In The Beginning Was

Sunday lecture given by Beinsa Douno

November 8, 1914, Sofia

In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, And the Word was God. (John 1:1)

This is the hardest nut to crack and the most philosophical question in Christianity. This verse has been disputed many times and interpreted in many different ways by philosophers, preachers, and believers. There were disputes about the Word in the Orthodox Church as well, and even fights for it, but the problem could not be solved by fighting. Literally, what should we understand by the words, "In the beginning was the Word", what is this beginning? When contemporary philosophers want to discuss a certain philosophical question they make some assumptions; they take something like a principle and in this way they explain a certain thing. For example, a black preacher was explaining the creation of man[1] in the following way: "God worked hard all day and made the man from dust, placed him on a rack and dried him for three more days." Some of the listeners, however, asked him, "Then what holds up the rack?" "This is none of your business," said the preacher. Contemporary philosophers as well as the preacher each have a rack on which they dry the Word and man, solve questions and say, Man is made from dust and is dried on a rack." If you ask them about the rack, they will say, "It is none of your business." But because this rack is along the road on which we are going, we are stopping to circle around it. An evangelical preacher was talking about the prophet Jonah, and said, "The whale worked and strained a whole hour until he finally swallowed Jonah." In the same way, we sit for hours in order to solve the question, but it is still an enigma to us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Here the main thought is the Word. What should we understand by the word Word? This is that rational act of God, expressed in certain vibrations that we can perceive. That means that when things start to be visible, touchable, open to the human mind, something, which is formulated, understandable to us, we call this the Word. For example, you say something – that is a word. The word love – how many elements does it have, how many letters does it consist of? It has six[2] letters. If you could separate those elements, you would find what Love is made of in regards to people, i.e. not in its primary sense, but as it appears. If we arrive at the very sense of what is Word, what is God, those people who want to resolve the question will come to the exact opposite conclusion. You cannot define something that has no form in itself. God is something without form, so we cannot define Him. Just what is God, tell me! To determine what God is you have to put constraints on Him, to put Him in a form and look from a human prospective in a certain position and place. Those who write about God and the Word think they have explained the question. They explain it, but just like the black preacher and the evangelical pastor, either on the rack, or in the mouth of a whale. This, however, is not an explanation.

It is written, In the beginning. By these words, I comprehend that rational act when all beings, created by God, became conscious of the fact that He created, and they started working alongside Him. I will use an analogy: let us say a mother gives birth to a child, and she says, "The beginning of my child has started." The beginning of her child has started, but not the one of the rational child. What does this beginning look like? Screaming and crying, from which no one understands what the baby wants to say. The beginning that is spoken about in the Bible is rational. When the child becomes 21 years of age and starts to think, then we could state that this is the beginning of his rational life, i.e. when there is a correct exchange of thoughts between the mother and the child. Therefore, In the beginning was the Word means that beginning when we start understanding God, i.e. when we have stopped bawling before God. For ages and ages, people have cried and asked this and that. To clarify my words in a scientific way, I will point out that these are all phases of the Life through which this human child has been going. Thus, this beginning went through billions of forms, starting with the smallest. Since the child was always crying, God had to sew him new clothes all the time, i.e. to transfer him into a bird at one moment, or into a mammal at another. If it comes to the point that this self-willed child understands the beginning, this means the Word has come into him. That is why the Evangelist says, "The beginning is marked into the book of Heaven as a reasonable form of system and order." Everybody begins with disorder; everybody begins with mud that has been dried on the rack. But, when you get down from the rack and stand up on your feet, it will be written in Heaven about you, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God – and this beginning is already in man's head.

I will explain when this beginning starts by another analogy: imagine that you go against the flow of a river towards its source, you reach it and then you say that the beginning of the river comes from such and such source and you stop there. Yes, this is the beginning, and no philosopher can say it is not. Here is the visible beginning, but there are other beginnings as well, about which we do not know. Perhaps this water has been taken from the ocean, wandered into space as steam and has fallen as rain; perhaps it has moved through the earth strata and reached the spring and so on. Therefore, we say this river begins from such and such source, but only in the ordinary sense. "In the beginning was the Word" means that reasonable Beginning of all humankind, when this Word appeared in the present form which we can see that it exists. Of course, now you are far from that Beginning. Millions of years have passed since then, and everything has become muddled.

