New God Big Bang

New God Big Bang

7 January 2015 Off By Naginder Sehmi

This expose articulates with scientific, religious and socio-historical reasoning why the traditional supernatural God has not been able to perform acceptably to solve world’s problems and to meet human needs, spiritual and others. The Big-bang and the ensuing evolution has inspired the idea of the Flow facilitating the task of giving God an image and what God should have been, what he is at present and what he should be in the future. We know him now better than ever before through an enormous amount of additional knowledge humans have acquired  that is being relentlessly expounded by modern-day sages, prophets and messiahs. Religions assert that God had died to take away human sins. This is a lie to cover up the truth. Humans are as sinful as ever before. They continue torturing God. He is not fully dead yet. Will the human beings and their religions ever acquire the wisdom and still save God? 

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PART 1 – CHANCE, CHALLENGE AND GOD’S WILL

1.1 Why invest in spirituality?

In a number of meetings I asked participants to describe the image they have when they pray or think of God. Answers varied not only according to faiths but also among participants of the same faith: ‘No image’, ‘a light’, ‘Jesus on the cross’, ‘the Bible’, ‘Ek onkar’, ‘the portrait of Nanak’, ‘an emptiness’, ‘the sky, the universe’, ‘the temple’, ‘Ganesha’, ‘flowers’, ‘Sai Baba’, ‘Virgin Mary’, ‘the Ka’bah’, ….

In Geneva, Switzerland in 2001, I participated in monthly meetings of a group that discussed the theme: “Investing in spirituality”. At the first session, I asked: “Before I invest would anyone  explain to me what spirituality is? I know a little about Nestlé, Swisscom, Ford and Toyota. I would not hesitate investing in their shares. t . Why should I invest in spirituality? I know nothing about it.” No body could help me, even Indian participants proud of their spiritual knowledge embodied in the Vedas and other ancient Hindu writings.

After a number of sessions, I nervously dared to offer to prepare and try to present some drawings in order to understand the enterprise called Spirituality. I let you imagine what force pushed me to risk this adventure. My after-thought told me that it was simply chance or a random process; but a believer would have attributed this to the will of God.

It happened that during the previous three years I had read, among others, The New Testament, A History of God (Karen Armstrong), The Koran, The Message of Upanishads (Swami Ranganathananda), Bhagwat Gita, Dieu et la Science – vers la méta réalisme (Jean Guitton, G. Bogdanov, I. Bogdanov), and Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramhansa Yogananda). Notes I took with interlinking arrows filled only two sheets of paper. I already was familiar with the Sikh holy book – the Adi Granth. Equipped with my professional knowledge in science, environment, teaching, psychology and water resources capped by a guided visit to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), I launched on designing my image of God. It took me one week including Sabbath, almost the same time that God himself had dedicated to create the world. Not bad!

1.2 The principle

In order to make it easy to criticize religion in a constructive way, we must find an unequivocal base. The first task is to look for an image of an All Mighty God founded on time, if it existed before the “Big bang”. A learned man wrote in the 17th century: “With time came all gods and goddesses. The entire play is the work of time. Time made the world and people, good and bad. Time is the avatar from the beginning to the end. Consider it as your teacher and bow to him”.

Within the all-encompassing flow of time we look for the image in sacred and secular writings and scientific discoveries. By science we mean in the very large sense the way by which we acquire correct and reliable knowledge/information on the universe and world. We must look for the image also in the psychological, spiritual and philosophical findings since the beginning of history. Obviously, it is impossible to depict such an image representing the totality of human concepts. A simple solution would be to draw a sketch of my most recent image of God. Such an image is predisposed to change and improve at every moment as my brain gets light in the form of new knowledge and information. For example, ancient and recent discoveries in astronomy clash head on against the vision of the world defended by most of the big religions. Again, the possibility of extraterrestrial life is not totally incompatible with the belief in God. Every person experiences or perceives a change in God in proportion to the change in himself; God does not change!

1.3 Image of God in eight sketches

Holding eight transparencies for overhead projection I confronted my audience of investors in Spirituality: “Every time I address this subject in front of a group with many Indians I’m very nervous because they tell me afterwards that they already know it all. This time I’m not panicky because I know that many of you know. There is nothing new in what I’m going to show you except that God and spirituality have never been depicted in eight pictures”.

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“There is no difference in substance between us and the rock”, said our CERN physicist-guide. The whole world has the same basic structure: the atom composed of electrons turning round the nucleus held by an electromagnetic force. Just as at the microcosmic (microscopic) level, the macrocosm, the galaxies, stars and planets function in the same manner. That shows that for everything the origin is the same: The Big bang. What astonished me much is when he said that before our Big bang there was “information” or energy. The Bible calls it “the word”:” When all things began, “the Word already was.” (John). Hindus call it ‘Shabad’ and ‘Vani’ (Word), philosophers talk of ‘thought’, ‘idea’, ‘dream’, ‘vision’, ‘intellect’ ‘sensation’, ‘breath’, and ‘wind’. Who had decided that this phenomenal energy must condense to the size of a pinhead and made it explode with an unimaginable force? This Big bang has produced our cosmos of millions of galaxies.

How many Big bangs have occurred before ours? This is beyond imagination and scientific theory. Imagine that our earth is a minute dust particle generated by the initial explosion. Compared to the Earth, the universe or macrocosm that the Big bang has produced is infinite, dimensionless, continually expanding at a diminishing rate. For our purpose it is assumed to form one unique flow or flux. The term “flow” which gives a feeling of a continuously moving medium will be used hereafter gradually transforming from “flow” to “Flow”.

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The ancients explained the length of lifespan of humans in terms of number of breaths or heartbeats preordained by God because they did not know modern microbiology. We now know that the lifespan of living things is determined at the level of the cell, its structure, genes and its internal clock. The cellular or microscopic clock synchronized with the macroscopic clock determines existence. All clocks form a constituent of the vital energy inter-acting within the overall flow.

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The flow made up of information/energy is indivisible, infinite, dimensionless and timeless. Nothing can stop it. It is perpetually in equilibrium. Its structure is cellular/atomic, be it macroscopic or microscopic constituting planetary systems; planets going round their suns harmoniously just as electrons and protons round their nucleus. Ancient thinkers were of the view that these physical elements (anu) were blind. For them more important was the ‘intelligent’ force or vital energy or ‘lifetrons’ (prana) that fills all space and holds the elements together. And that engenders molecules. The scientists as well as ancient texts agree on the fact that the origin and birth of everything is ONE UNIQUE FORCE and this force continues to flow eternally or until the hypothetical apocalypse in the yet unknown future. Because everything has a unique and common birth, the internal structure of rocks, animals, insects, birds, plants and humans is common. Every object is subject to the laws of nature. “These laws that appear immutable in time and space force on every real element in the world to do that it is not able to do.” (A. Jacquard). Yet every individual has his own vital energy or ‘lifetrons’. Is “soul” the other name for it?

An abridged poem of the 15th century describes the aftermath of the Big bang before ‘the creation’:

Through uncountable ages, complete darkness pervaded
Over utter emptiness;
There were no worlds, no firmaments.
The infinite Will alone reigned.
There was neither day nor night, nor sun nor moon;
But only a multidimensional Force 
Forming a perpetual, unstoppable, unfathomable flow in incessant trance
No procreation; no speech, no air and no water.
No creation and destruction, no birth and death.
No continents, nether regions, no seven seas, no rivers or flowing water.
Heavenly realms, middle regions and nether worlds did not exist.
Except the Unique (Force) nothing could be seen.
There were no gods, … nor females and males. ….
No ascetics, no voluptuaries, no monks, no hermits and rites; no one lived in the forests. There were no churches with their creed and rites
Vedas, and Semitic Scriptures (Torah, Bible, Koran) had not been written.
None recited the gospel at dawn or evening;
Only the Incomprehensible spoke to Himself and had the knowledge.
By His will He created the universe and
The firmament, without a prop to support it.
He created and sustains His creation.
He installed stars and our universe in boundless space.
And He manifests in them. No one knows His beginning or end.

