Teacher Training Manual: Lesson 08 - The Cycle

Lesson 8: ETERNAL WORLD DRAMA

(Law of Entropy)

Objective

To deepen their experience of eternity through understanding the world drama cycle.

Procedure

Explanation of Entropy

(Start with 10 minutes meditation)

Give examples of life cycles in nature. The "cycle is a means for the expression of energy. The cycle is usually in four main phases or periods, with a smaller final phase or period, the transition towards a new cycle.

There is the maximum potential and maximum means of expression of this potential. If you take the analogy of seasons, this period corresponds to spring. There is abundant energy for growth and renewal. It is the same process for us. However, we will find that, although you would like to remain in this phase, it is not possible because of "entropy". Entropy is an auxiliary of the Second Principle of Thermodynamics. The inexorable trend of the universe, and of every isolated system within it, is to evolve towards a state of increasing disorder. It refers to how the quality of systems changes under the influence of the second principle: mixing, disorder and uncertainty. Apply this principle to your own resources. Your resources are your energy. As soon as you use your resources, part of your energy is transformed into another form of energy for instance experience. This means that your resources will not remain constant. Your inner resources pass through different phases. For each new phase of energy there will be specific characteristics and corresponding forms of expression.

After the first phase, of abundance, you pass into the second, that of expenditure. Although you still have considerable resources, some have been expend, utilize. Using the analogy of the season, this would correspond to summer. The main change occurs at the end of phase 2 and the beginning of phase 3. At that time you will have already expend considerable resources, but have also gained many more things. This period corresponds to autumn, the harvest. Phase 4 follows, the final major phase, which corresponds to winter. By this time you would have expend nearly all your energy. In order to restore your energy, you need to act decisively and appropriately.

Then comes that last phase, phase 5/0, the transition phase. This is the only phase in which you can recharge yourself. After entropy there is negentropy. Negentropy is the process of reorganization. It is only possible through connection with an external energy source. Give the example of the battery being used then becoming discharge. To recharge the battery you need to connect it with a power or energy source much higher in quality or capacity. Cite more example in nature and also in human relationships.

Ask them to identify signs of entropy in physical energy as well as soul energy. How do these two kinds of energy influence each other?

• Possible answers:

1. How can the process of entropy be reverse? 2. What is the role of God in this process of empowerment or renewal? 3. Draw answers from the students before starting with the explanation of the world drama cycle.

The Story of the World Drama

Start the explanation with Golden Age as the start of the cycle of energy decline (purity to impurity). The first age in which everything is at its highest level of purity can be called for simplicity's sake, the Golden Age. That is followed in sequence by the Silver, Copper and Iron Ages and ultimately there is a period of transition from old to new, impure to pure which can be called the Confluence age.

The Golden Age -"Sat Yuga" - The Age of Truth

Shiva Baba has revealed, the original system is a divine one in which each member of society plays exactly that role for which his or her natural qualities are best suited. Some have the qualities to be rulers and others have the qualities to be subjects. It is a "hierarchical society" based on divine virtues. This means that different souls have a different "status" based on their intrinsic qualities and roles and not on false notions of grandeur and social inequalities as the present connotations of "hierarchy" and "status" imply. Each soul plays the role to which it is best suited and so no one complains or covets the role of another. Though there are rulers and subjects, there is neither enforced authority nor submissive subordination to that authority. The rulers are simply those who have the greatest virtues and natural wisdom.

The system is held together like a most perfect, crystal lattice. Everything is at its highest stage of purity and beauty. Concepts such as value, profit and loss, misery, poverty, sorrow and death do not exist. In a society whose members have many times more that they need or can use, trade and exchange are carried out mainly for distribution purposes. With such universal prosperity and internal and external harmony, shortage, and the misery it entails is unimaginable. The system of the Golden Age is a natural manifestation of a society whose members are in the highest state of natural soul-consciousness. They instinctively feel their realities as souls and not bodies. Being soul-conscious they are automatically the masters of their sense organs and therefore of their environment. Paradise is not a perpetual youth of blissful innocence but it is the peak of human civilization in every field of human endeavor; the arts, music, government, drama, linguistics and science. Science is the purest use of science and technology at its highest level of development.

