"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."1
There are great and small Commandments, great and small Laws. Christ says, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments or laws, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that shall fulfill the Law, shall be called the greatest."
Take into consideration the fact that the Laws Christ speaks about are not created, but exist eternally and every culture and cosmic manifestation is due to them. Our morals also depend on the way we comprehend these Laws. Philosophers of today say that people’s conceptions are relative, in accord with their outlook. This is partially true, but if our conceptions are vague that does not prove that there are no Absolute Laws in the world which regulate human relations. What is Right is right for all ages; the Good is good for all ages; Love is love for all ages and so on. We may have different concepts of good, right, love, etc. but this is so far as we are concerned and not in relation to the Great Universe which contains everything within Itself. Evil starts from the point where the small laws begin. We may think that all sufferings come as a result of the breaking of the small and great laws, however, I am not going to explain in detail the causes and effects of breaking a single law. This is a complex question about which many dissertations have been written. I shall talk only about two conditions of the great and the small requirements of the Great Law.
In one of His talks Christ says that those who are not faithful in the least are not faithful in the great, while they that are faithful in the least, are faithful also in much. Someone says, "This is a small law, why should I fulfill it? I shall fulfill the great Laws." But a person who is not ready to fulfill the small laws, will not be in a state to fulfill the great Laws as well. The fulfillment of a law may often be effected in a purely material, physical way. The state has its laws by which all citizens are obliged to fulfill their duties.
The Bulgarians are characterized by great bravery and often oppose the fulfillment of the laws, but when they see the rod, they give in at once. There is an anecdote about the Bulgarians during the Turkish yoke. They used to get together in the village around a dunghill and talk quietly in a friendly way. While talking some would whittle at a stick in large cuttings since they are brave and heroic. Someone would say, "Do you know, brothers, that the tax-gatherer has arrived in our village to collect the taxes?"
"So what!" another one puts in still whittling at the stick in large cuttings, "We shall not pay him."
"Yes, but those who opposed him were beaten and tortured by him."
"Then we shall take care to collect the money some way or another and pay our tax," and they start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is how we act also, while we are strong and healthy, we speak and whittle at the stick in large cuts; but as soon as we fall ill, we start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is the mechanical fulfillment of this law: we must fear the rod in order to fulfill it.
Such is the fulfillment of laws today everywhere: in our private, social, political or spiritual life. Thus the laws are fulfilled today not by our wish, not out of consciousness of our duty, but by force. That is why anyone who breaks the laws is punished by being deprived of their inheritance, or by being ostracized from society or some kind of association. Everywhere, compulsory measures are applied for the fulfillment of this law. You will say, "Doesn’t every nation have its own ideas and conceptions?" Yes, every individual, every family or society may have its own conceptions, but they do not change that Divine Law on which our growth depends. As long as we are in accord with this Law of which Christ speaks, there will be an upsurge in our thoughts and feelings and an expansion in our will; then we shall easily come to a mutual understanding. And this state will last as long as we are in accord with the small and great laws. However, the moment we violate consciously or unconsciously one of these laws, small or great, our balance will be shaken.
We cannot understand the cause of our disturbance - things seem to go wrong and we are discontented so we seek the cause of all this in other people. Material things may also be a cause of our unbalanced state. For instance, you are a spiritual or a cultured person but while passing by a shepherd tending to his grazing sheep, you think, "What a nice meal one can make of these lambs!" You take a lamb and kill it. After a short while an unexplainable sadness comes upon you. Or a rich person notices a child and thinks, "Something may come out of this poor child," and sees the child through school. I take the lamb as a symbol of all our wrong actions, so I am not speaking of meat eating. We consider ourselves very cultured people, but in spite of that the whole world is suffering and the Jews have no end of suffering.
Today all are asking what the causes of suffering are. Some think the rich people are to blame, others think the rulers are to blame and so on; but in reality the cause of our sufferings are the small lambs we have eaten. If you eat one of these lambs, all in your family will have troubles all your life. You have violated one of the least commandments and you will be the least in the Kingdom of God. You will ask me, "What are we to do having eaten so many lambs?"
