Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1317

1317. When people had become tired of the old blood vengeance, it was not so much for their neighbour's sake as for their own. The desire to possess and acquire his particular goods and advantages were still very much alive. That he perhaps lost them as well as his life in the process of defending them in order to keep them for himself and those closest to him, was still of very minor importance to the masses. Here their habitual consciousness from the old way of worshipping God was still so strong and came so naturally that it could completely suppress any sympathy for their neighbour – if, indeed, such a sympathy had begun to grow at all in the as-yet strongly animal mentality and way of thinking of these beings. Their weariness with, and antipathy towards, the old godheads were, on the contrary, maintained and stimulated solely by the circumstance that the bloody form of existence caused by the processes of retribution or karma became so predominant that no one could feel secure about their existence or their experience of the clear light of the sun, which they did after all very much want to preserve. Retribution for several lives spent bloodily massacring their neighbour lurked everywhere. It lurked not merely in the eyes and desires of foreign tribes and warriors, but gradually became so personal that it often lurked in the thoughts and minds of their closest relatives. Their own offspring became their own most envious rivals or conspirators against their life. They became the best mediums or instruments of retribution for the law of karma manifesting the principle of murder, killing and revenge. Indeed, with regard to repaying obliterated lives, these beings were the very culmination of the law of karma. They turned daily life into a sphere of executioners. They created a zone of existence where not only those who were usually regarded as deadly enemies were to be feared, but also all those who were one's friends, indeed, one's very closest relations. One's parents, one's brothers and sisters, one's spouse and offspring were all predestined to become one's "executioners". The desire to execute, the wish to obliterate was a dominating force. A greater contrast to real life, a greater contrast to the sphere of love itself did not exist. It is no wonder that the beings here moaned in a constant fear of death that undermined their joy in living. It is no wonder that people were on the look-out for other gods and other forms of morality.