The Theosophical Forum – February 1942

THE LAWS OF GOD — Clifton Meek

In a recent letter of a political nature Judge Light brought up the question of the "Laws of God." Aside from all political issues with which he was dealing, I think this touches upon something very basic and fundamental, and I agree, as I invariably do, with his philosophical viewpoint in principle. Personally, I have little faith in any political or economic panaceas as permanent corrections for the evils of our age or any other, for these things are but the froth and foam which rise to the surface of society in the fermentation of human evolution, and, I think the same can be said for creeds, dogmas and theologies in the field of religious endeavor. The best political and economic system that could be devised would be corrupted as long as the hearts and minds of men are perverse and selfish. Water can rise no higher than the level of its fountain source and the tragic state of human society today but reflects the height, or rather the level, of man's spiritual evolution. The world is as it is simply and only because men have made it so, due to the fact that they do not understand the basic laws of Universal Nature and their own being. If they did they would realize the futility and spiritual insanity of all selfishness, the basic evil and supreme hall-mark of ignorance.

The laws of Nature, as Judge Light stated, are the laws of God, so-called, not because they were objectively formulated and decreed by a personal God as many good people still believe, but because they are habits of Universal Nature, the essential characteristics of Divinity which is at the heart of nature. Beyond this point, all speculation as to the nature of God and the "laws of God" is futile and beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Through religious miseducation man has come to look upon life and himself as things apart from God, a super-natural creator who plays the role of absentee landlord, and with whom he must deal through agents. The word super-natural should be stricken from the vocabulary of man, for Universal Nature includes All, and the idea that anything can exist above and beyond Boundless Infinitude is meaningless. God, or Divine Intelligence, must therefore of necessity be the essence of Nature rather than an extra-cosmical or so-called super-natural Being. The "Laws of God" is a term frequently used by religious spokesmen with little regard as to its deeper implications.

Purely speculative dogmas, at variance with the known laws of Nature, all philosophical reasoning, and even common sense, have been presented to man as the "laws of God."

There is not an atom, creature, or star of Boundless Infinitude whose very being and consciousness is not rooted in, and an expression of, Universal Consciousness, or what men call God, as countless hosts of entities pursue their evolutionary journey through the work-shop and realms of nature. It cannot be otherwise or they would not exist. When men are unselfish, kindly and compassionate they reflect the inherent divinity within themselves instead of allowing themselves to become enmeshed in the mire of materialistic and selfish desires, and build into their character that accumulated wealth of spirit, man's only permanent possession and the only one in which true happiness can be found. When stripped of the tinsel and trimmings, Religion per se is just that and nothing more, and it is the only philosophy of life that will stand the test of time and experience. Creeds and theologists come and go with every age as men attempt to dramatize the trials and sufferings through which the human soul must pass on its journey toward perfection. Every exoteric religion has had its legendary hero which but symbolized the Divinity in Man, the only constant and enduring factor amid the changing forms of religion and external observances.

Men follow the particular pattern of worship — or none at all — in accordance with their understanding of life and spiritual development. Whatever they may profess outwardly will have little influence upon the impersonal and inexorable laws of Universal Nature, for it is the moral and ethical aspect of their daily lives in relationship with their fellow beings and their own higher nature which alone determines the spiritual progress they have made. Every act and thought is a Karmic seed of destiny sown in the fertile field of time and space, the ineluctable results of which, for weal or woe, can no more be set aside or side-stepped than the laws of Universal Nature can be declared unconstitutional.

On that day when religion will rid itself of the idea of a personal, super-natural God and creator who arbitrarily imposes suffering upon man, his own imperfect handiwork, and recognizes the fact that Divinity is the heart of Nature itself and not a thing apart, and that it is man alone who stupidly inflicts suffering upon himself and his fellow men by his spiritual insanity and violation of the ethical and moral laws of his own Inner God, perhaps the Sons of God will create a happier world.



Theosophical University Press Online Edition