"You will be the least in the Kingdom of God."
"Isn’t there one exception at least?" There is not.
But those who have fulfilled the least commandments, who have not coveted one lamb, will be greatest in the Kingdom of God. I take the word covet in a bad sense. All sufferings in the world are the results of bad desires, because they evoke bad thoughts which have an ill effect on our brain and heart and are harmful to our organism in general. In such cases the doctors say that our blood is poisoned and so on. This is right, but it is the food we absorb that determines the quality of all our actions.
Someone may object "Could a person live without desires?" I am not saying that one should not have any desires, but in their desires they must learn the Great Law by which they should act. They should know if what they desire is good for them, for their close ones, for their nation, for the whole humanity and then give vent to their desire. The living organism should not be created for a short term, which is of no importance. You give life to a child, but hardly a year or two have passed, and the Lord takes this child from you. You weep and wonder why your child died. The cause of this is your desires; the violation of the least laws which has made you the least in the Kingdom of God.
By the word "least" is meant a weak person who yields to all kinds of temptations and influences. A weak person has no definite or stable morals and that is why they say: "We shall pass this life one way or another." Can the existence of a swine be called life - a swine in a pigsty fed by her master three or four times a day. The swine thinks there is no better life than hers and no better master than hers. I am asking you, "What is our present life in relation to our future one?" In order to become great in the Kingdom of God, a great desire must be born in us to raise ourselves as thinking beings and to fulfill the great Divine Law in all its fullness.
All writers today state that in order to become great, one must have a strong will and fulfill the least law completely without violating it. We often assume the stance of that American whose duty was to open and close a draw-bridge when trains would cross it. He lived in a tower on the bridge, but once he did not close it so many trains were amassed waiting for a free passage. He said, "Today I am the master in complete control here and when I say that the trains should pass, that is the time for them to start." How was that man treated? They sent people to dismiss him and placed another one there who would close the bridge.
This is how you act - you open the bridge and do not close it saying that you are in complete control and all depends on you. After some time, however, the Lord will send His delegation who will remove you from your place. Then you are the least in the Kingdom of God. Who is the least? Who does not fulfill the Will of God in their heart, in their mind, in their soul or in their spirit.
Have you ever heard how a young couple in love converse when they are out in nature before marrying? They promise each other very fine things and say sweet words. I have a well developed sense of hearing and have often heard their whole conversation. If these young people fulfill everything they promise one another, the Kingdom of God will be restored in their life in all its fullness. But what happens as soon as they marry? They start with a new slate, forget all the promises given, begin to violate the least commandments and misfortunes follow them and their life is spoiled. Which is the cause of these misfortunes? You have not fulfilled what you promised in the garden. You better find the notebook where you have written your promises.
The woman who has married says, "I was duped, I never thought he would turn out such a devil!"
The man on his part says, "Oh, how good she was once - a real seraphim, but today she looks worse than the most evil spirit in hell. How am I to fulfill my promises?"
I ask you how it is possible for marriage to turn people from angels into devils? If this is so, better that no one marries. Such a marriage was not contracted out of love such as God wants of us. I am speaking on principle and am not concerned with your personal life. This law concerns to the same degree for me, you and all the angels - it is the same for everybody. I uphold the idea that people are good only at the moment they act well; they are right at the moment they act rightly; loving only at the moment they manifest love and so on. If they stop doing this, they are neither good, nor righteous, not truth-loving. So long as you are considerate of these Laws, your thoughts will flow smoothly with exquisite plasticity. In such a case if you are an artist, a writer, or a housekeeper, all your affairs will take a right course and you will carry things off with vigor. But the moment you betray your thoughts, you will descend from a Higher to a lower plane.
I envisage these planes in a limitless circle where the lower we descend, the narrower grows the circle, assuming the form of a cone. Some say these planes are seven, but I find they are seven million by seven million. You go lower and lower in this cone, saying, "Let us go down and see what is sown there." You will come to the lowest plane of this cone, to its center; there you will stop and turning into a microscopic being, you will say, "Lord, why did I become so small?" Because you are one of the great philosophers and have come here to learn how to fulfill the least law of life.
