• Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
    Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
    Sign up Log in

Temple Of God

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1Corintihians 3:16)
Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal. (2Nephi 9:39)
“And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of
iron, which my father had seen, was the word of
God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or​
to the tree of life” (1 Nephi 11:25).

When we look at the human form it seems just five or six feet of physical body, but inside is a very big world. The whole of Brahmand is residing within; go inside and see.

Maulana Rumi says, "Oh man, close the doors of your shop. Open the inner shop, then will the work be done."

What is a Gurumukh? He who has searched inside the human form. That is what is written in the Gurubani (words of the Gurus)


O Thou who makes manifest the elixir of Bani within,
I make an offering of myself to Thee,
For thou hast implanted in me the Amrit Bani (Word)
and I remain absorbed in the holy Naam. (Majh Mehla 3)
O God! wonderful are Thy ways and means,
The mind in the gyres can hardly understand them.
Thou hast attuned it with the delectable (Amrit) Bani,
And the immortal ambrosial Word (Shabd) is now fully manifest. (Majh Mehla 3)


So, remain in your own religions and become true Hindus, true Muslims, true Sikhs, true Christians. How? By realizing it inside you. A house without a lighted lamp has no charm. If there is no lamp burning in a church or mosque, the place seems deserted. So this body's true beauty can be apparent only when the Light is within it. "Beautiful is the man-body in which the Lord is manifest." That soul's physical form is very beautiful in which God has appeared. A married woman's face becomes radiant when she is sitting beside her husband. This is a worldly example. The beauty of the body lasts but a few days, for it is attractive only when we, the soul, are in it. But this attractiveness is not apparent if the Light has not been ignited within. A mansion can have no grandeur without a light shining out. Would it not appear deserted?
Oceans of happiness are already resounding within us, but at present we are tossing about, searching outwardly, in the holy books or in temples and places of pilgrimage, and in various outer activities. We make outer copies, ring bells, light lamps--but for what purpose? The purpose is that He should manifest Himself to us.

How to go within and partake from the Fountain of Living Waters ?
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Living our outer life correctly. Visiting the gurdwara is to imbibe the love of God, to sit in His sweet remembrance, to unite with Him. Attend the spiritual programme with the very best of intentions. Bring the remembrance of the Lord with you, and take it with you when you leave. Do not listen to others' conversation, and do not talk to anyone unless it is about the Truth. You will thereby gain full benefit from sat sangat, otherwise the years will pass by without any real spiritual advancement.

Listen to Daily Hukamnana
Audio in English Translation MP3 file
(Go to respective thread)
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37)

Guru Nanak's JapJi :
Ocean sized kingdoms owners with mountains of material wealth.
Even an ant outweighs them, if the Lord God doesn’t dwell within. ||23||

Guru Gobind Singh Ji :
Pooran jot jagey ghat main
Tab Khalas tahey nakhalas jaaney

 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
`Those who have realized the Truth
Are kings among men, indeed.
These earthly kings are no kings
To love anything except God causes pain
Why exalt and glorify what is created
It is but eating and evanescent
One alone lives for ever and ever
The God-centred being who realizes this Truth
He is like God, ever-living and deathless.'
(Maru M.3)

This voice of the Soul keeps on prompting, goading, and urging each one
of us, conveying its heavenly message. We understand and pro t by it in
proportion to, and in accordance with, our individual stage of spiritual enlightenment.
Guided by this voice, I have read many religious books and
have met enlightened souls to seek further knowledge. I had a thirst for
testing the truth of spiritual doctrines.
In moments of spiritual conflict, Simran, or meditation, helps us to arrive
at the Truth and the seeming contradictions vanish. I shall describe how
I acted in such crises. I read religious books and consulted mahatmamas
tested what they said, and noted the result. I have continued to do so, even
though 1 have not yet attained perfection, and, at times, I am spiritually
in a pitiable state. I am not at all incontinent, or given to pleasures of the
esh, and yet I cannot deny that I am impressed by feminine charm and sex
appeal. This susceptibility has impeded my spiritual progress to a certain
extent. Nevertheless, meditation, or Simran, has metamorphosed me and
recreated me in spirit. In this new, regenerated life, there are no worries,
no vexations, no cares, no sense of want, no craving for anything. There is
joy, there is bliss, there is calm, peace and poise-a carefree life. The greatest material joys cannot compare with the inner bliss, howsoever brief its spell.

(Excerpts from Bandagi Nama)
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Why is it so important to remember God's Name (Nam Simran)? It seems like a pretty strange thing to do - I mean Nam Japna means saying the same Name over and over again, day and night , seven days a week for all of your life?
Perhaps this will make it clearer:
The human body is like a wedding car. The mind is the chauffeur and the soul is the bride sitting in the back seat. She sat in the car thinking that she would be driven to the marriage ceremony at the tenth door (dasam duar) where God Himself would be the Husband. Then He'd take her away to Sach Khand (Realm of Truth : God's abode) and they'd be living in wedded bliss happily ever after.
But soon after sitting down, she found the chauffeur was a very cunning driver. He opened all the doors so that his 5 friends called Anger, Greed, Lust, Attachment and Pride could have their wicked way with her. She just couldn't get out and instead of driving the car to Sach Khand, he pushed it around slowly and awkardly in any direction he wanted depending on where his 5 friends wanted to go. He just couldn't be bothered to get to the wedding at the dasam duar, not that he even knew where it was – I don't think he even had a map and none of his so-called friends knew where to go. The strange thing is
that everyone in this world is pushing their cars with the bride trapped with the 5 strange thieves and no-one thinks it's strange because it's what they are used to - I mean everyones been doing it like that for thousands of years and they're all lost. They're number plate reads : 'M A N M U K H'.
All of a sudden a car speeds by with a chauffeur sitting in the driving seat driving normally. His number plate is 'G U R M U K H'. ManMukh stops and talks to him, 'Excuse me, why do you drive your car while others push them?'.
He replies, 'Well, I used to be a MAN-MUKH pusher like you, but I met a very spiritually gifted holy man who told me that I was driving my car all wrong. I used to love my car and I didn't like it when he said that. My car was the best car in the world. It had fluffy dice and go faster stripes. It had wheels that would bounce the car up and down, I'd even fitted a £10,000 music centre into the boot. My car was beautiful and everyone used to tell me how beautiful it was.
‘The holy man then told me that if I wanted to know how to drive fast then I'd have to go to a special place called a Gurdwara-Nam-Petrol station where I'd meet the Supreme Being, called the Guru Granth Sahib jee and that if I became a disciple and promised to follow the Guru's instructions then I too could be whizzing around to my true destination.

