§ 8: The Soul’s Immortality as Witnessed by Worship of God

Another extraordinary and completely inexplicable phenomenon for materialist theories is the worship of God. What then is this phenomenon? What is this unknown desire? What is this striving? The longing? And often the love of the divine? Why does the intellect and heart seek to abandon earthly things in order to rise to the heavenly, to worship the divine and demonstrate their devotion to it? What is the inclination to withdraw from the body, to isolate that other being within us that distinguishes itself from the body through egoism? What is this self-called ego, seeking to be separated from the body’s bonds, to dedicate itself freely to an activity wholly abstract, to a contemplation foreign to the surrounding nature? How can the material human enjoy abstract notions? What are abstract notions? Behold, a god-seized one has renounced the world and the things of the world in order to dedicate himself to the worship of an invisible being, and he subjects himself to its absolute will; why this dependence? What impels it to such subjection of its own will? Behold this one, gazing upon a small flower, hymns the wise artisan of it; its beauty generates in the heart a sense of worship that strengthens its hymn toward the glory of its creator; the lips sing to the invisible nature, the tongue hymns the unseen power, the heart rejoices and the spirit exults in this worship; it thinks that it has fulfilled the duty that a mystical voice imposed upon it, to which it was obliged to obey; through this fulfillment it departs full of thanksgiving; but behold, scarcely has the step changed place and new objects strike the sight, new feelings unfold in the heart, and the tongue eagerly sings again the wonderful works of wisdom of the wonderful cosmic creator; each step to reveal masterpieces; each masterpiece to seek particular hymning; wisdom, goodness, providence manifestly displayed in all things call upon the observer to abandon creation and ascend to the Creator, to whom wonder rising from beholding the creatures has impelled; behold this one walks on the earth, but the spirit is found in unknown lands; not in the heavens, because the heavens are the subject of its study; they were the highest step of the ladder raising it to the far realm of the world, which only the inner person through mystical knowledge has known; the true human, having taken wings not of imagination but of hymn and worship, has flown far from the world, leaving on earth only the breathing body, so that it may return in its return and continue the work on earth of worship to the divine creator, toward whom it longs to depart and remain, where love and worship ever carry it. Its life was entirely a series of departures; food for it was the food of the spirit; and enjoyment was the contemplation of God’s greatness; an ever-flowing fountain sprang forth—the hymning of the lips; and the heart a place of sanctification as a dwelling of the divine creator; living on earth, it remained a stranger to it; the senses as noble servants of the spirit served its lofty will; they worked to provide new occasions for the glory of the creator; throughout its life it sought to approach the wise cosmic creator whom it loved with all soul, heart, strength, and mind, and toward whom it hastened each moment; is it possible that such a one has not known it? Is it possible that it loved the void, nothingness? How can that which is not, being, manifest itself? How was it revealed in the worshipper’s heart? O! Impossible! Impossible! The creative and binding power of all things is being existing, ever being, and eternally becoming; it is God who created all things in wisdom, the God revealed in the world, whose divine attributes’ beauty draws and tears humanity from their own world, to establish it as inhabitant of the mansions of eternal blessedness. Worship therefore is humanity’s true elevation; a true elevating power, a true ladder ascending from earth to heaven, and beyond it; it leads to eternal life; it ennobles and sanctifies humanity and reveals it as an image and likeness of God. Worship perfects humanity and reveals it as a son of God, as it is said: ‘I have said, You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you’; is it possible that such a human should die like other animals and vanish completely, be annihilated? Never, never! Humanity must have and has an immortal soul.