I didn’t answer your other questions so now here are my belated answers:
Q: The author states that the spiritual lethargy and poverty of India reflects centuries of meditation. The yogi goes inward to still the mind and his goal is to attain bliss and joy and become one with GOD, unaware that union with God is not possible.
A: The whole point of existence and meditation is personal realisation of oneness with Reality. This leads to surrender and spiritual discrimination, a different attitude to poverty versus material “richness”, for instance
So far as the assertion that union with “God” is not possible is concerned, I have experienced Reality many times and know Reality is far bigger than “God” or gods or human ambitions and goals and that union with it is all life is about.
Despite what we generally see, hear and feel as humans, not all here is what it seems. Reality is winning. All is well.
By the way, the aforementioned fruits of oneness like bliss and joy are just two of many gifts of the Experience. They’re spiritual gifts, not ephemeral worldly objects of human want.
Q: Then the author continues: It is within the destiny of Soul however, to become a Co-worker with God and enter into the true realm of heaven.
A: No.
Is this pure, mistaken human ego and ignorance? There is no evidence, experiential or experimental, for such an assertion.
Reality doesn’t need humans. It draws us to Itself. It can’t be commanded, invoked, evangelised or proselytised, in my experience. It is caught, not taught or thought.
Q: Do you think there is any truth to his belief that the present state of India has been effected by meditation versus contemplation?
A: The author’s declaration of the “present state of India” sounds as if the author is referring to India’s worldly, non spiritual, contemporary state we know from the news. The wordly state has nothing to do with spirituality.
Individual Indians however are in evolutionary spiritual transition, like us, and their experience of Reality is ancient and has made them fatalistic, surrendering to mankind’s unstoppable spiritual evolution into Reality.
(They tend to “let go and let god whereas we try to use “God” as a magic spell to deliver our worldly wants).
Indian culture has traditionally been unimpressed by the western world’s realities, while western culture has become more and more materialistic.
All earthly anchored cultures are dying, dead ends.
Only Reality is constant, real and lasting.
Mankind as such may or may not survive the transition into Reality but it doesn’t matter. There is more than being merely human.
Reality is in charge. All is well, as your meditation will reveal if you persist, (or if Reality doesn’t get you first …).
Mystical Experiences of Reality 