The knowledge of Vedanta has been there for thousands of years.
Human society , as a whole, is clearly not living as per the Vedantic ideals. People stealing from each other, people speaking untruths big and small, enjoying all the pleasures of flesh and essentially behaving as if this one life and this one form is all there is to existence. The focus seems to be on maximising wealth, sexual enjoyment, acquisition of worldly goods. Beyond all of this, people derive pleasure from denying others their rights, freedoms and other things.Now, we can add state-sponsored biowars, with weaponised lab created super virii to the list.
Why ?
The world, and indeed the entire Universe, has been in existence for a very long time.
According to the Vedantic philosophy, the Universe has been around since time immemorial and will last for eternity.
Cycles of creation, existence, expansion and destruction form the core theology of the Vedanta. Each cycle of creation, existence, expansion and destruction are overseen by a powerful celestial being, Brahma, not to be confused with Brahman, or the principle from which all of existence is composed.
But Brahma is not the Supreme Being , the Paramatma. Brahma is one of the three Gods that make up the Holy Trinity of Hinduism – and include Vishnu and Shiva.
But beyond Brahma, there is the concept of Ishvara, or Paramatma. The Being that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva would go to, for help.
Anyway, coming back to the original topic that I started out with, why has humanity not changed itself to live according to the tenets of Vedanta ?
- The cycle of creation, existence, expansion and destruction will continue, regardless of how humanity behaves
- Unless, the cycle is stopped somehow. The only circumstance under which I believe this cycle will stop is if the Creator decides to stop it. I believe that will not happen, because the Creator is bound by the same laws that He created. He chooses to be bound by them. If He did not, then there would be no sanctity to those laws
- So, the only other circumstance under which this cycle could stop is if every being in existence becomes self-aware and desires liberation from the cycle of birth, growth and death
- That is unlikely to happen, for various reasons, including the fact that only human beings, on Earth, have the capacity to be aware of their own existence and the intelligence to desire moksha or freedom
- All other lower beings will not have that capacity and ability. So all beings, at least on Earth, will never be in a position , at one point of time, to be self-aware and desire moksha so intensely that everybody is liberated and the cycle of creation, existence, expansion and destruction is halted
Truly, a Vedanta paradox.