The God Principle

 

 

The door creaked open and a flash of light streamed through, illuminating dusty tables, chairs, old lamps and other furniture. The beam paused briefly to survey a derelict painting on the wall, now covered with cobwebs and caked with dirt. A young man adorned in what appeared to be the finest clothes of a bygone era, and brandishing a sword, stared back at the intruder from its depths. The beam moved on again over the walls, revealing spiders and other insects that scurried away to apparent safety, and it came down to rest upon an old chest in one corner of the room, partly hidden away by a tapestry that appeared faded and discolored. A faint light seeped in through gaps and cracks in the window sills, painting a still life picture wrought of shadows.

 

The door opened wider and the intruder stepped into the room.

 

“Wow! This place is ancient! Look at everything covered with dust. And cobwebs too… What happened to this room?”

 

“No one’s been in here for quite a while, Eloise,” replied Aliyah, following in after her daughter. “This is what happens when things are left all to themselves, unattended.”

 

“Okay, so where is it then? The great picture you said you’re going to show me? Is it the one there on the wall? I don’t think so. Perhaps it’s stashed away in that big chest over there?”

 

“Patience, Eloise!” Aliyah coughed as she struggled with a window and finally managed to open it. A shaft of sunlight streamed through and hit the floors, illuminating the rest of the room. Particles of dust swirled.

 

“There are two great movements of matter that you can easily discern everywhere, Eloise. One is that of life, of order. It is a movement of creativity, growth and expansion. Look over at that tree out there.” Aliyah pointed outside.

 

“The other great movement is that of dissipation, disorder, chaos. And that is what you see prominent in here. These two great movements are like natural laws. Their manifestations are everywhere,” she continued.

 

“Thanks for the lecture, Mom!” Eloise walked over to the wooden chest in the corner and swept away its cobwebs with a piece of wood she found on the floor. She was now very curious, and nothing else in the room attracted her attention as much. She dusted the chest a little and after a bit of fumbling, lifted up the heavy lid which creaked and swung up on a hinge. Her flashlight soon explored its contents.

 

“Aha, so this is your treasure!” Eloise exclaimed as she looked into the chest. “And it doesn’t smell too bad, after all these years! Sandalwood, is it?”

 

Aliyah said nothing and watched Eloise dig into the chest.

 

“Clothes, looks more like costumes… a bunch of old letters…small bottles...of perfume?...wooden tigers and elephants…turban…a dagger!…books… ooh what’s this?” Eloise exclaimed. “I’ll bet this is the one!”

 

She pulled out a large article wrapped carefully in ornate cloth. Excitedly, she unwrapped the package and held it to the light streaming from the window. The light revealed an old black and white photograph of a family seated in regalia in a British colonial setting.

 

“Looks like this item managed to keep your law of disorder at bay, Mom.” She exclaimed as she inspected the picture. “Now look at her! She looks just like you!”

 

“Yes Eloise, that is my grandmother. It’s a strong likeness, isn’t it?” Aliyah moved closer to inspect the picture. “And the little lady there who resembles you is my mother, your grandmother, that is. You know she died giving me life. Behind her next to my grandma is Granddad. If you look, there are three generations of the family here…” her voice trailed off.

 

Eloise studied the picture. She had heard some detail once in a while, but the information was scanty and she hadn’t been very interested anyway. Now the picture took on a special meaning as she contemplated her family tree and life as it would have been, generations ago.

 

Then something caught her eye.

 

“Look at all the stuff around them! And those people, were those…?”

 

“Servants, yes. In colonial times the family was indeed rich. My great granddad was born soon after his dad was posted there on official business. Within a lifetime they acquired large estates. Now all that is gone. We manage with what we have here.”

 

“But isn’t that country poor, Mom? Why would they choose to live there?”

 

“I am not sure, Eloise. It is said that it was very rich once, and then all that was taken away. There is a letter from my grandfather on the matter somewhere in here. You know, he was something of a philanthropist. And he was into studying their religion and philosophy. Now he did have some interesting views…”

 

Aliyah picked up a bunch of letters, thumbed through them and finally pulled out one. “Here it is, now be careful with it!”

 

Brown at the edges and somewhat wizened with age, the papers and the scribbles on it bespoke a vanished time and culture. Excitement was plain on her countenance as Eloise held it in her hands. However, she couldn’t make much sense of their contents and puzzlement appeared on her face. But she looked at them for a long while.

 

“Here, let me read out some of it for you.” Aliyah gently took the papers from Eloise. “Now be aware that the way he writes, meaning his style, is a little different from what we are accustomed to.”

 

“Yes, Eloise. The law of sowing and reaping, the law of retribution, the law of consequences, all are varied ways of expressing the same principle. But if you ask me, behind them is a great law of acceleration. It is the same that is expressed behind the two great movements I was telling you about, that of chaos and that of order.”

 

“Acceleration of what, Mom?” asked Eloise as she took the letter from her mother.

 

“Of everything, Eloise! In the so-called natural world, growth is an acceleration, and so is death or dissipation, which is also an acceleration in the reverse direction.”

 

“But I don’t see any acceleration,” said Eloise. “How come?”

 

“You have to look carefully. A lot of what you see in life is a balance of forces between these two great movements, at work against each other. Your body cells are dying, but they are being replenished with new ones. An office room gets dusty but is being swept clean every day, and the walls are coated with new paint once in a while. You can see that both movements are at work in a well-maintained system, resulting in an apparent status quo or stasis.”

 

“So where is the acceleration, Mom?”

 

“In a minute, Eloise. You need to understand the movement of life that you see in the natural world. There is a thrust, or an acceleration of growth, which is usually followed by a period of active stasis where the forces more or less balance one another, and then at some point the active thrusting force of growth often wears out and acceleration in the reverse direction gets the upper hand. The end result is death.”

