The Universal Charity

INTRODUCTION

We do not pretend to climb to elevated positions, nor do we wish to engage in demagoguery. The only thing we want is to serve. That is all. This is not a book of erudites but of CONSCIOUS CHARITY. There may be many learned men in the world, but unfortunately, in these times Charity has grown cold. We want to be charitable; we want to broadly cultivate CONSCIOUS CHARITY.

The Universal Christian Gnostic Movement, the South American Liberating Action, and the Sivananda Aryavarta Ashrama have united to initiate a New Era amid the august thundering of thought.

Millions of people of every religious school, order, and sect have responded to the call of the Three United Movements. We are in a position to give the world a total and definitive change. To refuse to collaborate with the triangle, ALAS, GNOSIS, SIVANANDA, means in fact to ISOLATE oneself from one’s fellow men, and consequently they shall be condemned by the great sages before the solemn verdict of public consciousness. (They will have no right to sit at the Table of the Martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the New Era.) It is necessary to realize the SOCIAL CHRIST among suffering humanity; it is urgent to sacrifice oneself for humanity and to promote a new order, highly scientific, philosophical, and profoundly mystical.

This is the moment when we must organize the army of world salvation. WHOEVER IS NOT WITH US IS AGAINST US. The trumpet of the new Aquarian era has sounded, and whoever takes a step backward is lost.

GNOSIS is wisdom. GNOSIS is love. GNOSIS is sacrifice of self. Whoever is not capable of sacrificing themselves for their fellow men is unworthy to live. Whoever is not capable of cooperating for the good of others will fall into the abyss of perdition. It is urgent to do away with EGOCENTRISM and to cultivate CHRISTOCENTRISM. The hour of the SOCIAL CHRIST has arrived.

There goes our book, to the field of battle. Many will laugh at it, many will insult it, many will furiously cast it aside; no matter. There goes this book like a trumpet of war that calls the valiant.

Gnostics, forward… Gnostics, to the struggle… For Christ and for the New Era, forward.

The AUTHOR

Chapter I

Chapter One: POOR FAMILIES

We have seen wretched mothers surrounded by their hungry and naked children, searching the streets for dirty papers to gather them up and sell them to certain factories for a coin to ease their hunger. No one takes pity on them, neither the great gentlemen, nor the politicians who make so many promises to the people. We have seen mothers, malnourished, miserable children, devour orange peels, leftovers found in garbage cans. All this happens while the great ones of the earth hurl to the four winds agrarian programs, marvelous promises on the subject of Capital and Labor. The politicians promise… What an irony of life… They promise… they promise… How long will so much injustice last? Amid sewage canals we have seen in Mexico City those poor mothers submerge themselves to pull out the carcass of a pig, of a farmyard fowl, already in decomposition, to ease the hunger of their family.

And yet the politicians promise… promise…

For the poor families there exists only contempt. The great ones of the earth never remember the wretched. They do not exist in their mind.

Some governments invent ASYLUMS for miserable families. The poor prefer to wander the streets with their misery on their backs, rather than enter this new type of prison. They are right.

Liberty is very beautiful, and it is preferable to die of hunger being free, than to die filled within a cage. The country dwelling is for well-paid workers. The farm-houses are for the employees of the bourgeoisie, for those who can afford to pay well.

We, the Gnostics, must fight for these wretched ones. We must open public soup kitchens for these pariahs of life. We must struggle before the governments of the earth so that these poor wretched ones may also have their humble but clean, airy, joyful roof. A roof of Liberty, not a pious cage on whose door is written the word ASYLUM. We Gnostics must fight for these wretched ones; to live is not a crime. These poor mothers, these hungry, naked children also have the right to live.

Chapter III

Chapter Two: THE LAW OF DESTINY

In the human being there exist two perfectly defined factors: THE PERSONALITY and the ESSENCE.

There also exists the Law of Destiny (KARMA). This great Law of Cause and Effect controls the ESSENCE, but in relative form, by way of the Human Personality.

