Theosophical Correspondence.

Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]

 

          Question: — Is it true, as various philosophers claim, that the riddle of the universe is insoluble for man?

          Answer: — Here too, the answer to this question depends primarily on the definition given to the word “man.” For the brooding, animal human mind, which seeks to grasp the all-embracing ONE, the indivisible Eternal, and to bring it down into the realm of its limitations in order to investigate it and satisfy scientific curiosity, it will forever be a riddle; for the transitory intellect is blind to spiritual things and by its conclusions arrives only at probabilities and theories, but not at the knowledge of truth. On the other hand, if we consider man basically as a spiritual being, temporarily bound to matter and consequently caught up in the illusion of being separate from the Godhead, it is quite possible for him to solve the riddle of the universe even without any study or brain-racking; for if he succeeds in awakening the consciousness of God within himself and allowing his personality consciousness to merge into it, he will recognize himself as the Creator of the worlds and creation will therefore no longer be a mystery. As the Apostle Paul teaches in his letters to the Corinthians (I Corinthians II, 7), the secrets of God in the universe do not belong to the great ones of this world, who perish, but to the mind of the immortal God-man. The God-man in us and outside us is called “Jesus Christ” by the Christian mystics, and they rightly teach that all true love and all true knowledge can only be found in him. Therefore, as long as the scholars and philosophers of this world do not want to know anything about Jesus Christ and do not know him, the riddle of the world will be unsolvable for them too.

 

Note

[1] Hartmann, F. (1907). “Theosophical Correspondence. Is it true, as various philosophers claim, that the riddle of the world is unsolvable for man?” Hutwohl, R., (trans.), Theosophischer Wegweiser 8, no, 7 (April), 223-224 {Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]