Healing and counseling sessions
The purpose of the universe
May 2008
When somebody asked Albert Einstein what question he would ask God if he could ask one, he replied:
"I would ask 'Why was the universe created?' Because then I would know the meaning of my own life."
Carl Sagan, in his book Cosmos, wrote:
"Why it happened is the greatest mystery we know. That it happened is reasonably clear."
Sri Aurobindo, in his book "The Life Divine" wrote:
"A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation, till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is the keynote, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence."
Contents:
- The need for God
- Those who don't believe
- The Bible view
- Approaching the Bible with an open mind
- Divine family
- Apostle Paul told us everything
- The New Age concept of God
- The view of Kabbalah
- Summary: five reasons why we are here
- Why are YOU here?
When I was little, I used to look up in the sky and think "why does all this exist? Why does anything exist? Even space? Even a single particle of air? Why is there anything?"
Those were just brief thoughts which I would quickly dismiss because I couldn't even begin to think of an answer. Universe just is. It is a given and there is no much point in thinking about it.
Many years later I found myself searching for answer to that same question, but now from the prism of someone who walked down the wrong path, hit the rock bottom and saw there is nothing there but misery. How could I be saved, is there a way to extricate myself from the self-inflicted pain, from the abyss looming under my feet? Is there anything I can hold onto? And then, through the mist of the rising vapors of hell, I saw a light, a pale light up in the sky. "Don't go further, but follow me".
Since then I have been following that light, only occasionally looking back towards the smoking abyss. I was still not immune to it, because it is so easy to just let go and let yourself be pulled towards its sweet-scented vapors. It is much more difficult to say no and walk away from it. When you don't know who you really are, every path seems good, even the one that leads to destruction. But once you awaken, once you see there is more to life, you will never be able to go back to your old self. You will want to go out and tell the good news to everyone.
There is so much illusion in the world today. Not many ask "what is our purpose here? Why is the universe created?". And those who ask often feel overwhelmed by many conflicting views, that they give up asking. When the truth is blurred, it's easy to settle for illusion.
When searching the Internet for the phrase "why is the universe created?", I came up with a range of explanations, which reflect various people's ideas about God. Scientific materialists say there is no God, there is no ultimate purpose and meaning for the universe, and so the question of "why universe exists" is not a valid question.
Scientific materialism (and atheism in general) is a belief system based on the fact that some people cannot find "material evidence" for the existence of God. Although God manifests in the physical universe in a myriad of ways, which by now already mainstream science has started to acknowledge, for atheists and scientific materialists it is not enough proof. Until God comes down in a flash of light, like in a Biblical scene, they won't believe it. And even then, they might doubt what they saw.
But there is a place where God does manifest, always and without error - in out heart, if we sincerely ask him to come. God said to apostle James, "Draw nigh to me, and I will draw nigh to you." Doubt and skepticism don't make good hosts. We first need to draw nigh - to open our hearts - to God's love. Heart is not just a pump but a hidden chamber that leads to God. And although we cannot detect God by electrocardiogram or any material device, we can detect it through the flow of love in our heart, through warmth and tenderness, through bliss that we feel when we surrender to God's love. People who refuse God refuse also their True Selves and deprive themselves of the best moments of their lives.
Some say we cannot answer the question of why is universe created or if there is God, with our present knowledge. That is in fact true if we only look with our rational, logical mind, trying to find scientific evidence. These people - usually called agnostics - admit that so far they were not convinced of the existence of God, but they are open to a higher understanding, if such presents itself.
There are already scientists, specially in quantum physics and similar border areas, who are probing the limits of matter and entering into the realm of spirit. They already realized that there is more to this world than meets the eye. Now the next step is to determine what the nature of that "more" is. However, the nature of God cannot be measured by instruments - it must be felt in the heart, it must be probed with an innocent mind.
Ultimately, no one can convince us that God exists unless we want to believe. There is a saying "seeing is believing". But many observe the world only with their mind and so all the wonders of nature and all the mysteries of the universe don't do anything to them. They don't see with the heart, but with a mind. And that will never reveal the face of God.
