"La loy du Sol, & Venus contendens,
Appropriant l'efprit de prophetie:
Ne l'vn ne l'utre ne feront entendus,
Par Sol tiendra la loy du grand Meffie.

The law of the Sun contending with Venus,
Appropriating the spirit of prophecy.
Neither the one nor the other will be understood.
The law of the great Messiah retained though the Sun.

Century V. LIII

This relates to Nostradamus' Jewish beliefs, that the law of the Messiah, the Second Coming which was prophesied in the Book of Enoch, will occur in the century of the Sun, the twentieth century. The prophecy referred to is probably Biblical. See the introductory material for a discussion of Jewish influences on Nostradamus' views concerning the Millennium. Most people certainly do not believe in a Second Coming at the end of this century, Ne l'vn ne l'utre ne seront entendus. However, it is difficult to reconcile this with Nostradamus' conviction that the Third Antichrist will come before the end of the next decade.

JEWISH SOURCES WHICH INDICATE THE COMING OF THE MILLENNIUM

As I have mentioned, Nostradamus' family had declared themselves converts to the Christian religion by 1502, two years before he was born. But they never entirely left their Judaism behind. We learn that among the first things Nostradamus was taught by his grandfather was Hebrew, so the ancient creed must have been a strong tradition among the family.

The Old Testament predicts that seven great events will happen roughly the same time, all of which shall be indicators that Mankind is approaching Armageddon, Nostradamus' Millennium. Horrifyingly enough, these events appear to have already started and mankind will have to act quickly if the predictions are not to be fulfilled.

The first is religious deception, false religions....

The second Biblical warning Nostradamus would have us heed is one of internal revolution....

The third event that should warn us is war: "You will hear of wars and rumours of war," Matthew 24.6....

The fourth warning is famine... The fifth problem we are warned to face is the poisoning of the earth, pollution... .

The sixth warning is the Earthquake... . The final seventh sign of the Millennium will be plagues and disease."       
                                                                           

"The Divine Light is always in man, presenting itself to the senses and to the comprehension, but man rejects it. -Giordano Bruno

Bruno was born in 1548 in Nola near Naples, Italy. He grew up to be a frail man with a slight build and dark beard. Early in life, at age 17, he entered a Dominican monastery. Upon doing so, he changed his name from Filippo (or Philip) to Giordano. The name was reserved for monks with the highest promise, so he received it due to his evident genius. In the monastery he immediately began studying every book of interest to him in the library-which meant practically everything-but especially the works of Virgil, Aristotle, Plato, and Erasmus. He was hungry for knowledge and it got him in trouble. By age 18 he was questioning the veracity of the Trinity and speaking highly of certain heretics.

Nevertheless, he was a genius who soon became a Dominican priest. He took full priestly honors in 1572 and conducted his first mass at age 24. In the following years he threw away his images of the saints and began advising his fellow monks to read books "more sensible" than Lives of the Holy Fathers. The books he studied dealt with science, philosophy, and theology. On two separate occasions after his ordination he was formally censured by his superiors. His great gift was with memory, he could remember practically everything.

His studies led him to believe that through philosophy, all religious doctrines and secular learning could be understood. This elevation of human reason over Church authority got him into theological hot water. After 11 years of being a monk, he was accused of heresy by the Inquisition. In order to avoid interrogation he fled Naples in 1576 and began wandering Europe. By leaving he broke his monastic vows and, officially no longer a monk, began a new phase of life which involved 16 years of wandering.

Adventures of a Spiritual Pioneer

He went to Rome first and claimed hospitality at the Dominican headquarters of his former order. The Dominican Order was founded for the purpose of combating heresy, but Bruno moved in with them. They were none the wiser until some of the forbidden books he traveled with were discovered (works of Erasmus), which exposed him and, although he escaped, elevated the seriousness of the charges against him. Before leaving town he was able to visit the Pope and demonstrate the art of mnemonics, or memory. He achieved recognition for this, but left Rome for his own safety.

He once said, "For the love of true wisdom, and zeal for true contemplation, I tire, torment, and crucify myself." He did not know at the time how prophetic this statement would be. Although a believer in philosophy and human reason, Bruno was not an atheist. He knew there was a deep connection between the human soul and God-and spent his entire life exploring it. One book he wrote (in 1585) was called On Heroic Rages, describing the philosophical soul's ascension to God. Bruno claimed we-our souls-could reach God and do it through philosophical means as opposed to religious ones. He believed that spiritual knowledge rather than faith would deliver us, and spent his life vigorously pursuing it. In his travels he lectured and wrote in Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, Oxford, and London, but usually ended up in disputes with ecclesiastical, academic, or governmental authorities.