We know that our solar system that includes the Earth is a living element of this flow, a sort of fluid flux that manifests all the traits of the Universe. At the macrocosmic level, asters are born and die within this steady flow. On the Earth the miasma engendered molecules. One of these molecules evolved into a human being. I will not fight to defend the idea that this was an accident or brahmanic “deliberate will” or biblical “creation”. Bury or cremate the human body its inherent atomic structure does not change and it carries on in the flow. Thereafter the molecules that will join up will determine the form of rebirth. It is important to note that science as well as theology accepts the existence of physical, atomic and ‘lifetronic’ flow or flux. Just because we cannot comprehend the enormity of the flow we have devised symbols and descriptive words: the Truth, Reality, Satya, Active Intellect, Deo, Light, God, Bhagwan, Allah,Waheguru (giver of wonderful light). However, the fact is that the Reality is beyond these words and symbols.

Interpreting the thought expressed by the new Pope in his first encyclical message (January 2006) I see that the flow is God: he who lives correctly within the flow expresses his love and himself becomes the flow which is love. Love is the vital energy (‘lifetrons’) that interacts between humans as well as between elements of the micro- and macro- cosmic flow. Astrophysicists talk about cosmic breath: the universe and the flux breathing at a certain rhythm.

When religious revelations happened humans did not understand or could not explain the importance of their relationship with the total environment. They were rather concerned with relationships between themselves, singularizing love between humans and neglecting the all-encompassing divine love. Our total environment is perhaps the only and the best manifestation of the flow or God. History is full of models where communities, when they had mistreated their environment; in theological terms when they did not dip in the flow and did not appreciate the ‘lifetrons’ of love, engendered hate between humans. None of the religious practices and prayers could stop their apocalypse. We are well aware of the collapse of communities that ignored their environment: Mesopotamia, Indus, Easter Islands, Anasazi, Mayas, and Scandinavian settlers in Greenland. On the other hand, the community of a thousand persons living on a tiny island of Tikopia survived because it took measures to adjust itself and live within the meagre means that its environment offered; thus expressing its respect and love of that part of the flow that it had to live with and understood it well.

The Christian image of God could be much larger, concrete and real if we would apply the information and ideas revealed by the present day knowledge. Spinoza’s image that God and nature is one and the same thing should be interpreted in a broad global way expressing the utilitarian depth and amplitude instead of words. Visualization of the flow offers this possibility. Love of the neighbour should be enlarged to all living things and the environment that envelops us. How can the flow or God come to meet us when we are in Him and he is in us? “It is love that makes the sun and stars to move” (Dante) thus starts the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI implicitly confirming that the flow is love and our destiny, and the object of real and scientific spirituality.

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I am convinced that ‘spirituality’ is ‘pragmatic’ and ‘non abstract’. Spirituality is knowing the flow and flowing with it. None of the designations of the word ‘flow’ describes its true unconceivable nature that is neither big nor small, without any quality yet with all qualities, that is light and energy of ‘Reiki’ and ‘Ki’ and the ultimate reality. We can sense only a minute part of this flow and we almost cannot perceive internal interactions and information. In the flow all things are interdependent. Their relationships are close and causal. Human world and the flow are not separated. Terms like Om, Kalma, Jump, Holy Spirit,Lao, Naad, Sarosha, Silence, Active Intellect and Voice try to define these interrelations.

We should recognize that all information carried by the flow since the Big bang remains eternally in equilibrium. This notion conforms to results of research in ecology, quantum mechanics, astrophysics, neurobiology, and parapsychology. A word that has its root in Greek (neumena) and Sanskrit (naman) “Nam” (literally ‘Name’) is often used to express the ensemble of the flow, information, interaction and interdependence in equilibrium. The Nam is also the divine principle, vital energy, God, and sentiment, a sense of ‘spirit’ one feels within. It is a universal law. It also expresses monism and new religiosity: every thing is intimately linked – elements of the universe, planets, ecology, nature, animals, humans, supernatural, natural, divine and human.

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Human beings could have been born of a disease transmitted by a virus from the stars, or a result of Darwinian genetic combinations, or a voluntary Lamarkist adaptation to a change in climate, or an urge to outdo all other animals in order to eat them. Whatever is their origin they form an element of the universe. The molecule that had evolved or reincarnated into a human being is an image of the flow or God, carrying sparks or bits of all information. Human beings as well as other living beings are formed of the same elements, and have a similar genetic code. According to the law of probability, the mutations have endowed humans with an exceptional system. Highly developed human capability to observe, reflect, imagine, comprehend, communicate and question crowned by his egoist nature has resulted in him behavioural qualities that are almost not found in the flow. These are the seven capital sins: greed, lust, pride, anger, jealousy, gluttony and laziness.

A human being, deluded by a combination of his intelligence and wicked attributes, has wrongly placed himself as the master of the flow: The flow that is made for him and he is the owner of nature. Instead of managing the environment he has acted like a dictator, ravager and devastator. His senses perceive only an infinitesimal part of the flow. Yet pushing the flow aside, he has bifurcated himself imagining that he has become the flow forgetting that it is impossible because, according to the laws of science and theology, there is only one and Unique flow. In this way he has created an insurmountable problem. He ignores that he is a part of the flow. To console himself he has humanized the Force (Flow) by giving it such names as God, Dieu, Ram, Ishvara, Lord, sitting high up like an emperor. The flow has been corporealized in the form of a human being.

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The principle of ego, self, or anthropocentricism is an inveterate cause of separation of human beings from the flow, his Creator. Ego has subjected him to the law of maya and non-knowledge that represent the principles of relativity, duality and ignorance. Hence the subject appears to him as object. In practice and less in prayer the human being imagines and acts as if he himself is the Creator.

Science has allowed me to fathom certain facets of the flow and to understand better the true laws of nature that do not interest religions. However these laws do not give me the capacity to understand the totality of the flow because science and religion are also maya and participate in discovering already existing and operational laws of the micro-and macro- cosmos. If I am not too optimist, we have passed over the state of absolute incapacity and taken the first step to detect the Unique Creator. If science and religion would cooperate our advance to reunite the non-existent human flow with the true flow would accelerate. One thing is unquestionable: neither intellectual conviction nor science-philosophic analyses can wipe out anthropocentric maya.

The universe (flow) resembles more like a great thought or a brain rather than a machine, the brain carrying elements of all the information of its past. Maimonides was of the view that God is an Active Intellect, with which the human intellect has an analogy. All living beings other than humans remain and flow in the flux because their brain responds automatically to their milieu. On the other hand, human brain is constrained by maya. But there are many exceptions: Those who let themselves be carried by the flow were genetically gifted and had access to information in the flow. Such personalities became our ‘spiritual guides’. They were endowed with a powerful imagination. They were blessed with intuitive knowledge. They had sacrificed their life to help us unite with the flow. Our ancient guides are the prophets, avatars, messiahs, gurus, ascetics, yogis and many others less known. These persons are the gurus or teachers who shed light on the flow. The True or Perfect Guru is the Flow Itself. To draw directly on this Guru we must prepare our brain so that maya does not obstruct us. The antenna of spiritual guides is adjusted to the frequency emitted by the True Guru (Flow); so they do not require a human guru. According to legends teachers like Krishna, Jesus, Nanak, and many others we will never know, were born in the Flow. Gurus like Moses, Buddha, Mohammad, Kabir and other yogis, ascetics were obliged to work hard to educate themselves on the Flow and end up being in it.