Only the best materials that nature can provide such gold, diamonds rubies, etc., are used in the construction of buildings. The world is a garden in which it is spring all year around. Art, dance and music are in their purest and most expressive forms. There are no borders of land, sea or air. The soul is in perfect balance with all others. Everyone enjoys perfect health. There is no need for laws or law courts. The only law is love.

The Socio-Political System of the Kingdom of Heaven

The perfect order of a monarchic system of government is counter-balanced by universal, brotherly vision. Everyone feels each other to be a brother or a sister. Even the rulers treat their subjects as their own mothers and fathers would. The rulers need no ministers or advisors because of their inherent wisdom and divinity, and though there are meetings to organize and programs to attend, there is no concept of the world "problem" nor the word "advice." Though they represent sovereign power, there is never any occasion to issue ordinances that the people would feel as any kind of imposition or authoritarianism.

Lakshmi and Narayan, the sovereigns of the Golden Age, possess all the qualifications for both religion and government. It is not even possible to compare such divine authority with the religious leaders of today, well versed though they may be in scriptures and rituals, nor with the kings who linger in our memories. They have the "light" of religion in their lives, that of purity and peace, so there is natural respect from all. They are not religious leaders in the sense of being "upholders of doctrine." Their virtuous example is simply the focal point of the kingdom. They are not emperors in any despotic sense. Not merely because of their position, but because of the great royalty of their characters they receive universal acceptance, it is not that no one dares challenge their authority. The very idea of "challenging" does not exist.

The law of the kingdom is the example of the action of its divine leaders. It is this example which all follow so we can see how it is natural rule in practice. The power of simultaneous, unified thought and actions gives Lakshmi and Narayan the power to rule the affairs of state with like harmony. Even the names Lakshmi and Narayan connote perfection. "Laksh" means the aim. "Nar-yan" means the "the perfect man" (Lakshmi and Narayan were in fact, Radhe and Krishna, the highest amongst human souls. When they married, their names changed to Lakshmi and Narayan respective.)

Society itself runs smoothly because all are in tune with nature and each other. There is no thought of competition. Family life is in perfect unity because relationships are not based on anger, greed, ego, lust or attachment, but on mutual respect and equality. The behavior and attitude of all are selfless and sharing. It is a "self-governed" life in which the soul rules the sense organs. Because of this complete self-control there is the experience of perfect comradeship between each member of the community. There is one way of life, one language, one tradition. There are no churches, temples, scriptures, gurus, etc. The religion is our lives, it is the religion of truth in action. Since there is no conflict within, there is no conflict externally. The "dynasty" of Lakshmi-Narayan lasts eight generations. It is referred to later as the "Sun Dynasty."

The Silver Age - The Decline

Inevitably the slow decline of things starts to be notice. In the same way that spring imperceptibly creeps into summer, the golden Age paradise became the "semi-paradise" of the Silver Age (Treta Yuga, the "Three-quarters" Age, which means that three ages are left of the cycle). Its beginning is marked by the changing of dynasties; from Lakshmi-Narayan to that of Rama-Sita which lasts 12 generations (this is remembered as the "Moon Dynasty.") The souls are discharging their original power and qualities through their actions and this naturally has an effect on the whole kingdom. Comparing the Golden Age and Silver Age is somewhat like comparing the effect of the sun on colors at full-light and its effect at half-light. The color and beauty of things are still there but their richness is a little dulled.

In the relationship amongst souls there is still pure love, but the population is increasing, the kingdom is expanding and for convenience is divided into principalities. Material resources are therefore being spread more thinly over a wider area to meet a greater demand. "The souls having first entered into this play are gradually becoming attracted to the things of the senses. The material beauty is pulling the soul towards itself. With each successive birth, the soul is more and more pulled into the world of senses and sense desires. Though there is no negativity or sorrow, the quality of all things is a little less. There is a difference in the degrees of bliss, power, purity and prosperity.

