain its level of optimum energy. If there is pure tattwa, if the elements are pure the height and size will increase, and there will be growth.
Nature is telling us to be like fireflies. In space, the galaxies of any size, shape, of any colour whether red, white or yellow become visible only when there is light, a sun. It is that light which brings life to the darkness. Otherwise, darkness is dead. Similarly, in dharma and adharma: Adharma cannot be eradicated and dharma cannot be established permanently, because dharma dies with each individual. You live the dharma the way you interpret it.
The interpretation of dharma by Krishna and the interpretation of dharma by Rama are two opposite poles. Rama was a stickler to the rules. Krishna used to throw all the rules to the wind. In war, you could only attack the defended parts, not the unprotected parts. Krishna started hitting the unprotected parts, breaking all the rules of war. Rama personifies maryada and Krishna breaks every maryada. The concept of dharma differs from individual to individual. Religiously, both are Vaishnavas, yet if you look at their individual philosophy, what Krishna spoke in the Bhagavad Gita is something that Rama could never follow in his life. If Krishna had to live the way Rama lived, he would have been a failure in his time and age.
Dharma is like the burst of light which shines while you are alive. When you die, the light dies with you. At this level, the conditioned, the framed, the formed, is tamasic, not in the negative sense, but as something which now has a form, shape, purpose and use. It is the positive expression of that conditioning which needs to be found. Discovering that positive element is what we understand as spirituality today.
13 March 2017, Ganga Darshan, Munger