(Source: http://www.sikhlionz.com/fromtheheart.pdf)
 

Anoop

SPNer
Mar 12, 2006
153
14
London Uk
Im trying to make a new poat but i dont know how since the sites design and theme has changed...

But i really need help...as a teenager i have had many problems...and one of them being lust. I am embarrased to talk about this.... but it has to be done. I really don't want to talk about it, but i must...

I had started puberty as every teenager goes through. But i regret to 'self-abuse', masturbation. I have had the priviledge to access dirty websites since becoming a teenager. I have become a slave of pornography... Since then, i would endulge in self abuse... self exploring myself...and afterwards...i have felt really dirty and very very depressed... i have become weak minded, very nervous and quickly embarrased... i am now 19 and still carry on this dirty behaviour. I just feel as if I have lost alot...and when i mean lost alot im talking about vital body energy...life force energy..which i think has led me to stop growing properly...i feel sick very often... and tired and its like a hellish experience which i cant describe... I feel as if the damage has already been done... i would use any means necessary to go to dirty websites and surf everyday...go on chatrooms which are bad.... im a really good person, and love my family...but since i was young, ive had these habbits and have felt like a sick puppet to pornography....i cant help it...and once i have finnished with this dirty session, i would feel so guilty and depressed...i would cry inside....i dont know whats wrong with me... i feel so fed up of life...


I try to ask myself what should i do? Start doing yoga...take cold baths to cure myself...what should i do? I feel so confused in life....i really feel its hard to stop thinking about the damage that is already caused...i just wish i could rewind my past...and stop this bad habbit...i feel a loss of speech and would cry inside suddenly..whenever i talk to anyone...Its hard to express myself...i have empty feelings inside of me....im really stressed!!
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Life is a balancing act. The moment we feel and announce we are well balanced, something tosses us either side and then we regretfully mention, "I said it too soon."
Everyone learns through their own hard way how to keep in balance. But let me give you a discipline which will help you.
Say Waheguru 1000 times a day for a start.
Once this becomes easy, then increase it slowly to 1,200 times daily.

When I was a teenager, I did this to get out of bad habits.
Good Luck.
 
Apr 4, 2007
934
29
Life is a balancing act. The moment we feel and announce we are well balanced, something tosses us either side and then we regretfully mention, "I said it too soon."
Everyone learns through their own hard way how to keep in balance. But let me give you a discipline which will help you.
Say Waheguru 1000 times a day for a start.
Once this becomes easy, then increase it slowly to 1,200 times daily.

When I was a teenager, I did this to get out of bad habits.
Good Luck.


just curious, but how do you keep count? :)
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Thus, we continue to talk about Gurmukh, Manmukh and Hukam.
(Excerpts from : http://www.sikhlionz.com/fromtheheart.pdf)

‘Of course, I didn't believe him at first and my pusher friends all laughed at the absurdity of it whoever heard of someone driving their car? They just wouldn't believe that I'd seen this 'G U R M U K H'.

Anyway, I met the 'G U R M U K H' again and I went to the Gurdwara-Nam-petrol station and I saw lots of people driving really fast just like him. I was so exited, I had a tingly feeling in my stomach – I just couldn't wait to meet the Guru Granth Sahib jee.’

‘Then I drank the amrit-nectar and became a disciple. I promised I'd obey my Guru's instructionsand I wouldn't do all the silly decorations that I'd done to my car. The first thing Guru jee told me was that this hole in the top of the car, called the mouth was for a special reason. He told me I'd been pouring the wrong kind of fuel in it. I'd been saying so many useless words but they weren't helping me at all.

The real fuel to pour into the mouth was The Name of God : Waheguru. If I kept pouring this Nampetrol into my car day and night then I'd have the power to reach God the Husband.’ My Guru jee also told me to sing my daily prayers so I'd I find the directions and to serve the saints so I'd get the hints and tips of their blessings. And look at me now, I'm wizzing around like nobody's business. It was hard at first, but now I'm used to it and I'll soon be at God's Door and this Divine marriage of Bliss can take place. I tell you, I can't believe I'd been such a fool for so many years. My friends still don't believe me, but I don't hang out with them any more.’

‘Plus my Guru jee gave me this new Number plate 'G U R M U K H' it means the one who has got his face towards the Guru - I follow my Guru now, before I used have my face towards my own minds desires and cravings so I was a 'M A N M U K H'. So if you're interested in learning how to drive your car then come and meet the Supreme Being - Guru Granth Sahib jee. He'll help you just like he helped me.
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
(Excerpts from http://www.sikhlionz.com/fromtheheart.pdf)

Mr Motivator

Hi folks and aint it another great amritvela morning, come on get out of your lazy bed - today we're gonna do the `going down' workout. Are you ready? I can't hear you...I said `ARE YOU READY?'.....
OK lets go to the bathroom.. get under that shower, let that water revitalise you and observe the amount of water that just keeps on flowing out..you turn the tap on and it keeps on pouring into your house, your neighbours turn their taps on and it pours on and on into their houses and on and on into hundreds of millions of homes around the world - it just keeps pouring on and on. It's totally amazing - it was here in abundance millions of years ago and it will still be here long after you've gone. So how about it folks, bow to the Power that keeps providing the water . . . come on go down in your mind and fall at
the feet of Karta Purakh after all what are we but a tiny wall of water - a drop in the ocean as they say.

