"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye."1
In my last sermon I spoke to you about the words, "If your Eye be single, your whole body shall be full of Light." In this eye there is a beam which obstructs its purity. Christ says, "Cast out the beam out of your own eye that you may see clearly and cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye." How can this beam be cast out? By the words "beam" and "mote" Christ signifies two opposing principles - principles of negation in human life. A person whose eye is concentrated on the physical world, completely involved in matter, has a beam in their eye. The beam is a Law of Contradictions. By the word "mote" is meant a Law of Constant Changes. Christ uses two images - a beam and a mote. The beam is cut out of wood. Do you know which trees make good beams? The best beams are cut of oak trees that are used for the construction of houses as well. If you study the oak, you will find it grows in the lowest places of the earth. It is the oldest material, that is why its thick bark is chapped. There is a certain relation between the buffalo and the oak. When the buffalo gets hot in the sun, it wallows in the muddy puddles to cool off and keep the flies off. What is heat? It is the symbol of love. Therefore, people who are disposed to love, enter the puddles to get muddy so that the flies will not sting them. They are alert people. When a hornet approaches an ox, the ox raises its tail and runs away. The buffalo does not do that. When a hornet whistles by its ear, the buffalo leaves the field and runs to a pond where it hides.
You may say to me, "We know what you will tell us about this beam." But you do not know what I may tell you. I have turned over the pages of many books treating questions of the New Testament, but very little has been written on this very important question; when whole volumes have been written on the least important questions. Everything in the world today is like that. Nothing is written about essential things and whole volumes are devoted to inessential problems. These unimportant questions on which so much has been written comprise shadows as regards the important questions. The shadows are necessary only when the important thing is definite, then they make sense. When a great artist paints a portrait, they use shade on it so as to make it stand out well. It is not the same thing, however, on which side the shadow is placed - on the right or on the left (unclear). If the dark side on the face is the left, it shows that painting the portrait, the artist was facing the west, i.e. the sun was setting. By this I shall judge that the life of that artist had been setting; or in other words, they was coming down to the material world. If the shadow was on the right side, it shows that the artist painted their picture when the sun had just risen. Therefore, it is of no meaning for the dull people on which side the shadow is cast; but for the wise, it is not so. It is important on which side the shadow is cast on your face. Why does Christ say that the beam must be taken out of your eye? Because this beam casts its shadow inwardly, whereas the person who wants to study life should have their shadow outwardly.
You may ask me, "Why should this be so?" If the shadow is inside your life, you will not understand its meaning. And this is very natural. For instance, if your house is dark, but the streets are well-lighted, you will know what is going on in the streets - who is passing, how are they clad and so on - but you will not know what is going on in your room. Therefore, if this beam is in your eye, it follows that the meaning of your inner life will remain unknown. You may become a reformer or a moralist and moralize people to reform their houses and cities; but you will not be able to change their inner life. Christ says, "Take this beam out!" How was it formed? It was formed by the habit of the human mind acquired for many ages. And each one of you can verify for yourself whether your shadow is cast inwardly or outwardly.
Christ says, "Cast out." He does not say "Add." Adding and subtracting are two initial processes. The first process is addition and the second subtraction. Till now you have been adding, forming this beam which is the result of the past. Therefore a+b = c where c is the beam. In order to free ourselves from this general result, Christ tells us to subtract a and b from c and our eye will be pure. How shall we subtract them? You cannot get rid of c, if you do not subtract first a and b. You cannot get rid of the nits if you do not take the male and female louse out of your head first. a and b = c which is the beam. In this case a is your mind, b is your heart; not on ascending scale in their actions, but on the descending scale of their manifestations. That is why Christ says, "You must stop these two processes." You will ask me how to stop them. In order that peoples’ minds start working, they should be placed under conditions to labor at a total deadlock. You must think of being in the shoes of one of Napoleon’s engineers who was forced by his commander to build a bridge in 25 minutes, or be shot. The engineer used all his abilities and succeeded in building the bridge. Notice how a cat tries to pass a dangerous place without trouble, if it is clever. If it finds itself on a wall five or six meters high and has no way out, it will be forced to jump down the wall; although earlier that had looked like an impossibility. This same way you say you cannot do this or that. Christ says, "Cast out the beam from your eye and place it in another place: not in your eye, but in your house." The eye has no need of beams. The teacher, who first advised people to place the beam in the eye and not in the house, had not known the Divine Laws. There may be a beam in the body, but by no means in the eye.
