M1729: Father, Son and Fate

M1729

Father, Son and Fate

by Martinus

1. The Godhead experiences life through contrasts just like all other living beings

We have now come so far in the world-picture that we have understood that it is a living being, in which all living beings are microbeings and therefore cannot avoid being to a certain extent dependent on, just as this being is also dependent on the living beings. The living beings constitute organs in this great organism in the same way that our microbeings constitute organs in us. If these microbeings in us are suffering, we will also suffer, and if we suffer, our small beings will also suffer. We are therefore forced to strip the living being that constitutes the universe for us, and is therefore identical to the Godhead, of the heathen ideas of a godhead that is exempt from all pain and suffering, a godhead that eternally sits in a state of divine immunity. The Godhead must be able to feel pain and suffering, sorrow and anxiety, distress and wretchedness just as much as any other living being, if he did not, how would he be able to feel the opposite? Without knowledge of darkness, knowledge of distress and wretchedness, pain and suffering there would be no possibility whatsoever of experiencing light, joy and happiness. What can show up love other than lack of love? What can show up happiness other than unhappiness? Without contrasts there would be no form of life experience at all. To deny the Godhead any experience of unhappiness and suffering, sorrow and mutilation is to deny him all life and all consciousness. And all that would remain would be the materialist's dead universe and the total godlessness that is a result of this superstition, which in turn constitutes in terms of consciousness the cosmic baby-stage. Godlessness is nothing other than the prodigal son's culmination in darkness. At this point he is furthest away from his father. Here he has died and constitutes a cosmic corpse. And from here he will once again rise up and arrive at the point where he experiences in an awake, day-conscious way his father, the Godhead.

2. The macrobeing is one with its microbeings and must experience their sufferings and pains

This might perhaps cause you to think that the Godhead has lost some of its lustre. A being that can experience sorrow and unhappiness and can sense suffering and pain cannot be a perfect being and cannot therefore be a godhead. But as we have already seen, the answer to this must be absolutely that a godhead that cannot experience sorrow and unhappiness and that cannot sense suffering and pain must therefore be an unconscious being, but an unconscious being cannot possibly be a godhead that inspires much confidence. If, as we have already seen, the Godhead reveals himself as a macrobeing in which we are microbeings, why should not this macrobeing be able to experience its microbeings' pains and sufferings, their unhappiness and mutilation, in the same way as we ourselves in our capacity as macrobeing are connected to our microbeings and are one with them, and must experience that these beings' unhappiness, suffering and pain cannot exist without being our unhappiness, suffering and pain. There is no precedent whatsoever of a macrobeing that does not experience its microbeings' unhappiness and suffering or its unhappy fates. If this were not the case there would be no such thing as illness, and equally anaesthetics would be totally unnecessary. But how would a being then be able to steer, guide and thereby be able to protect its organism against destruction? Is it not through pain and unpleasantness that one realises what one should do and what one should not do? And what would be the point of having a will if it was not in order to steer away from unpleasantness and towards pleasantness, away from unhappiness and towards happiness?

3. The Godhead's organ functioning is made up of the living beings' lives

As the Godhead is the universe's and thereby all living beings' macrobeing, in which we as organic microbeings live, move and have our being, we can now see, from our own relationship as macrobeing to our microbeings, how intimately we are bound to the Godhead. We can see how we have above us a protective being that in relation to us is almighty. We are therefore not something that has just come about by chance, and neither are we abandoned to any kind of chance. Our existence is not just for our own sake; it is also for the Godhead's sake. And similarly our microbeings do not exist just for their own sake but can only gain their experience of life by providing organ functioning for us. We therefore exist as the Godhead's microbeings, and our life is the Godhead's organ functioning. Through the living beings in the universe is released the whole of the Godhead's existence, exercising of will and manifestation of thought. And why should not this macrobeing have just as much consciousness, will or awake day-consciousness as its microbeings? It must be to the very highest degree illogical to assume that the living, thinking, working, and creating microbeings are organs in a dead organism, in a heap of matter thrown together by chance, a collection of lifeless rubbish. A science that can control the elements and that can bring millions of horse-power to work for it cannot – apart from the fact that in the long run it cannot avoid steering its fate towards ruin – ultimately be known for its claim that it is the solution of life that this heap of matter, this pile of dead rubbish, is the highest answer to the universe and thereby to the mystery of life.

4. The living, personal communication with the Godhead

We can now see how spiritual science peels away all that is heathen and mythological from the Godhead's being, thereby allowing the Godhead to shine before us as a living, active being, with whom we actually connect and interact extremely intimately, our daily lives constituting this interaction. It is hardly surprising that this Providence, this Godhead, already at an early stage left its mark in the living being's consciousness. It is no wonder that this living interaction that is so vital to life left such a strong a habitual consciousness and habitual function behind it that it could not cease, even though the being had in its brain no consciousness or knowledge of this cooperation, and the cooperation had to be released in the form of the animal's cry at the moment of its death.