The process of development is the reverse, i.e. in order to rise from the plane into which you have fallen, you will not pass any more along the same path. You will start now by passing through the narrow door of the cone into another one touching with its point the point of the former one and you will begin your evolution. This way you will pass from one plane to another until you come to the new world. When you have hardly entered this new world, a philosopher will meet you and say, "Why don’t we people live as we wish to? Why don’t we act by our will independent of all laws?"
You will ask him, "Have you ever gone down the cone of life?"
"No, I have not."
"Go down and see how one lives there. I went down once, but I would not go down a second time for the world!" Many of you will go down this cone and when you are passing through the narrow door, you will remember my words. Everyone who has passed once through the narrow door of the cone, becomes great in the Kingdom of God; but they who have stopped in the first cone will be called least in the Kingdom of God. Those who have stopped in the first cone are in the state of an ant who has fallen into the cone on an ant-eater. The ant-eater gradually gets hold of one of its legs, then of another until all is finished with the ant.
Therefore, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same, shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."
I am speaking to you on this verse because every soul has its own aspirations. I call you neither good nor bad because thousands of times a day you act both well and badly; thousands of times a day your wishes change. When you get up in the morning, you say, "Today I shall live well.’ But when you return home in the evening and give yourself an account of everything, you say, "Things did not turn out as I thought, because today life and the people around me are such that one cannot live honestly."
The merchant says that today one cannot live without lying. The farmer says that cultivating the land it is impossible not to destroy the life of many worms. The politician says that under such conditions of life one cannot deal honestly in politics. The clergy say the same thing. Everybody says it is not a time to lead a good and pure life. But when will this time come? When the new culture comes, then life might be better. If you live in your thoughts, you are in your past. Therefore, if we live with our past life and want this or that to happen, we live in the first cone where the bad life is.
The good life is in the second cone. I shall compare the first cone to a small child who has been an old man before, but now has become small. In the past this child has been a philosopher, some Brahman, priest, patriarch, or scientist, but today he needs your help. Now he is screaming, he wants you to pass him through the narrow point of the cone. You ask: “Why has this child come to this home?" The Lord has sent him that you may show him the door. The mother is the door. She holds him and says, "My child is very intelligent." Do you know the state of mothers today? It is only when their children become grown-ups that they understand what kind of people they are, for then they manifest themselves.
To explain my thought, I shall tell you the following example. A hermit once lived a pure and pious life for 20 years in a forest. The devil thought out different ways of tempting him, but did not succeed. Finally, he decided to enter his water jar and stay there until the hermit drank him. However, the hermit shut him there, sealed the jar and left him in it. After ten years he said, "Let me wash the jar and use it." He went to the spring, poured out the old water and filled his jar with fresh water. After pouring out the water, the hermit noticed in the spring a beautiful small child. He took it and lovingly brought it up. The child grew up, amazing people with its bright mind and knowledge. One day the child said to its guardian, "I shall give you a large kingdom to rule and stop living in the forest. The world needs you, I shall teach you how to live and make you a king’s son-in-law."
The father agreed and his son took him to another kingdom. The hermit got engaged to the king’s daughter and within a short time the son stole all the precious jewels of the king and told the king his son-in-law did it. The king issued an order for his son-in-law to be arrested as a thief and punished by hanging. The son went to the hermit and warned him to protect himself as there were grave personal charges against him. The hermit did not manage to escape and had to be hanged. When the rope was around his neck, his son approached him and said quietly to him, "Look away in the distance and see what will appear there. Do you see anything?"
"Yes, I see three donkeys."
"Don’t you see anything else?"
"I see they are loaded."
Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold."
This is also true of you - a thought which seems perfect comes to you and you start working for its realization. But the moment you realize it, you go to the scaffold. That is why we must fulfil the Divine Laws which build our welfare as well as the welfare of those around us. Life is created so that every good deed, every thought or action on our part is concretely tied with all people, plants, with the whole organic world, the invisible world with its hierarchies and with God. Every thought and desire on our part is sometimes bound with the branches of this great tree of life and sometimes with its roots. I shall not explain the meaning of the roots, branches and blossoms of the tree.
