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GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” Matthew 19: 6 “What God has joined together… ” Obviously, in this verse Christ speaks about marriage. Actually, is this marriage, what people do at present? Two families become close friends, live well together and after a time they marry their children – is it the right joining? There are three kinds of joining: the first is what God does – it is the true and sound joining; the second one is what a person does by oneself and the third is what people do. All difficulties, contradictions and sufferings of the joined people come from the last two. In order to be able to do a certain joining rightly, a person, a master or a state should be deeply filled with God’s Wisdom, should comprehend the main law on which Life is built. To comprehend the main law of Life means to comprehend Life as it is manifesting in Nature. That is why, when reading the verse in which Christ speaks about joining, you should realize it in its full, in its deep sense, not sticking to the perfunctory meaning of the word. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder” – many read and read over this verse but do not comprehend it. Many preachers have spoken on this verse, have interpreted it but they have not touched the main Truth hidden in it. Why is the Truth contained in this verse not revealed? For two reasons: from one side, because of the ignorance of those speaking on it; from the other side, because of the intentional shrouding of the Truth for fear that it may expose them. Lack of knowledge, ignorance is excusable – not knowing something people speak about what they know and how they think. However, it is neither excusable nor justifiable to know the Truth and to hide it consciously. The Truth is a great principle. Only a clear person can speak the Truth; if someone unclear tries to speak the Truth, It would kill that one. In addition, only a clear person can comprehend the Truth. Someone wants to have the Truth told - in order to hear the Truth, he or she should be ready to die; in other words, you cannot hear and comprehend the Truth if you are not ready to lay down your life for it. The words of Christ: “Who is not ready to deny himself” understand the readiness of man to deny his life in order to comprehend the great Divine Truth. Christ has spoken a lot on the joining together as well as on the major principles in Life, but only fragments have reached us on which people today put free interpretations, create various theories that do not correspond with the Absolute Truth. A right thought is only the one practiced in the real life. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” Joining exists not only between the souls but between the tones as well – we call this harmony. If we look at a violin we will see that it consists of several parts but arranged in such a way that all curves and angles are directed to one straight line passing through the middle of the violin. The violin master has combined its lines and angles in such a way that when touching its strings all tones come out from the main opening in a harmonic combination. Man, too, is an instrument similar to a violin – with four well-strained strings. The strings of a violin differ not only in thickness but in the intensity of the sound as well. In order to play the violin, one needs also a fiddlestick with well-strained strings so that the desired tones are reached when touching the strings. To know to play the violin means that man has acquired one of the greatest arts in Life. When a child starts learning to play the violin, in the beginning the child creaks, and makes false tones; the more that child grows up and exercises, the more the tones become clearer. Life is music – for man to live right means to have the art of playing. The human body is an instrument, a special violin with which man plays. The strings are the four main temperaments through which people manifest themselves. The four main temperaments are sanguine or gaseous, mental or nervous, choleric and phlegmatic. It is not enough to have four strings in the violin; they should be of high quality, should be made of good material, and should have a certain thickness. The same holds true in respect of the temperaments: it is not enough to say that someone has sanguine or mental-nervous temperament, but that temperament should be of high quality. To play well, a violinist should be talented, should play with all his heart and should have good violin, good fiddlestick and strings of the best quality. Then, when playing, his violin will produce clear, pleasant tones. Someone may ask what remains of the violinists when they put their soul in the violin. The soul manifests itself in three different ways – in the field of the feelings, of the thoughts and of the acts. When the soul manifests itself in the feelings, they take part in the playing – soft, warm, harmonic tones flow from the violin, as if it speaks by itself. One eminent violinist took his violin to a good Italian master to be repaired. The master invited him to sit down to wait until the violin was repaired in order to take it back. Watching how the master took the violin to pieces with his knife the violinist lost consciousness. Why did he faint? Because the knife touching the violin gave him pain – a part of his soul was in the violin. Christ says: “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” – What joining has God made, which things has He joined? God has joined the mind and the heart, the soul and the Spirit, the body and the lower soul. Must an ignorant person spoil what God has joined? Who is an ignorant person? It is one, who does not speak the Truth, does not comprehend Wisdom and does not act according to Justice and Love. Since you know this, do not act like the ignorant one – to part what God has joined together. People who observe God’s laws enjoy success in their life. The peasants in a village complained to the bishop against their priest for getting tired with his divine service that often lasted four-five hours. Sometimes he finished the service within half an hour but most times he kept people in the church for hours. The bishop called the priest, told him that there was complaint against him from his parishioners and asked him what he had to say for himself. The priest said, “Divine bishop, it is true what they say against me. The reason is that when the angels and the saints help me with my service, I finish my work quickly, within half an hour. But when I am left alone, by my own power, without the support of the Bright beings, I finish my work within four-five hours.” Hence, when things take a turn for the better, the Bright beings help people; when things take a turn for the worse, the Bright beings have left them to themselves. This explains why some trees become ripe earlier while others become ripe later; for example, the cornel-tree is an early flowerer but it becomes ripe last. When creating the world, God created both plants and fruit-trees and allowed every spirit to choose a fruit-tree of his own. When the turn of the devil came, he chose the cornel-tree as it flowers first. He told himself, “Since the cornel-tree flowers first, it will become ripe first, too,” but he was wrong – the cornel-tree became ripe last. Man, too, may become ripe early, like the cherry-tree or last like the cornel-tree. There are reasons, too, why some fruit-trees become ripe early and others – late. Ripening of the cherry-tree and the cornel-tree are processes taking part in the human life as well. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” By this verse, Christ calls the attention of people to spoil not what God has made. As for spoiling, present people are masters in it; no matter among what people you fall, you will see that all people are masters in spoiling matters. You can see what some peasants do passing by a nice stone fountain; once they look at it, they feel like taking out their knife or axe to grind on the base. In this situation, is it possible for the base not to be ruined? Is it possible that anyone, either priest, teacher, preacher or judge is not spoiled if you grind your axes on them? After that they say, “Our priest, preacher or judge is not good at this job.” How can they be good, how will they not be spoiled, if you grind axes and knives on them? In order not to spoil what God has created, first we should not spoil it. Who is the cause of the spoiling? Before learning the art of grinding their axes on the base of fountains, people should have learned the law of harmony. A young man marries a good, tender, considerate girl but after several years he takes out his axe and begins grinding it on her base; he grinds the axe and fixes her, “You must not be attentive, tender, considerate to people.” He grinds his axe one day, another day, until finally his sweetheart spoils and becomes rough – how will she not become bad when axes are being grinded on her back all the time. The same happens with the young man. You should not grind your axes on the backs of the good girls and boys, you should not spoil them; you should grind them on the backs of the rough, sharp and cruel people - they need blunting. One priest had a habit of incensing in front of the stalls of the laity that were permanently unoccupied. One of those present asked the priest: - Father, why do you incense in front of the unoccupied stalls and not in front of us who are present at the service? - You have no need to be incensed. Once you are here, you are out of any danger while those who are absent need to be incensed as they are disposed to great dangers and evils. Be as that priest and go where there is a need to go, do not go where there is not a need. The rich always invite the rich to a feast – they always incense in front of their stalls as they have what to take from them. I do not blame them, I just announce a fact – everyone says, “Today I am invited, tomorrow I will invite.” It is good to do what is harmonic, natural and wise, so that Divine harmony is restored. Let us feed the poor, the hungry, the orphan children, as this is God’s will – to spoil not what He has made. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” – This is one of the principles on which Christ draws the attention of humankind. You would say Christ preached well – why did He preach well? As His sermons give Life, give a fillip to the minds and the hearts of people. A true sermon is the one that feeds the human soul and gives it power to advance. The sermons of Christ are true as they are based on the Live Rational Nature – He interprets the occurrences in Nature as they are. People, who cannot interpret them right, are under a delusion and at the same time they delude others. Examine Nature; study it so that you may use its forces. Those who seek Nature and wish to get in touch with it, let them get up early every morning, especially in May, and go out to have a walk in the air before the Sunrise. What a greater sight than the Sunrise[A1] ! At the same time, you will use the early sunbeams, which have a wholesome effect on the organism. Get up early in the morning before the Sun rise so that you accept its blessing and then begin your work. Restore the unity between your organism and the Sun like between your soul and God that have been established from the beginning. Avoid the temporary joining with people in order to run not into disharmonic states and contradictions. Therefore, do study Nature; do study the Divine manifestations without criticizing. Someone opens a book, takes only a passage from it and starts criticizing it saying that such and such a thought is not in accordance with the new theories about life. Are the new theories in accordance with the Divine teaching and with the Divine laws? All of us should be bearers of the Divine teaching, because all people as souls form parts of the Divine organism and God requires that His body is healthy and all its parts are in harmony. Only in this way, one may be glad and merry. If not healthy, he or she cannot be glad and merry; the reason for that is not in God. If a husband and a wife cannot live well, the reason is not in God; if a brother and a sister do not get along, the reason is not in God. If there is no confidence and consent between the ruling circles and the ruled classes, the reason is not in God. The reason for the disharmony, the mistrust, and the contradictions between people is in the ruining of the joining that God has made. In future, all eminent people like teachers, writers, professors, preachers, should come down from the height of their standing and should enter the world among the common, the poor and the suffering people to teach them how to live – that is what Christ wants from all people. By His descending to the Earth, Christ showed people how they should apply the great, disinterested Love between one another. All contemporary writers realize that God works in the world. He makes great transformations in human minds and hearts; that is why it is said in the Scripture that a new world is being created, new minds and hearts are in the making. The new people will create the New humankind which will prove that new powers and energies work in the world as well as in the whole of Nature. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder” – between what has this joining been made? Between the stomach and the food, between the lungs and the air, between the heart and the emotions, between the mind and the thoughts. If any of these combinations are broken, man is upset. It is enough that the right combination between the stomach and the food is broken in order to fall ill and to ask for doctor help. However, if the doctor helps but this combination is broken for the second time, the stomach would start opposing it and not long after that, it would give up its service. Once the stomach of someone is upset, the relations with other people will also be upset. Each one must make a combination between the stomach and the food one takes by oneself: if the combination is good, one feels healthy, fresh, merry, and ready for any work; if after that one does not feel healthy, optimistic and fresh, the combination is not harmonious. Not knowing their organism and being not able to make good combinations, people consult eminent scientists and doctors and execute their advice. The opinion of the scientists is right but is not the same for all people, not the same for the different ages (physical and intellectual). One should constantly change one’s food – the state of health depends on the change in food. As the incorrect combination between the stomach and the food upsets the human organism, in the same way the incorrect combination between the heart and the feelings upsets both the physical and the psychical state of people. You may say that people should love each other. How many lads should love one lass and how many lasses – one lad? If ten lads love one lass, they would upset her. Better one lad love her, not ten – the ten lads would upset her mind, would disturb her heart and soon she would fall ill. In fact, only one is who loves , not two. Somewhere in America, there was a famous preacher, who used to fascinate the audience with his eloquence. The day came when he had to leave. All his listeners and laity came out to see him off, as he was a general favourite. Along with them, all the dogs, the ducks and the geese came out to say good-bye to him and to wish him a pleasant journey. At last, he mounted a horse and left to the railway station. At the end of the town the horse reared, unseated him and said, “Good-bye, friend, we don’t need such celebrities, they are not necessary for our development.” Who is famous? One, who fulfills God’s will, and like the Sun, brings blessing to all living beings. No matter whether you sleep or are awake, the Sun sends its blessings and leaves. Some think that, in order to be saved, they should be orthodox – that is not right. If you are sleeping when the Sun is rising, nothing can save you no matter who you are. The salvation of the humankind lies in that Great religion that unites all religions as parts of one whole. The new religion is Love – it unites all people, reconciles and settles their contradictions and spreads Joy and Mirth in them. For people, to be united means to have a common ideal, and common aspirations. The unification, the unity gives people force and makes them powerful – they may achieve what they wish. When the Israelites left Egypt and set off with Moses to the Promised Land, they divided in twelve tribes and each tribe carried a part of the Tabernacle. Wherever they stopped, they gathered all its parts, built it and offered a fervent prayer to God. United as one and offering their prayer to God they received His blessing. What do present orthodox people do? They, too, carry the parts of the Tabernacle, but until now, they cannot gather at one place to build it and to offer together a thanksgiving prayer to God. If someone asks them what they carry, they reply, “We are orthodox and we carry the parts of the Tabernacle.” Christ is saying to them, “Gather together at one place and let each one bring the part they carry so that we can build the Great Tabernacle. And let all of us pray together to God in Spirit and Truth.” All people to gather the parts of the Tabernacle in whole – that is what is understood by the verse: “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” In other words, do not misinterpret the great Love that God has put in your souls. It is already time for people to take up the education of their minds and hearts being the first joining God has made. What a great good for man to have a mind that thinks right and a heart that feels right and to join them together. When the mind thinks right and the heart feels right, people comprehend things. They have achieved this understanding by the way of the sufferings; nevertheless, they grumble about their sufferings. Blessed are the suffering, the blind, and the lame and so on. Why are people blind, lame, and crippled? As they have passed through a certain philosophy that has crippled them. They should seek God’s Truth that brings Life and shows the way to God. Many seek God where He is not. In May, do go out early in the morning at 4 o’clock and you will find God. Take part in the singing of the birds, in the puff of the gentle breeze, in the gurgling of the springs and you will find God. The Sun invites all living beings to go out, to meet it in order to send them God’s blessing. Why not thank the Sun as a servant of God bringing a message from our Father and say to it, “Bring our greeting to our Father and tell Him that we have now decided to restore the harmony we have disturbed!” What do most people do? Waking up, they look out and seeing there is wind and the sky is cloudy, they say, “The weather is bad, it’s not time to get up.” No, do give thanks for the weather, whatever it is, and say, “Nice is the day. I will get up to enjoy the goods it hides.” Thank the wind as it airs your thoughts and feelings; thank the clouds as they bring moisture refreshing the flowers, the trees and the fruits – this is the right Teaching to which people strive for. All living beings want to be loved, to live free and to enjoy the goods that Nature gives. When I meet a dog, it looks at me, wags its tail and asks me, “Do you think of beating me or of letting me go my way freely?” – “Go your way freely, I am bringing peace, not violence.” The dog believes me, wags its tail and goes on. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” То keep this connection one should be ready to apply the teaching of Christ. That means to observe the law of harmony, known under the name law of sympathy. Two laws act in the world – a law of sympathy and a law of antipathy, i.e. a law of harmony and a law of disharmony. When they love each other, people apply the law of sympathy, of harmony, they live like brothers with each other; when they do not love each other they live according to the law of antipathy, of disharmony. There is repulsion in this law while in the first one there is attraction. Where harmony exists, God is there; that is why everyone should ask himself or herself whether they are joined with God or not. Do not seek God outside yourself as some form but seek Him within yourselves as content. A rose and a pink have some outward form but important is their fragrance that people perceive inwardly – they differ in fragrance. Therefore, God is outside and inside – it is an error to think He is outside only. We should not deliberately shut our eyes to the Truth – all things in which there is combination, are internal. For example, there is a piano, notes, a pianist, but the music is not manifested yet; to have music, the pianist should combine all elements in a whole and should manifest himself – you listen and perceive the music inwardly. However, only those who listen closely to themselves, to their inner voice, can comprehend the inner content of things – this is what it means to comprehend the sense of things. Many ask themselves what the church is. The church is the piano, the holy books – the notes and the priest – the pianist. He should sit down at the piano and play in compliance with all rules of music. You will tune your ear and will listen to perceive the music inwardly and to thank God for having the opportunity to make use of it. Be glad that you can go out at Sunrise and can perceive its rays. Blessed is the one who can comprehend the joining that God has put in the whole of Nature – between the minerals, the plants and the animals. You would say the minerals and the plants are mute – Nature is live and rational, there is nothing mute in it. One, who has ears, can hear and listen to the speech of Nature and can comprehend it. All mystics comprehend Nature as music, speech and song – this is how it preaches and teaches people. There is not a priest in the world that could be compared with Nature. “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” God has made several basic combinations: from one side between the body, the soul, and the Spirit and from the other side between the mind, the heart, and the will. The human Spirit passes through these conditions so that it perfects itself. In the physical world, one studies the law of movement, in the Spiritual world – the qualities of the emotions and their intensity and in the Mental world – the sense of Life. When talking about a resurrection, about Eternal life, we understand the joining existing between the human Spirit and the human soul. They contain the qualities of the Divine Spirit and the Divine soul; that is why man has the potentialities God has. People should realize that and should work on themselves so that the Divine put in them manifests. If someone says that he or she cannot do something, this shows that he/she denies the Divine in himself/herself; if they say that they are sinners, they deny what God has joined. God has given to you a lot of land, which you should cultivate. Many leave their hearts and minds uncultivated – this is the reason why various unwanted seeds fall from outside from which weeds and thorns grow. Those who do not cultivate what God has given to them cannot be saved – they do not see an exit from anywhere. Those, who do not work in consent with the Divine, cannot expect any goods. Each one should say, “God has put in me certain talents and potentialities and I should work in order to develop them.” You would say that man is a sinner and cannot achieve anything by himself. A sinner is only the one who has broken the joining God has made. Turn to the Divine within yourself with the will to restore the joining existing between your mind and heart, your soul and Spirit and you will be good, will enjoy the goods you are given. Do not say that people are bad, that they obstruct you to reveal yourself, but try to find the reason for that within yourself. Apply Faith, patience and Love and you will see that soon you will achieve good results. In order to know your fellow men, do remove the outer casing from them and you will see that inside they are sweet – the green shell of the walnut is bitter but the kernel is sweet, tasty. Only thus, you can know the qualities of the human soul. Do not say that man is a wolf to man; if you think in this way, you see the wolf skin that people have put on for the time being – inside they are not wolves. Others have put on a lion skin, but inside they are not lions. You should get to the inner nature of people in order to comprehend that man is a brother to man, not a wolf. One, who has worked and continues working on oneself, has kept one’s Purity as a natural garment given by God. Meeting such people you see God in their face and are glad for having seen them. Your task is to learn, to keep everything you have been given in the remote past. Where will you study? At the Great Teacher – God, whose Teaching has neither beginning, nor ending. It leads to Resurrection, to Eternal life. To resurrect means to start learning and working from the beginning. The resurrected are ready to renounce their personal life and to work and live only for the One who has created them. Today, Christ calls the attention of all people so that they realize that the image of God is within them and that they should take up to clean Him in order to restore the initial joining within themselves with which they were born. God has given health to people and they should carefully preserve it. To preserve your health, do get up early in the morning, especially in May – at 4 o’clock you should be out of bed. It is good not only for you but for all people: teachers, priests, mothers, fathers – all should begin their work early. When the Sun rises, do say, “Blessed be, God, our Lord, who sent the Sun so that we make use of its light and heat!” Only the one, who appreciates the goods that Nature is giving with an open hand, comprehends the meaning of the verse, said by Christ two thousand years ago, “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” Discussing this verse, I just sow seeds in your fields. The rest of the job is yours – you will grow them as a writer takes a theme and develops it. That is what means to hear the voice of your Great Father – of Love and to comprehend the sense of your Life and your purpose on the Earth. That is what means to be regenerated, which is to be born anew. Christ says, “If you are not born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.” For this reason, one that was born by a mother and a father, will be born and regenerated many times on the Earth. Stupid people will be born and regenerated until they become wise. Ordinary people should become talented, geniuses, saints, Angels, etc. If there are not conditions for every living being to develop, Life will lose its sense. Do work, do develop without striving to be first – who wants to be first, remains last. It is told in an old legend that while creating the world, God charged the Sun with the great mission to give warmth, to shine and to heat. However, it wanted to rise first and to go first to God. Hearing about its desire, God ordered all planets to move around it, and it – around God. Thus, the Sun, the elder brother of the Heaven turned out to be more far away from God than all its younger brothers. The Sun realized its mistake and continued to rise and set on and on in order to expiate it. The rest of the planets turn around it to learn the law of moving. Many Christians have the same desire as the Sun has – to be near Christ, but the new Teaching, the Teaching of Love, excludes self-seeking. “Blessed are the humble and the meek,” – Christ says; in other words, blessed are those who take the place that God has set for them. It is preferable to take the last place but to do God’s will than to be first but to not do God’s will. Christ says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will see God.” I wish you to restore the joining between your mind and your heart, as well as between your Spirit and your soul so that all energies which turncocks you had closed for ages start running. 13 May 1917, Sofia ___________________________ [A1][What a greater sight is there than the Sunrise !]

To Take and to Give “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 The word thief is a common word that everyone knows. Is there a child that has not stolen a cube or two of sugar from the sugar bowl, or is there a child that has not dipped from the honey jar without permission, or is there a child that has not touched his father’s money bag without permission, or is there a child that has not climbed up other people’s fruit trees to pick apples and pears without permission? In this verse, however, Christ does not talk about such kinds of thieves, but about thieves that act in three different ways: these thieves come to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. It is interesting to learn how the desire to steal was born in man. People have noticed that children are born with clenched fists; however, people die with their hands open, unclenched. What does the fist symbolize? It is one thing if a grown up man points his fist at you, and an entirely different thing if a newborn points his fist at you. The word thief (kradetz in Bulgarian) is a common word, known to everyone, but it is also a meaningful word. Its root, sog, comes from Sanskrit and means causes and consequences, darkness and disharmony. In Turkish the root of the word thief is karas and is similar to the Indian word karma, which means fate. The notions of cause and consequences have a deeper meaning than the word fate. Light and darkness are two manifestations of Nature that possess different qualities: light brings warmth, whereas darkness, i.e. the thief, taken in its broadest sense, takes away warmth. Hence, at night, after the Sun goes down, one feels cool. Therefore, darkness absorbs the Warmth that carries in itself the element of Life. When the air temperature cools down the plants lose part of their warmth, too; then, in order to maintain their warmth plants absorb part of the Earth’s warmth, which causes the Earth to cool down. The overall cooling results in the formation of different atmospheric currents. Night is different from day in that there is less Warmth and Light. When they look at the different manifestations of their lives, people say: This is our culture. Yes, this is your culture, but it is a culture of darkness, i.e. a mechanistic culture. Every mechanistic culture is transitional and inessential, for it takes away more than it gives. In the broader sense of the word we call such culture a culture of thieves. Take the pig as an example, for it has tried this culture, too. While the pig is in the process of fattening up it receives a few visitations a day from its master who gives it plenty of food; however, once the pig is big and fat its master pulls out his knife, puts it to the pig’s neck, and, a few squeals later, it is all over. Thus the pig tries out its master’s culture first hand. While it is in the process of fattening up the pig is like a factory for its master, for it accumulates a lot of material on its back. The master, on the other hand, is the thief who comes with his knife to steal the materials that his worker, the pig, has accumulated. From a Divine standpoint a thief is someone who is distancing himself from God. In the process of distancing himself from God man gives way to his selfishness, because he has lost his inner Light and Warmth. Jesus defines the thief as someone who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. If you meet such a man he will destroy you first, and he will kill you, and then he will rob you. There are three types of thieves: there are the thieves in the physical world who rob other people’s safes and moneybags. Then, there are the thieves in the Spiritual world who rob people’s hearts and feelings. Finally, there are the thieves in the Mental world who rob people’s thoughts. When people discuss a certain topic (like we are discussing the topic of the thief right now) they look for logic and try to find if it is present in a statement or not. It is important what kind of logic people are looking for. There are three types of logic: the logic of forms, the logic of content and the logic of meaning. The logic of forms is a mechanical process: for example, we say, “A man is a biped being and a chicken is a biped being, therefore a chicken is a man.” The religious people, on the other hand, say, “The blood of Christ saves and a man who has bathed himself with this blood is a saved man.” I’m asking this: is the blood with which a man has bathed himself really Jesus’ blood? This is a logical thought: it is true in content but not in meaning. Man needs to know the art of transforming blood into energy, into Power. A religious man should study the spiritual language; for example, blood is red, but what does the colour red stand for? Spiritually, the red colour is the carrier of Life: where there is Life there is also Warmth. Therefore, it is Jesus’ life that saves people and not His blood: this is the logic of the meaning. Blood is a symbol; it is the form of something, and Life, presented in the symbol of the colour red, brings salvation for man. Man can save himself through living by the laws of Love, i.e. by adhering to Christ’s teaching: this is the deep meaning behind the concept of the blood of Christ. “The thief does not come except to steal.” Theft is a part of the idle, lazy man’s culture. If someone does not like to work, he lives off other people’s labour, and if such a person does not voluntarily receive what he needs he resorts to theft as a form of violence. You might say that this is strongly put. No, it is not strongly put, but it is the logic of forms, of content, and of meaning. I am using all three kinds of logic because I am speaking the Truth. In this case, the logic of meaning has an advantage over the other two kinds of logic. Besides these three kinds of logic there are another four kinds, but I am not going to speak of those today. All in all, a thought is true when it takes into account the three kinds of logic. Therefore, the concept of thief that Jesus talks about is true because the thief acts in all three worlds by robbing man of his form, his content, and his meaning; the thief also takes away a man’s Life, feelings and thoughts. If all you rely on is the physical logic of form you will inevitably fall into delusion. For example, if you see that someone is crying you might think that he is suffering, but tears do not always imply suffering. Once there was a villager who loved eating ember-roasted eggs, but his wife would not let him eat eggs, for she wanted to sell them for additional income. It so happened that this villager’s wife fell seriously ill and died. The villager breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself, “Now I can eat as many roasted eggs as I want.” After coming back from his wife’s funeral he went right to the fireplace and put a few eggs into the glowing embers imagining the pleasure of eating them undisturbed by his wife. At this moment a few women, neighbours of his, dropped in on him to express their condolences regarding the great misfortune that had befallen him in losing his wife. Being so fearful of his wife the man forgot that she was not alive anymore, and so he quickly snatched the eggs out of the fire and hid them down the front of his shirt. The hot eggs burned him so badly that his eyes started streaming with tears. The women neighbours saw the tears falling from his eyes and commiserated, saying, “These must be such painful times for you, brother.” “Yes,” the villager replied, “It is really painful especially down the front of my shirt.” This sentence is true in form, but not in meaning, because the villager was not crying about losing his wife, but because of the pain caused by the hot eggs hidden down the front of his shirt. Here is another story: in an evangelical school there was a young man who would cry every time he would read the Bible. Seeing this, those around him would think to themselves: “This young man will make a good preacher.” Why was the young man crying? He would look out at the windows of the women’s school that his beloved attended. He was in love with one of the schoolgirls, but she did not respond to his feelings and this is what made him sad and cry. However, the people around him thought that he was crying because he was so touched by the Word. This young man merits respect because he expresses his feelings through his tears, but people did not understand the content of his suffering and drew the wrong conclusion. I will give you another example to help you see the religious convictions of some people and the logic that they are based on. One young mister went to an evangelical preacher and started crying and wailing: “My sorrow is so great, I feel like I will burst. Please, pray for me so that God can help me fulfill my desire.” The preacher thought that the young man had repented about something and that he had realized his mistakes and was wishing to get back on the right path of life. He turned to the suffering man, saying, “Come with me and let us pray together.” Then the preacher started praying like this, “Oh, Lord, help this repentant sinner, cleanse him of his sins, enlighten his mind and soul, and let him come into our enclosure.” After finishing his prayer, the preacher asked the young man, “What is the cause of your suffering?” “Oh, my suffering is great”, the young man replied. “I love a young woman and I want to marry her. If I cannot do that, I will kill myself, for I cannot live without her. If God helps me fulfill my desire I will believe in Him. If He does not help me, I will not believe in Him.” After saying that the young man went home hoping that his prayer would be answered. Not before long the young man paid another visit to the preacher and told him, “Praise the Lord for not fulfilling my desire. I went to a gathering where I saw my beloved dance with a young officer all night long without paying the slightest attention to me. I do not want a woman like that.” The Turks have a saying about young men and women like the one from the story; they say, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” To be religious does not mean that one has to belong to a certain sect or that he should enter into some enclosure. If a master has ten thousand sheep he can put them into ten enclosures, and not only into one. By studying the internal meaning of Life man comes to the conclusion that because he is a thinking being he belongs to God first, then he belongs to humankind, then to his people, to his family and finally, to himself. Therefore, if someone asks me if I am a Bulgarian, I will respond like this, “I am a thinking being that belongs first to God, then to humankind, then to my people, then to my home and finally, to myself.” This is the logical and correct way of thinking for anyone who wants to have a correct grasp of the deep meaning of Life. The Self, i.e. the individual, selfish element in man is related to life on earth. Hence, to live for oneself first means to think only of one’s stomach and lungs. However, man’s meaning and purpose does not come down only to his head, or lungs, or stomach. Therefore, the Self is a form that needs to be in concord with all other forms that have content and meaning. In other words, just like there needs to be concord and unity among all people, so should there be full concord between the head, the lungs and the stomach; then we can call such a man a man of strong will in whom the wise and conscious willpower unites the mind, the heart and the body. Under the word willpower, in the broader sense of the word, we understand the inner content of the human, the inner strength that must participate in the creation of forms. Every form is created so that it can be filled with certain content. In this case, the relation between the form and the content corresponds to the relation between the content and the meaning of things. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus speaks of two opposite characters: that of the thief and that of the shepherd. The thief has three distinctive features: he steals, kills, and destroys; the shepherd has one - he gives Life, and gives it abundantly. The word life means movement; it is willpower that gives one an impulse to move and to live. When God created the original man He breathed Life into his nostrils and he became a living soul and started to move and live. The phrase abundant life means conscious and sublime Life in which one’s judicious willpower finds the correct way of expression. When he speaks of the thief who takes and the shepherd who gives Jesus takes into consideration not only the external logic of things, and not only the theory of knowledge, but also its application in practice. By living and by applying things man learns to distinguish different forms and acquires true Knowledge, for he learns to distinguish the thief from the shepherd. If you want to acquire positive Knowledge about Life you need to focus not only on the theory of Christ’s Teaching, but also on its application in life. Theory is condensed knowledge and practice is diluted knowledge; theory is condensed Wisdom and practice is a diluted one, i.e. Wisdom that has been put into practice in Life. Consequently, every theory about Life, no matter how correct, true and good it might be, remains misunderstood to a certain extent unless it is applied in practice. The logic behind things is tested in Life and through Life. For example, a young woman wants to get married and she thinks, “I will marry this young man, then I will have a few children, and I will bring them up well. I will treat my husband well, etc.” The young woman has good ideas, and her theory is correct, but her logic is wrong, for the young man whom she intends to marry is a bad apple and she cannot fix that. There are so many fathers and mothers who advise their sons and daughters about going down the right path in life, but their children just won’t listen and they end up being off track. I am not telling you this to discourage you, but to let you know that a man who is off track cannot be set right. A man that is off track is someone who has consciously distanced himself from God. These are those people who live only for themselves: they regard Life from the viewpoint of physical logic, and because of that they have distanced themselves from God and they cannot be set right. They are right for themselves because they live according to their own selfish and limited logic; however, those around them should not delude themselves to think that they can set such people right. There has not yet been a young woman to set right a man who is off track, nor has there been a young man who has set right a woman who is off track. The only being that can set right the men and women who are off track is the mother. The art and science of setting one right who is off track is the sole domain of the mother. When can a mother do that? She cannot do this after she has given birth to her child, nor while she is pregnant, but she has to do it at least a hundred years before becoming a mother. You might say, “How can she find these children and how can she raise them if she cannot see them yet?” I will clarify my thought by using the following example: when a chemist describes the properties of some colourless and invisible gaseous substance people are not very likely to believe his words because they cannot see anything. This, however, does not mean in the least that the substance does not exist. Once he knows all of its properties, the chemist takes this substance and condenses it until it turns first into a liquid and then into a solid substance; then, once it is in this new state the substance becomes visible to all people and they can believe the chemist’s words. The same holds true about the children who have not yet been born, but who can still be influenced by their mother, nevertheless. Even though invisible they still exist in the form of the thoughts and desires that have been cherished by the mother in the distant past. All the mother needs to do is condense her thoughts and desires, and turn them into liquid and solid bodies until they become real and visible to all. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What can the thief steal? He can steal the most valuable thing in man, namely, man’s thoughts, feelings and desires. It is scary when a thief comes to you and steals your heart. What does a thief do when he wants to steal a man’s heart? He starts circling around this man and telling him that he is good, smart and beautiful, that there is no other like him, etc. If this man gives in to these flatteries he will lose his heart; later he will cry and he will be sorry that he has believed the words of this flatterer. There is a popular story about a rooster who found a piece of cheese and perched up on a tree to eat it in peace. A fox saw him from a distance, quickly trotted to the tree, sat down underneath it and started talking up to the rooster, saying, “You are such a beauty, my little rooster, I have never seen another one like you! And your voice is so melodious; I cannot get enough of your beautiful warble! Sing me a song, please, to fill me with happiness and joy.” Flattered by the fox’s words the rooster opened up his beak and started singing. The cheese fell down onto the ground, and the fox snatched it in its mouth and ran away; it did not even wait to listen to the rooster’s ringing song. Is this fox a friend of the rooster or is it a thief? There are many such thieves walking among people, too, but today they capture only the ones that rob the full moneybags, and not the ones who rob people’s hearts. The latter thieves are more dangerous because no one can see when and what they are stealing, and, as such, they are invisible thieves. Everywhere you go today- be it among scholars, or in the schools, in court houses, in churches- everywhere you will meet thieves who rob people but go by unnoticed. Do not look for the thief in your neighbour, but look at yourself and you will see that he is in you, too, and if you find it in yourself you should work on him to correct his ways. One should be honest with oneself and with one’s neighbours. You should correct yourselves first and then your neighbours. To do this you will need to live a pure and holy life; you will need to be a lit candle that brings everyone together. If your barn is full of wheat, then people will come to you one after another. The heart of the good man should be filled with good feelings and desires, his heart should be filled with bright and sublime thoughts, and his willpower should be applied to noble acts: this is what it means to be perfect. Nature has put a mark on specific places on the human body to show when one’s mind, heart and willpower are distorted: all these can be seen on one’s nose, mouth and chin. You may say that no one can see this. All of Heaven can see this and knows you: they know what thoughts, feelings and acts are important to you. The beings in Heaven, in the Wise world, observe you through people around you: this is what makes people look at each other from tip to toe. As soon as you meet someone you take a good look at him and think to yourself, “I want to see what God has written on this man’s chin, mouth and nose.” A man’s head is a book which recounts his whole Life. Just as you know a man by his house, so can you tell what thoughts he is preoccupied with by looking at his head, for man’s body is his house. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” Who may have Life? Those who want to understand it and look into its inner meaning. Man should understand Life the way it is manifested today and not the way it was manifested two thousand years ago. The present-day Jesus is what matters to us, and not that Jesus who lived two thousand years ago. Someone might call this blasphemy. I am asking you this: what apple are you more interested in - the one that you have in your hand today or the one that grew in your garden some ten, fifteen years ago? Back then it used to bear fruit that was good for that time, but what is important now is the fruit that it bears today. Jesus of the present day is more important to us because He lives among many people, whereas two thousand years ago He lived only among the Jews. Back then He let himself be crucified, but today no one can crucify Him. Jesus was strong back then, too, but He sacrificed himself willingly. He said, “I am ready to sacrifice the form and content of things for their meaning.” Because people today are already looking for the meaning of Life and understand it, Jesus says, “Now I require of people to understand the content of Life, as well as the forms through which this content is expressed.” Back then Jesus wanted to turn people’s attention to the logic that lies behind the meaning of things; today he wants to turn their attention to the logic that lies behind the content of things. In the future He will create the logic of forms. Therefore, man becomes perfect when he combines in himself the three kinds of logic: the logic of the meaning of things, the logic of the content of things and the logic of their forms. A perfect man is like a lit candle that burns with white Light, i.e. it burns without soot and smoke. Whenever I meet someone who presents himself as being spiritual, I ask him, “Is your candle burning? Is it saving your neighbours? Is it setting their minds, hearts and willpowers right? Do you have a secret room, a temple, or a sanctuary inside you?” Whenever I hear someone call his father and mother feeble-minded or foolish I already know that such a person does not have a sanctuary in his soul. A father was once complaining to me about his sons, saying that after he had them well educated they would call him a simpleton and an ignorant person. He told me, “I am a simpleton and an ignorant person, indeed, but I realized that one needs education and made sure my sons received it.” On a different occasion a mother was complaining about her daughters and about how after they finished their education and became teachers they would turn around to call her a simpleton. She said, “If I were to become a mother again in the future, I would put my daughters at the loom and I would teach them to weave so that they can appreciate what they don’t have.” It will be good for your rude sons and daughters if you could give them each a hoe and send them out digging so that they can learn the logic of content. Someone may object that I am not speaking in the spirit of the Gospel. Which Gospel are you talking about: the written one or the unwritten one? Jesus said a lot and of all that He said very little was written down. Where does the rest of the Knowledge lie hidden? Bring me those books in which Christ’s Words are recorded, and we will see which one of us is right. Jesus said a lot and presented matters in their broader sense: where is all of this? He who abides by Christ’s teaching should be the first one to be a role model by demonstrating how one can use one’s mind, heart and willpower. The one, who can work with those, is someone who has achieved something great and wherever he enters he brings the Divine blessing with him. Not having achieved anything, people argue on and on; every time they meet they ask each other, “Are you of the right faith? Do you believe in God and in His trinity?” What does the word trinity mean? This word is abstract and hard to understand. Those who argue on this topic know neither God, nor His trinity. This is why Jesus said, “No one knows Father, but the Son of Man.” Religious people stand behind religion, and scientists stand behind science and every one is trying hard to bring out something new. The new is not in the form and content of things, but is in the three kinds of logic that pertains to the forms, to the content, and to the meaning of things. It is important that man should recreate his life according to the three kinds of logic so that he can enter the true and positive Life. Once he reorganizes his life man will have overcome the external conditions of his life and then there will be no external enemies for him, as well as no external thieves and bandits. Then man will cease warring with his neighbours and with those around him, for he will know that there are no enemies and thieves more dangerous than the ones that exist within him: those are the ones that crucified Jesus. What was Jesus accused of? He was accused of wanting to become a king, and of wanting to bring about reforms. Jesus was considered a political criminal for his time, as He opposed the rules and ways of the Roman Empire. Jesus was crucified, but what was left of the Roman Empire? Did it survive? People today need to think correctly by employing all three kinds of logic so that they do not repeat the mistakes of the previous generations. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Those, who recognize Jesus and have Him in them, talk constantly about all the Good that He did for humankind; they say that He atoned for humankind, and that He gave up His Life for people. Merely stating what Jesus did is not enough; you must apply His Love to your Life, you must try it out. Mere talking without any application does not do any good for man. If that was the case then the drunkard who leaves his wife, children and home, and goes from one tavern to another searching for the best wine in town, deserves more respect. How many Christians have given up their comfort, all their goods and privileges with the only goal of trying out Jesus’ Love? How many Christians have tried Jesus’ good wine? You may object that I am not speaking in a holy manner. I will repeat this to you: do try the good wine, i.e. the Teaching of Christ, and you will be able to differentiate for yourself between the two kinds of wine: the physical wine inebriates and dazes man, whereas Jesus’ wine clarifies and refreshes you. The man, who partakes of Jesus’ wine will find himself connected to Love and will love people and all living beings; he will love and be loved. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” This Life is already at work everywhere in the world, and among all living beings, both superior and lowly. Those, who are not in contact with Love, are still expecting the New Life to come from somewhere outside and above; they may wait forever, for this is not how the New Life will come. Where is Jesus’ Life? It is everywhere. Even if you look for it in the wheat grain or in the corn, you will be able to find It there; you will find It even in the animals if you were to look for It there. However, according to the law of similarities that states that similarities attract, every person will be able to use the kind of Life that is similar to this person, i.e. the Life that attracts him. Can two young people marry each other if they do not love each other; can a writer write a book if there isn’t some idea to inspire him? Man can attract to himself only the object that he loves. You cannot grow flowers unless you love them, for flowers have their own language that is known only to those people who love them. Do an experiment to test the validity of my words: take a pot and plant a carnation or some other flower, then start watering it, weeding it and growing it with Love. You will notice that this flower will have a wonderful aroma when it blooms. If you stop taking care of the flower it will stop giving off such a pleasant aroma. This is the flower’s way to tell you that it will return to you as much love as you give it. Old-time Bulgarians knew this law and applied it to their lives: they would cultivate their fields with Love, and they would seed and grow their wheat with Love, and that is why they would enjoy such bounty. Someone who does not know the reason for all this bounty would think that this farmer is a sorcerer; he is no sorcerer, but someone who applies Jesus’ Teaching and is ready to give up his life for his field. Consequently, the field reciprocates with the same: it produces a bountiful yield. You should do the same: invest your good thoughts and feelings into your neighbours so that they may evolve and become nobler. What do we see in the world today? The relationships among people are typically based on some interest. It is rare to meet someone who can love truly: most people love someone either for his knowledge, or for his riches, or for his status in society. If someone tells you that he loves you, ask him why he loves you; in any case, you will be able to know that he loves you either for your knowledge, for your riches or for your looks, for if you lose these qualities, his love will disappear, too. Therefore, you should love man for the essential man in him, who is but a ray radiating out of God. If you find the real man, you will be able to love him regardless of his external qualities: he will be your brother and your sister. The world will become a better place when people start loving each other like that. And then the verse that says, “I have come that they may have life” takes on a new meaning: Jesus came to give Life to the poor, to the suffering and to the wronged, because they have the right conditions to manifest the essential man. God says, “I will remove from them their heart of stone and I will give them a new heart, in which I will write My law, and they will know Me.” Today the new heart is being made: God is collecting the blood from the battlefields and is using it to write down His law into the New heart. What does this war today represent? It is judgment day for mankind; in other words, today all people are being judged, but not in Heaven like they expected, but on Earth. Some religious people think that man lives on Earth for a certain time, after which he dies and goes up to Heaven, where he stands before God’s court to be judged. Man’s judgment is on Earth and so there is no need for him to come out of his grave where he has been locked up and to go to God for judgment. Man is locked up in his body, i.e. even while on Earth he is already in prison and will be judged here. What should a man do to improve his Life? He should open up the windows of his house, i.e. his consciousness needs to be awakened. If his windows are narrow, he should widen them, for man needs more Light. In other words, broaden your thinking, and open up your mind to let more Light in. People today have many ideas, beliefs and convictions, but they need to broaden those by putting on big, wide windows. Big windows can let in both a lot of light and very little light, whereas narrow windows only let in little light; big ideas encompass small ideas, but small ideas exclude big ideas, for there is no room for those. It is time now to widely open up the windows of all churches, schools, homes, and courthouses. It is time now to set correct and truthful relations between the human soul and God, between priests and their congregations, between teachers and their students, between men and women. It is time now to let more Light into everybody’s minds and hearts, just like Light is emanating from their souls, illuminating them. I wish you that you may open up the Bible and the Gospel of your mind and your heart and that you may start reading in them everything that God wrote thousands of ages ago. Jesus says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What does this thief want to steal? He wants to steal your candle. Once he has stolen it you will be left in darkness, but one cannot read in darkness. There are many who live in darkness, saying, “This is how it was meant to be; there is nothing we can do about it, so we will have to resign ourselves to the way it is.” This is the way Turks understand things; they say, “Put seven layers on top of it, and seven layers on the bottom and do not even think about it, for this is how God has made it.” This is incorrect logic; one should not think that way. God did not create the wolves, the bears, the foxes and the bad people: He created the good and reasoning people. Do not think that everything which exists was made by God: God allowed for the existence of evil, but He did not create it. When you meet someone who wants to be close with you, first ask yourself what kind of people he belongs to: the ones whom God made of soil, or the ones whom He made after Himself. Present-day people were made of soil: their culture is the culture of soil, and of mud. God took some soil and made man out of it, breathed into him and he turned into a living soul. God put Life into man, so that he can live and learn, and understand that Life has a deeper meaning than what he can imagine. By talking about the thief Jesus wants to protect humankind from him, for everyone can look at oneself and realize that evil is in himself, and in his distorted views. Therefore, if you want people to be cultured, and if you want to be cultured yourself, you need to apply Christ’s Teaching, the Teaching of Love. If you have a child that is stubborn and willful, you should try an experiment on him: apply the method of Love with this child. Start loving this child and don’t ever think of his negative features; instead, try to think that this child is good and reasonable and you will see that after a while your child will improve. A story has it that one day Archangel Gabriel noticed that every morning God smiled down to someone and talked to this one softly and lovingly. Gabriel was intrigued by God’s behaviour: he wanted to see the soul towards which God would pour so much gentleness and Love. He set out on a journey around the world to look for this soul. During his journey Gabriel visited many scientists, preachers, and priests, but could not find this soul anywhere. Then he went back up to Heaven to look for this soul from up there. As he still could not find it, he finally went back down to Earth one more time, determined to go to all the remote places around the world. One day he found himself at a primitive shrine where he saw an idol worshipper- a simple and wild man- who was bowing before his idol, and was talking to it. It was here that Gabriel found God who was smiling at the idol worshipper and was talking softly to him. At this moment Archangel Gabriel realized that the form of his logic was wrong. He thought that God could only be smiling to some scientist, or to some spiritual or holy person, and he didn’t even think that God could be smiling to someone who was so simple that he did not have a true idea about God. There is a Bulgarian proverb, which states, “God looks not at your face, but at your heart.” Religious people today, who belong to various churches[A1] (Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Catholic, Buddhist), consider themselves to be of the true faith. It does not even occur to them that there are people outside of their churches[A2] , to whom God speaks softly and lovingly. Why? Because those people’s thoughts and feelings are right, and their soul aspires towards God. Man’s situation is defined by his soul’s aspirations, for it is the aspirations that determine the way God will look at this man. If God looks benevolently on people, they will be saved. God will talk softly and lovingly to that person, who has the right aspirations. Now I wish that all Bulgarians may have the aspirations of that idol worshipper at the primitive shrine, so that God may speak to them softly and with Love. You might say that the idol worshipper had wrong concepts; his concepts might be wrong, but his aspirations are right. Rejoice if your concepts are wrong and you have delusions, because God has decided to be soft with and benevolent to all who are weak, lame, mute, suffering, wronged, lost and so on. God is God of the orphans, of the poor, of the widows, of the suffering, and not God of the rich, the full-bellied, and the dignitaries. Once God used to be God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, but now he is God of the poor, of the suffering, and of the widows. God says, “My servants did not do their work on Earth properly. Now I am going down to Earth Myself to finish My work: to make this world a better place.” This world will become a better place, because God is already working in it. He is coming down to Earth to give Life to everyone, so that they will accept and apply His teaching, and so that they may do that not for their own sake, but for the sake of all humankind. Some may say that they are poor, lame, blind: do not be afraid, for God is coming for your sake. Is God not coming for the sake of the rich, as well? He is not coming for their sake, because they do not need Him. He will turn to all lame, crippled, and blind, saying, “Work as hard as you can, all of you, so that you may learn My teaching, and so that you may become healthy, strong and rich. My Teaching is like a laden table, full of tasty dishes.” Partake of all of God’s blessings, be merry and rejoice! I wish you all to open your ears, to listen, and to apply God’s Word. Those, who have not done their work well, need to finish it. When they turn to God, then God will teach them how to live and how to understand His words. The judgment of the world is upon us: God is coming down to Earth to judge people and to give everyone their worth. If someone has lost an eye, God will order a new eye to be put in; if someone has lost a leg, God will order a new leg to be put on; if someone has lost an arm, God will order a new, healthy arm to be put on. A judge’s verdict can be fair and well-deserved, but God’s verdict is even more just and reasonable. God will satisfy all and will provide them with conditions to evolve correctly in their mind, in their heart and in their soul. You should aspire for this God. Many ask where God is, and not being able to find Him, they ask for proof that He exists. No matter what proof you receive, you will find yourself in a ridiculous situation, for it will be like lighting a candle in broad daylight when the Sun is shining, and then pointing the candle towards the Sun, saying, “There, you can see the Sun.” It is ridiculous to have to prove to someone that God exists. If someone wants me to convince him I will take him by the hand and I will tell him, “Come with me, open your eyes and look, open your ears and listen!” Your aspirations and your rightful concepts, your Life, and your movement are all due to God. He is the One speaking in you, and moving you, and so then, look for Him inside you, not outside of you. He says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Therefore, look for the One who gives Life, and not for the one who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I wish you all to go deeply into yourself and to turn to God, Who is in you; I wish you to be able to understand Him, and to know Him. It is only then that you will understand to differentiate between the logic of form, of content and of meaning. Jesus pointed out to you the logic of meaning; now you are to study the logic of content, and in the future, you will study the logic of forms. Today you will interpret things according to their content, and in the future according to their forms. May 6, 1917 Sofia __________________________________ [A1]Churches are only of the Christian faith, as you have Buddhist here you should write [various religions] [A2]Same as above [religion or faith]

What God Has Joined Together “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Mark: 10:9 Let’s go back to what God has joined together. I take these words in a very broad sense, i.e. the way Christ understood them to mean. They cover the entire human life in all of its manifestations. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” This putting asunder is the source of all suffering in life. There is no need to argue about this statement; anybody can verify it from experience. When you are put asunder from your husband, from your soul, from your brothers or sisters, friends, from your house, from your fatherland, you feel sad. Why so? The word fatherland has a meaning a bit different from the meaning people usually understand. Fatherland is usually taken to mean home, family, but what family is on the earth, in Heaven it is fatherland, a Divine home. Contemporary people understand putting asunder to mean parting only between a man and a woman, i.e. what they call separating. Putting asunder is supposed to mean separating of any thought and desire from your mind and heart. When you separate a good thought from your mind or a good desire from your heart, you commit a crime. “Do not throw away what God has joined together!” The exercises1 that I gave you last month are connected with this great law. In the first sentence you say, „Let my Sun rise in my soul like this.“ Why? Just like the Sun in the physical world is the cause for the growth in Nature, just like it, rising above the horizon, refreshes Nature, similarly there is a Sun within human beings, which rises and refreshes them. When the rays of the natural Sun shine in the desert, they warm only the sand and if you travel bare-foot in the sand, it will scorch you. If its rays fall upon soil rich in seeds, they bring good, they develop these seeds, and create life, and if you travel through such a place, you feel fine. If your Sun rises under the same law, you will experience it and you will see that everything said here is very true. If you have put asunder what God has joined, your Sun will rise the way it rises in the desert and there will be hot and cold currents. Have you seen how people take their clothes off in summer, they are out of breath, they feel hot; this hotness is due to the fact that that there is insufficient vegetation. Why should your Sun rise? To make everything good within you grow. Now, you will add the following to the first sentence of the exercise, “Let my Sun rise in my soul like this and renovate my heart.” You will also add some new words to the sentences in the persons, (in the second person singular), “You can! – Let God’s Sun rise in me like this and renovate my soul. (in the third person singular), “He/she can! – Let the Sun of my spirit rise like this and renovate my mind. (in the first person plural), “We can! – Let the Sun of our Angels rise like this and renovate our hearts. (in the second person plural), “You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise like this and renovate our souls. (in the third person plural), “They can! – Let the Sun of all Suns rise in our spirits like this and renovate our minds. The work on the renovation of the heart, soul and mind will take a whole month. This is the meaning of the line, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” This is the law, to which you now return, to put your heart, soul and mind in agreement. Anybody who has put asunder what God has joined has lost this harmony. There are many women, whose husbands died, but some of them are alive, though people consider them dead and vice versa, there are dead women, who are alive. So, according to my understanding a certain woman may be alive, but she might have been dead for a long time staying at home, just like some abandoned skeleton in the zoos or like a stuffed bird in a museum. The Turks have a saying for similar cases “For the show”.2 This is my understanding of Apostle Paul’s epistle saying, “Do not accept a widow below sixty years of age.” Number six is the number of Love. Paul shows that such a person is not ready to work yet. Therefore, young widows have to get married, and bring up children. This is a great law. The word marriage means Life. Contemporary people do not understand Life, since they do not understand the spiritual meaning of things. You have a child who does not eat; the mother believes that the child is sick and she worries. But what will you say about a child who has stopped singing? What about a child who has stopped praying? A person, who has stopped eating, singing and praying, is a sick person. Eating refers to the body, singing – to the heart, praying – to the mind. Some philosophers say that a person should not pray. I tell them, “Some germs have entered your mind, and therefore you are sick.” Certainly, you have to try experimenting. You are now in a School. I do not tell you to throw everything out when you go back home. I do not teach you to throw everything out, but to put it to use. When contemporary people have cloths, they collect them and make rugs3 out of them. You have a fertiliser – fertilise your field then. So, make it your task to go back to the words of, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” What does this joining together imply? The joining of the Sun with human beings is conditioned by five senses. We may be joined together with the Sun through our eyes. If we damage our eyes, we shall be deprived of this good. If we damage our sense of smell, we shall not get in touch with the aroma of fruit, which is created by the Sun. If our taste is damaged, we shall not understand this internal good, which is contained within the fruit. We have to keep our eyes clean. How are the eyes damaged? When a woman loses her husband, she starts crying for him and keeps crying for him, and her eyes fail. Why should she cry? Previously she did not want this very same man, and now she cries for him. According to me, in this respect crying is not natural. Crying should imply certain softening of the heart. Any crying, which does not bring about softening, is no good. I will give you the following example to clarify my point: a thief was sentenced, for stealing twenty-five leva4, to a three-year stay in prison. The barrister who defended the thief said, "He did not steal intentionally; if he were a thief, there would have been ten thousand leva at the same place, which he would have taken as well." On hearing this, the thief started crying. "Why are you crying?", the judges asked. "Because I could not take the ten thousand leva." Many people now cry not because they have stolen twenty-five leva, but because they have not noticed the ten thousand leva, they failed to take it. It is often the case when some people cry and say, „I’m sorry for not having this or that.“ I say you are sorry for not taking the ten thousand leva. Knowledge is necessary inasmuch as it could be useful to you. The numerous hypotheses and philosophical theories are necessary inasmuch as they represent exercise for the mind, but Life needs the essential stuff, because it always imparts health, Peace, and a special internal Joy. So you have to think along analogous lines: just like the Sun generates springs, forests, mountains and all the goods on earth, just like this your Sun, when it rises in your heart, will create all the goods according to the same law. You shall only have to work sensibly. You are the masters of your lives and there is no force that can counteract you, because God, who had joined these things together, takes care to maintain this equilibrium. Any thought, regardless whether it is good or bad, which is generated within you, triggers a big struggle. Two sensible forces struggle simultaneously within you; both of them tell you how you should act. Sensible Life is necessary for you, not to society. Society is a condition for individuals. Christ says that it is not the individual who is made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for the individual. One should not become a slave to society. Society is the medium for the development of individual souls. The collective societies are units put together. You ask why God created the world. He created it for your soul. But you say, “Society and the world need to improve!” If all people are healthy, if they sing and eat, while you are not well, what benefit will this world be to you? What is the use of there being many angels and saints? The world will improve when you improve. When I speak of society, I mean the internal human being. You should never say, “What can I do?” How did the world start deteriorating in the first place? Everything has come from the people, from individuals. Some Parisian woman fancied wearing a wig and in time you see all the others following her example. A certain woman had a whim to make a tight-fitting dress – all the others start wearing tight dresses; or some woman decided to wear a loose gown – all the rest imitate her. A man felt like having trousers with broad turn-ups – this becomes fashionable and everybody starts following his example. One is an example to many. Do not think that whatever you do in this world has no implications. Implications there are – for you and for the others. Therefore Christ says, “Fear not, your Father has the good will to give you His Kingdom.” In order to be strong, you have to restore this togetherness within you. You have to renovate this disharmony, which exists in you, because there are many thoughts in you which trouble you, there are many contradictions. Say for example, you ask me what your future will be like. Sometimes I tell you, “I can tell you nothing.” Why? Because I see that the future is very bad for that person. A monk was very pious and made five hundred bows each time. Another monk, on seeing him, recognised that he was very pious. The first one wondered how the other could know, but did not think that, because due to all the bowing he did, his fingers got corns. Similarly, everybody has one’s own corns and these corns make it obvious what you do. Christ says, “You, women, have to go back to your initial situation!” To which situation? To the situation when you fed on the fruit of the Tree of Life. There comes a bitter thought, a bitter desire – this is from the Tree of knowledge of the Good and Evil. Whatever thought comes to your mind, reject it immediately and replace it with a good one! You hate somebody. Do not attempt to remove this person or to avoid him or her, but find somebody else whom to love. Secular people understand this law better. For example, when a man does not love his wife, he finds another woman, whom to love. The same law is at work with secular women: she does not love her husband – she loves somebody else. This reaction cannot be avoided in the world. Do not think that you act in a different way. You may say that this is not the case with you. Such is the law. In order to evade it, you will always apply the opposite. You may say this teaching is wrong. If it is wrong, there is no point talking about it. Put the right up in front, and the wrong will remain as its shadow. Out of all of this, you may learn how to rectify your husband’s mood and how to rectify your own mood. However, what is it that you do? You appeal to God and pray, “God, take this man, or take me, so that I can be free from him!” But you do not know that you will not be free then either, because if he departs, it will be even worse for you. There are many examples from spiritualism confirming this. As an example a man who did not get on well with his wife, freed himself from her and then married another one. But his first wife, although dead, managed to drive the second one away. When someone says, that they cannot live with their husbands or wives, this means that there are some dead men or women who are in the way. The dead men and women have a great influence and that is why Christ says, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” When a human being enters this Divine harmony, all the discontentment with life will fade, because now people are not in their proper places. And now I meet men and women who are suspicious. For example somebody is said not to be sincere. If that person is not sincere, how can this be counteracted? I have collected many pictures, all from characters without any joining together, without any music. In the second person singular of the verb can, you pronounce “You can! – Let God’s Sun rise within me like this and renovate my soul.” The soul in this particular context shall be understood to mean the boundary of your world, what is shaped internally within you, all the potential hidden in you; because the Sun is inside you and only this Divine Sun is in a position to renovate this big and large soul. You sometimes think that you are very small, or you wonder what you are like. You have never seen how large your soul is. Each one of you has three faces. Let’s take a woman called Mary for example: there is one Mary at the physical level, there is another one among the angels and one more in the Divine world. The three of these Mary's are connected, but when you talk to me about any of them I ask you which one of the three you are talking about. True Love consists in loving the three Mary's. There comes a man and loves only one of the Mary's; you say, „You can’t do this. You have to love all three of them!“ The wife, on her turn, loves only one of her husband’s faces – the one at the physical level. Such women or men are said to be heartless. Mary’s heart is among the angels. This implies knowing the soul of the person! And then you will start looking upon people in a bit different way. By knowing the person on the physical level, by getting to know the person among the angels and by getting to know the person who is in the Divine world, you will then understand what a great creature the human being is! When you say, „I can, you can, he can, she can“, these are your three persons: you, i.e. I, you and he or she – I, the one who is here; you, the one among angels; and he or she, who is with God. Human beings and the angles make a couple, while God shows the direction where the angels should aim. This is how a triangle is formed – this is the first geometrical figure. When we get to the plural of the verb can, we say, „we can, you can, they can“. When we say „we can“ this means that we, all of the people, all the human beings on the Earth, can. „You can“, means you, the Angels above. „They can“, means all Gods who are up there. If this is the way you understand this profound thought, these supreme feelings will start awaking within you immediately, they will start growing naturally and then everybody around you will be predisposed and will love you. No one can love you, if you, too, do not love. In order for the flower to blossom, the Sun must rise. When your Sun rises, your soul will inevitably blossom. It is when the Sun of your spirit rises, then your mind will also blossom. This is the contemporary philosophy: to peel away all of these shells! You may say, „This is a very difficult philosophy, we have so many shells!“ Take a nut, take the shell off and only then you can see how big it is. Some people are very big, but take away their wrappings and you will see how big they are. You have to stick to a teaching that has contents within. You are tense and you say, „What new ideas could he tell us?“ Do not think of what new ideas will be told to you, but rather think how you can apply this Teaching to yourselves. A cart driver, on passing by a tree, thinks to himself, „What a nice axis for my wheels this tree will make!“ A wood-chopper, on passing by this tree, thinks to himself, „What a nice beam I can make out of this tree!“ A miller on passing by a spring thinks to himself, „What nice water for my mill!“ Similarly you also, on passing by a tree or by a spring, think of what you can use it for! Those of you who experimented last month, have you noticed any results? Do you have an appetite? The harmony between eating, singing and praying is the first thing to be restored in you. Avoid self-judgements. If you believe there is a mistake within you, correct it, do not judge, but correct yourselves! If you believe you made a mistake and if you do not correct it, this is not the right approach. Watch the colour of the Sun in the morning. When the colour is intensive red and this makes an impression upon you, this means that you are very blasé about life. If, at sunrise, you notice a cloud, this shows that there is a cloud across your Sun and therefore you should try to remove it. Let’s say you are not predisposed, you do not love somebody – you have such a dark cloud upon your Sun. The Lord can see it and He says, „There is a dark cloud across Mary’s Sun“. Try to derive pleasant feelings from things around, a sort of childish disposition; do not think that you have lived long enough, that you have suffered long enough. An ox, who has carried many loads and was whipped 50 times everyday, what does such an ox know? He only knows the law of whips. If an ox has worked well for twenty years and his master has stroked the ox on the back, what does he know? He only knows to be stroked and nothing more than this. How many times will you see dark clouds across the Sun, nevertheless each day it will bring you a blessing, new thoughts, and new desires. This Sun is certainly just an object of the Suns rising within you - the Sun of your heart, of your soul, and of your mind. Some may ask you what these Suns are. This you will keep to yourselves. You will make an experiment and when you see the results, only then will you tell others as well. If you do not see for yourselves, at the slightest failure, you will think that none of this is true. Make a small progress, but in your small success, you should be confident! I shall now give you some additional sentences to the prayer I had given you: I believe in You Lord, Who spoke to me in the past.5 You have imparted in me all the good seeds for my life. I believe in You, Lord, Who speaks to me now. You grow the good within me. I believe in You, Lord, Who will speak to me in the future. I will rejoice in Your Life. The word Your (Твой6) is meaningful. It implies a union of these three principles. In the letter T the vertical line stands for the man, while the horizontal one stands for the woman. These aim at a union or there is an aspiration between the active and the passive conditions, between the two great Forces at work in the world. And the letter в embodies the unification principle, the working method. We should be glad the way work is done in this world. Keep saying, „I will rejoice in what You prepare!“ You may say that you are like that person who believes only when given money. When I give somebody money, there is no need for such a person to believe, as it is already a fait accompli. Many times you ask, „What will my future life be like?“ The way you get up in the morning and say „I will do this, I will do that“, the same way your future life will be too. You say, „I will smash this person!“ You will also be smashed in the future. When you say that you will do a favour to someone, this means that you will be given favours in the future. You have to be good and cheerful, because the greatest secrets are revealed to you through suffering. Secular people are cheerful and enjoy life, while spiritual people impart a sort of seriousness and thus it appears that they impose serious rules in their lives. A spiritual person should be understood to mean anybody who is conscious of one’s life. I shall give you an example of a really spiritual person: a master-mason was giving instructions to his apprentices on how to lift a big stone on top of the house, but while he was showing them, the stone fell upon his hand and tore one of his fingers away. He turned to God and said, „Thank you, God, for not tearing the whole hand!“ Anyone who has similar views on life is spiritual. Contemporary women should create a great atmosphere; they should all help one another. All of you should try to be predisposed internally and to be pleased with the little you have. I have heard a woman saying about another one, „She did not welcome me properly.“ How could she welcome you properly when her husband had beaten her and she had some problems with her son? This is why spiritual people should have good thoughts about other people. By saying that somebody is good, we will really make that person better. You will study the law of rejuvenation. This is the resurrection. You should not say, „We have grown old“, on the contrary, you should say, „We are young, there is a lot of work to do from now on!“ You should not say, „I will die“, on the contrary, you should say, „I decided to make a new house!“ Say, you have lost your money, you will say, „I gave it to the bank“. Interpret things the right way. One day, Christ’s disciples, when passing along a dead dog, said, „What a bad smell!“, while Christ said, „What nice white teeth it has!“ Beware of this, do not say that something smells bad, but wash your hands. Washing your hands implies being righteous. This is the only way the world will become righteous. But it takes long years before you get to know the manifestations of people. Master’s lecture, delivered on 3 may 1917 1 The exercises are given in the Righteousness and Salvation lecture dated 5 April 1917 (editor’s notes) 2 „For the show“ is taken to mean „to expose“. It usually has a negative reproachful connotation. 3 In the original shorthand notes there is the word books standing for rugs. 4 Leva – this is the Bulgarian national currency 5 In the shorthand notes there is no „me“. 6 The Bulgarian for Your is Твой Sofia, April 22, 1917 Source

