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LIGHTHOUSE

BY: STARBHEN

"Of Eternity and Eternal Forces"

            While in the grade school, I learned that “eternity” or  “eternal” means no beginning and no end. At my young age, I could hardly comprehend its meaning, but I kept thinking about it as I journey through life.

            And then, in the high school literature subject, we were introduced to a poem, “Invictus” which mentioned something about infinity and eternity: “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”  I said to myself, “Wow, what deep secrets does this passage hold?”

            As years go by, I try to read as much as I could and ponder about things I read. I became interested in spiritual matters, about a person’s true identity, about God, about relationships with fellow beings, with the Supreme Soul and with nature.

            One day at about the turn of the millennium, I learned about the free lecture on Raja Yoga Meditation. I attended it and got hooked to the new knowledge I was introduced to. I enrolled for more free lessons and am still at it. I found answers to such questions of who and what am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? Who is God? What are my relationships with Him and with nature? Etc. (These topics were discussed in previous issues of the Gazette.)

            I learned further that eternity is a cycle and time itself is the moving image of eternity. It can be represented by a circle where every point in a circle could be the beginning and at the same time an end.

We witness cyclical movements daily in our life: Day starts with dawn, becoming noontime, dusk and then evening and then back to dawn again; the days of the week, the months and seasons of the year, the motion of the planets around the sun making one year, the phases of the moon, the cycles of water and carbon, etc. -  all moving in a cyclical pattern. When the end meets the beginning, the cycle starts all over again, ad infinitum. We often hear about history repeating itself.

Cyclic time implies that God neither creates souls nor nature or matter. These three  (God, souls and matter) are distinct and eternal operative realities or forces, each having its own powers and functions.  The interplay of these three forces produces the scenes of creation or phenomena resulting in the so-called history and geography of the world.

            There are certain immutable laws that govern the interplay of the soul, God and nature. The laws of nature automatically take care of the details of nature while the law of cause and effect (Karma or Action) takes care of the details of human life.

The laws of nature are not the laws of God. God teaches us His laws. We learn them but forget them. God, being the Ocean of Knowledge, knows all the laws and never forgets them. He is the only one who upholds those laws perfectly and for all eternity. Herein lies His greatness not in the ability to interfere with events when He chooses. He does not grant favor to some and then favor others. Nor does He remove sin unless the devotee himself begins to make the necessary efforts. God is immune to both flattery and defamation. He is complete by Himself.

Knowledge of the Laws of Thermodynamics and the Law of Karma will make us understand the reason for the events taking place all over the world. Why are there so much chaos, confusion and violence? In the coming issues of the Gazette, these laws will be discussed. (Source: Teachings of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University).   

Vol. XVI No.4 (August  - September 2004)

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