It is believed that a healthy heart makes two sounds: ‘lub-dupp, lub-dupp.’ If we listen deeply, our throbbing hearts could be telling us to, ‘Love deep, love deep.’ The heart’s message is similar to the scriptural message, ‘God is love and love is God.’ Nirankari Babaji says, “If we cease to love, we cease to live”. Love is the soul of true religion, which essentially means realization of Self through realization of God.
God, the essence of all religions and the fountainhead of all bliss, has been communalised. Often, terror acts are committed in the name of religion and terrorists say that they are carrying out ‘God’s work.’ The terrorist act of 9/11 adversely affected the whole world and it created distances between communities. However, we continue to face newer challenges that are a threat to our collective existence, and we need to stand united to face them effectively. German-American novelist Oliver Markus Malloy says that the coronavirus pandemic is going to be the biggest event of our lifetime, even bigger than 9/11. It is going to be as if 9/11 happened in every city on earth at the same time. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, and the other challenge the world faces, including environmental degradation, the only way to change things is to rethink what constitutes development. People are important, but equally important is the planet that nurtures other life forms as well. With population explosion, misuse of technology and materialism becoming a way of life, we are behaving as if the planet is a business in liquidation. International conflicts and terrorism occupy the attention of world leaders. Global warming and environmental distress create anxiety over the future of our planet. Earth and human lifestyle seem to be on a collision course. Mother Nature presents us with powerful evidence in the form of devastating hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, fire and now the coronavirus pandemic that is jeopardising our future.
Scientists are pleading with us to make dramatic changes in our lifestyle. We can no longer afford to think that it is ‘business as usual’. We will first have to change our attitude and recognise that the threat to our existence is a spiritual issue, a challenge that goes to the core of who we are as human beings. Higher human values that spring from awareness of the spiritual basis of our being must be reawakened.
Satguru Mata Sudiksha asserts that a better world would be of ‘peace, not pieces,’ in consonance with the motto of the Sant Nirankari Mission, ‘religion unites, never divides’ and stresses the key words, ‘know One, believe in One and become One’.
-C L GULATI
