An Eternal Career, by Frank and Lydia Hammer, [1947], at sacred-texts.com
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"Man is never separated from God, his source |
The world faces its greatest famine. * Millions of people in Western Europe have already perished of hunger, and millions more will experience a similar fate unless definite action is taken soon. One would think that the countries which devastated their lands would feel a moral obligation to remedy the situation; but such is far from being the case. Some even contend that it is the duty of the vanquished to feed the victors.
For centuries famine has stalked India and China while the rest of the world lived in abundance. Slow mass starvation means nothing to the well-fed and over-fed classes who glibly tell the Indians and Chinese that they have only themselves to blame for their misery and hunger. Others equally indifferent to the suffering and rights of others lay the blame at the door of Nature.
However, it is not Nature but man who is responsible for the world's misery and hunger, for whenever there is a scarcity in one part of the world there is an over-abundance in another. The anomaly of want in the midst of plenty is due to the fact that those who have the surplus refuse to share it with the needy. There is no need for even one person to perish from hunger, leave alone millions. If men would cease violating the law of supply and demand, all people would have sufficient and famine would be unknown.
Surely it is common sense and better for the. health of society for all to have sufficient for their needs, than for the majority to lack and the minority to have too much. A man who would permit a member of his family to be hungry and in distress while he and the others were well-fed and had a superfluity would be a monster. This is what ails the social system. There are too many monsters whose greed reminds one of hungry dogs who not only eat, their own portion, but devour the food on the plates of others.
The existing social and economic order is about as healthful as a man suffering from cancer. When one part of the body draws upon another, or is opposed to the other, every species of evil, pain, wretchedness and disorganization is generated. Cancer in man cannot be cured unless the roots of the disease are completely extirpated, which usually means a removal of a large portion of the unhealthy
tissue. No less drastic treatment will suffice for the cure of social cancer.
Nothing is more hazardous than extirpating social cancer. Alleviating the symptoms is applauded and approved; but woe unto him who would remove its causes—as for example, war, crime and poverty. He is ostracized, persecuted and often thrown in prison; for those entrenched in economic power exhibit horror at any curative measures. But millions of afflicted people, who possess nothing, and can only gain something, welcome them.
Despite hostile opposition, progress is being made in the eradication of social cancer and its deadly contributory roots. Social legislation is being enacted compelling ruthless and greedy industrialists to do what they should have done voluntarily long ago—namely, to provide for their employees' unproductive years. Until recently they squeezed them dry and then threw them on the social scrap-heap to starve, or to subsist on charity. Now employers, much to their chagrin, must contribute towards unemployment and Old Age Insurance. These are only first steps on the road to a happy and healthy commonwealth, and incredibly naive are those who think they can obstruct social progress.
There remain some conspicuous examples of social stiff-neckedness who refuse to move with the changing order. Workers they regard as a separate class of inferior animals who must be kept poor or else they will cease to slave for the enrichment of their economic exploiters. But if poverty is beneficial for
some it is beneficial for all, as all men are animated by the same Spirit, and all tend towards the same goal.
Then too, the law of supply and demand is not generally understood. Most people confound the channels with the source and assume that with the loss of employment, securities or savings that the supply is diminished or dissipated. There is, however, but one source of supply, and that is God, and the Infinite can neither be increased nor decreased.
Some will surely object and ask: "If the supply cannot be lessened, what happened to it during the depression when millions were unemployed, hungry and in dire distress?" There was no lack of supply; but an artificial condition of scarcity was created by designing and unscrupulous men whose main interest was filling their purses. So they deliberately clogged the channels of distribution and diverted to their own use what rightfully belonged to others, thus creating economic dislocations and social maladjustments. This monstrous situation, coupled with the destruction of natural wealth; contempt of human rights; and the removal of men from public office who would not conform, were the order of the day and brought about the debacle.
Today an analogous condition exists, except that restriction has replaced destruction in order to create the illusion of scarcity. While the method is not so apparent, the result is equally effective—greater profits for the few. Multitudes are allowed to go hungry so that a minority may profit and become
wealthy. Even though half the world is hungry, in need of clothing and shelter, restrictions prevail. The result is high prices which are the motive.
A famous financial expert recently made an accurate diagnosis of our monetary system. He said: "The present money system will work when we reform our system of taxation. In this country we tax everything; necessities, luxuries, amusements, transportation, and everyone who works and earns more than a subsistence. We tax all but the man who has a million dollars idle in the bank. Present system favors hoarding and penalizes spending. Those who control investment funds say: 'We will spend our money or not as we please. And we will invest only if we are assured a satisfactory profit to ourselves, and not otherwise. Let the people starve for all we care, or let the government feed, clothe and house the idle and hungry.' Idle funds should be taxed, thus lightening the burden of those who work and produce."
Many people assume that in order to get rich they must appropriate what belongs to others. Such gains are always temporary, eventually impoverishing the thief. Taking what belongs to others does not lessen the total amount, we only make it less to those we rob. Whenever a man accumulates and keeps for himself a hundred times more than he, needs, he deprives at least a hundred people of the necessities of life. There is nothing wrong about being a millionaire—if all could be millionaires. Money in itself has no creative power; and when a
man lives off interest or dividends, he lives off the labor of his fellowmen.
