Soul, and the Secret of Love – Sri Harold Klemp

 

 

 

 

 

   People think that they have a soul. They say very proudly, "I have a soul." But we in ECK say, "I am Soul." This is probably the most important difference between us and other people. "I have a soul" is possessive, like "I can own Soul." You can't own Soul because you are Soul. You are a spark of God. You are divine Light and Sound put together in a form called Soul. And this Soul inhabits a physical body – sometimes a human body, but sometimes an animal body or a bird body.

 

   In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was so sure that we were the center of the universe. Why not? We had a holy scripture that said God made man in His likeness. Therefore, the universe must revolve around earth. Why? Because mankind is the jewel – the crowning jewel – of creation, of course.

 

   It's such a flattering self-image. You wonder how the human race can take a step without tripping. The fact is, it can't.

 

   When you have such a high opinion of yourself, you find you're always tripping and falling down. And so does the human race.

 

   Soul comes in many forms, including birds. Scientists do their studies, and they're constantly surprised when birds behave the way humans do. They can have logical behavior, and they can learn from their mistakes.

 

 

   Soul's purpose for being in this word is to find divine love. People come to the teachings of ECK for a number of reasons. Some come for the phenomenal things, like the gift of prophecy. They want to learn Soul Travel, which is a spiritual art. Or they want the gift of healing.

 

   But those who are farther ahead spiritually come to ECK with the desire to find love, divine love. In fact, before they find ECK, they have often asked, "Show me how to find love." And then they find it in ECK.

 

   This is not to say that people in other paths don't do the same thing in their particular religion. God has established all religions because each religion serves a purpose. Each religion fills the needs of a certain group of Souls. And within each religion, there are those who are more advanced spiritually and those who are just starting out on the spiritual path.

 

   This accounts for the wide range of behavior in people. Just because someone is a Christian is no guarantee that person will be an ethical and morally upright person. And just because a person is an ECKist offers no similar guarantee. In ECK, we also have people who are far advanced spiritually and others who are just beginning the spiritual path. But for whatever reason a person chooses a certain religion, it answers that Soul's spiritual needs of the day. And this day may last a lifetime; it may last several lifetimes. It may last a year or only a week.

 

   The point is, we are all where we belong in our state of consciousness.

 

 

   A couple of weeks ago I had to mail an express package. My wife went with me. The express-mail company was in a mall, one of many businesses there. We had finished our business, made copies, and mailed the package. My wife wondered whether we should walk out the side door or down the center of the mall. 

 

   Generally I ask Divine Spirit – even in little things. Divine Spirit said, "Go down the center of the mall, right down the main aisle."

 

   Directly outside the express-mail company, a craft fair was set up – all kinds of tables where people were selling their crafts, beads and jewelry, scarves, all different kinds of things. The first table we saw had a woman seated behind it. She had the most beautiful white aura, like a bright light bulb in a dark hall.

 

  I just stood there for a minute, making believe I was looking at what she had for sale. She suddenly looked at me very strangely and said, "I know you."

 

   I said, "Who?" I wasn't going to make it real easy,you know.

 

   She said, "You're Harold."

 

   I said, "Yes."

 

   She wasn't a member of Eckankar. She had met Paul Twitchell years ago under extraordinary circumstances. And we've met each other on the spiritual planes. As we talked about one thing or another, she said, "I've prayed for this." For her, it was important to meet someone who is working for Divine Spirit as she is.

 

   I was just standing there enjoying the white light from her aura, which I didn't tell her about. She's not a member of ECK, but she can see the light in other people.

 

   She said she watched the videos of my seminar talks; they're on television in the Minneapolis area each Friday night.

 

   Sometimes I meet people years before they join Eckankar. Eventually it gets through the thick skull of the human consciousness that these people belong in ECK. Life finally teaches them this. Then they see my picture or the picture of one of the other ECK Masters and they say, y, that's my guide. Since I was a child." And they're surprised to find that these people are all from the family of ECK.

 

   This woman gave me a gift, a tape of a Lakota woman singing her songs of worship. And so I accepted her gift. Sometimes I say, "No, I couldn't take the gift." But this was a gift of the heart, and I just accepted it. Then later, I sent her something that I thought would be useful to her.

 

 

   I asked that the lights in the hall be turned up again this evening. I know it's not the usual setting in an auditorium where someone's speaking onstage. You dim the lights so if anyone in the audience wants to, they can sleep without being spotted.

 

   But someone explained to the people in charge of the lights, "This is the time of the Darshan."

 

   I like to see you. It's a very important time. Spiritually this won't mean anything to someone outside of ECK. But in ECK, we know that there can be a very important inner connection, Soul to Soul.

 

   Some of you have traveled many thousands of miles, literally from the other side of the earth, to be here. And your journey is as important – and no less important – than someone's who came from Atlanta. Soul is Soul, and Soul has this desire to go home to God.

 

   This is the quest for happiness that people misunderstand today. They want to be happy, and so they take the path of pleasure. But it is all necessary for the total experience of Soul. Because at the end of the line, with complete experience, each of you will then become a Co-worker with God.

 

 

   Becoming a Co-worker with God is hard to explain. People say, "That sounds like a lot of fun. Really, I'd like to do that sometime." And that's it.

 

   Not everyone will understand this, but if you love your work, your profession, or whatever you're doing, then you'll have some idea what it means to be a Co-worker with God. It simply means that you're doing what you want to do, what you enjoy doing.

 

   You do what gives you the chance for the most spiritual growth and personal fulfillment. That is what it is like to be a Co-worker with God.

 

   To become a Co-worker with God is your goal. And if you enjoy your work, or if you've ever had a job that you enjoyed, try to go back and imagine the best parts of that. That's a little of what it's like to be a Co-worker with God. A lot of things to do. And in giving, you receive. This is the whole point I try to make in these talks.

 

 

   This is what the individual Soul connects with at the Second Initiation. His or her karma is taken over by the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master and given back to the individual to work off in an orderly, forward moving manner.

 

   Sometimes karma works off in the dream state or in some other way. For instance, people have car accidents in the dream state instead of having to go through them out here, but they are miraculously saved from very severe problems. But we're not saying the teachings of ECK are a panacea for all ills. They are not. You are facing yourself. Sometimes there are more serious things that we must face – not only to pay off a past debt, but also to grow spiritually.

 

   These debts are never fed to the individual out of malice or spite, saying, "You did a bad thing and now you must pay." The Lords of Karma do that; that is under another system. When Soul enters the path of ECK, the Lords of Karma stand to the side, and the spiritual affairs of the individual Soul come under the Mahanta. You can shortcut many of the problems. And the way you shortcut them is through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK.

 

   You make a conscious effort to align yourself or put yourself in tune with Divine Spirit. And you do that by chanting a spiritual word, such as HU.

 

 

   Being in ECK invokes self-responsibility. No one cares if you do the spiritual exercises or if you don't.

 

   But if you care about yourself, you should care whether you do them. Because you have this spiritual tool to rise in consciousness so that instead of being a victim in life – as so many people wrongly believe they are – you will have choices.

 

   The choices don't just happen. You make them. If you make a series of right choices, they will spiritualize you. In ECK, this upliftment comes through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK. This is all I have to offer you.

 

   My talks go several different ways, and so do the writings. Some of them are instructive where I give actual rules: Do this or that if you want to accomplish this or that. But many of the talks are purely for inspiration. Because as Soul, you have the God-knowledge within you. My main job is to awaken the knowledge and love for divine things that are already in your heart. You are Soul. You are a child of God.

 

   And your spiritual destiny is to become a Co-worker with God, to spread divine love to all those around you.