Kali Yuga tests holy resolve

Yesterday's insane news was just as dark as today's most likely will be.  Sad, but it's true. The ignorance of a Florida minister's public outcry against Islam with his proposed burning of their sacred holy scriptures, the Qur'an, is only matched by Islam's angry global reaction. I wonder if Rev. Jones knows that tonight ends the month-long Ramadan, during which Muslims specifically honor the Qur'an as it was dictated to Muhammad?  I wonder if he chose this holy time to target their holy book?  What kind of reaction did he hope would occur as a result of burning the Qur'an?  What was he thinking?

Perhaps the lesson in this for all of us is to be very aware of our sensitivities and self controlled because the dark side will push our buttons to cause as much trouble as possible.

While the minister's idea is clearly insensitive, Islam's feisty quick draw is equally disappointing. Taken off guard, and perhaps shocked, many reacted around the globe, sparing throughout the day, despite President Obama's calming and fatherly reminder to the world that the United States is respectful and tolerant of all religions.

It feels like the world is spinning out of control, right before our eyes, like a runaway car on an icy hill with its brakes gone.  We are powerless to stop this snowballing world, careening madly down the road. Even the most die hard optimist has to wake up out of his denial.  It's bad out there.  Even if we were to decide to put down our insane conflicts, stop the wars, feed the children, stop the genocide, provide a decent wage for workers despite the effect it will have on a corporation's bottom line, it won't change the shifting time cycles. It may make a difference whether or not we survive the shift, however.

These are dark days and the story is a bit complicated, but it has a silver lining. 

Ancient India, which has the oldest existing culture in the world, predating any religion on the globe, has held onto a very sophisticated and brilliant understanding of the connection between life on the planet and the level of spiritual enlightenment attainable due to forces beyond our scientific understanding. Life on earth is far more awesome than we ever imagined, with realms and realms beyond anything science can possibly measure or understand, extending into dimensions, time and space the ancients did understand, measure and left for safekeeping buried in their sacred writings. 

According to India's ancient knowledge, life on Earth is measured in yugas or several-thousand-year cycles.  Fairly recently, the time span of those yugas what recalculated by one of the world's greatest, wisest Yogis, Sri Yukteswar, who wrote The Holy Science, to help us understand which one we're in and why that matters. 

He taught that the position of our solar system relative to the central star of the galaxy now indicates we are in transition from the lowest material age, the Kali Yuga, into the electrical or atomic age, the Dwapara Yuga.  Jesus, whom Sri Yukteswar said was indeed the Christ, came onto the world stage just as the world was entering the Kali Yuga's dark age.  He came to offer us a lamp to see by knowing we would need it as we navigated these dark times. 

The Kali Yuga is a material age in which mankind identifies himself with his physical body, views life entirely through a materialistic lens, and comes to doubt his own spirituality and immortality entirely.  It is this collective perspective that has led the world into innumerable turf wars; and, if you don't think someone's religion isn't his turf, an intangible definition of who he is, you must not have read today's newspaper.

There is good news, however.  We, as a global people, are moving into another yuga, which is what all the fuss is about.  When one yuga gives way to another, the old way doesn't just lay down and die, it goes through massive, global death throes, making a big ugly mess - i.e. wars, famines, earthquakes, etc. It is all indicative of the changing yuga.  

We are leaving the Kali Yuga and moving into the Dwapara Yuga, an age of spirituality and increased light as our solar system begins its very long trek around the galaxy closer to the great light at the center, from which we draw our spiritual energy.  We are about as far away from that light/spirit source as we can get, but we have made the turn and will begin to be a more spiritual, less materialistic people.  The promises awaiting us are just awesome, so beautiful that you wouldn't believe me if I told you.  

We will learn to love as we've never loved in our recorded history.  We will teleport, we will fly, we will sing with angels.  These dark days will be over someday and the lovely new Dwapara Yuga will be recognizably present soon (of course "soon" is kind of relative when you're talking in terms of thousands of years.)  We've been through these cycles before, but those stories aren't in the history books because we haven't always survived them.  

India's ancient sacred sanskrit writings preserved this information, perhaps with the hope that the next time, we would not blow up ourselves.  This information was preserved for us by the ancients who knew that we would fall asleep spiritually during the Kali Yuga and would need to know this when the time came, as it has now come.  It's written on the walls of pyramids, both Egyptian and Mayan, and buried in the most ancient writings of Hinduism.  It is hinted at in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.  

But, we're not there yet and these volatile times are a great test of our resolve and willingness to not kill ourselves off as apparently we have done in the past. What we do with this knowledge, is our choice.  We can continue to react to anyone who moves our cheese, whether our cheese is our national or religious identification, our physical property, our "stuff,"  or we can let go of everything the way it is and consider another, very ancient, yet new, way of living.  

I don't know if we have time.  I don't know if we will do this. I only hope we will. What if we lived in love?  What if we truly honored each other?  What if we prayed everyday, asking God to give each of us the courage and strength to love and be patient, kind, sincere, and generous with each other, materially and emotionally?  Love is the breath of God.  It is everywhere and regardless of how far out in the galaxy our solar system is now, we can still choose to love each other.  We can listen to our own outrageous reactions to each other and put the brakes on our own out of control emotions and reactions.  We can listen and we can love.  

Sometimes when I hear people talking about the end of the world, misquoting the Bible to build up a tidal wave of fear,  I calmly remind myself of the end of the story as revealed in Revelation.  In the end, God wins.  The devil (maker of fear and judgment) is done away with.  In the end, there is a new heaven and a new earth.  The lion lies down with the lamb. Mankind's tears are dried by our Divine Mother.  While this is going to happen whether or not we accept it, we can help it along a little bit. Love is not a religion, it is a choice. It's our only choice. 

To read a beautiful article written by Imam Rauf from his book, is posted here:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/12/rauf.islam.compassion/index.html?hpt=C2