Civilisation Or Chaos?
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Civilisation or Chaos? A Study of the present World Crisis in the Light of Eastern Metaphysics By I. H. Conybeare An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook April 2014 Source: This eBook reproduces the edition of Civilisation or Chaos? published by Markham House Press, LTD. 31 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, S.W.3 England 1955. eBooks at the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Web Site The Avatar Meher Baba Trust’s eBooks aspire to be textually exact though non-facsimile reproductions of published books, journals and articles. With the consent of the copyright holders, these online editions are being made available through the Avatar Meher Baba Trust’s web site, for the research needs of Meher Baba’s lovers and the general public around the world. Again, the eBooks reproduce the text, though not the exact visual likeness, of the original publications. 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In the meantime, we hope it will serve the needs of those seeking to deepen and broaden their own familiarity with Avatar Meher Baba’s life and message and to disseminate this good news throughout the world. CIVILISATION OR CHAOS? A study of the present World Crisis in the Light of Eastern Metaphysics. BY I. H. CONYBEARE Published by MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD. 31 KINGS ROAD, CHELSEA, LONDON, S.W.3 ENGLAND 1955 1 All rights in this book are reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages. Nor may the book or part of it be reproduced in any manner whatever without permission in writing from the author. 2 "Whenever virtue is on the decline, and the resurgence of evil and injustice in the world is occurring, I the Avatar, take on human form. For the establishment of righteousness and the destruction of the evil doer, I am born from Age to Age." —The Lord's Song. This little book is humbly and respectfully dedicated to The Avatar Meher Baba. I have come not to teach, but to awaken !" —Meher Baba. 3 4 I am greatly indebted to Ramjoo Abdulla and Adi. K. Irani for the clarification of certain technicalities connected with the dynamics of the Path. I have to thank their associates. Professor C. D. Deshmukh, M.A., Ph.D., Dr. William Donkin, M.B., and C. B. Purdom, for allowing me to draw on their publications, such as "The Discourses of Meher Baba," "The Meher Journal," "The Wayfarers," and ''The Perfect Master.'' Also acknowledgement is due to "The Awakener," New York, and to the "New Age Interpreter," Los Angeles. 5 6 CONTENTS ___________ Preface ……………………………………..9 Introduction Quo Vadis?....................................13 Chapter I The Higher Criticism……………19 Chapter II What is God?.................................37 Chapter III The God-Realised……………….53 Chapter IV Cycles and Circles……………….70 Chapter V Meher Baba……………………...90 Chapter VI The Duality of the Universe……122 Chapter VII Knowledge and Imagination.......141 Chapter VIII The Stages of the Path………….148 Chapter IX The Masts (the Godmad)…...….157 Chapter X Karma……………..……………173 Chapter XI Prophecies………………………187 Chapter XII Jesus an Avatar…………………201 Chapter XIII The Second Advent…………….217 Appendix ………………………………….237 7 8 PREFACE I must crave indulgence for being neither a scholar nor an authority on the profound subject matter of this book. Nevertheless, though only a student, I venture to claim an advantage over the learned doctors who argue ad infinitum over the various aspects of Truth. This advantage will become apparent to those who follow these pages with sufficient patience to digest the knowledge contained therein. This, needless to say, does not come from me; for I have attempted to explain the Laws of Life and their relation to the present World Crisis. In my young days at Oxford, I would sometimes listen to my father† and his friends. One of their subjects was ''Cornering the Absolute.'' However, I would always "come out by the same door as in I went'': for how can Aristotelian metaphysics be reconciled with the Infinite Brahman? The medieval monk would know what he meant by Cognosens fit cognitum; as also did his Eastern brethren thousands of years before him, by Brahma-vid- Bramaiva bhavati. We might translate this "To know the Absolute is to become the Absolute!'' For how can the finite know the Infinite, except by being in some manner like unto the Infinite? Some kind of Supreme Identity must be possible. The Upanishads say: "Those who cultivate ignorance, enter into blind darkness, but into greater darkness do those end, who confine themselves to scientific know- ledge." The profound truths and laws of life cannot be discovered in the British † F. C. Conybeare. See Apendix 9 Museum or in scientists' laboratories. Few there be who can master the knowledge of the dynamics of the Path which leads to All-Wisdom and to the Ultimate Reality. According to the Hindu concept, there is the Infinite Brahman, who is called "THAT," for can we call something we do not know by a name, how apply a qualifying adjective? "THAT" exists beyond the compass of our limiting senses . "The eye does not go thither," say the Upanishads, "nor speech, nor mind. We do not know . The ignorant think that It lies within knowledge; the wise man knows It is beyond knowledge." The relation of man to God has always been the subject of endless conjecture by the theologians of every Faith. But this problem can never be solved through the intellect, which is bound by the limitations of the human mind. Again, the Upanishads explain: "Not by instruction may this Supreme Self be gained, nor by intellect, nor by much scripture learning. Whomsoever He chooses, by such may He be gained, to such a One, this Supreme Self reveals His own Reality." The Universe is built up on God's eternal and immutable laws, and when man puts himself in opposition to God and His Laws, he has created opposition to his own Higher Self and Divine Nature. It is then, when wholesale violation of His laws take place—as is happening today— that God again descends from the Infinite to take on human form as a recurring Divine Manifestation on earth: to win back man to Himself. Such a Man is an Avatar or Messiah. It is not commonly known that there are always Men on earth who are Truth-Incarnate, and therefore the fountain heads of all spiritual wisdom, being themselves All-Wisdom, All-Power and Divine Love. Such Men, after their death, are hailed as saviours of mankind. But during their lives, they are invariably misunderstood and often persecuted with inconceivable malignity. These men live and 10 work in silence, unheard and unsung, but in times of great crisis in human history, there is always One, the Avatar, who comes out into the world, and in emerging creates a great landmark in spiritual history. We have tried to explain the work of an Avatar and his connection with this Age; for through the general increase in modern knowledge, psychological and scientific, we have reached a certain stage that makes it necessary for men to be given a fresh concept of the Truth. Intelligent people are tired of religious chauvinism, and are moving rapidly away from worn-out traditions. At the same time all thinking people wish to know what the present world unrest is about and how it may end. They also want a new concept of life, of man and of God in harmony with modern thought. There is an interesting fact connected with my father. Irritated by the attacks of the Church on Darwin and Huxley and the new scientific approach at the beginning of this century, he decided to write a book for the lay public. This retaliatory work, Myth, Magic and Morals, which he gave to the Rationalist Press, was a devastating attack on orthodox Christianity and played a considerable part in shaping the minds of the younger university generations towards rationalism.