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HUMAN
BEING
Each individual is equipped
with sublime emotions, has a natural disposition toward virtue,
and is fascinated with eternity. Even the most wretched-looking
person has a rainbow-like atmosphere in his or her spirit
comprised of the thought of eternity, love of beauty, and
virtuous feeling. If people can develop these most basic,
inherent elements of their being, they can rise to the highest
ranks of humanity and attain eternity.
People are true human beings not in the mortal, material aspect
of their existence, but rather in the attraction of their
spirits to eternity and in their efforts to find it. For this
reason, those who disregard their innate spiritual aspect
and concentrate only on their physical existence will never
find true peace and contentment.
The happiest and most fortunate people are those who are always
intoxicated with ardent desire for the worlds beyond. Those
who confine themselves within the narrow and suffocating limits
of their bodily existence are really in prison, even though
they may be living in palaces.
Our first and foremost duty is to discover ourselves and then
turn toward our Lord through the illuminated prism of our
nature. Those who remain unaware of their true nature, and
who therefore cannot establish any contact with their Most
High Creator, spend their lives like coolies who are ignorant
of the treasure they are carrying on their backs.
All human beings are essentially helpless. However, they discover
an extraordinary competence by depending on the Infinitely
Powerful One, for this dependence transforms them from a drop
into a waterfall, a particle into a sun, and a beggar into
a king.
Our familiarity with the “book” of existence and events, and
our establishment of a unity between ourselves and that book,
causes sparks of wisdom to appear in our hearts. We begin
to recognize our essential nature and obtain knowledge of
God through the light of those sparks. Finally, we reach God.
To attain this goal, however, we must not set out this (mental)
journeying with a mind conditioned by (biased and prejudiced
toward) atheism and materialism.
Those who are truly human interact with other living beings
in the consciousness of personal duty to them and within the
limits of need. Those who abandon themselves to bodily desire
and pleasure go beyond what is allowed, and therefore cannot
maintain the proper distance or balance between duty and desire.
 
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