"And the evening of this day, the first day of the week, when and the doors were locked, where the disciples were gathered, because of the fear from the Judeans, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and told them, "Peace be with you."
John 20:19
Immortality – it is an aspiration of the human soul, an ideal which it aspires to and always a desire to realize. The human soul lives on the Earth to find the way for immortality. Immortality regulates from one great Divine law – a law that a man has to learn and apply in all the spheres of his life. And in this sense we have to learn immediately, to find these conditions with which immortality can exist. A man could be immortal and lose his immortality, could be mortal and acquire immortality. Death and immortality – these are two situations. In scientific language immortality is the balance of these things, of the powers which act in Nature; death is the losing of this balance. Immortality concludes in itself unity, harmony; death – disunion, disagreement, disharmony.
When people desire immortality they have to know what namely it contains. When you enter into a contemporary concert hall to listen to a symphonic orchestra, if you have this ability to look at it, you will see firstly when the players come with their instruments, most of them are stringed, they take them out from the boxes, after that start to tune the violins, to define the tones of the wires, which are stretched – some more, others less; there is some correlation in this tuning. And after they tune the instruments in tones then they take the fiddlestick and start to play. Do you know how much time is necessary for one musician to enter into a symphonic orchestra, to control his instrument, his fiddlestick? He has to dedicate at least twelve years to special education. Here they usually say that the one who plays the violin is a Gypsy – that is the byname of the violinists. But in this instrument there is an emblem. We may say that the violin is the most perfect instrument which from the period of three hundred years, until the great master Stradivarius made it, has not been through changes because it had almost reached perfection. I can compare the violin to the human soul – in it there are four chords and one fiddlestick. The violin – it is the human soul; the chords – these are the four human temperaments; the human will we can take for the fiddlestick. A violinist, when he goes to buy the chords, will say, “Give me such and such a chord – mi, la, re, or sol.” And when he returns home he knows where to put every single chord.
In human nature there is, we said, four temperaments – choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, and nervous. These are four states in man; they conform to the human soul, mind, heart, and life. There are four main chords which we have to know how to wind and release. And when we tune our mind and our heart, we have to know to tune them on the same tones. In the violin the fourth wires are tuned on four different tones, as between every wire there are also four different tones, i.e. every subsequent wire is with four tones higher than the previous. When you tune the whole violin, you have four multiplied by four equal to sixteen tones – steps on which the chords are tuned. When the violinist tunes his violin, he then takes the fiddlestick and starts to play. And the violin namely is the only instrument on which it is played by playing crosswise– an instrument that forms the most pleasurable music and which mostly comes near to the human voice with its tones. Therefore, when you tune your violin and take the fiddlestick, you form that cross from which you always cry and say, “Why did God give us this heavy cross!” I am telling you that God gave you wonderful instrument but you don’t know how to tune it and that is why you carry it on your back as a heavy weight. Take it down and start to tune it to play. And when Apostle Paul says: “I shall praise with the cross”, what do you understand? I see people everywhere who bring these crosses, I see them in the churches and everywhere, but I didn’t see a man play on his cross. You enter into a concert hall and see that the people applaud on the playing of the cross without thinking that they have crosses too – the sufferings that they play too.
But the most important thing in this playing of the cross is maintaining aesthetic perception. When the bandmaster raises his stick and begins to wave it, everybody has to attend and to lead from him. And the movement of the fiddlesticks causes us some pleasure because the fiddlestick goes on some rule. So when we come to the deep inner sense of Life, when we tune its chords – the mind, the heart, the soul, the Life – and when we harness to work the fiddlestick – the human will through the Spirit of the Bandmaster who will raise his stick, we will create the most pleasurable music in our life. Notice that the cross is a great blessing with which God visits us on the Earth – from it goes out the greatest symphony, music, singing which is called Salvation. In singing like that is the Salvation. When Christ suffered on the cross, the Angels up in Heaven didn’t cry but sang; all the prisoners in hell were delighted that their Savior was coming. It’s the same when He was born on the Earth the Angels came to announce His coming with singing again. So when this instrument created these chords, this fiddlestick of our faith, the Angels sang up in the Heavens. The contemporary Christian says, “Bitterly to us, the Earth is a lamentable ravine, Life is a burden, and has no sense.” For the stupid people who don’t know and don’t want to play, who don’t know how to pull the reins with his chords, who don’t listen to the Bandmaster, for them really Life is without sense; but for these people who can tune their violins and play, for them Life has a lot of sense. And the violinists, who play so pleasantly, receive a very big payment – to four hundred, five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred, a thousand levs on the mouth, only by moving his fiddlestick.