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As mentioned earlier, spirituality is to know the flow and have access to the information, energy, light/speed that is there. This concept that appears so simple now could not be easily explained to people in the past. It is quite possible that the authorities had no desire to know it for various egoistic reasons (power, greed, pride). The main well-known sacred books on spirituality are the Vedas, Torah, Upanishads, Gita, Bible, Koran and Adi Granth. Few can read, understand and interpret them correctly. Religions were founded based on these books. In some societies these books form a focal point of worship which is worse than the worship of an idol. Neither the books nor their content constitutes a religion. In reality, the true representation of a religion is the behavioural product of the society, its culture and traditions. The outrage against criticism of religious texts and prophets is nothing other than a camouflage of flaws in the behaviour of people.

Religion practiced by one society is unable to exhort equality and unity towards other societies. Others are labelled pagans, kafirs, infidels, and godless. Crusades, jihads, conquistadores, inquisitions and colonization have engendered inter- and intra-religion cruelty and hateful divisions. Evidently religious antagonism takes us further away from the Flow that is love.

Happily, scientific thought does not engender serious divisions. Individually many persons having benefited spiritually from religion and science have advanced towards complete union with the Flow. Are there modern techniques that can unite us to the Flow? The practice of meditation, service, prayer etc. is known. The most objective and effective technique is to hold on to the omnipresent Flow and live simple. This is the true sense of spirituality, holiness, the way of dharma leading to a concrete goal. At least respect the part of the Flow that surrounds us. Such a transformation of our behaviour is possible by accepting and practicing the wisdom of new emissaries of God (see Part 4). We must enlarge our anthropocentric vision into love (Flow) that envelops us. The method to learn to live in this way varies according to each individual and his capability to respond correctly. On the other hand a method imposed on the entire society by an institution has always driven us far from love (Flow) towards hateful and cruel divisions.

Uniting with the Flow we gain access to the information, energy, light and speed. Such a reunion is salvation, revelation, nirvana, and enlightenment. When we cannot comprehend certain natural phenomena the power of the Flow manifests among people in a number of ways:

  1. Miracles – Traditionally attributed to prophets, miracles continue to attract those who cannot know that there are innumerable unrevealed miracles in the Flow.
  2. Prophecies and predictions – Meteorologists provide accurate and very reliable daily weather forecasts using very precise information on the composition, structure and dynamics of the atmosphere replacing in Switzerland Madame Soleil’s woolly forecasts based on empiric observations. The same is possible now for all other aspects of natural phenomena and life.
  3. Telepathy, ability to materialize and dematerialize: Using means of astral transportation at the speed of light Jesus materialized himself walking on the Dead Sea to reassure his terrified disciples having received their SOS message telepathically. Physicists and parapsychologists have made important progress to understand, explain and use these extraordinary paranormal phenomena. Until recently understanding the nature of such miracles had defied us. Research in EPFL (Ecole Politechnique Fedèrale de Lausanne) and NASA has used one feature of the “lifetrons”: How flying objects in vacuum can integrate and auto-organize themselves.
  4. The day I was writing on this subject, I was surprised to read in Le Temps of 16 January 2006 the words of a scientist: “Traditional biology breaks down all elements of a cell, genes, proteins, ions, membranes, etc and studies them separately. This is necessary. But we must also understand how all these parts interact because it is life: the interaction of millions of molecules. Nothing reacts singly. The interactions must be understood. This is the aim of top-secret research – the Project System X”. It would be difficult to find a better definition of “vital energy” or “lifetrons”. Let us imagine extending System X to every thing from the cell to organs, to human body, to other living beings – animals and plants – to the entire ecosystem, to the earth, planets, sun, galaxies and to the universe. The quantity of information and number of interacting systems that can be expected are beyond imagination. This gives us a good definition of the nature of the Flow, the Reality, and the True God. Indisputably, the person who has access to this information is surely a prophet, messiah and guru.The particularity of the Flow is to advance, go forward. It cannot be stopped. All sacred and secular writings recommend to us to go forward resolutely in the Flow. How to go forward? It is important not to be bound by the servitudes of the past or the stubborn ill-conditioned facts of the present. In many societies there are priests, monks and gurus who have not learnt the real message and do not stop abusing their power to restrain people from returning to the past against the current of the Flow to Vedic, biblical and Koranic times. This is impossible. Sadly this is our affliction and unhappiness. To go forward and clear the way for the future is the responsibility of every true spiritual leader.Thinkers are also of the view that the origin of the world in an Idea and that atoms and energy are the elements of the overall and all mighty Conscience. The will of God is inscribed in the form of information on interactions and interdependence within the Flow. Therefore behaving according to His command is our duty and prayer. My prayer is: Help me to become a simple and natural person and assimilate me in the Flow of information, energy and light, and immerse me in the Conscience steering me to bliss.

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1.4 VIETE

Without remembering its definition the term “Name” does not evoke the most recent image of God. So I have used an acronym VIETE comprising the attributes of the new image: ‘Vital energy’, ‘Information’, ‘Interaction and Interdependence’, ‘Eternal’, ‘All Mighty’ (Tout-puissant), and ‘Flow’ (Ecoulement). Hereafter “Flow” and “VIETE” are often used synonymously.

Deepak Chopra in The Book of Secrets (Rider, 2004) in Secrets 11,12 and 13 directs us to follow the practical spirituality by evoking the concept of “simultaneous interdependent co-arising”. He skillfully describes the relationship of human and other beings with the total Flow/Universe (Conscience) and how humans could reunite with and live in it.

If Maimonides and his other illustrious contemporaries like Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Ibn Bajja in the 12th century had access to the vast store of present day scientific knowledge and other information we would have been spared the dread of clash of civilizations. Many of them accepted the concept of a permanent natural order similar to VIETE, explicable by science. The only positive knowledge of God i.e. VIETE, possible to humans consists of their understanding the natural phenomena. Is God merciful and revengeful? Maimonides was of the view that such attributes originate in the self-serving purpose of humans and anthropocentric misinterpretation of VIETE. All attributes of God listed in the Puranas, Koran, Bible and Adi Granth are meaningful only if applied in the context of the Flow (VIETE). Ancient texts explicitly state that love of God is a function of knowledge and it is impossible to love something one does not know. Now I am ready to invest in spirituality.

An increasing number of ordinary people can understand theoretical knowledge. More than ever before, individuals and institutions have acquired advanced scientific and theoretical knowledge and information derived empirically and experimentally at micro and macro scales. This knowledge is being used to understand the dynamics of VIETE and translated into action to safeguard the ecology and environment. The third type, mainly people of religion and some philosophers who in the past had assumed the role of agents of union with the Active Intellect and God, have failed miserably to contribute and lead humans towards the Flow.

Maimonides and his contemporaries tried to unite science and thought because they identified God with systems of sciences. At present the people of religion and others are unable to benefit from the vast knowledge that is available. They are ready to die over petty traditions. No wonder, the Jewish God wears-out on Friday evening and rests on Saturday (Shabbat). Christian God works differently: he is tired on Saturday evening and takes his rest on Sunday. Muslim God experiences fatigue on Thursday evening and for him his rest day is Friday. But my God, VIETE, is never tired. He flows eternally forward. Would VIETE made in Switzerland be the first Occidental religion?

END OF PART 1

PART 2 – MY LATEST IMAGE OF GOD

2.1 Narrow thinking: the source of evil

Historians are of the view that the Vedas are the first written collection of ancient knowledge of people of Aryan culture which spanned central Asia and India. Hindus continue to believe in Vedic myths, traditions, moral codes and practice rites often blindly. There are as many interpretations of these writings as the number of people who believe in them. Surprisingly one does not find in this culture the terms “religion” and “spirituality” in the sense known in the West.

