Do not seek God in the temples of stone and marble, oh! man who want to know Him, but in the eternal temple of Nature, in the spectacle of the worlds travelling in the Infinite, in the splendors of life as it expands on their surfaces, in the view of the varied horizons: plains, valleys, mountains and seas that your earthly residence offers you. Everywhere, in the bright light of the day or under the starry mantle of the night, on the shore of the tumultuous oceans, as well in the solitude of the forests, if you know how to gather yourself, you will hear the voices of Nature and the subtle teachings they murmur in the ear of those that attend their solitudes and study their mysteries.
Earth moves noiseless in the space. This mass of ten thousand leagues of circuit glides over the ether waves like a bird in the sky, like a mosquito in the light. Nothing betrays her majestic march. No creaking wheels, no murmuring waves on its flanks. Silent, she passes, rolls between her sisters from the sky. The whole powerful machine of the Universe stirs itself; the millions of stars and planets that compose it, worlds that make ours seem like a child, all of them move themselves, intercross themselves, continue their evolutions at astounding speeds, without a sound or an impact that betrays the action of this gigantic machine. The Universe remains calm. It is the absolute balance; it is the majesty of a mysterious power, of an Intelligence that does not impose itself, that hides itself within all things, and whose presence is revealed to the mind and the heart, and that attracts the researcher like the vertigo of the abyss.
If Earth moved noisily, if the world mechanism failed to regulate itself, men, terrified, would bend themselves and would believe. But, no! The formidable work executes itself effortlessly. Globes and suns float in the Infinite, as free as plumes in the breeze. Forward, always forward! The movement of the spheres is guided by an invisible power.
The will that directs the Universe disguise itself from all glances. Things are disposed in a way so that nobody is obliged to give them credit. If the order and harmony of the Cosmos is not enough to convince the man, he is free to conjecture. Nothing constrains the skeptical to go towards God.
The same happens to the moral things. Our beings develop themselves and events succeed each other without an apparent connection; yet, the immanent justice rules from above and regulate our destinies according to an immutable principle, through which everything is chained in a succession of causes and effects. Its set constitutes a harmony that the spirit emancipated from prejudice, illuminated by a ray of Wisdom, discovers and admires. What do we know about the Universe? Our view just perceives a restricted set of the empire of all things. The subtle and diffuse matter escapes from us. We see what is coarser around us. All fluidic worlds, all circles where higher life stirs itself, the radiant life, eclipse themselves to the human eyes. We distinguish only the opaque and heavy worlds that are moving in the skies. The Space that separates us seems empty. Everywhere, deep chasms seem to open themselves. Error! The Universe is full. Among these material dwellings, in the middle of this planetary worlds, jails or prisons float in the Space, another life domains extend themselves, spiritual life, glorious life, which our thick senses cannot perceive because, under their radiations, it would break like the glass is shattered when it shocks with a stone.
The wise Nature limited our perceptions and sensations. It is step by step that it conducts us on the path of knowledge. It is slowly, piece by piece, lives after lives, that it leads us to the knowledge of the Universe, whether visible or invisible. The being climbs, one by one, the steps of the gigantic ladder that leads to God. And each of these steps represents for the being a long succession of centuries.
If the celestial worlds suddenly appeared to us, without veils, in all their glory, we would be stunned, blinded. However, our exterior senses were measured and limited. They loom and perfect themselves as the being raise itself on the scale of existence and improvements. So it is with the knowledge, the possession of the moral laws. The Universe unveils itself to our eyes as our capacity to understand its laws develops and enhances itself. Slow is the incubation of Souls under the divine light.
It is to you, oh! Supreme Power! Whichever the name that is given to you and however imperfectly you are understood; it is to you, eternal source of life, of beauty, of harmony, that we raise our aspirations, our trust, our love.
Where are You, in which deep and mysterious skies You hide yourself? How many souls believed that it would be sufficient, to meet You, the departure from Earth. But You keep yourself invisible in the spiritual world, as in the terrestrial world, invisible for those who have not yet acquired the sufficient purity to reflect your divine rays.
However, everything reveals and manifests your presence. Whatever in Nature and Humanity that sings and celebrates the love, the beauty, the perfection, everything that lives and breathes is message of God. The magnificent forces that animate the Universe proclaim the reality of the divine Intelligence; beside them, the majesty of God manifests itself in History, by the action of the great Souls which, like immense waves, bring to the terrestrial nations all the powers of the work of wisdom and love.
And God is, thus, in each of us, in the living temple of the consciousness. That is the holy place, the sanctuary where is located the divine spark.
Excerpted (translated) from Chapter I of "O Grande Enigma (The Great Riddle)" - Léon Denis
