Adieu to 31st December 2013 with Some Abstract Thoughts !

Today is 31st December 2013 and my last working day of the year. I thought of sharing some abstract thoughts with you today, which may not be of any interest to many of you. Yet I have the compulsion to do so.

I have been thinking. Thousands of people might have departed from this world for ever and thousands of new lives might have been added. When it comes to death and birth, are we any different from plants and animals? I do believe that we are. If not, there is absolutely nothing that makes any human to boast of his life. It makes no difference to him or her in the long run.

But, I am convinced that human beings do have a greater role to play in this world not only for its material accomplishments, but also for some other things which are even greater than those. In my opinion, living a life only for living and only for fulfilling some desires associated with material living is perhaps a life similar to that of the animals, birds and plants. They also live to fulfill their inherent life desires and do contribute some thing to the dynamics of this world. They all seem to have some purpose in maintaining the material environment, the energy cycles, the food chains, the climatic and weather conditions and even the beauty of this world in some manner.

We humans with enhanced intellectual and mind capabilities coupled with independent decision making abilities are capable of doing fantastic improvements and modifications on the face of the lands on which we live. We are creative, adventurous, ambitious and also have qualities commonly found in plants and animals as well.

But what is that quality that makes us distinctly different from animals and plants and make us human? I think it is the divine qualities that are in us that makes us different from animals and make us human.

And what are these divine qualities that are within us?

First and foremost, we think about a divine personality about whom we know pretty nothing. Yes, we all think about an invisible power beyond our normal perceptions at times whom we designate with some word in our languages such as this word, God. More than that, we do love our invisible God, just as we love our children, parents, spouse, etc.

More than that, some of us are even possessive of our God, just as some of us are too concerned and possessive of our dear ones.

With our intellectual mind, we are ready to accept that God is the universal supreme and creator of our world and all worlds if at all they are there. Yet we are not ready to accept the possibility of their God as the same as our God! How can my parents be the parents of theirs? It is not acceptable. Like wise, my God cannot be his God. By this refusal of acceptance, we negate our first concept of our God being the supreme creator of everything.

We have intelligence to create these computers, but do lack the intelligence to understand the essential and possible nature of the supreme invisible power personality that we identify as the source of our existence.

We are ready to conceptualize God in our own way and are fully satisfied with our cultures, customs, beliefs and thoughts and are not willing to upgrade our thoughts and concepts as we progress just as we do in other fields of knowledge. When it comes to our beliefs and concepts of God, we prefer to be orthodox and prefer not to be progressive.

Is it not a ridiculous thing for a scientist to argue  the size of an elephant being similar to that of a mouse because he had got that knowledge only from a picture earlier?

Thirteen years of the 21st century had passed. We are much progressed in our scientific and technological capabilities. But we have not much progressed in our concepts about God, the sole and unique flicker of a reverence that we possess deep in our minds!

We know clearly that we are different from those plants and animals who too share their living existence with us in this world. We know that we are much more intelligent and have immense mind capacities. Yet we are unable to nurture that unique concept that we have in our minds to any logical conclusions that are agreeable to all. Some of us would say that we are religiously different. We follow different belief systems that we call as our religions. Our religions are about God, the supreme invisible power that created every thing and that keeps us going. But we are not able to arrive at some uniform thoughts about God with our intelligence.

In other words we fail to understand God. Had we been able to do it to some extent just as we progressed in our science and technology, how marvelous it would have been! But no, it is not taking place that way!

Why do we try to fathom an unfathomable God with our own yardsticks? When our science can have the same symbols, formulas, theorems and postulates universally, why can't we have such a thing in our spiritual quests and knowledge?

Is it so desirable to leave our spiritual quest unanswered and at primitive levels and allow our scientific quest only to go forward?

If all our achievements on this earth are to be forgotten one day and we are to forgo all those experiences and knowledge that we gained in this life just on that final day of our material existences what have we really achieved?

Was it all an illusion ? Maya ? Are we still forcing us to believe that way that old philosophers taught us?

No, sir, no! There could be better answers. And we need to find it out.

We need to find an answer to the whole purpose of our human life on earth. We need to find an answer to the purpose of our higher intelligence, our creativity, our reverence to God, our power of choice and our concepts of good and bad.

Let us nurture those thoughts as well while we pursue our living careers full of ambitions and aspirations in a lot of other facets of life.

Let not 2014 too pass away just as 2013 and those other previous years!

Let us also nurture that so-called spirituality in us! Not the conventional way, but using our inherent intellectual and spiritual capacities in a better way.

Wish you all a better and enlightening New Year 2014 ! 

May the Universe Administration of the Almighty God be Merciful to Our World to advance more towards Real Prosperity and Happiness!

Was the Lord God of Ancient Israel Pleased by Human Sacrifice ?

There are at least two incidences in the Old Testament Bible which gives an indication that the ancient Israelis used to do human sacrifice to please their god, the Lord God of Israel. 

The first story is in the first book of the bible, the Genesis, where Abraham was required to show his allegiance and obedience to God who demands his only son to be sacrificed. Abraham went to fulfill the task of sacrificing his son, Isaac only to be prevented by God at the last moment. Abraham later sacrificed a goat instead for God. [Read the full bible passage about this aborted human sacrifice here!] 