Now I will give you another comparison. If you read "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians", you will see that it speaks about the Fruit of Love. Take a piece of fruit and assume there is only one seed in it. Whenever you sow it, that will be the beginning of its development. Then if you ask the tree when its beginning started, the tree will answer you, "At such and such time, when the seed was sown". Therefore, if somebody asks you what you were in the past, you may answer that you were a seed, which God sowed in the ground to germinate, to branch out, to bloom, to bear fruit, which will become ripe. Our reasonable Life is like a tree. And this reasonable Beginning is set in our head now. The body shows how many millions of years man has flowed away from this Beginning affected by the strength of the drive toward the Earth. The head is the symbol of the primary Beginning, when man was sown.

Now I will not go to great lengths to explain all this, since for many people it is very complicated. I will not dwell on the primary state of the world and the forces, which acted upon it; I will not dwell on that primary intelligence which was at work, etc. These are abstract things, and even the greatest philosophers have been silent about them. When the great Egyptian master Hermes was asked about this, he only pressed his lips together. What did he want to say? This means man should leave his body to go out to investigate things at the place itself. And when it is said that somebody keeps silence, I interpret this silence as, "Go out, go to that place, and investigate it." For example, somebody asks me where the springs of Maritsa[3] are and I explain to him, but he cannot understand me; at the end, I tell him to keep silent and he will understand. That was what Hermes wanted to say. Somebody will ask me how it is possible. If you ask, you are not for this place. You are still children who build their houses; you are interested in toys and dolls. Many millions of years should pass until you rise to the level to think over this deep question. Those of you who can understand me will press their lips together, and I will tell them, "Come with me so we can go there." In this way I have already explained this question philosophically. As soon as they press their lips together, this is a practical solution to the question, not a theoretical one. When people ask me what was the Beginning, what was the Word at that moment long ago, I call on them: "Let's go there!" "We cannot". In that case, play with your toys on Earth – whether you build houses, get married, go into business, or make war. Only when you go through all this process of development, when you grow up, become cleverer and say, "Down with dolls!" – then a Master will be found who will press his lips together and will say, "Come with me".

Those people who want to follow Christ's way should have a certain view of Truth. Do not think that it can be obtained very easily; do not think that the way you are going now is easy. No, there are difficulties. I do not say that it is extremely difficult, but there are big difficulties. The person who decides to go this way should be ready for them. Nature always puts before us big hindrances as well – small beams, which we should always use until we are ready for the long trip. The question is not only to go but to arrive as well. But you walk for a day, two, three, and after that you say that nothing will come of it, and you go back. And when people ask you what news you bring, you say, "Leave it; that is a waste of time". Only when you go to that Eternal source from where human Life has begun, where the Word was primary, you will understand the form of humanity of that time; you will understand what the sons of men were. And that, which we call the image of God, is a caricature for the people of the Earth. When I look to the people who say they were made in the image of God, I laugh a lot, because I see in front of me only fake people, and their thoughts, minds and hearts are completely ruined. The picture, which should have the image of God has been ruined, it is not the same as it was. When the Word, by which all things were created, saw that what It did in the image of God had been transformed into caricature, It sent Christ to come down from the Invisible world to the visible word and to say to the deluded men, "Stop lying. What you have now is not the image of God, it is your image". Someone will object, "In the beginning I was created by God, I was born from Him." How were you born from God? That Beginning was clear and pure in itself, but now there are some alloys in you.

So, to be able to understand the deep meaning of the doctrine, which has been preached by Christ, we should purify ourselves. However, the word purifying also means to become lighter, which is a process of organizing, i.e. the rational process in our structure. The physical comes from the law, which says that there is a collision between the forces in Nature. There is a certain force in us, some aspiration to come closer to God, but simultaneously there is another beginning as well, which pulls us to the Earth. Therefore, our head is connected with Heaven and draws us upwards, but our body draws us down to the Earth. In this way we are crucified. However, how can a man think when crucified? When we die, a Nicodemus should come to take the nails out, take us down from the Cross, wrap us in a shroud, and when we become lighter, we will rise up. This is the Resurrection. The Resurrection is an act, in which we start to see things in their proper place, we start going back to the Word, to God.

