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<p class="paracenter">HERE OR ELSEWHERE
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<p class="para"> It is easy and comfortable to go 
within and in an inner consciousness find and maintain a union, even a close 
union with the Divine. It is because of such a state of peace and bliss that 
many, nay, most who go there do not want to come back, to normal life upon this 
earth. And teachers, great or small, almost invariably, have taught that in the 
end it is best like that, and perhaps the only thing to do under the 
circumstances. For this life and this earth mean the very opposite of that inner 
heaven and that highest good. But some are not given this comfortable solution 
of the difficulty. They are asked to turn back and live the life of the earth. 
They are not allowed to remain cosy in a narrow room and be busy always with 
themselves alone. Indeed, is it not narrow egoism to seek only one's own 
salvation? When one has saved himself, is it not his duty—the logical outcome 
and implication of his personal freedom—that he should seek to help others in 
their salvation? Such was in fact the attitude of the Amitabha Buddha.
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<p class="para"> A house is on fire. It has a 
tarred roof. One can easily understand the fury of the fire. Some inmates
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<br><p class="pageno">Page-78</p>
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<p class="para">who were trapped have managed to come out in time, although 
somewhat bruised and scalded. But there were others, some children, left inside. 
One of those who came out rushes back again through the flames and comes and 
goes till all are saved. He is badly burnt, he has risked his life: he did not 
mind and could not remain at a safe distance. He could not be contented with 
saving himself, which was to be sure a sufficient gain in one respect. This soul 
had a consciousness of his wider self.
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<p class="para"> In the same way, there are souls 
that have emerged out of the fire of earthly life and are enjoying the safety 
and security of the heavens; but they have been called to come back into the 
world, add to the experience of the tranquil above the experience of the trouble 
below. Surely it increases the scope of their consciousness. But to turn upon 
the world means also to re-enter into ignorance, for this world means ignorance, 
as it is, it is nothing but ignorance. The role then of one who returns is once 
more to embrace ignorance, but with a view to bringing into it the light and 
bliss that he gained from above, permeating the stuff of the present world with 
the substance of the higher consciousness. It is a sacrifice demanded of him, 
thus to abandon the eternal felicity of the high heavens—the unbroken union with 
the Divine above —and to enter into the depths of &quot;this great perilous
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-79</p>
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<p class="para">world&quot;: but this is a privilege too, to bring solace to the 
afflicted, the transforming light to obscure souls, the radiant energy to inert 
earth. It is a high privilege for which the luminous soul is thankful: he 
modestly accepts a gift of grace from the Supreme. He accepts the Ignorance and 
offers it: he lays it at the feet of the Supreme so that it may be transmuted 
into light—light here below. His own role is that of <b>a </b>modest 
intermediary.
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<br><p class="pageno">Page-80</p>
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