Lord Skanda-Murugan
 

The Soul within the Roles of Skanda-Murukan
&
The Worship of the Roles of Skanda-Murukan

by Brahma Kumari Pari

Lord Karttikeya
Lord Skanda-Kārttikeya
Valli Teyvani Samedha Murugan
Valli Teyvani Samedha Murugan
Valli Murugan
Valli Murugan
Valli Kumarar
Kumarar

Editor's note:
This article by a Malaysian devotee has been published as a devotional essay in the Murugan Bhakti section of biographies and personal accounts of Kaumara devotees and sages. As a devotional essay, it may include statements based upon the writer's experiences or opinions, which cannot be proven or disproven. Moreover, some statements may not agree with orthodox tenets of Kaumara doctrine. For instance, strictly speaking, one cannot speak of a 'soul' of Murugan in a sense that contradicts the Kaumara conclusion that He is Kadavul or Bhagavan (i.e. 'God'), and so entirely above the jeevas or souls. Readers should therefore exercise their discrimination in understanding and interpreting devotional essays.

Murukan (or Murugan / Muruga), the god worshiped by the Tamils, is also worshiped by Hindus through the usage of other names such as Skanda, Kanda, Somaskanda, Karttikeya, Kumara, Shanmuga, Subrahmanya, Alankara Kantan, Arumugan, Balamuruga, Palani Andavar / Palani Andi, etc. When I refer to Skanda-Murukan, it includes all the various roles associated to Murukan and my emphasis will be on the soul who plays these roles. The soul that played the roles of Skanda, Murukan, etc., is the very same. But, off course, there is also the battalion of Murukan and that is a different matter, which I will not be discussing here.

The names given to the soul of Skanda-Murukan have different meanings based on the roles, virtues, etc., of the soul of Skanda-Murukan when this soul played these roles during the Confluence Age (at the end of each cycle of time). There can be only a little difference between the names used or there can be a huge difference between the names used based on the quality etc., that is being expressed. For example, there is the puranic Skanda (accepted by the North Indians) and the Tamil puranic Kanda where the names differ because the 'Kanda' does not include the 's' at the beginning. On the other hand, the Vedic name 'Subrahmanya' sounds very different from Skanda or Kanda. In Subrahmanya, su refers to the sweet divine virtues (of the Supreme Soul and of the divine soul who played the role of Skanda-Murukan). There is great sweetness, peace etc., when these divine virtues are in an emerged state and when the soul of Skanda-Murukan is filled with God's divine virtues. Brahmanya refers to the one who:

  1. is a Brahman because of his closeness to God;
  2. gives others the desire to enjoy the state of being a Brahman;
  3. turns others into Brahmans;
  4. keeps the company of others who also enjoy the state of being a Brahman;
  5. knows and is associated to the knowledge which God gives us during the Confluence Age;
  6. intensely practices this godly knowledge and who is thus an apple of God's eye;
  7. loves keeping God's Company so that he can enjoy the state of being a Brahman

Subrahmanya can be said to be the Brahman who enjoys the sweet soul conscious state. A Brahman is one who is the closest to God. When I (Brahma Kumari Pari) am in the detached divine soul conscious state, I play the role of Skanda-Murukan. It is because of this divine soul conscious state that the word 'Om' has been associated to Skanda-Murukan. Om means 'soul'. From the Copper Age onwards memories of what had happened during the Confluence Age had emerged to influence us at corporeal level. Thus, when souls began to remember of how they were able to enjoy the soul conscious state during the previous Confluence Age, this would influence them at corporeal level and the body-conscious person / soul would be influenced to go and build a temple to Muruga because the soul conscious state was seen and experienced by them through the soul of Skanda-Murukan. It was because of Murukan's soul conscious state that he was associated to the word, 'Om'. It was because he began to experience the soul conscious state that people began to:

  1. understand the truth,
  2. see God as the Supreme Soul,
  3. see and understand that they were the souls,
  4. see, feel and understand the divine state of the soul through the soul of Skanda-Murukan,

So Om became a very important auspicious word. The su in the name Subrahmanya represents the sweetness of the soul in its divine state. People were able to experience this sweetness when they were in the presence of the soul of Skanda-Murukan (during his soul conscious divine state). There is nothing great about experiencing being the soul if one doesn't experience the sweetness of the divine virtues of the soul, which are actually the original qualities of the soul. The vices appeared within the soul because of the weak state of the energies of the soul. A Brahman is not a true Brahman if he is not able to experience the 'Su' aspect of the soul.

If one looked at the stories and believes that are within the ancient scriptures etc, one would find that these sometimes portray God as playing the role of Skanda, Muruga etc. At other times they portray the role of the child of God who plays these roles at the end of each cycle during the time when the destruction of the old corporeal world and the creation of the new heavenly world is in progress, i.e. when the child of God plays these roles during the Confluence Age. When I refer to the soul of Skanda-Murukan, I am referring to the child of God.