Maladjustments are further increased by the fact that as soon as there is an increased demand for anything, the cost of the item increases in proportion to its scarcity. People fear the supply will fail and they create a false value by increasing their demands. This occurs because people are governed by the law of self-interest and not the Golden Rule.
People fear the shortage of oil and rubber. But the supply will last as long as the demand, when something else will appear, as it always has. Unfortunately, new discoveries are often unwelcome and suppressed because they will interfere with the profits of a current and often inferior and outmoded article. It is common knowledge that large corporations spend millions every year for the express purpose of keeping inventions from the public.
The law of supply and demand, like all natural laws, is not concerned with the worth of the individual; its only requirement is undeviating obedience. Consequently, those who achieve the greatest benefits from the law's application and manifest abundance, are those who harmonize themselves with it. For example, the farmer who has the most extensive knowledge of the laws of agriculture, and follows them implicitly, will have an abundant harvest even though he may be a rogue or a reprobate. On the other hand, the man who is ignorant of these laws, or fails to comply with them, will have scant crops, regardless of worth or character. Hence it
is not uncommon to see selfish and dishonest men have an over-abundance, while the worthy, kind and devout often lack the necessities.
When in harmony with the law of supply and demand it is as easy to manifest thousands as hundreds of dollars. The injury and injustice arises not from the accumulation, but in the refusal to share it. All the wealth of the world comes from the land and belongs to the Creator, and is only loaned to man for 70 or 80 years at most. Whenever one has more than he needs it should be distributed among those who are in need. This is done by enlightened individuals.
When one takes without giving the law is violated; when service is exchanged or an equivalent rendered, the law is fulfilled. A man who breaks into another's house and robs him is a thief and punishable by law. A man who appropriates from life what belongs to others is also a thief and punishable by spiritual law. Whatever we take from life we are obligated to pass on. Life flows through us, and whenever we attempt to obstruct it trouble, illness, lack, failure and unhappiness follow. When life flows unobstructedly through us, we are in harmony with it and we are happy, healthy and successful.
A new social consciousness is needed—the realization of abundance for all. This consciousness, however, will never be acquired collectively; it is an individual process, each man linking himself with the Infinite Source of supply and claiming his inalienable birthright to physical, mental and spiritual
abundance. To go to the First Source of Supply—God—rather than to earthly channels. The supply is Infinite, it is the demands that are made upon it which are niggardly. When we shall have grasped this truth, then the fear of poverty and scarcity will vanish.
Convincing an impoverished man of unlimited supply is difficult; but because he does not understand the law does not alter it. If a man does not know the law of mathematics he will get wrong answers to his problems. The same is true with the law of supply and demand. That the supply is always equal to the demand was demonstrated by some people even during the depths of the depression; they had ample while around them were others who lacked the necessities.
A poverty consciousness staves off supply. Men. think they are poor and fear poverty, and because they think and fear it, they are. When we doubt we limit our supply, but we do not make the supply any less; we merely lessen it to ourselves. Lack of faith clogs the channels, while faith keeps them wide open. For instance, a man with faith who loses one position soon obtains another.
Many erroneously suppose that getting enriches, and that giving impoverishes. It is the reverse which is true. What you keep you lose, and what you give is yours forever. For man owns nothing in its entirety; if he did it would be his beyond all question; none could take it from him, or destroy it, and upon his demise could take it with him.
Life abundant is all around us and yet some live like misers who have fortunes concealed in their rags. How often one reads of beggars who drop dead in the street and police find thousands of dollars stuffed in their pockets or in banks. In order to accumulate this wealth they subsisted on meager rations and lived in sordid surroundings. We wonder at these wealthy paupers who lived in deprivation to hoard money. Yet how many more live in abject intellectual poverty while all around them are mental riches? Moreover, these are available to all for none can hinder another from contacting the Universal Mind and acquiring all the knowledge he desires. Nor does he have the keen, merciless competition to contend with, as he does on the material plane.
Plato, Socrates and Aristotle possessed the greatest of mental riches while all around them were hoards of impoverished intellects. Today, as then, most people are content to reflect the opinions of others instead of being original. Yet we contribute and enrich the world and ourselves only by that which we have extracted from the Universal Mind and individualized into a thought or an idea.
To see physical life undermined by hunger is pitiful; to see intellectual life enfeebled is tragic; but to see spiritual life starved is calamitous. Yet everywhere there are spiritual mendicants living in abject poverty, enveloped in materiality. Blindly they pursue material things and ignore the immortal truths which heal, soothe, enlighten and bless, and which,
like flowers, are scattered at their feet. The wisdom of the philosophers, seers and saints has been preserved and are easily available to all who can read. But how few partake of them?
Lastly, it is only the intellectual and spiritual. things that man can rightly call his own. All material things, whether he earned them, or whether he bought them, or whether they were gifts, must be left at the threshold of death. Therefore it is a great mistake to live poor in order to die rich, for no dead man is rich save in good works.
"To live rich and not die rich, should be the aim of life; for it is good works and not goods that will follow us."
103:* October, 1946.