M1960
Proletarian Consciousness and King Consciousness
by Martinus
1. If Christianity really had been put into practice there would be neither slums nor shanty towns on Earth
In this article we will make a comparison between certain external conditions in the society of terrestrial man and some spiritual realities within the human consciousness, the constellation of which is the cause of those external conditions.
In all large cities there are areas known as slums: poor, dirty districts, a great many of whose residents suffer from destitution, illness and misery. Many kinds of deviant behaviour tend to arise when people are forced to live under such conditions, and in slum areas all possible types of prostitution, fraud and other shady activities are also to be found. Gangs of criminals frequent such places, planning robberies, assaults, thefts and other crimes. In these dreadful surroundings a large number of children are born to grow up in an atmosphere of perversity and transgression of the law, of hunger, illness and brutality. Naturally, people who come into this world are not meant to have to break the law all the time in order to earn their living. This is a most imperfect stage in the evolution towards a humane and truly democratic society. Someday people will look back on the times when there were slums as we today look back on the most primitive human societies of the past. The idea of calling one group of people in the society "the proletariat" and considering them inferior, as some people do, will in future be regarded in the same way as we now look upon the concept of slavery. But why, in our enlightened and Christian world, is there still a proletariat while at the same time there are people who live a life of affluence and luxury? According to the Christian teaching the man with two shirts must share with he who has none. If this principle were to be applied to the society of terrestrial man, and to the nations as well, there would not be any slums or shanty towns on Earth - that is if Christianity really existed in practical life. But it does not. The Christianity that has existed on Earth for almost two thousand years has been all theory and dogma; it has been founded on man's religious instinct and on his religious feelings and moods. Thus it has been of great importance in aiding evolution so that many people today feel what is right. But as a dogmatic religion Christianity has not to any particular extent been able to transform the actions and behaviour of men in daily life. This is not said in reproach against Christianity or humankind; things could not have been otherwise. But things will not stay this way. All evolution takes time, and what is eventually to develop into practical action must first exist in a spiritual state as feeling, thought and theory. This is a universal law and it applies to Christianity as well. But now Christianity is in a state of evolution towards becoming the basis for practical action in everyday life and consequently all slums and so-called proletarian districts will gradually disappear as mankind purges its own consciousness of the reasons for their existence.
2. All terrestrial human beings have some degree of proletarian consciousness
Behind all physical phenomena there is a spiritual reality, a consciousness. Consequently there must also be a proletarian consciousness behind the proletarian condition. And there certainly is. But it is important to understand that proletarian consciousness is not to be found merely in slum areas. It is there, of course, but one can also come across it in noble palaces, surrounded by luxury and apparent splendour, among "fine" people who seem to live in accordance with the laws of nature and who are the objects of other people's respect and admiration. Proletarian consciousness can be found in all walks of life; indeed, all terrestrial human beings have it to a greater or lesser extent. This is the reason why there are slum areas. But in the mentality of terrestrial man there is also a contrast to the proletarian consciousness. In this context we can call it king consciousness, and just as one can find proletarian consciousness in a palace one can find king consciousness in a slum.
3. King consciousness is the humanity in the human being
What then is proletarian consciousness and what is king consciousness? Proletarian consciousness is the part of terrestrial man's mentality which is in conflict with the laws of life and of the universe, and which rests upon a great many false notions of life and death and which does not recognize and use the divine power of prayer in daily life. This part of terrestrial man's psyche is the remains of the animal kingdom he once belonged to, where the law of existence was "one man's loss is another man's gain" and where "the right of the strongest" was the only right there was. King consciousness, on the other hand, is something relatively recent which is in the process of asserting itself in the mentality of terrestrial man. It is the humanity in the human being that promotes neighbourly love and develops intellectual creativity for the benefit of the whole community. It is also consciousness of God, not as blind faith in a heavenly Father up in the clouds, but as the experience of the Deity in which "we live, move and have our being", whose body is the whole universe and whose spirit is forever "moving upon the face of the waters" in the sense that it is the power that causes the transformations and cycles of the elements and the evolution of the living beings throughout the macrocosmos, the microcosmos and the mesocosmos. There is constant and deliberate interplay between king consciousness and the eternal Deity in which all living beings are experienced as the tools and organs used by God to speak to man and to convey impulses, inspiration and experiences to him. To the man in whose mentality king consciousness is asserting itself more and more strongly prayer to Providence will become a natural and necessary phenomenon in his daily life, not merely in the mornings and evenings, but many times during the day. When he is confronted with difficulties and hardship he prays that the will of Providence be done, that is, that he may do the right thing in the given situation -whatever is most beneficial to the totality. By doing this, man comes onto a wavelength that will bring him into harmony with the corresponding spiritual powers or guardian angels who are the Deity's tools on the spiritual plane and who are able to transform the energies from the high spiritual worlds down to the wavelength to which terrestrial man's consciousness can be tuned when he applies all his willpower and energy to being of use and benefit to other living beings in his daily life.
