Illustration to
'In the Kali Yuga: The Embodiment as Kabir'

Kali Yuga: The fourth or Dark Age; the age we are living in. People have a lifespan of about seventy to one hundred years. – Terms used in our time such like Atomic Age or Electric Age are only names for periods that are all parts of the Kali Yuga. Some characteristics of this age are the brevity of life and the downfall of morality. Almost all intuitive knowledge of the human status has been lost, to be replaced by a reasoning process which is unable to cope with the demands that are made on it.

The compensating and saving factor is the availability of Truth: even before Kabir’s embodiment in the 15th century, Naam was available through the line of Saints Who descended from Karunamai and others, beginning with Supach Sudarshan and others.

However, it is not until the embodiments of Kabir and Guru Nanak – both were Swateh Gurus – that the full implications of the Spiritual Grace of the Kali Yuga began to become obvious.

Whenever vice predominates and virtue goes underground and good acts are altogether ignored, the Saints preach the Spiritual Sadhan or practice of Naam, for It is the easiest and the quickest remedy. In this age all individual and social acts and the performance of rites and rituals as enjoined by the scriptures are hardly of any substantial use for they are outmoded and out of time.

In this age, Kirtan (the Sound Principle) occupies the Highest Place (among Spiritual Practices).

Guru Arjan, Maru M5

[…]

In Kali Yuga Naam is the only precious thing, for with the help of Naam, the devotees are saved.

Guru Ram Das, Maru M4

In this Kali Yuga, all Sadhans or practices are of no avail except that of Naam, for It alone is a potent remedy.

Swami Ji, Sar Bachan

In Kali Yuga, Naam is the only means of salvation.

Guru Arjan, Bhairon M5

Now that Kali Yuga has set in, it is the most appropriate season for sowing the seed of Naam, nothing else can bear fruit now, do not be in any delusion on this account.

Guru Arjan, Basant M5

Nanak would gladly make an offering of himself to one who has been linked with Naam.

Guru Arjan, Kanra M5

Naam or Word (Fourth Edition, 1981) – Book I, I. / (xvi)
Naam: The most efficacious Sadhna in the present Age,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974

All people eat meat: Unfortunately eating meat and drinking alcohol has in fact generally spread. Meat is even mixed to baby food. Sweets for children are produced with gelatine – that is made of bones and skin split with hydrochloric acid – and then handed out to the children as a kind of 'family parshad' – in form of gummi bears or the like – for example by their grandmother. Even alcohol is hidden in sweet things such as chocolate or marzipan and only has to be declarated from 1.2 per cent by volume – according to German law, § 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 5 Lebensmittelkennzeichnungsverordnung.

But every man eating meat or drinking alcohol will have to pay his karmic debts. If parents give their children meat to eat they are brought to justice because they are responsible for the good of their children.

It is true also for pets, which cannot decide for themselves because of their karmic bondage. Dogs, for example, can be very well nourished in a vegetarian fashion and, by experience, become more peacefully then.

Annie Besant writes on this subject:

As said above, the astral body hinges on one side to the physical, and it is affected by the purity or impurity of the physical body. We have seen that the solids, liquids, gases and ethers of which the physical body is composed may be coarse or refined, gross or delicate their nature will in turn affect the nature of their corresponding astral envelopes. If, unwisely careless about the physical, we build into our dense bodies solid particles of an impure kind, we attract to ourselves the corresponding impure kind of what we will call the solid astral. As we, on the other hand, build into our dense bodies solid particles of purer type, we attract the correspondingly purer type of solid astral matter.

As we carry on the purification of the physical body by feeding it on clean food and drink, by excluding from our diet the polluting kinds of aliment – the blood of animals, alcohol and other things that are foul and degrading – we not only improve our physical vehicle of consciousness, but we also begin to purify the astral vehicle and take from the astral world more delicate and finer materials for its construction. The effect of this is not only important as regards the present earth-life, but it has a distinct bearing also – as we shall see later – on the next post-mortem state, on the stay in the astral world, and also on the kind of body we shall have in the next life upon earth.