Heaven to Hell

"If the world was so perfect why did it have to fall?", "Why did we leave the 'grace' of God and enter 'sin?" These and similar questions have been debated and discussed throughout the history. Many attempts to explain the "fall of man" and his subsequent "banishment from paradise" have been made. Adam and Eve, Satan and the fruit from the tree of life is a symbolic attempt to describe what in fact was just a natural process. Together, the Golden and Silver Ages constitute the period that we know as "Heaven on earth" (the "Garden of Eden" of the Jews and Christians, the "Garden of Allah" of the Muslims, the "Vaikunth" of the Hindus, the "Fields of Osiris" of the Egyptians and so on). It is not a place "up in the sky' nor is "Hell" a fiery pit underground where we are sent to pay for our sins. They are merely periods of history. The idea that Heaven is "up there" and Hell "down there," comes from the fact that they are periods of history in which the consciousness of human beings is either "higher" or "lower." The level of intuitive soul-consciousness goes down with time. And ultimately the point is reached in which souls no longer have sufficient strength to withstand the encroachments of the material world. Souls gradually lose authority over the sense organs of their consecutive bodies. It is not that matter suddenly acquires power over souls. Souls simply lose their dominance and start to become the slaves of matter. The subtle transformation marks the change from "Heaven" into what we call "Hell;" from a unified and integrated existence into disunity, divergence and degradation.

Though the process is gradual, the point at which souls lose their self-control can be called "breaking-point." When the subtle forces that have held souls and nature in a mutually beneficial working relationship are suddenly no longer there, the crystal shatters and for a time there are a series of earthquakes and natural calamities, making the internal confusion in the souls even worse. Inside the soul the first inklings of desire make them felt; a feeling that the qualities the soul has lost may be gained from others around. There is uneasiness due to the loss of self-certainty and at the same time natural calamities are experienced for the first time. The same subtlety that allowed the deities (as the souls of the Golden and Silver Ages may be called; human beings with divine qualities) to live in perfect health and enjoy a natural technology of the highest order is now forfeited. This puts them for the first time at the mercy of the elements. The "breaking-up" of paradise is a recurring theme in the world's mythologies. It is not that a continent ("Atlantis") sinks. The consciousness of these previously divine beings "sinks." The civilization of the Golden and Silver Ages that was centered on the Indian subcontinent starts to spread out in search of itself. Amidst this turmoil of matter and souls "Hell" is born.

The Copper Age- "Dwapur Yuga"-The Age of Duality

This age marks the beginning of the period that we know of as "Hell," the beginnings of recorded history. The period of self-forgetfulness begins. Souls now become body-conscious. They have lost the power and the purity, which had been reflected in the Golden and Silver Ages. The virtuous state, or the ability to perform truthfully, was lost and that missing gap has to be filled in. Thus the search to gain back the lost paradise begins, though it is truly "lost." The elements of nature combine to produce changes of catastrophic proportions, so much so that even the buildings are buried to such a depth that no architectural traces remain. The ways and acts of the deities, however, are remembered and they become the figures of our myths and legends, devotion and worship.

The system of kingship is upheld but the rulers have lost their "divine right." They have power, but purity no longer. Instead of winning the love of their subjects they make themselves to be held in awe, and hierarchies start, based not on a divine order but on a temporal one. In this way kings start to abuse and misuse their position and thus lose respect. Kingdoms become separated from others through difficulties of communication, not only in terms of distance but modifications in language also begin to divide humanity. Nations start to form within natural geographical boundaries and lack of communication or envy for the others' resources breeds distrust, hegemony and eventually wars. Internally the trust and respect between king and subjects is broken and strife starts to penetrate the affairs of the kingdom. Advisors and counselors are required to deal with the growing problems of state.

