The world desperately needs our prayers and goodwill at this time. The extraordinary events taking place in the Ukraine and Russia, as well as around the world, are sending out waves of dark, disturbed energy. Each of us must do what we can to counterbalance this darkness with light.
The question for most is that of “Why do world wars and suffering arise in the first place?” I have spoken often as to why there is indescribable suffering in our human existence. The answer may not please most, but it doesn't mean it’s not the truth. The answer is that it is supposed to happen. Without it how do we grow? How do we find compassion? How do we reject violence ,unless we have been confronted by it in our lifetime?
This life is not to be born in peace, it is to be born in discord and find peace within ourselves.
How many of you have watched the news with violence in your hearts? Violence towards the oppressors? You may think this is justified vilolence, you may think this just, you may think that God is on our side and the side opposite of the oppressors! But you would be wrong. They are praying to God as well! Does he have favorites? God waits for us all to arrive and does not judge. Judgment comes only from within ourselves on our day of Judgment.
Life, is never-ending, Samsara, until we reach a God-Realized Existence. Until then, we must work harder and harder to cultivate peace! Peace ?!! How can we cultivate peace when so many are being oppressed and killed?!! So many innocent? But this is not the first time, nor the last that this will happen here on this earth.
The not so easy answer is to find peace within ourselves first. Yes, how can we ask, demand peace in the world if we do not have peace within ourselves.
You may ask, how can that help someone else that is suffering? It may seem even selfish to think? But do not be mislead, peace is the greatest gift to give yourself and then to share with others, with all beings around you. War, death, killings, are a natural state of our human existence, it has been around since the beginning of time, and will continue on. The only way to stop it is to cultivate peace within yourself. And…. If you now sit there with anger in your hearts thinking that I am wrong and the we need to destroy and kill the oppressor, then you are feeding the same thing you believe you are against.
It’s hard to understand, and even more so to do. But we can not expect the world to do what we cannot do in our hearts, today and now.
" Why do world suffering and misery arise? When people all over the earth are happy and prosperous, they are in tune with God, and the entire vibrations of the earth in relation with the planets are harmonious. But as soon as one nation starts fighting with another, or selfish industrial gourmands try to devour all prosperity for themselves, it brings depression. When depression starts in one place, it begins to spread everywhere, owing to the vibrations that travel through the ether."
“World War I created wrong vibration in Europe first, which then spread all over the earth, and where there was no war, influenza appeared. The agonies of the people who died in the world war created the subtle cause of the epidemic.” “Ye nations of the world, beware! Use your patriotism to protect your own country, and do not get mixed up with any other nation that advocates aggression. All nations should unite to non-cooperate in every way with those nations that want to start wars of aggression.” “The politicians are blinded by their patriotism, selfishness, and love of fame. Disregarding the divine laws laid down by God and voiced by great saints, they are bringing an avalanche of miseries upon the nations of the earth.”
By Paramahansa Yogananda just before WWII
The repeat of history is eerie. Yogananda might have been speaking today rather than over eighty years ago about aggression and pandemic. But implicit in his warning, if one looks deeper, lies a message also of hope and instruction. These times of conflict can be a springboard to higher awareness if we see them as a warning to raise our consciousness. Don’t wait for others to act. Let peace begin in your own mind, and let it spread to those around you in ever-widening circles.
If bad vibrations can cause disease and depression, then good vibrations can create health and prosperity. It is our responsibility to send out strong radiations of peace and goodwill to counteract and neutralize negative ones.
It is very good that the world has united in confronting this aggression primarily through economic and non-violent means as Yogananda suggested. But we, individually, must also strongly confront the darkness of these times.
Each of us can pray for peace, act as angels of mercy to everyone we meet, and fill our thoughts and relationships with peace and harmony. On a more subtle level, it helps to remember that this world is but a drama, created and acted by the Divine Mother. Everything is made of consciousness. With our uplifted consciousness, attuned to God’s higher laws, we can help strengthen the light so it can prevail.
We have many friends, wonderful people, in the Ukraine, Russia, and throughout Europe. The innocent people do not want war. Let us try to help them! Visualize our friends and the entire area being filled with subtle vibrations of goodwill and benevolence. Pray earnestly for God’s higher vibrations of love and kindness to spread. Eliminate violence and ill will to all! Become a vehicle of peace and non-violence.
I am making a pledge to do my best to act throughout each day with peace and harmony, and to strongly radiate those vibrations to the whole planet. Will you join me? “Be kind to yourselves and others in mind and action, be present and participate” this alone will and can change the world!
May you find peace on this earth, within and throughout this world we call home.
Namaste
Berta