In Geneva in 1577 he lashed out against puritanical Calvinism, which held a virtual religious dictatorship over the city. Calvinism revolted him. He was arrested, denounced, and forced to destroy a pamphlet he had written criticizing an Aristotelian professor of philosophy. After being forced to apologize, he left the city. He then earned a doctorate in theology in Toulouse, and was appointed to a chair in philosophy. He taught and lectured here until 1581, when war broke out against Protestants and Bruno was forced to seek safety in Paris. While in France he received great praise for his series of lectures on Thomas Aquinas' thirty attributes of God. He also taught his memory skills and was summoned by King Henry III, who was shown the secret techniques of a good memory. The King was pleased and appointed him to a professorship in the College de France. After two years Bruno moved on to England, with letters of introduction provided by Henry III. He stayed at the home of the French ambassador in London, Michel de Castelnau, for almost the entire two and half years he spent in England.

While in London he wrote On the Infinite Universe, based on Copernicus's heretical but correct claim that the planets revolved around the sun rather than the earth. Bruno also described the universe as being infinite and full of stars, which also turned out to be accurate. He believed the stars to be actual living beings, which we have never accepted, but could still have merit on a different or higher level from what we currently perceive.

Castelnau brought Bruno with him to many of his meetings with the Queen, as she and her subjects had an active interest in Italian culture and wanted to hear of his views and experiences. Castelnau also made sure to introduce Bruno to all of the leading intellectuals of the day, including Sir Philip Sydney, to whom Bruno dedicated two of his later works.

When Castelnau was recalled to France, Bruno returned with him but the religious wars caused Bruno to almost immediately move to Germany. Here he continued to write and publish in several university towns, until deciding to return to Italy in 1591.

God, Spirit and Infinity

The soul was important to Bruno. He believed all things to have some degree of soul and that soul was present in not just us, but in all matter. He believed that through wisdom, love, and reason individual souls could rise higher and higher toward eventual unity with God. He considered God to be evident throughout nature, expressing Itself through the flowering of a meadow, the singing of a thrush, and the glory of a sunset. The Church was angered and insulted by these teachings of God in nature, as well as by his belief in infinite worlds.

An interesting aspect of Bruno is that contemporary thinkers classify him as a having been a philosopher, but Bruno instead considered himself a poet. He once said, "A poet I am, and am so by God's grace." He felt there was a true spiritual kinship between poets, painters, philosophers, and musicians. It was this side of Bruno which was attracted to the work of Copernicus. Copernicus advanced the theory of infinity in space, and Bruno was one of few thinkers who could grasp its significance. The Church had already attacked this idea because if things out there were actually limitless, it would dissolve the limits of high and low and threaten the idea of heaven and hell. People wanted the feeling of God's protection, but the Church was scared to death that people would no longer feel secure if a limitless horizon was accepted into Church doctrine. To the Church, only God was infinite.

This made no sense to Bruno. If God was infinite, as the Church claimed, why was He worshipped in the form of a man? Bruno saw God as an all-encompassing "force" or "mind" that included nature as a vital component. The Church insisted that God was a personal being apart from nature. Bruno stated that an infinite God would display his power in an infinite universe with infinite stars and infinite planets. The Church, not wanting to be shrunk in an infinite way, disagreed. This infinity of Copernicus also swept away the idea of the earth being the center of the universe. Suddenly, we would become a small dot in the middle of a huge incredible void, something God might care far less about with an entire infinity to deal with. So the Church felt they had better deal with Bruno. Copernicus had enlarged the world view with his work. Bruno was now enlarging God-and the Church would not stand for it.

When a horse wears blinders it is because the owner wants him to go in a straight line only. He demands that the horse should know no other course. That is how the Church wanted people to see God-in a narrow way (no infinity). Without blinders on, the potential information of infinity virtually shattered the narrow reality tunnel of the Church. They saw confusion on the horizon and feared losing control, with followers running in all different directions. Bruno saw things differently. He took a new view of Christianity and felt a need to explore the possibility of heaven being an inner reality, as opposed to an outer one. Infinity to him seemed proof of God's incredible power and incomprehensive nature. Here was a God with no dogmatic definitions, a far greater God than the Church could define. It was a new step toward the greatest mystery we have, and Bruno jumped in to explore it. The Church tried grabbing him, and everyone else, by the neck, to prevent the leap. Bruno described his new view of God in the following way:

