Peace on Earth: Darkness Before Dawn In Cycle of Yugas

By Ranjana Chaube

 The Brahmakumaris practise Raja Yoga, particularly the trataka form of meditation in order to achieve union with God. It involves keeping your eyes open and fixing your gaze on a tiny red spot with total attention. Raja Yoga gives knowledge of self and enables one to attain peace, purity and harmony.

Dawn is preceded by the darkest hour of the night. The Brahmakumaris consider the present time as the most critical period. This will be followed by a new age - the dawn in the great cycle of time. The agent of transition may be the person possessing knowledge of the true self, of a positive soul. One who reaches the highest stage of this knowledge becomes Brahma. The supreme divine being is Shiva, who is an embodiment of knowledge, peace, purity and harmony.

We"ve been on an identity-hunt since time immemorial. First, we fought other forms of life for survival, power and energy. Then man fought man to prove his superiority. His search took him to conquer every inch of land and water, extending the search to outer space.

Today, this search has made us tense: Are we losing track of our ultimate goal in this ceaseless process? But in searching deep inside, we have acknowledged the urge to know the true self within and the need to live in peace and harmony.

Raja Yoga helps us locate ourselves in our souls (atma). Raja means 'the glorious supreme' and yoga means to connect or to establish a link with God. It teaches us to pull ourselves back from being self-conscious to concentrate on the paramatma which is the perfect and purest entity. Mythology, traditions and some ancient texts have declared Shiva (the deity) as the Lord of the Yogis and yoga was revealed to him.

Yoga, however, is misunderstood today and is largely associated with physical bends and postures called asanas. To the yogis God is not an all-pervasive, omnipotent entity; God is a tiny star-like soul. There are two fields of existence - the physical and the metaphysical. Both fields act, react and interact to produce the desirable universal drama of which we are all a part, including God. The Gita divides its cantos under the titles of Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

Practice of Raja Yoga creates inner tranquillity, mental relaxation and helps enhance our capacity to judge and act dispassionately towards results. By finding this peace of mind and unison with the universal soul we can find harmony with the universe.

According to the Brahmakumaris the universal soul is like a jyoti-bindu in which the jeevatma resides in the forehead between the two eyebrows. The trataka yoga method involves concentrating on a particular bright point which is regarded as Brahma or paramatma. This kind of Raja Yoga does not require abstention from the world so far as social activities are concerned. But it demands purity of mind which alone enables one to concentrate on the focus of meditation.

The Brahmakumaris see the wheel of time (kalpa) in a span of 5,000 years divided into four ages represented by the swastika symbol. The pure or Golden Age corresponds to the mythological Satya Yuga, the Treta the Copper Age and Kali Yuga, the Iron Age. Purity is of the highest order in the Satya Yuga while it declines gradually down the ages and reaches the nadir in Kali Yuga. Then the transformation comes to a new kalpa beginning with the Satya Yuga. The Brahmakumaris say that at this time God descends into the body of an aged man whom He names Brahma or Adam (in corporeal form). The new man thus emerges in the new kalpa on the strength of his knowledge of self.

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul

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