Pure-hearted "Blessed are the pure-hearted, for they shall see God." (Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 8) Before I start my talk, I will make some small remarks. Many people ask me, "Why should there be a prayer and singing in a talk?" There are three very important elements in the basic teaching of life. These elements have been made by humanity itself, not from now, but from thousands of years ago. For thousands of years, people have been praying and singing, so that in order for any work to be done successfully, there should be singing, whatever it is expressed in. Singing in itself never does evil of whatever nature. For the good man, all songs are good, they all have content. Therefore, I place eating, singing and praying as the three main elements in human life. In order for any physical work to be done, eating is needed followed by resting and consequently, working after that again. When it comes to science and religion, here singing is also needed, it is the nourishment of the soul. We will sing, rest, and start new work again. When we pray, it is singing but modern people have a vague concept about the prayer. When the humankind learns this art of praying, then we will see the kingdom of God on Earth. These remarks I am making are not an innovation, but this is one Divine law we are going through. I would recommend everyone when eating to pray, if your work in the world is not going well, sing and it will go better. Today's talk will be on the topic, "Blessed are the pure-hearted, because they will see God." What did Christ mean by the word "pure-hearted"? Christ showed the nine elements or the nine methods by which human life can be elevated. I will speak about purity, what role it plays in life, and I will treat this matter freely, not as it has been considered before, but will make some deviations. You may disagree with me or you may agree, but you need to have a reason for both opinions, because you need to have a deep understanding of every important issue in your life. Only then will you have a positive science through which you can build your future life, because the present life is an expression of our past life. All happiness and misfortune are due to our past actions, and if we want to change our future life, we must understand these fundamental laws that govern the human will, strength, thought, feelings and consciousness. Our understanding does not have to be such, to think that we know everyone has such knowledge, but we need some positive knowledge to change our lives. If you could understand this deep, central law of the pure-hearted, the future culture will depend on it, the health state of the future families will depend on it, the health state of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters as well as of the whole society will depend on it. What doctors call “a hygiene of the soul” will depend on this law. What is a hygiene? The law of knowledge of purity. For example, all infectious diseases originate from impurity. Therefore, there are microbes in the spiritual life too as there are microbes of the typhus plague, cholera and other microbes in the physical life. There are around 17,000 species of microbes and some scientists go further by alleging that the corrosion of iron is due to special bacilli, microbes. So, iron is also eaten by bacilli. Because these bacilli are alive, they also want to exist as you and I do. This is what the modern people call a race or a struggle for life, with some even expressing themselves in the following formula: “In the struggle for life, man for man is a wolf.” These statements are 50 % true. Life is not only a struggle but work too for there is a struggle only on the square where wrestlers fight. Life is work too because the humankind gets elevated with it. When we do not understand life, work turns into labour and as we go downwards labour turns into torment. Christ says: "Blessed are the pure-hearted, for they shall see God." Purity is a state of matter, a natural and rectilinear state. When the matter has this state, this force as there is a barrier, a medium between the spiritual and physical planes and in order for this purity, this force to pass from one state to another from one world to another, it has to adjust according to the laws of this world, the energy has to be transformed. This transformation depends on the purity through which this force, this thermal energy will pass. Take, for example, how the sun’s rays are transformed. The strength and beneficence of these rays depend on the purity of the atmosphere. Sometimes you think that the atmosphere is pure but if you look at it through a microscope you will see millions and billions of impurities in it, which need to be washed away by the rain in order for the beneficial effects of the sun rays to work on us. Do you know that when people live a vicious life, particular compounds come out of them that form a layer in the atmosphere with which they stop the development of life that comes from above, and epidemic diseases arise. For example, various illnesses come to life during and after war. People throw the bad thoughts they have into space and thus they create unfavourable environment that affects adversely not only the organism but also the soul of man, creating various mental illnesses. Christ says: „Bless are the pure-hearted because they shall see God!“ What is meant by the words “heart” and “God”? Christ understands by the word “heart” that inner medium in man in the form of a physical ether that is the conduit of the higher forces in the spiritual world. So that when the central part of the human heart is pure, these people will see God. What is understood by the word “God”? Christ means by the word “God” all sensible possibilities, which are hidden in these forces and which as they pass through this medium, man, seeing God, becomes blissful, happy and healthy. When Christ says that a man can see God, He does not envisage seeing God in a given form, but understands a given good that has to come into us and ascend us mentally and spiritually. Each of us has to work out this inner process of purification for himself. The word” purity” implies impurity. We are not responsible for the impurity that can accumulate in us for when a man takes food, a part of it turns into juices and blood while the other part that could not be assimilated comes out. Nature has taken care for this unprocessed food by taking it out in various ways. There are two ways of getting rid of our impurities: a way of dilution and a way of thickening. I will explain to you how this thought is positioned in my mind. For example, you have muddy water but in order to purify it, you have to take it through sandy layers in order to seep and get it filtered. As it goes through these layers, the impurities, the murkiness remain in the sandy layers, while the water is clarified, purified and after passing through these layers, it emerges as a pure spring. Therefore, the sand is a condition for purification. For man, society is a condition for filtration. When you get filtered, you must not stay in these layers but have to go outside. Another way for purification is evaporation. For example, in order for muddy water to get purified, it can be left on the sun’s rays, due to the action of the sun’s rays the water evaporates and elevates in the form of vapours upwards where it gets condensed again and in the form of water droplets it comes again to the earth while the impurities remain on the earth. You have to also pass through these two ways of purification. Sometimes, you will find yourself in the most unfavourable conditions when misfortunes come to you for example. And the misfortunes are a process of filtration. You lose your house, wealth, health, wife, children, friends, it is all a process of filtration, sinking downwards. You cannot understand what the meaning of filtration is, but you have to know that you need to come out pure and transparent in the world. When a tired passenger arrives to a purified spring and satisfies his thirst, then he will understand why one has to get filtered. Every man is a spring in his life be he a man, a woman, a priest, a teacher and others. And we have to drink from these springs. For example, someone says: “People do not love me, this and the other one does not love me. “ I interpret these words in the following way: You would like to drink from my spring, whose water is murky , I have not gone through filtration therefore you will wait a day, two, three and more until I get filtered and when I pass through a mountain, I will then give you all my love.” Everyone will leave the world, evaporate and go to these layers through which they could purify themselves. When a man is dying, this is also a filtration. He elevates to a certain position and following the same law of condensation, he comes again like a newly born child and the mother will drink from his spring. This child may once have been her beloved but when he is purified, he comes as her child. As you listen to me, you will say to yourselves: Could this be? Yes, this is what always happens but only the ignorant people who do not understand this law could not believe it. In this sense, many animals understand life much better than we do. For example, birds wash themselves, smoothen their feathers, clean themselves. You will say “they are playing”. They are studying the first art, they are cleaning their feathers. Watch the cat when it passes through a dirty place, it cleans its legs in order to enter the house of its master. You will say: “well she is a cat”. Yes, but she is smarter than people. When you enter the Divine temple, do you go inside with clean feet? You have to enter like a cat. How many priests, holly men, teachers, judges enter with their unclean feet into their house, into God’s temple and afterwards say: The plague has come to us”. There is no plague but there is filth in this house. Therefore, a hygiene is necessary not only for the healthy condition of our body but also for the soul. All my respect for doctors who pay attention to the hygiene of the body, but they have to go a step further and pay attention to the hygiene of the heart. For example, all women and men go to a public bath, sometimes once a month other twice and others three times and more but how many of them go to a spiritual bath? You will say: is there a spiritual bath? Yes, there is, there is a spiritual bath as well as showers in the spiritual world. Some of you when they go to a bath, act like this: they go into the water, get hot and from there they go to the cold showers. There is no bigger recklessness, no greater error than this. When the iron heats up and then suddenly cools down it hardens. If you want to catch a rheumatism, if you wish your mind, heart and soul to get hardened take such showers. After such disorders, no doctor could help you and various illnesses will start coming to you. Nature says: Never make asperities, gradually go from one state to another. This state of going straight from warm to cold and vice versa is a state of the gods alone, not of men. Only God, who stands on high, can descend from high to low; only the eagle that has learned the art of flying can do that. However, he who has no wings, who has no knowledge, should not engage in such things, because he will break his head. Sometimes, you wish to go on an airplane, but you are not capable of controlling it and will fall. This is like a man who suddenly wants to love the whole world and takes a cold shower but afterwards tries the opposite result of hardening his soul. What would the opposite result be expressed in? Dissatisfaction and meaninglessness in life. You will resemble that rich American whose father left him BGN 100 000. He ate, drunk, tried all the pleasures and at the end he contracted the illness hypochondria. He wanted to commit a suicide but did not have the valour of this Englishman whom he met with in Venice when he was travelling through Italy. This Englishman noticed one night an Italian count who took a revolver, put it in his mouth, took it out and put it again. The Englishman asks him: What do you want to do?”- I was rich but now I am impoverished so I want to commit a suicide. The Englishman took out money and paid his debts and committed a suicide instead of the count. However, this hypochondriac American was not so valiant. When I talk about suicide, I envisage the killing of the bad habits in yourself while many people do not have the courage to get rid of them. You like to steal, drop the bullet on this habit of yours, kill the man of theft in yourself. You love to corrupt, drop this bullet on the man of depravity who lives in you, kill this vice, let it die and you live free from it. What benefit is there from this depraved man in you? A pervert, thief, this is a fleshless corpse, dead ox, dead dog, dead lion, which can spread the infection without bringing any benefit. This ill American began to visit all the doctors to ask for their advice. He spent and spent money but could not find the cure because the modern medicine is not familiar with ways of treating such illnesses. Finally, he goes to New York to a famous doctor and asks for his help. “I will help you, but I will make a condition with you that no matter what methods I use for your treatment, you will not protest." "I am ready to abide by this contract," replied the patient. “First, you will pay BGN 25,000 for the first examination. He gives the money. The doctor took him for treatment and said to his assistants: "Perform surgery on this patient by cutting off his right leg below the knee." They cut off his leg and when he wakes up, he sees himself without a leg. With this, his hypochondria disappears and he starts thinking: How happy I was before, I could go to balls, ride a horse, etc” He could hardly wait for the doctor to arrive and meets him by pouring out all the epithets, which the modern culture provides. The doctor tells him: “You are now very nervous, calm down while after two weeks I will come to see you”. In the meantime, the ill man starts crying and asks to either be cured or killed as this is not life. The doctor tells him: “I will make you a very nice leg that you will live with very well in the future and which you will pay BGN 25,000 more for”. After that, this American calmed down, all hypochondria disappeared, and he lived happily ever after. He learnt with this to know what purity is. And now in the battlefields, God cuts legs, hands, takes the eyes out, cuts noses in order to create a culture in the future, a culture of love but not this love which is understood now but love, which will expand our soul, that will make people close to one another and will provide an opportunity to every soul to develop as necessary. God will apply His Divine plan. What is this Divine Plan? We are destined to have such a purity as that of the angels. What is an angel? A being who knows how to fulfil God’s will, a being who you could not be bribed with any goods. This higher spirit, this angel will come to some poor people, s/he will fulfil her/his mission and will return to God again, while are the present people ready to serve God? No, they are not. Why? Because they are not pure in their soul. This is why Christ says: Blessed are the pure-hearted, because they shall see God.” If people are pure, the Divine spirit will pass by them and they will see Him. If we do not see God, how will we recognise Him? Many times, we are very interesting when we want to see God. Everyone can see God if not more then at least three times in their lives, but purity is required for this. Have you lived in purity for at least 10 years in your life? However, you will say: Fine if we live in a society of noble people but when we are with such sinners, what purity could there exist?” If this is true, this means you are sinners too because you are people living amongst sinners and so you are. What is sin? Sin shows that we are poor. You will say: Why did God allow sin?” Because He is strong. If He was a coward like us, he would not have allowed sin. When we are helpless of putting the world in order, God will descend from above and will put it in order in 100 years’ time at the most. This is one Divine day. You will say: “Well, 100 years is so long!” The more or less and the length and shortness, are mental and relative things. The minute could seem very long while the year very short, depending on many circumstances. Imagine that you are convicted of being beheaded in a year time. This year will appear a very short time to you. When you expect a darling one to come, even 5 minutes seem like long hours. Therefore, the concept of time is relative in our consciousness and depends on the intensity of our perceptions. When we talk about the Divine laws, we have only one subjective perception and in order to understand the order of things, we have to enter into living in all people at once. In order to understand what people are, we have to enter both the highest and lowest strata, and only then will we have a knowledge about humankind. Chris says : In order to be able to enter mankind, to have the correct perceptions you have to necessarily be pure because only the pure person when he comes down, will have immunity, he will not be infected by any diseases.“ This is what the occult people say too. When a man is pure in mind and heart, no force can affect him and therefore, the strength of your will, heart and mind will be determined by this inner physical, spiritual and Divine purity that you have. What I am saying to you could be checked, I am not just talking in theory. You will ask: How can it be checked?”–Very easy. For example, the one who will relocate a plant, asks how to do that and learns. He takes a small bud, a twig from a nice tree and places it under the skin of a plain one. However, it must be known replanting does not happen at all times but only when there are juices. These juices are called” sap”. After you put this bud under the skin of this plant, this new branch will acquire new life. This is how, by following the same law, every good thought will live in you. With this re-planting, with this splitting, there will be pain, but you cannot do without it. There are always two types of suffering in the process of purification: Ennoblement takes place in some types of suffering, while in others - resentment and fierceness. The second type is when we go down in life, where we become fierce and rough, when we want to destroy the world and all criminals were born in this way of re-planting, because they do not understand the law, they have stopped themselves in one direction, while they should have gone to the bottom. This is the case with that passenger who travelled at night-time through an abyss and fell down there. He managed to catch a branch and so he stayed attached to the branch for 7 hours, during which time he spent stayed like this on the branch for 7 whole hours during which time he has gone through the most horrifying state. He started to shout, cry and said: My life is over, there is a huge chasm beneath me.” What was his astonishment, however, when in the morning he saw that beneath him the chasm he had imagined was only 15 cm. Therefore, if you have fallen down, if you are a sinner, go down to the bottom. I call the fallen, sinned people those ones who go down- heroes. I call heroes also those ones who go upwards. The former are heroes of falling down, while the others- heroes of ascending. The former are heroes of falling down because when they fall, they have the brevity to ascend, while those ones who ascend are heroes of the ascension because they have the courage to descend. Do you understand this deep philosophy of life? Some say: I don’t want to either ascend or descend.” This is a materialistic perception. When you eat, it is not a question of what you eat but how you eat. You should eat with enjoyableness and pleasure. A man who cannot eat pleasantly cannot be healthy. Some parents, mothers cook meat, eggs and ‘banitza” to their children, and they are still dissatisfied and unhappy. The taste is to blame, there should be purity in the taste. Such a child should be subject to starving. Let his mother leave him starve for 24, 36, 40 ,50 hours and she will see how the child will start loving any food. In such a case, there would be at least 50%improvement in the children. This is a general law in nature and when man starts to lose the meaning of life, illnesses come about. They are necessary for our purification. First of all, we lose our taste and say to ourselves: “How well we used to eat”.5-6 days go by when we begin to rejoice in what we have lost. When it comes to upbringing, I said hold yourselves onto nature, look at what the plants, animals, springs, forest and clouds do in it and leave all English, American and other methods. Observe how the sun rises, which one time you see behind the clouds, black, while another time - clear and nice. This is how I see you often too. You say: „I am not in the mood today”. I said:” There are a few clouds around your sun, there will be a storm, and wind, and your sun will become clear again. Why is this wind? I met a gentleman a prominent Bulgarian merchant and asked him how he thought about this question? He said: „ I will confirm from experience that this is exactly the case. “He started elaborating: In my life, I did not know what a misfortune was, everything was going well for me like honey and butter. I got up one morning and saw that half of my body was paralysed. The doctors told me not to work anything for 3-4 years. After that, I started my work, but the first time I lost BGN 8,000 leva, while the second– BGN 2,000 and after that I finally completely recovered. This lost BGN 10,000 produced a big change in him. He had to give this money to the poor people, doctors or had to be robbed by someone. This money was one impurity in him. It is a boil that has to be healed for which aim the doctor makes an incision and cleans it up. When Christ says: “Blessed are the pure-hearted”, He understands people without boils. Now everyone, look for all your boils. You will say: “We don’t have such”. Until now, I have not met a person without boils, it might be only one boil but one always has some. If someone does not have boils let him come to me, I will give him BGN1,000, BGN2,000, BGN5,000, I will cash it to him immediately. You will say: Where would you find it from”? I will honour my word provided such a person is found. It is a great thing to confess your sin. What is religion? With this process of religion, we have to raise our minds and hearts upwards. What is re-planting? It is such a process by which one sacrifices oneself for another, endures all adversity, deprivation, persecution and one day, all those people whom he has done something for will say: We had a great man, he did a lot for us and our people. He was a spring which our people quenched their thirst from.” „ Now to the question of Christ’s words: Blessed are the pure in heart. “What does Christ mean by the word” “blessed”? He understands first: the aspiration of man to go upwards. Second: This aspiration should be just in time so that there is a corresponding aspiration from top to bottom. The same law also applies in nature. When you sow an apple seed or wheat grain not only does it need to have the strength to grow, not only does it need better soil, but it needs other three essential elements for its growth, namely: light, heat and moisture. The same is valid for man. He must strive but he also needs these three Divine elements: warmth, light and moisture. Moisture this is life, heat is Love, the light- the Truth. I am not going to interpret these for you as if I start interpreting what Love is, I would go very far. I would like you to come with me, to repeat this word a certain number of times and for a certain time of the day and if you do this for only a few months, then you will understand what love is. When you are listening to me, you will say: Mr Dunov says whatever comes to him: the Turkish say about the man who talks what he wants the following: Chock Biljam Chock…”.i.e. “ whoever knows lots, talks lots and suffers lots.” I would like you to check and try my thought now. However, you will say: “What should we strive for?” Sow an apple seed and observe how it will sprout, how it will take shape in a few years’ time, while you study all this. „Therefore, I told you: “Sow in yourself the words ”blessed are the pure in heart”. Do not consider this as an abstract thought, it is related to your body, heart and mind. Blessed is a man who has conditions to climb from bottom to top, but also has conditions to descent from top to bottom and can use these conditions. While the pure-hearted are those ones who understand the process of descending and ascending. A heart means the centre, to know where your life originates from. I travelled once from Sofia to Varna. The Bulgarians have a custom of asking about where you are traveling for and where you are coming from, etc., It is a good habit but when they often ask- it becomes a bore. I am sitting in a compartment and a few Bulgarian lawyers are talking about some important political questions. I am contemplating and observing nature. One of the gentlemen asks me: “Where are you from”? I answered: from the Sun. He said: Then tell me what is there? “– “There are people there but with a higher culture, people there are not afraid, and I have come here on the Earth. “The gentleman answered: Then I am from the Sun too. “Yes, you are but you do not know you have come from the Sun while I know I am from the Sun. Some ask: “Where is Mr Dunov from?”- From the Sun. “ There are 7 elements in life, I am talking about only one element, i.e. more correctly about its state. The old occultists call it the element of the Sun, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mars. Do you know what these elements are? Saturn, Moon, Sun are processes of condensation. Saturn means knowing how to condense yourself, to move from one state to another. When you come to the Earth you will start afterwards the reverse process of Jupiter, Venus, Mars and will go back where you came from with which you will make such a circle as comets do. Some ask: “Why do these comets appear? “They have a purpose. Why did the Halley’s Comet appear? All thought that the world will end. It meant this great war, this catastrophe that came. It was saying with its tail: I am coming to cleanse the world. “Whether you accept it or not, it doesn't matter, it was said in passing. Christ says: Blessed are the pure in heart. “The first thing in man is purity. In order to elaborate on my thought, I would provide an example. One famous Italian Artist wanted to paint Christ and looked for the subject who looked a little like Christ for long time. At last, he found a young man in his 20s and 21s and asked him to pose for him and he drew the image of Christ. In 3-4 years, the same Artist desired to draw Judas. He searched for a face to remind him of Judas for long time. At last, he found a young man who looked a little like Judas. The Artist asked him to serve as his model if he wanted. The young man agreed but replied: How come I could now serve you as a model of Judas when 4 years ago you used me to draw Christ? Where is the mistake now that one and the same face is used for drawing Christ and Judas? The mistake lied in the young man. In the course of 4 years, the young man lived such an impure life that his face changed. Therefore, when a man attacks someone like this artist, he is right. This is why, we should endure too. We should have the patience of this artist who when he drew a painting and could not draw the shoes of the figure, asked a shoemaker to make them. When the shoemaker made the shoes, he dared to ask to rectify other things in the painting but the artist told him that the rest was not the shoemaker’s speciality. We need to have humility and know what work is for us and what is not. If a mother comes to me and tells me ways of raising children, I will listen to her very carefully. If a judge comes to me and shows me a good path, why not listen to him? Therefore, Christ says: “Blessed are the pure in heart”. If we are so pure-hearted, we will notice that the law of expediency for our upliftment works throughout our life. Do not rush to resolve all issues. People are interesting when they hurry and worry about solving the problems sooner because there have been too many such ones for solving. And what? There is no need to hurry. If a farmer says: “I have whole barns of wheat, how am I going to eat it? “Let him be happy that he has so many barns of wheat- it will serve him for more years, he will eat as much as he needs. So do you, be happy that you have so many questions to solve, you will have work for more years. Some say: When we go to the heavens, we will drink and eat.” Yes, but there is also work there, even more work than here where there is work and labour. Therefore, Christ says: Come to me all who are burdened and tired” and not “those who are all the time working”. The first secret is to learn to strain yourselves. I am ready to serve this one who is strained and who has learnt this art. Tarasu Bulu has done well when he was sending his two sons off and asked them to box each other and remained very satisfied when one of his sons beat him. Similarly, God is pleased when He sees that we are overcoming the suffering. Some say that I have not used Bulgarian examples. I came across a few Bulgarian songs, which I will present a few characters from. The first song is “Yanka and Petur” Yanka is a woman who is dissatisfied with her wealth and searches for the happiness of her heart. Peter overhears her and offers that they both escape. Then she steals from her husband, loads her fortune on 3 horses and runs through the forest. She falls asleep on Peter’s lap and when she fell asleep, Peter ran away for he was very pure, after which she started crying, shouting: I Song O God, Higher Lord, Forest, part with me, Water, deliver yourself to me, Peter, call me! Neither did the forest divide, Nor did water deliver itself, Neither did Peter call. II Song Balio and Vella Vella felt sleepy, So Vella lied down on Balio’s lap and sweetly fell asleep. As Balio is “ Dekrya[1]” He took sharp scissors out To cut his lap off He stole gold and silver And ran away from Vella III Song Kirushka and Stoyan Do you see that hill A big village lies behind it There, I have a beloved and something else- With a young boy Kirushka was telling him Stoyane, damned Stoyane, How cunningly you deceived me Don’t you have a younger brother So that you can give me to him There should be no such Bulgarians as are described in folk poetry. These people have had the brevity to describe the characters as they are. If these things exist in abundance, we cannot be pure. This is not a judgement- such a thought is far from me, but I am stating only the fact, and everyone needs to know whether they are pure or not. Whatever you may be, an activist of a political party, a judge, priest, teacher ask yourselves the question: “Am I pure or not?” Have I done my job properly or not?”. If you are a man, then are you pure in relation to your wife and vice versa; a daughter and a son are you pure in relation to your parents? While now we say: „This is what Tolstoy has said, Victor Jugo has said so, Zola, etc. ”These people have really said very well, my admirations to them. All is good but you need to apply these things in life, while purity will come only with some great convictions. When will purity come? When a man starts to think that he does not die. Three young men came to me a few days ago: one musician, the other studies to be a doctor , while the 3rd one- with different beliefs. The first one says: “I am fed up with life , I want to commit a suicide.” I ask him: “ Were you the one who created this life, if you were then take it away. You will be a greater hero if you endure everything. The musician says: I'm not doing well, no matter what I do, I can't do it. I told him: You are very dry, you need some moisture” and what does “moisture” mean? You have to love people. The third one says: I always have the opposite of what I want, the opposite comes out.” I told him,“ You suffer from a lot of swamps, you have to channel yourself, to get drier.” The three of you should become a trinity and you will help each other. A lecture held on 29th April 1917 Translated by Proletina Dragoeva-Jones, Petworth, UK, 01.12.2020 [1] Dekryia or “декрия” is a Bulgarian folklore word that cannot be translated

The Will of God “He who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 The phrases, the Will of God or the Will of the Father are classic ones. However, the phrase the Will of God brings out a smirk on the faces of contemporary people: why so? This is so, because people are not sure if God exists or not. The world has a twofold manifestation: it has a conscious and an unconscious manifestation. We are in the unconscious world when we deal with the chaotic state of the world, of the matter, of the forces, and of the laws which are at work in the world. This unconscious world is one with no laws, or even if there are any laws, then they are mechanistic, irrational ones. When Christ says that not everyone who calls out, “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of God, we should know that He has in mind the well-formed, conscious world, which is one of law and order. Therefore, only the one, who does the Divine Will, can enter the conscious world. The Divine Will is linked to the sensible side in man, for only the sensible one is able to do the Will of God. In the physical world this Will is expressed through the law of necessity, i.e. through the mechanistic laws. The motion of the wheel in factory machines is a mechanistic one: man cannot counteract it. Once this wheel is set in motion no one can stop it, unless someone pushes the button that operates it; you can pray to it as much as you want, but praying has no effect on it. If you get caught in the wheel, you will be spun around it and crushed, for the wheel is subject to the law of necessity, which is a mechanistic law, and there is no Intelligence in this law. This is why all those people who only serve their own will view the world as a sum total of coincidences. The word coincidence means to them a world of chaos, i.e. a world that has no relation to man’s personal life. Just like the factory wheel has no relation to man, so the mechanistic laws in the world have no relation to man. When speaking of doing the Will of God what I have in mind is the Intelligent life that does have relation to man. There are intelligent and conscious laws that are at work in this Life. When we speak of culture, and of Virtues, and of law and order in the world, we have the Intelligent will in mind, i.e. the Will of God, which penetrates the consciousness of individuals, societies and nations alike as long as they are in unison with this Will. I am not talking about the individual will, because God’s Will is above all. Jesus says, “He, who does not fulfill God’s Will, cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Only the one whose higher consciousness is awakened is someone who can fulfill God’s Will; only the one who has the feelings and abilities necessary to perceive the essence of things is someone who can fulfill God’s Will. When a student studies mathematics he needs to have an understanding of the mathematical relations between the numbers and the mathematical procedures that are done with the use of these numbers. Every formula that is applied in mathematics is, in fact, a living construct, not an inanimate one as it might appear to be. A seed that has not been planted appears to be dead, lifeless; however, as soon as it is placed in the ground it manifests its life. It is the favorable conditions that make it possible for the Intelligent life to manifest itself in every being. In this sense, every person can be regarded as a seed awaiting the favorable conditions to sprout. It is not important what kind of a seed the human being is (the human being may be a seed from an apple, or a pear, a vine, a rose, etc.); what matters is that as a living being man is also a sentient being. Overall, all people who have sweetness in them are intelligent and conscious; those who have bitterness in them are unintelligent and unconscious. The bitterness in people must be transformed into sweetness the same way the bitter, sour and tart juices in the fruits gradually turn sweeter. Man must transform his bitterness into sweetness through internal means. Therefore, when someone says that his life is hard and unbearable, he should know that the bitter juices prevail in him. Such a man should expose himself to the Divine light more often so that his fruit can ripen and the bitter juices can turn sweeter. It is only then that man will enter the Conscious life and will become a citizen of the Kingdom of God; then there will be nothing impossible for him. In studying man philosophers dwell on man’s three basic elements: mind, heart and willpower. The will is an expression of the internal harmony between the mind and the heart, and so the will expresses a certain principle that connects two opposite forces- those of the mind and of the heart- by having them work in one reasonable direction. It is through the willpower, assisted by the mind and the heart, that man can bring out his ability to transform the inferior in him into superior, and the crude into something noble. The human culture stems precisely from both the individual and the collective human will. Whether it is the collective or the individual consciousness that is at work, it is still one and the same law that governs it. In Bulgarian the word will (воля, pronounced “volja”) is made of four letters. The first letter, В is made of a vertical line and two semicircles. The circle represents the Divine life, which is connected to the vertical line, the latter being the direction in which we should be moving, i.e. upwards, towards the head. Many question the existence of God by saying: Where is He? God is where man’s head is. He who has a head on his shoulders cannot deny God’s existence; if he has no head, he can deny everything. If there were no other force counteracting the earth’s gravity, man would have been turned upside down. It is due to this other force that man’s head points upward, towards the center of the Sun; it is due to this other force that man can walk erect. Knowing this, make sure you keep your head clean: nourish it with clean air and Light, as well as with pure thoughts and desires. Do not import into your mind any thoughts that bring disturbance and doubt. Everyone is afraid of the war and everyone wishes that it would end as soon as possible. What causes this war? It is due to the failure to do the Will of God. What caused the fall of Nineveh? Nineveh was once a highly evolved cultural center, but its citizens lived a bad life, and would not do God’s Will, thus dooming themselves to perish. Likewise, Assyria and Babylon were centers of culture, but they also perished. There is a certain similarity between the culture of the people of Assyria and Babylon and the culture of people today. Those people used to know a lot of things, they knew the elements and their properties but they abused their knowledge by using it in a bad way. They would start wars and kill each other- people today do the same thing. It was for this reason that the old peoples perished, and it was for this reason that their Power and Knowledge was taken away from them. If the nations today follow the same way they, too, will disappear; if the European nations do not come to their senses they are facing the same fate that befell Nineveh. Those who disobey the Will of God deprive themselves of His blessing. Just like men rid their organism of impure substances through sweating so will God rid His organism of all men and peoples of this modern culture who do not do His Will. This is a Divine law; it is an intelligent one that regulates Life. What will happen to us? Nothing bad will happen to you: those who live in the Divine world should not be afraid. Think right and do not fear anything. Sometimes you say, “Nothing depends on me.” I say that much depends on you. If you were to place even one single grain of wheat on one of the trays of a scale that has been balanced with equal weights, then that single grain would affect the scales. Who knows, you might be that last person whose presence could turn the motion of the Divine wheel into a different direction. And still all people keep thinking that it is God Who has to come down to Earth to set this world right. It is true that God will set the world right, but He will do this through people. When it comes to setting the world right, man is directly concerned whereas God is concerned indirectly. The world was created for man to learn in it, to discipline himself and to entertain himself. God is interested in us as much as we are mindful in studying and observing God’s laws. The day when we break our relationship with God, the Original Reason of all things, will be the day when God will stop taking interest in us. Man is free to choose whether to do or not to do God’s Will, but he will also bear the consequences of his free and foolish will. The prophet Jonah is an case in point of someone who does not do God’s Will: God sent him to Nineveh to preach repentance to its inhabitants, but he declined under the pretext that God would extend His Compassion to them and He would pardon their sins, thus making Jonah look like a foolish liar. Jonah said, “I don’t want to subject myself to the ridicule and mockery of these cultured people, Oh Lord. I will preach Your words to them, then You will forgive them and in the end it will look like I’ve been lying to them. I know You, Lord: You are merciful and kind.” Jonah bought a ticket to Joppa planning to reach the city of Tarshish, where he boarded a ship and set out to sea. What happened on the way? A storm arose in the sea and the sailors decided to propitiate it by throwing Jonah over board. The city of Nineveh lay on the bank of the Tigris river; it was a beautiful city and its culture was like the present-day culture. Back then the population of Nineveh was about one million people, of which there were no less than about a hundred and twenty thousand children- all of them so innocent and so young that they weren’t even old enough to distinguish between their left hand and their right one. When the citizens of Nineveh repented and pleaded to God for mercy, it was because of the little children that He withheld His punishment. What do the ship and the sea represent? The ship represents organized society, and the sea represents the world and its deeds. Jonah fled from God and hid away from Him in the ship, i.e. in one organized society, among cultured people, who, lost in drinking and eating, tend to forget all about God and say, “We are our own masters and no one can tell us what to do.” But the sea, i.e. the world, becomes stormy and the ship starts swaying from one side to another. Man becomes agitated along with the storminess of the sea, and loses his influence among the members of his society. In breaking his connection with God man also loses his mental and moral powers and starts to grow old; people then start treating him with disregard and turn away to younger, more capable people. This is the situation that Jonah put himself in when he went aboard that ship and set off to sea, i.e. to the world; it was because he did not know the law of Light that his journey took such a fatal turn. In order to pacify the storm, the sailors decided to throw Jonah into the sea where he was swallowed by a whale. Jonah could not swim and so he fell into the whale’s mouth: the whale represents death, and death swallows all those who do not do God’s will. Jonah spent three whole days in the belly of the whale, all the way praying from the bottom of his heart. He prayed thus, “Please, God, save me from the mouth of the whale, i.e. from the mouth of death, so that I shall do Your will.” God listened to his plea and asked the whale to spit Jonah out onto the shore. Thus saved, Jonah went back to Nineveh to do God’s will, and there he preached repentance to the people. What happened to Jonah also happens to every person: man goes on board the ship and because he refuses to do God’s will, he ends up in the sea. The only thing that can save you is to pray to God from the bottom of your heart like Jonah did. You may object by saying that one should live a little. However, it is after you find yourselves in the belly of the whale that you will learn about life; in other words, once you are in the grave, then you will learn about life, for man retains his consciousness even there and he goes through great suffering and great tribulations until he frees himself from his body. Man’s link to this world may consist of one, or of many or even of thousand strong fibers, and it is not easy to sever those. The righteous man is linked with only one fiber and he can break it very easily; the sinner is linked with multiple fibers and cannot set himself loose easily. The soul and the Spirit are in a difficult situation while the fibers of the body are being broken. What helps break these fibers? What helps is man’s doing God’s will. Every fiber is like an atom that acts on the matter, molding and transforming it; therefore, these fibers have their place. If you cannot set these fibers in motion so that they can turn the wheel of Life you will be like a factory that has ceased working a long time ago: such a factory is doomed to bankruptcy. If the fibers that are at work in the stomach stop working man grows alarmed: he sends for the doctor right away so that the doctor can restore the activity of the million fibers working in the man’s stomach. If you were seers you would be able to see that the whole world is constructed of interwoven fibers like a spider web. Only this is no spider web, but different ways through which God works, as well as different ways through which one can do God’s will. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” This verse pertained to people back then, but it also pertains to people who live today, two thousand years after Jesus lived. Back then they were in an embryonic stage, they were like a seed, but Jesus spoke to the seeds, too. He wanted to warn them that one day- even if that day is two thousand years away- one day when they find themselves in a difficult situation, going through trials and suffering they will need to know how to do the Will of their Father if they are to rise out of this chaos and keep on evolving. Who is our Father? You read about Esau who addressed the people of Israel, saying, “Israel, know thy Master!” Israel, however, turned away from its Master, its Father, its God. Philosophers often ponder the question of what came first: the chicken or the egg. There are two opinions on this matter: some say that the chicken came first, and others maintain that it was the egg that came first. I think that the first opinion is more plausible. To pose this question is to ask what came first: the cause or the effect. The cause came first and then came the effect; therefore, the chicken is the cause, and the egg is the effect. The word chicken implies an old person, i.e. the lowly human mind. The dove is the symbol of the evolved human mind. Through his evolved, superior mind man can do God’s will, because this mind is the greatest gift, the greatest good that has been given to man. Now that you know this you should always strive to keep your mind pure to save it from corruption. The smallest rust that penetrates into the mind can corrupt it. He, who has corrupted his mind, is lost for Life; he might still be alive physically, but he cannot benefit from Life, for the great Light cannot enter his mind. Jesus says, “If you do not want to lose the meaning of Life and lose Life itself, you should do the Will of God.” What sums up the Will of our Great Father? One of His laws states, “Do not do unto others what you do not want done unto yourself.” The word law means that which has been manifested into the world in a certain form; in other words, laws are nothing but different forms through which God’s Will can be fulfilled. According to the occultists only the one who is able to fulfill God’s will, the one who has been able to manifest his intelligent will, can be his own master, as well as a master over Nature and those around him. He who connects with God becomes one with Him and is free to claim that the development and the evolution of the whole mankind is his own development, too, and that the wellbeing of all people is his own wellbeing, too. The opposite is also true: such a man’s success is success for the whole mankind, and his wellbeing is wellbeing for the whole. This necessitates a correct relationship between the human soul and God. Then God will want to convey to us all Knowledge, and all blessing that He has in Him; He says, “My grace is your grace and your grace is Mine.” This is the true relationship between the Great Father and His children. How can one tell when there is a correct relationship between the human soul and God? There is something that everyone can use as a test. Imagine that someone falls seriously ill: such a person should try to connect with God. All he needs to do is turn to Him with a heartfelt prayer, and he will have a response. Every time you have a response to your prayers shows that you are connected with God and He listens to you. Say this, “Lord, help me through my hard times; help me rid myself of this illness so that I can serve You in Joy. I want to dedicate my Life to serving Love and doing Your Will.” If you pray with these words, you will receive an immediate response: your temperature will go down, your condition will improve and, in a few days, you will be completely healthy. People today expect to have great results without doing the Will of the Great Father, but this is impossible. Such a life is a mechanistic one and it cannot bring man satisfaction, and for this reason man is dissatisfied with Life. Under these circumstances, instead of ridding himself of illnesses, one becomes even more ill. There was once a German doctor who was interested in nervous system disorders, and studied about four hundred different manifestations of nervous system disorders. He gave them all different names, but when he came across the four hundred and first manifestation he could not think of a name for it, and so for everything that was above the number four hundred he termed with the common word americanichi. What causes nervous system disorders? Men’s sinful life causes them. Someone who is a neurasthenic is in a situation where his nervous energy is constantly drained out of him, and he becomes deficient. You come across people who live well and treat their bodies well, but are neurasthenics: this is because they carry out the consequences of their ancestors’ bad lives. A pauper wants to know what he can do in order to get rich and to set in order his muddle of debts: the only way for him to improve his situation is through mindful work. A sick man wants to know how he can restore his health: health is related to Mindful living: by living mindfully and doing God’s the sick one will soon be able to restore his health. Religion comes to help the one who wants to learn how to live mindfully. Being religious is not only about going to church, and listening to sermons and beautiful music, but is mostly about following through with what you’ve learned. The Good needs to become a part of man’s whole being and must penetrate into the Life of all people: from the king to the shepherd, and from the richest home to the poorest one. All people should have equal rights and obligations. What do we see in societies today? We see that all men, all societies and all peoples strive to become rich, strong and powerful. This is a good goal, but it is not well applied in practice. When one becomes rich he starts thinking only about oneself; when one becomes strong he starts abusing the weak and the poor; when one acquires power, one starts ruling over those around him. Don’t you know that God helps the weak, the poor and the suffering? Therefore you should strive to be like Him: if you are rich, you should help the poor; if you are strong, you should protect the weak; if you have power, you should rule over yourself first. He who can rule over himself can also rule over others. Knowing this, do not turn away from any opportunity to help the weak, the poor, the suffering, the short-witted, etc. Today someone may pass as an idiot, but some day God will lift him up from that state and will make him a philosopher: this is why it is said that what is impossible for man is possible for God. God is all-powerful: He can transform the caterpillar into a butterfly, and the butterfly into a caterpillar. Once you used to be butterflies, but today you are caterpillars. You should not take offense when I say this. When I say caterpillar I mean it as a symbol for the materialistic understanding of Life. Once up on the leaf, the caterpillar thinks, “I should eat as much as I wish, for if I eat a lot I will grow up fast; if I eat a little, I will remain little.” This reasoning holds true for the stage at which this caterpillar is; but there will come a day when it will lose its desire to eat leaves and those around it will say that the caterpillar’s stomach is upset and it cannot use food any more. It is not that the stomach is upset, but the caterpillar is passing into a different stage- that of a butterfly- and in that new stage it does not need leaves or medicines to treat its stomach. Before it reaches the butterfly stage, the caterpillar weaves little threads back and forth until it makes up its cocoon, and then it spends some time into this cocoon with no food or movement. After a while the caterpillar breaks the cocoon open and emerges back into the world, but this time as a butterfly, equipped with its own proboscis, and it sets out from one flower to another, sucking sweet nectar from the blossoms. Some sick people do not ingest any food during the whole time of their illness: why do they do that? They are like butterflies, passing from one state into another, and they do not need any food during that period. Those, who do not understand this situation, start to worry and look for a doctor to help. If someone is not eating, this does not mean that he is sick, for there are people who can tolerate hunger, difficulties and temptations and are still stronger than those who eat, and who avoid all difficulties and temptations. It is the difficulties, the temptations and the sufferings that temper one’s character. Sometimes a man would pass as an honest person, but he has never been tested. One can judge one’s honestly only after he’s been tested: if one is bribed with a thousand leva to do some dishonest deed, he may turn down the money under the pretext that he is an honest man; if he is then given ten thousand leva, he may still decline the bribe, but once he is given one hundred thousand leva, he may close his eyes and sell himself. So, someone is honest up to a thousand leva, another is honest up to ten thousand leva and someone else is honest up to a hundred thousand leva: not one of these people is truly honest. True Virtues are not relative, but are absolute in their expression. Once a Frenchman was bribed with one million dollars to commit a crime; when he was put before the judge, he said, “Your Honor, you have no right to sentence me, because what I did was simply carry out a sale: I sold myself for one million leva.” Jesus came down to Earth specifically for those sold-out people: He came down to pay for them. They have sold themselves to the dark powers and they cannot buy themselves back. When Jesus comes across someone who has sold himself, Jesus asks him, “Whom did you sell yourself to and for how much?” “For one million.” “Well then, I will pay it back for you.” Almost all people today have sold themselves to someone. If you doubt this you should ask yourselves where your mother, father and children are. You may say that they have died. What is death? Death is but a sale. In this sense, dying means selling. Is a hen that lives in its master’s coop a free hen? There will come a night when its master will thrust his hand into the coop, grab the hen and put the knife to its neck: the hen will cluck once or twice and that will be the end of that. You go through the same process: there comes a night when your master comes to you, grabs you by the neck, puts the knife to your neck and it’s all over with you. The priest will come next to pray for the peace of your soul. How will your soul obtain peace from God? By doing His Will. You say that death is frightening, but it is only frightening when man does not do God’s Will, for then man rots and starts to smell. If man does God’s Will then when he is ready to pass to the other world, he will simply take off his old garment and will sever his connection with it: therefore, the cure against rotting is in doing God’s Will. You should do an experiment to test the truthfulness of my words. Why does man, after coming to this Earth, not do the Will of the One, who has sent him down to study and work among people? You might object that if you do experiments you test God. Are you not testing God when you sin? When people hear about studying and working they say that they are unable to fight the evil and the devil in the world. The kingdom of evil and the devil is over. Today Jesus is coming into the world, accompanied by evolved Beings of light, and by Good Spirits. Once they come the world will become right again, and all people will be healthy and full of energy. The churches will be filled with true worshippers and servants of God. Then Jesus will ask them, “What are you doing”, and all believers and religious people will reply that they are trying to turn everybody in the world to God. The thief, too, once he gets a hold of your purse will turn it inside out: no, the world does not need to be turned like that. You need to be filled with power and joy if you are to set a good example for the world: even in your suffering you should still be filled with joy. This is what it means to do God’s will: it means to live with no fear of death. Death does not exist for the one who is connected with the living God, for he can hear God’s voice and does His Will. If such a man makes a mistake he immediately hears inside of him God’s soft voice, telling him, “You are not doing a good thing. Correct your mistake!” The one who rejects this voice and refuses to listen to it will bear the consequences of his actions. Listen to God when He speaks to you with Love like a father; should you not listen, He would distance Himself from you and you will be at the mercy of the law. Man should have the courage of that American woman who dedicated herself to her beloved one who came back maimed from the battlefield. He went to the battlefield to fight for his country, but he was wounded in a big fight and lost one of his legs. He wrote to the woman he loved, “I lost one of my legs. I don’t want you to suffer with me, so feel free to find yourself someone strong and healthy to love.” She responded, “I accept you the way you are.” In fact he was wounded much worse than he told her at first, but he did could not confess to her all at once about how bad his situation was. After a while he wrote another letter, “I lost my other leg, too.” “I accept you with much greater Love”, she replied. Finally, he wrote to her, “I am like a corpse, for I lost both my arms.” “Now my Love for you is even greater”, the woman wrote back. How many men and women could remain loyal in such a situation; how many people could pass such a test? It is very rare to come across people who are ready to serve each other with Love and patience if one of them falls ill and is bedridden for a few years. There was a Bulgarian woman who took care of her ill husband for twenty years and she would always say, “Not for a single moment have I grown tired of helping him.” “How come?” “Because I love him.” This Bulgarian woman, like the American woman from the previous story carried the Divine inside: they carried Love. One cannot enter the Kingdom of God if one’s heart is not filled with Love. As long as man thinks only about eating, drinking, wearing nice clothes, having fun and being rich he will never get to know Love; such a man’s heart will remain empty and his mind- encumbered. Why wouldn’t man open his mind, heart and soul to the great in the world so as to be filled with God’s Love? Why wouldn’t he enter this great world of suns and planets? Today Jesus appeals to people’s souls, saying, “Fulfill God’s will and you will become masters of your mind, of your heart and of your soul.” How can we achieve that? By turning the letter K on its back with the two sticks pointing up: in this position it represents the boat of human life. Set your boat out in the sea, put up the sails and sail freely; grasp the rudder with your hands and head out into whatever direction you wish. If you are nervously agitated, you can turn your K with the sticks pointing down and start swimming. All people-men and women- suffering from nervous agitation should go to the front to feel renewed. God likes those who are brave and selfless. One cannot love someone who is fearful or someone who is cold as ice. Only the one who carries Love inside him and spreads it generously around can be loved. If you do not give you cannot receive either. All people, all families, all societies, and all peoples need to be revitalized. Bulgarians, as a people, also need to be revitalized. It is up to them if they will listen to me or not, but it is my duty to tell them the Truth. When I say it I will go away. Where will I go? I will start from the tree roots and will gradually make my way up along the trunk and towards the blossoms, the fruit, the seed, then to the Angel world, and finally to the Divine world, which is my final destination. You might say that I’m going too far. The divine world is not far from people, but it is rich and full of energy: those who go there will acquire a lot of energy and wealth. I, too, go there to acquire more energy so that I am able to come back to people again to work among them and to help them. It is a pleasure for man to work among people and for the people. It does not matter if they will understand him or not, or if they are rich or poor. Does the child understand its mother who feeds it, bathes it, raises it, and disciplines it? The child does not understand its mother while it is little, but one day it will grow up and then it will be able to understand her. The intelligent one understands things and is grateful for everything that he has been given as well as for everything that people do for him. As the child grows older God gives it His blessing and gives it light to become an intelligent person who can have a correct understanding of Life. I wish you that you may be good, mindful and just, so when I meet you I can be happy to see people that I can talk to and with whom I can share my thoughts and wishes. There is no greater good for man than that to meet good and intelligent people with whom he can get along well? When I say things like this some of you wonder what I am planning to do. I am planning to do one of the two: either Good or bad; I am planning either to speak the Truth to you or to hide the Truth from you. If I choose to hide the Truth this shows that I live in a world of chaos; if I speak the Truth that shows that I live in accordance with God’s will. What will one gain from choosing to lie and to do evil? Not only will such a man win nothing, but he will lose everything and will bring ruin onto himself. What is a lie like? A lie is the shadow of Truth, it is the shadow of all Being: a lie is like fake precious stones. Once there was a merchant coming from Malaysia with a bag full of precious stones that he was selling for cheap. A Jew, who was also a merchant, wanted to buy all the stones, but he did not think he could afford it. However, the merchant with the precious stones told the Jew, “My friend, I will sell you this whole bag for ten thousand leva. I have smuggled all of them and that is why I am selling them to you for so cheap: I want to get rid of them so I don’t get myself in trouble.” The Jew thought that this was his lucky moment and, not wanting to miss this opportunity, he decided to buy all of the precious stones. When he went home and looked through the bag he realized that he had been cheated: only a few stones were real precious stones, the rest of them were all fake ones. Today there are many people who carry around bags full of fake precious stones that they present as real precious stones. In the end both they and all those around them realize that they have been fooling themselves. Their knowledge is false, too: they think that their bags are full of real Knowledge, but some day they come to realize that they have been fooling themselves. What good is man’s knowledge if he cannot use it to stop the falling of bombs? A scientist goes to the battlefield, but he, too, runs to hide away from the bombs; what good is his knowledge then if he cannot use it to stop the bombs from falling? You might say that only God has the power to stop the bombs. He who lives in accordance with God and fulfills His Will, is able to stop the bombs, for if they can listen to God, they will listen to you, too. Some people wait for the Pope to say his word to bring peace. Do not wait for anyone, but turn to God and say, “Lord, You are our Father, You can stop the war.” When you recognize God as your Father He will listen to your voice and come to your help. You do not believe in your own power and you think that man cannot do anything about these huge events that are taking place around him. He who does God’s Will can do anything. If all people- Bulgarian, Russian, French, English, German- were to turn their voice to God the war would end and peace would come. Why do people wage wars? People wage wars over nothing: they fight over some trade deals. There is one thing that all people and nations should know: the world is not some anarchy; on the contrary, it is an intelligent world, and God has sent all people into it so that they might live and work mindfully and help each other like brothers. God sent Jesus, His Only Son, down to the world to show people how to live. It is time now to put Christ’s teaching to practice and to put an end to all arguments and misunderstandings. May all mothers, fathers, children, rulers, priests, teachers, and workers be filled with the desire to fulfill God’s will and to enter God’s Kingdom as its citizens and then the peace will come. The New Culture that is coming will lay the foundation for the fulfillment of God’s Will. When this New Culture is applied then people will understand what the present-day culture is like: they will wonder themselves how they could live this way and how they could allow for wars and destroying each other to take place. However, considering the current stage of development of mankind, war is an inevitable process, for it represents man’s passing from one stage into another, just like the caterpillar is inevitably transformed into a butterfly. There is no force in the world that could stop this process, therefore there is no force in the world that could stop the war: the war will continue for as long as it takes for man to pass from the caterpillar stage into the butterfly stage. How will the people of the New Culture be different from people today? They will have a strong willpower, and they will be good and mindful. Nothing will be impossible for such people: they will be able to achieve anything they want. This is why Jesus says, “Not anyone who cries, Lord, Lord will enter the Heavenly Kingdom, but only the one who does God’s Will shall enter”. Do the following experiment: tell yourselves in the course of one month that you are willing to do God’s Will and you will see that the One Who has created you will manifest Himself. He will enlighten your mind and your heart so that you could understand Life and fulfill His Will. Everyone should do this experiment on his own and by his own will, with no pressure from outside, for only in this way can one expect results. The Scriptures say, “The time is coming and it is upon us now when the true worshippers will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.” I say, the time is coming and it is upon us now when the future people will fulfill God’s Will and will be healthy in their mind, heart and body, and whatever they say, they will act upon. They will not need loans and guarantors to vouch for those loans like people do today, for their word will be like a law, because it will be coming out of God’s mouth, and God will be their real guarantor. The world will become a better place when all people, societies and nations, as well as the whole of mankind have God as their guarantor. Doing God’s Will with Love should be every man’s motto; this should be the religion that every man should use as guidance in his Life: Bulgarians should live this way too. And then one day when I see you I will be able to say, “You are fortunate to be doing God’s Will and to have God as your guarantor.” Now go to your homes with the idea of doing God’s Will, and with the idea of living without any man-made bills and guarantors. May God be your guarantor and may His Force be within you. Sofia, April 22, 1917 Source

Rejoice (Радвайте се) Lecture, held by the Teacher, on 15th April – Easter, 1917, Sofia „ And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying,’Rejoice’’ (Радвайте се). And they came and held him by the feet, and worshiped him (Matthew 28:9). I will take the word „Rejoice" (‚Радвайте се’) from this verse. This is an ordinary word, but a meaningful one. The word ‚joy’ (радост) and the idea that is hidden in it has a Divine origin. Joy (радост) is not a property or a quality of the animals, nor of the people of the present century, or of the scientists. The word ‚joy’ (радост) implies the higher consciousness in man, an intimate connection with those natural relations of the real life, where life is continual. Life in its three manifestations belongs to three worlds: the life of the people on the physical plane, the life that exists among the angels and the life of the Divine world. Joy (радост) belongs to the first, Divine world, to the so called nominal and not a phenomenal world. When I take the word ‚joy’ in Bulgarian language, i.e. ‚радост’, the first letter is ‚p’. There is one unit in this letter, which shows the source of this small circle, shows Divinity or an idea that is burdened with one Divine thought. When people hold something in their hand, it is right this, but they do not know what needs to be held. You need to hold this, which you need to be a master of with your spirit. This is the letter ‚p’. However, when people do not understand the laws this letter is turned upside-down into the letter ‚b’, i.e.a man instead of being pregnant with a Divine idea is pregnant with his stomach. When people become pregnant on the physical plane, they become fat and overweight. From such weight, people often go to search for doctors in order to abort their children. What is obesity? It is a child of the physical plane, which they want to abort. Joy (радост) does not fall in this category. The second letter in the word ‚радост’ (radost) is ‚a’. It also means pregnancy, i.e not only your spirit should be pregnant with a higher idea but so should your mind be. „А“ is formed from a triangle that indicates the human nose, the human intelligence. It is said by the old mystics who have known that many years before Christ that God breathed through the nose of the angles and they became reasonable people. The human being is breathed through the nose and not the mouth, that is why you breathe through your nose. The Letter „Д“ is also formed from a triangle – a transient life. The triangle presents the three forces that are not manifested. The letter „о“ means the conditions under which one idea develops. The letter „с“ is the laws of the changes through which these ideas can be perfected. The letter „т“ is the cross, the principle of the men and women, according to which they live. Christ says: ‚Rejoice’ („Радвайте се“), for the spiritual world is revealed now, there is a path, which they can pass through from one world to another. This joy (радост) is necessary for the man. A man without joy (радост) in the world according to my perception is not a man. This is because the joy (радост) in its manifestations is compatible with all relations of the human life. There is no force regardless of how powerful it is that can darken the joy (радост). Why? For the love and joy go together. They are like a brother and a sister and a man and a woman. Not like these men and women who are here on the Earth, not like these women who are cooking in their kitchens for days and not like these men who sit closed in their shops for days. The man thinks the whole day how to earn more in order to satisfy his woman, while the woman thinks in the kitchen what to cook in order to feed her husband. Christ says: ‚Rejoice’ (Радвайте се) but such men and women cannot feel this joy (радост). Rejoice (Радвайте се) you who are free, who have a free spirit and are not slaves to anyone, this joy (радост) belongs to you. You will ask me: „Can we have this joy (радост)?“ You can, but as soon as you leave your kitchens and shops. You will ask: „How can we leave our houses?“ No, is it that the kitchens and shops are a requisite quality for the happiness of a man? Where are the kitchens of the birds, where are their shops? We, the modern people of the higher culture and European civilisation have the motto: „It is impossible without kitchens, it is impossible without shops“, while I am writing above: „And joy (радост) is impossible“. For one of the main qualities of the home of the men and women, of the families is the connection of understanding and love. However, not this love, which you understand, half day loving, half day hating. This is not life, this is a slavery. I talk to you who have been Christians for 2000 years; your fathers and mothers have read the Christian teaching and have encountered the words ‚rejoice’(pадвайте се) but the people cannot rejoice yet (радват). This is not because joy (радост) is incompatible with today’s life but a soil is needed for this joy (радост). Therefore, it belongs to the real spiritual life. When we understand the laws in the world, we will need to build another more modern kitchen. I can give you a sketch of what the modern kitchens and shops should be. The world needs to be rebuilt. Tell me what the kitchens and shops of the angels are? However, you will say‚ this is not important for us’. If we want to be cultural people, if we want a higher culture than the today’s one, we need to send delegates to the angels. Now, when the Bulgarians look at the Germans, they think: „What cultural people they are“, and want to imitate them. The culture of the angels is much more enviable but the misfortune comes from where we will find these angels. While the modern people are distinguished with one quality of doubt and critical mind, an opinion exists that a man must have doubt in and check everything in order to be a philosopher. I don’t mind the doubt but there are such philosophers who even when they touch the man are still in doubt. For example, it is mentioned in the Gospel that one of the Christ’s disciples after seeing that Christ ascended, he still did not believe it and had to touch between his ribs in order to convince himself in the truth. This is the Jewish culture. A man can always be lied to. When we do not understand the Divine laws in the world, there is a lie. The lie is an indication that the truth exists similarly to the shadow, which is an indication that the subject exists. The doubt is a sign that the reality exists. There can be no doubt if there is no reason for it. Once you say that there is no God, this shows that He exists. You cannot deny this, which does not exist, therefore you deny only that, which exists. What is a denial? During the day you see the trees and springs in nature but you do not see them at night time, therefore you can be in doubt. When a man says that there is no God, I say: „Your sun has set and after 12 hours your perceptions will change.“ – „There is no soul, no life after death, no God “, people say. I say, your sun has set and after 12 hours your perceptions will be changed. Your perceptions will change as the perceptions of a Bulgarian teacher with a higher education changed who participated in the last war with the Greeks. In a retreat, he hid himself in a cave where he spent three days without being able to show his head out from fear of the great fire. He became so hungry that he turned to God to provide him with some signs of His existence. Even half an hour had not passed and one bone frog approached the hole of the cave and left in front of it a bag full of one fourth kg of bread, which it carried in its mouth and went back. When this teacher returned to his pupils he told them: „Children from now on you will know that there is God.“ Why, where does he know this from? – This frog has convinced him. Therefore, when you are in this cave and stay there hungry for three days, you will get convinced that there is God. Once there is God, there is a soul, there is a life after death. You can check these things. I am talking to you about things, which I have checked thousands of times. I would say that I would rather doubt the existence of so many people than the existence of this world, which I live in. I live simultaneously in this and the other world, I simultaneously talk to both people and spirits. You will say: ‚The spirits are a horrible thing“. There are no beings that are more intelligent than the spirits. How thin and beautiful they are, what shiny eyes they have, what culture they have, what a school they represent! Therefore, you die and your close ones die so that you can go to the spirits and learn from their culture. You will ask: „Where is this spiritual world? This is a question of a microscopic animal, which can say the following: „ Where is the human being’s place, what world does he live in? He lives in the same world but there is a big difference between the perceptions of the human being and these of this microscopic animal. The world is not only this which we see but it is something grander, bigger than what we see. Sometimes you think that life doesn’t have any meaning. Many girls and boys get discouraged and want to die but when a girl meets a beautiful young man, she sees him in the eyes and says: „Now life has a meaning.“ This young girl starts singing and doesn’t want to die. The same happens with the young boy. Where did this world, this meaning of life come from? A new consciousness is revealed in their hearts and minds, their hearts start to thump. Life is not in the thumping. The thumping is only the means to transmit the thoughts and states in the spiritual world. Therefore, Christ says: „Rejoice (Радвайте се), a new culture comes for you.“ I associate the people from the Earth with this new culture. Go and preach the new teaching to the world that they should build their homes without kitchens and shops. Suppose that we would make the whole land a beautiful garden with the finest fruit trees, it would allow all the trees to give the best fruits, then would we need the present kitchens? What kind of need would a man have to spend 8 hours closed in his shop? Why is he staying 8 hours now in his shop? To buy his wife meat, sugar, rice, butter, eggs, and so on. Then we will not need electricity either. I, as I think, will create myself a lamp that will give me light. I will worry neither about gas nor about electricity. It wouldn’t be talked that the city council had been taking lots for electricity. You will use your energy. You will have fast messages with your thought. Christ says: Rejoice (Радвайте се) for the new teaching that will come will release people from this slavery, which they are now in. I have been in America and there people admire at this spectacular culture of dozens- storey buildings and huge arches. In my view, these are prisons. In these so modern houses, due to the lack of an access of the sun, the Americans are very nervous people. Their idea to create something grandiose is good but let the abilities of the mind and heart take this big size. However, when this Divine idea cannot be understood by the people well and manifests in the way we see it this shows that this culture has outlived its century. The future mothers and fathers who conceive their children should have this thought in mind : „You do not need a kitchen.“ What do we understand under ‚kitchen’? – The stomach because we think only about it. When it starts to ache even a little we still think about it. Morning, at lunch and in the evening- we are constantly taking care of our stomachs. It is true that if the stomach is unwell, the head also starts aching. The stomach has another function. I argue against the assertion of present people that we have to live this way for God has so ordained. Today's world is a caricature of the Divine one. Everything was well when God created the world – people and plants and animals, but it is not so now. The drunken when he gets used to drinking, sells inheritance, children, wife and says: „God created people to drink wine.“ God has created the man with desires for liquids but not for wine - for water instead. We need to come with our ideas to the Divine world in order to understand what a human being is. When I talk to you to leave your kitchens it doesn’t mean that you should destroy them before you build your new houses. Make an attempt and see whether you could live without these kitchens and only then will you destroy the old ones but otherwise in no way do you destroy the old kitchens for you will remain without anything. Rejoice (Радвайте се) because joy (радостта) gives an impulse, stimulus to the man, it is a mother of the things. The joy (радостта) stems from an inner Divine impulse of the soul, it gives inspiration. Both men and women need to strive to cultivate this joy in themselves while we, the modern people cannot put up with such ones who rejoice (се радват). We want everyone to be sad and crossed but there should be no such darkness in the human heart. A human being’s face can be dusty, blackened but there should be joy (радост) in his soul, mind and heart. There are no reasons for there being no joy (радост) in a human being. Christ meets you on the way and says to you: „Rejoice (Радвайте се).“ – „Well, you say, how can we rejoice (радваме), when there, on the battlefields so many men and sons of ours died, what is the meaning of life now for us? We became poor, and are in debt to the ears, everything is very expensive, how can we be joyful (радваме)?“ Then we say to Christ: „Can you make bread out of the stones?“ Christ responded: „A man can live not only with bread made of stones but with every noble word that comes out of the mouth of a good man .“ It was thought out in America to create pills in a chemical way, which when taken can satisfy a human being but this thing cannot be created in a chemical way. This is not the way, which science should go in. That bread that is acquired is done so with the Divine Word. The Divine Word is a substance much higher, it is a spiritual matter, which the requisite extracts for our life can be derived from and not from the lower matter, which depraves our life. Christ has said: „A man should feed with every word that comes out of God.“ This Christ has proved it. He takes five breads and five fish and 5000 people were fed in this way. Which way? When Tolstoy does not recognise miracles he interprets this as follows: „As Christ has preached equality and brotherhood so everyone has carried bread and have sat down to eat it.“ While in fact, can the bread be increased?– It can be. You plant one grain of wheat and 250 grains appear from it. You plant one seed of apple and you will have 3000-4000 apples in ten years’ time. I am asking where does the apple draws this energy from? You will say: „ From the earth.“ – No, from the sun, from above. The Earth is a reservoir that stops the development. If people would know this law of how to make bread they would have easily become rich. One Mr met me and said: „Since the war started , there are already 500 millionaires in Bulgaria.“ I told him: yes but they are paper millionaires. What can these books deliver to people? You will say: Well while I am alive on the Earth I will live with them and will use their goods. “ Well, fine, tomorrow when the death catches you for the neck will tell you: „I do not recognise your paper money and wealth.“ Christ will meet you on the way and will ask you: „Why are you so ragged?“ You will say: „I worked in Bulgaria when it fought and I wanted to secure myself.“ – „You have taken a wrong path “, Christ says. This is not joy (радост), you have wrongly understood the Christ teaching. Joy (радост) is founded on the Virtue and Justice. I do not have the right to infringe these noble deeds of the people, I don’t have a right to also talk this which is not according to Christ’s teaching, I have to talk only this, which is a truth , which is Divine because I will be giving an answer for every teaching in front of God. You will go back to your father and he will ask you: „How did you do your work in Bulgaria, on the Earth?“ – „I earned lots of money.“ No, women , you pushed your men for these paper millions, they became paper millionaires for you. Children, out, out of this wealth, it is unjust and wrongly acquired! People and peoples who earn their wealth in this way do not have the Divine blessing. Nothing will remain either of them, their children or of their fourth generation. While those ones who in these times carry their cross because of me most patiently, they are saved. The cross for me represents a higher science, which comprises all elements for the transformation of the bad things into good. „Rejoice (Радвайте се) “, Christ says. Can we be happy? – We can. We have to have the patience of this Greek philosopher who has lived during the time of Apostle Paul. He has had a much bigger endurance and persistence than all present Christians and preachers. He was a slave to one Roman patrician. The master often tortured his slaves, which he had been doing to the slave too but he never complained, sighed and always smiled. This annoyed the master a lot and he often hit him in order to invoke his resentment. One day, his master pressed strongly his foot in order to see how this will affect the slave but he said: „Master, do not press my foot so strongly for you will lose , I will not be able to serve you well in the future. “ The master pressed strongly and broke the foot. The slave responded: „Well, didn’t I tell you that you will break my foot! “To his satisfaction, the Roman patrician made him free after which time he wrote excellent compositions, which stay much higher than the compositions of a lot of modern philosophers and theosophists. Let someone dare pressing your little foot !We do not have this contentment. Christ says: Rejoice (радвайте се) for from now on, your feet will not be broken; rejoice (радвайте се) because from now on you will not need unjust wealth. Why? Because the Heavens works for a righteous and good man. Someone says: „I developed and ploughed my field.“ You haven’t developed it alone, if it was not for the so many worms, the sowing of the man will be of no use. Therefore, if we apply the Christ Teaching, the difference will be the following: we will work less but will have more results. According to the Christ teaching, 3 hours physical work is enough, 3 hours are needed for the mind and 3 hours for the heart – in total 9 hours during the day. Then life will be much more pleasant and people will not have been dying but will have only been transforming and everyone would have gone to the other world when they wished. However, in order to understand the Christ teaching, we need to create this requisite character of the thought in ourselves, i.e. to get rid of our conscious soul and inner fear. Is this possible? There are rules. Do not think that things move very fast in the spiritual science. No, very slow. The Divine moves from the smallest to the biggest, while the human starts with the grandiose and ends up with the smallest. You can make a calculation. If you have been sowing a wheat grain for 19 consecutive years and if you have the patience to look after it, it will become as big as the whole land. Christ says: „If you have faith as a grain of that mustard seed, you will be able to remove this mountain. “ Why a mustard seed is used and not a wheat one? The mustard seed has the quality of producing blisters and if you put it on your hand, it will extract all bad and damaging juices. There is no such effect from the wheat grain. Your faith needs to be positive and active in your mind. Then you will find yourselves in the situation of these two Greek artists who held a competition for their art. One of them painted one cluster of grapes so naturally that the birds from the sky descended to peck on it. The other one drew Venus and painted a thin veil from above. The painting was so good that the first artist got misled and tried to lift the veil. One of them lied to the bird while the other to the man. We, the modern people, love to lie not only to the birds. We often lie to our stomach. Tell this stomach: ‚Don’t be afraid, you will have enough food, have faith, I will prepare food for you’. When you worry your stomach cells start to worry too. They are around 10000000 workers, they start to get upset and the stomach gets ill. They shouldn’t know that there is no bread, there is no this and the other. In this same way, the illnesses are born in the mind and heart. There are negative thoughts being directed everywhere What will happen with Bulgaria? Do not be afraid , everything will get transformed, it will be 10 times better in 100 years’ time but now God has put the Bulgarians in a caldron and after that he will send good workers to them. What will happen with the Russian people? It will also be 10 times better in 100 years’ time . All peoples- and the Germans and the English, and the French will all be 10 times better. However, you will say: „Where would we find you in 100 years’ time? “ How interesting, where you will find me! Well now where did you find me? You often say: „We will be dying but let there be health.“ – There is no death but undressing. When a caterpillar gets undressed and turns into a butterfly , you ask yourselves: „Where did the caterpillar go?“ It is the very butterfly. After some time, you will be one working angel, you will have the ability to disappear and appear at your wish. You will say: „Such people are dragons - bad people. “ No, these people who have acquired this ability are the best people. Such was Christ, he appeared and disappeared. You will say: „It is not sure whether it is so.“ It is true that it is not known but this is in accordance with your assertions , while the truth in nature always remains as it is, I do not either exaggerate or lessen things. Joy (радост) in these times is particularly necessary. Never has the world been in such a need of joy as it is now. It is very easy to acquire this joy. You can acquire it as easily as you can easily blow in the pot. A Bulgarian young man went to study pottery from a master craftsman. Having worked for a few years, he told his master: „Elevate me to a calf so that I can start working on my own and in order to get married and be in order..“ – „All right, “ the master said. He made him a calf. The young man started to work by himself, he made clay but noticed that his pots cracked when they were placed in the oven. He goes to his master and asks him: „Why does my pottery crack? “ – „you haven’t learned the art well, you need to be an apprentice for three more years and then you will learn to work well,“ the master responded to him. He remained with the master for three more years and watched what he did. He noticed that before his master places the pottery in the oven, he takes the pots in his hands near the mouth and blows inside by saying: ‚Hu’. After which the pottery do not crack. „Well, said the young man, I had to stay an apprentice for three more years because of one blow, one ‚hu’. You have to know how to say this ‚hu’. You need to be able to adjust everything on its time, when there are conditions for that and when the Divine law is working, which is a great force in the world for the betterment and elevation of the human character. Therefore, when you gather say: ,Hu.“ You will say: „Well this is a stupid thing’. I will make one experiment with you. Whoever from you is under the weather, let him say three times a day ‚hu’ and see what results you will have in the course of a month. I have seen peasants who when making fire, which does not kindle bend, blow and say ‚hu’. You extinguish the candles and say ‚hu’ and the current Masters make their servants extinguish their candles. The old Bulgarians have known this art for long. Someone burns their finger, they blow on the area that is burnt and say ‚hu’ and it starts pulling through the burnt. Your heart starts hurting, say ‚hu’. You will say: This is stupid, let me see in the medical books what is written about this and that illness. “If you are rich, give your gift to the doctor but if you are poor try my advice. I offer you a medicine without money especially in the current situation of lack of doctors and dearness of life. I do not say anything against the doctors, to the contrary, they are very good people for when a man loses their faith in God and everything and says he is a realist a day comes when he gets seriously ill; he searches for help somewhere and where does he find it?– in the doctor. As soon as the doctor arrives, he asks him : ‚what is my situation, is there any hope? ’And he believes and does everything the doctor has said. This doctor deserves to be paid 10 leva and even more for that he has introduced faith in this house. We have to apply and increase our will. We have to resemble that American woman, who the doctor has told she will die. She called her husband and told him: „It is obvious I will die but I would like one promise from you: Not to get married after my death.“ Her husband replied: ‚I cannot give you such a promise. „ – „Well, then I will not die.“ And she really did not die. Do not lie the world but say: „I can“ and conjugate the verb ‚I can’. Noone dies, only a man who sins dies. That one who follows the Christ’s law does not die. There are no dead people, I haven’t met such ones but there are ill people. Tell me who has died from you? That one who hasn’t died has no right to lie that people die. What is this philosophy of Christianity: „We will die!“ we will not die but it has to be said: „ We will fall asleep, we will change“, this is already another thing. Christ says: rejoice (радвайте се) you who are free in the world because there is no death. Here, I prove this: I was crucified and I still talk to you. Therefore, with my Easter lecture, I want that you are not positive people with negative minds but positive people with positive minds. That which I assert can be proved by anyone when they do a small experiment and get convinced in the truth of my words. You say: ‚When we go in that world we will then see what is there’. Do not lie to yourselves, try now. You say: I cannot stand one or another person suffering and listen to how he sighs.“ Let him suffer, he is blessed. When he says ‚hu’ several times he will heal. This is the new teaching, new methods for understanding life. Do you know when a home is devoid of joy (радост), what a sad picture it represents, what spiritual impurities there are in it? In the spiritual world this spiritual matter can also get corrupted. And therefore, you should clean your minds and hearts in the way you clean your houses. Do not allow bad thoughts in your minds. For example, a woman lets in herself the thought that her husband goes after other women. Do not allow such thought, talk to your husband but throw the thought away from yourself, it doesn’t bring joy (радост). That Divine spirit that lives in us wants to bring us together, to love eachother wisely without doing evil. Someone will say: „How would we guess what this love is? “ When you enter a house and find the people sorrowful if they become joyful (радостни) after 5 minutes of your staying there, your love is then Divine. Therefore, Christ says: „Rejoice (радвайте се) and bring in this Love, which will elevate our souls and hearts.’ Then there will be no illnesses neither asthma or neurasthenia, neither gout and others. In the course of one year say the word „joy’(радост) ten times every morning and come to me in 6 months’ time to tell me what the effect of this word is. Every word, which you say has an effect, a force in itself. When you hear the word ‚fire’ what power it has! The word ‚hooray’, what power it has! Every word is a powerful force but it has to be applied. Christ says: Rejoice (радвайте се) because the power of joy is love. Once upon a time the preachers said that a man needs to be godly. How would you recognise the Christians? According to their deeds. – One day Nastradin Hodja goes to rob a shop and starts filing the key on the door. He is asked: ‚ What are you doing there? “ – „I am playing a kemancheh.“ – „Where is its voice that it cannot be heard? “ – „You will hear its voice tomorrow.’ Nastradin Hodja replied. You will hear the voice of what you are working on later, it has its power in one sense or another. If we bring that word ‚joy’ (радост) in ourselves, everyone will ask us: ‚ How did you acquire this power? ‘While now people say: „ The world is not good, people are sad.“ One day, my world gets muddy, I roll my sleeves up and say: „Now , I will enter my field, among my children and will work there.“ I have children too. Some will say: Mr Dunov does not have children, he does not know how they are brought up.“ Well, you bring them up a lot. You need to feed a body, heart, mind and soul, all this is necessary for you. Repeat the word ‚joy’ (радост) and you will see that there are other forces in the world. Then you will see that this, which I have been talking about is right. And so, Christ says: Rejoice (радвайте се), there is no death. Your future is great, your souls are predestined for one other Divine world. Rejoice (радвайте се), Christ says for I will send you light spirits. I understand under ‚light spirits’ those ones who will work over you and will create another culture. „In 2000 years’ time, you will see these angels come down and ascend to work on you. “ – this is written in the Scripture. This time has already come. The facts are always facts and what people think is another question. In the modern science, you can change a man’s mood in five minutes. For example, the magnetizers can when they put their hand through your left side , make you good while when they do this through your right side, they can make you bad. You will say: ‚this is through a suggestion.“ In order to suggest something to someone your words need to have power. The words ‚ suggestion’, hypnosis’ are often used. What is the hypnosis? It is a force, which you can use in good and bad sense. You can produce two opposite results in a small and big dose. If you say to your son: „ You will be good my son’ he will really become good. When a mother conceives, she should say: „I believe that I will give birth to a good child, I am happy that the child will be good, etc. What do modern women do? They try to abort, they take advice from doctors about the method of abortion but when you abort on the physical plane, the consequences are bad. Therefore, Christ says: Believe in the spirits, which I will send, they will rectify the world and your life will be sorted. Do not take your burden on yourselves, everything will change’. Now, I am leaving you with this word ‚rejoice’ („радвайте се“). Let your mind conceive it. Then you will connect with these Divine spirits. You will say: „Well, where do we see them from? “ A young woman creates an image of a beloved one before she falls in love and when she meets the young man, she finds that he is the one who corresponds to the image she has created and she starts loving him. If you repeat the word ‚ joy’ („радост“), only in this way will you attract Christ, you will know the great truths in life , you will understand that the words have a deep meaning in themselves. This is simple knowledge, which I am giving to you for free because you need it and I will not have any responsibility if you say that you have suffered. Apply this knowledge. Say the word ‚joy’ („радост“) 10 times a day without any doubt, go to work after that and see what its effect will be. Put the bread in your stomach and do not think about that, it till do its job. Say the word ‚joy’ („радост“) and your spirit will take its juices and you will be one powerful and strong spirit and when you come back from work say to God: „Thank You for this word.“ I would like all Bulgarians and the Bulgarian king, and priests and merchants and teachers, mothers and fathers to say this word "joy" (радост), and this call to be borne by all nations. Then the peace will come, and Christ will come to pass. Lecture, held on 15th April , 1917, Easter [1] This is the Bulgarian equivalent of ‚rejoice’. [2] Радост’ is the Bulgarian word for ‚joy’ [3] Ibid 2 [4] Ibid 2 [5] it is pronounced ‚radost’ [6] The Bulgarian letter ‚p’ means ‚r’ in English language [7] The Bulgarian letter ‚b’ means ‚’b’ in English too. [8] The Bulgarian letter ‚Д’ is ‚D’ in English [9] The Bulgarian letter ‚с’ is ‚s’ in English [10] The Bulgarian letter ‚T’ is also ‚t’ in English