I consider the universe the infinite creation of an infinite divine omnipotence because I would think it unworthy of divine goodness and omnipotence to have created a finite world when it would be possible for another or countless other such worlds to be created alongside this one. For this reason I have declared that there are countless worlds similar to this earth which I, with Pythagoras, regard as a heavenly body similar to the moon and the other planets and countless other stars. I regard all these heavenly bodies as worlds, and their number as limitless. Together they constitute an infinite whole nature in infinite space, and this is the infinite All in which are innumerable worlds of the same kind, so that there is a dual infinite both of the size of the universe and the number of worlds. Indirectly, it must be granted, this conception challenges one of the doctrines of religion. However, I place in this universe a universal Providence by virtue of which every being lives, preserves its life and moves, existing in its perfection, and I take this always in a twofold sense. In the first place this Providence is omnipresent as the soul, present wholly throughout the whole body and wholly in each of its parts, and as such I call it nature, the shadow and trace of divinity. But in the second place it is present in an inexpressible manner as the omnipresence of God according to his nature and as an omnipotence in all things and above all things, not as a part, not as soul, but in an inexplicable fashion.

This passage has immense implications, especially after reading it more than once and thinking about it. Bruno once said that his teachings were for cultivated men, and that for the masses, faith was indispensable. True spirituality, unfortunately, is difficult to be fully grasped by the masses, both then and now. Understanding the spirit requires effort, which the general masses in large part refuse to exert.

One place where Bruno deviated on the teachings of Copernicus was that he believed the stars were not fixed in the sky, but were constantly moving (which is now known as correct). This motion is relative, based on where in the infinite universe one is observing it. Therefore, there is no up or down, and no center of the universe-which the Church had believed was us. Since the universe is infinite, Bruno said, and there cannot be two infinities, then the infinite God and the infinite universe must be One. If these teachings were to spread, it would be a disaster for the Church.

His views were not welcomed at the universities where he taught and he failed to hold such posts for any length of time due to various clashes with fellow professors and authorities. After many travels he longed for Italy once again so returned to his homeland. He believed there was a chance he could patch up his differences with the Catholic Church without having to return to the Dominican Order. Maybe he believed the Italians never heard of the book he wrote in England called The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, in which the beast needing expulsion could be interpreted as Catholicism, or Christianity, or religious doctrines in general. In Bruno's writings was an evident love-hate relationship with the Church, sometimes calling it "dearest" to him, other times he was highly caustic and critical. He was widely known in Europe as "a man with no religion."

Treachery in Disguise

The Inquisition had long since announced that Bruno was a criminal who should be arrested as soon as possible, but Bruno knew Venice to be a relatively safe haven for people defying the Inquisitors. He crossed the Alps and arrived there in the fall of 1591 after being invited by a nobleman named Giovanni Mocenigo, who had chanced upon one of Bruno's books and wished to learn his incredible art of memory. What Bruno didn't know was that shortly after his arrival, Mocenigo requested information from Frankfurt regarding Bruno's views and religious convictions. When he learned that Bruno held such radical views, he went to his priest and asked if he should turn him in. The priest told him to wait until he could get Bruno to implicate himself more completely, and to keep track of the violations.

In the meantime, Mocenigo was a slow learner and thought Bruno might be holding back some advanced magical teachings. He was impatient, and wanted to learn as much as he could from Bruno before he would stab him in the back. When Bruno announced his intention to return to Germany, the nobleman acted quickly. Through an act of shameful treachery, he handed Bruno over to the Inquisition.

Facing the Inquisitors

Thrown in jail on May 23, 1592, he decided to cooperate fully with the Inquisition. At his first examination he stated that many past remarks had been made carelessly and should not be taken too seriously. This applied to his comments on the monastic life he once led, where he stated it was the highest form of superstition and hypocrisy, and for saying the papal system was a vicious tyranny. He now came forth with the deepest of sorrows and denied all charges that he was anti-Christian (which, technically, was not inconsistent with his previous statements). In reality, he did not mean a word of it, but was just trying to get the Inquisitors off his back. He did not take the Venetian Inquisitors seriously, knowing they had tried fifteen hundred people and had put only five to death.

The Inquisitors listened to him but did not seem too impressed. Bruno had thought this tactic would allow him to walk free, but it became clear that this would not happen. They knew who Bruno was and were treating him seriously. Before the examination was over, he was forced to beg for his life, recanting all his heresies and promising to mend his ways. He may have been a good poet, but an actor he was not. The Inquisitors did not buy his tactics and would "think it over." No verdict was given at this hearing, and Bruno was brought to his cell.

