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The Genealogical Tree of mankind
It is an indisputable fact that religion has an important influence on human mind. Along with the religion, the race, the language, the nationality, the culture, the ancestry with which a person identifies himself or herself has got a great bearing on his/her personality, beliefs, outlooks, attitude, consciousness and thinking. These are often the reason for so many conflicts in this world. So it is necessary to understand the original religion and culture of the mankind.
In order to elucidate the growth of this world and to illustrate the world developments, this world is compared with a tree which may be called ‘the Genealogical Tree of mankind’. It is also known as kalpa tree because it depicts the history of the whole kalpa (one full cycle of all eras), the beginning the mid-period and the end of all the religio-political dynasties of the world.
In the beginning, depicted by the trunk, there was only one religion, which is the religion of the deities, and there was only one dynasty, called the sun dynasty. There was the deity-sovereignty, which set in vogue all righteous traditions and customs. The masses were, like their rulers, vice less and possessed divine qualities. Because they did good actions, even the nature was perfectly under their control. There was no fury of nature, neither ill-health nor want of money or food. All the elements were clean and excellent and therefore were instruments of happiness. Since there was complete purity, peace and prosperity in that Age, kings and queens and their righteous subjects are shown with a halo of light around them. They were called deities because they were naturally holy, habitually righteous and instinctively spiritual and vice less. There was such great mutual regard and love in those days that it is said of the age in which a lion and a goat together drank from the same stream. There was unlimited wealth. Since people in that Age led vice less lives, they lived long and there was no case of premature death. They willingly gave up the body when they had reached old age. In other words, death never laid its hand on them.
In Golden age the souls were complete in all respects. In silver age, there was a slight decline in divine qualities. But even then there was sovereignty of complete peace and happiness.
Copper age follows the Silver Age. By this time, the souls, who had transmigrated through several lives, become body-conscious. The vices like lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego cast their shadows on them. And they had thus fallen from the state of purity and worthiness and become vicious and unworthy. As they forget their true selves and broke with purity, natural laws came to be violated. Even nature deviated from her usual course, having thus begun to harm them, even though slightly. It is in this age that various religions were established. A good many faiths began appearing like branches coming forth from the World-Tree. Abraham founded Judaism; Buddhism was founded by Buddha; Jesus Christ founded Christianity; Shankaracharya established the class of recluses and hermits; Mohammed Prophet established the Muslim religion. The previous deity religion came to be known as Hindu religion because they lost their deity-hood or divinity in them. The population also increased considerably. Whereas in the beginning, everything was one, now there are many religions, many kingdoms, languages, cultures and dynasties. Thus grew mutual strife, divisions and disunity and this state of affairs continued.
In the Iron Age that follows the Copper-Age, problems, difference of views and disputes begin to increase. The souls in this age are over-powered by vices and darkness of ignorance. They become vicious and impious. There is quite a crop of dissensions due to religious, communal and sectarian difference. Women are treated with utter contempt. Nature becomes instrumental in causing distress to man. Disease, grief, old age, premature death, death by accident, etc afflicted mankind.
When all the religions reach their lowest level, and all people, men and women become diabolic, there is misery and uproar. This is the time of wickedness and irreligion. People are given to sensual pleasures; they acquire bad qualities, ready to cause bloodshed on the score of differences in languages, views, politics, faiths, castes and states. Fighting among the nations brings about a great destruction of the world. Instead of behaving like brothers, people look upon one another as so many different beings and, therefore, they deal with each other as enemies. Being guided wholly by the feelings of nepotism, unrighteousness, lawlessness, selfishness, attachment, adulteration and bribery they desire to lay their hands on others’ possessions by any means. People discard all the feelings of mutual love and fight like demons.
What will happen next?
The world will not go on like this forever. Somebody has to put an end to all these evils. Otherwise the state of the world will be incomprehensible. This task is beyond the reach of any human being and only one Almighty God can establish lasting peace on earth. Incorporeal God Shiva descends in the body of an ordinary person, names him Prajapita Brahma, and through him, gives the Godly Knowledge and teaches the easy Raja Yoga. He shows the path by which anyone can become completely vice less and most righteous. In this way, God purifies the human beings of the old, impious world and transmutes them into pious ones, creating the Golden Age again.
The Cycle of Time
In this lesson, we learn about the beginning, the middle and the end of one complete ‘time cycle’ of this world. More than anything else, we will understand the great significance of the period we are undergoing at present.
The world has been in existence since eternity and it will continue to be eternal. The world was neither created anytime before nor will it get destroyed later, because matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it only undergoes transformation from one form to another. Similarly this world also undergoes changes in its characteristics, but as such the world was not created out of nothing or there a total annihilation.
The cycle of time is best understood with the help of the picture of the world drama wheel. It illustrates the “flow” of time. In the middle of it is the Fylfot (Swastika) which divides the Time into four equal parts. The Swastika is considered to be very auspicious.
In the first part of this Wheel of Time, marked by Swastika is shown Golden Age. Here the arm of the Swastika is pointing towards right because the right arm symbolizes what is good or what brings about goodness. In these early times, when the cycle started, people of the deity religion (Sanatan Dharma) were possessed of divine qualities and nature and they enjoyed complete purity, 100% peace and complete prosperity.
