Authority...

Himbal: Why does Shamadam persecute our Master while our Master loves Shamadam?

Mirdad: Not me Shamadam persecutes, Shamadam persecutes Shamadam.
   Invest the blind with a semblance of authority, and they will pluck the eyes of all the seeing, even the eyes of those who labour hard to make them see.

   Give the slave his way but for a day, and he will turn the world into a world of slaves. The first he would flail and fetter would be the ones who would toil incessantly to set him free.

   All world authority, whatever be its source, is counterfeit. Therefore it clicks its spurs, and brandishes the sword, and rides in boisterous pomp and glittering ceremony that none may dare look into its false heart. Its shaky throne it mounts on guns and spears. Its vanity-swept soul it decorates with fear-inspiring amulets and necromantic emblems that the eyes of the curious may not behold its wretched poverty.

   Such an authority is both a blind and a curse to the man who craves to exercise it. It would maintain itself at any cost, even the fearful cost of destroying the man himself and those who accept his authority, and those who oppose it as well.

   Because of their lust for authority, men are in constant turmoil. Those in authority are ever fighting to maintain it. Those out of authority are ever struggling to snatch it from the hands of those who hold it. While Man, the God in swaddling-bands, is trampled under foot and hoof and left on the field of battle unnoticed, unattended and unloved.

   So furious is the fight, and so blood-crazed the fighters that none, alas, would stop to lift the painted mask off the face of the spurious bride and expose her monstrous ugliness to all.

   Believe, O monks, that no authority is worth the flutter of an eyelash, except the authority of Holy Understanding which is priceless. For that no sacrifice is great. Attain it once, and you shall hold it to the end of Time. And it shall charge your words with more power than all the armies of the world can ever command; and it shall bless your deeds with more beneficence than all the world authorities combined can ever dream of bringing to the world.

   For Understanding is its own shield; its strong arm is Love. It neither persecutes nor tyrannizes, but like unto dew it falls upon the arid hearts of men; and those who reject it is blesses no less than those who drink it in. Because too certain of its inner force, it has recourse to no external force. Because too fearless, it shuns the use of fear as a weapon for imposing itself on any man.

   The world is poor - ah, so poor - in Understanding. Therefore, does it seek to hide its poverty, behind the veil of counterfeit authority. And counterfeit authority strikes defensive and offensive alliances with counterfeit force; and the two put Fear in command. And Fear destroys them both.

   Has it not always been that weak would combine to protect his weakness?> Thus world's authority and world's brute force go hand in hand under the lash of Fear and pay their daily to Ignorance in wars and blood and tears. And Ignorance benignly smiles on all and says to them, 'Well done!'

   'Well done!' said Shamadam to Shamadam when he consigned Mirdad to the Pit. But little did Shamadam think that in casting me into the Pit, he had cast himself, and not me. For the Pit cannot hold Mirdad; while Shamadam must labour long and hard to scale its dark and slippery walls.

   A trinket is all world authority. Let those who are yet babes in Understanding amuse themselves with it. But you must not impose yourselves on any man. For that which is imposed by force is soon or late deposed by force.

   Seek no authority over the lives of men; of that the Omniwill is master. Nor seek authority over the goods of men, for men are chained so much to their goods as to their lives, and they distrust and hate the meddlers with their chains. But seek a way into the hearts of men through Love and Understanding; and once installed therein you can then better work to loose men of their chains.

   For Love will guide your hand, while Understanding holds the lantern.

 - Mirdad

   The Book of Mirdad