Years later, another incident had happened where a human sacrifice had actually happened, according to the Bible. This is in the book of Judges. Here a would be leader of the ancient Israelis, named Jephthah, make a promise to his God to sacrifice anyone who comes to meet and greet him first after he became successful in the local war for superiority. He won the battle and unfortunately it was his beautiful daughter who came to greet him first. The Bible says that he had to sacrifice his daughter to fulfill his vow.[ Read the full bible passage about Jephthah and his daughter here!]

No doubt, these are some glimpses of records of ancient history as depicted in some ancient literature that had become holy texts of some of the great human religions in the later years. It certainly gives some idea about the manner in which some sample populations of the world progressed in their concepts about God, worship, laws, governance, religion and the like.

Yet, it gives me some repulsion in my mind when I read through these. All the more it gives me additional repulsion when I consider that these are passages of some holy texts that attempt to introduce God to man. 

Many ardent followers of Christian faiths believe that the Bible is the word of God and hence is infallible. God is now depicted as synonymous with Love and Mercy whereas in the olden times as the God of War, Destruction and Punishment. How could these two things go simultaneously in the same book? If God himself had revealed himself in these holy texts, these kinds of contradictions would not have happened. That is what my logic tells me. Undoubtedly, the Bible books are works of human beings. Yet there are great reflections of divine revelations of some fundamental realities and truths sprinkled here and there within the passages. Perhaps such words of wisdom, knowledge and truth might have been divine revelations as it got caught by the human brains!

But passages such as the one I cited above about the human sacrifice as conducted by Jephthah, create certain kind of difficulties for the bible scholars and theologians. People do discuss about these and come to their own conclusions. For example read this: What about Jephthah's vow? 

For those like me, it is difficult  to believe that the Bible as a whole is divine truth or holy text. Bible as such would have remained as a problem for my religious and spiritual understanding, had I not known the Urantia Book, my favorite book of life guidance, now. 

It would be interesting to note what the non-human authors of the Urantia Book tells about the Biblical incident of Jephthah. Let me quote the authors:

There is no more tragic and pathetic experience on record, illustrative of the heart-tearing contentions between ancient and time-honored religious customs and the contrary demands of advancing civilization, than the Hebrew narrative of Jephthah and his only daughter. As was common custom, this well-meaning man had made a foolish vow, had bargained with the "god of battles," agreeing to pay a certain price for victory over his enemies. And this price was to make a sacrifice of that which first came out of his house to meet him when he returned to his home. Jephthah thought that one of his trusty slaves would thus be on hand to greet him, but it turned out that his daughter and only child came out to welcome him home. And so, even at that late date and among a supposedly civilized people, this beautiful maiden, after two months to mourn her fate, was actually offered as a human sacrifice by her father, and with the approval of his fellow tribesmen. And all this was done in the face of Moses' stringent rulings against the offering of human sacrifice. But men and women are addicted to making foolish and needless vows, and the men of old held all such pledges to be highly sacred. [The Urantia Book, Paper-89 para 6.3]

I would give below some more quotes from the same paper of the Urantia Book which tells about the human evolutionary progress in the concepts of sin, sacrifice and atonement reflecting the views of the divine authors who keep watching the slow progress of human race:

Human sacrifice has been virtually universal; it persisted in the religious customs of the Chinese,Hindus, Egyptians, Hebrews,Mesopotamians,Greeks,Romans, and many other peoples, even on to recent times among the backward African and Australian tribes. The later American Indians had a civilization emerging from cannibalism and, therefore, steeped in human sacrifice, especially in Central and South America. The Chaldeans were among the first to abandon the sacrificing of humans for ordinary occasions, substituting therefor animals. About two thousand years ago a tenderhearted Japanese emperor introduced clay images to take the place of human sacrifices, but it was less than a thousand years ago that these sacrifices died out in northern Europe. Among certain backward tribes, human sacrifice is still carried on by volunteers, a sort of religious or ritual suicide. A shaman once ordered the sacrifice of a much respected old man of a certain tribe. The people revolted; they refused to obey. Whereupon the old man had his own son dispatch him; the ancients really believed in this custom. [The Urantia Book Paper-89, 6.2]

Men eventually conceived the idea that the offering of some part of the body could take the place of the older and complete human sacrifice. Physical mutilation was also considered to be an acceptable substitute. Hair, nails, blood, and even fingers and toes were sacrificed. The later and well-nigh universal ancient rite of circumcision was an outgrowth of the cult of partial sacrifice; it was purely sacrificial, no thought of hygiene being attached thereto. Men were circumcised; women had their ears pierced. [The Urantia Book Paper-89, 8.2]

Subsequently it became the custom to bind fingers together instead of cutting them off. Shaving the head and cutting the hair were likewise forms of religious devotion. The making of eunuchs was at first a modification of the idea of human sacrifice. Nose and lip piercing is still practiced in Africa, and tattooing is an artistic evolution of the earlier crude scarring of the body. [The Urantia Book, Paper-89, 8.3]

