A STORY OF EAGLES
(DEUTSCHLAND'S SCHICKSAL)
I still remember how, years back, in the first moments of Sahaja
yoga in Austria, we discussed the symbol of the eagle, which was
the emblem of the Roman legions. The bird had flown from Rome
to Byzantium and from there to Kiev and Moscow or Vienna, where,
double headed by now, it has become the symbol of the Romanov
or Habsburg empires. From the crest of the Hohenzollern it landed
on the national flag of Germany.
Indeed, eagles or condors adorn many national flags, most interestingly
in Mexico where the eagle fights a serpent. Of course the American
bald eagle seats on the seal of the president of the USA, the
land of Shri Krishna. We may look closely at these symbols of
the imperium because, naturally, we need to realize from where
this eagle took its flight into the collective unconscious of
mankind.
In the sahaja cosmology we have learnt that Adi Shakti has assigned
their respective positions to the trimurtis. Shri Bramadeva is
the creator, Shri Shiva is the infinity of spiritual perfection
and bliss and the destination of the great pilgrimage, but also
the aspect of destruction. Shri Vishnu, under His various avatats
(incarnations) operates and guides the evolution of the whole
system. Hence the simplification: G-O-D stands for Generator,
Operator, Destructor.
We know that the primordial eagle, Garuda, is a celestial being,
the vahana ( vehicule) of Shri Vishnu, that is, the aspect of
God which guides evolution. It thus represents the support of
this evolutionary force that was celebrated by the German philosophy
of History (Fichte, Schopenhauer, Hegel).
Public power and the might of the State are here to deliver
common prosperity, social peace and political security, balance
and justice. This function relates to the tatwa (principle) of
Lord Vishnu who regulates and manages the cosmos and thus projects
the ruling archetype for the proper management of the human collectivity.
The model of the perfect ruler, caring for the greatest happiness
of the greatest number, who would inspire Plato's King-philosopher,
is shown by lord Vishnu in the incarnation of Shri Rama Purushottama.
The righteous or perfect State has always been an object of speculation,
an utopia or a drea, but it is a singularly German one. (Rechtsstaat),
Today, many contemporary Germans, having been put to shame by
the nazi aberration, have lost the perception of their original
idealism. Germans used to dream big dreams but as the latest turned
into a nightmare, the modern Germans turned their back to their
aspirations for a just Order and took refuge in materialism: matter
is less volatile than ideas and a glossy BMW less risky than a
swastika. May be they are having a point. Let us see how three
times, the appeal of the ideal State that mobilized the German
soul was foiled by the forces of negativity that are prevalent
and victorious in this Kali Yuga, the Age of Darkness.
First failed attempt: the Holy Empire.
As the middle Age emerged from the barbary of chaos and feudal
quarrels, the Holy German Roman Empire ("das Heiliges Roemisches
Reich Deutscher Nationen") was supposed to embody the order
and justice of an ideal Christian State. The emperor was the Vicar
of Christ, waiting for His return to give Him back the rulership
of Christianity. Unfortunately the German emperors soon confronted
the hegemonic designs of the pope as the Catholic Church fought
to control Christianity and its core territory covering central
Europe and Italy. The armies of Frederik II Hohenstaufen encircled
Rome but the pope excommunicated him. Excommunication was the
particularly effective Middle Age variant of psychological warfare.
Later, Dante Alighieri, a realized soul, was a partisan of the
empire in the fight between Guelfes and Gibelins. He was banned
from Florence for this reason and showed high clerics roasting
in the hell of his "Divine Comedy". But the Church,
over the centuries, used the religious faith of simple people
as its ideological weapon to capture temporal power. The priest
defeated the medieval knight and his vision of a Christian empire
of righteousness. When the Habsburg dynasty annexed the imperial
crown, the Church through this dynasty controlled the Imperial
power and unleashed the Thirty Years War to defeat Protestantism.
When Napoleon finally terminated the Holy Empire, it was representing
nothing but the fleeting shadow of a broken German dream.
Second failed attempt: the German Empire
As a result of the Catholic mania for political control, faith
was used by the Jesuits to comfort the rule of absolute monarchs.
Eighteen-century philosophers wanted to emerge from the obscure
political theories of divine law monarchy. While French philosophers
entrusted our fate to reason, their German cousins applied it
to the old German preoccupation with politics. Kant and Hegel
turned their mind to the issue of how best to rule men in fairness
and justice. Hegel was an idealist whose intellect played hide
and seek with the elusive and dialectic course of History, that
is, Vishnu's evolutionary mode of action. In his phenomenology
of Spirit he saw the purpose of history to be the Spirit (Geist)
or spiritual reality to actualize itself and reveal itself through
the contradictory movements of human societies.
But his concept of a rational and ideal state to bring forth
the longed for synthesis was, in time, captured by the Hohenzollern
and their armies of Prussian civil servants (Beamten) and officers
(Junkers.) The Hohenzollern turned into right sided bullies who
pushed out the left sided Bavarian Wittelsbach on the side, defeated
the Austrian in Sadowa in 1866 in order to take full control over
the prized Germany. After the defeat of the French armies of Napoleon
III in Sedan, William the First of Prussia was proclaimed German
Emperor in Versailles. But in the process, the just state of shri
Rama dreamt up by Hegel had become just the tool of Otto von Bismark's
militaristic "Realpolitik". The folly of the First World
War is the ultimate child of the Age of Reason.
Third failed attempt: the Third Empire (das drittes Reich)
The allied powers won World War I but lost the peace because
of the short sightedness of the victors, singularly the French
who wanted to punish the defeated foe (blocked agnya chakra of
the French leader, Clemenceau). Humiliated by the harsh terms
of its surrender, gripped by inflation, Germany prepared for its
revenge. Typically it would do so in the garb of a new idealistic
vision, the nazi Empire that was meant to last one thousand years.
And Europe witnessed the rise of the totalitarian regimes. National
Socialism captured Germany and, for a while, most of Europe. What
is less known is that dr Goebles and other nazi manipulators of
public opinions used symbols and archetypes to mobilize the innate
enthusiasm and, yes, idealism of the German youth. The most famous
are : the swastika, a sacred symbol from Asia, and, again, the
eagle. Through these increasingly sinister empires, the symbol
of the Garuda engraved on the shield of Wallenstein, the helmets
of the Hulans or on the nazi insignia, had been annexed by the
dark powers of destruction.
OK, who would dare a fourth attempt? All these ups and downs
indicate that Germany, more perhaps than other European countries,
unfolds the story of betrayed idealism. It has been deeply - but
unsuccessfully - involved in the pursuit of the Rama tattwa, the
establishment of the just and righteous system of governing. Still
today, German support - and heavy financial contribution - to
the European Union relates to this capacity for sustaining a larger
political vision. Germans, in fact, are unconscious worshippers
of Raja Lakshmi who bestows blessings on public powers. But it
will all work out for them only when they will be connected..
Hence the first duty of German sahaja yogis is not to engage into
politics or in another grandiose scheme of the ego but to establish
the connection to the Power-that-makes-things-work, i.e. to give
realization. So, eventually, our attempts at establishing a more
just and equitable society will no longer look so pathetic. As
Hegel had seen it, it will be brought about by the work of the
Welt Geist, carried by collective self-realization.
Then the flight of the Eagle of Light will bring about the rule
of the Higher One, as prophesized in the Apocalypse of John. Or
may be, this time, it shall come on the white horse? Do you know
what the horse means? These mysteries are to unfold. And all those
who had longed for justice shall wipe out their tears.
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