“The Kalinga country was conquered by King Priyadarshi, Beloved of the Gods, in the eighth year of his reign. One hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried away captive, one hundred thousand were slain, and many times that number died. [..]
The Beloved of the Gods, conqueror of the Kalingas, is moved to remorse now. For he has felt profound sorrow and regret because the conquest of a people previously unconquered involves slaughter, death, and deportation.
But there is a more important reason for the King's remorse [..] friends, acquaintances, companions, relatives, slaves, and servants, all suffer from the injury, slaughter and deportation inflicted on their loved ones. Even those who escaped calamity themselves are deeply afflicted by the misfortunes suffered by those friends, acquaintances, companions, and relatives for whom they feel an undiminished affection. Thus all men share in the misfortune, and this weighs on King Priyadarshi's mind. [..]
Therefore, even if the number of people who were killed or who died or who were carried away in the Kalinga war had been only one one-hundredth or one one-thousandth of what it actually was, this would still have weighed on the King's mind.
King Priyadarshi now thinks that even a person who wrongs him must be forgiven for wrongs that can be forgiven.
King Priyadarshi seeks to induce even the forest peoples who have come under his dominion to adopt this way of life and this ideal. He reminds them, however, that he exercises the power to punish, despite his repentance, in order to induce them to desist from their crimes and escape execution. For King Priyadarshi desires security, self-control, impartiality, and cheerfulness for all living creatures.
King Priyadarshi considers moral conquest the most important conquest.”
Sri Krishna: Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for yet speakest words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn either for the living or for the dead. It is not true that at any time I was not, nor thou, nor these kings of men; nor is it true that any of us shall ever cease to be hereafter. As the soul passes physically through childhood and youth and age, so it passes on to the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not allow himself to be disturbed and blinded by this.... Weapons cannot cleave [the soul], nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. It is uncleavable, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is forever and forever. It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable; therefore knowing it as such, thou shouldst not grieve.
I am grateful for the reflections that are shared and enrich our view from the present. In my case, I do not have the qualities or training of a historian, but I am still amazed by the handling of data, and how information builds meanings.
In reference to Churchill's attitude and his global decisions during WW2, I am no one to judge them and much less to say if they are divine or not, but it is necessary to review the data and the links, now that we have perspective and then draw conclusions.
British military fatalities were about 350,000, plus 70,000 civilians.
Indian military fatalities were about 90,000, plus 2,000,000 civilians.
There are sources that suggest that the death toll from the 1943 Bengal famine amounted to 4,000,000 because of political and economic decisions linked to Churchill's management of the war.
Could this be considered divine collateral effects or a full-fledged imperialist genocide?
As always, everyone will draw their own conclusions based on the information they have access to.
Hi Sigfrid, I hear you. But keep in mind what was happening at the time. In a war “between two forces, the Divine and the Asuric,” numbers count for little. What matters is the victory of one side, which “would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces” and the defeat of the other side, which “would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished. That is the whole question and all other considerations are either irrelevant or of a minor importance.”
Once again: “it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance. It is no use concentrating on the defects or mistakes of nations; all have defects and commit serious mistakes; but what matters is on what side they have ranged themselves in the struggle. It is a struggle for the liberty of mankind to develop, for conditions in which men have freedom and room to think and act according to the light in them and grow in the Truth, grow in the Spirit. There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one side wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country [India] do not dream of and cannot yet at all realise.”
“Evil,” Sri Aurobindo writes in his Essays on the Gita, “cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil.”
There are truly awful things in the world — and you sympathize with those who whine about confinement, covid passports and gene therapy? You need to develop some discrimination. Not everything people dislike is asuric, man.
“The Kalinga country was conquered by King Priyadarshi, Beloved of the Gods, in the eighth year of his reign. One hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried away captive, one hundred thousand were slain, and many times that number died. [..]
The Beloved of the Gods, conqueror of the Kalingas, is moved to remorse now. For he has felt profound sorrow and regret because the conquest of a people previously unconquered involves slaughter, death, and deportation.
But there is a more important reason for the King's remorse [..] friends, acquaintances, companions, relatives, slaves, and servants, all suffer from the injury, slaughter and deportation inflicted on their loved ones. Even those who escaped calamity themselves are deeply afflicted by the misfortunes suffered by those friends, acquaintances, companions, and relatives for whom they feel an undiminished affection. Thus all men share in the misfortune, and this weighs on King Priyadarshi's mind. [..]
Therefore, even if the number of people who were killed or who died or who were carried away in the Kalinga war had been only one one-hundredth or one one-thousandth of what it actually was, this would still have weighed on the King's mind.
King Priyadarshi now thinks that even a person who wrongs him must be forgiven for wrongs that can be forgiven.
King Priyadarshi seeks to induce even the forest peoples who have come under his dominion to adopt this way of life and this ideal. He reminds them, however, that he exercises the power to punish, despite his repentance, in order to induce them to desist from their crimes and escape execution. For King Priyadarshi desires security, self-control, impartiality, and cheerfulness for all living creatures.
King Priyadarshi considers moral conquest the most important conquest.”
(King Ashōka, Rock Edict, XIII, 230 B.C.)
Sri Krishna: Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for yet speakest words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn either for the living or for the dead. It is not true that at any time I was not, nor thou, nor these kings of men; nor is it true that any of us shall ever cease to be hereafter. As the soul passes physically through childhood and youth and age, so it passes on to the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not allow himself to be disturbed and blinded by this.... Weapons cannot cleave [the soul], nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. It is uncleavable, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is forever and forever. It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable; therefore knowing it as such, thou shouldst not grieve.
— https://aurocafe.substack.com/p/yoga-is-skill-in-works
I am grateful for the reflections that are shared and enrich our view from the present. In my case, I do not have the qualities or training of a historian, but I am still amazed by the handling of data, and how information builds meanings.
In reference to Churchill's attitude and his global decisions during WW2, I am no one to judge them and much less to say if they are divine or not, but it is necessary to review the data and the links, now that we have perspective and then draw conclusions.
British military fatalities were about 350,000, plus 70,000 civilians.
Indian military fatalities were about 90,000, plus 2,000,000 civilians.
There are sources that suggest that the death toll from the 1943 Bengal famine amounted to 4,000,000 because of political and economic decisions linked to Churchill's management of the war.
Could this be considered divine collateral effects or a full-fledged imperialist genocide?
As always, everyone will draw their own conclusions based on the information they have access to.
With thanks,
an apprentice
Hi Sigfrid, I hear you. But keep in mind what was happening at the time. In a war “between two forces, the Divine and the Asuric,” numbers count for little. What matters is the victory of one side, which “would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces” and the defeat of the other side, which “would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished. That is the whole question and all other considerations are either irrelevant or of a minor importance.”
Once again: “it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance. It is no use concentrating on the defects or mistakes of nations; all have defects and commit serious mistakes; but what matters is on what side they have ranged themselves in the struggle. It is a struggle for the liberty of mankind to develop, for conditions in which men have freedom and room to think and act according to the light in them and grow in the Truth, grow in the Spirit. There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one side wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country [India] do not dream of and cannot yet at all realise.”
“Evil,” Sri Aurobindo writes in his Essays on the Gita, “cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil.”
Yes, thank you for the clarification.
I have also followed Professor Snyder's lectures, thanks to your recommendation in this space.
Seen in this way, confinement, covid passports and gene therapy are shown with great evidence to be asuric forces at work, isn't it?
Love & Light
There are truly awful things in the world — and you sympathize with those who whine about confinement, covid passports and gene therapy? You need to develop some discrimination. Not everything people dislike is asuric, man.