Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 3, sect. 903

903. But how could such a scale of rising steps come about if there were not growth? And what would be the use of all the experiences in the form of the ups and downs of life that over the course of time have enriched human beings? Is it not a fact for any ordinarily gifted human being that beings can indeed grow mentally? Otherwise, what would be the use of all the schooling, what would be the use of all the millions of books that are printed the world over? Indeed, is it not the case that every terrestrial human being is, through its experiences, literally learning and therefore growing from the cradle to the grave? And does not every terrestrial human being supply, with its temporary standard, an otherwise missing link between those mental steps below and those above this standard? And does it not have in itself a certain aversion towards the steps lying below this standard, at the same time as having a certain longing to be able to manifest the steps above it? Why is the opposite not the case? Why do longing and aversion exist at all? If the being's present, physical life were the absolutely only one it has ever experienced, it could never ever have had anything to do with the lower steps. But how can it be born with an aversion to something it has not experienced? It is a fact that we are inevitably drawn towards everything we have not experienced and do not possess within us as an experience we have grown out of. Did not human beings strive towards the poles until they discovered them and reached them? Do not explorers strive every day to explore the vast unknown territories of the Earth's surface, its oceans, its mountain tops and its inner depths? Do not thousands of researchers sit in laboratories behind microscopes, tirelessly gazing into the microcosmos in order to satisfy their thirst for knowledge in fields that are unknown to them? And does not the same thing apply behind the huge observatory telescopes? Do not thousands of eyes gaze out into the great mysteries of the macrocosmos in order to experience new adventures there? Is not this gazing at its greatest intensity or its culmination in those areas in which we are expecting something "new", and has relaxed or ceased altogether where we have become "an old hand" in particular areas and know them inside out? Is it conceivable that there are normal civilised human beings today who want to become Bushmen or pygmies, not to speak of apes or other forms of manifestation that are primitive in comparison with their present standard of life? Does not everyone strive towards something higher, something more perfect? We do not strive for what is, in relation to our current step, less perfect. Do we not therefore meet here the two great, fundamental principles of life: hunger and satiation? Is not this aversion that the beings feel for a step that is more primitive compared with their present standard, a satiation? And is not the tireless and energetic attraction towards fields or phenomena that are unknown to us, a hunger? These two great principles that we have within us therefore provide substantial proof that we are subject to a process of growth that is completely without its beginning or end in our present life. Through our repulsion to the mental steps that are below our own, we are revealing that we are satiated with these steps, and equally the unshakable attraction or pull in us towards the steps that are above us reveals an inner hunger for these steps. And is it not precisely our hunger and satiation that holds us to, or places us on, our particular step or area in the entire scale of growth? Is it not conceivable that this striving in the living beings towards what is more perfect and repulsion of what is less perfect, which causes the being to be unfailingly in a process of growth, is a link in one of the world order's special plans with respect to the living being? If the being lives only one single physical life on Earth, who is there that benefits from this urge to grow that is implanted in the being? It feels drawn towards higher and more perfect forms of life; it hungers for knowledge and the solution to mystery of life. And through world redeemers, prophets and sages it receives a wealth of instructions as to what it should do in order to be saved, that is to say in order to reach the goal it is longing for. But carrying out these instructions is so comprehensive and arduous that it is quite impossible to follow them or carry them out in such a short period of time as that represented by one life on Earth. In fact, is it not the case for millions of beings that severe pain and suffering even shortens the "one" life that they have? This coveted, perfect condition, or the fulfilment of the beautiful ideals, is therefore for a vast number of beings an impossibility.