Spiritual And Material

Those, who can still sense the "time" of Eternity, are not in the least detached from worldly matters. On the contrary, it is only through this more natural and correct perspective on time that they are then able to assess what is most important to accomplish in the earthly phase of existence. Such people are usually especially concerned with the issues of human freedom and human dignity. This is certainly the case with Krzysztof Zanussi, who is well-known not only in his native Poland, but throughout the world as a true freedom-fighter. It is just because he is concerned in the first place about the inner, spiritual freedom of human beings that his concern for their outer freedom in the material world follows quite naturally. This concern and the fundamental premise, on which it rests, has been beautifully encapsulated by S.M. A. Lawani in "Spiritual Dimensions of Development":

"I became convinced many years ago that the way people have been attending to the major problems facing human civilization... may be likened to polishing and shining the armour of a dying knight while leaving the knight himself untreated. Obviously, the priority should be to heal the knight. Once he has regained his health, the Knight can personally arrange to shine his armour. I believe that whatever we do to our economic, social, and political systems would be largely in vain, if the moral and spiritual ailments of humankind are not attended to. Knowledge of the true Will of God and aligning our systems, our individual and collective thoughts, our words and actions to God’s true Will constitute the medicine for humanity's multifarious ailments. The spiritually healthy human race of every society would then be able to discern what actions are required to serve both humankind’s earthly needs and spiritual goal, and even more important, to carry through such actions. By applying the knowledge of the true Will of God at all times and in all circumstances humankind will be able easily to solve the daunting problems of physical and human development, just as the healthy knight would have no difficulty shining his armour.

"My point of departure is the conviction that the driving force in the individual, that which makes her or him a human being, is the spirit. The physical body is simply a material cloak of the spirit which it needs to function on earth. Stated differently, it is not that a person has spirit, but that a person is spirit; the physical body with all its senses is the spirit’s tool while it is on earth. Unlike the physical body which belongs to the visible world of gross matter, the spirit has a different, finer nature and is of a higher origin. It originated as an unconscious spirit-germ or spirit seed in the Spiritual Realm of Creation, also known as the human Paradise. It is “planted” into the lower-lying world of matter for the specific purpose of becoming not only conscious (like non-human animals) but also self-conscious (unlike non-human animals). It then matures through learning and doing the Will of God; this Will manifests as a few simple immutable laws or principles. And on attaining the level of maturity possible in the World of Matter which includes the earth, the human spirit commences its return journey to its real home at its point of origin in the spiritual part of Creation. In addition to the physical body, the spirit has other non-physical bodies and sense organs that are appropriate for the non-physical parts of Creation in which it spends time during its continuous existence. The physical body is alive only as long as it is linked with the spirit; when the spirit detaches itself from the body, the death of the physical body occurs. This implies that earthly death is not the end of human existence; the spirit moves on in a non-physical body.

"I am convinced that global events as well as experiences at the national, community, and individual levels confirm the fact that the prevailing paradigm of development is misdirected or at best grossly inadequate. The paradigm in its various expressions treats human beings as if they were no more than physical bodies (not much more than clever non-human animals). Moreover, it has become evident that development based on the prevailing paradigm is not environmentally or socially sustainable anywhere in the world. I propose a new paradigm of development based on the explicit recognition of the fact that human beings are spiritual, that there is a purpose to their existence, and that there are eternal laws or immutable principles by which they should conduct themselves. In so doing, human beings would achieve the purpose of existence and in the process make the world an abode of happiness and harmony as willed by the Creator. The same set of simple immutable principles, which express the Creator’s Will, is applicable across all areas of human activities: politics, economics, business, and relations among countries, within countries and communities as well as among individuals. Thus, they permit a holistic approach to life and to development.

"An etymological consideration of the word “development” as “de-envelopment” suggests that I am on solid ground. It points to the fact that true development should be the unfolding and blossoming of that which is inherent in the nature of what is to be developed. Thus, in the case of the human being, development should mean primarily spiritual development, since the core of the human being is spiritual. In other words, one is not merely stating that there are spiritual dimensions to true development; rather that real development is at core spiritual. But development does, of course, have material dimensions since our physical bodies and our visible environments are material." ("Spiritual Dimensions of Development" by S.M. A. Lawani)

It is often assumed that our development on this earth can go on indefinitely, for as long as we wish. This is not the case, however. The time for the development-phase of our existence has been alotted to us very generously (covering millions of years), but now it is quickly coming to an end. To qualify for the next stage of existence in this Creation, we will need to show what we have done with our spiritual abilities up to this point.

