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| Table of Contents for On the Birth of My Mission |
Chapter 1
Revelations past and present
Inasmuch as my work has gradually been made accessible to a good many people appreciative of its spiritual science as a fundamental factor in their lives, I have considered it appropriate to furnish them with a brief overview of the events that directly gave vent to this spiritual mission of mine.
These events, leading to my vocation, are of a character so unusual, that a mere description, however detailed, will at most seem fantastic and unreal to the uninitiated; to the more intolerant of those who have not as yet fully embraced the message of love my experience may even give offence. In extreme cases, in the guise of "holy indignation" they will go so far as to characterise me as being "possessed by the devil", "a blasphemer", a victim of "megalomania", or some other form of abnormity or insanity, not to speak of the rare instances when I have been designated "Antichrist", "a false Messiah", etc. People of this stamp have evidently in course of time become so deeply rooted in the notion that so-called "revelations" are past phenomena that are reserved exclusively for biblical persons. For thousands of years it has been proclaimed and reiterated – from pulpit and platform, from church and chapel, and in the open air, throughout the world – that "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters"; that "God spoke" to Moses; that "God spoke" to the prophets; that Jesus was "transfigured" on the mountain; that the apostles were "filled with the Holy Spirit", appearing like "tongues of fire above their heads"; that Paul on his way to Damascus was "enveloped in a white light", and so on and so forth. Nevertheless most modern people on the same level as referred to above would be the last to understand or believe that the same events might just as well take place at the present time, in our modern, scientific, and technical era. From the level in question it is considered quite natural that "the Spirit of God" in the form of "a burning bush" appeared to Moses, and that "the white light" enveloped Paul, though the former had committed murder and the latter was an obstinate opponent of Christ and a persecutor of his followers; the truthfulness of these narratives is firmly believed. At the same time, if a man today says that he has been "overshadowed by the Holy Spirit"; that he is "One with the Father"; that he has himself become "The Way, the Truth, and the Life", he will not be believed, and he is personally subjected to calumny, however upright and blameless he may be, and however well he may confirm his assertions scientifically. But this is not to be wondered at. The said opponents, so far as logical reasoning and analytic powers are concerned, are still in religious bondage. They do not as yet feel independent enough to break with the official opinions of the "flock", the firm views of which constitute an unwritten code, acting as a religious walking aid by virtue of which they attempt to keep erect, as long as their mental aptitude for penetrating into the expository labyrinths of life's mysteries is still in a state of dependency and helplessness. In this condition a life beyond the scope of prescriptive religious traditions and dogmas would to them be like a wilderness, where, left to themselves, they would be spiritually starving and, in one way or another, seem to be in danger of perishing miserably. |
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