But the idea of making a covenant with the gods did finally arrive. Evolutionary man eventually acquired such moral dignity that he dared to bargain with his gods. And so the business of offering sacrifices gradually developed into the game of man's philosophic bargaining with God. And all this represented a new device for insuring against bad luck or, rather, an enhanced technique for the more definite purchase of prosperity. Do not entertain the mistaken idea that these early sacrifices were a free gift to the gods, a spontaneous offering of gratitude or thanksgiving; they were not expressions of true worship. [The Urantia Book, Paper-89, 8.6]

Early prayer was hardly worship; it was a bargaining petition for health, wealth, and life. And in many respects prayers have not much changed with the passing of the ages. They are still read out of books, recited formally, and written out for emplacement on wheels and for hanging on trees, where the blowing of the winds will save man the trouble of expending his own breath. [The Urantia Book, Paper-89, 8.8]

The Hebrews long practiced this ritual as a part of their Passover ceremonies, and it was from this ceremonial that the later Christian version of the sacrament took its origin. Paul started out to build a new Christian cult on "the blood of the everlasting covenant." And while he may have unnecessarily encumbered Christianity with teachings about blood and sacrifice, he did once and for all make an end of the doctrines of redemption through human or animal sacrifices. His theologic compromises indicate that even revelation must submit to the graduated control of evolution. According to Paul, Christ became the last and all-sufficient human sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied. [The Urantia Book Paper-89, 9.3-9.4]

With the direct help of the divine non-human authors of the Urantia Book, I am now learning those many fundamental truths that are now revealed for people like to me to discard the errors that got accumulated over the years in our conceptual mental frame work. Now, I am happy to declare that I am no more a confused person, confused due to the mixture of facts, truths, untruths and imaginations that got mixed up in human history and understanding.

I can clearly understand why it was not at all necessary for Jesus Christ to be a sacrificial lamb of God for the salvation of all humanity. That was a great conceptual error of our human forefathers who tried to fathom an unfathomable God with their limited brains!

The reality is entirely different than what we were forced to believe.

Again, it is not so easy for ordinary folks to discard those concepts that had got stuck up in their minds. It needs some superior mental strength to do it.

In the due course of time, no doubt, most of the humans would be able to do it.

Migrating from the Era of Negative Laws to an Era of Positive Laws: Need to Think Originally!

If I say the world is full of copycats, please do not get angry on me. It is a reality. I am not against any one copying or imitating some thing good. Copying of ideas and content would no doubt could reduce work load in many areas to a good extent. So, copying per se, cannot be considered as some thing bad.

For many years, I have been working as an engineering project consultant. One of the jobs that I was supposed to do involves drafting of project feasibility reports, contract or tender specifications, etc. In the process of doing this kind of work, it is quite natural that I have to take clues from my predecessors and copy many things that they had thoughtfully drafted for situations of similar nature. Naturally, this would reduce my time in thinking of the proper clauses and statements that compose my document.

I had the opportunity of finding documents containing statements originally drafted by me with some fore thoughts. But if such things happen without any one giving any attention to the purpose and the meanings, things could create problems at some time.

A couple of decades ago, such copying could not have been done by simple 'copy-paste' operations that the present day word processing software allows in the digital word processing environment. In those days, even if some one wanted to copy some thing, the texts had to be re-typed and edited where some human thoughts also went in simultaneously. That way, a document generated with some copying could not be considered as full word by word copies. Instead they used to be modified versions of documents made with some original thoughts.

Unfortunately, the word processing power the computers have provided had caused certain other undesirable side effects. Now-a-days, full documents could be made by some one without ever giving any proper application of mind. Even many documents could be made mechanically by the machines without any human thoughts ever doing some fine tuning!

Laws, rules, procedures and the whole gamut of interpretation of laws comprising legislation and the judicial system perhaps uses the maximum use of text processing called legal documentation. The present day legal procedure is so complex that it is extremely difficult for any normal human being to read and understand the whole documents that get created in the judicial processes involving judgments.

Once I had the opportunity to read the findings and the recommendations made by an Inquiry officer of a company who conducted an inquiry in to certain allegations leveled against an employee as per the Conduct and Disciplinary procedures laid out by the said company. He had made a long inquiry report which quoted the statements of the witnesses and many documents of proofs (called exhibits). As I read on, I found that the findings were in favor of the accused. But to my surprise, the last para of his report the inquiry officer had given his recommendations to the disciplinary authority which were just the contrary to what were explained earlier. The disciplinary authority being a high ranking official with not much time to read everything, went as recommended and awarded the punishment to the accused!

In the present day system what we have, the judgments as read out by our honorable judges are in hundreds and thousands of pages. Would it provide opportunities for 'reading between the lines'? Could there be some alternative that is better? It is something that modern society has to start thinking.

I am not a legal expert, but a common layman. But, my common sense tells me that there is a need to improve our system of legislation and legal procedures. We need to come out from the compulsions of sticking to what is known as legacy. Legal documentation and legal languages need to get simplified, approachable and understandable by the majority of people. It cannot happen overnight or even in the present generation. But some day it has to happen. That would be the time when the leaders of human beings become more comfortable with what is now being acknowledged as 'transparency'.