Christ often comes to you and asks if you play? When I ask a man, “Do you know how to suffer?” I understand, “Do you know how to play?” You don’t want to suffer, so you don’t want to play. These people who don’t know how to play are dark; I have got no faith in them. They say, “A man who sings and plays does not think evil.” A man who suffers, it means that he sings and plays in Life and saves himself. A violinist who plays, does he stay hungry? Who doesn’t know will beg; who knows and sits somewhere to play, receives his salary from people. Who knows how to suffer will never stay hungry. And notice, the people always come to the assistance of those who suffer, as they give to the violinist. When I stay to listen how somebody plays but the others watch only how the fiddlestick is moving, I hear the voice of the violinist, and see if he has learned to play or if he is learning now. If he is learning, he is a novice – now they teach lessons but after twelve year he will be in the symphony orchestra and then you will pay a lot for a ticket to listen to him…
Now when we learn that great law to sing and to play, said in a modern language, or to suffer, said in a Christian sense (these words for me have the same meaning), through the suffering we will attain to those great laws – the immortality. In it is the whole harmony, in it there is no disharmony. Christ, who comes to the Earth, comes to teach people how to sing and play. He will teach you how to pull the reins the chords of your soul. The chord of the soul is E – the most elevated chord, of the mind – A, of the heart – D, of the Life – G. Here is the first lesson that Christ will give you. Many times people ask, “Why has God given me this heart that is no good?” Whether the heart is no good or you are no good! They say, “Why has God given me this stupid mind?” Is the mind stupid or are you stupid? – “Why has God given this senseless life?” Whether life is senseless or you don’t know what it is for. The sufferings – these are the laws through which God acts for our development. We have to sing and play – to feel and think. To think means to play, to feel means to sing.
Now if two neighbours tune their violins and start to play, it will be very pleasant. I visited one family a year ago – the father, the mother, the son, the daughter – all of them played: the father took the violin, the son – the bass etc. everybody has to be occupied with something. Most of the contemporary people – the man, the woman, the kids don’t know how to play, and when they don’t make other things, they start to fight – for them of course, life is senseless. Christ says, “Tune your violins, pull your fiddlesticks, learn to play.” When you gather in the evening start to play or sing in time one song, after that another, third, fourth; finish your meal, start again; lay to sleep, on the next day – go again to work in Life.
Now you will say, “What connection does it have with the Christian resurrection?” The contemporary Christian discusses the question of the resurrection and says, “When I go to Heaven, then I shall learn everything.” This is for that world but for this world what do we have to do? There is the illogicality in the ratiocinations of people. For this world we are very smart, but for that – no. When one youth wants to study in one university, can he leave home and go directly to the university? He has to pass first through the nursery-school, afterwards through the school forms, the classes of the secondary school, to prepare to understand the high science, and then to enter into the university. Now, why does God send us to Earth and what is it? It is nursery-school, school forms through which we have to pass. If we don’t finish them how will we enter into the classes? When we go to that world do you think that it will accept us into the classes? No, no way. The word resurrection concludes one great idea in it - it contains Divine secrets. To rise – it means to be master of all the elements, of all powers, of all thoughts, of all desires, of all your actions. And how can one man rise when he is not master of all these things. When one frog, one small snake can scare you, how do you prepare for resurrection? When you on the Earth can’t endure even the tiniest pain and be in service to God, how can you rise? If one violinist has to spend twelve years of contemporary work from one to ten hours a day to learn to play, we, the Christians how long do we have to play to learn about the Christian resurrection? One of the weaknesses of the contemporary church is that it thinks that with gifts everything may be realized. God may give us a violin, chords, a fiddlestick gratis, and he may catch a teacher and pay for him too, but we will have to spend ten hours a day learning to play – the exercise must be from us. And that one who can’t exercise like that is a lazy man, unable, he does not deserve the Kingdom of Grace.
When Christ says to his disciples “Peace be with you”, if I could interpret this phrase to you in its broad sense, it means the same as when the bandmaster takes some symphonic aria, waves the stick and suddenly everybody listens and starts to play. When Christ says “Peace be with you” everybody has to prepare his violin, with his fiddlestick and to listen to this Divine time which from the one end of the world to the other is constantly moving. Everyone sings and plays for God - He inspects them. The one who doesn’t listen to singing turns his mouth. The crying – it is awry singing. By laughing, the mouth raises upward a little but by crying slants downwards. That one who is crying is young, he still doesn’t learn to sing. And so the crying is awry singing which however is preparation for good singing. It is not bad to cry because after some time this crying will transform into very nice singing. – “But bitter is the destiny of the man.” We will be patronizing, he will learn to sing.