Skanda-Murukan represents the 'War God', the 'God of Victory' etc. These representations are based on how he was victorious during his battles with the vices (whether the vices are those that are within him or within others). The vices are nothing in comparison to his powerful strength and he easily gains victory. Through conquering the vices, he becomes a master of the world which means that he becomes a world emperor. Actually, he does not do war to become a world emperor, he becomes that because of his ability to gain victory over the vices. On an overall level, he had victory at world level through the usage of godly knowledge, his power of yoga, through using God, etc. He was a world benefactor. He enabled everyone in the world to understand and accept the truth. Thus, he is associated to victory even in this sense.

In the ancient scriptures, he is also shown flying all over the place because he reached out to the world through using the flying stage and purity. At the beginning of the Copper Age, the soul of Skanda had also flown all over the world in his advanced computerized aircraft to see if the people all over the world were all right and to give whatever help he could. The earthquakes were pulling everything into the earth and there were scientific instruments which informed him as to where an earthquake was going to take place. He would then immediate give orders to the people to vacate the place and he does his best to get them to safe grounds. He had also helped to keep law and order because people had begun to use the vices. The people began to worship him during the Copper Age because:

  1. they knew that it was he who played the role of Skanda-Murukan during the previous Confluence Age,
  2. he was one of the powerful eight deity souls, all of whom had maintained their royal status,
  3. people appreciated his help and kindness,
    (At the beginning of the Copper Age, those who lived in the palaces did not mix with those who did not live there. Thus, it was greatly appreciated to see a powerful king leave the palaces because of his concern for the people)

Thus, the people of the Copper Age began to worship the grounds which he had stepped foot on by building temples there in his memory. He did not request this to be done. It just happened. However, the 'victory' and 'war' aspects, which are associated to the soul of Skanda-Murukan, are based on how he had been victorious over the vices during the Confluence Age.

In memory of how the soul of Skanda-Murukan had attained victory, numerous stories, representations, etc., were created by the ancient people during the Copper Age. For example the Vel (spear) represents the blessings which God had given the soul of Skanda-Murukan. These blessings include the Shiva-Shakti stage of the soul of Skanda-Murukan. This Shiva-Shakti stage is a very powerful stage. Thus, man had created stories, associating Murukan and his Vel to Shiva and Shakti, in memory of how the soul of Skanda-Murukan was enjoying the state of being a Shiva-Shakti through the power of yoga with God. For example, Muruga and his Vel are associated to two triangles placed one on top of the other to form a star. One triangle is said to represent Shiva and the other is said to represent Shakti. This symbol, and the Vel, is said to give Murukan the power of both Shiva and Shakti. Actually, this story was created based on how the Shiva-Shakti stage enabled the soul of Skanda-Murukan to become a powerful 'star'. During the soul conscious state, we become like a brilliantly shining star that reflects the Sun's (God's) powerful light. The Vel also represents the heroism and wisdom, which the soul of Skanda-Murukan was enjoying because of God's blessing.

God has given him numerous blessings. One of these is the ability to attain the powerful Shiva-Shakti stage. Another is the ability to attain the virtuous soul conscious state. The third is the ability to use God to be victorious over the vices. The fourth is the ability to use the knowledge which God has given to attain a powerful stage. The fifth is the ability to use the powerful divine intellect. The sixth is the ability to experience the truth through using the third eye of knowledge. There are numerous more beautiful blessings which God has blessed him with but I shall not go into all of them here. The story which shows Shiva giving the Vel to Muruga was created in memory of how the soul of Skanda-Murukan had received these numerous blessings from God Shiva. All these blessings had enabled him to use the powerful, victorious stage. God is his Mother and Father, i.e. his Guide. This itself is another beautiful and powerful blessing all by itself. Some of the ancient stories were also based on this blessing of how God helps him as his Mother and Father.

Words such as Vetrivel (Victorious Spear or Spear of Victory), Shaktivel (Powerful Spear or Spear of Power), Gyanavel (Knowledgeful Spear or Spear of Knowledge), etc., have been given to the Vel which was given to him by God because through using God's blessings the soul of Skanda-Murukan enabled himself and others to attain victory, power, the third eye of knowledge, etc. During the Thaipusam festival at the Batu Caves Temple in Malaysia, one would hear devotees constantly shouting words such as "Vel Vel, Vetrivel" in memory of how the soul of Murukan was victorious and had enabled others to become victorious because of the blessings which God had blessed him with.

