To Whom Do You Belong?

In Before The Sabbath, Eric Hoffer wrote the following: "Nations tend to see their great men as the expression of their quintessence and uniqueness. Great men are also assumed to embody the spirit of their age. Actually, the essential characteristic of a great man is his timelessness and universality. The great man of any age is our contemporary.

It is by their commonness that  people are linked to their time. Hence, by how much a great man is of his age by so much is he less great."

What does Hoffer mean here and what does it indicate? The great-souled person is a thorough-going individual. He will be a loner not a joiner. He will be a brilliant, extraordinary, uncommon and accomplished  loner. In his social circle, he will encounter few or no peers, and have few companions or friends. To be great is to be misunderstood. It is to be regarded as an eccentric stranger, not quite respectable or credible.

No one can self-realize under the Mavellonialist system without separating from her peers and dedicating her life to self-development, a lifestyle that is an active prayer submitted daily for God's approval. As she develops as a person, she reaches greatness at some point, and that journey has landed her beyond the border of commonness and everyday interests.

The average person, undeveloped and immersed in mundane matters seriously regarded by the local in-crowd, will belong to that immediate generation. He is bound by local time and space.

As the Mavellonialist system spreads and gains wide acceptance, it will become that tradition out of which the majority of citizens live lives of great-souledness. They will be timeless and universal too. They will be contemporary with people from all cultures, and all generations.

The self-realizer is objective and global. The average existent is subjective and local.

As a corollary, it occurred to me that if the self-realizer is answering God's call, and in the process, becomes great and timeless. This could serve as a proof for God's existence: if individuating leads to greatness and connecting with eternal things, then the origin of these beckoning messages is objective, developing, accomplished, timeless, universal and individualist.  This source exists and welcomes doers.