A Bulgarian proverb says, "The roots of knowledge are bitter, but its fruit are sweet." If you do a good deed, you will receive God’s blessing. Moses says, "The Lord revenges the crimes of the fathers upon their children to the fourth generation, but His blessing goes to thousands of generations." Therefore, a long period of years is required for the good things to be realized. The same applies to the realization of a bad thought. However, when the bad thoughts are stimulated the evil comes very quickly. This shows how strong we are in evil. Many saints and idealists, knowing that their good thoughts and wishes will be realized some day in the distant future, say "We are ready to die and sacrifice our lives for our country although it may take thousands of years for our ideals to be realized."
If an atheist, an unbeliever, is sacrificed for the good of humanity, they stand very high in the sight of God, because they have done good without any knowledge of Him. There are many people who believe in God, read the creed of faith and understand the truths of Christ; but when a good thought comes to them, they are not in a state to fulfill it. That is why I shall reverse Christ’s teaching this way, "In the future the atheists and the unbelievers will inherit the Kingdom of God, but present-day believers will be cast out of the Kingdom of God."
Christians of today may be likened to that servant whom the master ordered to go and plough the field. The servant said, "Master, wait a while for I will show you an easier way of ploughing." A week passed, a second week elapsed, but the field was still unploughed. The Christians think that by their prayers and faith in God they will pass life more easily, despite their meager diligence in work. People today are comical in their requirements of life. They loiter around the coffeehouses, buy lottery tickets and wait for the results to see it they have gained something. They read the papers to see if their number is full, but when it is not, they do not despair and try the next time hoping to gain. That is not right. The Lord has sent those servants to earth to earn their living by work, but they want to earn in another way, without labor. They try to give advice to God. Such servants say, "I shall multiply the talent God has given me by depositing it in the lottery." You will multiply it, but one day you will receive a red list for bankruptcy. You will say, "Such is the situation that is why they lost." This happened because in their past and present life they have not entertained good thoughts and wishes.
There is a special committee in Heaven who inspect the accounts and the deeds of people. Those who wish to be instructed better may occupy themselves with the occult sciences. You may pray four or five times a day, but if you have not thought good thoughts and done good acts in your past life and if you do not work now and water your garden, help people and animals, when you go to the other world nobody will pay any attention to you. Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have deposited something in me so that I can help you."
"I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus."
Yes, but there is no surplus in nature. Such a person will find themselves in the state of the king’s son engaged to a very beautiful maiden. He got a disease and was going to die of it, so in his despair he prayed to God to lengthen his life by at least one hour so that he could see his beloved for the last time. Then the Lord sent an angel to other despaired people who had wanted to commit suicide to ask them if they would sacrifice one hour of their life so that the king’s son’s life might be lengthened by that hour. The angel remembered an old woman who used to pray to God to take her soul as soon as possible because she was tired of life’s misfortunes. The angel went to her and asked if she would give an hour of her life to the young man. She answered him, "Yes, in the past I wanted to die, but now have changed my mind." The angel then remembered another case. A rich man after having tasted everything in life had found no sense in living any longer and had prayed to God to take him up. The angel went to him and told him what he had said to the old woman. The rich man also refused to give an hour of his life. After his failure to obtain an hour’s life, the angel went to the young man and said to him, "Of all the thousands of people on earth, I could not find a single one who would give an hour of their life for you to see your beloved." Today people often talk about hell and heaven. The evil lies in the fact that we have brought both hell and heaven here on earth and taste them as we please.
The verse I read to you are words which Christ addressed to those listeners who had a developed consciousness. He did not speak to those who could not understand. Christ said to them, "You, who have suffered for thousands of years, must know that your sufferings are due to the breaking of one of the least commandments." Some ask, "Why is the Lord so generous and lenient to me?" Because you have fulfilled the least law. Some say that I speak nice things: it is of no importance what I say, but of the utmost significance for you to apply this law, because your joy is in the application of this teaching, and your meaning in life - in your uplifting.
