You can’t say that one country or one whole age is entering the Golden Age or the Dark Age, as such. The aggression, speed, and chaos of individuals always raise the same questions, no matter what the larger situation is, and those questions provide new answers. We cannot destroy civilization. Civilization cannot be destroyed, because civilization is not one entity. It is a group. It is a commonwealth. And because of there being common wealth, therefore, when there’s a depression on one side, the other side begins to be elevated. It is like the change of day to night. The situation goes on and on and on.

It might be helpful to differentiate nationwide, international, and worldwide problems from individual problems. For example, we might search for knowledge in this life, and just before we are about to discover the answer, then we die. But somebody else can pick up what you worked on, and they can make the discovery. They find the answer and are able to put it into practice. That kind of nationwide or worldwide karmic situation is very powerful. It is a never-dying situation. Depression automatically raises the question of why we are here, and the question automatically brings the answer, and we begin to come to some realization. The two sides of a situation play with each other, which is the Indian concept of maya or lalita—dancing with a situation. The situation actually dances with itself constantly. Chemistry helps to maintain both sides of a situation. The positive chemistry cannot exist without the negative, and vice versa. So the darkness and the light are complementary to each other.

From The Future Is Open: Good Karma, Bad Karma, and Beyond Karma, pages 13,14.

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