Now, you want me to tell you about God. What should I tell you when you are still crucified; you have not become lighter yet. You say, "Tell us about Love." What can I tell you about it when you are crucified and in pain? The only thing I can say to a crucified man is to bear, to suffer, and to become a hero in the suffering. I can give him this consolation only. This is the freedom people have – they should go through the process of suffering, of which Christ Himself was an example.

Christ put in our brain the Beginning of the Word. The Word is an act of God in the Spiritual world, the Word implies Angels. Thus, first of all Angels come from God and God is in them. When the Evangelist says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us", he understands that after the Angels the Word comes down, takes another form and enters into man. When we speak about the Word that was with God in the beginning and was God, we understand all the Beings that have gone through an evolution different from that of people. They are something great, Sons of thought, of the rational – these are the ones. This does not mean they have the same form we have, but it means they are Rational beings. Then, when Christ became incarnate on our Earth, He came to preach that Word in clear speech. Our speech is a translation of the Word. I have spoken about the real translation of words more than once. For example, if somebody asks you what word is a translation of the word river, what words are translations of the words spring, light, warmth, we will answer: light is the translation of Truth, warmth is the translation of Love, and that there is some correlation between the words. We will answer that just as light illuminates external objects, Truth illuminates internally the human mind. We will answer that as warmth helps plants to grow, Love, when entering into us, puts in motion those feelings that make man sprout and grow. Those who want to know what the primary form of the Word was should make the correct translation.

Of course, in the Bulgarian language the word Word has one meaning, and in Greek, in which this Gospel phrase was written, has a slightly different meaning. In Greek, this word begins with l – Logos, but in Bulgarian, the word begins with c[4]. This fact shows as well that the Greek and the Bulgarian nations are not in the same place, in the same field. When the word Logos was written in Greek, Hellenes had aspiration upward to the Angels, but our letter c is a symbol of a half-moon, which means that we are situated on the backside of the Astral world, so we do not have light and that is why we take it as reflected from the Moon. Therefore, we can say according to the Word that the Slavs are people who are going down, but they have reached the deepest place possible, and now they are going to start their new evolution. This is the reason why I cannot explain to you and you cannot understand the Word – because in your brains, in your minds, the Moon is still shining; images, figures, everything is vague in you. However, when the daylight comes and when Christ comes in a new form, everything will be bright and clear.

So, by the word Word I understand that wise Beginning, which creates and makes in us thoughts, desires, and actions. And now we should return to that Beginning. All contradictions in personal life and between the nations will disappear only when we return to it. The way to return to it is to become lighter. If a river, which flows down from its springs and goes to the sea, asks me what it should do to return back into its beginning, I will answer that it should evaporate, become lighter, rise into the air in order to be gone with the wind again to the spring, to the head, from which it had started flowing. I am telling you as well that you should apply the same law. This is the law of self-denial. That is why Christ says, "If you do not deny yourself and do not follow Me, you will not be saved." You should deny yourself of material things, houses, children, with which we are tied as if by thousands of ropes. You say that you want to go to God. You will never go to Him, if you do not cut off the ropes that connect you. Preachers and priests preach about Heaven, but they are all tied. Do not talk! You lie to the world. You are teaching from the Moon and you see things with the Moon's light. When the Sun rises in your mind, then you will have another understanding about the world and Life; you will see how wrong your viewpoints were. That is why self-denial means to become lighter. Some say that they cannot deny themselves. All right, but they go down the slope and to the oceans. There is not another way – either climb up, or roll down. In order to rise, to become lighter, the Sun should shine inside us. The Moon cannot evaporate us; quite the opposite, it is often the reason for steam to condense. By the same analogy it is said about the Sun and the Moon in the first chapter of "Genesis" that God created these two beginnings and that in them all the Truth is hidden: the Moon is a process of going down to the Earth, while the Sun is a process of ascending up to God. The setting of the Sun implies going down, while its rising implies a process of new evolution. That is why the Moon tells you every twenty-eight days the story of your descent. If you ask yourself why you got down, why you cannot think, why you have no will, the Moon will answer you. All its phases will tell you the reason of your descent. Then someone will ask how he can rise and go to God. Get up in the morning when the Sun is rising; look at God and you will find the way. Some people consider that they always have to think about God. No, you may have one thought, but maybe certain conditions have to be met in order for it to start working. Embryos of your salvation are set up, but you will rise up only when they begin to operate.