By the word "mote",2 I understand those people who live in the sensual world. The straw is taken from the wheat. These people have acquired mistakes by their constant pleasures in the world. The beam is the acquirement of an avaricious, self-seeking life. You cannot rely on such people. Since this beam is very heavy, the eye of the person who has it is always tired and constantly looking downwards. I can make everyone of you look downwards. How? By placing a load of 100 kg on your back, I shall make you start reasoning and looking downwards. Some people would say that such a person is a great philosopher. Yes, there are philosophers who look down, but there are also such who look up. When the beam is in your eye, your mind and heart will always be heavy and you will be ill disposed. Some people with a beam in the eye manage to conceal this fact, but when you offend such a person they will begin to look down. A woman angry with her husband looks down. Why? Because, the beam has started to exert its influence. This is the feature of a general law. By the same law the young men and women have beams. So do the married people. Marriage, however, is a temporary thing. In the world there are no married but harnessed people. That is why I am not talking about the married, but about the harnessed people. I believe you are not harnessed. But you who think you are of the married people are of the blessed people. Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye that it may be pure so that you can cast the mote out of your brother’s eye."
I make a general examination of the spiritual principles upon which our life rests. For instance, if my house is built upon the Divine Law, this is not only my own achievement, but also an achievement of the engineer I have called to make its plan and build it. Also, all the discomforts of the house cannot be attributed only to me. That is why if a person who has technical knowledge comes and tells me the sink or something else is not in its place, I must listen to them. If an intelligent person tells me to reconstruct my house because its walls are too thin, I must obey them and agree with their opinion, because a catastrophe might surprise me. When Christ talks about the beam, He conceals His great idea in this single word. The Bulgarians often hide their money under a heavy beam. In the past people had to hide things; that is why they needed beams. We often shade our windows with heavy curtains so that light may not enter in. In the same way we are unhappy today because of this beam which prevents the light from entering and reviving the matter of our body. We today have one and the same idea of light and of certain periods when light is not the same. If you warm yourselves on heat produced by wood, or on heat produced by coal, the effect on you in the two cases will be different. If you are sensitive when you burn coal you will pass through all the stages it has passed; when you burn wood, you will experience the stages the oaks have passed through and feel them like Living Beings. The black color of the coal will produce quite a different effect on you from that which burning wood will. Contemporary culture must rid itself of the use of coal. That is why the future scientists must harness solar energy. We must provide for ourselves heat from the sun. When we reach the stage of utilizing solar heat and energy, we shall be the cultured people humanity is expecting. At the present stage we cannot be called cultured people. Christ says, "Cast these beams out, there is no need of them any more." In the past this beam was necessary, it served some purpose; but today it is of no use. The buffalo entering the mud puddle to hide from the hornet has its economic considerations. He reasons thus: "Instead of running away 4 or so miles from a hornet, I shall cover myself with mud so that no hornets should trouble me." People today say the same thing, "We must ensure ourselves materially so no one should disturb us, so that the hornets should not trouble us." When you want to ensure your wife and children, those are the hornets troubling you every day and hour. The Christians are like the oxen - they run away. The worldly people, on the other hand, are like the buffaloes who wallow in a puddle so they would not be caught.
