Question: My concerns are spiritual but I seem to be involving myself with things that I think are of the world. Or I have in my mind that politics are not good. And then I think there's good and bad. I have that ingrained thought in me that can we be in the world and not be of the world?

Things go well, I meet people I wanted to see, sometimes coming out of a place I'm going to. But I wonder is this right? What am I supposed to be doing? I want to be doing what I was created to be doing at this time. I try to do my best, but at times I get doubts and I'm like a seesaw, back and forth. Maybe this is not right and then maybe it is right -- it's right in front of me.

Maitreya: The question is really from the heart. A lot of people, probably, have this same question: Is this situation that we are in now right?

Your question is, if you are here to be in the world but not of it, why are you so involved in mundane things that just seem to keep dragging you down all the time?

In any transition period you are working in two worlds at the same time. You have to adapt yourself to the situation you are living in now, at the same time keep your eye on the goal -- where you are going, and what is the reason that you have been created to be here.

The reason we have been created to be here is to create the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, and to bring God to all levels of human life. Now you asked, "Are politics good?" There's nothing bad in this universe, it depends on how it's used and to what that energy is directed. So even politics are not bad if they are from knowledge.

Remember in our teaching, everything is from three kinds. It can be from ignorance, passion or knowledge. So if the political system is based on ignorance, it creates a situation that puts humanity in a position where they will suffer.

If it's from passion, that also will bring suffering because that is based on, "What can I get out of it?" It becomes a business of the political system. If it's from knowledge, sure, why not? If a person has been chosen to be a leader, to manifest God's qualities, bring good to people and use the power of the office for the good of humanity, that is a good political system.

So again, we have to go back and see if the system, or the action we're doing, is from ignorance, passion or knowledge. If it's not from ignorance, it's not from passion and it's from knowledge, then it's FINE.

The ultimate goal is to come out of this mundanity. The way to be in the world but not of it, is by the creation of the Communities of Light. As we create the Communities of Light, we each share. For instance, right now since another person has come to be with us, we help one another and all of us are less in mundanity. We are much less in the world because we don't need the world as much. We have each other and because of that we can concentrate on higher things, on God. If we kept separating ourselves from one another, each trying to deal with the situation and at the same time have our eyes on the Goal, that's hard. That's going to be difficult.

I used to tell a story about a father who had five sons. These sons didn't get along with each other. They quarreled with one another all the time. The father was very upset about this situation yet he didn't know what to do about it.

Eventually he put five sticks of wood together, called all his sons and said, "Come here, to whomever of you could break this wood, I'll give all my belongings." He was a very rich person, so they also were fighting over his possessions. Each son was a strong man. Each one came and tried to break the five sticks together. They didn't succeed.

This old man said, "Now I can break them." They said, "No, you can't break them. We are younger and stronger than you. How can you, an old man, break these five sticks?"

"It's very easy," he said. He separated the sticks and broke them one by one. Then he said, "If you come together and be strong, it's hard to break you. You have strength and power together. You can withstand any problem or whatever comes to you. But if you stay alone, and each separated by yourselves, it's very easy to break you."

That is also true in the Kingdom. It is said that the crowd, the number, is the hand of God. The more numbers there are, the more God-conscious people who come together in the name of God and put their differences aside and become One, the stronger the Kingdom will be, the stronger the people will be and each person will be strong in the group. It doesn't matter how many problems come to that group, those problems won't destroy them because they have a strong base.

Just like the Hebrew communities, they withstood the problems for the last 6,000 years. Why? Because they have a strong community feeling, strong family feeling. It doesn't matter if they were destroyed in one place, their base never could be destroyed which was the strength of the community. They always could build on that base.

If the base is rotten, the whole house falls. If you have a good base, it doesn't matter if a tornado comes and takes the top off, still you could put another top on because you have a good strong base. Yet if you have a base that the ground always falls out from underneath the house, what will happen to this house? It doesn't matter how beautiful the top is, that house isn't good. It will eventually fall to the ground.

So the base of the whole Kingdom is the Communities of Light, the strength of all the people together. With creation of the oneness and coming together to create the community, we'll go away from the world. Then the Communities of Light will be in the world, but not of it.

We have to come together. People have to come to create that strong base for the Kingdom.