Considering things in this manner, it turns out to be really very difficult to forecast for the generality of human beings the future, just as it is hazardous to forecast the future of a crazed machine subjected to the fatal law of accidents. The Personality is formed at home, at school, in the environment; it is the result of education, of example, of habit, and so on. The Personality is the INSTRUMENT OF THE I. The ESSENCE (of the soul) is something else, and is psychic. Commonly, the embryo of the Soul that every human being carries incarnated remains arrested in its development when the I makes the Personality robust. The I is Satan in us. A strong I and an extremely developed Personality are sufficient to arrest the growth of the ESSENCE.

The ESSENCE is the embryo of Soul that every human being has incarnated; man has not yet incarnated his soul. It is absurd to blame all human miseries on the Law of Destiny; we do not deny the action of KARMA, but it controls the ESSENCE, and relatively, the Personality.

We could say that fifty percent of the bitterness of this world is the result of accidents. To blame everything on KARMA is absurd. Misery, crime, robbery, are the result of our lack of CHARITY. The wretched one who has known only misery, who saw his mother suffer and die exhausted by hunger, must hate Society, must declare himself its mortal enemy. We cannot blame KARMA, DESTINY, for this. We ourselves are the creators of such monsters. “Raise crows and they will pluck out your eyes.”

Some fanatics, when they see someone suffer, exclaim: “KARMA… KARMA”… and full of cruelty walk away from the wretched one. Others say it is God’s punishment. They blame misery on the GREAT REALITY, ignoring that the Great Reality is peace, abundance, felicity, perfection. The GREAT REALITY has not created pain, misery; we are the creators. It is necessary to understand this and to fight for a better world.

We must remedy this situation. Thus is how the EMBRYO OF SOUL is developed; thus is how it is made robust. He who sacrifices himself and gives his life for others is on the path to attaining Real Existence. And everyone who has Real Existence INCARNATES HIS SOUL.

Chapter IV

”

The ESSENCE is the embryo of Soul that every human being has incarnated; man has not yet incarnated his soul.

Chapter Three: THE RIGHTS OF MAN

There exist Rights that the State is obliged to recognize. The Rights of Man are very sacred; let us study some of them.

Heads of Family

There are many heads of family who, with their earnings, cannot attend to the needs of their home. The causes of this misfortune are often many: illiteracy, illnesses, technical unpreparedness, and so on. The result of this problem is hunger, the prostitution of daughters, banditry, beggary. This class of moral plagues is frightful and is not resolved with prisons; it is necessary to correct the evil at the root. Social Assistance is needed for these fathers of family. They also have the right to live as human beings; the State needs to improve the standard of living of these poor men.

Protection of Families in Disgrace

The State must protect the families of those under indictment, detained, exiled, or condemned. These poor families that remain without economic protection must be protected by the State. The State must be like a mother for those who suffer: the People trust the State, and it must not defraud the People.

Families in disgrace need immediate and timely Social Assistance to avoid crime; otherwise, they will have to steal, prostitute themselves in order to live. It is cruel from every point of view to deny them the right to Social Assistance. The innocent family has no reason to pay the consequences of the crime of the head, who many times commits it to save his wife, his children, his mother, his brothers.

Sick People Who Cannot Work

These are also human beings; they form part of the social conglomerate; they have the right to live. They worked and fell ill; the cause does not matter — it is a duty to pay them their wages as if they were working. It would be a kind of “Illness Insurance.”

The Elderly

The elderly should be retired by the State, not locked up in asylums. No one is more, much less less, than anyone. The State must give the elder a “Pension” to live on, and a dwelling where he can pass tranquilly the years that remain to him. To be elderly is not a crime; we will all arrive there. The elder needs protection, shelter, and bread.

Chapter V

”

The Rights of Man are very sacred; let us study some of them. ### Heads of Family There are many heads of family who, with their earnings, cannot attend to the needs of their home.

Chapter Four: THE FALLEN WOMAN

She was a tender young woman, full of charming beauty; her only crime was to have loved much. As happens generally in these cases, the gallant, after having satisfied his sexual desire, withdraws from her.