When you are happy or sad, those around you have the same disposition. When you have a wound, the cells nearest it suffer most, while those farther away participate only by reflex action. When you suffer on earth, those organically bound to you will suffer also. Therefore, those beings who are beyond our spheres, being farther away, will just be sorry that we have violated a law and are suffering. Yet, they will show us ways by which we can avoid these sufferings in the future. Society should apply these two great laws in politics as well as in life. All believers should apply them because these small laws are common to all and the salvation of the whole of humanity depends on their application.
They who can fulfill the small law can fulfill the great law as well. This is a rule. If you cannot express love to a small insect or a small fly, you cannot manifest your love to person either. If someone tells you they loves you, but a minute before they have plucked out the head of a small fly or cut the head of a lamb, they are not speaking rightly. The little fly which has been injured by you, or by anyone else, knows how much you can love. A woman or a man who tear off the heads of flies or cut off the heads of lambs cannot love or do not have good will.
I do not believe in the unbelief of people or in their foolishness or lawlessness. To believe in the unbelief of people is to believe in a law which does not exist. Human unbelief is a contrivance of ours created by our own mind. Everybody is seeking the Kingdom of God, everybody wants to restore It and that is why anyone who wants to become a member of this Kingdom must serve it. A young man and a young woman want to restore the Kingdom of God and coo to each other like turtle-doves but only until they marry. After that their life takes the old course and they are not happy. With the pigeons it is different: I have observed them how well they begin and end. The female pigeon lays her eggs, then hatches them and there are not any disputes among the two mates. With people things start well and end badly. They have children and enjoy them, but when these grow up, the parents weep. The old human pigeons weep and say, "The young pigeons made us weep. Look what has come out of our children of whom we expected so much and whom we enjoyed!" The young birds never make their parents cry as the children do to people.
The same thing happens in the schools. I have seen how well the relations between teachers and students begin. At first they chat sweetly, but after a short time they begin to complain of each other. The students say, "Our teachers are unjust." The teachers say, "Students have no respect today for their teachers and parents." Thus all people complain and say God does not exist and Truth, Goodness and Love are relative, as all things in life are relative. Children say that everything in school is relative and the teacher is something relative. The teachers weep, protest and despair, but I say that their tears are also something relative, because we think that the small and the Great Law amount to nothing. Yet, they are Great Truths. They are Absolute and always, at all times, they will produce one and the same result.
I have often listened for hours how the nightingales and the turtle-doves sing. I have enjoyed their singing, thinking at the same time, "You sing very well and if people could understand your language and would be able to adopt your culture, there would not be so much suffering today." The nightingales and the turtle-doves answer me, "Yes, we were people, too, at a time in the past; but when human culture did not satisfy us, we left it and today we prefer the culture of the birds."
If I were a preacher, I would beat about the bush and avoid telling you the truth to your face so as not to offend you. Well, the sun shines, but people have sick eyes so they get a smarting effect from it. Is the sun to blame for that? Is the sun to blame for illuminating the earth, the axis of which had turned prematurely? Then why am I to blame that this Light I am giving you is so strong that you cannot bear it? Tell the earth to stop turning, then the Light will be fainter; but since the wheel is turning, you will see by all means all the phases of good and evil. I shall not stop to explain now why in this turning there is a constant struggle between Light and darkness, between Good and evil, between the Reality and shadows of life.
Many of you will ask me, "Can we fulfill the law of Christ?"
Yes, you can fulfill it. If someone should burn up or sell my house which costs 200,000 leva, this evil will evoke a great struggle in me; but if I conquer myself and do not revenge that person, I shall be called great in the Kingdom of God. If I am a renowned statesman and they deprive me of my high position, although unjustly, and I do not take revenge on anyone for that; I shall be a good person in the future. In general anyone who does not take revenge even for the greatest evil done to them is a good person. On the earth we can make a person anything we want. For instance, we can make a person a minister, another a statesman, a third one a preacher and so on. In this respect we are like a Bulgarian woman who gave her husband a small metal pot and a bunch of sweet basil - ordaining him a priest of her own wish - to go around and sprinkle people with holy water. The posts we have here on earth are nothing but promotions of a similar kind by a higher world above us.
