Secrets of Life
Disclosures about important questions of life
- Chapter 32 -
THE DARK SIDE OF NATURE RELATIVE TO HUMAN LIFE
21 February 1877
IN My last (preceding) word I defended Myself against the criticism raised by some, or actually by many people, concerning the contradictions they believe to find My visible nature, when they compare them with My everywhere proclaimed words of love, of meekness and of the promised joys.
As far as was possible, I have elucidated this dark side for you, explaining also that "it could be otherwise, but it must still be as it really is."
Now I still have to carry out an important scrutiny of your own life, where man-; a person says: "Just look at human life, from birth to grave it is nothing but conflict, suffering, disappointment, with very little love, joy and other promised things, unless man knows how to procure them himself.
What else is life on this earth but a vale of tears where one - not knowing any better - is referred to religious dogmas and other revelations always speaking of another life after death, of reward and recompense for sustained suffering while letting man battle here on earth with every misfortune.
Why should I bother about another world beyond, of which I actually know nothing certain and in which I am expected to believe blindly!
Since I see this world surrounding me as so miserable, who guarantees that the future world is not just as contradictory as the real one here where, instead of joys, only physical or spiritual sufferings follow each other and even what is attained with effort does not afford the enjoyment some expected!"
Thus, and in a thousand other forms, I am accused of having made promises to mankind, none of which I ever intended to keep!
The man who only considers what is there, visible to him, not wanting to acknowledge any spiritual life apart from his rational life, has judged rightly. For he regards in advance only that as existing which he can grasp either with his hands or with his given senses.
This is the very theory of all materialists, who say the entire visible world has originated through a chance mixing together of all elements, and who even consider the mental aspirations in their own brain merely as a product of such mixtures.
It goes without saying that this theory easily finds many adherents, for it does not restrict man, who can then satisfy his passions as far as criminal laws allow it, for he thinks: "After this earthly life everything comes to an end anyway; so let us 'live' (according to his concepts) as well as we can!"
Thus he sees the dark side of human life only in so far as material losses, illnesses, discord and disappointment of every kind follow one another.
This word shall serve to reduce these accusations to an orderly level and show man, whose fault it actually is, if human life is really thus. For also among you I have often heard such complaints and read even worse ones in your thoughts. There, like lost souls who prefer only a life of pleasure, you are prepared to dedicate only a short hour here and there to the Spiritual when you have nothing else to do. Now to the point.
Even I cannot deny that your life does not consist only of joy, but often of the very opposite.
Wherever you turn your gaze, you see in more than a thousand examples that you people, who like to live only materially, want to take no notice of a spiritual life. Indeed, you even want to deny any spiritual connection with, and the existence of, a higher Being regulating everything.
Why so? It happens because people want to construct the world according to their own ideas, refusing to accept the fact that it is otherwise, and must be otherwise, if it is to continue to exist.
Look, if man wants to understand or understand the world, he must begin with himself. Only when he recognizes himself, when he has clearly understood the tri-unity of body, soul and spirit, and is able to judge himself correctly, can he draw conclusions about his fellowmen and the entire world surrounding him.
However, he who does not know himself does not know the other people either and likewise judges his own actions and those of others wrongly. He expects of the world what the latter does not have and, therefore, cannot give him.
That is why the lamentation and wailing about this world. As long as man refuses to accept the fact that his life in his way of thinking, feeling and acting corresponds only to the above mentioned three things, he will find only contradictions. For everywhere he puts only his material self first, in doing so completely forgetting his intellectual capabilities which should raise him above matter.
Man has physical needs. However, he has also spiritual ones which, manifesting in his thinking urge him to action, so that he will express through matter what spiritually lives and moves in him.
With this way of thinking, even about the material world, there must also emerge thoughts which are clothed in questions, such as: "I see the things around me, see their diversity, often admire with the help of science their order regulated by law, their beautiful spiritual forms, and spontaneously the question arises in me: 'Who has formed, arranged everything thus?'"
Such a thinker is then not satisfied with the theory of the materialists, for he sees that it is untenable as concerns the created beings. And so he goes a step further and searches in his own heart, where he finds a spot that gives him a foreknowledge of being on the right track. For he has often felt impulses which tried to lift him above the material life.
Beginning with himself, man then gradually progresses to the comprehension of the outer world surrounding him.