"And now the time has come when everything, everything that has hitherto taken place in the world, must be redeemed! What has been wrong, what is happening on earth today, not one word will remain unatoned for!

"The atonement is not reserved for a distant future, but is already taking place in the present time!

"Thus the speedy release of all the reciprocal actions is not opposed to the Law of Creation, but lies quite correctly in the Law itself.

"The action of the mechanism is at present accelerated by the increased radiation of the Light, which enforces final effects by first driving everything to fruition and over-ripeness, so that the false will decay therein and in withering away judge itself, while the good will become free from the hitherto existing pressure of the wrong and can gain strength!

"In the near future this radiation will be so intensified that in very many cases the reciprocal action will come at once, instantaneously!

"This is the power which will soon alarm earthmen, and which they will then have to fear in the future! But only those who have done wrong need fear it, and rightly so. Whether they have thought themselves in the right, or have tried to make others believe they were, it will not save them from the blow of the reciprocal effect that operates in the Laws of God!

"Even though men have devised different laws on earth, under whose protection many act wrongly and unjustly in the delusion that they are thereby also in the right, it does not absolve them of one particle of their guilt.

"The Laws of God, thus the Will of God, do not concern themselves with the opinions of these earthmen, which they have laid down in their mundane laws, even though the whole world has now considered them to be right. Whatever is not in harmony with the Divine Laws, there also the blow of the sword will now strike! Judging in the process of redemption!

"All those who in the light of God's Laws have suffered innocently at the hands of men may now rejoice; for henceforth they shall receive justice, while their adversaries or judges are delivered up to the Justice of God.

"Rejoice; for this Divine Justice is near! It is already working in every country on earth! Look at the confusion! This is the effect of the approaching Will of God! It is the setting-in of the purification!

"For this reason everything that is wrong among men is already now meeting with its doom, be it in economics, the state, politics, the churches, sects, peoples, families and also in the individual! Everything, everything is now dragged before the Light, so that it may reveal and simultaneously judge itself therein! Also what has hitherto been able to remain hidden must reveal itself as it really is, must become active, and thus finally, despairing of itself and others, disintegrate and turn to dust.

"Thus even now there is a boiling up under the pressure of the Light in all countries, everywhere. Every kind of tribulation is increasing to the point of despair, until finally nothing remains but hopelessness, with the realisation that the would-be saviours had only empty words besides selfish desires, but could offer no help! Spiritual warriors are sweeping over all humanity, and striking sharply where a head refuses to bow.

"Only then will there be the right soil that pleads once more for God's help! After murder and fire, starvation, pestilence and death, after man has recognised his own incapacity.

"The great upbuilding begins.

Then the despairing ones shall become free, free from the pressure of the Darkness! But they shall also become free within themselves! To become free within, however, can only be achieved by each individual alone. Yet for this he must know what freedom means, what it is.

"Only the man who lives in the Laws of God is free! Thus and not otherwise does he stand unoppressed and unconstrained in this Creation. Everything then serves him instead of obstructing his path. It 'serves" him because he uses it in the right way.

"God's Laws in Creation are in truth simply all that every man needs for a healthy, happy life in Creation. They are, as it were, nourishment for his well-being! Only he who knows the Will of God and lives accordingly is really free! All the others must bind themselves in many threads of the Laws of this Creation, because they entangle themselves.

"Creation originated only in the Will of God, in His Laws. Working together, the threads of these Laws sink deeper and deeper, everywhere enforcing movement towards development, and inevitably branching out more and more in the course of development, while in the continuous movement new creations are perpetually formed around the threads. Thus these Laws provide at the same time the support, the possibility of continued existence and the further expansion of Creation.

"Nothing exists without this Will of God, Which alone gives movement.

"Everything in Creation conforms to It.

"Only the human spirit has not adjusted itself to these threads! It has tangled them and thereby entangled itself, because it wanted to follow new roads according to its will, and disregarded those already prepared and in existence. The increasing power of the Light is now changing this. The threads of all the Divine Laws in Creation are being charged with increased energy, so that they become powerfully taut. This enormous tension causes them to spring back into their original position. What is tangled and knotted is thereby disentangled, so suddenly and irresistibly that everything that cannot still adapt itself to the right position in Creation is simply torn down in this process! Whatever it may be, whether plant or animal, whether mountains, streams, countries, states or man himself, all will collapse that cannot prove itself at the last moment to be genuine and willed by God!" ("IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE" by Abd-ru-shin, chapter "Submission").