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• Personal Growth

March 2006

By Sri Bhagvan

The founder of the Oneness Movement and Oneness University, based in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, whose mission is to help birth the golden age, articulates his vision.

At the dawn of the new millennium, what is the most widely discussed subject on the spiritual front?

The subject is the advent of a New Age; an age that promises to be a glorious golden age, of one humanity and one world, which the Hindus call Satyug.

It is to achieve this mission that the Oneness Movement based in South India, founded by Sri Bhagavan and his wife, Sri Amma, is devoted to. It not only prophesies such an age but works towards bringing about the transition in our lifetime. It speaks of enlightenment not to one or a group but to the world at large.

Is it possible, that the whole of mankind, all six billion of us, can really be transformed? What is the group’s modus operandi to achieve this mammoth task?

To set man free totally and unconditionally is the vision statement of the movement. They seek to enlighten a critical number of people who would bring about a phase transition in humanity’s consciousness. Thereafter, the process is automatic. The morphogenetic fields popularized by Rupert Sheldrake (see Life Positive January 2006) or fields in consciousness, would take over. The learning or the state of consciousness of this critical mass would get passed on to the entire species and humanity as a whole would have stepped over into a new era, an era of oneness, harmony and love.

The methodology adopted is the process called diksha. Diksha is essentially a direct transfer of power, which leads the seeker to a state of enlightenment or God-realization. Those who participate in the special processes of the movement also receive the ability to give the diksha to others, transferring the state they have received. Thus, the movement asserts, a growing number of people are experiencing an awakening.

If this is so, are Bhagavan and Amma then, the much-awaited Kalki avatar? Surprisingly, the answer is no. ‘Kalki is not an individual. It is a consciousness. It is a phenomenon of collective awakening that would transform the world. The puranic Kalki brandishing a sword and riding a horse is symbolic, not actual. The sword represents divine grace and the horse the speed with which the world will be transformed. Kalki, as mentioned in many ancient scriptures of the world, is a collective avatar. That is why it is not one warrior but hordes of warriors dressed in white descending from the heaven. Every individual that is enlightened is a Kalki,’ says Sri Bhagavan.

Here is Bhagavan’s vision of the New Age:

‘People basically have two views about the world. One view is that the future is going to remain much the same. The other view is that there is no future and the world is going to come to an end. Both these views on the surface look very different. Yet they produce the same psychological and political effects.

‘Both lead to the paralysis of imagination and will. Both freeze us into inaction. But, on the other hand, if we understand what is now happening – it is a global transformation and that we are the final generation of an old civilization, and the first generation of a new civilization, and that much of our confusion and anguish could be traced directly to the conflict within us, within our political institutions and between the dying old civilization, then action becomes possible once again. In short it liberates our intellect and our will.

‘We are in the midst of a transformation of one civilization to another. Our thinking methodologies are changing. We see a new emerging civilization, and along with it new family styles, changing ways of living, loving, working, a new economy, new political realities, and beyond all this, an altered state of consciousness as well.

‘Pieces of this civilization already exist today. Millions are attuning themselves to the rhythm of tomorrow. Others, terrified of the future, are engaged in a desperate futile flight into the past and are trying to restore the dying world, which gave them birth. The dawn of this new civilization which we call the Golden Age – is the single most explosive fact of our lifetime.

‘Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces a deeper social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time. Without clearly recognizing it, we are engaged in building the world’s first Golden Age. In the near future, we would be the first generation to create a global Golden Age.

‘But, for this to happen, the old must die. As the new civilization challenges the old, it will topple bureaucracies, will reduce the role of nations and bring about governments that are simpler, more efficient, yet more democratic than what we have seen today. It is a civilization with its own distinctive world outlook, with its own ways of dealing with time, space, logic and consciousness.

‘Let us see how the emerging New Age would affect our lives. In the economic sphere, some fundamental changes would be affected to the old economy and we would be most certainly out of our ever-deepening economic crisis. Foundations for a new economy would have been laid and this in turn would be a leading force for the emergence of the Golden Age.

‘Though there would be differences in the economic status of people, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots would be reduced. There would be greater sharing of wealth amidst people. Men would be more interested in creating wealth for the community at large than making money for their personal aggrandizement. People would learn to hold wealth in trust and not feel they are the owners of it.

‘In the psychological sphere, we would be out of the epidemic of personality crisis. We would be individuals. The conflict and confusion reflected in our work, family styles, sexual attitudes and personal morality would come to an end. It would be a movement away from the meaningless rat race for survival and towards holistic living. Relationships would acquire utmost significance. Society would move to a balance between the head and the heart.

‘In the political sphere the clash has already begun between those wanting to preserve the old world order and those who seek solutions to the urgent problems of the world – food, energy, resources, poverty, population, ecology, climate, problems of the aged and the breakdown of the urban community.

‘Growing numbers of people are rapidly getting disillusioned with the old civilization which they see as war-prone, dreary and ecologically precarious. The emerging new civilization promises to be the opposite. The individual, who today feels like a pawn in the hands of unseen economic and political forces, would feel empowered in the coming age. Throughout the world, people would have a direct say in the governance for the worse or the betterment of their lives and lands. People would rule themselves, with governments basically playing the role of guides and facilitators. National boundaries would look primitive and barbarous. It is not capitalism, nor communism, nor socialism or radical humanism.

‘It is an entirely different world where there is no competition but only cooperation. People everywhere would realize that their security does not lie in making their neighbors insecure but in understanding and appreciating their culture and self-respect. It would no more be tolerance but love among the peoples of the world.

‘In the spiritual sphere a positive new culture is being seeded. One that is appropriate to our time and place. New powerful and integrative insights are beginning to emerge; new metaphors for understanding reality. It is indeed possible to glimpse the early beginning of a new coherence and elegance that belong to the emerging Golden Age.

‘The coming age, as we see it, does not have religion but a universal spirituality. Every Hindu would discover the truth of his religion, as would the Christian, Muslim and Buddhist. Man would be freed of dogma and a need for domination through the assertion of his own individual belief system. People would create their own religions, their own code of conduct or pick one from the existing faiths and live accordingly.

‘Along with this new civilization would come a new frame of consciousness. This new frame of consciousness would mean an increased ability to see things from a higher perspective. Our consciousness would continue to expand and there will be no returning to this tribal- or national-level loyalty.

Our energies would get directed to spiritual enlightenment and wholeness. The world would be transformed from one dominated by the West and materialism, to one of balance and spirituality. The current ruling world order would be transformed to one of equality among all human beings.

For this to happen, if 64,000 become enlightened, then all humans would be transformed into enlightened beings. Enlightenment is a state of oneness with all that is. The future is only a set of possibilities. It lies in the hands of both the individual consciousness and the Cosmic Consciousness or God. We are co-creators with God. Each of us has a destiny to create. It is to create this destiny that we have come into existence at this momentous time in history.

‘In the cosmic cycle, mankind is now being presented with a window to enter this glorious future. The power lies in our hands to meet with our destined future. This is humanity’s greatest opportunity to become enlightened. This transition into the Golden Age or Satyug is a movement in consciousness.