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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.