Years ago in Russia they tried to put through a law against Jews which was discussed for some time. One of the members of the ministerial council was very much against the Jews and insisted on the passing of this law. The Jews tried to oppose this act in different ways, but did not succeed. One of the Jews decided to visit himself the minister who opposed them and went to his house. At the gate he asked the policeman to allow him in for he wished to tell the minister a word or two. The policemen let him in. He went straight to the minister and offered him a bag of gold saying, "Take this and keep silent." The council gathered under the chairmanship of the king to discuss the Jewish problem. All ministers opposed the law and expected the opinion of the great opponent of the Jews who kept silent. The king was surprised and asked him why he did not speak. The minister raised the bag of gold and said, "As long as I have this bag of gold, I cannot speak." This bag of gold is the beam. A day will come when the Lord will ask you, "Why do you keep silent?" You were passing some law for which you were obliged to keep silent. Today all rich and famous people keep silent. Those who keep silent are diplomats. In diplomacy silence is recommended. Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye so you can speak." "Cast the beam out of your eye so you can see." There is a relation between seeing and speaking. You cannot speak before you have seen.
The straw in some people’s eyes is of quite a different material from that of the beam - it is out of wheat. We know that wheat wishes only to multiply and cover wide areas. It says, "Give me only 7 or 8 months to multiply, I shall finish my work and leave my place after that." It is not the same with the beam for the oak wants ten, one hundred, five hundred, a thousand years to grow and develop. It affirms ownership. The teaching of the beam is a teaching of possession. If your son is unworthy, cast the beam out of your eye and deprive him of all possessions so that your property should not be handed down the generations and be the cause of crime. But you will say, "Nerde, Sham, Nerde Bagdat."3 If anything hinders your life, it is the teaching of private ownership. We come to earth and become engaged in houses, fields; quarrel with our father, mother, sisters or brothers and go to court until one day they lift us from this place. The son says, "My father passed away and could not solve this question, but I shall solve it and see how the inheritance should be distributed." For eight thousand years humanity has been solving the question of property and this question has not been solved yet. Christ says, "Cast this property out of your eye so the world can be set right." Then the small obstacles, the small motes will disappear. Now in society there are moral, charity organizations. The priests preach in church; the teachers instruct at school; the judges administer justice in court, but all have beams in their eye. The Lord I know and whom I am speaking to you about, is not a Lord of beams and property and is not for people who argue about property. Property has no Lord whatever. And people who are split into Catholics, Protestants, Mohammedans and so on, have no Lord whatever. Your Lord is a Lord of beams, but my Lord has no beams.
Christ says, "Thou hypocrite, cast the beam out your eye!" If you ask me when things will be set right, I shall answer, "When this beam is cast out of your eye."
"But when will this beam be cast out?" When Love comes to reign in the world. Then the beam can be cast out very easily. All women, who are the bearers of culture can cast their own beam out, as well as that of their daughters and sons while they are still in the womb. If I preached the Law of Moses, first I would have punished women who deserve the greatest punishment. But since I am not preaching the Law of Moses, but that of Christ, I say to the women, "Since you are the doctors, you have served long enough your old lovers in paradise. Give them up and serve the Lord." For 8,000 years women have been serving this handsome scamp from the Garden of Eden and have not done anything laudable; that is why they have to give him up.
You will object, "Do not blame us, we are pure." Yes, there was a time when you were pure, but today you are not such as I knew you. This beam - property - entered your eye, you started to live with the law of property; your friend came to you in the Garden of Eden, and said to you, "Come out of this garden of Eden, you need not stay here any longer as gardeners; possess the earth, it is for you. Why are you so foolish to stay in this garden, you will become equal to God?" And the woman left the paradise. Moses has described in a long and interesting legend the exit of women from paradise. When you read the whole Old Testament you will see how the Lord constantly addresses the virgin of Israel calling her different names, constantly admonishing her to return to the right path, to her Father. You have been to so many places after leaving paradise. You have been to Egypt - the material world; in Babylon - the old world, the old culture: culture of property. Now you are in Europe, which is in the same chaos as the Egyptians and Babylonians.
