In one of his famous poems, T.S. Eliot (Choruses from The Rock) makes a very significant observation about the time we are living in today, which comes close to the ulatbaansis (paradoxes) of our very own mystic poet Kabir. He says: “Men have left God not for other gods, they say, but for no God; and this has never happened before/that men both deny gods and worship gods… In an age which advances progressively backwards?”
Yes, it is a very big question. Are we moving forward or backwards? Are we progressing or regressing? Superficially, we seem to have leaped very high, dizzying heights, never seen before, but as far as the state of love, consciousness, non-violence, compassion, sensitivity and poetic creativity is concerned, it is becoming very dry. We reason a lot and indulge in all kinds of clever mindgames, logic-chopping, but heart-to-heart connectivity between human beings is fading away very fast. And with this, the sacred feeling of divinity is disappearing. We have forgotten the prophetic words of Jesus: “Man does not live by bread alone...”
Osho describes the present situation: Yes, something has happened that has never happened before: for the first time in the evolution of human consciousness, man stands alienated from God. Man stands separated from existence. Man stands lonely, with no companion, in great darkness, with no light to lead him, to guide him. Man has never been in such despair, man has never been in such a state of homelessness.
We have created sky scrappers, and they make humans feel dwarfs. Every day such monstrous buildings are competing with the other buildings in heights. The trees look very tiny. Not long ago it used to be the other way, trees were higher than our homes giving us abundant oxygen and prana energy.
What we have now, is fumes of thousands of vehicles in a congested area. It is really a miracle how we are adjusting to all this un-godly prana-sucking deadly situation in a concrete jungle.
Osho reminds us: Man had always lived with nature. To live with nature is to live with God in an indirect way, because nature reflects God in a thousand and one ways. The growing trees, faraway call of the cuckoo, winds in the pine trees, rivers moving towards the ocean and the proud mountains standing in the sun and the starry night, and it is impossible not to be reminded of some invisible hands. It is impossible not to see that existence is not dead, but alive. The ocean heaves, breathes; the whole existence is a growing phenomenon. It is not dead, it cannot be dead.
Everything is growing. Because of this growing experience man has remained constantly aware of some invisible, mysterious force behind it all. That force is called God. God is not a person, but just a presence. When you go deep into the Himalayas, you again feel a kind of reverence, awe and you wonder. Again you feel something that was very easily available to the primitive man.