As opposed to atheists and scientific materialists, there is the religious view. The Bible says that the universe was created to be inhabited by beings who will glorify God and bring him pleasure. We see that in these passages:
"For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:18).
"Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isaiah 43:7).
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
These are quotes from the Old Testament, where God was largely depicted as a strict disciplinarian, an all-powerful male ruler who sends hellfire and brimstone to those who don't obey his laws. That image of God is the result of people's consciousness of that time - people were in such a low state of consciousness that only the fear of punishment could prevent them from doing certain things (like killing, stealing, adultery etc). Only Jesus, some 1500 years later, brought the concept of God as a loving Father and based his teachings on love rather than fear.
4. Approaching the Bible with an open mind
So the Bible says we are here to glorify and please our Creator. If understood correctly, that is true, but there is a danger that it be misinterpreted. And indeed, it is often misinterpreted to mean that we are sinners by birth (due to our fall in the Garden of Eden), who will practically never be able to please God. God is still largely depicted as an external figure whom we should fear, rather than a loving Father whom we should draw nigh. As if Jesus' true message was totally ignored.
So let's take a different approach, let's open our mind and heart to the true God. God is our Creator, but also our loving Father, who created us in his image and likeness, out of love. And he did it so that we could feel the love that he feels for us, and that we can rise to the heights of understanding and power that he possesses. He created us so that we could become all that he is - if we choose so. Because how could we rise to the fullness of God if we didn't have free will to decide about our life.
If we accept our true identity - son or daughter of God who can rise to the fullness of God - we glorify God. By glorifying God within ourselves, we glorify God without. By following the will of our Higher Being, we follow the will of God - and we glorify him.
God takes pleasure in us when we are being who we really are. He loves us unconditionally, no matter what we do, because we are his children, we came out from his body and mind. But he is pleased with us when we recognize ourselves as his children, as divine sparks, and follow the path of oneness with God exemplified by our brother Jesus Christ.
God does not need that we glorify him as some outer figure up there in heaven, omnipotent and glorious, but far from us - so far that we even fear him. God does not want outer rituals and signs of worship, if our heart is far from him. God wants us to know him intimately, in our hearts, and through confirming our divine nature, to glorify him too. Our task is to glorify God by being God. And that is what is often misinterpreted in the Bible. We are not here to please an outer God, a graven image of God, but to invite the true God in our heart - and that's how we will please him.
This is what religious people should understand. And then religion would become one with spirituality - the inner path of the heart, the inner path of Christ, of oneness with God. And behind all religions there would be a common thread - the path of oneness with God - which would stop all religious conflict in the world. If you are one with God, you are by definition one with all people. There are no enemies. We are just different parts of the one Body of God.
More enlightened Bible interpretations say that except glorifying God and bringing him pleasure, God's plan of salvation involves adding sons and daughters to his divine family:
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." (Ephesians 3:14-15)
What the above means is that the common thread in all of us, in everything that is created (our whole family in heaven and earth) is Christ consciousness. Christ consciousness is the consciousness of oneness with God, embodied by Jesus Christ who said "I and my Father are one". Jesus was not the only son of God. But he was the fullest embodiment of that consciousness. He acknowledged oneness with his Father and proclaimed his true identity. We can do the same, because the code of Christ is written in all of us, it is written across our hearts. Everything that exists has the same code 1, only some are aware of it, and some forgot. In order to graduate from the school called material universe, we need to remember who we are. And live it.
This is the meaning of adding sons and daughters to God's divine family: adding those who recognize themselves as such and live in oneness with God. Oneness starts in a pure heart, heart that wants to follow God's will because we recognize that God's will is our will, for God is not outside of ourselves. God is within and without, and as we walk the path that Jesus walked - of gradually surrendering all lesser manifestations and beams in our own eye - we are becoming more of who we are in God. We walk that path together with God, together with Jesus, Mother Mary and saints that went before us. We don't need to be completely ego-free before we can come before God. We only need a pure heart, so that we don't run away any more.
