Spiritism in the face of war
We are, on this date, experiencing a new moment of apprehension in the world, with a new war starting between Russia and Ukraine. It will be very opportune, therefore, to remember some important concepts of Spiritism in the face of such situations, such as wars.
The situation of those who die in wars
In the first place, it is necessary to remember that any human evil is born from the imperfection inherent in Spirits who, like practically all of us, are still in the third order of life. spirit scale. The Spirit who practices evil, individually or in combination, does so because he is still ignorant of morals and acts according to his already conquered free will. Thus, I emphasize, never uma ação de perversidade ou maldade, praticada por alguém, nasce de uma cobrança divina de uma “dívida” passada.
Creio muito importante destacar esse pensamento, logo de início, pois muitos ainda pensam, muito erradamente, que a vítima de um crime está “resgatando débitos passados”, o que não é uma verdade. Ora, que Deus é esse que cobra dívidas através de crimes e que, com isso, faz um outro Espírito – o do criminoso – adquirir um novo débito?
Therefore, no, people who die victims of a crime, whether isolated, such as a homicide, or in a group, from smaller but no less expressive cases, such as the Kiss nightclub fire, which resulted in a criminal case, even the biggest, such as the cases of Nazism, which killed more than six million Jews, or the genocide committed by the Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, whose politics killed 50 to 80 million people, do not die because they are being charged for absolutely nothing in the past: they die as a result of the decisions of others, criminals - remembering that, of course, the Spirit that foresees life under such a condition can choose then reincarnate in order to atone for past mistakes and try to learn and get rid of the imperfections that made him wrong.
I already addressed this issue in another article, destacando que as mortes coletivas não se dão por conta de “resgates coletivos”, mas por conta de estarmos sujeitos a tais vicissitudes, inerentes à matéria bruta que hoje ocupamos.
A “data limite”
Muitos têm, com certo medo, se referido a uma suposta “profecia” atribuída a Chico Xavier a respeito da chamada data limite, onde, a partir de determinada data, em 1969, os Espíritos elevados que cuidam do progresso terrestre dariam um “ultimato” ao ser humano terrestre: se não houvesse nenhuma guerra, dentro dos 50 anos seguintes, entraríamos em uma nova fase de evolução planetária.
It so happens that we have some problems with the Doctrine:
- Superior spirits do not usually give future predictions of this kind.
- How could superior spirits give such an ultimatum knowing that the human being is still very imperfect and knowing the going and going in the human heart?
- We know that the evolution of the Spirit does not respect dates. For the immortal Spirit, time does not exist, and what is not done today, nor here, will be done in decades, centuries or millennia. The urgency that exists lives in each one, because each lost day of detachment from imperfections will be one more day of suffering in this spiritual condition.
Another problem is that much of this subject has been discussed secondhand, through other people, not having come directly from Chico Xavier's mouth. Therefore, it is necessary to look at this matter very carefully.
War and Spiritism: The Spirits’ Book
In the cited work, Kardec also addresses the theme of wars. Let's review the questions and answers:
742. What is it that drives man to war?
“The predominance of the animal nature over the spiritual nature and the overflow of passions. In the state of barbarism, peoples only know one right: that of the strongest. That is why, for such peoples, war is a normal state. As man progresses, war becomes less frequent, because he avoids its causes. And when it becomes necessary, he knows how to do it with humanity.”
The human being, still very imperfect, wants to rule by force in order to enforce his selfish desires. As we progress, we will leave such imperfections behind and fight less, on any scale. The big problem is that, today, man is forgotten about morals and the soul.
743. From the face of the earth, will war ever disappear?
“Yes, when men understand justice and do the law of God. At that time, all peoples will be brothers.”
Unfortunately, in an absurdly materialistic society, we are quite forgetful about practicing the Law of God.
744. What did Providence aim at, making war necessary?
“Freedom and Progress.”
When it is said that Providence (God) made war necessary, it is important to understand that God would never make war a necessity in itself, but rather that He allows free will to the imperfect Spirit that, without a shadow of a doubt, will come into play. strife and wars of every kind. It's part of evolution. It is almost always necessary to know the bad, in its most advanced stage, for society to seek the good. In the past, the human being, in general, fought and killed for any petty reason. Today we are considerably far from that past.
There is also something important to note: larger-scale wars are always commanded by one or more tyrannical individuals or groups. At the end of the line is the soldier who, many times, has nothing to do with it and who would not even like to be there, but who is forced to follow the orders of his commanders. Divine Justice, of course, “takes into account” these differences, that is, the soldier who acts under command, without the will to do evil, will have, before his own conscience, much less sense of guilt than the commander. who sends them to murder.
744. a) — If war must have the advent of freedom as its effect, how can it often aim and result in subjugation?
“Temporary subjugation, for press peoples, in order to make them progress more quickly.”
It is the complement of what was said above. War presses for advancement, both scientific and moral.
745. What is to be thought of him who stirs up war for his own benefit?
“This is the big culprit and many stocks will be necessary for him to atone for all the murders he has caused, for he will answer for all the men whose death he has caused to satisfy his ambition.”
From the answer to this question, it seems then that the Spirit who provokes war to take advantage will indeed have to pay for each of those who have suffered for this reason. But that's not exactly it. It is necessary to read carefully and carefully, and Kardec's works, being based on science, are continually built on previous postulates.
Let us note here that the spiritual response speaks in atonement. Atonement, being a kind of penance, is not a punishment imposed directly by God, as a charge, but rather as an effect of the conscience that the Spirit takes on the evil done. From the moment the Spirit understands that what suffers from being far from the good, starts to suffer morally because of it and, then, starts to plan incarnations where it will atone for its imperfections, to overcome them. Nor does it mean that the Spirit will individually atone for each one sufferings or deaths that he has caused, but, yes, that he will go through a long reincarnation work, trying to get rid of the moral weight acquired with his mistakes. Hitler will certainly not be reincarnated more than six million times to die in the same way and "pay" for the death of every single Jew (and other victims of the war), but surely the moment he understand the extent of the evil he did and the size of the suffering he himself experiences, he will go through a long series of incarnations suffered, by his own choice, in order to seek to overcome the exacerbated imperfections that made him act in such a way.
Conclusion
War and contention, to a lesser or greater degree, are still inherent to our condition of very imperfect spirits, and will only cease to exist on the day we practice God's laws, that is, on the day when moral charity, benevolence, in short, the good in itself is installed in the heart of each one, as an obligation, as well as that each one makes his own effort to get rid of selfishness and pride, imperfections that give rise to all the others. And, for that, it is necessary that the man rises above the matter and understands that, as incarnate Spirits, the only thing that really matters and what we take from here is the progress we have made or not. And, in this, Spiritism, as a science, and education based on Pestalozzi's pedagogy (mainly), still has much to contribute.
Let us pray, yes, for our brothers. We know that thought has the power of transmission over infinite distances. They can, who knows, reach the most hardened hearts, as they can also do a lot of good to those who are victims of the despotic excesses of all those who want to rule by force and violence. And let's take the opportunity to study, not to teach Spiritism classes, but to make ourselves more useful to society through our own transformation and the propagation of ideas based on the preexistence of the soul and its infinite continuity.