Guru ji says `My sins number as many drops as there are in the sea, be merciful give me blessings, ferry across this drowning rock.'
Keep moving, get those legs grooving, left-right left-right walk to the park , march to the old oak tree. It's dark the world hasn't woken up yet, there's no-one else around but you're not alone. Bend that neck back observe the stars, observe the full moon, observe the cloudless sky and look right into the belly of the Universe. Come on stretch your arm out to the moon and cover it with your thumb. Your thumb is bigger than the moon. But you know seeing is not believing, so how come sometimes you puff your ego up bigger than this whole planet, thinking you are the biggest, baddest greatest being that ever lived
and your goal is to be remembered : Fame! But will they remember your Name? Sorry friend, you've been deceived again - seeing is not believing. Infact think of the power that created Creation that existed before it, is here with you now and will be here long after you've gone. The Creation is millions of years old and your lifespan has hardly triggerred a tick on the cosmic clock. Shocked? You should be, so come on go down in your mind and fall at the feet of
Ad Sach, Jugad Sach, Ha Bhi Sach,
Nanak Hosi Bhi Sach.

Breathe in 2-3-4, out 2-3-4, fill those lungs 2-3-4, hold 2-3-4 and out 2-3-4. Feels good, eh? Lovely freshly chilled amritvela air - they say the best things in life are free. But things that are free are often taken for granted, never appreciated and after a while are expected as a God-given right but never ever will one word of thanks be said to the Giver. Air is my Guru, water is my father and the great earth is my mother says Guru ji (Pavan guru, Panee Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat). But, you think you're above
nature, you truly believe you are invincible, you think death is far away and it only happens to other people. Death is only four minutes away friend. O did you stumble when I said that - well get humble.

How long can you live without food? A month maybe 2. How long can you live without water? One week maybe 2. How long can you live without air? 3 minutes maybe 4 maybe slightly more. Death is only four minutes away friend. Without air you're nothing but a dead piece of meat, without the Guru you wasted your life. Air is more important than water and earth, the Guru is more important than even father and mother. Beg for the Guru's grace, go down in your mind, bow and ask for Gur Prasad.

It's getting chilli - hey looks like there were fireworks and a big bonfire last night, the party's over but that magnificent fire is still leaping to the sky. Ok take a break, rub your hands infront of the firey-red shape-changer. Feels good - that beautiful glow, the heat on your cheeks warming up your blood. But when the wood burns out the fire will die. Hey! Have you ever thought about this creation - it's just a big drama - an immense 3D, holographic, latest in technology TV show.. But, is someone going to pullthe plug on the Supreme Producer/Director and cut off Waheguru ji's power supply? Waheguru ji
provides us all with energy to live, learn and love, but who supplies Waheguru ji with energy. Will Waheguru die like a TV that's had it's plug pulled out? Like a man who can't breath no more? Friend you are mortal, Waheguru ji is immortal Akal. Waheguru ji is beyond being born and dying life after life. Friend you need external power supplies like food, water and air but, Waheguru ji is selfsufficient, self-powered, self-created, self_existant and self-illuminated. Get humble, go down in your
mind and bow to Ajuni Saibhang.

Lets get back to the workout, get moving get groving , left-right left-right march back to the old Oak tree. Face the great fire, from a distance it looks like one huge orange ball of light, but when you were close you could see the little sparks flying up, burning for a moment in their own glory and falling back into the mother fire. Friend there's One Supreme Being, One Supreme Soul that all souls came from and one day that tiny spark of life inside each living being will fall back into the One Supreme Soul it came from. Realise the purpose of your life, your soul is on a journey back to where it came from, don't stand in its way. Life after life it had to wear different creatures bodies like you put a different outfit on everyday, now finally it's got the finest clothes of the human body. The soul is dressed to impress, this body can take it places, so don't mess up it's journey by taking it to the wrong places. Breathe in, bend down in your mind and bow to Ik Onkar, bow to Ik Onkar, bow to Ik Onkar again and again and again
saying Waheguru, Waheguru Waheguru, Waheguru.....
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
(Exceprts from Bandagi Nama)

Self-effort and God's will

We begin our meditation with seeming effort. But when the inner eye
is opened through practice, we nd that in all our repeated efforts, God's
Will operates; His Hand is present and so is His Grace. At the back of
every impulse, every thought, every step, it is God's Will. His Command.
Then the seeker of God finds that all his past life was the foundation of,
and a preparation for, his present trends. He finds a great change in his
ideology. He views all happenings of the world, all facets of his life, from a
new angle, this is inevitable. An ordinary mortal can be turned into an angel
only through a change in ideology. There are merely differences of ideas and
ideals between the saint and the fool.

Patience and Effort essential

If we fail to grasp the Guru's Word, we must not give up through a sense
of defeatism. We must humbly pray for light. Patience and hopeful perseverance pay richer dividends in spiritual research work than in researches in other fields. A true seeker of God must, in the words of the poet, Ur , aim thus

. If, 0 Ur , tears could achieve union with God,
. I would fain weep hopefully for a hundred years.

Patience is a force, a spate which no impediment can stop. Watching and
waiting with cheerful patience, and holding fast to our quest for God, all
honest doubts are resolved through the Sacred Word.


 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
God is everywhere but he doesn’t seem to be where we desperately want HIM to be.
Because we, as Soul, are trapped in the clutches of Maya. Mind and the senses control our Consciousness.

It’s a very odd outlook that some have : to expect Self and God Realization in a short time and with little labour compared to 50 times more effort devoted to earning an income which provides basic needs for your family.

Millionaires will leave their millions behind, this body did not come with you but your state of consciousness will determine if merger with the Pure Consciousness is possible or not. The mind that is running amuck with bad outer influences must be brought to heel; only then can any progress be achieved.

Our greatest obstacle is to release ourselves from the bondage of the mind. This can be achieved by living righteously. With right understanding, we develop right thoughts, right feelings, right speech, right actions. When such becomes your daily practice, you will begin to see HIM working through all creatures.

