During this time in our history radical transparency is needed.
We need to participate in and tolerate thoughtful
disagreements.
The mission of this Web site is to promote diversity and cultural competency, explore issues of color and gender, and inspire people
who have a history of being marginalized, using social media and other
means as platforms to inform various communities of the life experiences
and concerns of marginalized people with regard to the necessity for social
change, dialogue, inclusion, compassion, tolerance, and cultural literacy to
expand and improve human relations going forward in order to better facilitate
the current worldwide shift in global consciousness from tribalism, instability,
and extremism, to harmony, cooperation and enduring peace. In addition, we
welcome and support other organizations that promote the transformation of
consciousness taught by spiritual teachers like Guru Nanak Dev and others.
Points To Ponder
"The true man of God sees no man as good or evil,
no man as friend or enemy." Siri Guru Granth Sahib
"Religion is not a documentation of rules and dos and don’ts.
Religion is my own life conducted by me. It is my conduct,
my personality, and my reality. It is my truth, my light, my
prosperity, my happiness, and my totality.” Yogi Bhajan
"Many people believe that the spiritual path is difficult and
the neurotic path is easy. Students profess it and even some
teachers encourage this idea. I have never agreed to it nor am
I willing to agree to it now. It takes the same effort and energy to
walk either path. The problem lies in being subject to time rather
than being one step ahead of time. Yogi Bhajan” Yogi Bhajan
"It is not how spiritual one is, it is how spiritually one faces calamity.
Spirituality is when all is gone, and there is nothing to hope for, you
become the hope, and you are not gone. That is spirituality.” Yogi Bhajan
"God told Guru Gobind Singh, 'Go establish a path of righteousness.
Let the human Worship the Undying Being, the Akaal Purkh, not the
dying being.' Jesus said not to worship idols, yet I have never seen a
single church where he is not hanging on the cross outside. Is that not
an idol? Moses said to love all and worship one God, yet Jews feel they
are the special chosen beings and everybody else is out (tribalism).
The Hindus were told to see God in everything. Their God is in their
temple, sleeps at a certain time and gets up at a certain time. Otherwise everything goes berserk. That is the hypocrisy of religion." Yogi Bhajan
There is no escaping religion.
Hear 'Science of Religion' Part 1Part 2 Lecture by Yogi Bhajan, May 1, 1989.
It has enormous societal, cultural, political and historic implications.
It's been blamed for wars and praised for bringing people together. But
it is practiced in some form across the world by billions of people every
day. Even atheists have to get into the act for fear of being marginalized.
So where are the world's major believing and non-believing constituencies?
Here are the estimates of the world's religions based on the best available data.
Allan Watts On Religion
RELIGIOUS BEING or SPIRITUAL BEING
By Shiva Dasa
I would point out that the real scientists who have majorly contributed towards development of science are spiritual beings... e.g., Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Tesla, Newton, our own Shakuntala Devi, and Abdul Kalam, Raman, etc..
Their methods were not much different from that of Ramanujan. They would enter meditative state using their own methods and tap into their higher minds for relevant information. Some have expressed it as remembering the dreams and some have attached deity names to it but Shakuntala Devi has explicitly given her method which can be duplicated by anyone. There are people in Bharath (India) who are given the title Shathavdhani. They can talk on 100 topics with utmost precision. They say that its wonder for a common man but just a technique for us. (See Avadhanam.)
If the only way we can talk to our higher minds is through some deity, then without choice our higher mind will take the form of that deity. This concept is not my invention but it has appeared in various forms in shastras itself. There are many levels of existence and entity of one level would look different to the entity of other levels. In our ancient past these so called deities freely roamed earth spreading their knowledge. But when people started viewing them as divine at the cost of downgrading their own divinity, they had to disappear.
The concept of religion is an artificial construct of humans to regulate/rule people. The way i see it, it has barely any spiritual value. It is as good as science, which tests nuclear weapons to scare the neighboring countries without having concerns over the impact it has on our mother earth. Religion separates one as follower/non-follower, pure/impure, saint/sinner, etc., which only creates division in society.
"The human mind was created to discriminate, i.e., make choices between
up and down, in and out, black and white, etc. We must remain aware of our
tendency to use our discretionary abilities in order to marginalize and repress
people with whom we differ. We need to constantly see to it that we advocate
for pluralism and against tribalism in the interest of justice as taught by Guru
Nanak Dev Ji. Our choices are to live for each other, or to live at each other." HSB
Spirituality on other hand tries to unify the society by avoiding being judgmental. Rumi says "beyond the right doing and wrong doing there is a place, i will meet you there". If we see only good in people, we create a society of good people. A religion doesn't have the capacity to create something good, all it does is tat it segregates one from another.
