The bestowal and grace of God have quickened the realm of existence with
life and being. For existence there is neither change nor transformation;
existence is ever existence; it can never be translated into
non-existence. It is gradation; a degree below a higher degree is
considered as non-existence. This dust beneath our feet, as compared with
our being is non-existent. When the human body crumbles into dust we can
say it has become non-existent; therefore its dust in relation to living
forms of human being is as non-existent but in its own sphere it is
existent, it has its mineral being. Therefore it is well proved that
absolute non-existence is impossible; it is only relative.
The purpose is this;—that the everlasting bestowal of God vouchsafed to
man is never subject to corruption. Inasmuch as He has endowed the
phenomenal world with being, it is impossible for that world to become
non-being, for it is the very genesis of God; it is the realm of
origination; it is a creational and not a subjective world, and the bounty
descending upon it is continuous and permanent. Therefore man the highest
creature of the phenomenal world is endowed with that continuous bounty
bestowed by divine generosity without cessation. For instance, the rays of
the sun are continuous, the heat of the sun emanates from it without
cessation; no discontinuance of it is conceivable. Even so the bestowal of
God is descending upon the world of humanity, never ceasing, continuous,
forever. If we say that the bestowal of existence ceases or falters it is
equivalent to saying that the sun can exist with cessation of its
effulgence. Is this possible? Therefore the effulgences of existence are
ever-present and continuous.
The conception of annihilation is a factor in human degradation, a cause
of human debasement and lowliness, a source of human fear and abjection.
It has been conducive to the dispersion and weakening of human thought
whereas the realization of existence and continuity has upraised man to
sublimity of ideals, established the foundations of human progress and
stimulated the development of heavenly virtues; therefore it behoves man
to abandon thoughts of non-existence and death which are absolutely
imaginary and see himself ever living, everlasting in the divine purpose
of his creation. He must turn away from ideas which degrade the human
soul, so that day by day and hour by hour he may advance upward and higher
to spiritual perception of the continuity of the human reality. If he
dwells upon the thought of non-existence he will become utterly
incompetent; with weakened will-power his ambition for progress will be
lessened and the acquisition of human virtues will cease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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