With this new energy that Christ brought in the World with his Resurrection, showed the way of this Divine art – Salvation. And for this namely you have to learn the Gospel eagerly. You say, “I don’t understand this, I don’t understand that, this is necessary, that is not necessary, this is correct, that is not correct.” I ask which is correct. Some people do not want to suffer, do not want to sing, others do not want to work. What do they want then? The crying is one exercise – it is passing to the singing. The hoe – it has its tone too; to work with a hoe, to raise it and to put it in the soil – it means to beat a drum; and the drum has to be beaten. You raise an axe and put it in the soil – these are the bells in the music. And when you raise the hoe and dig, even then you have to think, have to say to yourself, “The master is watching me - I have to know how to use this hoe rhythmically.” Chop trees but chop them with all the rules of the art. We say, “This is senseless, that is senseless.” So what has sense in the life then? The smallest apparent works, which we pay the smallest attention to, they have the biggest content in themselves.
The resurrection is one process which the Spirit of God acts in our Life, one great process through which God restores that original harmony. One day, when your ears are opening and you start to listen a little more and from bigger distances than you are listening to now (now they are too thick, you have got no even musical ability, you catch only the harshest tones), you will note that in the whole universe some tones are moving which the objects – the springs, the trees, the leaves – give out, and you will hear great music which spreads from the one end of the world to the other, and then you will understand the inner sense of Life. And Christ through his Resurrection wants to lead you into this concert hall. He will pay for you, will give you one ticket, but will you have the ear to understand that Divine music, when you enter in that hall and see that concert, that singing? This is the inner deep sense of the Christian Resurrection. This is the Life which develops among the Angels – from the lowest to the highest. Everywhere in the world, there is this Divine manifestation and because we can’t find this inner connection we think that among all the phenomena there is no connection.
And when you hear the words “Peace be with you”, you have to be ready for what the Bandmaster will order you to play – to sing or to cry. When God raises His stick and says: “Peace be with you”, the man who doesn’t know how to sing starts to shout and his singing is already called fighting. He beats the drum too but beats it awry. The woman too beats the drums awry sometimes. God says:
You did not learn to beat the drum, such and such a tone you do not make correctly, you did not correct your voice; tune it and put into repair the chords of your Life, of your soul.
He says again:
“Peace be with you” – and start to play. – Wait, you do not put the fingers correctly on the violin – it will stop you again.
You will say:
It made me tired already!
But you must understand that the art is acquired with a lot of patience and industry and for lazy people there is no Heaven. Therefore, God says, “If you do not become receptive like children, you will not enter into the Heavenly Kingdom.” Because children have the desire to learn things and adults say, “We do not need this, we do not need that,” and in the end, they stoop downwards, and become a question mark, the Earth attracts them and they bury them in it. God says, “Because this violin is not made well, put it down, so it can be made again.” – They will construct it again and will come out anew in the World to start to learn again. God decided that every one of you should start to learn to sing and play, He doesn’t have children in Heaven who don’t want to learn to sing and play. And Apostle Paul says that he was carried away to the third Sky and heard something which can’t be said with human language – he heard singing and playing. John also said that he heard singing and playing.
This is the thought that I want to leave with you. Do you know what the main tone in your soul is; do you know how to tune your violin? Learn to tune it. Every morning, when you get up, tune your nervous system. You are little angry, anxious – this shows that your violin is not tuned; stop yourself, tune it and when you tune it gradually your anxieties will disappear. How will you tune your nervous system? You will go to pray – the prayer, it is tuning. Some ask, “Why do we have to pray?” – To tune your violin. After you tune your violin in this way, you will say to God, “My violin is tuned.” And God will say to you, “Start the work of the day,” and Peace will enter after you and your work will go easily. And the woman some days doesn’t tune her violin well and she starts to beat now this, now that child; of course on this day the music doesn’t go well, she says, “Why did God give me these children, how wrong-headed they are!” If the children are wrong-headed or the mother, this is the question. On other days when the violin is tuned everything goes well, and the children are the same. So there is something tuned, so the first thing we have to do in the morning is to pray – to tune our mind, our heart, our soul, our Life and in this way to appear in the sight of God at work. To be grateful and to say, “Today we learned our lesson on singing and playing well, and our Dad, when he comes back, will be grateful to us.”
Christ came to see how we sing and play on the Earth. He was crucified on the cross and five hundred million people sing and play to this cross today, and he from the time that he was here gave the perfect civilization. And so, Christianity is Divine music, Divine singing – learn to sing and play it. Tune your violins well, move your fiddlestick correctly and listen to the orders of the Bandmaster. The whole world will go on this Divine law and you will prepare for the other world, for the other Life which comes.
27th of September 1914, Sofia
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