Another thing that comes in to my mind is the need to have many different types of punishments which could help positive changes in those getting punished rather than the present day system of negative punishments. Many of our laws only recognize 'imprisonment' as the only way of punishing some one regardless of the gravity of the crime or error. Though we may be proud of our so-called elected representatives whom we call as our law makers, it may not be known to many that it is not always these representatives who actually draft the documents that are called the 'bills' to be enacted (approved) as laws. Many times it is the lower level staff attached to the various ministries who do the drafting work, many times under stress and duress, under certain compelling conditions as dictated from their higher ups. When they are so compelled, they often adopt copy-paste techniques without the proper application of mind. Many times such application of mind get missed in the later processes as well, that the laws that get finally adopted tends to be stereotyped. 

And what is more disturbing is the tendency that we blame everything on our so-called system. And what is this system? And who is responsible for this system which many people call as 'rotten'.

Why do we shy away from original thinking? Are we so pauper in our thoughts of innovation in such areas which affect each and every one of us?

Is it happening every where in this globe like this or are there exceptions? Are we prepared for bench marking our systems with some systems that have proven their effects in some better manner?

What is preventing us from trying simpler and positive laws? 

Is it right to equate a drug peddler in the same way as some one who made some false declaration in a document ? What happens to our common sense when some of us are entrusted with the responsibility of making laws for the rest of us?

Why is it that we prefer to get agitated of an injustice only when we are some how affected and not when we are entrusted to execute the justice? Why do we have different yardsticks at different occasions? 

All these things, in my humble opinion, arise out of certain short comings of our minds, even when we consider ourselves as highly educated, intelligent or competent. We certainly lack certain essential things which could polish our competencies. You may read what I wrote about the 4 Cs earlier!

There is a need for humanity to migrate to an era where positive laws (laws which are simpler to interpret and apply) are in force which are administered by organizations manned by leaders who are not lacking the 4 C's- Competency, Character, Courage and Compassion. And the laws then would perhaps contain less of negative punishments but more of motivational rewards for law abiding too!

No doubt, punishments should act as deterrents for potential crimes to take place. But fear can only be deterrent only to certain inferior minds, but not to all.

How could all these happen? It could, provided human brains are allowed to think originally, instead of compelling to follow those legacies which prevent original ideas. Let us not copy-paste every thing!

In any case, the thought process need to begin now.

What do you think?  

Competency, Character , Courage and Compassion -the 4 C's that Ensure Long term Success of a Leader!

Some time ago, some one in a large organization asked me the essential traits that are required for any leader to lead an organization and ensure long term success. I explained the relevance of Competency, Character, Courage and Compassion the way I understood it, to answer his question. My friend was not so convinced. I know, a good majority of my fellow country men in India would not take my views.

But whether they accept it or not, it is a universal truth. Leaders who do not have these traits might seem to be successful for a while but the irony is that they would not be able to sustain their success for long.

The organization could be any thing. Political, business, governmental, administrative, religious, social, educational, military, law enforcement, judicial, etc, etc. It could be large or small. It could be autonomous or dependent. It could be a organizational conglomerate with multiple objectives or a simple one with a single objective. Whatever it is, leaders lacking the 4 Cs above could ruin it after some time.

Human civilization has seen many powerful political and national organizations such as many great empires of the past rising and thriving for some time, only to be disintegrated wholly after a while.

Even in the recent times we have been observing such phenomena.

While an individual human being with  a life span of say 70-80 years on an average is considered generally as a very good one with regard to age an organization sustaining it activities for a few generations is viewed with some admiration. We have very few organizations of that kind. Even political or national organizations that have survived a few generations are also rare, yet they do exist.

What makes an organization to sustain a life exceeding the average life of a human being? If you study such organizations, you would realize that the leaders of such organizations had the above said 4 C quality much more than their contemporaries. 

I think this phenomena is due to the existence of an invisible divine over control over human organizations.

When the majority of people desire their leaders to be some one with the above 4 C's there is a potential divine blessing over such peoples to have such leaders elevated as their leaders. When the majority of people do not give any importance to this aspect, the reverse happens and they are bound to suffer collectively.

Now let us examine what is meant by these four words.

Competency is the ability to perform a desirable task well. It comprises of knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and a desire to learn and update. It involves skills for language, communication and such other soft skills as well. Common sense is very important. Competency is a mixture of inherent qualities enhanced by proper education and training. A leader should be competent enough to know his organization, understand the work, differentiate between good and bad and should have the ability for reasoning and decision making. Different works might require different kinds of competency.

Competency of a person is polished by his or her character. Character is that innate quality of a person to select and opt good from bad. It involves such traits such as honesty, values, ethics and the like. A highly competent person can have a good character or may be ever characterless. A characterless leader with high competency is highly dangerous for the organization and the people. If we study history, we can see hundreds of examples of this kind.

Courage is the trait that makes a leader different. If a leader lacks courage to lead and take appropriate decisions at appropriate moments, such leader could bring failures and disasters for the organization that he leads even while he has enough competency and is a person of character. At the same time courage should not be such that it causes misadventure. In other words, courage should be reflected through wise decisions.