At the beginning and end of a speech, program etc, the one who is leading the team (of Murugan devotees) would shout out, "Vetri Vel Murukanukku" (For Murukan with the Victorious Spear) and then the whole group would shout out "Arohara". They shout these words out like how the football cheerleaders shout words relating to victory for their team. Ancient men, during the Copper Age, shouted out the word 'Arohara' because of their desire to see the soul of Skanda-Murukan attaining victory again through the usage of God's blessings. The word 'vetri' means victorious / victory. Murukanukku means 'for / to Muruka'. Arohara is an ancient word which has not been explained in writing by those who had initially started using it. From the stories, the other words used along with it etc, one can guess as to what it means. Psychic research tells me that it is associated to the Egyptian Sun God called 'Re' or 'Ra' which is pronounced like as if the 'r' is followed by an 'o' and then a 'u'. Words similar to Arohara are also used / associated to the worship of other Hindu gods. For example, the words 'Hari Hara' is similar to 'Arohara'. 'Hari Hara' is a reference to God. It can be said that Aro is also a similar reference to God.

At the beginning of the Copper Age, everyone belonged to the same deity religion even though they may have worshipped God through using different names. Thus, the Egyptians and those who lived in the Indus Valley had belonged to the same deity religion. This is similar to how the Krishna followers belong to the Hindu clan just as the Murugan followers also belong to the Hindu clan. Thus, the name of the Egyptian Sun God 'Ra' is also a name that had been used by Hindus. He was worshipped by those who would be termed as Hindus now, i.e. those ancient Egyptians should be termed as Hindus by the current generation of today. During those ancient times there was no need to give a separate name for the different devotees as everyone worshiped the deities. It is true to say that they all belonged to the deity religion which is now called the Hindu religion. It was Abraham who first started another different religion despite public disapproval (of the people of those ancient times).

The Egyptians have associated Ra to the heavenly world of the Golden Age because God Shiva had created Heaven and so Heaven is 'The Kingdom of God' even though He doesn't live in Heaven. Just as Re as been associated to 'light' and 'creation', even the Hindu scriptures have associated Shiva to 'light' and 'creation' through their stories. According to the ancient Egyptians, Re created humankind and deities. These stories were created based on how God Shiva, who is a point of light, creates the new perfect human race at the end of each cycle. He created the subtle deity roles of the Confluence Age and He creates the deities who will live in the heavenly world. Thus, Ra is shown as having fathered the deities. Just as Murukan is said to be the son of God Shiva, even Egyptian deities are shown as the children of Ra.

Skanda and Iskandar or Alexander the Great

All these stories had been created based on memories of how we were the children of God when we were in the soul conscious state. Based on these memories, even the Egyptian pharaohs were referred to as the sons of Ra. In fact, it was because the soul of Skanda-Murukan was recognized within Alexander the Great that even Alexander was referred to as the son of god. The soul that plays the subtle role of Skanda-Murukan had played the corporeal role of Alexander the Great a little after the Copper Age started. The soul within Alexander the Great was still recognized because of the high spirituality within the people of that time. He was accepted as Iskandar in the Middle East region and as Skanda in the Indus valley because of the recognition of the subtle role which he had played during the previous Confluence Age as Skanda-Murukan.

While playing the role of Skanda-Murugan during the Confluence Age, he helped bring about world unity. He had helped to bring about a world which is ruled by just one world government, which uses just one language etc. Thus, these sanskaras (memories, traits, etc.) had emerged to influence him to do the same as Alexander the Great. But Alexander was not successful, though people saw him as being victorious. True victory can only be gained at the end of each cycle because it is then that God comes into the corporeal world so as to get the new world created and this new world has only one government, and only one language is used there. Ra is not only referred to as the Sun God but He is also referred to as the Creator God in memory of how he had re-created the human race at the end of each cycle.

In memory of what had happened during the previous Confluence Age, this God Re was also shown in a combined form with other deities, e.g. as Ra-Harakhte, Amun-Ra, Ra-Atum, etc. In the combined form with Re, these deities were seen being more powerful and they had a more prestigious status. These too were created based on how we enjoy the Shiva-Shakti stage when we have a link to God. This link to God Shiva enables us, the souls (shaktis) to reflect God Shiva's powerful light into the atmosphere. We become equal to God at that time but we do not become God. We become very powerful and become heroes because of this Shiva-Shakti stage. The Egyptian God Ra-Harakhte is a combination of the Sun God 'Ra' and the falcon-headed god Horus. In this combined form, he is seen as the powerful Solar God. Logic tells me to note the similarities between the names Arohara and Ra-Harakhte. Logic also tells me to note the similarities between the words 'Ra-Harakhte' and 'Hara hara' which is another word used in reference to God by Hindus.

