Excuse my naivety on the subject- is Yukteswar saying we've already had a golden age? And then, we somehow fell from grace, and have to go back to it?
Is he saying it's cyclical?
I wonder what the great fall could have been, and what it means for us- if we are evolutionary creatures, how then could we have all this biological knowledge reset with a blank slate?
Well. This may not sit well with others but I also had the thought today:
Consider that we are evolving from animal nature, then, I think- as a catalyst to entering into a higher age that some "evil men" are actually Gods chosen. Not that I believe God is fond of what man calls evil, but that maybe as a soul contract there are men who have committed great atrocities which have ultimately helped bring the evolution of mankind into a higher age. Did not Yogananda call himself a ruthless conqueror as one of his incarnations?
I think of the Law of One, which often talks about positive oriented beings and negative oriented beings- and the necessity and functions of such negative beings in a world of duality. I think we can evolve out of duality, I don't think evil actions need to take place... But I also think this is a school of hard knocks and we have both fight or flight, self preserving wisdom as well as selfless evolutionary wisdom.
It's also interesting to think just how intrinsic the biology of a person is with their spiritual reality. Not in all cases, but in many such cases, we inherit even things like addictive personality disorder from our lineage which provides its own karmic opportunities.
He is saying it is cyclical. No blank slate brother Eric. We maintain our present evolutionary status regardless of the yugas. If we continue to progress. There is no reset. Think about what you are saying. If we were to use your seemingly depressing notions Jesus would have had to reset when he was born into the lowest Kali Yuga. However he was born a Master and stayed that way for his mortal life on earth.
Sometimes evolved souls are born into the lower yugas to work out specific lessons of that period, and at times they even come with a mission to help people of that period evolve. Likewise there are at times dark presences that are born into the higher ages. It is not so cut and dry as your questions would appear.
And no Yogananda did not call himself a ‘ruthless conqueror’. Do we really know why or what William the Conqueror did during his stay on earth? In fact do we know for sure what happened in any one’s incarnation? Strangely enough most Christian’s believe that despite the remarkable existence Jesus lived, most Christians believed he lived the rather simple life of a carpenter for 15 years going unnoticed with nothing to write about him during this period in the Bible; absolutely nothing!! Now we have a totally different narrative, never recorded in the Bible, by the ‘wise men of the east’ who say he spent his time in India and Nepal during those 15 ‘lost years’.
Yes we have already had a golden age many times and we will again. Anyone committing ‘atrocities’ are creating very difficult karma for themselves. How it affects others is a matter of their choice. But it is sometimes true that pain is the prod to remembrance, those who inflict suffering on others show a lack of conscious and empathy and will have to develop those qualities to evolve out of their ignorance. Whether it is in a higher period, which has more evolved souls, or a lower period where they are usually more suited because of the soul shadow they carry with them.
Yes we live in a duality that gives us the free choice to rise above our present lineage. And people like Amma did that. Both Yogananda and her have abusive brothers. Yet they were able to rise out of their lineage and embrace a higher vibration, just as did Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. But he did have to fight his evil tendencies as seen in his brother the two sides of a family – the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
