Since the dawn of history humanity has been fascinated by three puzzles – nature, the soul and God. Countless hours have been spent trying to research, understand, and sometimes master, that which surrounds us (nature and matter), is seemingly most distant from us (God) and that which we are (the soul). The investigation of these three eternal entities has often fallen into the individual domain of different experts, each working within their own boundaries and perspectives and each reaching their own conclusions. When these conclusions have, as so often has been the case, conflicted with each other the result has been to add another twist to the puzzle of life as a whole. With different theories leading to the building of different fractions, and an ever-increasing lack of understanding of the whole, advancement or progress in one area has almost always been at the expense of another. Laws that seem valid in the realms of matter had no jurisdiction when applied to the soul and vise versa. Thus, societies that have achieved materialistic or technological advancement have usually sold t heir soul to do so, whereas fatalism, or denial of the reality of matter, has left some communities bereft of the physical wherewithal for a dignified life. But if the puzzle of Life has any solution, and if our existence any meaning or purpose, then the foundation must be based on Truth. If we are to recognize truth when we see it then two of the qualities that may transcend the disguise that it sometimes seems to hide behind are its simplicity and universal applicability. This being so, the path that can lead us through the maze of life should be governed by some simple and universal laws. An understanding of these laws, or the Truth as a whole from which they derive their authority, should therefore enable us to understand these three eternal entities. Further they should allow us to understand the ways in which they interact and also understand each of them when considered in isolation and all of them when taken together.

The Truth of the soul is that human beings are fundamentally spiritual in nature. Inside the material body is the conscient entity of the soul. This eternal being is the energy which gives life to the instrument of the human body. Around the world, nature is reverently referred to as Mother Nature and her very first act of service is to provide the soul with a body. The body and soul together make up a human being. Perceiving ourselves as the immortal spirit, or the soul, our relationship with nature starts with our bodies and every action that we perform affect s the physical matter that our bodies are made of. It also has some effect on all other matter around us. This effect or connection can be described by the fundamental law of action (or karma). This law states that it is the conscient entity of the soul that performs actions through the physical medium of the body and that every positive or negative action that is performs will give rise to a correspondingly positive or negative reaction. Thus the state of matter around us (and the condition of the world as a whole) is a reflection not just of the quality of our actions but also the state of well-being of the soul. In other words, every human action inevitably has an effect upon matter, and secondly, no one is immune to the effects or consequences of his or her actions. The law of Nature is a pattern of ceaseless motion and change in which every natural process is irreversible and leads towards a state of decay or disorder, although as a Mother, Nature’s tendency is to try to recreate balance and minimize pollution and disorder. However, nearly every action we perform today results in some imbalance and creates further pollution within nature. Nevertheless, scriptures, legends and history abound with references to a former age of happiness and prosperity in which humanity lived in harmony with nature. The fact that the environment is a s polluted and abused as it is today is because we have forgotten that we are as intimately connected to nature as is any baby to her mother. Arrogantly treating her as an object for reckless exploitation in the name of our perceived, but often only imaginary needs, as well as desecrating the original beauty of our planet, we have fouled and blocked our own life-giving umbilical cord. As we are confronted with ever greater instances of environmental wounding, the depletion of natural resources, and radio-active and other pollution we , the human family, must accept responsibility for our own wrongful behavior. However, the crisis that this presents need not be interpreted simply as a portent of disaster. Rather it may be seen as a plea, even more desperate, for a fundamental change of course, a change in our way of thinking, a change in our way of life.

The mystery of God need not be shrouded in the veils of uncertainty as we sometimes like to think. For just as we have a natural and intimate relationship with Nature as our Mother so we do with God as our mother and father. To know ourselves as spiritual beings is the first secret that we must master in understanding the truth of our spiritual Mother and Father , in understanding the truth of God. As the parent of all humanity the form of God must be universally recognizable, a form with which all people of all beliefs and traditions can identify. When the soul has been enlightened with the understanding of the self as a being of spiritual light, we can have an easy and direct relationship with God, The Supreme Soul, the Supreme Star of light. The to see God as the seed of the human family tree is to know and accept ourselves as the creation of the One Creator, the children of the One whose qualities we inherit and share. It has been said that God is truth and truth is God. The truth cannot be denied and so although people may want to deny the existence of God this cannot be proved because God and Truth are inseparable and the Truth is revealed by God. The law of God is love and mercy. When the boat of humanity is about to crash into the rocks of illusion and falsehood, of greed, arrogance and anger, it is only God, as the merciful and benevolent Teacher, who can remind us of our forgotten identity, of our connection with nature and of our eternal relationship with God.

