Chapter 2
Cpenta-armij said: I looked far off in the distance, and saw the earth and her heavens traveling on. I listened to the voice of mortals! A merchant counted over his gains; he said: This is heaven! A drunkard quaffed a cup of poison; he said: This is heaven! A wanton said: This is heaven! A general, red with blood, counted the badges on his breast; he said: This is heaven! A tyrant, rich in toiling slaves, said: This is heaven! Then a vast multitude, all smeared with the blood of war, pointed to a field of mortals slain, and said: This is heaven! A farmer stretched wide his arms, toward his great, uncultivated possessions; he said: This is heaven! A little child with a toy said: This is heaven!
|| Then Jehovih spoke, saying: You cannot convince any of these to the contrary. They are not ready for deliverance. ||
Cpenta-armij continued: I listened to the voice of spirits, the angels traveling with the earth. A wanderer, going about, with nothing to do, said: This is heaven! An obsessor of mortals and of other angels said: This is heaven! The fairies, the butterfly angels, the triflers, that forever look in crystal waters to behold their own forms, said: This is heaven! The rollicking, deceiving angels, who went and inspired mortals to falsehood, said: This is heaven! Vampire angels, that nestle in the atmosphere of mortals, largely living on their substance, said: This is heaven! Evil angels obsessing mortals for murder’s sake, to make mortals burn houses and torture helpless creatures, said: This is heaven!
|| Again Jehovih spoke, saying: You can convince none of these to the contrary. They are not ready for deliverance. ||
So once more I listened to the sounds coming from the far-off earth. And I heard the prayers of mortals. The king prayed for his kingdom and for himself. The general prayed for success in war. The merchant for great gains; the tyrant for great authority.
|| Jehovih said: Only the earth can answer such prayers. ||
I listened again for the prayers of mortals; they had great afflictions, dire diseases, famines, and wars; the merchants were bankrupt, and there was great suffering, and they prayed for deliverance.
|| Jehovih said: If you deliver them they would return to their old, evil habits. I say to you, the merchant shall be bankrupt; the king shall fail; the general be overthrown; the healthy shall be sick for a season. Until they know My power, they cannot learn; unless they feel affliction, they will not help one another. If a man says: O Jehovih, come and heal the sick. || Should he not first of all recognize My will and know My power?
To give money to the drunkard, what good is that? To give wealth and earthly prosperity to those who do not acknowledge Me, is to set them against Me. To give healing to the fevered, is to teach them that I have no power in the unseen air. Do not answer the prayers of these. ||
I listened once more to the prayers of mortals. And they were from those who lived according to their highest light; they purified the flesh by pure food, and by bathing every day; and they went about doing good constantly, hoarding up neither clothes, nor silver, nor gold, nor anything earthly. And they purified their thoughts by putting away the evil tongue, the evil eye, and the evil ear; and many of them were bound by the kings, and the tyrants, and the laws of mortals; and some of them were sick. And they prayed, saying: Great is my affliction, O Jehovih. I know that in Your sight I am justly punished.
But hear my prayer, O Father! Make me strong, so I may carry heavy burdens for the weary; give me liberty, so I may go about helping the poor forever. Give me wisdom, so I may uncover Your glories before men.
|| Jehovih said: Go, My Daughter, and deliver them. They are ready for deliverance! Answer the prayers of these. ||
Then I called together my hosts of five hundred million, in the Nirvanian heavens in Haot-saiti, in etherea, the highest heaven. And we entered the airavagna, while, swelling high on every side, the music of millions cheered us on. Upward, high up, shone the glimmering red star, toward which our steersman now pointed the fire-arrow, to shoot meteor-like across Jehovih’s pathway; and in that direction our buoyant souls turned, saluting our starters with a happy goodbye!
|| Arise! Arise! By my vested power in You, O Jehovih, the elements shall fall before my will! Arise; onward! To the red star, speed on! Airavagna, upward, on! ||
Thus spoke Cpenta-armij, her voice mellow and sweet, but so tuned to the spheres, it could be heard across the breadth of a world. And Jehovih—Whose power and will she had learned to be as one with, by long experience and studying submission to His will—lent a willing ear and strong hand. Out shot the flames, the buoyant force manufactured by less skilled workmen learning the trade of Gods, where the million screws of fire whirled, propelling, till the mighty ship reeled, and turned, and rose from its foundation, with all its joyous hosts aboard, shouting loud, and singing praise to Him Who rules over all. Then turning round and round, slowly, spiral-like (manifesting the great secret form and force of vortices, now first revealed to man to show the plan of worlds, and how they are held in their places and moved in universal harmony and endless creation), so began the great airavagna on her course in the roadway of Salkwatka, in etherea, shooting toward the red star, the young earth.
