In the Light of Truth

4. Ascent

You who are yearning for understanding, do not let yourselves be deceived. Each one of you in his thoughts and works has heaped up a heavy burden of wrong-doing for which each one of you must individually atone, for no part of it can be laid on the shoulders of another. Such is the law, otherwise Divine justice would be but an empty word, and without Divine justice all would crumble to ruins.

Lose no time, therefore, not an hour; free yourselves from your load!

The honest, sincere will to improve, to reform and lead a good life together with heart-felt prayer will bring about your redemption.

Without the honest, steadfast will to do what is right there can be no atonement, for by continuing on the wrong path, the evil in you will continually receive fresh nourishment, and you will keep on incurring fresh debts, so that finally your life must appear as a continuous course of transgression and affliction. Such a life is indeed an endless chain, for a new link is made before the former one is broken. Man is again and again constrained to atone and cannot be redeemed. The chain fetters him to the earth and may possibly drag him down still further. Therefore pull yourselves together, you who are in your physical bodies and you who are disembodied, and concentrate your wills on what is good! If your good intentions persist and are constant, you will and must come to the end of your obligations, for a soul, whose will is bent on doing good, will incur no fresh debts. Thus at last this soul will be redeemed and will be free to soar to the Light. Listen to my warning: “There is no other way for you, nor for anyone else.”

It follows from what is said that it can never be too late for you. There will still be a sin here or there to be expiated, but after having made up your mind to do good only, you will have put a limit to the ever recurring necessity of atonement. You are thus sure that the time must come when you will be free from debt and ready to begin your upward flight.

With this certainty you will gladly atone for the past, knowing that whatever happens, it is for your good, to bring you ever nearer to the hour of your release.

Do you now appreciate the importance and value of my injunction to begin at once to will what is good with all the strength of purpose you can summon and to keep your thoughts pure? Keep up this practice; pursue it ardently and with energy, letting nothing deter you. It will uplift you and change your character and your surroundings. Remember, each earth-life is a short time of schooling, and that you yourself do not come to an end when you lay aside your physical body.

You will either go on living eternally or be dead for all time, either lastingly enjoy bliss or the reverse.

He who persists in thinking that all is over with him after his body is buried, may turn about and go his way — he is only deluding himself. Great will be his consternation when he sees himself face to face with the Truth and has to begin to go through all the stages of suffering that will then await him! His real self, bereft of his protective body, the dense substance which surrounded and encased him like a shield, will forthwith be attracted to analogous substance and held fast. It will be much harder for him, nay for a long time impossible, to summon up will-power to concentrate on improvement and amendment.

This alone can liberate him and help him to rise out of the surroundings then dominating him, for there he will find no enlightening thought that might awaken and support him. He will suffer doubly under conditions for which he knows he him self is to blame. Ascent is then much harder for a human soul than when it was in flesh and blood.

During his training-time on earth the ego can develop and advance, if it will. Here on earth only, can good and bad dwell side by side under the protection of physical matter. Rouse yourselves therefore: every thought of yours bears fruit that returns to you, and you must eat of it, and not one of you can escape! How can it help you to bury your head in the sand like the ostrich? It will make it easier for you if you boldly look facts in the face; here on earth advancement is easier and progress quicker. Begin at once! Remember that all old debts must be settled, so do not expect blessings to rain down upon you immediately, as many fools do. It may be that some of you still have a long series of trespasses to expiate, but he whose heart fails him at this thought is at a disadvantage, for he cannot shirk this task nor in any way avoid it. Hesitation makes it harder to perform, perhaps even impossible for some time. This thought should spur him on not to delay another hour. He will only begin when he takes the first step. Happy is the man who braces himself to take this first step. He will find his chain of obligations loosen and fall from him link by link, and that he is able to forge ahead with giant strides and bounds. Jubilant and grateful he will overcome the last obstacles and be free!

The stones that his wrong-doing had heaped up like a wall before him, preventing his advancement, will not be cleared away, but will be carefully laid out before him that he may see them, and, recognising his short-comings, surmount them. It will not be long before he becomes filled with awe and wonder when he sees the love that surrounds and guides him as soon as he evidences his good-will. The way is shown to him with the same delicate consideration as a mother has for her child when teaching it to walk.

Should there be things in his former life that are a secret source of apprehension to him, the memory of which he would fain let sleep for ever, suddenly they will rise up and confront him. They will compel him to act. If he then ventures to take the first step in the right direction, confident that his good-will will be victorious, the ominous knot will be cut, and he will pass on freed from this burden; but he has perhaps hardly settled this account, when another obligation in some form or other presents itself, inviting, as it were, his attention and asking for settlement.

Thus one by one, he can burst the fetters which held him back and weighed him down. A delightful sensation of lightness comes over him — a feeling which some among you have surely experienced at one time or another. This feeling is no illusion. The spirit freed from its oppression leaps up to the region corresponding to its weight, and from there it should — must — constantly ascend further till it has reached its longed-for goal: the Light. The human will, if concentrated on evil, presses the spirit down; if concentrated on good, buoys it up.

Jesus, the great Master, taught men the way that infallibly leads to the desired end; the deepest wisdom lies in the words: “Love thy neighbour as thyself.”

These words are the key to freedom, the secret of success in ascent. Why? Because it is an irrefutable truth that what you do for your neighbour, you do in reality for yourself, as all returns to you. Whether good or bad, whether here or hereafter, reaction will come in obedience to the eternal law. Thus you are shown the simplest of ways to practise good-will: you are to prove your love by serving your neighbour. You are to serve him according to your special qualities. We are not necessarily concerned here with money or goods, for in that case the poor would not be able to give. Your love and service will show itself in the voluntary consideration and respect for your neighbour and in the help you afford him to change his course and ascend.

You are to be a source of strength to him and this is what Jesus meant.

The reaction of this loving service will in turn quickly uplift you. You will continually be reinforced with new strength to speed you on your way to the Light. Poor fools are they who still can ask: “What do I gain by giving up my old habits and changing my whole life?” If all they gained were merely to be noble men, it would repay them, but their profit is far greater: the moment a man sets his will on doing that which is good, he sets a limit to the growth of his debt of sin. Whatever his sins may have been, he must atone for them all, and no one can take away any part of the burden from his shoulders, but what a happy relief to know that in consequence of his resolution, he will be free from his obligations within a specified time. Not all the treasure in the world can weigh in the balance against the possession of this knowledge. He tears himself free from fetters that enslaved him, which he himself was continually renewing.

Rouse yourselves therefore from your enervating sleep! Awake! That fatally mistaken dogma that the Saviour will redeem all your sins has acted like a soporific. This terrible delusion serves you as a sort of letter of credit, on the strength of which you can lead a life of irresponsible levity and self-worship, trusting that all may go well provided you become serious towards the end of life and die repentant, believing in the Saviour and in His work.

Fools to expect God Almighty to be satisfied with such half measures, reconciled by such miserable piecework! It would indeed be encouraging and breeding evil. Think of this and make yourselves free!

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]