6. Apostle Paul told us everything
If we read Paul's epistle to Ephesians further, it goes like this (the first sentence is repeated):
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19).
Can you feel the difference in tone between this one - which belongs to the New Testament, and the above quotes from the Old Testament? This passage is full of love, because God which Jesus brought us was the God of Love. Love, as opposed to fear, is the only valid motivation for a mature spiritual seeker, and therefore Jesus with his mission in Galilee inaugurated a new age, the Age of Pisces, where our growth and self-transcendence would be driven by love.
We needed to learn how to love, both ourselves as sons or daughters of God, and our neighbors as such too. That is the love for our Real Self and for God our source, whom we recognize both within and in everything created. That is the love of Christ - the love for all that is real. The love for God in all 2. By loving God in all, we draw the matrix of God into our hearts, we expand our consciousness towards the consciousness of God. Exactly as Paul told us.
Paul is also famous for saying "I die daily", which refers to gradually letting go of the old, limited sense of identity and accepting the reality of our True Being. The love for God in all, and the willingness to surrender our false sense of identity, are the main preconditions for attaining God's consciousness and eternal life in spirit.
So in fact, if we take a broader perspective and go beyond literal interpretations, we can say that the Bible gives us the reason for the existence of the universe and for our own existence. It is to know ourselves as God, and to become the fullness of God.
Scanning further the answers to "why was the universe created", we come up with New Age spiritual teachings. The majority of those teachings say that the universe exists because God wants to experience himself inside of creation, and he can do that only through us, spirit sparks in embodiment. So in a way, we serve as his "sensory organs" in the material world. Of course, not just to record physical sensations but thoughts, feelings, emotions, whatever our soul experiences. Both good and bad, both pain and suffering, happiness and joy. And God would collect all that and expand his experience.
But the problem with that interpretation is that even if God "records" the negative notions coming from our sojourn in the material realm, he always knows what would be the cure for those - because his consciousness is that of constant bliss. So he would, as a loving parent, naturally want to impart that knowledge to us. He would want to help us to solve our problem because he knows the cure. And that is to draw nigh to him, to open our heart to him and attain that mind which was in Jesus Christ: "I and my Father are one".
Because you see, it is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. He wants us to be happy and fulfilled. He is not just a passive observer. He has a stake in our lives. We all came from his Body - we are a part of him. If one part hurts, he will naturally try to heal it. Of course, he cannot and doesn't want to force us to do anything against our will, but he would be happy if we would find happiness and peace of mind. Like every good parent, God is happy when we are happy.
So that means that God cannot just observe our experiences without trying to help us. Because he loves us. And he knows the way out. And that is through the mind of Christ. Through the Christ "code" - the imprint of love written in the hearts of all his children. Do you see? God cannot leave us in suffering and ignorance without trying to reach us. Jesus Christ couldn't either. He came to give us a morsel of truth, to awaken the Christ within, which we forgot we have. Jesus came to awaken us to the reality of who we are - because he loves us. And he won't let us settle for less than our highest potential - without trying to shake us up from our comfortable ignorance.
People in the New Age movement are well-intentioned souls who want to find themselves, who are not satisfied with dogmas and doctrines of the official Christianity, and want the truth of God. But they are missing so much when they leave out Jesus Christ from their teachings, when they don't even mention him. They believe that Jesus is simply an icon of Christianity, and the latter they resent often with reason. But Jesus is much more, real Jesus Christ is our brother who came to show us the path to our True Being.
New age people think that every path to God is a good path, and that every spiritual teaching is a valid one. But they are wrong. Because only the path leading to our True Self, only the path of oneness with our divine source, is a valid one. And that is the path of Christ.
Proceeding with our Internet search, we come to the explanation offered by the Kabbalah, the mystical teaching of Judaism. The Kabbalah says that we are here "to take a world that is blind to the truth, filled with darkness, negativity and evil, and transform it into a home for God. To reconnect with your source. To allow the light of your soul, and the awareness of your Creator, to shine through the limitations of your solid, physical body and linear mind." Kabbalah views the afterlife as a temporary stopping place between one incarnation and the next, where learning is processed, corrections made, and the soul cleansed and refreshed. "The real reward is here, on earth, as evolved souls, in transformed bodies, in a transformed world. Sharing a home with God."