Christ is saying to contemporary people who represent the chosen nation, "Cast this beam out of your eye," i.e. do away with this property in your land, because it is the cause for all disputes and wars. The only property a person has is their body. If a person could daily alter the parts of their body, control their desires, and the functions of their organs, as well as those of the brain with all its centers, they would be an excellent person. Say to yourself, "Now I do not need any houses or fields; this is for the future culture." The future culture, as a projection of the past, is for the sinners, the present is for the righteous. When someone says that they will correct their life in the future, I understand that this person is a sinner. When someone says that they will correct their life now, I understand that this person is a righteous one who has cast the beam out of their eye. Thus, the future in this sense is for the sinners who do not change their desires; it is their property. The present, however, is for the righteous, because it takes no space whatever. It is their property, it is a mathematical line. Every righteous person will pass through this straight line. I say, everyone who controls the present will enter the Kingdom of God. The future belongs to sinners. The past - i.e. everything which has happened - is in the hands of God, while the present is ours. Therefore, we have exchanged our roles. God is engaged in correcting our sins. We are dealing with the justice of God which will come in the future, while the people of the present say: "We shall work for God to realize His desires."
From today on I want all of you to cast all your beams out and I am ready to help you. However, if you leave this for tomorrow, you will not find me. I have the say for the present; the Lord for the past. My word is founded on a very thin thread called the Thread of Love. Christ addresses those who have studied this teaching and who are awakened. This is why I do not have to teach you either - you must apply the Divine Principles which you have already studied. For the application of a Divine Principle there are certain methods.
A person who wants to make use of a teaching must first of all pay all their debts. In my opinion the Law of Self-sacrifice is nothing but a payment of ones debts. But the debts have been incurred because of property. You will say, "Well, then it is possible." What is possible? It is possible for instance to become rich, learned and so on. No, by that you cannot do anything. Many people have applied this teaching. Many have wanted to be learned, rich, healthy, but they have not preserved this state a long time. The teaching can have a result only when one applies the Law of Self-sacrifice for the whole humanity. Only then will you sacrifice yourself for the good of humanity; only then will you be sacrificed for your self. If you sacrifice yourself for the good of humanity and raise it only one centimeter in its state, the next time you come to earth you will have favorable life conditions for which, you yourself, have been the cause.
All suicides in the world are the result of the Law of Property. A wife wants to dominate her husband and if she does not succeed in that, she despairs and commits suicide. The wife instructs her husband how to look or not to look at all the other women and so on. Now people make these mistakes because they are born by women. Women are responsible for the mistakes of men for they taught men this law. You will say I judge you. No, I am not judging you; I am not judging anybody, but I am telling you the truth.
Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye." Jealousy, suspicion, hatred, evil, avarice, envy and so on are the beam in your eye. The beam, the beam must be cast out! It is everywhere: in all societies, churches, religions. I see it everywhere. People today are like those two Germans in America who were good friends and promised one another to give each other a kiss. However, their stomachs were so big that they could not get close together and kiss. These two friends could not get close together and parted with deep grief. Today all people have such big stomachs that they cannot get close together. Why? The beam is the whole cause. While such big beams exist, there can be no kiss for the Soul.
A young girl meets a young man and wants to kiss him, but she cannot do it so she groans. A young man wants to kiss a girl, but he also cannot do it, so he groans. All people are groaning - they cannot kiss each other. We shall be far from one another until the beam is cast out of our eye. Today, morals are perverted - a consequence of which, people do not understand one another. A stranger looks at someone else’s wife and the husband gets angry at once, thinking, "I shall wait and see what you are going to do. I shall watch you." Men and women are jealous of each other everywhere and yet they want to learn some new philosophy, some new teaching.