People normally express their tendency to become religious as becoming spiritual. They throng spiritual places and convert it to place of business or politics losing out on the spiritual healing that place has to offer to all beings equally.
So... are you Religious or Spiritual? --
2015 PEW REPORT ON CHRISTIANITY
Christians are leaving the faith in droves
and the trend is not slowing down By Matthew Speiser
April 29, 2015 -- In extensive study done by the Pew Research Center has yielded some fascinating information regarding the trajectory of world religions over the next four decades.
As of 2010, Christianity was the dominant world religion with roughly 2.2 billion adherents and Muslims were second with about 1.6 billion adherents. If current demographic trends continue however, Islam is expected to catch up to Christianity midway through the 21st century.
Furthermore, people are leaving Christianity in droves. About 106 million Christians are expected to switch affiliation from 2010 to 2050 while only about 40 million people are expected to enter Christianity.
The religiously unaffiliated (athiests, agnostics) are expected to see the largest net gains from switching, adding more than 61 million followers.
Christians are expected to see the largest net losses from religious switching
In North America, the fastest growing religious groups are Muslims and followers of 'other religions' (an umbrella category that includes Baha’is, Jains, Sikhs, Taoists and many smaller faiths). Christianity is expected to decline from 78 percent of the overall population in 2010 to 66 percent in 2050.
Unaffiliated religions are expected to rise over that same time from 16 percent of the population to 26 percent. By 2050, the United States will have more Muslims (2.1 percent of pop.) than Jews (1.4 percent).
In South America and the Caribbean, Christianity will see a slight dip over the next four decades, from 90 percent in 2010 t0 89 percent in 2050. Over that same time the religiously unaffiliated population will add 45 million followers increasing from 8 percent of the population in 2010 to 9 percent in 2050.
If the current trends continue beyond 2050 - which is big if considering unforeseen events that can happen over a 40 year span (war, famine, innovation etc.) - then by the year 2070 the world's population of Muslims would roughly equal that of Christians.
Here are other chief findings from the report:
. Islam will grow faster than any other religion over the next 40 years. . The number of Muslims will equal the number of Christians around the world by 2050. . Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population. . The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today. . In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population. . India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia. . In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion. . Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa. -- More.
"Exclusion and bigotry is antithetical to where we now are.
Transparency and the inclusion of others is now the order.
Those who choose not to change will become irrelevant."
When political parties get into their respective social agenda,
somebody is inevitably excluded. The truth is that senseless
violence has occurred on so many occasions over the years because
people have allowed themselves to be manipulated by those trying to make
them slaves to one rigid, ideological identity as opposed to being free thinking
human beings capable of positive qualities such as rational analysis, empathy,
tolerance and mercy. Human beings need to get past the notion that being a particular
race, gender, nationality, tribe, party, or religion gives them the right to oppress others.
Exclusion is antithetical to where we are in this, the Aquarian Age. Transparency and the
inclusion of others is now the order. Those who choose not to change will become irrelevant.
'Happy Holidays' is a more inclusive and proper November and December greeting.
'Merry Christmas and 'Happy Hanukkah', etc., are too exclusive. Click here to see why.
Hinduism
"In the effulgent lotus of the heart dwells Brahma, the Light of Lights." -- Mundaka Upanishad
Judaism
"The Lord is my Light; whom shall I fear?"
—Psalms
Shinto
"The Light of Divine Amaterasu shines forever"
—Kurozumi Munetada
Taoism
"Following the Light, the sage takes care of all"
—Lao-tzu
Buddhism
"The radiance of Buddha shines ceaselessly"
—Dhammapada
Christianity
"I have come into the world as Light"
—The Bible
Islam
"Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth"
—The Koran
Sikhism
"God, being Truth, is the one Light of all"
—Adi Granth
African Faiths
"God is the sun beaming Light everywhere"
—Tribal African
Highest test of spirituality is to do good to
those who have done wrong to you. --Yogi Bhajan
From
a woman all men are born. How then can
any man degrade any woman? -- Hari Kaur Bird
If you believe in it, it is a religion or the religion;
if you do not care for it one way or the other about it, it is
a sect; but if you fear and hate it, it is a cult. -- Leo Pfeiffer
The ignorant impose their darkness on the Light of Truth.
Those who see divisions do not know God. Those who
know Him proclaim His Oneness. -- Guru
Nanak Dev
You are here to serve, to uplift, to be graceful, to give hope,
and to give the very deep love of your soul to all those in
need. Through service you can win the world. -- Yogi Bhajan
It is not the customary practice of the followers of Sikh
Dharma to proselytize others. Sikhs often express the term
"Sat Kartar," i.e., "God is the Doer." In this
sense meaning,
only those with such destiny will become Sikhs. --Hari
Singh
It remains true today, in the ancient tradition of ignorance,
that people of faith and otherwise good sense hasten to
ostracize and demonize any person or group whose beliefs,
lifestyle and customs are unlike their own. --BigotDetector.com
The Bible, to fundamentalists Christians, is their Constitution! The Flag is
the extension of the Cross! The Cross replaced the “Lamb” and “Fish”
as icons of early Christians -- The Cross is a symbol of torture! Their
god is vengeful and violent -- War is their tribal response to all
challenges, which question their beliefs! -- SatHanuman Singh
What happens when the government gets involved with religion?