They say that Christ came to save the world. Save it in what way? When Christ came, all embryos that were sitting for millions of years, let us say, in a potential and frozen condition, defrosted under that layer of ice and emerged from the ice age. I will not launch out into explanations now that at one time the Earth passed through an ice age. Even in the spiritual life, this age takes place often. If the Moon shines in your mind I will say that you are in the ice age – your pre-flood animals have vanished, vegetation has stopped developing and you have only a minimum life – as much as the Moon gives to you. If you ask me what you should do, I will tell you that the Sun must shine on you, Christ must rise in your spirit, He must appear on your horizon, and influence you through His rays of Truth.

Now you may tell me that Christ will come. Yes, He will come indeed. However, when He comes, where will you be – on the Equator or at the North Pole, in the temperate zone or at the South Pole? You should take into consideration your position and assess how Christ's rays will fall into your soul – vertically or at an angle. All of us should come to the place where God needs to meet us, i.e. in the Divine land. If you were clairvoyant, you would see that there was another land as well. If I decided to explain to you the concept the occultists have about the Earth, the movement of spheres, you would say that it would be better not to know all of these things, because you would be caught up in a large contradiction. I will tell you why. When radium was discovered, scientists were afraid and began to claim that all current theories and views would fail, that they should be wholly revised. Therefore, it will be better for science not to deal with this element. But I say, when Christ's radium comes, you should revise your point of view and your life fundamentally and radically.

So, in the verse we quoted, John addresses those who understand. This is the deepest question in the Gospel. Those people for whom it was written understood it. One day you will begin to understand it as well. If you say that your mind is confused, I will give you some consolation, "The Moon is still shining on you". When the Sun shines on you, that question should be clear for you, if only you are honest and you are in the place where God decided to put you. According to these laws the conditions for your growth will surely come, you only have to wait. Those for whom God has risen should deny themselves, become lighter, not to roll down the hill. To say this in philosophical terms, your thoughts should have meaning. Your thoughts should have a goal as well, the goal for which you strive. A Christian who wants to fulfill his responsibilities should know why everything has happened. For example, children are born. Why? You say that God has so ordered it. Do you know that God ordered it that way? Even drunkards can say, "God gave wine so that we can drink it". Did He actually make it, or did we? God created grapes, but wine is our invention. In the same manner, you take flour and knead a loaf, but did God determine that you do so? No, it is your invention. You put two stones together to grind grain, but did God determine grain to be ground into flour? No, this is your will, because you cannot grind the wheat grains in your stomach. That is why, when people say that this is true, that is true, you should ask them: "Is this a Divine Truth or is it your truth?" – "But I preach Christ". You preach your Christ. "But I preach God." You preach your God; do not lie to me! I say, I am neither lied to, nor do I lie. Everybody preaches his Christ, his God. When a girl falls in love with a boy, he is an Angel for her, she is dying for him, but when they get married, she begins to argue that he is a devil and she is dying because of him. Who is right in this case? So we say in the life we have we are ready to die for our Christ, but when we get married to the Lord and when we see that He is not what we expected, we do not want Him and we claim He is false. Thus, when we say In the beginning was the Word, which word do we mean? Is it the word, according to our understanding or the primary Word, which is the foundation for all people? Is it that Beginning which supports all of us, so that we are connected like one common organism and drinking the same sap, or some other parasitical beginning?

Each of you should first resolve the question and should know in which beginning you are. You will say, "But I know". I am always hearing the same thing – the man says "I", the woman says "I", everybody says, "There is nobody like me", "I am great". But I see that he is only five centimeters of the tree, and someone else is only a leaf. Autumn will come soon, you will fall from the tree, you will go to the roots, and then you will understand that there is another beginning – one is above, while the other is below. So, each of you should know where this beginning is – is it in the root or in the trunk; is it in the large or in the small branches; is it in the leaves; is it in an unripe or ripe fruit, or in its seed. If you say that it is in the seed of the ripe fruit, I will say, "You are now a person who should get going to check out the primary Beginning John talks about". If you say you are in the leaves, then you should wait for many millions of years. "But I am in the unripe fruit". You should wait as well, until you ripen. "But I am already going to seed". Great, but a storm may come, you would not endure and suddenly you would fall down from the tree to the ground. Because the seed still does not have life in it, according to that law, you should decay, go through the roots, through the trunk, and grow upward again and start a new life.