The most difficult thing for a person is to merit the name human/e, to know nature so that nature will serve them. So do you know this Mother called Nature? Have you talked with Her? She is Virgin. Do you know Her habits, looks, receptions, laws and society? When I speak to people that they must enter into harmony with nature, the present servants of religion call this idolatry. The present existing order is idolatry, but this order will be swept away and only the ex-person will remain. Only the empty head will remain of the contemporary person and will be presented in the museums as a remnant of a past culture. When the future people visit the museums, they will look at the heads of the present eminent bishops, patriarchs, and high clergy, see their beams with which they had lived so many years and say, "Illustrious and pious people, such piety that only the head remains of it!"
In the future all teachers, priests, ministers and judges must be without beams. I would render good service to Bulgaria if I should point out the person who should be employed as a teacher, who is to be a priest, who is to be a judge and so on. If this were observed, Bulgaria’s affairs would get on well. But what is happening now? Someone prepares to be priest, but their character is that of an actor. When such a person becomes a priest, it would be better to call them a servant of the church, not of God. I wish all priests and teachers to learn the Language of Nature and to see what She is writing. I study all stones, streams, and flowers and by them I can conclude what nature had been 2,000 years ago. So nature changes its garment every day and you should study what it is like today.
The present is for the righteous. Christ said to the Jews, "Cast the beam out of your eyes, or you will not become a nation." But the clergy of that time who were Occultists and Cabalists said, "Is that so! Instead of casting our beams out, we prefer to put you on these beams." These beams of yours crucified Christ. He was crucified on two beams - one was a male, the other was a female beam. You say, "How pleasant it is to pass under these beams!" Christ says, "If you do away with private property among brothers and sisters, your mind and spirit will be free so that you can become good people." If all women of the contemporary race would become imbued with this idea, in 100 years they would push humanity four or five thousand years forward. But mind is necessary for this, for when there is no mind, this consciousness is lacking in people so they hang each other and cut off each others’ heads. Now they are cutting the heads of the priests as well.
I want you to understand of what I am speaking. I am speaking in principal, not for the sake of this or that person, treating the question in broad terms. The world can no longer be set right by killing. I am not of those who can kill and hang. All must know this. From now on I shall not be crucified. You will crucify one another until you are enlightened. Christ says, "You hypocrite, cast the beam out of your eye."
From all I have said, do not consider anything offensive: this is a Law for Heaven. When we pass the bounds of the spiritual life, we shall leave the beam here on earth. They say of someone, "They departed for the other world." No, they have not yet departed; they are still here on earth and that is why we should give them a little wheat now and then.4 The prison is the astral world. They went there with their beam. But the motes in our eyes are all our small defects. Some are criticized for talking too much, for not dressing properly, for not getting up early, or for not working sufficiently and so on. These are all very small defects, insignificant flaws - motes - in the eyes of people. Are present day people really working? This is not work but torment and labor. Work is always performed out of love. Labor serves duty; but torment exists where there is violence.
The cause of all this is property ownership. Woman who has introduced this habit in the world is to blame for this evil. All women teach their children, saying, "See that you become richer by a greater income; ask everything of your husbands, all you need; do not tell them everything, be reserved and so on." That is why a wife wants things of her husband regardless of his position and income and he wonders how to satisfy her needs. What happens then?
A Greek in Bourgas5 married a very rich Greek woman who brought him 4,000 pounds. When they were married, she started asking him to buy her this and that, spending money indiscriminately. In less than two years all the money she brought was spent. Her husband kept an account of everything and when the account reached 4,000 pounds, he said to her, "The money you brought is gone so you go and ask your father for more and if he gives you any money, buy what you need." When a man leaves his wife, he has spent everything she brought from her father and since he has no more, he wants a divorce. Why can they not live together? Because the wife has a big beam in her eye, wants to dominate him quoting verses from the Bible which are in her favor so that he should not think of any other woman. She says, "The first condition, says the Scripture, is that a man should leave his father and mother and stick to his wife." Yes, but which father and mother? Christ says, "A man who marries should leave the father, mother, brothers and sisters who have sinned in paradise and thus hold on to his wife." Woe to him who, when marrying, does not give up his mother and father who have sinned in paradise!