In the country of Malaysia, it is now against the law to convert from
Islam to any other religion. And in the earlier days of Christianity,
it was against the law to be anything but Christian. -- H. S. Khalsa
God is nothing but your own inner consciousness.
Now I will agree with you that you cannot always
feel this God, but that is because you think that you
are separate from God. We call it Maya.
Maya is the
illusion of separateness: it is the quicksand of this life.
Sometimes we sink into this quicksand and then we
need a hook; we need some guidance to help us pull
ourselves out so that we can continue our journey. The hook
that we use to do this is called the Guru.
-- Yogi Bhajan
For my mother, organized religion too often dressed
up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and
oppression in the cloak of righteousness. This isn't to
say that she provided me with no religious instruction.
In her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great
religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education.
In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita
sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African
mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag
me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple,
the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and the
ancient Hawaiian burial sites. But I was made to understand that
such religious samplings required no sustained commitment on
my part. Religion was an expression of human culture, she would
explain, not its wellspring, just the one of many ways – and
not
necessarily the best way – that man attempted to control the
unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives.
In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the
anthropologist she would become; it was a phenomenon
to be treated with a suitable respect, but with
suitable detachment as well. -- Barack
Obama
Of all religions, the highest is to remember the Name of the Lord; emulate
His attributes; and maintain purity of conduct. -- Siri Guru Granth Sahib 5-266
... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious
worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained,
molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on
account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess,
and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same
shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. -- Thomas Jefferson
I HAVE been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon
and Bible teacher for
many years. My faith is a source of strength
and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to
hundreds of millions
of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the
Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult.
It was, however, an
unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders,
quoting a few carefully selected Bible
verses and claiming that Eve
was created second to Adam and was responsible for original
sin, ordained
that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited
from
serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. -- Jimmy Carter
Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is
to trust your-
self to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water,
because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax,
and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging
to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic
in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature
of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let
go, and
become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be. -- Alan
Watts
Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to
this and that, there
is another self more really us than I. And the more you become aware
of
the unknown self -- if you become aware of it -- the more you realize
that it is
inseparably connected with everything else that is. You are a function
of this total
galaxy, bounded by the Milky Way, and this galaxy is a function of
all other galaxies.
You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.
You look and
look, and one day you are going to wake up and say, "Why, that's
me!" And in
knowing that, you know that you never die. You are the eternal thing
that comes
and goes, that appears -- now as John Jones, now as Mary Smith, now
as
Betty Brown -- and so it goes, forever and ever and ever. -- Alan Watts' OM
Religious authorities play people both ways. They say that all is God's Will and
they also say that you have the choice to do "bad" or "good" - you have the power
despite God's will to commit sins or act saintly. In order words you are able to mess
with God's will to suit yourself. They say God sent you here to learn lessons and to find
your way back to Him through different winding paths, but they never say why He does that or
they say it is God's play which we cannot understand. Piles of crock. -- S.S. Aftab Singh Khalsa
Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that
there’s
an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do,
every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list
of 10
things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things
he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture
and
anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke
and
scream and cry forever and ever till the end of time. BUT HE LOVES
YOU! He
loves you, and he needs money. He always needs MONEY! -- George
Carlin
Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying
all else, for
much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would
elude
you. Be in yourself for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and
tremendous
to be restricted to one belief rather than another. -- Pir
Vilayat Inayat Khan
The use of music for spiritual attainment and healing of the
soul, which
was prevalent in ancient times, is not found to the same extent today. Music has been made a pastime, the
means of forgetting
God instead of realizing God. -- Hazrat Inayat
Khan
Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any
path
whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view,
and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being
limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever,
cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to
lead or to coerce people along any particular path. --Krishnamurti
Do
not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
in
anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe
in
anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe
in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do
not believe in
traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after
observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with
reason and is
conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and
live up to it. -- Siddhartha
Gautama Buddha
Welcome to KaliYugaSigns.com
The signs of Kali Yuga are all around.
It's the Age of Toxicity and Extremes. "Money (maya) is the answer. What is the question?"
Signs of Kali Yuga
Extremes
Here are where the extremes of Kali Yuga and tribalism exist
especially to the exclusion of women and minority religions. "Exclusion breeds intolerance. Intolerance breeds tribalism." For more tribalism to the extreme see Please Cover My Body.
