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THE SAVIOURS OF GOD

by Nikos Kazantzakis

WE COME from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.

As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death!

But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment.

Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide:

(a) the ascent toward composition, toward life, toward immortality;

(b) the descent toward decomposition, toward matter, toward death.

Both streams well up from the depths of primordial essence.

Life startles us at first; it seems somewhat beyond the law, somewhat contrary to nature, somewhat like a transitory counteraction to the dark eternal fountains; but deeper down we feel that Life is itself without beginning, an indestructible force of the Universe.

Otherwise, from where did that superhuman strength come which hurls us from the unborn to the born and gives us - plants, animals, men - courage for the struggle?

But both opposing forces are holy.

It is our duty, therefore, to grasp that vision which can embrace and harmonize these two enormous, timeless, and indestructible forces, and with this vision to modulate our thinking and our action.