What Action Should I Take in This Turbulent World?
By Nayaswami Hriman
In the hearts and minds of high-minded people everywhere the question arises “What can I, what SHOULD I, be doing to be part of the solution to the troubles of our world?”
Most of us as individuals can do very little in terms of outward results. So, the question “What can I do? relates to things like voting, contributing to worthy causes, writing letters, joining special interest groups, reading and posting on social media platforms, and perhaps joining in protest marches.
As a practicing yogi and devotee on the inner path of meditation, the yardstick of measurement for right action is your own inner peace. Does marching in a picket line stir up intense emotions and find you shouting and jostling angrily at your opponents, the police, or bystanders?
If reading the news and immersing yourself in the strident noises of social media upset you while at the same time you take no positive useful action, you might want to take a fasting break from the news.
Whatever action you might take to support your cause should enhance your inner peace and bring you a quiet, inner joy for having done what you can to be part of the solution. Life is so rarely that perfect, however, for there are times that taking action can be one’s first priority either because of obvious necessity (self-defense, e.g.) or because it is truly your duty to do so. In such cases, the life and consciousness that you have achieved will have to show its grace and power to help you remain centered in the Self.
But what SHOULD I do? I live in the Ananda Community just north of Seattle, WA. There are four other Ananda Communities on the west coast (USA) and a rural community near Assisi, Italy. The very existence of such communities (plus retreats, teaching centers and meditation groups worldwide), based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, ARE part of the solution. If you live by faith and have a regular practice of prayer, meditation, service and devotion you are already part of the solution.
The consciousness represented by the practice of meditation (regardless of outward affiliation) IS the solution for the problems we face. You won’t find us on the front page of any newspaper or the click-bait, eye-catching news headlines on your phone but you are probably doing the most important thing you can do to support positive changes in this world.
Both scientists and rishis tell us the world of matter is not what it seems. Human history, too, is not what it seems when it is described only from the point of view of battles, governments and leaders. Much more is taking place unseen. Here’s an example taken from Paramhansa Yogananda’s famous life story, Autobiography of a Yogi.
He writes that “Mahavatar Babaji is in constant communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations of redemption, and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two fully-illumined masters — one with the body, and one without it — is to inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East.”
In the Old Testament, God declared that if ten righteous souls could be found, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah could be averted. If a surprisingly small percentage of the world’s population were seeking inner peace through meditation, simple living, respect for all life, and cooperation and harmony with others regardless of race, gender, nation, culture or religion, solutions to the complex problems of human civilization would arise naturally.
What Ananda and similar like-minded groups and individuals represent is the future of human civilization. The path to real solutions will likely be difficult, destructive, and involve great suffering for many people but only because too many people fail to heed the counsel of their very own consciences.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. acknowledged that those in power who cling to the past and to their position do not yield it willingly in favor of serving a higher Cause and the Divine Will. Thus, conflict necessarily arises.
Gandhi also famously noted that if we all practiced “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” we’d all be blind and toothless. Thus, combatting the power structure will not yield peace if it is conducted with anger and violence.
This means that the consciousness with which we act is AS important as the action taken. Indeed, it must precede and infuse the action to be taken. Individual karma dictates that each one follows the path of action in the way best suited to his or her dharma and ultimate soul freedom.
We cannot therefore insist or even guide others to take specific actions in the realm of the body politic. Rather, Ananda’s contribution is to help uplift consciousness from which intuition and inspiration can be the individual’s guide to freedom.
Another point to consider though more difficult to accept is that the Divine Will uses evil for its own ends. Indeed, suffering is precisely that which awakens the human conscience to ask the big questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here? How do I find relief from suffering? How can I find true happiness?
If this world were a garden of peace and beauty, would we ever seek another? If this world were perfect, we’d probably do ourselves “in” out of boredom. If this world had no ills, would we even know that it was so? Suffering is part of the great drama and duality of life without which life itself could not exist. Sadly, perhaps, but there simply is no other way.