Pope Clement VIII, upon taking his recent post, had vowed to stamp out all heretics with no mercy. The Inquisition in Rome was deeply interesting in prosecuting Bruno and demanded that Venice turn him over. At first Venice refused, but Bruno's writings were too well known and the pope refused to rest until it was agreed. Bruno arrived in a Roman dungeon on February 27, 1593. Once in Rome, virtually all trace of him vanished. It was common practice by the Inquisition to let prisoners brood in jail for long periods of time between their questionings. Locked away, he was allowed no visitors and went through long years of imprisonment.

His concessions in Venice did not matter and the Inquisitors were determined to see him pay dearly for being so far ahead of his time. They simply did not believe Bruno's concessions and sensed he might have been trying to get off easy. They were right.

Bruno was charged with denying the existence of hell, questioning the divinity of Christ, rejecting the worship of icons, relics, and saints, opposing the idea of the Immaculate Conception, and believing that the act of physical love was not a sin. But the major problem they had with him, once again, was his beliefs and teachings on infinity. They kept him imprisoned in a dark dungeon for years, determined to break his spirit so that once he got out, he would never dare go back to his teachings. On average, he was examined on a yearly basis. A common practice to find out what an inmate was thinking was to put an informer in with him. One prison informer who was Bruno's cellmate was Matthaus de Silvestris. He reported back to the Inquisitors that Bruno claimed the Church was run by ignorant priests, monks, and asses and that all Church teachings were the teachings of asses. Bruno also told him that he did not believe in God (the Church's God).

Nevertheless, the Inquisitors remained patient. They knew if Bruno finally recanted, it would be a great propaganda coup for the Church. Bruno was famous, and they wanted him to admit that the Church was right so they could publicize it to the world.

Unbroken in Spirit

After eight years of jail they felt they were close. Bruno was brought in for a final interrogation. Thinking they had broken this man, they discovered that he had grown in spirit from his years of confinement. In complete isolation for eight long years, Bruno had the time to face his own soul, head-on. He found inner truths that could not be denied. At the interrogation he refused to make any concessions and announced that he had nothing to repent of and nothing to recant. Recanting would have saved him from being burnt alive and quite possibly set him free. Bruno refused. He said the Inquisition did not understand his teachings and when the verdict was announced he was declared an "impenitent and obstinate apostate." (His accusers failed to understand that apostates and heretics are often those with triumphant spirits.) Pope Clement VIII made the final decision concerning Bruno's fate, and the sentence was signed by nine cardinals. A great many people had not forgotten Giordano and his important teachings. He was well known, even famous. When the judges read the sentence, which stated he was to die by burning at the stake, he turned to them and said, "Perhaps you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it."

This was the very moment when Bruno achieved his triumph of the spirit. He admitted his fear of death, but would not let it rule him. He was telling his accusers that although they could kill him and achieve a physical victory, they were being dealt a spiritual and intellectual defeat. This defeat proved true in the coming years, because people did not forget Bruno's death-nor his ideas, which were eventually taken up by others.

On the morning of February 19, 1600, this incredibly gifted man was taken to an open area just outside of Rome called the Field of Flowers, tied to an iron stake, and burned publicly. He was accompanied by a small band of Dominican monks, plus Jesuits and others, who all begged him to repent. As he was led to the execution he was seen chained at the neck and wore a sheet with the cross of St. Andrew on each corner, with additional pictures of devils and red flames. At the stake, when he spoke his last words in defense of his beliefs, it so offended his executioners that he was gagged and not allowed to continue. As the flames began spreading, a crucifix was held before his eyes, but he turned away with an expression that showed utter contempt for the symbol of a religion that treated people in so ghastly a way. Although he could not speak, he did not cry out in pain at all. He died refusing to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him suffer, which is what they all had gathered for. He was 52 years old. A newspaper published two days later said Bruno believed himself a martyr, and shortly before his death said he would die gladly because "his soul will rise out of the flames to Paradise."

It took 289 years before he was honored in any way, but in 1889 a statue was erected at the place of his death. It was paid for by donations from around the world. In 1930 something completely different happened. The cardinal who had overseen the punishment and trial of Bruno, Robert Bellarmino, was declared a saint by the Catholic Church."
                                                                           

""Atmajnanam

Searching for the lofty spiritual path, finding it, understanding it, following it to the summit, perfecting it and Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

Rishis proclaim that we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum.

