A Letter to a Hindu | Page 3

left of you; you will be an eternal enigma unto yourselves
until ye become humble and joyful as children. Then will ye find Me,

and having found Me in yourselves, you will rule over worlds, and
looking out from the great world within to the little world without, you
will bless everything that is, and find all is well with time and with
you.__ KRISHNA.
To make my thoughts clear to you I must go farther back. We do not,
cannot, and I venture to say need not, know how men lived millions of
years ago or even ten thousand years ago, but we do know positively
that, as far back as we have any knowledge of mankind, it has always
lived in special groups of families, tribes, and nations in which the
majority, in the conviction that it must be so, submissively and
willingly bowed to the rule of one or more persons--that is to a very
small minority. Despite all varieties of circumstances and personalities
these relations manifested themselves among the various peoples of
whose origin we have any knowledge; and the farther back we go the
more absolutely necessary did this arrangement appear, both to the
rulers and the ruled, to make it possible for people to live peacefully
together.
So it was everywhere. But though this external form of life existed for
centuries and still exists, very early--thousands of years before our
time--amid this life based on coercion, one and the same thought
constantly emerged among different nations, namely, that in every
individual a spiritual element is manifested that gives life to all that
exists, and that this spiritual element strives to unite with everything of
a like nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. This thought
appeared in most various forms at different times and places, with
varying completeness and clarity. It found expression in Brahmanism,
Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of Zoroaster), in Buddhism, Taoism,
Confucianism, and in the writings of the Greek and Roman sages, as
well as in Christianity and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this
thought has sprung up among different nations and at different times
indicates that it is inherent in human nature and contains the truth. But
this truth was made known to people who considered that a community
could only be kept together if some of them restrained others, and so it
appeared quite irreconcilable with the existing order of society.
Moreover it was at first expressed only fragmentarily, and so obscurely
that though people admitted its theoretic truth they could not entirely
accept it as guidance for their conduct. Then, too, the dissemination of

the truth in a society based on coercion was always hindered in one and
the same manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition
of this truth would undermine their position, consciously or sometimes
unconsciously perverted it by explanations and additions quite foreign
to it, and also opposed it by open violence. Thus the truth--that his life
should be directed by the spiritual element which is its basis, which
manifests itself as love, and which is so natural to man--this truth, in
order to force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely
against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the intentional
and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but also against deliberate
violence, which by means of persecutions and punishments sought to
compel men to accept religious laws authorized by the rulers and
conflicting with the truth. Such a hindrance and misrepresentation of
the truth--which had not yet achieved complete clarity--occurred
everywhere: in Confucianism and Taoism, in Buddhism and in
Christianity, in Mohammedanism and in your Brahmanism.

III
__My hand has sowed love everywhere, giving unto all that will
receive. Blessings are offered unto all My children, but many times in
their blindness they fail to see them. How few there are who gather the
gifts which lie in profusion at their feet: how many there are, who, in
wilful waywardness, turn their eyes away from them and complain with
a wail that they have not that which I have given them; many of them
defiantly repudiate not only My gifts, but Me also, Me, the Source of
all blessings and the Author of their being.__ KRISHNA.
__I tarry awhile from the turmoil and strife of the world. I will beautify
and quicken thy life with love and with joy, for the light of the soul is
Love. Where Love is, there is contentment and peace, and where there
is contentment and peace, there am I, also, in their midst.__ KRISHNA.
__The aim of the sinless One consists in acting without causing sorrow
to others, although he could attain to great power by ignoring their
feelings.__
__The aim of the sinless One lies in not doing evil unto those