You will become a beacon of light in the darkness (ignorance) of the world. Even those who first opposed you, will turn to you for guidance and help. You will find a sense of peace surging through you, a peace that does not depend on the absence of outer disturbances, but in an inner state of mind that stands unshaken even in the most temptating situation.

 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
Separation from the Physical Body
During the course of meditation, one day you will feel that you have separated yourself from the body. You will have immense joy mixed with fear; joy in the possession of a new light, astral body; and fear owing to the entry in a foreign, unknown plane. At the very outset, the new consciousness is very rudimentary in the new plane, just as in the case of a pup with newly opened eyes on the eighth or tenth day on the physical plane. You will feel that you have a light air body and perceive a rotating, vibratory, limited, astral atmosphere with illumination of golden lights, objects, beings, etc. You may feel that you are rotating or floating in the air and consequently there is fear of a fall.
You will never drop down, but the new experience of subtlety generates novel feeling and sensations in the beginning. How you leave the body, remains unknown at the outset. You are suddenly startled, when you have completely separated, and when you enter into the new plane, some times with a blue- colored sphere around, sometimes with partial illumination mixed with darkness, while at other times with extremely brilliant, golden, yellow, defused illumination. The new joy is inexpressible and indescribable in words. You will have to actually feel and experience it yourself (Anubhava). You are unaware of how you left the body, but you are fully conscious of your returning. You gently feel as if you enter smoothly, gently through a small hole or fine tube with an airy, ethereal feeling. Just as air enters through the crevices of a window, you enter with the new astral body back into the physical body.
I think I have expressed the idea lucidly. When you have returned. You can clearly differentiate the life in the gross and subtle planes. There is an intense craving to regain the new consciousness and to remain in the state always. You are not able to stay for a period of longer than five to ten minutes in the new region. Further, you can, in the beginning, hardly leave the body at will, through simple willing. By chance , through efforts, you are able to separate from the body once in a month in the course of Sadhana.

(Source: Mystical Experiences: Mystical Experiences during meditation
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
You preach to others to have faith, but you do not practice what you preach.
-----Guru Arjan, Raag Ramkali, AGGS, Page, 887-18

This implies the creation of firm personal boundaries and will give you the opportunity to know your own mind, beliefs and values. If we can get past various fundamentalist attitudes about the spiritual life, such as attachment to rituals, religious symbols, fixed interpretations of the hymns of AGGS, and a community in which individual thinking is not prized, then many different ways of being spiritual come into view.


The Akal Purkh ordained (Hukam) to lead an honest, truthful life of a humble and better human being as projected by Guru Ramdas in Raag Bhairo:

The doing of the pious deeds is the sublime rosary. Chant on the beads within your heart, and it shall go along with you. -----Guru Ramdas, Raag Bhario, AGGS, Page, 1134-9

Sikhism is about Truth and Sikhism is Truth. That is how Guru Nanak defined God. It was Truth before time is true now and will be.

Truth is a comprehensive term that in all of its nuances implies accuracy and honesty. It is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence. The study of Truth is part of philosophical and epistemology. Talking about Truth is a routine but to live it is a Herculean task. The basic foundation of Sikhism lies in rigorous Honesty, which is generally lacking in the Sikhs of present times. It tells us that lying, cheating, and even a little bit of not giving the whole information, means that one is playing games of mind with oneself. It means this wishful religion is purely of promise and not of proof and performance but is biased and selfish. Truth is bitter and when told creates unwanted consequences. Truthful living is lived only with the Grace of the Lord.

When the True Lord attached one to the Truth then only one becomes the true trader of the Truth. I have loaded the commodity of Truth; and it has reached the Lord, the Treasurer. -----Kabir, Raag Kedara, AGGS, Page, 1123-9

Plenty of people wish to become devout but no one wishes to be humble and truthful. It is easy to make a statement but to live it is difficult. Truth and rigorous honesty are the only tonics to invigorate the mind towards right thought. Truth is discovered, recognized and then lived and realized by mind. Truth is the only source of all Cosmic and mundane riches. Truth is its own reward. It builds him, who builds on it. A well-trained mind, trained to Truth concentrated on living and realizing is the need of every individual.

Kabir, the mortal knows every thing, and knowing, he still makes mistakes; what good is a lamp in one’s hand, if he falls in to well? -----Kabir Sloke, 216, AGGS, Page, 1376-4

Torah declares “thou shall not bear false witness.” ----Exodus 20:16

Bible underscores it; “rid yourself of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” ----1 Peter 2:1

Sikhism declares that every one is equal and there are no exceptions about truth as Guru Nanak expresses in Sri Raag:

There are so many entanglements for the soul. Only as Gurmukh do we find the Gate of Liberation. Truth is above all and above Truth is Truthful conduct. Call everyone exalted; no one seems lowly. -----Guru Nanak, Raag Sri, AGGS, Page, 62-11

Bhai Gurdas writes that when Guru Nanak was asked which religion is better?

“Puchan Foal Ktaab Noon Hindu Vaddaa Kay Musalmano-ee, Baba Akhay Haajee-aa Subh Amlaa Baajhoh Dono Ro-ee”

They asked Baba Nanak to open and search in his book whether Hindu is great or the Muslim. Baba replied to the pilgrim HAJIS, that with out good moral deeds both will have to weep and wail. ---Bhai Gurdas, Vaar 1, Pauri, 33

Any faith which lies destroys the Truth, which in turn diminishes the trust being a character defect. This eventually leads to the collapse of faith or society by undermining ourselves.