A leader must be compassionate to fellow human beings. His or her decisions should always be based on compassion to other humans. But compassion should not blind him or her from taking corrective actions. A compassionate leader is bound to be 'mild and soft as a dove, but clever and assertive as a serpent'. Love and mercy to all humans be his guiding force. But his competency should come to his aid in weeding out those inherently bad elements who do not deserve love and mercy. Perhaps this is one of the greatest problems many leaders face in their lives. They often commit great errors of judgement in realizing the real motives or natures of others. Often this causes, leaders to like and promote those around them who are good in the art of sycophancy. The fundamental principle to understand here is that people with competency and character are less likely to indulge in pampering others with good words and deeds with some hidden agenda of receiving favors. They are also not likely to fall preys to flattery.

If a nation has survived a few generations successfully, it is an indication that it has strong internal organizations led by people with the 4 C's at various levels. The moment, the national organizations get people who do not have these 4 Cs, the organizations begin to disintegrate. So, it is highly essential that organizations resort to proper leadership changes when leaders of any level is found to lack in the 4 Cs to some recognizable degree.

Though all the four Cs are important, my personal priority of arranging these four in the order of decreasing importance (higher to lower) is like this: Character-Competency-Compassion-Courage!

Often people have this doubt. Would it be possible for a person of character to withstand many others who are characterless in other organizations around?

I would say, yes. And my belief is that in the years to come, characterless people are bound to fail more often than in the past. When I say this, I have some strong intuitive reason for such a belief. That does not mean that we would not be seeing characterless people making successes. Characterless people are going to make short term successes in the future too, just as in the past. But their fall would be quicker.

So, no nation or business would sustain longer when they are infected with people lacking the 4 Cs that I mentioned. Organizations that give honest importance for these 4 Cs for their people are bound to succeed and win over those who do not, in the long run.

Our world is not going to face any global apocalypse or Armageddon . Such scenarios in minor levels could keep happening in the future, because of nations and organizations infected with people lacking the 4 Cs. But total destruction of this world is never going to happen, as feared by many, because of the over control exercised by divine powers. It is absurd to believe that God has created humanity for facing ultimate destruction because of the foolish deeds of some inferior humans or even some inferior angels as believed and taught by some religious leaders of the past or the present.

While the misdeeds of some inferior humans who lack competency, character, courage and compassion in them might bring some disasters now and then, here and there, with some of us facing the consequences, such things should not dishearten us or cause our minds to such levels as praising and admiring evil. In that case we are aligning to the evil that gets happening due to evil men and women who lack the 4 Cs. Instead, it would be better idea to look for instances and people who bring lasting success and the importance of the 4 Cs in those cases. That would help in us aligning towards good rather than evil.

Just think about these and make your own judgments.

About Political Sovereignty, Law , Liberty, War and Peace : Some Statements of Supernal Wisdom!

The following are some supernal statements of wisdom about political sovereignty, law and liberty that I read in my favorite book of life guidance-the Urantia Book. Some of those statements, I reproduce below for the thoughtful meditation of those who are capable of assimilating such knowledge:

Sovereignty is power and it grows by organization. This growth of the organization of political power is good and proper, for it tends to encompass ever-widening segments of the total of mankind. But this same growth of political organizations creates a problem at every intervening stage between the initial and natural organization of political power— the family—and the final consummation of political growth—the government of all mankind, by all mankind, and for all mankind.

As sovereignty passes from smaller groups to larger groups, wars are lessened. That is, minor wars between smaller nations are lessened, but the potential for greater wars is increased as the nations wielding sovereignty become larger and larger. Presently, when all the world has been explored and occupied, when nations are few, strong, and powerful, when these great and supposedly sovereign nations come to touch borders, when only oceans separate them, then will the stage be set for major wars, world-wide conflicts. So-called sovereign nations cannot rub elbows without generating conflicts and eventuating wars.

Political sovereignty is created out of the surrender of self-determinism, first by the individual within the family and then by the families and clans in relation to the tribe and larger groupings. This progressive transfer of self-determination from the smaller to ever larger political organizations has generally proceeded unabated in the East since the establishment of the Ming and the Mogul dynasties. In the West it obtained for more than a thousand years right on down to the end of the World War, when an unfortunate retrograde movement temporarily reversed this normal trend by re-establishing the submerged political sovereignty of numerous small groups in Europe.

Your world will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of men—mankind government. Internationalism—(viz., Leagues of Nations, the UN)—can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide confederations of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three, four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of these world powers will withdraw from such Leagues and declare war. You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military governments of earth.

As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases, so do both opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of super national power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty of all mankind.

Peace will not come to your world until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of earth create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world’s land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail—but not until then.

Citizens are not born for the benefit of governments; governments are organizations created and devised for the benefit of men. There can be no end to the evolution of political sovereignty short of the appearance of the government of the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status.

With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought and how many leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the blessings of permanent peace and thrive on the tranquillity of good will—world-wide good will—among men?

If one man craves freedom—liberty—he must remember that all other men long for the same freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving mortals cannot live together in peace without becoming subservient to such laws, rules, and regulations as will grant each person the same degree of freedom while at the same time safeguarding an equal degree of freedom for all of his fellow mortals. If one man is to be absolutely free, then another must become an absolute slave. And the relative nature of freedom is true socially, economically, and politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made possible by the enforcement of LAW.

There shall be wars and rumors of wars—nation will rise against nation—just as long as the world’s political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by a group of nation-states. 

Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars—nothing else can.

