This seems pertinent to our present times!
A provisional rendering by Sharif Horthy of the Talk given by Bapak on May 26, 1976, during the meeting of the Compact World Council, at Kenfield Hall, U.K.
Brothers and sisters, from the reports that Bapak has heard, that we all have heard from the various zones from Central Europe down to Africa and America, it is very evident that the reason why Subud has not progressed, or is still slow in progressing, both in terms of the organization and the kejiwaan, is largely due to the conditions prevailing in world at the moment. These are as Bapak described earlier today, that it is really true that at this moment the situation in the world is one where God is testing man. It is a time of test for man in that everywhere men are forced to undergo a situation which is chaotic, so that men are forced to live, no matter where men live in the world today, they are forced to live and undergo situations that are in the nature of chaos. And the reason for this is that the greed of man in the world at the moment has reached a kind of peak, as man’s intelligence or cleverness has also reached a kind of peak. Why is it that the result of man’s intelligence reaching a peak is chaos? The reason is that this cleverness, or this intelligence that Bapak is referring to, is a cleverness which is entirely motivated by the nafsu, by heart and mind and by the lower forces. In other words, being of a cleverness that comes only from the heart and mind, it is something that is influenced by the nafsu, by the lower forces which have their abode in the heart and mind, so that everything that man does with his cleverness which he has developed has always the result of ruining something for other people. No matter what man obtains, what result man obtains from his labors, nowadays it is used immediately to make chaos in someone else’s place, in a place other than where the person is who is doing it, whether it is in the form of provoking or trying to wage war, or making trouble in some other way. And this is one of the reasons why Subud cannot, in fact, progress at present in the way that we would hope, because indeed this is the situation throughout the world, and it is by the will of God that man, at this moment is forced to undergo a state of general chaos. Another reason is clearly the situation of money or the economy, which is certainly on the way down and this is very evident. Of course, it is most evident if you hear reports from South Africa and South America and the northern part of Africa, but it is also the case in countries like the United States. For example, in the past, the United States thought of itself as a place where they had a surplus whereby they could help other people in other countries, and they could even export things or export ways of doing things to other countries, so that people who received these things would be able to organize themselves better than before, now, it is just the opposite, that people in the United States are finding all sorts of things happening to them which are not at all what they had anticipated or hoped for. So, it is clear that all these things are happening in the world and there is a general instability, and this instability is, of course, felt also in the Subud organization and in the progress of our Subud organization. In other words, we do not experience stability. Now in this situation we have to be aware that we have received the grace of God Almighty whereby we have received the latihan kejiwaan, and to some extent we are already able to be aware of the guidance of God Almighty within us. So if you compare your situation now, when you certainly feel the condition of the world around you, with how you would have felt before you received the latihan kejiwaan, you will be able to understand that you are not as worried or as upset as you would have been before you were opened. If you remember how you were at that time, if you imagine to yourselves having to face the situation we are facing now, as you were at that time, you will understand that the suffering that you experience would be more than suffering and you would be in the situation of most people today, that they are not only suffering, but they are, as it were, at their wits’ end. Whereas, in your situation you are somewhat detached from it and able to view it as something normal. You are able to maintain your equilibrium.
