If there were no higher need for it, mystics would not appear at all. The movement inherent in the Creation itself, the play of forces represented in it, require that someone actively influence what is happening. The Lord may not directly interfere in ongoing processes, since then He violates the laws established by Him Himself. Therefore, conduits are needed who could fulfill His Will, maintaining a balance of forces in the world. There exist the forces of Ascending and Descending Streams of Creation which ensure all of its dynamism. Both the life and death of every person is directly connected with the energies of these Streams. The Darkness and Light, of which mystics speak, are the energies of the Ascending and Descending Streams, respectively. Darkness and Light are in dynamic balance, and the prevalence of the energy of one of the Streams directly influences the conditions of life of people and their state.
The majority of people live in darkness; after all, the energies of the Descending Stream dominate them, feeding and maintaining all their desires. As we know, people have all sorts of desires, but this is not the point. Not only mystics become conduits of energies, but every person on the Earth transforms and “pumps” through himself energies of the most diverse qualities. And the outer influences at times have the most unexpected and not always predictable effect on the state of energies, people, and the Streams as a whole. The very same idea of evolution led to the fact that mass murders became nearly the norm – both in Russia and in Europe. The dynamic balance of the Streams is maintained through people, but sometimes the fluctuation of the forces are so rapid and unexpected that the price of balance becomes too great. The Pattern of Creation – in which variants of the turn of events always exists – may be disrupted, and then our branch of Creation comes to a rapid and irreversible end. These words may seem excessively dramatic and serious, but such situations have already occurred, and in fact some of them have happened quite recently.
If the majority of people pump energy and are subject to external influences without being aware of this at all, then mystics take part in these processes entirely consciously. And here we must understand the energy situation in which mystics live. In the process of work on themselves, in the process of interaction with God, mystics rid themselves of desires, and in so doing, come out from under the influence of energies of the Descending Stream. They grow the state of awareness and the waves which force masses of people to follow certain new ideas do not touch them. They come out from under the general sleep of life, which is full of projections and hallucinations of the mind, passions ignited over nonsense, and all forms of negative feelings and emotions. Having experienced transformation, mystics change in such a way that they themselves become conduits of the Light, conduits of energies of the Ascending Stream of Creation. Therefore, their presence alone already influences the balance here of energies of the Streams, on the balance of Darkness and Lightness in our world. Massive psychoses, fascination with the latest idea and other reactions of the crowds influence this balance no less (although in the direction of increasing Darkness), but the energy radiated by the mystic himself, who has undergone transformation, is different in quality. It is higher, and therefore to maintain balance less of it is needed. And a living mystic is needed in order to directly bringing into the world higher energies which cannot be manifested here without a conduit.
The higher the level of a mystic, the higher the level of his influence on the balance of Light and Darkness. I have already written a fair amount about these Forces, but I will repeat that for any serious mystic they are what he must constantly deal with. There are periods – already not dependent on the general state of people – when either Darkness or Light dominate on the planet. Such periods quite tangibly reflect on the state of all of humankind, and under the domination of Darkness, mystical Work becomes far harder to perform, whereas in the abundance of Light, it flourishes. But balance always returns, and it cannot be disrupted for long. Moreover, there exist mechanisms aimed at maintaining this balance, and therefore great mystics are forced to overcome great obstacles. Nevertheless, the laws of the world will still nullify the effect of the Work of every mystic in time, yet even its performance is always fraught with the overcoming of the inertia of people and the world, and the direct resistance to the energies of the Descending Stream, one of the components of which is the mystical Darkness.
If several dozen great mystics appear in the world simultaneously, then the balance of Forces may seriously suffer. Thus, there are never a lot of them, but not a single century has not gone by without their presence. But presence alone is not sufficient; otherwise there would be no talk of the Work of mystics. The presence of a mystic in the world increases the quantity of Light in it, that is, strengthens the manifestation of energies of the Ascending Stream. This then influences the situation of people in beneficial fashion – the general level of unconsciousness is reduced, and the quantity of forced suffering is reduced (when people land in various types of external troubles which releases the energy of suffering), and even the amount of violent deaths also decreases. This is the simple law of the equilibrium of energies, and all mystics encounter its action – each in his measure.
But support does not imply development. As conscious conduits of Will, mystics can take part in the development of Creation. In that case, they become helpers of Creation, and then they receive what the Sufis call the Work. All great Sufis were people of mission, that is, they became aware of a certain task which was set before them by the Will of God, the fulfillment of which they served. This fulfillment of the highest mission leads to the emergence of the Work. The tasks set before mystics of various levels can be different, and as a rule, they never disclose them to the uninitiated. Great mystics have some tasks; medium-level mystics have others. And even so, they are all different. The work of each mystic strictly corresponds to the needs of Creation, although as a rule it is not given them to see and know its long-term results. The Pattern of Creation is changeable, and it is impossible for the mystic to predict the long-term consequences of an effect – at least, at the human level of understanding. Of course it can be said that the fruits of any Work disappear after some time, and new sprouts can lead to results that the Work should have prevented, but all of this is known to mystics anyway. “Incorrect” consequences of the actions of some mystics are removed by others who come in their place, and who are performing their Work needed here and now. Thus mystics take part in the development and maintenance of Creation, and thus they serve God.