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The problem is not as
simple as all that. The causes of suffering are innumerable and
its quality also varies a great deal, although the origin of suffering
is one and the same and comes from the initial action of an anti-divine
will. To make this easier to understand, one can divide suffering
into two distinct categories, although in practice they are very
often mixed.
The first is purely
egoistic and comes from a feeling that one's rights have been violated,
that one has been deprived of one's needs, offended, despoiled,
betrayed, injured, etc. This whole category of suffering is clearly
the result of hostile action and it not only opens the door in the
consciousness to the influence of the adversary but is also one
of his most powerful ways of acting in the world, the most powerful
of all if in addition there comes its natural and spontaneous consequence:
hatred and the desire for revenge in the strong, despair and the
wish to die in the weak.
The other category of
suffering, whose initial it cause is the pain of separation created
by the adversary, is totally opposite in nature: it is the suffering
that comes from divine compassion, the suffering of love that feels
compassion for the world's misery, whatever its origin, cause or
effect. But this suffering, which is of a purely psychic character,
contains no egoism, no self-pity; it is full of peace and strength
and power of action, of faith in the future and the will for victory;
it does not pity but consoles, it does not identify itself with
the ignorant movement in others but cures and illumines it.
It is obvious that in
the purity of its essence, only that which is it perfectly divine
can feel that suffering; but partially, momentarily, like flashes
of lightning behind the dark clouds of egoism, it appears in all
who have a vast and generous heart. However, most often, in the
individual consciousness it is mixed with that mean and petty self-pity
which is the cause of depression and weakness. Nevertheless, when
one is vigilant enough to refuse this mixture or at least to reduce
it to a minimum, one soon realises that this divine compassion is
based on a sublime and eternal joy which alone has the strength
and the power to deliver the world from its ignorance and misery.
And this suffering too
will disappear from the universe only with the total disappearance
of the adversary and all the effects of his action.
The
Mother
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