There is a saying, that the one who troubles much about the cause is far removed from the cause. Many wonder, ‘If I am happy in life, what is the cause of it? If I am sorry in life, what is the cause for it? Is it my past life where I have brought something which brings me happiness or unhappiness, or is it my action in this life which is the cause of my happiness or unhappiness?’ And one can give a thousand answers to it, and at the same time one cannot satisfy the questioner fully.

When people think much about the law, they forget about love. When they think that the world is constructed according to a certain law, then they forget the Constructor, Who is called in the Bible, love: ‘ God is Love.’

In the first place, when we see from morning till evening man’s selfish actions, whether good or bad actions, one sees that he is not entitled to any happiness, or anything good coming to him. And that shows that it is not always that God exacts according to a certain law. He does not weigh your virtue on one side of the scale and His grace on the other, and exchange His grace for man’s virtues. The Divine Being apart, does man in his friendship, in his kindness, in his favor and disfavor, does he always exact according to what the other one is, or is doing? No, a friend admires his friend for his goodness and defends him for his wrongdoings. What is it? Does he not forget the law when there comes friendship? He forgets it. So man, instead of using justice and reason, overlooks all that is lacking and wrong. Something right comes forward to cover it all, to forget it all, to forgive it all. A mother whose son is accused of having done something wrong, she knows he has done wrong and she knows he is against the law. At the same time there is something else in her which wishes to lift up, to clear away. She would spend anything, lose anything, sacrifice anything in order that her son may not be punished. 

If that is mankind – when we see that in everyday life, according to his evolution man has a tendency to forget, to forgive, to look at things favorably, to cover all that is ugly – if this tendency is in man, from where does it come? It comes from the source which is Perfection – there is God.

It is most amusing to see how people make God and His actions mechanical, and how for themselves they claim free will. They say, “I choose to do this,” or “I choose to do that,” and “I have the free will to choose.” This is man’s claim. And at the same time he thinks that God and all His works and the Universe are a mechanism, it is all running automatically. Man denies that God has a free will and he himself claims it.

People look at it in two ways. They say, “All that man does is recorded and in accordance to that it is adjusted. On the Judgment Day, either he has the reward of his good deeds or the punishment for his wrong deeds.” Others, who are more philosophical and intellectual, say, “ It is not God but it is the law, the automatic working which brings about a result in accordance to the cause, and therefore, what man has done in his past life, he experiences in this life.” And there is a third point of view, that there need not be the hereafter and that it need not be the life before, in order for man to have the experience and the result of his deeds, but that every day is his Judgment Day and that every day brings the result of his deeds. That is true also.

There is no doubt that the world is constructed on a certain law, that the whole creation works according to a certain law. And yet it is not all that. There is love beyond it, and it is the Prophets of all ages who have recognized that part of God’s working and have given man that consolation and hope that in spite of our faults and shortcomings we will reach Heaven. 

To be continued…