(Source: Eternal Gurbani)
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
MAN AS A PICTURE
of the
LIVING SPIRIT



Translated by George Adams
The following lecture was given by Rudolf Steiner to an audience familiar with the general background of his anthroposophical teachings. He constantly emphasized the distinction between his written works and reports of lectures which were given as oral communications and were not originally intended for print. It should also be remembered that certain premises were taken for granted when the words were spoken. “These premises,” Rudolf Steiner writes in his autobiography, “include at the very least the anthroposophical knowledge of Man and of the Cosmos in its spiritual essence; also of what may be called ‘anthroposophical history’, told as an outcome of research into the spiritual world.”
My Dear Friends,
After the excellent conference at Ilkley and summer school at Penmaenmawr, it gives me heartfelt pleasure to be able now to give this lecture at our London centre.
I may remind you first of what I said in former lectures here (see Note 1). Man, in accomplishing his work from day to day and from year to year, works in the physical body which is given to him upon Earth, and through which he is physically linked with all earthly life. So long as we contemplate what surrounds us here in this physical existence upon Earth, including that which we ourselves contribute to if, we shall of course fix our attention mainly on the times we spend in waking life. Yet as I said in those earlier lectures, that which goes on for man during the times when he is fast asleep is still more important for his whole existence — even for what he is and does in earthly life.
When we look back in memory from any given point in our life, we always exclude the times we spent asleep; we join the things we did and underwent by day and while awake, as though they were to form a continuous whole. Yet none of this would be possible without the intervening periods of sleep. Above all, if we want to know the true being of man, we must pay attention to these periods of sleep. A man might easily say that he knows nothing of what goes on during sleep. To ordinary consciousness this may seem true, but in reality it is not so. For if we had to look back into a life uninterrupted by sleep, we should be mere automata. True, we should still be spiritual beings, but we should be automata.
Even more important than the daily periods of sleep throughout our life are the times we spent in sleep as very little children. We retain the good effects of those early periods of sleep all through our life; in a sense, we only supplement them by what accrues to us spiritually night by night during the rest of life. If we came into the world as little children wide-awake and never slept, we should, once more, be automate; my, in this automatic state we should be unable to do anything consciously at all. We should not even recognize what came about through us, as our own concern.
We may believe we have no memory at all of what transpires during sleep, but even that is not quite true. When we look back in memory, seeing the things we experienced while awake and omitting the periods of sleep, the fact is that we see a void, a nothing, in the intervals of time when we were sleeping. It is as though you were looking at a white wall where at one place the white paint was lacking; you see a black circle. Or there might be a hole with no light behind it; you see the empty hole inasmuch as you see darkness. So do you see the darkness when you look back on your own life. The times you spent asleep appear as darkness in the midst of life. And in reality it is to these darknesses of life that you say ‘I.’ If you did not see the darknesses you would have no consciousness of ‘I.’ You owe the ability to say ‘I’ to yourself, not to the fact that you were active every day from morning until night, but to the fact that you were also sleeping. The Ego as we know it in this earthly life is, to begin with, darkness of life, emptiness, even non-existence. If we consider our life truly, we shall not say that we owe our consciousness of self to the day but rather that we owe it to the night. This is the truth. It is the night which males us real human being and no mere automata.
Indeed if we look back into earlier epochs of human evolution upon Earth, though he was no mere automaton even then, for he already had certain differences between his waking and sleeping states, yet inasmuch as he was more or less aware of his sleeping states even in ordinary waking life, man's earthly life and action was far more automatic than it is today.
Truth is, we never bring our real and inmost Ego with us from the spiritual world into the physical and earthly; we leave it in the spiritual world. Before we came down into earthly life it was in the spiritual world, and it is there again between our falling asleep and our awakening. It stays there always, and if by day — in the present form of human consciousness — we call ourselves an ‘I,’ this word is but an indication of something which is not here in the physical world at all; it only has its picture in this world.
We do not see ourselves aright if we say: ‘Here am I, this robust and real man, standing upon Earth; here am I with my inmost being.’ We only see ourselves aright if we say: ‘Our true being is in the spiritual world, and what is here of us on Earth is but a picture — an image of our true being.’ It is entirely true if we regard what is here on Earth, not as the real man himself, but as the picture of the real man.
I will now show how you can see this picture-character of man more clearly. Let us imagine ourselves asleep. The Ego is away from the physical and etheric body; the astral body too is away. Now it is the Ego which works in the blood of man and in his movements. In sleep the movements cease, inasmuch as the Ego is away; the blood however goes on working, and yet the Ego is not there. We need only think of the physical body and we must ask ourselves: What happens to it while we are asleep? Something must still be living and working in the blood, even as the Ego lives and works in it by day. Likewise the astral body, living as it does in the whole breathing process, leaves it by night, and yet the breathing goes on. Here again, something must be there within the breathing process, working in it even as the astral body does in waking life.
Thus every time we go to sleep, with our astral body we forsake those inner organs which are the organs of respiration, and with our Ego we forsake the pulsating forces of our blood. What then becomes of them by night? The answer is that while the man lies asleep in bed, Beings of the adjoining Hierarchy enter into the pulsating forces of the blood from which his Ego has departed. Angels, Archangels and Archai are then indwelling the self-same organs in which the human Ego dwells in waking life by day. Moreover in the breathing organs which we have forsaken inasmuch as the astral body is outside by night, Beings of the next higher Hierarchy — Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes — are living then.
Thus when we go to sleep at night, setting forth with our Ego and astral body, leaving behind the body of our waking life, Angels, Archangels and higher spiritual Beings enter into us and animate our organs while we are outside — until we re-awaken. And what is more, as to our ether-body, even in our day-waking life we are not able to fulfill what is needed there. The Beings of the highest Hierarchy — Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones — have to indwell this ether-body even while we are awake; they remain there always.
Lastly the physical body; if we ourselves had to achieve all the great and wonderful processes taking place there, we should not merely do it very badly; we could not set about it at all. Here we are utterly helpless. What outer anatomy ascribes to the physical body could not even move a single atom of it. Powers of quite another order are required here, namely none other than those that have been known since primeval times as the supreme Trinity — the Powers of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They — the essential Trinity — indwell the physical body of man.
Therefore in truth, throughout our earthly life our physical body is not our own. If it depended on us, it could not go on at all. It is, as was said of old, the true Temple of the Godhead — of the Divine threefold Being. Likewise our ether-body is the dwelling-place of the Hierarchy of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. They have to help in caring for the organs which are assigned to the etheric body. As to those physical and etheric organs on the other hand which are deserted every night by the astral body, they are provided for by the second Hierarchy — Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai. Lastly, the organs forsaken during sleep by the human Ego have to be cared for in the night by Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. There is a constant activity within the human being, proceeding not only from man himself. Only in waking life he lives in this bodily nature, so to speak, as a subtenant. For at the same time it is the Temple and the dwelling-place of spiritual Beings — the Beings of the Hierarchies.
Bearing all this in mind, we only see this outer form of man aright if we admit: It is a picture — a picture of the working-together of all the Hierarchies. They are within it. Look at this human head in all the detail of its form; look at the rest of the body in its human form. I do not look at it truly if I describe it as a reality — as a real being, thus or thus. I only look at it truly if I say: It is a picture of an invisible, supersensible working of all the Hierarchies together. Only when things are seen in this way can one speak truly and in detail of what is commonly propounded in a rather abstract manner. The physical world is not the true reality, so it is said; it is a maya — the true reality is behind it. Yet such a statement does not help us much. It is too general, as if one were to say: Flowers are growing in the meadow. Just as this statement will only be of use if you know what kind of flowers, so too the knowledge of the higher world can only be applied in practice if one is able to point out in detail how it is working in the outer picture, maya, or reflection, which is its physical, sense-perceptible manifestation.
