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THE MICROCOSM AND THE MACROCOSM
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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.
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