It is not a question of armaments or disarmament. Neither does the question of conscription or voluntary military service enter into these problems of maintaining world-wide peace. If you take every form of modern mechanical armaments and all types of explosives away from strong nations, they will fight with fists, stones, and clubs as long as they cling to their delusions of the divine right of national sovereignty.

War is not man’s great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.

World peace cannot be maintained by treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and must be enforced by world government —the sovereignty of all mankind.

The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the citizens of the great powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global government.

Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a global language evolve, and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion—or religions with a global viewpoint.

Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all mankind.

The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on earth and good will among men can be realized.

[Reproduced in part from Paper-134 of the Urantia Book. Paper authored by the Midwayer Commission]

Some Random Thoughts about Food, Living, Intelligence and Spiritual Wisdom !

The internet space has lot of information on foodstuffs of various kinds. Many sites are dedicated to cooking and healthy eating habits. Recipes of various kinds could be obtained by searching the net. But, yet I find there is some need for a comprehensive coverage of these raw food items at one place especially to aid those in India who use Hindi, Malayalam or English for their day to day communications.

For survival human beings need energy. Energy is obtained from foods that contain carbohydrates, such as starch, sugars, glucose and the like. Energy value of a food item is measured in terms of calories. Additionally they need some other foods that provide some other essential ingredients for various purposes and processes of their living bodies. Ideally the food taken by human beings should contain the following:

1. Carbohydrates (starch, sugar, glucose) and fats (oils, meat) for energy.

2. Proteins for body growth, cell repair and upkeep.

3. Roughage consisting mainly of dietary fibers which are not absorbed by the body, but are essential for smooth movement of food through the 8 m long alimentary canal aiding digestion and waste elimination.
4. Minerals which are compounds of metals and non-metals found in various foods which are required in low quantities for the body to synthesize various complex compounds for innumerable body functions.
5. Vitamins, which are complex compounds
6.Water, the main constituent of body cells and blood and the medium for expulsion of unwanted soluble wastes materials.
7. Ingredients that enhances taste, smell and color of food.

People have many common features and at the same time are different in many other features. So, eating habits, likes and dislikes and the manner in which food is digested, absorbed and utilized by the body all differ from person to person.

While statistical results published by various kinds of researchers may be useful for enriching our general knowledge in food and food related benefits and problems, it is foolishness to blindly believe such data as universal truths.

Enjoying a good or tasty food is not a sin. But living only for food indulgence is nothing less than a sin.

How much one should eat? And how often? It is foolishness to follow some rules always. If you follow rules for every thing, you degrade yourself as a robot. You degrade your human existence to that of a humanoid.

It is better that you make wise decisions based on your own judgments. After all why do you have that huge brain with all those intelligence if you are not to use it ?

At the same time, it is not a good idea to waste your time always thinking about food to take those wise decisions. There are much more important things in this life than food.

Human life is a mixture of many things. It involves survival, material existence, creativity, friendship and fellowship, discharge of duties and responsibilities and a desire to find the real force behind life whom we sometimes call as God. The latter desire when nurtured properly progresses towards an understanding towards the purpose of life. A man or woman who is realizing the purpose of life has progressed towards what is known as spirituality.

How to progress from material well being to spiritual well being? Is it essential?

Again, your own assessment is the best guide. You have all the inherent faculties and abilities for that judgement.

Is it possible for life to sustain without taking food?

Logically speaking, it should be possible. Food is required as an energy source for us because our body hardware is presently designed in that manner. Those who have designed it that way, logically should have known the methods of designing it in some other way as well.

For example, look at the plants. They are living. They take energy from sunlight and even convert the excess light energy as food for those living beings of the animal kingdom.

The divine designers of plants and animals have the knowledge to do it.

Then, why did they not give us that ability?

I think it is foolishness to question the higher intellectual wisdom of the divine designers of life.

Perhaps, they might disclose those secrets to us some appropriate time.

I am fortunate to learn some thing of the divine wisdom and I am truly amazed!

  

Modern Democratic Diplomacy in Mutually Disrespectful Mode as Exemplified by Two Great Democracies!

By being in the interiors of my great nation where human civilization originated for the first time, I often think about the factors that make humans being different from animals. More appropriately I do think of human civilization and the progress of it in the last many millenniums.How do we make the differentiation among us as being more civilized or less civilized? 

Civilization is perhaps the ability of humans to co-exist peacefully and work jointly for bettering their own conditions of life. The more civilized you are, the more you shed those traits that are found in animals, such as greed, selfishness, fear of the unknown, fighting for self existence and self gratification, disrespecting the weak, committing suicidal errors, etc. In other words, civilization is the evolutionary progress of humans from animal nature to real human nature, the latter being nearer to divinity.

The ability of humans to evolve a democratic form of government in itself is a sign of advancement of civilization. It shows that the majority of the population has been able to remove much of their inherent animal tendencies to some considerable degree that they could voluntarily empower some others as their leaders without any fear contributing to such decisions.

It is indeed a good thing that the modern world has two large nations have progressed in collective civilization that they are democratic nations. One is my own country- India, the home land of a variety of mixed race peoples existing from pre-historic times. The other one is again a nation of mixed race peoples who took the pains of establishing and recreating a land of opportunities by adventure and hard work in a great unexplored continental mass in the recent few centuries of human existence. And it is called the United States of America.