We are immortal souls living and growing in the great school of earthly experience in which we have lived many lives. Vedic rishis have given us courage by uttering the simple truth, "God is the Life of our life." A great sage carried it further by saying, there is one thing God cannot do: God cannot separate Himself from us. This is because God is our life. God is the life in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the animals. Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God's loving presence within us. We are the undying consciousness and energy flowing through all things. Deep inside we are perfect this very moment, and we have only to discover and live up to this perfection to be whole. Our energy and God's energy are the same, ever coming out of the void. We are all beautiful children of God. Each day we should try to see the life energy in trees, birds, animals and people. When we do, we are seeing God Siva in action. The Vedas affirm, "He who knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind-he indeed comprehends fully the Cause of all causes." Aum Namah Sivaya.

Where Am I Going? What Is My Path?

We are all growing toward God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum.

We have taken birth in a physical body to grow and evolve into our divine potential. We are inwardly already one with God. Our religion contains the knowledge of how to realize this oneness and not create unwanted experiences along the way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers, discovering the mystical meaning of the scriptures. The peerless path is commitment, study, discipline, practice and the maturing of yoga into wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer until we learn. Learning leads us to service; and selfless service is the beginning of spiritual striving. Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to meditate deeply and without distractions. Finally, meditation leads us to surrender in God. This is the straight and certain path, the San Marga, leading to Self-Realization-the inmost purpose of life-and subsequently to moksha, freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely affirm, "By austerity, goodness is obtained. From goodness, understanding is reached. From understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed from the cycle of birth and death." Aum Namah Sivaya.

What Is Meant by "Dancing with Siva"?

All motion begins in God and ends in God. The whole universe is engaged in a whirling flow of change and activity. This is Siva's dance. We are all dancing with Siva, and He with us. Ultimately, we are Siva dancing. Aum.

The world is seen as it truly is-sacred-when we behold Siva's cosmic dance. Everything in the universe, all that we see, hear and imagine, is movement. Galaxies soar in movement; atoms swirl in movement. All movement is Siva's dance. When we fight this movement and think it should be other than it is, we are reluctantly dancing with Siva. We are stubbornly resisting, holding ourselves apart, criticizing the natural processes and movements around us. It is by understanding the eternal truths that we bring all areas of our mind into the knowledge of how to accept what is and not wish it to be otherwise. Once this happens, we begin to consciously dance with Siva, to move with the sacred flow that surrounds us, to accept praise and blame, joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity in equanimity, the fruit of understanding. We are then gracefully, in unrestrained surrender, dancing with Siva. The Vedas state, "The cosmic soul is truly the whole universe, the immortal source of all creation, all action, all meditation. Whoever discovers Him, hidden deep within, cuts through the bonds of ignorance even during his life on earth." Aum Namah Sivaya.

How Can We Learn to Dance with Siva?

Dance is movement, and the most exquisite dance is the most disciplined dance. Hindu spiritual disciplines lead to oneness with God through self-reflection, surrender, personal transformation and the many yogas. Aum.

To progress on the path, we study the Vedas, other scriptures and our guru's teachings and make every effort to apply these philosophical truths to daily experience. We strive to understand the mind in its fourfold nature: chitta, consciousness; manas, instinctive mind; buddhi, intellectual mind; and ahamkara, ego or I-maker. We perform japa, meditation and yoga each day. Such spiritual discipline is known as sadhana. It is the mystical, mental, physical and devotional exercise that enables us to dance with Siva by bringing inner advancement, changes in perception and improvements in character. Sadhana allows us to live in the refined and cultured soul nature, rather than in the outer, instinctive or intellectual spheres. For consistent progress, sadhana should be performed regularly, without fail, at the same time each day, preferably in the early hours before dawn. The most important sadhanas are the challenges and practices given by one's guru. The Vedas caution, "The Self cannot be attained by the weak, nor by the careless, nor through aimless disciplines. But if one who knows strives by right means, his soul enters the abode of God." Aum Namah Sivaya.

What Is the Ultimate Goal of Earthly Life?

The ultimate goal of life on earth is to realize the Self, the rare attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi. Each soul discovers its Sivaness, Absolute Reality, Parashiva-the timeless, formless, spaceless Self God. Aum Namah Sivaya.

