Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Question: — How can one get to know God?
Answer: — By seeking and feeling his presence. The human mind is far too small to comprehend the all-divinity; but whoever feels the divine power within himself thereby gets to know God. The divine powers in the universe are like other forces in nature. We can get an approximate idea of their nature by studying the effects of natural forces, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, etc., but we only really get to know light when we see it, heat when we feel it, electricity when it penetrates us. It is the same with those natural forces that arouse desires and passions in people and animals. Only those who desire know what desire is, only those who love know love, only those who hate know hatred, the envious know envy, the miser know greed, etc. Without our own feelings, the observation of the effects of these forces would only ever present us with riddles.
Likewise, by contemplating the wonders of nature, we may well conclude that all nature has come into being from one cause which we call “God,” and since we see the manifestations of wisdom, intelligence, life, consciousness, etc., it follows that all these powers must be contained in this one unrevealed cause and primal force, for otherwise they could not manifest themselves and work. A lifeless form cannot produce life, a dead matter cannot produce consciousness, and ignorance cannot produce wisdom. But to know God, we must strive to create the conditions necessary for the divine spark within us to awaken and come to our consciousness. When this spark, kindled by the fire of unselfish love, becomes a flame whose light illumines our soul, then we know what God is, then we have true Theosophy.
Note:
[1] Theosophical Correspondence. Knowledge of God. By Dr. Franz Hartmann [Theosophische Korrespondenz. Gotteserkenntnis. Von Dr. Franz Hartmann. Theosophischer Wegweiser 8, no, 5 (February 1907), 163-164] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than minor typos, translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}