I’m going to make a bold statement: a nation’s law, ethics, culture, and religion are an articulated unity. I am not advocating for the marriage of religion and politics, but rather emphasizing that God is the primal ground of everything that is true, good, rational, and moral. If the direction of our individual and collective lives is not grounded in divine law (truth) and the highest expression of human reason, a terrible void is created, and the will to power becomes the driving force that fills this void. For example, Vladimir Putin has fashioned the Russian Constitution according to his own purposes with very few checks and balances. He has made himself into a godlike figure, justifying any action that he believes will grow his power and control.

As extreme as Putin is, we must all avoid seeing this process unfold in another person, entity, or nation while remaining blind to our own shadows. Though there is much good unfolding within the evolution of the human race, it is also impossible to deny that a certain level of degeneration has crept into our cultural and civic lives. God is absolute truth, and the ground of absolute reason. When we cease to bow to what is above us, God, our reason gives way to the animal instincts and dark impulses percolating within the unconscious psyche. To the extent that this occurs, nations and the world at large fall prey to this degenerative process, which we have been witnessing before our very eyes. The antidote is simple but not always easy. We must come home to the Divine, to the very essence of truth, beauty, and goodness, to the highest love we can possibly imagine. Yogananda tells us, “Babaji is ever in communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations of redemption and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two fully illumined masters is to inspire the nations to forsake wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang evils of materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the self-liberation of yoga equally in the West and in the East.”

Divine Mother,
Help me to remain
Willing and open
To the degeneration
In my own heart,
Community, and country.