If we had more time, I would dwell on the question about the fruit falling. Many people urge me, "Tell us where we were once upon a time." I know where and what sort of a person you were, I may speak about this, but do I know what you will tell me. Someone will say, "If this is true, it is a big lie." And when it is told to someone outside, he would say, "It is a big lie". But a lie is the shadow of Truth. You can lie until you have the truth, i.e. in order to lie to someone you should lie to him about a certain truth. The lie is a companion of Truth. Where there is Truth, there is a lie as well and vice verse.

However, let me come back to the question. How should we apply this rational principle within us? Someone will say this is a force that always acts. What do you understand by force that acts? In the mind of contemporary scientists, this is much undetermined. They say it is a power, which develops, but how? They say things are attracted and gathered together by the power, but how? Two people hold their hands and they are attracted; a magnet draws up shavings. This is all right, but there should be some correlation within the attraction. That inner power should draw our thoughts and feelings to the reasonable Beginning. To get to know if we are drawn by this reasonable Beginning, if we are set free from the Earth, we should feel when the contradictions in us cease. This is a sign that we are going in the right way to the Beginning. Until there is a fight, we are between the two principles and we look like a traveler who has lost orientation of the four cardinal directions, and instead of going east, he goes west, and he can orient himself only when the Sun rises. Someone may say, "The end has come." The end of what has come? When a student finishes high school, does he die? No, it is the end of his studies at school and the beginning of his entering into the world. Do you know what the word end primarily meant? This is a courageous, smart, and skilful person, who knows how to work, who can bear everything. Even now, when people say, "His end has come", this means his work has been finished. When you come to the end of the cloth that you are weaving, you will take it down from the loom and you will begin to cut it, i.e. the end of the weaving should be the beginning of your clothing. When you dress up and people praise you for the nice garment, do not be proud of it, because you did not make it. Do not be proud, but thank the tailor who succeeded in cutting the garment and in making it. There are some people who, when praised in such a way, think this refers to them. No, the praise is for the tailor, and they are only his advertisement. If your garment is sown badly, if it is twisted, you will say that you do not want to go to this tailor anymore. For example, people say to someone, "You have noble thoughts", and he starts imagining he is something great and he becomes proud of himself. Wait, these are not your thoughts. Give thanks to the One who gave them to you and did not lie to you.

If there is a storm in your mind, will you be able to know where you are to go? No, you will not be able to know. Unclear ideas rule your minds as well. You say that Christ is a principle. A principle means beginning, head, or source. When you go to that spring, you may already taste pure water. If we draw from Christ's source, if we drink from this water of Life, our thoughts and desires will certainly become clearer. Then another result will follow as well: our bodies will develop as they should, suffering and pain will disappear, we will have correct understanding, we will be able to speak useful things to people and to quench the thirst of the thirsty. Christ said to those women, "The water which I will give you will be a spring gushing forth inside the soul". You are coming here to drink from this spring every morning as well. This is all right, but I who like to tell the Truth, who do not like to lie or to be lied to, I want everyone to have a pipe from this abundant spring from which I draw, to lay a pipe to your yard and, when the times come, to open the tap and to drink. I am talking to those of you who want to be Christ's disciples. They should lay a pipe at least one centimeter in length. And when the world gets into a state of siege and people are thirsty, your pipe will give you water and you will not be thirsty. The spring will be in your soul – this is the beginning as well as the end. Do you know what the end is? When you build up a small fountain in your house from the spring – this is the end of things.