That is a beautiful vision - transforming Earth into a home for God, in other words, bringing Heaven to Earth. It says the real reward is here, on Earth. Well, the real reward is when you make Heaven and Earth meet in your heart. When through your consciousness and your light, matter is lifted to the vibration of Heaven. So that there is Heaven where you are. And when enough people do the same, we'll have Heaven on Earth, Golden Age dawning on this planet.
Regarding afterlife - once we attain oneness with God and surrender the last parcel of the separated ego, our soul will become immortal and eternal, like that of Jesus Christ, and we will be freed from the cycles of reincarnation. We will be able to choose whether we want to stay in embodiment and help other souls, or we will work with humankind from higher spheres, like Ascended Masters do, or we will completely leave the spheres of Earth. In any case, there won't be death and there won't be afterlife for us – because we will be alive and one with our source all the time, in the eternal now.
How do we transform this planet into a home of God? By Being who we are in God, by bringing the light of our True Self, by creating according to the vision of our Higher Being. Through Christ vision we will create worlds of beauty and perfection, and uncreate all that is not of God. So eventually we will have only forms which mirror the reality of God. All lesser manifestations will crumble and disappear when we bring the light of our True Being. Which means, of course, that we are co-creators with God, that we are here to continue where God stopped after 6 days of creation. The 7th day is left to us, to make this place according to our own liking.
9. Summary: five reasons why we are here
So now we more or less know why we are here. If we collect all the previous explanations, we'll come up with five basic reasons why we are here and why the universe is created:
Experience creation from the inside: that God, through his sons and daughters, can experience how it is to be inside creation, and not simply observe it from the outside.
- Embody a special aspect of God: each of us has a unique talent, a special facet of God's consciousness, which God wants to express through us in the world of form. This divine quality is called God flame. Our purpose is to find out what our God flame is and then to express it, to embody it, so that through Being our God flame, we would help raise all life.
Co-creation with God: God didn't want to create a static universe where everything is unfolding according to a predefined plan. We are not supposed to be robots executing God's commands. God wanted a thinking, feeling, imaginative, and unpredictable universe. He wanted us to participate in the miracle called creation.
Education and self-transcendence: Material universe is a schoolrom. We are created with a potential to grow in consciousness and self awareness until we reach the fullness of our being, and the pinnacle of self-awareness: God's consciousness. We are here to create ourselves in the image and likeness of God.
Spiritualizing matter: by growing in self-awareness and expanding the light of our True Being, we will bring more light into the material universe and raise its vibration. All that exists will be lifted to a higher vibration, even the inanimate matter will become self-conscious and conscious of its Creator. As Jesus said, "if men should hold their peace, even the stones would cry out". Which means that we serve as intermediaries for bringing the light of God into the material world and helping even the densest spheres of matter become self-aware.
If we want to compress the above five points in one, we could say that the universe was created so that through conscious beings like us, love and light of God could permeate all spheres of creation.
A young soul wants to experience the material universe as fully as possible, experiment, play, try out many things, including making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Later, when the soul has had enough physical experiences, it will ideally realize that trying out new things in the physical will not bring her deeper satisfaction and fulfillment. And so it turns inwards, and does some soul searching. Questions emerge like who I am, why I am here, what is the purpose of all this. In this phase, if the soul is sincere and wants to know the truth, a teacher will appear, be it outer or inner, which will guide her towards her true being.
As the soul becomes more and more aware of her true identity, it will become more conscious of her power to co-create, i.e. that she can create both heaven and hell right where she is, depending on what she identifies herself with. The soul will ideally choose her true, divine, identity, and find the love in her heart and the will to Be who she is created to be. Then will the soul start co-creating in a conscious manner, from her Higher Being, bringing light into her own life and her surroundings. The soul will gradually let go of everything that prevents her to accept the victory of her divine self, and earn eternal life in spirit.