Man therefore, seen in his totality, both in his earthly life by day and in his earthly life by night, is related not only to his physical and visible environment on Earth but to a world of higher spiritual being. Through all the kingdoms of Nature upon Earth-mineral, plant, animal kingdom — there works what we may call a lower spiritual realm. So too throughout the world of stars there works a higher spiritual realm — a realm which also influences man. Looked at in his totality, man is related through his physical existence to plants and animals, to water and to air; so too, he is related spiritually to the world of stars. The latter too is but a picture, a revelation of the underlying spiritual reality. It is the Beings of the Hierarchies who are really there. When he looks up to the stars, man in reality is looking up to the spiritual Beings of the Hierarchies. That which is raying down upon him is but a kind of symbolic light which they send to him of their presence, so that here too, even in physical life, he may have some indication of the living Spirit which in reality fills the entire Universe.
Just as on Earth we may long to know this mountain or that river, this animal or yonder plant, so should we feel a longing to get to know the starry world in its true being. In its true being it is spiritual. In Penmaenmawr I tried to tell a little of the real spiritual nature of the Moon, such as it shines upon us from the cosmic spaces in the present phase of earthy evolution. When we look up to the Moon, we never really see the Moon itself; we see at most a scanty indication of it where the illuminated crescent is continued. What we are seeing is the reflected sunlight, not the Moon itself. So altogether, only the cosmic forces thrown back or reflected by the Moon reach us upon Earth, never what lives within the Moon itself. That it reflects the Sun's light to the Earth is but a part, nay, the smallest part of what pertains to the Moon. All physical and spiritual impulses that reach it from the great Universe, the Moon reflects to us like a mirror. And as we never see through to the other side of a mirror, so do we never see the interior of the Moon, where, in effect, there lives a spiritual population among whom are very high guiding Beings. These guiding Powers, with the rest of the Lunar population, were once upon a time on Earth, whence they withdrew to the Moon more than 15,000 years ago. Before that time the Moon looked even physically different. It did not merely reflects the sunlight to the Earth but mingled in the sunlight something of its own essence. This is however not the point which interests us now. What does concern us at this moment is the fact that in the present epoch the Moon is there like a fortress in the Universe — a cosmic fortress within which lives a population which fulfilled its human destinies more than 15,000 years ago, and, with the spiritual guides of humanity, withdrew thereafter to the Moon. For there were once upon a time on Earth very advanced Beings — Beings who did not put on physical human bodies as do the men of today. They lived rather in etheric bodies, yet for the men who lived on Earth at that time they were the great leaders and educators.
It was these mighty teachers and educators who brought to mankind, long, long ago, the primeval wisdom — the original and sublime wisdom-teachings of mankind, whereof the Vedas, the Vendanta, are but a distant echo. They now are living in the Moon and only radiating spiritually to the Earth what issues from the Universe outside the Moon.
Something of the erstwhile Moon-forces has indeed remained behind on Earth, namely the physical forces of reproduction in man and animal; but that is all. Only the most external and physical element remained behind when at a certain time of old Atlantis the great teachers of mankind migrated to the Moon, which had itself withdrawn from the Earth long before.
Therefore when we look upward to the Moon we only see it truly if we realize that there are lofty spiritual Beings there — Beings who were once upon a time on Earth and who now make it their task to ray down to Earth not what they bear within themselves, but the forces, both physical and spiritual, which they reflect and thus transmit from the great Universe. Whoever seeks Initiation-wisdom in present time, must among other things seek to receive into this Initiation-wisdom what the Beings of the Moon with their sublime spiritual forces have to tell.
Now this is only one of the ‘cities’ in the great Universe — one colony, one settlement among many. Others are no less important, notably those belonging to our planetary system. And as concerns ourselves — as concerns humanity on Earth — the other pole, the opposite extreme to the Moon, is the population of Saturn.
The Saturn population too, as you may gather from my Occult Science, was once united with the Earth, yet in a very different way from the population of the Moon. The Saturn-beings are connected with the earthly life in quite another way. They reflect nothing from cosmic space. Even the physical sunlight is only just reflected on to Earth by Saturn. Saturn like a lonely recluse wanders slowly round the Sun, shedding very little light. What outer Astronomy can tell us about Saturn is but a very small portion of the truth. The significance of Saturn for humanity on Earth is made manifest, if only in a picture, every night when man is sleeping, and it is realized more fully between death and new birth when man is going through the spiritual world — and therefore too through the world of stars — as I explained in a lecture here not long ago (see Note 1).
True, in the present phase of evolution man does not meet Saturn directly; yet by a roundabout way — which we need not go into now — he does come into contact with the Saturn-beings. Within Saturn in effect, Beings of high perfection, very sublime Beings live — Beings who are in near relation to Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are as it were the Beings nearest to them — nearest among the Hierarchies.
The sublime Beings, whom we may call the Saturn population, do not ray down to Earth or give to men from Saturn anything that can be found in the external, physical world. But they preserve the cosmic memory, the cosmic record. All facts and all events, both physical and spiritual, which the planetary system has undergone, all that the Beings within our planetary system have ever experienced — the Saturn-beings faithfully preserve it in memory. In recollection they are forever looking back on the entire life of the planetary system. Even as we look back in memory upon the limited range of our earthly life, so do the Saturn-beings — in their collective activity — cherish the cosmic memory of what the planetary system as a whole and all the beings in it have undergone.
For man himself, the spiritual forces living in this cosmic memory are present, inasmuch as he comes into relation with the Saturn-beings between death and a new birth, and also — more in picture-form — every night. Thereby the spiritual forces proceeding from the Saturn-beings — forces in which the deepest inner life of the planetary system is contained — are also working within man. Even as memory is our own deepest inner life on Earth, so too what lives in Saturn represents the innermost and deepest ‘cosmic I’ of the whole planetary system.
Inasmuch as these influences are also there in man, many things are going on in human life, of the significance of which we are for the most part quite unconscious — which none the less play the greatest imaginable part in our lives. What we are conscious of, is after all only a very small portion of our life.
Say for example there was an incisive moment, an all-important event in your life. You met another human being with whom you then went on through life together; or it was some other event, essential to your future life. If you look back in time from this event, you will be struck by the fact that something like a plan was leading you towards it, beginning long before. Something that happened, say, between your thirtieth and fiftieth year — follow it backward through your life and you will very likely find: ‘I entered on the path leading to this event when I was ten or twelve years old; all that then followed was leading up to it, so that I landed there.’
Elderly people, looking back contemplatively upon their life, will find that it all works out. They will be able to say: ‘There was a subconscious thread running through it all. Unconscious forces were impelling me to the decisive events of my life.’ These are the Saturn forces — forces implanted in us through our relation, such as has been indicated, to the ‘inner population’ of Saturn.
While therefore, of the Moon, only the physical forces of reproduction are there on Earth (for these are Lunar forces, once again, which remained at the Moon's departure), the very highest forces, namely the cosmic moral forces, are on Earth through Saturn. The source of cosmic equity, the great ‘restorer of the balance’ for all that happens upon Earth, is Saturn. And if the Moon-forces, now upon Earth, have to do only with heredity — heredity through father, mother and so on — the Saturn forces enter into human life through all that lives in Karma, from incarnation to incarnation. In this respect the other planets are intermediate between the two — they mediate between the physical upon the one hand and the highest ethical upon the other.