Therefore, as Christians, you must give up private property. Private property is an evil for every person who wants to develop, as well as for every occultist; mystic especially, if they would study the secrets of nature. Private property is a great evil. I do not imply the state regime, but they who understand human life must give up private property. This does not mean we must be indolent, but we must learn how to work. A wife should not rely on her father, or husband, but should stand on her own feet. Man has not married to support a household. This is not marriage. Real marriage is the getting together of two young people to work together for an idea. If a woman had such a concept of marriage, she would try to ease her husband. But what is happening today? The wife does not fulfill her duties and when her husband returns from work, disputes and disagreements begin. The Law of Private Property is for those who marry today. You say, "These young people love each other very much." Why? Because the young man is rich and has a nice position so he will supply all that is necessary to his wife; or she is rich and so her husband will be able to advance. If the man is poor, the woman does not love him. Because of these wrong conceptions of life all misfortunes in life spring up.
The Divine Law will assimilate all old materials and reorganize them. The piece of coal can become a diamond by reorganizing its particles in such a way as to condense them through crystallization and assume a new form. Therefore our life must pass through fire and be reorganized - crystallize again and pass into a new form. Then we shall have better houses as well. A day will come when, after living for ten years in a house, we shall tear it down and build a new one. The old house where we have lived for ten years is full of bad thoughts. When men and women quarrel they must burn their house down and make a new one; when teachers and students quarrel in a school, it must be burnt down and built anew. The same thing applies to the churches. The teaching of Christ is a new school, a new church. To cast the beam out - that is the new teaching. This is why the Lord writes, "If you want to better your life, you should tear down everything and build upon new rules without keeping the beam in your eye." Then your ideas of nature will be better, your homes and social life will be better.
When you go back home say, "From today on I shall be casting the beam out of my eye." But the beam cannot be cast out by a single attempt; it requires a multiple process, a chain process of casting out. When you learn this Law of Subtraction, you will come to the process of multiplication. Then you will understand the law: "Live and multiply." The first process of addition came into the world by Adam, but the second - of subtraction - came in to the world by Eve, that is why God created woman by taking out one of Adam’s ribs. Which woman? - the woman in paradise who enjoyed her relation with "that one"6. Therefore, men will learn to take out their wives, while women will learn to take out their sons and daughters. That is why they bear children. Birth is the law of taking out and subtraction. By this Law of Taking Out, the Lord teaches women, asking them, "Do you still wish to have property?"
When you listen to me, you will think, "Here is a man who violates the Law of Property Ownership, a teaching which has existed for 8,000 years." No, this law came later, but it has no basis in nature whatever. The earth is ours and we can dispose of it. If we love our brothers and sisters, we can dispose also of what they have. If we do not love them, the Law of Private Property comes into play. Private property has come into existence when love stopped functioning. In times of quarrel the woman says, "I shall divorce him, but make him pay me." People who do not require anything special of life can live with this idea of private property, but for those who want to discover the secrets of nature, study their existence and sense of life. Private property is a great obstacle, a great evil. You must stop ensuring yourself, but should rather work. One can think up some work, which can satisfy them. But you will object, "God helps them who help themselves."7 This proverb was thought out after the fall of Eve. Private property is the sheep-fold. Eve has hidden this proverb. It implies that if you want to have private property, you must lead your sheep into the sheepfold yourself. The Lord always gives wealth, but He does not believe in private property.