While both have attained certain levels of civilization to the threshold of sustaining democracy in their respective geographic areas, both seem to keep some collective prejudices and envy against each other, though for different reasons.

The Americans through their short survival struggles of a few centuries have learnt the techniques of better human resources management that they now hold the trump card of modern intellectual superiority that has made their country a super power in wealth creation, technology and warfare.Obviously, the average individuals in this nation are too proud of being the citizens of a super power and they obviously aspire for reaping benefits of that status. They have rather evolved as a super race of modern times by some better human resource management techniques which essentially give respect to human intellectual abilities and utilizing the individual and collective human intelligence for collective strength of the nation.

On the other hand, the Indians collectively adopted the policy of discrediting their intellectuals that they seldom allowed the superior brains of their lot not to get involved in nation building programs. Many of such Indian intellectuals finding no opportunity to utilize their intellectual creativeness soon thought it wise to cross the seven seas to reach the land of opportunities, the USA. The Americans,  knowing fully well the worth of human brains have been too glad to accept intelligent brains from any place in the world. But for that they only asked one thing-the allegiance to their new found nation! After all they are all immigrants and being an immigrant was not a taboo for them as was the case with those ancient settlements of human races elsewhere in the globe.

The GDP of India may not match the USA now and the average Indian might be much poorer in international monetary measurements, but Indians know the strength of their nation and the value of their culture. They don't need to work hard like the Americans for a living. Their land is much more fertile and yielding than the lands of the new continent. So, Indians in general can afford to be lazy and easy going than the average Americans. Of course, they do not mind those modern technologies developed by the intelligent brains being sold to them for enhancing some of their comforts for exchange of some of those exclusive things their ancient land so abundantly produce for them. Indians know well about the value of the customer and they are customers always. And they know that customers are kings in modern times of international trade.

And even if these modern gadgets do not come to them they are not so worried. They can also live without them. It is only the seller who is going to loss. Not the buyer!

And Indians also know very well about their potentials. If they manage their nation a bit more carefully, they know that it can surpass any nation in the world. But for now, there is no compulsion for such management techniques! When the time is appropriate, it would be done!

Indians, like me, have much aristocracy in our blood streams as a result of thousands of years of existence. We have castes and creeds of all sorts. But all are benefited from all sorts of blood streams and all sorts of genes that we can adapt to any sort of roles at any time. We can be king or slave, both at the same time, depending upon the situation.

We can appear as very civilized or very beastly both at the same time, depending upon the situation and the circumstances. Indians also know very well the ancient tactics of Chanakya inherently and there is not need that they learn about such tactics in schools and colleges.

So, if any one think that Indians could be taken for a ride, they are totally mistaken. It might be difficult for people with straight forward genetics to understand the genetic make up of Indians with so many genetic features and characteristics. 

So, some of those american law enforcers totally made a wrong judgement when they thought it as an adventure to arrest and disgrace the honor of an young Indian lady who have been holding a high diplomatic position representing India in the USA.

I have been listening to the news and reading about this incident of booking this elite Indian diplomat posted in the Indian consulate in New York for violation of some US law. 

Let me give some of those news links here:

"Lawyer for the domestic help of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade on Thursday said there was legitimacy to the charges against Khobragade "

"Tough-talking Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, the prosecutor credited with ‘busting’ Wall Street and the Gambino and Colombo mafia crime families, has jolted India"

"The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the detainment authority in the case of the senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade (39) arrested in New York last Thursday, confirmed that the Deputy Consul General had been strip-searched" 

"Outrage and overreaction"

Any Indian back home would naturally feel insulted and agitated by this American hegemony and they feel naturally offended and insulted. Back at home, no law enforcer would ever dare to handcuff a lady officer from the elite administrative services without due sanctions from the higher authorities. The Americans have exceeded all limits and even did such things that are only done to people of the lowest orders or those who do not have any support from any sources of power or influence back in India! Both in India and in the US, laws and rules apply differently to different people. And those handling laws in both countries realize that too well. No wonder then that an ex-bureaucrat of India has openly told that fact in one of his articles that he published in the newspapers the other day. In short what he meant was that the laws are never implemented in letter and spirit by any one any where. Perhaps only fools would do such a thing! Incidentally, the man who took the pains to book the Indian lady officer of the diplomatic services using the american law has an Indian origin.  

Perhaps, the common citizens of both these great nations would now be wondering and fuming for various reasons. Individually, many have not yet reached the state of maturity to analyze these things to a common conclusion.

They are yet to learn many things to realize the fundamentals of the games that the (ruling class) people play globally. So long as you do not know such tricks of the games, you just belong to the class of the commons. 

So you could get elated or annoyed when India retaliates. You would not know what to say when some of the elite ruling class from either sides sit together the next day and exchange pleasantries heartily smiling before the media cameras. And that is part of diplomacy and governance. 

Unfortunately, our civilizations have not so progressed that we are able to express our views honestly! In fact, diplomacy means the art of hiding honest views! And we have not yet learnt the benefits of being true to our selves both personally and collectively!