Like the Vedas, the Torah recapitulates the knowledge of Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Communities and individuals interpret it differently. Subsequent sacred writings starting with discourses of Buddha, Hindu Upanishads, the Bible to the Koran hardly add more to earlier knowledge; but they certainly interpret ancient writings critically primarily to better adapt them to social conditions of their times. It should be noted that new sacred writings were often retrogressive compared with their predecessors.

Evidently this was inevitable in the regions where tribes fought incessantly. Leaders of small communities were obliged to promulgate and apply considerably constrained moral codes in order to safeguard daily life and regulate the functioning of the society. Sadly, the narrowness and rigidity of thinking used by religious and political authorities to acquire and maintain their power over people is the main cause of inhumanity that the world has suffered for centuries. That is how religion became the source evil, contradicting itself.

Be happy! We have survived whatever the price paid. Narrow thinking during the Dark Ages produced the Age of Reason and Light. Modern times have offered to us knowledge of unimaginable depth and coverage. This infinite knowledge has clearly helped us to keep away from narrow thinking and dogma. Nevertheless, parent institutions derived from ancient writings have no desire to accept the new treasure of knowledge that has accumulated since they were set up.

Every one knows that authors of ancient writings had criticized, sorted, and consolidated the pre-existing and contemporary knowledge. Is it not our responsibility to do the same with regard to these writings using the phenomenal treasure of modern knowledge acquired in the last millennium?  There is no doubt that such an action is not only necessary but also a moral obligation in order to achieve peace in the future. This is the main theme of this thesis.

2.2 The way starts in Switzerland

It is in Switzerland that after a painful pregnancy and an extremely agonizing delivery came into being the League of Nations in 1918. Hardly twenty years had passed before the League suffered a sudden death followed by a terrible European inferno, misnamed World War Two, tearing apart the entire humanity. Neither human intelligence nor religiosity could save us from this self-inflicted catastrophe.

From the ashes of the war of civilized countries, emerged, in 1945, the United Nations Organization (UN). This organization has managed, so far, to save us from another world war without actually transforming the world much. However, new sacred books much more exact and complete than the Vedas, the Torah, the Bible, the Koran and the Granth have been drawn up under the auspices of the UN, majority of them in Geneva, Switzerland. These books enunciate codes of conduct pertaining to all aspects of human life so that human beings can live in peace.

All countries have adopted charters dealing with human rights, habitat, governance, environment as well as protection of nature, education and culture. Well-balanced values depict the reality that is the true basis of spirituality. In this respect, the old books are flawed and only partially beneficial to resolve problems of the present day society and individuals.

Too much optimism can often make one forget that the human nature and behaviour change very gradually and that certain malevolent traits are impossible to eradicate. My spiritual balance has been toughened by a number of forceful ideas that were expressed in recent Swiss press mostly before Easter and before Christmas. It is necessary to underline the religiosity of five of these forceful ideas.

2.2.1. Religious contention

Contention has blazed between religions and between religious sects for centuries. We must give up all hope of pacifying this blaze. We must accept the truth pronounced by the English novelist, Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels:“We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another.”

A similar thought of Hans Küng introduced the programme of the Parliament of World Religions, held in Barcelona, Spain in 2004: “There will not be peace between nations unless there is peace between religions.” Religion persists as the foremost cause of conflict between humans. The world could do without the religious parliament if we had gone along the wisdom of four loving wise men: two Muslim, Ibn Rushd and Ibn Arabi, a Jew, Maimonides, and a Christian Alfonse the Wise, who lived not far from Barcelona in Andalusia, a thousand years ago:

My heart has become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles,
And a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’bah,
And the tables of the Torah, and the book of the Koran,
I follow the religion of love:
Whatever way love’s camels take,
That is my religion and my faith. (Ibn Arabi:“Interpreter of Ardent Desires”)

2.2.2. God is dead

Human beings (this term is used to high light the fact that we belong to the community of living beings and not a caste apart of “man”) have invented God to explain a phenomena or force that is inexplicable, therefore incomprehensible. In scientific terms our psych and ability to reason require this concept that is also the origin of mythology. Politically, heads of government and religious institutions need this dominating Figure that is God in order to continue justifying the legitimacy of their authority in His Name, even if defining God in religious terms is no longer valid in present conditions. For example, God sitting at Jesus’ left is dead; the kingdom of God does not exist, nor hell’s fire and the supreme serenity of paradise. Our concept of a supernatural Power is outdated, but it is not wrong in the context of the old original way of thinking and perception.

Equipped with the stupendous quantity of information acquired since God was invented, modern intelligence and notions do not accept and trust orthodox, national, social and ethical religious doctrines. By resisting laws of nature, philosophers and social thinkers, humanity in general and religions in particular have screwed up the opportunity to modernize by refusing to reinterpret ancient writings in the light of available knowledge much more divine, refined and up to date. We have missed the chance that God continues to offer us to postulate new interpretation of traditional benchmarks in the form of religious festivals that fewer and fewer people follow. Even God does not “understand” why prestigious newspapers continue to issue self-incriminating headlines, such as: “A decisive step by Christians towards peace”; “The next challenge: Rome and Byzantium embrace each other”; “Reformed churches kept out of negotiation process”. In the name of freedom of expression we are not ashamed of continuing to support and propagating the correctness of religious differences, which, in actual fact, are the summit of greed for power. Religious guides continue to translate tribal socio-economic traditions of eras long past as religious codes for the entire world. One of the most odious of such manipulations is the caste system that has been raging India for centuries.

The Christian monotheism replaced the Greco-Roman tradition and scientific thinking; the Pope dethroned the Roman emperor and set up an intolerant monolithic system resulting in appalling sufferance in the name of wrongly interpreted faith for the European society and the world at large during colonization.

Arabs filled in the political vacuum left by the fall of the Roman Empire at a spectacular bloody speed. A large majority of Muslims attribute this Arab success to Islam. They continue to firmly believe that they would conquer the world in the same manner and thus amplify the number of the faithful circumambulating the monolithic black idol, the Ka’ba. Stuck in the religious rut Christian and Muslim societies are suffocated and fail to see true God. For centuries they have inflicted wars of religion and conquered the world evoking religious morals to justify themselves. These criteria are still being used.

2.2.3. The evil will stay

Traditionally evil is attributed to natural disasters or accidents or wars which were seen to represent the divine punishment on humans to rectify human acts of malevolence. The majority of modern people other than the religious fundamentalists categorically reject this thinking. Accepting human causalities caused by disasters is relatively recent although the wise had confirmed this a long time ago.

We know that “humans never learn from history”. In trying to look for therapeutic solace for injury caused by a disaster, humans block their thinking. Evil, natural or moral, does not exist. Unfortunately, the propensity to do evil consciously or deliberately is deeply rooted in human nature. In the animal kingdom, the human species, intellectually the most evolved, is prone to the most serious evil behaviour: the seven deadly sins. For example, only humans kill his own type as well other living beings in order to acquire power, material gains (that he does not need) simply for pleasure and to impose on others his concept of God and life. Religions would not exist without human evil.

2.2.4. A new God

We need to recast God using laws discovered and results of experience acquired since the revelation of ancient sacred writings. Obviously, this task will be extremely long and arduous because of the expected intensity of resistance from traditional institutions and, above all, the existence of outdated thinking that persists in the society that has no desire or does not dare to reflect.

Nevertheless, today we are better informed than ever before. It is high time to correct erroneous, partial and archaic concepts of God All Mighty. We can understand and explain numerous doubts of those who do not accept that God exists. Religious institutions and their blind flocks, priests, mystics, mullahs and gurus, who possess only limited knowledge of the Force we call God and have little love for modern knowledge, bear considerable if not total responsibility of disseminating a partial or wrong image of God. A more complete image of the Force (God) is possible. Such an image should captivate the imagination of the young.