The Rise of Religions

The one religion of the Golden and Silver Ages is later known as the Adi Sanatan Devi-Devta (literally: "The Original Eternal Religion of Deities.") As described already, it has no external trappings. The lives of the deities are a reflection of the qualities they had absorbed from God Shiva at the end of the previous cycle, and because there is nothing lacking in the souls, there is no need for a living relationship with God. After all they are "gods" created in the image of the Father. There is no remembrance of the Supreme and no worship. The fall from the soul-conscious state to the body-conscious state brings with it the fall of this natural self-religion. Having no means except the physical to replenish ourselves, we turn to others in search of support, love and peace. We develop relationships with others to compensate for this insecurity and they soon become bondage, which create further suffering and dispossess us further of our emotional and mental independence. We are attracted to physical bodies as the once purely spiritual love changes into lust. We become aware of our "nakedness."

The instability that fills the soul impels it to search for compensations. What we have is not sufficient so we fool ourselves into believing we need more and more, thus sowing the seeds of greed. The same internal state forces us to put the labels "my" and "mine" on the ideas, things and people we surround ourselves with, giving birth to attachment. Recognizing our own vulnerability, we fight to preserve what we attach ourselves to and which we project to others without even seeing that it is a mere shell of what we used to be. With anger we week to protect that image. Thus we enter the vortex of sufferings and illusions, puncturing the soul and provoking an unstoppable hemorrhage of whatever original qualities are still left. Life begins to be dictated by these five negative forces.

In the darkness of this ignorance we try to find God, whom we instinctively feel to be the only one who can set right what has gone wrong. But instead of a living relationship of mutual respect, we bow out heads in shame and start to worship and sing His praise, vainly hoping that He will act to stop our fall if we exalt Him sufficiently. The first form of worship is of the incorporeal God whose oval image we make and call Shiva Lingum (the image of Shiva.) The first temple built at the beginning of the Copper Age was called Somnath (the Lord of Nectar) where we installed a diamond image to represent the self-existent beauty of God. As the intellect becomes weaker the souls are less able to comprehend the subtlety of a single, incorporeal supreme being and resolve to bring the "God head" to earth by imagining Him to have incarnated in human form or even animal forms, or by calling Him omnipresent. The deity-souls who are still on earth though in different bodies, begin to worship what they themselves used to be, and construct temples to Radhe, Krishna, Lakshmi, Narayan, Ram, Sita and innumerable others. The same "gods" are remembered all over the earth with different names. The religion of India, no longer meriting the title "Deity religion," is called Hinduism after the place in which this type of religious practice develops; Hindustan.

The scriptures start to be written: the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, the epic Mahabharata and Ramayana and so on, in an attempt to explain and return to the former higher glory. The Shrimat Bhagavad Gita (literally God's song of Supreme Instruction) becomes like a mother for all scriptures of all lands. Its principal message is summed up in the phrase "Manmanabhav"-"remember Me (God) alone;" but though we remember Him we don't know Him, and in this ignorance we begin to venerate a thousand substitutes. Hinduism degenerates into polytheism and pantheism. Other ideas and ideologies emerge in an effort to reverse the fall that had occurred, but no one has sufficient power to bring the tatters of humanity back together. Attempts were made which instead serve to separate the various cultures even more.

Pure souls come directly from the soul world with the specific role of founding the different religions and thereby permitting the souls who have roles to play within those religions to also come. Abraham (in approximately 500 B.C.) arrives with the role of creating a religion based on the law of God, under the fatherhood of the one Supreme God Jehovah (a word which seems to have etymological resemblance to the word Shiva). A religio-socio-political system develops around him, which gives initial birth to what is later called Islam (literally, surrender to God). Judaism develops later through one of Abraham's family branches in the person of Moses, who seeks to codify that, which his ancestor Abraham had initiated. In India, where there is a growing dissatisfaction with the now rampant idolatry and confusing pantheon of "gods" Buddha arrives (in approximately 250 B.C.) with a basically humanistic approach. With great honesty he makes no mention of the Supreme God but says that suffering is due to desires and that liberation involves their suppression, by following what he calls the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right action

2. Right belief

3. Right aspiration

4. Right speech

5. Right livelihood

6. Right endeavor

7. Right thought

8. Right meditation

The key word of course is "right" and it is that very word which has been, tossed back and forth between the religions and even within Buddhism itself, as it splintered into various sects. Without the knowledge of, or relationship with God, all attempts by souls in all cultures to do what is "right" only meet with further downfall. All are locked into the entropy system which says that no matter what actions take place, unless there is replenishment from an external source, the energy of things has to get lower and lower and the order of them more chaotic.