The wretched one comes to us; she wants advice; she is with child. The gallant has abandoned her; he made promises he has not kept. Her parents are unaware of her state; she can no longer hide the child she carries in her womb. If she confesses, she will be cast out of her house… And Justice? She is of legal age. Then, what shall she do? She is lost. She begs on the streets, seeks the brothel, the slum, vice.

The fallen woman abounds in urban life. She is seen in the cabarets, in the taverns, lamenting her misfortune between drink and drink. She is seen on the streets begging with the child in her arms. She committed a crime that Society hypocritically does not forgive. To have loved much…

The governments of the earth laugh at these cases; no one takes pity on the wretched one. The only thing Society does is cast her into delinquency.

We ask for pity for the fallen woman. We beg the powerful of the earth for Social Assistance for these wretched ones. We ask for Charity for these women.

Chapter VI

Chapter Five: MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL ASSISTANCE

We have seen malnourished and sick children; indigent elders; wretched blind ones; poor women begging for alms to buy their medicines. Some toss them a coin, others walk away from the wretched one as from an evil shadow. There exists no pity for the sick poor. And this happens in Modern Civilization. The State founds hospitals and believes it has already resolved the problem of public health. The sick poor do not believe in hospitals called of “Charity.” They remember the sufferings undergone there; the hunger, the helplessness, the treatment by doctors and nurses. Furthermore, not all can go to the hospital; there is almost never room. Besides, a father, a mother of family, prefers to beg for alms on the streets, rather than abandon their children. Who will care for them?

The State must attend to the sick. Medical and Pharmaceutical Assistance is an obligation of the State toward the People. Hospitals do not resolve this problem.

It is necessary to broaden these services with Health posts, where free drugs are distributed, where there are doctors and nurses who feel human pain, even if the patient is a poor wretched one.

Unusual cases are seen. I knew a worker in Mexico City who had a work accident. As long as he was in the hospital, his wages were not paid, supposedly because he was not working.

It is painful that a worker, because he suffers a work accident, should be denied his wages.

The hour has come to understand that we are all human beings and not beasts. We are brothers and we must help one another.

We will fight for Medical and Pharmaceutical Assistance for the people.

Chapter VII

Chapter Six: THE RIGHT TO WORK

When the human being arrives at adulthood, he has the duty to work. Unfortunately, upon arriving at this age, the problems come. The young man requests employment and everyone laughs at him. “Come tomorrow, come back in two weeks. When there is a vacancy we will keep you in mind”…

And so time goes by and the young man gradually becomes anguished; perhaps his family, his mother, his brothers, are hungry, and the only hope is he, his wages. But Society rejects him; the young man falls into the abyss of crime. To obtain work, “the godfather,” “the lever,” “the wedge” — the connections — are indispensable. Without these, without INFLUENCES, there is no work for the poor. And the result does not take long to come. That young man, full of illusions, hope of his family and of Society itself, desperate from pain, throws himself into delinquency, into vice, into crime. Then Society raises a great outcry; he is persecuted, he is imprisoned, he is killed.

Everyone is alarmed, but no one investigates the cause that led that young man to crime.

Likewise, young men, men, elders, are denied the means of honorably earning their daily bread.

And we have seen on the streets, beside the great market plazas, humble field workers fleeing with the fruits they have brought from the country. They are not allowed to work because they do not have the money to pay for a stall in the market plaza. They who bring the corn, the plantain, the potato, and so on, so that the inhabitants of the city may live, are denied a sacred right: TO WORK. The State has the obligation to watch over this right, because to work is not a crime.

If governments want a healthy, strong people, a rich, flourishing country, they must protect Labor.

Chapter VIII

Chapter Seven: THE HOUSING PROBLEM

The State must invest part of its funds in fostering the construction of inexpensive housing.

It is just that workers in general should have the bliss of their own house. We have seen workers, of every guild, living in huts of sticks and tin, shacks of cardboard, filthy caves, like pigs. There exists no compassion for these workers; Society does not forgive them the crime of being its humble servants.