[…] Any person endowed with astral vision sees, as he walks along our London streets, hordes of loathsome elementals crowding round our butchers' shops; and in beer-houses and gin-palaces elementaries specially gather, feasting on the foul emanations of the liquors, and thrusting themselves, when possible, into the very bodies of the drinkers. These beings are attracted by those who build their bodies out of these materials, and such people have these surroundings as part of their astral life. […]

Man and His Bodies – by Annie Besant,
The Astral or Desire Body,
(Theosophical Manual No. VII)
Anand Gholap Theosophical Institute, 2009

And at another point:

[…] but if you notice a child, you will find that the child's body does not spontaneously make demands for the things on which adult bodies feast with coarse pleasure; the child’s body, unless it has a very bad physical heredity, shrinks from meat and wine, but its elders force meat on it, and the father and mother give it sips of wine from their glasses at dessert, and bid it "be a little man," till the child by its own imitative faculty and by the compulsion of others is turned into evil ways. Then, of course, impure tastes are made, and perhaps old kamic cravings are awakened which might have been starved out, and the body will gradually form the habit of demanding the things upon which it has been fed. […]

Man and His Bodies – by Annie Besant,
The Physical Body,
(Theosophical Manual No. VII)
Anand Gholap Theosophical Institute, 2009

Since in the current age nearly all humans have been influenced accordingly during childhood and adolescence they mostly, even as adults, indulge in the passions of eating meat and drinking alcohol. This also refers to those, who claim to stand in the succession of Christ and who are still regarded by many humans as examples. Pope Benedict XVI affirmed during an interview on television after his election that even after the election of the Pope a bottle of champagne was waiting to be drunk. Even people who have a natural aversion against alcohol have to drink of it during religious ceremonies.

Unfortunately alcohol consumption has a long tradition in church circles. At the time of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI at the Vatican most immoral festivals were held. Happily today – in 2012 – this is not the case anymore. But still today meat and alcoholic beverages are regularly consumed by the representatives of the church.

The former Protestant bishop and chairman of the council of the Protestant Church, today’s priest, Margot Käßmann, drove her car in 2010 under the immense influence of alcohol. Thereby she drove through a red traffic light and was stopped by the police. She broke the law and accepted to endanger other traffic participants. She was at least responsible enough to resign from her offices. In the media this was celebrated as exemplary. In fact her resignation was not exemplary at all but merely a natural course of action.

Three months later, on the ecumenical church congress she gave a talk. She said that there might be events in life which darken the heavens. In this connection she enumerated several examples such as the death of man or, with reference to her drive under the influence of alcohol, a red traffic light (Source: The German newspaper Welt Online, 'Kirchentag feiert Käßmann mit Standing Ovations', 13.05.2010; URL: http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article7609477/Kirchentag-feiert-Kaessmann-mit-Standing-Ovations.html).

With it she tried to relativise her deed. However the issues used by her as examples for this purpose are of completely different nature: a man’s time of death is preordained by his karma. Although this karma has been caused by him during his previous life he has no influence on it in his present life anymore, it is part of his destiny. Driving a car under the influence of alcohol is not even at all preordained by karma or destiny but it is a self-induced action in this life. To subtly relativise this action in the abovementioned way is in no way exemplary – particularly not for someone who is still wrongly regarded as a religious authority by many people. Such a course of action rather supports a whitewash of alcohol consumption or other mistakes and a denial of the responsibility for the own actions* amongst the listeners of such a talk.

* This way of whitewash is widespread in Christianity. It is also spoken of so-called 'venial sins' to which not too much importance is attached. However, mostly the elemental threefold Divine Law of repentence, forgiveness and abstinence has not been understood sufficiently. (See also the subsection 'Forgive my mistake' in the illustration to 'The Indispensability of the Guru.')

The number of unreported cases of sextons in Germany, France, Italy and other European states who get drunk is not known. However it can be assumed that is must be considerably as these persons regularly consume alcohol for professional reasons.

The German newspaper RP-online for example already published an article with the title 'Italienischer Priester gibt Messwein die Schuld' ('Italian Priest blames Communion Wine'; URL: www.rp-online.de/panorama/ausland/Italienischer-Priester-gibt-Messwein-die-Schuld_aid_725346.html) on 28th June 2009. Herein it is reported that an inebriated Italian priest with 0.8 per mill in his blood had fallen victim to a traffic check. As a justification for the high alcohol level the priest had declared, according to RP-online, he would have been obligated to drink alcohol during a church service with Last Supper because of professional reasons. Therefore he could not be blamed as he had simply exercised his office. Furthermore it is reported that the priest intended to proceed against the confiscation of his driver’s license by the police since he had not drunken the wine by free choice.

Even in this case the absurdity of suchlike behaviour and the useless and senseless justifications is recognisable indeed.

