I am very happy in being present at this meeting. Praise be to God! I see
before me the faces of those who are endowed with capacity to know and who
desire to investigate truth. This is conducive to the greatest joy.
According to divine philosophy there are two important and universal
conditions in the world of material phenomena: one which concerns life,
the other concerning death; one relative to existence, the other
nonexistence; one manifest in composition, the other in decomposition.
Some define existence as the expression of reality or being and
nonexistence as nonbeing, imagining that death is annihilation. This is a
mistaken idea, for total annihilation is an impossibility. At most,
composition is ever subject to decomposition or disintegration--that is to
say, existence implies the grouping of material elements in a form or
body, and nonexistence is simply the decomposing of these groupings. This
is the law of creation in its endless forms and infinite variety of
expression. Certain elements have formed the composite creature man. This
composite association of the elements in the form of a human body is,
therefore, subject to disintegration, which we call death, but after
disintegration the elements themselves persist unchanged. Therefore, total
annihilation is an impossibility, and existence can never become
nonexistence. This would be equivalent to saying that light can become
darkness, which is manifestly untrue and impossible. As existence can
never become nonexistence, there is no death for man; nay, rather, man is
everlasting and ever-living. The rational proof of this is that the atoms
of the material elements are transferable from one form of existence to
another, from one degree and kingdom to another, lower or higher. For
example, an atom of the soil or dust of earth may traverse the kingdoms
from mineral to man by successive incorporations into the bodies of the
organisms of those kingdoms. At one time it enters into the formation of
the mineral or rock; it is then absorbed by the vegetable kingdom and
becomes a constituent of the body and fibre of a tree; again it is
appropriated by the animal, and at a still later period is found in the
body of man. Throughout these degrees of its traversing the kingdoms from
one form of phenomenal being to another, it retains its atomic existence
and is never annihilated nor relegated to nonexistence.
Nonexistence, therefore, is an expression applied to change of form, but
this transformation can never be rightly considered annihilation, for the
elements of composition are ever present and existent as we have seen in
the journey of the atom through successive kingdoms, unimpaired; hence,
there is no death; life is everlasting. So to speak, when the atom entered
into the composition of the tree, it died to the mineral kingdom, and when
consumed by the animal, it died to the vegetable kingdom, and so on until
its transference or transmutation into the kingdom of man; but throughout
its traversing it was subject to transformation and not annihilation.
Death, therefore, is applicable to a change or transference from one
degree or condition to another. In the mineral realm there was a spirit of
existence; in the world of plant life and organisms it reappeared as the
vegetative spirit; thence it attained the animal spirit and finally
aspired to the human spirit. These are degrees and changes but not
obliteration, and this is a rational proof that man is everlasting,
ever-living. Therefore, death is only a relative term implying change. For
example, we will say that this light before me, having reappeared in
another incandescent lamp, has died in the one and lives in the other.
This is not death in reality. The perfections of the mineral are
translated into the vegetable and from thence into the animal, the virtue
always attaining a superlative degree in the upward change. In each
kingdom we find the same virtues manifesting themselves more fully,
proving that the reality has been transferred from a lower to a higher
form and kingdom of being. Therefore, nonexistence is only relative and
absolute nonexistence inconceivable. This rose in my hand will become
disintegrated and its symmetry destroyed, but the elements of its
composition remain changeless; nothing affects their elemental integrity.
They cannot become nonexistent; they are simply transferred from one state
to another.
Through his ignorance man fears death, but the death he shrinks from is
imaginary and absolutely unreal; it is only human imagination.
The bestowal and grace of God have quickened the realm of existence with
life and being. For existence there is neither change nor transformation;
existence is ever existence; it can never be translated into nonexistence.
It is gradation; a degree below a higher degree is considered as
nonexistence. This dust beneath our feet, as compared with our being, is
nonexistent. When the human body crumbles into dust, we can say it has
become nonexistent; therefore, its dust in relation to living forms of
human being is as nonexistent, but in its own sphere it is existent, it
has its mineral being. Therefore, it is well proved that absolute
nonexistence is impossible; it is only relative.
The purpose is this: that the everlasting bestowal of God vouchsafed to
man is never subject to corruption. Inasmuch as He has endowed the
phenomenal world with being, it is impossible for that world to become
nonbeing, for it is the very genesis of God; it is in the realm of
origination; it is a creational and not a subjective world, and the bounty
descending upon it is continuous and permanent. Therefore, man, the
highest creature of the phenomenal world, is endowed with that continuous
bounty bestowed by divine generosity without cessation. For instance, the
rays of the sun are continuous, the heat of the sun emanates from it
without cessation; no discontinuance of it is conceivable. Even so, the
bestowal of God is descending upon the world of humanity, never ceasing,
continuous, forever. If we say that the bestowal of existence ceases or
falters, it is equivalent to saying that the sun can exist with cessation
of its effulgence. Is this possible? Therefore, the effulgences of
existence are ever present and continuous.
