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The world is run by time and karma. Everyone is enjoying their karma — some of them may use their power and wealth endowed by karma to further their wealth and power. But they cannot get more power or wealth than already enabled by their karma. So, whatever power or wealth they have is ordained to them by their karma. They can obtain it through legal or illegal means, but finally, if they want, they will get it. There is no need to be jealous about their power and wealth.
The second thing to note is that the events in this world are fixed. Things like war, famine, weather changes, etc. are called adidaivika forms of suffering. They cannot be stopped, but each person may be able to choose to avoid them in some situations — if their karma allows.
The main thing to be cautious about is that some people use their power and wealth to mislead others, further their atheistic ideas, try to modify society, etc. And many people fall prey to that. This is because of ignorance by which they want to fall prey to such things. Even if we wipe out ignorance, we cannot change the worldly situation and suffering will be there, but those who are enlightened will be able to reduce/avoid this suffering. That way, they can escape the influence of the powerful and rich materialistic people who are misleading others for greed.
In short, there are some powerful and rich people who have greed as their goal, and they try to control the outcome of worldly events — such as elections, trade agreements, oil prices, natural resources, etc. But they cannot get for themselves more than in their share of karma. They can use their freedom — afforded by their karma — to mislead others, but the total effect of this misleading is decided by time, not by their individual actions. If it were not for such people, there will be others who will do such things, because this is the age of kali-yuga or quarrels.
In summary, there is no point in wasting our intellect in trying to figure out if there is a shadow government. Whether it is there or not, each soul is controlled individually and given according to what they deserve. By educating and enlightening people, we can save some of them, and that should be our aim. Our focus should not be the impersonal ‘world’ but individual ‘persons’.
In these times, we see many new concepts or modifications of concepts that seem to be very powerful in terms of their influence of people’s lives. For example, the concept of wealth has changed from grain, cows and gold to stakes in corporations or rental/interest incomes, or intellectual property. Corporations are relatively very new concepts, but ubiquitous in their presence. Strange and unnatural (atheistic and impersonal) knowledge is being created in universities and being spread under a prevalent academic system affecting society and behaviour. The nature of defence and war have also fundamentally changed. Under the influence of Kali how are we to understand these changes:
i) Do we assume that the form of demigods such as Kuber, Saraswati and Kartik have changed, and that ritual worship of these deities also need to be upgraded for the current times, for fulfilment of material desires, like many apparently successful people do in these times.
ii) Do we assume that these are unnatural and therefore false gods and that we should stick to Harinam Sankirtan and live a simple life in relative penury, or should we use higher order Vedic knowledge to master the pursuit of these new age demi-demigods and play by the new rules while being careful of creating new sets of karma for ourselves.
Thanks.It is said that kali-yuga has many faults, but one good thing — Harinam Sankirtan. You can chant any time, anywhere, under any situation. You can chant without taking bath, you can chant while going to sleep, while working, while eating, while driving, any time, any place.
To chant always, one must become detached from the present conditions — i.e. defocus from the noise. If we cannot defocus from the noise, then we can’t focus on the signal, because the signal is weak and the noise is very strong. To hear someone’s voice in a crowded room, you have to strain your ears and avoid listening to anything else, similarly, we have to strain our ears.
This is the tapasya or austerity for this age. Just ignore all the noise. Whether it seems good or it seems bad, just ignore it. Disengage from the good and bad of this world. In SB, it is said: na te vidhuh svartha gatim hi vishoh. They do not know that their selfish interest is Vishnu.
So, first, we have to become selfish in the true sense of the word. Then when we are advanced we can be altruistic. Only the advanced soul can engage with the world. For the less advanced soul, protecting yourself is most important. So, the first step is disengaging from the noise. Let others do what they are doing. My goal should be to focus on what I need to do. Complaining about the world won’t change the world. We can change others if we have ourselves changed.
There are no new-age demigods. Wealth can come in sattva-guna, rajo-guna, and tamo-guna. How much wealth I get is my karma. But whether I get it by honest simple life, aggressive passionate life, or stealing and cheating is a choice I have. I can’t get more wealth by either mode. But I can choose which way I want to get wealth. So, the demigods are giving wealth, and we are choosing to get it through tamo-guna. That doesn’t mean the demigods are now in tamo-guna. It only means that we have chosen to enjoy our karma under tamo-guna. Karma is like money. You can spend your money on buying books, beautiful clothes, or intoxication. You have got the money, and you can spend it any way you like. If you spend it on intoxication, the demigod of wealth is not getting intoxicated, because you are exercising your choice to spend.
You don’t have to live in “relative penury”. You will get money according to your karma and if you want, through honest and simple living. It will just fall in your lap one way or another. You don’t have to worship any demigod — new or old. Demigods are obliged to give you what you deserve. There is no need to worship demigods. The focus should be — what is my next life? Where am I going after I die? Is my future life going to be worse or better than this one?
People spend endless hours discussing meaningless topics like politics, male-female issues, sports, left-wing vs. right-wing, etc. It is a complete waste of time because you don’t know which country, which gender, which race, and which species you will be born into next. So, what’s the point of debating these things unless you know where you are going? We need to decide that my next life should be better than this one, and I have to move toward eternal life. Not this or that gender, race, nationality, political identity, etc. To get to eternal life, we have to chant constantly. And we cannot chant constantly if we are distracted by this worldly noise.
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