Change is Destructive

"Pante Re" : All is flux. Change is a constant. Change is destructive to that which is changed, destroyed or lost. Death itself is but a change. It's not change per se that is problematical for us, but our reaction to change. Some die peacefully, content, and uplifted. Others die tragically, bitter, painful or and hate-filled.

Great change is taking place on planet Earth today. It is not always clear whether it is for good or ill, and change is usually that way: messy and argumentative; violent and yet idealistic. Those who are "seers" and see the change and understand its meaning or at least its application to them, and who then act boldly and decisively, are the ones who can "profit" by change in as many ways that "profit" can suggest: material, emotional, or spiritual.

Ananda's worldwide network of communities has been blessed by the wisdom of Swami Kriyananda, direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, the world renown yoga master and author of "Autobiography of a Yogi." Kriyananda has consistently kept alive Yogananda's prophesy (Yogananda died in 1952) that great changes were coming. He didn't mean in 1,000 years: he meant in the coming decades.

Hence the work of Ananda has been long been attuned and accepting (and preparing) for such great changes. We are not speaking here of "the end times." Rather, a period of turbulence that would make way for a new level of expanded consciousness that has a worldview such as we have never new existed in our current understanding of history.

Millions already posses this new awareness. It is characterized by many attributes, both positive and negative. But it has hardly become the lifestyle and attitude of even half the world's population and even less of the leaders of countries and institutions, including (and perhaps especially) religious institutions. Some of these attributes include the simple calm acceptance of a world that is interconnected and interdependent. This can be seen as an ecological creed, a pyschological creed, an economic creed, or a spiritual creed.

Some, according to their own level of consciousness, seek to exploit this view while others seek to serve a greater good through this point of view. But it is far from a global point of view.

In the meantime the old way, the way of conquest and competition, is enlivened by the technologies of war, of the production of fiat money, agricultural and industrial oil-based production, dictatorship, and religious hierarchy. But we are fast running out of options as we deplete natural resources whose ripe and fertile abundance made us drunk with our own power. The music may stop and many will, and already are, left standing holding only mountains of debt and worthless pieces of script.

We, today, the generations of baby-boomers can scarcely imagine either the destructive forces of change that are descending upon us, or the way of life that will emerge in the future. But some around the world are envisioning a world that reflects the popular bumper sticker: "think globally; act locally." In order to regain our "center" (having expanded perhaps too rapidly around the globe in every directiion), we will have to learn to live more simply and more harmoniously. It's really as basic as that.

How ironic that the power of the twin forces of democracy and capitalism are now challenged by a nation with a top-down government and economy! Neither, in their extreme, can survive very long. The watchword of success and happiness into the future lies with individual initiative. But large institutions of all types will fight to the death to preserve the privilage and wealth of the few over the many. Nor is success in terms of any mythical egalitarianism any where near in sight, now or in the forseeable future. As always, it will be an ebb and a flow. Still the trend and direction of consciousness is clear.

A dynamic tension is always what produces both the best and worst in people: whether in war, in business, or in spirituality (wherein the "devil" assaults the "saint"). This world functions on the basis of the mainspring of opposites who are locked in competition and combat.

Nonetheless like the great ocean that contains both violent storms and large areas of stillness, the unceasing ebb and flow goes on. At the same time a cycle brings new forms and directions to the ebb and flow, for this is never static or esle we'd discover too easily it's secret.

Build for yourself a castle of protection in the fortress of God's unconquerable Bliss. Through daily meditation reestablish your divinity and your true, eternal security. Armed and protected therein, stride into daily life in harmony with others of like mind to form communities, actual or virtual, peaceful warriors creating a new way of life: close to the earth while reaching for the heavens. Grow food, buy land outside the cities, get out of debt, develop new and practical skills and help others as you continuously seek the Divine presence in the temple of silence and in the temple of activity.

God alone, all is flux. 

Blessings, Nayaswami Hriman

The Voice of America

Now that the mid-term election has (finally) come and gone, we hear talk of the American people wanting fiscal responsibility in our government spending. Of course, who's going to argue with that, right?

On a collective level I think the message (whether in thought or speech, individual or public) reflects a kind of therapy whereby we, as a culture, are preparing ourselves to live within our OWN means. There is, I believe, a deep recognition that our standard of living is, and has been steadily, declining and will continue to do so. In part this is our "just desserts" for our excesses, and, in part, it is the process of globalization and long-term trend of balancing out the long-standing extremes of rich and poor (at least relatively).

Long-term and on an essential level we are in a process of making a cultural about face from materialism to a Spirit-centered life. Now, of course, most will be somewhere in the middle even when we arrive, but the direction remains nonetheless necessary and positive overall. Paramhansa Yogananda, before his passing in 1952, predicted a traumatic period of hyperinflation and instability and stated that Americans would be "half as rich but twice as spiritual!" (A generalization, merely)

What few seem to acknowledge in the here and now of political dialogue is that balancing government budgets means massive layoffs and removal of benefits. We see this acknowledged more openly in the budget proposed for Britain. This, combined with the massive federal deficit, will bring us, in the Biblical sense, "seven" years of famine. You can take THAT to the bank!

The hope is that individuals and businesses will be relatively relieved of burdensome taxation (don't bet on it) and thus create jobs. But interest rates are incredibly low (lowest ever) and ironically government debt is, at the moment, virtually interest free (relatively, of course).

Not that I am a pessimist. Indeed Yogananda, and Ananda's founder, Swami Kriyananda, who has, for decades, warned audiences of this very process in a spirit of hope: hope for a better world. The one we've been living in is, in every way possible, unsustainable! A new generation of children-becoming-adults will need to, and hopefully be able to, take up the standard of a more balanced life.

Imagine some day when the nations of the world enjoy, more or less, the same or equivalent standard of living. At that point, nations or combinations of nations which form sufficiently large enough market for certain goods, will have no need to import them from afar. Say, America, or north America, as a general market or trading zone. Assuming the volume of computers needed in this market is adequate to fuel their manufacture within the trading zone, then computers will be (once again) made domestically. And so it will be for virtually every other daily necessity.

So why wait? We cannot go on forever buying from China with nothing to trade in exchange. So we either figure out what they can buy from us (rather than our debt), or we begin making our own products again. Is this protectionism? Call it what you want: how about sheer survival?

Rather than a stark and aggressive solution that would be resisted by others, why not a cooperative approach that can provide benefits to all participating nations? For example, China, faced with a slowdown in American purchases, wisely began to redirect their investments into their own country's infrastructure, consumer products, and other needs. That's a win-win, so far as I can see.

There are solutions, in other words. We just have to think bigger and more inclusively. Imagine the food, e.g., that can be grown within a 50 or 100 mile radius of your city or town? Virtually everything needed for healthy living.

For many of us as devotees and members of Ananda, this is yet another sign of the need for small communities of like-minded souls, striving for high ideals though simple living and intelligent and creative cooperation. So, why not be an optimist. Sure we need to go on a diet and that's hard, at first, but rewarding at last.

Blessings, Hriman