A conversation into which God had intervened tells me that the ancient Egyptians had probably added the 'te' to the word, 'Hara' to form the word 'Harakhte'. The fact that they were not familiar with the word 'Hara' may have got them to do it. Well, if one hears a word and is later not sure as to how it actually sounds, the word can get altered when it is repeated. It has to be remembered that the advanced aircraft were not being used by the people of the Copper Age at the time when this word was used by the Egyptians. Originally, Ra was seen as God and as the Father of everyone. It was only later that the other gods and goddesses evolved. Ra-Harakhte had also evolved later. All this is similar to how it was Shiva who was originally worshipped and it only later that worship to the other Hindu gods and goddesses began. However, the worship to Shiva began before the worship to Ra began because worship first began in the Indus Valley.

Bhakti was begun by the soul who played the role of Brahma during the Confluence Age. That soul was playing the role of King Vikram when he started bhakti at the beginning of the Copper Age. The soul of Skanda-Murugan, who was still living in Northern India at that time, had flowed along with him and he was, then, also influenced to do bhakti based on memories of what had happened during the Confluence Age. Initially, men only worshipped Shiva in the form of a Lingam etc. It was only later, that bhakti began to include worship to the deities. Bhakti theories were carried everywhere by the soul of Skanda-Murukan during his journeys (at the beginning of the Copper Age).

At the beginning of each cycle, the soul of Skanda-Murukan is a world emperor and he resides in the region which is now in Northern India. At the beginning of the Copper Age, when bhakti begins, he still resides in Northern India. Then, just before earthquakes begin to pull his kingdom into the earth, he flies down to the South and creates a kingdom there. He had also journeyed further down to the south of Sri Lanka while he was there. Ancient stories say that he went to the south of Sri Lanka in search of nectar. Such a story has been created because he went there for psychic research purposes. He was greatly involved with psychic research so as to seek the knowledge which God had given during the previous Confluence Age. He wanted to get the heavenly world re-created again through the usage of them. Then, just before earthquakes began to pull his new kingdom into the earth, he flew to the area where Egypt, etc., is situated.

Not only had the soul of Skanda-Murugan played a prominent role in the Sri Lankan and Egyptian civilizations, but he had also played a prominent role during the ancient Babylonian civilization etc. The soul of Skanda-Murukan was very creative and he was also doing psychic research so as to understand the truth which was revealed during the Confluence Age. Thus, he was able to come up with very creative ideas which were liked and accepted by many. His ideas were also accepted by those who lived in Northern India. Thus, there are historians (of present times) who say that the Egyptian religious ideas etc., had influenced the Indians.

The soul of Skanda-Murukan had given a lot of attention to hatha yoga because the hatha yoga exercises enabled the soul to have a healthy body. The cakras etc., represent the various tissues, organs, etc., within the corporeal body and the kundalini, etc., represents the chemicals, energies, oxygen, blood etc., that flow within the bodily systems. The soul of Skanda-Murukan knew that the hatha yoga exercises were able to get the bodily systems, within the corporeal body, to work better though better chemical flows etc. In fact, he had given a lot of emphasis to hatha yoga during the Copper Age. During the Confluence Age, the hatha yoga exercises were part of a temporary activity for godly service but during the Copper Age, it was part of his life-style during some of his corporeal births.

During the Copper Age, the hatha yoga exercises enabled him to do psychic researches more easily because there were less pulls, on the soul, from the corporeal body since the corporeal body was functioning quite well. Thus, the soul was able to easily keep itself diverted away from the corporeal body during the psychic researches. Memories of all these had made the worshippers associate these sciences to the worship of Murukan. During the Confluence Age, the soul of Skanda-Murukan knew that the soul has a duty to take care of the corporeal body though he often ignored this duty so as to become victorious in his aims. During the soul conscious state, we do not feel tired but the corporeal body needs rest. We feel this tiredness when we are body-conscious.

The soul of Skanda-Murukan has been associated to renunciation through roles such as Palani Andavar / Palani Andi etc. This association is based on how the soul of Skanda-Murukan was actually in the completely surrendered state during the Confluence Age. The word 'swami' was originally used to refer to the soul of Skanda-Murukan because of his surrendered state. However, with time, all humans who surrender themselves to god began to get referred to as 'swami'. Though the soul of Skanda-Murukan was associated to renunciation, he was also associated to beauty etc., because of the beauty of the soul during that surrendered state. Alankara Kantan, one of Murugan's names, means the 'Lord of Exquisite Adornment'. Basically, the soul of Skanda-Murukan was adorned with God's beautiful divine virtues which glowed more brilliantly than any jewel could. The soul of Skanda-Murukan looked so beautiful because of that spiritual glow.