Next comes the Christ soul to found the Christian "dynasty." He shows through this life that we should love one another as brothers and sisters and uphold the commandments of "Our Father who art in Heaven." He also bears the message that the lost paradise will come again and that the ones who will be able to be born there are those who have "reconciled themselves to God." You have to be twice-born to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." This his gospel "good news." The paradise that had finished only 500 years before would come again.

Shankaracharya 500 years after Christ, teaches the path of renunciation, isolation and penance in founding the religion of the Sanyasis (renunciates.) The leading members of this order are called "Swamis" and are revered as "gurus" or "spiritual guides." Physical systems of yoga, such as Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Mantra Yoga and so on are developed under the tutelage of the Sanyasis in attempts to establish the real yoga or link with God. The idea of God being omnipresent is given weight by this branch of the family of religions. One hundred years later (about 600 AD) Mohammed comes to start a revival movement within Islam which had degenerated since Abraham's time. He codifies their practices in the chapters of the Koran and attempts to unify the scattered Islamic states under the banner of Allah, the one God.

Each soul who comes onto the earth stage stays here as has been happening since the beginning. The population continues to grow in geometric progression as each soul arrives and occupies his place within one or another of the religions. From one birth to another, because of different karmic accounts with other souls, some take birth in other religions where the feel completely out of place. Others are converted from one to another. The deity souls themselves are dispersed all over the planet through rebirth but the majority still remains in India. All souls seek to establish a relationship with God or some being higher than themselves but the very search takes them further into abyss of death, confusion, waste and ultimately madness.

The Iron Age - "Kali Yuga" - The Age of Death

The search for something higher is becoming desperate, yet at the same time impurity and decadence are becoming extreme. Human beings by this time are totally chained to the vices, creating unlimited sorrow and unrest. It is the age of utmost decline in moral, ethical and spiritual values. Conditions of chaos and anarchy even under the guise of democracy have totally overtaken the system of divine monarchy. The masses are continually being incited on the basis of differences of language, religion or political belief. People are against themselves, others and nature. The world becomes divided into many groups and powergames develop, conditioned by self-interest and expediency. The actions of one group may benefit some but it is always at the cost of others.

In this age, for many, religion as a basis for living is supplanted by scientific thinking. Science becomes a "god" and everything is reduced to mere material values. Perverse thinking starts to permeate all levels of society. The poor and the rich, the blacks and whites, stand against each other, brothers stand against sisters through total forgetfulness of our common origins. There is a total disruption in family life. This disruption is then reflected in the community, in the city, in the nation and in the world. Towards the end of the Iron Age (i.e.. now) all the above conditions become extreme. Society becomes degraded and dehumanized. The pursuit of material ambition is held to be the sole aim and object of existence. "Eat, drink and be merry" is the catchphrase of the masses, without thought for the consequences of actions.

Respect has been totally replaced by conceit, mistrust and sexual promiscuity. There are many demonstrations and revolutions. Power changes hands rapidly and in the final hours of the Iron Age, the necessary equipment is made by which there can be the physical transformation of the world. The super powers of the day, with the help of the Scientists build such weapons that can disintegrate all of the old forms and systems developed in the course of history and permit souls to be liberated from their respective bodies in order to return to the soul world. Thus the river of history has run its full course. All the "drops," the souls, are now weighed down by the burden of their collected impurities. As with rivers in nature, they thankfully do not flow forever downwards. Human history flows downward only for a period of 5,000 years. The fall at first is very gradual but as the population increases, it becomes exponential. At the end of the Iron Age it is time for God Shiva to perform that task of total world renewal.

