Predictably, there have been torrents of reactions to this column published last week captioned Awujale and Funeral Rites. Some of the responses wondered why Oba Sikiru Adetona summitted himself to be crowned King if he was not prepared to abide by the tradition and custom attendant to the throne. It was, therefore, suggested that henceforth any Prince that may aspire to ascend the coveted throne but is not prepared to embrace the tradition and custom demanded of him should simply bury his ambition and keep away.One typical reaction, for example, reads in part:
“He held the stool in trust, truth be told. Before his emergence as king in 1958 was the tradition. After him, long will live the tradition. He overstated his powers in my calculation. Societies are sustained by myths. In our society, the sanity of our collective being is woven around the king, among others. The myth that maketh a king transmute to the pantheon of gods was ridiculously opened in the marketplace by Oba Adetona in the interview. Lesson: Those that cannot uphold the tradition should never be allowed near it.”
In the history of mankind, man has always looked up to someone as leader. Some are made or appointed leaders; some naturally emerge leaders while some could bulldoze their way and make themselves leaders. In all fields of human endeavours, there have always been leaders in one form or the other. In the ordinance of the Creator, leaders are meant to lead their brethren to the next level of development. They ensconce them in love and care. They emerge in different circumstances. They appear in order to protect. A leader is expected to be imbued with wisdom and courage and is expected to see far. Over millennia, leaders have been known to fall below expectation or indeed fail outright. Those that were found wanting lived faced with rebellion that brought them down.
There was an era of the Divine Right of Kings and the doctrine still endures in many parts of the world till this day. In the Middle East with particular reference to Saudi Arabia, Kings govern. In Nigeria, you hear it often said that it is the Creator that enthrones a ruler or a king and for that reason they are regarded as His lieutenants and to Him alone they are accountable. Reverence is paid to him on that account.
In Egypt of old, the Pharaohs claimed linkage with the godsthe same claim Emperors made in Rome after Constantine converted to Christianity after he got convinced that his protection and victory in war was by God of Christianity. The existence of monarchs believed to have been ordained and so given authority by the Almighty was widespread in Europe from 16th to the 18th centuries. The idea was believed to have developed in Mesopotamia where some of the kings in succession regarded themselves as Divine. That birthed the doctrine which then became known as the Divine Right of Kings. The kings were regarded as deities who received their authority directly from the Almighty Creator. This aligned with the Christiaan clear recognition and firm belief that all authority comes from our Maker. Consequently, the kings ruled unchallenged. In England, the star exponent of the Divine Right of Kings was King James 1 (1603-1625).
The doctrine and practice, however, fell out of favour with time and with what was known as the French Revolution when the French rose to get rid of their king. He was killed and replaced with his daughter and her husband as rulers. Then camethe Glorious Revolution in England between 1688 and 1689 under the rulership of James 11. As the doctrine waned, people began to press for social contract between the ruler and the ruled. With this, ensued the replacement of monarchical rule of the Middle Ages with democracy. This got cemented as enlightenment spread.
But then, is it conceivable that the Almighty Creator of all the worlds would send human beings down to this vale of matter, that is down to this earth and would not assign to them leaders and design of how they are to be governed? As I have said in this column about thrice now: Leaders are born, not made; sent, and not electable. The sent leaders are linked in a chain to the high Spiritual Sphere, the Light Region and are guided through the chain each in accordance with the level of development of the people to whom they are sent and in accordance with their needs to lead them to the next level in their development, in their recognition that the journey of man is spiritual, and the destination in his wanderings through life and existence is spiritual. How compatible, therefore, are the practices called tradition and customs with the gaze and attainment of the goals to reach the spiritual destination.
Man is spirit and his home is Above called Spiritual Realm more referred to as Paradise. He is to awaken and recognise the purpose of his sojourn on earth which is to recognise the Will of His Maker and abide by It whether in thought, speech or deeds. The Will is expressed in His immutable Laws the obedience of which, and the grappling with material influences assailing him, bring polish and ennoblement to the spirit. Our primary task, therefore, is to recognise these Laws.