Thus, the role of Muruga is associated to beauty. The beautiful peacock is associated to Skanda-Murukan because it represents his purity, beauty, royalty and his flying stage because of his soul conscious state. The soul of Skanda-Murukan is in the flying stage, i.e. the stage where he is very light and is beyond the dimension of the corporeal world. Thus, Hindu scripture stories portray him as flying on his peacock. The flying stage is attained by the soul of Skanda-Murugan because of God's multimillion-fold help. It is as if the soul of Skanda- Murugan is sitting on God's Lap during the flying stage. Murugan worshipers also associate Muruga and his Vel to hill places because of the elevated state of the soul of Muruga during the soul conscious state. Thus, many temples to Muruga have got built on top of hills etc. People are amazed that a soul could climb up the hilly Batu Caves (where the Batu Caves Temple to Muruga is built on), so as to place Muruga's Vel there for worship. At soul level the soul who did that was remembering Muruga's elevated stage and so at body conscious level, he took the trouble to use ropes to climb up. It was only later that the steps were built one by one. The custom of building Murugan temples along the seashore arose because of memories of how the soul of Muruga was so close to God who is the Ocean of all Virtues, Powers, Knowledge, Etc.

At the beginning of the Copper Age, after the deities lost their divine state, the deity souls began to know as to which roles had been played by whom during the previous Confluence Age. The souls started seeing those souls based on the roles that they had played during the previous Confluence Age. Thus, when any of them built a temple or if a temple was built because they had stepped foot on a specific piece of land, a story would get created based on how the temple was built because the soul had stepped foot in that area etc. In one story, Skanda-Murukan is said to have ridden a motorcycle when his blood had spilled through the inadequacies of the motorcycle and a temple was supposed to have got built at the place where his blood had spilled.

People of present times question as to how there can be a motorcycle during those ancient times. Humour emerges within people at the thought of a god being shown to be riding a motorbike. Actually, the usage of the technically advanced aircraft, at the beginning of the Copper Age, were slowly being stopped because of the unavailability of the natural resources and they were not used as they had been used during the Golden and Silver Ages. Sometimes, alterations were made to the vehicles in an attempt to continue using them. The motorcycle portrayed in this story did look a little like the motorcycle of today but it was huge and different with the looks of a modified UFO. This new invention was not accident-proof as all the earlier aircraft had been but it allowed him to travel on land with the usage of less fuel. The royal scientist who accompanied the soul of Skanda-Murugan had created it for him. That scientist, who was of royal blood, was one of the powerful 108 deity souls. The soul within this royal scientist is the soul which is in the corporeal body of B.K. Letchu, the President of the Persatuan Brahma Kumaris Malaysia.

Subtly, I have seen the scientific information (which had been used at the beginning of the Copper Age) within him. This scientific information which is within him can be seen through visions. The aircraft of those days were computerized and so numerous lights would blink like how lights blink when the computer is being used now. However, those aircraft had more lights that were also more huge, than the present computers have, because those aircraft were huge and they used advanced computer technology to a very great extent. Those aircraft looked like the saucer-shaped UFOs which the people of the present world talk about.

At the beginning of the Copper Age, people enjoyed life dramas. Thus, the life of the souls who had played the roles of the deities during the previous Confluence Age were seen as a continuance of the drama of that role. The people of those ancient days loved life-dramas. They also created life-dramas in respect of what had happened during the previous Confluence Age. Such dramas had also confused people later. Thus, confusion had made people think that Krishna was of the Copper Age when he is actually the first deity prince born after the creation of the heavenly world. People, at the beginning of the Copper Age, wanted the creation of the heavenly world to happen again and so they had done so many things to get that to happen again.

It has to be remembered that the people of those days were not materialistic as they are today. They were entertained throughout the day. They lived an entertaining life-style. Thus, stories were created for entertaining purposes and stories were created based on the essence of how God had created the heavenly world, etc. Because of the religious aspects within these stories which also related history etc, they were given great regard and they became the basis through which religion etc., could be understood. Even now, people create stories to teach something or the other. Educators, psychiatrists, et al. place great emphasis on teaching and living through the usage of the imagination. They say that we learn faster, have the ability to stay healthier mentally when we bring in creativity into our daily life. The people of the heavenly world lived an ideal life-style. It was a pure and virtuous life-style. The people of the heavenly world were naturally divine and so they could not commit any vicious or sinful act.

At the beginning of the Copper Age, man lost his divine state and the people had the ability to commit vicious and sinful acts. However, they tried to continue living the virtuous life-style which the people of the heavenly world lived. Actually, when we say that Hinduism is 'a way of life' or 'a way of living', we mean that it involved the living of the virtuous life-style which the deities of heaven had lived. Hindus say that we have to live like how the deities had lived but, now, people no longer understand this. They also do not understand the scripture stories any longer. Thus, they do not know how to relate the scripture stories to their daily life because these stories portray people flying and fighting with demons etc. Therefore, people of the current world tend to discard the scripture stories on the basis that it is something which cannot really be used in life.

