In the Light of Truth
Grail Message by Abdrushin
1.BOOK ◄ ► 2.BOOK
18. Earthbound
This expression is often used, but who really understands what is meant? Earthbound sounds as if it were some terrible punishment, and most people have a sort of uncanny feeling about those who are earthbound, and fear them. Still the meaning of these words is not so sinister after all. Of course some gruesome event may have caused this or that soul to be earthbound. But as a general rule, quite simple events bind the soul to earth.
Let us take a special case: “The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation.”
A child puts some question about God or the other world; it has heard something in church or at school. The father dismisses it with the remark: “Don't talk rubbish! When I am dead, it will be all over with me.” The child is startled and is filled with misgiving. The disparaging remarks of father or mother recur: it hears others speak in the same way; at last it embraces the same opinion. Now the hour comes when the father must go over. He then perceives to his dismay that he has not ceased to exist. He will be filled with the ardent wish to impart this knowledge to his child, this binds him to the child. But the child neither hears him nor feels his presence, for he lives in the conviction, that his father is no more, and that raises an impenetrable wall between him and the efforts of his father. The father is now obliged to witness how his child, following the directions he gave it, takes the wrong path, which leads further and further away from the truth. To his anguish at this is added the fear lest the child may not be able to avoid sinking still further into error, a danger to which it is now more exposed. This is the father's so-called punishment for misleading his child. Very seldom will he succeed in inspiring his child with the right understanding of the truth. He must further witness the error passed on to his grand-children and so forth, all in part consequence of his failing. He is not released till one of his descendants, recognising the right way, determines on following it and influences the others. Not till then can the father gradually detach himself and think of his own advancement. Again: An habitual smoker takes his irrepressible longing to smoke over with him as this is the case with innate desires for longing is an attribute of the spirit. This longing becomes a fervid yearning with him and the thought of satisfying his desire keeps him there where alone he can do so — on earth. He finds it in running after smokers and sharing in their enjoyment. If no harder Karma binds such as these, they feel quite comfortable and are seldom conscious of undergoing a punishment. It is only he who can survey the whole complexity of life, who can recognise the punishment to be the working of an inevitable law of returns which prevents the man in question from rising higher as long as, to satisfy his never ceasing craving, he binds himself to other souls, living on earth in the flesh, through whose sensations alone he can find satisfaction.
It is the same with the appeasing of sexual desires, with drinking, yes, even in the case of a pronounced love of eating. Many are bound by this propensity to rummage about in kitchens and cellars and to be present when the dishes are eaten by others, by which means they have a small share of the enjoyment experienced. In truth it is punishment, but the ardent wish of the earthbound man does not allow him to feel it. Desire outweighs all else. And for this reason a longing for nobler and higher things cannot become strong enough to take the first place, and thus free him from the baser desire and uplift
him. Not until he finds his desire decreasing in intensity will he become conscious of the opportunities he has been missing in the meanwhile. The fact of only being able to partake so meagerly of the others' enjoyment gradually weans him. Other desires of a less ardent character will then take its place and predominate, and influence him accordingly as a living power. The species of sensation which is now born in him, draws the man to where the analogous feelings are (either to a higher or lower plane) till it, like the first, is slowly effaced by disuse, and is replaced by the next and so on. Gradually, in the course of time, the man is purified from all the dross he brought over with him.
Can it happen, that a man remains stationary, that some lingering sensation holds him fast? Or that he comes to a standstill from want of ardour or feeling? No, for as soon as the baser feelings are gradually exhausted and effaced, a ceaseless longing for higher and purer heights wakens in him and impels him forward. This is the normal process. But there are thousands of variations. The danger of obstructions or of relapsing is much greater in his transcendental life than when the man is incarnated on earth. If you are on a higher plane and give way, but for a moment, to a base feeling, this impulse takes life and becomes real. You become denser and heavier and sink down into analogous regions. Thus your horizon narrows and you must gradually work up again, if, indeed it does not happen that you sink lower and lower.
“Watch and pray” are not empty words. At present the spirit in you is still protected by the body, and firmly anchored. When, after so-called death and the dissolution of the body, you are emancipated, you are without this protection, and, being ethereal, are irresistibly drawn to spheres of homogenous principles whether higher or lower, you cannot escape.
There is but one great driving power that can help you upwards. Your determined will to do good and be good; this be comes a longing with you and fills your inner being; thus it takes life and becomes real, according to the eternal law of the spiritual world. Then arm yourself with this determination and practise it here, so that when you are called away, which may happen at any hour, it may not be overruled by more powerful physical longing. Have a care, man, and keep watch.