At first he notices the physical, spontaneous life of his organs, becoming aware of thinking, judging and drawing proper conclusions, which, being his rational life, must help him more towards his material preservation. In addition, he often notices exalted states of mind not stemming from the pulsation of the heart and even less from the coldly calculating intellect, being more subtle, more intense than the former ones.
Finally, these sentiments or spiritual impulses induce him to transfer them also to the nature surrounding him. And so he is led from the created to a Creator, which can then be expressed with the word: "the man has religion", since he creates for himself a spiritual cult, meaning, a "rational religion" because it was built on perception. In this way originated all religions, all the later religious traditions that would, and should, symbolically express what otherwise could not be expressed in words.
This is how the religion of the savages about the Great Spirit, the Indian Buddhist religion and that of the other pagan peoples with their immense number of gods came into being.
Once the spiritual life in man was awakened, the natural consequence was that individuals devoted themselves more to this reflection. Thus they penetrated more deeply into the spiritual life and listened more to the secrets of nature. In so doing they gained a perspective of matter, which reached far beyond the same and comprised also the spiritual activity.
These men then felt impelled to impart what they had seen and felt to others, and so they wrote it down, thereby becoming prophets, visionaries and wise men of their peoples.
Later, out of these enlightened men the priesthood was formed which was joined by many. For, apart from the spiritual life, they saw it also as the source of material prosperity.
What happened further to the religious creeds and how the individual truths were misused, you can read in the history of the peoples themselves.
I only wanted to show you that the spiritual life, apart from spiritual education, grew spontaneously out of man's own nature and can, therefore, in spite of all materialistic theories, never be destroyed.
Thus originated the sacred books of India, just as with the Jews the Old Testament, which was later supplemented by the New Testament. In it, I, as Jesus, combined all those hints about a spiritual life, scattered about in the various books, into simple great truths, as My teaching which will be forever indestructible.
Well, to come back to the accusations regarding the dark side of human life. From all this it clearly follows that, apart from the material, rational life, there exists another, spiritual, more profound one, which wants to use the first two only for the expression of its own behavior.
Wherever the eye roams m nature, man observes only strict laws. They also exist in the life of the intellect, for correct conclusions from one to the other do not allow another explanation.
This applies also to the spiritual life, where there are immutable laws that punish everyone who tries to offend against them.
The will to act in defiance of the spiritual laws is at the bottom of all misfortune, all suffering and all deception in the earthly-human life. In contrast, thinking, acting and working in harmony with these laws means joy, solace and contentment, as the spiritual product of duties fulfilled by a spiritual being.
Those people, who do not believe in a spiritual life, in God, are unhappy. For everything else not stemming from a spiritual source is also unable to replace, as solace when accidents happen or in unexpected misfortune, what man has just lost. That is why the wrong judgment both of fellowmen and of the world surrounding them.
The world is simple in its structure. The seeming matter hides the spiritual. He who denies this is deceived in his expectations. For whosoever tries to follow his materialistic desires finds his worst enemy in the way his own life is arranged, although he tries to deafen his reason and emotions. So everything that does not love the eternal divine order brings about its own punishment. For this reason the misery that befalls man, embittering his whole life, is his own work rather than that of others or even, as many believe, "My will"!
When I once said: "From now on you (man) shall earn your bread by the sweat of your brow," it was the verdict of a far-seeing God. He well knew that man would rather follow his animal nature than his spiritual gifts; and also that soon the visible world would no longer be subject to him but that he would have to earn his physical livelihood as well as gain his spiritual progress struggling with matter.
I foresaw that in this way man would have to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and be born in labor because he misunderstood both nature and his own mission. I foresaw that his spiritual education would have to be painful and against his will and that at the end of his earthly life he would even pass amid struggle, fear and often despair to the other world.
This fate, instead of a paradisiacal life of unity and love, man has created for himself. Instead of gradually passing from one state to another he must, struggling and battling, painfully progress physically and spiritually. And he must atone for his faults and those of his ancestors, so as to cleanse himself of the mire that morally and physically has clung to him all his life.
People complain about the hard and difficult way of earning a living. Who makes it so difficult for them? Neither I nor the world, but one person for another!