These stories have been termed as 'myth' because people are no longer aware of what had happened in the past based on which the stories were created. However, these scriptures stories were understood for sometime at the beginning of the Copper Age. Through those stories, the people of the Copper Age understood that they had to be victorious over the vices just as the subtle deities of the Confluence Age had been victorious over the vices. But this is no longer understood now.

Scholars usually try to link all the ancient historical evidences to come up with some kind of a story of the past. Where the Brahma Kumaris is concerned, God has already given us information of the past, the present and the future and so we try to piece all the historical evidences together based on the outline which God has given us. For example, God has told us that there was only one deity region at the beginning of each cycle and that it was only at the beginning of the Copper Age that Abraham creates the second religion. Then, after 250 years, Buddha establishes Buddhism and then, 250 years later, Christ fathers the Christian religion.

People know, because of written records, that the next major religion that was established after that was Islam. However, people are not able to place all the ancient evidences (of the period before Christ) together to form a good acceptable picture because the ancient people, of that time, did not keep proper written records and the calendar had to be constantly changed because of the climatic changes that were taking place because of the alignment of the planets and matter into an imperfect state. Despite this, members of the Brahma Kumaris are able to do a better job of piecing the ancient evidences together because we already have an outline given to us by God.

Psychic research helps me to understand the evidences further. Thus, what students of the Brahma Kumaris say can make a lot of sense if one views all the historical evidences together. Further, God has also informed us as to which part of the ancient stories relate to what happens during the Confluence Age. Thus, it is easier for the students of the Brahma Kumaris to sort out as to which belonged to which category.

For example, there is another version to the story as to why the soul of Skanda-Murukan had traveled to the south of Sri Lanka. This other version to this story says that he went there in search of Valli. He is said to have left Kailash and come down into India and is said to have then gone to Sri Lanka in search of Valli. This story is similar to the story of Rama going to Sri Lanka in search of Sita. These stories were created based on how God had come into the corporeal world to search for His children / His brides / His wives. Similar stories are found (with variations) all over the world and so current researchers say that these stories must have been created based on a myth that must have traveled around the world. However, they are not able to say as to when the 'myth' had traveled around the world. Actually, there are similarities in these stories because all of them were based on the same historical event which concerned God coming into the corporeal world so as to transform Man into His perfect state and to get Heaven re-created.

When BKs (those who practice Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga) started seeing visions through me in Malaysia, one of the seniors here had told me that the normal trend was that everything that starts in Northern India then comes down to the South. I was told that the same thing seems to be happening within the Brahma Kumaris. Maybe, the stories of Rama and Skanda traveling to Sri Lanka may have been created based on these memories. However, God has told us that the Lanka in Ramayana represents the old corporeal world which gets destroyed. It must be because of the drama based on this that the soul of Skanda-Murukan had created the Dravidian clan there in Sri Lanka since the dark colour was associated to the vices.

In India, during the Copper Age, some of the people's skin colour was naturally turning to various shades of brown when man began to use the vices though it did not get as dark as the skin colour of the Dravidian clan. It was the soul of Skanda who helped to create the Tamil speaking clan through creating the Dravidians who got mixed with the Aryans. As a result, numerous people from the Tamil speaking clan worship Muruga. Thus, Muruga has been said to be the god of the Tamilians. When the Dravidian clan was created, no one was colour conscious and so everything was done with happiness as part of the game. It is only now that man has become colour-conscious and this shows the tamopradhan nature of man.

The soul of Skanda-Murukan had played various deity roles, at subtle level, during the Confluence Age. Memories of this had emerged from the beginning of the Copper Age onwards and the people had linked the soul that plays the roles of Skanda-Murugan to the roles of various other deities in their scriptures, songs etc. The soul of Skanda-Murugan also plays the role of being a Pandava. Sometimes, it is also in remembrance of God's role, at the end of the cycle, that certain stories, theories etc., were created. For example, it is said that Shiva and Murugan are one and the same. Where Murugan and Shiva are seen as one and the same, there is no Father - child relationship seen between Shiva and Muruga. Thus, the ancient stories, believes etc., sometimes associate God's role to Murugan's role and at other times, they see Murugan as the child of God. This is similar to how some of the scripture stories associate God's role to Krishna and Vishnu. Yet, at other times Krishna and Vishnu are shown as deities.

In the Hindu scriptures, sometimes the very same name that has been used for the deities is also used for God because God can be seen through the souls who play the roles of these powerful deities. God also uses the subtle and corporeal bodies of the powerful deity souls and so God had been associated to the deity names of the souls who play the roles of these powerful deities. God has told us that even though the devotees worship the idols of the deities, it is He (God) who fulfills the devotees' desires when they make requests during the worship to those idols.

