Some
Fundamental Facts About Human Races
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people as between 5,000 and 7,000 demonstrators marched peacefully against the apartheid “pass laws” in Sharpeville, South Africa. The barbaric incident became widely known as the Sharpeville Massacre. In a 1966 Resolution proclaiming the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. At this time of the year, it is especially appropriate to reflect on the subject of races and racism. In this article, I examine the race question from the perspective of spiritual knowledge. And I should indicate that much that is true about races applies to ethnic groups.
First, it is the Will of God that there be many races, not just one race on earth. The diversity of human races is simply one example of the diversity that is a common and essential feature of nature. Natural diversity is crucial to the very survival of all creatures on earth, including human beings. The critical significance of diversity has been repeatedly demonstrated in biological systems. The actual or threatened extermination of any race, for any reason, wittingly or unwittingly, by commission or omission, is a horrendous crime. But sadly, this is a crime of which humanity has in the past been guilty. We only need to think about the fate of various aboriginal peoples.
Second, every race, which has come into existence through natural processes, has unique strengths and virtues that it can, and should, contribute to the spiritual well‑being and development of humankind as a whole. Such strengths and virtues are part and parcel of their cultures. But there must be no standstill; no clinging to detrimental cultures, outdated practices and beliefs. Movement, which implies development, is a law of nature. Each race should develop and be assisted to develop its unique potentials, and every race should joyfully learn from other races. In short, we should develop an inclusive attitude, and we ought to consider the strengths, virtues, abilities, and the wisdom of all races as the common heritage of humanity. A highly materialistic and superficial humanity may find it quite difficult to believe that so‑called “backward tribes” have something to offer to the more technologically sophisticated segments of humanity. But the truth is that every natural race has something of spiritual value to contribute. And if we all live in accordance with the Will of God, all races would recognize the unique attributes of other races. Moreover, all races would also be able to make material and cultural contributions.
Third, not only do the physical bodies of all human races belong to the same biological species (Homo sapiens), the innermost core of all races is exactly of the same species --- the human spirit. That is, all human beings, regardless of race, belong to the same spiritual species. Individual members of all races all started off from the same spiritual plane as unconscious spirit‑germs (or spirit seeds) and journeyed to the material planes in search of spiritual maturity. On successful completion of the journey, they all return to the same home, the spiritual plane (Paradise) as self-conscious, mature spirits. All those that fail to develop eventually end up in the same funnel of disintegration, and suffer the same fate of spiritual death, which is the same as eternal damnation.
In the course of their spiritual journey, human spirits make progress at different rates on account of the manner in which they exercise their Free Will. Therefore, human beings are at different levels of inner maturity by the time they find themselves on earth. In this connection, it should be remarked that highly spiritually mature individuals as well as inwardly depraved ones are to be found among all the different biological races. It is not as if some particular races have all the mature individuals while others have only the less mature ones. Evidence of spiritual maturity includes compassion and support for the less mature and for the weak as well as an instinctive striving for justice for all peoples and in all situations. We demonstrate our spiritual immaturity through our personal conduct, such as when we cheat or take advantage of weaker individuals, groups, or races.
The fourth point is that races, as scientifically defined, are obviously not based on spiritual worth but on physical and physiological traits. Since the real human being is not the physical body (which is simply the spirit's outermost cloak), racial differences are largely trivial. The differences among races may be likened, for example, to a number of persons belonging to the same race but wearing suits of different colours and designs. The person wearing a dark suit may be considered appropriately dressed for a Christian religious worship in a European society. On the other hand, the man in a white cocktail jacket, while properly dressed for a grand social reception, would be considered inappropriately attired for a Christian religious worship or a business meeting. Each suit has its advantage and purpose; it would be wrong to consider one as superior or inferior. And in any case we all change our dresses from time to time. When reasonable people think of truly great people, past or present, they do not concern themselves with their mode of dressing, with whether they wore expensive or cheap clothes. It is their quality as human beings, their inner worth, and not their outerwear that is of interest to us. Great men and women are generally not sartorial exemplars. The hood does not make the monk. By the same token, the physical body with its hallmark of race is an inappropriate yardstick for measuring human worth.
The fifth idea that should help us to form the right attitudes towards races and ethnic groups is reincarnation. Although reincarnation is a fairly popular doctrine, people’s understanding of it is far from uniform. I outline here my understanding and my conviction. The human being is a spirit, and its physical body is only its outermost cloak. The spirit acquires this outermost cloak at incarnation, which takes place about the middle of pregnancy. That is, the spirit takes control of the earthly human body developing in the womb of a pregnant woman around the mid‑point of pregnancy. Reincarnation refers to the fact that each human spirit repeats this process more than once. At each physical death, the spirit disengages from the body and continues living in other planes of Creation. It may return to the earth again by taking possession of a new physical body being formed in a pregnant woman’s womb.
Thus, the belief in reincarnation is simply the acceptance of the fact that a human spirit is given the opportunity to come to the earth more than once; on each occasion, it takes on a different human body. This is the only conception of reincarnation I know to be right, reasonable, and true. All the earth‑lives that a particular human spirit is permitted to experience constitute one continuous, unbroken existence. Because of the stage the earth has now reached in the larger Cycle of Creation, all human beings now on earth have been here many times before. Nobody is on earth for the first time; we have all lived and died on earth before.
The Law of Homogeneity and the Law of Sowing and Reaping govern the particular family and the part of the world in which a human spirit incarnates. Depending on the circumstances of a human spirit, these Laws may act in such a way that he/she reincarnates among different races in successive earth‑lives. Therefore, it is possible, for example, that some of the past white slave traders are today reincarnated as black individuals. Thus, we might have the ludicrous situation of a person who in this earth-life is black vehemently condemning white people for the atrocities of the slave trade --‑ whereas he was a leading perpetrator of those atrocities during an earlier earth‑life in which he was a white man. The point is that many black people on earth today once lived as members of the Caucasoid group of races (white races), and vice versa. And, possibly, there are today Mongoloid Japanese who in earlier incarnations were Negroes, and vice versa. Moreover, our racial and ethnic identity in our next incarnation is very much an open question. Where we reincarnate is determined not by our current race, nationality, or religion, but by the Law of Sowing and Reaping in conjunction with the Law of Homogeneity. We reincarnate where the fruits of our earlier sowing will ripen for us to harvest. And spiritual homogeneity is determined by factors that go beyond race, nationality, and ethnicity. The factors of homogeneity include individual propensities, weaknesses, virtues, strengths, and values, or those things that mean the most to us.
Thus, we should as individuals be striving to cultivate positive virtues and values and should be striving to make contributions to our societies and humanity. We should never delude ourselves into believing that we are superior to anybody merely on the basis of our race or our ethnic group. And it is, of course, obvious that whether or not an individual ultimately fulfils the purpose of human existence depends on him/her alone and not on the race or ethnic group to which he/she belongs. For a further exploration of this subject as well as a better understanding of the eternal laws that govern the whole of Creation and all creatures, including the fates of human beings, I suggest a study of the three-volume work entitled “In the Light of Truth, The Grail Message” by Abd-Ru-Shin (civil names Oskar Ernst Bernhardt).