We are embarked upon a period of profound spiritual renewal, such as our planet has not sustained since approximately 6000 years. This period will last for several centuries.

The standard is very, very high. We are capable of coming up to the mark and, therefore, are expected to do so. Our minds must become strong enough to grasp the grandeur of the universe.

We should rid ourselves of pettiness and sloth. The little conceits we excuse as harmless lapses are crimes of self-destruction. The little pleasures we indulge as our prerogatives are mortal poisons. The quality of inertia, nourished by the conceit of self-importance, drives us away from God.

In the United States, we have three problems:

Drugs

Obviously, cocaine, heroin, tobacco, marijuana, etc., should not be imbibed. The drug that most ravages our society is alcohol. There is a myriad of psycho and somatic drugs that are the media for iatrogenic diseases. Food-growing and food-processing chemicals are harmful drugs that we ingest daily. The drug that is wreaking the most havoc is alcohol. There is no controlled use of this substance. There is abstinence or there is addiction.

Another word for this is promiscuity. Homosexuality and abortion are symptoms of promiscuity, not a main problem. The women's liberation movement alleges that two wrongs make a right: that, since men may be promiscuous (by the extant double standard), so may women. The truth is that free-association of the sexes destroys the world because it is a-dharmic behavior.

Free Association of the Sexes

Promiscuity is more subtle and pervasive than is commonly thought. Its lodging is the realm of desire, not the realm of behavior. Promiscuity departs only through ceaseless effort to purify the heart and stabilize the mind. These spiritual disciplines are our true vocation, our real career.

Step-Parents

Children should be raised by their natural parents. The biological heritage of a child is the visible sign of a deeper spiritual destiny (soteriology), comprising child and natural parents, which should not be frustrated. If someone else raises the child -- sitter, nanny, maid, day-care worker -- the child will take on the qualities of that person and become their child. This will prevent the child from reaching for adulthood. It will try to grow in a matrix not intended for it, and that cannot be done. A child raised by multiple surrogates becomes insane and defective.

If a widow or widower with child remarries, this is acceptable but not the ideal, which is single-parenthood.

A divorced person whose former spouse is living is a mendicant and must not remarry.

Marrying a person who has custody of a child both of whose natural parents are living is an Infamnia: it is murder of the child and its natural parents.

The bulk of Christian ethical discussion is derived from Pythagorean monastics who lived before the birth of Christ. Pythagorean monasticism is a species of Vedic Spirituality. This tradition is alive and well in the spiritual discipline we style Mathematics.

Among the principles elucidated by Pythagoreans -- but not publicly -- is the Tetrarchy. The Tetrarchy indicates several aspects of fundamental structure, namely, those which are grouped in fours. One structure of four that the Tetrarchy indicates is the structure of human society. In Vedic parlance, this structure is called Varnas or Callings. Varnas and Tetrarchy, when the latter indicates the structure of human society, are synonyms.

There are four Callings, each as important as the other, each ordained by God for the welfare of humanity and indeed for the welfare of the whole universe:

Teacher

Persons with this calling are teachers, clergy, doctors, artists and monastics. They spend their time in study. Their responsibility is to ensure that each member of a society trains their heart and their hand so that they may lead a happy and useful life. Pure heart and skillful hand are the ideal. Education goes on these two fronts.

The quality most wanted is self-reliance. The most precious component of an educated person is character.

When the society is reeling in disarray, the cause is that Teachers have lost faith in the capacity of proper conduct to produce a happy life. They doubt the power of goodness (Dharma) to prevail. They are apostate to their own nature. When teachers lose faith, everyone does and deterioration occurs.

At any time or place, few persons have this calling. Today, many who say they have this calling do not. They are conducting nefarious practices.

Ruler

Persons with this calling are soldiers, lawyers, police, judges, and politicians. They spend their time fostering good conduct and punishing wicked. Their central interest is prevention, and their feeling about punishment is that it should be swift and conclusive.

The essence of political morality is maintenance of the four
Pillars of the Universe:

Rulers maintain vigil for any movement of anything that threatens these four pillars of the universe. When they identify such a thing, even in nascence, they destroy it.

An educated person is one who has cultured taste, who is able to discriminate between the eternal and the ephemeral.

Rulers are aware that the key to a happy society is education. They foster Teachers because these persons are able to instruct the people in the modes of conduct that yield happiness. And there is another reason Rulers foster Teachers: usually, Teachers do not earn income from their discharge of their vocation. Monastics, indeed, upon whom the universe depends, have no means at all.

Rulers are especially solicitous of the welfare of monastics because their welfare indicates the condition of the whole society.