In the Bhagavad Gita, which began to be written sometime after the Copper Age had started, Lord Krishna equates himself to Senani. Senani refers to Skanda-Murukan and it means 'General'. It has to be remembered that Shiva and Skanda-Murukan have also been said to be the one and the same. Thus, based on the Hindu scriptures, it is not wrong to say that Shiva gave the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, God tells us that it was He who gave the true Gita and God has introduced Himself to us as Shiva. God Shiva is the Leader (or General) of the Brahma Kumaris. God tells us to be victorious over the vices during the battles with them and He teaches us how to stay constantly victorious over them so much so that the vices wouldn't even dare to come anywhere near us in an attempt to take control. It has to be remembered that God had introduced Himself as 'Shiva' to a group who were worshipping the roles of Narayana / Vishnu / Krishna. If God has introduced Himself as Shiva to such a group, then it must be the most appropriate name to be given to Him.

During the Third International Arulmigu Murukan Conference which took place at the Batu Caves temple in Malaysia from 2-11-03 to 5-11-03, when scholars had asked me as to who the 'Lord of the Gita' was, I had replied that it was 'Shiva' and I had then explained this. I think I had said something to the effect that God gives us the truth and that the truth is the Gita. I had also explained to those who had questioned that God can be called by various names but that since He had introduced Himself to us as 'Shiva' and since the meaning of that name is the most appropriate, I would prefer to use that name. The scholars had not argued on what I had said. This had astonished me a little. Krishna devotees, who are not concerned about anything else other than the devotion of Krishna, would or might have argued.

The Third International Arulmigu Murukan Conference that took place at the Batu Caves temple in Malaysia had something in common with what the Brahma Kumaris are doing in respect of historical evidences. The members of the Brahma Kumaris research into the ancient history so as to understand what God has told us in respect of the past, the present and the future. The scholars at the Third International Conference had great knowledge of the evidences of the ancient past and so they probably tried to understand what I was saying without arguing because of the knowledge which they had. Actually, I had a lovely time during this conference because of the discussion on ancient evidences, etc. It had seemed to me that the destruction of the world is in progress and that this is why this International Conference on Skanda-Murukan is taking place. However, Hindus can have fierce arguments because of the contradictory ideas incorporated into the ancient scriptures, etc.

God has told us that the deity religion is at its most degraded state now. When one sees the fierce fights that Hindus have over the contradictory ideas incorporated into the ancient scriptures, one would say that this Hindu religion has gone into its most degraded state now. The ancient people of the Copper Age had practiced unity and their unity is reflected in these ancient scriptures. They were able to accept a story or idea that could seem contradictory to another, within the same scripture, because of their unity and because they understood that these stories etc., were only trying to explain the truth but that there was more to it. Thus words, such as 'Neti, Neti' were used commonly during those ancient days.

In essence, the meaning of such words used is, "This is not it because there is more to it but I am not sure as to what that more is'. It can be seen as saying, "I don't know. I don't know" and this is also why all the contradictory ideas etc., were incorporated into the ancient scriptures. At that time, we really didn't know as to what we were seeking during our psychic researches and we did not know the truth and we did not experience the truth. We knew nothing. We were starting from scratch, i.e. from a point where we knew nothing because the deities of Heaven never had to turn to God because they had everything.

At the beginning of the Copper Age, we were not experiencing the soul conscious state nor experiencing all that which we were experiencing during the previous Confluence Age. It was not possible to experience the truth as we had when we were in the previous Confluence Age. During the Copper Age, the soul did not know how to achieve the soul conscious state. In fact, it cannot do it on its own. Only God can give us this ability through His blessings. Thus, the soul was calling out to God to enable him to attain the soul conscious state again and at the corporeal level, we would pray to God. It was only through the soul conscious state that we could understand and experience the truth. Knowing this, the ancient people had kept diving within to understand the truth that was being explained and practiced during the previous Confluence Age.

I was also doing such psychic research during that time. At least, the people at the beginning of the Copper Age knew that it was God Shiva Himself who had fathered the deity religion and so they started worshipping God Shiva for the return of the heavenly world which they had just lost. Hindus of the current world do not even know that God Himself had fathered the Hindu religion. This itself shows that the Hindu religion is in a degraded state because the followers do not know who the founder of this religion is. It has come to the state where God Himself had to come into the corporeal world and had to inform us, "Hey, I am the founder of this deity religion. Did you not know? It was not a human being who had founded this deity religion as how all the other religions had been founded. God Himself had founded this deity religion by creating the deities.