We learn in higher knowledge available on earth today that the laws remain the same in great as well as in small things. The spirit takes on the human form and becomes self-conscious, what he lacked when he left as no more than spirit germs, if you like spirit residues after those Created in the Image of God and who had no need of a school; those have been perfect from the beginning. It is that perfection entailing the unfolding of virtues we are after upon our own request to be able to enter and inhabit Paradise, swinging in joyful activities and partaking of the splendour and beauty that define the Realm.
In the early beginning of the sojourn on earth, the elemental beings were the teachers and guide of mankind. Because they were close to Nature they were able to perceive and see these conscious and personalised forces of Nature in loyal service to the Most High. So perfect and helpful was their support that man regarded them as gods. They marvelled for example at the size, height and beauty of certain species of Gnomes whose heads touch the clouds.
In most cases, the children actually see them. They are the densest of all nature beings. Since density is related to activities, they occupy themselves with anything that has to do with the ground, the soil, sand, the earth or stone. Because of this they are more easily seen by human beings. It is gnomesthat build mountains and hills and maintain them. The little ones build the sands of the beach. The generational, organisational and preservation activities of all the Nature forces, the elemental beings, are with unbelievable precision. These have been well documented.Go through the Bible carefully and you find copious references to them. The most perplexing to the Disciples was the calming by the Lord Jesus of a heavy storm that threatened to sink the ship taking them across the Sea of Galilee. The Lord rebuked the wind and the sea and immediately there was calm:
“And he saith unto them: Why are ye fearful, o ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying: What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8: 26-27); (Mark 4: 35-41).
In his great work, A Gate Opens, Herbert Vollmann says: “The little nature-beings, to whom the elves, as well as the nixies, salamanders, sylphs and so on belong, had been active on earth long before man set foot on it for the first time. Without their participation there would have been no mountains, meadows, rivers, lakes and seas. The whole of Nature is animated by these faithful servants of God, who carry out His Will and Commandments most accurately in all things. Since they swing selflessly in the Will of God they can neither be malicious nor do wrong. Only men have imputed such things to them. All over the earth, from ancient and also more recent times, there are many traditions about nature beings.”
The Gnomes dissolve or re-arrange any parts of the mountain and main them. It was the Sylphs which are in charge of winds that the Lord rebuked and commanded to restore calm on the sea. The Elves taught our forebearsthe seasons, when to plant and when to harvest. Therefore, in different cultures there are Harvest Festivals in grateful thankfulness for their help. In the West and the East, the Yam Festival is in August. Our forebears associated Nixies that concern themselves with water as mediator of fertility. So, childless ladies even today throng rivers to entreat them for babies. Those who had babies in the course of the year besiege the rivers to present their blessings and give gratitude believing that the answer to their prayers came through Nixies. Osun Osogbo yearly event is not unconnected with celebrating the Nixies. Have we forgotten Victor Uwaifor’s enrapturing song awakening us to the goodness of Mammy Water! The iconic musician was referring to Nixies. In several other places they are called Sprites.
I do not wish to dwell on the Nature Beings today, but show how the worship of gods began. Mankind in all cultures regarded them as gods in view of their helpfulness, guidance, protection and support. The Beings rejected being regarded as the Almighty Creator. The early people even perceived those of higher species called Lords of theElementals who embody specific virtues. Seeing them they believed there was no need to look for any more God outside of them. For the Greeks Zeus embodies Justice; Apollo for sincerity and Athena vigilance.They made great impression on the people of olden times. Shaken when they were able to behold them, they called them angels. In the development of man, therefore, the knowledge of the elemental beings is an unavoidable step towards the recognition of the One God. That was the primary school which provided the foundation for entering the secondary school. In the school system some would fail.
