Sri Ramakrishna is not followed by any today. His golden principles lie in rust. Perhaps, the Master has incarnated again in keeping with his prophecy that he would do so after the lapse of a hundred years.
Shall his descent afresh be able to counter the current human corruptions? Will he come this time with an entourage of spiritual satellites, his apostles, with a far greater spiritual energy packed into each one of them? We can only conjecture, but the times are hard and the problems grave with civilisation on the verge of extinction on several counts.
There is the environmental disaster which we face. Then there is the ever-looming threat of a nuclear annihilation of the human race. The advance of science and technology without a corresponding increase in human wisdom, as Bertrand Russell has pointed out, could spell the doom for humankind. Into this scene the divine incarnation of the day must step in with this entourage to mend matters.
The complexities of the situation would call for a total transformation of human attitudes the world over. A violent resolution of forces was how things were resolved the last time the Avatar appeared on earth. Two World Wars had then been necessary to move the mountain of monstrosity that afflicted the world in the shape of colonialism and imperialism. Although, the near-peaceful dissolution of communism since then has ushered in an age of peaceful revolution by people's force, yet, the violence that went into its uprooting behind the scenes cannot be overlooked. Perhaps, humanity will soon be realising its collective responsibility beyond national interest as the entire earth endures a common threat of looming extinction.
But what is the role of a divine incarnation in this emerging global scenario? The answer is simple -- the transformation of human psychology from its material orientation unto the divine, the relocating of human consciousness in the permanence of the Being whence can proceed the peaceful onward march towards the attainment of mass spiritual and material welfare as is the destiny and end of human evolution.
The question, though, is whether even an Avatar can undo the accumulated evil of the Age by his benign influence? There is no simple answer to this for it is a deep philosophical problem that needs in-depth analysis and understanding.
The Law of Karma is the Hindu explanation for all that abounds in the world of phenomena, the action-reaction causal sequence and the resolution of the multitudinous forces that are operative in the terrestrial realm and which govern the onward march of humanity as well through the misty path of meandering evolution, a la mountainous detour en route to the summit of understanding and peace. This Law of Karma is inexorable in its movement, inviolable in its hold on humanity. Hence, to escape the fruits of past work is an impossibility. A divine incarnation, thus, may show the path to the Spirit afresh but cannot undo the retribution that lies in wait for a fallen humanity for all its past misdeeds.
But is Karma omnipotent? Is there now no way out of this endless tangle of sequential action and reaction which holds humanity? Where then is the freedom of the Self in apparent terrestrial captivity? Is God powerless to release erring humans just because Karma holds them in eternal subjection? What then is divine mercy, vicarious atonement, the latter in the general sense and not in specific Christian terms? After all, we are souls in essence, spirits free, unbound by the trinity of space, time and causality. I know very well the logical pitfall along this line of reasoning for it demands a redemption from causal characteristics by invoking a supposedly higher causal power in the form of an omnipotent God and His incarnate deliverer on earth. Such a hope is as well entertained in fear of consequence for deeds done and is, therefore, a submission to the very forces from which one seeks deliverance. But is Karma all that is there? Then, for sure, there is no hope of freedom ever. It will remain an eternal terrestrial bondage to the forces that be and no Avatar can save us.
Save us? What does it mean?
Written by Sugata Bose
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