Ethics, human rights, and human dignity are common to all because they are universal principles based on human beings’ nature, not because some religion or charter has declared them to be
so. These universal principles can become comprehensive and firmly rooted when
they are seen
not merely as civilizational progress, but as road maps for a powerful
evolution of the human consciousness into a divine consciousness. This process
makes us enter into the sacred space within
where the Atman dwells. With the concept of the Atman ethics becomes dynamic
spirituality
beyond mere doing good, or pleasing one’s God, or escaping eternal punishment;
it becomes the
factor that interconnects all beings bringing real peace to oneself and others.
The world is getting better because humanity is increasingly
taking the refined view of things that
starts from within. This has unbelievably cleared the path to create a global
civilization, which
was also an ancient Vedic idea: ‘yatra vishvam bhavati-eka nidam; the whole
world becomes one
place of rest.’ This type of universal society does not spend time and money in
building places of
worship or in worshipping in old ones, because all worship is performed within
each and every per
son. All forms of work, speech, and thought can be transformed into modes of
worship.
There was a time when people believed that the earth was the
center of the universe. It needed a massive paradigm shift to understand that
earth was a tiny planet in an insignificant solar system with the sun at its
center. Nothing changed in the universe, but there was a quantum leap in our
perception and knowledge in comprehending the universe of mind-boggling dimensions,
with billions of stars in each galaxy, and galaxies also numbering in billions.
All this was possible through the human mind. The continuing scientific study
of the cosmos is, as it were, enlivening the cosmos through human consciousness,
and the vast universe is becoming self aware; apart from changing history and making
humans feel more and more as members of one civilization. This leap in our
perception and knowledge has released human potential and raised humanity to a
higher level. This is the new religion of the age, or to put it correctly, the new religious form
of the ancient doctrines of Vedanta that were tirelessly preached by Swami
Vivekananda while he travelled around the world. Swamiji says: ‘What vain gods
shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the
Virat?
Source - Excerpts from Prabuddha Bharata Editorial November 2011