Life is really so mysterious and subtle that even the life of plants, which is the simplest of the levels of life, and the awakening of the life-force in seeds as the beginning of a plant s life, is still not fully understood. Although it is something commonly observed by man, it has remained a mystery from the time of Adam, since the human mind has been unable to grasp the nature of life. Life in both its outer or material and inner or immaterial aspects is pure. The Divine Power creates life directly without the participation of causes, while on the other hand It employs natural causes in the creation of everything else. The reason why God operates behind the veil of natural causes in the creation of things other than life is that man, being unable to discern Divine Wisdom in some occurrences, might ignorantly ascribe to Him some things which he deems unpleasant.
Life is the light of the spirit, and consciousness is the light of life.
Since life and consciousness are so important, and a perfect harmony evidently prevails over the whole creation, and again since the universe displays a firm cohesion, and as this small ever-rotating sphere of ours is full of countless living and intelligent beings, so it is equally certain that those heavenly castles, those lofty constellations, should have conscious living inhabitants peculiar to themselves. Just as the fish live in water, so those spirit beings may exist in the heat of the sun. Fire does not consume light, on the contrary, light becomes brighter because of fire. We observe that the Eternal Power creates countless living beings from inert, solid substances and transforms the densest matter into subtle living compounds by life. Thus It radiates the light of life everywhere in great abundance and furnishes most things with the light of consciousness.