When we understand the Truth, God and Nature become our friends; they become divine forces which belong to all of us. And when we accept and learn to live by their laws we can start to fulfill an important role in the play of life. Life becomes something sacred and holy; it offers the wonderful opportunity to serve others and help them make life worth living in. We are accustomed to respecting the rule of law which holds us accountable for our actions as individuals within society. But we must also learn to respect the laws of nature. The attention focused from around the world on the need to save our environment is an indication of the fact that these laws are already holding us accountable. However, facing the facts need not just be a reminder of past errors – we can also make it a prescription the future, the foundation for charting a new course into the next century with confidence and enthusiasm. Let us have faith in our own future and let that faith be founded upon the truth of our understanding these three eternal entities. For it is from truth that victory emerges.
Dadi Janki, Joint Administrative Head of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University.
Taken from "Who is Who at the Rio De Janeiro 1992" A cross-indexd directory of registered participants of the Earth Summit, Dedicated to the Children of the World.

 
FROM TECHNICIAN TO HUMANITARIAN

"There is a magnificent future to create and we have all the tools with which to do so but it does require awareness, knowledge, dedication and relating to other people. We cannot do it in isolation. Either we do it together as a whole or we don’t do it at all".

"I went to the moon as a technician and came back as a humanitarian.

My background is of being raised in a generation that was stuck with our previous classical models. Having learnt these models it was quite a shock for me to go into space and discover that he universe has not been put together in the way that I was taught, and so I spent the next 20 years researching and trying to understand how the universe is put together.

The ancient seers, yogis and masters had the insight but they could only explain reality in the language and in the context of the discrete knowledge of their period. Then science came along some 300 years ago and, because of conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities of the day, we have grown up with two different bodies of knowledge in the western world. One we call science, which was built strictly on observing physical matter, and the other is the traditional, cultural Judeo-Christian teaching. But suddenly in this century, stirred by the crisis generated by the rapidity of change that science and technology have brought to the world, we find we are having to reintegrate this knowledge. And as we dig deeper into science we find that the two start to come together again there is a reintegration of knowledge. It is amazing how the language used for this is so close to the ancient metaphorical language used by the past masters.

Now we are starting to use this knowledge and this integration to correct some of the massive problems that we have brought to our selves and to the planet – things like species extinction, rainforest depletion, destruction of the ozone layer and global warming. Many of the ancients were really very much in tune with nature but as a civilization progressed we have become locked into an ethic of consumption in which the forces of nature are something we try to conquer, rather than living in harmony with them. These new breakthroughs in knowledge are gaining impetus because we are finding that the old forms are breaking down; the institutions that we relied upon in the classical period simply aren’t working in our society. Those who can relate to such ideas and bring about change in their ordinary, daily lifestyles will begin to do so for they will hear these ideas more and more. I have been watching this for years in the last year or so people have markedly started asking questions that hey never asked before. This is beginning to gain momentum. Ours is an evolving universe and a new way of thinking has to come along.

During the transition it is inevitable that there will be turbulence. As the tide changes there is a certain amount of swirling, backwater, chaos and turbulence that goes with it. It is just a natural part of the transition and like the tide there must inevitably be shift and this is what we are experiencing right now. There is a magnificent future to create and we have all the tools with which to do so but it does require awareness, knowledge, dedication and relating to other people. We cannot do it in isolation. Either we do it together as a whole or we don’t do it at all".
(Excerpts from an interview with Dr. Edger Michell, Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and one of the first astronauts to have walked on the moon over 20 years ago, by Meredith Porte, Producer/Host WLRN, CH 17, Miami, USA.)