2.2.5. Criticizing religion

A point of cardinal importance is to note that all sacred books were based on a reasoned criticism of antediluvian religious practices, antiquated traditions, repugnant social customs and immoral politics. At the same time these books had sifted existing information, opted for universal ideas and practices prevalent in a relatively restricted society and territory. In the fifth century BC, Buddha criticized Hindu practices; Jesus did the same with regard to those of the Jews; Judeo-Christian practices were criticized by Mohammed; and Luther, Nanak, the list is long.

We have only one option that would enable us to surmount the formidable barrage erected by religion against peace in the world: let us criticize religion with the aim of enlarging human brotherhood and love as expressed in the simple but enlightening poem of Ibn Arabi.  We must stick to the right path amidst the evolving globalization of spiritual and cultural values. This would enable us to translate and reinterpret ancient spiritual writings and traditions and make them applicable to daily life of humans in the present time in their environment.

END OF PART 2

PART 3 – “RELIGOS”

3.1 Human fraternity

“There is neither Hindu nor Buddhist nor Christian, nor Moslem nor Sikh, nor any other such entity other than the fraternity of human beings,” declared a young Swiss girl of Indian origin in a theatrical voice at the end of her prayer in Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Geneva. A large inter-religion gathering was praying for peace in the world. Her assertive words seem to have awakened the somnolent audience. At this point let us name the ensemble of people with different religious labels as “Religos”. The apparent astonishment of the assembly of Religos could be interpreted as a strong reluctance to accept the girl’s proclamation implying that human beings are not as old as them. I have a feeling that a majority of Religos in the audience believes that they are superior to humans. In fact a colleague reacted to the girl’s prayer with a touch of sourness “I’m proud of being a Christian” without mentioning that before all else he is a human being.

3.2 Religos screw up

Knowing that humans carry evil as part of the baggage of evolution, all prophets aspired to establish the practice of compassion for the entire community of living beings. However, a combination of arrogance, intelligence and urge for evil has led humans to creating their own separate anthropocentric Flow, their ‘mother culture’. They have fathomed the cosmos and have discovered unalterable everlasting laws. It is quite plausible that among these exist laws that are wholesome for humans. Everything happens within the Flow. We do not yet comprehend the causality. We continue to ascribe it to the Will of God, who is not bound by any laws. But laws exist and we know them better now than ever before. Are there such laws as those for gravity, aerodynamics and genetics that are valid for cockroaches and not for humans? (Daniel Quinn “Ishmael – An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit »)

Sadly, the “mother nature” dictates these laws, which do not apply to us because we have the arrogance to consider ourselves to be above the “community of life”. Knowing well that the human being is a minuscule speck of this community and is not unique on this planet, we continue to look for laws by studying the behaviour of humans only.

Is it not true that the world was created to be conquered by humans and transformed into a paradise? But Daniel Quinn thinks that they have screwed it up. This was bound to happen because there is something fundamentally wrong with them. Their make-up transforms them into stupid and destructive, greedy and short-sighted people. In order to hide these unwholesome traits they invented a myth. First they invented “God” as a fictive alibi of the myth. In their sacred writings they imagined an ocean of darkness (maya) and suffering that must be crossed in order to reach paradise where wait virgins of supreme beauty. The myth stops there because they are not sure where exactly to go. Crossing the ocean has no sense whatsoever because the ocean of maya is also in the Flow. Therefore we must live in it. We do not need prophets to tell how to live in it. The Flow is God-Guru; its greatness is beyond imagination. The idea of crossing presupposes that there is a distance or a path. Because we drift in the Flow there is no path; so don’t look for it. Do fish feel thirsty in water? We are the Flow and we do not know it.

3.3 Convictions

Human nature reincarnated into Religos has screwed up the reality of VIETE. Very powerful institutions support and arm them with antiquated erroneous ideas. They believe in narrow textual interpretation of writings presumed to be the sacred Word of God. Evidently these writings were composed for small-localized communities. Their authors did not know much about the rest of the world, often much more advanced, its geography, history, culture, thinking and science. For centuries Religos have not stopped imposing their chastisement and practices of another civilization and another age. They fight each other and continue to spread hatred planet-wide. But they wrongly profess to be the instruments of supreme love. In the name of God they provoke other peace-loving societies, which have never imposed their convictions on others by force. Among the Religos there are those who crave to establish a global civilisation based on their convictions at any cost. They give the impression of being higher than humans. A spokesman of the mosque in Geneva was heard saying on Radio Suisse Romande “Humans should respect us”. What did he want to evoke?

3.4 Caravan of love

Already a thousand years ago, in Spain, four wise men (see 1.2a) sated with love foresaw the catastrophic inter- and intra- religion collision. Ibn Arabi admirably expresses their wisdom in the poem repeated below aspiring that Religos would avoid carnage and spread of hatred:

My heart has become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles,
And a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’bah,
And the tables of the Torah, and the book of the Koran,
I follow the religion of love:
Whatever way love’s camels take,
That is my religion and my faith.

In the 15 century an Indian sage, Nanak, who is the origin of the proclamation: “There is neither Hindu nor Muslim” focussed his teachings on the principle that “the person who regards all human beings as equal that person is religious”.

Leaders of Religos, arrogant and authoritarian, supported by their flocks do not listen to sages. Calvin had condemned pious humanism and religious tolerance of his friend Sébastien Castellion and chased him out of Geneva like a deranged “dog”. In 1555, Castellion had translated the Bible into French with love and a universal spirit. It is astonishing that religious authorities had conditioned the Christian society so deeply that the next edition of Castellion’s Bible was not allowed to be printed for 450 years. It was finally published and presented to public in Geneva on 18 January 2006. The losers are not only Catholics and Protestants but also the entire humanity. “Why this suppression?” I asked the pastor of Saint Peter’s Cathedral who had brilliantly described Castellion’s life and works. “Is it the religious arrogance? Would it not be better if the word ‘religion’ were eliminated?” He replied, “The same question had inspired me to study Castellion. Religion will be replaced by spirituality”.

3.5 Spirituality without God

Surveys have shown that 44% of the young Swiss and two thirds of the French think that one can have spirituality without believing in God. Will this glorious voice go unheard? Why?

To answer the question whether it is possible to live a spiritual life without a divinity it is necessary to define ‘spirituality’. The old idea of moral, ethical or philosophic conduct is too vague for understanding and practise spirituality. Let us stick to the definition of spirituality developed earlier: to know the Flow and advance towards it, immerse in it, become a part of it and blend in it. This precisely is the type of spirituality and the image of God that true prophets and gurus had intended to bequeath us.

3.6 How to go forward

Religious, political, industrial, anti-environmentalist, commercial and scientific authorities surely stop us from taking the path towards the Flow/VIETE. In this era of integration and communication we surely have an extraordinary genuine option to come out of this madness. Let us marry religion; ecology, science, philosophy, sociology and psychology in order to understand VIETE better in an integrated way. Such an approach will enable us to extend our love beyond human beings. In order to keep to this pathway it is essential to listen to the advice of modern sages or divine messengers. “The authentic test of a religion is not what you believe; it’s what you do and unless your religion expresses itself in compassion for all living things, it is not authentic” (Karen Armstrong). Our love should actually encompass also non-living things: mountains, rivers, earth, sky, and the universe. If there is God, he “has no religion” (Gandhi). “Hands that help are holier than lips that pray” (Anonymous). “There are as many ways as there are atoms in this world, to reach God” (Anonymous).

It is high time for Religos to wake up and collaborate with scientists, environmentalists, philosophers and parapsychologists with the aim of interpreting their religions and sacred writings in a new way and rejecting traditions and rituals that are no longer valid in present times or in the social and cultural environment of other regions. First of all, Religos must admit that all prophets, wise persons and enlightened individuals have dedicated their life to raise human and spiritual values above “not too sacred” religious practices. None of them had envisaged that we should be split into Christians, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Sikhs, Bahai or many varieties of Hindus, Buddhists and Jews.

