While we were walking to the big hall, everyone fell silent. I sensed that something unusual was happening and felt as if someone had put me in a trance. I heard a constant high-pitched ringing originating from nowhere, similar to the echoing of absolute silence, but this was different as I could still hear other sounds around us, too. It was as if my soul was completely separated from my body, and it felt like I was seated in the command centre of a robot, looking out through his eyes. With every step I took, it appeared as if I was only an observer, watching the movements of my body. I had never felt anything like this before in my life.

“Moments ago, your ego fused with your higher self and the two became one. Now you will no longer be influenced by your feelings and emotions. This condition is called independence,” I heard Ruthorn say to me as we arrived in the big hall where our breakfast was set.

I was still dazed. “Sorry, but what has just happened?” I asked.

“You are in the process of evolving to another level where you can be yourself without being under the influence of your feelings and your ego,” Ruthorn said. “Now you will be able to see everything as it really is. All prejudice and all distortions will disappear, and soon you will be amazed by the many things that you will encounter. However, you need not worry because everything that happens from now on will be the outcome from the fusion of your two minds.”

“Why and how did it happen?” I asked, still feeling dazed and confused.

“It happened because you have devoted yourself to represent God. But don’t get me wrong, it didn’t happen because God gave this to you; it happened because of your being, that is to say, because of your higher self.”

“Can you please explain that a bit more?” I asked him.

“Before this process took place, it was your conscious mind that controlled your body, and you needed that to live your life as you did. Your soul, on the other hand, was the ‘owner’ of your body, so to speak, but it didn’t have any physical power since it had conceded all power to the conscious mind, do you still remember that?” he asked, making sure that I understood.

“Yes, I remember,” I confirmed.

“But this morning, when you communicated with God with your conscious mind, you accepted to comply with all of His wishes. His wish is also the wish of your soul to create value for the soul itself. The moment your conscious mind accepted this wish as well, both vibrated at the same frequency, which caused your conscious mind to unite with your soul. And, more importantly, your mind and your soul are now vibrating at the same frequency with God.”

“When you said that you felt detached from your body, as if you were a separate being looking out through your eyes, that position behind your eyes is exactly where your conscious mind is. So that phenomenon indicated that the fusion of the conscious mind and the soul was happening. This means that your soul will now have a say in every decision in your life. And when I told you that soon many amazing things will happen to you soon, I meant that you will soon fully understand that all those phenomena are the consequences of this process,” Ruthorn explained.

“What are those phenomena exactly?”

“The first thing you will notice is that you are now able to easily activate your right brain, or, in other words, to use your intuition. From now on, whenever you have a question, the answer will come to you immediately. In the beginning, you might still be unsure if the answer is true or false, if this is real or unreal, but as you continue to use this skill you will become an expert, and you will discover that your brain can work without limits. An immeasurable stream of knowledge will flow in, beyond anything you ever expected. You’ll be astonished by what emerges from yourself, and you will ask yourself why others can’t do the same.”

“This is quite normal because everyone else is still operating on their five senses, and driven by their conscious mind, which is based on their feelings and emotions,” Ruthorn went on.

“This process couldn’t have happened if your conscious mind hadn’t become one with your soul. Now you are using your soul as an instrument to connect with God. The majority of the people in your world don’t accept the existence of God. Those who do only see God as the one who answers their prayers, sees their guilt, and punishes people for their sins. With this limited belief, they are not connected to God.”

“God is the source of all knowledge and the universal truth. In some religions in your world, God is called by the name of Maha Dharma or Dharma. Unfortunately, those people think that dharma is only the teachings of their prophets. So, God has become a collection of sacred scrolls that only gather dust on shelves. They merely look at God as an object without any consciousness at all.”

“It doesn’t matter if you call Him God, the Creator, Dharma, Maha Dharma, or even Nature, He has so many roles, and He is everything. Therefore, whichever name you use for God, when we consider His real nature, all of those definitions have the same meaning,” Ruthorn said.

That morning, we had our breakfast quietly but I could feel the tension in the air. It seemed that everyone was aware of the sadness I was obviously caught up in. I suspected they felt awkward seeing me in this condition, so I decided to do something and stood up.

“I’d like to thank all of you who brought and served us this meal today; the food is very delicious,” I said in a cheerful voice to brighten up the atmosphere, and it seemed to work as everyone looked relieved.

“Thank you very much!” the young men and women who had served us breakfast answered gratefully.

“I want to thank you for the decision that you made, you are our only hope,” one man among the group exclaimed, and I felt that he had been waiting for the right moment to say this.

“Thank you, but I have to tell you, frankly, that I’m not sure how much I can do. So please don’t expect too much from me as I don’t want to disappoint you,” I responded.