 

‘Mom, come to the point! Why do you use the term acceleration?”

 

“What does a force do in the natural world, Eloise? You have studied many laws of physics, including Newton’s laws. Application of force on an object results in its acceleration. The very definition of force in physics includes a key component called acceleration, a multiplication factor. It is then a fundamental law of nature, is it not? Only when forces balance, is uniform motion or stillness possible. Otherwise acceleration is the rule.”

 

“You’re talking too abstract, Mom,” complained Eloise as she folded the papers and placed the letter back among its sisters, tying them up again into a neat bunch.

 

“Is it difficult to see that growth is also an acceleration? Consider this, then. Why do we farm? How many times more grain do you get than when you sow? Ten times? Twenty? Forty? If that is not acceleration, a multiplication factor, what is it then?”

 

“Okay, Mom. But why do you say that dissipation is acceleration too?”

 

“Well, has anyone ever farmed and come up with the same amount of grain as that which was sown? That would indeed be a rare occurrence. Either you reap much more than you sow, or you lose most of it due to natural factors like pests, diseases, floods and infertile soil. Try sowing on rock, for instance. The way natural processes work, you may gain much more than you put in or, on the other hand, lose what little you have.”

 

Eloise still looked a little puzzled.

 

Aliyah continued, “All right. Imagine that you are an oak seedling growing in a small clearing in the woods, along with scores of other seedlings. What are the chances of your survival? It depends on the amount of sunlight you can reach. It is a race to the top, as to who can grow tall enough and fast enough to reach the canopy. The clearing will soon disappear, covered by foliage of the new trees, and the seedlings that do not grow well for whatever reasons, or those that come later, will not get sufficient sunlight. They will lose whatever little sunlight they get and thus die. Haven’t you read in the scriptures? To those who have, more will be given. To those who have not, even what little they have will be taken away. It is indeed an acceleration, in either direction.”

 

“Mom, that’s really scary! You are saying it is a spiritual law as well? Is there no justice?”

 

“A gardener would not plant his garden that way, would he, Eloise?” Aliyah asked pointedly.

 

“You mean there is a gardener in the spirit, Mom?”

 

“Good question, Eloise. I will let you ponder that. But remember that a gardener or a farmer only directs the growth and dissipation processes inherent in nature. Like careful planting, watering, fertilizers, pruning, weeding, placing of obstacles that break up winds, controlling light and shade, and so on. Despite all that, life in a garden, orchard or farm proceeds by natural laws and processes. A gardener cannot do much about them.”

 

“I don’t understand, Mom. What can’t he do?”

 

“Consider an orchard, Eloise. If its plants have developed serious defects that make them prone to disease, the orchard may not survive. The grower may have no choice but to remove diseased plants if they cannot be healed, especially if they threaten the health of the whole orchard. Those removed plants will inevitably rot and disappear through the action of natural dissipative agents. Well, the plants are not really lost, as their essence will be recycled through the body of the earth. But you will never see one as a single plant again. Their identities are lost forever.”

 

“Mom, are you speaking in metaphors?”

 

“Indeed they are spiritual metaphors, Eloise. You can take it further. A plant not tended by a gardener grows wild, at the mercy of natural processes that may help it grow as well as die. If it is on the path of growth, it will multiply and bring forth many saplings. Or it may regress and die helplessly. Many souls of our human life stream have willed themselves away from the care of a Gardener, care which is available for the asking. They have literally grown wild and many have fallen victims to natural forces that drag them towards dissipation. This happens because human souls have what may be called a free will.”

 

“Mom, it doesn’t sound like justice to me, to allow souls to regress and dissipate, even be recycled, like you say.”

 

“Eloise, it is the highest form of freedom if you but understand it. So let us try to do so, first in terms of pure physics. Remember what we discussed earlier? Any force acting on any object results in an acceleration of the object in the direction of the applied force. There can of course be a multitude of forces in different directions acting on the object, and the movement of the object happens in the direction of the composite force.”

 

“I know that, Mom. That’s pretty much trivial.”

 

“Is it really? Then look at the higher or spiritual version of the same law. It states that every action through intent, by any being, in any chosen direction, is accelerated by the spiritual universe. That is to say, if you choose to do good, then it becomes easier and easier to do greater good. And if you choose to do evil, it becomes easier and easier to do greater evil. And by corollary, it becomes even more difficult to go the other way, that is, to switch directions.”

 

“I guess I can relate to that. Once habits are ingrained it is difficult to change tracks, isn’t it?”

 

“It is more than habits, Eloise, it is about life itself, and about a soul’s progress over great spans of time. For example, if you continually choose to ignore wisdom when it is given, then it becomes more and more difficult later to understand the same when it is given to you. In fact, it becomes difficult to even come across true wisdom. It is thus a very powerful law of acceleration. It always furthers one’s choices, whether the choices are good, bad or neutral in human terms. It is behind the effect of sowing and reaping. The reaping in spiritual terms is many times more than that which was sown.”

 

Eloise was silent. Perhaps it was true, she reflected. But was it just? she asked herself.

 

“It is indeed fair, Eloise!” Aliyah said, as though in response to her thoughts. “The universe lets you choose and then it furthers your choice, in whatever direction your choice may be. But every choice has its consequences. And when you make many choices, there is always a composite that results. The composite pattern may or may not be to your liking, but it is nevertheless built from your choices and their consequences.”

 

“Mom, I don’t often see sowing and reaping happening as you say. People go on with their lives. Fortunes or misfortunes come out of the blue, as though by mere chance.”