So, we should consider our thoughts and desires as if they were given to us. It is only necessary for us to use them. Every thought comes and goes; you cannot hold it. Do you think that you can hold your thoughts and desires? No, just as food goes through you, according to the same law our spiritual thoughts come and go. They are forms that carry certain saps of Life. Use the saps hidden in them, and scatter the pollen out into the open space that should be filled up again. If you hold them in the bottle too long, the saps will go off and God will hold you responsible for that. Some want to be rich with thoughts, but it would be easy for others to get their hand in and rob them. Like money, thoughts do not have a master, but they know the person who has them. Someone could reach into your head and steal your thoughts. He may reach into your heart and grab your desires. For example, a young girl loses her heart and begins to languish, or somebody's thoughts are taken and he goes mad. Why? – Because they do not understand the basic law that every thought and desire is sent from the Invisible world in order to be used, and afterwards to be released into the world. When there is movement, when there is an exchange of thoughts and desires, then there is enrichment as well. In return for thoughts and desires that we transmit we will receive the relevant saps of Life. That is why Christ says, "I am the Life." What is essential for us is Life. Thus, we should put all our thoughts and desires to work in order to acquire Life. When we acquire it, we will be free citizens and will go to that Beginning, to the Eternal spring where we can quench our thirst.

When somebody dies people say, "He went to the world beyond". If the seed is ripe, he will go to the other world, but if it is not ripe, he will drop near the trunk, near the root and will not go there. Somebody says that he is ripe. If you are truly ripe, God will come, will pick the fruit, and will take it to a good place. Therefore, everybody should ask himself if his seed is ripe. Now you may say, "I believe in Christ." Fine. "He will save me." This is good as well, but you will be dropping near the trunk of the tree for a long time, while your seed ripens inside you. Only when it ripens will you have spiritual Freedom. The only wealth a man can take from Earth to Heaven is this small embryo. When he goes to Heaven, man will begin to sow it for a new life, because the same school is there and you will work there as well. When advanced science is taught there, how will you understand it, if you do not have the ability, if you have not learned to guide your thoughts and desires on Earth? If you want to understand Christ's teaching and to be in the situation of the criminal, hung on His right, whom Christ said, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise", you should work. Some may say that they are also crucified. Yes, but on which side? If you are on the left side, I am sorry for you; you with your suffering will not go to Heaven. If you are crucified on the right side, I am glad, because your deliverance has come. Everybody crucified on the right side – teachers, priests, philosophers, kings – will be saved, but if you are crucified on the left side, you will go back to work in this world. Such is the law of God.

The Beginning is the right side; this is Christ. That means you are reasoning according to the law of God in order to apply it to Life and not to be of two minds. Some who listen to me say to themselves, "What should we listen to, to what the church says, or to what this man preaches?" In this case, you, my friend, have two heads. If the church and I are preaching and teaching Divine Truth, there cannot be any contradiction and the results should always be the same. In other words, if we act according to the law of God, the apple planted by a priest will grow up in the same way as the apple planted by me. One should look only at the results of our actions. Why do you doubt – you have a candle, by which you can see if I am saying Truth. Someone meets me and asks me if I am black or white. But you have a candle, look! "But I cannot see." Then, you are in the dark. I know you and I can see who you are. For example, you are an evangelical; you say that there is no faith like your faith. Then how is it that you do not know Truth? My friend, you are a person, who lies both to himself and to others as well. Truth has only one image, and it is harmony, self-denial, Virtue, Wisdom, Righteousness. When you get this image, you will have reliable Peace, Calm, and Power. Then the world could be upset, the sea could be surging, but you will be quiet, calm and free like birds flying with their wings. If your right or left wing is damaged, you will collapse with your head down on Earth. And the Earth says, "Whoever has only one wing will stay with me." Sinners are birds who have one wing only. Devils say, "We need people with one wing", but Christ says, "I need people with two wings." We have two hands – right and left – and if we could have controlled the laws about making matter thinner, we would have been able to fly with them, rise, and be free to leave our body whenever we wish. Now, you are afraid of death and you say, "Devils are bad spirits, they will hinder us." What can they do to you, when they are limited by the same law? If we control both wings and if Christ is inside us, we should not be afraid of anything. Our fear shows that we are not with God. The Scriptures say, "Perfect love casts out all fear." If you are afraid, Love is not inside you.