And the first place they came near was the Oixanian Spars of Ochesu, where ten million spectators were gathered near the road to see the Goddess pass in her ship; and their banners waved, and their music burst forth most exhilarating; which was answered by the airavagna’s cheering hosts and sailing streamers. Here Cpenta-armij paused with her ship, to salute in honor, the Goddess Yuetisiv, and then shot suddenly upward a thousand miles.
Again onward, turning to the right across the breadth of the road, a million miles, to salute Vultanya, Goddess of the swamps of Ailassasak, where, by the portico of her heavenly palace, seventy million pupils, in their thousandth year of tuition, stood to receive the passing blessing of the Orian Chieftainess, Cpenta-armij. And there, with just a brief pause, like a nod from the ship, then Cpenta-armij sent downward on their heads a shower of newly created flowers from the sphere above, and in turn heard their chorus rise joyfully, in as many million words of love and admiration.
Still onward, upward sped the airavagna, her hosts viewing the scenes on every side. Here were the richest and most glorious places of Salkwatka; where the etherean worlds, rich in the glitter of swamps shining on the countless rainbow arches and crystal pyramids, afford an extensive view of the new Orian boundaries of Oteson’s broad kingdoms. Here, where the thousands of excursionist ships, from the measureless regions of the Huan lights, course along. Here, where a million varieties of fire-ships are to be seen, of sizes from ten miles across to the breadth of a world, in unceasing travel, in tens of thousands of directions, onward in their ways, every single one a history of millions of years; and with billions of souls, and every soul rich in the knowledge of thousands of worlds.
Some propelled their ships by music alone; the vibratory chords affording sufficient power in such highly skilled hands, and the tunes changing according to the regions traversed. Others went forward powered by colors made in the waves of sound, carrying millions of angels, every one attuned so perfectly that his very presence lent power and beauty to the monarch vessel. And their directions were downward and upward, and east and west, and north and south, and of every angle and course. Such were the traveling regions of Wellagowthiij, in the etherean fields of Oteson.
And of the million ships, with their tens of billions of spirits, who of them had so great a Goddess, as Cpenta-armij, who could turn her well-learned eyes on any one, and know its home regions, and from what Orian pastures or Nirvanian rivers it sailed! Or, who was like her visiting friends, great Owks, See-wah-Gon, and Ha-o-ha, now standing side by side with her, reading the coursing fleets, and relating to one another who these were, and of the great Chiefs aboard, and with whom thousands of years ago they had been together taming some rambling star and calming its disturbed vortex, or perhaps surveying a roadway many millions of miles through an a’ji’an forest.
And during all this, their own airavagna was shooting on in the hands of her proper officers, everyone to his part and all the hosts in varied amusement; for such is the labor of the high raised in heaven, labor itself becomes an amusement of great relish. Coming then to the Crossings, near Bilothowitchieun, there was a small colony of ninety million etherean weavers, superintended by Cpenta-armij’s ward, Hoewuel, God of two thousand years, who knew she was coming his way, and had lit the roadway a hundred thousand miles in her honor, so she turned the airavagna and cast the streamers and banners, saluting. Here again Cpenta-armij sent down flowers and keepsakes to every one of her beloved sons and daughters; and the history and mission to the earth and her heavens was written on every flower. And once again the airavagna rose upward and sped on.
Thus the Goddess, the Chieftainess, Cpenta-armij, went forth in Jehovih’s wide universe, toward the red star; passing through ten thousand varieties of etherean worlds and roadways in the ji’ay’an fields and forests of high heaven, seeing millions of etherean ships going here and there, every one knowing its own mission and field of labor, while the highest raised Gods and Goddesses could exchange courtesies with the fiery vehicles, and speak to them, to know where they were headed, and for what purpose.
Then rising high; here on a level lies the earth; here the boundary of her vortex, Chinvat, just beyond the sweep of the moon. Cpenta-armij halts here to view the rolling earth, her land and water; and her atmospherean heavens, the sojourning place of the newly dead, and those who have not aspired to rise to holier heavens.
Quickly now Cpenta-armij takes in the situation, and orders the airavagna onward; which now takes a downward course, steering straight toward the habitable earth; slowly now, turning slowly, and descending. Viewing all the regions on every side in the great vortex, she spies the plateau Craoshivi, the newly founded place of God.
And Cpenta-armij, of the Nirvanian Chen-gotha, quickly explains the place to her companions and to her hosts; and, stretching forth her slender hand, itself almost like a stream of fire, she cries out: Behold my anchorage! Bring my ship here and make fast, where the voices of my weary God and his Lords now rise, long expecting me. In Your wisdom and power, O Jehovih, I will raise them up!