Jupiter, Mars and so on are there between Moon and Saturn. They in their several ways mediate what Moon and Saturn at the uttermost extremes bring into human life — the Moon inasmuch as its spiritual Beings have withdrawn, leaving behind with the earthly realm only the physical aspect, the physical force of propagation; and Saturn inasmuch as it represents the moral justice of the Universe in its highest aspect. These two are working together in that the other planets are there between than, waving the one into the other. Karma through Saturn, physical heredity through the Moon: these in their interrelation show how man upon his way from earthly life to earthly life is connected with the Earth itself and with the great Universe beyond the Earth.
As you will readily understand, my dear Friends, the science of today, fixing attention upon the earthly life alone, can only tell about a very little part of man. It tells a lot about the forces of heredity, yet even here it fails to see that these are Lunar forces left behind on Earth. It fails to relate them to the cosmic activities, transcending the mere earthly life, to which they properly belong. And it knows nothing at all about the destiny of Karma with which this earthly life is infused. Yet in reality, even as physical man is pulsated through and through by the living blood, so are the Beings bearing within them the vast memory of the planetary system with all its cosmic happenings, pulsating through man's Karma upon Earth. Looking into our own inner life, we must admit: We are true human beings only inasmuch as we have memory. Looking out into the planetary system with all its physical and spiritual happenings, and reaching upward to Initiation-science, we must equally admit: This planetary system would be void of inner life were it not for the inhabitants of Saturn preserving through the ages the memory, the cosmic past thereof, and also pouring ever down into mankind the forces springing from this preservation of the cosmic past, whereby all human beings are immersed in a living spiritual-moral nexus of causes and effects leading from earthly life to earthly life.
In earthly life, as to his conscious action, man is confined — in his relation to other men — within narrow limits. But if he takes into account what he experiences between death and new birth, there his relation to other human beings, who like himself will be discarnate, living no longer in physical bodies, reaches far wider circles. True, between death and re-birth he is at one time more in the neighbourhood of the Lunar influences and at another more in the neighbourhood of those of Saturn, Mars and so on. Yet through the cosmic spaces the one kind of planetary force interpenetrates the other. As upon Earth we work from man to man across the narrow confines of terrestrial space, so between death and new birth there is a working from planet to planet. The Universe then becomes the scene of man's activity and of the mutual relations between men. There between death and new birth, maybe the one departed soul is in the realm of Venus while the other is in Jupiter's domain; yet the interactions between them are far more intimate and tender than is possible within the narrow confines of earthly life. And even as the cosmic distances are called into play, to be the scene of action of the relations between human souls between death and new birth, so too the Beings of the Hierarchies are there, working throughout the cosmic spaces. We have to tell not only of the working of the several kinds of Beings — say, the inhabitants of Venus, or of Mars. We have to tell of the relations between the populations of Mars and Venus — a never-ending interaction, a constant to and fro of spiritual forces between the population of Mars and that of Venus amid the Universe.
This which goes on in the Universe between the populations of Mars and Venus — this everliving interplay in the spiritual Cosmos, the deeds of Mars and Venus fertilizing one another — all this again has its relation to man. Even as the Saturn-memory is related to human Karma, and the physical Lunar forces, left behind on Earth, to the external force of reproduction, so is the hidden spiritual interaction between Mars and Venus related to what appears in earthly life as human speech. For we could never speak by virtue of physical forces alone. It is the eternal being of man, going on from earthly life to earthly life, living in effect between death and new birth, which radiates into this outer world the gift of speech. Whilst as a spiritual being we are on our way from death to a new birth, we come into the sphere of action of the mutually fertilizing life which goes on between Mars and Venus — between the spiritual populations of Mars and Venus. Their spiritual forces, raying to and fro, co-operating, enter also into us ourselves upon our way from death to a new birth. This too is reproduced on Earth as in a physical picture, out of the innermost being of man, entering into the organs of speech and song. Never should we be able to speak through these organs if they were not physically kindled by the forces we receive into the depths of our being between death and new birth — forces derived from what is ever streaming to and fro in the Cosmos between Mars and Venus.
Thus in our daily life and action we are under the influence of the same spiritual forces, to the outward signs of which we look up with awe and wonder when we look out into the starry heavens. He alone is able to look up with inner truth who knows that in the stars, raying down to us from cosmic space, are to be seen the signs and characters of the great cosmic writing. For they are but the written signs of the great Universe — of the eternal, all-embracing spiritual life and process which also lives within us and of which we, once more, are but the image.
Long, long ago, in an instinctive atavistic clairvoyance, mankind had vision and perception of these things. The vision faded. If he had kept it, man could never have grown free. The ancient vision was therefore darkened. In compensation, the Mystery of Golgotha came into earthly life. A sublime Being from the population of the Sun came to Earth. He could not, it is true, bring to mankind all at once a consciousness of what is going on in yonder world of stars, but He brought with Him the forces whereby this consciousness can gradually be achieved.
Therefore it happened that to begin with, while the Mystery of Golgotha was taking place, a Gnostic wisdom was still there, inherited from olden time, through which the Mystery was understood This wisdom too then faded out; during the fourth century after Christ it vanished altogether. Yet the spiritual force which had come to Earth through Christ remained. Man can now call this force to life within him, if he once opens his eyes to the reality of spiritual worlds, as he can do through the communications of modern spiritual Science.
How much is yet to come to the humanity of modern time through looking thus once more to spiritual worlds! It is a striking fact: yonder in Asia, in more than one Asiatic, Oriental country, are living those who still preserve some relic of the old instinctive wisdom. They are the educated people, the true scholars, in the Oriental sense. No doubt this remnant of an ancient wisdom no longer belongs, in the best sense of the word, to our time; it needs to be replaced by a more conscious wisdom. And yet these bearers of an ancient and instinctive wisdom look down with not a little contempt upon the people of Europe and America. They are persuaded that their ancient Oriental wisdom even in its decadence, even the remaining rags and tatters of it, are preferable to the kind of knowledge of which Western civilization is so inordinately proud. Hence it is interesting to see a book recently published by a Cingalese, an Indian of Ceylon, The Culture of Souls among the Western Nations, wherein the author says to the Europeans, in effect: Since the Middle Ages your knowledge of the Christ has died out. No longer have you any real knowledge of the Christ, for he alone who can look up into the spiritual world can have real knowledge of the Christ. Hence you must first let teachers come to you from India, from Asia, to teach you Christianity again. You can actually read it in this book. A Cingalese Indian says to the Europeans: Teachers must come to you from Asia; they will be able to tell you what Christ really is. Your European teachers no longer know it. Since the decline of the Middle Ages you have lost your knowledge of the Christ.
Yet in reality it is for Europeans and Americans themselves once more to summon courage to look into the spiritual worlds from which the knowledge of the Christ, the wisdom of the Christ can be regained. Christ is the Being who came down from spiritual worlds into the earthly life. Therefore in His true inwardness He can only be understood in the light of the Spirit.
Upon this way it is also necessary for man to learn to look upon himself as a picture — an image of the spiritual Beings, spiritual realities and activities, on Earth. And he can do so best of all by permeating himself with such ideas and perceptions as I presented to you at the beginning of this lecture. Amid his conscious experiences in the stream of time he looks into the emptiness. He becomes conscious that his true Ego never descends from the spiritual world; that in the physical world he is but a picture. The real ‘I’ is not here in the physical world at all. He sees, as it were, a hole in time — a seeming darkness — and it is to this that he says ‘I’.
Man should therefore become aware of the deep significance of this fact. When he looks back and remembers his past life, he must admit: I see in memory the experiences I underwent from day to day, but there is ever and again a hole, a gap of darkness. It is this darkness which in my ordinary consciousness I call ‘I’. But I must now become conscious of something more than this.
I have summed up this ‘something more’ in a few words, which — as a kind of meditation reaching out to the true ‘I’ — may be inscribed in the soul of every human being of our time. Ever repeatedly we may call to life in us these words of meditation, which I will write as follows:

Ich schaue in die Finsternis:
In ihr ersteht Licht —
Lebendes Licht.
Wer ist dies Licht in der Finsternis?
Ich bin es selbst in meiner Wirklichkeit!
Diese Wirklichkeit des Ich
Tritt nicht ein in mein Erdendasein.
Ich bin nur Bild davon.
Ich werde es aber wieder finden,
Wenn ich,
Guten Willens fur den Geist,
Durch des Todes Pforte gegangen.

I gaze into the Darkness.
In it there arises Light —
Living Light!
Who is this Light in the Darkness?
It is I myself in my reality.
This reality of the ‘I’
Does not enter into my earthly life.
I am but a picture of it.
But I shall find it again
When with good will for the Spirit
I shall have passed through the Gate of Death.

Entering ever and again into a meditative saying of this kind, we can confront the Darkness. We realize that here on Earth we are only a picture of our true Being — that our true Being never comes down into the earthly life. Yet in the midst of the Darkness, through our good will towards the Spirit, a Light can dawn upon us, of which we may in truth confess: This Light am I myself in my reality.

(Source: Lecture: Man As A Picture of The Living Spirit)
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
Writer
SPNer
Jul 14, 2007
4,576
1,609
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]THE ANCIENT WISDOM

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by Annie Besant [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

1911 Reprint


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1](continues on Section 2)
[/FONT]
[/FONT]

[/SIZE][/FONT]
 

❤️ CLICK HERE TO JOIN SPN MOBILE PLATFORM

Top