Now you ask yourselves how Christ will save us. What strange people you are! When you sow the grain of wheat, your salvation has come and there will be no lean years any more. You want to be like Angels. How can you be, when you are not sown and you have not sprouted? Angels fly like birds, and you are plants; then how will you be transformed so quickly? Do you know how many forms you should go through! By the word forms I mean the forces which you should control. In order to have the ability to change a form, you should know the forces that act inside it, because they limit you. You are limited – for example, you should eat three times per day and if you do not eat, you will not be in a good mood; if you do not drink, you will lose your mood as well. Someone says, "I am strong." You are strong for three days only. "I am a patriot." If you are kept hungry for three days, you will begin to think differently and will ask for bread. We should acquire the living bread; we should not take it from the Earth only. For us the Earth is a moneylender. All moneylenders and all bad spirits are placed in such positions, and they say, "We will give you bread, but you should pay us such and such amount!" You should become clever. Whenever ten wise men appear, they will tie this devil and they will say, "This grain is given to us by our Father above." Therefore, in order rightly to get what is sent for you from above, you should have a pure mind and a pure heart.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Let us ask ourselves if this Beginning is with us, if we are with God and if God is with us. I do not say you are not with God. I even maintain with certainty that you exist, live, and move in God, but God is not with all of you. One could be a dried root and the saps of the tree may function, but not penetrate him. If you are a dried root, of what use is Christ to you? We should not only be in God, but God should be inside our mind and our heart as well.

Now, what did you understand from today's lecture? Remember the following thing, which is important for you from a practical point of view: everybody should build one small pipe from that spring into your yard, and from now on should not disturb either me, or the priests. You say that our priests do not preach. They are not porters. Make a fountain and drink. You say that the priests are bad. Why? – Because they do not give us water. Build a fountain from the spring to your home and let us stop talking about this Eastern problem[5]. When you build a tap from this spring, all disputes will disappear. The English scientist Drummond[6] said that we constantly consume three elements: two of them are air and water, which God gave to us for free, but the third element is food, for which we permanently work. If we have become slaves in order to have only one of these three elements, what would have been our situation, if we had to obtain the other two elements in the same difficult way? Our situation would have been three times as difficult as it is now. One day, when we become wiser, God will give us the third element as well and then we will be free people. We are in the third stage of our development now.

Christ solved the problem, and He says, "I am the living bread." When He comes into us like living bread, we all will be free – men, women, children, priests, and teachers – and then, we will start doing greater works, as God has determined for us. Now, we only discuss politics – who has more, who has less. Now everything, including wars, is based on bread, and when someone has all the bread he needs, he wants to take the bread from others in order to have more. Christ says, "I am the living bread, I will solve the problem. I will be the Beginning." The beginning of what? – Of freedom, of reasonable life, of reasonable achievements, of transforming the world. This is the Beginning. Therefore, whenever you want to work with Jesus Christ, unite yourself with that Beginning. When you are united, you will have all that is needed, Christ's Power will be your power as well, and all the people of the world who are on the right side of Christ will be your friends. Then all of you will be united, you will go with a candle to look for your brothers, and Christ will give you advice about what you should do with your friends on the left side. You will come again to the Earth to help them, while all, those who are on the right side as well as those who are on the left, go back to Heaven to be one with Christ. This is the Beginning, this is the Word and this is God of Whom I am preaching to you this morning. And this living Word, which builds, exalts and transforms the world, is inside you – this is the living Christ.

[1]Man – the Bulgarian word chovek signifies a thinking and conscious human, without reference to gender. The current translation uses English equivalents such as person and one wherever possible. In certain instances the word man is used instead. The use of man, he, his, him in reference to chovek are used to facilitate the reading of the text, however they should be interpreted as an indication of both the feminine and masculine genders.

[2]любовь – In the written Bulgarian language of the beginning of the 20th century the word любовь, which means love, consists of 6 letters.

[3]Maritsa – river in Bulgaria and Turkey, which springs from Marichinite ezera (lakes), Rila Mountain.

[4]C – in Bulgarian: Слово.

[5]Eastern problem – problem of international politics. It began in 1453 when the Ottoman Army captured Constantinople. It was partially solved by the victory of the Christian countries over Turkey during the Balkan war in 1913, and finally – by concluding the peace treaty at the end of the First World War between the Triple Entente and Turkey in Mudros on October 30, 1918.

[6]Drummond, Henry (1851-1897) – Scottish theological writer, revivalist, explorer, geologist.

Translated by Doroteia Koparanova,

Malinka Koparanova and Steftcho Koparanov

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