Every one seeks to gain from that which he either had to learn with effort or which fell into his lap without his doing. Who else is it but unscrupulous people, who even use their fellowmen's misfortune to enrich themselves, thus making the cost of living more expensive. Because such people without conscience are now in the majority, refuse to acknowledge a spiritual mission and believe neither in God nor in the immortality of the soul, you see how one seeks to gain advantage over another and none shows himself in his true nature. Even the smooth artificial education does its part by turning what the children aie taught into a cloak beneath which they deceitfully conceal the worst vices!
Thus the whole world is like a fancy-dress ball where in most cases the mask has nothing to do with the nature of the one wearing it.
Whenever people now complain about the evil world, I ask: "who made it so bad? I or you yourselves?"
Therefore, do not accuse Me. I am a long-suffering God and look on in patience as all, from the highest to the lowest classes, try to rule each other.
Lust for power is the great vice inspiring mankind, which with every step they try to exert over their fellowman.
In vain did I during My life preach love, tolerance, forgiveness, even telling them they should love their enemies.
At that time most people turned their ears away from such demands and now that you declare it to be an enlightened age, are you acting differently?
These qualities preached by Me would have resulted in a peaceful living together of people. However, man with his animal passions yielded to the latter. He himself turned the earth, which equally provided for all, into a hell from which he cannot escape, And so I have enough trouble preventing individual people from total decline (into matter).
From this wild animal life, which wants to enjoy everything, there emerged, as from the box of Pandora, the host of diseases that already encumber the child in the womb with the faults of its parents and to which, in later years it will add its own.
Look at the whole world. Everything is (originally) perfect, formed in such a way that needs neither an addition nor a reduction. How then can you believe than I created the last link in the chain of creation with faults!
Also man was completely what he was meant to be. In form and physical structure as well as in spiritual faculties, he was endowed so as to be always "the lord of the earth".
But, love being My main attribute, I understood the word "lord" in the sense that I, as the Lord of the world, really am, and not how man, the all-destructive, all-devastating lord of the world, wants to be.
Mw great world is subject to Me; everything lovingly and gladly obeys My laws (of love). But man wanted to forcefully subjugate the world. And the obeying the higher law, resisted, revolted and made man its servant.
Once, man commanded the elements and all matter; but now, everything is his enemy. The elements no longer obey him and almost every living animal is man's enemy. For all the actions of present-day man are not motivated by love or by concern for others, but by the basest greed!
Thus the world became what it now is, instead of being a paradise where all could comfortably live and the exchange of diverse spiritual gifts would have facilitated the material life. Instead, it is now a playground where murder and robbery are commonplace and human advancement is only sought by way of another's ruin.
Oh you foolish people! What have you done with My earth, what with your own Self, which I physically and spiritually created in My image, making you citizens of two worlds, the spiritual and the physical one?
Just as I once chased the merchants and sellers with the scourge from the temple calling out to them: "What, you want to turn My temple into a murderers' den?" so I ought to wipe this depraved generation from the face of the earth. For they too have turned this earth into a murderers' den where, on the one hand, physical murder and robbery spare no one and, on the other hand, as much as possible spiritual murder is committed.
This is how I, as a just God, as Lord of My creation, ought to act, were I not the God of Love, had I not made the freedom of will the main decree for all My spirit-beings, since I wanted to educate "loving children", not slaves!
Thus I let you human beings go on mocking all My laws, allow you to make each others life difficult until the measure is full and you suffocate in the mire of your own passions.
I always reserve the right to use even all abuses, all misfortunes for My own purposes.
Whosoever refuses to seek the road to Me on the gentle path of love must, through his own fault, become prudent through misfortune.
With thousands upon thousands of people, preaching is of no avail; accidents of every kind, chronic illnesses, involuntary sacrifices must mellow them. Everything must appear to them hopeless, the world must turn its back on them, the body refuse to function. And all studied religious dogmas must prove to be untenable, until finally they begin to more seriously reflect on their own Self, their possible mission on earth, on the material world, so as to have an idea of what lies beyond it.
Only then are they capable of accepting something more serious, more lasting, once they have emptied to the dregs the cup of material pleasures and have received into the bargain another one full of sad experiences and disappointments.
Thus I am compelled to educate this world and this mankind, who is My own property and whose spiritual spark taken from Me must be returned to Me. Thus people must reach the goal, for which I have destined them, on a wrong road. And thus all their complaints are justified as they rail against the "vale of misery", called human life, which they themselves have created and willed, and for which they must now naturally bear the consequences.
