On the Birth of My Mission
Chapter 17
The golden baptism of fire
When on the morning of the following day I seated myself in my meditation chair, I was again at once enveloped in the divine light. I looked into a bright, blue sky, which seemed to be drawn aside, by which a still brighter sky appeared. And thus it kept on, until a sky came out so exuberantly dazzling in its golden flare and vibrating at such a velocity that I felt myself at the summit of what my organism and my mind could endure. A single step, a single fraction of a second more, and the celestial oscillation would, with the immense power of lightning, in the twinkling of an eye have put an end to my earthly existence. But during the fractions of a second that the revelation lasted I experienced a world of holiness, purity, harmony, and perfection. I found myself in a sea of light. This was not, as in my first revelation, white as snow, but was rather of a golden tinge. Everything was fire of a golden lustre. Throughout were vibrating thin, golden filaments, glittering here and there, within and without. I felt that this was the very consciousness of God, his own sphere of thought. It was the substance, the omnipotence, the supreme power, through which the divine ego ruled and directed oceans of worlds, galaxies, and nebulae, in microcosmos as well as in macrocosmos. I was spell-bound. The divine fire vibrated within me and without, above and below. "The Spirit of God", which according to the Bible "moved upon the face of the waters", the "fire" that Moses saw burning in the thorn-bush, the "fire" that took Elijah into Heaven, the "fire" through which Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, the "fire" that appeared above the heads of the apostles, and subsequently changed Saul into Paul on his way to Damascus, the "fire" that throughout all times has been the "alpha" and "omega" in every form of sublime creation, manifestation, or revelation. It was this very fire blazing in front of my own eyes, vibrating in my own breast, in my own heart, enveloping my whole being. I felt as if I were bathing in an element of love. I was at the origin, the very source of everything warm in a father's and mother's sympathy for their offspring, of mutual devotion in the amours of a young couple. I saw the power that made the hand sign the letter of pardon, abolish slavery, protect life's weak ones, whether it be a little animal or a frail human being. I saw the sunshine that can melt the ice and remove the cold from every mind, transform the barren deserts of hopelessness and pessimism into fertile and sunny regions of consciousness, warm the heart, inspire the brain, thus making the individual forgive injustice, love his enemy, and understand the criminal. It was as if I were resting at the bosom of the Almighty Deity. I was dwelling at the fountainhead of love supreme, perceived divine perfection, experienced being one with the Way, the Truth, and the Life, was one with the Father of all.