Where the extremes of Kali Yuga and tribalism exists
especially to the exclusion of the Palestinians.
Here's where extremism persists, and where tribalism exists
especially to the exclusion of women and minorities.
Here's where extremism persists, and where racism exists especially
to the repression of non-Christians, colored eyes and other minorities.
Hate groups map of the USA
What is Kali Yuga?
"Kali Yuga is the Age of extremism, yet it is the most exciting Age in which
to be incarnate. It is the Age of Service, whereby 'to serve is to succeed.'"
A Kalpa or Day in the mind of God is made up of four Yugs (Cosmic Cycles, Epochs or Ages, much like the Seasons of the year) known as:
.) The Age of Wisdom - Krita Yuga (Spring) .) The Age of Ritual - Treta Yuga (Summer) .) The Age of Doubt - Dvapara Yuga (Fall) .) The Age of Conflict - Kali Yuga (Winter)
See The Four Yugas or Epochs.
It is the latter Age, Kali Yuga, in which we now live, and which we account for in our histories. The Kali Yuga is ending and we are now in a transition period called the 'Twilight of the Kali Yuga'. In this Twilight of the Kali Yuga, the Creator makes way for the end of tribalism, the next cycle, the New Age.
The Cycle
There are those who teach that human life occurs in a Kalpa or Cycle, a dance that lasts for 4,320,000 years. A Kalpa equals four Ages or Yugas: Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali. The Krita Yuga lasts for 1,728,000 years (4800 divine years); the Treta Yuga lasts for 1,296,000 (3600 divine years); the Dwapara Yuga lasts for 864,000 (2400 divine years); and the Kali Yuga lasts for only 432,000 (1200 divine years) in which
the power of evil and destruction takes over. (NOTE: Do not take these
figures literally for their purpose is just to give an idea of vastness.)
At the end, your eternal
Self takes the form of renewal through death. And then, another Krita Yuga begins. Krita or Satya Yuga (Golden Age) is the Age of Purity. It is sinless. Dharma, or The Path of Righteousness, is perfect during Krita Yuga. But during Treta Yuga (the Silver Age), Adharma or evil enters the world and the very fabric of time begins to decay. Then comes Dwapara Yuga (the Bronze Age) in which the dissolution continues. Finally, Kali Yuga, the fourth Age (the Iron Age), is almost entirely corrupt, where Maya dominates human existence and Dharma barely survives.
Each Kalpa or Cycle of Four Ages equals 12,000 divine years, i.e., 365 times 12,000 human years long. (NOTE: The objective of all spiritual paths is to see God, the One Creator, even in the midst of Maya. See YouAreTheEssence.com. SeeMore.)
Despite the current state of affairs, including the appearance of cold depression,
as a result of these transitional days of the Kail Yuga, the steady albeit slow, cyclic,
upward spiral into the Golden Age otherwise called The Age of Ubuntu has begun.
"The Age of Aquarius has so many differences from the religion you have
practiced for the last five thousand years. The past won't work;
philosophies, assurances, men, institutions will not deliver.
You will learn the science to deliver yourself to you first
and come out and serve others." Yogi
Bhajan
"Do not spend your spiritual energy on fear. We are at the turning point,
the end of Kali Yuga, so all insanity will prevail. Wisdom shall arise
from this insanity. Light shall arise from this darkness. Divinity will
arise from this chaos. Compassion shall arise from this madness." Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist
Charlie Chaplin's 'The greatest speech ever made.'
THE AWAKENING
THE TEN SIGNS
POINTS TO PONDER
"The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed,
and all that is secret will be made known to all." -- Luke 12:2
"Now we are leaving the Piscean Age, the Age of 'I believe', and
beginning the Aquarian Age, the Age of 'I know'." -- Yogi
Bhajan
“We
are entering the Age of Aquarius on November 11, 2011.
It will be a new time. The entire psyche is changing. You must
purify the mind, body and soul to be real, innocent, and sattvic
(pure). Elevate yourself to be angelic. This Age which you will
serve is an Age of Awareness and Experience.” -- Yogi
Bhajan
"Take
the teachings of the Age of Aquarius seriously
and do not pollute them by mixing them with the Piscean
teachings - that is the only danger there is." -- Yogi
Bhajan
"The
Creator and Creation are One. This is Who I Am.
The experience of this wisdom is beyond all words
and brings indescribable bliss." -- Ashana
. Islam will grow faster than any other religion over the next 40 years.
. The number of Muslims will equal the number of Christians around the world by 2050. 
. Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.
. The global 
. In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
. India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
. In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
. Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa. -- 
.) 
.) Gurus, i.e., teachers, are no longer respected and their students attempt to injure them. (See 
