As sharers of this immense and great universe, we are kings and queens, and more. We, that is, those of us who live in the realm of the Spirit are aware of who we are. We revere everyone. But we do not revere anyone specially on the basis of his or her birth status. Besides kings and queens came about as a perversion of God’s creation. Think about it. God did not create anyone as lord over anyone. The perversion results when anyone thinks that someone is nobler or higher, and needs to be specially revered or honored just because of his or her birth in a certain lineage. The media goes after them because that is what keeps them in existence among the overwhelming majority of the unenlightened. Many kings historically were thugs and evil men who because of their muscle power and craftiness subjugated others and began to rule over them.

            Their so-called subjects owed fealty to them because of their fear. They would have been in our times tried in courts and put away in maximum security prisons for their heinous crimes. Let us take one famous example: Henry VIII of England, whose six wives had to fear execution, and from whom descended the present royal family of UK. He wanted to divorce his first wife, the widow of his late brother so he could remarry and get a male heir for his throne. He had already gotten dispensation from the Pope to marry the widow of his older brother.He unleashed his own brand of lustful reformation breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, and established his own church and appointed an archbishop who gave him the divorce he wanted. He had also slept with one of his wives’ mother. He murdered four of his wives. His sixth wife survived him. Because of fear he did not kill his first wife as her uncle was the powerful king of Spain. He clutched on to power by letting his vassals and henchmen loot the enormous wealth of the Roman Catholic Church and its monasteries.

            He murdered even his powerful minister, St. Thomas More, for following his conscience. In India what about emperor Aurangzeb who killed his own older brother, the legal heir to the throne, and presented his head on a platter, after stamping it on ground, piercing it with a sword, and spitting on it, to his father, Shah Jahan, at supper time, whom he had imprisoned in the palace on the Yamuna river on the opposite side of Taj Mahal. In our own kingdom of Travancore Marthanda Varma , king of Travancore killed boththe sons of his uncle, the king, whom he succeeded. To consolidate his power. Tipu Sultan of Mysore, besides plundering and devastating crops, the livelihood of people, made burger out of the foreskins of the British soldiers whom he captured, and forced them to eat it.

            What about the Popes who is supposed to represent Christ, born in the poorest of circumstances in a manger? They thought in olden days they had divine right and power to rule the temporal and the spiritual world. In clinical psychology and psychiatry this would be considered to be delusions of grandeur. But they were serious and had the wherewithal to enforce their whims. Theologically no Pope, no Sankaracharya, no God-man or God-woman is holier than any one of us whether we are more than kings/queens or not. The world that is opposed to the spirit of Christ will say that the claim of being more than kings or queens is like the “grapes are sour” rationalization of the tired and frustrated wolf in the fable. What about me? If I said what I am saying now at a different time, say 70 years ago, my head could have been chopped off. I do not like to pass through places ruled by kings and queens if I can help it. Let the world win this argument as I am satisfied with my sweet “rationalization” that they may attribute to me. The world’s spiritual leaders also need to let go off false titles coming from obscurantist theological claims of the dark middle Ages.

            Let me explain why I consider myself to be and all others to be as kings and queens if not more. “All human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity,” states the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) of the United Nations. No human being who believes in this declaration can be a king or a queen. Now I have all that I need by God’s grace. I do not control anybody. I live in the moderate climate of Munnar endowed with sumptuous natural beauty rarely seen in other parts of the world. I live in an ashram run by dedicated, loyal, loving, and caring helpers/workers whose service cannot be bought by money alone as love responds to love. Our cows - Ponni, Malini, Ramani, Manjula - and their calves Meera, Maya, and Bert Lalaji (this is a compromise, because Mataji wanted an American name; he is generally known as Lalaji though). I live a simple holistic life close to the land. I can live a worldly, luxurious life if I want to, but my conscience does not permit that. I swim in a cool pool/reservoir filled by gravitation with water coming from the mountain springs. Tantran, our dog, is full of love, but does not know how to express it without jumping on you! I can move around freely without a bodyguard.