One unique religion does not exist. God and its true prophets are too great to be vulnerable to human criticism; therefore they cannot be blasphemed. Therefore blasphemy as interpreted by Religos does not exist. A lack of tolerance between the Religos is the problem. Every time a religion is criticised, a hateful outcry by Religos reduces God’s greatness and his prophets to their own low level. Hence do not take notice of the paths shown by Religos. The only blasphemous human act is deterioration and destruction of the milieu. Acts that damage the environment cause sufferance for living beings, take us further away from the eternal Flow and lead to the annihilation of civilizations.

It is not the transcendental nature of all religions that is the root of all problems, but differences in practices often representing out-dated local traditions that continue to undermine religions themselves and spread hatred between people. A religion has an enormous psychotherapeutic value for individuals, but it is also demoniac catalyst and a potent trigger for unleashing wars of civilizations.

The legendary sacred paths engender wrongful inciting of religious hatred. Hate exists in VIETE only through humans. Myths that played an important role in founding religions have served in the evolution of human society. New values have put an end to their validity. Now is the time and we have the means to scrutinize and sort them in the light of available new information. Past and recent mystic experiences of VIETE and available scientific, philosophic and sociological information can actually serve us to live better and behave more wisely.

3.7 Salvation

Looking from the prospect of globalization of spiritual value, Religos who have taken us further away from the Flow must now more than pray for taking us back to the All Mighty Flow, the all-enveloping store of light, information and energy. VIETE is “the river and every thing is in it, there is nothing else”. Those who have the company of such a God “what do they have to do with salvation or paradise?” By assimilating in VIETE we will attain:

  • Salvation, nirvana and light;
  • Courage to stop promoting material values, divisions and symbols;
  • Wisdom to use correctly our efforts and resources and reduce human suffering, safeguard the environment, and remain on the path of spirituality.
  • Ability to translate and reinterpret spiritual writings and ancient traditions rendering them applicable to daily lives of people in present times and environment.
  • Control of means to enlarge human fraternity, love and striking upon the secret of life that should enable us to live amongst worldly temptations without defiling ourselves.

Of all religions the best is to know the Name (VIETE), practice good actions and renounce imposing on others by force and pressure one’s egocentric convictions in the name of God. Of all places the most sacred place is the mind that holds sparks of the Big Bang divinity.

Only the person who has understood the will of God, that is, the nature of the Flow, knows His secrets. One who transmits the divine word without understanding the Flow gains nothing.  Is the day of judgement for antiquated religions approaching? Surely the new generation will climb over the wall erected by archaic religious values barring progress towards the real and practical spirituality. Utilising the information now available it will demystify and reinterpret dogmas setting up post-religious moral. At least no one will accuse religions of rendering “life impossible, detest reason, intelligence, life, sexuality, women, body and its pulsations”. The new generation will extract knowledge from the universe that will guide it to live better. Guided by new type of messengers of God it will not need to justify screwed up human laws or to unload complicated explications or display a perverted intelligence. It will recognise that humans are born defective; so are their laws, which are based only on their life experience instead of on the total life. It will get rid of obsession directed towards the interior and inventing our own legends. Instead it will advance towards wider horizons locating us correctly within the total life, VIETE.

3.8 New image

We know the dynamics of God better than ever before. Religious leaders should understand the image of God in the form of Flow and VIETE, packed with unfathomable information and light. Rather than expending energy on converting pagans, kaffirs and infidels to archaic vague images we should start living in the process that integrates, balances, and interacts with the Flow and cooperate closely with those that are trying to understand our true role within VIETE. By responding in this manner we will carry out our duty as human beings gifted with an extraordinary intelligence, thus curbing our tendency to be evil towards humans and to other elements of the Flow. We must comprehend the “lifetrons”, vital energy and vital currents. This will assist us to conduct ourselves better and escape the apocalypse mentioned in scriptures. It is not surprising that many ancient writings also contain sayings, legends and myths that support this latest image of God, dynamic, concrete and practical. This new image offers us an extraordinary facility for explaining to children, the young, atheists, believers, the uninitiated and misinformed religious persons human life’s dimension, depth and reason in the milieu of other living and non-living things gliding in the Flow. Living in this way is meditation, yoga, (union with the Flow), liberation from original sin, nirvana, salvation, state of equilibrium, bliss, transcendent wisdom, and perfect lucidity.

END OF PART 3

PART 4 – FREEDOM TO CRITICIZE

4.1 A religion from the West

Religions including Christianity have come from the East. The West has now the opportunity to give its own religion to the world by disseminating the new image of God based on the concept of VIETE (Vital Energy,Information-Interaction-Interdependence, Eternal, Tout-poussant = All Mighty and Ecoulement = Flow). With a critical spirit but without provoking a revolution, we can put an end to divinization of humans, humanization of the divine, and sovereignty of old Gods with man’s body, fanatic interpretation of sacred texts and antiquated traditions. Such negative elements have increased our belief in human beings and have taken us further away from VIETE. European society has already recognized flaws in Christian practices and traditions and has made significant advance towards spirituality by adopting an open mind towards other thinking, cultures and traditions. We live in a period of spiritual boom. People have been positively influenced by numerous religio-esoteric writings and novels such as by James.Redfield (The prophecy of the Andes), Bernard Werber (Le père de nos père), and Paolo Coelho (The Alchemist) who draw largely from the concept of VIETE. Subtly they have led us towards the Flow, the modern universal God.

Roots of occidental universalism have descended from Greco-Roman culture, through people like Erasmus to the present day scientific knowledge. The glow of this knowledge has helped Europe to install democracy, freedom of thought and reason, often incorrectly accredited to Christianity. Reaction to Christian dogma and acceptance of oriental values, shamanism and African ethics has resulted in the appreciation of rational values, social cohesion and non-material values. People now look for the truth not in religion but as revealed by science, ecology and psychology.

My image of God in the form of Flow and VIETE takes us beyond the hypothesis of God that is used to hide the fiction of humans being the creator and master of the norm. VIETE’s task is not to maintain the human social cohesion but keep in balance the ensemble of living and non-living things. VIETE offers us the possibility of extricating from the vague definition of God and being more scientifically precise and theologically correct. It is needless to prove the existence of God or Allah.

A dogma results in a practice in the name of some fixed archaic God. Whereas God in VIETE is alive and dynamic so is my image of God. All information that exists pertains to Flow. Every bit of new information we acquire improves our image of God. Therefore the level of our faith can be measured and quantified in terms of our interaction with VIETE. It does not mean invalidating existing techniques of spirituality. An individual can train himself and feel being more and more in VIETE by practicing any discipline: science, meditation, prayer, service, preserving the environment, or loving living things. We have the opportunity of placing progress and society into a rational relationship with our milieu. In this way we can obstruct Religos from exaggerated denouncing of disillusionment caused by progress. At the same time we put a stop to the recourse to fanaticism. Progressively we can enlarge our vision and actions in all fields, particularly political and sociological, and focus on all living things and their milieu instead of limiting to humans.

4.2 Environment, religion and collapse of society

For Christmas I got an unexpected gift, a book, Collapse, by Jared Diamond (Viking, 2005) that I read just after I had written the first three parts. Happy coincidence! The author exposes interactions and interdependence of environment and human societies ancient and modern. Those societies that were unable to adapt themselves to the elements and resources of their milieu, and remained stuck to maladjusted social and religious traditions have perished. This outcome conforms perfectly to my image of God that is VIETE.

Ancient societies that adapted to VIETE taking into account their environmental resources have survived. Whenever an entire society is at the verge of collapse or in distress because it has “blasphemed” its part of VIETE, invariably religious practices offered little help other than temporary psychotherapeutic and moral relief. A constraining indigenous religion combined with political power was a major cause of societal collapse. Religion was unable to help to take measures for safeguarding the milieu devastated by humans. It only served to save surviving souls if any!

