It is appalling how we human beings abuse ourselves in so many ways. There was a famous trial in Tennessee when a school teacher there began teaching his class Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.* It raised great controversy as to whether man was created by God or evolved from apes. One side said, “Suppose we did come from monkeys. We have come so far; that is good.” The other side said,” We won’t accept the absurd idea that our forefathers hung from trees by their tails!”
While this trial was going on, the head monkey in the world is said to have gone to heaven with his delegates to see God. He addressed the Lord: “Your Majesty, we have come to register a protest. The race of human beings has been known to engage in all kinds of evils-lying, cheating, committing adultery, murder, and waging wars. Now there is a sect that is trying to establish that these creatures are our relatives. We are insulted!
We don’t always have reason to be proud of ourselves as human beings, but neither should we be discouraged by our mistakes. Always look to the silver lining in every experience, learn from your mistakes, and look to God no matter what.
……………………………………..TThe Three Stages of Evolution
The soul goes through three phases in its evolution back to God. The first, which is the longest and most painful, is the one in which God teaches through the law of karma. In this phase of development, man gradually learns through his mistakes, by reaping the painful results of his wrong actions and wrong thoughts. After a long time—many, many incarnations —he begins to ask and seek answers to the final, basic question: “What is life all about?” That is the second stage, in which God teaches through books and teachers. Finally, when the devotee becomes convinced that the purpose of life is to find God, and his yearning for God becomes strong, he enters the third stage in his evolution, and then God comes to him in the most direct form—as a true guru. From the teachings of Yogananda.
