THE SPIRITUAL BIBLE
“I am searching for the Light… not the light made by man, but the Light that made man.”
“Know that it was but one god who died on the cross, and many are waiting to be born.”
THE EPIC OF ARYA is about man’s eternal quest for the divine. It depicts man’s perennial inner struggle between light and darkness, and teaches him to re-conquer his lost divinity by unveiling the “god within”, the Inner Light. Overcoming the “death of God” declared by Nietzsche, THE EPIC OF ARYA speaks about the redemption of the divine and its rebirth in man. To redeem God in men: that is Arya’s sacred mission.
Half-woman, half-goddess, Arya is torn between Love and Truth, between passion and duty. Confused, she wonders: should she accept her human plight, or fulfil her divine destiny? A fundamental question ever haunts her: is Love human or divine? In that fateful question lies the future of humanity, for in each man, the divine flame slumbers, waiting to be kindled by the Light of Awakening. Rising above her fears, and breaking her idols, Arya, awakened and liberated, preaches the Eternal Religion which is above men’s fleeting religions, narrow identities, and imperfect creeds, heralding a new, higher consciousness beyond the frontiers erected within man and between men.
An inner journey of self-discovery, this inspirational, allegorical novel is the spiritual bible: it heals, awakens, transforms. Arya’s epic conveys a universal message of unity, hope, and salvation in a world torn apart by the clash of civilisations and religions, offering a spiritual alternative to the two scourges plaguing mankind today: the scourge of religious fundamentalism – God idolatry – and the scourge of atheist materialism – God denial -, for only a spiritual awakening can save man from his own blind folly.
Versed in philosophy and spirituality, Abir Taha has a particular interest in Nietzschean thought, theosophy, Western and Eastern esotericism and mysticism. Thinker, poet, diplomat, holder of a postgraduate degree in Philosophy from the Sorbonne University in Paris, the author espouses a pantheistic, holistic vision of the world based on the eternal principles of the Naturreligion, the Religion of Nature which views God as immanent in nature and in man. Taha believes that the fulfilment of the Divine is life’s ultimate purpose and man’s highest vocation.
This vision, which finds its full expression in the present work, also transpires in the author’s previous book, LE DIEU À VENIR DE NIETZSCHE, OU LA RÉDEMPTION DU DIVIN (“Nietzsche’s Coming God, or the Redemption of the Divine”) (Paris : Éditions Connaissances et Savoirs, 2005), which explores the spiritual dimension of Nietzsche’s philosophy, as opposed to the atheistic interpretations of the German philosopher’s thought.
This spiritual Weltanschauung, or worldview, equally transpires in Taha’s book on Nietzsche and Nazism: NIETZSCHE, PROPHET OF NAZISM: THE CULT OF THE SUPERMAN – Unveiling the Nazi Secret Doctrine (Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2005). (Portuguese language rights: Madras Editora, Sao Paolo, Brazil). In this book, the author unveils the esoteric nature of the Nazi ideology, which, she argues, was greatly influenced by Nietzsche’s “spiritual Aryan paganism.”
When Arya, the human goddess of Light, woke up from her long dream, following an endless night in the arms of Eternity, she found herself in a strange land where darkness reigned supreme, a gloomy world she had hitherto never seen. “Am I still dreaming?” she asked her perplexed mind, overwhelmed by the boundless obscurity surrounding her, “or have I just awoken? Is not Night the time for the soul’s awakening? Does not the soul blossom in the depth of the night, and dance with the stars and gods above, even as reason rules the earth and men below during the day? Am I awake, or is my awakening itself a dream?”
“My eyes, wide-open, tell me that I’m conscious, but what do my eyes know of consciousness! They belong to the earth and see only the crude things of the earth, the hollow shell and the outer form; they remain blind to the subtle essence of divine truth and higher consciousness. The spirit alone, this spark of infinity, this glimpse of eternity, is blessed with divine sight, while the body totters aimlessly in the eternal darkness of blind matter. My eyes tell me that I am awake, yet my spirit looks beyond and contends that reality lies elsewhere, that what men call ‘the world’ is but a deceptive dream, a cruel illusion of the senses, a shadow of reality.”
As Arya thus questioned Truth, wondering about Life’s manifold forms, Her hidden meaning and purpose, she again asked herself: “are we awake when our eyes are open and our reason is sovereign, or does the soul truly see when the eyes are shut and the spirit roams the ether? Does not Night unfold its deepest mysteries and reveal our inner infinity, the god within, as it unravels the secrets of the universe? But who, save a god, could answer such questions?”
“Alas! I am only a human goddess, that is, a goddess with a mission on earth. The law of Nature commands that, lest they become mere idols, all gods must go down to men, must become men, so that men can become gods. It is their divine vocation, for only by going down do they uplift life...”