Jacob and Esau “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Genesis 28:12 Jacob and Esau: this is an interesting topic for discussion. Anyone who has read the Bible knows of these two characters. Jacob and Esau were two brothers: Jacob was the younger one and Esau was the older one. The age difference between them was small, for they were born only a few hours apart. There are seven characters that can be outlined in the story of Jacob and Esau. According to the prophecy, Jacob and Esau would become two different nations, of which the elder would serve the younger. Jacob and Esau jostled each other within their mother’s womb, thus causing her great discomfort. The story has it that Esau was the first one to come out, followed by Jacob whose hand was grasping onto his brother’s heel. They were very different in appearance: Esau was hairy while Jacob’s skin was smooth. In other words, Esau was manly while Jacob was feminine. From a physiological standpoint, Esau is a man of nature: he is straightforward, candid, and impulsive; he lives from day to day and does not value Life. He represents a lower culture. There are many people who are like Esau. After a good meal these people say, “Thank you, Lord, for giving us food. Tomorrow you will take care of us again.” They express thankfulness only in regard to their food. Jacob is feminine, but also bold, at the same time. He has some negative traits: he is cunning and deceptive. Jacob is like those moneychangers who gain from everything. Whatever he undertakes Jacob wants to come out a winner. According to Jewish law, Esau, being the firstborn, was entitled to his father’s blessing. However, Jacob harbored the desire to obtain his brother’s birthright. He was looking for an opportunity to make his wish come true, and soon he was presented with a chance to do that. One day Esau came in from the field, feeling famished and tired, and he saw that his brother, Jacob, was eating lentil stew. Esau asked his brother to let him have a pot of lentils. Jacob told him, “I will give you some, but if you sell me your birthright.” Esau begged him, “I will sell it to you, I swear, just give me food to eat. What good is the birthright to me if I am famished?” At this point of the story, there are two more characters that come into play: the mother, Rebecca, and the father, Isaac. The mother loved Jacob more, for he had taken after her in his thinking and in the aspirations of his heart. The father loved Esau more, for he was a natural man with common sense. The mother represents the mind in man, and the father represents the reason, which has reached its highest point of evolution with the human being. Jacob’s mother, just like Jacob, himself, wanted for him to obtain his brother’s birthright. But the father who loved Esau more thought that, by law, it was Esau’s right, being the firstborn, to receive his father’s blessing. As Esau’s father was growing old and his eyesight was weak, he called Esau and told him, “I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” Then Esau left to hunt some game and bring it to his father. However, Rebecca overheard what Isaac told his son Esau. She, then, went to Jacob and told him, “I overheard the conversation between your father and Esau, and I want you to listen to my advice. Go out to the flock and bring me two choice goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then you will take it to your father to feast, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.” Jacob said to his mother, “But Esau is a hairy man, and I’m a man with smooth skin. My father might touch me and then I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” His mother said, “Let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say.” So, Jacob went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebecca took Esau’s clothes and put them on Jacob. She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. This is how Jacob tricked his father into blessing him, instead of blessing Esau; and for this he later paid the consequences. All thoughts, feelings, and deeds, be they good or bad, bring forth their fruit. This is a law that any person can try out for himself. People of the 20th century do not recognize this law and live according to their own rules: they eat and drink and never even think about the consequences of their Life. Men and women live in discord, but expect to have good children, regardless. If their children do not turn out good they wonder whom they have taken after. It does not even occur to them that they, themselves, might be the reason. The Divine law states the following: in order to have good children the father and the mother must be in complete harmony with each other. This does not mean that they should be absolutely the same, but that they should have things in common, and that they should love each other and get along with each other. There are some subtle differences between men and women, but those differences are difficult to perceive. A number of famous philosophers, scholars, and writers have attempted to describe the difference between a man and a woman, but their attempts fail in the end. They can describe that difference to a certain extent, but never fully. Commonly, women have oval lines, whereas men have straight or angular lines. The oval lines render softness to one’s character, and the straight lines render firmness and sharpness. With men the chromatic scale is more prevalent than with women. In the story about Jacob and Esau we can see what advice the mother gave to her son. Rebecca made Jacob deceive his father, so that he could obtain his blessing. The fact that she gave Jacob such advice shows that she had deceived previously, in her past, as well. Someone says, “Today I lied.” This means that you have lied before, too. Lying was not born today. It has its roots in the distant past, from times immemorial. Who is the original source of lying: the human being or the animal? When did lying first appear in human life: during his ascent or during his descent? When he lied to his brother, Jacob was thirty-two years old; this is the period when a human’s character is formed. Therefore, Jacob was at an age when he consciously stole the blessing that belonged to Esau by right. Following his mother’s advice, Jacob fled to his uncle Laban to hide away from Esau and to avoid his fury. Jacob left his father’s home and set out on a journey. On the very first day of his journey, right after sunset, Jacob had a dream: “He saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” God saw what Jacob did and gave him what he deserved. This shows that He can see all of man’s thoughts and desires; He notes everything and for each deed he gives out either a reward or a punishment. Jacob went to his uncle Laban’s home; Laban was a smart and practical man and he became Jacob’s teacher. In Laban’s home emerge three new characters: Laban, himself, and his two daughters- Leah, the older one, and Rachel, the younger one. On his way to his uncle’s home Jacob met Rachel by the well; he helped her get water, then kissed her and told her that they were related. From this moment on he fell in love with her. Being a practical man, Laban asked Jacob to name what payment he would like to receive for his work during his stay with Laban. Jacob answered that he loved Rachel and he would like to ask for her hand in marriage in return for his work. The name “Rachel” is very meaningful; this name stands for the sublime ideal in the human being. Laban promised that he would give Rachel to Jacob, but on the condition that Jacob would work for him for seven years. Jacob agreed to this condition. When the seven years were complete, however, Laban gave Jacob his older daughter, Leah, for a wife, instead of giving him Rachel. It was not before the morning after the wedding ceremony that Jacob found out that he had been deceived. He asked his uncle, “Why did you deceive me and not give me Rachel as you had promised?” Laban replied, “According to our laws the older sister should be the first one to marry, and only then can the younger one marry. I will give you Rachel in marriage, as well, if you work for me for seven more years.” This is the law of retribution: Jacob deceived his father and his brother, and for that he, in turn, was deceived by Laban. He had to serve for fourteen years for his two lies: seven years for lying to his father, and seven years for lying to his brother. Many people think that Jacob’s mistakes do not pertain to them: they think that they never lie. For as long as man is on Earth, he is bound to play some role: either the role of Isaac or Rebecca, or the role of Jacob or Esau, or the role of Leah, Rachel or Laban. These seven different characters play their specific roles. People often sell their thoughts and wishes, and, in doing so, they are like Laban who sold his two daughters so that he could profit. The world is like a stairway on which people descend and ascend, lie to each other, persecute each other, chase each other, love each other, and hate each other. Those who love each other cannot marry each other. Instead of marrying for Love, people marry for money. Leah represents a woman who was married for money, and not for Love. Jacob had to marry Leah first before he could marry Rachel. The same thing happens in the Life of people today. A young man loves a young woman, but he cannot marry her, for they are both poor. Not being able to fulfill his desire, he meets another young woman, who is rich and supports him through his studies abroad. He promises her that he will marry her. This second woman is Leah; he marries her after a while and leaves the first one, telling her, “You are beautiful, good and noble, but in this world one cannot live on beauty and nobleness alone.” Laban was a smart man, but Jacob knew the art of becoming rich. After having served his uncle for fourteen years for his two daughters, he decided to stay and work for him for another seven years so that he could save something for himself, too. This way he acquired a great fortune: sheep, goats, and camels. When the strong sheep and goats conceived, Jacob would plant white-striped trees in front of their watering holes and when the animals looked at them they gave birth to striped and speckled foals. Afterwards he would separate his sheep and goats from Laban’s ones. Thus Jacob became wealthy and acquired many herds, servants and maidservants, camels and donkeys. Finally, after having spent twenty-one years with Laban, Jacob returned to his brother. Many people wish that they could be rich, but becoming rich is an art. If someone wants to be rich, he should be bold like Jacob. Jacob had some bad traits, but God put him through great trials and suffering to make him nobler. Many times would Jacob lament his fate! Even though he was an adult already, he had to tend his uncle’s flocks and he had to answer to him for every lost kid or lamb. Through his suffering and trials Jacob learned the art of contemplation. He made a connection with God; he prayed to Him and talked to Him until one day he decided to round up his wives, sons and daughters, as well as all his possessions, and leave Laban’s house to go back to his father’s home, and to his brother Esau. He fled from Laban and started his journey back home. When he approached his father’s home Jacob sent messengers to his brother while he, himself, spent the night in prayer. During that time a man came to him and he wrestled with this man all night, until dawn. Seeing that he could not overpower him, the man touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, and pushed him aside, saying, “Let me go, for it is daybreak already.” Jacob answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “Who are you? What is your name?”, the man asked. “Jacob”, he answered. “From now on you will not be named Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God, and with men, and you have overcome”. It turned out that the man that Jacob wrestled all night was an Angel. What does the name “Jacob” mean? It means Opposer. He stood his ground, i.e. he resisted both God and men. His name had to change because his character had changed. If a man’s name does not change, his character will not change either. In order for man to transform his face, he needs to transform his character first and then his name will change, too. Man’s form and name are one and the same thing in the other world. The number of letters in one’s name, as well as the order in which the vowels and consonants are arranged, are things that have influence on man’s character and Power, as well as his soul’s qualities. For example, the name Rebecca – the mother of Jacob and Esau- has two opposite meanings that are related to the two peoples that came from her. The peoples then were on the path of involution, whereas the peoples today are on the path of evolution. However, to this day there still exist two cultures: the culture of intuition, and the culture of pure reason. These two cultures can only be reconciled if the currents causing them are reconciled first. This is all too natural! When you want to classify a plant first you need to study it closely: you need to study its root, its stem, its leaves, etc. When you study man you can clearly see the two currents in him, i.e. the two different expressions: that of Jacob and that of Esau. Esau represents the course of human nature; Esau did not value his birthright and sold his blessing for naught. He said, “What good is this blessing to me? Life is on Earth only; everything that exists is on Earth only. Only today is important, and so there is no need for me to prepare the conditions for tomorrow.” Esau did not even think that the past life and the present one are connected. The present life is a result of the past one, and the future life is regarded as a consequence of the present one. Remember this: man is not on Earth for the first time. If this was your first time on Earth, how, then, would you explain the contradictions in your character? If you come out of God for the first time then you should be pure, you should be able to know Him. Is this so in reality? Most people do not know God because they have strayed from the right path. Therefore, man did not just come out of God, but has been created thousands of years ago. Someone was in prison, but now is given back his Freedom, and everyone says about him, “This man has been released from prison and is entering Life.” Is this his first time in Life? He was in Life already before he was thrown into prison. Man will come in and out of prison many times before he learns something and cultivates a character. When you read “Les Miserables” you see that Jean Valjean spent some time in prison, but there he acquired something valuable: he cultivated his character there. Every person enters Life after having spent some years in prison, i.e. in the lower spheres of the Astral world. The fact that he was in prison means that he needed to undergo some schooling so that he could cultivate character and become a better person. Once out of prison, man still needs to work on himself for a long, long time in order to build character. Observe the characteristic traits of those children who were born fresh out of this prison: at first they are selfish and they think only about themselves. Give an apple to a third-year old and watch his reaction. He will hide the apple at first to keep it for himself. It takes a long time of teaching to cultivate nobility and tenderness into a child’s character. Yet, some children are impervious to all mentoring efforts and remain rough and selfish. You might object that children inherit their qualities from their parents. Well, where did their parents acquire their qualities? Thinking in this way is neither a science, nor a philosophy. Man’s bad desires and deeds are due to misunderstanding things. Esau and Jacob wanted the same things but differed in their methods of acquiring those things. Jacob used violence, but he had to undergo great suffering to learn that his method was wrong. Similarly, some people attain their desires through suffering that make them better people. Other people, on the other hand, do not need suffering. They have a different way of attaining their desires and becoming better people. A sculptor needs to hammer at a statue for a long time before it is finished. Nature, however, does not use a hammer, but employs different means to work on its statues. Hammering away also constitutes a culture of some sort, but this culture is lowly and coarse. Nature has its own culture that is far better. For example, the ripening of fruits is a kind of culture, but Nature does not use a hammer. You should apply the same method, for this is the only way in which you can attain your desires. There are other ways, too, but they involve big expenditures and great difficulties. Give way to the good urges in you and do not worry about how they will be realized. Leave them to nature and it will take care of everything. If a sculptor is working on you give him a hammer to chip away as he knows best; if nature is working on you let it manifest freely. When you study yourself you will notice that some days God works on you and other days you work on yourself and this way there is a constant rotation. You will work for eight hours and then let God do the work for the rest of the time. It is through changing of work, precisely, that man is inspired by beautiful impulses and is enabled to express himself as someone great and talented. When man sleeps God works hard on him. This is why when man gets ready to go to bed he should put aside all his “backpacks” and relax so that the Spirit can work on him freely. When man wakes up he can pick up his “backpacks” again and he can go on with his work. Dreams have an instructional effect on people. Through having a bad dream one can correct a wrongdoing of his. One’s consciousness is awakened and he sees that he has strayed in a certain respect. The better one sleeps the healthier he becomes. Do the following experiment: in the course of one month try to sleep calmly without any disturbance in your thoughts or feelings and you will see that by the end your overall condition will have improved. If you suffer from neurasthenia, you will be cured. If you want to be healthy, stay away from bad thoughts and desires. People create their own sufferings and difficulties. When they see that an acquaintance of theirs has advanced and has taken a higher position they look for ways to slander him and take him down from his position. The meaning of Life is not in looking for the wrong in other people or in taking them down from their high position; the meaning of Life is in the work that you can do. If you are a sculptor you must perform well the work that you were meant to do. If you are asleep let nature do its work freely: such a sleep is Divine. If one sleeps like that he becomes relaxed and receives God’s blessing. Jacob’s dream was also Divine, and Jacob fell asleep to wake up thinking of Rachel. It was the thought of Rachel that gradually transformed the practical and sly Jacob into a nobler person. Before he started thinking of Rachel Jacob would work for money; as soon as he started thinking of her he was ready to work for free. And so, if people ask when this world will become a better place I will say this: The world will become a better place when all people- teachers, priests, preachers, mothers and fathers- start working for free. Everyone should work freely, out of Love. If one does not serve God, he cannot become a better person. In this same way Jacob understood what it meant to serve God, i.e. to serve Love. “Where can we find God”, you ask. You can find Him in Rachel, for she represents Love. Human character is tested through Rachel, i.e. through Love. A Frenchman spent many years in Africa and made a great fortune. Finally, he decided to go back to France to spend the rest of his Life there. He had two cousins living there and he intended to live with them, for he did not want to marry. In order to choose with whom he should stay he decided to test them first to see which one would prove to be a better and selfless person. He brought his two cousins together and told them, “I was rich and I earned a lot of money in Africa, but then I lost everything and here I am now, coming back to Paris to die in my hometown. Which one of you, two, would be willing to have me live with you?” One of them answered first and said, “Come and live with me for a while.” However, after the very first week this cousin told him, “You need to look for another place to live, for you cannot stay with me any longer.” The man went to his other cousin who told him, “You can stay with me for as long as you wish, brother. My home is your home: you can have and use everything as if it was yours.” After a few months had passed the man decided to reveal his true situation to his cousin and told him, “I wanted to test the two of you and find out which one is a true man so that I can stay and live with him. You were the one who showed selflessness and Love for me. I am rich; I did not lose any of my fortune and what I have I will leave to you.” When he learned about the man’s true situation the first cousin went to his relative, whom he had earlier told to leave his home, apologized and invited him to go back and stay with him for as long as he wished. “It’s too late now”, responded the rich relative. The day will come when God will appear before each one of you in the form of a poor widow, or a poor young man or some suffering soul and he will put you to the test to see if you are ready to accept Him with Love and selflessness. He will test you to see how true you are to your ideal. This is the only way in which you will understand the deep meaning of Life, just like Jacob understood the meaning of the tall ladder on which God’s Angels descended and ascended. Today this ladder is bigger and is more branched out. I wish you all to see this ladder and when you come to the first ladder I wish you to understand the meaning of the earthly life and the meaning of the sufferings that you were given. Sufferings are but the shell that contains the blessings of Life. Just like a seed is enveloped inside its shell to protect the nutritious germ so do sufferings envelop all the blessings, and so man can receive them only when he is able to use them wisely. This is why he, who is looking to find happiness and bliss in the world, must go through suffering first. Christ says, “Those who have ears to listen should listen.” And here is what I say: He who does not believe in my words shall try them first. Once he has undergone trials and sufferings he will understand that they contain the blessings of Life. Jacob had to pay for one lie with twenty-one years of service to Laban, and Moses paid for one murder with no less than forty years of service to the Jewish people. Every wrong and every crime will be atoned for through suffering. Knowing this, a woman should not wonder why her husband is treating her badly, for at some time in the past it was her who had treated him badly. Likewise, the maid should not wonder why her mistress is treating her with such cruelty, for at some point in the past it was her who had treated her mistress badly. This is the law of karma. If you trace the history of mankind, of peoples, of societies, or of families, you will see that this law works everywhere systematically and relentlessly. If you want to have good sons and daughters in the future you need to apply the law of Love. Karma is resolved only through Love. Jacob had twelve sons but only Joseph was born by the law of Love. Jacob worked for seven years for Laban, and after seven years he married Rachel whose only son was Joseph. If one is able to serve with Love for seven years he will give birth to Joseph. If one marries in the common manner, with no Love, he will have Leah whom he will not love and who will bear him many sons. The law of reincarnation is a law through which man can atone for and free himself of the wrongs of his past. The human mind and the human heart are born and reborn following the same law. One American writer once described the day when his mind became clear. This clarity brought him great jubilation. Reaching such a state is but a moment of new birth. This man’s joy was as great as the joy a mother feels after giving birth to a son or a daughter. Just like a child cries when it is born, so does every man cry when his heart and mind are awakened. Great is the moment when the human heart takes the wheel in its own hands and starts directing the fate of its own life. What Jacob saw in his dream several thousand years ago also pertains to people today, i.e. to people of the 20th century. Today God’s Angels are already descending and ascending; a new culture is being born and people and nations are being brought together in a new way. The sufferings that modern people undergo show that they are in the state of a woman who is about to give birth. As soon as she gives birth, the Angels start reincarnating into human minds and hearts one after another. God, who sends his Angels, follows the consequences closely. Every person will be given the chance to hear God speak. If you go out early in the morning in spring, at the time when nature is waking up and flowers are blooming, and if you go deep inside yourself you will be able to hear the soft voice of God. If your hearing is well developed, you will be able to hear gentle, barely audible music, which will bring peace, tranquility and joy into your soul. If you go into the forest you will be able to hear the soft rustle of the leaves that is transformed into a gentle and pleasant melody. The better developed one’s hearing is, the greater the chance that he may be able to hear the soft voice of God. He does not say much: He may say one word only, but it will be remembered throughout the ages. If a young man and a young woman cannot forget the words that they have told or written to each other how much more memorable are the words of God! Is there a young man or a young woman who has forgotten the words “I love you” that they have said to each other once? A young man told me the story about an experience he once had. For some reason he once reached a state of great despair in his Life and he decided to commit suicide. At this moment he overheard the soft voice of his friend that was coming in from the next room. The young man listened closely to the song that was reaching his ears, and he clearly made out the words, “I am only thinking of you and I shall never forget you”. These words caused such a change in him that he gave up on his decision to commit suicide, for he told himself, “There is One Who is thinking of me. This has the power to make me want to live and enjoy everything that I have been given.” Since you know that there is someone who is thinking of you, you should not lose heart. If even one thought alone can make you love Life, then you must love it all the more knowing about all the care, effort and work that is being done for you by not only one, but by many beings. Listen carefully to the words that each person speaks to you so that you can see into their meaning and understand the appeal of the human soul that calls out for liberation. If you hear someone complain about Life and say that he wished he could die you must know that this person wants to die like a tree blossom dies, but first he must set fruit and his fruit must ripen after some time. If you look at it this way, death can be seen as a symbol; it is a passing from one Life into another. When one dies, he is born again; when one is being born, he dies again. Therefore if someone wants to live and be free, he must renounce the everyday cares of Life. This does not mean that you should not think. Think without worrying. Everyone must decide on the program for his Life and then should strive to realize it: and all this without worrying. If you have a father like Jacob, and a mother like Rebecca, you should tell them, “Please, do not teach me to lie, for I don’t need such a lesson.” If you have an uncle like Laban, tell him not to abuse his neighbours’ Love. Many young women and men are unhappy because their parents are against their choice. Let everyone choose for oneself the young woman or the young man that correspond to one’s own heart. If they make a mistake they will suffer for it and will correct it for themselves, in which case they will be suffering for love, at least. No one in this world has been free of suffering. Suffering for one’s ideas is meaningful and elevates man. It is preferable that one should suffer for some idea than to not have any sufferings have been justified. However, if her children die then her sufferings are wrong. In this same way man’s thoughts and desires are born, then live for a while, and then die. A life in which thoughts and desires die right after being born is a meaningless life. Give your good thoughts and desires the chance to live for a long time and bear fruit that you and your neighbours can enjoy. Man has a soul that wants to love; man has a mind and a heart that want to evolve correctly. What will become of you if you kill the life of your mind, heart and soul? What Life is the one in which the mind, heart and soul are not a part of it? Express yourselves freely without lying, stealing or murdering, because everyone receives his due. Every twisted or wrong thought that man gives birth to will follow him throughout his whole Life: on Earth and in Heaven. You need to work correctly and wisely for yourselves, as well as for your neighbours and your people. What might happen to one nation or another should not bother you. Soul is more important than nation. Someone who brings peace and wellbeing to people is worth more than a whole nation that brings sorrow, sufferings and destruction to humankind. Where is the great Roman Empire today? It fell apart, but the Roman people did not disappear. Back then there lived one true Man in the world and they crucified Him side by side with the vagabonds, but His ideas are still alive and govern the world to this day. This man was worth more than the whole Roman Empire. This great man was Jesus Christ. Today all Bulgarians want to know what will happen to Bulgaria. If Bulgaria follows God’s ways then nothing bad will happen to it. Everyone should take care of one’s individual development and should give way to his good thoughts and desires, and should gradually get rid of fear in the process. The better person you become the lesser fear you will have. If you have Jacob’s character you will inevitably suffer. Rebecca, Laban and all other characters reap the fruit of their doings. Today most people are holding the keys to the material world in their hands and wherever you go they will tell you: You must pay for your expenses. Likewise, when someone preaches he also wants to be paid. There needs to exist at least one calling for which people would work for free. There is no calling more sacred than that to serve God with Love. He who serves God always speaks the Truth: the world needs such people. Such people come out of Rachel. This is what is required of women today. Can you play Rachel’s role and tend the sheep like she did? Can you live among shepherds and be respectable? How many men should a woman have and how many women should a man have? They should have one man and one woman. In other words: Man should have one mind and one heart. Two minds and two hearts bring ambiguity into man, and all ambiguity causes harm. One mind, one heart and one will lead to Good. When a woman falls out of love with her husband, her wings fall off. When a man falls out of love with his woman and desires another one, he is committing adultery. Love must be pure and selfless. Laban, too, loved Jacob, but he also used him. Women should strive to be like Rachel and give birth to Joseph. If men and women give birth to sons like Joseph they will be chosen men and women, and they will give rise to a chosen people. “God’s Angels descend and ascend on it.” They ask the Bulgarian young women, “Are you ready to give birth to sons like Joseph?” And then they ask the Bulgarian young men, “Are you ready to give birth to sons like Joseph? Are you ready to live well? If you are ready, we will come to Bulgaria.” Joseph came to Egypt and saved its people from perishing, he saved them from starvation. “When will the Angels come into to the world”, you ask. This depends on you. They may come in an hour, but they may come after many years. God’s Angel will come down to you when you allow your soul and your Spirit to express themselves. This Angel will know you and you will know Him. “But we are sinful.” Do not think about your sins. We do not deal with past things. We do not deal with the present, either. The past and the present are important only as much as they create the conditions for the future. A great future is awaiting you, and you should work towards it. If someone brings a dirty shirt to me I will not ask why the shirt is dirty or whose it is, but I will put it in the wash basin, pour some hot water on it and wash it until it is clean again. If your shirt is clean you should keep it this way, and should make sure that it does not lose its cleanliness. Aspire to that Love that cleans and elevates the human heart. Who cleaned and elevated Jacob? His beloved Rachel did that. God told him, “I am giving you Rachel to love, and you should not think about other women.” Jacob, whose name today is Israel, now lives in a different way than before. For this reason he ranks among the chosen ones, among the learned people of higher culture who bring Light to the world. These people have sacrificed themselves for mankind. All people today are gathered at the bottom of the ladder and are looking up to its top from where God is asking, “How do you intend to live now that you are descending and ascending on this ladder? Are you going to keep on lying to your brothers and sisters, and to your mothers and fathers? Are you going to be seeking after other men and women or are you going to love only those who have been given to you by God and who provide the conditions for your evolution?” Then He turns to the mothers and the fathers and asks them, “Are you going to keep on selling your sons and daughters?” “We have suffered a lot, oh Lord.” God has no pity for people who suffer. He is happy, for he knows that they are about to give birth. God says, “I am as happy when I look at the blooming flowers in the gardens as I am when I look at your children, playing, frolicking and enjoying God’s world.” It is a great thing when man lives for Love and enjoys the world. Then the Life of all people- men, women and children- will turn into songs and prayers. The world will become a garden of paradise. This shall happen, but there is one thing that is required of man: he should keep descending and ascending on the ladder, whose top rests in Heaven. He, who stays by this ladder, will benefit from Life’s blessings. He is like those trees that grow along rivers. They use the water from the rivers to grow well. The ones that are far from rivers are doomed to perish. The Divine blessings: Love, Wisdom, Truth, and Justice descend on the Divine ladder. Be alert so that you may benefit from them. You need to carve out the path for at least one rivulet in your gardens so that you can receive at least one stream of this great abundance. This is the only way in which you can transform your Life and enter the new that is already arriving into this world. The new is like the month of May. Everything has come to life and has broken out of winter hibernation and is out of its cocoon. People, too, are already coming out of their tombs; they are rising from the dead. It is said in the Scriptures, “Come out, all of you who are dead, so that we may enter, who are alive.” What is the meaning of this verse? It means: Come out all you dead, who are alive so that we may enter: we, the alive ones, who are dead, so that we may rejoice. Do not worry if you are of the alive-dead or of the dead-alive, for it is good for both sides. Anyone who comes out of the tomb is already pure, and anyone who enters will be cleansed and will return again, but this time pure and renewed. Enjoy Life and sing praises for being alive. In the story about Jacob and Esau I outlined seven characters, of which only Rachel merits emulation. I now wish all women to be like her; I wish you to bring beautiful and great ideals to the men, women, and children around you. I also wish all men to be like Rachel. Aspire for the new Teaching that Jesus Christ brings through the woman. This Teaching will dry the tears from the eyes of the suffering ones. What kind of woman am I talking about? I am talking about the kind of woman who has Rachel’s character. Such a woman will bloom and set fruit and her fruit will ripen. However, the one who has Leah’s character will have to be transplanted time and over again. Women must save the world and they will. Only mothers can save the world. If anyone thinks that the world can be saved and improved outside of the mother is fooling himself and is wrong. All priests, preachers, teachers, and governors should unite around the mother. The most sublime word, the strongest word in the world is the word “mother”. The words “God” and “Lord” mean “Divine Mother”. All people talk about Love without knowing it. We are talking about Rachel’s love that requires that man should be ready for sacrifice. Without this Love Nature will remain a secret for man. Like man opens up to the one, whom he loves, so does nature open up its secret hiding places for the ones, who love it and whom it loves. He who carries inside the key of Love can penetrate into the great secrets of Being. In conclusion I will say this: In today’s world there are six forces at work: Rebecca, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Laban and Leah. They create the difficulties and the sufferings for mankind and make it weak. A new force is now coming into the world: Rachel. She brings Light to the human mind. One appeal can be heard everywhere: let women move forward to the frontline! When men move back to the rear and women move forward to the front the world will become a better place. God, the Angels and the saints have great faith in women. I, too, have great faith in them. Therefore, the world will become a better place when men become women’s beloved sons and brothers. This lecture was delivered by the Master on April 8, 1917 in Sofia. Source

Righteousness and Salvation “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” Romans: 10:10 I shall dwell upon the words righteousness and salvation. I would like you to apply these words and to try experimenting with them. Every woman strives to attain independence. While still single, she craves to get away from her father’s house, to break free from her mother and father, to become a mistress in a house of her own. This striving is natural and Divine. When she gets married and enters her new life, she brings her dowry into her house – shirts, pillows, bed clothes; she gives away some of these; she organises her house and feels thrilled with this new house so appropriately tidied by her. Indeed, unhappy are the homeless women. A person who has no home is a person who has no character. The body is the house of the human soul in spiritual life. According to the same principle, just like with women, the soul should enter the body and organise it. Some people want to get rid of their bodies and they say, ‘When will I break loose from my body?’ There are bodies out of which one can break loose. These are the unhealthy damp cellars without windows, where people get rheumatism. Getting out of them does not mean that we have to get out of the healthy houses. Paul says in the Scripture that there is a home made not by human hand. The concept righteousness derives from the expression to make things right. Which human being is righteous? The one that does not sin. But in order not to sin, one should have knowledge, should understand the meaning of things around oneself, and should make the right choice. You strive for freedom. Each woman should have this freedom, but provided that she is able to use it to build the happiness and health of her husband, of her children. No husband, to a woman who is not free, is happy. Do you think that ill women are free? Women, whose hearts and minds are constantly disturbed, are not free. I do not mean that your mind should not be excited. Disturbance and excitement are two different concepts. Minds and hearts may only be excited on the surface, but should not be disturbed at the bottom in order not to be troubled. The latter is an indication of their shallowness, of only 10 centimetres depth. I ask you what can you do at a depth of 10 centimetres? If we take a cloth of 10 centimetres length, what can we make out of it? First and foremost for women is to have a deep heart – of at least 10 kilometres depth. Anybody trying to disturb you at such a depth will surely get drowned. What do little children do when they come across a shallow puddle of about 10 centimetres depth? They get into the water, disturb it, and enjoy it. Men, when they come across such shallow women, disturb them and feel satisfied. Then women in their turn say, ‘We are very unhappy’. There is a good deal of turmoil in shallow waters – frogs croak there all summer long – a lot of commotion and noise, which abates only in winter. This is to say that your hearts should not be shallow; there should not be any commotion in there. I ask you what is the cure for such a puddle of stagnant water? You will pour a stream of fresh water into this puddle; you will dig a gutter so that the fresh water can wash the entire residue from the past away. Christ’s teaching is a fresh stream, which should enter your hearts and wash them; after cleaning them, it will leave the residue to fertilise your fields. You may ask how to dig such a spring. The spring of fresh water will find you on its own accord. Christ told the Samaritan, ‘The water I shall give you, will be the spring of life, running constantly within you.’ Hence this spring should be understood to mean salvation. When a person finds oneself in a desert, where there is no water, one’s mouth becomes dry, one feels irresistibly thirsty and water is the only salvation, otherwise one is doomed to drop dead. Just like the traveller in the desert, many women die of thirst with their camels – with their baggage. You have heard the word spring. When you go out for a walk outside Sofia, I would like you to try the water of such springs. But the high life ladies, and indeed most of the people, go for a walk not farther away than Boris’s Gardens1, at that they walk along the same alleys every time, where there is nothing else but dust. They inhale as much dust as possible and when they come back home they say, ‘What a nice walk we had!’ I say you just filled yourselves with dust. People, when they adopt Christ’s teaching, often use the same trite phrases and afterwards they say, ‘I got a headache from listening’. This is because you inhaled dust. This is not a place for righteousness and salvation. The words righteousness and salvation have seven meanings. I now talk about one of the meanings and if you understand it, I shall then move on to the other meanings. There comes a friend and says, ‘Let’s go for a walk, but not very far away, because I have a headache, I have palpitations, I am not used to it’. This shows that you are a person with short legs, while the Truth needs long legs to walk. Thus you will come, involuntarily, to a situation where you will commit a crime. As soon as one’s legs shorten, a person starts thinking of devilish things. Some say, ‘I can’t go to Vitosha2.’ Now, if you can’t go to Vitosha, how will you go to Christ? Christ’s Path is narrow and steep; it is a Path of the sensible human will. Tell yourselves in your mind, ‘I will go with my friends to Vitosha!’ If you can’t go in real life, at least follow them mentally; travel the whole way with them in your thoughts! This is Life’s philosophy. When you meet your beloved, before the marriage, they call you angles, they love you, they can die for you, they can’t live without you, they kneel before you, and what a weeping, sobbing and pretence there is. However, this is not because they can’t do without you; this is a way to impress you and they want to say, ‘Let them see what the Lord is like!’ When they get married, women start kneeling. This is your philosophy. Rather than the men kneeling, it is you who kneel. Why so? Because your minds and hearts are shallow. Do not get me wrong! If I take a measure and try to fathom the depth of your minds and hearts, I will merely ascertain one fact, as it is. The words I say to you, I interpret them, I use them figuratively, do not take them in their everyday meaning. Your hearts can be shallow and deep at the same time. If residue continuously enters your hearts, the bottom will be filled and they will become shallow. There are lakes, which have become shallow, but there are lakes, which have become deeper… Why should women feel a desire to see men kneeling before them? To kneel, this is the law of selflessness, of self-sacrifice. The angles, formed when kneeling, show that one is ready to go low down and sacrifice oneself. When you stop and sacrifice yourself for somebody else, it means that you kneel before that person. But when a lad kneels before a girl, he lies to her. Tell me how many Bulgarian girls there are who have an ideal relationship with their husbands and have never exchanged bad words? I shall leave you to think it over and to find the Truth on your own. The Truth must surface – nothing more and nothing less! I do not want to present this Truth to you so glamorously, as I do not want it to dazzle you. I put it through many clouds, to make it acceptable to your eyes, thus wanting to spare you the illusions, which cause everyday unhappiness, because these illusions take you away from God. When God sent one woman or one man to the Earth, He gave them a budget. It is unfair if somebody eats up your budget. No one has the right to take it from you, unless you give it voluntarily. You tell somebody, ‘You make no sacrifices for me.’ There is no need for anyone to make sacrifices for you, because if a person makes a sacrifice for you, in order to elevate you, such a person will go down. This is the Divine law – one is going up, while another one is going down. If the man is going down, the woman is going up; if the woman is going up, the man is going down. Well now, when you walk you cast an anchor, catch the man and keep him down, so that neither he nor you go up. You stop at one place and keep looking at each other. Such are contemporary women – they stop their men and do not let them go up. This accounts for why you sleep – since you cannot go to the other world, you cannot go up or go down. When you are asked why you sleep, you answer, ‘To go to the Lord’. When you say, ‘I slept fine’, this is so because you were up, but your impression from there is flattened, and there is only a shadow of something pleasant which stays with you. Sometimes you say, ‘I did not sleep well, I had bad dreams’. This indicates that you must have stopped your man from something. This unnatural situation is sometimes the result of utter self-interest, which is found with women. Self-interest generates self-interest, unhappiness generates unhappiness, and grief generates grief. When I talk about suffering and unhappiness, I mean grief as a wrapping of the Divine Truth. And contemporary people wrap grief in joy and, thus they sweeten it from the outside. There are such pills – coated in sugar, but bitter inside. The Lord, now, supports neither homeopathy nor alopathy. The former cures with small doses of bitter powders, so that these can be effective; while the latter – with big doses of bitter powders; and there is no more pain. When one is healthy, one needs no pills. I know many people, who, every now and then, take automatically a pill of aspirin or quinine, not to fall ill. Thus, they impress on themselves the thought that they may fall ill. Keep telling yourselves, one word every day, each of the words said should be positive. This will improve your situation. All of you who listen to me, please make the following small experiment, and I allow you one year for this, and afterwards you will be free: the first six months will be positive – you will plough, will sow, will reap, and the other six months will be passive – you will be gathering new energy. Don’t you doubt that everybody can do what I say! It’s ridiculous of you to say that you cannot do it. Some day I will gather small children and I will make an experiment with them and I will prove small children can do what you can’t; small children will do it, because they have greater faith. You may say, ‘We may deceive ourselves’. You may deceive yourselves the first year, but you won’t deceive yourselves in the second year. You should dispose of the thought that you may deceive yourselves. There are no deceits where the Lord works and you should know this line, ‘All that will happen to those who love the Lord, is for their good.’ You will adopt this motto: ‘Whatever happens to us, the Lord will convert it for the better.’ And then let all the bad thoughts, bad desires come, let all bad people take a stand against you; you should fear not! There should be no fear, keep fear away from you! I shall now dwell on the verb can. What experiment have you done so far? You used it only in the first person singular, ‘I can’. From now on you shall have to use it in all the forms: ‘I can, you can, he can, she can, we can, you can, they can’. When you come across any obstacle, you will say to yourself, inside your soul, ‘I can, we can, it can be done! It is me who can. It is you, Lord, inside me, within my soul, who can. Your Great Spirit, that guides me, can!’ You will then use the three forms in the plural too. Your faith and your Purity will help everybody who is up there to join efforts to implement the Divine idea in your life. In this Path it will take Divine patience and persistence until Light takes the upper hand within you. This experiment you shall have to do any time when you feel weak. You will do it between 4 and 7 o’clock in the morning. Let those of you who can, get up in the morning 4 o’clock sharp and willingly do this experiment. When the Sun rises in the morning you will say: (in the first person singular), ‘I can! – Let my Sun rise in my soul like this. (in the second person singular), ‘You can! – Let God’s Sun rise in my soul like this. (in the third person singular), ‘He/she can! – Let the Sun of my spirit rise like this. (in the first person plural), ‘We can! – Let the Sun of our Angels rise like this. (in the second person plural), ‘You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls like this. (in the third person plural), ‘They can! – Let the Sun of all Suns rise in our spirits like this. Six Suns should rise within you like this. You should dwell for four minutes on each Sun; altogether twenty-four minutes shall be spent on the rising of the six Suns. The rule that you will have to observe is as follows: you will get up quietly, calmly and after washing your face in the bathroom, you will be quiet not experiencing a single disturbance – you should fear nothing. You may not feel quite well while getting up; you may feel as if the world is wrong. But you should stand up and say the above words quietly – everybody to themselves. You will take a notebook, and each morning for six months running, you will write down at what time you got up and how many times you were late. Having uttered these words you will feel something pleasant in the pit of your stomach and your spirit will be elevated. You need six years to get to know how these Suns rise. Keep doing this experiment for six months and please share and recommend this experiment to some of your female friends. You will start on 6th of April. Some may ask whether it is possible to get up so early and so on. You should not entertain such thoughts! You will put down in your notebooks what the weather was like and there should be separate columns for: clear, cloudy, rainy or windy weather. All weather conditions are favourable. If it is rainy or cloudy, do not ever complain during these six months. If it is rainy, you will say, ‘The weather today is rainy – God purifies it and the fields will yield better crops.’ You will try to apply all of this. Moreover, you will require that your friends make a promise to do it. During the first month, when you say all the six points, you will emphasise the first one most; during the second month you will again say all the six points, but you will lay the emphasis on the second one and so on. I want you to be quiet, tranquil and the blessing that will come will be as much as you need. The rain, when falling, will give each plant as much moisture as it needs. I want you to generate a favourable wave and you will try to learn the lesson from everything that happens to you during these six months. You will try to see the good side of the unpleasant things and to find out the benefit. You will say, ‘It will be for the better for those who love the Lord!’ Then you will use the following sentences: I believe in You, Lord, who spoke in the past. I believe in You, Lord, who is speaking to me now. I believe in You, Lord, who will speak to me in the future. Let Your Light descend upon all of us. Let Your Name be glorified. Let Your Kingdom come. Let Your Will be done on the Earth, the way it is done up there in Heaven. In the daytime, if you are inspired to read a psalm or anything else, read, but only if you really feel an urge deep down in yourself. Having read the above mentioned sentences, think about things that can elevate you, think of everything that is most beautiful in the world and you will see that the nicest pictures will be given to you. This is the only way to rectify your past and to lay the pre-conditions for good circumstances in your future. This is the way along which you will be able to strengthen your will and to ennoble your mind and heart. The world, of course, will follow the same course but everything will turn out for the better. There will be moments during these six months when you will feel deficient in salt; you will then use the following sentence: ‘Lord, warm my heart with Your Love!’ If your mind goes dim at times, you will say, ‘Lord, enlighten my mind with Your Spirit!’ or ‘Lord, through Your Spirit, grant Light to my mind!’ Then keep staying quiet; perhaps one hour, two hours, three or four hours may pass, but anyway you will get the effect. After the six Suns rise one after another, results will come. During these six months you will try to be on good terms with your husbands, children and people surrounding you, and will speak only of useful things. If you make a mistake and say something bad about somebody, you will put it down in your notebooks – you have to be honest with yourselves. Another rule: if one of you cannot manage on her own, she will ask another sister to help her, if the two together cannot manage, they should ask a third one and they will say their prayer together. You should always try to get together in the mornings, up to 12 o’clock at the latest, because the influences are good then. This is how one can be righteous and saved. This is the first meaning of these words. Pass on this duty, this piece of advice to all of your beloved female friends. If you are deeply motivated, share these ideas with other people also; then you will be blessed and so will be they. This is the way your light will shine before the people close to you. Peace to everyone! Master’s lecture, delivered on 5 April 1917 ___________________________________________________________ 1 Boris’s Gardens is the central park in Sofia 2 Vitosha is a mountain near the town of Sofia Source

