|
<<previous |
next>> |
|
|
Foundations of World Unity
|
Pages 50-53
|
|
THE MICROCOSM AND THE MACROCOSM
| |
1 |
When we ponder over the reality of the microcosm, we
discover that in the microcosm there are deposited three
realities. Man is endowed with an outer or physical reality.
It belongs to the material realm, the animal kingdom, because it has
sprung from the material world. This animalistic reality of man he
shares in common with the animals.
| |
2 |
The human body is like animals subject to nature's laws. But
man is endowed with a second reality, the rational or intellectual
reality; and the intellectual reality of man predominates over nature.
| |
3 |
All these sciences which we enjoy were the hidden and recondite
secrets of nature, unknowable to nature, but man was enabled to
discover these mysteries, and out of the plane of the unseen he brought
them into the plane of the seen.
| |
4 |
Yet there is a third reality in man, the spiritual reality. Through
its medium one discovers spiritual revelations, a celestial faculty
which is infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms.
That power is conferred upon man through the breath of the Holy
Spirit. It is an eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality
belonging to the divine, supernatural kingdom; a reality whereby the
world is illumined, a reality which grants unto man eternal life. This
third, spiritual reality it is which discovers past events and looks
along the vistas of the future. It is the ray of the Sun of Reality. The
spiritual world is enlightened through it, the whole of the Kingdom is
being illumined by it. It enjoys the world of beatitude, a world which
had not beginning and which shall have no end.
| |
5 |
That celestial reality, the third reality of the microcosm, delivers
man from the material world. Its power causes man to escape
from nature's world. Escaping, he will find an illuminating reality,
transcending the limited reality of man and causing him to attain to
the infinitude of God, abstracting him from the world of superstitions
and imaginations, and submerging him in the sea of the rays of the
Sun of Reality.
| |
6 |
This fact is proved from scientific as well as spiritual evidence.
When we ponder over the conditions of phenomena, we observe that all phenomena are composed of single elements. This singular
cell-element travels and has its coursings through all the grades of
existence. I wish you to ponder carefully over this. This cellular
element has at some time been in the mineral kingdom. While staying
in the mineral kingdom it has had its coursings and transformations
through myriads of images and forms. Having perfected its journey
in the mineral kingdom, it has ascended to the vegetable kingdom;
and in the vegetable kingdom it has again had journeys and transformations
through myriads of conditions. Having accomplished its
functions in the vegetable kingdom, the cellular element ascends to
the animal kingdom.
| |
7 |
In the animal kingdom again it goes through the composition of
myriads of images, and then we have it in the human kingdom. In
the human kingdom likewise it has its transformations and coursings
through multitudes of forms. In short, this single primordial atom has
had its great journeys through every stage of life, and in every stage
it was endowed with a special and particular virtue or characteristic.
| |
8 |
Consequently, the great divine philosophers have had the following
epigram: All things are involved in all things. For every single
phenomenon has enjoyed the postulates of God, and in every form of
these infinite electrons it has had its characteristics of perfection.
| |
9 |
Thus this flower once upon a time was of the soil. The animal eats
the flower or its fruit, and it thereby ascends to the animal kingdom.
Man eats the meat of the animal, and there you have its ascent into
the human kingdom, because all phenomena are divided into that
which eats and that which is eaten. Therefore, every primordial atom
of these atoms, singly and indivisible, has had its coursings throughout
all the sentient creation, going constantly into the aggregation
of the various elements. Hence do you have the conservation of energy
and the infinity of phenomena, the indestructibility of phenomena,
changeless and immutable, because life cannot suffer annihilation but
only change.
| |
10 |
The apparent annihilation is this: that the form, the outward
image, goes through all these changes and transformations. Let us
again take the example of this flower. The flower is indestructible.
The only thing that we can see, this outer form, is indeed destroyed,
but the elements, the indivisible elements which have gone into the
composition of this flower are eternal and changeless. Therefore the
realities of all phenomena are immutable. Extinction or mortality is
nothing but the transformation of pictures and images, so to speak--
the reality back of these images is eternal. And every reality of the
realities is one of the bounties of God.
| |
11 |
Some people believe that the divinity of God had a beginning.
They say that before this particular beginning man had no knowledge
of the divinity of God. With this principle they have limited the
operation of the influences of God.
| |
12 |
For example, they think there was a time when man did not exist,
and that there will be a time in the future when man will not exist.
Such a theory circumscribes the power of God, because how can we understand
the divinity of God except through scientifically understanding
the manifestations of the attributes of God?
| |
13 |
How can we understand the nature of fire except from its heat,
its light? Were not heat and light in this fire, naturally we could not
say that the fire existed.
| |
14 |
Thus, if there was a time when God did not manifest His qualities,
then there was no God, because the attributes of God presuppose the
creation of phenomena. For example, by present consideration we say
that God is the creator. Then there must always have been a creation
--since the quality of creator cannot be limited to the moment when
some man or men realize this attribute. The attributes that we discover
one by one--these attributes themselves necessarily anticipated
our discovery of them. Therefore, God has no beginning and no ending;
nor is His creation limited ever as to degree. Limitations of time
and degree pertain to things created, never to the creation as a whole.
They pertain to the forms of things, not to their realities. The effulgence
of God cannot be suspended. The sovereignty of God cannot be
interrupted.
| |
15 |
As long as the sovereignty of God is immemorial, therefore the
creation of our world throughout infinity is presupposed. When we
look at the reality of this subject, we see that the bounties of God are
infinite, without beginning and without end.
| |
16 |
The greatest bounties of God in this phenomenal world are His
Manifestations. This is the greatest postulate. These Manifestations
are the Suns of Reality. For it is through the Manifestation that the
reality becomes known and established for man. History proves to us
that apart from the influence of the Manifestations, man sinks back
into his animal condition, using even his intellectual power to subserve
an animal purpose. Therefore there is no cessation whatsoever in the
future for the appearance of the Manifestation of God, because God is
infinite and His purpose cannot be limited in any way. If we ever dare
to limit and circumscribe God's purpose within any bounds, then of
necessity we have dared to set limitations to the omnipotence of God.
The created has dared to define his Creator!
| |
17 |
Consequently, the perfect man ever beholds the rays of the Sun
of Truth. The perfect man ever awaits and expects the coming of the
effulgence of God, he ever ponders over the methods and purposes of
God, knowing that of certainty the realities of the Divine are not finite,
the Divine names and attributes are not finite. God's graces and bounties
are without limit, and the coming of the Manifestations of God are
not circumscribed by time.
| |
|
|
|