The realization of the Self, Parashiva, is the destiny of each soul, attainable through renunciation, sustained meditation and frying the seeds of karmas yet to germinate. It is the gateway to moksha, liberation from rebirth. The Self lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling nature, beyond action or any movement of even the highest state of consciousness. The Self God is more solid than a neutron star, more elusive than empty space, more intimate than thought and feeling. It is ultimate reality itself, the innermost Truth all seekers seek. It is well worth striving for. It is well worth struggling to bring the mind under the dominion of the will. After the Self is realized, the mind is seen for the unreality that it truly is. Because Self-Realization must be experienced in a physical body, the soul cycles back again and again into flesh to dance with Siva, live with Siva and ultimately merge with Siva in undifferentiated oneness. Yea, jiva is actually Siva. The Vedas explain, "As water poured into water, milk poured into milk, ghee into ghee become one without differentiation, even so the individual soul and the Supreme Self become one." Aum Namah Sivaya."
                                                                           

"Dr. Carey's millennium message to the faithful, titled Jesus 2000, contained far more than pronouncements on the resurrection.

However, he said the church had "let Jesus down" by contributing to the oppression of women, the repression of free speech and by supporting imperialism and slavery.

The archbishop declared that Christ himself spent little time in religious buildings and described priests as "hypocrites."

Dr. Carey, whose roots are in the evangelical tradition, blamed the Christian Church for being a "stumbling block" in many world conflicts. He also said that it "defamed the name of Jesus" by playing a part in "the victimization of Jews in the Middle Ages and in Nazi Germany."

He attacked the "idolatrous ideologies which have poisoned this century," such as communism and capitalism, and said that people in the developed world now perceived "the market" or "economic forces" as the nearest thing to a supreme being."       
                                                                           

"A vivid testimony to the need to reconnect community and transcendence lies in the empty church pews, particularly in those faiths that bought heavily into the modern processes of liberalization, and whose leaders came to understand charity primarily as succouring the oppressed, wounded, forlorn and abandoned. To be sure, the greatest test of faith may come where the life of the spirit meets the afflictions of the flesh. And for the thousands of Canadians, there could be no hope were it not for the shelters, food banks and missions sponsored by the churches. Edmonton's Mustard Seed, Toronto's Yonge Street Mission, Drumheller's M2W2 prison project offer poignant illustrations of true faith at work. But service disconnected from mystery — the awesome experience of the infinite and the holy — soon withers and dies. The suffering to which the liberal churches so visibly minister may be a signal of a deeper, darker affliction that only the awesome mystery of transcendence can cure."       
                                                                           

"Division and separation must surely be the major disease of Homo sapiens. There are over three hundred religions, cults, subcults and sects throughout the world. There are over three hundred Gods of all different colors who range from the jealous and vengeful to the Lover or the Indifferent. The priests of these various Endlessnesses have exacted a terrible toll on human suffering and life."
                                                                           

"Abraham, according to Christians, was a pre-Christian Christian. According to Mohammad he was consciously and explicitly a Muslim. The Jews naturally claim him as their own. According to Jews, salvation is primarily in the Exodus from Egypt and the observation of the Mosiac Law. Christians maintain that it was the beginning of salvation and that this held until Jesus came. Then all was changed. Exodus, Law, Promised Land, all these lost validity. Only the sacrifice of Jesus gives salvation now; the Exodus, the Law, and the Promised Land were mere symbols and foretaste of what Jesus brought to men. The Muslims maintain that this was true until Mohammad came. By that time, Christians had corrupted the Gospel, and Jesus' sacrifice was useless. Now only Mohammad's religion and teaching can give men salvation; both Moses and Jesus were really pre-Muslim Muslims who failed to accomplish the God's purpose on account of man's perversity and weakness.

According to Judaism, God chose the Jews and never changed his mind; they have the true and unique revelation about man's destiny and about God's nature; they know what Hell is, what Paradise is, what goodness is. According to the Christians, God choose them, revealed to them all he had originally revealed to the Jews (discontinuing ethnic habits such as circumcision, for example), and gave them much more besides. According to Muslims, these claims are farcical, and blasphemous; Jews and Christians have a portion of the truth, but God has now chosen the Muslims to whom he has revealed all he ever revealed to Jews and Christians, in addition to much else besides."
                                                                           

"Central to the revelation concept in all three religions is the notion that the truth revealed to them is permanent, unchangeable, unalterable. Today, the main characteristic of advancing civilization and the main challenge to human society arise precisely from the never-ending processes of change which assail man on all sides. In fact, modern man accepts change in his knowledge and its application as a sign of progress. Man reposes his hope of progress and betterment in such change. He regards the flux of change as the hallmark of modernity and as being more human than ever ...