Large complex organizations especially like the federal government of the United States are paralyzed. They are broken. No solution is at hand. Thus, the seeming destruction of institutions and support systems from the federal level are, however heedless and mindlessly conducted, unavoidable even if regrettable and stupid; even if enacted out of greed or worse.
In a similar way, we see nature creating earthquakes, storms, fires and much more in what many of us believe is a response to human activity, irresponsibility and greed.
History shows us that there are karmic forces (war, plague, disasters, social revolutions) that are greater than any government, culture, tribe or individual, with or without power, elected, appointed or inherited.
In our time, human consciousness is steadily shifting from an old paradigm of separateness and hierarchy to a new paradigm of connectedness and individual choice. The shift is not smooth and seamless because those who resist are attempting to stop a large wave. In any massive shift there are “winners and losers” (at least from the point of view of the ego). Individuals can protest and do any number of things to counter the mindless destruction but from the longer and large view, the destruction of old forms, institutions and relationships is no longer avoidable.
The paralysis at the federal level is an indicator that choice is flowing downward to the state, local and individual level. The internet symbolizes this leveling trend. Unfortunately, the very planetary issues that would seem to require cooperation among governments are not going to be solved in this way given the actual trends we are seeing. There are, therefore, other solutions.
The rise of individuality carries with it the threat of chaos and anarchy. It will be the price we pay for personal freedoms. The counterbalance to what is becoming the Age of the Individual is the rising consciousness of interdependence. The “religion” of such an age will be, Yogananda predicted, “Self-realization!” In other words, an expanded sense of individuality. (He wasn’t referring to yet another global institution. The very term “Self-realization” counters such an idea as does the trend of consciousness I am describing.)
Independence and personal (and local) freedom will place a premium on voluntary cooperation. We’ve seen the possibility of this in what had once been the trend of cooperative housing and agricultural associations. When cooperation becomes both a necessity and an obvious solution, it will return. Even nations will someday learn the art of cooperation rather than depend on fixed treaties. Federal governments will learn to work cooperatively with state and local governments, as will related agencies of all governments. Corporations, too, will find cooperation more productive than competition and all will find that transparency will benefit everyone as even now the internet allows a shopper to compare prices and have access to more choices. The modus operandi of the evolving age is flexibility and flow.
There can be no denying, however, that the road ahead is fraught with many obstacles. I do not suggest “sitting out the game on the bench or in the grandstands.” That’s not really going to be a choice because we are all going to be impacted by major changes. War, more plagues, economic disruptions in trade and currencies, social unrest, natural disasters: nowhere on this planet will there be any reliable safety.
Therefore, each of us should act in accordance with our own intuition and inspiration knowing that the real “fruit” of our action lies in how it impacts our own consciousness. If anger is the fruit, then anger will flower. If peace is bestowed, then peace will grow. It’s not complicated on the “inside.” It is complex only in its manifestation on the “outside.”
The time has come, now, for those of goodwill, for those of us especially who share an attunement to the practice of meditation and the living presence and teachings of yoga and meditation such as we do at Ananda with the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, to serve, pray, meditate together. In this way we create a “community” of beloved souls who are illumined by the light of the masters of Self-realization.
On July 31, 1949, Paramhansa Yogananda “sowed into the ether” his call for the establishment of small communities as the hope for a better world. That prediction is like a tsunami rising ever more quickly towards us. “Buy land in the country with others and grow your own food” Yogananda counseled his audiences at that time. “You don’t know what a cataclysm is coming.”
The future is hopeful even if the road to it is bumpy. Now, more than ever, is the time to re-create supportive, like-minded communities. Once long ago, January 20, 1961, the newly elected President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, urged Americans in his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
The Divine Self within you invites you to be part of the solution by prayer, meditation, service to others, and cooperation with others who share your values and lifestyle. The time is NOW!