JUSTIFICATION AND SALVATION From: Lectures to the Sisters, April 5, 1917 Thursday, Sofia) “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:10 I will dwell on the two words of justification and salvation. I want you to apply these words and make an experiment with them. Every woman is striving for independence. While she is a maid, she seeks to get out of her father's house, to free herself from her mother and father, to become a mistress in her own house. This aspiration is natural and Divine. When she gets married and enters the new life, she brings to her house her dowry – shirts, pillows, mats; he donates this and that, orders her house and enjoys this new, nicely ordered house. And indeed, homeless women are unhappy. A person without a home is a person without character. The body is the house of the human soul in spiritual life. According to the same law, just like with women, the soul should enter the body and organize it. Some people want to get rid of their bodies and they say, ‘When am I going to free myself from my body?’ There are bodies out of which one can break free. These are the unhealthy damp cellars without windows, where people catch rheumatism. Getting out of them does not mean that we leave healthy houses. Paul in one place in Scripture says “house not made with hands” (Corinthians 5:1) The concept of justification derives from the expression to make things right. Which human being is just? The one that does not sin. But in order not to sin, one should have knowledge, should understand the meaning of things around oneself, and should make the right choice. You strive for freedom. Every woman should have this freedom, but if she can use it to build the happiness and health of her husband, of her children. No husband, to a woman who is not free, is happy. Do you think that sick woman is free? Woman, whose heart, and mind are constantly disturbed, are not free. I do not mean that your mind should not be excited. Disturbance and excitement are two different concepts. The mind and heart should only be agitated on the surface, not deeply disturbed, in order not to be troubled. The latter indicates that they are shallow, their depth is only ten centimeters. I ask, ten centimeters deep, what can be done? If we take ten centimeters of fabric, what can be made of it? The first and most important thing for a woman is to have depth in her heart of at least ten kilometers. At such depth, whoever tries to disturb you will drown. What do young children do when they come across a shallow puddle of about 10 centimeters depth? They get into the water, disturb it, and enjoy it. Men, when they come across such shallow women, confuse them and feel satisfied. Then women in their turn say, ‘We are very unhappy’. There is a good deal of turmoil in shallow waters – frogs croak there all summer long – a lot of commotion and noise, which abates only in winter. This is to say that your hearts should not be shallow; there should not be any commotion in there. I ask you what is the solution for such a puddle of stagnant water? You will pour a stream of fresh water into this puddle; you will dig a gutter so that the fresh water can wash away all the remains of the past. Christ’s teaching is a fresh stream, which should enter your hearts and wash them; after cleaning them, it will leave the sludge to fertilize your fields. You may ask how to dig such a spring. The spring of fresh water will find you on its own accord. Christ says to the Samaritan, "The water which I will give you shall become within you a fountain of water springing up to eternal life." Hence this spring should be understood to mean salvation. When someone finds themselves in a desert, where there is no water, their mouth becomes dry, it feels irresistibly thirsty and water is the only salvation, otherwise they are doomed to drop dead. Just like the traveler in the desert, many women die of thirst along with their camels – with their own baggage. You have heard the word spring. When you go out for a walk outside Sofia, I would like you to try the water of such springs.But the high society ladies, and indeed most of the people, go for a walk not farther away than Boris’ Gardens1, they walk along the same alleys every time, where there is nothing else but dust. They inhale much dust and when they come back home, they say, ‘What a nice walk we had!’ I say: you just filled yourselves with dust. People, when they adopt Christ’s teaching, often use the same trite phrases and afterwards they say, ‘I got a headache from listening’. This is because you inhaled dust. This is not a place for justification and salvation. The words justification and salvation have seven meanings. I'm talking to you now about one of the meanings and if you understand it, I will then move on to the other meanings. A friend comes and says, ‘Let’s go for a walk, but not far away, because I have a headache, I have palpitations, I am not used to it’. This shows that you are people with short legs, while the Truth needs long legs to walk. So you will unwittingly come to the position of committing crimes. Once people's legs become short, they start thinking of cunning things. Someone says, "I can't go to Vitosha Mountain." Now, if you can’t go to Vitosha, how will you go to Christ? Christ’s Path is narrow and steep; it is a Path of the sensible human will. In your mind, say, "I'll go with my friends to Vitosha Mountain!" If you can’t go in real life, at least follow them mentally; travel the whole way with them in your mind! That's the philosophy of Life. When you meet your beloved, before you get married, they call you Angles, they love you, they die for you, they can’t live without you, they kneel before you, and much weeping, crying, and pretense are pouring out. However, this is not because they can’t do without you; this is a way to produce an effect and they want to say, ‘Let them see what the Lord is like!’ When they get married, women start kneeling. This is your philosophy - instead of men, you now kneel. Why? Because your minds and hearts are shallow. Do not get me wrong! If I measure and try to fathom the depth of your minds and hearts, I will merely ascertain one fact, as it is. The words I say to you, I interpret them, I use them figuratively, do not take them in their simple meaning. Your hearts can be shallow and deep at the same time. If sludge continuously enters your hearts, the bottom will be filled, and they will become shallow. There are lakes, which have become shallow, but there are lakes, which have become deeper… Why should women feel a desire to see men kneeling before them? Kneeling, this is the law of selflessness, of self-sacrifice. When you form angles during kneeling, you show that you are ready to go down and sacrifice oneself. When you stop and sacrifice yourself for somebody else, it means that you kneel before that person. But when a lad kneels before a girl, he lies to her. Tell me how many Bulgarian girls there are who have an ideal relationship with their husbands and have never exchanged bad words? I will let you ponder and establish the Truth on your own. The Truth must surface – nothing more and nothing less! I don't want to present this truth as glamorous as to blind you. I put it through many clouds, to make it bearable to your eyes, thus wanting to spare you the illusions, which cause unhappiness every day, because these illusions take you away from God. When God sent a woman or a man to the Earth, He gave them a budget. It is unfair if somebody eats up your budget. No one has the right to take it from you unless you give it voluntarily. You tell somebody, ‘You make no sacrifices for me.’ There is no need for anyone to make sacrifices for you, because if a person makes a sacrifice for you, in order to elevate you, such a person will go down. This is the Divine law – one is going down, while another one is going up. If the man is going down, the woman is going up; if the woman is going up, the man is going down. Well now, when you walk you cast an anchor, capture the man, and keep him down, so that neither he nor you go up. You stop at one place and keep looking at each other. Such are contemporary women – they stop their men and do not let them go up. This accounts for why you sleep – since you cannot go to the other world, you cannot go up or go down. When you are asked why you sleep, you answer, ‘To go to the Lord’. When you say, ‘I slept fine’, this is so because you were up, but your impression from there is flattened, and there is only a shadow of something pleasant which stays with you. Sometimes you say, ‘I did not sleep well, I had bad dreams’. This indicates that you must have stopped your husband from something. This unnatural situation sometimes stems of utter selfishness, that exists in women. Selfishness gives birth to selfishness, unhappiness gives birth to unhappiness, sorrow gives birth to sorrow. When I talk about suffering and unhappiness, I mean sorrow as a wrapping of the Divine Truth. And contemporary people wrap grief in joy and, thus they sweeten it from the outside. There are such pills – coated in sugar, but bitter inside. The Lord, now, supports neither homeopathy nor allopathy. The former cures with small doses of bitter powders, so that these can be effective; while the latter – with big doses of bitter powders; and the pains cease. When healthy, a person does not need any pills. I know a lot of people who out of habit swallow an aspirin or quinine pill, so they don't get sick. With that, they're self-suggesting they might get sick. Say one word every day that's positive. With this, your situation will improve. All of you who listen to me, please make the following small experiment, and I allow you one year for this, and afterwards you will be free: the first six months will be positive – you will plough, sow, reap, and the other six months will be passive – you will be gathering new energy. There should be no shadow of doubt because what I say can be done by anyone. It's ridiculous to say you can't. Someday I will gather little children and I will make an experiment with them and I will prove little children can do what you can’t; small children will do it, because their faith in them is greater. You may say, ‘We may deceive ourselves’. You may deceive yourselves the first year, but you won’t deceive yourselves in the second year. You should dispose of the thought that you may deceive yourselves. There are no deceits where the Lord works and you should know this line, ‘All that will happen to those who love the Lord, is for their good.’ You will adopt this motto: ‘Whatever happens to us, the Lord will turn it around for the better.’ And then let all the bad thoughts, bad desires come, let all bad people take a stand against you; you should fear not! There should be no fear, keep fear away from you! I will now talk about the verb “can”. What kind of an experiment were you conducting until now? You were using it only in the first person: I can. From now on you will use it in all persons: I can, you can, he/she/it can, we can, you can, they can. When you encounter an obstacle, you will tell yourself, in your soul: "I can, we can, he/she/it can! I can. You can, Lord, who is within me, in my soul. Your great Spirit which guides me, can!” Then you will use all three persons in the plural. Your Faith and your Purity will help all who are above to contribute to the Divine idea to be realized in your Life. Divine patience and perseverance are required in this Way, until the Light overcomes in you. You will do this experiment whenever you feel weak. You will do it in the morning between 4 and 7 o'clock. Exactly at 4 o'clock in the morning you can get up and start your meditation experience voluntarily. When the sun rises in the morning, you should say: (in 1 person): I can! Let my Sun rise in my soul. (in 2nd person): You can! – Let the Divine Sun rise in my soul. (in 3rd person): He/she/it can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise. (in the 1st person plural): We can! "Let the Sun of our Angels rise." (in the 2nd person plural): You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls. (in the 3rd person plural): They can! - Let the Sun of all suns rise in our spirits. So, you need six suns to rise. You will stop at each sun for four minutes; a total of twenty-four minutes should be spent on the rising of the six suns. The rule you should follow is: you will get up quietly, calmly and after washing, you will stand silently, without any disturbance - nothing to scare you. You may be in a bad mood when you get up, you may feel as if the world is to blame. But you stand up and say the above words calmly, each for himself. You will take a notebook and every morning for six months you will note at what time you got up and how many times you were late. As you say these words, you will feel a pleasure under the solar plexus and your spirit will be uplifted. It may take you six years to understand how these suns rise. Continue this experience for six months, and also pass it on, recommend it to some of your friends. You should start on April 6. Some will ask if it will be possible to do it so early, etc. There should be no such thoughts! You will note in your notebooks what the weather was like by dividing it into separate columns: clear, cloudy, rainy, windy. All these conditions of time are good. If it's rainy or cloudy, never complain during those six months. If it is rainy, you will say, "Today the weather is rainy - God purifies, and the fields will bear more." You will look to implement all this. And you will ask your friends to promise to fulfill it. In the first month, when you say all six points, you will emphasize the first one the most; in the second month you will say it all again, but you will emphasize the second point, and so on. I want you to be quiet, calm, and the blessing that will come will be as much as you need. The rain, as it falls, will give each plant as much moisture as it needs. I want you to produce a favorable wave of everything that happens to you during these six months, you will try to learn a lesson, take the good side out of the nuisance, and find the benefit of it. You will say: "For good will all this be - for him who loves the Lord!" Then you should use the following sentences: I believe in You, Lord, who spoke in the past. I believe in You, Lord, who is speaking to me now. I believe in You, Lord, who will speak to me in the future. Let Your Light come upon all of us. Let Your Name be glorified. Let Your Kingdom come. Let Your Will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. During the day, if you are persuaded to read a psalm or something else, read it, but only if you feel a deep inner desire to do so. As you read the sentences above, think about things that can lift you up, think about all that is most beautiful in the world, and you will see how you will be presented with the best pictures. Only in this way will you be able to face the past and prepare good conditions for the future. This is the way in which you will be able to strengthen your will and ennoble your mind and heart. Of course, the world will go the same way, but everything will turn out for the better. During these six months you will sometimes feel more discouraged; then you will use the following sentence: "Lord, make my heart warm with Your Love!" If your mind is sometimes clouded, you will say, "Lord, enlighten my mind with Your Spirit!" or "Give Light to my mind through Your Spirit!" Then stay calm; it may take one, two, three, four hours, but you will have a result anyway. Once the six suns rise one after the other, there will be a result. During these six months you will try to be on good terms with your husbands, with your children, with those around you and you will only talk about useful things. If you sometimes lie and say something bad about someone, you will write it down in your notebooks - you have to be honest with yourself. Another rule: if one of you can't help yourself, she'll call another sister to help; if both cannot help, they should call a third and perform their prayer together. The gathering should always take place before noon, no later than 12 o'clock, because that’s where there are good influences. This is how one can be “justified” and “saved”. This is the primary meaning of these words. Pass on this guidance, this piece of advice to all of your beloved female friends. If you have a deep awakening, share these ideas with other people also; then you both will be blessed. This will illuminate your Light in front of the people close to you. Peace to everyone! From the lecture: “Righteousness and Salvation”, April 5, 1917 Part of the series: The Great Mother - a series of talks in front of a spiritual group of sisters (Thursday talks) 1917-1932. ====================== Note: From another source I found that during the first month of the exercise, the words are: (in 1 person): I can! Let my Sun rise in my soul. (in 2nd person): You can! – Let the Divine Sun rise in my soul. (in 3rd person): He/she/it can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise. (in the 1st person plural): We can! Let the Sun of our Angels rise. (in the 2nd person plural): You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls. (in the 3rd person plural): They can! - Let the Sun of all suns rise in our spirits. However, during the second through sixth month the words change and become stronger: 1. I can - Let my Sun rise in my soul and renew my heart. 2. You can - Let the Divine Sun of my spirit rise and renew my soul. 3. He/she/It can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise and renew my mind. 4. We can - Let the Sun of our Angels rise and renew our hearts. 5. You can - Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls and renew our souls. 6. They can - Let the Sun rise of all Suns in our spirits, and renew our minds.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Light "You are the light of the world."1 My last sermon was about the salt - the first divine element in life, but today I shall speak about the second element - the Light. I shall try to put Christ’s words in contemporary language as it is spoken in the 20th century. What does Christ mean by the word "light"? Every word has its own sense. Only when it produces a certain effect on the mind or heart of a person can it be understood. For instance, if you hold a match, you can understand its effect only when you light it; otherwise it would make no sense. Therefore, the words in a spoken language are matches; however, each one must have a box on which it can be lit it at just the right time, in order for the word to produce its effect. We should not be like the little children who only take matches out of the box, light them and throw them away. This is no philosophy. There are many writers today who are constantly taking matches out, lighting them and throwing them away. I ask you what effect may their matches thus lit produce? You yourselves must decide what the effect of such lighting would be. In the future, the words should be salted in order to contain Light in themselves. You still have a vague idea about Light. The words "illumination" and "light" have the same root, but illumination is a reflection of light. Light is a compound of that divine element related to the human mind which allows for sound reasoning using logic, content and sense in our thought. In modern physics the scientists are disputing whether the illumination comes from the sun, or it is something different. There are scientists who object to the idea that illumination comes from the sun. They maintain that it is a special kind of energy that, in reaching the earth’s surface, clashes with it and gives the reflection of illumination. Light is an inner process. It is an element, which can always be tested. Light is the most real thing in the world. It is thousands of times more real than the world: it creates human thought and desires; it is a conductor of the spiritual world and exists in the form of ether; it is the wrapping of the human spirit and the human mind; without it no one can think or feel. Anyone who has studied at primary school and has graduated high school has had difficulties with the solution of certain problems. S/he knows that these problems cannot be solved immediately; however, after working on them for awhile, some illumination is thrown on them and they are solved. It is the Light that clarifies them. I shall give you some rules so that you can test everything, for I am not speaking only in theory but am giving you a positive science that can be tested. Light is the healthy state of the human mind, an atmosphere in which a person must live all the time. When writers lose this Light, they become fruitless; when teachers lose it, they lose their methods and cannot teach; when mothers lose it they lack the patience and love necessary to raise their children. If you do not have this Light, you cannot manifest Love and Truth. Christ says, "You are the Light." Who are "you"? The first element is the salt, the Law of Balance which maintains balance in all things. The second element is Light which raises things and makes them grow. All thoughts and desires grow and develop better in the Light. A person who lives in Light is like a fruit tree growing in fertile soil, producing ripe fruit. When your mind is teeming with philosophic thoughts, do not rejoice yet. This may be only a blossoming. To find out if you have Light, test whether your thoughts may set and acquire roots. When a person is not ready to die for a thought of theirs, it means that the thought is not yet born in them. Before I make a more detailed explanation on this question, I shall give you an example out of Bulgarian life. I have a purpose of putting life and sense to these examples. Many have heard this one but I shall give it in a new light. The story goes that a Turk during the Turkish yoke visited a Bulgarian chorbadji2. On entering the room, he saw three icons on the wall and an icon-lamp burning before them. The icons represented the Holy Virgin, St George on horseback and St Nicolas. "What are these three pictures for?" he asked the chorbadji. "They protect me from all evil and so far no evil have I suffered," answered the chorbadji. "How strange, I have so many well-paid servants, but they do not protect me so well," said the Turk. "How much do they cost?" he asked. Then he bought the three icons, took them home and lit an icon-lamp. He sent all the servants away from his house, saying to them, "I need no more servants for I have found loyal men to keep my house." However, one evening robbers broke into his house and robbed him. He went to the icon of the Holy Virgin and said to her, "I can not complain about you for, being a young woman, you have a child to care for." He turned to St George and said, "I cannot complain about you either for you are a young man riding your horse and getting pleasure out of this." Finally he turned to St Nicolas and said to him, "You are an old man having neither a child nor a horse to ride, that is why I shall punish you," and he turned the icon head down. After that St Nicolas somehow found the stolen riches and the punishment was lifted. The Turk said, "Now this is how you should act." What does the Holy Virgin represent? She represents the woman with her heart and the child is the heart she is breeding. A person has come into the world to breed, to regenerate his/her heart and bring it up as a child. You ask, "Why do women bear children?" By the law of childbirth, God is teaching you how to raise your child, i.e. your heart. If a mother gives her child pure milk, it will be healthy; but if the milk is polluted, the child will die. What does the icon of St George represent? St George represents the human mind and the horse - the physical body. A person must ride their horse, for if they do not ride it they will lose it. You must feed your horse well, but you must not overfeed it. What does the icon of St Nicolas represent? St Nicolas represents a man of good heart and good mind who has attained the highest position in life - that of the rational divine life. He must deal with the raising of all humanity; all people must be like children to him. He must sacrifice himself for others as a mother sacrifices herself for her children. As St George looks after his horse well, feeding him properly, so the sound-minded elderly people should look after the young people; stimulating their minds and hearts to live a sound life. That is why Christ says, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden." If you have Light you will be able to discover it. If a palmist looks at your hand, s/he will tell you if you have Light or not; similar to when you enter a European city, you know what kind of people inhabit it by the order of the city and its houses. When you enter a house you can guess what the housewife likes. If the red color predominates, she is a woman of desires, a changeable person. Those who wear red hats, a red girdle, have the idea that the world is a battlefield where they must fight. I do not deny fighting, but it must be based on a divine law; it must build, not destroy life. If it destroys life, it is anarchy. The purpose of fighting is the acquisition of freedom, while Light has this very purpose in view - to make us free. The word "freedom" implies the idea of divine harmony in our thoughts and desires, and of order in the world. Everyone should be in his/her place and make use of the abilities hidden in her/his brain and heart. Present day scientists are constantly weighing the brains of dead people for the purpose of different investigations. Human thought has its marks namely in the brain, which is a garden. What the soil of the human brain is, such will be person’s thoughts. The human brain contains the same zones as those of the earth. Thoughts grow in it the same way as flowers grow on the earth. Every thought has a form which may have the character of a sheep, a wolf, a bear, a fox, a snake, a spider, an ant; for all these forms are qualities forming the human character. This Light enters us the same way as the illumination comes from above and elevates everything in a person. It engenders growth to both the good and the evil animals, regardless of whether they are sheep or wolves. And when these animals complain that they are suffering, this Light says to them, "Fear not, next year I shall create you again, only work a little now." When we complain of sufferings in our life, Light says, "You be careful and I shall create in you all that is necessary." It does not, however, tolerate doubt, feebleness, lack of faith, which are negative qualities. Light is a life of divine harmony and only a person possessing this harmony can know the greatness of Light. It is a rational element. Physicists of today say that if two illuminations of two opposite poles, each with a different wave- length and vibration meet, they are neutralized and darkness is the result. The same is true of Light. Man is one pole of Light and woman the other pole. They get together to create divine harmony, but they can achieve that only if the length of their vibrations is the same; in which case a feeling of love wells up in them and they feel an expansion of mind and heart. However, both must create Light. As Christ says, "You are the Light," meaning all people. When He says, "I am the Light," He means "I and My Father." One person cannot set the world right by saying, "I shall set the world right." S/he does not understand the Law. There must always be two, four, six, eight and so on: couples are necessary. The number two, of which the students are afraid, is a law of contradiction. Two is in conflict with one. Add one unit to two and it becomes three, then four and so on. Suppose you are an intelligent person and you meet a friend of whom you become suspicious without knowing why. You should have facts in order to be suspicious of a person. Do not allow a doubt if you have no scientific grounds. When someone becomes suspicious, s/he says, "I do not know why, but I feel something - that is why I am suspicious." This feeling is not yet proof. For instance a drunkard says, "I have a weak stomach so I must drink a little wine." Then s/he reasons further, "Why should I not drink a little more? After drinking a little, I feel better." Yet this feeling is only temporary for on the next day he will feel badly. When you apply the rule that it is good to drink a little wine, you abuse it later and spoil the good effect of the wine. The human organism is so constructed that it does not tolerate anything superfluous. Chemistry teaches us that every element combines with another in an exact weight ratio; or an element combines with another with an exact number of atoms, but only as many as are necessary to produce a sound, constant compound. This is a Law. In the same way, human thoughts combine according to the Law of Light. This Light has special hues in the spiritual world. They can be passive or active. A hue which is a reflection is passive; however, when it comes directly from the Source itself, it is active. Every thought which causes division in your mind is not divine, as it is only a reflection of Light. For instance, you want to build a house, to become an engineer, a writer or to study medicine; however, the division in your mind shows that the subject you want to take up is not for you. Before the liberation of Bulgaria, when there were only a few professions, fathers advised their sons to become doctors or engineers because these professions were profitable; and not to take up professions which were not profitable. What kind of a doctor, or engineer or a priest would a person who has no inner attraction to their work be? They will be like that doctor in the Middle Ages who had a very easy method of curing: he cured his patients by phlebotomy after which he gave them hot water to drink which resulted in their death. He wondered if all the other doctors cured their patients successfully. It is the same with doctors today who give a medicine to a patient who then dies. Then they say the patient had a weak heart, or try to justify themselves by some other causes. But that is not the case. A doctor should understand the human organism and the temperament of each patient and then prescribe medicine in conformity with that. A sanguine and a choleric person cannot be cured the same way. Why? Because these two organisms contain different elements which have their own specific reactions. In my opinion, all existing illnesses are due to the disharmony that takes place in the divine Light. How many of you believe in the afterlife? You will say, "This is what some great men have written, or that the apostle Paul has said it." But what is your experience of this reality? You will say, "When we die and go to the other world then we shall understand if there is life after death." In order to comprehend this Light, you must have Spiritual Sight. All people who have developed this sense have certain marks in their eyes; they have certain spots around the iris which show the degree of the development of this sight. In western Europeans this sense has begun to appear as intuition, preconception and so on. Some day a great world will be revealed to you in which Light exists. This Light comes from within, not from without. Occultists today say that those who have this Light have magnetism. Such a person is soft and easy-going, they have love and readily forgive. What destroys and spoils people today are the following seven elements: pride, anger, voluptuousness, sloth; miserliness, jealousy and greed. Pride is not of God. God has created people to have self-respect, but they have estranged themselves from Him by their pride. Such a person bears the marks of their pride on their face, hands and nose. I shall not start explaining these now. You yourselves should study these things as many writers have written about them. When you feel pride in yourself, that you are something great in the world, look at yourself in the mirror and remember the features in your face, the expression in your eyes, as well as your whole disposition. When you are in a state of love and kindness, look at yourself again in the mirror. Christ says, "There is nothing hidden in man." Everything is hidden for the blind people. Some people say that I have been reading certain mysteries to you. For those who have eyes there are no mysteries. I have an apple seed in my purse - here it is - this is the mystery; sow it and in ten years’ time you will see its blossoms and fruit; then you will understand this mystery. You may say, "There may be something dangerous in all this." The fearful will not enter the Kingdom of God. How does a good person differ from a bad one? The person who lies speaks fast, but the person who tells the truth speaks quietly and calmly, asking people to test his/her words. I, too, want you to test all things. By this Light I can be in contact with the advanced Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and with your friends in the Other World - the world of divine harmony. If you love someone who has gone to the Other World, you can speak with him/her intelligently, reasonably. There are certain mediums who, not understanding the language of the spirits, begin to twist the truth and use lies. Do not lie, speak the truth, because a lie has short legs3. The truth moves with great speed and its legs are long, so it can help the unhappy spirits. When someone says, "My legs are long," I say, "You are lucky, but I wish the legs of your soul and heart to be long; too, so that you may bear this Light." If this Light develops in us, we shall be able to avoid 90% of the evils taking place today. Light is one of the fundamental elements in bringing up good sons and daughters. I recommend this rule to all women: not to allow their mind to think negative thoughts. And another: let those who have lost the sense of life greet the sunrise every morning. Watch the sunrise in the course of a month and see what you feel. In the spring, when the flowers bloom and the trees are blossoming, watch them and see the result - you will feel the sense of life. What do people do today? They sleep until 10 o’clock in the morning and in the afternoon about sunset they go out to enjoy its dying beams of light. They go out for walks in the autumn when the leaves are falling. Nature should be studied at its particular time. But what are people like today? Someone reads the New Testament and wonders what Christ meant by certain words. Christ could read very well the Book of Divine Nature. When I read a book, I ask myself whether its author has Light or not and what are the colors he lacks. After reading a book, I can describe its author - the kind of head s/he has, his/her face, hands, thoughts and so on. Some want to know who and what kind of a man I am. What I am speaking to you is what I am. If I rob you, I am such; if I heal you - I am such. You may ask, "Why should he heal us?" It makes no difference who will help you, I or someone else. According to me, I should give someone the surplus of my knowledge and of my life, because it is not mine. The Light coming from within me is to be spread out, "All of you are Light." For 2000 years the Christians have been reading this verse and cannot understand it. That is why you have to turn the icon of your St Nicolas head down, he ought to keep your house and your possessions for he is your reason. Say to him, "You must reason well, or I shall turn you upside down." You ask, "What is Light?" When it enters your soul, your face will be beautiful, your eyes will be shining; a pleasant warmth will be emitted from your hands and you will emit a pleasant odor. But how do people smell today? Very badly. The violets and some other flowers help you hide your natural smell. The violet you use says, "God is manifested in life in humility, not in pride. If you are a valley of good soil, God will sow the best seeds in you; but if you are a bare, proud peak, there will be nothing but eternal snow on you." This is the language of the violets and when people use their perfume, they should learn their language. However, I am not blaming anyone by saying this. I wish you all to have the fragrance and color of the violet. When you pronounce a word or write something, there must be a fine fragrance in it. According to the conception of this Light all people are colored flowers. What is a teacher, a preacher, a farmer, a father, a mother, a brother or a sister? They are great divine flowers. Have you seen the color of a mother? When you enter the life of the Light, you will understand what color a mother is. There are no more beautiful colors in the world than those of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or close friends. Do you have these colors written within yourselves? Is there a person who has not sent Light out of him/herself at least ten times? Who has not spoiled the colors of his/her mother and father, of his/her friends inside him/herself? From now on we must build and create. If you want to raise the Bulgarian people, you must build. Bulgaria has need of Salt and Light which makes for growth. That is why all people of learning must consider and think about this. There can be no Bulgaria without Salt and Light. The Bulgarian nation has a root down in the earth and a branch in the divine world - this nation must bear fruit on its branch above. This is the only way a nation or a soul can be characterized. The souls are individual, but at the same time - collective. Collectivity is the Law of Harmony. We can feel Light by our soul, by our heart and by our will. One thing that destroys Light is anger. An angry person is without will. It says in the Scriptures, "Be angry, but sin not." Anger is a certain energy used in the wrong direction. Everyone has experienced a weakness after anger, which shows there is a state of demagnetization. Another element that obstructs light is voluptuousness. It is the grave of love. How many young men and women have gone to the grave prematurely because of it. Love is harmony whereas voluptuousness is poison. Yet another element that destroys light is sloth. If you go to America, you will see that besides school education children study certain handicrafts. Everyone works there making their own living and considers it humiliating to depend on others. There people respect those who work. I wish everyone in Bulgaria to aspire for work - this refers to the townsfolk, not the peasants - for they are endangered by indolence. The element of envy is also destructive to Light. Envy and pride are a brother and a sister. Whoever is envious, is proud as well. The person possessed of envy delights in the suffering of others. You remember Shakespeare’s tragedy "The Merchant of Venice," where the miserly Jew insisted on the pound of flesh to be cut off his debtor’s body even when the latter was in a state to pay back his debt. There are many other examples where envy manifests malicious joy. A man went to court with another man and after hearing them the court decided to impose a greater penalty on one of them and asked them what penalty they would prefer. The one who would have a lighter penalty proposed that both eyes be taken out of the other man. "But we should take one of your eyes too, then," said the judge. "I agree," said the man, "if both eyes are taken from the other one." A person of such cruelty cannot have Light. Envy obsesses politicians as well and there are quite a few of them in Bulgaria. Give way to the noble people! If a person possesses these vices mentioned above; obstruct his way, he is not in his place. When Christ says, "You are the Light," He means the people of the future. When God created the world with the stars, moon and sun, He said, "This is for the people of the future." Someone says to me, "Tell me about my past life" It is inscribed on you. You may have a disordered organism now, but that does not mean that you are ill. As soon as the conditions obstructing Light are taken away, this disorder will disappear. Another vice that impedes Light is greed - the desire for many possessions. I shall give you an example of greed. In Spain there lived a millionaire who enslaved whole regions. All people complained of him, so the Spanish king issued an order for his imprisonment. In the prison, whenever he wanted water or bread, they made him pay 1000 leva for a piece of bread or a glass of water. "This is the greatest cruelty imposed on me," said the prisoner. The king answered him, "This is your punishment, go away now and do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you." That is why God sends you all these evils. You say about someone that he/she was born feebleminded. It is not true that his/her mother and father have born him/her so, as everyone is his/her own father and mother. There are two theories about this: some say that the mothers pass their own qualities to their children, while others say that the child exists in the invisible world as a sensible being, choosing a suitable mother, a suitable environment, influencing the mother by suggesting good thoughts to her mind. A pregnant woman can determine the character of her son/daughter according to the kind of thoughts engaging her during pregnancy. We can oppose the divine world, but when its law becomes active, its power will do away with our unreasonable opposition. You, men and women who are here, are the Light. Evil does not exist for me. I understand that evil does not exist in divine harmony, but outside of this harmony there is evil. If you decide to live a noble and good life, you will have this Light, it will be with you. This Light is rational and all ancient mystics who had this Light saw a boundless world tinged with the most beautiful colors that filled their soul. When you are in high spirits, you have this Light, but you cannot keep it long. Sometimes you think that I am speaking well, but you say, "Who knows what purpose he has in view." My purpose is to fulfill the will of God. I am not one of those who deceive people; up till now I have neither said a lie, nor have been lied to. You can win my favor only by Goodness, Truth, Love and Wisdom. If you decide to serve God, only then will God come down from His greatness and make you good people and great spirits. I am preaching to you about the Living Lord", the Lord of the Twentieth Century Who tears down prisons; sets the prisoners free; and brings harmony, order, joy and gladness. He brings such blessings as people have not even thought of. He will turn this earth into a garden of paradise and you, Bulgarians, will live in it. You will all be living when I shall meet you again and I shall see whether what I am speaking to you is true or not. These are not illusions as some may think. Illusions can be known by the following quality: you may nourish someone with illusions telling him/her you have given them real food, but in forty or fifty days they will grow weak and die. A person faints and grows foolish with illusion. I wish all Bulgarian men and women to be great - great in virtue, great in love, great in righteousness, great in wisdom, great in that divine truth of Light of which I am speaking to you. Think about Light; it is with you. Test it, be self-reliant and enter as the bees into every blossom to gather honey. Do not remain to spend the night there - that is voluptuousness - but take your honey and go to the beehive. This is what Christ wanted to say by the words, "You are the Light," and "A city placed on a hill cannot be hidden." When you enter this city, you will understand the sense of your earthly life. You try to imagine what your future life will be like. Know it is within you and depends upon your present life. It is the same with every silkworm, which possesses all the necessary elements for its turning into a butterfly. It will not be long before you become like this butterfly. Now, you are walking on the earth in a straight line, asking yourselves if there is another life; and with your little wings - your mind and heart of Light - you will alight on the most beautiful divine tree, the Tree of Life; you will understand its sense and be joyful and happy. Sermon held on April 1, 1917 in Sofia 1 Matt. 5:14 2 A wealthy owner of estates and money during the Turkish domination /1393-1878/ (ed. note) 3 Bulgarian saying (ed. note)

God’s Will Knowledge is powerful in the world only when applied. Many of you do not apply it and at that all of you want to wear nice clothes and to eat delicious dishes, without knowing how to acquire or prepare them. Everyone should know how to warp, weave, etc. Some days you are cheerful – this is a sort of fertiliser; grief – this is another sort of fertiliser. Someone is in a good mood; in half an hour it will change. Do you know why this happens? Everyone entering Spiritual Life will awake within oneself all the bad features of one’s previous life, which have been dormant and now that Divine blessing has come, these have sprung up. You have to get rid of the weeds in your garden! Some say that they were better persons before they entered Spiritual life. Ninety-four percent of your love is a waste; only the remaining six percent1 is Love. Get rid of the waste – fertilisers should be in the field! You should keep only the good – the six percent[1]. You may say that I am pruning you again for something – but this is no pruning. You have not seen pruning yet. An artist should carve and cut for a long time before the statue comes out fine and graceful. I want all of you to be prepared to implement God’s Will. Imagine that you are living in the early Christian times. How many of you are ready to endure the prosecutions and trials? You have small trials at home – with your husbands, with your children, but these are nothing. What is important is to implement the Will of God! But what is it that you do? If the Divine Will is in agreement with your will, you are prepared to follow it, but if this is the opposite case – you are not. The new teaching needs to produce neither monks nor nuns. It needs absolutely healthy people who can bear the hardships of life. And those of you who understand this law, this Teaching, will be ready to help one another. Each one of you has a thorn in one’s flesh. Paul also had a thorn, about which he prayed to God. But he did not tell God where his thorn was. God told him, "Too much is My blessing for you." Similarly, you too should tell God where your thorn is, so that He can take it out. You do not have to have identical aspirations. If everybody weaves nothing but cloths, there will appear strong competition. You all want to be good. What is virtue? To do properly whatever it is we do – no matter whether we cook, weave, sew, etc. This is what being good means. You want to be like an exhibited statue and you would expect everybody passing by to say how nice it is and to admire it. I do not want you to be like that Englishman, who started running away from his automated machine, into which he wanted to implant soul. Christ’s Teaching is not an automated teaching. This is a Teaching for the soul. Many doubts will be roused in your minds when you come in touch with this Teaching. You may say that you experience no doubts. How many doubts does a newly wed wife have about her husband! This is so because she has no faith in him. You start on your Spiritual Path according to the same law and you ask yourselves, "Shall I get to the end?" Doubts show that the doubting subject is not an independent person in one’s work. If one is bad, one has the form of a bad person; if one is suspicious, one has the respective form. All forms take after the person. Everybody aspires towards Heaven; everybody is willing to please God. What have you sacrificed for God, what have you done? You always say God has not given you this or that. However, what have you given? Can you make bread from the flour you gave to God? You have to do some good thinking. You keep talking about Love all the time. But it is Love, which gives Power to human spirit and mind to endure hardship; that is Divine Love. In order to have it, you should replace your love with the Divine one. If you listen to me, I shall tell you where you can get this Love. When someone insults you, you start grieving. This shows that your love has boundaries and fails – so this is no Love. Paul says, "Love never fails." Nuts, before falling down, shed something – what they shed is not the nut itself, but the shell. Someone says about someone else that one’s love has failed, but this is only the packaging of Divine Love. You should shed all shells and keep the Divine core, which is Love and which contains such a Power that when you summon it, everything melts in this Love. I can read your faces – you are people who worry. I would give you a failing mark, a poor mark or a satisfactory mark, but no more. You say, "I pray a lot." This means that you eat a lot. Praying and serving are two separate things. Everyday you say; "Let it be God’s Will." Husbands say, "Let it be God’s Will," but wives say, "No, let it be my will." This is what husbands and children do and it is no good. You have started trading with a big company and you say, "We trade wholesale." But one day you go bankrupt and you see that this is no work for you. You should think three times before speaking! You are all teachers, and you say, "This is what Mr. Deunov should do!" Tell me what to do and I will do it exactly as you say. But I will also tell you what to do, and you have to perform it. If you do not walk properly, you will become more anxious, you will lose sleep; you will become suspicious and in the end you will want to hide this from the people around you and you will put on a mask. However, my Teaching will impart a pleasant nuance to your soul, you will be calm and cheerful, and you will need no masks. Some of you are thirty years of age, others – forty, but you have to study at the most one hundred and twenty years, which is to say that there is still a lot for you to learn. God asks how many of you are ready to implement God’s Will? Three times you take[2] from me, however, what will you do for me? Christ says, "It is not only bread that will keep human beings alive, but every Word coming out of the Divine mouth will keep them alive." You will tell me what you want me to do for you. You may say, "But we neither take nor give." But then you do not belong to this School. God will show one Path only for those who have the good will to always win against their thoughts and desires within. You will put a chain link to your bear and you will give it a little flour from time to time. Husbands are angry and beat their wives; you keep criticising the others. I would like to ask you whether you are at peace with yourselves? Try not to have any disturbances for a month, to be quiet and calm, and you will see how good you are. From now on, whatever misunderstandings or rows you may have, God instructed, "Get rid of any impurities!" God is not the God of wrath, but of Faith, Hope, Love, Justice and Purity. Those of you who do not follow this law, should go to Egypt to make bricks, but those of you who want to follow it, this is now the Path through the desert leading to the Canaan land. There are a lot of important issues for you to resolve in this life. Do not postpone them. Tune your thoughts positively, "I will implement God’s Will!" Say this to yourselves; do not say it to others. Impart purity and sincerity to your thoughts, your desires, and your souls and Love will manifest itself, and God will bless you, and Heaven will strive to cultivate everything sown in you by God. Make room for it to grow, now is the most favourable time, when you can accomplish a lot within a short period. What previously took a thousand years to grow, can be ripe within ten years now, what previously took a hundred years to grow, can be ripe within one year now. Women should make a union, should help one another! But now when you sit at home, you keep gossiping about other women being such and such – only questions and criticism. You can’t go on with such devil’s masks. Take them down! You should now learn from the Lord. You will be measured by the measure you apply to others. I can now make you like bees, by putting you in the cauldron, but I want you to become good on your own accord. Because when the time comes, you will be good out of necessity, while now it is time for freedom, for choices – you yourselves should choose to be good. The good within a person – this is the human being; this is its share. What you will do is a blessing for your homes, for your children. If you keep My commandments, I will pray to My Father to send you the Spirit of Comfort, this is what Christ said to His disciples. We shall boil tomatoes and out of one hundred kilograms we shall make nine or ten kilograms. I shall give you tomatoes and chopped wood and you will boil them. I shall boil tomatoes for those of you who do not want to boil tomatoes, but I will demand such persons to bring tomatoes and chopped wood to me. You should always think of things that grow. The thought of ‘I can’t’ is a contradiction. In the law of Love ‘I can’t’ shows that there are impediments and obstacles. I have started photographing your thoughts and one day I will show them to you. The psalm singer says, "And the Lord deleted my sins." Your brain cells should be filled with more elevated stuff! So that your hearts and your minds can be ennobled, so that you can be healthy – absolutely healthy! This is what Lord’s Teaching is about. I do not want to listen about a teaching that cannot be applied. All of you should be healthy, happy and blissful! Health is of the body; happiness is a feature of the soul among angels, while bliss is a feature of the spirit with God. This is why there can be no happiness and bliss on Earth. The lessons scheduled for 1917 should be learnt in 1917, the field should not be left uncultivated. I will divide you into categories. These who can weave will walk all right, but it is no good for those who cannot. Many complain that life is not going fine. This is because the cloth is not properly fixed – you should try and put it on again. Only those who can apply the teaching should come next Thursday. We need no people who are just listeners. Try to settle your relationships; try to be sincere with your soul, with God and with people. Wherever good grows, evil also grows. Whoever works more, eats more, wears out more clothes etc. Each of you should become a hearth of the Divine Spirit. The Lord sends His Spirit to us every day, but we have to be ready to receive the good that God sends to us. I want you to assist me in smoothing the misunderstandings among you. You often make much ado in your minds and hearts; this is useless. Try to calm down your thoughts, reach a helping hand out and work. I see you divide yourselves into parties, into young and old. The first thing is to acquire the Divine Spirit! To build up the Good! Otherwise with your bad thoughts you create karma and illnesses. The Lord wrote that everything will come out all right, and I would like you to grow in your hearts and minds, in Wisdom, knowledge and Love, and not to hinder one another. The first law is the one of suffering. The second law is the one of temptation – spirits tempt you through people. The third law is the one of the Divine blessing. What great laws these are! I wish you could understand them. You will learn them together – in theory and in practice. If someone comes to criticise, you should tell that person, "Do you have a loom? Come, let’s weave together!" Someone does not have a good life – his loom is not properly set; you should cut the cloth and should warp it anew. "Out of order" are the looms of men and of women and now you all weep… Master’s lecture delivered on the 29 March 1917. ___________________________________________ [1] In the original text the word ‘kilogrammes’ is used, however translation contains ‘percent’ as it makes better sense. The source of this mistake is not clear. [2] There is an explanation note in the decoded short-hand text, specifying that what is meant is ‘taking [food]’. Editors, sticking to the allegorical style of the Word, omitted this note. Source

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Salt "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, where with shall it be salted?"[1] Christ begins His sermon on the mount with nine blessings. The blessings He is speaking about have a relation to another world, they are not about the earthly life. Christ says about the earthly people, "You are the salt." I shall speak about the salt because life cannot exist on earth without salt. The physical world is a world of salt, not of light - which is the world of the angels. "You," which "you"? Do not take this word in a narrow sense. For those who believe, "you" implies all people in whom the Divine consciousness is awakened. All people in whom this consciousness is awakened are the salt of the earth. By the word "salt", all occultists, cabalists and mystics understand the power of balance - that element of power which keeps things in a balanced state. In order to walk in the street, you must have balance. When a ship is being built, they put a load of salt on its bottom to keep it balanced so that the waves will not turn it over. The word "salt" implies that power that thickens matter, keeps it from disintegration and creates conditions for the higher powers of the world to work. Salt is a necessary element on the earth for the healthy condition of the human body. When an organism loses its salt, it loses its base, and as a result of that all kinds of illnesses attack it. The people call someone a neurasthenic; but I say that they have lost their salt - their energy flows out. If we could see with the eye of a clairvoyant the nerves and the arteries of a neurasthenic person, we would notice in many places there are cracks from which the energy flows out. Such a person is weak. Why? Because they have lost the Divine Salt, which is a basic power for maintaining human life on earth. What are the causes for losing this salt? In the first place, the unrestrained human passions. After every expression of passion, regardless of what character, one feels a weakness. You have all experienced this. Passions are not necessary to people who have salt, but only to those who have none. Christ says to His disciples, "You are the salt and if the salt should lose its power, i. e. if it loses its saltiness, it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden by men." But why should it be trodden upon? Treading is a reaction so that it may acquire its saltiness again. When you suffer, that is treading; the angels throw you out among the people and you become weak because you have lost your saltiness. If you had been rich, you become poor; if you had been wise, you become foolish. You lose your saltiness, but as soon as this happens, you lose the sense of life too and then all contradictory teachings spring up: whether people should get married or not, whether they should have children, whether they should love their wives, and so on. The Epicurean philosophy takes hold according to which a man should have many wives and experience everything. You may try everything, but then you will be thrown out and trodden upon by all sensible[2] people until you obtain your saltiness. Then the second process will come; the light will come, your mind will be illuminated and you will understand why you are suffering. You will understand that these things do not agree with life. Every thought, every desire which does not serve the building of the human soul and which is destructive, is not a necessary desire - it is losing your saltiness. When a husband treads upon his wife, let her say to herself, "Tread upon me that I may become salty." A husband trodden upon by his wife shows that he has no salt. Bulgarians call a bear-trainer to come into a village to make his bear tread on their sick people - or to salt them - and they get well. This power is hidden in all people. Scientists today have given it different names, while the occultists call it "magnetism," among the other names that they give it. When a person has this salt, they are magnetized. If you have this salt, you feel a certain pleasant warmth below your solar plexus and you get up in the morning well-disposed. However, if you do not have enough salt, you get up badly disposed, ready to be harsh and rude with people. Getting angry at the first person you meet means that person is asking you to tread upon them a little so that they may become salty. The person who comes to tread upon the angry one has this salt which will immediately restore the person’s balance. I want you to put my sermons to a test and to see their results. Only the person of deep convictions and experience is strong, for if you believe everybody, you have no salt. I believe that God speaks to people according to the salt they possess. If you have salt, He will say to you: "When you get up, go to dig your vineyard and to sow your field." If you are a judge you will study your cases, do other work, and you will understand Him. If you do not have salt, people will tread on you, rob you, steal your money, take away your wife, children, house. God says, "Treading is necessary on those people who cannot do their work on earth." People often ask, "Why is the world not going well?" There is no salt in the world. Give people salt! Much salt is not necessary - you need only a quarter of a kilogram of the salt I am speaking to you about. That will be enough for the salting of the whole Bulgarian nation, so that it can become an excellent nation for at least one hundred years. Do you know how long your factories must work for the production of this salt? A scientist calculated that the original substance of which the world was created was thousands of times lighter than hydrogen and that to obtain only a gram of this original substance, all the factories in the world would have to work for three thousand years. You are the salt and in order to acquire this salt you must devote your whole life to this. If you had only one gram of this salt, you would be the richest person in the world. Wherever you went, you would heal people. When you enter a house where the husband and wife are at odds, give some of this salt so that peace and agreement will be immediately restored. Children are quarrelling - give them some of this salt; nations are warring, give them of this salt and peace and concord will be immediately restored. You say, "What kind of an alchemical element is this salt, what great power it has!" Upon entering the church, a priest who has this salt will silence everyone and all will turn to him. People want salt and if you do not have it, you can not have success. I am not speaking in the sense of judging you; I am only stating a defect that is common to all people, not only to Bulgarians. Everyone on earth has defects. If we were perfect, we would be among the angels with God. But since we must become well-bred, God has sent us to the earth - the place of wisdom where these great lessons can be learned. Today I am preaching to you about the salt. Why? Because you all want to be happy. In fact, everybody can be happy but you must acquire the ability to retain this happiness, not just attain it. You get up in the morning well-disposed and say, "How happy I am." Five or ten minutes pass and you lose this happiness, this good disposition. Why? You have no salt in yourself. Salt implies the world with all its forms. Since you cannot retain only the essence without forms, that is why I say that the world is actually-real and actually-unreal. Actually-real is that world which has all the forms with their content, but actually-unreal is the world which has the forms without their content. There are people who are actually-unreal because they have a body, but have no salt. If you have no salt, you cannot understand what Divine Delight, Divine Goodness and Love are. Only by means of salt, by a balance between your mind and heart in a calm state, can you comprehend this Divine World. Christ says, "The salt which has lost its savor must be thrown out and trodden on." That is why I have said many times that sufferings are necessary for they are the way of acquiring saltiness. Saltiness is the way to Light; the Light is the way to Love and Love - the way to God. As soon as we begin seeking God, the world changes the aspect it has had until now. All of you who are listening to me this morning think that at times the world has some meaning and at other times it does not. That is very burdensome. You have friends who do not understand you; children who do not love you; you sit among believers, but they do not understand you either. The thing for you to do now is to understand whose fault it is. Is it they who have no salt or you? Where the salt is, there the right is; where there is no salt, there is no right. If you have no salt, you must say, "They must tread on me." All people are parts of God, of His great organism and since such is the case, it makes no difference who treads on you - do not forget that this is of God, in all cases divine hands or feet tread on you. This is a thousand times more pleasant than if a bear should tread on you, as the Bulgarian practice goes. An Englishman tells of an experience of this kind. He went to India in order to study the life of the Hindu people. As an amateur sportsman, one day he took his gun and went to hunt in a thick forest. As he was carrying his gun in his right hand, he felt a strong blow on his left arm and fell to the ground. A tigress had hit him and carried him to her den where her little ones were. The tigress said to her children, "Get hold of this Englishman, tread on him hard and give him a good lesson. If he tries to raise his head, you tread on it." The Englishman wanted to raise his head and see what was taking place around him, but the tigress said, "Do not look up; there is nothing there, I am teaching my children." The Englishman said afterwards, "I was not angry that my left arm was broken; but that they trod on my head, so I could not see anything." Everyone who has no salt will fall into the claws of a tiger. When two young people are getting married for love, they go to the church, the priest prays for them and everyone kisses them. In a month’s time they part. The tiger has taken the bride or the groom. These people have lost their savor and will be thrown out. If there is a divorce between them, they have lost their salt and such people should not live together. Whether you are a man or a woman - treading is necessary. Bulgarians heal themselves by treading on one another. It is a pleasant massage, a nice rubbing. This salt is necessary for your physical organism, for your feelings and thoughts as well. The Law is general: it refers to the Angelic and Divine Worlds as well as to the physical world. Modern philosophers give different names to the qualities of the spiritual world. For instance, they call a person who has salt a moral person and a person without salt - immoral. People say about someone: "This person is highly intelligent, sensible," which means that there is a law of balance in him, or salt. Intelligence[3] is salt, so by the word "intelligence" is meant that condition when all human abilities are active. Salt is the soil. There can be nothing in the world without salt for the earth itself would be a desert without salt and everything would decay. Salt is a fertilizer stored up for years. Next to it there are other forces which build our organism. In order not to lose your salt, you should refrain from unlawful desires. I shall tell you a parable now. In the distant past a girl was born in a palace; she was the most beautiful girl in the world. When she grew up, her father found a good young man whom he wanted his daughter to marry. This young couple was so well-loved in heaven that God sent down an angelic representative to attend their wedding on the earth. When the angel came to the earth, he fell in love with the young bride and did not wish to return to heaven. He began to think of ways of possessing this young woman. God waited for him to return for a day, two, three days, a month; but the angel did not return. When God understood how things stood, wishing to teach the angel the consequences of his bad desires, He turned him into a songbird who would hop from branch to branch among all the other birds. The angel began noticing that other birds avoided him as he hopped around in the trees and he could not figure out what was causing all his sufferings. One day he hopped on a tree and started to lament over his life. Just then four robbers came under that tree to divide their booty. They divided it into equal parts. Two of them decided to go to town and buy food and drink for a feast. On the way back these two robbers decided to put poison in the food so that when the other two ate it they would die. These two men would then take all of the riches. The two robbers who remained under the tree while waiting for their comrades to return decided to shoot them when they returned and take their riches. The angel knew of the evil decisions of both parties. When the two robbers approached the place, both were shot from a distance; the other two ate the food and were poisoned. Only then did the angel realize what the consequences of unlawful desires are and why he suffered. When God sends you to a wedding in which He participates, do not have the eye of this angel. If you are a man, keep yourself from saying, "she will be mine," or if you are a woman, "He will be mine," because you will sing up in the tree for a long time. I ask you: “Are you not such birds thrown out of heaven?” Some ask, "Tell us why we have come down from heaven." We have all come down to learn that unlawful desires have bad consequences and to understand that a man who has no salt is far from God. People want freedom. That is why God sends them to earth and says to them, "Live according to the Law of My Freedom." The wrong thing in people is that they want freedom only for themselves. According to God’s law, we must understand the relationships which exist among us. The Law of the Salt is, "Do not refuse to others what you desire for yourself." You should give others a chance to develop their own abilities too. If someone has a field or a vineyard, do not envy them, but rather be grateful that they have everything. If you see someone riding a horse, do not say, "I wish this horse were mine!" Be thankful that the person has a horse. They are worthy of it. If you see a nice, well-furnished house, do not desire it for yourself. If you have salt, you will have everything you need. Say to God, "I want salt from now on!" In order to convince some people today of this Great Truth, you must argue a long time with them; while with others you need only try to convince them. Few are those who will agree with you at once. People whose Spiritual Sight is not developed need argumentation, which is like groping in the spiritual world. By their feeling of sequence, step by step, they will form a clear idea of the things which they cannot grasp at once. In our reasonings about God, we use the same analogy in order to form an idea of Him. All philosophic schools, with their thick volumes of studying the questions of God, are all groping - some closer, others farther from the Truth. Some have touched the little finger of God and say, "What small fingers God has!" Someone has touched His hand and says, "What a big hand God has!" Someone has touched His shoulder or His head and has knowledge accordingly. But this is only the external side of God – His manifested nature. It will be strange if someone should get on top of the roof of my house and say. "Now I understand Mr. Deunov. He is hard, because I am touching hard tiles." If someone should touch something soft, he would say, "How soft Mr. Deunov is!" I can be hard and soft at the same time. What do you understand by "hard"? Hard as a stone or hard in one’s convictions? Therefore we cannot have true conceptions of things from an external touch, but only vague ideas. If you do not have a sufficient amount of salt, you will not be salty and you will say, "Life is nothing but eating and drinking." I am not against eating and drinking. I do not recommend hunger or unnatural fasting. I have a different idea of fasting - everyone should eat as much as is necessary for the renewal of their body. Every day we should use a certain quantity of bread, water and air for the building of the body. Some think that if they do not eat, they will become better. No, if you do not eat, you will become worse. If you want to make a person better, feed them if they are hungry; give them drink if they are thirsty; and after they are nourished give them some of your salt and they will become better. If you do not feed them, you will commit a crime. If you meet a person in despair who wants to commit suicide, do not give them advice that this is a wrong thing to do or tell them not to despair. Take them to your home; feed them according to your custom; give them drink, and in an hour or two, after their food has been digested, say to them, "Let us have a talk now." Give that person a chance to feel well-disposed and tell you why their life is so dark. Instruct them and show them the way they should go. That is why God has sent them to you on that day. We often pray, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," however, if you do not fulfil His will as He prompts you, that day you will be without salt. You can do this experiment: if you are in low spirits, meet a friend who feels worse than you, call them to your home, feed them and you will notice how God has salted both of you. A woman who is dissatisfied with her husband meets another woman who is even more unhappy; and when the two of them get together and talk for awhile, God will salt both of them. This is a positive Christian philosophy. People often say, "You must not eat too many beans, too much meat as they leave sediments in your body." Ask yourselves why people eat so much - in order to obtain salt. When they have enough salt, they will not eat much. When you become normal then we can speak of a higher philosophy of life. You can do the following experiment, for you are all of the actual-real world: you may say to yourself, "Now it has come into Mr. Deunov’s mind to speak to us about salt; do we not know how necessary it is?" I am speaking to you about the salt so that you may make this simple experiment: stop and think for 5 to 10 minutes about the salt, about its influence on your organism, feelings, Soul, and mind and see if a change takes place in you and what you feel. Why is salt precisely such an active element? People often complain to me that they are in a bad mood – unhappy; but I say to them, "I know this, because I am also on the earth." "Yes, but your condition is quite different from what we are under." The difference lies only in the fact that I have more salt. I shall give to you of my salt, but you must make good use of it and distribute it well. When you have some leaven, keep part of it for future use. When you eat yogurt, put a spoonful aside as leaven and do not say the children have eaten it all up. I recommend to people today not to eat to complete satisfaction, because God will take such people from the earth. In such a case you will be like a Bulgarian man to whom money was lent and he started buying useless things with it. The man who lent him the money took it back to count it and did not return it, saying, "You are not a man who can use money properly, that is why you do not deserve it." When God sees that you do not use life rightly and abuse it, He takes it back. Many of you were healthy, happy and joyful, but now you are faint and weak. Why? Because you are not yet able to make a proper use of life. When you have salt in yourselves, you will be healthy people with a sound body and heart. Concentrate your mind on salt - the element of balance and uplifting - and try to comprehend it. The Hindus call this element "Prana," a power bearing life in itself. It can be found and drawn from the air, the food and the water. Now I shall tell you how to eat. We shall begin with eating in this life. When you begin to eat, the first condition required of you is to cast out all discontentment. You should try to love the small piece of bread you have, so that the energy that it has might penetrate your organism. This would create a pleasant feeling in you. But what do we find today? A wife cooks for four hours a tasty meal and when her husband comes home he is scowling and discontented, throwing cold water on his wife and all the salt is gone. The next day the wife is disgruntled and he eats without receiving any of this salt, because there is discontentment. Both the husband and wife are discontented. The husband says, "Is this a wife?" The children say, "What kind of a mother is this!" Another time the husband buys meat, butter, eggs and again all are discontented at home. In order to be content, prepare yourself in thinking that everything is excellent with you wife. When you chew your food you will see how tasty it is and what a feeling of pleasantness and happiness you will experience. Now you are complaining, "How can one live on ¼ kilogram of bread?" But in a quarter kilogram of bread there is enough salt for your subsistence. It is our discontentment which causes all the unpleasantness. You say to yourself, "When my stomach is empty, I do not understand anything about this eating." It is not your stomach that is empty – it is your mind and your heart that are empty. I have made different experiments with food, at times eating only two apples with some bread and I have been satisfied. It is not in the abundance of food; but in eating with a grateful heart that one is blessed. Do not be negligent of the little salt in the world; it is like the small grain of wheat out of which great things are born. The first thing we should do is to reform this feeling of discontentment which exists in us. When you have a small quantity of food, thank God for it and it will be multiplied. Because in living magnetism there is a power by which all particles which have a similar vibration to that of the central magnetism are attracted. If you are pleased with the food you eat, you will be able to attract from outside as many elements as are necessary to satisfy you. Some say, "We should not drink water, it is for the frogs; the wine is for us." You should drink water on an empty stomach from 100 to 150 milliliters in swallows. You should drink from half to one kilogram of water daily out of which you will take the necessary food for your arteries. You should breathe deeply through your nose, not through the mouth, so as not to swallow much dust. When people today learn to receive food, water and air this way, the other blessings will come of themselves. Do not think that things will be created in you and in your soul from now on. No, there are many dormant feelings in you. The human soul is rich, waiting for conditions to develop. The first thing you should develop is gratefulness for everything you have. Keep your eye from being like that of the angel I told you about. If you all apply this great "Law of Thankfulness", at least 50% of your affairs on earth will be set right. Then the angels watching us from above, seeing that we have started on the Path, will come to help us. Do not think that you are working alone in the world. Dig the earth and you will see how many small worms are helping the tiller; how many microbes are helping the farmer in preparing the soil; and how many elements form the grain of wheat. In spite of all this, we are children who are always discontented no matter what their father brings them. Every child must thank their father for everything he brings them. A child who does not kiss their father when he brings them something, has no salt. Some parents say, "My angel." It is an angel indeed, but without the wings. A daughter who does not thank her father and mother and does not kiss them is also an angel without wings. You who are listening to me will speak to others in the same way. Then we shall verify by experience the necessity of this salt for all. Today God is treading on people, salting the world: Englishmen, Germans, Russians, Frenchmen, and so on. From today on, the Good is coming. When you go home, obtain at least a gram of salt in order to be a useful member of your family, of society and the nation. Be thankful for everything, for only then can you obtain a Blessing. Then you will be wise, good, industrious and diligent. Sermon held on March 25, 1917 in Sofia _________________________________________________ [1] Matthew 5:13 [2] Here and later sensible is used in the meaning of having, containing, or indicative of good sense or reason, rational, reasonable, as in the collocations sensible people, made a sensible answer, (ed. note) [3] Intelligence as the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly (ed. note) Source

The Cross And the disciples came and said to Him: “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them: “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given (Matthew 13:10-11, New King James Version (NKJV). Let me clarify the words "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.“ Knowing the secret of the Kingdom of God is the principle object of the human contemplation, as this is what the human spirit seeks to achieve. When light is cast upon your minds regarding the inner content of this profound notion (hereby, upon this notion I mean the original Divine image of an unchanging Essence which everlastingly grows in its dimensions not as a dead object, but as a living and sensible entity), you will understand that the secret of the Kingdom of God contains all the conditions for human development on Earth. Christ says: "It has been given to you." - To whom has it been given? Now, you may draw a negative inference from this verse because it is said: "It has been given to you, but to them it has not been given." You may think that perhaps the apostles were granted the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but that those secrets remain unattainable for yourselves. On the contrary, no matter who you are, it is still everything, which is being offered to all people by the Lord. Never personally interpret such words in a negative sense because such conclusions defame God. Whether the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven has been revealed to you or not, depends on yourself and yourself only. God sheds light on the matter, only when you have the correct disposition to understand Him; sometimes He does not allow you to grasp His secret because you are not in the right state of consciousness. Therefore, it is down to the individual comprehension of your hearing, your mind, your heart and your will whether you understand God or not. There is a significant similarity between our 20th century contemporaries and those who lived during the times when Christ descended upon Earth. In the above gospel verses, Christ states nothing else, but the fact that to you – to the people of the future, it is given to understand the Kingdom of God, but to the people of the past such a possibility remains inaccessible. In other words, to those of you, living with the thought of the realization of God’s plan in future, comprehension shall be granted, but to those of you, who are still living in the past, no understanding would be bestowed upon. You may of course choose to verify this statement in real life yourselves. To illustrate what it means to live in the past, let’s take for example a merchant, who has gone bankrupt and picks up their account books to single out their borrowers for debt collection purposes. As a result of the desire to recover what is owed to him, the merchant can no longer progress any further. Such a person would only worry that, for example, Ivan or Dragan, have borrowed a certain amount of money from them. The next day this merchant begins to revisit his account books again, the thought of the debtors becomes alive in his mind, and the merchant starts telling everyone: "Do you know Ivan and Dragan? – They owe me money!" To such merchants and lenders no access to the secrets of the Kingdom of God can be granted, as they are in a self-delusional state - Ivan and Dragan do not owe their lender anything - they are his brothers. Your Father has given in equal amounts to all of you, but you yourselves have brought your brothers into debт by creating the “I owe you” bills, pressuring your debtors and saying that they’ve robbed you. All those, who say that they need to take back from their brothers on Earth something which is owed to them, and treat their brothers as debtors, cannot understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. Those who seek nothing from their brethren, but on the contrary, do freely share with them and help them with their mental, spiritual and moral elevation, would indeed understand these much coveted secrets. What secrets? – The secrets of the Universe and of God's creation. To me these verses represent a grand and a spectacular picture, which is great in its conception and so beautifully crafted and decorated by the hand of God Himself! One day when your eyes open (of course, for the time being, in the first stage of your development, they are already partially open), and when you finally throw away your old account books and never look back at them again, you would see the magnificence of this picture for yourselves as well. For your own well-being, do utilize the true meaning and significance of the cross because it is the cross which saves the human soul. Crosses are placed on top of graves to signify the fact that noting more would be taken back from the person who passed away. When the lender hears that one of their debtors has died, he or she says: "God bless them", which means "I forgive them." That is the true meaning of the cross - that is its deep significance and intent. Nowadays, the cross is to be found everywhere within the churches, the priests wear it on top of their attire, the church goers cross themselves inside the houses of worship, those soldiers, who distinguished themselves on the battlefield do receive it as a medal of honor, everyone everywhere talks about it, but do you know what the elements of the True Cross are? - I will now speak about the True Cross, which saves and opens the door to the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross. The vertical line of the cross, which descends from top to bottom, represents the plant kingdom delving its way down into the physical matter, or in other words, this line depicts all those beings who have descended from God, and upon their fall, have remained with their feet and not their face against Him – this stature represents the ultimate contradiction with God. Consequently, the horizontal line of the cross represents the animal kingdom, where the animals are turned not with their feet, but with their back against the Lord, and when He speaks to them, they do not listen to Him. Therefore, both the plant and animal kingdoms cannot understand the Kingdom of God. To illustrate, there are people who have committed their minds to digging into material endeavors only, and they have buried themselves face down inside the earth, just like the plants, and have for this reason turned their feet against God. As a result, such people do not think about God. They wish to find their riches inside the Earth’s layers - coal, gold, silver, precious stones - and believe that the more they have, the happier they would be. On the other side, there are the other human beings who are following the movement of the horizontal cross line just like the animals do and have turned their backs against the Lord by means of saying: "The Lord does not listen to us." How would He listen to them when such people have their backs turned against Him? When a child turns its back on its mother, showing clearly its anger in this way, would the mother take such a child back into her embrace? No, she would not, because such a child behaves for the time being as nothing else, but a four-legged animal. Such an animal cannot understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. Do you now comprehend the philosophy of the True Cross? Has this philosophy positively influenced our thoughts and our relationship with the Lord? To be able to be in touch with the Lord, you need to utilize this philosophy correctly. The third element of the cross is Jesus Christ - nailed onto the cross, but facing God with his head up. The Christ represents the real Man. Therefore, there are three types of crosses - a plant cross, an animal cross and a cross that saves. The true salvation is offered by the Cross of the Christ. His arms and legs were nailed, that is to say, they were pinned onto three different points. The feet were pinned onto the down-facing heads of the plants, by means of which Christ wished to turn the plants back towards Himself. In other words, He had descended and was stretching down to get hold of those who have sunk into the mud of matter, so that they can face God again. The nailing of the Christ’s feet at this precise place also symbolizes the hard soil, which indicates that the cross is placed on solid foundations. This means that Christ at first saves those who sink down into matter similarly to the plants, grabs them and says: “Enough with this earthly descent of yours, your salvation is not there." And to the animals that roam constantly and freely with their back against God, He says: "Your salvation is not in this direction either." Christ wants to grab them by the hand, to turn them face to face with God and to tell them: "Here is your salvation." These are the two categories certain people fall into: some of you have been like the plants with your feet up, while others have been like the animals with their backs up against God, while Christ is now turning your heads up, so that you could face God. And when Christ says: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" - do you know what these words mean? He wants to say: "Why have you let your children roam about? Please listen to my request - turn them around, so that they can face you, and draw them back to Yourself.” Many interpret the Christ words in the sense that God has forsaken Him, but they actually mean: "Why have you forgotten my brethren?" Christ brings his hands down, turns them with their palms facing up and says: "Here is your salvation." And each one of you needs to bring your hands down, that is figuratively speaking, to direct one’s desires and one’s heart towards God and towards the secrets of the Kingdom of God because within the direction opposite to God there are only darkness and suffering. I am therefore posing the following question: “Would you still keep the Christ hanging on your cross?” Today, I am asking you to give a serious answer to this question because Christ is coming. How would He find you? - Some would be continuing delving further down deeper into matter, while others would be still moving in horizontal direction with their backs against God. Many people ask me why they cannot evolve any further. It is simply because their minds and hearts do not assume the right direction in terms of understanding the secrets of the Kingdom of God. For example, if the eagle or the dove would place backpacks on their bodies with a few pounds of supplies, could they possibly fly? Birds serve as a good illustration because before setting off to fly, one should be free from all the unnecessary luggage. The wing feathers, the tail feathers and head feathers are the only luggage required by the birds before they fly out, and the same applies to humans. In any case, rest assured that God will provide all the necessary food for all the birds and people, no matter what flight direction they take. A few days ago, I went to a house and heard a conversation between two ladies. One of them had chosen the spiritual path, strives to live according to the Word of God and that is why she said to her own self: "It is high time for me to start serving the Lord from now on." Consequently, it happened that she sold the house for a certain amount of money. Expensively or cheaply, she had sold the house anyway, but the other lady, who is deemed to be more spiritual than the lady who sold her house, what do you think she said? - "You did not do well, you sold it way too cheap, you could have kept the house for a while, and you would have acquired more money for it." Here is, I said to myself, a woman who has not yet understood the way the world functions. The lady who sold the house answered though: "It is so much of a hassle, I'm glad I got rid of it." Our hearts and minds should be free from all unnecessary burdens and once and for all we need to acquire the belief that God's Providence works for our own benefit. If the 4-5-year-olds would start providing for their own food at such an early age, they would not grow up and would quickly age instead. Therefore, their fathers have to take care of them until they become 21 years old, so that the grown up children are strong enough to provide for their own sustenance. The digit 21 represents 2+1, which is the total sum of 3 – the Trinity itself or Completeness in other words. Before the face of God, we are not yet 21 years old, but 10-12 years of age only, and He and all His angels are still performing some work within us, so that we can become accomplished. The punishments we are given are because God invites us to go to school and instructs us to learn, but we nevertheless resist and run away from the classroom. He is now wielding his stick, thus punishing the world collectively, and is saying to us: "You shall go to school, so that you learn and gain experience." Every retreat and digression from His commandments has its own criminal consequences. Such omissions cannot be compensated for in any other way, but with suffering. As a result of the incurred suffering, the human feelings become more sensible and stronger. Now, let's go back to the original question about the cross. The cross that saves and which you have to wear should consist of two necessary elements. It should be neither made out of wood, nor should it be turned upside down the way the plain cross is. Further, it should not contain any imprudent elements and it should not be whimsical. As soon as you experience some suffering, you say: "Why is this suffering given to me, when there are other people who are more sinful than I am? The Lord should have given this suffering to them and He could have been more lenient with me!" Such a way of thinking is already a display of discontent and disobedience. In this particular case, people assume either the position of an animal turning its back to God or the position of a plant, which is turned upside down. The human race has been carrying the two animal and plant crosses for the last two thousand years and has not been saved yet. I have not seen a household without such crosses and when I walk on the streets, I prefer to avoid these two crosses, as I am tired of seeing their nonsense. The Christ was not nailed to such a mindless cross. You suffer and you do not understand why this is happening to you. The woman says: "I will have my revenge on this man", while the man likewise says: "I will have my revenge on this woman." The judge revenges against the defendant, the teacher against the student, the merchant against the buyer and everybody in general is always threatening to have their own revenge. Let me tell you that wearing such crosses does not save one’s soul. A cross that truly saves is made out of Wisdom and Love. Next, I shall stop by the cross, which is upside down, I would lay the Divine Love on it, then turn its head up, so that it follows the same direction as the head of the Christ, and eventually say: "Lord, whatever may happen on Earth, and even if the world turns upside down and is eventually destroyed, I will still fulfill Your will! There is no creature in the world to prevent me from doing so, and I will do it!" This is what the Law of Love demands and so does the Divine Wisdom, which similarly says: "Lord, through all the suffering you give me, I shall learn the deep meaning of my life on Earth and shall work for Your glory." When the Lord is punishing me, I would say: "The beating on my back is a blessing, thank you!" - This is how the salvation cross of Love and Wisdom thinks and acts. So, it turns out that you, who are now suffering, have these two outdated cross elements within yourselves. Therefore you need to add the third cross element of the Christ. Do not try to reject the former two cross elements because even Christ did not attempt to reject them. He had to be nailed on the cross, and through this courageous accomplishment, He did the greatest work in this world. Such is the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice that mankind cannot even recollect from its existence so far any similar event of the same scale. Even after He was placed in the grave, He was still “crucified” because He descended into hell, opened its gates, brought out the sinners and said to them: "I have come down here because of you." You all want to go to Paradise. Should you not go down as Christ did in order to find and bring out your brothers and sisters from hell? To be able to return to His Father, Christ had to spend three days down in hell with his brothers and sisters and then release them from their enslaved state of consciousness. This is the exact interpretation of how Christ understood the words: "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given." And in your life, when people do not understand you, you should speak to them in parables like Christ did. Everyone needs to be nailed to the True Cross - this is a responsibility, which needs to be fulfilled. Christ saved you and you would have to save your brethren too. When I go to a sick person, cure them or prescribe them the correct treatment, this very same person, in turn, should willingly and freely help heal a different human being in need. The person I helped has no right to come back to me again and say: "Please come and help this other person, find a cure." This sort of personal transformation should enter into our lives, our thoughts and our deeds. Now, some people may think or, perhaps, affirm that for a person to save his or her soul, it is necessary to break away from this world. No, on the contrary, you have to enter the world and help organizing it, but before that you need to organize your own inner world. In this era, Christ is descending upon the Earth every two thousand years. In the past, he had been coming down every thirty-three thousand years. At present, sometimes He stays with us for a longer period of time, and sometimes - for a shorter time span, but from now on Christ shall live on Earth for longer periods, and in future you will have the opportunity to see Him and speak to Him. You may ask as to when this will happen, and the answer is that it will happen only when you have the three above-mentioned elements as parts of your own cross. It is said in the Scriptures that some shall see Christ under the clouds, others over the clouds, while to some others He would appear completely transformed. What use is it to those who are deaf if they enter a hall, where excellent concerts are being held? - None. What is the benefit to the ones whose stomachs are upset, if you serve them the most delicious meals? – None. Therefore, in order for people to understand things correctly, they should be in possession of the right elements. - In this respect, they should be on the very right track. Humans without steadfast belief systems are like a road which is trampled over by everyone – whatever is being said to them, they listen to and then agree to it without any thought whatsoever. If today someone tells them that the Lord exists, they would nod in agreement and if tomorrow they are told that God is fiction, they would acquiesce again. Such people have the fate of the furnace, which was made by the popular parable character Nasreddin Khoja. A friend came to him and said: "Because the wind blows in this specific direction, the door of the furnace should be on the other side." Nasreddin Khoja knocked down the furnace and rebuilt it the way his friend suggested. A second friend came over and recommended to place the furnace door elsewhere. Again, Nasreddin Kjoja knocked down the furnace and erected it according to his friend’s advice, but then a third friend joined in and put forward a new suggestion about the location of the furnace door. Finally, Nasreddin Khoja took the decision to build the furnace on top of a horse cart and was then turning it to whichever side his friends chose in order to satisfy them. In the physical world, this solution may have been clever indeed, but with regards to the spiritual world, we need to move in a single direction only – forward and upward towards God. That's the right direction. You may now ask if those are the only two directions towards God that we may take and the answer is that to reach out to God, it means to reach out in all directions. If you have no established belief-system in this respect, you would be, as I have already said, like a road, which is trampled over by everyone. Place a hedge as a barrier or just dig a large hole across the “road” of your own belief system and say: "From now on, none shall pass." In addition to the people at the lowest level of knowledge and understanding, there is a second category represented by the modern people with all their multiple theories. Throughout the 19th century, around one hundred geology theories regarding the Earth's structure were presented before the French Academy. All scholars of this kind argue, prove and disprove, and maintain a certain idea, but after five or ten years here comes another new notion, according to which the Earth is built otherwise, and this new hypothesis breaks its way through to discredit the previous theories to only lose its superiority to another newer theory, after eventually some time has elapsed. But how can we then trust them when such theories do not rest on solid ground? The scientists and the rich people, who are in a constant search of worldly glory, pleasures and happiness, do live surrounded by thorns it turns out, as indeed there are no conditions for happiness on Earth. Happiness is an inner process in the spiritual world represented by the rational attitude, which is adopted by the human souls in regards to each other. If you love, you will be loved. If you are acting with virtue, others would treat you virtuously as well. If you are righteous, justice shall come your way. If you love the truth, so others will treat you truthfully. The Lord answers the same way we treat Him. He speaks softly and gently to those who are wise, but to those who are stubborn, He sends suffering. Next, there is another cross element that I need to explain. There were two outlaws on either side of the Christ. He was nailed, while they were both only tied to their crosses. Why did the soldiers break the robbers’ tibias, but did not do the same with Christ and pierced His heart instead? Since Christ is now descending upon us, I will clarify this question. The two robbers were the first human beings created by God and those were the humans who sinned first - Adam and Eve. Do not take my words literally; I only mean this figuratively. The two of them ate from the forbidden tree and that is why their shins were broken for it is said: "Cursed is the one that walketh to do evil with his feet." The act of breaking of the robbers’ legs denotes all people who have lost their virtues. But then again, why did the soldiers pierce Christ into his heart and did not break his legs instead? It is because one should be free from the desire to taste the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. Christ said: "Since I am willing to take you back to Paradise, my heart has to be impaled and your legs would have to be broken because you have taken from the forbidden fruit.“ Now ponder over the following thought: “Whoever is willing to go back to Eden, will have his heart “pierced”, and whoever has committed a crime shall have their legs broken.” As I said, those crucified on either side of the Christ, were Adam and Eve. Both of them were saved in principle. The one on the left said to Christ: "You have saved so many thousands, save us, save us without any suffering." This robber on the left side of the Christ represents the female principle to which Christ replied: "I will save you." However, to the robber who was on His right side and represents the male principle, He said: "You will be in Paradise with me today." and the Christ fulfilled His word - He took the man on His right side all the way up into Heaven and kept the woman on His left side down onto Earth. Even now, Christ pierces the men's hearts on the battlefields and says to them: "Come with Me." And to the women He says: "I will save you in future, but for the time being I shall leave you on Earth to further do your work." Well then, dear women of today, how would you meet the Christ when the time comes? I pose this question to the Bulgarian, German, Russian, Austrian, French, English etc. women. I have presented to you the philosophical meaning of the cross and I am inviting you to apply it in your lives. I am glad because this meaning of the cross is in itself deep, great and Divine. I have interpreted for you the words of the great Master of Peace. I have heard His voice and now I am translating the meaning of His words. - You women shall be saved by the cross which has the three elements. The legs of those who do evil shall be broken and the hearts of those who desire evil shall be pierced. Only then will the evil be destroyed. I share to you what the Lord spoke centuries ago on the 9th of March when he introduced the Man to Heaven. Back then, this day fell on a Friday, but today it falls on a Thursday. Be aware that 9th of March applies to all the days of the week, so when we place you in Paradise again, would you again eat from the forbidden fruit? I am here teaching you about the meaning of Life, I speak to you about the Christ, Who is now coming and already performing His duties. Ahead in time wonderful and great things will happen in the world. Do not deceive yourselves; they would happen in an ordinary and natural way. Do not assume that the changes shall fall upon us as a sudden burst of flame. They would arrive very gradually. I can see that some of you are afraid. Don’t be afraid, as those who are cowardly will not enter the Kingdom of God. Act as heroes instead! Now, we will go further down the Earth and down below we shall study the small mysteries. In the depths of the Earth we would descend and learn how life functions in there. From that level there is a door leading to the Kingdom of God. Through this door we will find the Christ. When we descend, we shall meet Him and when we exit and go back up, we would see Him again. Christ says: „Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given." - You should study well the modern sciences to understand the secrets of the physical world and the secrets of the Kingdom of God. You should know about astronomy in order to understand the meaning of the secret world as well as you should learn physiology and anatomy. What do you know about the structure of your body, heart, blood, lungs, stomach, ear and eyes at present? For example, how does the light, which is coming from above, become an impression to your eyes and brain? What do you know about the relationship of the elements that make up your body, thoughts and desires? Imagine the kind of awe you would find yourself in when you begin to see the forms of your feelings and desires, imagine the greatness of the world which would be revealed before your eyes. And next, what do you know, for example, about the modern political movements? What is the reason behind the prevailing aggravation of the humankind nowadays and what is the reason behind the wars among nations? Can the mankind not develop in a different way? These are the type of questions that need to occupy your mind. Therefore, in order to be able to understand these events, you should recognize that the main reason why all this is happening is because your heart is filled with discontent. When you wake up and get up in the morning, you are not in a peaceful state of mind, as you think that all people all over the world are abnormal and bad. When we perceive people as abnormal, then we become abnormal as well, and vice versa - when we see the people around us as normal, then we also tune into normal mode. In general, those who are drunk tend to be happy during their temporary euphoria, while those who are sober are often suffering. When you go to a pub, you may see someone being drunk, laughing and cheering, but when this person comes back home, no one could even possibly talk to him. "I am happy," the drunken person says, but the next day when he sobers up, his head hurts and he begins to wonder whether he should have drunken the day before or not. Afterwards, such people go back to their normal state, where all the merrymaking has gone out of the window, and the suffering has arrived in order to replace it. Modern people say: "We suffer much" and I answer: "You are now sober." In the last 19th century, all people were more or less intoxicated and were saying: "God does not exist! Ha, ha – give us concerts, balls, merrymaking ..." Now, in this 20th century, people have sobered up and are asking: "What are we going to do now?” An officer on the battlefield told me once: "We all pray out there, our thoughts have changed", while a socialist was asking himself: "What is happening to me? So far I have been so dumb, but now I know that the Lord exists; now I know why I have come to Earth." It seems that all those people are recovering from their hangover. And if you face the English and the French troops on the battlefield and experience the intensity of the exploding shells and mortars, how would this turmoil affect your faith? I believe that people having that sort of experience are now holding their graduation exams on what we nowadays call “initiation”. For some, the first initiation exam has already been completed. The women, who are here, will suffer, their initiation will pass, and they will sober up. Being sober is the best - it means that one is able to function in a normal state of existence. There is a joyful state in us which can be reached, so that we can acquire balance. I would show you what it is, but for the time being I will leave this topic out, since I will talk about it this coming Sunday. Afterwards, you will then be able to communicate with all the good people all over the Earth. For example, if you have a friend in America, let’s say, you would direct your mind towards them, forward your thoughts to them, and your friend will reply back to you with their own thoughts. In this way one could travel the entire Earth, and you could go, if you wish, into the invisible world as well and talk to both all the good people on Earth and to those whose physical bodies have already left the material realm. Some people say that the dead should not be disturbed, but there is nothing to worry about in this particular case. Take, for example, someone who is locked up and restricted - you may reach out to them and ask how they feel and give them some useful advice. For instance, such are the departed souls which are still roaming the Earth - you can talk to them too, but deeds of this caliber are reserved for strong people only. Some may say: "The spirits are dangerous and whoever preaches about them is a heretic." Do not be afraid, the existence of spirits signifies the existence of real life. To illustrate the above statement, here is the following verse: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7, NKJV).” The first zodiac sign corresponds to the Spirit - the Spirit has descended and has chosen, as a result, its first “piece of clothing”. The original first month of March represents the idea of the human spirit. When March arrives, do ponder over the power of the humankind to be the master of еarth, master of water, master of air and master of fire. A person who is not a master of the earth, water, air and the fire elements has not acquired the human spirit within themselves yet. The most important thing is to be masters of your dark side and to say: "My spirit is the master within me." and if you are in a bad mood, do say to yourselves: "My spirit is the master within me" and you will see how your mood would change. Instead, however, you are saying: "I'm overwhelmed and I cannot fight on", but the Lord does not like soldiers who run away from the battlefield - you have witnessed how such soldiers are shot down by machine guns, so that in future they would abstain from fleeing the battlefield. Now, how would you meet the Christ? Would you show Him your back or would you face up to Him? Go and ask the priests, teachers, and judges how Christ would find them. Have they gracefully brought their hands down and turned their faces towards God by means of helping their compatriots and humanity? This is the path of obtaining Christ’s blessing if you wish Him to bless your children and your friends. Try this cross which is called the Power of Salvation. If someone else gives you a different cross, throw it away, this is not the True Cross. I will now ask what your desires are and what they are directed at – are they directed towards the earth, are you willing to indulge in the animal flesh? - For thousands of years humans have been eating animals and plants, but this is not the source of their salvation. What would be your situation if you have eaten a very well cooked lamb and someone turns you upside down, so you’d face the ground? In this case, what would cost you this excellent meal? Remember, this is the state of the devil. As soon as you say: "Let’s just eat, drink and enjoy life." the devil will turn you upside down, and anyone, who has their head facing down towards the ground and their back against the Lord, would not know how to think and feel correctly. Now, as soon as you return to your homes, try your hearts out. I would like, when I go into a house, to see the lady shining like a candle and I would like people to talk to me without speaking a single word. When I enter such a house, I know that its inhabitants love me without the need of saying anything, but visiting a different house, where people speak out to tell me that they love me, I know for certain that they are lying to me. Speak first with your heart, then with the mind and finally with your mouth. Never say a word with your mouth before your heart and mind have spoken first. When the famous Egyptian sage Hermes was once asked a great question he had not previously mulled over, he merely pursed his lips. This meant: "I have not thought about this question yet, so that is why I need to keep quiet", while on the other hand, his disciples were astonished by the fact that he did not answer the question. Many of you say: “Why don’t you tell us?" And how am I supposed to tell you?!? - I have told you a great secret already, but you would say that everyone knows the secret about the wooden cross with the Christ and the two robbers besides Him with their legs broken. I am telling you, this is not the True Cross. When the True Cross enters your being, light will illuminate your mind, while simultaneously your heart and your spirit will begin to work with vigor, and then you would become lords of the whole world. Some people say that a certain person has a mighty Spirit. Only the True Cross has a mighty spirit. The One Who is calmly carrying this True Cross is now looking upon us ... The legend tells us that the Roman legions of up to six thousand men had administered eighty thousand blows to Christ whilst torturing Him, but He nevertheless remained silent. How did Christ manage to withstand all the suffering? He simply said: "Hit me, those blows are a blessing - let the others be blessed through the suffering of my back. I am doing this for my disciples for whom I am ready to endure everything.” This is what I call magnetization. Where were you then? Of course, you were not within the Roman legions, but you stood somewhere among the street crowd and your thoughts were that the Christ was dying without attaining the real purpose in life, despite being a young and a clever man. You thought that His deeds at the time were foolish. Such was your philosophy then and such was the philosophy of all the priests, pharisees and sadducees – just eat, drink, lie, steal more money from your fellow human beings - that is how the meaning of life was interpreted back then. Nonetheless, there is nothing more virtuous than Faith, Hope and Love. When people ask me what I eat, I say: "I feast on Faith, Hope and Love." These are the fruits of the Spirit – this is what I eat. Now, let us abstain from criticizing anyone any further. When someone eats more than I do, I am glad that their stomach is strong and healthy. I'm happy when those around me are happy and I share the sorrow of those who grieve and I say to them: "You were full of joy before and can become full of joy again." A few years ago, sometime between May and June, both I and a former teacher were passing near a tavern in the city of Varna. The tavern was inside a hotel with a garden, the tables were laid out, deliciously smelling steaks were being served and wine was also being handed out among the guests. As we passed by, this former teacher groaned and I asked him why he groaned. He then said that in the past he used to be one of those lucky people who indulged in all those fine meals and that he is now suffering, as it is no longer possible for him to join such occasions. Consequently, I shared with him that for me it would be a great misfortune to enter this tavern and that he should be grateful to God for teaching him how to live modestly, as a little bit of bread and salt is enough for one’s sustenance. I also told him that he has already sampled all this type of feasting, and that even the devouring of one thousand more steaks would not improve his life anyway. The Lord says: "Because now you are not living a better life, I am excluding you from life, so that you can learn the true meaning of the Cross of the Christ, which is really the meaning of Life itself." Yes, these are the great mysteries of the Christ, Who is now coming. Be faithful to this great master. He is now arriving with all the angels and the saints, with all your forefathers and ancestors, but not the way the church and the Sabbaths envision His descent. You will see how much confused the modern day people are with regards to Christ’s arrival and you will subsequently admit how great the Lord is and you would show gratitude that you have gone through all these tribulations and suffering. Nowadays, Christ is handing over His wreath of thorns to all women. We all know that when the wedding ceremony is conducted, a wreath is placed on the bride’s head. In the tradition of mysticism and the occult science, this wreath is shaped as a circle with a cross on the inside. Whoever has come to Earth has to acquire the Divine Wisdom. Whoever is in Heaven and wants to become very wise, obtains a ticket for the Earth because it is a school intended for gathering wisdom. Christ will come down to inspect this school and He would not scold you, but may ask you different algebra questions. He may ask how much is one plus two, and you may say that this is a very simple question. Others would be asked how much is two minus one. Some could be asked about the triple rule, others may have a chemistry test, while the rest would have a physiology test - for example, to elaborate on digestion or on the topic of blood circulation. Some would be questioned on magnetism and electricity and some would be asked to explain how the human thought is formed, while others could state what they know about marriage. Women, for example, would have to develop the subject on how they understand marriage. Because in future there would be fewer men on Earth, women will have more exams on the education of their children. Next, the Lord shall ask the judges how they have judged and applied the Divine Righteousness, then ask the lawyers how they have defended their clients, the teachers - how they have taught their students, the doctors - how they have treated their patients, the priests - how they have preached the Word of God. The Lord will revise everyone’s deeds. He will remove the crowns from the bishops’ heads and tell them: "I did not wear a crown, but a wreath of thorns. A bishop, who has not worn a crown of thorns, is not allowed to wear a golden crown." - Be aware that all of you are blessed to have been born on Earth at this particular point in time. And now, let this essential thought of the cross remain sealed within you. - Turn your head and face towards God and when you ask God why you’ve been forsaken, He shall reply by saying: "Here I am, I have not forsaken you, I will explain to you the deep inner meaning of this cross." To all of you I wish: “May the Lord grant you the blessing to go hand in hand with Him” (people from the audience said “Amen”). Do not be discouraged, do not moan, but do rejoice even when you are weeping. Offer each other a helping hand. From now on, all churches and faiths should be reconciled - our Father is alive and He is the only God for all the existing religions. He will attract you towards Himself, just like the magnet attracts metallic shards. One day, you'll find yourselves magnetized and suddenly changed. Afterwards, just carry the True Cross and Christ will begin His work within you. From now on there is no force whatsoever to stop the Christ from doing his work. He will enlighten you and give you every wisdom, but you need to be true to your Father. We all already live in Heaven anyway, so do say: "Father, from now on, we shall walk Your path, we will cultivate this Paradise, we’ll eat only from the allowed fruits and we shall act in harmony with Your eternal law." Then God would reply: "Come all of you who are blessed. - For you is My Kingdom". Then he shall send you back to Earth again to work and the Earth will become part of the Kingdom of God. Some of you will be governors; others will be judges, lawyers, teachers – everyone shall do something according to their best talents. There are so many different job vacancies that there are hardly enough people to occupy all of them. There are enough jobs for both men and women, but with regards to women, these jobs are for real women only. Socrates said: "There are women and women." - That is to say there are two types of women. When you meet a woman, this woman needs to positively change you, and not pervert your mind. When you visit a real woman with a foul thought in your mind, she should help you transform your state of mind, and then you would say: "I will not do such a bad thing." This is what I call a real woman. If, however, one’s mind is perverted in a bad direction, then this is not done by a real woman, and you should know that her head is turned upside down just as it is with the kingdom of plants. We need real women to turn around the minds of these obstinate Bulgarians. You, women, have the key to do this. Do not be offended, as I am here telling you to help your stubborn children change their minds, and to transform your own hearts and your own entire spirituality. This change, of course, will not happen within one, five or ten years, it is a matter of centuries. Our contemporary times, our day today … is a day for work. The Lord is coming to offer work and service to all women and to also offer them equal rights with men. When the man and the woman are not yet married, they are very fond of each other from a distance, but when they get together under one roof, they start to hurt each other. At present, the Lord has placed the men up in the area of the mind and the women down in the area of the heart. Sometimes, women may lament that their honorable husbands have passed away, but instead these wives should thank their husbands for helping them change their own minds. On the other hand, the man, when he looks at his wife, would say how good she is and how well she talks. Some women say: "The Lord took away my husband." No, the Lord did not take your husband away; He just placed him further away, so that you both can contemplate one another in order to again become fond of each other. In the evening, the woman will let the man into her well cultivated garden of the heart, while the next day the man will invite his wife to his own well cultivated garden of the mind. So, please consider if it is possible for you to live without a well cultivated garden? To you women, I recommend to plant your gardens well, so that men would come down and walk in them. And to you men I suggest to work on your gardens well, so that women could stroll in them with joy. This is the meaning of the words: "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven …“ Such are indeed some of those secrets. Sunday Talks, 22 March 1917, Thursday, Sofia Translated by: Pavel Iordanov