For instance, it was Abraham in 1800BC who first received the revelation about the existence of only One God. But after the Jewish people were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and taken into Babylonia captivity, they began to entertain doubts, wondering whether the Babylonian gods were not perhaps more powerful than their own God because,they alleged,He had not protected them against their enemies.It was with the emergence of Moses (1250) with The Ten Commandments ofGod that Lords of the Elementals ceased to be regarded as gods and their belief in God Almighty was firmly consolidated and rooted in the Jewish people, by which time they had returned from Babylonia. The incomparable Work, In the Light of Truth, The Grail Message by Abd-ru-shin reveals to mankind:
“In the times of the beginning, a Created Being was also incarnated here and there among the maturing tribes of the ones developing from the spirit germs. His task was to lead and to proffer the connection to the particular next step in the necessary upward striving of all that is spiritual. These were the great Turning-Points there in the time of the beginning.
“Later on came the Prophets as blessed ones! In this way the Infinite Love from the Light worked to help and assist the human spirits with ever new revelations whenever Creation was mature for it, until finally there came also the Sacred Tidings about the Divine and Its Working.
“Thus at the great Cosmic Turning-Point now operating there also comes the absolute necessity for an extension of knowledge.”
The Message adds: “God is the Lord, He absolutely alone, and whoever does not want to acknowledge Him humbly just as He really is, and not as you imaging Him to be, cannot rise up to the new life.”
With the failure in many parts of the world, Nigeria included, to move to the next level, all kinds of practices, including bizarre ones, entered the worship of the little elemental beings whom the people of old claimed guided them. Through pure worship, the Yoruba of South West had, through Ifa, through Orunmila, been granted the Grace to recognise the structure of Creation to the highest, even up to the boundary of the Divine inhabited by the Elders (Agbagba Merindilogun). They speak of Orun Apadi, Dark Region; Orun Alakeji, Ethereal World; Ojude Orun, Forecourt; Orun, Paradise; Isalu Orun, Azure Island; Oke Orun, Summit of Creation; and Ajule Orun, Primordial Spiritual Realm is also known as Akokoda Aiye (First Creation); and Asehinda Aiye, Subsequent Creation with the earth one of the planes. Instead of progressing from this spectacular Grace, there was decline. There were all kinds of sacrifices, including humans.
According to Oba Adetona, “One of the things they do in those days was to kill people as sacrifices to the gods. Can they do that again today? Why are people protesting against the correction of that? Why can’t these protesting professors offer wife or children to be sacrificed? The proposed law is to guide against indecent barbaric practices in the process we are talking about. The belief now is that some people must be killed to help the late king carry his loads to heaven. Do you want that to be done? How can you then bury a king traditionally? It was done in those days, before the advent of the British people. The killing of people for sacrifice stopped. And then we don’t want them to be buried decently. Can you imagine? Oba Adetona would not allow himself to be detained in the past when spiritual development was at the lowest level not compatible with his recognition and aspiration to be, in his words, “with my Maker.” After all, as it is said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”
After the first level of the recognition, came the Prophets and the Teachers of Mankind. The warning outcry and admonitions by the Prophets was: Repent, the Day of Judgment is nigh! The Age of the Prophets was followed by the Age of the Son, Oba Adetona recognised one of the Prophets, Prophet Mohammed sent by the Almighty in 571 A.D. to stem the rapid decline of mankind after the departure of the Lord Christ. He was part of the Age of the Son.
Prophet Mohammed taught that there is no other God but Allah. We are now in the Age of the Holy Spirit and which as I said three weeks ago combines the Justice of the Age of the Father with the Love of the Age of the Son, and with it the last and everlasting Testament.
We owe Oba Adetona a debt of gratitude for his courage and efforts in convincing us that there should be no standstill. We must constantly examine what we hold in our hands: Is it gold or sawdust? It is the progress we make towards the fulfilment of our tasks and returning Home in Paradise that becomes our new tradition and mores. They are not cast in iron. Every earth life is an opportunity for development of each individual human spirit. Dr. Richard Steinpach says: “…nature makes no leaps, and one step always follows another.”
Oba Adetona was buried according to the Islamic tenets which was his wish. Whatever gaps he may need to be filled, with his ardent longing for the Heights, he will receive help on his path. The understanding of every interest and each person will always manifest the degree of the inner radiance he bears triggered by the maturity of his spirit at that point in time. The Obas in Ogun State will henceforth have their remains interred in accordance with the spiritual values each one may profess.
