Human Conditions and the Natural Rhythms |
August 11, 1998
There is already music tonight [background sound of crickets]. We are being serenaded in a natural way. In the ancient days, long before the invention of electricity and modern conveniences, the people spent their time in the evening hours sitting beneath the rising moon and the starlit sky. And they heard the voices of the wilderness. They stayed close together so as to feel safe in the night, and lit the fires for protection. In those days the people could see very good in the night. Their sight was more developed. But with the onset of the electrical pollution, this capacity for night vision has been greatly diminished. In those days people had a sense of the natural rhythm of the earth, which is now lacking for many because when it grows late, the lights go on, and there is no feeling for the natural rhythm. Many people do not even know if the moon is full or dark, and they do not see the sunrise nor the sunset. So their entire biological mechanism is disassociated from the natural rhythm of the environment in which they have taken their birth. And instead, they have the rhythm of the alarm clock and the TV set. So human beings have become disassociated from the natural cycles of the earth, from the cycles of the moon, from the cycles of the rising and falling of the sun each day, day and night, even from the cycles of the seasons, though this is a bit more prevalent. There are still those people today who barely notice it is springtime, it is winter, it is fall, summer, for they are in the office building on the 25th floor, and it is fully heated and air-conditioned, and whether it is spring, summer, fall or winter makes no difference. So in this type of world, where human beings have become disassociated from the natural rhythms of the environment, it is of little surprise that they barely notice that so many species of animals are becoming extinct, that so many different problems are there with the environment, unless it is written in the newspaper or on the nighttime news, they do not notice these things, for they do not live with the natural environment. They live in an artificial world of their own creation. The cycles of day and night are disrupted. Therefore many times body rhythms are off. There are many sleeping problems that people have today. It is because of this. The human being who goes to bed with the sun and rises with the sun, knows the natural rhythm. Body becomes adjusted. But when it is as it is today, the body does not know when it is day, when it is night. It becomes very confused. And so there are so many problems with sleeping, so many problems with different biorhythm problems in the human beings. The human beings living in this artificial world, in their electrically heated and lit domiciles, driving in the cars, do not get the benefit of these natural rhythms, and so they do not feel this internal connection to all the living beings around them of so many different types, to the animals, to the plants. And in most, there is a yearning for this. Do you think that most yearn for this? They yearn to be in the natural world. They yearn to feel these things. They feel like orphan children many times. And do you know one result of this is they become despondent. They become sad. They become despondent. They don’t like that they are so disconnected. They feel disassociated, disconnected. They feel alone in the world. And though they may go to so many parties, and have so many fine items of luxury, still they find they are unhappy, restless. And they cannot find the source of their restlessness, because they do not know the source. They do not know that the moon is full. They do not know that the tides have moved. They do not know that the night has fallen. The bodies, minds become out of synch, out of rhythm with their natural environment. And in their materialism, they become not only out of rhythm with their natural environment, but disconnected, disassociated from all the other species and even from other human beings. There are just one or two people, they have a few friends, and they have no family, no extended family. The people do not gather in the night close together to protect each other from the wild. They do not come together. They do not stay together. The sons of the mothers go far away. The lineage of the people is lost. They do not have a sense of home and family. They are wanderers in the world. So many people today are in this position. And what is the cause of this condition of human beings today? One may say it is the advancement of technology, but I say this is not the cause. The cause is materialism. It is that the emphasis has been to build bigger, better, more, at the expense of the natural environment. So it is not that technology exists that is the problem. It is how it is applied. And technologies today disrupt the natural environment. There are so many pollutions, so many chemical pollutions, so many noise pollutions, so many electromagnetic pollutions. There are so many pollutions in the environment. It is becoming very toxic to all life. And the human beings have lost their association, lost their comprehension of their place in the natural order, lost their feeling of the rise of the sun, the rise of the moon, the darkness of the night, the setting of the sun. These things no longer govern their lives. And they no longer feel the connection with the mother Earth. And so they long for this. And on vacation they want to go to a very scenic place to renew this connection. And this is very good, very good. But it is not sufficient. And many diseases are a result of this condition, and of the pollutants within the environment. And for some it is more severe than for others, that there are these electromagnetic pollutions, the hums of the refrigerator, the buzzings of the lights, the working of all the electromagnetic machineries. For some, they will sleep nicely, for others, their entire cycle and rhythm is disturbed. And for even those who sleep nicely, who may not notice, still there is subtle effect. So when technology is applied in the service of materialism, the desires to have more and more objects, more and more luxuries, more and more pleasures and more and more disassociation from this natural world, then the people become isolated in their wealth, isolated in their luxury, isolated from the natural rhythm, from all the living beings with whom they share this planet, and from each other. They do not learn how to rely on each other, how to care what happens to another, how to live together and make a human family. These skills become less. And the people in their fine cars and their nice homes and their electricities