Salvation “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17 Educated people of the 20th century, both worldly and religious, have a vague understanding of Moses’ law as well as of Christ’s law. For the past two thousand years Christians have been combing through Christ’s Teaching and have, thus, made it so threadbare that if you were to look at it through the eyes of a seer you would to see it as a tree with peeled off bark. All critics, writers, and preachers alike talk about obtaining salvation through doing good deeds, and through implementing God’s commandments, but salvation proceeds out of one basic law in Nature that has been in existence long before Christ’s time, since the beginning of all Existence. Thus, everything that happens today in the human soul, in societies, in peoples, and throughout the whole of humankind, comes from the Beginning of all Existence, i.e. from the original Life source. The word “salvation” has many meanings. For example, someone falls into water and starts drowning, but then someone else pulls him out of the water. Everyone is happy and says, “This man has been saved.” Someone else recovers from a serious illness and people say, “He is saved.” Then, someone else strays from the right path, but after a while is able to straighten his life and start living righteously again. Again, people say of him, “He has been saved.” The common meaning of the word “salvation” implies one’s leaving the bad life and returning to the good Life again, or it implies leaving the toils and suffering of Life and settling into the better conditions of Life. Taken in its broader meaning, the word “salvation” implies one’s entering into eternal Life. Everyone wants to find the conditions of eternal Life. This is all too natural! It is not good enough for man to be saved from drowning, only to die of starvation later; it is not enough for man to rid himself of a serious illness, only to fall sick with another after some time. All of this is but getting rid of one evil only to run into another one. What man needs is real salvation; he needs to restore his connection with the Original Cause of all things. Man cannot be saved unless he restores this connection, for outside of this connection no salvation exists. This is how salvation should be understood today for this is how Christ understood it and this is how all saints, as well as all just and good people on Earth have understood it. Christ says, “If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me.” Anyone who sees salvation in different terms is deluding himself, and he will go through falling and getting up again, through losing faith, etc. The law of salvation is at work at all times. Some think that man can be saved only once and that once he has been saved he does not need to think about salvation any more. Man needs to save himself at any given moment. Salvation, therefore, is a manifold and eternal process. We do not believe in one-time processes. However, just like man eats, drinks water and breathes all the time, he needs to save himself all the time, as well. There is a constant connection between the human soul and God: this connection is called “the connection of salvation.” People often wonder, “Have I been saved?” Today you may be saved but tomorrow someone might grab you by the neck; today you may be full but tomorrow you will be hungry; today you may have one good thought but tomorrow you will be attacked by some bad thought. If you want to break the cycle of being in one condition today and in another tomorrow, you need to keep your connection with God intact. Christ came down to Earth to create a strong and constant connection between men and Angels, on one hand, and between men and God, on the other. When the young man asked Christ what to do in order to inherit eternal Life, Christ said, “You shall not murder!” This comes to show that murder can sever man’s connection with God, with the Angels, and with his more advanced brothers. Christ also added, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” These are the laws of the Spirit and these laws are related to the present epoch. The young man said to Christ, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” Christ answered him, saying, “If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me!” With the first two commandments Christ explains the reasons that can lead to breaking off the connection between man and the world of sublime intelligent Beings. With the next few commandments He explains the causes that can repair the broken connection. “You shall not murder!” The word “murder” is used in a broad sense and meaning. When you hear this commandment you might think to yourself, “Thank God that I have not murdered anybody in my life.” All I can say to you is this: there is no person in the world who has not murdered. Murder is not only taking one’s Life. Every day, knowingly or unknowingly, man murders a good thought, a good feeling or a good intention that comes to him. Also, man murders his neighbour’s good thoughts, intentions and acts. For example, when you meet someone who believes in God and you manage to talk him out of his belief is that not murder? You murder a sacred feeling inside this man. How do you know that God does not exist? He, who denies the existence of God, wants, in fact, to take His place. Therefore, when you say about someone that he is not rich, good, beautiful, or learned it shows that you want to keep these qualities for yourself. The denial of the Good, the beautiful, and the great puts distance between man and God. By doing these things you break off your connection with Him and expose yourselves to death. You might say that people love you, but this means nothing. People may love you and you may still toil and suffer, depending on what kind of Love their love is. Most people’s love is the love of crows and eagles. I do not mean to offend you by saying this, but I want you to know that love that does not build and elevate is but animal love. The “You shall not murder” commandment pertains precisely to this very kind of love. You say that people sing hymns to Love. To which Love should we sing hymns: to the one that destroys or to the one that creates? So many young men and women of noble thoughts and desires have been disappointed with Love! So many young women and men have made an attempt on their Life after marriage! Why does a young woman feel disappointed? It is because she cannot find in her beloved those elements that are necessary for her evolution. The young man, too, is disappointed with his beloved for the same reason. Does this same thing not happen with man’s religious beliefs? You meet a religious, joyful and inspired person, but you dissuade him of his belief and you prove to him that there is Life only on Earth, and then he becomes disappointed and loses his good disposition. The time will come when man’s consciousness will awaken and he will enter from one Life into another. Then people will understand that there is no death, and that Life is eternal and continuous. People today have different beliefs and concepts of this life and the life beyond, but they have not tried and tested everything. Some maintain the thought that there is Life only on Earth, and that when man dies he disappears and nothing is left of him. These people deny resurrection. Which one of these people has been to the other world to say what is there? Only the one who has tried a certain idea has the right to deny or ascertain it. Only the dead man can talk about death; the living talk only about Life. Speaking of this, there are dead people who are alive and continue to live. There are also living people who are dead; they move among the living but do not acknowledge Life. These people move about mechanically, having no thoughts or feelings. Thousands of years must pass before they can come back to life. They look but they cannot see; they listen but they cannot hear, for they are sleeping. However, there are also people both in this world and in the other one who can see, hear, understand and apply the laws of Life. They are alive and they enjoy Life as it is manifested in all worlds. “You shall not murder!” This means that you should not destroy a single good thought or a single good intention that God has invested into you or into your neighbour. Instead of destroying one’s Life and making it meaningless, one should build. The meaning of human Life is in getting rid of the bad traits and cultivating the good ones that elevate man, and create conditions of man’s salvation and union with God. How can one get rid of one’s bad traits? He can do that by removing from his way all those conditions that cease his connection with the Divine world. For man, to break this connection will mean to stop his evolution on Earth. Man must first live through Moses’ law, which states, “Respect your father and your mother, and love your neighbour as yourself.” Only after he has implemented this law is man ready to implement Christ’s law. Christ says, “I am the true vine, and My father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” This means that each one of Christ’s canes that has not yet given up its desire to kill is a cane that does not bear fruit. The Father will cut it and toss it aside. What are the signs that show which man kills? One sign is sourness, i.e. discontentment. Once man is sour, once he has started to feel irritated and discontent, he is ready to kill. In addition, Christ says, “You shall not steal!” What should we not steal? We should not kill people’s good thoughts and intentions. I am ready to give away all my fortune, but I do not ever want to have something stolen or steal something, myself, from the mind and heart of a man. One should not kill one’s neighbour’s good thoughts and intentions, and one should not steal, as well. Christ says, “You shall not bear false witness!” In his interactions of giving and taking, man should be completely honest and should allow for no lie whatsoever. If he receives one good thought or one good intention, he should respond with the same. If man repays one good thought with a bad one, he is using a lie. If you repay the Good with bad and tell yourself that you have applied the Good, with this you are corrupting yourself first, but also your family and your society. One is not allowed to kill, steal, or lie. A woman or a man who allow themselves to steal the mind or the heart of the other one are on the wrong path. Before long they will see the lie in which they have lived. Lying goes side by side with killing and stealing. Rid yourself of the habits and vices of your past so that you can love your father, your mother, and your neighbour. How should you love your neighbour? As yourself. Who are you, and who is your mother and your father? Your body is you, your soul is your mother, and your Spirit is your father. Man is a child of his soul. So, the body is the child of the soul. The soul cares for the body like a mother, bringing it up and teaching it good manners. Some ask if they will be using their present body for their life in the other world. They mean to ask: is the body related to the soul and the Spirit, i.e. is it related to its mother and father? The son should be decent; he should bring joy to his mother and his father. He should honour and respect them. The mother and the father are inside oneself, not outside. The day when you transgress the law of God and stop honouring your mother and your father, and stop loving your neighbour you will find yourself outside the conditions for Life. Apply Christ’s Teaching every moment of your Life, and you will see that it is a teaching of Life and Strength. If you are not well disposed pay closer attention to your Life to find out which of the three commandments you have transgressed. All you need is to be sincere with yourself and you will know which commandment exactly you have transgressed: you shall not murder, you shall not steal or you shall not bear false witness. Christ says, “If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me!” To whom are you going to give your possessions? To your thoughts and intentions. Whom are you going to follow? The Great Teacher of Life. When people read this verse they start discussing it. They are afraid that if they give away their possessions, and give up their house and their money they will become poor and will lose the conditions for development. God does not want your properties. He does not need your houses, or your money. The word “possessions” implies something else: only he, who is ready to express the Good that has been invested in him, is able to give away his possessions, for the Good in man makes up his possessions. Good is linked to the law of Love. When compassion and Love are active inside man, he is then ready to express the Good and do good deeds. Good cannot exist, i.e. it cannot be expressed outside of compassion and Love. There is not a single man in the world who can do good without having a good thought or a good intention in him. It is said, “Honour your mother and father.” The mother and the father represent the object of your Love and your neighbour represents the impulse that urges you to express your Love. The mother and the father are symbolic of the strong, and your neighbour is symbolic of the weak. Man is capable of loving only what is tender, weak, and endearing, and in need of help. You can honour and respect the strong, but it is the weak that you can love. The Scriptures say, “God is Love.” Who knows God as Love: he, who is weak, sinful, or feeble does. Therefore, be happy if you are weak because this gives you the opportunity to know Love and become strong; be happy if you are sinful because this gives you the opportunity to know Love and become just. It is said in the Gospel that God punishes the ones He loves. Along these lines, one can say, “God forgives the sins of the ones He loves.” This same law exists in nature, too. If you observe Animals you will notice that they, too, are careful and tender towards the weak creatures. This same law acts among people, too. Be happy if you are in the hands of someone who is strong, but also noble and good, for he will help you and elevate you. Woe to the one falls in the hands of someone who is rude and cruel, and who lacks nobility, for such a person is like an octopus: he sticks his tentacles into the weak, sucks out his juices and throws him away. Some religious and worldly people do the same: when they find someone who is weak and good they stick their tentacles into him, empty out his money pouch, and then let him go, saying, “We turned him to God”, or “We introduced him to Life and gave him knowledge.” This is no turning to God, at all; this is no science, at all. Such a person will not think again of your God or of your Knowledge. If you want to help someone you should never empty out his money pouch, and you should never turn his heart and mind to God. What you should do, instead, is let him look for God and turn to Him on his own. If you want to help someone you need to find the key to his door and tell him, “Take this key that you once lost, and open the door to your house. Then clean your house, open your windows so that the Sun can enter it and brighten it up.” It is man’s natural duty to clean his house himself, rather than letting the servants clean it for him. Your house is the temple of God, which was built specifically and only for you. What will happen if all temples were brought together to one place? This will produce disturbance in the whole world. It is about this same temple that Christ says, “Go into your room and pray to your Father Who sees in secret.” This secret room is the temple of the human soul. Entering the temple of one’s soul means getting rid of all anger and discontentment, and all hatred and jealousy. Anger and discontentment lead to killing; killing leads to stealing, and these two together lead to lying, which is the greatest vice in human Life. The first four commandments - you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not bear false witness - tell man what he should not do. The second three commandments - honour your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself - tell man what he should do. So, man should honour his father and his mother, and love his neighbour. Man’s neighbours are his good thoughts and intentions through which he can get rid of the bad thoughts and desires, and put them under better conditions, i.e. he can cultivate and discipline them. By loving your neighbours you plant in your garden the best fruit through which you can transform the bad thoughts and desires into good ones. With these commandments Christ wanted to draw the Jews’ attention to the meaning of Life, to loving each other, and to turning away from killing, for according to their laws then they used to murder for naught. For that reason they did not have a long-standing kingdom. There are people and peoples who apply the old Jewish laws to this day, and all these people murder, lie, and steal all the time. If you follow the history of the European peoples you will see that they have led numerous wars and crusades with the goal of freeing Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be free when people stop murdering, stealing, committing adultery and bearing false witness. Now I want each one of you to trace your Life from its beginning to this day and say, “From this day on I’m putting an end to all lying, stealing, murdering and committing adultery.” Then if you turn to Christ and ask him what else you need in order to inherit eternal Life, he will answer by saying, “Go sell what you have, and give it to the poor; and come, follow Me!” Who are those poor? They are your neighbours. Some mornings you wake up joyous, in a good disposition and content with Life. What is the cause of your good disposition? The reason is in your neighbours that live in you. Consequently, if you want to maintain this disposition, you need to love your neighbours. The noble and bright things that you carry in your mind and in your heart represent a great world to you: your happiness. If you are looking for Christ you will find Him in your good thoughts, feelings and desires. They are the true connections, the true ties of your Life; you can use them to weave the connecting rope that will take you up to Heaven. The Scriptures say, “I drew you in with my Love.” So, Love is a combination of the connections of what is Good, Wise and Just, and these can elevate man into the sublime world. Only Love is capable of introducing man into the Kingdom of God. If you want to be happy you should apply Love into your Life. This way you will try the power behind Christ’s Teaching. People today complain of suffering and misfortunes, and they look for a way to get rid of those. They can do that only if they change their thinking. The old thoughts need to be replaced with new ones. By thinking right, in the new way, man understands that the same thing that yesterday caused him grief today can cause him joy. Man will not be afraid, then, if he were to lose his possessions or his social status, for his riches and his dignity depend on him. He carries inside all the conditions for being rich, strong, and healthy. Even if he were to lose his mother and father he will know that they are not really lost, for they are in him. The external mother and father are a reflection of the internal ones who live inside man. You have it all hidden inside you. All you need is to maintain good thoughts and feelings in your mind and heart, and you will have all the riches of the whole world at your disposal. Then you will not be poor, but will be able to give from yourself like a spring gives constantly. Open up your soul -the treasury of your Life and give generously. This treasury is full of riches and good seeds that need to be sown into the Divine field. Do not think that you are poor. God has given you everything, but you do not know how to use Life’s goods. Do not think that happiness is in the material riches. Man is required to have wisdom. The wise man uses correctly the goods that he is given and that is why he is rich. Man’s unhappiness is not due to the lack of goods; it is due to the fact that he prevents the good thoughts and feelings inside him from being expressed externally. In other words, man does not allow God Who is inside him to manifest Himself. God whispers quietly in your ear, “Do good.” “I don’t want to,” you object. “Let me do it then,” says God. “I won’t allow it,” you refuse. Given this situation, do you think that you can be happy, and that you can find God? Where is God? God is inside you. Open your heart and he will manifest Himself. Man cries, suffers and loses heart because he is not aware of all the goods and riches he carries inside. This is the real meaning of the Bulgarian saying, “He’s wading in water, but dying of thirst.” If you Love God you will acquire everything that you desire. Without God man will not be able to keep either his riches, or his Strength. According to a Bulgarian folk tale, once God and St. Peter decided to go down to people and walk around the world to see how people live. After walking from one town and village to another they found themselves in the outskirts of a town, and went into poor people’s house to spend the night. Their hosts were simple and cordial people who welcomed them well: they cooked them dinner, and let them rest. St. Peter was so content with the poor people’s hospitality that he asked God upon leaving, “Lord, why don’t you help these good people get rid of their poverty?” “May it be as you wish,” God said. As soon as he said that the little poor house turned into a big good-looking house, and their hosts turned into rich, well-dressed masters who were now surrounded by many servants. The host, now surrounded by riches and opulence, took to easy living, and excessive eating and drinking. He would now eat, drink and not move a finger to do any work. God and St. Peter went on with their walk around the world. A few years later they found themselves back in the same town where once they had stayed with the poor family and St. Peter asked if they could stay with them again and see how their life was as rich people. God and St. Peter knocked on the door of the now rich house and their good hostess answered the door. She invited them in politely, gave them food and let them spend the night in her house to rest from their travels. However, her face was now gaunt and sad as if something was eating her. After helping them settle in the guest room she warned them that they might hear shouting, banging and raging in the middle of the night. She explained with sadness that this was her husband who drank excessively, and would come home late and be drunk and would not be able to control himself. Before going to bed, God told St. Peter to take the bed that was closer to the door. No sooner had they fallen asleep than they heard banging, shouting, and raging and realized that the husband had returned home from his feast. He went from one room to another, opening doors, slamming and breaking things looking for trouble. Finally, he went into the guest room. When he saw that there was a stranger sleeping in the bed he took a stick and beat him up, shouting, “Here’s for sleeping in a stranger’s house when the master of the house is not there.” After all the racket subsided a little, St. Peter asked God, “Let us change our places so that he does not beat me up again if he comes back.” So, they changed their places. However, the drunk host had not come down yet. He returned to the guest room, thinking to himself, “Let me throw him a few more punches to teach him a lesson to remember.” He raised his stick in the air, but then St. Peter moved and caught the drunk man’s attention. He looked closely in the dark and noticed that there was a person in the second bed, too, whom he had not seen before. “Oh,” he said, “Here comes your turn now. I just beat up your friend and now I’m going to beat you up, too.” This way it was St. Peter again who took the beating. At dawn St. Peter urged God, “Let’s get going lest he should come a third time and beat me up again.” God and St. Peter threw on their clothes in a hurry, washed their faces and were ready to leave the house. God, then, waved his handkerchief in the air, and the house caught on fire and burned up. This is how St. Peter got away without being beaten up for a third time. When does one live only to eat and drink? When he favours his flesh first and foremost, i.e. when he favours his lowly instincts first and foremost. In a situation like this, if St. Peter prays for you he will be beaten up a few times as a consequence. Therefore, be careful not to pray for acquiring material goods before you have established your connection with God. You may feed the wolf all you want, but he will always remain a wolf; you may take care of the snake, the mosquito or the louse, but you will not be able to change their nature; you may look after a sinner, taking all the care in the world, but you cannot right his ways. Hunger and suffering are the only things that can help a sinner right his ways. Once he has reached the end of his suffering he will be able to realize his situation, and will repent; through repenting and prayer he will gradually become righteous again. If you see someone who complains a lot about his difficulties and suffering, you should know that his hardships are just beginning. Such a man is yet to go through suffering before he acquires a milder attitude, repents and starts humbling himself. Man’s task is to work on himself, be healthy, strong and wise. Through having good thoughts and intentions man can acquire health, Strength and a chance to apply his Wisdom. This is what is required of all people: men, women and children. If this happens all societies will be magically transformed. When the parts are in good order, then the whole organism will be in good order. To common people things happen slowly, but to wise men things happen at once, for they know the laws and they do not abuse them. If a common man works with the great laws of Being he can destroy the world in a day. This is why God does not give great knowledge to common people, for they still apply Moses’ laws: they murder, steal, bear false witness, etc. What should man do in order to leave the common life? He should establish a connection with God Who now works in the world. You, too, should work with Him if you want to take part in the Kingdom of God. Working together with God means applying Love; Love is the Divine mother that Christ advises us to honour. Only he, who loves can honour his mother and father. Such a man is good, just and noble. Someone complains that people do not love him. How can you love someone who does not honour his father and mother? Woe to that young woman who marries a man, who does not honour his mother and father! Woe to that young man who marries a woman, who does not honour her mother and father. God loves and blesses those young women and men, who honour their mother and father. He who wants to be loved by his neighbour should learn to honour his mother and father first. This is a law that acts throughout the whole Being. Love cannot be manifested outside of this law. You need to honour your soul and your Spirit, and you need to honour your neighbour’s soul and Spirit and you will be God’s beloved children. If God loves you, people will love you, too. He, who does not honour his father and mother, is a miserable man. He, who does not love his neighbour, is a miserable man, too. Such a man is a sinner, and he is doomed to suffer. This is what Christ meant when he said, “If you want to be perfect, honour your father and your mother, i.e. your Spirit and your soul; love your neighbour as yourself; go sell what you have, and then come, follow Me.” Whom should man follow? Man should follow Him, Who is the source of everything: the Original Source of Life. Following God will bring meaning to your Life and will turn your suffering into music, and your hunger and poverty into a pleasant task. Under these circumstances man is no longer afraid of hunger and privation. He does not worry about the daily bread, for he knows that God has taken care of his needs. He does not worry about how he will get bread. How were the Jews able to spend forty years in the desert? He, Who liberated them from slavery took care of their needs and made sure they had food and water. Man does not get his food from one source alone. Give away your possessions and worry not about where your next possessions will come from. You cannot pour clean water into the bottle unless you pour the dirty water out first. Empty out your money pouches if you are to fill them up again. Empty out your bottles and your money pouches so that God can fill them up with pure water and pure food. Empty out your hearts from the old feelings so that God can put into them new feelings and new warmth that will transform them. This is the meaning of the verse, “I will take away their hearts of stone, and I will give them new hearts.” Modern people are afraid of Life’s conditions, and want to know what will become of them. Bulgarians want to know what will become of Bulgaria. Nothing bad will happen. Bulgaria will continue to exist. God says today, “If people listened to Me I would say only one word and the war would end. But because they don’t listen I will let them fight until they learn.” Many people who do not honour their father and mother, and do not love their neighbour still live according to Moses’ laws. To this day there are still people-parasites. We do not need parasites. The world needs good people; it needs beautiful flowers that spread their fragrance everywhere. The world needs noble souls and hearts; it needs wise mothers, fathers and children. This is what God wants. This is what Christ preached two thousand years ago. Today people are divided into religious and worldly: the former believe in God and the latter deny God. The time is coming when they will be given even more proof that God exists. Then even the blind will be able to see, but if they are not ready to accept the new Light they will become even more miserable than they used to be. This is the reason some blind people’s eyes do not open. The world of intelligent Beings wants to spare them, and leaves them blind so they won’t suffer even more. This is also why not all people can be rich. Do not give money to those who do not know how to use it, for if they become rich before it is their time they will cause great trouble both to themselves and to their neighbours. Therefore, no matter what difficulties and tribulations you go through, remember that it is all Good, it is all for the better. What you need is a living, staunch belief to help you overcome everything. Work on yourselves, and work on the world, as well, to make it a nobler place. There was a time when people would leave the world; they would take to the mountain and the desert, and there they would live in service of God. Today the message to everyone is that you should enter the world and work in it. There was a time when people would leave hell, and fear it. Today they live in hell and work for the elevation of those fallen souls that have taken the stray path. It is now time for you to forgo your old convictions and tear down your old houses. The old is being torn down, the new is being built. The stage needs to be constantly renewed; we cannot keep replaying the same drama over and over again. God does not like monotony. As long as he lives in Moses’ law man serves evil by murdering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, etc. As long as he serves evil, man lives according to the law of being born and reincarnating. Once he turns away from this law he can start serving the Good, and enters the law of embodiment. Living according to this law means living according to these commandments, “Honour your father and mother, love your neighbour, and give away all your riches to the poor.” He, who observes the seven commandments, lives in the realm of immortality; he can now rest because he has gained salvation for his soul. This means that he has connected his soul to God Who is the source of all goods in Life. People today are afraid of what not, and that makes them think only of material security. A merchant buys simple goods, and then sells them as being something special so that he can earn more than he needs; by doing this he wants to secure himself materially. Why won’t he tell the Truth and say that the fabric he sells is not pure wool, but is mixed with cotton? If he always speaks the Truth his business will be better than if he tells lies. Whatever post you occupy you should always be honest and truthful. If you want to be free you should always speak the truth. Do not force anyone to do something that he does not want to do. Do not force your soul, either. Some young man does not want to get married but his relatives fool him into getting married. Afterwards he is sorry for giving in to other people’s advice. Do not force others if you don’t want to be forced. Do not lie to others if you don’t want to be lied to. Be true to your soul, and to your Spirit. Be true to your Teacher. Be true to the One Who has given you everything. He will enter your temple, wash His hands and feet, and will present gifts to you: holy oil, myrrh, and frankincense. Then he will say, “The time of your salvation has come!” Clean out your temple so that the Saviour can enter. If you want to clean out your temple, you need to learn to regard your neighbour with benevolence. Think only Good of him. The bad things that you see are related to his past Life. Today he strives for Goodness and will become good. The bad will become better than the ones that pass as good today. My task is to help all who are lame, blind or limping restore their health and rejoice in Life. All deserts need to turn into oases of Life where the weary traveler can rest and quench his thirst. All empty spaces need to be planted with fruit trees, so that everyone who passes by them should be given something. The stranger will stop before them and partake of their sweet fruit. Rid your thought of all negative traits: doubt, hesitation, and suspicion. You can doubt anyone, but never doubt God! He is kind and unchangeable. He remains the same under all conditions of your Life, and in the face of all your acts and attitudes. He is always ready to help you as long as you are ready to listen to Him. If you do not listen to Him He will let you suffer the consequences of your life and your mistakes, and then you will see for yourself what it means to live without God. The human soul knows no greater suffering than to stray away from God. How can man go back to the right path? Look at what the child does when it makes its mother sad: as soon as it realizes what it has done it goes to her and starts crying. Crying is his prayer. It cries and begs its mother to accept it back into her arms. Here’s what I’m telling you now: Go to God like the child goes to its mother. He is your Father and your Mother. If you want to be honoured by your sons and daughters you need to establish a connection with God. You will see that your life will become better before even a year has passed. As soon as you try this out you will have new thoughts in your mind and you will be able to see. Then you will have not only two eyes, but a hundred: you will have eyes on the front of your head and in the back, and also on both sides, on top and underneath, etc. Someone complains that he has been working a lot, but has not been able to see yet. He cannot see yet because he lacks that living faith which can open the eyes of the blind. I believe in your soul and I believe in your potential and I know that you will be able to see one day. Even if you do something bad, even if you make a mistake or do some mischief, your soul will remain unchanged. I like sinful people who repent, and that is why I lend a helping hand to all weak, ignorant, and sinners. This could be a weakness, but Christ had a weak spot for sinners, too. He passed His test: He let Himself be taunted, ridiculed and crucified, but then He came back to life on the third day. Now I wish you to share the same weakness: love those who repent and help them. “Come and follow Me”, says Christ. “Follow You in what?” “Follow Me in what I’ve been teaching you.” Lecture by the Master, delivered on February 25, 1917, in Sofia.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father...1 "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." No one knows the Son but the Father; and no one knows the Father but the Son. The word knowing is related to the human mind. If it is not ready to comprehend the meaning of the great idea "of knowing" the mind cannot understand the relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. Here we have two values: Father and Son. They can be examined as the numbers 1:3. What do we understand by the number 1? This number is a symbol, that for some people has meaning and for others does not — all depends on their mind. When you say "one" you may understand a man, a woman, or a child, but you can think also of a horse, a cow, or a calf, etc. When you say the word "man" you think that you know what man is, but if you are asked to give a more precise definition, you will find yourselves in a difficult situation. It is easy to say "my son" or "my daughter" but even these words are not very clear to you. You have an idea about the daughter or the son as far as you understand the relationship that exists between you. Yet the true relationship depends upon the ties that exist between your soul and the soul of him whom you call your son or your daughter. The number "one" is the father, and the number "three" — the child, the son or the daughter. As mathematical ratio, the numbers 1:3 represent the relation of the diameter of the circle to its length: D:P. The number P=3.14. This means that the diameter is contained in the circle 3.14 times; we are using only the whole number - three. This will say that the father indicates the measure of the human path, and the son — the circumference of this path. And so when we say that no one knows the Son, we imply all the possible combinations through which he passes. When the diameter rotates around itself it forms a sphere or a ball, which indicates the possibilities and conditions which the Son brings. Do not think that it is easy to come to know the Son, to turn him like a wheel one time and to say that you have understood its movement. And when you say "diameter", again you have not understood the deep meaning of the unit. In relation to the number three, i.e. the length of the circle, the unit is diameter, but it is the unit in respect to innumerable more numbers. In mathematics all numbers begin with the unit. We pronounce the numbers one, two, three, etc. They represent the diameters drawn in a circle. The number seven represents the diameter of the universe. These are abstract, mystical ideas, that man will understand when he will be able to penetrate into the deep meaning of life. In this sense every one must understand the place and position which he occupies in nature. A man can be in the position of a mineral, a plant, an animal and lastly in the position of true man. Until he comes to this position he learns to distinguish and understand things. He passes through the minerals, studies them, and when he learns their properties, he separates the precious stones from the ordinary ones and begins to adorn himself with them. When he passes through the plants and animals, again he studies them: he cultivates them, he feeds them, he enjoys them, until one day he starts to pick and to kill them, using them for food. The husband comes home from work dissatisfied and angry, but when he sees that his wife has cooked a chicken or lamb, that she has set the table and has placed some fruit on it, he becomes well disposed and cheerful and starts eating with pleasure. He thinks that he has understood his wife, but this is true only for a few hours. The stomach is emptied and a new uproaring, a new discontent rises until the hunger is satisfied. In the same position are the wife and the children. All complain that they do not know and understand each other. What is understanding? To know things will say to master them, it means that they have become part of you - your flesh and blood. To know the horse, does not mean to harness him and lead him after yourselves; to know the elements does not mean to put them in flasks and keep them sealed. Knowledge implies conscious, inner relation between things. Such relationship can exist only in love. This will say that if you have love you will know things, if you lack love you will know nothing. Some one says that he is dying of love. He may die without understanding love. With dying one cannot find love. When a young maid cannot attain her ideal, i.e. she cannot marry the man of her heart, she says that she will die. This indicates that she wants to attain love but love cannot be found through death. When we speak about the home, about the mother, the father, the children, we imply certain relationships of souls that are tied together through love. When we speak about the church, again we understand the relationship of souls to something, that represents God's presence, or the presence of love. Some people say that outside the church there is no salvation, I interpret this statement thus: Outside of love there is no salvation. Without love things are dead, unconscious, mechanical. Christ says: "No one knows the Father but the Son." This will say that he who has no love cannot know the Father; he who has love can come to know him. It has been said: "God is love". Therefore only love can know itself. You can come to know an object if you have its properties; you can come to know your friend who is a well-known philosopher only if you have a philosophical mind, and are able to understand his ideas. Two people, one of which has a heart and soul, and the other has not yet manifested them, cannot understand each other. - Why? - Because they do not have the same properties. Some woman complains that her husband cannot understand her. - He has not yet come to know God and she wants that he may understand her. As long as man has not come yet to know God he cannot come to know anybody. He who does not know the Son cannot come to know the thinking beings, he cannot come to know also God. Accept this idea in your mind and in your heart and apply it in your lives. Christ says: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Christ appeals to all who are burdened to come to him and he will teach them how to wear their burden easier. "No one can come to me if the Father did not reveal Himself." The Son is the object to which each soul aspires, and the Father is the power that attracts the souls to this object. When a young man is attracted by a young maid, she is the object of attraction and the power that attracts him is love, i.e. the Father of whom Christ is speaking. Man must study love, God. How will he attain it? — Through the Son. This means that the Son, or the inner intelligence in man must teach him to recognize his Father, in order to be able to understand his relationship to himself as well as to his neighbor. Modern men occupy themselves with many questions, but 99 percent of these questions are unimportant and inessential. Only one of all 100 questions is essential. All other questions move around this essential and central question and for this reason they represent its food. When you explore the egg carefully you will find in it one important and essential cell — the embryo, around which are gathered all other cells. These represent the conditions and the medium for its development. Out of this essential cell will emerge the new life. In this sense I say: many things are necessary for the knowledge of the Son but one is essential — you must take his yoke. The yoke implies the relationship toward the external and internal conditions of life. Therefore you can come to know God only when you take His yoke and are ready to serve Him. To serve God will say to be ready to study with love all subjects. The external or objective world with all its manifestations represents object lessons for him who is ready to serve God. Is it not the same also in the earthly schools? In whatever school you may enrole - elementary, high school or college, the teachers or professors give lessons and problems which you must solve. These are object-lessons for you. He who is ready to serve his teachers with love will study everything as he is taught. God has created the world for us and not for himself. All animate and inanimate objects that surround us have their purpose. That this is so we can see from our organs. We have two eyes, two ears, a nose, mouth, chin, hands, and feet with five fingers on each of them — all this has its magnificent purpose. You may say that the ears are given man to hear and receive sounds, the eyes — to see and distinguish things. Besides this external purpose, the eyes and the ears have an inner, psychic significance. Truly, we meet people that can see and hear but who do not understand that which they hear nor that which they see. "No one knows the Son but the Father." By the word "son" we understand the rational beginning in man. Few fathers today can understand their sons. Some father is glad that a son is born to him because he expects that the son will work for him. This indicates that he looks upon his son as a servant. Many fathers have a wrong understanding about their sons. They think that the sons are obliged to tolerate everything that the fathers are doing. Even if they make loans and waste their properties they say that the sons will remain to pay off. Such fathers do not have a proper relationship to their sons but the sons, too, do not have a proper relationship to their fathers. Right relationships are those based on love. The son should not count on the wealth of his father, but the father, too should not misuse the love of his son, to expect of him. Both should be ready to sacrifice for each other. When love is present between them it is natural that the two will work together and will help each other. These are correct relations between father and son. I wish that in the future, when a young man and a maid marry they do not ask if they love each other. These are questions that love does not tolerate. Often the young man and the maid marry without to love each other but they say that they love each other. This is not permitted. Love excludes every falsehood. Do not ask if you love each other but rather ask the other partner if he is ready to sacrifice for you. If he tells you that he wants to enjoy life, he is not the right one for her. The inner meaning of life is in sacrifice, in self-sacrifice. Therefore the inner knowledge of the Son implies the law of sacrifice. Only he can sacrifice himself who knows the Son. When a man sacrifices himself he becomes strong. When you put water in a boiler and start heating it, it turns into steam and becomes stronger than it was before when it was in its natural state as water. Self-sacrifice implies a law through which one state can be changed into another, a negative thought can be changed into a positive one, and a negative feeling — into positive. If a solid body changes into liquid and the liquid — into gaseous, one can say that the law of sacrifice is at work. If you can change a negative thought or a negative feeling into positive here again operates the same law. If you do not sacrifice yourself how could you transform hatred into love? You say that you hate someone. Since you hate him you are in the state of being hard like ice. Nothing remains but that, you self-sacrifice, i.e. you expose yourself to fire that will change the ice into water, and the water into vapor. As long as there is water on earth there will be life also. All plants, animals, and people will use it. "No one knows the Son but the Father." What have you understood by the word "no one?" - No one is everyone who is not ready for self-sacrifice. This means that he who cannot self-sacrifice does not know the Son. The Son is the law of self-sacrifice. In respect to this law the chicken is in a higher position than the man who is not ready for self-sacrifice. Such a man is dead. The chicken that sacrifices itself for the good of man has a higher value in the face of God. In the Scripture it is said that no bird falls to the ground without the will of God. God participates in the life of all creatures - from the smallest to the largest. If in the eyes of God you are a bird that is ready to sacrifice itself for the others do you need to fear life? God takes care of you. To think of God means to live for the highest ideal in the world. To think of yourself will say to live in confinement. There is nothing harder for man than to live in a prison, in confinement. In self-sacrifice is hidden the knowledge of The Son. He who knows the Son is free. Christ has spoken of the sacrifice as a great process that takes place in the consciousness of man. As long as this process does not take place in man one cannot speak of knowing Christ. What knowledge is this if one does not understand the deep meaning of Christ's words? Christ said "I am the true wine". Who knows the story of the wine? Each year the wine sacrifices but few people realize its sacrifice. Christ also said "I am the living bread that came from heaven." How many people understand the meaning of this bread? The question about the bread is a social one. All societies and nations are trying to solve it. All people value the bread and realize that without it there is no life. One young man was telling his experience, by which he understood the true value of the bread. It came to pass that he had to suffer hunger for three days. He was so hungry that he looked for a way to find from somewhere a bite of bread to satisfy his hunger that was torturing him so much. As he was walking on the street he saw a dog carrying a piece of bread in his mouth. Without thinking too much he took a stone and threw it at the dog who, running, away, let the piece of bread fall to the ground. Without hesitating he picked up the bread and started eating it. Concluding, he said that he had to suffer hunger a few days in order to learn the value of bread. Christ says, "I am the gate, I am the good shepherd, I am the son of man, I am a teacher and adviser". These are relations of the Son to his neighbor, of the divine to the human soul. When I speak of God I do not have in mind an abstract, far off idea, but I have in mind Him Who has created the intelligent life and whom we can always try out. It is enough to pray sincerely to God for the health of some sick person and our prayer will be heard and answered. Help comes very soon when we obey the law of sacrifice. Pray to God without trying to tempt Him. When does man tempt God? - When his thoughts are in discord with God's thoughts, when he leads a sinful life. He who does not think about the future does not care to know if he leads a good life or a bad one. As long as he is on earth he does not care, but one day he will appear in front of his Creator to give account of his life. What will His answer be? God's light is so great that all his thoughts, desires and deeds will be lit up, will become objective and will start walking behind this man like a little child walks behind his mother. How will you cope with this situation? Then you will understand that there is nothing hidden. As long as you have been on earth you could hide many things even from yourselves, but in front of the great light nothing can be hidden, then you will understand that it is not indifferent if you have lived well or bad. No one knows the Son but the Father. Who is this no one? - He who lives for himself and does not know the law of sacrifice. First God has sacrificed Himself. He gave His Son for sacrifice so that no one who believes in Him shall parish. Through His Son He manifested His love for humanity, and the Son sacrificed himself in order to reveal His Father. These are mutual relationships of love and sacrifice that must be well understood. When we understand the relationship of God to us as our Father, and our relationship to God as His sons only then will our lives gain full meaning. Yet we cannot be sons of God as long as we do not self-sacrifice. Implant into your mind the thought that outside of love there exists no life; outside of love there exists no church, outside of love no families, societies or nations can exist. The only church that can unite humanity is God's love, the love of self-sacrifice. In it are included all idealistic people, all people who are selfless. What are these two states — self-seeking and selflessness? They can be illustrated with the rich and the poor who appeared in front of God to express their desires. First appeared the rich who started to demand: God, I want a big house, a palace, well furnished and trim, about ten servants to work for me, to serve the table with tastefull food, fruits and the best wines, so that I may eat and drink and have nothing to worry about. - Let it be according to Thy will, answered God. After that appeared the poor and said: I have only one desire — always to see Thy face! Let it be according to thy will! Both of them satisfied with that which was promised to them returned to earth and each one lived in his own style. The rich lived in a palace surrounded by his servants; he ate and drank, enjoyed himself and felt happy and satisfied. In this manner, days and years passed, until one day he felt that he was beginning to suffocate. It came to his mind to pray to God: God, I started to suffocate, I am sick of this condition. Teach me what to do. Immediately came an angel, opened a little window in his palace and told him: Look out! The rich man looked out and saw a tall ladder and on the highest point was the poor man looking out somewhere into the sky. - What is this man doing there? - asked the rich man. - He wanted always to look at God's face -answered the angel. For long years in a row he looks at God's face, he breathes freely, enjoys God's world and is not tired of it yet. Two states are presented to man: to be in the condition of the rich and to get suffocated by his wealth, or to be in the position of the poor, always to contemplate upon the face of God and never to have enough of it. To stand on the top of a high ladder and to look at the face of God from these without repletion means to know God. It is time to come to know Christ of whom has been preached already for two thousand years. Many people are considered to be Christian but they have not yet come to know Christ. What kind of Christianity is this when a brother coerces, robs and exorts his brother? Can this be called love? In love there is no violence, fear, bitterness. He who fears does not know love. Someone fears death. What can be terrifying about death? He who loves does not fear death, nor evil. There exists only one God in the world from whom everything emerges. What will we fear then? He who fears knows not God, knows not love. God is love. If this is true do not fear death nor the evil. God is life. If you live in God, death does not exist. Thank for the evil because God has put it to work to stimulate man to be active and to work out the inert matter in him. The evil creates in man contradictions, doubts, in order to produce in him friction which generates fire. Fire melts the solid substances, brings in them activity. When two solid bodies come in contact friction occurs between them that generates heat. Be glad when you collide with the solid, inert matter in you so that light and flames can be produced. What does the fire and light represent in man? The fire is a result of his passions and desires, and light — of his thoughts. Without fire and light no life can exist. All hard fusible metals in the fire melt; the fire burns all impurities and turns them into ashes. The fruit ripens in the light; in the light one gains knowledge. He who understands things in this manner gives meaning to his life. Be glad and thankful for everything that love brings. As long as love is with you, you are blessed. When it leaves you, with it you lose joy also. In order that love may not abandon you think about your relation to God with your heart and spirit. Christ says: "Only those with pure hearts will see God." Seeing implies knowledge; knowledge implies inner contact with love. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Christ is showing how a heavy-laden man can be given rest. Many years ago an American missionary was traveling in America in order to raise funds for charity. When he had raised a considerable amount he decided to return and deliver the money to its destination. In order to shorten his way he saddled a horse and passed through a mountainous area. When a well-known robber heard about the considerable sum of money that the missionary was carrying with him he hid in the woods where the missionary had to pass with the intention of killing him and taking the money. The missionary approached the place where the highwayman was hiding and felt a heaviness in his chest, as if something was choking him. He interpreted this feeling as warning, descended from the horse, prayed to God and relieved, he continued his journey. Hardly did he pass a few yards and he could see a well armed man standing in the woods but without fear he passed him. A few years later the same missionary was asked to confess someone who was dying. At his arrival the man looked at the missionary and asked him if he can recognize him. The missionary answered: I do not know you. - But I know you and will tell you under which circumstances I have met you. This happened several years ago. I had decided to wait for you in a woody place when you were carrying a large sum of money. I wanted to kill you and rob the money, but I could not decide to do this because with you was riding a well armed man in white clothes seated on a white horse. I was filled with fear and could not attempt your life. In this case the highwayman was a clairvoyant. He could see that which even the missionary could not see. The man who was riding the white horse was sent from the invisible world to protect the missionary. Modern man refuse to believe in spirits. Nevertheless they read the bible where it is said: "And the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending." As the angels ascend and descend so the devils also descend and ascend. This indicates that the ones as the others obey the will of God and the divine laws. There is no power in the world nor a being that does not obey God. The wise man makes use of the good and the evil spirits. He knows the law of transformation and applies it. Christ says: "Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from me, because I am gentle and meek in my heart and you will find peace for your souls." Many think that they have conquered the world, that they have great power, but when they are tried they realize how far they have reached, what power they possess and what they can accomplish with it. Modern man is not yet completely formed; he should not deceive himself by temporary success. One day when his eyes will open he will see that everything that surrounds him is living; then he will understand why is there hatred and love, evil and good, lie and truth. This indicates knowledge of God, and of Christ. Christ says: "If my words remain with you and you in me, whatever you ask in my name shall be given to you." This would mean that if you understand the rational Word, if you realize what your relationship to God ought to be, your lives will be a blessing to you as well as to your neighbors. Father and Son these are the numbers one and three. When you substract one from three you have the number two — divine love, mother of all things. This is called in Christianity the Holy Spirit, i.e. the inner power of man that purifies his mind and heart. One thing is expected of people to make contact with Christ. If once you come in touch with him, he will be with you in eternity, with all your joys and sorrows, in life and death. He is the gate that brings man from the transitory into the eternal, from the visible into the invisible, from hatred into love. Christ is the living bread, bearer of life. Christ is the master who teaches us the divine laws. When man understands correctly the Christian teaching he feels powerful to fulfill his obligations toward The Primary Reason, toward his neighbor and toward himself. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Only he who is connected with Christ can come to God. The tie is based on love and judiciousness. There can exist no connection between two people if they do not like each other; there can be no connection between those who do not understand each other. Only he can come to Christ who knows the law of self-sacrifice. In general a connection can exist where there is something in common. For example on the exterior the diamond and the coal do not resemble; the diamond is solid and crystal, the coal is black and is not crystal. From within they have something in common: they both are of one and the same substance - carbon. Coal can be turned into a diamond. On the same basis can the human soul change from coal to a diamond, i.e. to pass into the highest position - into superconscious life. When two people raise to this state, to their superconscious, they will always recognize each other, they will always understand each other. When they meet they will not ask, do you know me, what do you think of me, etc. These are questions that exist only among people on the ordinary level of consciousness. When they do not know each other people are ready to doubt one another. Everyone seeks to find in his neighbor some ulterior purpose. How can we distinguish between someone who has turned his face to God, and one who is far from Him? Make the examination first with yourself to know if you are facing God or you are far from Him. This you can find out from your shadow. When your shadow falls behind you, you are close to God, you face God. When your shadow falls in front of you, you are far from God. It is not the question of not having a shadow, but it has to fall behind you. Everyone must check where the shadows of his mind, and of his heart fall - in front of him or behind him and give himself an account of his position in which he finds himself. In general your shadow must fall always behind you so that your face may be well seen. When a man errs his shadow falls in front of him. When he corrects his mistake the shadow immediately falls behind him. He who loves, who speaks the truth, his shadow falls always behind him. He who hates and does not speak the truth, his shadow falls in front of him. In the Scripture it is said: "Their deeds walk in front of them." From this one can conclude that the deeds of some people walk behind them. How do you distinguish when your shadow is in front of you, and when behind you? When in your mind enters a bad thought, or in your heart a bad feeling and immediately change into kind, then your shadow is behind you. The opposite is also true, if the illumined thought and kind feeling change into unkind, then your shadow is in front of you. I wish that you may love and know each other. This will say that your shadows may be behind and not in front of your faces. Apply love in your lives as a great basic law of Creation. This is what God wants of all people and all nations on earth. "No one knows the Son but the Father." - Why? - Because the Son has sacrificed himself for his Father. And the Son, too, knows for whore he has sacrificed himself. He who knows the law of sacrifice knows his Father. He who is ready to sacrifice himself will find the way. In other words: Without self-sacrifice the gate to knowledge is closed. Wherever he may knock - on the door to science, art, music, everywhere he will find himself in front of a locked door. Without inner knowledge of the Father and the Son, everything changes into dust and ashes; everything crumbles and parishes, as the roots of trees rot. What tree can thrive without roots? Apply the law of self-sacrifice so that you may find divine life. When one hears spoken of sacrifice immediately comes the fear that one may loose his wealth, become poor. Is he who has millions in the banks happy? He bears a heavy load in his mind. His back is loaded above his powers, and any minute can give in. It is preferable to carry a pound in one's stomach than two hundred pounds on one's back. It is preferable for one to be poor but happy and satisfied with his position, than to be rich and constantly to carry around the thought that he may be robbed or killed. Inner peace is preferable than the greatest external wealth. Yet when you meet rich, learned, or beautiful people be glad that they exist. When you meet evil people again be glad. What would be the world like if there were no good and evil, learned and ignorant, beautiful and ugly people? Since God tolerates the evil, and ugly, the ignorant, we too, must tolerate them. When you apply the law of self-sacrifice you will understand why some people are evil. Years ago in one canton in America, a buffalo began to romp so much that the whole vicinity around was scared, nobody could go and tame him. At last a boy came along who could read the thoughts of the animals and speak to them. He put his hand on the forehead of the buffalo, patted it a few times and started to speak to him: What is wrong with you that you have become wild? - In my rear foot something is bothering me terribly. The boy bent over immediately, took the rear foot of the buffalo that seemed to have bothered him and found that a big fat thorn got stuck in it. The boy took out the thorn, cleaned his foot, wrapped it in a bandage and left him alone. The buffalo stopped raging. You hear a rumor that a woman or a man have become insane. They have not become mad but a thorn got stuck into their mind or heart. Come close to them place your hand on their head and quickly pull out the thorn. As soon as you pull out the thorn they will go back to their normal state. What are most people doing today? They carry with them a hammer and nails and whomever they meet they thrust a nail into him. Why do you have to hurt your neighbor? You may answer that you want to check how much they can take? They drove four nails into Christ and he died. He was a great and mighty spirit but could not endure the human nails. Do you think that the ordinary people can take more? Do not hammer nails into your neighbors, do not create for yourself greater sufferings. It is not an easy thing to put a man on the cross to nail his mind, his heart, his soul, and his spirit and after that to expect him to live. This is impossible! Instead to thrust nails into your neighbor take out the ones that someone else has thrust. When you see that your neighbor is sick in bed help him. - But he is a great sinner. - This is not your responsibility, you are obliged to help him, to give him at least a cup of water. To help your neighbor this is the meaning of the teaching of Christ, who has come to earth and has sacrificed for the whole of humanity. Times of great and heavy trials are coning. Of them it is said in the Scripture: "The anger of God is coming to the world." All will hear the voice of God and will understand if there is justice in this world or not; if there exists good or not; if there exists love or not. This should not scare you but you must know that God's wheel turns constantly, that it follows its way and will never stop to turn. You all must be ready in time to mount it. For this reason you have come to earth as to a great school. When you finish the school you will return to God to take your exams. There it will be checked if you have learned the law of the good and the evil, of love and hatred, of truth and lie. He who has studied his lessons well will remain there to continue to learn and work; he who has not learned them will return to earth to finish his school and become perfect. This is like having final examinations. Who passes all the exams with honor will resurrect and will be appointed to a high service. To pass your final with honor will say to have learned, understood, and applied the five great virtues. For thousands of years it has been spoken and preached about resurrection, I wish that you may pass your final examination, that you may resurrect because the world needs resurrected people. If the Bulgarian nation passes its exams it will resurrect and take a high position; if it does not pass, it will have no profit. This will affect every man, every society, every nation. God has said, "Call me on the day of sorrow and I will help you." Pray for yourselves, for your neighbor, and love your enemies. This Christ said. Why to love our enemies? - So that you may not become like them, and not descend to their level. Treat all with love and not with hatred. He who repays for evil with evil will follow the path of the fallen spirits. Who hates is in accord with those that follow the broad way. The loving person climbs up on the narrow path, and the one that hates descends on the broad way. "All has been passed onto me by my Father; and no one knows the Son but the Father." The son is the divine embryo that every one must water and cultivate so that it may grow and bear fruit. Out from the divine embryo raises the new man ready for a new work and a new life. This embryo lives in every soul but needs the conditions and space for its development. The more you trust your inner powers and possibilities, the sooner it will develop. Whatever difficulties and obstacles you may encounter on your way always say to yourselves: I can be just, loving, meek, humble, good, industrious - I can overcome and accomplish everything with the help of the divine in me. When the people begin to conjugate the verb "can" in the present tense the world will become better. Do not occupy yourselves with your nor with other people's mistakes. The mistakes fertilize the field of God. If your brother has made some mistake do not judge nor estrange him from yourself but help him to clean himself and change into new, clean clothes. If a brother rejects his brother, or the husband his wife, or the wife her husband, then they are acting contrary to the teaching of Christ. Love each other for God's sake. Someone said that he would want to love but he cannot. Why can he not love? Because he has not given place to God in himself. Only God loves and for this reason it is said that God is love. A husband and a wife who in the name of God have lived for each other die with joy as do the martyrs in the name of God. Their name is never forgotten. It is enough if only one person keeps in his mind the memory of you as a living monument worthy of following your example. Christ is already coming to the world sitting on a white horse to preach the Word of God. His voice will be heard everywhere. Like a sword of fire it will penetrate into the minds and the hearts of the people. Whoever cannot stand his light will become blind. Even the evil cannot endure this light — it will melt and disappear. The end of the evil on earth is coming. The divine light will produce reverse results: great darkness will descend on earth and in the souls of the people it will bring great light. Does not the same occur with the earth. When half of it is bathing in light the other half is in darkness. This should not distress you but remember: when you encounter with contradictions on your way this is to indicate that the divine sun has risen already. There are days of shadow that temporarily obstruct his light. Be prepared to make use of the blessings which God is bringing for his chosen ones. Who are the chosen ones? - Those that have illumined thoughts and noble feelings and desires. Today I am preaching of the living Christ, who will speak up through thousand mouths. Many preachers, priests, learned men, philosophers, musicians will appeal to people for work that will bring them inner deliberation. All together we will sing the hymn of God's love. Only this way we will understand what the love that will bring us to God and to the Son is. Only love can rejuvenate man. You may say one should not imagine things that can not be fulfilled. It is important to know what one imagines. There exists imagination that lifts man up toward God. There is imagination that pulls him down and away from God. The astronomer can see with his telescope the most distant stars and an ordinary man even with a telescope can see nothing. He wonders how it is possible that the astronomer can see so many things and at the end he says: everything is imagination. Point your telescope also to the sky, so that you may see God in His glory by which he is surrounded. Try to see Him and to recognize Him so that you may become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Try to find your place as a limb in the divine organism. As soon as you find your place do not fight for the first place. He who filfills his obligations properly is in the first place. Where will be this place? As Bulgarians you will be placed in the hole which the Jews made in the ribs of Christ. It is until today still open. All people, all nations have the same assignment: to fill up the hole in the ribs of Christ which is open already for two thousand years. Christ is already close to the earth. He brings his teaching with which he has decided to turn the earth upside down. He carries a new sign on which it is written: "The Kingdom of God is coming to earth." Whatever may happen with the world the Kingdom of God will be established. This is the decision of God, of the angels, and of all superior beings. Whoever does not believe let him pray to live to see the Kingdom of God realized on the earth. When he will see it then he will believe my words. He that can see with his eyes does not need a proof; he trusts in his eyes. How will the religious people act with Christ when he comes in flesh to earth? As soon as they will see Him they will want to check his preaching so that they may know what he will speak. Christ's preaching stands no revision. It stands no human judgment nor evaluation. This is true not only for Christ but for every one who follows His path. Whoever speaks in the name of Christ his words are accepted without any reservation. Whoever speaks in His name but abuses it is a liar and deceiver. Lie can reign at the most for a hundred years. After that it is caught and nothing will remain of it. The words that I speak to you are truthful and are true not only for today but also for the centuries to come. Today I am giving you seeds that you must plant in your gardens. The seeds do not belong to me but to Him who has created you and has sent you to the earth to study. Christ is coming to earth to bring God's love to all people. When they will join hands for mutual love, for brotherhood and equality, Christ will enter his church that is not built by human hands to teach people the law of sacrifice out of love and not by force. God will raise every soul and will put it in the right place. This means for man to learn the inner meaning of life. I wish you to recognize the Son and the Father not as people are teaching you, but from your inner experience. Can you say that the bread is good if you have not tasted it? Try it yourselves and after that give your opinion. Even in the Scripture it is said: "Try everything but keep the good." In conclusion I will give you the following rule: If you want to know if you are close to God or far away from Him see where your shadow points. If it is behind your back you are close to God; if it is in front of your face this will indicate that you are far from Him. Aspire to come to know Christ as the Wine, as the Living Bread, as the Gate, as the Shepherd, as the Son of man, as the Teacher and Guild. Sermon by Beinsa Douno, February 18, 1917, Sofia. (From the v. "All that has been written", p.23) 1 St. Matthew 11:27-30 Source

