In his publication My life and my Thoughts, Dr. Schweitzer asked “What am I doing here?” He said that man could add value to his life by exploiting all the opportunities that he comes across, by being humble and by acting in a humane manner toward people who need help. He often said that we need spiritual pioneers but today, a hundred years later, supported by my own experiences and observations over the past 50 years, I am tempted to say that our society is not the same anymore.
At times I fear that we are living in an empty world, an artificial society run by computers, prisoners of mobile phones, and electronic devices. Speed is an important factor, such that we are always chasing ourselves. Because of this, we have less human interaction. Our sense of values seems to be disappearing as we dedicate less time to thought. This, according to Dr Schweitzer, is tragic. Spirituality seems to be a thing of the past as we are seeing more war, more weapons, more diseases, more desperate people, and more suicides. Money seems to have become the main, if not the unique, reason of our existence.
Back in 1923, Dr Schweitzer said that he was born in a time of spiritual decline of humanity, and of course, lack of spiritual progress. That was because material progress in all areas was not developing hand in hand with morality, with respect for the individual and civilization. This, he said, is what was putting civilization in danger. Indeed, our society today is in even greater danger than ever before.
Albert Schweitzer was probably one of the most saintly figures and pioneer of the 20th century and can we say that God inspired him to fulfill his destiny? I do believe so because there is often a very strong feeling inside of us, a sort of voice that tells us what we should do, no matter the obstacles, no matter the pain, no matter the sacrifice. We just have to follow our heart and, like Dr Schweitzer, decide what we can do with our lives.
This is what our soul asks for. We are on earth to fulfill some mission and this could be achieved by helping the sick, the poor, and the desperate. Yes, very often we pay the price for that, but we can thus achieve a wonderful sense of fulfillment, we feel satisfied at having accomplished something worthwhile in our life. In his book My Life
My Own Destiny
This is also my own destiny, probably already traced since I was born, as I ended up completely alone in life. Then in 1960, at 19 years of age, fate drove me out of my small town in Normandy, France.
Since I had nothing and nobody there, I travelled all the way to Los Angeles, and I do not need to say how difficult it was for me. However, I soon met an exceptional man, Dr. Bernard Jensen, a doctor of natural healing, a pioneer in nutrition, a philosopher, teacher, spiritual man, writer, lecturer, and a Christian.
I was lucky enough to have stayed in contact with him to watch learn he was doing. Reading his books influenced me to no small degree. Thus, I realized that something was changing inside of me, and that I wanted to do the same thing as he was doing. That would be my life in the future.
H.E Professor Serge Jurasunas receive the Albert Schweitzer Award from the hand of Prof Steiner general secretary of the Albert Schweitzer Association in Austria.