The divinity of a Krishna, a Gautama, or a Jesus is the crowning glory of self-abnegation, the end of the soul’s pilgrimage in matter and mortality, and the world will not have finished its long journey until every soul has become as these, and has entered into the blissful realization of its own divinity.

    Great glory crowns the heights of hope by arduous struggle won;
    Bright honor rounds the hoary head that mighty works hath done;
    Fair riches come to him who strives in ways of golden gain. 
    And fame enshrines his name who works with genius-glowing brain;
    But greater glory waits for him who, in the bloodless strife
    ’Gainst self and wrong, adopts, in love, the sacrificial life;
    And brighter honor rounds the brow of him who, ’mid the scorns
    Of blind idolaters of self, accepts the crown of thorns;
    And fairer purer riches come to him who greatly strives
    To walk in ways of love and truth to sweeten human lives;
    And he who serveth well mankind exchanges fleeting fame
    For Light eternal, Joy and Peace, and robes of heavenly flame.

THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE

In the external universe there is ceaseless turmoil, change, and unrest; at the heart of all things there is undisturbed repose; in this deep silence dwelleth the Eternal.

Man partakes of this duality, and both the surface change and disquietude, and the deep-seated eternal abode of Peace, are contained within him.

As there are silent depths in the ocean which the fiercest storm cannot reach, so there are silent, holy depths in the heart of man which the storms of sin and sorrow can never disturb.  To reach this silence and to live consciously in it is peace.

Discord is rife in the outward world, but unbroken harmony holds sway at the heart of the universe.  The human soul, torn by discordant passion and grief, reaches blindly toward the harmony of the sinless state, and to reach this state and to live consciously in it is peace.

Hatred severs human lives, fosters persecution, and hurls nations into ruthless war, yet men, though they do not understand why, retain some measure of faith in the overshadowing of a Perfect Love; and to reach this Love and to live consciously in it is peace.

And this inward peace, this silence, this harmony, this Love, is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is so difficult to reach because few are willing to give up themselves and to become as little children.

    “Heaven’s gate is very narrow and minute,
    It cannot be perceived by foolish men
    Blinded by vain illusions of the world;
    E’en the clear-sighted who discern the way,
    And seek to enter, find the portal barred,
    And hard to be unlocked.  Its massive bolts
    Are pride and passion, avarice and lust.”

Men cry peace! peace! where there is no peace, but on the contrary, discord, disquietude and strife.  Apart from that Wisdom which is inseparable from self-renunciation, there can be no real and abiding peace.