The important issue is now once again: can there really be some kind of conscious interaction between the macro-I and the micro-I? Can this Godhead see each individual being's life and consciousness, and can the microbeing succeed in seeing the macrobeing's or the Godhead's thought, will and intention with every single individual? Can there be a truly living, personal communication or even a conversation in the same way that one can have a conversation with a fellow human being or with one's neighbour? Spiritual science or the cosmic analyses can provide an answer also to this question. But to do so we must first focus our attention on this neighbour or this fellow being among the living beings. Who is this living being, this neighbour or this fellow being? Who is it we are facing? Quite clearly it is a fellow being, whether it is a human being, an animal or a plant. But according to spiritual science or my cosmic analyses such a being is a microbeing in God's organism and as such it has an organic function to carry out. So what kind of mission can this be? We must take a look at the organs in God's organism. Let us take as an example a human being. It is the most advanced or the most evolved of God's micro-individuals or the organ beings that we are surrounded by in the divine organism. Such a being can talk, it can see and hear, it can create pleasantness and it can create unpleasantness, it can create joy and it can create sorrow. It can break down and it can build up. But for whom is it creating happiness and joy or sorrow and suffering. For whom are its manifestations, its display of abilities and talents, intended? Since they are organ beings in the divine organism, it is essential for the life of this organ function that it fits into other functions, in the same way that a cog fits into another cog in a machine. Just as this cog would have no meaning if it did not fit precisely into the teeth of other cogs, so would a microbeing, which is an organ in the macrobeing's organism, be totally without meaning if its functions did not fit into the functions and maintenance of the macrobeing.

5. It is through our fellow beings that we should seek God's speech, intention and transformation of ourselves

It is therefore perfectly clear and logical that this human being's speech and way of being is meant to fit into that part of the Godhead's organism that it is in. But who are human beings surrounded by in this organism? They are surrounded by human beings, animals and plants. This micro-organism, which constitutes a human being, releases functions in God's organism that are intended for this human being's surroundings. God interacts with these surroundings through this microbeing. This being is therefore God's mouthpiece or speech organ – just as this being's eyes are God's eyes and its ears God's ears and its ability to perceive God's ability to perceive – in relation to all of this being's fellow beings. Whatever this being does is therefore something that has to be done precisely in this being's surroundings. If the being spreads death and mutilation, this death and mutilation should occur, if the being spreads joy and happiness, this joy and happiness should occur. Here one should remember that darkness and light are contrasts that are essential to life and that no being in its eternal existence can be without. Where one can be without them, that is to say in the true human kingdom, the being that spreads death, terror and destruction cannot come. Here are to be found organs that can promote happiness and joy. It is therefore through our fellow beings that we should seek God's speech, intention and transformation of ourselves into being in his image after his likeness. We can see that God's speech becomes unclear as soon as it takes the form of manifestations that lie outside of human beings' ability and disposition. This is where the processes of creation are called forces of Nature. And this is why people think that Nature is accidental, dead forces etc. But these forces lie outside our wavelength and are organ forces that fit precisely into the dimensions and circumstances in which they are released. God is therefore not some sort of speechless, impersonal being beyond the clouds but a living, true reality.

6. As microbeings we are each one of us the organ for a particular wavelength in the Godhead's consciousness

It is not so remarkable that what we do to our neighbour we do to God, and what we experience through our neighbour is God's answer to our behaviour and way of being towards him. Here is a field in which human beings in everyday existence are in reality still unconscious or asleep. It is hardly surprising that here selfishness or thinking only of oneself is an inconvenience, since this selfishness prevents the being from being open and loving towards its fellow beings. It will not be an organ for the creation of health and happiness and cannot therefore thrive in the true or perfect society, the sphere of the perfect human kingdom. It is perfectly true that every being will with its selfishness be a tool for God, but it should not expect to be able to be given any other existence or fate than that of being surrounded by selfish beings. God has to talk to selfishness through selfishness, and God has to talk to liars and fraudsters through the wavelength of lies and fraud. God has to talk to terrorists through terrorists and to thieves through thieves, just as he has to talk to love through love, to happiness and joy through the organs of happiness and joy. And he has to create peace through the organs or microbeings of peace. Is it not plain to see that we can prove even scientifically that the life-functions in everyday existence are God's speech, and that the living being is constantly living together with God, whether it knows it or not, whether it is a thief or a saint. This living together is merely a wavelength of matching intentions. The microbeing is therefore the organ for a particular wavelength and is held in the surroundings in which this wavelength is necessary. At the same time it remains the very organ for this wavelength as long as it fits the needs of its soul and its consciousness. The thief will go on being God's thief-organ and the archangel will go on being God's organ for angelic manifestations as long as they both individually experience contentment with precisely this mental wavelength.

7. When the prodigal son has once again found his father

Here is something for the modern human being to think about. Its everyday existence is perfectly simple. He finds himself in the very fate that he is the Godhead's organ for releasing for other beings. But he has his freedom. He can seek to be an organ for God's creation of happy fates for other beings and himself end up living in the wavelength of happy fates, surrounded by beings that should have only happy fates, that is to say beings that quite naturally of themselves are immensely loving and promote happiness and joy in their surroundings, that is to say, in their fellow beings. By loving one's neighbour one becomes God's organ for the display of this neighbourly love, and one then finds oneself exclusively in regions of beings that in their daily lives can only create love, light and happiness all around them. And in these beings we have now arrived at the perfect human being, the prodigal son who has once again found his father.

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Original Danish title: Fader, søn og skæbne. This article is a manuscript that Martinus wrote in preparation for a lecture given in the lecture hall of the Institute on Monday, 26 March 1950. The lecture was the sixth in the series "Morality and the World Picture". Minor corrections and headings by Torben Hedegaard. Approved by the council 28 01 2012. First published in the Danish edition of Kosmos no. 9, 2012 Translated by Andrew Brown 2013.

Article ID: M1729
Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 3, 2013

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