Modern man himself, therefore, hangs back from final judgements, from saying definitively "that is that." His direction is not predictable any more than the determination of his will, anymore than the outcome of his actions or his final fate. For all things are possible; a final coherence of all things human; a disintegration of the human fabric; a widening of human freedom and satisfaction to paradisiacal bonds; a closing of responsibilities to the point of puritanism. All is possible because for him all is changing."
                                                                           

"It is essential to find out what forces are acting in the mind and affect its reasoning and its outlook. Once the student unearths the real basis of his actions and attitudes he can philosophize freely and fearlessly, but not before. He must ruthlessly unmask by searching criticism his hidden motives, his unconscious desires, his darkly-covered bias. The complexes which fill the subconscious layer of the human mind and which he neither recognizes nor names are partly responsible for his inability to apprehend truth. A most important department of preliminary activity is therefore to dig out these mental weeds and present them to the clear light of consciousness.

Once he becomes aware of the secret processes of his mind and the secret workings of his wishes, he will discover that many false beliefs, many emotional distortations cling to it out of his long past, acting as powerful detriments of right conduct and preventing the clear insight into truth. He will find that he carries a heavy burden of illusions and rationalizations which resist the entry of real knowledge. Only through such a thorough psychological understanding into what is going on behind the scenes of his conscious personal life can liberation come and prepare the way for further steps on the ultimate path. He must strip naked his innermost characteristics taking and making no excuses, but boldly seeking to understand the bitterest truths about himself. He must see himself as he really is, exposing self to self. Such is the delicate psychological operation needed to detect for removal from the process of thought and action all those tendencies, complexes, hallucinations and rationalizations which prevent the entry of truth into the mind or drive it along wrong roads. Until these influences are detected by analysis and exposed by interrogation, they will not cease their maleficent operation. These complexes come to dominate the man and retard his free use of reason. He has to humble himself from the beginning by not hesitating to admit that his character, both in its open and concealed phases, is a deformed, crippled, and unbalanced thing....

When a particular idea, for instance, recurs constantly and irresistibly to the mind and finally becomes a deep-seated obsession it interferes with the free play of thinking and thus renders accurate philosophical reflection impossible. Or when a man makes a mental reservation in favour of certain beliefs in a particular subject or field of interest and will not allow his faculties to work fully therein, his mind is then divided into two or more insulated departments which are never permitted to interact logically on each other. We may then have the spectacle of complete credulity in one department and critical reasoning in the other. He is really unbalanced in one department and yet quite balanced in the other. The excellence of the latter hides the defect of the former. The fault does not lie in the ability to think properly but in a particular complex which interferes at a certain point. Again when a concession must be made to reason for the sake of self-respect or for the respect of others, we witness the peculiar process of the person finding a conscious basis for his conclusions which is quite other than the real one. Thus he deceives himself and perhaps others by such rationalizations of egoistic wishes and unjustifiable prejudices. Other difficulties are delusions which assume such a fixed character as to afford an impregnable front to reason....

All these may be classed as diseases of the mind and until they are cured they prevent a healthy working of those faculties which are called into play when we seek truth. For they determine the processes of thinking and action.

Such is the self-revelation which awaits the student. It will not be pleasant but if he will have the courage to accept it like a medicine it will be purifying. There can be no cure as long as he is not aware that he is diseased."
                                                                           

""There is no point in insisting that religious teachers have been almost all equally misunderstood even by their closest disciples, followers, apostles. Arjuna did not show a better understanding of Shri Krishna than Peter did of Lord Jesus or Abu Bakr of Muhammad. The less God or his messenger were understood, the more the concept of God was developed and abused by the aforementioned institutionalized religions.

When the Divine Incarnation propounded the Truth, the followers understood his message to be their own possession. After the death of the Incarnation, all too often the substance of the great teaching was lost and its empty form was called as religion. Now, as soon as one even thinks wrongly, the vibratory awareness reacts.

This is why we are confident that Sahaja Yoga will not turn into a dead Church. For a realised soul the deities are alive within; he becomes a recording and correcting instrument; a sensation of burning comes from the awakened reaction of the deities to any obstacles on the concerned chakras; the teaching of HH Mataji can be verified as they are directly built in to the central nervous system and this drastically reduces the chances of a realised soul making mistakes. As we have said before, religion becomes a daily living experience of the awareness. The inexpressible feeling of joy and peace that was experienced at the first breakthrough of the Kundalini gradually settles down as the witness stage develops.