In some city, a railway leader was imprisoned for demanding housing for his comrades. It is painful to see entire families living in rooms, in filthy little rooms. In Spain, for example, up to three families live in a miserable room of a few square meters, crowded together like animals. In other places have been invented the so-called “Multi-family dwellings” which, like skyscrapers, do not resolve the problem of housing. There the children have no space to play, to take the sun. These buildings are nothing more than chicken coops. As if there were no land where true houses could be built; and the result is fatal. Illnesses are contracted with the utmost ease; the children grow up weak. The powerful of the earth say: “For the children to play, there are the parks”… What time is left for the father, for the mother, to go out with their children to the parks? In total, neither the child nor the elder have the right to take the rays of the sun, nor the perfume of the garden.

And the landlord, the lessor? He is implacable; he does not accept excuses; one must have the money above all things, ready and at hand. The landlord has no compassion, has no charity. If there is no money to pay the rent, mothers, elders, children, furniture, everything goes out into the street. The landlord forgets that we are all human, that we are all brothers.

The housing problem is most grave. The hour has come to MUNICIPALIZE HOUSING. Therefore we propose two things:

First: MUNICIPALIZATION OF HOUSING.

Second: DECONGESTION OF URBAN LIFE.

With the first point proposed, the exploitation of the landlord ends forever. With the second, urban life is decongested, notably improving the economic and social situation of the people.

The Municipalization of housing would give the State monetary funds to broaden the vital space of urban life. The Farm-house system, besides being able to be built on the periphery of all cities, turns out to be immensely productive for Society, for the home farm would give agricultural products of daily consumption. Likewise the farmyard animals. Some governments have already initiated this system with marvelous results. The State can buy, exchange, houses, lots; give facilities for construction through small loans. The idea is in motion, but it must be intensified so that all may enjoy their own house.

The Municipalization of housing must become Law. To respect others’ goods is Law; in the same way, to build houses with facilities of payment, controlled by the municipality, must be obligatory Law.

No State must be indifferent to the housing problem; in an indolent and cruel State, there is no Justice.

The State must be Father and Mother for the People.

Chapter IX

Chapter Eight: THE FAMILY, WAGES, AND HOUSING

Those times have passed when the woman gave herself entirely to her divine mission of mother. The bliss of a home has been ended by the hard battle of existence. The mother was taken from the Home and brought to the office, to the factory, to the store, and even to the barracks…

The children who before passed the hours playing with their mothers and enjoying their tenderness, are now deposited like dogs in special houses, where an employee cares for them while the mother works. These children no longer have a home. Those times have passed.

Misfortune arrived at the doors of the home and entered it. Many married couples no longer want to have children, and truly logic is on their side. Why bring creatures into the world who are not going to enjoy a home? Children who will be cared for by maids and will live shut up in rooms like rats?

Now the father does not earn enough to support his family. Wages are low; the mother also has to go out to seek work to help her husband. This is the misfortune of our times. The children suffer the consequences; the generation grows up with complexes. Upon reaching adulthood they say: “My father worked, my mother could not raise us well because she also had to work. In this world what counts is money”… To this conclusion the man of this generation arrives. Because the rich man says: “Who are you? Money speaks for you, the more you have, the more you are worth. If you don’t have it, get it by working, and if you don’t get work… still get it”… And it is then that there appear more thieves, more swindlers, more vicious ones, more prostitution.

These problems have a solution without need of violence, without coups, without bloody revolutions, without dictators. We all created these problems; we all must solve them.

It is necessary to do away with selfishness, with the longing to command. Let us study each problem and try to give it judicious solution.

Every child that comes into the world costs money. Governments must protect Natality. For employment, the married should be preferred; vacancies should be filled with married men. Create subsidies for each child the worker has. If one works in difficult places, in hostile climates, grant a bonus. We must understand the pain of our neighbor. We all live by all; we all need all; we are all servants of all. The problem of any human being affects, within its radius of action, many. The problem of many affects all.