The Confluence Age - "Sangam Yuga"-The Age of Illumination

When there is the absolute decline of practiced truth, it is then necessary to re establish the world of truth. The one Being beyond the effect of memory loss, the one who is able to perceive all events of all time periods, comes to relate to us the story of our history. It is a story of long ago but of only yesterday. That story of a world of truth, of love, joy and purity stirs deep feelings from the long buried past in our hearts; how these original divine human beings danced their way gradually into the stage of distress and then began a search to discover that world. What were living memories had faded into forgotten dreams. But now the vision of a united and spiritually regenerated humanity, something that all religions have dreamed about, is given concrete existence in the teaching that He reveals.

Numbers

According to Shiva Baba, the cycle has 5,000 years which is divided into four equal periods of 1,250 years for the Golden, Silver, Copper and Iron Age. In the Golden Age there is a maximum of eight births; Silver Age, 12 births; Copper Age, 21 births; and Iron Age, 42 births; with one spiritual birth in the Age of Confluence. This makes the maximum total of births for a human soul to be 84 and naturally the minimum is one. The number of births (that a soul has) is determined by its own intrinsic purity and powers. The population at the beginning of the Golden Age is 900,000 (the children of survivors from the previous cycle) and at the end of the Iron Age is 5,500,000,000. When this number is reached the souls return to the soul world by means of world destruction leaving survivors who give birth again to the population who initiate the Golden Age.

The Law of Cyclic Repetition

To see time as cyclic and absorb the implications of cycle requires some deep contemplation. It is really like discovering a new dimension. If we move around the earth we eventually get back to the spot where we started. Arriving back again we can traverse the same circumference again and again. One can imagine the difficulty that there was at the time that this was discovered, or rather re-discovered, in the 15th and 16th centuries. At any moment the navigator of a ship will swear that the surface of the sea is flat. However he knows he is completing a path of circular movement around the earth's surface, (a paradox yet true.) By limitations of perspective and so on, it is not possible to "see" this "two dimensional" movement on the surface in its three-dimensions.

In the same way the soul, a non-dimensional point of conscient energy, moves and acts in the dimensions of space and in cyclic time, which with our limited consciousness we can only see as linear. We think, "This life starts and finishes, so this universe started with a big bang, and will probably finish." We do not have sufficient perspective to see in fact that the line we individually trace through time in birth and rebirth brings us back to the same point we started from; then again we repeat that same course. The episodes, which are recorded subconsciously, are repeating. Often we have the experience of "deja-vu;" the sense of a whole scene in front of you having been lived before, down to the forest detail. It has! It has happened in all previous cycles and will happen in all future ones. There is one cycle and it repeats identically. As discussed already, that which exists cannot be destroyed and that which does not exist cannot be created. This law applies itself to both the physical and the spiritual levels. It means there are a fixed number of components, souls and atoms that combine to form the drama of life.

When we know the three eternal entities that exist (God, souls and matter) it then remains to be known how the play of these eternal entities moves. This movement has no beginning or end. At any point in time, there are countless different scenes occurring in this drama, yet everything is moving with the needle of time. All souls and all matter are moving around tracks of time in a circle creating the drama of life. Once the circular track arrives at the point where it began, it repeats that motion again. World history and geography repeat in identical spans of 5,000 years. The Creator is one, the creation is one and perfect. Being perfect it needs no substitutes.

The Creator's acts repeat and so do the acts and movements of the creation. Each one's part is fixed forever. We can use the example of the gramophone record. The song exists in latent form even before the record is played. As the needle passes over the record, the part where the needle is at that moment is audible. That part that has just been played becomes latent again, and the part that is yet to be played is still latent. In the same way each soul is like a record. The impressions are the parts the souls have to play. That part exists already in the soul world from each previous cycle. When it comes down onto this physical plane, the "needle" of time begins to operate. The part, which was latent emerges and then becomes simultaneously latent again. When each soul has translated all those impressions into action and thoughts in the physical world, the part is rewound. The soul goes back to the soul world and again repeats the same part in the next cycle.

As the history of the individual repeats, then the collective history of humanity also repeats like a film that can be replayed. This is a world drama of unparalleled pageantry of five and a half billion human souls for 5,000 years on this three-dimensional space stage. It provides a colossal and eternally recurring space-time continuum in which life is a well-balanced equation governed by the law of karma. The laws that govern this drama expose the most secret act, punish every crime, reward every virtue and redress every wrong in an incognito manner but with absolute certainty and precision.

