RE-ECHOING THE MAHARLIKA PROJECT

By: Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza, GWB

Good Day, Fellows on Earth!

This yogi, mystic and teacher of the Path is a firm advocate of the Maharlikan cause. In the light of the success of the latest national activity of the Ang Katipunan ng mga Maharlika ng Pilipinas or AKSM, an alliance of multi-sectoral organizations advocating the same cause, I hereby re-echo the Maharikan cause.

Before I came to encounter the name of PR Sarkar, founding master of the Ananda Marga which is the spiritual base order of the AKSM, this teacher already was a strong advocate of inner transformation and nomenclature change for the Republic of the Philippines. I was glad to know that a senator of the Repubic, the Hon. Eddie Ilarde, who is also a veteran communications man and TV personality, was advocating for a similar cause, with Maharlika being advanced as the new name for the republic.

From 1977 t0 1997, I gravitated towards the progressive Left formations in the country, was catapulted to national leadership posts of mass movements, and was able to use the progressive organizations as venue for percolating and advancing ideas about inner and cultural changes in the country. Being a sociologist and economist, I also found these organizations as appropriate for studying and advancing nationalist, patriotic and dirigist policies of development.

By 1998 I was a personality on my own, an independent thinker and analyst, who was invited in many venues including the TV stations to share my thoughts about various public issues of the day. I never relented in my advocacies a bit, at the same time that my yoga practice had moved me towards the mystic phase of my Path. Though an independent intellectual, I decided just the same to join the Sunday Kapihan-Independent Review Circle of Dr. Maning Yap and Ka Mentong Laurel, both eminent personalities and fellow political economists. In the Sunday Kapihan discussions, I made it clear about where I stood, and gave the group a copy of my essay "Testament of National Grandeur" that advocated for an inner revolution and a nomenclature change for the islands from Republic of the Philippines to People's Patriotic Republic of Maharlika.

The reason for the nomenclature change was discussed in another article that appeared in my book 13 Gate Unveiled. At that time (1999, 2000), I began to interact with the Ananda Marga monks and PROUT practitioners whom I met at the Earthlite, a center for LightWorkers in Manila. I found out from the monks and also from an article by Eddie Ilarde that PR Sarkar knew the ancient name of the Philippines which accordingly was Maharlika.

Comparing the names Philippines and Maharlika was no easy task. Being a social scientist, I had to use analytical methods for the comparison, using the Power-criterion as yardstick. I had to answer the question: which name was more powerful than the other? Using a theory of language evolution for my study, particularly the monosyllabic theory (languages evolve from monosyllabic to polysyllabic), I reduced the terms Philippines and Maharlika to their barest phonemes or mono-syllables.

I realized, using the method, that both names were powerful. Philippines was imperious and kingly, permitting us to become the leading nation of Southeast Asia through its vibration. It contains both masculine (phi) and feminine (lip) elements, ensuring a complete yin-yang balance in our affairs. I admitted to the power of this name, and paid no attention to the Machiavellian tirades of fellow patriots who rather stressed on the negative elements associated with King Philip II of Spain, the emperor from whose imperial name Philippines was derived.

However, the term Maharlika was more powerful. Breaking it down to Ma Har Li Ka, and searching for the meanings of each syllable by using linguistic experiment, I discovered that it also contained both the feminine (Ma) and masculine (Har or Haj or Jah) elements, ensuring a yin-yang balance in our affairs with its usage. However, the terms Li (signifier for alteration or change) and Ka (Sanskrit signifier for revolution), when attached to Ma-Har, resulted to a term that meant Great Force for Change/Revolution, and was a cutting edge term without doubt. This name was beyond doubt more powerful than Philippines!

Being so, this yogi-mystic-teacher then made his position clear, armed now with a scientific evidence of the greater power of Maharlika, that a name change should be effected. I declared this clearly even in the earlier article "Testament of National Grandeur" that was circulated in the Independent Review-Sunday Kapihan Circle, which the eminent historian Dr. Serafin Quiazon, past Executive Director of the National Historical Institute, at once catalogued at the prestigious Lopez Museum/Library.

I am standing pat on this advocacy for a nomenclature change, and likewise a corresponding inner transformation for us Filipinos or Maharlikans. The exoteric or popular meaning of Maharlika is Noble, a great signifier of our nobility as a people before all peoples of the planet, assuming that we do follow the programs of attainment for us to indeed become virtuous people.

I stand by my fellow patriots' standpoint, including the devotees and disciples of PR Sarkar, for the nomenclature change and the agenda of change in the economic, political and cultural spheres. The name change must go hand in hand with the social-economic-cultural-political-psychological changes and never in isolation from the broader 'transformation project'.

To all peoples of the planet, let us all chant MAHARLIKA! Chant Maharlika with us New Maharlikans! Connect to our heart chakras as we do to yours! Attune with us as we do our mission of fomenting audacious and noble inner revolutions for the planet!

Maharlika for Glory and Grandeur!