Our Golden Age
How long our soul has languished in this creation is a mystery we probably will never unravel. By divine design, the universe is in the hands of the Supreme Being. Ancient mythologies describe a sequence of four repeating ages, known as the golden, silver, bronze (or copper) and iron ages, or yugas, through which the physical universe passes. Each successive age is characterized by decreasing levels of morality and spiritual awareness and shorter lifespans.
In the golden age, truth predominates; the physical universe spiritually uplifts its inhabitants; and human beings are deeply conscious of the Divine – its presence and will – in all things. It is like a cosmic springtime in which people live peacefully and harmoniously for lifetimes that last several thousand years.
Next comes the silver age, when external religious observances like charity and sacrifice are introduced. Then comes the bronze or copper age, with spirituality declining more as man begins to seek God through external worship. The last age of the cycle – the darkest and most miserable, full of discord and strife – is the iron age, where we find ourselves today. Human lives are comparatively short, and people are filled with negative emotion and aggression. The mind has taken hold of our every thought and action, dragging the poor soul in all directions, ever farther from its divine source.
But the saints tell us that all is not lost; these worst of times might be the best of times for us. Soami Ji writes in one of his poems:
The three ages of gold, silver and copper have passed
without any of us knowing the method of Shabd practice.
In the Iron Age, Radha Soami, in his mercy,
has openly made known the secret of Shabd.
Even though we are experiencing a grim, disastrous iron age, a living Master has revealed himself to us and shown us the secret of meditation on the Shabd. Masters have made themselves accessible, traveling all over the world to tell us about the path of self- and God-realization. Their teachings have been published and distributed worldwide in dozens of languages. Even in the time of a global pandemic, the present Master has made himself available to us via technology and in person. These blessings that come in the present iron age allow it to become our personal golden age, when truth can predominate in our lives; when we can create a spiritually uplifting environment and become deeply conscious of the divine presence and will in all things; when we can live harmonious, tranquil lives in which we meditate to reach the Shabd at the eye centre and journey back to our true home with the Lord.
A golden age here and now, in the midst of such darkness? How can this be? Think of it this way: in a world of duality, if we have not seen ugliness, how can we appreciate beauty? What does light mean unless we compare it to darkness? It is the very state of duality that makes us yearn for something better. Perhaps we would never have thought of the Lord or embraced the path of Sant Mat if we weren’t so dissatisfied with and disillusioned by life in this dark, iron age.
But what are we doing with this gift? Have we embraced the struggle to escape our attachments, go through the ups and downs of life without complaint, fight the mind’s inclination to be swayed, deceived, and pulled by the senses and sense pleasures? Is meditation our highest priority?
The Lord created humans as the top of creation. Through his grace and mercy, humans can realize the Lord through meditation and reach the eye centre, where the Shabd is constantly ringing. Only humans are granted the gift to ride that wave of sound and light back to our true home. This journey is not easy. It takes time and effort and requires us to reshape our lives. It’s the struggle of a lifetime. How do we embrace this struggle? What can help us put in the time and effort it takes to make our meditation what the present master calls the primary work of our life?
First, we might try cultivating a spiritual perspective and an attitude of faith.
From a spiritual perspective, we are blind. If we could see, we would perceive the dream nature of this world. In a dream, we don’t try to make things happen. We must let go because there is nothing to hold on to. One of the hardest lessons for us to learn is that our life is unfolding under the absolute control of the Satguru, who is the Shabd.
As Baba Jaimal Singh wrote to his beloved disciple Maharaj Sawan Singh (the Great Master) in Spiritual Letters:
Whatever is to be done has already been done, and that is what will happen – man does not do anything by himself…. Whatever is to happen has already happened…. The Satguru will be with you wherever you go…. You are my dearly beloved child; you will go to Sach Khand in my company.
With such assurances from the Satguru, why would we worry about anything in this life? If we are concerned about anything, it should be only whether we are keeping the vows we promised our Master at initiation – everything else is just a part of the karmic accounts we have to pay. Grateful acceptance of the Lord’s will can help us to embrace the struggle. We must keep trying, even though our efforts sometimes seem ineffectual. We are waging a battle to subdue the wily, obstinate mind.
Our attitude should be one of faith and devotion – and patience. We must give time to meditation without expecting any outward signs of progress. Results are not in our hands. We must persevere; we must persist, even in the face of what we think is failure.
Meditation is how we can express gratitude to our Master. It is how we purify our minds. If we do our meditation every day, striving to live in the Lord’s will, remembering that he is always with us and that our true essence is the soul – a particle of the Divine – then we can escape our endless journey through the ages of the universe and experience our very own golden age.