© 2000 Moussa Ndiaye
© 2000 Urantia Association International (IUA)
| Sharing God, the Sublime Consciousness of Knowing God | Journal — September 2000 — Index | God's Relation to the Individual |
Moussa Ndiaye, Senegal
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me specify that this study of the given theme will be discussing man, his relationship with God and his performance in the created universes marching towards life and light.
¶ 1. Man Himself
When we view a human individual, we first ascertain his being: he is unity (still unfathomable) of three realities that make him recognisable— body, mind and free will. These fundamental endowments, in a functional unity, make up the minimum for him to be spoken of as a normal human being who lives on the face of the earth.
Once we cast a more attentive look at an average human being, we arrive at a more comprehensive grasp: each constituent part of his being achieves its full manifestation. Through a series of transformations, mutations and metamorphoses his body transmutes from an embryonic state to the soma of an adult. His mind’s simple primal reflexes in the cradle become the mind of an intellectual, moral and social reason, and his personality (his free will) evolves from one that responds to pleasure or pain to one that makes choices, is idealistic and surpasses itself.
These modifications in the different constituents of his being and his life are a clear notion of evolution in the creation of his human being. But this evolution follows ever more distinctly a plan in which we catch a clear sight of a progress prompted by perfection hunger. Actually, the phases of transformation of the various constituent parts of his being reveal an augmenting acquirement of techniques, experiential processes and art of living on earth. Adult age provides an individual with a body infinitely more capable in psychomotority than the body of an infant, a mind of discemment and logic incomparably superior to the primal reflexes of a nurseling, and free will whose capabilities of ideation and self-transcendence are immeasurably larger than those of a simple response of pleasure or pain to life and the environment. The makeup of a human being clearly contains a real plan and a precise process for perfecting that individual, a plan for attainment concerning his being as well as his relationship with his material, moral and social environment.
We may say, in likeness of a conclusion, that man’s coming into the world is truly driven by an intelligence, namely, by a Spirit of evolution, of progress, of augmenting self-perfection and achievement, and the goal is ever superior, ever more elevated, ever more responsible, a Spirit of supremacy—real and positive, tangible and experiential.
¶ 2. The Spirit of Truth
When a human being makes reasonable observations about the creation of his being and the function which mysteriously and integrally unifies the different constituents of his material, intellectual and moral individuality; when man recognises that all this is kept in a functional and useful combination by a factor which he calls “life”; when he recognises that he is endowed with intelligence and volition and that the whole of his being, of which he himself has not created one part, of which he himself has not composed the tiniest part, is, in its entirety, submitted to his personal management, and that it is a bestowal; then he is induced logically to refuse to be the product of a fortuitous chance. He cannot any longer be satisfied with a scientific explanation simply depending on hypotheses which deny consciousness, on a philosophic justification which denies personal volition. Neither can he be content with a theology advocating an impersonal Deity, who does not share anything. It appears as very clear in his discernment that he is a creature, sprung from a wise, generous and responsible Source of intelligence.
The moral obligation to know this Source, to grasp his designs concerning his creation, to know the objective of his responsibility and his methods of intervention, emerges naturally in the consciousness of one who engages himself in a needful and necessary research into the meaning of his existence and his life. Should we to these considerations of a grown-up and sensible man add the previous conclusion that his individuality originates with a spirit of evolution, of growth, of becoming ever more perfect—in short, that of supreme attainment— it immediately leads up to an explanation of why he exists, what the significance of his being is, what the duty of his intelligence and his free will is. It is his duty to devote his efforts to an attainment and to an expansion of the perfect in his being, which constitutes the foundations of the Spirit of Truth, which is, in this case, the response to the design of his Creator God.
The spirit of evolution—growth inherent in his being and the spirit of faith—recognition emerging from his being constitute, in his consciousness, the groundwork for a spiritual perception of God’s design, of his love for each individual, of the destiny and finality of man—the Spirit of Truth.