Rulers desire the presence of Sages because they know that these personages are impartial, selfless and seek only the welfare of all beings. In other words, rulers seek Sages because Sages can help them secure the happiness of the people by promoting justice. A just realm is a happy one. An unjust realm is a miserable one. Rulers desire a just realm so they yearn for the presence of Sages, who help them see what is just.

Sages, too, seek the company of rulers. They do this because rulers are eager to foster the welfare of the people. However, Sages also seek the company of rulers because they are aware that from time to time the Lord takes human birth as a Ruler. 2 Sages use their knowledge of the future to position themselves in the courts where an Incarnation of the Lord will occur. They seek to experience the Bliss an Incarnation, which is a Parousia, confers.

There is a sin foisted upon society, and especially upon rulers, by ersatz monastics and clergy. It is that the civil and spiritual realms are conjoined in monastics' and clergy's persons and, by pseudo-mystical propagation, in the persons of their successors. Appeal is made to Biblical passages supporting ideas like priest-king, royal priesthood, and keys to both heaven and earth.

Truth is, the civil and the spiritual realms are distinctively ordained, distinctively organized, supplied by separate callings and have their duties discharged by different persons. The Biblical passages appealed to are tendentious inventions of just such ersatz monastics and clergy as who now retail them. The aim of the retailers is to line their pockets, to stock their cellars and to decorate their boudoirs.

Teachers, clergy, doctors, artists and monastics do not claim civil authority. They support it.

Rulers have three special duties:

provide water, plant trees, and build parks.

Producer

Persons with this calling are farmers, manufacturers, distributors and merchants. They spend their time providing the commodities needed for a comfortable life. The craftsmanship built into their products is more valuable than the materials from which those products are made.

Producers provide work environments that are safe, clean, charming and efficient. Their products have the qualities of utility and beauty. They are generous in fostering the welfare of workers and workers' families. They do not display worldly wealth and they do not degrade nature. They foster the general welfare through careful philanthropy.

The cause of economic euphoria and malaise is the same: persons managing production who do not have that calling. They are not Producers.

What is wanted is a high level of living, not a high standard of living. Steady prosperity is the sign that Producers control the production capacity of the society.

Laborer

Persons with this calling supply the muscle required to keep the society operating smoothly and efficiently. They are proud of their work, they know its importance and are compensated in a manner they feel is just. Their families are secure in cheerful dwellings free from disease, pollution and attack. Their welfare is the immediate responsibility of Producers, the subject of Rulers' vigilance and the goal of Teachers.

When each person is engaged in their calling, according to their inner necessity, and society, as a consequence, is full of peace, who can tell which is more important? They will appear equally valuable.

1- Peace is often prayed for, as if it were something that can be given and received. But the truth is that not even God can give peace. Peace has to be earned through long, arduous labour. The reason for this has to do with the thing that peace really is. Peace is not something outside. Peace is a quality that is inside. In truth, peace is the same thing as a calm mind, a mind that is not leaping about from this thought to that. The mind is a mad monkey. It leaps here and there in constant motion without any rhyme or reason. It just jumps here and there, and this is what we feel as unpeace. The mind engaging in this scurrying here and there, like a raving monkey, is what we call unpeace or disquiet. Peace, therefore, is nothing more than a mind which is still, a mind which is calm and not jumping hither and thither like a mad monkey. Peace is a quiet mind. This is all that peace is. There is nothing that can happen outside that is going to bring one the experience of peace. Only calming the mind will give one this experience that is so much wanted: peace. Peace is just peace of mind, nothing more than that. When the mind is still, the world is at peace. This is the actual experience.

Now, how do we get peace of mind? Well, this is a long and very difficult process that usually takes many years and even lifetimes to accomplish successfully. Some take longer, others take less time. But all must earn peace by quietening the mind.

The mind will not quieten just by being told to be quiet. It is the very nature of the mind to leap about madly. Therefore, something other than the mind has to be used to calm the mind. What is that something? It is repetition of the Name of God. Only this spiritual discipline of Ramanam will quieten the mind and only when the mind is quiet will a seeker have peace. Mind control and this sort of thing is absolutely useless for quietening the mind. It does no good at all. In fact, by treating the mind as if it is also the solution as well as the problem, this activity of mind control is causing harm because it fosters pride. Long years of steady Ramanam is the means to quieten the mind and to earn peace. Remember that when the mind is still, the whole world is at peace. Return

2- When the Lord takes human birth, it is always as a Ruler. He comes as a Kyshatriya. Return

Adwaitha Hermitage
January 4, 1992