If you are reading this, you have probably passed the first phase in soul's development - experiencing as much of the physical as possible. You are not running after new adventures, nor craving for one more exotic trip where you will finally find happiness. You've been to many places, to many emotional states, you've seen enough. And you know that what you are looking for cannot be found outside of you. You know you need to turn inwards, and you have most probably already done that.
Maybe you have also found your teacher. Maybe these words will awaken the memory of Christ within, the memory of who you really are. Maybe you feel the longing in your heart to feel that bliss, that fullness, that oneness. To live fully. To be free. Even if it is seems like miles away from where you are now, it is possible if you follow the call of your heart. The thread of light in you.
There is something which you are good at, which you enjoy doing, which gives you deep satisfaction. There is something which you would like to do before you die, a gift you would like to leave to the world before you disappear from the screen of life. What is it? You came with a specific talent, with a unique divine quality that only you possess. And that this world needs. Go and find out what that is - what is it that you came to give to the world? What hue is the flame in your heart? What facet of the diamond of God are you? Remember, we are all needed. You are needed. Follow the thread of light in you, follow the Truth in you, the Christ in you - and you will find peace that passeth all understanding.
If they tell you that you are an idealist, a dreamer, and that you need to "get real", don't listen to them. Because you know that your Divine Self is your only reality. Whatever is outside of God is an illusion, a construct of a mistaken mind, and has no permanence. Heaven is where you are, if you choose to be your True Self.
Once you decide, yes, I want to do it, you will see that even if there are obstacles, and inner and outer opposition, you will not be lost any more, because you'll know where to go. You'll have the guiding rod of Christ, the Northern Star of your True Self, and even if you wander off the path for a moment, you'll know how to come back. Christ light, once lit in your heart, can never be extinguished. Once you drink from the spring of Life, you will never be satisfied with the muddy waters of the lower consciousness.
Once you know that you are More, you will never want to go back to less.
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1 The code of Christ is not imprinted in our DNA, it cannot be found in our physical body. We know that genome differences between humans and chimpanzees are minimal - 96 percent of our DNA is identical to that of a chimpanzee. Furthermore, genome differences between humans and other animals, even fish, are much smaller than what we would expect. When comparing mouse and human genomes, biologists are able to identify a mouse counterpart for at least 99 percent of all our genes! Which means that our sophisticated mind, our consciousness, does not stem from our DNA.
Then where does it come from? It comes from our subtle energy body, specially through the flame of God in our heart, through which we are connected to God. It stems from our ability to know God - to be one with God - and to draw from that infinite source of consciousness and light. That is what Jesus called the key of knowledge, which tells us that we are more than mortal humans. We know we are More, but that knowledge is not written in our brain, or in our DNA, but in our heart. It is the still small voice within, it is what differentiates us from animals and plants - the ability to choose what we want to identify with and the ability to (re)create ourselves in the image and likeness of God.
Our bodies are just vehicles (albeit sophisticated) for our sojourn in the material realm. They are just slightly more advanced than those of animals. But that is perfectly OK because our power comes from Above, from knowing who we truly are. We are spiritual beings on a temporary sojourn in matter. Our nature is NOT dual - we are not both animals and Gods - we are only expressing our divine nature in a material setting. Therefore, when we accept our true nature, there will be no conflicting desires in us - because we will only desire to be More of God. What we call "animal instinct" (which by the way are not a feature of animals) came later in our spiritual evolution, as a result of mankind's fall in consciousness. But at our core we are divine, and through following the path of Christ, we can return to our divinity.
2 Loving God in all people means loving what is of God, what is real, what is aligned with our divine nature. It doesn't mean loving all human manifestations, including hatred, selfishness, injustice... It doesn't mean loving people's false identities and miscreations. The Christ in us loves that what is of God, meaning that it loves the core of every person and all good that emanates from that core. At the same time, it tries to raise those parts which are stuck in illusion and which feel separated from God.