Today people admire this proverb. I find it a human contrivance. Christ says, "Cast this beam out of your eye, you do not need any sheepfolds." Christ is taking you out of the sheepfold and will lead you to the pasture. This shows that He does not believe in private property. All Christians who believe in private property have churches, sects, etc. As far as religion is concerned they think they must be separated into Buddhists, Brahmans and so on which shows they believe in private property. I believe only in one great Divine Principle and in no forms whatever. The Lord has created the Principles, but we must create the forms. I make my own pot, but do not believe in any pots. Today people pray to their pots. When they built a house, they begin to become bold and to believe, saying, "I believe in God already and can cross myself." Or they cross themselves with the idea that God should protect their house so that another person should not take it. Such a person does not believe in God, but in their house. I do not cross myself in this way but say to the Lord, "Lord, you need not protect my private property for I refuse to acknowledge it and do not believe in it. Forgive me for having crossed myself so many times and have compelled you. I want to go along with You at liberty to those clear, rushing streams, to the green, dewy pastures, to the leafy thick forests, to think things over and be a free citizen of the whole earth." Only this way can you understand Christ and be near Him.
When I look at you, I do not like your eyes. All of you must cast the beam out of them! And as soon as you cast the beam out of your eyes, Christ, Who is your shepherd, will come to lead you out of your private property. More favorable conditions for life will be given you. New bodies, new brothers and sisters, new societies and nations will be created for you so that you could live and work among them. You have served your old master long enough. Some lose their house, or their child dies and they despair and commit suicide. Why do they act like that? Because, they believe in private property. The Lord has taken your son or daughter, because He sees they cannot live in this house. When your son or daughter falls ill, do not be afraid for them; know that illness is a great blessing for a person under the present conditions of life. You cannot be heroes with these beams. From now on you must become heroes, but for this reason you must give up your beams.
When you go back, make a long list of all the things you must give up in the future. Write down everything you give up this way: "I give up compelling my husband to bring me anything, leaving him free to do what his love prompts him to do; I give up compelling my husband to borrow money, to build me a house, to buy costly clothes for me for Easter and to satisfy my whims as before; I give up asking him to take me abroad to summer resorts, baths, balls, theaters and so on; I give up compelling my husband to love me, leaving him free to follow the dictates of his soul."
You will say, "This teaching is very dangerous!" On the contrary, it has been dangerous up till now. How many tears have been shed that some woman’s husband, her private property, has not loved her! Do you know to what extent your husband is your property? There are many tenants in a house so that your husband is one of those tenants over whom you have no right. The Turks say, "Ahmet burada, akil dişarda," i.e. Ahmed is here but his mind is outside. Your husband - that is his shadow - but his soul, his thought is outside. Then how can you require him to love you when you too are not in your house - your house is full of tenants. Today we have set out in private property to conquer the world thereby losing the highest in life. That is why Christ says, "They who find private property will lose themselves, their life; but they who lose private property will find their life." Those who abandon the teaching of private property, draw away from God. Now you must bravely start on this way and solve this question as heroes.
When the Lord sees that you are opening the book in which you will note down all the items you will give up, He will say, " With my servants, I shall help this Bulgarian woman who sets about casting the beam out of her eye." Let us see who will be the first Bulgarian woman who will set about this work. I know many who believe in the new teaching and are ready to give up their private property, but at the same time they are insured in many banks. We must be loyal to a principle not only in form, but also in substance and meaning as well. But what do people do today? Argue if there is a God or not, if there is a future life or not and so on. Yes, there is both future and past life, moreover, there is a present one. The Present Life is the Divine Life whereas the future and the past are the human life. To live like a person with all your heart, mind and soul, this is the Divine inside you - this is the Present.
This is what Christ meant by saying you should cast out the beam from your eye, because only this way you can understand life. Only in this way shall we take the right path of human evolution - the path of Love. And then we shall be able to come to a mutual understanding.
Sermon held on May 18, 1919.
1 Matthew 7:5
2 the Bulgarian version is "straw" (transl. note)
3 Turkish proverb, meaning "Where is Damascus, where is Baghdad." (ed. note)
4 The custom in Bulgaria is to commemorate the dead with offerings of boiled wheat. (ed. note)
5 A Bulgarian city on the Black Sea coast. (ed. note)
6 The devil in the guise of serpent. (ed. note)
7 The Bulgarian version of this proverb is, "God gives, but does not put in the sheepfold." (trans. note)
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