All who have fulfilled the small law have become great in the world. If an artist fulfils the small law, they will begin to paint great pictures. We all can become great artists. You will ask me, "But how is this possible?" If some day we show the world our face perfected as a result of our achievements, would not that be the greatest picture of an artist? Do not forget that you have worked on your face for ages. Today in the world there are exhibits of the pictures of our faces, but not a single one has yet been accepted by God. Since the world began, only two pictures in the Old Testament have been accepted: that of Enoch and of Elijah; that is why they were taken up to heaven alive. Up till now how many people’s pictures have been accepted above?
We paint and paint a whole life to hear finally once again that this picture cannot be accepted now. The priest comes to perform the burial service and the picture is buried. The funeral service means that the picture has not been made according to all the rules of art. The committee which examines the pictures sees that this picture is not made according to the Divine Law: the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the nose, the teeth are not in their proper place; the mind, the heart, the thoughts and feelings are not in the proper place either.
You who are listening to me, do you think your thoughts and feelings are in their place? I see thousands of people whose thoughts and feelings are out of position. I do not blame you for that since you are not to blame, but I want to draw your attention to this so that you may start working with this Great Law. You must make a point to fulfil daily even the least good deed that comes to you as a wish, with no mistake or yielding to temptation. If I were offered the post of a minister in Bulgaria, I would rather give up the position and go to lend a hand to a poor widow who needs my help. You may be dressing up for a ball, a concert or a jourfixe, but at that time a poor person comes to you and you send them away saying you have no time for them. On the contrary, you must give up the ball and observe this Great Law created by God.
If we would learn how to be loving and at peace with ourselves and to understand that we can live alone with ourselves, the world would be set right. Even if people do not love us, we can live without them. Now we are in the state of those harmful microbes which, on entering our organism, find material to live on and so they settle there. As soon as the material is exhausted, their life ends as well. That is why Christ says, "Whosoever shall do the least commandment shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."
What does this least commandment consist of? The work Providence has allotted to you should not be put off. There is a definite time for every thought and desire and once you miss it, there is no returning for it. Your youth cannot come back. The life you live now will never be repeated. Both the evil and the good you have experienced have left their mark on your life. A second time you will pass through an entirely different place, an entirely different life in which there will be only a reflection of the previous one.
Some say, "But the earth follows the same path, revolving around the sun, therefore there is repetition in life." Yes, but the earth never passes through one and the same space; the path it followed the year before was different. The place the earth has passed through once is irrevocably lost. The life you have lived once is irrevocably lost. You will ask, "Can we not correct our mistakes?" Nobody can correct what is lost. The psalmist says, "Only One is able to erase our sins and lawless acts." Only the Lord has the prerogative to descend those depths where you have committed your crimes and to erase them with His brush. Until the Lord descends to these places to erase your sins, you will have to weep and shed tears long. The Lord needs your tears to fill a little bottle He keeps. When this bottle is full, the Lord will take it and come down to the place of sins and crimes to correct your life and water His mouth from time to time with your tears. Only this way can your life change.
This is an allegory, but if you comprehend it deeply, you will see that it conveys a Great Truth about the character of God. You say, "Why does the Lord keep silent and does not answer our sufferings?" The Lord keeps silent because your bottle is not full yet; when it is filled to the top, He will come and set your life right, He will ask which year the crime was committed, what time and so on. After He has washed your sins away, He will say, "Now you are free, but do not sin a second time."
Christ also wept until a bottle was full. He took it upon Himself to rectify the world by bearing people’s sins; but when He saw that His task was very heavy, He wept that God might come and help Him and that is why He succeeded. When His bottle was filled up, He said, "It is done, the bottle is full, the salvation of the world is at hand." Irrespective of your low or high position in the world, you will all have to pass through the tears to wash away your sins and those of your neighbor.