“Don’t worry, we all understand that very well,” said the man.

“Even if you only save one soul, that would already be enough for us. One life may not count a lot in your world, but for us, it’s more valuable than anything else. If someone with magic powers would offer us a hundred years of hard work in exchange for one soul, all of us would readily accept that offer, but unfortunately no one has that power,” he went on.

“I’m impressed by your dedication,” I replied. “But tell me, why is even one person so valuable to you?”

Ruthorn intercepted the question and replied, “Nothing is more valuable than a soul because it is a part of God. Although God is the Creator, the birth of a soul doesn’t happen through His creation. There has always been a fixed number of souls, even though that fixed number is too large to count.”

“God loves every soul that originates from Him. He doesn’t forget even one of them. Wherever a soul may be in the universe, God will always find it because it is one of His beings. All souls have one thing in common; they can never be destroyed or lost. If even only one were to be destroyed or disappear without a trace, the entire universe would disappear, too,” he continued to explain.

“Wow!” I blurted out in surprise. “So, it could have that big of an impact?”

“Yes, because every soul is a part of Him and thus reflects the true nature of God. But don’t worry, the universe will never disappear, and neither will the souls,” Ruthorn reassured me.

I tried to understand what he was telling me, but it wasn’t quite clear to me. “I still wonder why our souls are that important that if only one disappears, the entire universe would disappear too. What is the underlying principle for that to happen? Could you please tell me more about that?” I asked.

At that moment, I noticed that the atmosphere in the hall had warmed up. Everyone took turns in serving the food with more cheerful expressions, and they all looked more at ease than before.

“Although the number of souls that have divided from God is so large that we can’t even count them all, the number of souls has always been the same from the very beginning,” Ruthorn explained. “Let’s assume there are one million souls in total – and I have picked a random number to help you understand better – and then imagine that one soul gets stuck somewhere in the universe, putting the other related soul in your world in an incomplete state. That means that there would be 999,999 remaining souls. So even if the one that gone astray still exists, it can’t come back to complete the entity of souls at the original place.”

“That doesn’t mean that this missing soul will be eliminated, but since it isn’t useful anymore, the universe can only bury it where it is. God can’t wait for the one soul that can’t evolve further to come back, so He will need to sacrifice a part of Himself to complete and maintain the whole system. To be buried will cause tremendous suffering to that soul, and it would suffer less if it could simply disappear, but unfortunately, that is not possible.”

“Now as to your doubt on how the universe would disappear, just imagine if you were one of those one million souls. If you cease to exist, you would not be able to perceive your existence; therefore, in that state, you will also cease to acknowledge the existence of the universe. If there is no one to accept the existence of the universe, then the universe itself will become non-existent too. Can you follow me?” Ruthorn asked.

“Yes, but the remaining 999,999 other souls are aware of its existence,” I offered a thought.

“There is only one awareness, because we all come from the same place,” Ruthorn replied. “And among everything that exists, only souls own this quality.”

“What about the souls that live in animals? Don’t they have the same quality?” I asked.

“They all are the same. Not only the souls in animals, but all living things – including plants and insects – own a soul that is of the same nature. Each of these souls is a part of the wholeness of God,” Ruthorn explained.

“If this is the case, in this operation where fail-to-evolve souls are buried, will the soul or spirits inside grass, insects, and the animals also be buried as well?” I asked, worrying about the fate of men’s best friends.

“Not exactly, there is a big difference between the human souls, which have a consciousness, and those of the animals and plants; this difference is freedom. The souls of plants and animals are not free, they can’t do what they want. They can only do what God has assigned to them to do. For example, if God has assigned a soul to be a tree that produces fruits as food for other lives, that soul has to carry out that task. It won’t be able to take any other action, even if the human who eats the fruit cuts down that tree. And due to their dependence on God, and because they are not free, whenever God wishes them to return, they must come back immediately. In contrast, human souls are free, or we could say they are independent from God, and therefore, they have to come back on their own.”

“Hmm, I understand,” I said. “That means that the souls of plants and animals have an advantage over the human souls as they can return to the origin without any difficulties, without the risk of being buried,” I deducted.

“Yes, that’s right,” Ruthorn replied.

“But offering yourself to perform your duty as you did, which differs from those of the animals and the plants, is the bravest deed and the highest honour of all because this duty can produce 100 or even 1,000 times more energy for the universal engine room than that offered by the plants and animals,” Ruthorn explained.

“For this reason, wherever you go in the universe, your aura will show who you are. It will be a symbol of honour that everyone will admire, praise, and respect,” he added.

“Oh, really?” I was deeply touched.