The conception of annihilation is a factor in human degradation, a cause
of human debasement and lowliness, a source of human fear and abjection.
It has been conducive to the dispersion and weakening of human thought,
whereas the realization of existence and continuity has upraised man to
sublimity of ideals, established the foundations of human progress and
stimulated the development of heavenly virtues; therefore, it behooves man
to abandon thoughts of nonexistence and death, which are absolutely
imaginary, and see himself ever-living, everlasting in the divine purpose
of his creation. He must turn away from ideas which degrade the human soul
so that day by day and hour by hour he may advance upward and higher to
spiritual perception of the continuity of the human reality. If he dwells
upon the thought of nonexistence, he will become utterly incompetent; with
weakened willpower his ambition for progress will be lessened and the
acquisition of human virtues will cease.
Therefore, you must thank God that He has bestowed upon you the blessing
of life and existence in the human kingdom. Strive diligently to acquire
virtues befitting your degree and station. Be as lights of the world which
cannot be hid and which have no setting in horizons of darkness. Ascend to
the zenith of an existence which is never beclouded by the fears and
forebodings of nonexistence. When man is not endowed with inner
perception, he is not informed of these important mysteries. The retina of
outer vision, though sensitive and delicate, may, nevertheless, be a
hindrance to the inner eye which alone can perceive. The bestowals of God
which are manifest in all phenomenal life are sometimes hidden by
intervening veils of mental and mortal vision which render man spiritually
blind and incapable, but when those scales are removed and the veils rent
asunder, then the great signs of God will become visible, and he will
witness the eternal light filling the world. The bestowals of God are all
and always manifest. The promises of heaven are ever present. The favors
of God are all-surrounding, but should the conscious eye of the soul of
man remain veiled and darkened, he will be led to deny these universal
signs and remain deprived of these manifestations of divine bounty.
Therefore, we must endeavor with heart and soul in order that the veil
covering the eye of inner vision may be removed, that we may behold the
manifestations of the signs of God, discern His mysterious graces and
realize that material blessings as compared with spiritual bounties are as
nothing. The spiritual blessings of God are greatest. When we were in the
mineral kingdom, although we were endowed with certain gifts and powers,
they were not to be compared with the blessings of the human kingdom. In
the matrix of the mother we were the recipients of endowments and
blessings of God, yet these were as nothing compared to the powers and
graces bestowed upon us after birth into this human world. Likewise, if we
are born from the matrix of this physical and phenomenal environment into
the freedom and loftiness of the spiritual life and vision, we shall
consider this mortal existence and its blessings as worthless by
comparison.
In the spiritual world the divine bestowals are infinite, for in that
realm there is neither separation nor disintegration, which characterize
the world of material existence. Spiritual existence is absolute
immortality, completeness and unchangeable being. Therefore, we must thank
God that He has created for us both material blessings and spiritual
bestowals. He has given us material gifts and spiritual graces, outer
sight to view the lights of the sun and inner vision by which we may
perceive the glory of God. He has designed the outer ear to enjoy the
melodies of sound and the inner hearing wherewith we may hear the voice of
our Creator. We must strive with energies of heart, soul and mind to
develop and manifest the perfections and virtues latent within the
realities of the phenomenal world, for the human reality may be compared
to a seed. If we sow the seed, a mighty tree appears from it. The virtues
of the seed are revealed in the tree; it puts forth branches, leaves,
blossoms, and produces fruits. All these virtues were hidden and potential
in the seed. Through the blessing and bounty of cultivation these virtues
became apparent. Similarly, the merciful God, our Creator, has deposited
within human realities certain latent and potential virtues. Through
education and culture these virtues deposited by the loving God will
become apparent in the human reality, even as the unfoldment of the tree
from within the germinating seed. I will pray for you.
O Thou kind Lord! These are Thy servants who have gathered in this
meeting, have turned unto Thy Kingdom and are in need of Thy bestowal and
blessing. O thou God! Manifest and make evident the signs of Thy oneness
which have been deposited in all the realities of life. Reveal and unfold
the virtues which Thou hast made latent and concealed in these human
realities.
O God! We are as plants, and Thy bounty is as the rain; refresh and cause
these plants to grow through Thy bestowal. We are Thy servants; free us
from the fetters of material existence. We are ignorant; make us wise. We
are dead; make us alive. We are material; endow us with spirit. We are
deprived; make us the intimates of Thy mysteries. We are needy; enrich and
bless us from Thy boundless treasury. O God! Resuscitate us; give us
sight; give us hearing; familiarize us with the mysteries of life, so that
the secrets of Thy kingdom may become revealed to us in this world of
existence and we may confess Thy oneness. Every bestowal emanates from
Thee; every benediction is Thine.
Thou art mighty. Thou art powerful. Thou art the Giver, and Thou art the
Ever-Bounteous.
5 May 1912
Talk at Children's Meeting
Hotel Plaza
Chicago, Illinois