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Stages in the Loss of Prama

September 3, 1994

Q: What are the characteristics of the three respective states of loss of prama in collective life? - i.e., derangement, disruption and degeneration.

Very good question. You know, prama is very important. If a society is to grow and flourish, it must have prama. There must be balance in the collective life so that the psychological, physical and spiritual needs of the individuals within the society will be met. If there is not balance, then in some sphere, the needs of human beings will get suppressed, and when this occurs, the overall collective plummets towards a dismal fate.

When human needs are suppressed, when members of the society are oppressed, the overall collective suffers. Eventually the effect becomes so great that the society will be destroyed. So the maintenance of balance, of psychic balance within the collective sphere, is very important for the development of a healthy society in which human beings may grow and flourish, in which they may come to know their dharma and live the lives of true human beings. Prama is necessary for this to occur.

Now, when people become degenerated within a collective, those degenerated persons affect the collective as a whole. If they are allowed to be in positions of power, their effect can be most devastating and collective policies may lead to the overall degeneration of the society. This degeneration has three stages. First is derangement. That is to say, within the psychic sphere of the collective body, the thinking becomes imbalanced. For example, due to the greediness of certain people, it may become the fashion to think that the natural world, the plants and animals, are merely for the exploitation of human beings. They exist merely for our use. Such a concept represents the derangement of thought on a collective basis. It goes against the fundamental harmony inherent within the natural world. For a person coming of age in a society in which the thinking is deranged in this fashion, it is very hard to grasp an understanding of consciousness. The imperialistic attitude dominates the collective psyche and an individual must struggle very hard to realize their inherent unity with all life. So, this kind of thinking, concepts which are collectively accepted but do not support reality, this stage is derangement in the collective sphere.

Now, if this is allowed to continue, and the wrong thinking not corrected, after some time not only is the thinking accepted, but actions are performed in accordance with these thoughts. Forests may be cut unnecessarily and the greedy actions of exploitive persons dominate the overall direction in which the collective society progresses. When this happens, there becomes a disruption in the society itself. No longer do the people live in a harmonious balance with their natural surroundings, no longer do they carry out their collective life in all three spheres according to the natural laws but there becomes a disruption in the very fabric of the society. The imbalanced thinking, at this stage, has manifested in the very actions of the people. They act in such a way that they are collectively led astray from the course of the development which would lead them towards the infinite.

The society becomes fragmented. Exploitation of one group over another becomes prominent. Greed is often rampant and in all areas of human endeavor soon these basic improprieties begin to appear. The animals and natural world become slaves to the greedy graspings of people whose basic dharma has been disrupted. Such lost souls do not even know the tragedy of their plight. They are unawares and ignorant of their foolishness.

Such a society becomes disrupted in every sphere and for people born into such a world, the path of dharma becomes difficult indeed to grasp and beyond their scope to follow. As this continues, over time such a society cannot be maintained. Its doom is already secured for the people have lost their inherent knowledge and have become degenerated. It is only a matter of time before such a society in which the thinking is deranged and the basic prana dharma is disrupted, falls to complete degeneration.

When this occurs, not only are the actions corrupted, but they become self defeating. Like the lemming that runs to its' death in the sea, the people plunge headlong into self destruction. They have lost their prana dharma and cannot continue to survive. The society becomes degenerated to the point that action in every sphere becomes harsh and destructive. In the art will be reflected chaos. In the music, there will be no harmony. All that is touched will suffer and many will die. Whole cultures have eroded to dust in this fashion. Life cannot be supported which does not have some degree of balance with the operative forces and the fundamental cosmic flow. If sufficient disparity is there, degeneration and annihilation become inevitable, so that once again a healthy society may be built in which human beings may realize their potentiality in all spheres and live a life which will afford them opportunity to realize their dharma as a human being.