The Scripture reads, ‘Without faith one cannot please God’. I shall paraphrase this line a little and I shall say, ‘With faith one can please God’. Bear in mind that it is faith that appeals to the Lord. The Scripture reads that we shall be granted whatever we ask for in line with God’s Will. This is not the commonly accepted faith, not that faith that people have, but it is the faith of children – among children you will look for it. You have to have the faith of children, not the faith of adults. I want those who listen to me, not to think that they are adults. If they so believe, there is no point in them coming here, there is no need for adult people on Earth; they are people for Heaven. You may say, ‘I am fifty or sixty years of age’. Do not fool yourselves with your years. I say that one’s age is appreciated by one’s experience. The more experience you have, the older you are and vice versa. What matters is what valuables you have in the backpack of your life. You may carry a load of fifty kilograms, which is fifty leva worth; you may carry a diamond of only one gram, which may be tens of thousand of leva worth. It is not the quantity, which is important for the load, but the quality.
Some say, ‘I know that the Sun spins.’ I ask whether your Sun spins. You say, ‘I know that the Moon gets full and gets empty’. I ask whether your Moon gets full or gets empty. This is where knowledge resides – to discern what is good and what is evil. Keep an eye on your heart as to whether it is getting full of good and empty of evil. Only then you will know the meaning of getting full and getting empty.
You know that the Moon takes fourteen days to get full and fourteen days to get empty. Similarly, your heart should spend fourteen days on getting full of good and for fourteen days your heart should work on emptying all the swill out of you and out of society. Afterwards, you will feel light. This is what doctors do too.
When people see that somebody’s stomach is upset or that somebody has diarrhoea, they immediately call the doctor to put an end to the disorder. Hang on, let the sick person throw up, so that the sick person can be relieved, let everything, that has gathered inside, flow out. A man may be in a fury, flying at others; do not stop him, let him shout, so that everything can get out. If this annoys you, close your ears or go farther away; it is none of your business to interrupt the flow. This is the philosophy of the New Teaching; this is the Teaching of Christianity! Sometimes, your husband is cross with you, he shouts at you, and you feel an urge to stop him. Easy, let him throw up. Well, but he will make me dirty all over! You keep away from him, not just right in front of him, pass him the bucket and stay behind, meanwhile let him throw up. Do not interrupt him, help him and be grateful that he has relieved himself from such a burden. But what do wives usually do? She will start going from one house to another and telling people, ‘You know what misfortune beset me – my husband threw up!’ On the contrary, this is quite fortunate, as he is now relieved. I regard all people who throw up as reliable.
So, from now on, you will speak less and do more. This is what teachers do with pupils at school – in order to teach them to work, they give them tests, homework, to write compositions etc. Do not think that after entering the Spiritual world you are already holy and pure. This will come on its own accord; do not worry about it. If, on seeing a candle, you start thinking how it spreads light, when it gives better light etc., this will bring no benefit to you. Leave thinking aside, strike a match, light the candle and make use of it.
Only an aspiration to be obedient to God, Who is complete in all respects, is required from you now. The Lord, I speak about, can see you, because He has millions of eyes and ears. He sees you through cats, flies; He can see you when you chase them. The Lord sees everything, because there are many secret places from where He watches you. The Lord is neither in cats, nor in flies, but He sees through them. When He sees you passing by a pear tree or looking at a flower, He is already aware of your intentions. Everything is known to God. When you drink a little water, He, through the water knows you internally.
The most important and necessary things for you are as follows: obedience and attention. What does obedience mean? Obedience means to do something, and attention means to be attentive when the Lord does something. The same with you now – you will have to listen and pay attention. You may ask yourselves what else I have to tell you. You are only required to be obedient and attentive! If you are sent with a hose in hand to any garden, you are required to point the hose and to water the garden, not to think why you were assigned to water the garden, why not somebody else? You were found; the hose is in your hands, keep watering and do not think any longer about it, because the one who waters the Divine garden, benefits from its fruit.
Read chapter nine by Prophet Daniel. This chapter is closely related with what I asked you to do.
You do not know your future, it is hidden from your sight, and you do not know what the Lord has in mind. It is said, ‘Pray, in order not to be tempted.’ Many of you are busy with a lot of work, but there is also more important work for which you have come. I shall be brief, what you have to do is to think within yourselves for about four to five minutes and to see whether you are ready to do this voluntarily, without repenting your decision later on. You will do the following: for ten days on end starting on 27 June, you will get up at about four o’clock in the morning, and during the time from four to five o’clock you will read chapter nine by Daniel, you will carefully think upon it, you will pray and you will confess to God, as you do to a priest, your sins, the sins of your relatives, the sins of your people. And if the Lord so wishes, He will forgive you. In this way you will send your petition to God, however, what resolution it will get, is up to God. At the same time, the departed people close to you will also pray for themselves and also for you, so there will be prayers below and above – just like trees feed from below and from above. You will leave yourselves in God’s hands. You will eat twice a day: no butter or eggs, only vegetable food. You will eat in the morning after praying, and in the evening before praying. In the evening, you will eat before the Sun sets, and you will pray and read chapter nine after the sunset at about eight o’clock. The Lord has imposed fasting all over the world. After breakfast in the morning, and after dinner, you will thank God very much. During these ten days you will observe absolute fasting of your heart and your mind: not a single bad thought, bad desire or word of gossip. During these days ask God only for important and necessary things, not for stupid ones. You will pray to God to strengthen all of your brothers and sisters, wherever they may be; to help all the suffering people, and everybody who fights evil. You may read the Good Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and others. Be careful not to overdo it, make sure your heart is always warm. Approach the Lord with faith! Have faith in His grace and kindness. And you will see the result.
Master’s lecture
Delivered on 26 June 1918 in Sofia
1 The lecture was titled ‘Lecture to Women’ in the decoded shorthand notes
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