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Feature - Fear in the Age of Kali

A Whistler writer on travel, tolerance and troubling times

According to ancient Hindu cosmology, we are living in the Age of Kali. It is a reference to the concept that time is divided into four great epochs. Each age is named, from best to worst; accordingly, each successive age represents a period of increasing moral and social deterioration. The Age of Kali is the lowest level. It is a time of strife, corruption, darkness and disintegration. With war approaching its climax, one doesn’t have to be a Hindu to believe we are in the Age of Kali. Ungodly things appear to be happening all around us.

Last month was the Muslim celebration of Id. The American Embassy in New Delhi notified our school’s administration, ordering increased security. Students weren’t allowed off campus and staff were advised to take caution outside the school gates.

Every morning, around 5 a.m., I wake up to the Muslim call to prayer. I have Muslim students. I have Muslim friends. I have studied Islam at the University of British Columbia. I have travelled in Islamic countries. Today, I’m deeply saddened by the stereotypes attributed to Muslims and their faith. When I was in Canada this past December I was heartbroken at the brutal discrimination against Muslims. I found myself defending Islam on more than one occasion.

I was baptized a Christian, but I believe all living faiths equate each other and are as legitimate as my own. I have Zen monk, Hindu and Christian neighbours. On my way to work, I walk past a Protestant church, a Hindu tea stall and a Tibetan market. I have: Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu and Muslim students. Some days I learn more from my students than they do from me. My students are great teachers.

Each culture has influenced me in my heart and my soul. Each experience deepens my ability to connect with people. My relationship with these cultures enhances my courage to write.

Islam is about compassion, charity, science, philosophy and culture.

Terrorism is about violence against civilians to achieve a political goal.

Islam, as a religion, was founded by the Prophet Mohammed in the seventh century. Allah is the Arabic word for God and Mohammed, a man from Mecca, who lived from AD 570 to 632, was his Prophet. Islam means to surrender, and Muslims undertake to surrender to the will of God. The words of God, proclaimed by Mohammed, came directly from God and are written in the holy Koran.

In Islam there is no separation between religion and politics. Human beings have a choice to obey or disobey.

When Mohammed died, he left neither a son or a successor – a caliph. And that resulted in a dispute which split the faith; the Shiites and Sunnis, somewhat like Protestants and Catholics. The Shiites believed leadership should remain with the Prophet’s family. At that time in history the caliph chosen was Ali, Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law who had married his daughter Fatima. Shiites believed that the earth should be ruled by a leader, the Imam, who acts as an intermediary between the human and the divine.

The Sunnis believed that a leader should be chosen by consensus. The two groups share the same belief that there is one God: Allah. There are no priests in Islam. Mullah means leader, he who leads prayers in a mosque. Anyone can be a mullah providing he is a man and a Muslim.

In today’s world we must make space for multiple ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities. Other models of life do exist. They’re not evil; just different.

In Canada, I had someone tell me, "Travelling in the developing world only funds dictatorships."

Initially I thought it was a fair question, but then I realized, it’s not a question – it’s a statement. That statement was made by a Canadian. That statement produces fear, anxiety and racism. That statement badmouthed the culture that I was raised in. I hope a foreigner to Canada never heard that statement. It would leave them to believe that all Canadians are ignorant.

Travellers are a vital source of information in and out of developing countries. Travellers, who are aware, make choices that benefit private enterprises, not government owned agencies.

How can one be a responsible global citizen without first hand information?

Fear is a big problem today. What does fear mean? Can the mind ever be free of fear – physical or psychological? The fear of failing, fear of growing old, fear of dependency, fear of the past, fear of death, fear of what people say, or don’t say, fear of being dominated.

Why fear the unknown when we don’t know anything about it? Thought breeds fear.

The whole future is uncertain. There is a war. America’s action is likely to destroy the world order created by the holocaust of the Second World War. Both my parents are WW II veterans and I’m proud and grateful of their generation’s contribution to world peace.

I love my country. I love being Canadian. Right now I’m living in a country where it’s assumed I’m an American because I’m white and English is my first language. But I don’t live my life in fear. I want people to like me for my values and my principles – not my nationality, my faith or my skin colour.

My landmarks include: the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, the Himalayas, the Andes, the Alps, Hiroshima, the pyramids of Egypt, the Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower, the little mermaid, the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, Machu Picchu, Patagonia, Tibet, the Hannoi Hilton, Big Ben, the Colosseum of Rome and a few others.

I haven’t funded dictatorships. I’ve met people. I’ve listened to their stories and I’m blessed with the trust they have given me.

The world may be a scary place today, but let’s not live in fear. Let’s educate ourselves so we can understand one another without judgements. The global community needs to put forth an effort to learn and understand Islam. In fact, it’s essential to understand all living faiths, and perhaps with the will of Allah, God and Buddha a bloodbath will be prevented and the Age of Kali diverted.

Janet Love Morrison is a Whistler writer who has been living in India and teaching at Kodaikanal International School for nearly three years.

 

SIDEBAR

A place in the world

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south, 8 Africans; 52 would be female, 48 would be male; 70 would be non-white, 30 would be white; 70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian; 89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual; 6 people would possess 59 per cent of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States; 80 would live in substandard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition; 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth; 1 would have a college education; 1 would own a computer.

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding an education becoming glaringly apparent.

The following is also something to ponder.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed that the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, of the pangs of starvation you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75 per cent of the people of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change somewhere you are among 8 per cent of the world's wealthy. If your parents are still alive and married you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around. Work like you don't need money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance life nobody's watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Live life like it's Heaven on Earth.



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