Alone“Gravitas was one of the Roman virtues, along with pietas, dignitas, and virtus. It may be translated variously as weight, seriousness and dignity, also importance, and connotes a certain substance or depth of personality.”   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitas

The demise of ancient Rome came with, and many would argue, resulted from, the decay of these virtues… the decay of the earlier meaning/understanding of these virtues.  Some say modern society is following in the footsteps of that demise.

We are social creatures.  Just as the vegetation and animals of a land were born of, and evolved in, harmony with that land, the virtues of a society are  born of nature… born of the laws of nature inherent to the very soil upon which that society emerged.  The health of a culture is in direct proportion with the degree to which the people live in harmony with nature, with natural law, with our own true nature. Every bit as much as food, water, and air, harmony with nature is our life’s blood.

Cultural values may appear to be arbitrary, but they are not.  As people lose connection with the depth of their soul… the fiber of their being… their inner wisdom, cultural values appear more and more to be arbitrary.  Instead of inner wisdom, the way the wind blows determines the culture’s worldview.  Values then gradually become more arbitrary… without substance, without valid basis.  Most anything can be, and is, justified by the intellect… rational-ized.  The winds of karma are then free to determine the mindset of the people.  Law-makers and spiritual leaders are then selected based upon, not substance, but gusts of delusion. Society decays.

As the drug culture of the 1960’s swept the Western world, the integration of humanity with natural law (inner wisdom… the deeper meaning of Gravitas, Pietas, Dignitas, and Virtus) broke down.  It set society’s sail in the direction of that wave of karma that has carried Western mentally off course.

It appears we are witnessing a global reaction.  When the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it naturally, in time, will swing too far in the other.  It birthed radical extremism.  The values, twisted as they are, offer a social code.  Remarkably, in a society of degraded social code, even that extremism becomes appealing to some. People turn their back on what a great society was, because of what it was becoming.  They then set out to find a society they can identify with… one that at least has a solid direction.

We are cultural/social creatures.  Values are not found through intellectual fantasies, ivory towers, or crystalline castles.  They are found in the depth of your being… in a place that lies far deeper than the social pressures of a culture that has lost its way.

It is not my place to tell you what to think, what laws to obey.  But I will do my very best to assist you in finding that place inside that is one with nature, one with natural law… one with your true nature, one with the source of individual and cultural integrity… one with the true meaning of Veda.

Veda is not just a set of books.  Veda means nature.  In a healthy society, our true nature permeates all aspects of life.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.