Practical Application of the Knowledge of World Drama Cycle

• Understand the urgency and shortness of time.
• Appreciate the role of each actor in the unlimited drama.
• Appreciate the significance of meditation in understanding drama – Value the significance of the Confluence Age.
• Understand that the quality of my actions makes me responsible for the future

Meditations

Meditation Experience On the Cycle The Soul World-The Stage of Inaction

I am resting in my home ... a world of golden-red light .. I am not aware, but am immerse in peace and silence ... I am in a state of inaction, dormant ... I am waiting 'backstage' before going to play my part in the world drama ... The moment I descend into a body, I begin to perform action ... I begin to create accounts with other souls.

The Golden and Silver Ages (The Stage of Neutral Action)

I am a pure soul in a new world ... I am full of my original qualities ... I feel no lack, so I have no desire ... The sanskaras of perfection go immediately into action ... There is no worry, hesitation or indecision ... There is no difference between thought and action ... The pure thoughts I think are spontaneous ... The balance is me is reflected in the whole world ... When my thoughts equal actions, I am truly a natural ruler ... My actions are therefore not bondage, but there is no question of doing good or bad ...

To whom will I do good, when all others are perfect? ... I do not have the capacity for evil ... This state of the soul is one of the complete bliss.

The Copper and Iron Ages (The Stage of Negative Action)

I become body-conscious ... I forget my original attributes ... I am confused ... My judgment about which actions will bring peace and happiness is impaired ... Between thought and action the block of conscience appears ... I begin to act in such a way as to cause loss and pain to myself and to others ... This pain creates the desire to be free from it ... Desire become the springboard for all my actions ... With other actors on the world stage, this desire becomes the basis for all my relationships. When I act with another under the impulse of a body-conscious desire, this manifests as anger, greed, ego, lust or other attachment ... The immediate or long term suffering will be experienced by the other and, by the law of reaction, he must return that suffering to me in exact proportion ... An account is thus created between the two souls ... We are bound to be in contact again to balance the account ... I go further down into the spiral of suffering and desires ... more body-consciousness ... In ignorance, I continue to create bondage that reinforce my ignorance ... I become more and more attached to the fruits of the seeds, which I sow, and I find many disappointments and deceptions... With no knowledge of my true self, I can never break this "vicious circle' ... The more I am brought into bondage, the more I seek the one who is above bondage, God ... I look for release by going to others and find that they are also in bondage ... They also are looking for a way out.

The Confluence Age (The Stage of Positive Action)

Through the highest form of karma I am able to balance my accounts of negative actions or "sins' and become light ... If I act as the "world benefactor' like my Father, then the reaction is automatically beneficial ... When I meditate, or have communion with God, extreme peace and bliss flow into me and through me into the world ... The yoga I have affects the entire world ... It is just like the fragrance of incense burning ... It pervades the whole room ... I am able to spread the fragrance of God's love to every part of the world.

I now fix myself in my eternal consciousness ... I sit with my Baba; I sit with God as a soul ...I sit as the soul in the awareness of my eternal relationship with God ... I understand that in this awareness, I can spread the fragrance of complete purity, complete love and complete peace to all souls ... I understand how I can be beyond the limits of limited physical consciousness ... I dance internally with joy of this pure experience ... I experience within me the joy, the peace, the power and the purity which will later emerge creatively in a world where every member of society expresses such pure emotions.

Now I come back to the awareness of this Confluence Age; the age when the soul with knowledge must act with total detachment ... I move in the world with this awareness that I am pure soul, constantly showering gifts of peace, purity and love on all souls through the means of good vibrations and good wishes ... I maintain pure soul-conscious relations with others. I see how once before I did such action ... I see how I have previously risen and fallen ... so my destiny is already assured ... I am merely re-creating my role of eternity ... and my eternal fortune flashes before me ...I carry with me my constant link with God the Supreme, the Ocean of Knowledge ... constantly showering happiness on my fellow souls.