By Anton Miroshnichenko, Kyiv, Ukraine
I found The Urantia Book in 2005 while working at the Age of Aquarius Center in Kyiv, where I helped organize training in meditation and spiritual development practices. It was a time of intense change in my life. Having recently graduated from university, I found this job interesting and useful. I made many new friends and discoveries!
One day I saw a pamphlet mentioning The Urantia Book on the windowsill. I remembered the name, and later bought a copy. I read it on my own for two years, having decided to read the entire volume before telling anyone about it. I wanted to be 100% sure that I could trust it.
Several years passed, and The Urantia Book became a part of my life. Once I recognized that I was a citizen of the universe, I gained a new and unusual strength to patiently live this earthly life while looking forward to life beyond this world. Perhaps it comes from the power of such accurate, logical, and precise knowledge about the future.
I often recall Einstein asking the important question, “Is the universe a friendly place?” As if answering this question, The Urantia Book not only unequivocally affirms the friendliness of the universe, it clarifies how, and why. I accept this picture of the universe in my soul—without fear of being deceived and with full confidence and awareness.
Twenty years later, you would observe nothing demonstrably different about my daily life. I perform no special rituals; I have no special superpower; I cannot see chakras, angels, or hear celestial voices. No, after reading The Urantia Book, I remain the same person I was. And yet, there is a difference!
The Urantia Book taught me to have a greater trust in the universe. In place of the fear of death is the joy of awaiting a definite, though still unknown, future. This joy can be compared to waiting for a holiday in childhood. Remember how you anticipated the wonderful New Year’s celebration when you were little? This is the same feeling I experience when I think of the moment when I will open my eyes on another world. Instead of living in dread of the inevitable, unknown, frightening, and dark nothing, I choose to live in anticipation of the holiday.
The Urantia Book taught me to appreciate the extraordinary importance of my earthly life. Overcoming obstacles in this world is a unique and important experience that will never be repeated during our entire ascension career.
The Urantia Book taught me that we are all brothers and sisters in spirit and before God.
The Urantia Book taught me to believe that the path of ascent in the universe is open to anyone who believes. Why is faith so important? Because faith is trust, it is the only possible human response to the offer to join a friendly and intelligently governed universe. Only by accepting this offer can we “open our eyes anew” in another world. This is because even God does not force man to make any choice. The absolute sovereignty of mortal free will in the matter of eternal survival has been decreed by the Creator, and even he will not violate it.
Therefore, I never attempt to aggressively convince a person of the truth of The Urantia Book if I see that he has real faith. Faith will save, and everyone will be able to find out the details of the arrangement of the universe on their own, if not in this, then in the next world.
The Urantia Book has taught me patience. My wife does not appreciate the book, which sometimes upsets me. But I accept this with understanding. I do not impose it on my sons. I believe that for now they just need to see that this book is very important to me. Not every dish that adults appreciate should be fed to children. I believe that when you begin to get acquainted with The Urantia Book you should already have some bank of knowledge about the world, and have begun to develop a worldview. Then The Urantia Book will be able to complement this worldview and polish it as a diamond is cut. Until young people are ready for this knowledge, parents’ love for their children should ensure that they will come to adopt the values expressed in the parents’ lives. But the final choice is made by each individual, and no one else.
And the revelation taught me one more thing—or rather, it focused my attention on it. It is an attention to the inner voice of the Thought Adjuster, the part of God that resides in all of us and guides us through this complex earthly life. It is very important for me to listen to the quiet voice of this Mentor. God never forces—he only leads. And it is in our will to listen or not to listen to his quiet but definite voice.
Often, I feel this voice as a pull, an urge to do an action, accompanied by a sense of its rightness. One result of such an experience is the dissemination of The Urantia Book in Ukraine, which I have been doing with several friends as a nonprofit project. For many years, those who want to buy books have been coming to us and receiving them by mail. I am thrilled that Ukrainians have this opportunity, and hope that in time we will complete the translation of The Urantia Book into Ukrainian and find a better way to distribute it.
Ultimately, I will say that The Urantia Book inspires me to what I would call a calm and unchanging thirst for life. Naturally there are times when I am disappointed. I can grow weary, and even suffer periods of depression. But this constant thirst for life never allows me to take negative feelings too seriously. Mere feelings cannot shake my faith and trust in a friendly universe. Nothing in the world can separate us from God and his love.