Article by: BK. T. D. Joseph, Bangalore, India tdjaum(AT)gmail.com – If you have questions or remarks about this article, please contact the author.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Godly gyan teaches that history repeats itself every 5000 years. A listener may object asking: Is history only 5000 years old? No, Godly gyan speaks about repetition of history, not about its age. When history repeats itself every 5000 years, its longevity is simply incalculable. Of course, one is always welcome to ask: How can I be sure that history repeats itself?

Turning to history books may not help as history writing itself began in the second half of the Kalpa (cycle of 5000 years) when mankind began to be ruled by “lust, anger and greed.” (Gita 16:21) This time-factor helps us to have a balanced approach to the written history. Often, history is written to suit the purpose of its writer or the Authority that appoints him for the job. When I studied history in the school, Aryan invasion of India [which had exerted tremendous influence on India’s social set-up] was part of our syllabus. Now it is learned that such a thing has never happened, it is a myth.This is true of other branches of science too. When some scientists presented Piltdown Man as the greatest proof for evolution theory, later other scientists proved it as hoax. Whatever the scientists say need not be scientific, just as whatever a joker says need not be a joke! You can see a list of HOAXES in any Encyclopedia.

Apostle Paul, a great Greek scholar—secular and religious—who wrote 14 New Testament books of the Bible, warns us against putting blind faith in whatever we hear or read: “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:29-31) If this is the case with religious writing, you can imagine how reliable it will be the so called secular history writing!

So, is the situation hopeless? No, the same Bible authorizes us to do something in parallel: “Test them all; hold on to what is good [originally kalos, Greek, meaning inherently and intrinsically good], reject every kind of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, 22) Hence we are under obligation to take only what our REASON concludes as something inherently and intrinsically good. For example, we may read in Evolution & History books that homo sapiens appeared on earth lakhs of years ago. Here we need to use our reason: How many years needed for a couple to have 4 children? 8 years. Let us give 150 years! First couple produced 4 children in 150 years, and they died. These 4 children [or 2 couples] produced 4 children each in another 150 years. If we calculate like this, it would take only 4800 years to reach more than 8.5 Billion population, which is more than the current population of the whole Earth.

Let us see what happens in front of our eyes, and use the power of our reason to arrive at a firm conclusion. We will do something like ocean-examination—by tasting some drops from here and there, we conclude its water is salty. Similarly, let us take some samples of human behavior:

1) Everyone knows that possession is an illusion; and this is the most-attested truth in the world. One has to die leaving behind everything he thought as belonging to him—assets, relatives, fame etc. Yet, people go on repeating the same old habit of accumulating to their maximum capacity, and believe they own them.

2) Everyone knows prevention is better than cure. Yet people, in general, prefer cure. This explains why the number of diseases and hospitals are increasing! This is true of even Governments who know how to prevent wars, yet prepare themselves to win the war through fighting it out at any cost! Both the rulers and the ruled have been repeating this wasteful act.

3) Everyone knows happiness comes from helping others without expecting anything in return. The more unselfish one is the happier he will be. Yet we find individuals and nations repeating exploitation of others. Golden Rule is replaced with another rule: ‘Those who have gold rule.’

4) People love blaming others when something goes wrong, yet hate receiving it. Experience has taught everyone that it is futile to try to change others whereas it is very much feasible to change oneself. Yet people repeat the folly of blaming others and trying to transform others.

5) Even when ideal persons appear on the world scene, people still want to continue with their old habits. For example, Buddha, who was born to a king, understood the valuelessness of pursuing power and pleasure. And we have modern examples of billionaires who turn philanthropists later. Yet majority want to repeat their materialistic passion.

6) Whenever someone, with good-intention, tried to change the corrupt system, he has been shaved off from the face of the earth. Killing the messenger if message is not liked is being repeated with no let-up.

7) Religions have correctly identified egoism as the opposite of spirituality. Yet they are not prepared to merge and become one world-religion for the whole humanity, making the worship simple and thus avoiding all confusion and colossal wastage. This means religions themselves have become a BIG EGO, doing everything within its power to safeguard its identity, which is the very essence of ego! Thus all religions have been repeating this irony of asking their members to fight ego while they themselves remain fostering it!

Don’t these samples of human behavior prove that history repeats itself?

So, what would these attitudes of human-beings lead to, once again? We will inevitably cause/ invoke another world war and catastrophe that will bring us back to the beginning of the next cycle of time. History repeats itself!