Moreover, one should supplement this internal functioning of the Spirit of Truth—the reality of God’s nature in the human consciousness — with another complementary aspect: We have risen higher than the nature of man is conceived of as capable of rising; in other words, experiencing and manifesting the perfect divinity of God. This calls for an objective, a receiving framework, a receptacle, which includes fraternity and, in the broadest sense, planetary service and service to God the Supreme and the Almighty Supreme, which evokes the need and the obligation to know one’s Creator, whom we know as Infinite, Perfect, Eternal, and which need emerges in one’s consciousness, should one so choose. This ever more supreme attainment, which permeates his being, determines the ethics of the Spirit of Truth: to progress towards a unity with the Sources of Reality and to manifest their united association in the universes. The Spirit attaches to all that we have said about the Spirit of Truth to the effect that the human will, which through spiritual insight gets a glimpse of the Spirit’s functioning inside one’s consciousness, has to yield to the great need to open up to the bestowal of the Spirit in the consciousness through the religious and spiritual experience of the growth of the manifestation of divinity in the human being. The plan of the Spirit of Truth is to lead man to a complete identification with God, that is to say, to be divine in nature; and in volition, to be Godlike. A disruption of the progressive spiritual experience in man would also mean a disruption of the diffusion of the Spirit of Truth in him.
God’s design to share his perfect nature with man, to integrate him with his eternity and to unify him with infinity is God’s true gift of love, and love presupposes that it is shared in conformity with its nature, which is truth, goodness and its patterns of harmony and beauty. The Spirit of Truth seeks constantly to nurture in human consciousness his interest in and his partaking of the goodness of God as well as the enthusiasm and devotion to pour them out on the brotherhood with other humans and other universe creatures, in the design to bring about growth, perfecting and the attainment of the supremacy of light and life everywhere in the universes. This Spirit of Truth is everywhere and at every moment with the seekers and actors of God’s truth, will and goodness. This spirit will forever remain the light and direction of all those who are in quest for eternity and who wish to be eternal and perfect.
Nevertheless, we have to recognise that the Spirit of Truth does not spontaneously or easily instill himself in human consciousness. It is preceded by stages of intellectual, moral and social maturation of the individual.
This spirit is connected likewise to the development of ethics and service in the human heart. The sentiments of idealism, justice and fairness are positive factors, and they facilitate the spirit’s emergence and his functioning in the human consciousness. This takes us to the third section of my presentation.
¶ 3. The Guardian Angel
It is actually very evident that man has evolved from a primitive state resembling that of an animal to that state of family and social relationships where he finds himself today. He has in the same manner risen from a cultural stage where he “only thought when he was hungty” to that scientific, technological, political and cultural stage where he finds himself today. It is equally evident that he has evolved from a religious state based on a fear of nature to that of a consciousness which seeks for God and finds him. If all these ideas and ideals had already been fully achieved in his consciousness at the beginning of his planetary career, he could not become what he is today, for he would already be all of that. This conclusion is well established in history. The after-effects of the transformation of man which continue to be visible in his mores clearly testify of its periods of previous transformation. It remains equally true that if he were deprived of the stream of education provided by his cultural society, he would hardly rise above his animal level. The ideas and ideals of a scientific, moral, social and religious culture are not inherent in human consciousness. It is also fully true that if man did not have the innate capacities for acquiring them, those concepts and ideals would not have any effect on him. There has inevitably been an influence of contactual and integrating coordination between man’s mental capacities and his superior concepts of existence and life. Man was hardly able, at the beginning of his primitive life, to suspect, and even less to comprehend, the relationships of fact and truth which exist between his animal nature and those superior celestial realities whose creation he is, and whose presence terrified him and whom he always fled. These were the Adjuster (God’s presence working in man’s consciousness); the guardian angel who works on the moral and social environment—about the human consciousness—and, above all, the mysterious Almighty Supreme which envelops all. They work in order to effect a unification of human capacities and celestial relationships. This activity of the Almighty Supreme makes the intervention of the guardian angel both possible and necessary. The contribution of the angel is her specific adaptation to the level of human personality for the sake of making it possible for the superior moral, social and spiritual models to emerge in human consciousness. This power of co-ordination and this technique of unification of realities as widely separated one from the other as the natures of man and God is the very essence of the guardian angel. And it seems to us that only the angels (of any order) are capable of performing this protective function and effecting this kind of rapprochement between the natures of God and man.