Religion, culture and traditions imported from another milieu often hindered survival. Transplantation of a religion in another milieu, conversion of people and imported life style invariably disturb the arduously acquired equilibrium of a society with respect to VIETE. Christian missionaries overlooked the sin they engendered in the form of conflicts, hatred, wars, and genocides all in the name of God.  Religious leaders sitting in comfort thousands of miles away in Rome, Mecca, London and Paris control the spiritual lives of natives of Americas, Africa and Oceania. When religious chiefs distort spiritual laws to acquire power the society inevitably ends in disorder and collapses. Imbibed with absolute and inflexible belief (in this sense communism is a religion) a society is unable to:

  • Anticipate serious troubles arising from a damaged environment;
  • Be conscious of existence of the problem;
  • Find means to resolve the trouble at its inception;
  • Mobilize effort needed to solve the problem;

In the end the problem overpowers the society and leaves behind witnesses of religious folly; skeletons of churches in Greenland, gigantic carved stone heads in Easter Island, Anasazi ghost towns and caves in New Mexico, Mayan pyramids of Yucatan, Rwandan genocide continuing now in Somalia and Darfur. Ancient God and his guardian angels were incapable of helping them. These societies did not learn that the milieu is the true God, and massacring it is an invitation to a collective suicide. In short, such unwholesome human behaviour with respect to the milieu does not conform to VIETE, the Reality. Prayers and meditation might provide relief to individuals, but they alone cannot save us from decadence. Blind faith engenders a passive society waiting for All Mighty to resolve problems. Dogmatic and archaic religious thinking leads us to disaster unless we reconcile it with VIETE.

Societies of islands of Tikopia and Iceland are successful models because they managed their environment to meet their present and future needs. They have truly understood VIETE. In the absence modern education they learnt from trial and error and adjusted their behaviour with respect to the milieu and they survived even in difficult environmental conditions. The most remarkable fact is that Tikopians took decisions democratically and voluntarily to limit population growth as a function of the availability of resources. In contrast, the Mayas gripped by their religious traditions had let their population grow to supply labour for constructing sacrificial pyramids, scorning the natural resources.

The world still suffers from the legacy of innumerable past nefarious events centred on religious rivalry that renders society senseless and paranoid: the Crusades, witch-hunts, jihads, decades of Religious Wars, Inquisition and forced conversions. These traits still persist among certain obsessed societies. In present times the difference is that the rapid diffusion of information worldwide alerts all people of the falsity and danger of such nefarious humans who are bent upon taking us further away from VIETE.

4.3 New messengers of God

The wellness of the world and all that it implies depends on the influence of those who know VIETE: environmentalists, sociologists, ecologists, naturalists, scientists, humanists, archaeologists, philosophers, botanists, zoologists, physicists and, to a large extent, women. There are a few wise politicians whose love extends beyond humans. Paradoxically the heads of Religos vindicate only the human part of the Flow (VIETE). They are incompetent to lead us towards VIETE because they do not want to lose their hegemony over human souls. Amnesia, anachronism, fairytale erudition and dreaming of the imaginary golden age of the past that has never existed hinder them to recognize that social values have changed and their God is not the same.

A large proportion of Christian society has undergone an enlightened spiritual mutation. Churches might be empty but spirituality is flourishing among all classes. Christian heads now refrain from opposing criticism of religion.

The West has offered a fresh breath to spiritual needs. Scientific and philosophic findings permit us to understand religious writings better. Equipped with the knowledge of Western sages supported by the formidable media motor it is now appropriate to face fundamentalist institutions and individuals who have obstinately claimed that the truth had been taught once for all by God or his prophets and it has been encapsulated in the books that must never be changed. Scriptures must be rewritten and revised.

This is necessary to resolve conflicts arising from faulty interpretation of traditions arising from the practice of religion. Hopefully people will shun dogma, forced conversion and soliciting. In the absence of non-believers we will be able to treat the psychosis of being strangled. It will weaken superstition, demons, angels, gods and goddesses. Immigrant societies will get the courage to resist appeals of extremists who want to implant and protect their culture in the Western milieu against the nature that is VIETE.

Salvation or nirvana exists only under homeostasis: equilibrium between the internal and external milieu, between human species and all other forms of life, all being partners in the same milieu. Union of individual vital energy (soul) and vital energy of VIETE (Divine soul) offers a pragmatic and realistic image of salvation or the joy of ecstasy sought by all religions. Unless heads of religions show genuine courage and cooperate with new messengers of God, humans will destroy our planet and will not be able to save God from hangman’s noose. This time it will be humans who will cry aloud, “God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew: 27).

4.4 Survival

The global society is on an untenable path similar to that was trodden by Sumerians, Mayas, Harapnas and Australians in the past, and now being trodden by Uzbeks, Rwandans and Kenyans. God’s new messengers are of the opinion that we are sitting on a time bomb. In fifty years the global society would have destroyed the nature, forests, marine life that feeds a third of the population, burnt easily available petrol and natural gas, and overstepped the photosynthetic threshold. It is difficult, if not impossible, to say how traditional Religos and their flocks are going to save us. God’s new messengers, our reliable spiritual guides who understand VIETE well and manage it wisely, face formidable enemies: those who are engaged in destroying our milieu and Religos who are armed only to protect their traditions at the price of nature (VIETE). Our survival depends directly on the new messengers of God who are trying hard to educate misguided Religos knowing well that they have the habit of translating their sensibilities into politico-religious confrontation and hatred.

4.5 Spirituality and immigrant communities

Religious institutions set up by immigrant societies in the West are of varied cultural origin. They have mushroomed rapidly. All that glitters is not gold. They serve only to meet internal social and religious needs of their respective communities. Usually their heads are very traditional, and good at only ceremonies and rituals and often furthering dogma. Few among them are well educated. Their unstructured institutions are not competent to impart Eastern spirituality to the West.

An example of a recent development in Switzerland is revealing. Two rival groups organize religious events in an exactly similar manner. One group registered as Sikh Stiftung (Swcheiz) has inaugurated a beautiful temple in the industrial zone of Lotzwil (Lamgenthal) where live only three Sikh families.  The main object of the other group is to build another temple nearby. Great Britain has experienced a similar development. Birmingham is said to have 200 Sikh temples. Of these 30 are listed in the website. Sikh communities in all major agglomerations have spent enormous resources on setting up temples and safeguarding traditions and virtually none on spiritual and theological studies and research. Their spirituality is moral; it fails lamentably with regard to application at the level of VIETE. They show little concern for the environment, nature, community, survival of living beings, the world, and the universe. Mosques, temples and gurdwaras have replaced churches and leaders continue pursuing the narrow message based on traditions, symbols, dress, and uniform.

During socially and politically troubled times believers endowed with an open mind accommodate sufferance without distress and aim at re-establishing the situation. In contrast narrow-minded extremists, usually a small minority, react rationally in order to benefit from the situation to acquire power and prestige at the expense of the majority that does not even discern the hidden erosion of their spiritual and moral values. Expecting others to react the majority avoids implicating in such affairs. The majority tends to even tolerate extremists because it is unconcerned or negligent and suffers from “prisoners’ dilemma” (Stockholm syndrome) expecting to profit should the minority succeed.

Often I ask myself if there is any difference between an atheist and a Religos. An unforgettable and painful souvenir remains engraved in my mind. During the first days after the downfall of the communist dictator in Albania I was lodged in a hotel in Tirana filled by mullahs and American Christian missionaries. At dinner time the Christian group suddenly started to sing loudly a prayer for their evening meal. Mullahs and other guests observed with varied expressions: approval, curiosity, surprise, amusement and, above all, uneasiness. Outside in cities and the countryside I saw deplorable conditions of life. My heart missed a beat when I read a banner across the street announcing in English, ”JESUS HAS COME TO SAVE YOU”, that was incomprehensible to a vast majority of deprived Albanians. Religos had come well equipped to trigger the collapse of the poor but spiritually rich society. Under the communist regime places of worship had been demolished or closed and the people of different faiths had intermarried freely.