The Crown of Life “Blessed is the one who endures temptation; because when the trial is over, such a person shall receive the crown of life, promised by the Lord to those who love Him.” James 1:12 You may find it a little strange that the Lord can put people to the test. Strange it may be to those who have not suffered difficulties in life and do not know the law of suffering. It does not take external concepts of life. Like for example a woman is beautiful, gorgeous, young, with a subtle complexion, and rosy cheeks, but she will lose all these external features. Some ask where this external beauty, gorgeousness, knowledge etc., is gone. The initial beauty will fade away. Well, one is in good health, but then one’s health is gone, where can one find it? One can keep it for ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty, sixty, for a hundred years but one’s health will fade after all. In the beginning, one grows up and studies, and then one starts losing, forgetting, until everything is gone. So, health, knowledge, wealth, everything will pass away. Your wealth will pass over to some of your friends and then again to some other friends of yours and it will pass away. If you have a house, it will be robbed, and other goods whatever you may have, these will be robbed as well. You want to be rich, but how; to be knowledgeable, but how? The way I preach to you: health, spiritual purity, beauty of the soul! Be knowledgeable, but in God! Have all the virtues in your souls and this should make you rich, knowledgeable, beautiful and teach a good Teaching to people, preach Peace, and you, yourselves should bear Peace, Love, Justice, Wisdom and Truth! Well, James endured a temptation and said, "Blessed is the one who endures a temptation, because enduring this, one will receive the crown of life." This means that your ship, when it starts sailing, will fight in the waves of life, but if it is not reliable it will be filled with water and it will sink. If, however, it is reliable, it will fight in the waves, no matter how strong they may be, and it will endure these storms. Now, your ship, on which you sail, is not reliable, because as soon as you encounter certain storms, temptations and troubles, your face drops. "The ship is gone," you say, "it sank." "Why," I ask you, "did it sink?" Because the words of that foe were grave. You have to make a stable ship! When a student is persistent in one’s studies, such a student will become knowledgeable. Students should study everything; students should do well at school. When you study you want to receive external crowns. Your life goes on monotonously and you are bored. What does your life consist of and why do you feel bored? You get up in the morning, right to the table for breakfast; breakfast is over, and you move on to lunch; lunch over, you move on to dinner; and then to bed, house-heating, putting off lights, and in the morning you start doing the same again. This is a wheel, running everyday, as if a horse is tied to a wheel to keep it going, to take water out for someone’s garden, to water it. So the horse keeps turning and turning the wheel and takes water out for two, three, five, ten years and in the end the horse will be skinned and buried somewhere. This is what the horse earned throughout these years of his life, turning the wheel everyday and in the end the gardener disposed of the horse. You shall have to please God first! I do not mean that God, who, scientists say, is in the space. I mean the living God, who is everywhere and within you, who wishes only a wealth of good for you. The world is confined. If you think the world will make you happy, you fool yourselves; it will tie you on its wheel to take water out and having done what the world wanted from you and having damaged your health, the world will skin you to the bone. With such a bad master you are bound to have a bad son, a bad father, a bad teacher. Whatever circumstances you may be in now, you have to solve the difficult problems. I shall dwell upon the issue of children. What are children meant for? Do you know why you gave birth to these children? To bring them up the way they should be. How do you bring them up? Mothers start teaching their daughters, "You must be proud, because you are not just anybody’s daughter. Do you know that you possess inheritance, you are educated, you can play the piano, and you are good-looking at that; you are much higher placed than her. So, stick to where you belong!" Fathers teach morals to their sons, "My son, do you know that I am not like what’s-his-name. You will inherit a good fortune, and what’s-his-name is simply a fool. You have to hold your head high, not to demean yourself; you have to know your price." Fathers instil pride and arrogance in their sons, teach them to be cruel to the weak creatures, while mothers instil pride and coquetry in their daughters, and all this depravity comes from the parents themselves. They give the germs of evil seeds - pride, doubt and any other evil. David said in his psalm, "They became alien from the time in their mother’s womb and forgot Your law, Lord." Maids are now proud of their external beauty, which they maintain by means of external augmentations. They look like a maid, who got engaged to a lad, but the fiancé, taking a friend with him, went to test her. Having greeted them with a warm ‘welcome’ she took the tray to treat them to a drink, but the fiancé decided to make her stumble so that he could see if she would get angry. So he sprawled his leg and she stumbled; she fell down and the tray dropped on the floor. But the maid got up to her feet, not uttering a single word, not flying into a rage and went downstairs into the cellar. So the lad thought to himself, "Well, what a kind maid, she did not fly into fury, and how clever she was not to get angry, not even nervous, she coped with the case!" So he liked her a lot and he married her. But after they got married the wife started scolding and shouting at the smallest issues. And he remembered that case, how kind she was as a maid and how well she stood that mishap. And she said, "Well, you think I have endured! You should have come downstairs into the cellar to see what happened to the table when I nailed my teeth into it and how I broke it in my anger!" Now you too are very kind externally, but if someone gets into your cellar, you may break this person’s bones. Modern Christians are like this maid – they are very good externally, they can forgive, but you should see them what they are doing inside their cellar! And all of you waste your time every day in idle, ill talk as to why this happened, why that happened, and you say, "There is no meaning in this life, no meaning in this world." I say, you have not tried the Teaching I preach to you. People put the Lord to the test and constantly tease Him, but He behaves very well to them. You may say that He can behave, He is strong. Yes, He can, because He understands how He can cure you, just like that lazy daughter who did not do anything, but only ordered, "Mother, pass me this, pass me that," and at last she fell ill because of her laziness, was taken to bed and made her mother call a doctor. Her mother sent for a doctor, the doctor came, understood what was wrong with her and gave instructions that the daughter should take walks and do exercises in the room. She was so idle that she would not do this, so while she was in bed, she played with her two thumbs to keep herself busy. The doctor came to visit her and finding her in the same position, he asked her whether she did any exercises, and she told him she had taken exercise. To his question how she did the exercises, she answered showing him what she did with her thumbs. The doctor understood that the maid was sick with laziness and told her that if she did not do as instructed by him, she would not recover her health… Similarly, Christians do the exercise with the two thumbs. The Lord does not welcome such a performance, the Lord wants live exercise of the hands and legs, the Lord wants you to get moving. He wants you to build up virtues, good deeds, to really get into action, so that you can become healthy again. Why are you ill? Because you are lazy. Your legs, your hearts, your minds, your eyes, your mouths are stiff, the only thing you know is to ask the Lord: "Grant me this, Lord, grant me that!" You want the Lord to be your servant. OK, but your legs and hands will become stiff. Why do your legs hurt? You have no Virtue. Why do your hands hurt? You lack Justice; these are given to you to employ them for good deeds. You do not do good deeds, so you will suffer. Why do your ears ache? You lack Wisdom. Why do your eyes hurt? You have no Dawning Light1. If your mouth hurts, you have no Love; if your teeth hurt – the same story; if your head hurts, you have violated the Truth, there is no Truth within you. With all of these organs you are supposed to do good for the Lord, but you do exactly the opposite. When the Lord grants health to these organs, they feel too lazy to serve you; as soon as they are not employed for the sake of good, they fall ill and you send for the doctor. And there you are, the doctor prescribes exercises for them. To a mother, who feels too lazy to do good for the Lord, the Lord will send a lazy daughter, so that she will do the work for her and obey her commands. To a maid who is idle for the Lord, the Lord sends such a man so that she should cater to all his needs and please all his wishes. When the Lord sees that the father is idle and does no good, the Lord sends to him a dissipating son, to squander his father’s wealth by gambling and womanising. This is the Lord’s understanding for sick and idle people and this is how He cures them with exercises. A man cannot get along with his wife, they cannot stand each other. People should not torment each other in such a way; people should live together and help each other. If you work jointly together, you will help a lot of people; you will take them out of many troubles. The same goes on in the Spiritual world. You should help one another. If you help the people close to you, you will be better off along the Path. Personality should be disposed of, and people should live in faith together. How did people manage to live collectively in old times? When someone had a field to reap, they all went together to the field to reap it. The same goes for grape picking, similarly with corn – they sit together and shell the corn. Whatever the work, they will get together and do it. You should do the same! If someone is in trouble – get two or three sisters together, help each other out and the Lord will help you. If two or three of you are not enough, four or five of you should get together and thus you will relieve one another no matter what standing each one of you has. You all have to stick together! And now James says, "Blessed is the one who endures a temptation to the very end; such a person will be saved and will receive the crown of life." And you should desire not the crown of vanity, but the crown of immortality, where there is no suffering, no temptations, no illness, where there is life full of good deeds. This Life is a plant and when it starts growing, it changes, it changes the soil too. Each plant has a different soil. You are one and same instrument, one and the same string. You will tune yourselves so that you can work in unity and produce a wonderful harmony. And when you start playing, whoever listens to you should be pleased. And when you start playing, you will learn this law; your hearts, your minds, your wills will tune themselves and you will be excellent players. When Heaven speaks within you, you cannot receive it. Why so? At the same time, having a mouth you can receive good food, and good food is given to you, while the rotten food shall be thrown away as it is no good for people. What actually goes on within you? The Lord says, "You have placed bad thoughts in your mind, bad desires in your hearts and bad words come out of your mouths; and your mouth should refrain from bad words." If you take swill and sprinkle your brother with it, what will happen? Is this good, will your mother praise you for this? This is not Christianity - to sprinkle your brother with swill is not a good thing. Well, you may say that a human being can judge. I say, "Go, make it up with your brother; go to him and tell him, "Forgive me, my brother!" If he does not forgive you, take somebody with you and go again and tell him, "Forgive me, my sister!" If he still does not want to, go with the church and if he is still not willing, let him be like a pagan and a tax-collector. Go and tell him the Truth and if he had gone wrong, correct him. If his wound has gangrened, go, show it to him and cure him; if he is sick, tell him how to cure himself. I can see that the world is sick. Sick women shout and scold their husbands and want to get divorced. Sick men are after certain pleasures incompatible with God’s law; they want impossible things and leave their wives. I can see sick minds, sick hearts, and sick souls. It’s easy to know what life will be with such people… I was once travelling by train and I saw a gentleman with a cloak on. Another gentleman was humming walking freely, arms dangling at his sides, not willing to harm anybody. Suddenly the man in the cloak shouted, "Are you blind, why did you bump into me? Can’t you see that my arm hurts!" Indeed his right arm was bandaged. Obviously his arm hurt but the other gentleman did not know that his arm hurt. In spite of this, the other one continued shouting; he shouts because his arm is sick… You should keep fifteen centimetres distance from any person, because there are sick people, but you do not observe this rule. The wife wants to be close to her husband and would not let him part with her, while he is bored with all this and starts frequenting the pub and takes to drinking, because his soul hurts. And because you do not keep fifteen centimetres distance from your husband and you want to constantly be in touch with his sick soul, he starts running away from you. The Scripture says that God made the woman from a rib; do you know what a rib is? The letter ‘r’ stands for work, which initially was supposed to bring good to the world, but then she disturbed the world and the Lord punished her. So, God made the woman from the man’s rib, from the Wisdom’s rib, in order for her to be prudent, to bind the world, to implant a sort of sweetness into it, so that everybody could find comfort in her. And now the woman gives birth to unwise children. Mothers bring children up and they start speaking ill of their fathers, while fathers say that their sons are bad, that their sons are drunkards or steal and that the sons have not taken after the fathers. Foolish parents have foolish children, imprudent mothers have vagabonds for sons; this is a law. If your son dies, he dies because you are not pure; because you have stained yourselves, you have offended God’s law and you pay for this. Today I speak the Truth and it will be good if you listen to me, but if you do not listen to me, you will see for yourselves that you will learn your lesson. At last your master will make you bring water to him with the wheel, and when you learn your lesson he will skin you. I would not like this to happen. Therefore God appeals to His daughters. Whoever is in suffering, that person is in the cauldron. You are now good, because anyone boiling in the cauldron is good. A soul having undergone huge sufferings is purified. You have all suffered and Purity is needed for the happiness in life. When one is pure, things are going for the better. You get up in the morning and everything starts turning upside down. Why so? Because there is no Purity. Take your lesson from this maid. God grants health to a person, but this person feels too lazy to work. Then God sends suffering to such a person. When one does not want to suffer, then torment is given to such a person. When one accepts torment, when one learns what suffering is and one puts up with these, then God says, "This one learnt to suffer. Relieve this person from suffering; give work to such a person!" You who are now at work, what do you do for the Lord? Or you will reply to me that the Lord is good. The Lord is good, but He will give you marks. You have a poor mark, a satisfactory mark, a good mark, a top mark, you have positive marks in everything: excellent in hypocrisy, very good for lying, a seven for anger, five point five for lack of self-restraint2. You cannot go without trials. In this life, the way it is heading, you will have poor marks. I want you to study this task, to develop yourselves. You have to pray and to ask yourselves what you have to pray for. You should be patient. And persisting in your prayers, everything will progress. When a child puts something into one’s mind, the child goes to the mother and wants apples from her. So the child has set a task to itself – apples, nuts etc., goes and starts asking the mother. The mother gives apples to the child; then the child wants nuts too. She gives the child nuts; then the child wants something sweet. But the mother tells the child, "Not everything at once, my child, tomorrow you will get something else." And the child remembers the promise that he or she will get something else on the following day. You should also have a similar task and set your mind on something, you should go and ask, and the Lord will give you everything you need. You should be good. However, being good is different from being like sheep. The Lord does not want sheep; the Lord wants good and reasoning people. Good are those people who do not sulk. If you go sulking, you are not good. You have to have a good soil, to cleanse these substances that make a person sulk. Your soil is rotten, this is why the Lord says that the seed happened to fall among thorns, was choked and did not grow. Another seed fell onto a stone, the sun scorched it and it withered. As it cannot root into the stone, it did not grow. Do not fool yourselves! If you do not create your soil now, you will never create it. There is no postponing of things! Do not postpone the Good! One good thought will attract all the good thoughts which will help to accomplish a good deed. You sometimes feel that you become cold to someone and you do not feel like going somewhere. Do you know why this happens? Because there the place stinks, there is an abominable smell, this is why you do not feel like going to this place; their soil is rotten, a sheep was slain and it went rotten. It will certainly start rotting after it was slain. Get rid of the sheep, cleanse your soil or house and the stinking smell will go away! This is the law of Truth. When dirt gathers in water, the water tank is isolated, water is purified by sieving and churning it, and then it is allowed to run again. Otherwise, if these impurities that have gathered are not cleaned, you will drink it and you will fall ill… Similarly, when people sin, they enclose it, hide it and it starts stinking. No, you have to open the room and say, "I slew a sheep or a cow, I sinned, there look at me I threw them out!" Pay the one you took them from, and thus the sin will be thrown out and shall not stink. There are heaps of rubbish in our lives as well. It’s all right that evil comes our way, let it come, but you should not accept it, should not become one with it, should not enter the sin like the prodigal son. I am not saying that there will be no crows or eagles circling around you trying to soil your nest. They may soil it from the outside, but it has to be clean from the inside, it has to be sacred. You clean your house physically everyday – is it not sufficient to do it once a year? Similarly you will clean yourself spiritually everyday, the way you do the physical cleaning. You have to clean yourself everyday! Friends will come to visit you; do not let them annoy you! The Lord does not want such people. Some say, "But I cannot sway myself do it." You will sway yourself, believe me! If you are a girder or a stone you won’t sway, but if you are human being you will sway. What does swaying mean? To be equally caring for yourself and for the people close to you. If you have anger burning within yourself, do not go anywhere, stay at home! You are loaded with a burden; do not go anywhere to unload your burden, as this does not comply with God’s law. Such a life is not good. Some may say that even religious people leave their burden, men, women, poets, writers and teachers, they all relieve one another. Prophets went to the woods to relieve themselves of their burden. If a field is not reaped, it will never reap itself; this year it will yield a poor crop, next year the crop will be even poorer and thus it will stop bearing wheat. It’s better to have a small, reaped field rather than a big field that is not reaped. Because the small good, when taken care of, multiplies. The same is true for the soul. The Lord brings fruit into your soul; you take the fruit out through a hole to feed the mice. Holes should be filled! A needle will not do. Some sew patches to their hearts, to their minds; this is no good. You should understand accordingly when the Lord gives you something. You have to listen to Him and you have to understand Him well when He talks to you, and what He wants from you. You have to also listen to Him when you want from Him the most substantial things for your lives. Look, if you are split-minded, this is not God’s thought; neither is it God’s desire. Will the Lord listen to you if you pray without it being needed or required by you? He won’t listen to you, because you did not go to Him having prepared the lesson for today! But the Lord will forgive us. He will forgive you, but students have to study. Teachers have a set schedule: the first class in history, the second class in reading, the third class in maths, the fifth in music and the sixth in physical education. But we are taught differently back at home. Then stay at home, do not come to school. Children want to suck from their mothers all the time, but as soon as the mothers see that the children have teeth, they wean them off. Some children want their food mashed; food can be mashed for the child one, two, three, four, five years, but to have one’s food mashed until the age of twenty – this is not allowed. Hens too, when chickens grow up, start pecking them in order for the chickens to start looking for food on their own. Similarly with the Lord, He also wants us to learn how to feed ourselves, and to select good food for ourselves. This is what the Lord wants us to do: anger is no good, it is madness! God’s Justice should always be manifested towards people! Hands are not given for evil, hands are meant to do good. If you do not do Justice, your hands will ache. If your deeds lack Virtue, your legs will hurt, you will not be healthy. If you have no Love, your mouth and teeth will ache; if you have no Truth, your head will ache; if you do not entertain good thoughts, you will become feeble-minded; if you are not wise, your ears will ache. As you are not in harmony with the God’s law, you will always be sick and indisposed. And now you will go to the Lord and you will say, "Lord, I want patience! Grant me Your Strength, to go through all trials ahead of me; to endure it willingly! I want humility!" Say for example you have a bad habit; when you feel this bad habit of yours is coming to the fore, you should start counting: one, two, three, four to thirty, forty, fifty; until you count to the end, this bad mood will fade away. While counting keep saying to yourself, "See, today I could endure a little, I did not fly into fury that much; tomorrow I shall refrain from lying twice; the following day I managed three times not to slander." And this is how the manifestations of each vice will be reduced little by little, until you get rid of the vice itself. If I cannot speak well of people, I shall make it my task for today to try and speak well of people. Tomorrow you will do someone good, on the following day you will save somebody from an evil and thus the good will be continually growing within you. A woman, who has a thousand good words, will be a good woman for the country, will be a good mother, will have good sons, clever daughters, and such a country will prosper. And I want you to have good thoughts, to do good deeds, to have an eye for the good in life! Do not worry; the child is not afraid of falling down while learning how to walk. You will fall down; will stand up on your feet, but fear not – you will learn! You all experience a strong desire to do good! The Apostle says that righteous people fall down seven times. You will encounter great obstacles in your lives, but you will also gain new experience and a new lifestyle. Amen! Master’s lecture, delivered on the 15 February 1917. 1 In the original Bulgarian text, instead of “Dawning Light”, stands the untranslatable Bulgarian word “Videlina”. Externally, this word means “the thin light which spreads out at the first break of dawn”, but not the dawn itself. From esoteric point of view, according to Master Peter Deunov, “Videlina” is one of the Divine, reasonable elements; it creates the human thought and the desires; it comes from within, not from outside; external light is just reflection of this “Videlina”. 2 In Bulgarian educational system of marking, 5.5 is almost excellent mark

The children “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” Mathew, 18:3 To explain who is able to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus takes a form that has been comprehensible to everyone since the creation of the world – children. Children are what brings joy to the households and to the world. A home without children is like a desert without a spring, without any grass. Why should man become a little child to get to heaven? Jesus’ word “child” bears a sense deeper than we can possibly grasp. Jesus does not say, “You will be admitted to the Lord’s Kingdom if you are a jewel encrusted in a king’s crown or a millionaire.” He says, “If you do not become a child” – what He actually means is belittlement . The child stands for a passive state, or to put it differently, a potential energy, a kind of dormant energy. This energy is not inactive though, because it bears all the necessary conditions for its development; it is both potential and kinetic. Potential energy can transform into kinetic and vice versa. Kinetic energy is more active, but it is smaller in dimensions, while potential energy is capable of infinite growth. The difference between an adult and a child is just the same. An adult is less active and less capable of development than a child is. There is something more in the notion of a child. If a tree does not transform into a small seed to be planted in the soil, it cannot start the new cycle of development. Trees grow in two ways. Some grow through seeds, others grow through grafts. There is a great difference between a grafted tree and a tree that has grown from a seed. A tree developed from a seed is far sturdier than a grafted tree. Jesus warns us that if we do not turn into a seed, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is where trees are not grafted; only seeds are planted. God does not need old people. There are no old people in the kingdom of heaven. The word “old” is synonymous to “feeble” or “impotent”, while “children” and “young” are synonyms to “rich” at heart and in mind. My interpretation is that if you do not have the purity and innocence of a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, because the conditions in which you have to grow require that your heart and mind bear the Divine life. A widely held misconception of modern spiritual thought is that we are great. Each of us, even 5-year-old children, thinks highly of themselves. I have often encountered 5 or 6 – year-old children who believe that they are big enough and capable of doing anything. I have met religious children as well who think they are very important and powerful. “Do not fool with me,” they say, “I can do God knows what if I beckon with my finger!” These children cannot lift even a sack if asked to do so. Why can’t they? Only because they think they are big and strong enough, while, in fact, they are not. If they thought they were small, then they would be able to. This can be checked. Focus on your inner self, pretending to be a child, and pick out a particular idea – if you stay calm, your thought will be ten times as active as when you get anxious. What do you have to do with a switch? You only have to flick it. The force you apply is really insignificant. God arranges the world in such a way that your only mission here is to flick the switch. What do most people do? They stand in front of the switch, philosophising. It is impossible to turn on the lights this way. There is no point in philosophising. The only thing you have to do is to put out your hand, and the light you need for reading will come. The same law applies to waking up in the mornings – you turn your switch, saying, “I can see.” Similarly, the soul, on entering the body, turns the switch and says, “I can see the sun.” If you forget to turn your switch, you will live in darkness; i.e. your mind will stay dim and incapable of doing any job. One morning you get up, forgetting to turn the switch to your heart and your mind. As a result, your whole day is spoiled – everything goes wrong and you find everything pointless. I say that you are in the position of a child who thinks big, but forgets about the trifles – to turn the switch on and light the world. I keep coming across people who have failed to turn their switches – they think big, dreaming of having many houses, having great plans and ideas, while they remain blind. You do not need houses – turn the switch first, and then think about building houses. Become a humble, obedient child. Only then will God speak to you, and will you be able to understand your relationship with Him. Modern people have lost their connection with God – they think they are free and can do anything. They think they can criticise God. I would like to ask such a person, “Did you turn the switch on getting up this morning?” – No, I didn’t.” – “Then you should go back home to turn the switch, otherwise you will spend the whole day in darkness. Or, you will feel indisposed and life will be meaningless to you.” The same law applies to human relationships – you have turned on the switch and everybody loves you; you have forgotten to turn on the switch and everything goes wrong. You are a great man but nobody loves you. Nobody likes people who want too much. The heavenly law has children’s innocence as its symbol. To bear a heavy burden on your back and to have little in your stomach are two different notions. If you carry a sack full of 100kg of grain on your back and if you have half a kilo of grain in your stomach, where will the strength be? Modern economists, who burden the state with heavy debts, do this because they do not understand the Divine law. I’d rather you had half a kilo of grain in your stomach than 100kg on your back. 100g of knowledge in the head is far better than 100kg on the back. One may have 100 volumes of books, but 50g of knowledge in the head as a potential and kinetic energy is worth a great deal more than what is outside it. So, with the word “child” Christ understands a specific inner condition - to be adapted and related to the spiritual world with all its forces and creatures. If you start thinking of yourselves as a great creature, you lose these connections. When a great angel from heaven, who has lived for millions of years, gaining more experience than the whole humanity, and whose history is greater than that of the whole human kind, decides to come down to earth and incarnate, he will reincarnate into a child and will show humility; from this point he will start his growth in order to understand the greatness of God. Therefore, Jesus was asked: “Can an old man enter the Kingdom of God?” Neither an angel, nor God can. Anybody that desires to enter the spiritual world should show humility – to become a child. All of you, listening to me here, are willing to enter the Kingdom of God the way you are. I don’t say; this never was and would never be. Only if you acquire the attributes of a child, i.e. the flexibility of the mind and the heart, you will understand the profound meaning of life. Still, you are very close to the Kingdom of God. The interstice that separates this world from the other one is a hundred millionth part of the millimeter – only that big is the distance between the two worlds. When a man gets on the path to growth, he is moving very slowly. As I see, anybody that takes the spiritual path, starts as a grown-up, not as a child. If a man starts walking in strides, he won’t achieve his goal. If you see a man running out of his house, he won’t get anywhere. But if he starts slowly and gradually accelerates his walk, he is in the situation of a child. Jesus says: “Do not start your duties in a hurry; move like young children do – walk and gradually accelerate your pace by 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and then you will find meaning in your life.” While you are in the situation of young children, no sickness will come; however, when you in the situation of the old, you will be affected by all kinds of diseases. One who is uncertain is old; one who feels the burden in his heart is old. Get young. You say, “I feel burdened.” – You are old. – “What should I do?” – Become young. – “How?” – Forget about great world issues. Put only ½ kg of bread in your stomach, 100 g of knowledge in your brain and 5 g in your heart – that is enough. Maidens when loved by 10 or 15 lads start reproaching themselves and become upset. Several years ago, in Sofia, a maid was killed by her fiancée, as she was unfaithful. – How can a girl be in love with two men? One is perfectly adequate. Every thought has its place. If you don’t love somebody, don’t lie to him, but tell him the truth, and he will find another lover. Suffering out of love exists in religion as well. It is said: “Let’s love,” but do you know how to express love? A man that covets commits a sin, and who sins – suffers. The one that sins is a bad person, but the one that sins and doesn’t repent is worse. The one who sins and neither repents, nor prays is even worse, and the one that does not repent but prays is a hypocrite, and the hypocrite is the worst kind in this world. There are two lies, two kinds of sins - when you say that you love somebody and lie to him, you act the way crocodiles do: when they love somebody they shed tears over him so that he becomes sleek enough to swallow. It is not the love that we need, but the love of young children. You may give a bit, but give it with full heart. If men and women applied this philosophy to life, all households and communities would change for the better. Fathers, mothers, children, teachers, priests, judges – they all think of great ideas, they are great people; they are the greatest people in this world. And you are asking me why the world suffers? It suffers because of “great” people and ideas. “What an excellent preacher he is”, they say, “What great ideas he preaches”. Yes, but we all suffer from “great” ideas. The Jews had great ideas as well. They wanted to become wealthy and grew proud of being the chosen people. They received 33,000 promises from God, but Christ showed them that human greatness lies in the challenge of becoming young like a child: only then will God be on our side. I have never seen a single mother bearing an old granddad in her womb even if she would get paid millions for that. While any woman bears a young child even without being paid anything for that. Why? - Because the child bears intrinsic welfare. Any Divine idea, no matter how small it is, bears peace, joy, and omnipresence when it gets inside; therefore everybody can bear young children. Some of you may think that great ideas evoke happiness in the world. To make this clearer I will tell you a legend. A poverty-stricken German prince wanted to marry a beauty; still she told him: “I am a woman hard to please, so you will build a wonderful palace for me and whatever else I may want, you will have to give it to me. If you agree to this, I will accept your proposal; are you ready?” – “I am ready to do anything, because I will be happy with you,” answered the prince. He married her and started searching for wealth through occultism and through conjuring spirits. He found the prince of gnomes and said: “I married a very demanding woman and I need some money. Can you lend me some?” – “I can, but only if you give me 10 hairs from your head for every bag of money.” – “I have plenty, so I can even give you more.” – “No, I need only 10 of them. Any time you come, you can take a bag of gold.” – “Ah, we are provided for now,” – he said, - “my home will be filled with happiness at last”. And he started visiting the prince of gnomes week after week, month after month, taking money and giving hairs in return. A year, two, three passed, and he lost all his hair. He went again to borrow some money, but no more hair was on his head. “May I give you something else?” he asked. “No, hairs, I need hairs.” Only then did he realise that the human character is hidden in these hairs - the seemingly insignificant things he had sacrificed for what he believed to be more important. Every hair is a noble thought sacrificed for nothing . If you have had such a desire for ten years, you sacrifice everything noble in you and become as barren as a desert. Then you turn into an old big dry tree – a symbol of the perished human character. The truth shouldn’t offend us. I know many that get offended when you tell them the truth. But anybody offended by the truth is looked upon as an old man by God. That is God’s law - God has never felt offended. There is hardly a creature that has been abused more than God himself, still He has never even knitted His brows. He observes us calmly in silence. Eventually, He says: “These children will understand the law: they sin and that is why they will bear this burden.” – “It is hard, too hard to live in poverty. What shall we do?” – “You will have to work.” – “Is this the only way?” – “I’m afraid, it is. You will have to work.” – “We are grown up people.” – “You will pray and you will become children.” When you get back home, try to become a child and you will feel younger. You have grown old – why? – Because you bear the world on your back. If you are in a boat that is rolling and you get scared, what is the point of being afraid? Stay calm and have faith, as a child would do. The one that has made the boat will take care of you. The boat will roll for a while and stop. Don’t be afraid of thunder and lightning. The birds in the sky are rolling as well, but they understand these laws better than you do. I apologise for all this. If you are old, you will take offence; if you are young, I will congratulate you. When I tell the truth, nobody is hurt. If someone happens to go barefoot through a stretch of rocks, I will say to him: Put on shoes, because you will hurt your feet and will have to turn back half way across; the shoes will save you. If it is a lady, she will prefer getting hurt to putting on some practical yet ugly shoes, which her beloved might not fancy. Children should always have shoes. Look at the butterflies, these small children of God, look what excellent arrays they have; if an earthly queen had it, she couldn’t have been happier. Even though these butterflies live short lives, God dresses them nicely. Why is that? – Because they are children. And why is God bringing misfortune to people? – Because they are old. Why is God blessing some? – Because they are young children. A mother is ready to forgive her children many faults, but if her husband makes a mistake, she will say: “This senile man is such a nuisance! I’ll get rid of him.” By the same token, Heaven forgives children all their sins; but it is harsh on the elderly and says: “You are banned from here!” Then what does all this engender in us? Discontent, despair and hatred towards life as we face resistance and conditions unfavorable for our development. To be loved by God and people, we need to embrace the Divine idea - the only thing we have to get accustomed to, is to feel small in front of God, to bear a sympathetic mind and heart. Love has degrees in strength: when you keep two meters away from a heater, you feel some pleasant warmth, but if you put your hand on it, you will get burnt. Old people are hot heaters – sometimes they burn. They are usually self-interested and greedy. Do not think that I mean you. My word is about those old people described in the Scripture. An old person is someone who thinks that he is great, such people we should try to avoid. This is what Jesus meant when preaching that we should become small children. By exploring Nature, you will see that the most valuable things are not big. Take the diamond - the substance that made it up used to be gaseous, taking up too much space. God compressed it by turning it into a solid, thus reducing its volume. It became smaller in size, but bigger in value. Do you know how much energy is compressed into an atom? By the same token, we need to get smaller, like children, for God is great and if we want to be like Him, we have to learn about transitory things and the stages in temporary being. We need to learn this art because small things grow into bigger ones. A small seed has the necessary conditions to develop into a big tree, as soon as it falls on the ground, while a leaf or a fruit, no matter how big it is, will dry out as soon as it falls. This is what Jesus’ words mean. He speaks to the people of an enlightened century – to those who can understand His teaching and apply it. He does not speak to those who cannot understand Him. When a great musician is playing, he plays to those who have an ear for music. When a great sculptor creates his sculpture, he does it for those who have eyes to appreciate it. When a writer writes a book, he does it for those who can understand it. God created the world and set down the law for those who can understand Him. Those who cannot understand Him, will stay encumbered with the heavy burden on their backs, thinking they are great. Once, when God created the world, the spirits descending on earth wanted to be great. That’s why they had huge bodies and, accordingly, all the animals were enormous, too. If those enormous animals had lived on, they would have destroyed the earth completely, eating everything up. God had to teach those spirits that they did not need these huge bodies, as the greatness of a living being is not in the size. An idea is great not when it is enormous but when it fosters progress. If you plant a walnut tree, it will grow big in 10 to 12 years. However, when it dies, it will return to its initial state. I suggest that you become small children and try this. You need to embrace this idea of Jesus and do your best to stay small in the face of God. You may think that you are of importance or substance but think of those kings and nobility who have vanished beyond recall. We are often misled to think that the people around us are great and important, but when misfortune strikes, you can tell how insignificant they are. In a small village near Varna, a rich man’s son used to live. He was the talk of the village and everyone knew him. He used to invite people to lavish feasts every week and the spree carried on till dawn. It happened so that he went bankrupt. Everybody abandoned him when he was broke. This man believed he was important. How could he be such? He was like a dead ox – when it dies, the dogs gather to feed on it. People kept talking about him but only till they ate him up. He was completely forgotten when he was finished. People talk about you only when they have something you have offered them to eat. When you die and nothing remains of you, they stop talking about you. These are the misfortunes of our outer life. We may be very beautiful in appearance, but what counts is the inner beauty of the heart and mind. That’s why you have to clear your mind and heart of lies. You should become small children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and inherit the new Life. People on the earth are dead – dogs, eagles and ravens scavenge on them because they are “great”. When you read the Revelation, you will see that God summons all eagles and tells them, “Come here to take your share! Come to feast on the flesh of brave warriors and chieftains! These were all great people!” What does it mean? When some sturdy oak dies and turns to soil, God sends small seeds and blades of grass there, bidding them, “Take your share of this oak for it used to hinder your growth!” That’s why Jesus tells you to become small children, otherwise you wouldn’t enter His Kingdom. God would not take your side. You need to build up new moral and religious principles that are stronger than the current ones. The principles you have applied up to now are too weak to sustain you. If you take a piece of rope that can hold a weight of 10 kg while you need it for a weight of 100kg, what should you do? You need to make it 10 times stronger. This rope stands for morals – you need to be 10 times as morally strong in order to withstand present conditions. That is why, in compliance with natural logic, we have to change our outlook. Even the worst person who becomes a small child can change, so you will get to love him/her. There cannot be any conflict between an oak and a blade of grass. However, two oaks can always fight. If you plant them one next to the other, they will start competing for height and sunshine. Whichever manages to take the lead, will be the successful one, while the smaller one will say, “I remain here, beneath you.” You have remains small , but with great ideas! It is not that you are small. You only have to wait for your turn to come. Then you will say, “I will become your son, the acorn!” The oak will respond, “I will be your father.” - “Well, father, thank you, for you care.” There will come a day when the acorn will grow big enough to change places with his father. What Jesus wants from us is that each of us should become a tree and give fruit upon which to lay the Kingdom. You will say that this is too far-fetched. No, you should give this some consideration and say, “I want to become a small divine child. Lord, help me to make this thought come true.” Focus on this idea for 12 months and you will see how your life will change. Do not make fuss about this, though. I can see that you are small. When a big oak comes to tell me, “I am small.” I know that it does not tell me the truth. When a rich man says that he has no money it is because he is afraid of being robbed. When a poor man says that he has money, he is lying. Let everybody tell the truth. Have faith in God’s law about the small children and God will always stand by you. If God gives you credit, He will make you great. But if you yourselves pretend to be great, then you will be very much like the fraudulent merchant who keeps bragging about having money while he actually has none. This is what the profound meaning of the verse “become little children” is. I do not want you to think, “Are we of no importance, really?” Leave that thought aside. It does not matter what you have been up to now. What counts is what you will become from now on. It is well known what you were – let sleeping dogs lie. Let us become little divine children – that is the ultimate aim. I would like you to become God’s children and take advantage of the great goods the Kingdom of Heaven offers you. I would like you all to be happy, wise and good. I can tell you what you see and show you the way to achieve this. You will ask, “How should we perceive this small drop?” Do not worry – it will enlarge. The rain does not start at once. It starts drizzling in small drops, and then it starts raining harder. All these small drops make their contribution to the world. Small children do not know fear, yet their grannies frighten them with evil spirits if they refuse to go to bed. Mothers, too, before leaving for a party, try to make their children stay peaceful and well-behaved or go to bed by frightening them with evil spirits. Down with these evil sprits! Do not lie to your children that they will appear. Do not lie to yourselves either! Be honest to yourselves and to others – this is the only way to become younger and more attractive. As soon as you conceive a divine idea, everything will change – lips, brows, etc. Europeans use make-up to make the lips red because the red colour suggests pure blood and wealth. Let this impression come naturally. Let us become small children and stop lying to God. No one believes in God – there can be a serious reason for this lack of faith. Some will say, “There is no God.” I will say, “You have not turned the key.” “Life is pointless.” “You have not turned the key,” I say. “Well people are evil.” “You have not turned the key,” I say. The key of the small child is inside. This is the greatest possible idea. Some want to know who Jesus is. Jesus is what He has said. If you are capable of using His words, you will be happy. The strength in Life is not in the letter but in the spirit. I take great care to comply with the Divine idea. What I say is always true. We should be careful to avoid what Socrates’ disciple did. This young person appeared in front of Socrates in shabby pants in order to show humility. His master, however, told him, “I can see your pride transpire through your pants.” We have to be careful. As you see, I have always been careful not to tell you something that is not true. Everything I say is true – you can check it. If you do not see any results, I will join you. You just have to say. “I want to become a small child this year.” This is the key idea I want to hammer home – to become little children. I want all Bulgarians to become little, divine children. When all European nations become such little children, the true Divine peace will come to reign in this world. A lecture held on 11 February, 1917.

The Book - The Spirit and The Flesh. Beinsa Douno Translation from Bulgarian - Vessela Nestorova THE CHILDREN Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.35 In order to explain who can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, Christ takes as an example an ordinary form known to all—the children—a form existing since the creation of the world. The children bring happiness to the home and to the world. A home without children is a desert without a spring or grass. Why must one become as little child, if they would get to heaven? In Christ's talk the word child has a deeper meaning than we usually attach to it. Christ does not say that you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, if you are a precious stone placed in the crown of some king or if you are a millionaire, but says, "If you do not become as a child, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Here He implies the idea of growing small. The child is a symbol of a potential state, or it may be said that children represent potential energy, i.e. energy in a dormant state. This energy is not inactive because it contains all the conditions for its development. It is simultaneously in a potential and a kinetic state. The potential energy turns into kinetic and the kinetic into potential. The kinetic energy has stronger activity, but it has a smaller scope, whereas the scope of potential energy implies limitless development. The difference between the child and the adult is the same: adults are less active in that they have a smaller scope of development than children. The idea of the child contains yet another sense. If a tree does not turn into a small seed to be planted again in the soil, it cannot begin its development. The growth of trees is effected in two ways: some grow by seeds, others by sprouts or grafting. There is a big difference between a plant growing from a sprout and one growing from a seed. The plant growing from a seed contains greater force than that growing from a sprout. Christ says, "If you do not turn into a seed in life, you will not enter the Kingdom of God!" Why? Because only seeds, not plants are planted there. God does not need old people. There are no old ones in the Kingdom of God. The word old is synonymous to a weak person, while the young, the children are the equivalent to the word rich in mind and heart. This is my interpretation. If you have not the mind and the heart, that is—the innocence and purity of a child—you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Why? Because the conditions under which you must grow, require your mind and your heart to contain the Divine life within them. One of the greatest delusions in contemporary spiritual movements lies in considering oneself big or great. Every person, even children five or six years old, cherish the idea of greatness. I have often met children who have the idea that they are very big and have the power to do many things. I have met religious people who also think they are very big. They say, "Do not annoy me, because I can do all things just by raising my finger." If you make these children to raise a sack, they will not be able to. Why can't they raise it? Because they think they are big, but in reality they are not. If they thought they were small, they would be able to lift it. You can test this every day. Put yourself in the position of a child, deposit a thought in your mind and do not worry. If you do not worry, it will be ten times more active than if you torment yourself all the time. When you stand before the switch of an electric lamp, what is required of you? Only to turn this switch on. What do many people do? They stop before the switch and begin to philosophize. No, in this way you will not receive any Light. No philosophy is needed in this case, but a simple motion of the hand and light—the condition for reading—will shine forth. The same Law applies to one's personal life. On waking up in the morning you turn on the switch and say, "I see!" When the soul enters the human body, she also has a switch and when she turns it on, she says, "I see the Sun!" If you forget to turn on your switch36, you will be in darkness, i.e. your mind will be muddled up, incapable of work. Some morning you get up and forget to turn on the switch of your heart and mind; then the whole day your life is in disorder, you do not find any sense in it and so on. I say, you are in the state of a child with big ideas who, thinking of the big things, forgets to do the least—to turn on the small switch from where the Light comes. I constantly meet people whose switch is not turned on, but who have big ideas, who dream of many-storied large houses, yet are blind! No, you need no such houses. First, turn on the switch and afterwards you can make your house. Become a child of obedience! Only then God will speak to you and you will understand the relations existing between Him and yourself. People today have lost their relations to God. They think they are free and have the right to do anything they want to, even to criticize God. I ask such a person, "When you got up this morning did you switch on the Light?" "I did not." "Then return home and switch it on, otherwise the whole day you will be in darkness and low spirits. Up to that moment life will have no sense for you." The same Law applies to human relations: you have turned on the switch and all people love you; you have forgotten to turn it on and everything is in disharmony. You are a big person, a great one, but nobody loves you. Nobody loves people who want much. The Law of heaven is symbolized by the children, by their selflessness. To carry much on you back, but to have little in your stomach are two different things. If you carry 100 kg wheat on your back and ½ kg wheat in your stomach, where will your strength be? Contemporary economists who burden the state with big debts do this because they do not understand the Divine Law. I would rather they gave each person ½ kg of wheat in the stomach than 100 kg on the back. It is preferable to have 100 g of knowledge in the brain than a load of 100 kg on the back. Someone may have 100 volumes of books, but the 50 g of knowledge in the brain as a potential and kinetic energy are of more value than what is outside of it. Thus by the word child Christ means a special inner state—to be in accord, in contact with the spiritual world, with all the powers and all beings. If you start thinking you are a great being, you lose all these contacts. When a great angel in heaven who has lived millions and billions of years and who has an experience greater than that of humanity and whose history is much more superior to that of humankind, decides to come to earth and be incarnated, he will take the form of a little child and humble himself—he will start his development from this point, in order to come to understand the majesty of God. That is why Christ was asked, "Can an old man enter the Kingdom of God?" Be he an angel or a God, he cannot. Those who would enter the Kingdom of God must humble themselves and become like children. Now all of you who are listening to me want to enter the Kingdom of God such as you are. No! This has never been and never will be! If you do not acquire the qualities of a child—plasticity of mind and heart—you will not understand the inner sense of life. But you are already near the Kingdom of God. The inter-space dividing this world from the other world is a hundred-millionth part of the millimeter. How small is the distance between these two worlds! When a person starts on the way of development, they move very slowly. I notice all who start on the spiritual path resemble big people; they are not like children. If someone begins their journey with large strides, they will not attain their purpose. If you leave home running, you will not achieve anything. But if you start slowly and gradually accelerate your step, you are in the state of a child. Christ says, "Do not start your work hurriedly. Move like the small children—walk constantly and quicken your step by one, two, three, four, five, six steps, then you will find sense in your life." While you are in the state of small children, no illness will attack you, but if you are in the state of the old, an illness will come to you. Those who worry are old; also those who have a heavy heart are old, too. Become young! You say, "I have a weight in my soul." You are old. "What shall I do?" Become young! "How?" Do not think of great things in the world. Put only half a kilo of bread in your stomach, 100 g of knowledge in your brain and five grams of feelings in your heart—that is enough for you. When ten or fifteen young men love a girl, they begin to quarrel; she feels puffed up and becomes unhappy. Some years ago a young woman was killed in Sofia by her fiance. Why do you love two people? One is enough. Every thought has its definite place. If you do not love a man, do not deceive him! Tell him the truth and he will find another girl. In regard to religion, people suffer from the same love. You say, "Let us love!" Do you know how love is expressed? Those who desire much commit a sin and when the sin is done, they suffer. The one who sins is a bad person, but the one who sins and does not repent is worse, yet the one who sins and does not repent or pray is still worse. Everyone who prays, yet is unrepentant, is a hypocrite. A hypocrite represents the worst person in the world. There are two kinds of lies, two kinds of sins in the world. When you tell someone you love them, yet you do not, you act like the crocodiles—when they love someone, they wet her with tears to make her smoother and easier to swallow. No, people do not need such love, but the Love of the small children. Give a little, yet let it be from your heart. If men and women would apply this philosophy to their life, all homes and societies will change for the better. Fathers, mothers, children, teachers, priests, judges—all are thinking of great ideas. They all consider themselves great and fool themselves that there are no greater people than them. You ask, "Why is the world suffering?" It is suffering from "great" people and ideas. People call someone an excellent preacher, because he is preaching grand ideas. Yes, we are all suffering from "great" ideas. The Jews also had great ideas— they wanted to become rich and, considering themselves chosen, they became proud. They had 33,000 promises by God; however, Christ showed them that the greatness of a person lies in becoming as small as a child. Only in this case, God will be on one's side. So far I have not seen a mother bearing an old man in her womb, even if she would be given millions. But everyone bears the small child without getting any payment. Why? Because the child holds great benefits inside. As it enters, every Divine idea, no matter how small it may be, brings peace, joy and greatness to the person who accepts it—that is why everyone can bear the small children. Many think that big ideas bring happiness to people. Actually, this is not true. To clarify this thought, I shall tell you a legend. An impoverished German prince wanted to marry a beautiful woman. She told him, however, that she was a woman of great pretensions and she wanted him to build her a beautiful palace and supply anything she wanted of him. Only under such conditions would she marry him. He agreed to everything, thinking he would be happy with her. He married her and started looking for riches. By the powers of occultism he started calling spirits who would help him. Finally, he found a prince of the gnomes and said to him, "I have married a pretentious woman and need much money. Can you help me?" "I can, but under one condition: for every purse of money, you must give me ten hairs of your head." "I have enough hairs and can give you as many as you wish." "I shall need only ten for each bag of gold I give you." The man thought his troubles were settled and his life at home would now be happy. He started visiting the prince of the gnomes week after week, month after month, taking bags of gold and giving his hairs in return. A year, two years, three years passed and he became completely bald. He went again for gold, but had no hairs. "Shall I give you something else?" he asked. "No, I need hairs." Now the man understood that human character lies hidden in these hairs. He had sacrificed the apparently small things for presumably great things. Every hair is a noble thought sacrificed for a trifle. If you have such aspirations for ten years, you will sacrifice all that is noble in you and remain a barren desert. Then you will be turned into a big, old, dry tree which is a symbol of the degenerate human character. Be not offended by the Truth. I know that when the Truth is spoken, many people are offended. God considers an old person everyone who is offended by the Truth. Such is the Law before God for He has never been offended until now. There is no other being to have suffered more desecration than God, but so far He has not even knitted his eyebrows. He calmly and quietly looks at us and says, "These children will understand the Law; now they are piling up sins, that is why they will bear this burden." "Our condition is very heavy: poverty, illness, what shall we do?" You should work. "Is there no other way?" No, there is no other way—you must work. "We are big." You should grow small, become like children. When you return home, try to become like children and see how you will be rejuvenated. You say you are old, but what is the reason? You are carrying the world on your back. When you board a ship which rocks and you begin to fear, what will be the use of fearing? Stay quietly, have the confidence of a child. He who has made the ship will take care of you. The ship will rock and then stop rocking. Even if there is a storm and thunder, you should not be afraid. The birds in the airy space also rock, but they understand this Law better than you. You will excuse me for all this. I say, if you are old, you will get offended; if you are young, I shall congratulate you. When I speak the Truth, let no one be insulted. I shall ask those of you who are walking barefooted over a stony place, to put on sandals, because your feet will be hurt and you will be forced to turn back midway. The sandals will protect you. If a lady is passing through such a place, she would prefer to have her feet hurt than to put on her sandals to please her loved one. Yet, it is dangerous to walk bare-footed. The children are always shod. Look at the butterflies, these small children of God, what excellent clothing they have! If an earthly queen has such clothes, she would feel happy. Although these butterflies have a short life, how well God clothes them! Why does God clothe them so well? Because they are children. But why does God send unhappiness to people? Because they are old. Why does God send blessing to some people? Because they are small children. A mother forgives her children many mistakes, but if her husband makes the mistakes, she says, "I do not want this dotard any longer!" In the same way heaven forgives all the sins of the small children, but it is strict with the old and says, "Out with you!" Then what takes place in you? Dissatisfaction, despair and hatred of life, since you face resistance and unfavorable conditions for your development. The only way to be loved by God and by people is to adopt the Divine idea—be small before God and have a responsive heart and mind. Love has different degrees of power: you stand in front of a stove at a distance of two meters and feel a pleasant heat, but if you should put your hand on it, it will burn you. The old people are hot stoves, that is why they burn you sometimes. Usually they are mercenary. Do not think I am speaking of you; I am referring to those old men mentioned in the Scripture. Those who think they are big and great, they are old men. Beware of such people! Christ preached this when He said, "Become like little children!" When you study Nature, you will find that the most precious things are not big. For instance, the diamond has been an airy substance in the past, occupying great space; long time had to pass before it thickened and grew hard. God has turned it into a hard substance, but at the same time, He has made its volume smaller. It has become of small volume, but of high price. Do you know how much energy, how much matter is pressed into an atom? We should grow small by the same Law, become like children, for only God is great and to be like Him, we have to learn the art of transitory things in creation, the stages of transitory life, and find out why small things pass into big ones. A ripe grain or seed, no matter how small it may be, if it finds favorable soil, it grows into a big tree. However, no matter how big a leaf or a fruit may be, if it falls in the soil, it will rot. This is the sense of the words of Christ. Christ spoke at the time for the people of an enlightened age, for those who are able to understand Him and apply His teaching. When a great musician plays, he plays for those who have an ear to hear him; when a sculptor makes a statue, he offers it to those who understand and value it; when a writer writes a book, it has sense for those who understand it. God has made the world and inscribed His Law for those who understand Him. Those who do not understand Him will bear the burden on their back and be "great men." When God created the world, the spirits who came down to earth wanted to be big, great, that is why they had big bodies. The huge animals were created at that time as well. If the huge animals had remained on earth, they would have devastated it completely eating up everything. God was teaching those incarnated spirits that they must not have huge bodies, because the greatness of a being does not lie in the huge body. An idea is great not when it is big in volume, but when it bears something great which helps the development of all beings. If you sow a walnut, in ten or twelve years it will become a big tree, but after it dies, it assumes its original state again. Now I am telling you to become like the little children and to make an experiment in this respect. I say, let this idea of Christ enter your mind and try to be small before God. Imagine that you are just beginning your life in the Kingdom of God. You may consider yourselves eminent people, but how many great kings, how many eminent people lived in the past, of whom there is no trace today. You deceive yourselves thinking that the people around you are eminent, famous, but you can see how eminent they are when misfortune comes to them. In a Varna village about fifty years ago, there was a very eminent son of a chorbadji37. The whole village was speaking about him. When anyone said, "Petran Chorbadji," everybody knew him. Every week he would slaughter and roast a lamb, gather people for a long and merry feast. But misfortune befell him so that he lost everything and became the last pauper. Everybody deserted him and started mocking him. That "Petran Chorbadji" thought himself an eminent man! What is an eminent person? A dead ox. When he dies, the dogs eat him up. Then they again speak of him, but only until he is all eaten up. After that nothing more is said of him. People speak of a person so long as there is something they can take or receive from them, but as soon as the person dies and nothing remains of them, they stop talking about him. These are the misfortunes of your external life. You are very beautiful on the outside, but the beauty of the heart and the mind is important. That is why you must purify your heart and mind and do not fly at high game. Become small children that you may enter the Kingdom of God and inherit the new life. People on the Earth are dead. They are eaten up by dogs, crows and eagles, because they are "great." When you read "Revelation," you will see that God summons all eagles and says to them, "Come, you little ones, to take your share, of the flesh of kings and heroes—all "great men." What does this mean? When a big oak tree rots and turns into soil, God sends the little seeds and grasses and says to them, "Take your share of this oak, because in the past it obstructed your development." That is why Christ says, "If you do not become small children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God. God will not take your side." Therefore, the new conditions under which you live require a new moral, new religious principles which must be more powerful and effective than the present ones. The principles you have used till now are weak and cannot endure. You have a rope which can raise ten kilograms, but you want it to raise a load of one hundred kilograms, what must you do? You will make it ten times stronger. The rope is the moral you must make ten times stronger than the previous one, in order that it may endure the new conditions. That is exactly why, according to Christ's Law, you must change your outlook. If the worst person were to become a child, you would love them because they would change. There cannot exist a struggle between an oak and grass, but there will always be a struggle between two oaks. Plant them next to each other, you will see the struggle between them—which should grow taller and see the Sunbeams. The one that grows higher will succeed, but the one that remains below will say, "I remained small." Small but with big ideas. It is not that you have remained small, but that you should wait for your turn, then you will say to the big oak, "I shall become your son, an acorn". It will answer, "I, on my part, am your father." "Thank you, father, for your care which you will take of me." One day this acorn will grow big and exchange its role with its father. Christ requires every one of us to become a tree which will bear fruit, a seed upon which the Kingdom of God may be laid. You will say, "These are abstract things." No, they are not. Deposit in your mind the thought, "I want to become a small Divine child. God, help me realize this thought." Think upon this though for twelve months and you will see how your life will change. However, do not blaze forth this idea; I can see that you are small. When a big beech tree comes and says, "I am small" it is not speaking the Truth. When a rich man says he has no money, he is afraid of being robbed. When a poor man says he has money, he does not speak the Truth. Let everyone speak what is right. Have faith in this great Divine Law of this child and God will be with you. If God credits you, He will make you great. But if you make yourself great, you are in the state of a lying merchant who says he has money when he has not. This is the deep sense of the verse, "Become like small children." I do not want you to think, "Are we really nothing?" Leave this thought aside. What you have been until now is not important; the thing that counts is what you will be from now on. It is well known what people have been like until now—let sleeping dogs lie. The future ideal is—be Divine small children. I wish you to be children of God and use all the great blessings the Kingdom of God is giving you. I wish you all to be wise, happy and good. As you see, I am telling you the way you can be such. You will say, "How will we regard the small drop of water?" Be not troubled, it will grow. The rain does not pour down at once, but drop by drop and gradually it rains harder. However, the small drops benefit the world. The small children do not know what fear is, but the grandmas frighten them, "The big, bad goblin will eat you up!" The same way the maid-servants frighten the children with the goblin to make them fall asleep, so that they can go out and have a date with some young man. In order to be free to go to a ball, some mothers also fool and frighten their children with something awful and mysterious. Down with your goblins! Deceive neither the children, nor yourselves! Be sincere with yourselves and others—this is the only way you can be rejuvenated and become beautiful. As soon as the divine idea takes possession of your mind, everything will change—your lips, eyebrows, nose and forehead. In Europe women paint their lips red, because the red color shows wealth and pure blood. Let this be done naturally. To become small children means to stop lying to God. Someone does not believe in God—they may have serious reasons for their disbelief. Another person says, "There is no God." I say, you have not turned on the switch. "Life has no sense." You have not turned on the switch. "People are bad." You have not turned on the switch. The small child's switch is inside of them. There is no more beautiful or greater idea than this. Some want to know who Christ is. The power of life is not in the letter, but in the spirit of things. I am careful in always conforming to the Divine Truth, speaking only what is true. You must not play the role of one of the disciples of Socrates who, desiring to show himself humble, went one day to his master in torn pants. However, his master told him his pride could be seen through his torn pants. You must be careful and you see I am careful with your hearts and have never said what is true. Everything I say to you is a Truth which you can verify. If you have no results, I am ready to start working with you. Only say to yourself, "This year I want to be a small Divine child!" This is the idea I want you to go away with—to be small Divine children. All the European nations to be such children too. Then the real Divine peace will come into the world. Sermon held on February 11, 1917 in Sofia. ______________ 35. Matt. 18:3. 36. The formulae in the previous lecture are one effective method of turning on this switch of our hearts and minds, of revitalizing the connection with our Creator and harmonizing ourselves with the Cosmic rhythms (ed. note). 37. (Turkish) A well-to-do person. The word was also used to refer to Bulgarian wealthy people during the Turkish domination (1396-1878) (ed. note).

Hygiene of the Human Soul ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.’ James 3: 2 I shall talk to you today in a special language – the way a teacher talks to his pupils when they start learning the alphabet, the way women start washing, carding and spinning the wool into fibres in order to make cloth. Today I shall call my lecture Hygiene of the Human Soul. You have listened to many preachers. James says, ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.’ The body is your capital; it is the substantial [thing]. Therefore I shall start with what you see. You pay very little attention to your soul; however, the body is a large garden where the Divine Spirit works. Movement provides the blood watering the Divine garden. You can tell a housekeeper by the way the house is kept. You haven’t come to build houses, but to put them in order. This teaching you will apply to yourselves too. You seek happiness and cannot find it, but if I deprive you of food, water and air, you will then understand what it is. Your happiness is built upon food, water and air. Food has to do with eating and with the body; water has to do with drinking and the heart; air – with breathing and the mind. You need suffering in order to work. To those who dishonour work God grants [them] labour; if they turn down labour too, there comes suffering; if they reject suffering, there comes torture. To be able to work, talent [and] skills are required – only the great artists can work. Work is for the educated [scientists]. Washing and gossiping is labour. You have abandoned the work God granted to you and now are labouring. There is no happiness in labour, suffering and torture. Suffering is a hard nut to crack; it takes skilfulness to learn how to break it and use it. I shall now talk to you about the word can. You are not aware of your situation, and you have to wake up for the sake of your happiness. It is around you, but you have to start working properly. You have to relax the strings of your violin. Your heart is very dry, it needs a little moisture. You know you cannot clean without water, [as] it becomes dusty. First of all you are to have faith. You have to examine [test, try] everything that was given to you in order for you to benefit. Why do you pray, why do you eat, why do you drink? Praying is a breathing process. If you are hesitating [thinking] whether God will hear your prayer, then you are praying having doubts in God. In spite of not seeing where He is, you can sense [feel] Him. Each desire and thought has three aspects – breadth, depth and height. Those having depth make no noise. You have to grow out of your habit to command the others, but to command yourselves. You, with faith, have to start getting rid of these thoughts that are now disturbing you. Faith is a principle. Faith has to be positive – a place where the Divine life can enter. You have to start working upon yourselves with a plan, the way gardeners work. As soon as you fulfil your duty at home, start working upon yourselves. The first point is to be healthy in body and spirit. A person having lost any faith whatsoever is a sick person. Just like children often cut with scissors and destroy [things], similarly there are such writers and preachers who destroy with their scissors. They are notorious destroyers; therefore you have to abandon these teachers who destroy. If a bad thought comes up within you, which wants to cut with its blade and to destroy, throw it away [get rid of it]. Or somebody wants to beat the big drum [cry from the housetop]– tell him that he may not. Your thoughts are alive, they play within and around you, like children do. A thought enters your mind and bothers you, for instance something was said about you. [such] thoughts can upset you and can rule you. No, you have to teach [coach, drill] them. The false teacher is the devil – it leads you and teaches [coaches, drills] you until you are left in tattered clothes. Then it leaves you and you go to God in your tattered clothes; however He won’t admit you but will turn you out. Nonetheless, if there is a wheat grain [of faith] left, there is hope for you to improve after twelve years. One noble thought, if you cultivate it, will make you the noblest woman in twelve years. You keep demagnetising yourself all the time, you lose your temper, you worry. Thus your nervous system is muddled [upset] from the bottom [resulting in] cracks and leaks. As long as you are indifferent, your magnetic power [strength] is reduced. When you are healthy, you can feel the condition [situation] in which the others are. The heart can lose its magnetic power [strength]. Do not carry your husband, your children and the others the way the wolf carries the fox. You often carry healthy people on your back. When you do a favour to healthy people, you teach them to be idle. God sent all the women to work, while you are crashing stones. If the woman had to be a servant, God would have made her from the man’s leg, if she had to be the master – from the man’s head. While he made her from the man’s rib – which is to say she was intended as a companion in his work. However, what do women do now? They stand in front of the mirror and keep thinking of marriage. Under marriage I mean that a man passes from the animal condition into the human condition and from the human condition – into the Divine. This marriage is once [and for all] – for you to become citizens of Heaven. Therefore you have to have a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy heart. How do you feed your soul, mind and heart? Your body you feed all right to a certain extent; but how you feed your heart and mind? Your thoughts and desires need food, clothes; you do not give them [food and clothes] and they perish [die]. You have enormous [huge] desires. Strive for [aspire after] having substantial thoughts that are not in clash with [those of] the people around you. The one who works loses a lot of energy, hence you have to save your energy. You are to have an unshakable [firm] faith in God that He has thought about everything. God takes care even of the smallest worms. Not a hair of your head can be touched without His will. Each thought and desire, everything you may want, will be given to you, but you are to have an unshakable [firm] faith. Do not regret that something has not happened [to you] in your life; it was not [meant] for you. A fiancé leaves his fiancée – this happens because he was not [meant] for her. Sometimes you want big trousers or a big dress, the way a little child wants clothes like his elder brother’s, but the time for the little child has not come yet. You all have useless thoughts and desires, and this shows that your faith is feeble. God is a great spring [of water] – go to Him for fresh water in the morning, at noon and in the evening. He won’t come to you, but you will go to Him. However, you will carry a vessel with you. The good thoughts are a vessel where God will pour His blessing. As long as you have good thoughts and desires God will bless you. If you feel that He does not bless you, borrow a vessel – read a good book, take the nobleness of the people out in the open. There should not be any gossiping around – those who want to succeed should not go gossiping [slandering] around. Now, for the remaining five minutes, without making any movement, send your thought to God. You will feel some pinching [tweaking], but as soon as you make a move, you will spoil the exercise. For example, some day you say that you won’t gossip, but there comes somebody, he says something bad about you, you start gossiping and you spoil the exercise. You light candles, you consecrate oil and still you have no blessing – this is because you gossip [slander]. Now, start [doing] the exercise for one, two, three, four or five minutes – try not to make a single move, to be able to control yourself. Then do a five minute exercise thinking only about one thing: a five minute exercise for your body, a five minute exercise for your mind, a five minute exercise for your heart. Whatever you gain from these exercises, do not share it with anybody. It takes twelve months for a desire, for a thought to come true [materialise]. One year is necessary for a thought to be born; other thoughts take ten years and so on. The good thoughts and desires form the clothes of the Angels. The thoughts and desires are the clothes that Divine spirits are dressed in [put on]. If you can join this dance, do it; if you can’t, think it over well and do not join. The result of these exercises is slow to come, perhaps after one year, but tell nobody what you are doing. Do not cut the cloth by the meter to sell it before you have woven it. Start with the smallest [step] – the word can. A great grief afflicts you – tell yourself I can, you suffer - I can, you labour - I can. Tell yourself, ‘I can [do] everything through Christ!’ If you do not understand the word can, you won’t be able to understand Christ either. The word can is always present in Christ’s teaching. And when Peter told Christ, ‘Be it far from thee, Lord…’, Christ responded with the word can. Conjugate the verb can. If you cannot resolve any issue, say I can. The Lord goes and says, ‘Fill his/ her pot’; while the pot of the one not saying I can is not being filled. The bad which is within you is a fuel. The bad thoughts that come to you are an impulse for your development, provided you win over [overcome] them. If a bad thought comes to you, ask God to place it. Do not say anything, do not slander, keep silence – in the beginning you will feel [some] unpleasantness, but it will burn afterwards and you will receive energy. If a disease comes to you, do not fear – this is a little bit of massage, this is a blessing. To be intelligent means to be perfect in the Word. People weep, people are unhappy, but I say that this is a blessing, because people work and I rejoice and thank God. One hundred and one Angels work on the Earth and help. A cleaning [process] is in progress now and in such times you have to cheer up and rejoice – there have not been more glorious times. People are now watering their gardens. Today’s religion should not be like the old one. Once a poor pious man was passing along an open window of a rich man’s house, he saw a purse of money left on the window sill and took it believing that it was a gift from God. During the following days, however, when he was praying, the purse kept appearing before him and he could not pray. At last he returned it. You, likewise, have pinched a rich man’s purse, therefore you feel sick at heart. Similarly when you are gossiping, this is a theft of a purse. Return the purse for your prayer to be heard. Do not think ill of anybody; as soon as such a thought comes to you, throw it out. Keep silence externally, but work internally. Each desire has a period for it to materialise; you are to wait. One, two, ten years may pass – do not hasten. When you want your desire to materialize quickly the Lord will send you to the roots of the tree – He will give you a bad husband or wife. Also, all of your present unhappiness is from your previous life – you had bad thoughts and desires [in your previous life]. You are to have a healthy body. As soon as you gain some weight, you rejoice, but this is no health. You are to have strong muscles, [you are] to be meek, to be humble. I can’t understand [how] you can be limp and active [at the same time]. For example a sister of yours is burdened – pass faith on to her, encourage her, but do not cry with her, because both of you will lose your faith. Or, somebody dies; no, he hasn’t died, only his house is destroyed and it will be built up again in years. The essence of man lies in the good traits of one’s soul. Death is sieving the water, passing of Life from one layer into another and coming up to the surface as a good spout. You have to pass through this world, through matter, in order to be sieved through. Now, you are listening to all this here, but the world will make you hesitate. However, you say, ‘I can!’ You will take psalm 119 and you will learn part of it by heart everyday with the word can. You have to learn it in twenty-two days. Every day before starting learning it, you will wash your hands and feet and you will say, ‘We shall be good, patient and obedient like the feet.’ If the human heart was as good as the feet, people would be saints. And while washing our hands we shall say, ‘We shall be obedient, good and fair like the hands.’ Your mind should be ready to work like your hands. How good [kind] the Lord is to have given us hands and feet, which teach us how to work! Become one with the Lord and with all the people and everything will be doable [realizable] for you. You are to be patient and obliging like the feet and fair like the hands. You have to be in command of your body and harmony has to reign over you. It will be fine if you can adjust within one year. You have to be free like birds, patient like the mammals, valiant like lions and intelligent like man. Start applying the word can. If it is for the better, it will be like a key, but if you apply it for the worse, it won’t be of any use to you. Apply it to elevate the humankind; to enlighten the mind and the heart, but not for the worse. Within one year you have to learn to understand the word can. The ‘not’ particle, the last part of the I cannot expression you have to place at the end of the queue. When you worry, you should say, ‘I can!’, in order for your mood to change. And let the particle aside, leave it alone. When you learn the psalm, some of you will have scored one or two as a result, others will have scored a result of three to ten – it varies. Even if you have scored ‘one’, it is a blessing all the same. 8 February 1917, Sofia Source

