Do you believe that the mountain-high pile of troubles that besets the world now, has one root cause, and even more, that there is one, simple solution—a solution that could reduce the whole mountain to the size of a molehill?
Something has gone missing in our man-made formulas for well-being. Something has slipped through the cracks, taking with it what is needed for the peaceful, happy existence we want for ourselves and the world. What is it that has gone missing? In my experience it is the loss of connection. Connection is what is missing. Disconnection is the problem; connection is the solution.
I am not talking about the connection between us. Although that has become problematic, it is not primary. Primary is the connection between myself and my inner world. Through the practice of Rajyoga meditation, as taught by the Brahma Kumaris, I discovered a ‘me’ that was permanently beyond all influences; a ‘me’ that danced in joy, peace, love, and power, always, whenever I connected with that ‘me’.
When we are disconnected from that part of ourselves — our spiritual identity—what is meaningful and important for life becomes less a practical experience and more an ideal, or an intellectual pursuit. When we remain disconnected in this way, we do not know, with the certainty of experience, the independent beauty that lies deep within. We research and talk a lot about such things, but it gets harder and harder to live accordingly. In this way we become careless and negligent of our own divinity. We disrespect our own goodness and godliness. So, it withers, like flowers in a garden that no one is tending to—eaten by the bugs of ego or parched through a drought of true self-love.
A recent sociological study says that our current state of social isolation – so damaging to the human spirit—did not begin with the pandemic. Being disconnected from our innermost selves and disrespecting the godliness within makes it very difficult to connect, or truly respect anyone else. It becomes a self-imposed isolation that is driving communities and even families further and further apart.
This internal negligence and disregard for the divinity of human nature has carried over to our relationships with Mother Nature as well. We act as if we are the only species on the planet and in our attempts to acquire, possess and control we have violated her basic laws. In return, we have the unprecedented state of environmental crises we are facing today.
So, what to do? We have to once again align ourselves with the great truths that go beyond what our physical senses can grasp. We need to understand these times of challenge as an invitation to connect to ourselves in new ways, a connection that can make blossom the seeds of divinity within each of us, as children of God.
We need to connect to God in new ways. God’s love, devoid of any neediness, is altruistic and the ultimate in respect and feelings of belonging, and is like water to the parched soul-garden. We need to experience God’s light of love, peace and joy, so that we can come back to our pure state of natural well-being.
Connecting is the first step. Second is the courage to come out of our comfort zones and transfer the beauty deep within into our everyday thinking, speaking and doing. We need to become givers, from the genuine abundance that is our Godly inheritance, and stop being takers. This will put a whole new vibration into the energy that keeps this planet spinning. This will move us all forward, out of humanity’s long night of winter, and into the dawn of its new day.
It is time to do something new; it is time to do something different. To realise the magic of love—love for ourselves, for God and then, for all our brothers and sisters—the whole world. This gives birth to hope. We truly are standing at a new beginning.
Sharona Stillerman coordinates the activities of the Brahma Kumaris in Israel.