"Thy manifestation, O Blessed Lord,
neither Shining Ones nor Danavas comprehend."

Bhagavad-Gita

IF the whole manifested universe is an expression of The Only Being, for the purpose of experience, or self-realization; what, or who, is responsible for the suffering of humanity?

As nothing can exist apart from God, not even a Devil, what is the human soul struggling against? Why the strife?

The strife is caused by illusion, or the shadow created by light; for Light, in manifestation, becomes dual, thus creating its opposite. Therefore humanity, in order to experience, is subject to the law of the «pairs of opposites,» and can only regain reality through a right understanding of illusion.

«This illusion of Mine, caused by the qualities, is hard to pierce;
They who come to Me, they cross over this illusion.»

Bhagavad-Gita

Divine life, the one living flame, manifests in the Universe as manifold rays; and as man the human soul is deluded by the illusion of separateness. By identifying itself with the physical and mental bodies by which it is enveloped, the soul gradually - according to the density of the form - loses consciousness of the « oneness » of its divine origin.

The God within is blinded by the solidification of spirit into matter, which surrounding the soul as a shell, veils the vision of the God without.

"Then of the Thee in Me who works behind
The veil, I lifted up my hands to find
A lamp amid the darkness, and I heard
As from without—The Me within Thee blind!"

Omar Khayyam.

The method taught in the ancient schools of Sufism, of regaining God-awareness, is that of Taubàh (turning), the reality of which lies in a continual turning from one's own nature. « May God make thee a seer of His, and remove thee from thyself.» The soul identifies itself with that which it beholds; hence, a seer of God attains God-identification.

As each ray of light in manifestation creates its own shadow, so each soul taking human form, creates a false ego, who claims a separate individuality.

A human soul who has attained balance, can touch both the spiritual and material worlds, and while living the ordinary life of man, can also hear and respond to the key-note of his soul, and knows the claim of separateness to be a false claim; but by identifying himself with the false ego, he loses the rhythm of his tuning and vibrates to discord. This is the cause of the unnecessary pain and suffering of humanity; but everything created is a creation in time, and therefore has no existence apart from time.

God is The One indestructible Reality, without beginning, and without end.

"Whose secret Presence through creation's veins,
Running quicksilver-like - eludes your pains;
Taking all shapes from Mah to Mahi, and
They change and perish all - but He remains."

Omar Khayyam.

Man is but a stage in the journey of the soul; «No other than a moving row of magic shadow-shapes that come and go.» The form perishes, the shadow passes, the great illusion ceases; «That» which remains is what was, before the birth of Time, and what will be, when Time has ceased to be. He remains; there is none beside.

« I am the Lord; there is none else.
I form the light and create darkness;
I make Peace and create evil,
I the Lord do all these things.»

Isa. 45. 7

«I am the gambling of the cheat, and the splendour of the splendid things I,
and whatever is the seed of all beings that am I ;
nor is there aught moving, or unmoving, that may exist bereft of Me.»ter

« Having pervaded this universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain.»

Bhâgavad Gîta.

-oOo-