Comment: We've lived out where we live before there was any electricity, or anything. So now, I've adjusted to where I feel I can do without a lot of the goodies. I like the basics. I'd like to go to building the outdoor oven where my grandmother used to bake her bread. You heat it with wood. I'd like to go do that even if I have my stove. I'd like to find ways to live using the natural resources that the planet has. Like I used to raise my own vegetables. I look for things like that.

Maitreya: But have you been able to follow your wish or have you been pulled with the technology and television?

Comment: Well, it doesn't pull me that way. Oh, we have a television but if we didn't have it, we wouldn't even miss it.

Maitreya: I know, but have you left completely to live like your grandmother?

Comment: No, I don't. I drive a car.

Maitreya: You drive a car. You have a television. You have a stove. So probably you use some of the facilities of technology. You see, although you think, or you want, to stay as before, the force of technology and the comforts of life bring everyone to use these facilities.

So you see, we have no choice but to accept that technology has comforted our living. There's a different degree for different people. How much do they want to go into it? Some people go all the way with the latest technology. Some people use some, and some people still resist the technological revolution. Yet eventually they see, they have no choice. They have to put money in the bank. They have to use the bank teller. They have to use the stove. They have to use the gas. They have to drive the car. They are being pulled into it.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of the technological advancements and energies which are available in the universe for them to use.

Question: Would it be something that would not pollute?

Maitreya: That is what the new technology has to work on. But it is not going to be given to humanity if they want to misuse it as they have done with conventional powers. As we create the Communities of Light, as we create the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, this new technology will be released to humanity. Right now we are on the brink of discovering technologies which are very useful. There is unlimited energy available to humanity without polluting the earth.

Like electricity -- electricity can be obtained without polluting the earth, without fusion or atomic energy. These make a lot of waste which we have to bury all over the world. Now we're reaching a point where we don't have any place to bury it anymore. We don't know what to do with it.

Humanity is in that place to unlock the secrets of these wonderful technologies but you have to be ready for them. You don't put a knife or a gun into the hand of a child, do you? Neither does the Spirit. Spirit is not going to give that technology. You see everything in the universe can be used for good (God) or bad (evil). Nothing is evil or Divine in itself, it becomes evil or Divine in the way it's used.

So that technology can also be used Divinely, or it can be used in an evil way. We are still like children at each other's throats on earth. We say, "My interest only is important, not yours or someone else's." So we cannot have that technology. If I have that technology then I say, "Everyone else has to listen to me, because I'm very powerful. I have this technology and power, and if you don't listen I'm going to blow you up."

Then the other person finds that technology and says, "Now I have that technology, now I'm going to blow you up too." And what happens? Again zero option because we're afraid to blow one another up, not because we want to come together, share this earth together and be in it as the Children of God.

When we learn our lesson, then we learn that we have to come to understand that this earth belongs to God and we are all His Children. Then also God will release His Knowledge to us. There are infinite universes and there's infinite energy there. Just tap into it. We're going to have energy for probably the next infinite billions of years. Even the energy used can be returned to energy. Everything is convertible in this universe.

So I don't think we should shun technology but we should seek to bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth. Using technology will not only comfort our lives but we will realize it's a part of God. For example, electricity has mind. It has a brain. It is a part of God.

They use electricity for computers and computer science where they do incredible things. So that is a part of God. We are using it, so we have to appreciate the spirit of electricity. We have to respect electricity. We have to look at it, not as something we can use the way we want, but as something to comfort our lives. We have to use it conservatively, wisely and respectfully as a part of God. When we learn that, then we're going to come up with technology that will show us that the present technology is a speck in comparison with what we can have.

Question: About the sixth seal, the sign of Paravipras (), could you talk a little bit about who is a Paravipra?

Maitreya: As explained in THOTH there are basically four kinds of humans. You can categorize them, in a very general sense not in a dogmatic way, as Shudra, Ksattriya, Vipra and Vaeshya. Shudra means worker, the person who is interested in physical work. He is a person who mostly is interested in day-to-day living. He strives to have his food and have a place to live. As long as his basic necessities are provided, he really doesn't have that much ambition. That's all he wants, just a place or situation where he has his basic needs.

The Ksattriyas have the warrior quality, or are courageous people. They are leaders. They can't be satisfied with just a little food and place to live. They want to explore. They want to discover. They are pioneers. They want to go find new frontiers, find new places. They are pioneers.

Vipras are intellectual people. They like to study, to read, to understand, to go deep into finding different problems that they can study, to understand what is going on in this universe. They want to know the universe by their minds.