Just as I have proved in the preceding word that nothing is as black as you would like to see it, but everything in its place is perfect and cannot be otherwise, I am also trying to explain this: Since in the animal kingdom and in the whole organization of the teLluric life an order prevails, where to this very day every living being still fulfills the purpose for which it was once created by Me, the dark side of material life must turn out to be the exact opposite. For there, life is bound, instinctive, and here, it is an unfettered, free life, where man did not follow the roads designated by Me and, therefore, has to atone for that which his free will has prepared for him.
In all your states, in all your newspapers one raves about "progress", and "broad -mindedness" is everyone's catchword.
But as little as mankind understands this freedom, also the nations fail to understand the great difference between absolute freedom and freedom conforming to law. The charlatans in your newspapers are demanding even "more freedom", want no restraints and no laws. But these imbeciles fail to understand that, even if they had all imaginable freedom to act that is possible in this world, they would still not be satisfied. For they neither know nor appreciate the spirit which I laid into the soul of man.
This freedom, which all people musingly seek, goes far beyond matter, to regions where everything moves and lives in spirit.
This freedom of thought, of action, is the eternal impulse which demands a continual progress and recognizes its life and its purpose only in the same.
So you short-sighted human beings believe that I, a Spirit without beginning and end, Lord of an infinite creation, gave you this spark of Myself only for this brief earthly life, where millions of people do not know how they came into it and how they left it?
Do you think that this Spirit is satisfied with the achievements attainable by you here on earth, or that its craving is appeased at once in the beyond?
Why an eternal life, if a few moment of earthly Life and several short spaces of time in the spheres of the spirit-realm were adequate?
No, the urge for freedom, of the free will, which I placed in all spirits, has a spiritual and far more profound meaning. However, you must accept this freedom as one subordinate to My will, where all the spirits are animated and guided not by coercion, but by the conviction that progress is possible only thus and not otherwise.
For I am the most perfect Spirit, and so every one of My decrees can only bear the stamp of order.
This freedom has no limitations as to its sphere of action. It explains what goes on throughout all the worlds and what I meant when I created man in My image. You must become familiar with such thoughts, must ponder and learn to grasp them, and you will, beyond all the human difficulties of your social life, behold another sphere where alone your spirit receives the genuine consecration of truth. And you will begin to learn that even misfortune and suffering have their useful side, since in My Household nothing can occur, nothing can happen which did not have to serve towards universal progress.
So do not complain about the calamities of human life, but follow My example. I utilize everything for the permanence of My great spiritrealm. What for Me is My spirit-realm, for you is your soul, the complex of the Self.
I have just explained to you that you bear the blame for everything that spoils your life on earth. So avail yourselves of this school as an awakener of your spiritual life and seek solace and quiet in the regions that are untouched by the misfortunes of human life. Then, as I once told My disciples, that "they could eat poison and tread on vipers without being hurt", also you can draw a great lesson even from the saddest events. And you can consolidate your conviction that this life is too short to fully unfold the spiritual wealth of your soul, and that only in absolute freedom a sphere of action will be opened to you in the beyond, which cannot be understood as yet.
All that the world can inflict on you is only meant to be lessons. Even though they are bitter, they must never fail in their purpose as lessons.
All this draws you away from the world and upward. Do not resist this urge, for it is only for your spiritual benefit.
Only once you will have left the world behind you will you realize how much ridiculous importance you often attached to things and circumstances, which were not worth your concern or worry for even a minute.
Thus this word shall support you in misfortune, when you face the future sadly, not knowing what it has in store.
Truly, it is not My fault that the commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself" has disappeared from the sphere of human activity and everyone loves only himself. Therefore all the sufferings arising from the noncompliance with this law are not My work, but the work of human beings.
Make your complaint to them, seek, at least in your immediate surroundings, to enact this simple law with them. And if you have even a small degree of success, the realization of having contributed to it will indeed be a source of comfort and peace, in contrast to the difficulties other people cause you, who only follow their own interests.
Seek to preserve your own spiritual nobility and leave everything else to Me! I lead everything to a good end, for the sake of the good I lavish so many words on you to show you at least the road which, in the labyrinth of world events, you must walk in order to save your soul and not to debase My divine spark laid into you. Amen.