By Col Prem Bahadur Thapa (Retd)
These are open discussions now, not only at religious centres, but often amongst people more liberal in their learning, in their social gatherings and even in open discussions. It is perhaps driven by unusually death defying and widening rifts between nations besides natural disasters where man and nature seem to be in collaboration, and the gloom that it is casting in anticipation of the looming disaster. Though they still hesitate to talk openly about some ‘outside factor‘, the concept is gathering many followers. The following brief may be just a piece of their minds which may be in line with what soothsayers have been predicting but never supported by the pragmatists.
And finally, the world seems to be turning its head towards India to understand if there is more in its Yogic mantras and Vedas, since, despite immense wealth of science and wisdom in the present times, it is unable to control the earth’s cyclonic hurry towards an unknown future. Even the best of minds is left wondering that, what we couldn’t achieve in thousands of years before, we have done in the last one hundred. But there seems to be more misery than the happiness it was supposed to bring. Thus, this article may be read in the light of that and the evolutionary coming and going of Yugas (Eras) as per our scriptures. We will confine it to Kali Yuga alone to see if it matches what it says.
Good times of sincere joys, spiced with victories and achievements, are forever in our minds, yet life’s luggage of compulsory defeats and despair are never too far. But observing the rapidity with which these events are occurring today couldn’t be more fascinating, because, away from halting respites that the fortunate are still allowed in these uncertain times, misery caused by battles royale are haunting the unfortunates daily and it is not confined to the battlefields alone. Not that it was any different in earlier times, but it looks far more different now, as if it’s a call for a ‘fight to the finish‘. Extraordinary events are overlapping each other even before we even understand them fully, whether it is Cyber wonders or Cyber thugs…or… Corona or the mindless killing fields of Gaza.
Despite astronomical advancement and past experiences, we are still in savage engagement, and also beset by unprecedented natural disasters aggravated by its wanton destruction. That’s a fact; and now the fiction is… should we blame man alone…or could it be some unseen entity yet more powerful orchestrating it, mindless of our blundering! Let’s look a little further.
The Middle East is in death throes, and the same with Ukraine and Russia. The rest of us are faring no better, more from within and outside in equal measure. The most basic necessity like food is grown in surplus – plenty today but at the mercy of worsening climate change, never seen before; or the giants that control the guns where arms sale is the biggest industry, constantly pointed towards one another, whether friend or foe. The struggle to find peace and harmony has reached a crescendo. Now, yet again, is it man alone that is calling the shots or the invincibility of changing Yugas, because so it appears.
And Trump has returned with all guns blazing to restore a new order in his country and the world too by undoing/redoing what his predecessors did. ‘America First‘… that is his war cry; and if India is also re-emerging as a new power house with similar ambitions while dusting its colonial and pre-colonial past, Trump’s assertion should be taken with a pinch of salt. Though his calling for peace negotiations in the war-torn zones appears to be a step in the right direction; it is heavy weather… and the stars don’t seem to be helping either.
Thus speak the Brahma Kumaris also from their well attended religious centre at Mt Abu in Rajasthan. Rajiv Mehta (from our coffee club oldies), who has just returned from a casual visit to that place on the way to the popular hill station, shared his experience on one of the things they believe in firmly, i.e., the coming and goings of ‘Yugas’ in a cyclic rotation. We are now in Kali Yuga and it is at its Zenith, and ‘nothing right will happen, however much man might try’… It is nearing its end and thus it will be destroyed… bringing all life on earth to an end ….to usher in the ‘Sat Yuga’. As per their latest calendar update…it could happen any time now and only the pure and Godly will enter the new age … to begin life anew’. There are many other religious orders who believe similarly.
The skeptics have always rubbished such beliefs; but the just concluded Mega Maha Kumbh, belied all observers to concur that there is something unusual to it this time; and what drove these millions to dip themselves in the holy Ganga? Was it to ‘cleanse their body and soul’ … and for what? Or could it be ‘to allow them entry into that New Age’? We will never know, but perhaps there is more to Hinduism – its sages and Sadhus look as naked and ancient as Time itself but have some hidden understanding of the Universe. One is left to wonder as to why else otherwise is the world singing ‘Hare Rama .. Hare Krishna’ in New York’s streets and Scandinavian spring festivals! Add Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to the list who have built Mandir beside their Mosques.
But, of course, to balance fantasy with facts, is it our desperation born of inability to cope with the never-ending feuds that are erupting every second day, that has led us to blaming the supernaturals? Or is there some grain of truth in it? Whether it is Man or Kali, Yuga seems determined … and prayers are not helping either. But, let life take its course … and be done with it… ‘what will happen, will happen, Amen!