The blessed “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10 I will analyse the word blessed. Jesus does not say: blessed are those who have plenty of money, who have many houses, who are well educated, who are currently powerful. He says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” The word persecute has both a negative and a positive meaning. If one is not persecuted, he will not make any progress. Movement is of great importance to the world. When man wants to reap the harvest, he has to drive his horses. Why is this persecution necessary? - So that one can reap the wheat. All things in Life are meaningful. Those aware of the inner sense in Life should not be hindered by the contradictions existing in this world. All these contradictions come as a result of a great truth that is two-faced: suffering and joy; suffering is the dark side of this life, while joy is the bright one. All this is in compliance with the laws of Nature. The earth changes its face within 24 hours: one side is dark and the opposite is bright. Thus, your life can be both dark and bright within 24 hours; you can be alternately sad or joyful. This is an immutable law, which has nothing to do with sin. Sometimes sin is interwoven with suffering, yet these two notions should not be mixed. Suffering is a great law. There is not a single person in this world that has not suffered. Even God joins us in our sufferings. Nobody suffers more than He does. When someone claims that he suffers, I say, “You have just started learning.” There is nothing wrong about suffering. The senses you need to experience the most pleasant emotions are the same with which you perceive the most unpleasant ones. If your eyes are not adjusted in harmony with the light, you will sense the harshest sensations, but if your vision is properly set in harmony with light, you will have the most pleasant perceptions. Therefore, when you feel some disharmony, it indicates maladjustment. You can adjust yourselves only through suffering. Those who play the guitar often set their instrument to a particular song. Suffering is a kind of adjustment and tuning – the scale should change from major to minor. People who aspire to be noble have this aspiration related with suffering. Suffering and joy are two opposite poles in Life. Anyone who wants to develop has to suffer: Suffering is a doorway, a prerequisite for joy. If you want to avoid suffering, you will not experience joy. Joy and Sorrow are two daughters of God. “Which God?” you will ask. - The one revealed to humanity. You will ask, “Does God have any daughters?” – Yes, He has sons and daughters here, on earth, and up, in Heaven. The words brother and sister are Divine Concepts. They are notions far greater than the ones we are able to perceive and comprehend. Our sorority and brotherhood have risen by just a few inches. When one takes a foot of his brother’s land, the two brothers fall out. Take doctors, merchants, teachers, priests, preachers, no matter whom – their brotherhood does not go further than a foot. This is the current social growth we have come to understand as brotherhood. Jesus turns and says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” You might ask, “Why am I persecuted?” My question is, “Why shouldn’t you be?” It is often said that murky water is far more favourable for the soil than clear water. By going through the soil it leaves some silt which is beneficial to plants. This is how the Nile deposits thousands of tons of silt, from which ancient Egypt produced an abundance of wheat. Suffering is like this Divine silt, which descends to your fields to fertilise them. Then God says, “Sow now”. This silt of yours – sins and fallacies – will make the best batch of bread and you will say, "Thank God!” No suffering, no bread. Jesus says, “I am the live bread.” Indeed, He is the live bread, as people eat Him every day. "Блажени сте, когато ви изгонят и когато върху вас рекат всяка зла реч на лъжа заради Мене"%5BA1%5D If someone speaks ill of you when you deserve it, it is not praise. If you are guilty, you deserve criticism. You need to suffer in the name of justice. Now many of you suffer astray of God’s justice. If Jesus came today, what teaching would He give us? All people want to be happy and blissful, married to good wives or husbands, or having good children. Well, where will these good wives, husbands and children come from? If you sow the best seeds in sand, they will grow feeble. If you add some fertiliser, the wheat will grow stronger. I see the inner application of this law. What is going on in the outside world? Everything is normal – what must be done is done. Apostle Paul says that everybody lives and moves within God. If you live and move within God, what is there to be afraid of? You are in a boat far off the shore, a storm occurs, and you get frightened. My question is, “Where is your faith?” – “We are going to sink.” If you are sinners, you will sink. If you are like gold, silver or iron, you are going to sink. But if you are as light as a feather, you will stay afloat, while the others will flounder, as they are carrying too heavy a load – poor them! Therefore, do not burden your minds with thoughts that encumber you. It is not important what people think of you. What counts is what God thinks of you. God has experience. God is ubiquitous. He is where there are reasonable creatures. He is not in the dead, nor in the sinful. By “God” I understand the pleasant feelings and thoughts you have – your awareness of God. He lives in us and has the power to resurrect us. If God is not linked with me, and if He does not have the power to enliven me, then what’s the point of there being some God? That’s why Jesus says somewhere in the Scripture that if His words live in us forever, we will live in Him forever and what we beg for will be given to us living. Jesus says that he is the live word, and that the words he speaks to us are within Him alive. That’s why Jesus’ teaching, which is within us, is powerful enough. You should rejoice and be merry for you will be well rewarded in Heaven. This means that there will be afterlife for you. What is meant by afterlife? Some believe that when they die they will move to another world. No, this will not happen. You will just move from one state to another, just like the cocoon does. The caterpillar, while nibbling at the leaf, believes that this is its world. Yet when it turns into a butterfly with wings to flitter from flower to flower, it changes its views of the world. Likewise, we, while nibbling at the leaves of the material world, are nothing but worms. However, when we undergo the stage of the cocoon and arrive at the soul stage, dressed up in our best clothes, we will be able to perceive life in its ultimate dimension. Without meaning any offence, I should say that most of us are at the caterpillar stage now. The saying goes: “Put a penny aside for a rainy day.” Those who say it are caterpillars, just like others who say that they need a house for a rainy day. The caterpillar needs a leaf. My question is: “Why should the butterfly need the leaf?” When you start advancing to a higher level, you will tell your brethren, “I am leaving the leaf for you –take it.” That is why Jesus teaches us to give others what we do not need. Those who are in the same boat might need it. Jesus’ teaching applies to all, but not all people are equally ready to grasp it and implement it. It can be applied only in accordance with the individual’s stage of growth. This suggests that we should be aware of what we are. Those who have been left behind or those who are ahead, should not be judged nor envied. We will all walk the way as an act of free will or out of necessity. If you do not thresh willingly, God will come with a whip in hand, harness you as a horse on a threshing machine and will make you thresh the floor for days and years. When asked, “How come you have turned into horses?” you will answer, “To thresh the wheat.” I can see now that more and more people are threshing God’s floor. When I see a threshing horse, I say. “It is doing a good job.” Then I ask myself. “Am I doing my job really well?” If you want modern people to comprehend Jesus’ teaching well, you ought to establish harmony among them. Is it possible for you to try out to what extent you are blessed? Yes, it is. Many people are constantly complaining, “I’m so misfortunate!” I answer them, “You are the happiest person.” Jesus says that those who are unhappy are blessed. – You are ill with some disease. What is a disease? It is a sign that God is working on you with the intention of resurrecting you. You encounter difficulties in your growth. Or, you cannot cope with a problem – The Divine thought will elevate and enlighten you. Your heart is aching – The Divine Life is working on your heart to soften it. God works inside us. Modern people are like children who raise dust while playing in the classroom. On entering the room, the teacher starts sneezing because of the clouds of dust everywhere. I can see everybody sneezing – teachers, preachers, mothers and fathers – everybody is sneezing. Why? - Because of the dust. Open the windows, air the rooms, clean the floor, and the sneezing will stop. Sneezing means that there is dust, i.e. doubt and suspicion. There should be enough light in the room so that you can get the point in Life. I ask, “How long have you been around? Where were you two hundred years ago? Where were you, your father, you grandfather, your great grandfather, your grandmother, your great grandmother a thousand years ago?” You will answer, “We don’t care. Why should we know?” You might say that you do not care, but if your grandfather bequeaths some money, you start inquiring in banks about your inherited money. Why? Because you have inherited something. However, if your grandfather has left some debts, you start pretending that you have nothing in common with him. Otherwise, you will be liable for his debts. That is not chivalry. You are not a gentleman – you cannot ride a horse, you cannot control your mind, you are not capable of channeling your thought, generally, you are not a clever man. Jesus says that blessed are those who get the point in Life. The wealth is hidden in our minds and hearts. A rich young man falls in love with a poor girl. She may be poor but there is some wealth hidden in her personality. It is expressed in her face. There are thousands of examples of rich and noble men falling in love with poor girls, who rose in society, but it is because they all had some inner wealth, endowed by God. When a person is virtuous and fair, when he or she bears the Divine Love, Wisdom and Truth, these virtues and attributes cannot remain hidden and find their vigorous expression. I have encountered Virtue and spoken to her – what a wealth of goods she is! Are you aware that she is God’s most beautiful daughter? I have also met Divine Justice – she is very beautiful, too, but strict and unforgiving. Yet you will tell her, “I am weak.” No matter weak or strong, you are not supposed to violate the precepts of your Father. By contrast, Love is very beautiful and tender. She ignores people’s mistakes. Whatever you do, even the worst, she will kiss you, caress you, clean you and change your clothes before taking you home. Men and women should love each other. Some say, “My wife does not love me.” Well, you have not found the one who loves you. Your wife on the earth is Love’s shadow. The wife says, “I’m going to marry him because he is rich. He makes 10, 000 levs and has a house.” Such a wife takes a lot but gives nothing. She cannot make her husband happy. The husband says, “I married her because she is rich. I do not mind that she is so ugly.” Such a husband cannot make his wife happy, either. Any teaching that takes, but does not give cannot make people happy. Self-sacrifice underlies Christianity. There are two kinds of sacrifice: either you will sacrifice yourself, or you will be sacrificed. Why do they slaughter a lamb on Saint George’s Day? They decorate the lamb with a wreath, sanctify it and finally, they slaughter it. Why do people offer this sacrifice? - For food. There are spirits here on the earth, who would put a wreath on your head, too, then they will bring you to the sacrificial altar, and cut your throat. Then they will say, “Somebody died.” But Listen to me: He is not dead; he is alive. Some day you will be on death’s table and will be eaten. They will say, “Oh, what a juicy body - so fatted! Look at the muscles, the heart, the lungs!” People die because they eat meat. God teaches people and spirits not to eat meat. Death in the world will disappear when people stop being carnivores. The flesh of sinners is quite tender. The same applies to all nice clothes. An item of clothing made of a delicate fabric does not wear and tear easily. The flesh of righteous people is tough; that’s why, nobody eats it and such people are immortal. This Divine teaching will give you a sound mind and heart. Anyone who will try to swallow and make away with a good thought or a Divine wish, will destroy him/herself. Such a person will find him/herself in the position of the crocodile gorging small frogs. There are such small frogs in the Nile, which crocodiles often eat up. The crocodile opens its mouth, the frog jumps in, and small as it is it is swallowed by the crocodile. Having entered the crocodile’s stomach, the frog is eager to get out and starts eating its way out. Then the crocodile’s stomach starts filling with water; it turns with the stomach up, and dies. Some people say, “I have been eaten up!” If God is with you, those who try to do this to you will be severely punished. If you have Faith, you should not fear anything for God is with you. God’s Spirit is already descending, just like Light is coming. Here He comes, bringing Great Light, fire and life that will purify the world. Modern people will try these things and will witness the establishment of God’s Kingdom here on the earth. God will unite people through His descent and malice will vanish. All misunderstandings stem from suspicion and mistrust. I will illustrate this with a story about the wind, the cold, and the sun that wanted to compete as who would succeed in making a shepherd take his fur coat off. The cold presented itself at its severest form – it became freezing cold. The cold said, “Watch me! I’ll take his coat off right now!” However, on seeing how cold it was, the shepherd wrapped himself tightly in his coat and hurried back home. So, the cold failed in its attempt. Then came the wind. It swept everything in its way, uprooting trees, but failed to pull off the shepherd’s coat. Finally, the sun said, “You failed in your attempts. Now it’s my turn.” It smiled gently, sending all its Love. The shepherd started feeling warm until he finally took off his fur coat. There are two kinds of teaching - of the wind and of the cold. What remains for now is the teaching of Love – it is the one that will make you take off your coats. Some will ask, “What do you think?” Look into my eyes and you will understand what I think. On meeting you, I do not ask you what you are thinking about. I know that you are thinking about a two-storied house with furnished rooms, of getting married, of having children, etc. If I meet a scientist, I know that he is thinking of experiments. If I meet someone who is planning to steal something, I can recognise him because his face gives him away. God has already opened the book and everything can be clearly seen. If Jesus decides to judge the world, He will come with a set verdict, “Such is your offence. Such is the punishment you deserve according to the law.” However, Jesus has a different mission now: He wants humanity to live a life of sobriety. I mean that we should not think of ourselves as quite righteous. A saint has to be a perfect person, ready to serve, having a healthy body, strong legs and arms, tough muscles, empty hands, i.e. not to be rich, yet not destitute – one should be like Tolstoy – charitable and compassionate to those in need. Such is the true saint. God divides saints in heaven into small and great. Saints are those who have undergone the greatest sufferings with dignity and who are much talked about. Why do people worship Jesus? Because He paid off all people’s debts and bore all their sins. If Jesus had not suffered, if He had not given anything to people, He would have been an ordinary man. Everyone should serve God with the awareness that he/she has his/her proper place here on the earth. You will say, “Apostle Paul was a great man.” If you fulfil your mission here, you will be great, too. A woman, who has lived with her husband for twenty years in the yoke of marriage, cooking him meals, while he abused her in every possible way, will be a saint if she has endured his bad treatment patiently. The same applies to men. A husband will become a saint if he manages to endure the wear and tear of married life. Such husbands will be saints in heaven. I can see here women wearing jewellery and living in luxury. They will be poor in the other world – dressed in shabby clothes. One day you might find yourselves in the position of that rich, miserly lady, who had a servant. She paid him 60 levs, which he gave to the poor. She often told him, “Don’t be so stupid. Put some money aside for a rainy day.” One night she had a dream: she saw a palace built of beautiful marble stone. “Whose palace is this?” she asked. “It belongs to your servant.” – “How can such a poor man have built such a luxurious palace?” - “He keeps sending everything he gets in order to build a palace in the other world.” Farther on she saw a small hut. “Whose hut is this?” – “It’s yours.” You may be people of great importance here but God will judge you by your deeds and will give you what you deserve. We should not be misled. We need to know the truth and distinguish between what is Divine and what is human. You claim that you understand the word “Love”. No, you do not! You do not understand such words as “Justice”, “Truth” and “Wisdom”, either. When I enter some house and see an angry woman, can this be called Wisdom? When you utter the word “Wisdom”, a certain change in the state of mind should occur. You have to understand the meaning of every word. If you enter a theatre hall packed with thousands of people and cry out, “Fire! Fire!” everyone will rush outside. There will be confusion and chaos and everyone will feel the horror of impending death. That is because everyone understands the meaning of the word “fire”. But if someone enters and utters the word “Love”, people will look at each other in amazement, will laugh at him and dismiss him as insane. They will ask, “What does he mean?” This shows that people do not understand the meaning of the word “Love”. Otherwise, it should have the same effect as the word “Fire”, only in the opposite sense. If I see a sad man and utter the word “love”, then all his sorrow and grief should disappear. He should beam with happiness like an angel and turn from a worm into a butterfly. We often say, “Good Lord!” but we do not understand these words, either. I rarely pronounce God’s name - only when I feel too burdened. Then the whole burden disappears. To me this word includes everything. I can replace it with the word “can”. Never say, “I am too weak.” Always say, “I can.” The Scripture says “I can do everything through Jesus.” Put everything aside and take Jesus instead. You will be able to understand Jesus and God only through the word “can”. It is only natural that the day should turn into night – this does not embarrass me. When one’s mind is dark, I say, “His sun has set and darkness reigns in his mind, so he’d better have a rest for a while. He needn’t worry – his sun will rise in 24 hours and his God will appear. Then Love will come, too, and he will start understanding the profound meaning in life. This is what Jesus used to teach before and this is what He teaches us now. All anticipate Jesus’ descent from Heaven. He has come once and He is not going to come for a second time in disgrace. God came once when He created the world. Now He is working on it. He will stay here until He has made all possible arrangements and will come back to Heaven accompanied by all His children. The God we have has been working with us. He will gather us all and will form the tree of Life, whose branches, leaves and fruit we all are. Each leaf will have a healing power, and each fruit will be nourishing. Then we will make one whole with God, just as each cell, each root and twig make up the whole tree. “Blessed are those who are persecuted.” You are blessed because you are moving ahead. The work you have been doing is for the benefit of human kind and you will be well rewarded in Heaven. If someone who meets you tells you that you are a bad person, he is right – you have to become a good person. If you are told that you are ugly, you should do your best to become beautiful. If told that you are wicked, you should try and change into a kind person. I have lost count of the times people talked evil of me. If I had paid attention to everything they said, I would have lost all my hair. I say, “They are right – I am a dangerous person.” Why? I am a mirror, so when someone meets me, they see the reflection and say, “You are a rascal.” – Yes, you are right. Another says, “You are a dodger.” - Yes, you are right. You should look at yourselves and try to change. People are very much like that American preacher, who went mad and when looking at the mirror, unable to recognise himself, he said, “You must repent, otherwise God will send you to hell.” I find it pleasant to search my reflection in others, so when I meet a nice person, I want to find my reflection in him and understand what I am like. There has to be two kinds of mirrors – one in which we look at and another kind at which others look at themselves. Woe to that nation, society, or church that have no mirrors! Modern doctors use mirrors in their practice. For example, when they examine a throat, they use a mirror. Jesus’ teaching has a mirror to help people see the point in suffering – that it is necessary for our happiness and bliss in the other world. Suffering is the greatest good that God sends people. That is why Jesus invites those who are tired of suffering to join Him, promising that He will take people’s suffering by giving something in return. He promises that the exchange will be carried out on fair terms. So Jesus descends to earth in full glory to take off people’s burden. You will swap your suffering for the joy God will give you. By coming down to earth, he wanted to make you happy. However, to be happy you need to be wise and clever. You should pronounce the word “Wisdom” only when you are unable to tackle a tough problem. Utter the word “wisdom” and wait for about ten minutes until you get a revelation. You will be like a blind man, who opens his eyes to the beauty of the world and says, “I can see all this beauty and understand how great God is.” We should be grateful to God for creating this world with a home, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, wives, and children, even with all the sorrow and grief accompanying these. We should be grateful for everything. Those who have taken Jesus’ path should thank God for everything. By thanking God, we will come to terms with each other. By uttering the word “Love”, we will no longer feel sad – joy and warmth will overwhelm us, the stiffness will vanish from our limbs, and we will see angels coming from above. This will mean to become a clairvoyant. Some wait until they die to see everything. Don’t wait to die – You should resurrect in God while you are still alive. Don’t say, “When I die.” Instead, you should say, “When I change my attire, when I turn from a caterpillar into a chrysalis, and next from a chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly.” You say, “I will die and be buried. What will become of me when the worms overwhelm me?” Worms are your little brothers. They will come and say, “Let’s taste you. Jesus was your nourishing bread. Now we will feed on you.” But people do not lie in graves – I do not see them there, so you should not be afraid. I say this again – there are two kinds of people: some are dead alive – we come across them every day in Sofia, and others are living dead. Jesus says that blessed are those who are dead alive, those who died in the name of God. No one has said that blessed are those who are living dead. The latter are caterpillars. The dead alive are butterflies and they are harmless – they do not eat the leaves of the trees, because the leaves are necessary. When a destructive thought enters your life, it is a caterpillar, so you should drive it away. When an elevating, lofty thought enters you, you should keep it because it is a lovely butterfly. Therefore, you should regularly chase away the bad thoughts eating the leaves of your Life up. Such is Jesus’ teaching. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted, for great is their reward in heaven.” I will explain to you the in-depth meaning of these words: when you plant a seed, it starts decaying and is pestered by a host of adversaries (germs), however, as soon as it comes out and the sun light shines on it, its enemies run away. Therefore, you need to be persecuted in order to move up. Jesus’ words “blessed are those” suggest that blessed are those who grow up, shoot roots, leaves and blossom, for great is their reward when God comes and finds the ripe fruit. Is there any sense in this teaching? – Yes, there is. It means being persecuted for God’s sake. If I am persecuted without yielding any fruit, I deserve to be chased. If I am persecuted in order to give God some fruit and I manage to do it, then my persecution is worthwhile. It will be tantamount to growth. It will give me some impetus and incentive. If we are brought round to this way of thinking, we will get the point of Life on the earth. That’s why we have to pray for all people living. The Scripture tells us to bless others and never to condemn them, to tell the truth directly as to a friend or a brother and never to speak behind anybody’s back. Talking behind the back is a kind of vomiting. The mouth was not created to vomit but to utter the sweet words of Love. This is the teaching the saints from above bear; this is the teaching the righteous have been preaching for thousands of years; this is the teaching of the small angels descending to earth. When Jesus comes, He will bring the same teaching; the white horse on which He will arrive is the symbol of His enlightened teaching. Blessed are those who know God, who have grown up and developed - those who have roots, branches, leaves and fruit, for God will visit them and reward them. I would like you all to be in this state – to be blessed so that God will be able to find fruit in your garden; to invite Him to stay at your home – your heart. Then He will give you the essence of His teaching. You are blessed when visited by God; great is your reward in heaven. A lecture given on 4th February 1917.

The Book - The Spirit and The Flesh. Beinsa Douno Translation from Bulgarian - Vessela Nestorova THE BLESSED Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.38 I shall take the word blessed in this verse. Christ does not call blessed those who have much money, many houses, those who are very learned or powerful, but says, "Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake." The word persecute, or chase, in Bulgarian has a good and a bad meaning. If a person is not persecuted, they will not progress: there must be movement in the world. When a Bulgarian wants to thrash his wheat, he chases his horses on the thrashing-floor. Why is he chasing them? In order that his sheaves of wheat may be thrashed. All things in life have meaning. Those who understand the inner sense of life need not be hindered by the contradictions which exist in the world. All contradictions are an expression of a great Truth which has two aspects, two faces: sufferings and joys. Sufferings are the dark side of this life; joys are the highest things, the light side of life. All this is in accordance with the Laws of Nature. In the course of 24 hours, the Earth changes its face—the one side is light, the other dark. Therefore, in the course of 24 hours in you life, you also will be dark and light, you will suffer and you will be joyful. This is an unchangeable Law, which, however, has nothing in common with sin. Sometimes sin becomes entangled in suffering, but these two things should not be linked. Suffering is a great Law. There is no person who has not suffered or is not suffering now. Even God suffers together with us. No one suffers more than He. When someone says they are suffering, I say to them, "You have barely started this science." It is not a bad thing to suffer. The feelings by which you experience the most pleasant things in life are the same by which you experience the most unpleasant things as well. When your eye is irritated and is not in harmony with Light, you will feel Light in a most painful and unpleasant way; but when your eye is in order, i.e. in harmony with Light, you will have the most pleasant feelings. Therefore, when a certain disharmony appears in you, it shows that you are out of balance. Only by suffering can balance be restored in you. Those who play the guitar often tune up their guitar to a specific pitch for certain songs; suffering is also a kind of tuning up—the scale must be changed from major to minor or chromatic. In people who are aspiring to what is noble, this aspiration is linked with suffering. Suffering and joy are two opposite poles in life. Those who want to grow and develop will inevitably suffer; suffering is a doorway, a prerequisite for joy. If you avoid suffering, you will never attain joy in life. Joy and sorrow are two daughters of God. Of which God? Of the One manifested in humanity. You ask, "Does God have daughters?" Yes, He does. He has daughters and sons both on earth and in heaven. The words brother and sister are Divine ideas; they are much greater notions than the ones you perceive and understand. Our brotherhood and sisterhood reaches only a span above the Earth. When a brother takes a span of land from someone's field, they quarrel and the brotherhood is spoiled. Take for instance the relations among doctors, merchants, priests, preachers and others; their brotherhood has reached only a span above the Earth. This is the contemporary social development people have attained in their conception of brotherhood. Christ says, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake." You will say, "Why should they persecute me?" I ask, "Why should they not persecute you?" It is often said that muddy water is more favorable to the soil than pure water for when the former passes through the soil, it leaves certain sediments which the plants use. In this way, every year the river Nile deposits millions of tons of humus alluvium in which ancient Egypt produced enormous quantities of wheat. Suffering is that divine sediment that comes from the heights and when it is deposited in your fields, it fertilizes them and God says, "Now you must sow!" Out of these sediments—sins, misunderstandings—will come the best bread and you will say, "Thank God, how good all these things have been!" If there is no suffering, there will not be bread. Christ says, "I am the living bread." He is actually living bread because people are nourished by Him daily. "Blessed are you when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake." If people speak evil of you when you deserve it, it is not praise-worthy; you deserve it, if you are to blame. You must suffer for righteousness, for the rights of God. Now many people suffer for wrongdoing. I ask, if Christ should come today, what teaching would He give to the world? All people want to be happy and blessed, to have good husbands, wives, children, but where will you take these good husbands, wives and children from? If you sow the best wheat in sand, it will grow weak. But if you fertilize this sand, after a time the wheat will grow better. I understand this Law inwardly. What is happening in the world? Everything is going normally there— what is happening there must happen. The apostle Paul says in a letter, "We all live and move in God." If you live and move in God, what are you afraid of? You sit in a boat in the sea, a storm comes up and you are frightened. I ask, where is your faith? "We shall sink!" If you are sinful, you will sink. If you are like gold, silver, iron, you will sink. However, if you are a light feather, you will remain on the surface, but the others who are bearing a heavy load will sink— woe unto them! Therefore, never burden your minds with thoughts that make you heavy! It is not important what people think of you, the important thing is what God is thinking. God is everywhere where rational beings are found. He is neither in the dead nor in the sinful. By the word God I understand the pleasant feelings and thoughts you are experiencing in your consciousness and by means of which you understand Him. God lives in us and He has the power to resurrect us. If God is not in contact with me, if He cannot cause me to live, what need have I of such God? What is the use then of the existence of a God? That is why Christ says, "If my words abide in you and you abide in Me, whatever you ask for will be given you, will come to life." Christ says that He is living Word, "The words I speak to you are in you, they are living." That is why Christ's teaching which is within us has power by itself. "Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is you reward in heaven." This means that these people are to have a future life. What does a future life imply? Some think that when they die, they shall go to another world. No, they will not go to another world, but simply pass from one state to another as it is with a cocoon. When a worm is on a leaf nibbling, it thinks this is its world, but after it turns into a butterfly and obtains wings, it begins to visit the flowers and changes its views of the world. So long as we nibble the leaves of material life, we are also caterpillars; but when we pass through the cocoon stage and become souls dressed in beautiful clothes, we shall comprehend life in its higher manifestations. Do not get offended, but many people today are in the state of caterpillars. They say, "We need to save money for rainy days," but this is the life of a caterpillar. "We need houses for rainy days"—this is the way a caterpillar thinks, because it needs the leaf. I ask, if the caterpillar becomes a butterfly of what use these leaves will be to it? When you begin to rise, you will say to your brothers, "I leave these leaves to you as a gift." That is why Christ says, "What you do not need, give it to those who are in your state, let them use it." Truly, the teaching of Christ is for everybody, but all people are not equally prepared to comprehend it and to apply it. Each one can apply it according to their stage of development. This means that you must become conscious of your state. Those who are behind or ahead are not to be judged or envied for somehow you will all pass this way voluntarily or by necessity. If you do not thrash voluntarily, God will come with a whip, rein you as a horse to a thrashing machine and thrash the wheat. When they ask you why you have become horses, you will answer, "To thrash the wheat." A great number of people today thrash on the Divine thrashing-floor. When I see a horse thrashing wheat, I say, he is doing his work well. Then I ask myself if I am doing my work well. If people today want to understand Christ's teaching well, a Divine harmony must be restored among them. Can you sense how blessed you are? You can. People complain all the time and say, "I am unhappy." You are blessed, because Christ says, "Blessed are the unhappy." Someone is ill. What is illness? A sign that the Divine Light is working on you wishing to resurrect you. You have troubles in your development and cannot resolve some problem. The Divine thought wants to raise you and illumine you. "My heart is heavy"—the Divine life is working, wishing to soften your heart. God is working in us. People today are like children who like to raise dust in the classrooms. When the teacher enters and sees dust everywhere, she begins to sneeze. I see sneezing everywhere: teachers, preachers, mothers, fathers—all are sneezing. Why? There is dust. Open the windows, air the rooms, wash the floor and the sneezing will stop. If you do not want to sneeze, see that your room is cleaned. Sneezing means that there is dust, suspicion, doubts. Light is necessary, if you would understand the sense of life. I ask, "How long have you been on earth? Where were you 200 years ago? Where were your ancestors—father, grandfather, grandmother one thousand years ago?" You will say that you need not know this. You need not know it, but when your grandfather leaves you an inheritance, you go around the banks to look for it and to find out everything about it. Why? Because you have something to inherit. But if your grandfather has a debt, you pretend not to know him, because otherwise you will have to pay for him. This is not chivalry. You are not cavalier—that is, you cannot ride a horse, you cannot rule your mind, you are not able to manage your thought, you are not a sensible person. Christ says, "Blessed are those who understand the sense of life this way." Then wealth is hidden in our brain, in our thought, in our heart. A rich young man falls in love with a poor girl. She may be poor, but there is hidden wealth in her. It is expressed in her face. There are thousands of cases when kings or other eminent men have fallen in love with poor girls and have risen by that, but these girls have an inner wealth which Christ has deposited in them. When a person is virtuous and just, possessing the Divine Love, Wisdom and Truth—all these things are vividly inscribed on that person. I have met Virtue and have spoken with it—what blessings spring from it! Do you know what beautiful daughter of God is Virtue? I have also met the Divine Righteousness—she, too, is beautiful, but strict, she does not forgive the mistakes. You may say to her, "I am weak." "Weak or strong you must not violate the command of your Father." Love is very beautiful and delicate, she does not see people's mistakes. No matter what you do before her, she will kiss you, pat you, clean and dress you in nice clothes and take you home. Men and women must love one another! Someone says, "My wife does not love me". You have not found the woman who loves you. Your wife on earth is a shadow of Love. A woman says, "I shall marry him because he is rich, he has a house and an income of 10,000 leva." This woman takes, she does not give, and therefore she cannot make her husband happy. The man says, "I married her because she is rich, although she is quite ugly." This man also cannot make his wife happy, because every teaching which takes but does not give, cannot make people happy. Self-sacrifice is in the basis of the Christian teaching. There are two kinds of sacrifices; either you will sacrifice yourself, or others will sacrifice you. For instance, why do people kill lambs on St George's Day in Bulgaria? First, they put a wreath round their necks and after a dedication ceremony, they kill them. Why do they make this sacrifice? For eating. There are spirits in this world who someday will put a wreath on you too, place you on the sacrificial altar and kill you, so you will die. People will say that a certain person has died. I say, he is not dead; he is alive. One day you will also be on the table of death where you will be eaten up. They will say, "What a nice, well-fed body this is! What muscles, what a heart, what lungs, wonderful!" People die, because they eat meat. When they stop eating meat, there will be no death in the world. The flesh of the sinners is very tender; the same is true for all low quality stuffs. Clothes made of good fibers are tough and lasting; they do not wear out easily. The flesh of the righteous is tough and hard, that is why they do not eat it. There is no death for the righteous39. Therefore, the Divine teaching will create in us sound thoughts, a sound mind and a strong heart. Those who would attempt to destroy a good thought, a Divine desire, will destroy themselves. Such a person will come to the state of the crocodile that swallows small frogs. In the river Niles there are small frogs which the crocodiles often swallow. The crocodile opens his mouth, the small frog jumps into it and he swallows it whole. However, when the frog enters the stomach of the crocodile, it wants to get out and in order to do that, it slowly makes a hole in the stomach and gets out through it, then the crocodile's stomach gets filled with water, he turns on his back and dies. Some people complain and say, "They ate me up!" If God is with you, those who will attempt to eat you up will pay dearly for that. If you have faith, you should fear nothing. The living God is with you. The spirit of God is already coming down as the Light which comes to the Earth. He is coming, bringing great Light, fire and life which will purify the world. Contemporary people will experience these things and be witnesses of the Restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth. By His coming on earth God will unite all people and malice will gradually vanish. All misunderstandings spring from the mistrust and suspicion people have of each other. I shall quote the example of the frost, the wind and the Sun. These wanted to try and see which of them could make a shepherd take off his leader coat. The frost started first. It became bitter cold. The frost said, "Now I shall make him take off his furs," but the shepherd wrapped himself more tightly and walked faster for his home. The frost did not succeed. Then the wind began to howl and rage, tearing down trees and scattering away all things on its way. But the shepherd wrapped himself still more tightly and hurried home. Last spoke the Sun, "You made your attempt; now it is my turn." The Sun smiled kindly and joyfully, sending all its love down. The shepherd began to feel warmer and warmer until he could not bear the heat and took off his coat. Two teachings are preached in the world: of the frost and of the wind. Now, the teaching of Love remains, which will take down the fur-coats. Some ask, "What do you think?" Look me in the eyes and you will see what I think. When I see you, I do not ask what you are thinking for I know your thoughts. You think of a two-story house, more furniture, you think of marrying, of having children and so on. I meet a scientist and what thoughts do I see in him? He is making scientific investigations. I meet another person who intends to steal. Everything a person thinks is written on their face. God has opened the book already and everything written on it can be seen clearly. If Christ should decide to judge the world, He would pass the verdict immediately and say, "According to such and such an item of God's Law this is what you deserve for what you have done." But the mission of Christ is quite different now. He is summoning humanity to a sane life. You should not consider yourselves very saintly—you must know this. A saint must be an excellent person, knowing how to serve, to have a sound body, a sound mind, strong legs and arms, strong muscles, to be with empty hands, i.e. not to be rich, but not to be poor either. However, such a one must be in Tolstoy's state—to distribute his goods to the poor and to help them. Such is a real saint. In heaven God classifies the saints into great and small. Those who have been much spoken of, who have suffered much and have endured everything with dignity, are saints. Why do people revere Christ today? Because He paid all their debts and bore all their sins. If Christ had not suffered, if He had not given anything of Himself to people, He would have been an ordinary person. Everyone must serve God and know they have their place on the Earth. You will say that the apostle Paul was a great man. I say that if you fulfill your role on earth well, you will also be a great person. A woman who has lived for 20 years with her husband carrying his heavy yoke, who has cooked for him and borne everything with patience, while he has maltreated her—such a woman will be a saint. The same thing will be said of a man. If he has endured patiently all unpleasant things caused by his wife, who has maltreated him, he will be a saint. Only such men and women will be saints in heaven. Everyday on earth I see women decked with diamonds, necklaces who live luxuriously, leading a carefree life—such women will be poor in the other world with ragged clothes. Someday you will find yourselves in the state of that rich miser of a woman who had a poor but virtuous servant. Although the servant received only 60 leva a month, he gave all his money to the poor. His mistress often told him that he was foolish giving his money away, because he would need it for "rainy days." One night the lady had a vivid live dream: she saw a beautiful marble palace and asked, "Whose is this palace?" "It is your servant's palace." "How could such a poor man have so much money to build himself such a wonderful palace?" "All that he gained on earth, he sent it to the other world to have a palace built there." A little farther she say a small hut. "And whose is this hut?" "It is yours," was the answer. I say, you may be great personalities in this world, but in the other world God will judge you according to your deeds and give everyone what they deserve. You should not delude yourselves, but you must know the Truth and place a definite boundary between the Divine and the human. You say that you understand the word Love. No, you do not understand it. Not only don't you understand the word Love, but the words Righteousness, Truth and Wisdom are incomprehensible to you as well. When I enter a house and see an angered woman, is this Wisdom? When the word Wisdom is pronounced, a change must take place in one's state! The sense of every word must be understood! If you enter a theater where thousands of people are sitting and cry out, "Fire!"—everybody will rush to the exits for they will be terrified at the thought of impending death. Why is that so? Because all people understand the sense of this word. But if someone should come among them and pronounce the word Love, they will all look at one another jokingly and take that person is out of their mind. They will say, "What does that one mean by this word?" This shows that people do not understand the deep sense of the word Love, for if they did, it would have produced the same effect as the word fire only in an opposite sense. If I meet a sad person and pronounce the word Love, all his suffering and discontentment should disappear; he should become joyful, become bright as an angel and turn from a worm into a butterfly. You often say, "Oh, my God!"—but you do not understand this word either. I seldom pronounce the name of God in my soul; I pronounce it only when I have a heavy burden and then I am relieved of the whole burden. This word contains everything for me. In Bulgarian I substitute this word by the words I can. Never say, "I am weak." Say, "I can do everything through Christ." Put aside everything else! Put Christ in the first place. You will understand Christ, you will understand God only by the words I can. I am not disturbed by darkness; when the Earth revolves in a day and night, this is the order of things. When it is dark in someone's mind, I say that his sun has set so there is darkness in his mind. This person should lie down and rest, not worry, because in twelve hours the Sun will rise again inside them—their Lord will come. Then Love will enter them and they will begin to understand the deep sense of life. This is what Christ taught before; this is what He teaches now. All are waiting for Christ to come from heaven. No, He has come down once already. He will not come down to earth a second time. God came down to earth when He made it, when he created the world. He has been working on the world ever since and will stay here until He puts complete order. After that He will return to heaven with all His children. This God is always with us and He is working together with us. He will gather us and form a tree of life out of us in which we are roots, branches, leaves and fruit: every leaf will be for healing and every fruit— living food. Then we shall be one with God just as every cell, every root, every branch and every leaf are parts of the tree. "Blessed are you when they persecute you." You are blessed, because then you are moving forward, because the work you are doing is for the good of humanity. Since such is the case, your reward in heaven will be great. When someone needs you and tells you, you are a bad person, he has told you what is right—become good! You are ugly; he has said the right thing— become beautiful! You are malicious; he has said the right thing—become kind! People are speaking so much about me that if I pay attention to all that the hairs of my head will have all fallen off. I say, these people are right, I am a dangerous man. Why? Because I am a mirror. When someone meets me, he sees himself in my mirror and says, "You are a vagabond." You are saying the right thing. "You are a dodger!" You are right. See yourself in your mirror and correct yourself! People are like an American preacher who was out of his mind and one day when he looked himself in a mirror, he did not recognize himself and said, "You must repent or God will send you to hell!" I enjoy looking myself in people and when I meet a good person, I want to see myself in them; that is why I look in a mirror. There must be two kinds of mirrors: those in which we can look ourselves and those, our own, in which other people will look themselves. Only in this way can people correct their mistakes. Woe unto those nations, societies and churches that have no mirrors! Doctors today also use mirrors in their daily practice. When they examine your throat, for instance, they use a mirror. Christ's teaching also bears a mirror. In order to understand the deep sense of sufferings, you must keep in mind that they are necessary for the happiness and blessedness of our future life. Sufferings are the greatest good God is sending to people. This is what Christ says, "When someone is suffering and feels very burdened, let him come to me. I shall buy off his sufferings by giving him something else, we shall make an exchange on a purely brotherly basis." And now Christ is coming to earth in glory to take the burden of humanity; that is why He says, "Lay your burden upon the Lord!" You will make an exchange: God will take your sufferings and in exchange He will give you joys. By having come to earth, He wishes to make you happy. In order to be happy, you must be sensible and wise. Pronounce the word Wisdom only when you cannot explain some difficult question. Pronounce the word Wisdom and wait for 10 minutes after which a certain clarification will come to you. You will be like a blind person who begins to see and notices the beauty of the world. This person says, "I see everything in the world and understand how great the Lord is!" And we must thank God for having created this world, for having created the home, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, women, children, and even the misfortunes along with all those other things, we should thank Him for everything. Those who have started on the way of Christ, must thank God for everything. When we thank God, we shall come to an understanding of one another. And when we pronounce the word Love, if we are sad, we shall feel immediately joy, warmth which will fill our body and our frozen limbs will start to move. Then we shall clearly see angels descending from above. This is what to become clairvoyant means. Some people expect to become clairvoyant and see everything after they die. Do not wait for your death, but while you are still alive you should resurrect in the Lord. Do not say, "When I die, I shall understand life." On the contrary, say, "When I change my clothes, when I turn from a worm into a cocoon and from a cocoon into a butterfly then I shall see God and understand life." You say, "I shall die and be buried in the black grave, but what will become of me when the worms attack me?" The worms are your smaller brothers. They will come to you and say, "Let us have a taste of you! Christ is living bread for you, but you will be living food for us." Be not afraid, people are not in the graves, I do not see them in the graveyards. I repeat that there are two kinds of people—the first kind are the living dead whom we meet every day in Sofia, the others are the dead living. Christ says, "Blessed are the dead living who died for the Lord." It is not said anywhere, "Blessed are the living dead." The latter are caterpillars. The dead living are butterflies and they are not dangerous, because they do not eat the leaves of the trees. When a thought which is distractive enters your mind, it is a caterpillar, throw it out! But when a thought which raises you enters your mind, it is a beautiful butterfly, retain it. Therefore, everyday you should throw out the thoughts which eat up the leaves of your life. This is the teaching of Christ. Christ says, "Blessed are you when they persecute you, because great is your reward in heaven." I shall explain the deep sense of these words. When you sow a grain of wheat, it begins to decay and many enemies attack it, microbes, but as soon as it looks up to the Light, the Sun shines on it and its enemies run away. Therefore, you must also be persecuted in order to grow upward. When Christ says, "Blessed are the persecuted," He means that blessed are those who grow up, those who produce roots, leaves, blossoms and fruit. Great is this reward when the Lord comes and finds their fruit ripe. Has this teaching any sense? It has. This is what it means to be persecuted for the sake of Christ. If they persecute me and I have no fruit, I deserve to be persecuted. If, however, I am persecuted to give fruit to God and I have fruit, this persecution makes sense, for it means growth. It will give the necessary impulse, an impetus for work. When we reason this way, we shall begin to think rightly and to understand why we live. That is why we must pray for all people! The Scripture says, "Bless and curse not, say the Truth right in the face as to a brother, or a friend and never speak evil of anyone!" Speaking evil is like vomiting the food you have eaten, but the mouth was not created for vomiting, but for the sweet words of Love. This is the Teaching the saints bring down from above; this is the Teaching that the righteous have been preaching to the world for thousands of years; this is the teaching of the small angels who descend to earth. When Christ comes, He will bring the same Teaching. The white horse on which He is coming is the symbol of His Teaching of Light, "Blessed are those who know the Lord" means those who have grown up and have developed, having roots, branches, leaves and fruit, because God will visit them and reward them. I wish all of you to be in such a state—to be blessed so when God comes He will find fruit in your garden and you would invite Him to visit your home, your heart. Then He will give you the spirit of the new Teaching. "Blessed are you when God visits you, for great is your reward in heaven." Sermon held on February 4, 1917, in Sofia. __________________ 38. Matt. 5:10. 39. Probably reference to the non-decaying bodies of saints. In Bulgaria St John of Rila (≈876–946) is such an example. After the death of his parents, he gave away his modest inheritance to the poor and needy. Until his death, he led a humble and devout life as a hermit in the Rila Mountain, where he subsisted on wild berries and plants. His non-decaying body now rests in the Rila Monastery (ed. note).

All things which are written “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Luke 21: 22 The word vengeance in this verse sounds strange, which shows that it is not used appropriately. Neither in Bulgarian, nor in the other languages can a more appropriate word be found, a word that can convey the meaning of Jesus’ words. To some extent, it can be replaced with the words account, countdown, annihilation, or balance. Jesus, Who has always been considered to be a role model in terms of feelings, thoughts, deeds and aspirations, uttered some bitter words. Unpleasant though these words are, they have the same beneficial effect on the human soul as bitter pills on a sick body. Would anybody be capable of correcting his distorted thought, unless he encountered the counteraction of the right thought? Many Christians keep thinking that they can do as they wish and make mistakes without being aware of them or of bearing the consequences. They believe that as soon as they repent and turn to God, their sins will be erased. Errors, though, can be deleted only after they have been corrected. A truly ideal Life excludes the possibility of making mistakes and committing crimes. Sins and fallacies are accidental interceptions in Life. They can be done voluntarily or involuntarily, or to put it in the terms of modern jurisdiction – with malice afterthought or unintentionally. Therefore, it is not people’s assignment to perpetrate crimes. They have come to earth as a necessary part of their development. They have a grand mission – to conquer the earth and become masters of all animals. What does mastering mean? What can man master and rule over? To be the master of the earth means to cultivate it properly and establish order all over. Being the master of animals means taking care of them in a way that makes them happy and content. Only a sensible, good-natured and free person can be the master of the earth and of the weaker creatures living there. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” This verse can be discussed in its broader sense – in relation to humanity as a whole. It can also be analysed in narrower outlines – in view of man’s personal life and body. The human body is one’s earth, with all kinds of species on it – fish, birds, and mammals. All this has to be conquered, but as it belongs to another Master, man is responsible for the subordinate creatures to which he is temporarily a master. Jesus said, “ Lord, the sheep you gave me are Yours, so I sacrifice my life to them.” That’s why, everyone should bear in mind that any power given to them makes them responsible. Everybody wants to be strong, but acquiring certain strength makes sense only if it is exploited for something Good or great. Otherwise, strength becomes pointless. Strength, just like gifts and abilities, is acquired step by step, in the course of one’s growth, and not at once. Have you ever considered how many thousands of years it took the caterpillar to develop the skill of weaving and forming a cocoon until it finally breaks the chrysalis and turns into a butterfly? Those who are not acquainted with biology would say that God created everything. God gave all creatures the conditions to develop, but it is entirely up to them to strive to improve their lives, i.e. to get on a higher rung. Anyone willing to trace the stages of development can take a cocoon for close observation, pore over a microscope, then take a magnifying glass to trace the stages of growth and the differentiation of cells, until, finally, one can see the tiny worm, the chrysalis and the butterfly. You will say that this is an unconscious process. The maggot lives unconsciously here on earth, but in a higher world, the maggot is a conscious creature. That is why the Scripture reads that you are where your heart lives. Or, in other words, you live where your consciousness lives. If the consciousness of the maggot does not exist here, we look upon it as an unconscious creature. The cocoon lives unconsciously here, but what about man, who undergoes the experience of the prodigal son? He separated from God, severed the bonds with his supreme consciousness and set off wandering round the world. Is one given the right to part from God? If the bonds between the Divine and the human consciousness are severed, one has the right to part from God. One is free to wander, to dissipate his father’s wealth with light-minded friends; one can become a swineherd, living in misery, and finally, when his consciousness is awakened, to come back to his father and say, “Please, accept me as one of your servants. I do not deserve to be called your son. Forgive me, for I offended both against you and God.” Then the father can rightfully give his son a joyous welcoming and kill the fatted calf. The elder brother can be angry with his father for killing the fatted calf for his younger son, who wasted all the money and now comes back down and out. Such is the lot of any man, family or society that have gone astray from God. This is what happens nowadays throughout the world. According to the Scripture Jesus will make a Second Advent. What will herald it? – The wakening of human consciousness. When one becomes destitute, with all his wealth lost and now down and out, he will realise that he has gone astray and will start awaiting Jesus’ Advent. This is what awakening the consciousness means. This is a process that is already becoming a necessity. Everybody must come back to their father and repent. Only then will one be able to see the consequences of his Life both in the past and in the present. You will be just like the Prodigal son, who became aware of his past experience, realised what he lost and gained and then decided to come back to his father. He realised that nothing can be achieved by being a swineherd. Eventually, it was hunger that made him come back and become his father’s servant. You will say that it is awful for one to wander down and out. If you have ended up living in misery, if you have repented and came back to your father, you should only rejoice, for your shabby, tattered clothes, i.e. your inherent shortcomings have been revealed, you are already aware of them and ready to remedy them. You should be only too glad that you have become wiser. When you get wiser, you feel content, inwardly satisfied with having the necessary food, clothes and shoes, though outwardly you can still remain hungry, shabby and bare-footed. You should be grateful that you have found enough common sense to come back to your father and say, “Father, forgive me, for I committed a sin, but I learnt the great law that everybody gets what they deserve.” “That all things which are written may be fulfilled.” These words refer to all modern societies, countries and nations. The European nations will get impoverished, they will lose their strength, and famine will come to the Earth: hens, turkeys, lambs and swine will lower in number and become almost extinct. What’s more, bread will become scarce – a ratio of 200 to 300g will be given per person. You may happen to starve for two or three days on end. Everyone will ask, “ Why did all this happen? Who caused all these disasters?” – Not just one person is to blame. Everybody is responsible for the unfortunate consequences. Are the friends you drank and ate with guilty for your failure? It was you who invited them to eat and drink with you, because you wanted to have more fun. Whose fault is it now? Once you had fun, without thinking of the long-term implications; you should be brave enough now to bear the consequences. You should be even grateful that you are now given the chance to correct your mistakes. Religious people are getting ready to leave this world and move to another one, better organised and perfect. If the fruit falls unripe from the tree, where will it go? Will there be fruit good enough for the market? Will it be served at the table of a rich man? Can you see it in a child’s pocket? The fruit that has fallen unripe will be found rotten by the trunk of the tree. The other world is closed to it. The unripe fruit will remain on the tree – this world here - until it gets ripe. Therefore, both worlds – this one and the other one - are the same for people who are unprepared. One needs a long time to spend here, on earth, to study and to grow until the process of development is over. Here is the place for them to go to a primary, secondary and high school, and finally to university. Then they will enroll for the great school of life and enter the organised world called Heaven. Only fully mature, learned people are accepted to heaven. Anyone who goes there will be given a gob that has to be accomplished. Lazy people are not admitted there. Anyone who goes there unprepared will be left to wait for a day or two before being assigned some task. Anyone who proves to be inefficient will be sent back to earth. An old woman dreamt of going to the other world. The first thing she saw there was a big table laid with a white tablecloth, and round the table a few white bearded old men were sitting, reading a book. She saw that they were busy reading something. Not knowing what to say and how to address these people, she felt embarrassed. One of them asked her, “Why have you come, old lady? Do you know to read or write?” – “I don’t know, son. I never learnt these.” – “If you can’t read or write, your job will be to fetch water.” – “Well, son, this is what I had been doing all my life. I am sick and tired of fetching water. Don’t make me do the same here.” – “If you don’t want to fetch water, then you will come back to earth to learn to read and write.” While we are on earth, we pass through three areas in Life. The first one is the stomach. While we are still living in the stomach, we have to observe its laws and regulations. The stomach gives feasts and invites guests. Everybody sits at the table waiting for the hostess to serve the food she has prepared. The table is laden with plenty of food – soup, roast chicken, turkey or steaks, and a glass or two of vintage wine to cheer up the guests. All are eating, praising God for the goods He has bestowed on them. This is how Life is seen from the perspective of the stomach. If you ask someone why they indulge in eating pork, poultry or lamb, they will answer that they are destined by God to be the master of animals. Such people let all animals in the stomach and feel satisfied. When they are inside they start asking, “Master, what are we doing here?” Each animal starts revealing its true nature: the swine is rooting about, the bull is butting, the hen is scratching and the turkey is strutting. Shortly after, the stomach is heavy with indigestion. The master is moaning with aches and calls for the doctor to see what is wrong with him. It is simple: the animals that have entered the stomach cannot get along well. They cause indigestion. The doctor prescribes some purgative, the master vomits everything and the stomach is relieved. What does vomit mean? In my opinion, the words vomit and gossip are synonymous in Bulgarian. Just as overeating causes indigestion, so bad and impure thoughts upset the heart. Knowing this, you should never let them enter your heart or let them out as negative emotions. Why should people talk behind each other’s back? If a negative emotion enters your heart, you should try to suppress it. If someone happens to have eaten rotten food, they usually start talking about it, until finally, they throw it up. If they do not talk about what has happened to them, they will talk about others who have taken bad food. Do not eat impure food so that you should not talk about what you have eaten. You should talk neither about yourselves, nor about others. The function of the mouth is to accept pure, healthy food and not to throw up the impure, unhealthy food. The human body has two doors: an inlet and an outlet. If one accepts and throws food from one and the same door, the harmony in the body will be shattered. This law applies both to physical and spiritual food. If you let something go out from your mouth, it should be the best. The human tongue is not allowed to use negative or bitter words. That is why the Scripture says that you should be held responsible for any empty word. The same refers to one’s thoughts, feelings and deeds. Man is related to the sensible world, with creatures from a high culture – saints, Angels, Archangels, who hold man responsible for every deed, thought or feeling, coming out from the heart or the mind. One day he will be held responsible for everything he has admitted into himself. Man comes to live on the earth; he comes into existence, eats, gets dressed, studies, etc., for which a lot of energy is needed – Light and warmth, various elements – oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, silver, gold, etc. All this costs millions. We can see one grow and develop, but we cannot know how much this costs Nature. Nor do we know how much energy the sensible creatures working on him have wasted. You should try to estimate the expenses of someone who has lived here for a hundred years to find out whether one is entitled to abuse what he has been given. One who abuses the rights he is given is deprived of the favourable conditions of Life – to be born and reincarnated. Being unable to reincarnate means being locked forever. Evil cannot exist freely any longer. Jesus came to earth mainly to free man from evil – both people and animals. In other words, all human ideals will disappear, replaced by other eternal ones. Any thought or desire not based on a grand ideal will vanish beyond recall. There can be just one desire or thought for you to cherish, but it should be immortal. What’s the point of giving birth to ten children unless you do not follow God’s will? What child is it that does not love his father? Neither Love, nor hope can find its expression. Love is the strongest and foremost human incentive. God’s Love for humanity and every living creature makes Him come among people. Usually God comes to this world at times of hardship and turmoil when humanity goes through big crises. We are having hard times now, so God is closest to people. When speaking of reincarnation, many are reluctant to acknowledge it, though it does not matter. What difference does it make if an important fact is not acknowledged? The fact exists after all. People existed in prehistoric times; they exist now. They were born and reborn, owing to which they acquired something new and improved. One is reborn but with a different name. The same happens to nations. Modern nations, known as Germans, Russians, English, French and Bulgarians used to exist under different names. It is not known when exactly man came to existence – there are various opinions on this issue. According to the Bible man has been existing for 8,000 years. Occultists believe that man has been around for 18 million years. God comes here not to judge people but to purify the world. How will He achieve this? – Through fire. That is why the Scripture reads that each barren tree will be rooted out and thrown in the fire. The tree cannot live on barren land; it needs soil. Therefore, each person who does not give any fruit will be rooted out and thrown in the fire. When does man give fruit? – When one lives in compliance with the laws of Love. There is no Life beyond Love. There cannot be any achievement without Love. Throughout his life, man has to create the soil he is to plough and sow, just like a farmer does. The impure thoughts and desires that have fallen upon it spoil this soil. It has to be purified. How? – By ploughing it a few times, after which you have to let it dry in the Sun until becoming fertile again. Providence brings upon man plenty of suffering so that it can help him get rid of sin. In this respect suffering is the plough necessary to toil with on the patch of land. It has to be ploughed a few times so that it can be purified in the Sun. Then it can become fit for sowing pure thoughts and desires. God’s Love has to work on the human soul for thousands of years so that it can give fruit. It is normal for man to be sulky and displeased while the fruit is ripening. Initially, the fruit is bitter and sour. The longer it basks in the Sun, the sweeter it becomes, until finally, it is fully ripe, sweet and fragrant. The process of ripening is over. So, when one is sulky and displeased, you should know that he is at the beginning of his life – at the embryonic stage. After a few Divine years he will get mature and sweet – the discontent will turn into contentment. Anger and discontent are in their proper place when they lie on the grounds of sound principles. Everything makes sense when it is in its proper place, i.e. when it is reasonable. During the Ottoman Oppression the Bulgarians feared tax collectors very much. A Bulgarian felt quite comfortable and relaxed before the tax collector came. He would go outside the front door with a jack-knife and a stick in his hand and while whittling at the stick, he was setting the world to rights. However, as soon as the arrival of the tax collector was announced, the Bulgarian got startled, whittling more nervously and worrying about paying his taxes. Minutes ago he would think freely, claiming that God does not exist. The moment the tax collector came, he would start believing in God – the stick, i.e. Justice is imposed. So he would point the stick at himself. If you have money, you are the master. Without any money, you lose your title. A young handsome lad enjoyed the freedom he had. He had many friends and was footloose and fancy-free. Girls liked him for the great freedom he had and referred to him as the King of all kings. One day he decided to get engaged. The girls started regarding him only as a king. Then he got married. Now he was regarded only as an ordinary man. When eventually he got divorced, everybody would look upon him as a laughing stock, as one inferior to all the others. God sends people to the earth to feel free and independent as kings. What do they do? They find a husband or a wife to commit to. They lose their freedom and descend from the position of a king. When they get married they become ordinary people. Then they get divorced, thus reducing themselves to a laughing stock. If they have made a mistake, they have to correct it. The husband whittles at the stick, so does the wife, thinking how to pay the tax collector. Do not get involved with people who are expected to pay taxes. For all the things which are written.” In other words: The Day of Judgement is coming! – When will it come? – When the Divine light enters people’s minds and they start seeing clearly what exactly they have done in their present and previous lives. They already have a new task assigned – to correct their Lives and all the mistakes they have made. Be grateful for the Light given to you! Be ready, just like the Prodigal son, to turn to God with due Repentance and humility and say, “ O Lord, I beg for Your mercy! I didn’t fulfil your will, but I am ready to serve You devotedly.” Pray to God to inscribe your names in the Book of Life. Give up the lie you have been serving for years and embrace the Truth. If you are not ready to serve God gratefully, you will find yourselves in the position of the Greek tzar who was ungrateful to his doctor.. The Greek tzar in this story was suffering from leprosy. An eminent doctor came to his kingdom. The doctor, known as Duban, started taking care of the tzar and soon managed to cure him. As a token of his gratitude the tzar appointed him in his Privy Council. Many became envious and started scheming against him. The malicious gossip reached the tzar, who believed it and ordered the doctor’s execution. Before the order was carried out, the doctor appeared before his master, told him the true story and begged for mercy. The tzar reversed his appeal and confirmed his verdict. Then the doctor said, “I’ll give you a book in which you will find the answers to all the problems troubling you. While thumbing the pages, you will hear my voice speaking through your head.” The tzar took the book, pleased that he would be able to make interesting observations. After the execution the book appeared on his desk. The tzar started turning the pages, but the more he read, the worse he felt. The pages were treated with poison. On turning the last page, he heard a voice saying, “This is what everyone who is ungrateful deserves.” This is how the ungrateful tzar ended his life. Who is the doctor curing human leprosy? – Jesus. Instead of being grateful, you are ready to cut His head in order to get rid of Him. Then the devil, whose advice you take, will approach you and give you the book, form which you are going to read his wise advice every day. This book is poisonous. By reading his book, you will gradually get poisoned. When you turn the last page, you will hear the devil saying to you, “This is what any sinner who repays good by evil deserves. Such a person does not deserve to live.” Many keep complaining about injustice in Life, blaming God for it. If they think so, then they bear injustice. If just one Life were given to you, then you would be right to complain. But what would you say if you knew that you would live many lives here on the earth? Don’t you think that it is you that have caused injustice? You live by God’s grace. God is so lenient to you and yet you grumble. A new age is coming, a new culture, and new conditions. The hew age is celebrated with God’s advent to this world in order to establish law and order, to separate the mortal from the immortal, sinners from righteous people. It is up to any of us to choose the category he or she falls into. A sinner with impure thoughts and desires will create a body with the appropriate brain, lungs and stomach. The thoughts and desires take the form that matches them. No wonder then that so many forms exist: bears, wolves, tigers, lions, snakes, etc. The forms are created according to the thoughts and desires. It is only natural then that there should be bad and good people; some are healthy, cheerful and agile, while others are ill, weak and unfit for work. Do not wonder why germs destroying the human body exist. Doctors organise conferences to discuss how to tackle the problems with germs. There are germs capable of destroying the human body within 24 hours. Germs are a real scourge to humanity. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” You would ask whether God takes revenge on people. Should he take revenge on them through germs? I am not answering your question. I would only ask you: What would you think of your neighbour who would let his pigs plough in your well-kept garden? Your garden is not supposed to be intruded by your neighbour’s pigs. You have worked in it to make it your pride and joy. It is meant to give pleasure to your nearest and dearest. Those who love you are welcome to take a walk in it, enjoying the beautiful flowers and ripe fruit. Imagine that the father of a family has lived and worked abroad. On coming back home, he buys nice presents for his four daughters and his wife. As soon as he comes back, his two daughters turn to the presents and jewellery, examining and enjoying them, totally ignoring their father’s presence. They do not care at all that he is tired and needs attention. However, the other two daughters focus all their attention on him – one fetches him some water to wash and clothes to change, the other cooks him dinner. They do not think about the presents. The father is kind and considerate with all his daughters, but, naturally, his attitude to the first two is different from his attitude to the other two. He would never show that his attitude is different, yet it is. From this we could infer the following law: Love breeds Love. Hatred cannot breed Love. Fear can make you pretend to love someone, but as soon as the fear disappears, hatred grows. Love excludes fear, while no love or hatred breed fear. Those who fear are the evil, dark spirits, whereas good and light spirits do not fear. Therefore, when a dark spirit obsesses you, you feel afraid. You ought to drive the evil spirit away. Let it become your servant and not your master. As soon as you drive it away, you will become strong and courageous. You will raise your awareness, entering a new sphere where love and agreement, Light and peace reign. What will happen to the world? – Do not think about that; think of yourselves. The master of the world used to be someone who is bound now. He is trembling with fear now, regretting having lost his power. He will be sent to the lower world where he will be taught to work. He used to eat and drink, but now he has to work – there is no other possible salvation for him. As long as the chief master is bound, it will be easy for you to cope with the less important masters. Each of you is able to bind the small master within the self and set him to work. Do not fear this master, for his reign is over. Put Jesus to the throne of your kingdom and follow His path. Only in this way will you be able to walk in Light and the Angels will befriend you. This is what God wants from us all. Listen to His voice and be ready to submit Him. It is time for you to sever the bonds with your former master and reestablish connection with the One Who has crated you and Who cares about you. Religious people prepare themselves to pass through all the planets and finally settle on the Sun. This will be, but not now. You are not ready for the other planets yet. It is worth going round all the planets and stars, but only if you achieve something or mend your ways. Otherwise, just passing by and seeing new things without getting to the point would be a futile effort. There will come a day when you will be able to travel freely from one planet to another, but not in your present bodies. You need to form a new body, capable of dissembling and assembling so that it would be easy for you to move from one place to another. One day people will be travelling without ships, trains or planes. They will have a new type of body, shaped and structured differently. They will have a new kind of Light and knowledge. They will be acquainted with the laws of the Universe and able to apply them. Then they will not toil the land the way they do now, but sustain themselves in a way unknown to today’s scientists. Jesus tells us, “Go now and do not err any longer.” Not to err means not to violate God’s law. Those who serve God follow His laws. Once you enter the Angels’ society, you will be elevated. It is a great blessing to have the grace of the Angels, the saints and the good people. Everyone will be eager to give you something. However, it is awful to find yourselves among enemies. Then everybody will be eager to take something from you, to rob you and ruin you. God’s Kingdom does not ruin people. People live there in harmony, union and service to Love. They live there one for all, while nowadays everyone lives for the self. By “the self” we mean what is inferior in people, mammals, birds and fish. That’s why Jesus says that anyone unable to deny the self cannot be His true disciple. By giving up the inferior part of the self, one is able to evolve more quickly. The law of evolution applies both to people and animals. The more sinful one is, the slower the process of evolution is. One is subjected to greater suffering so that the consciousness can be awakened. The same law applies to animals. This is the reason why some animals suffer more than others do. The harder the suffering is, the more the creature has to pay back. When studying Natural History, you will see that forms gradually change to improve. Naturally, it is a long-term process, taking thousands of years. What counts is not time, but the results. Therefore, when it comes to animals, you should not look down on them. You should bear in mind that there will come the time when they will change and advance to a higher level. Animals are inferior to people in terms of consciousness and living conditions, but some day they will move a step up. It is possible for a human being to communicate with a horse, an ox, or a dog. If one knows how to do it, it is possible to talk even with more inferior species. The shepherd, inhabiting a hut, lives at physical and spiritual conditions different from those typical of a king, living in a palace. Yet you can communicate with them both. There are people who don not rank higher than animals in terms of consciousness. There are animals that are similar to people in terms of consciousness. That’s why you should not judge things by their appearance, but consider their contents and depth. Truth reveals the provenance of man. Some day when you enter the Spiritual World, your thoughts and emotions will become objective. By seeing their true essence, you will feel ashamed, aware that you are ill equipped for this world. So you will start looking forward to coming back to the earth in order to work towards a better future. This is what makes people reincarnate. One needs to work. Whatever situation you are in, you should know that such is your lot. You have to work on yourselves in order to improve your fate. There is just one way to achieve this: by serving God with all your heart, strength and devotion. Or to put it differently, to serve God with all our thoughts, emotions and deeds. We should serve out brethren with the same commitment as we serve ourselves. Who is your fellow creature? – One who helps you and works for you. It means that the ox, the horse and the cow are your fellow creatures. God speaks the languages of all animals and communicates with them, while you feel ashamed to speak to your ox, working in your field from dawn till sunset. Sometimes God prefers to speak to an ox rather than to a haughty sinner, who has caused his own sufferings but blames God for them. An ox keeps pulling the yoke yet never blames its master for the suffering it bears. God has given man plenty of goods and keeps giving. Who is to blame for man’s suffering? – He himself. Suffering comes as a natural consequence of man’s constant abuse of God’s gifts and blessings. What should one do to get rid of suffering? – To reconsider the way one lives and mend his ways. The only power capable of correcting one’s Life is Love. Apply Love and your Life will correct itself. – Which Love? – The one you are ready for. Love has 350 million forms. What man is required to do is to study these forms and recognise them. The ultimate objective is to be able to identify the kind of Love one has for you when he or she tells you “I love you”. Is it like the love of the worm, the spider, the mosquito, the hen, the dog, the bear, the wolf, the ox, the horse, or is it like the love of the mother, the saint, the Angel, etc.? Man is not allowed to show the love of the spider, sucking blood of its beloved, nor is man allowed to have the love of the predator, tearing its prey. God comes to the earth not to judge people but to teach and guide them. He opens the Book of Life to every human being and forces them to read from there in order to see their own mistakes. Where do people make most mistakes? – In Love. When you spot and identify your mistakes, you will say just like the Prodigal Son: “Forgive me Father! I’m coming to you down and out. I’ve lost everything you gave me. I committed a sin, but now I am ready to serve you.” That is the common fate nowadays. God will welcome the Prodigal Son with Love. He will give orders for him to be washed and dressed in new clothes. He will embrace and kiss him and will kill the fatted calf. However, the devil, i.e. the elder brother will be displeased. He will tell God, “I worked for you so many years yet you gave me nothing.” The devil does not tell the truth. All the wealth is his. The devil is said not to have come to help the Angels but the seed of Abraham. So, when Jesus joins the human world, people will advance to a higher level. On hearing His voice, they will perceive His thought. No matter which part of the world Jesus will speak from, they will be able to catch His voice. Righteous people will be able both to see and hear Him. He will be everywhere. It means that people, having developed the sixth sense, will be clairvoyants. If Jesus comes to the earth in flesh for the second time, he will be crucified again. This time He will descend in such a form that it will need no food, nor will it be crucifiable. He will need the fruit of your tree. When He looks at you, He will see whether your soul bears any fruit, and on seeing the fruit, He will say, “Let this soul be blessed!” I mean that blessed is the soul that bears at least one ripe fruit. When Jesus comes to you, you will offer Him your fruit to nourish Him. This is how He will know that you have worked hard in your garden, that you have taken loving care of the orchard. Many men, women and children water their gardens with tears coming from the bottom of their hearts. Some day these tears will give birth to sweet, juicy fruit. Do not fear your tears. Do not say that you cry; say that you water your gardens. Do not say that your hearts are rent with grief, say that you plough your fields. Plough and water God’s fields so that it should yield plenty of fruit. That is the point in Life. That is why Jesus will come to the human world. What is the present state of humanity? It is like a moving ship. Before it sets sail, it rocks and shakes and then when the movement goes to all its parts, it starts floating smoothly along the water surface. Jesus comes to the earth to stir the stranded ship. He will give it a mighty push, will jolt it vehemently and give it the right course. Therefore, Jesus’ advent will blaze the right trail for humanity. All people will start feeling, thinking and acting correctly, just like the ship will be bound for the right destination. It is hard to imagine how all that will happen, yet when the vapour gives impetus to the steamer, when your thoughts become clear and definite, when you become aware of your ultimate objectives, you will see Jesus as clearly as the stoker, who puts coal in the fire-box seeing that he has to do this to make the steamer move ahead. Many have seen Jesus cheerful and beaming with a smile and a halo around His head on His way to Jerusalem as a holy place. Jesus exists in all other worlds, not just on the Earth. Those who are more sensitive are aware of this. They perceive it through both their hearts and minds. There is not a single human being unable to sense even the slightest stir in the self. Those who are more sensitive are more apprehensive of danger. There is nothing to be afraid of. Your ship is moving ahead, having taken the right course towards the Divine port. I do not mean the grave. Just the opposite, as long as your ship is afloat, you will come out of the grave and resurrect. This is exactly what Paul meant when saying that we will not die, but we will change. What is in store for you? – You will go to bed as a cocoon, and you will wake up as a chrysalis. On the next nigh you will go to bed as a chrysalis, and you will wake up as a butterfly, able to fly from one flower to another, gathering their sweet nectar. What has happened to you? – You have changed. God took your old callous hearts and gave you new soft and delicate ones, on which I will inscribe today the new law. He took your distorted minds and gave you new bright ones, able to perceive His thoughts and apply them. Your souls will become a temple of God, you hearts – His altar, where you will offer your sacrifices. The Spirit will become God’s servant. This means serving God with all your heart, strength and devotion. This means the fate of the world. To judge means to find the right path as a member of society and as a nation that is part of humanity. It means knowing your responsibilities and bearing them. Will you know yourselves then? – Certainly, more than you do now. Will you love each other? – More than you do now. Then you will be glad and light-spirited, radiating happiness. Today people’s faces are dark and sulky. Who is to blame? A child saw the Sun rising hidden in fog and clouds. Its red disc could hardly be seen through. – Why are you giving me such a sulky, angry look?” the child asked. The Sun answered, “It’s not my fault. Clouds and fog veil my rays but as soon as they disappear, I’ll show you my bright, smiling face.” What I would like to tell you now is not to ask why Jesus is a gloomy and displeased. Clouds veil his face, too. When they disperse, you will see His bright and smiling face, radiating Love and Light, Joy and Mirth. Jesus’ Love can be compared to the bright and fair image of the Sun. When you feel His Love, you Life here on the earth will become worthwhile. Then you will understand why you were born and why you will die, why you are male or female, why you give birth to children and raise them. Not only will you understand these things, but also they will be given meaning. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” This verse sounds fearful. Those who do not understand its profound meaning will go to hell. Those who interpret it properly say: Jesus comes to this world as a bearer of Reason and Love. He tells everybody on the face of the earth, “Peace!” Everybody will get what they deserve through Jesus’ Love and Reason. Everybody will be given what they are ready to do. Is there anything to worry about? Get ready, each when the time comes to welcome Jesus. Put on your best clothes. For some Jesus will come today, for others He will come tomorrow. They will be some who will greet Him in years. You will meet Him the moment you are ready for this. You should be waiting for Him day in day after, and there will come the time when you will be able to see Him. It is entirely up to you. You should be in your right lace, just like the astronomer holds his due position behind the telescope to observe the sky. The astronomer may be observing a planet so far from the Earth that ordinary people do not even suspect it exists, but he can see it. When the planet approaches the Sun, then all people will be able to see it. Try to be such astronomers, able to see Jesus from afar, while ordinary people have not seen Him yet. Therefore, there are people who can see Jesus now, some who will see Him later when He approaches them, and still others who will not see Him even then but will keep sleeping peacefully in bliss. May you stay awake so that you can see Jesus from afar. If you fail to see Him from afar, I believe you will see Him from close by. You are bound to see Him. He will speak to you and you will be able to hear Him as clearly as you can hear me now. A lecture given by the Master on 28th January, 1917, Sofia