However, Jesus – like the Torch Bearers of all religions Who were in contact with Naam – neither ate meat nor drank alcohol, since abandoning these things – if one had consumed them before – was at all times a basic requirement to be given initiation. In the case of passages from the Bible that allegedly say something else about the diet of Jesus, it is just a matter of translation errors or misinterpretations as it can be proved.

For example in the Bible different terms that actually mean 'side dish' were wrongly translated as 'meat'. In reality this side dish normally consisted of (dried) fruits. Even the famous miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes did not take place in this way: as Kirpal Singh emphasized bread had been baked in the form of fish at that time. And in old texts there is talk about 'bread and fruits.' In subsequent translations, from 'bread in the form of fishes' and 'fruits' they wrongly made bread and fishes. Meanwhile, even Pope Benedict XVI had to confirm that Jesus did not eat a 'passover lamb' at the time of Last Supper.

Furthermore in the Bible the term 'wine' often was used in passages where, in the old texts, there was talk about grape juice. This was freshly pressed out if possible.

So we already find in the Old Testament:

And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.

1 Genesis 40:11

Furthermore at that time – contrary to widespread statements – it was already possible to preserve grape juice in an unfermented form inter alia by thickening it to syrup – for drinking it was again diluted with water. Independent hereof, in the orient the Saints and personages devoted to God quite often used the term 'wine' as a symbol for 'Amrit' – Nectar.

(See also 'Gurumat Sidhant – Part I, Chapter IV: Amrit Vela and Part II, Chapter VII: Amrit', by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974.)

Also a number of passages in the Bible where there is talk about wine are actually meant symbolically. Because of the mixture of mistranslated biblical texts on the one hand and misunderstood passages from the Bible on the other hand very much confusion has occured.

Turning 'water into wine' during the marriage at Kana Jesus distributed the blessing of 'Amrit.' And sharing 'bread and wine' at the time of the so-called 'Last Supper' with His disciples – as it is commonly believed today – He most surely passed on the 'Bread of Life' and the 'Wine of the Divine Intoxication' – those blessings that a Soul gets through Amrit and that His disciples received. – However, Jesus and His disciples did not drink wine in the sense of alcoholic fermented grape juice; in the biblical descriptions there is no talk of wine but only of the 'fruit of the grapevine.'

The wrong believe that the wine used during the Eucharist would be the blood of Christ is based on the sentences that were spoken at the time of the Last Supper as it is given in the Bible: 'This is my body' and 'This is my blood.' These statements however are an equivalent to the 'Bread and Water of Life' – Naam – mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, with the mere difference that they refer to Christ. Therefore they are neither to be taken literally nor to be applied to today’s churchly rituals.

Not only did Jesus and His disciples not drink alcohol, in Judaism the consumption of alcohol is frowned upon too.

So we find in the Old Testament:

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the viol, and the taboret and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands.

Isaiah 5:11-12

And furthermore:

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth beyond measure; and their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Isaiah 5:14

In spite of all these and other obvious evidences in the Jewish religion some mistakes crept in. So on several occasions wine is used ritually and one time a year – at the Purim Festival – according to the will of the rabbis religious Jews should get completely drunk.

But all of this is based upon the confusion of the descriptions in the old texts, in which wine stands for Amrit, as it is mentioned further above. Such things happen when people interpret the scriptures intellectually because they are not in contact with the Truth.

Whereas in Christianity and Judaism these mistakes arose due to insufficient understanding, in Islam the consumption of alcohol is still prohibited today – in 2012 – for good reason; in Hinduism alcohol is regarded as impure too. In Buddhism, giving up inebriants – thus alcohol too – is fixed in the 'Five Commandments.'

However, even in Buddhism fundamental mistakes have slipped in. Nowadays it is wrongly considered to be allowed to eat the flesh of animals that have not been killed by themselves and that have not been killed especially for them. For instance from this falsity the bad habit has developed to consume fish that had been captured by ad hoc adjusted cormorants. Since these birds naturally dive for fishes and live on them, it is said to be allowed to eat a fish that has been caught by a cormorant. Such a trained cormorant sometimes catches more than hundred fishes per hour. The fisher puts a ring or a string around his throat so that the cormorant can only swallow smaller fish. Then one lets him dive. When the cormorant has killed a bigger fish and tries to swallow it, the fisher massages/pulls it out of his throat again. The smaller fishes the bird may keep for itself.

Such procedures, however, are nothing else than self-deception. The forbiddance of meat consumption – of course the body of fish also consists of meat – is absolute and does not know any exception.

Promise: Sat Purush’s original gift of the three worlds. Kabir answers this question in His response to Kal.