The activities of the guardian angels consist of creating comprehension and co-ordination of the material facts of human existence and life with the channel of superior concepts and ideas of the celestial realities, which include the mind adjutant spirits, particularly the adjutants of worship and wisdom. Once the quest for God emerges in the human consciousness, the guardian angel seeks to develop in man that tendency towards celestial, spiritual insight which will assist him in his awareness of the meaning of his existence and of God’s designs. She thus establishes the contact with the Holy Spirit of God. In the next phase the guardian angel will help man to discover the nature and the content of his relationship with God, in short, the Spirit of Truth, who was discussed above. The guardian angel intensifies her intervention in order to make man comprehend and accept God’s goodness and love, as well as to desire to be like the perfect nature of God.
The guardian angel’s efforts with regard to man, which at the beginning happen at the simple level of physical-life perception, will now have for objective an acquisition of moral and social thinking. It will go on towards an acquisition of cosmic thinking and the ascendant career of spiritualisation: man’s complete resemblance with God. The efforts of the angel are complementary to those of the Adjuster and auxiliary to God the Supreme. It could go on all through the adventure of the human consciousness, in quest for the Father through the Supreme. This service of cooperation and devotion makes the guardian angel a sister and a friend, whose duty it is to remind the consciousness, the intelligence, of an individual of the meaning and the wisdom of his destiny.
The entire life of a guardian angel—guardian of man’s celestial destiny—is completely devoted to promoting human life, its final success in the spiritualisation of man. What a consecration! What a service! What a sister and friend!
¶ 4. The Other Friends
The spectacle of the unified action of Deity in the human consciousness and around and about the human individual is a thrilling cosmic spectacle. The work of the guardian angel is connected to the service provided by the Master Physical Controllers and the planetary midwayers, who are engaged in equal consideration for the success of an individual’s cosmic destiny, operating with the guardian angel for a betterment of the efficacy and the quality of the physical milieu of human life. The planetary seraphim work, with the same concem, for making the planetary life of nations and societies as dignified as possible and ever better integrated with the evolutionary perspectives of the human races and individual humans. In the centre of the efforts of these planetary supervisors there functions the authority of the Planetary Sovereignty, watchful of the application and execution of God’s will and love for man, so that he would survive his material life and find the spiritual joy that God has reserved for him. This divine affection for and friendship with man extends beyond the confines of the planet through the local universe and the superuniverse up to the central universe. The entire creation is fraught with friends of man.
It is equally important that man would, apart from the love of his other friends, seek for and delight in the love reserved for him by his brothers and sisters in God, and above all, his Spiritual Teachers, who to him consecrate all the riches of life of their souls so that he would discem his spiritual calling and enter upon his ascension career.
This concludes these reflections on the Spirit of Truth, the guardian angels and other friends of man, which mark on our minds the path, the grandeur and the importance of God’s goodness, love and beauty for the sake of evolution, perfecting and attainment of man of animal origins so that he would attain to the high qualities and values of the eternal past, the eternal present and the eternal future.
We are eternally grateful to God, eternally worshipful and indefinitely consecrated to the exploration and application of the wisdom hidden in the Eternal Infinite.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for your attention and for your having listened to me so generously. May God bless you!
I deplore my possible failure to satisfy your expectations and am sorry for my failure to redeem the expectations of competence which you possibly attached to my presentation.
Once more, thank you!
| Sharing God, the Sublime Consciousness of Knowing God | Journal — September 2000 — Index | God's Relation to the Individual |