I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

It is well to remember that the entire Universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.

He looked up at the clear night sky above him. Any word was like an unnecessary stain on the silence and nothingness that surrounded him. But he wasn’t looking at the stars. It was something else he was focusing on. He didn’t know exactly what it was. There was only one thing he could be sure of: it was getting closer…

The massive object that had descended from the sky was now standing motionless in front of him. He couldn’t really tell its exact size, but he was convinced that his entire village would surely fit inside the peculiar object. Suddenly, a part of the hull disappeared, as if it simply dissolved. An eerie feeling overwhelmed him. He couldn’t move, and it felt like his brain was freezing…

He woke up. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying on his back. However, he was floating a few centimeters above the so-called “bed”. His movements were unlike the ones he had been used to. There was no impairment whatsoever. He didn’t know at the time, but he had long ago escaped the gravitational pull of his home planet and he was now traveling through space at speeds he had never dreamed of…

He began to unravel the aspects of the world that surrounded him. But he was doing this at a very slow pace. It was not until he fully mastered the ability to move in a gravitation-free environment that he heard a voice, a voice that seemed to come from every corner of the room he was in:

“Greetings, creature! You probably wonder why you are here… You see, long ago, my race came to your planet and helped all life forms on it to develop or evolve to something new, improved. The result of that action is the human race. It is now time to let you know what your purpose is…”

He was utterly bewildered.

“I know it might seem rather confusing for you at the present time, but you must know that you were the one we chose to spread the Word among the members of your race. You don’t have to understand the meaning of the Word in its condition of being complete. Future generations will have the opportunity to do that. Your only task is to transmit the message.”

A few moments of silence followed. Then the voice started speaking again:

“Here is the Word, in the form that you should communicate to the others: Both wisdom and work are a path to the Supreme. Know that a man of true wisdom is he who craves not nor hates; for he who is above the two contraries soon finds his freedom. Ignorant men, but not the wise, say that wisdom and work are different paths; but he who gives all his soul to one reaches the end of the two. Because the victory won by the man of wisdom is also won by the man of good work. That man sees indeed the truth that vision and creation are one. No work stains a man who is pure, who is in harmony, who is master of his life, whose soul is one with the soul of all. For in seeing or hearing, smelling or touching, in eating or walking, or sleeping, or breathing, in talking or grasping or relaxing, and even in opening or closing his eyes, he remembers: ‘It is the servants of my soul that are working.’

One works for the purification of the soul: he throws off selfish attachment, and thus it is only his body, his senses, his mind and his reason that work. This man of harmony surrenders the reward of his work and thus attains final peace: the man of disharmony, urged by desire, is attached to his reward and remains in bondage. The ruler of his soul surrenders in mind all work, and rests in the joy of quietness in the castle of his body: he neither does selfish work nor causes others to do it. The Supreme is beyond the minds of ordinary people and their working, and beyond the results of these works; but the work of Nature rolls on.

Wisdom is darkened by the lack of it, and this leads one astray. But for those whose lack of wisdom is made pure by the wisdom of their inner Spirit, the knowledge is like a sun onto them and in its radiance they see the Supreme. With their thoughts on It and with their spirit one with It, they abide in It, and that is the end of their journey. They then reach the land of never-returning, because their wisdom has made them pure. Now go and reveal the Word to the others…”

Afterwards, the voice, the room, and the strange world that surrounded him disappeared. He woke up on the bank of a river. He got up and headed towards his village, anxious to let the others know about the Word and the purpose of Mankind.

His village later received the name Babylon…

It has been a long time since then. The people seem to have forgotten the Word and the mere essence of it: the purpose of the human race. They have isolated themselves behind the comfort of technology. Indeed, our race has progressed a great deal, considering the technological advances from the last centuries. But all this has been achieved at the cost of losing the spiritual chains that bind us to the essence of the human spirit. The current attitude of the people may not be an everlasting effect, opinion, or mental image of the World and the purpose of Man, yet it is widely regarded as the only way of perceiving life.

Man has found a state of ease and quiet enjoyment in religion. He needs some psychological stimulus in order to live. Without a clear ending that one strives to attain, no mental activity can take place. All religions are in fact founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few. One may even see religion as a mass-control device. Obviously, all these things are denied by the passionate believers… Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, form somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all. This is probably why I see the World this way. And this is probably why They chose me…

They recently came to me in order to renew their message to the human race. They told me all about the Word and their previous attempt to spread it. They also reminded me of the rise and fall of Babylon. And they again disclosed the Word. Why is it they chose me – I don’t know. All I know is that I have to serve one purpose: that of revealing the Word to the human race…