And yet I would not be doing an honest writing unless the full story of the incident as reported elsewhere is also brought out. The incident is more than what appears in the daily media in broken pieces. I give two other links below which give some more wider picture of the incident:

"the Indian establishment colluded to victimise the domestic assistant"

"US Attorney Preet Bharara has issued a statement defending their actions"

So as we stand today, we really do not mean any thing when we say, we respect each other. For the same reason, we do not mean any thing when we say just the opposite. Again when democratic governments officially declare that they do all things as per law, it may or may not mean the same.

And to reach to a meaningful level we need to go much further towards civilization. We need to reach to our full potentials of divinity to be real humans! A state of existence when we are real humans upholding truth honestly and boldly!

And as of now what we lack is our ability to be true to our inner consciousness, as individuals and collectives.

Or in other words, we lack the ability to lead a life governed by honesty and truth in the true sense. So long as it is so, these kind of incidents keep happening! And we remain divided without really knowing what is right or what is wrong!

Some of us would support the wrong doers while some others would sympathize with victims of hegemony. Some would justify the acts of our so-called democratic governmental representatives while some others among us would feel ashamed.

Remember, all of us have not yet reached to the perfect mind levels. We have improved a lot from the past and we would keep improving in the future! But perfection is millenniums ahead!

Such incidents are just reminders of our present status!  

About the Functions of the Human Mind: What Jesus told his Indian Friend!

[The narration given below is taken from my favorite book of life guidance, the Urantia Book. The book reveals to us for the first time, the details of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, that are not covered in the Bible. When Jesus was about 28 years of age, he undertook a year long journey in the company of a wealthy Indian merchant, named Gonod and his son, Ganid, who was of nearly the same age as Jesus himself. These three journeyed together in the areas of Palestine, Egypt, Greece and other parts of the ancient Roman Empire during AD 22-23 period. Jesus worked for Gonod as a language intrepreter, especially Greek in which the Indian merchant lacked proficiency and traveled with the Indian father and son sharing many life experiences and thoughts. One day during the course of their year-long travel Ganid and Jesus spent some time in the mountain side of Cyprus. During this time, Ganid fell ill for about three weeks. Now read on:]

During Ganid’s convalescence of three weeks Jesus told him many interesting things about nature and her various moods. And what fun they had as they wandered over the mountains, the boy asking questions, Jesus answering them, and the father marveling at the whole performance.

The last week of their sojourn in the mountains Jesus and Ganid had a long talk on the functions of the human mind.

 After several hours of discussion the lad asked this question (to Jesus): 

“But, Teacher, what do you mean when you say that man experiences a higher form of self-consciousness than do the higher animals?” 

And (as restated in modern phraseology), Jesus answered:

" My son, I have already told you much about the mind of man and the divine spirit that lives therein, but now let me emphasize that self-consciousness is a reality. 

When any animal becomes self-conscious, it becomes a primitive man. 

Such an attainment results from a co-ordination of function between impersonal energy and spirit-conceiving mind, and it is this phenomenon which warrants the bestowal of an absolute focal point for the human personality, the spirit of the Father in heaven (God).

Ideas are not simply a record of sensations; ideas are sensations plus the reflective interpretations of the personal self; and the self is more than the sum of one’s sensations. There begins to be something of an approach to unity in an evolving selfhood, and that unity is derived from the indwelling presence of a part of absolute unity (God) which spiritually activates such a self-conscious animal-origin mind.

No mere animal could possess a time self-consciousness. Animals possess a physiological co-ordination of associated sensation-recognition and memory thereof, but none experience a meaningful recognition of sensation or exhibit a purposeful association of these combined physical experiences such as is manifested in the conclusions of intelligent and reflective human interpretations. And this fact of self-conscious existence, associated with the reality of his subsequent spiritual experience, constitutes man a potential son of the universe and foreshadows his eventual attainment of the Supreme Unity of the universe (God).

Neither is the human self merely the sum of the successive states of consciousness. 

Without the effective functioning of a consciousness sorter and associator there would not exist sufficient unity to warrant the designation of a selfhood. Such an ununified mind could hardly attain conscious levels of human status. 

If the associations of consciousness were just an accident, the minds of all men would then exhibit the uncontrolled and random associations of certain phases of mental madness.

A human mind, built up solely out of the consciousness of physical sensations, could never attain spiritual levels; this kind of material mind would be utterly lacking in a sense of moral values and would be without a guiding sense of spiritual dominance which is so essential to achieving harmonious personality unity in time, and which is inseparable from personality survival in eternity.

The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are super-material; the truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time. That individuals so differ in their life performances indicates, not only the varying endowments of heredity and the different influences of the environment, but also the degree of unification with the indwelling spirit of the Father which has been achieved by the self, the measure of the identification of the one with the other.

The human mind does not well stand the conflict of double allegiance. 

It is a severe strain on the soul to undergo the experience of an effort to serve both good and evil. 

The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the one wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. 

Unresolved conflicts destroy unity and may terminate in mind disruption. 

But the survival character of a soul is not fostered by attempting to secure peace of mind at any price, by the surrender of noble aspirations, and by the compromise of spiritual ideals; rather is such peace attained by the stalwart assertion of the triumph of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the overcoming of evil with the potent force of good."

[As told by the Midwayer Commission , authors of Paper-133 of the Urantia Book]