LETTERS FROM ABROAD
the control and cadence of creative laws to change them into good. Our Shiva is the lord of terrible spirits, who are spirits of death: and he is also Shivam, the good, The true goodness is not in the negation of badness; it is in mastery of it. It is the miracle that turns the tumult of chaos into the dance of beauty. The true education is the use of that power of miracle, that ideal of creation, Punishments and disciplines imposed from outside are negative. The teacher is Shiva. He has the divine power of destroying destructiveness, of sucking out poison. If France had the Shiva in her heart she could transform evil into good, she could forgive. And by that forgiveness she could prove her own immortality, and truly save herself from the hurt which was inflicted upon her.
This is difficult, but this is the only way of salvation, Only the creative ideal can completely get over the acts of destruction. It is the spiritual ideal, it is love, it is forgiveness, God is perpetually exercising it and thus the creation is ever kept sweet, and in the heart of death life has its ceaseless play of joy. Do we not know this in our individual life? Have we our own right to exist in this wonderful world ? Would we not burn it, destroy it? Has not God’s creative power given us our place in his universe? Must we forget that, when we judge and deal with our own fellow beings?
