“He has moulded the sky above us and bedecked it with splendour and awesome beauty. He taught the stars their song of joy and the winds their wondrous music. All the widespread Earth proclaim His creativity, while the high vaults reveal His skill and handiwork. His messages go out to men, not in the speech of men but in wordless whispers to their hearts. His finger prescribes a course for the fertilizing waters which nourish the desolate sands, making tender buds burst forth from the dead soil. The soft waters caress the ground and pastures arise to become the habitations of great flocks and herds”.
“The rose unfolds its beauty to honour Him and the woodbine delights Him with perfume delivered upon the wind. The cornfields bow in humility, then the wheatstalks raise upwards in praise. The trees spread wide their worshipping branches and the barleyheads whisper together of His sungiven bounty. He is the Fountainhead of All Life, the Overseer of the Fertilising Waters and the Captain of the Stars”.
“Men stand beneath the great dome of the nightskies and are overawed by the work of their architect and by the bright mysteries displayed in such a pattern of beauty. They become dismayed at their own smallness, but are reassured by His words which have come down to them from ancient times”.
“God has crowned man with life and set the scepter of intellect in his hand. He has given him the flail of mastery over all other living creatures and set him on the throne of creation. He disciplines us when young and stretches out a welcoming hand when we near the end of life’s journey. He accompanies men on their pilgrimage along the road of life, mitigating their misfortunes and rejoicing with them in its pleasant surprises. He balances the lives of all men, so they continually encounter conditions and situations meet for them”. “The widespread, mysterious Heavens are His throne and bountiful Earth His footstool; no structure man could build would contain Him. Did He need a residence, no place built by the hands of man could compare with that which His hands could erect. There is nothing on Earth that man can give God which could add to God’s glory or increase what He has. The only acceptable sacrifice man can offer is service to the will of God, and God’s will is that man should spiritualise himself and improve the Earth. To offer goods or money as a sacrifice is an insult to God, it is shirking the needful effort, evading the necessary duty and obligation; it is the easy way and not acceptable”.
“God is the refuge of the poor and the comforter of the needy. His compassion encompasses men when troubles weigh heavily upon them. Yet tribulation and adversity, sorrow and suffering are not to be thought of as needless burdens imposed upon the difficulties inseparable from earthly life. They are things of value which open the eyes to Truth, tempering the spirit, as iron is tempered in the flame”.
Eloma taught many things and she forbade any man to fornicate with unwedded matrons whose silver tongue beguiled and whose winsome ways led men astray. She also decreed that men should not fornicate with any maid or another’s wife , for none so doing could call himself an honourable man, and such deeds canker the spirit.
It was Eloma who taught men the wisdom of the stars which journeyed according to their destinies. She taught them to interpret the pattern of each man’s life, which is woven from the threads of fate and destiny and interwoven with the many coloured strands of enidvadew. These things were learned and written down by Ishkiga.
CHAPTER THREE THE FLOOD OF ATUMA
Behold, was this not written in the days of our fathers’ fathers and of their fathers before them, and given unto us that we should pass it in to you, the children of days yet unborn? That if the ability of the scribe remains with you it could be read in your generation.
Read, O children of the unborn years, and absorb the wisdom of the past which is your heritage. The enlightening words from a past which is to you, in days so far away and yet in Truth so near. We are taught that we live forever, and this is true, but it is equally true that no moment of life must be wasted; for each hour and day on Earth is a shaping for the future. We are the inheritors of a portion of time, we can dissipate it on futile things or utilize it to our everlasting benefit. In the days of our fathers, before barren teachings clogged the thoughts of men, and vain, formal ritual built a wall which obscured understanding, men walked in the light of Truth. Then they knew there was One God alone, but because they allowed their higher abilities to fall to disuse, they saw less clearly. Because He appeared in different aspects, they thought He was many.
Now, in our days, God has many varied forms in the eyes of men and each declares he alone knows the true name and likeness of God. Here all men fall into error, though all have spoken truly according to their understanding. But Truth can never bow to the limited understanding of man, the comprehension of man must expand to grasp it.
In olden times there were spawned great monsters and beasts in fearful form, with frightful gnashing teeth and long ripping claws; an elephant was but a cat in comparison with them. Then, because of heavenly rebellion and turmoil, and the terror overwhelming the hearts of men, The Great One hardened the face of the land, which had become unstable, and the beasts were changed to stone. This was beforetimes, when the Destroyer still slumbered in the upper vaults of Heaven.
Thus, it is written in the record of Beltshera; In those days the people were wicked and though the wise men among them gave many warnings of the wrath to come, they would not listen, such is the way of the wicked. So it came about that the Chastening Spirit became stirred up against them because of the odour of wickedness arising from the Earth, for her nostrils abhor the smell of evil. This is a smell no man can know, for as the hounds know the smell of fear, which no man can detect, so can other beings know the smell of wickedness. The great floodgates which are above Earth were all opened. Thus, the floodwaters rose up to cover the land and great rainstorms lashed down. The winds could no longer discover their destinations.
The people left the plain of Shinara and fled up into a great mountain rising above the flatlands below, and here, near the summit, they camped. Feeling themselves secured, the wicked mocked, saying, “No water can ever reach up here, for there is not enough of it in Heaven or Earth”. Still the waters rose ever higher and the mouths of the wicked were silenced. The priests of the people danced and chanted in vain, and many rituals were performed to appease the wrath above.
There came a period of quietness, then the people built a gateway to Heaven wherein the Chief of Interpreters might commune with the Other Realm. He entered into the silence and cast his spirit, and when he had done so it contacted the Chastening Spirit which men call by other names. Her voice was heard within his heart and it said, “I am that which has been called forth by the odour of wickedness arising from the bodies of men, which no incense can disguise. For as the smell of putrefaction assails the nostrils of men, so does wickedness give forth something which assails us in this realm. Wickedness is, therefore, an offence against us. If a man threw filth over the wall into your courtyard, would you not consider this an act of hostility? Could any among you live in harmony with those who were insensitive to your own sensitivity? Thus, I am awakened to happenings in the world of men and am now clothed in a performing substance”.
The Spiritbeing said, “I have no desire to unduly punish men. Go out to the people and tell them that if they will but mend their ways and walk no more in the path of wickedness, I shall depart”. But when the Chief of Interpreters returned to the people he found them fearful and distraught, clay in the hands of false priests, devotees of the baleful gods. The false priests were crying out for a sacrifice to their gods and had seized Anis, a young man more handsome than any other, a messenger and runner between cities. Then, though they whispered fearfully among themselves concerning the deed, the people had seized Nanua, handmaiden of Eloma, the Enlightened One, whose life was dedicated to Illana, for she had cried out curses upon their heads when the young man was taken.