Power

[classic posts]

Power - posted by: Paul on August 13, 2005

Remember Lord Acton’s dictum? “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That maxim is the springboard for this brief ‘meditation’ on power as it relates to the BKs. There are several aspects to this :

* Power that springs from that ‘holier than thou’ feeling. As in, “We are pure, sacred swans, and all others are impure, vicious storks. We are the chosen few, they are the damned.”

* Power in the sense of world dominion - for half a cycle - while all else are in an unconscious stupor in the orange world.

* Power to lord it over the gathering - from that perch on the gaddi. Take a young sister, still wet behind the ears, uneducated and inexperienced, and tell her that she is God’s representative, she acts and speaks for him, whatever she does is sanctioned and ‘adjusted’ by him. Well, for many, the temptation is just too much and they get carried away. Pretty soon, they see themselves as Queens and the gathering as their subjects - and they act accordingly.

* Once, while listening to the Murli, I was startled to hear these words: “Yours is a religio-political clan.” Well, there you have it. ‘Political’ denotes the power aspect. At the personal level, you are either lording it over others or being lorded over.

* People are told: “Do service, make your subjects.” So what comes over as benign ‘Godly service’ is actually narcissistic and power driven, as is the craving for recognition and ’status’ - both now and in the hereafter. I wonder how many BKs (and even PBKs) recognize this underlying ‘power’ motivation, this power trip?

Do things and human nature ever really change? Power, however sublime and ‘elevated’ it may be construed or portrayed, is power - and many are seduced by it.