You will say, "Why do you trouble us with these thoughts of yours; why don’t you tell us some words of comfort?" I am doing exactly this. If people have pains in their legs, should they not have a massage in spite of their pains? In certain cases they may not feel any pains; but if they should be attacked and chased by an enemy what would their state be? They would not be able to save themselves as they would not run because their pains would be more acute than ever. If I should be concerned about such people and begin to rub their legs so that they should get well, would they regret the pain I cause them by the rubbing? On the contrary, they will say, "Thank you God. I got well so that I can run with all the others in case of danger." This is a true philosophy.
The life of society is like the life of its individuals. There is a certain correlation between a nation and its members; however, each being has their own individual feelings, thoughts and desires. The nation does not live as an individual. By saying "the Bulgarian nation" I mean the Bulgarians. Their future life - their political, spiritual, cultural and mental relation will be determined by their collective thoughts and feelings. Their present is determined by their past thoughts, but their present thoughts and desires will determine their future. These two Divine Laws in people are placed as follows: the first, the Great Law is situated in the mind, but the small is in the heart. Therefore, when you want to do the small things in the world, you must fulfill them with your heart. In other words, you cannot fulfill the small things without love for this Law.
I pass by a pond and see an ant drowning there, but since I am engaged in some philosophical thought, I pass by it and pay no attention to it. But I should stop and help it. We should stop before the smallest creatures and help them. After helping them we should not require them to recompense us all their life because in that case we had only served them as Providence. If we wish to help the small, it will create conditions for us to help the greater ones also. If we do not help that small ant in the future that will be a condition for a bad life.
You will say, "But how many ants drown!" It is true that many ants drown, but the one I saw and had the desire to help, I must save. It is a special ant. If I do not help it in a hundred years it can cause me the greatest misfortune. God will determine my future life according to my act at this moment when my consciousness germinated in me. This ant implies the idea of a lamb, a pigeon, a child, a girl, a boy, some poor widow, a sick person or any other type of person. The ant is a mathematical formula. If such a formula is ever presented to you, stop and think how to solve it. Someone who wants to commit suicide comes to you in despair. You must try to think how you can help them. If you say you cannot help them, in your future life this act of yours will bring you bad karmic consequences. The law is one and the same: you should stop in this small law and help. If you do not help one at such a moment, you will determine your bad fate. When you make a mistake of this kind try to find another better way of correcting your mistake.
If all Bulgarians considered well their actions, would they be eating rationed bread today, sugar on coupons, would they fight? The Bulgarian statesmen do not care about the drowning ant, but about the large boundaries of Bulgaria; yet they do not know that the destiny of Bulgaria is determined by the fate of this ant. The Bulgarian statesmen are interested in Bulgaria in so far as their pockets are concerned. They are not patriots but rather traitors who play the role of Judas consciously or unconsciously, for or for no money. I am speaking to you about these two great laws, because if they are applied and fulfilled exactly, they will save and rectify humanity.
Now the Bulgarians open different schools, but they do not think of bettering the ants’ life. They think of gain and say, "If we had money now, we would find good teachers and good workers. Show me a society which has worked for money and has made much progress. I do not want to say that all associations must stop their activity, but they should rather change their ways. I prefer to work a whole lifetime for a person who grasps what I say than to work for thousands who do not perceive and accept anything. When a person starts doing something, they must put their heart into it and not make people call ten times at their home to ask them to do one thing or another. A person who preaches a teaching must understand its laws and apply them.
You say, "We must educate our young people." But how will you educate them? How will you control their actions? I do not believe in any training or taming but I believe that all people have within them the conditions to become good if they want to. I believe that all people determine their life in each moment; and after that moment, other conditions come. This is education. After that moment you will receive food - knowledge - which will be in accord with the plane on which you move.
The farmer studies the conditions for his sowing and harvesting; everyone studies the conditions for their work. When I say I do not believe in any training, do not take it in the wrong sense. I do not believe in that wrong superficial education parents give their children; but I believe in the genuine education that the Great Laws in the world give. I do not believe in contemporary science either, but I believe in the Great Divine Science. I do not believe in the foolish love of today or the foolish wisdom and seeming truth here on earth, i.e. in deceit which people have clad in the form of truth.
