The Origin of Human-being
Everywhere on this planet, there are human beings. We ourselves are also human beings who live in a certain part of the world.
Since our earliest age, we live and mingle with our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, relatives, neighbors, friends, all of them are also human beings.
Everywhere we go, we have to deal with our own folk, the human beings. Anywhere in any spot of the world: in the cities, villages, countries, continents, in the tropics , even near the poles live human beings.
The evolution of time and history record the development of humanbeings since the primitive time to the modern era. Life tells that all human-beings and other beings with physical bodies such as animals, all are unfolding through the mother’s wombs impregnated by the fathers. In the world literature, we can read many love stories between women and men, the hottest love relationship which produce offsprings as the fruits of love.
The developments of human names
In the earliest time, human beings communicated among themselves through their mind.Expressing through speech was still unknown. At that time, the ancient human beings had very sharp, sensitive intuition and mind. Through their feeling and thoughts or by exchanges of sight, they could understand each other. The earliest human beings used telepathy as a means of communicating to one another, it was a gift from nature, from GOD.
Lece
Lece is the name of the earliest human beings, given by the ancient Javanese people.They communicate with each other using gestures.Through natural development, the lece could produce irregular voices from thier mouths. Step by step, in line with development of their brain’s ability, the voices from their mouth syncronize with their wishes.
Mudita
Later the name lece changed to : Mudita. Muditas were ancient Javanese human beings who had given names to all items in the world. The first words were items found around them ,such as I, you, the names of foodstuffs a.o. : juwawut – a kind of grain ( the main food in Java before people consumed rice), rice, the names of fruits, animals, fish, bird, sheep, cow etc. And then the names of items from nature : land, earth, sun, sky, water, moon, star, wind etc.
Then ,the words related to taste such as : tasty,, sweet, bitter, sour also warm, cold, bright, dark etc.
With the existence of Muditas, the language was also developing.
The Muditas were authorized by The Creator, GOD, to give names to all things in the world. Our ancestors used to say : If there were no Muditas, there would be no words nor language.
Manusia
Then appeared the word manusia replacing the word mudita. Manusia comes from the word manu which means shame and swa means animal. This clearly show the difference between human and animal. Human, manusia has shame, animal has no shame. So, if a human being has no shame, he is just like an animal.
Wong, Wahong
According to Kejawen teaching, since the appearance of manusia, human who has the feeling of shame, culture and tradition were developing rapidly. There were some old, wise, holy men who taught anew the people to regain the essence of life.
Human, vegetation, all beings, all things on earth, are not separable from nature, they are part of it. Since time begun, humans were conscious of the need to preserve, to take care of the nature as best as could. Because without the nature , there won’t be any human living in this planet earth. If earth and nature were damaged, life and human existence in the world are endangered. This is an important classical knowledge which is relevant up till now..
Nature with all its contents and all kind of beings including humans, have passed a very long process to be in the present condition. The existence of nature including human beings is the wish and created by The Creator of Nature ( Sang Pencipta Alam in Indonesian language) and later on is worshipped by the name of Gusti ( in Javanese), GOD; Pangeran ( in Javanese), Lord;Tuhan Yang Maha Kuasa ( in Indonesian), God the Almighty and of course there are other names of GOD in various religions and in different languages.
According to Kejawen ( Javanese spiritual teaching, before a human was born in the world, he/she was a spirit. Her/his origin is completely under GOD’s authority. In that case, a human being is a spirit wearing an “outfit” in the form of physical and subtle bodies to live in the world.
God and goddesses are also creatures of GOD, they are also spirits but they don’t have physical bodies. Their essence is light, the same as the spirit ( of a human). It is no wonder why the Javanese ancestors named the human being : wahong meaning the descendants of god.In further development the word wahong became wong which means human. In everyday life, there are wong Jowo- Javanese; wong Sundo- Sundanese; wong Indonesia- Indonesian; wong Asia- Asian; wong Amerika- American; wong Eropa- European etc.
Tiyang, Ti Hyang
In the refined Javanese language- kromo inggil, wong is tiyang from the words Ti Hyang meaning the descendants of GOD.
Nowadays, many people are not aware that they are spirits wearing an outfit of physical body and subtle bodies. This is the key of Kejawen and universal spiritual teaching.
Know Your Real Self
Due to strong influence from material things and worldly needs in this life, many people do not know the meaning of true life. They do not know their origin, they do not know the essence of life.
GOD is not a physical entity, God is The Great Spirit, The Creator. The one who can communicate with Gusti, GOD, The Great Spirit, is the spirit within human bodies. It is wise, if a human knows her/his Real Self, her/his Higher Self which is a Spirit.
In this context, the spiritualists, the wise people often give advice : Know Thyself. A man will live peacefully and happily in this world ( and will not be dragged down with negative worldly deed such as : the fight for power, material wealth and tricky behaviour), after he/she has very close relation with his/her spirit within, who is her/his real Self, The Higher Self.
It occures when one is spiritually enlightened, has already a harmonious relationship with his Higher Self. He/She is always aware what his/her mission is in this life as given by GOD.He/She is carriying a mission for the benefit of mankind and the world.
What is a spirit doing in the world?
It is a tickling topic which often raises arguments. A spirit is given a chance by GOD to live in the world to do a certain mission. This task must be carried out properly and succesfully. Spiritualists say that some of the spirits have “to go to school” in the world, meaning they must be educated further in order to reach higher level of life.
It’s a pity that in many cases when the spirit has manifested as a human living in the world, he/she encounters many obstacles and temptation while doing his/her mission.The relation between the spirit with his/her vehicle, the human with his/her ego, does not sync.It happened that way because the human is too much dominated by worldly desire, he/she always wants to fulfill the need of worldly material, wealth, power and other worldly lust. Thus, he/she forget the essence of of spirituality.
As a precaution, the elder Kejawen spiritualists untiringly repeat the words : Eling –( always remember, be aware) and be cautious – (waspada).. Remember who you really are and what your true mission is in the world.
Life is a rotating wheel
The eastern spirituality teaches us that the life of a human being is like a rotating wheel ( The Javanese terminology is Cakra Manggilingan). It means, a spirit for a certain period is in the world, another time it is in the world of spirits, and then back again in the world doing certain mission and so on and so on, like a rotating wheel.
The eastern spiritualists believe in incarnation and reincarnation.
In the daily worldly life, the proverb of “Life is like a rotating wheel “ means : Life has its ups and downs. One day you are rich and happy, the other time your life is miserable.
A spirit travels from its origin, the beginning ( mula-mula in Javanese), after he is ordered by Gusti to live in the world ,then it returns back to where he belongs, in the world of spirits. It is a correct path for the spirit, it returns to its origin.
In reality, there are spirits, after living as human beings lose their physical vehicle, are not able to return smoothly to the world of spirits. Why? Because they have made fatal mistakes while living on earth. They have bad conduct and commited sins ( We will discuss this topic later on).
In order to have a better picture, we will talk about : how the nature and the earth, the place where human beings live, are created.
JagadKejawen,
Suryo S. Negoro
Edited by Sita Sudjono