WITHIN THE BELLY OF THE MONSTER

 

I have just met that sovereign Soul, Schweitzer, I did not meet the person in the flesh, nor did I care to, but I contacted his meaningful concepts.

I met Schweitzer in New York, that Babel of steel and money-mad civilized creatures. New York may be the UN World Capital, but at that it will never be more than a world capital of politics and Dollars, politicians and Dollar-getters. Politicians, I daresay, are failures in the Liberal professions, scientific trades and nobler arts, and Dollar-chasers are foolish deluded folks who do not realize that they are selling their souls to devilish craft, or feeding themselves for warmongers !

Schweitzer belongs to the Divine Kingship of Universal Souls. He is a true Citizen of the Universe, because he despises worldly froth, barriers and doctrines. Furthermore, he is the acme of humanistic ideals, because he is a true Christian. A true Christian, nowadays, is something worth boast. Unfortunately, no one boasts Schweitzer. No one can, not even himself !

Frenchman by birth, he is not known in France. He loves the noble prestige of Christ, yet he is wise enough to belong to no Church whatever, and he might be better classified as a Jainite, a Taoist, or a Buddhist. His cult for music places him above all sensorial liturgies, and over all artificialities of ritualism. Furthermore, his predilection for Goethean thought makes of him a true Son of the Sun, and  a Sun of the Spiritual Universe.

Such a noble creature disembarqued in New York like a gallant knight from heaven, replete with Olympic notions, like a true Lohengrin or Schweitzer of yore. My impression was that he laid foot in the belly of the monster of civilization, and it made a gest of unrest, but did not feel any better. The monster did not understand the great blessing that was being bestowed upon the great body of this nation by the visit of Schweitzer.

Journalists pounded of him as though he were a phenomenon from Mars, and they printed and reprinted his photographs a thousand and one time. They were not concerned with his ideas, nor were they aware he was the living presence of a wonderful of Universality. The press published vague reports about his coming to get a few thousand dollars for his African hospital, and nothing else. The Christian press took notice of him, but since he could be claimed by any sect in particular, they all vaunted his Christianism, but made a void around his Christ-like dignity. My impression was that Christians were afraid to speak too much of him, least they be compared with this great inspired soul who gave the Christ all possible heavenly Glory, yet refused to be personal in any way, not even in a symbolical manner.

Schweitzer’s only earthly claims is that he is a Goethean. Although he is an able music-graph, and a ponderous philosopher as well, he failed to find any merit in his appreciations. A medicine man of the missionary type, he had nothing to say in favor of his profession, except that he wanted financial means to conduct his humanitarian work among the natives of Central Africa. He made it clear, on the whole, that his great concern is of a Goethean character.

His attitude was one of child-like contempt for New York and the New World. He experienced great astonishment at the grandeur of material things and at the scale of disproportioned human forces which characterizes like out here, but deep in his heart he felt lonely, and somewhat melancholical for the African continent. Civilization was to him now, as corrupt and disreputable as it was decades ago, when he decided in the full bloom of his youth, to retire to help needy creatures, who in spite of all, still enjoyed the good fortune of not being the slaves of material civilization and false grandeur, morally decrepit and spiritually deluded to the bottom of he heart.

His Goethean character made of him a sensible, clear-out, joyful and generous Christos. Therein lies his grandeous dignity and sublime nobility. Schweitzer is the regal, living effigy of the true Christ, stripped of all dogmatic artificiality and orthodoxical legend.

As he came, he returned. Now, he must be happy again, and completely himself, free from the vain glory, supercilious pomp and idiotic preoccupations of civilization.

Such great Souls should not be forced to mingle with the abject and lustful lot of this world. They should be spared this monstrous affront and martyrdom. Certainly, they have a mission to fulfill, but they should be permitted to accomplish their mission without being tortured by earthly predicaments and limited by material vehicles. Their greatness makes them a Universal property, and a living symbol of Sacred Ideals and Spiritual Values.

I consider it a great Blessing to have met Schweitzer. His human presence revived deep within me noble impulses, and made me reaffirm my better aspirations. Y felt better what I stand for, and I wanted to become a better expression of those aspirations which stand as guiding factor of my life.

Schweitzer reconciled me with Goethe, whom I had failed to remember more often, an with Christ and all the Great Enlightened Ones of yore, who bore great lumps of Universal Light in their Heart. What I’m I saying I reconciled myself with my own deeper being, with the Universal Essence of Life, which I too easily ignore in the course of my gigantic struggle with earthly forces and predicaments.

Meeting Schweitzer is an event of a lifetime. Schweitzer is a real Yogui, of the Bodhisatvat type, because he enjoys Cosmic consciousness in a genial degree. He is so exemplary …..

New York, June 1949

K.H.
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Edited by: Splendors of Eternity. Special Issue
Reedited by:
World Spiritual University