4. In times long past men were governed by initiated kings
But why use precisely the term "king consciousness" for the humanity that is developing in the mentality of terrestrial man? There is a special reason for this that we can discover partly through considering mankind's past and partly through concentrating on the teachings of Christ. In times long past mankind was led and governed by initiated kings through whom the divine power could be brought into closer contact with the human beings who were then still very primitive. Those kings had been initiated into the very layers of consciousness of mankind. These kings were absolute rulers and had tremendous power, but the fact that they were initiated guaranteed that they did not abuse their power and that they used it solely for the benefit of the people whose guardian spirit on Earth they were. They were king, high priest and chief justice in one person, formulating the religious myths, symbols and customs suitable to the level of development of their people and passing the judicial laws necessary for the maintenance of calm, order and justice in society. Terrestrial man at this stage of his evolution had no doubts that there was a god or several gods behind nature and its powers. Their religious instinct told them that this had to be the case. But their god or gods quite naturally bore the stamp of their particular power of imagination and primitive ideals and not least of their fear. As the cry of anguish is the animal's only form of prayer, anguish is also an important element in the prayer and worship of the primitive peoples. They watch the forces of nature lay waste in a moment what has taken man years to build, and they imagine that evil spirits or the wrath of the gods lie behind this. Their greatest ideal is the brave warrior who has the power to punish and to revenge himself for what they consider to be unjust, and therefore the very gods of these peoples are punishing and revengeful deities who are first and foremost to be feared. In the eyes of the people the king was the son of the gods, indeed perhaps they even considered him a god incarnate. His words were law, and he had power over life and death.
5. A divine democracy is gradually developing on Earth
In the eyes of modern people all this is primitive paganism and superstition but nevertheless there was divine guidance behind these conditions. The people of the future will look upon the present-day civilization as primitive and pagan but they will know that behind the proletarian condition of today's humanity lay the germ of the development of king consciousness, not in one single divine dictator but in the consciousness and behaviour of the entire people. What is happening in our time is that a divine democracy is gradually developing that will succeed the dictatorship, which, because of its degeneration, has long since ceased to be divine. History demonstrates how the principle of initiated kings changed. From being "holy men" who really were holy because of their spiritual knowledge and power, on the strength of which they were able to exercise a divine dictatorship, they degenerated into mere figureheads whose initiation turned into just an outward show. King consciousness no longer governed society, and soon proletarian consciousness became the ruling factor. Revolts, wars and revolutions put new kings on the throne, and the social life of terrestrial man gradually developed a class system in which the ability to elbow one's way forward at the expense of others determined whether one belonged to the upper or lower layer of society. The "bottom layer" is the so-called proletariat which to a large extent consists of people who are having one of their first incarnations in a civilized society or of people who, in previous incarnations, have destroyed certain faculties and talents so that this time they are either psychopaths or apathetic and indifferent to their surroundings. As previously mentioned, though, it is possible to encounter king consciousness even in the proletarian districts. There may be people living there who have been destined to incarnate in such a place in order to have certain experiences and to prove that it is possible to live in "hell" and still be in the "Kingdom of Heaven", provided one has it within oneself. Such people always have a special mission in life and therefore generally do not stay in the slum district, but all the same the fact that they have lived in that particular area is of great importance both to themselves and to other people. Through a variety of incarnations all people must experience what it means to be at the top and at the bottom of the social ladder, so that eventually they will be able to participate in transforming this society into a true democracy where real value does not lie in money obtained at the expense of other people but in man's working capacity and creativity in so far as it can be deployed for the benefit of the whole community.
6. The development of Christ consciousness in the human mind gradually saves mankind from the dark destiny created by proletarian consciousness
Such a transformation of the structure of society cannot happen all at once. There are many lessons to be learned before then. But it is not through revolution and violent upheaval that a better social order will be brought about, but through a change in human consciousness. For that purpose a true king incarnated almost two thousand years ago in the midst of the proletariat and showed humanity how to display king consciousness without the trappings of royal pomp and glory. He was the greatest servant of mankind, the model of what man will ultimately become on this Earth. They say that Christ will return, but it is not Jesus in person who will appear on the clouds of heaven somewhere above the Earth. He himself said, "Then if someone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah', or 'There he is', do not go there and do not be misled". The second coming of Christ, however, will be a reality and will be the "salvation " of mankind, as they say. It will be the development of Christ consciousness or king consciousness in the human mind that will save man from the dark destiny or karma that his proletarian consciousness has created. The greatest victor will always be the human being who can free himself from the selfish desires of his proletarian consciousness so that he can experience joy through manifesting love and helpfulness, through being of service to his fellow men and through contributing to the growth of enlightenment and the creation of peace in the world. Such a being will experience a sense of freedom and sovereignty that is totally different from the egotistical liberty that materialistic man is dreaming of and which only ties him down harder and makes his destiny dull and "proletarian".
7. Prayer is a magical power through which king consciousness can be developed
Prayer is a magical power through which king consciousness can be developed. If man only knew the magical power of prayer he would use much more of this power in his daily life. In every situation he would ask for strength and patience to act from his king consciousness instead of from his proletarian consciousness. Prayer is the concentration of "regal power" within yourselves, a power that increases through being used. As this power gets control of your mentality you will no longer be disappointed by the people and circumstances that previously used to disappoint you. You will no longer let yourselves be overwhelmed by physical events and other people's words and actions. Within yourselves you will say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", and you will notice how the new consciousness in your mind gets the upper hand of bad, old habits belonging to proletarian consciousness. And when your king consciousness governs not only your relations with people around you but also your attitude to food and drink and other physical needs, then "the Kingdom of Heaven" is within you and will beam forth from you in thoughts, words and actions.
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Original Danish title: Proletarbevidsthed og kongebevidsthed. From a transcript of a lecture given by Martinus at the Martinus Institute on Sunday, 15th October 1950. Edited by Mogens Møller and approved by Martinus. Translated by Gunilla Lindblad, 1993.
Article ID: M1960
Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 6, 1993
Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 6, 1993
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