Is Everything Spinning Out of Control? A Dharma Perspective

[Guest guest]

Is Everything Spinning Out of Control? A Dharma Perspective

 

By Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

(Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.)

 

Resident Acharya

Hindu Temple of Nebraska

 

 

The world has apparently gone insane. It is no exaggeration to state

that we are living in some of the most troubling times in recent

memory. This is especially the case in the United States. Despite

being the wealthiest and arguably most powerful nation the world has

ever known, Americans are experiencing a collective state of pessimism

about the future that has not been known since at least the Great

Depression, if not as long ago as the Civil War. The real question

is: what are the factual roots of the current economic and

psychological crisis that we are facing? And more, what is its

solution?

 

As the below AP article reports, America seems to be seriously adrift.

On the surface level, the peripheral symptoms of this crisis point to

severe economic, social, political, and even environmental concerns.

The deeper problem, however, is one of a decades-long, continually

increasing existential angst in the hearts and the minds of the

people, even in the midst of an artificially constructed culture

exclusively devoted to a seemingly unending commercial frenzy,

entertainment-fueled escapism, and the rabid pursuit of self-pleasure

at the expense of self-realization.

 

America has been a wealthy nation economically, but an impoverished

nation spiritually. And now, more than at any other time in her

history, the people are beginning to experience the dire cost of

living a hedonistic " high life " devoid of a life of high spiritual

aspirations. A life devoid of Dharma – or the natural spiritual way -

is a life lived without peace. And without peace, who can be happy?

 

Times of crises are often times of opportunity. They are a gift from

God meant to help us contemplate the deeper meaning of our lives, and

to reorder our lives in accordance with His will and with His Dharma.

Let us use these dangerous times to reassess what is truly of

importance to us in the bigger, spiritual picture. Let us re-embrace

an ideal spiritual culture wherein our material needs are all

accounted for, but without neglecting the spiritual dimension of life.

 

Such a balanced culture is precisely what the concept of Dharma is

designed to offer us. Imagine if you will a world in which both

abundant prosperity and inner spiritual fulfillment can be enjoyed by

all. Such is the vision of Dharma. As the below article indicates,

the only alternative to such a Dharma vision is a nihilistic

nightmare. May God grant us the wisdom to embrace the vision.

 

 

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Everything Seemingly is Spinning Out of Control

 

By ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN, Associated Press Writers

Sat Jun 21, 3:14 PM ET

 

Is everything spinning out of control?

 

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are

skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and

health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq,

Afghanistan and against terrorism.

 

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

 

The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is

under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping

away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded

with sheer courage and perseverance.

 

The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's

presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order — and

hope. Republican John McCain promises an experienced hand in a

frightening time. Democrat Barack Obama promises bright and shiny

change, and his large crowds believe his exhortation, " Yes, we can. "

 

Even so, a battered public seems discouraged by the onslaught of

dispiriting things. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll says a

barrel-scraping 17 percent of people surveyed believe the country is

moving in the right direction. That is the lowest reading since the

survey began in 2003.

 

An ABC News-Washington Post survey put that figure at 14 percent,

tying the low in more than three decades of taking soundings on the

national mood.

 

" It is pretty scary, " said Charles Truxal, 64, a retired corporate

manager in Rochester, Minn. " People are thinking things are going to

get better, and they haven't been. And then you go hide in your

basement because tornadoes are coming through. If you think about

things, you have very little power to make it change. "

 

Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting

the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China

earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the

Myanmar cyclone.

 

Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their

wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world

gone haywire.

 

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the

gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to

stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?

 

It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New

Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city

where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain

abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

 

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due

to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India

and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs — turning

corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops

that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S.,

rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.

 

Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose

power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In

California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting

drought.

 

Want to get away from it all? The weak U.S. dollar makes travel abroad

forbiddingly expensive. To add insult to injury, some airlines now

charge to check luggage.

 

Want to escape on the couch? A writers' strike halted favorite TV

shows for half a season. The newspaper on the table may soon be a

relic of the Internet age. Just as video stores are falling by the

wayside as people get their movies online or in the mail.

 

But there's always sports, right?

 

The moorings seem to be coming loose here, too.

 

Baseball stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens stand accused of

enhancing their heroics with drugs. Basketball referees are suspected

of cheating.

 

Stay tuned for less than pristine tales from the drug-addled Tour de

France and who knows what from the Summer Olympics.

 

It's not the first time Americans have felt a loss of control.

 

Alger, the dime-novel author whose heroes overcame adversity to gain

riches and fame, played to similar anxieties when the U.S. was

becoming an industrial society in the late 1800s.

 

American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes that the U.S.

has endured comparable periods and worse, including the economic

stagflation (stagnant growth combined with inflation) and Iran hostage

crisis of 1980; the dawn of the Cold War, the Korean War and the

hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early

1950s; and the Depression of the 1930s.

 

" All those periods were followed by much more optimistic periods in

which the American people had their confidence restored, " he said. " Of

course, that doesn't mean it will happen again. "

 

Each period also was followed by a change in the party controlling the

White House.

 

This period has seen intense interest in the presidential primaries,

especially the Democrats' five-month duel between Obama and Hillary

Rodham Clinton. Records were shattered by voters showing up at polling

places, yearning for a voice in who will next guide the country as it

confronts the uncontrollable.

 

Never mind that their views of their current leaders are near rock

bottom, reflecting a frustration with Washington's inability to solve

anything. President Bush barely gets the approval of three in 10

people, and it's even worse for the Democratic-led Congress.

 

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more

primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how

to fix problems now.

 

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great

unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

 

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" Dr. Frank Morales represents the Sankalpa [the will] of the Hindu

people and the cause of Sanatana Dharma. I urge all Hindus everywhere

to give him your full support, assistance, and encouragement in his

crucial work. He needs and deserves our help. "

 

- Dr. David Frawley (Oct. 14, 2007)

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Dharma Revolution!

 

 

 

 

Please forward the above article to all discussion groups, websites,

news-outlets that you are aware of. Thank you.