The unity of the people of those ancient days, during the Copper Age, enabled them to accept everything that had been put forward as a possible way to understanding the truth. However, Man do not understood all this now and they have fierce arguments over what has been written in the scriptures. If one of those who was responsible for getting the ancient scriptures written was sitting within such a fierce fight, he may have been made to feel like a stupid idiot who had nothing better to do than to request all the various contradictory views etc., to be incorporated into the ancient writings.

Some Hindus feel that what Christ et al. have done is better because they accepted just one theory and all their teachings are based around that particular theory. However, the soul of Jesus Christ himself has told me that even though he likes the Christian teachings, he knows that there is something lacking in the Christian teachings and that he is searching for that missing 'part'. The soul of Christ is there within one of my corporeal brothers named Sivaratnam and, for a long time now, I had known that the soul of Jesus is there within him. If such a soul himself had said that the Christian teachings lacked 'something', then how could the Hindus feel that what Christ had done was better. One has to take note that the soul of Christ (who had also attended the Third International Conference on Murukan-Skanda) himself has come into the Hindu community seeking the 'pieces' that were missing. Even the soul of Abraham has come into the Hindu community seeking the truth. The soul of Abraham is also within one who had attended the Third International Conference on Murukan-Skanda. The fact that the souls of Christ and Abraham have come into the Hindu community seeking the truth must mean that there is something lacking in their teachings.

God has told us that the deity religion is at its most degraded state now. The fact that Hindus can have such fierce arguments based on their religious writings show that the religion has gone into a degraded state. The ancient people of the deity religion, at the beginning of the Copper Age, had unity and so even though others had contrary ideas, all the ideas were accepted as part and parcel of the deity religion. The ancient people of the deity religion, at the beginning of the Copper Age, were able to live the virtuous life-style to a great extent. But now, the fact that Hindus can have such fierce fights show that the deity religion is at its most degraded state because Hinduism is a way of living, i.e. it concerns the living of a virtuous life-style.

At the beginning of each cycle of time, the deity religion is lived in a practical way. The deity religion involved the living of a pure, virtuous life-style. This ancient deity religion has been referred to as "Adi Sanatan Devatas Dharma" in the ancient writings (which began to get written during the Copper Age). At the beginning of the Copper Age, Man was no longer able to live a virtuous life-style but he had tried to continue doing so through various religious teachings, practices etc. The need for laws to check the behavior of men also arose and religions were also used to help keep control over Man's conduct through religious rules.

When we try to live a virtuous life, we are actually trying to practice the religion of the soul. The religion of the soul is peace. When we experience the religion of the soul, we, the souls, are actually filled with only the virtues and there are no vices within us at that time. Since only the virtues are existing in an emerged state, we are able to live a virtuous life. Thus, actually the Hindu religion is linked to the virtuous state of the soul. Since the soul is in a tamopradhan state now, the soul finds it difficult to practice the religion of peace, i.e. the religion of virtuous living.

Since the soul of the Hindu is in such a degraded state, it means that his religion (of the soul) is also in a degraded state. Thus, the Hindu religion is in a degraded state. Mahatma Gandhi was advocating a life of virtuous living with the hope of trying to re-create Ram Raj (Heaven). Gandhi encouraged the use of the virtues and discouraged the use of the vices including fighting back, showing one's anger etc. However, Gandhi was killed by a person of his own religion because of the degraded state in which the followers of the Hindu religion are in.

The fact that the Hindu religion has gone into a degraded state can also be seen through the fact that the Hindu devotees differentiate themselves from other Hindus based on the idol which they worship. In ancient times, during the Copper Age, the ancient people of the deity religion did not differentiate each other like this on the basis of 'worship to a specific idol' but this is happening now within the Hindu community. Now, Krishna worshippers are Krishna worshippers; Shivan worshippers are Shivan worshippers; Murugan worshippers are Murugan worshippers, etc. It is as if these worshippers are saying, "The East is East and the West is West; and never the twine shall meet" without realizing that they all belong to the same Hindu religion. The worshippers reflect the state which the religion is in.

The fact that the Hindus are now not able to live a virtuous life-style shows that the Hindu religion is at its most degraded state. The Hindu religion has gone into a degraded state because of the tamo-pradhan nature of the people. It is because of their tamo-pradhan state that people have fierce fights over the contradictory statements made within the ancient scriptures. However, it is now possible to move out of the tamo-pradhan state through using God and the power of yoga. This can only be done through the teachings which God has given through the Brahma Kumaris.

Brahma Kumari Pari
No.30, Jalan PJS 9/30
Bandar Sunway
46150 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel: 03-56359037 or 03-56362419
E-mail: bkry@streamyx.com
Web site: http://www.brahma-kumari.com

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Third International Murukan Conference