The Universal Gnostic Movement, the South American Liberating Action, and Sivananda have come to the conclusion that only on the basis of rigorous comprehension is it possible to solve the problems of human life.

We insist that it is cruel, pitiless, not to improve the wages of the worker whose wife or companion has brought a child into the world. To all this, the employers shrug their shoulders, saying: “That does not matter to me; I have no reason to pay him more because he has another child”… It is an error that affects the employer in his interests. Because a worker with preoccupations, with sufferings, cannot perform well at work. His effectiveness diminishes and therefore production. We will commit a crime by feeling ourselves separated from our fellow men; we depend on them; if there is a strike in transport, in energy, in the petroleum industry, and so on, the consequences are suffered by us, as we have so often verified.

If we want a happy home, if we want the woman to return to her home as an angel of felicity, if we want our children to grow up without complexes, we must intervene before the governments according to our capacities, so that the worker may be better remunerated. We all must cooperate to solve this problem.

Chapter X

Chapter Nine: HUNGER IN LATIN AMERICA

Latin America is made up of underdeveloped countries; therefore, it needs the great powers. We can affirm that the United States of America has monopolized the Markets of Latin America. But the colossus of the North also needs us, as we need it.

Latin American importers have to pay for their merchandise according to the dollar standard, which amounts to the rise of products since the currency of these countries is low with respect to the dollar. The merchant cannot lose; it is his business. And who pays the consequences of this monetary imbalance? The consumer, the people!

Hence the importance of revising the commercial treaties, of seeking formulas so that the currency of the Latin countries may acquire a better position with respect to the dollar. Because it is a fact beyond all doubt that the Latin American peoples feel hatred, resentment, dissatisfaction against the United States of America.

And the great country of the North has no interest in surrounding itself with enemies, with resentful ones. It is necessary to seek a solution to the problem, without selfishness. One must cultivate CHRISTOCENTRISM; only thus shall we have peace, abundance, felicity. It is necessary to leave selfishness and to realize the SOCIAL CHRIST.

Chapter XI

Chapter Ten: COST OF LIVING

By car we roll through the avenues of the old country of the Aztecs; we find ourselves in the beautiful capital of the ancient Nahuatl. The taxi driver is a cheerful and talkative old man. The streets of the great market of “La Merced,” the food warehouses, are filled with people who buy.

“The man of the taxi comments something about the cost of living and says to us: “Look, these warehouses at no hour are empty; through these streets circulate millions of pesos daily. These premises are very expensive, and therefore the merchants extract the rent from their products, that is, from the consumer. Hence the food is so expensive”… We answer him: “It is so… and one must take into account the hoarders. The countryman is the one who earns the least… the product passes through many hands and when it reaches the consumer it bears all the markup”…

The car makes its way and the driver continues: “Look, the merchants have raised a memorial to the government requesting it intervene in the prices of rental of premises; thus, they affirm, they could sell at lower prices”… “That is clear,” we reply; “the Municipalization of housing, of all commercial premises, would bring the lowering of the cost of living. Because the government could have storage warehouses of provisions to prevent hoarders, thus the countryman would receive the just price for his products. The vendor would sell at prices controlled by the government”…

We need neither Capitalism nor Communism in order to live; what is truly necessary is COMPREHENSION.

Chapter XII

Chapter Eleven: RELIGIONS

The postulate of the wise mathematician Albert Einstein, “Energy is equal to mass multiplied by the velocity of light squared,” brought ATHEISTIC MATERIALISM crashing down. “Mass is transformed into energy; energy is transformed into mass.” These wise postulates marked the end of Materialism.

The Spirit-Matter binomial is nothing but the manifestation of one and the same thing; this is energy. Religions have a scientific basis; Temples are true atomic energy plants; prayers are mental formulas that allow us to generate energy that passes from one brain to another. Thus are the so-called miracles realized. Whoever now laughs at Religion turns out to be an enemy of atomic energy, and only the ignorant can laugh at such a truth.