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Two Masters "No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and the mammon."1 Two rational principles are functioning in the world. By saying that you cannot serve these two principles at the same time, Christ means that you cannot be twice more active than you can endure, i.e. greater pressure cannot be produced in a caldron than it can stand. These two principles cannot be placed on a single caldron. In the occult science these principles are called first and second, but in science they are termed as positive and negative. The positive principle is always stronger, and the negative - weaker. The creative force always manifests itself in the weaker principle. What builds in the world is not the strong, but the weak. That is why destructive people are always stronger than the good, the mild people. You have these two principles in yourself at the same time. For instance, when you get angry and cry out, "Put order here at once!" all the servants, women and children get frightened and obey. But this principle is not creative, it does not create anything. Only when you turn your attention inside yourself and get calm, everything acquires its natural state. The first principle, in which evil, hatred and lying originate, is not evil in itself. You have peculiar notions of hatred and falsehood. In order to be able to lie, one must be clever for a foolish person cannot lie. This is a great philosophy, but in contemporary society it is called "superior diplomacy." Women possess this kind of diplomacy as well. When the man is stronger in the first principle, his wife caresses him, calls him "darling" and by her softness, she tames him so as to assimilate this high principle. When these two principles are balanced, they begin to work together: the first principle gives of its surplus to the second one. Christ says, "You cannot serve the first and the second principle at the same time; you cannot serve hatred and love at the same time." These two things are mutually incompatible; they are diametrically opposed, as they do not move in the same direction. Take two merchants, for example - they can work together, for they are moving in the same direction having the same interests, but a merchant and a doctor cannot work together. The word Lord means the highest principle, the noblest principle which creates. This principle is soft and plastic, but this does not limit it. It is immortal - death does not exist in this second principle. There is death in the first principle only because the strong destroy themselves by the power they possess. Only strong people can commit suicide. Take for instance the scorpion - when it is surrounded by fire and has no escape it commits suicide by the sting of its poisonous tail. It prefers suicide to being burned alive. The first principle has created the cosmos; the material world together with your bodies, energies and forces necessary for their upbuilding. When you want to give up the first principle, you must give back everything it has given you. But when you return everything to it, what will remain of you? You will return to the second - become one with God. There will be no John or Dragan, angels or devils and a general state of peace and calm will reign in the world. No questions will be raised as to which side will win in the war or what will happen after the war ends. All questions will be solved. All these things will merge in the first principle, which will withdraw into itself. When a person wants to become energetic, they must be salted; evil in the world is salting and a person should become bad in order to be salted. When a person looses their saltiness, God sends the first principle to produce salt. But people should not serve this principle. Christ takes it as it is manifested on the earth, not as it is manifested above among the angels. One cannot be rich and pious at the same time. I do not believe in such piety. When a person's purse is full of gold and silver and they pretend to be a saint, I doubt in their sanctity. All riches in the world belong to the Lord; and the moment you think the power and influence you have are your own, you are serving the first principle. This principle is individual and disunites all beings, because it is not a master of uniting, but just the opposite. It can create thousands of people; but it cannot create conditions under which they can live. This principle is possessed of anger which leads to the trashing and killing of people. I shall tell you an anecdote as an example of this idea. A peasant had no children and often prayed to God to bless him with progeny. One day he filled a big sack with grains of wheat and prayed that God turn these grains of wheat into children. God answered his prayer and turned all the grains into children. When the peasant got up in the morning, all the children began crying and asking for food. That angered him very much and he said, "These children will eat my head off" and started killing them. One of the children, who had hidden behind a door, started crying and begging him not to kill it. This is the first principle in you - evil, which is active and when it comes, it says, "I shall destroy." But when the second principle - which people call love, the mother, the power of all things - comes into the world, it immediately softens the first principle and the two, joined together, give birth to the greatest and the highest in the world. When you serve the Lord, it is only through Him that you can influence the first principle. Only God has the power to save you from death. If you do not serve God, you will be swallowed up by the first principle for such is the law. Water returns to its original source; so does money and power. Everything returns, for all things have sprung up from the first principle. However, in Love, there is a manifestation in the world of the absolute God whom no one knows - the unknown God of whom people have no idea. "The God you will not know but worship is the one I am preaching to you about," says Paul. He is the only One who holds in Himself these two great principles through which He is manifested. Since one principle destroys, while the other builds; you cannot destroy and build at the same time. When you hate you destroy; but when you love you build and create. Some people think that the first principle has apparently the desire to build in some people; nevertheless it devours at the same time. "I shall love you. I love you but I shall eat you up." This is the way a cat plays with a mouse until finally it presses it down and swallows it up. This is what people call love! Some think that the Hindu idea of "Nirvana" is merely blending with God, not building. This is partly true - there is both blending and building. One must be in accord with the second principle and live with it. There is an eternal aspiration in the second principle to unite all beings into a whole. It is the aspiration of Christ that God should be manifested individually by every Soul. God wishes to create in the world small abodes in which He can live. He who can understand this profound principle is a great Soul. Many contemporary philosophers are tangled up in these two principles. The first principle has taken upper hand in all pessimists, anarchists and that kind of people both in the religious and social aspects of life. I am observing society and have many statistics of this fact. A woman marries a man and, in the course of two or three years, she exhausts him, tires and destroys him and marries a second time. She exhausts her second husband also. She marries a third time and does the same thing to her third husband. Then people say, "This woman brings bad luck to men." The same thing applies to some men. A man who cannot live with a woman is one in whom the first principle has taken the upper hand and when he marries a woman, he destroys her. For such a woman and such a man the second principle must be so strong that it will create balance with the first. In religious societies such disputes often arise in which the first principle comes to the fore. For instance the question as to who should take the first place nearest the altar arises. On the physical plane it is not possible to put many chairs by the altar and if all should want to sit up there, the priest will not be visible. The same questions arise among teachers as to who should be the principal. How many principals can there be? Only one. The question of superiority can be found among preachers, military men and so on. This is a natural struggle, it is a great divine process which all angels have undergone. Many angels have passed the test, they have passed through the first principle and have entered the second one and now they are serving God, while others have not passed the test, they have fallen and now they serve the first principle - mammon - that is why they are called demons. Among people there are also some who serve the first and some who serve the second principle. After some time when humanity ends its evolution, takes its wreath, everyone will go to their place. This is why Christ says, "Without Me - meaning the second principle - you can do nothing." There is deep meaning in these words: if you remain alone to struggle in the world, you will become servants of the first principle and then all negative qualities as tiredness, jealousy, repulsion, discontentment, which destroy you, will become manifested in you. In this principle you cannot find any benefit for the world or any sense in life. That is why Christ says, "You cannot serve both God and mammon." If you serve mammon, you will be on the bottom of hell in constant discontentment and you will never understand even why you are a man or a woman. You may pass through all forms of creation, but you will always be discontented, because people by themselves are never content. The word "discontentment" means that you cannot be content with your outside appearance since human spirit is much greater, requiring a much larger activity than the one we actually perform. You have a small body, but the spirit wants a greater one. An eternal struggle begins. And in this struggle you say, "Might is right", which is the first principle, but when you say, "The weak has the right," that is the second principle. Someone commits a crime and by giving the judge two or three thousand leva2, the latter acquits them. Just as during the Middle Ages by buying indulgences, one's sins were forgiven. However, in the building of your life, Christ does not tolerate division. If you are divided in yourself, you must rise above that state and work within God. Only then will you understand the deep meaning of those forces working in the universe. Those who have started on the Way, the initiated, have a greater experience. Why? They are suffering more than the worldly people because in Christianity, along with the first principle, the second one is growing stronger. Where Love is manifested, the first principle also manifests itself; though it remains as a mere shadow - a shadow of creation. By "a shadow" I mean a principle which causes death. The first principle in itself is dark and brings darkness, but the second principle always brings light to the mind. When the first principle acts, you feel great sorrow and have no sense in life, but as soon as the second principle comes, you become high-spirited and rise. In the first principle you grope for an exit and if you do not find one, the thought of the scorpion obsesses you - to commit suicide in order to get rid of the unfavorable conditions of life, which you have created yourself. Thus the first principle is extremely avaricious and insatiable; in it there is no end to desires. What life can there be in the insatiable? What meaning can there be in a life moving forever in a straightforward line? Supposing you travel through the universe with the speed of light - what meaning can that motion have for you? It makes no sense to enter one, two or three houses which are empty. There is meaning in getting acquainted with those who live there; to have communion with their minds and hearts. Acquaintance and friendship in the world is to be in accord with this divine principle which, here on earth, is expressed in Christ. The first principle has created many illusions in the human mind. Since it bears all the shadows, it is strong; it has created many combinations by which it gives Divine Love a chance to manifest itself. Thus, Love finds expression in it and the first principle is like its soil. Nevertheless, it is striving to conquer the second principle - Love - but Love cannot be conquered. It is a Law which regulates all things in the world. The first principle is afraid of the second for when it faces the latter, it comes into the Light and, seeing its image, is obsessed by fear. Just as when you go to someone who loves you, your heart begins to throb. It says, "You have come to your Master, I have swallowed quite a number like you." Men, women, children - the hearts of all quiver. A man and a woman who have a hidden thought - the first principle - want to dominate; but when they realize that this principle does not yield, they say, "Here is my Master, here is the second principle, the Divine One, which gives expression to life and immortality." The Scripture says, "Love casts out fear," and in order to be happy, we must by all means be joined to Christ, otherwise our path is lost. If we do not serve God, we shall serve the mammon. If we serve God, we have torn down the mammon; but if we do not serve God, mammon will come and say, "You will serve me!" Every one of you must know this. Someone says, "I want to be free." You will be free if you serve Love, otherwise you will serve mammon and be a slave. You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. It is impossible! People often say, "Let me beat them and they will have fear of me." You can beat them up or frighten them, but they will not love you. I would like to see someone among you who have gained a person's love through beating them. I have not yet met such a person. I am not the only person who says this: all great people and all saints have stated it. When the first principle gains the mastery over the human heart, the individual becomes dry, hard and begins to stiffen. Everything in them stiffens: their heart, their muscles, their hands, their legs, their arteries and so on. Then the doctors say that such a person is sick of arteriosclerosis. I say that this is due to the first principle, which has hardened the person and obsessed their heart. When God sees a person possessed of the first principle, He begins to bring in disunity, i.e. the second principle begins to act. When Love enters the first principle, it begins to organize it within itself. This is a struggle which acts mechanically in the world. It takes place in all social strata; in the minds of philosophers; in religious societies; everywhere. It acts until the second principle takes predominance and organizes our hearts, our bodies and we become immortal. Christ and the second principle wish to have predominance in our cells and in the monads in order to render them indestructible, immortal. Only then shall we pass from the transitory to the unchangeable and enter the region of Eternal Unity - the Eternal Divine Harmony. That is why the world was created, so that the human hearts and minds should pass from the first principle into the second. The process is from left to right. For instance, how do you work? You move to the left so the right hand may exert greater pressure. There are exceptions as some people are left handed, but generally when one works, one moves from left to right. This principle is the reason why the heart has moved a little to the left. Physiologists today say it is because of the way a child has lain in the womb of their mother but this is not the reason. In time, the heart must move to the middle between the two lungs; only then will there be harmony between Wisdom and Love. Now, speaking about your heart, I imply the idea of harmony between your thoughts and desires. Your desires always dominate your mind. You think well and say, "I shall do this, I shall do that," but you get angry and destroy everything. A man and a woman are in love, but one day the woman meets another man, handsomer than her own husband; one who has a fine moustache, black hair and eyes and she says, "I found him at last!" And the home, built for twenty years, is destroyed. This woman is unfortunate for she has found the first principle. The same thing applies to men and children. A child thinks their father is foolish and bad and says, "That other father is better than mine." Children often compare their mother with other mothers and say, "Those other children's mother is more beautiful and better than ours," and at once disharmony arises in their home. The first principle has sneaked in again. I am not speaking of the depth of this philosophy, but only to point out how weak you are. As I see you, you are still weak, you are like nails which must be pounded in by the hammer. When the hammer comes, it will ask you, "Do you know me?" "I know you." You will be pounded in so well that you will even come out on the other side. You will realize that you are nails and that the strength is not in you, but in the hammer. The hammer says, "Do you see where you go when I pound you?" The force, however, is not in the hammer, but in its handle. It is not there, either; but in the hand. The hand says, "The force is in the brain, not in the hand." If the brain does not give an order to the hand to be raised, what will become of it? It is the same with people. Two friends, two nails get together and start talking. One says, "I was pounded in twenty centimeters, do you know what weight they hang on me? No one can pull me out, I do the greatest work." This is the reasoning of nails. A Christian enters a church and says, "I did this for the Lord, I turned a person to Him!" You are like a thief who robs someone's purse and opens it: you have stolen the heart of this person and carried it away, leaving the person to complain all his life. Some mothers think they have given life to a child and then leave the child at a children’s ward. Why do you deceive the child that you have given it life! The second principle does not tolerate falsehood. Lying, violence, hatred, jealousy - all these things are compatible in a society of evil people. Those traits seem natural to them and when two bad men fight, they feel a satisfaction for a time. It is the same with a wolf and a lion after they tear up a sheep and eat it up. They feel; however, in a few hours' time, they feel the need of tearing up another victim. In the contemporary civilization we can find many similar examples. A similar thing took place in America in the city of New York where a court case was brought up. A doctor felt great satisfaction in killing people and in a short period of time, he actually killed twenty-five persons. He hired a woman secretary and killed her first by cutting her piece by piece, watching the effect of his action. He did the same to 24 other persons and burned them all up in a stove. That man was obsessed with animalistic hatred when he was slaughtering his victims. He was examined phrenologically in a New York prison and they found that his eyes and jaw were deformed. He had been under the influence of the first principle. Often such criminals have a desire to have long beards. The big beard is a sign of the presence of the first principle. I do not wish that you go to another extreme and understand me wrongly. The big beard provides more energies, but a criminal has a rude and hard hair. When your hair becomes hard, the first principle has dominance in you. In order to know how good you are test your hair and skin every morning. When your skin becomes dry and thickens, the first principle is in you. This principle will swallow you up as a snake swallows up a frog. It catches you by the foot and if you do not turn to God, you will go to the bottom of hell and find out about the other philosophy of life: what it means to serve mammon. No one can escape this eternal judgement of things. That is why Christ says, "Turn to Me." Life in our present state manifests itself in two directions: in contentment and discontentment, in ascending and descending. There are no other directions of thought. It is true that a rich person cannot be a saint; but a poor person cannot be a saint, either if they are discontented. By the word rich I mean a person dissatisfied with him/herself; and by the word poor - a person satisfied with him/herself. When a person gets rich, they become dissatisfied with their state; buys one house, then a second one, a third one, buys some furniture and tries to enlarge this circle. Discontentment shows a rich person; contentment shows a poor person. By saying content I do not mean that you should become indifferent like some fakirs in India who hypnotize themselves and fall asleep. There was one who, in the course of twenty years, concentrated his thoughts and lay so immobile that the birds took him for a tree and started building their nests on his head. I do not approve of such a state of contentment that birds should begin to inhabit your head. God has created trees for that purpose. In order to be content you must begin to work for God and serve Him. To be content means: if you earn three leva today, be happy and thank God. If on the next day you earn three, or four, or five leva, thank God again. Do not say, "How little have I earned!" "Enough for the day is the evil thereof." If you earn a copper penny, thank God for that; if you earn ten coppers, again give thanks to God. This is sufficient for you. The one makes a person happy. If two people love you, they cannot make you happy, you will be unhappy. Love can exist between two people; it does not exist among three persons. In order to give rise to a third element, the two must deposit an equal share and to them their child will be born. The father says, "They love me more." The mother says, "No, they love me more." Sometimes the father scowls at the child's love for the mother and vice versa. Why? Because this principle is not balanced in both parents. Your virtues, your forces will always correspond to your Inner State - neither more nor less. This is the whole truth. When people talk about me, I say, "I deserve it; that is my lot." I do not get angry at the person who speaks badly of me, they are working on me. They will do me good and I must thank them. That is why Christ says, "Love your enemies." You cannot overcome the enemy - the first principle - but by Love. Evil cannot be overcome by evil. To withdraw into yourself and look humble is not the means; you should love them with all your Soul. You will say, "This person has the right to hate me." Do not think that when a wolf catches a sheep, God says to him, "You did not do well." On the contrary, God says to him, "You are doing very well." When the sheep complains to God, He says to it, "It is good you are weeping, you are obliged to weep, but he is obliged to eat you up." The sheep goes out to the meadow and eats the grass. God says to it, "This is your work, you eat the grass, but one day a wolf will eat you up." This is the present evolution of life, but this is not life in the true deep sense of the word. To break stones for thousands of years to pave streets, or to carry water - this is no life. You may be a pack animal, such as a donkey, and carry ten tons of gold from one place to another during your life, but what of that? This is no life. You may have read much, gone to church to hear a sermon, but what of that, what do you know? You have carried 10,000 tons of gold on your back, but what is your knowledge? You may know how different elements combine, but what of that? If I know how may particles comprise the material world, of what use will that knowledge be to me? If I have much riches, but cannot use this wealth, of what use is it to me? If you have a wife who loves you, but your heart is hardened and when your children kiss you, you do not feel anything, of what benefit are your wife and children? The Philosophy in Love is to give and receive at the same time so that the exchange should be right. You say, "He does not love me," that is the first principle. You doubt - that is the first principle. There is no God - that is the first principle. When philosophers say that everything in the world moves, that is true, because the first principle is in eternal motion. Life manifests itself in the second principle, in the right construction of things. The second principle is active in you. Everyone must unite these two principles with Christ. Only in this way will you be useful everywhere - to society, the nation, to women and children and so on. This is what Christ told the Jews 2,000 years ago, but they accepted the first and rejected the second principle. That is why a great misfortune befell them. Today people test the first principle on their backs by this war; and it will go on until people get exhausted. When it finishes its work, Love will be manifested, i.e. God. People say, "He who hates much, loves much." This is half-true. God commits His energy to the second principle, and when it comes, His rational spirit begins to build. You cannot love and hate at the same time. Do not be deceived, this is a false philosophy, a false teaching. When the Divine Principle enters us only then can we love and say, "God is Love." Only then shall we understand the real meaning of the material world since Love is necessary for the development of our life. Just as the houses are necessary to people and as nests are to birds, this principle is vital to the world. Some ask, "Why did God make the world this way?" It is not your business - it could not be made in any other way. Others ask, "Why did not God create that?" Because He could not be untrue to His Nature. "Why did He not manifest Himself?" Because He could not be untrue to His Nature. "Why did He not make the world better and put us in the right way?" He has done that, but you do not understand Him since you think only of your own way, which is as different from His as the earth is from the sky. Two persons quarrel and say, "Why don't You come down, Lord, to reconcile us?" God is not in division. Someday when you grind one another to sand, God will look down from above (with His Eye) and see if anything can be made out of this sand. With a smile, God watches people today - those earthly philosophers and warring nations - and leaves these children to fight, hit one another and weep. Sometimes we want to sting God like a mosquito and bite Him so He would feel it. He, of course, is calm and does not care about all this. He only slightly flips us with his finger and we are carried off to the cemetery. Everyone who bites God goes to the cemetery - God sends them there. Regardless of who they may be - kings, princes, colonels, judges, priests, preachers and philosophers, God knocks them just the same. The same thing applies to you, if you philosophize much, you will fly off. You are like the mosquitoes, too, trying to sting someone. However, when you start on your way to God, you should not take your sting along - the sting of the mosquito - but rather stop, raise your eyes up and sigh. Do not think God is sleeping and does not see anything. God has been looking at you ever since you started from the earth. If you have started toward Him with Love, He will look at you, take pity and say, "You have understood the meaning of life - come to Me." Those who like to sting are pushed away by God until they learn their lesson. I am giving you these thoughts to make you think and start building your life; yet not as you have been building it until now. First of all give up biting. When a man complains that his wife bites, what will God do? He will knock her, she will die and he will be free from her. When a woman complains of her husband, what will God do? He will knock him and the man will die. A son using his sting will have the same fate. This is the way God acts. Some think that God acts like people act and does whatever comes to His mind. This is not true. He makes absolutely no mistakes: in this respect He is All Wise. His deep desire is to see us reconciled, living like brothers, using no violence, never stealing and so on. "What is the use of reconciliation? What have we eaten and drunk up in this world?" you ask. You meet someone who does not greet you and you get offended. Do they owe you anything? Both of you are small beetles moving on the earth. Another person says, "But you must be a gentleman, do not push me!" The force pushing you is a different one. If you take 100,000 small grains of sand and shake them in a bottle, they will ask one another, "Why are we pushing each other, why are we quarreling?" If you enter this first principle which shakes you up, you will ask, "Why are you tormenting us, Lord?" When the bottle breaks, you are spilled around - God liberates you. Thus, God has started to knock people today. He knocks them with the middle finger. The middle finger is the Law of Saturn - of Fate. In the Law of Divine Righteousness everyone must reap what they have sown. I want you to get rid of your old habits and the eyes of your mind must be open when God starts to knock. If your stinger is out, God will knock you. If He knocks you in the evening, you will not meet the day. When He pats you, you will rise from the dead. I wish for God to pat all people, i.e. all people might be touched by the second principle. This is the Christian philosophy which can explain all existing contradictions among people. The misunderstandings arise from the fact that we do not understand each other's language. You want me to give you facts. What facts can I give you? If I give you money, do not think I love you; I may be planning to steal your house. A man visits a poor man to help him. But the poor man's wife is beautiful. Do you know what hidden motives this benefactor has? How do you know he is sincere and would not carry the wife off? What are your arguments about this? There is only one argument: if from birth to death he does not do any harm to anyone, he is a sincere man, there is no deceit in him. There is no greater argument in a person's life than this one. This is how everyone should live. If I only philosophize and do not live as I should, this is deceit in my life. If I live in accord with this Great Law of Life, there is no deceit. You all know this. I notice some who look serious when they are outside, but when they come in, they put on a smile. This is an artificial act. Do you know how the Turkish men speak of a woman who smiles? They say, "She smiles in my face," thinking that she is already with them. Smiling is a bad sign for them, but we consider it a good sign. Yes, but if you get caught by the foot, you will be swallowed up like a frog. I am not alluding to your personal life, but simply state a fact which is taking place in me as well as in all of you. I feel cold and heat, light and darkness, but these things originate outside of us. They are not us, but things separate from us. Light and darkness do not represent our life, but when they are joined in a principle, life is manifested, i.e. the third principle. And this principle can manifest itself only on the equator of life. To sum it up, we cannot serve God and the mammon at the same time. If we serve God, we shall be happy, if we serve mammon, we shall be unhappy; if we serve God we shall be healthy, if we serve mammon, we shall be ill and poor; if we serve God, our stomach will be unimpaired, if we serve mammon it will be sick; if we serve God, we shall be respected in society, if we serve mammon, people will despise us; if a nation serves God, it will be noble, but if it serves mammon, it will become perverse and degenerate; if we serve God, our mind will develop normally, if we serve mammon, our mind will be perplexed and darkened. These are the two principles. When you get up in the morning with a disturbed mind, you should go to God. Turn your mind to Him and if He lays his Hand on you, He will create balance and change your disposition. That is why Christ says, "Come unto Me all you that suffer and are heavy laden, and I shall give you rest." In order to avoid the bad consequences of the first principle, which brings misfortune, walk daily with Christ. The first principle by its nature does not want to bear misfortunes, so it places them on the back of others. Today you learned how to protect yourself from the middle finger of God. When the priests pronounce Benediction, they join the thumb with the fourth finger and raise the other two fingers up; however, they have long ago lost the key. They have forgotten the meaning of the Science of God. In another sermon I shall speak to you about this. It is a whole philosophy which had existed 10,000 years before Christianity. But you will say, "The world was not created such a long time ago, what world was there before Adam?" Before Adam’s fall there was another Adam, another great culture. After Adam fell, people disintegrated and now we say, "We are the first Adam." Your first Adam is a wild vine - divine only at its tail-end and still evolving. Not having anything else, God took some soil and made Adam out of it, leaving him to live in a small paradise as a gardener. We say that our first father was naked. He was naked because a man who allows a woman to lead him by the nose is a silly man. A woman who leaves herself to be led by a snake is silly, too. The Adam you know is not the Son of God. Christ was before Adam and before Abraham. He is the one called the Son of the Living God. When Christ came He said, "I am the One who was before Adam and Abraham." He had lived in that great epoch, great culture when the angels had been singing in the Divine Dawn of Life, in the Golden Age of human life. When sin came into the world, then came the great father - the devil - who now lives within you. That is why you are children of the devil. If you do not realize that you are in sin, you will die, you will always serve mammon and you will never be happy. When I say "the second Adam," I mean Christ. He is second in relation to the Law of Love, but is the Primary of Origin in the manifestation of God. Now I believe that when you return home, you will begin to search for the third principle in yourselves. Those of you who have not studied mathematics much should start with the study of equations; and then as a result of an equation, you will find the third principle. You will place your mind in the first part of the equation, your heart in the second, your body will enter the third part and in these relations you will find what your life will be. Put it in your mind to become united with Christ. Life is in Unity and Harmony. Let every bitter word vanish from you! Let every discontentment and desire to sting your neighbor be done with. This is what serving God means. What serving it would be if I would expose your sins in a sermon and peck at you. This is a false teaching. Pecking is an easy thing, but if I hit you with a hammer, one day you will raise the same hammer over my head. "With whatever measure you mete, it will be meted unto you." Therefore, whatever you hear, do not think I am pecking you because I can keep silent too. I am revealing a Great Truth to you which, after many long years, you will learn yourselves. This is what I have learned during the long years I have spent in matter here on earth. You complain, "My husband is bad," but I shall say that the first principle works in him. The man says his wife is bad - the first principle works in her. The daughter is dissatisfied - the first principle works in her. "The Bulgarian nation is fighting," the first principle is in it. You must think about why people are fighting and why the world is bad. You must think of all this so that someday you will understand. "Let us be Good - that is the second principle. When everything is calmed down, when Peace sets in, then the third principle will come. Therefore, put in your mind the idea of serving God - therein is your salvation. May the blessing of the Love of the Living Lord be with you all. Sermon held on January 21, 1917 _________________________________________________ 1 Luke 16:13 2 The Bulgarian monetary unit. (ed. note)

Martha and Mary But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40 –42) A lot has been said about Martha and Mary. They represent two principles of the human soul – the passive and the active one. In Martha and Mary we have two women, two opposite characters, two conditions of the human heart: one is calm, quiet, speechless, a mind focused on an eternal principle and grounded on an eternal basis, and the other, like the sea waves or the twigs – constantly swaying and surging. Jesus, however, points out to Martha what is important by saying, “You are worried about many things” – things that are insignificant, beyond reality. Mary, on the other hand, opts for something more significant. Most of you fall into these two categories – some are like Martha, others are like Mary. The “Maries” are generally noble women. They are nice, well built, beautiful in the face, their eyes are gentle, the forehead is symmetrical, the nose is straight; they are kind-hearted, tender, sympathetic and considerate. “Mary” in Hebrew means salty water. A Mary gives salt to the world; thanks to her it does not go bad, rotten or sour. When you bear Mary’s principle at heart, you do not get spoiled. “Martha” derives from “mara”, which means bitter, sour, wild; so this principle in you is always unruly, angry and displeased. All this is not because it is ill willed, but because it is too active; wherever it goes it demands the way open. If she is a Martha, you will see her early in the morning when she gets up raise hue and cry in the house, all the servants on the alert, and when she raises the broom everybody runs away. She says, “I want the place neat and tidy.” You can find her at school, at court – everywhere. She is necessary. Yet you should not give her more credit than the other. Both principles are equally important. Two other principles are related to these ones. I define them as the principle of the inferior and the principle of the superior. The principle represented by Mary stands for the superior, which shows us how we should serve God, live in harmony with the High Creatures, the angels, and the saints that know more than we do. They know how to obey – we have to sit quietly and calmly at the feet of the Master to learn from him. You will ask, “Who are the masters?” - He is one. I know only one Master. He may have 250,000 hairs on His head, but this does not mean that they are masters. A tree may have many branches and twigs, but they are not trees. Yet it is one common life that runs through the tree and its branches. The unity in your mind should stand in the same way. So when the Master comes you should listen to the spirit within you, no matter whether you are men or women. You should listen to the voice of this soft tenderness and Love. Love is not sour. What do you like in life? Let us imagine that the world is full of Marthas – all of them holding brooms, raising dust and shouting – what kind of music can this be? I believe that the houses would be neat and tidy, we would be wearing pretty clothes, everything would be in perfect order, but there would not be any life. On the other hand, if all were Maries, then everything would be salty, but what would have to become salty if there were no Marthas? Mary refers to something else, to a different principle, a different basis. The superior principle, Mary, shows us the way in which we have to serve God individually. This service will make our lives meaningful. As long as we understand the inner sense of our souls, we will be able to understand those round us. Once we have learned the first, superior principle – to submit to God – we will be able to learn the other principle - to obey all the inferior elements, the inferior principle. So when modern science claims that it wants to subdue Nature, I see is as a desire to subdue Martha, who is so unruly. We need to learn to be good masters. One who has not learned to submit to God and serve Him cannot be a good master. Any of us who wants to be a master has to learn how to be a servant to God and obey Him. One has to learn the law and sit just like Mary at Jesus’ feet. And Jesus said, “Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.” Let me give an example to illustrate the idea. It can be a legend. Paganini, the great violin player, while touring round Europe, met a sixty-year-old fiddler. The poor man was playing in the street, his hands trembling, his eyes bleared, and an empty pot for coins at his feet. When Paganini took his fiddle and started playing, dozens of on-lookers gathered to listen to him. He played for more than twenty minutes and everybody started throwing coins in the pot. He played until the pot was filled with silver. This is how Paganini helped the poor man. The poor man was sitting at Paganini’s feet, just as Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. He did not say, “Let me see what will come out of this.” He just listened to the master’s music. “Yes, I can see now my great teacher, the master of life.” The pot is a vessel containing all the good thoughts. When the great master comes to play for you, your vessel will be filled with noble thoughts and desires. Then you will not be feeble and weak, but young, agile, and good. I would like you to do the same thing. You should devote your lives to this because when Christ praises Mary, he means, “I do not want you to give me all your time. I need only the time you know how to use, no matter how little it is. You are free to do whatever you want in the time you are busy doing your duties.“ The great teaching does not at all imply that we should leave aside all our other duties. However, the hour devoted to Mary should be sacrificed. Paganini does not always stop to give a hand. This is actually quite rare. He leaves his violin and goes away. In the same away, Christ will stop by you when you are bored or upset, when you feel useless or have lost the point in life. Then he will stop, take your violin and play for you. It is true happiness to see a great master play or draw. This is what we need to learn – standing in awe in front of God and obeying Him. Through submission we will be able to adopt all great virtues. What gives rise to conflicts among people? People are sulky, not mild and gentle. If all people were mild and gentle, life would be happy both inwardly and outwardly. If people lived in mutual respect, making concessions, there would be great harmony in life. I do not find lucky people who are constantly quarrelling, as they actually grumble against God. All I hear is the grumbles of scholars, priests, doctors, professors, and preachers. Priests and doctors are not pleased with their fees as they find them insufficient. When they say that God gave them less than the others, this is already grumbling. The shepherd will say that his pen is too small. The scholar is also displeased with his inadequate skills and abilities. Who is to blame? Always God! This does not apply only to you who are attending this lecture – everybody else grumbles. The law of the superior is that there should always be gratitude and love pouring toward God. Some ask, “Where is God? How can we find Him?” Even small children are able to find God. Philosophers have been trying to prove where God is for 2,000 years – whether He is in the skies, among the stars, on earth, or in the human heart. They are still searching for Him, but nobody has found Him yet. Preachers claim that He is in the human heart; astronomers believe He is in the universe. Some say that he exists, others that He does not. I shall present to you a figure to illustrate the grounds philosophers find. Imagine that God, just like the Sun, rises in the east and sets in the west each 24 hours. Imagine also that when God rises, you fall asleep and you are asleep until He sets, and that when He sets, you wake up and keep looking for Him throughout the night. As you cannot find Him, you fall asleep again at dawn, and when He sets, you continue looking for him during the night. You have been looking for Him for a day or two, for a month or two, for years, but in vain. My advice is to change things – sleep at night, wake up in the morning at sunrise and you will see God, you will find Him. I can see Him every day. I sleep during the night and at the crack of dawn I get up to meet Him. This is the philosophy of life. God rises like a sun. What is it that modern people do? They go to concerts, parties and to the theatre, and when God rises, they are asleep. They are aristocrats of the noble morning! All people who sleep in the morning and during the day belong to the culture of the owls. That is the reason why they suffer. This night culture should be replaced with day culture. When dawn cracks, you will get up and wait for at least half an hour for God to show His face to you so that you can draw energy, strength and health on Him. Then you will feel fit and agile to fight during the whole day. Some philosophers say that God is an aristocrat, He does not accept everybody and we should dress up for Him. I will give you a counter-argument: when the sun rises all animals, no matter good or bad, beautiful or ugly, appear in the attire they have. God shines above everybody – snakes and lizards, mosquitoes and harmful bugs. He never says, “You should hide in your den.” So you can appear in front of God as you are and bask. This is the point in life. We do not suffer because there are too many snakes on earth – their number is definite, they are in their place, but if their number doubles, this surplus will be by all means eliminated. The same refers to wolves. So, if you do not harness any thought and desire you have, if you have not learned how to serve God, thoughts and desires will rule over you. Then, by the same law, just like you defy God, your thoughts and desires will act against you. If you apply this theory in practice, you will experience its effect. Some say, “Let us cultivate the world and the people,” I do not believe in cultivation, because all people are separate cells of the Divine organism, of the Divine body. Every one of them should cultivate itself. I cannot order you, as this would be a sacrilegious act – to lie to God. I do not want to give orders. Why? Because people belong to God and I do not have the right to dispose with what does not belong to me. I have the right to be only the master of my own thoughts and desires. I can order only them and be the servant to everything that is beyond me. You should do the same. Then we shall descend to the inferior elements – to the unreasonable. What does the Bible say in Chapter 1? God created heaven and then the earth. Heaven is Mary, and the earth is Martha to me. The earth was still unorgnised, thus sour. Scholars say that when Martha appeared, there were storms, hurricanes, fire and steam surrounding her, so God told her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried too much. Progress is not there. Mary has chosen that good part – look up.” Then the earth, Martha, looked up and started rotating round its axis and the sun. This is how life formed round it - many creatures and finally man came into being. When God completed His work, He said, "Everything round Martha is well. And then came the second day, followed by others till the seventh day. Some of you are Marthas. They make noise, fire pouring out of their hearts and minds. There are no lakes, nor rivers and the great Master said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried too much. There is only one thing that is necessary. Look up and you will find it there. This is what will give you some sense.” When you raise your eyes, too, your spirit will start moving in the right direction round its centre, and then you will find the point in life. Having a meaningful life means to have a centre round which you can move. This centre will send for you everything that is necessary every day. So, God created both Martha and Mary in us – they are the two poles of the human soul. I might explain to you some day the inherent significance of the two principles, acting in this world. However, when too much is said, the accumulated knowledge cannot be applied and forms accretions embarrassing to people to the extent that they are at a loss. Once a student at the Evangelist School, attending a lesson in Bulgarian grammar, which he failed to comprehend, approached his teacher and asked him, “There are so many grammar books - Grigirov’s, Iconomov’s, etc. - that I don’t know which one to use. Which one would you recommend?” The boy kept asking his teacher, until finally he told him, “Look here, I do not care what Grigorov’s or Iconomov’s grammar teach. You have to follow my explanations," So, when God comes to you, you tell Him, “ There are many philosophers – Kant, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy – their philosophies clash. Whose philosophy are we to follow?” God will tell you, “You will do as I tell you.” So, when you want to follow the Divine truth, you will have to focus on your own soul; then you will see life differently. You will build up different abilities and you will be able to see that you are surrounded by other creatures, far greater and more creative and then you will say, ‘How blind we were!” Now I am asking those of you who are thinking: if you were in the position of an ant and a philosopher stepped on you, what would you think of his feet? You would say, “A huge rock fell upon me and crashed me.” Yet this huge rock is just a small part of the giant. Sometimes you say, “Destiny is chasing me.” This, however, is nothing but the foot of a great philosopher, who has stepped on you. You should never stand in the way of philosophers, as they will never stop because of you. They are following their way and if you step in their path, their feet will crash you. When you come to complain to me, I will tell you to stay out of this philosophers’ path, because you are just ants. You should seek other paths. This is the philosophy of life. When I see someone unhappy, I look up and see a giant who has crashed the poor fellow. So, God created the world as well as all other worlds. There are 18,000,000 suns in The Milky Way, each of them having its own orbit and staying at 25-milliard km away from the other so that they cannot collide. It is God who determined these orbits. Likewise, He traced a certain path and gave you a definite space, bidding you never to cross the lines of your kingdom. You want to negotiate with other kingdoms; the men and women from two kingdoms started negotiating their merge into one kingdom but soon they fell out. Why did they have a row? Let everyone reign in his or her own kingdom. Someone will say, “Let’s keep our money in one place to have it safe.” Everyone should keep their own money in their own purse. Do not trust your money anyone. Whoever you trust here on earth, he will steal it. That is why Jesus told us to bring our wealth up in heaven. Up, Up! This is the true point in life. So, it is not our fault that we want to change the life God destined for us. I know people who hate someone so much that they are haunted by him. Let him go, and hold onto God. It is God who gives you light, so you should let Him in you sacred soul. People nowadays are very religious: they have their gods of labour, of glory, of strength and they burn incense to worship them. Throw away all those idols or take a hammer and smash them. Then sit at your Master’s feet to find out about the inner, deep meaning of your life. This is what Christ wants to tell us – that the good, which Mary bears, cannot be taken away from her. You are worried about many things, saying, “I have this, I have that.” You are the master of these things, so you should throw them away. I have noticed some masters sit in a chair, just like me now, giving orders. The master needs something that he himself is perfectly able to take, but instead he rings the bell. Nobody turns up. He keeps calling and finally he starts yelling at his servants. Well, why don’t you stand up to take what you need? You can do it yourself. Your shoes are only five feet away from you, yet you ring the bell for your maid to come and give them to you. Do not throw tantrums. Pick up what you need yourself, because your calm and peace are worth more than being served. Do it by yourself and scold your maid for not coming on time. This is what God requires of us, because the maid does not serve you; she serves someone else. Sometimes I tell you that I am a servant, but not your servant – I am a servant to God. In London, a Baptist preacher, Spurgeon, to make himself look more important wrote on his visit card: “A Christian Brother is waiting outside for you.” On the other side he wrote, “Tell him that I am busy now.” If someone comes to see you, you can tell him that you are busy with his Master. The maid you called to bring you your shoes did not turn up because she was busy talking to her Master, and if you disturb her, her master will scold you. This is the greatest philosophy, which people nowadays have to learn. We all have to be God’s servants. When we learn this great law, we will establish normal relationships. I observe people – if you are well disposed, you like people, but if you do not feel disposed, if you have got up in the wrong side, then you are cross with everyone. This state of mind can go on for a week or a month; we call it a new philosophy – pessimism, and the people - pessimists. If you want to justify someone who has a certain fault, you say. “He is a pessimist.” You are all philosophers. The Bulgarians are better philosophers than Schopenhauer - they all share this pessimism. A Bulgarian can be easily discouraged and disappointed and then Schopenhauer’s philosophy comes – Martha comes. What I want to tell you is only this: you are obliged to submit to God. If you have not served him, no wonder all this misfortune has befallen you. There is no other destiny for you and the day you obey God and your fate, everybody else will succumb to you. This is the teaching about Martha and Mary. Mary is heaven and Martha is the earth. Mary is everything noble in the heart, while Martha is everything mean in it. Mary is the noble mind, which theosophists refer to as manas, while Martha is the inferior manas. When you go home (and I can see your magnificent homes), you should say, “Come Mary, come Martha, you are two good sisters.” Christ is the superior Spirit, the high Principle. If Mary had spoken to Martha, she should have told her, “Let me listen first for a while and then I will help you.” Jesus was speaking then, that is why Mary was not working. When you go back now, you will start shouting angrily, ‘Martha, do you know what the Master said? You have to obey!” Mary has to be kind and gentle and speak to her like a sister, “Wait, sister, I will help you later.” This is how Mary should speak. And when her sisters answers her back, she should say, “How smoothly you are talking!” because there is a kind of harmony between the noble and the ignoble; there is a kinship between Love and hatred. I know these two sisters quite well. But whoever stands between them, he will be smothered by their love. They will smother him, and when he dies, they will say, “What have we done?” Then Love will say, “Let’s bring him back to life again!” Hatred will say, “I’ll bury him.’ - “Well”, Love will say. So they bury him, but Love comes later, shines on him and here he pops out resurrected. Hatred and Love are at work all the time. You do not think highly of hatred and envy – they are snakes and lizards. However, they can be nice sometimes. Can you imagine the world without snakes and lizards? Show me such a world. Is yours better? No, the world is great the way it is constructed. It is great in its design and expression. What you are constantly complaining about is the disharmony within you – it is Martha, the earth still not arranged, the tumult raging within you and disrupting the harmony. The Holy Spirit has to descend and have the say. So, the Spirit has already descended and is now giving orders. He is working. Have staunch belief in his great principle, living in Mary; have faith in the principle, living in Martha, too. Have faith in Christ, because it is Christ, sitting on top of them, who unites them. You should bring together these three elements: your spirit, your Mary, and your Martha and start the new year with it. I am not going to finish now. I will leave a great gap for you to solve the puzzle. I can foresee your future. I can see some of you rise, others fall. I can see some walking along the right path, while others go astray. In the end, you will all be well despite hesitation and faltering. When you board an ocean liner some of you get seasick others do not. It is curious to observe aristocrats on board of a ship. On the first day they are all dressed up, cheerful and happy, but when the ship starts rocking in the waves, they become dismal and meditative as if they listened to some serious sermon. On the second day they experience indigestion, start eating lemons, lie in the cabins, feeling sick. But when they get off the ship, if asked, “How was the passage?” – “Oh, great!” they will say. Oh, you will lose count of the times when you will feel sick while crossing the vast ocean between heaven and earth! You will say, “It will be a tough job!” But when you get on firm land, you will have a voracious appetite, because you will be purified. The Martha in the ocean raises hue and cry, but as soon as you land and Mary arrives, you will say, “Thank God, it was a safe voyage.” Do not ever be afraid! Stay with your Master so that you will be able to solve the issue in life. You have very serious tasks in life: bringing up children, relationships between men and women, relationships in society, relationships with humanity, etc. You have numerous duties and obligations. How will you accomplish them? Some think that when they become Christians, they will not have any responsibilities. Just the opposite, a Christian has more obligations and is more strongly obliged to fulfil them, so that when the day is over, one should feel content about having accomplished what he was supposed to do. While, if he has not coped with his tasks, he should assign them for his next day’s schedule. One day you will be Martha, another day you will be Mary, and when you are at the feet of your Master, then let both Martha and Mary sit quietly, let peace reign for at least an hour. This is the teaching and the thought that Christ conveys. Learn how to serve the Superior, so that you can master the inferior. 13. A lecture delivered on 14th January, 1917. Source

The Book - The Spirit and The Flesh. Beinsa Douno Translation from Bulgarian - Vessela Nestorova MARTHA AND MARY But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. 41. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42. But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.30 Much has been spoken about Martha and Mary. They represent two principles in the human soul— the active and the passive. In the person of Martha and Mary are presented two women, two opposite characters, two states of the human heart: the one state is calm and silent with a mind directed to an eternal principle, resting on an eternal foundation; the other state is like that of the waves in the sea, like the small branches in a tree—constant bubbling, constant swaying. Christ, however, points out to Martha what is essential by saying to her, "You are cumbered about many things which are not essential, which are outside of reality, but Mary chose something more essential." Many of you belong to these two characters—some are Martha and some—Mary. The Maries are generally noble women. They are good, of an excellent stature, beautiful face, soft look in the eyes, symmetrical forehead, regular nose; in the heart they are soft, delicate, responsive to others' sufferings and ready to help. In Jewish, Mary means salty water. Mary always salts the world and, thanks to her, it does not get spoiled, does not sour up or decay. When you have the principle of Mary in yourself, your heart is not decomposed. Martha comes from Mara, meaning bitter, sour, and turbulent. Therefore, the bitter principle in you is constantly embittered, angered, discontented. It does not do this out of an evil intention, or bad will, but because it is a very active principle which in its motion wants its path to be clear, open. When Martha gets up in the morning, all the servants are up and about, there is much bustling and noisy chatter. However, as soon as she takes the broom, everybody runs as far away from her as they can. She says, "Everything here must be in order." You will meet Martha in churches, in schools, in courts—everywhere. She is just as necessary as Mary is, but you should not give predominance to the one or the other—to the one or the other principle. I shall connect these two principles with two others which I shall formulate as: Principle of the Superior and Principle of the Inferior. The principle in the person of Mary expresses the superior showing us how to serve God and how to be in harmony with the higher beings—the saints and the angels— who know more than us: they know how to humble themselves and submit. We shall sit quietly and calmly at the feet of the Master to receive enlightenment. You will ask, "How many are the Masters?" There is One Master that I know of—the Master is One. He may have 250,000 hairs on His head, but it does not mean that they are 250,000 Masters. A tree may have many branches, but they are not trees. However, one and the same life flows in the tree and in its branches. This is the way you should conceive of unity. And when the Master comes, that is the Spirit, Who is in you, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, you must listen deeply in yourself to the soft and tender voices of love. Love is not sour, it is a soft, tender power. What do you like in life? Imagine everything in the world in the likeness of Martha—all taking brooms, raising dust and noise. What music would that be? I believe that houses would be in perfect order, there would be fine furniture, fine clothes, we would have wonderful farms, but there would be no life. And conversely, if everything was in the likeness of Mary, all would be salt. But if there were no Marthas what would be salted? Mary has a relation to something else, to another principle, a different foundation. The Superior Principle, Mary, shows the way we should serve God individually. In this service we shall find the sense of our life. To the extent to which we understand the inner sense of our soul, to that extent shall we understand the other beings who live around us. As soon as we have learned the first—the Superior Principle—to submit to God, we shall learn the second principle—to submit all inferior elements, to conquer the Inferior Principle in people. And when contemporary science speaks of conquering Nature, I understand that it wants to conquer Martha who makes much noise. We must learn to be good Masters. Those who have not learned to submit to God and serve Him, cannot be masters. Those who want to be masters must first learn to be servants— to be servants of God and to be submitted to Him. They must learn the higher Law—to sit like Mary at the feet of Christ. Christ says, "That good part Mary chose shall not be taken away from her." I shall give you as an example of this idea a legend. It speaks about the great violinist Paganini. One day during his concert tour in Europe, Paganini came upon an old, around 60 years of age, violinist with shaking hands, blurred eyesight and a small dish beside him, his violin on the ground, since he could play no more. Paganini stopped before the old violinist, picked up his violin and started playing. In a short time a big crowd gathered around him, each one putting a gold or silver coin in the beggar's dish. He played until the dish was full. This is how Paganini paid his tribute to the poor old man. This old man sat at the feet of Paganini as Mary set at the feet of Christ, but he did not say, "Let us see what will come out of all this." He listened to his master's playing. "Yes," he said, "I see now my great Master—the Master of life." The dish is the vessel into which great and good thoughts are poured. When this great Master starts playing in you, your vessel will be filled with noble thoughts and desires and you will be weak and crippled no more, but become young, vigorous, good and strong. I would wish that in a given case you would do the same. This does not mean that you should devote all your life to serving, for when Christ commended Mary, He only wanted to say, "I do not want you to give me all your time in service, but only your spare time, no matter how little it may be. The rest of the time you are free to do your duties in life." The great teaching does not want in the least our neglecting the duties in life. Only that hour, set aside for Mary, must be given her. Paganini does not always stop, this is a rare moment. He takes the violin, plays for a while and passes on. In the same way, Christ will stop some day before you when you are burdened, tired of life, thinking your life has no sense, that you are of no use to anyone, that the art you are studying is of no value. Then He will stop before you and start playing on your violin. Therein is happiness—to hear how a great Master plays or paints, or to see a great artist. This is the teaching we should study, the teaching of revering God and submitting ourselves to Him; only by this submission we shall learn great Virtues. What does present day friction, or conflict, among people spring from? From the fact that people are sour, not soft and tender. If all people were soft and tender, life would be happy both outwardly and inwardly. If people would have mutual respect for one another and were pliant, there would be great harmony in life. I do not commend people who quarrel daily, they murmur every day against God. We hear murmuring everywhere—scientists, doctors, professors, priests, and preachers—all are murmuring. If someone is a shepherd, he will say that his sheepfold is small, he would want a bigger one—this is murmuring too. The learned person murmurs that few abilities have been given to them. Who is to blame? Always God is blamed. I am not speaking about you, who are here, but about those who are in the world—everybody is murmuring. The Law of the superior life requires of you that gratefulness and love of God should always spring from your heart. Some people ask, "Where is God? How can we find Him?" Even little children can find God. Already 2,000 years have passed since the philosophers have begun to prove by argumentation where God is—in the sky, on the stars, on the Earth or in the human heart. They are still looking for Him, but no one has found Him. The preachers say He is in the human heart; the astronomers say he is in the Universe as the Law of gravitation. Some say He exists, others deny His existence. I shall use a figure to show you on what these philosophers base themselves. Imagine that God, like the Sun, rises and sets every 24 hours from east to west. Moreover, imagine that when God rises, you fall asleep and sleep until He has set and after He has set, you wake up and look for Him all night. When you do not find Him, you fall asleep again when dawn breaks and after He has set again, you look for Him all night. A day, two days, a month, a year, ten or more years pass and you are seeking Him all the time and do not find Him anywhere. I say: only change the relation of things and you will find God—sleep at night and be awake in the morning when the Sun rises. I see Him every day: I sleep at night, but in the morning, when dawn breaks, I get up and meet Him. This is the philosophy of life. God rises as the Sun. What do people do at night at present? They go to concerts, balls, to theaters and when God rises, they are sleeping. They are aristocrats, of noble birth. All people who sleep in the morning and in the daytime are of the culture of the owls. That is why they suffer. But this night culture must be substituted by the culture of the day. As soon as day breaks, you will get up and stand waiting at least haft an hour, then God will appear before your face and you will draw from Him strength, energy and health and the whole day you will be bright and cheerful, working with vigor. Some philosophers say, "God is an aristocrat, He does not accept everybody, so we must appear dressed up before Him." Now, I shall use another figure as an objection. When the Sun rises, all animals—good and bad, beautiful and ugly— come our in their clothing such as it is. God shines upon everyone—the snakes and the lizards, the mosquitoes and the loathsome creatures who do so much harm. He does not say to them, "You must hide in your hole!" In the same way you can appear before God and bask in His Light and heat. This is the sense of life. We do not suffer from the fact that there are many snakes on the Earth; their number is determined, they are in their place, but when they become twice as many as they are, the extra number must be destroyed by all means. When the number of the wolves is within the determined bounds, they are in their place, but when they multiply too much, again the extra number must be destroyed. Thus, if you do not put to work every thought and every desire you have, i.e., if you have not learned to serve God, this thought and this desire will command you. And then by the same Law, as you oppose God, your desires and thoughts will oppose you. If you can apply in your life what I am telling you, you will see how efficient it is and what results you will have. Some say, "Let us educate the world, discipline the people!" In this sense, I do not believe in disciplining, because all people are individual cells of the Divine organism, of the Divine body and each one must discipline itself individually. I cannot command anyone. To command a person is sacrilege, lying to God. I do not want to command. Why? Because all people are God's and I have no right to command and misuse another's possessions, I have the right to be master only of my thoughts and desires—I can command them. However, I must be a servant to everything outside of me. You must do the same. Now we shall come down to the inferior elements—the irrational. What is said in the first chapter of Genesis? "God created heaven, the first day and then—the Earth." Heaven implies Mary, and earth—Martha. The Earth was not organized, or was sour. The people of learning say that when Martha appeared, there was storm, a hurricane, fire, steam rising and then God said, "Martha, Martha, you are making big noise, but progress does not lie in that. Mary chose the good part. Look up!" The Earth, Martha, looked up and started turning round itself and round the Sun. That way life appeared on it, many creatures were created and finally—humans. When God finished His work, He said, "Everything about Martha is good." And that was the first day, then came the second, to the seventh day. Now some of you are Martha—making a noise and flames coming out of their hearts and minds. Martha has no lakes or rivers, but the great Master says, "Martha, Martha, be not worried! Only one thing is necessary—heaven, the rational, the great thing in the world. Look up to heaven, it will give sense to your life." When you look up your spirit will immediately start moving regularly round its center and you will find the sense of your life. To find sense in life means to have a center around which to move and which center will daily supply what is necessary for your needs. Thus, God has created in us simultaneously both Martha and Mary—the two poles of the human soul. I could explain the inner meaning of these two principles active in the world, but when much knowledge is accumulated and is not applied, certain sediments are formed and people become confused, not knowing what to do. A student from an Evangelical school, who wanted to excuse himself for not knowing his lesson in Bulgarian grammar, said to his teacher, "There are many grammar textbooks in Bulgarian by Ikonomov, Grigorov and others, which one should I study from?" He excused himself this way once, twice, but finally the teacher said to him, "Listen, friend, I do not want to know what the grammar books of Ikonomov and Grigorov say, I want you to study my grammar!" When God comes to you, you say, "There are philosophers like Kant, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy who say so and so, but there is contradiction among them, who shall we follow?" God will say, "You will follow what I tell you." When you want to follow the Divine Truth, you must go deep into your soul, only then will you understand life in its deep sense. Different abilities will come to birth within you and you will see other, greater beings than you and then you will say, "How blind we have been!" I ask, if you were in the state of an ant and some philosopher would step on you and smash you, what would you think of his feet? You would say that a big rock fell on you and smashed you. But this rock is only a small part of this giant. Some day you say, "Fate is against me, it persecutes me." Fate is nothing other than the foot of some great philosopher who has stepped upon you. Do not stand in the path of the philosophers, of the learned people, they will not stop because of you, they march on their way and if you interfere, the foot of the philosopher will smash you. When you complain, I shall say, "Your place is not on this philosophical path, you are ants and must choose other paths." This is a philosophy of life. When I see the misfortune of a person, I look up and notice a giant who has stepped on them and smashed them. God has made the world and all other worlds. In the Milky Way, there are 18,000,000 suns and each one of them is moving along its definite orbit. There is a distance of 25 billion kilometers from one sun to another, so that collision should be avoided. God has drawn these orbits. He has drawn an orbit for your life as well, has given you a certain space and has said, "Never pass beyond the boundaries of your kingdom." You want to make a contract with some other kingdoms; the men and the women of two kingdoms made a contract to form one kingdom and quarreled in the end. Why should they quarrel? Let everyone reign in their kingdom. Someone says, "Come, let us put our money together in the same place to preserve it." Let everyone keep their money in their own purse! Do not entrust your money to anyone. On earth, no matter whom you may entrust it, it will be taken away anyhow. That is why Christ says, "Lay your treasures up above—this is the true sense of life." So we are wrong in that we want to distort the life God has ordered. I know of people who hate someone and carry them everywhere in their minds. Leave that person alone and hold only onto God! He lights up everything, allow Him in your holy of holies. People today are polytheists; they have Gods of labor, of glory, of power and burn incense to all of them. Take your hammer, throw all these idols out, or break them up, then sit at the feet of your Master and you will understand the deep sense of your life. This is what Christ means by the words, "The good part Mary has chosen shall not be taken away from her." You worry about many things, taking care of this and that thing, yet you are master of these things; so take them and throw them out. I have noticed how some masters sit in their chairs, like me now, and give orders. They want to be given something which they themselves can take, but they ring the bell once, twice and finally they go out and start scolding the servant. Their calmness and peace are of more value, however, than the fact that the servant has not brought their chosen shoes at once. Do not wait for others to do the things you can do yourself. Go and take your shoes and then moralize the servant to do their duties properly. This is what God wants of you, because this servant is not yours, but someone else's. When I say I am a servant, I do not have in mind you, the people; I am a servant of God. In London a Baptist preacher once went to see another preacher by the name of Spurgeon and to give himself more importance, he wrote on the visiting card, "One of your brothers in Christ is waiting outside, wishing to see you." Spurgeon wrote on the other side of the card, "Now, I have work with our Master." If anyone comes from outside and says a brother of yours in Christ is waiting for you, tell them you are speaking with their Master. Therefore, the servant you are calling from outside to bring you your shoes, has work with their Master and if you break their peace, their Master will take you by the ear. This is the greatest philosophy people today must learn. We must be servants of God. When we learn this great Law, our relations will be normalized. I see how this Law works: when you are in a good mood, all people seem pleasant, but if you are indisposed and have gotten up on the wrong side of bed, the whole day people will seem in the wrong and annoy you. This state may last a week, or a month, we call it a new philosophy— pessimism—and such people—pessimists. In order to justify the weakness of some person, you say they are pessimists. This is according to the words of Schopenhauer. In this sense, you are all philosophers. Bulgarians stand even higher than Schopenhauer, all have this pessimistic trait—the Bulgarian is easily discouraged and falls into despair and then comes Schopenhauer's philosophy, Martha comes. I say—you are obliged to submit to God! Since you do not serve God, all these misfortunes come to you. There is no other fate in the world! The day you submit to God, to your fate, all others submit to you. This is the teaching of Martha and Mary. Mary—this is heaven, Martha—the Earth. Mary this is the higher state of the heart, Martha—the lower state of the heart, Mary—this is the higher state of the mind, the Theosophists call it manas31 superior, Martha is the inferior manas. When you go to your homes, which I see as beautiful and splendid, say to yourself, "Come, Martha, come, Mary, you are two good sisters." Christ is the superior Spirit, the superior principle. If Mary would have answered Martha, she would have said, "Wait for a while, I want to listen and after that I shall help you." Christ was speaking, that is why Mary was not working. When you return home, if you get angry and start talking loudly, say to yourself, "Martha, do you know what the Master says? You must submit!" Mary should be noble, delicate, and speak kindly to her, saying, "Sister, wait a while, I shall be of service to you a little later," and when her sister speaks petulantly, she should say, "How nicely, how pleasantly you are speaking!" There is a certain harmony between the noble and the ignoble, as there is a relation between Love and hate. I know both sisters. Whoever comes between them, they stifle them out of love and when the person dies, they say, "What have we done?" Love says, "Come, let us raise them!" Hate says, "I shall bury them." "All right," says Love. They put some earth on the person, but then comes Love and after heating them up from above, she raises them up. Hate and Love work together in the world, but you have such a bad opinion of hate, of envy. They are really snakes and lizards, but in some cases they are pleasant. What would the world be like without snakes, lizards, flies, and so on? Point out such a world! How is your world better than this? No, the way this world is made is great in its intentions, in its expressions and manifestations. What you are constantly complaining of is the disharmony within you, it is Martha—the unorganized earth. The noise which is constantly taking place in you is namely what disturbs this harmony. God's Spirit must descend and say His word. And so the Spirit has come down, giving orders. He is working. You must have an indomitable faith in the principle, living in Mary. Have faith also in the principle, living in Martha. Have faith in Christ, for Christ, Who is above them, joins them. You also should join these three—your spirit, your Mary and your Martha—and should start the New Year with this act. I will not complete what I have said, but will leave a great interval, a gap, to see how you will solve the puzzle. I am a clairvoyant and when I look at your future, I see how some rise, others fall, some follow the spiritual path, while others twist and turn. In the end, all will be well, only that there will be swaying and loitering. When people get on a big ocean liner, some people throw up because of the constant swaying of the ship, but others do not. How interesting these aristocrats are on the ocean! The first day, they are in high spirits, well-dressed, decked with rings, and necklaces, all happy and content. When the ship starts swaying, everybody begins to look thoughtful like philosophers, listening to an important lecture. The second day, they begin to feel sick to the stomach, start eating lemons, laying on the floors and vomiting. When they land and are asked how they crossed the ocean, they say, "We arrived safe and sound." Yes, but when you cross this ocean from earth to heaven, how many times will you vomit! You will say, "Passing this ocean is serious business!" As soon as you reach the land, you will have good appetites, because you will be well cleaned up. This Martha in the ocean raises much noise around herself, shakes ships, creates weeping and wailing, but as soon as you step on the shore, and Mary comes, you say, "Thank God, we are safe and sound!" Fear not! Be always with your great Master that you may solve the problem of life. You have many complex problems in life: bringing up children, relations between men and women, relations to society and humanity. You have many obligations. How will you finish them? Some think that when they become Christians, they have no obligations. No, just the opposite—a Christian has more obligations and must fulfill them very well. When a day ends, they must feel a great inner calm that they have done what they should have done and if anything had been omitted, to put it in their program for the next day. One day you will be Martha, another day—Mary, but when you are at the feet of your Master, then let both Martha and Mary calm down, for an hour let all and everything calm down. This is the teaching and the thought Christ sets forth. Learn to serve the Superior that you may be masters of the inferior! Sermon held on January 14, 1917, in Sofia _____________________ 30. Luke 10:40-42. 31. Manas—(Sanskrit) the mind, all mental expression of the human psychological faculties (ed. note).