Amrit Gupta's Blog
November 6, 2015
Our Half-hearted Approach to God
A few years back I read about Lord Krishna telling his confused devotee Arjuna that only one in a thousand makes efforts to seek Him and out of those thousands who make efforts to seek Him only one knows Him (Bhagvad Gita-Ch. VII, Verse 3). This statement perplexed me. All around us we see people reciting God, God ,God; people swearing by His different names; people talking about God to others; people listening discourses about Him and doing so many rituals, etc. Generally all people go to temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras, and other places of worship. Normally every home in India has a separate place for worship of the Lord in one way or the other. Then why do such a low percentage only of humans knows Him? An eagerness to know Him then took birth in me.
Starting my spiritual journey with the ‘Gospels’ of Sri Ramakrishna and continuing my quest with Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda for many years, I realized that, ‘Yes’, man’s efforts towards seeking God were only half-hearted, lacking sincerity, seriousness and wisdom. An average man hardly understands the true concept of God and the value of seeking Him in right earnest. He goes to places of worship more as a matter of routine or for seeking some favours from God and not for His love. At home also there is hardly any seriousness except sometimes lighting a jyoti (lamp) or chanting a few ‘Mantras’etc morning and/or evening.
The reason for such a state of affairs is probably the legacy of the Dark Age. For 2400 years (700 BC to 1700 AD) the whole of humanity had been under the influence of the darkest period of the 24,000 years Yuga Cycle. There was wide- spread ignorance and man had lost the power of seeing anything beyond gross material creation. There was political unrest in almost all nations on the globe. Horses and bullock carts were the means of transportation, no radios, no telephones, no printing presses and newspapers, negligible means of education, etc.
Gross ignorance can be judged from the simple fact that a saint of the stature of Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross by piercing nails into his body parts.
The post 1700 AD period, particularly around 1850 AD, when the golden revolution surged in saw the revival of a better living for humanity. The earth started decorating itself with modern means of communications, railways, telephones, telegraphs, light bulbs etc.
The period around 1850 A.D brought some awakening in the West but the Indian continent continued to remain in abject poverty and slavery. A land, however, actually lives not in its material achievements but in its masterpieces of men. In spite of her poverty, India had not sought to usurp other people’s rights or seek advantages from others. It put all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual and the universal. It had always looked for guidance to its saints and sages.
Starting my spiritual journey with the ‘Gospels’ of Sri Ramakrishna and continuing my quest with Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda for many years, I realized that, ‘Yes’, man’s efforts towards seeking God were only half-hearted, lacking sincerity, seriousness and wisdom. An average man hardly understands the true concept of God and the value of seeking Him in right earnest. He goes to places of worship more as a matter of routine or for seeking some favours from God and not for His love. At home also there is hardly any seriousness except sometimes lighting a jyoti (lamp) or chanting a few ‘Mantras’etc morning and/or evening.
The reason for such a state of affairs is probably the legacy of the Dark Age. For 2400 years (700 BC to 1700 AD) the whole of humanity had been under the influence of the darkest period of the 24,000 years Yuga Cycle. There was wide- spread ignorance and man had lost the power of seeing anything beyond gross material creation. There was political unrest in almost all nations on the globe. Horses and bullock carts were the means of transportation, no radios, no telephones, no printing presses and newspapers, negligible means of education, etc.
Gross ignorance can be judged from the simple fact that a saint of the stature of Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross by piercing nails into his body parts.
The post 1700 AD period, particularly around 1850 AD, when the golden revolution surged in saw the revival of a better living for humanity. The earth started decorating itself with modern means of communications, railways, telephones, telegraphs, light bulbs etc.
The period around 1850 A.D brought some awakening in the West but the Indian continent continued to remain in abject poverty and slavery. A land, however, actually lives not in its material achievements but in its masterpieces of men. In spite of her poverty, India had not sought to usurp other people’s rights or seek advantages from others. It put all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual and the universal. It had always looked for guidance to its saints and sages.