The forces generated by a Ritual can be used in agriculture or to heal the sick at a distance. The day is not far off when these forces can be photographed and measured with precision instruments. The Priests of all Religions now turn out to be true Magicians of Nuclear Energy.

Death is truly a subtraction of whole numbers; once the operation is finished, only the Values remain. Thus what continues after death are the Energetic Values of Nature. These Values Reincarnate, with Death thus being a return to Conception.

Life and Death are intimately linked because both are modifications of the Universal Energy.

The destroyers of Religions are unaware of Nuclear Physics, and whoever laughs at what he does not know is on the path to becoming an idiot. The persecutors of Religions are poor ignoramuses. Whoever criticizes the religion of his neighbor commits a crime against Universal Charity; Religions are precious pearls strung upon the golden thread of Divinity. Within the Great Social Reform, we must respect all Religions, Schools, Orders, Beliefs. Every human being deserves respect; his religion is something most sacred.

True Conscious Charity is based on Comprehension; whoever combats religious principles has no Conscious Charity.

Dialectical materialism was reduced to dust by the postulates of the wise author of the Theory of Relativity. Scientific technique will demonstrate the existence of Hyperspace, the energetic value of prayer and of rituals. Likewise the tremendous reality of the ENERGETIC I that continues after death. That day will come when the ENERGETIC I can be photographed.

Through Conscious Charity, the Religions, Orders, Schools must unite to work for the social and economic well-being of humanity. The fratricidal struggles of the various Religions are condemned to universal disapproval.

The Great Universal Charity is Cosmic Religiosity.

THE END

This work was finished printing on September 28, 1973, at Iris Impresores. Bogotá D.E. – Colombia.

Appendix

APPENDIX

Creation of the Institute of Universal Charity

Conclusions of the Commission charged with elaborating the project of Universal Charity at the Ecumenical Christian Gnostic Congress of San Salvador, held between December 27, 1972, and January 2, 1973.

THE COMMISSION CHARGED WITH ELABORATING THE PROJECT OF UNIVERSAL CHARITY.

CONSIDERING:

That an Organism of Charity must be created at all levels, that operates efficiently fitting within the laws of each country.

That this Institute must be created automatically by all the members of the M.G.C.U. of each country and in the respective sections or affiliates, represented in this Congress.

That some governments make large contributions for welfare, which do not reach their destination, that is, the needy, because they are intercepted by organisms that pass themselves off as charitable but that sell the donated articles to commercial entities instead of distributing them free of charge.

That through the Institute, these official services and donations can be channeled so that they truly reach the needy and so that commerce is no longer made and these donations are no longer inhumanly exploited.

That it is necessary for this Institute to come into contact with the different organisms or associations of welfare, communal actions, or any type of charitable service, in order to coordinate and contribute to their efficient operation in favor of conscious charity.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Create the Institute of Universal Charity here and now.

Request the recognition of international aid such as UNESCO and OAS.

This Institute shall revolve around the S.S.S., which shall be its international directive.

The Institute shall have a National President, who shall be the same one who represents the authority of the Sovereign Commander in each country.

The National President of the Institute of Universal Charity shall coordinate all the functions of this in his country, having to inform the S.S.S. about its activities.

The commissions shall be charged with making contact with the community.

It is suggested to create an organizational chart whose head and central consultant shall be V.M. SAMAEL AUN WEOR, advised by the vice-consultant V.M. GARGHA KUICHINES.

Author

Samael Aun Weor

V.M. Samael Aun Weor is the founder of AGEACAC (Gnostic Association of Anthropological and Cultural Studies, A.C.) and of the International Gnostic Movement.

He left a great teaching in which is synthesized the path that man must follow to reach the complete awakening of his consciousness and his self-realization. V.M. Samael was an anthropologist, sociologist, spiritual guide, and author of over 70 books, and he delivered more than 300 conferences.

He dedicated his life to delving into the great truths that the various civilizations have bequeathed to humanity in diverse forms of manifestation: philosophy, religion, art, and science.