235.-237.

235 – Altruism, duty, family, country, humanity are the prisons of the soul when they are not its instruments.

236 – Our country is God the Mother; speak not evil of her unless thou canst do it with love and tenderness.

237 – Men are false to their country for their own profit; yet they go on thinking they have a right to turn in horror from the matricide.

How can “altruism, duty, family, country, humanity” become true instruments of the soul?

The soul belongs to the Divine, and owes obedience and service to the Divine alone. If the Divine commands it to work for family, country or humanity, then it is all right and it can do so without being imprisoned.

If the command does not come from the Divine, to serve these things is only to obey social and moral conventions.

17 December 1969