Vaeshyaes are business people. They like to control resources. They want to use economical means to control the earth. They like to control the capital, the workers and the resources so they can combine them to come up with the products that they can provide and benefit from.

So each of these categories have their own qualities. Each are necessary for human progress and the human society. Also each of these categories like to dominate society. For instance, in the very beginning the warrior class were the pioneers.

The Shudra class likes to keep everything quiet, like it is. They don't want any person to come and stir up the community. So that's why they don't like to do pioneering endeavors. Yet, at the same time, they need protection. They feel they want someone to protect them. They need a leader who will take them to the battle -- whether it's battling the animal attacking the tribe, or any other enemy -- the person who can organize, who can make them follow him, go after him and make the community feel that there's a father figure there.

The warrior class has those qualities. They have the qualities of valor, courageousness and all those things that most of the people say is charisma. For instance, all the tribes were afraid of the volcano. Everyone thought, it's god. And everyone bowed down in front of the volcano. Then this courageous, or warrior-kind of person says, No, I want to go to see what is up there.

All the Shudras say, No, don't go, you're going to be killed. The god's going to eat you up, up there. And this warrior type goes up there. He looks and sees, Well, it's only fire at the top of the mountain. He doesn't see anything else. And he comes back. So the Shudra takes the courageous one to be god. He went up there and came back. So they start bowing down in front of him and make him a leader.

Anyway this warrior class eventually becomes stronger and stronger, expands its territories to cover other tribes, then a territory and eventually it covers a large territory. So this warrior-type of person creates a country. That country becomes powerful, runs over other countries, conquers other people and he becomes an emperor, etc.

Yet, as these types became more powerful and became emperors, they created large armies and they needed weapons. They needed politicians, people who could politically conduct the affairs of the state. The warrior person is not a politician, he's just a warrior and a very respected person. He doesn't deal with politics. He thinks everything can be solved by the force of the army.

As the territories of these emperors and kings became large, they eventually realized that they needed a prime minister, a wise man. They called him a wise man but really he's an intellectual. This is a person who can see, think, figure things out about other people and start the political process with other states.

As this position of the intellectual increased in the kingdom, the intellectuals, little by little, became more and more powerful. The king eventually became a figurehead. The king is the king, yet the person who really runs the show is the politician or the wise person.

So the era of the warrior class was transferred to the politicians or intellectual class. The highest point of that era was the Roman Empire. Eventually they became so intellectual that they created the senate and the democratic system. One quality of the intellectual is that they are very individualistic. They want to keep individuality, freedom of expression and freedom of the individual in the society.

The warrior class is not like that. He doesn't care about the individuality. What he cares about is the power of the collectivity. And so there is a conflict between the mentality of the warrior class and the intellectuals.

We can see this right now in Russia. After the revolution, the warrior class took over the action. They think they can do anything with war and the military. Now Gorbachev is an intellectual. He's going more toward freedom and individuality. We can see that they have a conflict.

The intellectual also has an insatiable appetite for pleasure. So whatever power and money they gain, they spend for their individual pleasure. And as they spend this money, the Vaeshyan class or the business class provides them with the commodities that they need. So as they earn the money, they spend it, and the Vaeshyan class or the businessmen take the money they spend.

The kings in France eventually reached a point where they owed most of their kingdom to the business class. So the business class eventually became more and more powerful because they had the resources. They gained the resources all over the world. Europe and the rest of the world became feudal states. Very few people had a lot of land, the rest were working for them. Even the king was afraid of these feudals because they were so powerful.

The zenith, or the high point of this process, was the industrial revolution in Europe, when the businessmen came to power. That was the start of the freedom of trade and Communism. These are completely opposite ideologies. One says, "There should be a free market. We'll set the standard on the free market, we'll motivate the people to do things." The other one says, "No, that is slavery." So those two ideologies started having a clash. And so we have two camps on earth, both of them based on business.

Businessmen become the true power on earth. Because they are controlling the resources, eventually the three other classes, Shudras, Vipras and Ksattriyans or workers, warriors and intellectuals, all become workers (Shudras). They all become workers for the business class, because the business class has the resources.

It doesn't matter how much education you have, if you don't have money to invest when you come out of school, where can you go? You have to go out and work for a company. So you are really the worker in a big company.

