IMPURITY
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
- Mathew 5:8
It is paradoxical that even with the pathbreaking development in science and technology, the vulnerability to living a retrogressive or an impure life has actually increased. “Adulterated liquor kills many” is an attention-grabbing headline in many newspapers and television news time and again. Liquor in known to be harmful but adulterated liquor causes death in no time.
Another relevant point is the pollution in the air we breathe. In December 1984, the infamous Bhopal Gas Leak Tragedy that killed thousands of citizens in their sleep never to see life again was the topic for discussion in several seminars and debates. Today, too, it gets a fleeting mention among intelligentsia in any discussion on the ill effects of air-pollution. In big cities, commuters who have to wait at the traffic signals amid chokingly impure air suffer from various disorders. No wonder that bronchial diseases are on the rise because of the increased vehicular emissions and pollutants. This is not all. It comes with spin-offs. The amount of ultra-violet rays entering through the expanding hole in the ozone layer are alarmingly increasing. These extremely harmful rays could well be the bane of many incurable skin diseases in the world.
Similarly, consumption of impure water diseases the body. Spilling of oil tankers in the sea causes deaths of thousands of fishes and the destruction of other aquatic life. Not to forget, increasing industrialization is constantly reducing the concentration of forests and it is aggravating the grim danger of global warning – another hot topic of discussion for the conservationists.
I have served in Rajhara Mines in Chattisgarh as an Assistant Commandant. The earth in that region is about 60 per cent iron-ore rich. However, trains cannot run on that ground because it contains iron-ore. The trains need steel tracks to run on. So, when the iron-ore is processed in steel plants i.e. its impurities are removed before it could be processed into steel. The steel is then used to build steel tracks, which are tenacious enough to bear the tons of weight of the trains. In the same way, human beings need to be purged of their impurities and vices. They are sublimated through the knowledge of God and emerge as purified human beings of moral mettle. As a consequence, a man is moulded into a good human being who is a realized soul.
What is noteworthy in the process of sublimation is that nothing is to be added. Likewise, it is just the removal of ego, which gives rise to other impurities like anger, selfishness, hatred, violence, etc that makes a human being sublime. It corroborates the fact His Holiness Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj repeats so often: Each human soul is potentially divine.
The murk of ignorance, darkened by the impurity of ego, besmirch and cloud the divinity of human beings. The knowledge of the Formless One and its remembrance resurrects the purity/divinity of the human soul by removing the murk of ignorance and revealing to man his true nature of being.
Brewing notions of ignorance about the Creator, hatred for fellow beings and jealousy for peers continue to defile and adulterate humane side of man. In the lure of self-aggrandizement man does not even hesitate to think bad and do worse to one’s fellow beings. It happens because:
The veil of ignorance clouds our vision and deludes us to regard others as aliens.
- Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji
When things do not actually function or behave the way they were designed to or when they get adulterated, it is harmful. All human beings were created as potential replicas of God i.e. human beings are potentially divine and bear the stamp of divinity. The Holy Bible, too, testifies in the following words:
God created man in His own image.
However, instead of insisting on this aspect of religion, people are told to be careful about the rites and rituals that are distinct and different from the core values of every religion. Mind should be indulged in kind deeds but it gives in to hatching conspiracies and as a consequence outrageous deeds are committed.
Religion is the guiding spirit for an individual and should be a uniting factor. As His Holiness Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj put it:
Religion unites, never divides.
Quite sadly, religion today is dividing people and not uniting them. Perhaps I put that mildly. The religions today are creating compartments among people. “Religious terrorism” is an oxymoron that has, as a result, inevitably crept in our diction. In our own country, religion has become the bane of turmoil, suffering, arson and destruction between the two most predominant religions. At the global level, circumstances are not as bad as they seem. They are worse. The war against terror under America’s hegemony has not been able to protect itself from being construed without religious hues. Again, world’s two most predominant religions’ followers are at loggerheads. And the tussle has become hateful with each passing day. Throats of innocent people are slit mercilessly in the name of religious propagation and conferred as a holy act against the blasphemous – a sure sign of the adulteration in our religious values.
Religion is the opium of the masses, Right, it has benumbed our senses even towards the most violently outrageous acts against humanity. This religious adulteration is least compatible and acceptable in a world where highest standards and benchmarks are set to maintain high quality in other spheres of life.
The reason invariably has been the defiled interpretation of religion and vindictive propagation of one’s own religion. Religion, which actually establishes peace, is now becoming the cause of belligerence. The root-cause of the affected or adulterated human psyche, which makes one believe that cheating or harming is profitable for me, is the darkness of ignorance about the Almighty. “This ignorance gives birth to ego, ego to hatred and hatred to violence” says Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj.
The darkness makes us misconstrue a rope for a snake. Likewise the darkness of ignorance about the Super-Soul deludes us into thinking our fellow beings as “the others.” His Holiness Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj has felt the pulse of the diseased man and medicating him with “God-Realization.” The light of the Divine-knowledge that is being bestowed by the True Master enlightens man about the true nature of his being. As a consequence the man who was deceived or guiled into thinking one’s fellow beings as “the others,” now perceives others as brothers.
The “Divine-Knowledge” sublimates the adulterated mind – the mind afflicted by the ignorance of the Almighty and jealousy for one’s fellow beings. Because the mind is aware of the Almighty and perceives His omnipresence, the soul dwells and glows in the luminosity of the “Divine-Knowledge.” The heart is full of love, the mind is enlightened and sublime, and the soul enjoys the grace of the Super-Soul – all pervading consciousness.
Every species was programmed to behave in a particular fashion. Man was programmed to love each other and behave as per the traits, norms, and the code of conduct by the Creator. On the contrary, a mal-functioning human being becomes just like software being attacked by a virus. The virus is dangerously reproducing and can irrecoverably corrupt the stored data in toto. The defence guard – run an anti-virus software before running or using the computer. The advantageous result – protect your data from a virus attack and the data stored in other computers too, if it’s online. Prevention – keep running the anti-virus software periodically to detect or pre-empt the virus attack. Our ego too is like a virus that reproduces itself manifold and can deprave a person’s goodness. But hey! Don’t panic. “God-Realization,” an anti-virus is available. The result – it dispels ignorance and demolishes ego. The prevention is – after being blessed with “God-Realization” by the True Master – to keep remembering the Almighty and not being deluded by ego which is based on the pride of one’s actions.
Today His Holiness True Master Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj is endeavouring to make human beings pure by blessing them with “God-Realization”. Such a human being is an asset for the whole world. His fragrance of good deeds makes the world inhabitable. The “Divine-Knowledge” bestowed by the True Master is creating a bond of universal brotherhood by eliminating ignorance and ego, and supplanting it with knowledge of the Almighty, selflessness and love. The spin-off: Permanent peace in the world.
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