and TVs and so many luxuries and video games, they have so many entertainments for the mind, so many prestigious jobs, so many important works. But they do not have love. They do not have the feeling of caring for others, of being a part of a community, of being a part of an extended family, of being a part of the rhythms and cycles of the earth. They are disconnected, disassociated. And this leads to a feeling of alienation, isolation and depressed mood. You know, there are so many people today who are very despondent. It is a worldwide epidemic. And this despondency is due to this lack of interconnectedness with plants, animals and human beings. And in some places it is more, some places it is less. And the human beings, they think, “What is wrong with my life? I have everything. I have so many fine things. But yet I feel there is no sense of purpose to my life. I have a good job. Everyone looks up to me. I am an important person. I have lots of money. I have so many fine luxuries in my life. Why am I unhappy?” The people think like this. They cannot find the solution. And then they think, “It must be that my mother put me in my crib when I wanted to crawl on the floor. It must be that my father scolded me when I was ten years old.” But that is not the reason. The human beings are not having their basic human needs met in the society. They are the slaves of materialism and of the exploitation of technology. And they have lost their interconnected, interassociated relatedness with life. And this is the cause of their sorrows. It is a society which has lost its balance, that has brought this condition to the lives of the members of the society at large. Not to all but many. And in this disconnected life of material comfort, the people cannot find the source of their problems. But they feel the pain. Though they appear wealthy and another may point a finger say, “Look, those wealthy people. They have got their fine positions at the fate of others who have so little.” But if you look at the lives and happiness of the two, you may find the ones with so little are often happier than the ones with so much. So who has so little and so much, cannot be easily judged. For what is material luxury without happiness? There is a lack of balance in the human society, in human life. There is a need in people, a natural need to be connected, to have family, to have love about them, to share common ideal and goal, to have association with the natural world and all the living beings. All of these problems that the world faces today have a solution. And they will be resolved sooner or later. For by the laws of Prakrti all returns to a state of equilibrium. This is a natural law. You know, a time will come when human beings, human technology will not go back, it will go forward. And as the technology becomes more subtle, more developed, all of these pollutions will go away. And the technologies will be very refined, very subtle. And people of high development, of high technological development will live amid the trees and the wood and the natural lands, and their footprints will barely be noticeable. They will live in harmony with this earth, though they will traverse the stars. Their technologies will leave no trace upon the earth. And when they build their cities, they will be in rhythm, they will fade into the natural order of the world. This type of understanding will come as the human beings, human society gets more developed and as balance is restored to human life and human society. All are impacted by the condition of the world today. The lives of all are impacted. And people seek that which is lost, that which is missing in their lives. These chains of materialism cannot bind the human heart forever. The yearning in human beings to feel their interassociated connection with the natural world grows and grows. They feel it, they feel the pull within them. The longing to reestablish community and family, to feel a part of something greater than themselves is in the people. Many cannot identify the need, but it will come. One should not judge the rightness, wrongness of events. Someone may say a certain event is a great tragedy. But the net result may be no tragedy at all, but of great benefit for human beings. For Prakrti will not allow the disruption of her natural order and her ways. If her children get out of line, she puts them back in line. That is her way. Human life is very precious, very rare. It is not to be wasted. Spirituality is that which uplifts the human spirit. So you see, the pursuit of balance, the pursuit of interconnectedness of all life is a part and parcel of spirituality because this uplifts the human spirit. And when the living beings come to see they are a part of all, that there is an interconnected association between them and the rising of the moon and the tides, and the setting of the sun, and the early morning rising, when they see there is a rhythm in life and that they are no island, but all people need each other, and all human beings desire this closeness to each other, then they begin to feel they are part of something larger than themselves, a part of a whole, a part of something great. And the human heart gets satisfied. It uplifts the human spirit. So this is part and parcel of spirituality. [It transforms?] the pains and woes and sufferings of living beings in the inspiration of the human heart, in giving people hope, giving people new beginnings, giving people ways to interconnect, to associate with the larger environment in which they live, and with each other, so that they may feel that they are a part of something greater than themselves. This satisfies the human spirit, makes the human heart bright and happy. So spirituality has two thrusts. One is to come to know the divine Brahma, that which is in all, come to know the all-compassionate love of Parama Purus’a, come to feel your intimate association with that Divine Entity, and the other is to serve all the living beings, that they might know their interrelated association with every atom of this universe. And man might pine away alone and sorrowful. A bright dawn awaits the living being, a new beginning, a time of return to the Mother, a time for the liberation of human beings from the bondages of materialism, and the formation of a true human society. So never listen to anyone who tells you the future is bleak. And the door opens now to this bright, new future. So be the harbingers of this bright beginning for human society. Now is the time for this change in human life, for the restoration of balance and love in human society. Work for this end and surely your lives will reflect the all-compassionate love of Parama Purus’a for all the living beings. |