The world is marred by a lack of peace and harmony. It is characterised by misunderstanding and intransigence. This state of morial. The solutions do not lie in rhetoric, religious hypocrisy, political supremacy or economic might. Rather, the answer is to be found in the ideal way of life. With it’s trails and tribulations, this is the crucible, in which purity is tested.

This crucible - designed by Philosophers, Prophets and Gurus - carries the promise of ridding people of their sins. It removes superfluous elements, and forges mere men into golden angelic beings. Unfortunately, this crucible has been mistaken for a destructive incinerator. No wonder religious maiming, political and economic divisions and social exclusions are rife. Our true heritage and legacy has been for key to all ills, in an imperfect world. This is the great contradiction.

Our physical bodies belong to the natural world. They derive their sustenance from it, and eventually perish in the manner of all natural things. Our minds however, not only derive their nutriment from, but also belong to, a different world or Being, which is not subject to the deficiencies of the natural order. Plato has referred to this as the realm of forms; Aristotle, the final cause. More commonly, it is known as God.

Very much in line with the Vedic ideal of Maya, Plato refers to the everyday world as shadowy and imperfect. He talks of the need to return to the world of light and perfection. One, who aspires to this, must use intellect borne out of love, marked by true knowledge. Such initiation leads the aspirant to the state of Plato’s platonic love, Shakespeare’s marriage of true minds, the Buddhist nirvana, the Hindu mukti, the Muslim taqwa and the Christian salvation.

The final cause

The Aristotelian final cause of the object is the end to which the whole process is directed. The various stages preceding maturity are those in which the object is potentially that which it is striving to be. For example, as a bud is potentially a leaf and a youth, potentially an adult. But much more than that, he points out that it is not the world of matter - subject rather the world of the spirit which has the capacity to make the clear to us our shortcomings and enable us to prescribe remedies for them.

Nirvana

In his famous Fire Sermon, on par with the Christian Semon on the Mount, Lord Buddha very eloquently describes the whole material world as being ablaze. Only when the aspirant rises above the eye-consciousness - passions, sounds, smells, tastes, births, deaths and so on - does he become FREE. This freedom is nirvana - a state of perfect equilibrium and peace.

Mukti

Mukti is a state of being or divine union, in which there is no coming or going, in which there is stillness and oneness. Scriptural writings in the Chandogya Upanishad explain that in the absence of this state, there is no freedom, but a prolonging of the experience of separation and misery. The Holy Bhagwad Geeta beautifully echoes this in book VIII:

Taqwa

The task of Islam was to lead people back to a faith from which they had strayed - away from a polytheistic society lost in the world of change, to a community of monotheistic belief, with it’s roots in the hammed informs us that for those initiate into this new world on them shall come no fear, nor shall they be put to grief (Sura 5, the Holy Koran)

Salvation

If our physical self, born of this world, ultimately returns to it, then what is it that needs to be salvaged? It is obviously the part that is salvageable - the spirit! It is not unnatural, therefore, for Lord Christ to have said in the first of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) that blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is only the poor, who by divesting all worldly possessions can reach the realm of freedom.

To conclude...

Like an image in a dream, this world indeed, is troubled by love, hatred and other passions. So long as the dream lasts, the image appears to be real. On awakening, this image vanishes (Shankara: Atma Bodha). The awakening in question is the realization of the imperishable self, in a perishable world. Only then can we replicate the heavenly wold amongst us, and create what Plato referred to as the Ideal Republic - a world guided by philosophers in touch with their true selves.

The Nirankari Mission contemporarily, advocates that the world’s passionate affair with disharmony is born out of ignorance. This is the ignorance of our common heritage. As long as this missing link prevails, we remain wedded to the superficial world of appearance. If a real and wholesome marriage is to take place, it must be that of true minds, which can only come about with a Knowledge of God. Nirankari Baba Hardev Ji is a keeper of this Knowledge in the present day. He is sharing this freedom openly, with anyone who seeks for it.
 

- Dr. DK Mehta