That is when the other three classes become workers. But the intellectual and warrior class cannot stand this for a long time. Also if other devices occur, like no intervention of the government with the business class, then eventually very few people will have all the resources and the rest won't have any.

That is the prediction of the communist ideology. That's when the workers will revolt against those few people who have, and that's when they're going to have the revolution. Since this ideology was explained, the industrial countries have tried to split the wealth as wide as possible, so they never reach that point where that kind of revolution happens.

Yet, in Russia at least, and in China it happened because a few people had the power and most didn't. Eventually the revolution of the people started. Usually this revolution happens when the warrior class and the intellectual class become very frustrated with the situation, and they become the leaders of the Shudras (workers and farmers). Then with their leadership, revolution takes place.

The moment the revolution starts, the moment the worker class revolts, the class that comes to power is the warrior class, because they are the people who have to calm the mass. The mass doesn't really have that much of an organizational feeling. So what happens is the workers start a chaos. For a short time there is chaos. That short period is really when the worker class becomes the dominating class.

Then the warrior class takes over, they create an army and calm the mass. That is when the warrior class becomes the dominating class. As in Russia and China, it was the warrior class who came to power in the beginning. Now we can see that the intellectuals are emerging.

When things start calming down and the warrior class has the power over the people, and when the people become comfortable and become more prosperous, then again the intellectuals start to gain power. The intellectuals come in and start taking over the work of the government. Eventually they go toward individuality; individuality eventually will promote businessmen, and businessmen become powerful. So this cycle goes on and on. If there is not a system that checks this process, this will go on indefinitely.

That is where the Paravipras come in. Paravipras are the people who have the qualities of all the four classes. If it's necessary they can work like a worker. They can take a shovel and dig the ground. If it's necessary, they can do anything physically. They have the quality of the intellectual. They can understand things very well and deeply. They also have the quality of the warrior, they are pioneers. They are not afraid of any new thing, any exploration and going on to new discoveries. Also they have very good minds for business. They know how to use money, money is not bad. As we said, nothing is bad in the universe, it becomes good or bad in how you use it.

So, because they have the qualities of all those four classes, Paravipras really don't belong to any class. They are beyond any class because they understand each very well. Since they are classless and are observers of the changes in the society, they can see the signs in society of the end of the dominating class and the coming of the next one. They smooth things out, and they transfer the society from one phase to another phase.

Without having these Paravipras as the facilitating body and without their understanding this process -- the process of changing, especially when going from the business class to the warrior class -- there will be a revolution, and that will create conflict and destruction. Revolution means the movement starts from the bottom of society, and that usually creates a lot of friction between the revolutionary elements and the ruling body.

The Paravipras, those who have the qualities of all four classes, can work with each class and understand them very well. As it is explained in THOTH, there are weaknesses in each class which eventually bring their downfall. Because of the qualities of the Paravipras, they will be the Elders or at the top of the pyramid in society.

As the Seers, as the watchers of society from the top of the system, they can see when a new era is approaching. When the signs are there that the old class is losing power or becoming a burden on society, it is then that they devise measures that transfer human societies from one period to the other in an evolutionary manner.

Evolution comes from the top of society and it usually doesn't create friction between the classes. So the transfer becomes very smooth. That is why the Paravipras will be at the top of the pyramid.

Also, not only do they have these qualities of the four classes, they also have spiritual qualities, and their spiritual qualities make them incorruptible. They're incorruptible, and incorruptibility in the leader is very important. If a leadership corrupts itself or is corrupt, the rest of society will be corrupt. As it says in the Bible, if the head is rotten, the whole body will be rotten.

For instance, in this country there was so much Grace. The people were so confident in the system until the war in Viet Nam and the discovery of Watergate. That was when the confidence of the people in their government was destroyed. Why? Because the head, the leadership, lost that incorruptibility. The people realized, "Yes, the leaders can be corrupt." That's when, in any society, everything falls apart.

So the leadership and incorruptibility of the head of the pyramid is most important. That is the reason that Paravipras must not only have the qualities of the four classes but they also have to be spiritual. They have to be God-conscious. They have to realize Spirit. They will follow the Eternal Divine Path. Then we are going to have the Kingdom on Earth.

That is what the Paravipras are in general. And that is how we can smooth life on earth in an evolutionary manner to the point of perfection, to come a point that this earth is realized as a place that belongs to all of us. Then we will live here and we will manifest God in all levels of human life and consciousness.