I say that all this is a lie, the Truth is within you. The Great Law is in your mind but the small law is in your heart. Every noble desire born in you, no matter how microscopic it may be will determine your happiness in the future. This desire will turn on the tap of your life, and from that day on, both earth and heaven will work for you. When the Wheel of Life turns one or another direction, it produces a corresponding effect. If you are ready to be true to those small desires deposited within you for thousands of years; if you are ready to hold out a straw to a drowning ant; you will start a motion from left to right, otherwise it will be from right to left, i.e. downward in the cone.
Then if you are a Christian and descend these 7 by 7 million planes, and I should ask you where you are at present; you will answer that you are in the lower planes of the astral world. If you are an occultist, you will say, "I reached the bottom of this cone at last!"
But what do you intend to do now? "My philosophy states that when I reach the bottom, I shall begin to advance upward."
You have a wrong conception of this philosophy.
"What shall I do then?"
You will pass through the narrow opening of the other cone and from there you will begin an upward advance, since the energies in that cone have a contrary direction of the previous one. Now you will move along the energies of the second cone. After passing through the second cone, through all the seven million by seven million planes, you will study them and say, "I have a philosophy now and understand things deeply, seeing that these are not only seven planes". You will say great things about the spiritual world: worlds upon worlds, beings with no limit or number.
The whole space in which we live and move is full of beings of different categories and cultures. The solar light moves 180,000 miles a second and to cross only the diameter of our universe 31,000 years are necessary. The whole space is full of worlds. When our earth moves in the space of this universe, we fall under the influence of those beings with whom we come in contact; and all this enormous space with all the beings in it find response in our hearts, minds and souls.
Sometimes a thought comes to you and burdens you, but that thought is not yours. Since you are sensitive, you feel the sorrow of some small being somewhere in New York, which at a certain moment has not fulfilled its duty, has not done the will of God - this Great Divine Law. At another time you feel joy. Why? Because at another place in the world, in some Buddhist temple in China a small being has fulfilled its duty as it should. So I rejoice when I see how your thoughts change every day for I observe what is going on in the world and from all I observe, I conclude two things: some people fulfil the Law of God and some do not.
Then I return to life seeing what takes place there and turning to the past, I see when these things which are realized today had their origin. Thousands of years pass in a minute and I see when these events were thought out and when they have taken this bad direction. I see that 2,000 years ago a Bulgarian high priest turned the tap of life in a wrong direction and these consequences today are due to him. That is why all preachers, priests and rulers in Bulgaria think like that priest and act like him.
You will ask, "Who is that priest that we might hang him?" Do not look for him to hang him, but rather turn the tap the direction opposite to the one acting today. If you do not do it, you will not only miss becoming great, but will also lose much. This is why I am in Bulgaria - to turn the Wheel of Life in the opposite direction and I shall turn it according to all the rules of the Divine Law so that you may taste all the benefits of life. When I turn the wheel in the opposite direction, the Bulgarians will understand that they can fulfill this small law; and an excellent superior culture will be restored among them and they will become a great nation which will make its contribution in the world.
Do not be proud, however, as the wheel has not yet been turned. Great efforts are required that it may be turned. All of you will take part in the turning of the great wheel, you will take hold of the small wheels and start turning; but not as you are doing now - from right to left - but you must turn it from left to right. This is the Teaching of Christ: to turn the wheel of the small law.
You will ask me, "What will you leave us for keepsake?" I shall turn your wheel from left to right; then all angels, all good people will start working and you will be uplifted.
Now put in your mind the thought, "We can fulfill the least Divine Law." And after 2,000 years you will test if what I tell you is true or not - you will test the results. After 2,000 years the inner conditions of life will be ten times better than the present ones. It is descending and ascending in life. Blessed are those of you who will wait till that time with faith. These 2,000 years are two Divine Days - days of a great blessing. The more advanced of you may test this in two years, but some will take ten years to do that. However, this requires a pure and sublime and noble life, which is the only heritage of people on earth.
Sermon held on June 22, 1919.
Confusing parts:
(This may make sense to you as it may be a Bulgarian story!):
Page 7 Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals
I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold"
Page 8: Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have
deposited something in me so that I can help you."
"I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus."
1 Matthew 5:19
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