A great spiritual awakener
 

by C. Shanmuganayagam, Convenor, Thinkers' Forum, Meditation Group, Sri Lanka

The immediate cause of the tsunami is reported to be the jostling of the continental plates several miles below the surface of the earth which gave rise to high potency earthquakes of 9 degrees on the Richter Scale occurring on the ocean bed and starting a chain of mountainous waves surging across the Indian ocean that actually rocked the planet Earth during its rotational course, as one scientist remarked.

But the real cause is in the field of the Unknown or the Unmanifested. Just as the immediate cause of the blood circulation in a human body can be traced to the pumping of the heart, but how the heart itself keeps on pumping day in and day out continuously without a single moment of rest for the full life span of an individual extending to over 80 years, without a visible pace-maker, is again a mystery that is relegated to the field of the Unknown or the Unmanifested.

We also do not know and marvel at the highly intelligent planning involved in the circulation of the blood, where millions of red cells deliver their nutriments selectively to the correct receptors as Dr. Deepak Chopra the famous research scientist said, and where millions of white cells battle with invading viruses and bacteria and destroy them and also perish in the process, giving rise to the constant re-production of millions of new white cells from the marrow in our bones to maintain the balance or harmony in the immune system.

Our ego with its petty little intelligence claims to be the owner of this human body, with its highly sophisticated production mechanism controlled by the Cosmic Will. Our ego consciousness is at best an interloper or a temporary occupant of this body, which is an integral past of the Cosmos.

To know that one does not know and cannot know the functioning of the universe with this petty little mind of ours is the acme of intelligence, said Socrates, the father of true Rationalism. J. Krishnamurti the world famous philosopher and sage has stated that when one is in a state of choiceless effortless awareness, bereft of thought, one's ego, which is nothing but an ephemeral product of thought, goes into abeyance and then one can truly say 'I know nothing, I am nothing'.

When one happens to realize the illusory nature of the ego and the staggering immensity of the cosmic phenomenon there occurs a total surrender of one's personality, and one becomes an instrument of the Cosmic will and a willing and joyous participant in the Divine drama of manifestation.

Nature too is subject to the Cosmic law of Harmony and man's transgressions against the Law of Love due to avidya or ignorance and self-pride have a cumulative effect of impinging on the psyche of the planet, which has a conscious identity as Mother Earth, and causing Nature to erupt periodically in order to restore the balance.

All religions enjoin their followers to practise love and compassion and maithri and ahimsa and brotherhood and peace, but this teaching is systematically followed in the breach rather than in its observance.

It was Herman Goering, Hitter's Deputy, who said at the Nuremburg trials: 'Naturally the common people do not want war, neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. After all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship or a communist dictatorship. All you have to do is to denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country'.

The tsunami that occurred on 26th December 2004 took the lives of over a quarter million persons of all communities and religions indiscriminately (a number in excess of the total loss of lives in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and left millions bereaved of their kith and kin.

All of us have to face death when it comes, sooner or later, according to the hidden entries in our Karmic log - book, but what is important to note is that on the death of the physical body we pass on to a realm of light and joy, where our astral, mental and causal bodies experience an extended period of a higher fruitful life according to each person's Karmic back - log, as confirmed by the scientific research carried out by advanced Theosophists. Even the immediate entry into that realm after one's physical death, at a time of great disaster is monitored and helped by benevolent groups like our Red Cross volunteers, who have gone there before us.

Those whom we call 'dead' protest (in genuine spirit communications received from there) that they are much more 'alive' than all of us and that their lives are replete with joy and love for their fellow beings, as set out in two local publications entitled 'Beyond the Veil' and 'Lead me to the Real' available at the Govt Social Services Department.

Our task is really to provide help and solace to those who have been orphaned and bereaved by this unprecedented tragedy. To us mortals, it is a terrible tragedy no doubt. But to the celestials or sages it is a part of the Cosmic play, like the constant destruction of millions of white cells in our body and the re-production of the same to maintain the harmony and balance in the immune system of our bodies, which is a microcosm in itself.

The great spiritual lesson that the tsunami has taught us is that there is a great Law - Giver, namely an inscrutable Cosmic Intelligence, that dispenses justice and compels us to shed all enmity and hatred and join hands in building a peaceful and stable future for our succeeding generations and, may be, fulfil Nostradamus' famous prediction of the advent of an era of peace, when philosophers will be kings under a divine dispensation, on a global scale.