Margaret Bove Sturman – Italy
VERY simple! Truth is when we find our inner self, our golden core, our open heart of compassion, our deep silence, our serenity of days and nights, our wonder of wonders, the root without roots, our joy and bliss, all that is good, true, and beautiful.
We are Truth, being facsimiles of the Divine. So banish fear, be calm, eliminate worry and smile. The soldiers during the First World War, when confronting danger and possible death, sang a song together: “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. . . . What is the use of worrying?” So why worry about the coronavirus or any other virus. We are immortal divine beings and cannot go into oblivion. The so-called “death” does not exist. It is only a change of consciousness.
The fear of death was created in ancient Atlantean times by non-positive influences and must be avoided at all levels. A Nazi hierarch said: “Put fear into people and they will do everything you want.” Instead, emphasis should be on Life. Evolution is an initiatory process leading from one living experience to another. So let us replace fear with courage and the knowledge that our true self never changes or dies. When we go to the other side there is a period of rest and then we return to Mother Earth to continue our pilgrimage of learning, often in the company of our loved ones and friends. The same groups frequently incarnate together because similar lessons need to be learnt and we help each other, either creating obstacles or giving sympathy and understanding when needed. The obstacles are necessary in order to learn, grow, and make progress. Often difficult people or critical circumstances are our greatest teachers and oblige us to reflect deeply.
The coronavirus is democratic and a wise teacher; it demonstrates the need of sharing (Aquarian Age); it inspires us to care for others altruistically and an example can be taken from the bees working in self-sacrifice for the good of the whole. The hum of the bee has been likened to the hum of the Universe (the music of the Spheres), the mystical word of the Divine, which the sacred sound “OM” replicates.
The virus emphasizes the great abyss between immense wealth and the weak, poor, and destitute. We are in this game together, we all need each other; there are no favorites, and the virus freely affects all humanity, regardless of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. It simply follows the laws of Nature — all that is applicable to the one is applicable to the many. Quoting from a poem by John Donne: “For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee [ego]. . . . No man is an island.” The suffering involved in coronavirus is an opportunity to unite all humanity — the Muslim to care for the Hindu, the Hindu for the Sikh, the Shiites to be in harmony with the Sunnites, the Iranians with the Palestinians and the Syrians, the Arabs with the Jews. Mother Nature has perhaps lovingly decided for her children that the impact of the virus can lead to World Peace, Liberty, and True Brotherhood, so that a new collective consciousness arises.
The physical body we have in this lifetime is only temporary and is necessary for the particular lessons we need to learn. In our next incarnations we will have another body, then another, then another. Our true self never dies and nothing can finish or destroy our immortal spirit. Everything evolves from OM TAT SAT. Even so-called God evolves and goes from one spiral of evolution to another, again and again, across indescribable eons of time.
Eventually, through test and trial, we arrive at an evolutionary stage when we can choose whether to return to Earth to help humanity as a Bodhisattva, go to another solar system, or remain in a perpetual state of Bliss showering Light on the World (Dhyâni Buddhas). Within us we have a living Spark of Joy. We can be in the midst of a terrible fire which will consume our physical body and all our possessions, but our Divine Spark will shine its Light brighter than the fire and return to the Ain Soph Source, the divine force of life and love at the pole of being, to continue its evolutionary journey in a new physical form.
We may ask how long the journey will take to reach the Truth. Quoting and translating from Angelus Silesius (1624–77):
“How far from here to Heaven?
Not far, not far, my friend:
A single inward step
Will all your journeys end.”
The monastic disciples of Amma (Mâta Amritânandamayi), who embraces the world, wear a paper bracelet around the wrist, where it is written: “Children, God is deep within us. He dwells there as pure and innocent love.”
As one enters the temple of Delphi in Greece, famous for its oracles, written on the ancient pillars are the words: “Man, know thyself.”
When Jesus says to his disciples, I am with you until the end of time”, he is indicating his Christ consciousness and innate divinity, which is within us all but needs to be released and revealed.
In the “Gâyatri” mantra, one of the oldest invocations known to humanity, we ask the sustenance of the Universe to unveil to us the face of the True Spiritual Being in the Sun, hidden by a disc of golden Light, that we may know the TRUTH, and so on.
It has been said we can only approach the Truth. When in deep meditation in a void of silence, a silence that we would wish to last for ever, we are indeed approaching the Truth, but our state of polarity prevents us from reaching the goal. The drop has not yet slipped into the Ocean; the subject has still to be absorbed into the object.
During our evolutionary journey we will eventually and necessarily all arrive at the Truth, that is, enlightenment, and will verily know. The great Sanat Kumara, the Ascended Lady Master Kwan Yin, Tara and Avalokitesvara, our loving Guardians and True Friends, with immense sacrifice and dedication, have decided to remain within the precincts of planet Earth until “every blade of grass” has received enlightenment, in other words, has attained to the Truth.
So let us eliminate fear and tread the path towards the Truth by recognizing our weaknesses, reflecting on our inner thoughts and becoming vessels of Light in the perfumed vineyard of the Masters. The more purified we are, the nearer we are to Truth. At the beginning of our evolutionary cycle, when we begin our gradual descent into matter, we are pure transparent Truth. Quoting the hermetic axiom, “As above, so below”, the aura of a newborn babe glitters with Light before becoming involved in worldly affairs.
This life is only transitory. Do we have the courage to accept this fact? No. Our ego clings on to our physical form and is reluctant to let it go. But where will it go? It will go into joy, into comforting peace and protection. We will be taken into the arms of the Divine and comforted with indescribably deep compassion. We will be cherished and rocked like little children, because we are children of the Divine, and when we depart from our earthly plane we are merely returning home. So why worry? — our destiny is merely being fulfilled and we can leave behind all doubt and fear.
Clara Codd, a well-known English theosophist of the last century, when visiting friends and patients in hospices, was always very positive in her attitude towards bedridden patients. When the patient said, “I am dying”, she replied “How wonderful!”
Alice Bailey wrote a book called Death — The Great Adventure and indeed going to the other side is a “great adventure”. Just imagine meeting our loved ones who have preceded us and the peaceful circumstances of bliss we will find. Any misunderstandings during our incarnations on planet Earth are completely forgotten and we finally realize that we are all one and true soulmates.
When we leave the physical body it is said that we become all-knowing. Sometimes glimpses of the afterlife can occur during near-death experiences, but it is rare that this knowledge is divulged before disintegration of the physical body. H. P. Blavatsky was in perfect agreement that the secrets of Nature can only be revealed to the pure of heart and that a true occultist is a purely beneficial force of Nature. As a great lama said, “One can be trusted when one is harmless.” True harmlessness is extremely profound and involves understanding and having compassion even for the murderer of our own children. It involves having empathy with the ISIS assassins which is extremely difficult for the majority.
We must realize, seeing the misery, poverty, and ignorance in the world, how privileged and fortunate we are by knowing that our inner self is eternal and we are shining radiant sparks that derive from the great divine flame — the Flame that does not burn. It is for this reason that it is so important to freely divulge the knowledge of Theosophy, giving great hope and comfort to all beings. Whenever the occasion arises we can insert Theosophy into our conversation with emphasis, especially in these difficult times, on reincarnation.
Let us, with humility and dedication, on every possible occasion, aid the Great Ones to nurture the “blades of grass”, facilitating the evolutionary process, so that Truth and Peace can prevail on Earth.
This article was also published in The Theosophist, VOL. 142 NO. 10 JULY 2021
The Theosophist is the official organ of the President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky on 1 Oct. 1879.
To read the JULY, 2021 issue, click HERE