The Indian Sahaja Yogis explain that the Kundalini rises at the first sight of HH Mataji (Prathama Darshana) as if she meets again Her primordial source, after having waited for so many yugas. In Her gushing welcome She pierces the Brahmarandra, granting rebirth. After this, the Kundalini falls to Her abode but She gradually comes back, to look after the reborn being, enriching and transforming him. Sahaja Yoga is a living religion which convinces you through the living proof of the Kundalini's manifestation. When it is properly established in a realised soul the subject can decode without difficulty the different sensations within the fingers, spine and brain. He reads the Universal Unconscious."
                                                                           

"The comprehension of the divine message in its essence, the liberation of the archetypes from the artificial network created by man, could lead to a pure, universal religion (Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, in Sanskrit), thus fulfilling the dream of many contemporary exponents of the great religions who, however, are hindered by the dogmatic conservatism of the intolerant, exclusivist institutions driven by a thirst for power and wealth that have nothing to do with the spirituality of which they are pretending to be the sole, authorized representatives."
                                                                           

"Millions upon millions of grown-up men and adult women living in the world today are still intellectual children who fully accept and completely believe much that is nonsensical and more that is false... . But society being what it is, the masses of mankind busy with toil or suffering in trouble, must trust in authoritarianism and in normal times can usually find no better guides through the maze of life-problems than their traditional ones, provided the trust is not abused.

Take the instance of religion. A religion has to establish its authority by congealing its views into formal assertions and fixed dogmas. It has to announce these doctrines as supernaturally revealed "sacred" truths, not as arguable secret ones. The moment it is willing to discuss its tenets on any other basis than that of given and infallible revelation, it has opened a door to numerous schisms and to slow but sure weakening of its entire position.

Let us examine this position. It is historically satisfactory to the masses, who naturally set out in life with the simplest possible conceptions and who are willing to accept the universe in which they find themselves without troubling their heads overmuch about it. Its value is little however, to the few who are engaged in the quest of ultimate certitude and who are therefore counselled to begin with the exercise of agnostic enquiry....

There must be adamant refusal to be overawed by authority. There must be an attitude which keenly probes and dissects every dogma which is set up for consumption; there must be a freedom from the ancient prejudices and irrational predilections implanted by heredity, environment, and experience; there must be courage to resist the emotional pressure generated by conventional social forces, a pressure which carries most people along the stream of untruth, dissimulation and selfish interest.

What shall we find when the authority of a book, bible, man or institution is offered as sole sanction of the philosophical truth of any statement? We shall find that it is always possible to discover elsewhere another book, bible, man or institution that may also be offered as the sanction for a directly contrary statement! ...

Whence have all these conflicting tenets and discordant assertions been derived? They have invariably been proffered on some dead or living authority. They cannot all be true; many even cancel each other out! The timid enquirer usually ignores this awkward position but the more courageous one will face it fully, for it indicates that somewhere among the statements there is a logical fallacy. He will be compelled to confess what the sages have long taught, that the mere say-so of any man, be he as world-revered as Muhammad or as world-reviled as Nero possesses no value at all to the philosophical student ... He has no right to accept beliefs solely because somebody else accepts them or because most people accept them. For if the others hold their beliefs on the same basis, then all may have accepted complete falsehoods as being completely true. Hence philosophy is unable to bend the knee before fallible persons but only before hard facts....

The student on the philosophical quest must therefore entirely discard blind faith, unquestioning acceptance, easy following of tradition and submission to the tyranny of large numbers, for all those are to be reckoned as fallacies of thinking! Though useful to the majority of men for the practical purposes of everyday living as they are, they are useless to him for the ascertainment of a truth which cannot be belied.

This is not to say that all such authorities are always wrong; on the contrary they are sometimes right; it is to say that they might be wrong, that we have no guarantee ensuring their perpetual infallibility....

This is not to say that we are to rest satisfied with our doubts and be content with the gloomy confinement of agnosticism. It means that we shall make our doubt act as a constantly-pressing spur to deeper investigation, and not as a cold clammy hand to dishearten us. The sages say that doubts are extremely valuable provided we are induced to overcome and solve them be perservering search which carries us eventually to a higher level of understanding. They are not to be forcibly expelled or feebly smothered. And if we foolishly let doubts paralyse all further search then we have no right to dogmatize pessimistically about the unattainability of truth in general, as so many in the West do."