Then came the Silver Age. In this era too, people were possessed of purity, peace and prosperity to a very high degree. But the degree of their divine qualities had decreased a little. They were two degrees less divine than the people of the Golden Age who were divine to the extent of 16 degrees. Therefore the arm of Swastika that indicates this epoch is bent downwards because souls in this era had come down from the state of super-righteousness to what is just righteous.
Next came Copper Age. After having experienced beatitude and fruition for many a life, turned it the path of vices or unrighteousness. This is why the arm is reversed because the left hand symbolizes what is impure and auspicious. People then were second-grade by their nature, qualities and actions. Mankind is now divided on various religions; strives and disputes started to appear and the five vices brought disquiet and sorrow in homes.
Steadily, unrighteous doings, i.e. the actions done under the sway of one or the other of these five vices, led the world to more and more impurity and sufferings and the world came under the yoke of Iron Age (Kaliyuga). Strives, wars, bellicosity and the resulting peacelessness increased rapidly in frequency and intensity in this era. Therefore the fourth of Swastika is shown raising itself up to indicate the rise in conflicts, clashes and calamities. Then, a stage comes when ignorance, lassitude, stupor, moral turpitude and sin become dominant. People become devilish by nature and religion becomes utterly degenerate.
The Significance of the present period
At present, we are undergoing through a critical phase in the history of mankind. This is the period of the confluence of the ending phase of the Iron Age and the starting phase of the Golden Age. This is the most important of all epochs, called the Confluence Age, when God, the Highest Being, descends in this world to meet the human beings, His beloved children and gives the most precious boons of Redemption and Beatitude.
Through the Godly Knowledge and the easy Raj Yoga, God creates the Golden Age or new vice less order. The act of ‘creation’ does not mean constructing something out of nothing but it means the moral reconstruction of mankind or the re-establishment of the ancient most Deity Religion. The reader would be pleased to know or, perhaps, surprised to know that God Shiva, the Supreme Father of all, is indeed doing this great task of resurrection of mankind at present. The world will soon be free of all miseries and the paradise, which is full of peace and happiness, will be established again.
The Nature of the World Drama Cycle
The cycle of five epochs, comprising Golden-Age, Silver Age, Copper-Age and Iron Age and the confluence Age repeats exactly every time after it has turned full wheel. During every cycle, the souls who are the actors on this world-drama stage will be the same. Each soul will act the same part in every cycle since, in the soul itself is indelibly ingrained the part it has played life after life in the previous cycle or that it has to repeat cycle after cycle. Just as in a tape record or a gramophone record, a whole song or drama is recorded and it repeats every time the record is played, even so, a soul’s role in this world drama is recorded in the soul itself which is only self-luminous, conscient point. The soul replays the part once every 5000 years because each one of the four eras of the world-drama being equal to 1250 years, the duration of one World Cycle is 5000 years.
The Rise and Fall of Humans
We will understand this lesson with the help of the adjoining picture. It is a wonderful story of how the souls, who once were deities, became the devotees and very ordinary human beings. It also explains how they lost the divine virtues, spiritual and moral values and developed devilish tendencies. The illustration shows that originally, human souls had complete purity, peace and prosperity and that they became defiled and peace less lately. Now it is time to again inculcate those lost virtues.
First of all is shown the Golden Age or the Satyuga, which is completely righteous. Shri Lakshmi and Shri Narayana and their dynasty ruled the world free from disease, sorrow, worry or vice. The people then had truly virtuous nature and outlook. During this period of 1250 years, the average age was 150 years. In this epoch, the people are most elevated, completely viceless and are invested with all good qualities and live under Divine Law. These people are considered to be class of deities.
Next comes Silver Age. In this epoch of 1250 years, average age of a person varies from 100 to 125 years. All are happy in this period as well. They have the rank of what are called Kshatriyas because they are not as pure as their predecessors – the deities.
Then in the Copper Age, they become body-conscious and are led to vices. So they have a fall, from a deity’s position which is worship-worthy exalted position to be just supplicant men or poor worshippers. Their rank is of middle class or Rajopradhana type. Their position is that of ‘Vaishyas’ –mediocre.
After this comes the Iron Age (Kaliyuga). The picture represents how in this epoch, Maya which symbolizes the vices, has grown in power over the world. In Iron Age, tamoguna, the basest form in man – is pre-dominant. All the persons are ranked as Shudras. In this epoch of 1250 years, there are 42 births. In this era, we see disputes and strifes, based on want of respect for authority and differences in ideology, religion, states and languages. People do not look upon one another as spiritual brothers and are thus turned away from God, who is the Supreme Father.
At present, we are in the Confluence Age – the confluence of the fag end of the Kaliyuga and the dawn of Satyuga or the Golden Age. This is the time to receive Divine Knowledge from God and practise spiritual discipline and easy Raja Yoga and re-acquire deity status. When the Iron Age is very near it’s end, unrighteousness is eliminated to make room for Righteousness (Dharma) and the deity-world. With this comes the Golden Age.