(c) John, Rekesh 2004-2008. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced without the author's permission
National Karma
(India is provided only as an example of collective or group responsibility. No nation is immune.)
The following is an extract from the chapter 'Chaos' ...
Brown at the edges and somewhat wizened with age, the papers and the
scribbles on it bespoke a vanished time and culture. Excitement was
plain on her countenance as Eloise held it in her hands. However, she
couldn’t make much sense of their contents and puzzlement appeared on
her face.
“Here, let me read out some of it for you”, Aliyah gently took the
papers from Eloise, “Now be aware that the way he writes, meaning his
style, is a little different from what we are accustomed to.”
She proceeded to carefully scan the old letter and then read out loud:
"To this country was once gifted the high truths, very long ago, which
are to be found in her sages of old, their teachings and their
writings. They wrote the great truths within their hearts and minds,
and taught her kings and her commoners.
But what she made of
that great inheritance was to oppress her fellow man, create castes and
creeds, and practically enslave those who were always meant to be equal
and free. And did she all this in the name of Truth.
With the
gift of higher truth also comes great responsibility. When higher truth
is misused, the punishment is even heavier. She was in turn enslaved to
a conquering nation, and found herself ground under its heel, even as
she oppressed her own supposedly lower castes. Her glory was taken
away, and she found herself in a veritable desert of body and spirit,
haunted by ghosts of charlatans and recurring mirages, her spiritual
oases few and far between. Such is the power of the great law of
retribution at work in her being, for she reaps only what she herself
did sow, and reap she does, many times over." “Is that true mom?” Eloise whispered, “Were there slaves there?”
“Not
in the letter of the word Eloise, but in its spirit I think. There were
and still are many castes and other divisions there. He is talking
about those who were called the lower castes.”
Aliyah continued reading:
"But
all is not lost, for in her are still to be found the seedlings of that
great fount of wisdom and truth, if one but searches among the weeds
that now litter her vanished orchards. And when she has paid for her
mistakes to the utmost farthing, they will raise her up once again to
her past glory, with a great wisdom of life unequalled by any other
nation anytime in history. But her path upward appears long and
arduous, perchance strewn with blood and littered with bodies.
Weep for this nation, o man! For hers is a great burden, a horrendous debt of law that keeps her in poverty and misery.
Pray for this nation, o man! For there is much more she has to endure before her sun truly rises." Aliyah stopped reading and looked up.
Note: The founders of modern India instituted a controversial
Reservation policy as a means of addressing and making up for past grievances incurred through its caste system. Without such measures of partial redress, by karmic law the country could have ceased to exist as a single nation (look toward Africa with its warring tribes and genocide). In a dramatic reversal of roles, a large segment of the Brahminical castes live today in poverty. This parallels an equally dramatic reversal in political power to the so-called 'lower' castes.