One wonders if the representatives of religions are not guilty of having contributed to the aggravation of the situation in the Balkans. Why have the civilized religions poured so much oil on the fire? Neither Religos nor their prophets and gurus be it Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Ram, Krishna, Nanak, God, Allah and Waheguru, were able to stop the genocide and devastation in the Balkans. Once again Religos have overlooked human values. Are the biblical and coranic messengers going to continue exterminating human values and spiritual wisdom of VIETE owned by tribes of the Amazonia, Venezuela, Congo, New Guinea and Australia? It depends entirely on us to come out of disillusionment and psychosis of social behaviour. There is no external force that has ever helped us in the past. Don’t wait, such help will not now.

4.6 Spiritual globalization

The primordial defect in religions is that they have totally failed to implement their main objective: set up peace and love between human beings. Religious heads and their flocks think that the nebulous utopian God is supposed to resolve all problems. Then there are those who are obstinately convinced to convert the entire world to their faith using any means. They put up a blind eye to the fact that in their own societies love and peace have lived only for short periods. History records killings, destruction of places of worship, iconoclasm and persecution even within a faith. Often Orientals claim that the West does not understand their religion and culture; but they forget that the inverse is true. It was the Westerns who had translated and analyzed their sacred texts and made them available to the world. There are as many if not more Sanskrit scholars in Europe than in India. The city of Zurich has more centres of meditation and yoga per person than in Indian cities.

When we are confronted with the problem of diminishing natural resources and accelerating degradation of the environment, neither prayers nor religious practices, nor repetitive readings of sacred books (Sikh tradition) nor the practice of ancient traditions will provide solutions to safeguard us. The present generation suffers from indigestion of too much inflexible religion starved of spirituality. Resolution of problems of human societies and other living beings has always resided in education that takes us towards understanding of the Flow (VIETE) and to a just behaviour with regard to the environment. In this way we have learnt which of the traditional values should be preserved eliminating those, which are useless in the present world. It is the prayer of action that will save us and lead to our resurrection and that of God.

4.7 What future for religions?

This is not a thesis against religion but an attempt to show that collectively we have been blind users of religious traditions. All that remains is that religions must not escape the test of criticism.

Do the formally instituted religions behave better than those that are not? The Islamic world? India? China? Ireland? Nigeria? Europe? White and black Australia? New Guinea? Tribal Amazonia?  Overall there are no spiritual differences. But differences are appreciable if judged with respect to the level of education and VIETE. Those that adapt themselves to the milieu are happy.

Knowledge of genetics has given a new dimension to the logic of reincarnation and karma that Hindus have perverted in order to justify the caste system. On the other hand Hindu-Sikh thought teach us that every animal is capable, if required, of transforming its genes thus giving it the prospect of improving itself.

In Switzerland, do we need to consult Madam Soleil to get precise long-term weather forecasts or to interpret obscure prophecies of Nostradamus about the future? We have the capacity and it is our duty to interpret ancient and modern data and information to foresee the evolution of human society as an element of terrestrial and cosmic milieu, and take measures to stop its collapse, often triggered by obstinate practices of misinformed Religos.

First the Religos; they have a lot to learn in order to be able to feel the resurrection of God on Earth. They must:

  • Guide the society so that it ceases to destroy the natural habitat, sources of food, biodiversity (e.g. safeguarding watersheds), soils, forests, plants and animals remembering that our temples, mosques, pagodas, gurdwaras, and synagogues will end up like the pyramids, Mayan temples, Sumerian towers, Harapan ruins and Roman monuments, and that God that we know will not descend to help us because we would have already killed him.
  • Manage our natural heritage justly and well: this is the true prayer, meditation, charity and service to God.
  • Stop messianic religion, forced conversions, and cultural annihilation of ethnic societies living in other environments.
  • Recognize that messianic activity does not manifest as deliverer of Gods message but as domination of omnipresent God and of one culture over another and that the religious policy of extremists is an invitation to auto-destruction and sufferance for others.
  • Adapt to the existing culture if immigrating from another society because it is impossible to change a habitat without provoking ruin of the indigenous culture and traditions and because such a conduct is against the will of old and new God

Evidently the situation is not totally negative. It must be admitted that there is a strong current especially among a number of exploiters of natural resources who are guiding us towards VIETE. Thanks to the pressure of the voice of educated public that they have understood the role and destiny of humans in VIETE. If Religos could also manage to orientate their institutions in this direction humans can resolve their problem of survival without wars, genocides, famine and epidemics.

4.8 Path to light

It is essential to give people, especially the young, means to comprehend better and objectively different faiths that have incited human conscience for centuries. Modern society is more aware than ever before of the need to help religious communities to take the path of righteous life and eradicate fanaticism. To attain this objective it is necessary to:

  • Demystify and place the traditional image of God and religious teaching in the context of VIETE, thus giving a dimension and depth to the concept of God;
  • Reduce giving undue importance to anthropocentricism and be in harmony with the nature, living beings and environment;
  • Rectify the error that humans are superior to the nature and its master;
  • Accept that the African savannah is the cradle of human beings and not the Judaic Noah’s Arc of the Middle East;
  • Disseminate the true theological and scientific spirituality in places of worship, schools and households;
  • Stop support to commercial institutions, national and international, and to countries that use religion to oppress people (for example, commercial blockade of South Africa had contributed towards the success of struggle against the apartheid regime);
  • Support environmentalist campaigns that encourage the public to buy that is not harmful to the environment thus obliging producers to adapt to new exigencies;
  • Oblige obstinate religious authorities to satisfy spiritual requirements of the modern community;
  • Convince Pope Benedict XVI to change his vision of spirituality from “all human life is sacred and inviolable from its conception to its natural end” to “all life is sacred ……”; be pro-life and not only pro-human life;
  • Draw up procedures in order to stop violation of real spirituality and perpetuation of hatred by eradicating misuse of power held by religious heads and inter- intra- religious rivalry;
  • Use the wisdom of educated people informed in VIETE to stifle those who are seeking or hold religious power;
  • Embarrass religious leaders and their flocks by exalting the logic of VIETE-based righteous values;
  • Make politicians and managers feel the significance and importance of VIETE in the conduct of institutions;
  • Revise sacred books in the light of the charters of the UN and knowledge accumulated through science, sociology, ecology, philosophic, and psychology.

4.9 Spirituality Quotient (SQ)

Since long psychologists and educationists have put into use a large range of tests to measure intelligence of humans and animals. The ability to perform certain practical and theoretical functions is measured with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ), one hundred being the statistical average. Recent availability of electronic sensors has permitted us to see cerebral reflexes produced by emotions and measure the Emotional Quotient (EQ). The image of God in the form of the Flow (VIETE) and its direct relationship with humans can enable us to determine parameters needed for setting up tests for measuring Spirituality Quotient (SQ). The test would measure the knowledge and performance of a person with respect to, for example, ecological elements and thus indicate the proximity to the Flow (Reality, God). At the same time one could electronically capture the amplitude of the “blue zone” in the brain and compare it with the “blue zone” already measured in the brain of a Buddhist monk in the state of meditation or the average for men and women or children and adults.

Acknowledgements: My daughter Upi Struzak assisted by her husband Marcin (California) has developed this Website and carried out linguistic editing of English and French texts. I am extremely grateful to her for the sheer hard work that she has put in so lovingly. My granddaughter Maneka helped to computerize the illustrations. In Geneva, I thank my daughter Amita and her husband Yaniss who provided invaluable help by correcting the French text and by providing moral support.

THE END