Destiny of Nations
Karma and Reincarnation are the two jewels that adorn the crown of Hinduism with which it distinguishes itself from the rest of the religions of the world. Karma is the result of the collective deeds of an individual. The fate of a nation is similarly built on the collective actions of its individuals. And, by the same token, the destiny of the world is the sum total of the collective affairs of the nations. In the totality of these collective affairs, one can always observe a mysterious force which guides itself, marks - its inexorable imprint and set in motion what seemingly look like inconsistent situations. Taken together they form a mighty sweep that set the pattern for a change in the course of world affairs. On this wide expanse of world arena, while most men are born just to live and die, a chosen few come out as men of destiny. The Architect of the universe in His wisdom has designed them to be so.
To this reckoning Rasputin, a morally decrepit Russian monk, may not fill in the bill as a man of destiny but certainly he was the architect of his own fate and in a more emphatical way he left enough footprints on the sands of time to change the course of world history and the destiny of nations. He was responsible vicariously for the birth of a new cult of governance, that is, Communism, that divided the world into two hemispheres built on a platform of perpetual war hysteria. The story of Rasputin is the story that depicts the extent of destruction that can be caused by an ambitious, half-baked pseudo, spiritualist whom the society should shun like a hot brick. Without going into the lurid details that may dirty these divine pages, only an acceptable account of the man is given here to illustrate the example,'
Born as Gregory Effimovitch in sub-zero colds on 7th July, 1872, in a 'god-forsaken' Siberian frozen wasteland, he was a terror even as a young boy. When he rose to his teens, he inherited an instinct for all morbid tastes of soft skins, soul-less robberies and sodden habits. Needless to state, he was despised by everybody and was nick-named Rasputin-a term used by Russians for incorrigibles.
In 1903, he came in contact with a kindly priest who preached him the virtue of honest living. Touched by the soulful innocence of the priest and in a fit of sudden remorse, he left his wife and children to lead the life of a recluse and did a spell of penance in a Russian monastery. The effort gave him only the Devil's scripture to walk upon but not the Biblical commandments. He did gain a vestige of miracles but they were all used for meaner purposes Coming out of his penance, he declared that St. Michael had commanded him to build a church for Him. Like fools, gullible people too are born one a minute. They came from all sides calling him a prophet and showered on him great gifts of money. Inebriated by the initial success, he conceived an extraordinary doctrine of "Sin for Salvation". Perversity parexcellence, his contention was that the Lord's pardon is not possible without already committing a sin. So the sure way to salvation is to commit sin ! Across the dreary frozen lands the slogan spread like a battle cry and his name echoed far and wide much sooner than expected.
In 1904 fate conspired to bring Lydia Backmakow, a rich millionaire widow, to his door step. Mesmerised by his mysterious credo, she allowed the use of her money and influence to bring many a Czarist official to him providing the right kind of connections everywhere. Spurred by success and high ambition, in 1905 he installed himself at St. Petersburg, the then capital and now the modern Leningrad. Instantly his mystic popularity sky rocketed. In the bargain he gained access to the royal palace with the help of one Madame Sund. By a quirk of circumstances and with his Devil's magic wand he soon held the royal couple like prisoners to the will of his mind. Prom that time onwards Rasputin's influence over the royal family was total. There was not an occasion when they did not consult him from the highest state affairs to the trivial morning sicknesses. The reins of administration were thus passed on to him without his actually holding them.
For the next 10 years Rasputin, the devil masquerading under a monk's robes, was the undisputed master of Russia. His life's ambition reached its zenith. But all good things too must come to an end. Vain glorious, greatly debauched and with an insatiable greed for power and wealth, he allowed himself to be the instrument of ,total disorder, chaos and mis-rule. A land of great riches was turned into a land of seething poverty. Discontentment was writ large everywhere. The rulers were sitting on a powder keg. A country's fortune, like money, is a good slave but a bad master. The Czar when he ruled the country with his capable hands it behaved like an obedient slave and a disciplined soldier but no sooner the reins were loosened it struck vengeance.
Speculations of 'ifs' and 'buts' of history are of no avail — nations rise and fall — men and women are but threads on the loom of fate, the weaving of the pattern lies in the hands of design before which we mortals can only bow the .'head and say "Thy will be done". Like Napolean, Kaiser and Hitler, Rasputin was but a servant of destiny. Like a robot he obeyed those unknown forces of life that make themselves manifest in all. In that manner fate at last had forsaken her favorite and the Nemesis of Rasputin was sealed He was stewed in his own medicine — the soft skin syndrome. The wrath of the people turned against him. They hatched a plan to pay him in his own coin — treachery. As a ploy he was invited for supper by a much-sought-after-by-him soft skin. He fell to it hook, line and sinker. There at the table, as a preliminary, he drank glass after glass of wine which was surreptitiously been treated earlier by the schemers with enough potassium cyanide to kill a dozen — but nothing happened ! He ate the supper similarly treated. Still nothing happened' ! In desperation the killers came out of their hiding and pumped several bullets into his heart at close range. He bled profusely but refused to die ! Finally he was taken over to the Petrovsky Bridge and was pushed over into the freezing waters of Neva. This time fate did not cheat them.
The trail of Rasputin comes to an end here but not the story. He left behind an avalanche of destruction. Out of this destruction sprouted an enormous economic disaster. Out of this was born a people's unrest and upheaval, and out of this, an unparalleled revolution led by the father of Communism — Lenin. Lenin with his ideas as a harbinger of a new order of society would not have been the Lenin we know of from history had not a Rasputin paved the way earlier for him.
Rasputin was born a peasant, a very lowest kind at that,, so ignorant that he could scarcely read or write — yet this man became a power that destroyed a dynasty, wrecked a civilization and caused more ruin and upheaval than any other man of recent history — and unwittingly paved the way for a new idea of government. His life portrays in a nutshell the dangers that lurk in encouraging and patronising such half-baked pseudo spiritualists, They are nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing. They spell nothing but doom and destruction to everybody.
Today if the nations of the world are arraigned behind Communism or Capitalism facing each other on the brink of a total war of extinction with piles of deadly arsenal, it is India as the third block which is breathing a whiff of fresh air.
Mahatma Gandhi, a man of destiny, gave us the freedom and changed the course of world events with his cult of ahimsa and non-violence. His dream of an India 'was that there should be equal distribution of wealth, honesty of administration, racial tolerance and, above all, a spiritual undercurrent manifest in all walks of life. But today — within 30 years after independence — that dream of Ramraj has been shattered like a mirage on a summer horizon. If one Rasputin of yester-year corrupted a whole nation there are now a whole mushroom of them at all levels on the Indian landscape to doom it for eternal perdition. We, the mere mortals and playthings in the great design of the shape of things to come, can only lift our hands in supplication to that architect of the universe to give us the man of the hour, the man of destiny, to reconnoiter the disparate divisive forces and to channelise and re-shape our beloved country to play its ordained divine role as a sobering restraint in a world chased by many schisms. Many things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of... Let us all pray to our Murlidhar Sai through a Niranthara Akhanda Sairama Nama Japa at Shirdi for the destruction of all evil and restoration of the good and for the establishment of dharma and righteousness. Is this a tall order ? No. It is the faith with which we build our hopes that make the proposed Niranthara Akhanda Sairama Nama Japa a success to provide for us the man of the hour — a man of destiny. The sooner Shri Sai Sansthan makes arrangements for this Akhanda Nama Japa the better. A
K. Navin Chander
Hyderabad 500457
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