Today we are going to think about the following statement: “The name of God lives forever.” Now I am going to read from the fourth chapter of John the Apostle.
I am saying, every man needs five things in his life, and they are strong legs and arms, good ears, good eyes and a well-developed brain to facilitate right thinking. If one is good, then one’s legs will be strong-without Goodness legs cannot be healthy; if one is fair, then his arms will be healthy - without Justice one’s arms cannot be healthy; if one is sensible then the ears will be healthy - ears cannot be healthy without sensibility; if one loves Truth, then one’s eyes will be strong - without loving the Truth, nobody can have healthy eyes; If one loves God then one’s mind will be very well developed - without loving God, man’s mind cannot be developed in the right direction, and consequently will be incapable of correct thinking.
Some people will say, “The most difficult thing is for a man to be a good man.” However, this is not so. Believe me, the easiest thing for a man is to be a good man, there really is nothing simpler. And if one does not start from this, the easiest job, then it does not matter what tasks one undertakes, they will remain unfinished. People should always start from the easiest job and finish with the most difficult. A man, who starts with the most difficult job, will invariably go back to an easier one. Sometimes the smallest good thing that one does can be even more precious than the largest thing imaginable. For example, if you are in a widow’s house along with her several small children and it is a cold winter day, and wood has been placed in the stove, but there is nothing to light it with, you can do a very small thing by providing a match. Then the cold room becomes cheerful with light and warmth – the children are happy and so is mama. Your very small gift – a match did it. This little match, this very small gift could be considered even more significant than creating a town or saving a whole nation. Why? Because, once lit, it is conceivable that this fire could burn forever. If you save the life of a man who is drowning, he could slip and fall into the water again. If you prevent an entire nation from committing a great wickedness, it could revert to that same plan again.
Blessings in small things are limitless in the broad panorama of real life and especially if the body: legs, arms, eyes, ears and brain, are healthy and well cared for.
In general, one cannot preserve one’s life if one’s legs, arms, ears, eyes, and brain are not healthy. One can be saved from drowning merely by praying. If one loves God when one prays, then God will send somebody to fulfil His Will and save that life. When one prays, he is demonstrating evidence of a healthy attitude, and God immediately sends someone to help him, saying: “Go and help this man, because he wants My help!” The man, who goes to save the other, must realize that he is simply fulfilling God’s will; he is a witness to the Goodness of God. When you love somebody, you are a conductor, a witness to the Love, which God sends via you - this is the way to think of it, this is the right way to think. If a man starts thinking how to do Good for someone, about how to love God, and how to help people, he will come to understand that alone, without God, he can do nothing.
Well, in the sensible world everything must be placed in its rightful place. Therefore, I am asking, what exactly is burning - the wood or the fire? The wood cannot burn without fire, or can a fire burn by itself, fire burns only in the place where the burning is in progress. The heart beats, give rise to a pulse and sends blood to the whole body, thereby bringing warmth to the body. Thus, there is fire in the heart. Where life exists there is burning, and the opposite, where burning is in progress there is life.
When you want to light a fire, you need wood. The wood is cut and carried and then the fire is lit. Those who do not take part in this job think that it is easy to light a fire; it is better for everybody to take part in cutting and carrying the wood; then, when you warm yourself by the fire, you will feel much more pleasure from it, because you joined in a communal task.
Now I would like to make the following suggestion, let each of you get a notebook and make some notes about the desires you have. You should record how many times during the day you want to receive something from someone, and how many times per day, you want to give something to others. It is interesting to work out later how many impulses you had to get something from somebody and how many to give something to others. Start collecting this data today and discover which desires predominate.
Consider, for example, that you are starting to collect money from people to put in your bag. It is natural for a man to receive, but also it is natural to give to others. Now you have a right to receive, but afterwards, we will see if you give from your collection to others, or if you put it all into your bank.
A beggar works all day begging from people, collecting things, placing them in his bag and saying to everyone, “God has sent me to you to give me something.” In fact, he is lying. God sent him not to all the houses, but just to one place to beg.
I am saying that mendicancy is a negative characteristic, which also exists in the Spiritual sphere. For example, someone might have a small joy, but he is not satisfied with it and he wants more joys to store and fill it up. If you have a small joy, be happy with it. Thank God for it, and do not ask for more for that day. You should learn the law, which regulates the joys and the sorrows of Life. Imagine that your clothes, your hat, and your shoes are ragged, and you are wondering what to do, how you will go out to meet other people. Then a friend comes to you and gives you a pair of brand new shoes. Do you have to think about not having new clothes or a hat? No, you do not. You should go to a quiet place and express your gratitude to God for that gift. If you thank God for that, then other things will follow. Give thanks for the shoes and do not think about other things. If you brood about not having new clothes and a hat, then the shoes will disappear.
Gratitude gives you the power to cope with all the miseries of Life, no matter how great they are. When you are grateful the misery and the problems are overshadowed by the gratitude, and you can bear them more easily - this is the Spiritual law. When you are grateful for a small blessing and cherish it, additional blessings will follow to help you; this is the reward for everyone who values small blessings and shows gratitude for them. If you separate a small blessing from the rest, this small blessing will not be able to stand alone and there will be a gap in your consciousness. When a man has a new pair of shoes, but thinks about the old clothes and hat, he is in the same situation with God. For example, God says that he had forgiven us all our sins, but we have doubts and we say, “Is it not possible that he has forgotten one of them?” In other words, when we have new shoes, how long will we have to remain without new clothes and a hat? On the other hand, do we have to stick with the old ones?
The first thing that you have to achieve as a disciple is to be firm and to have unshakable Faith. Your Faith should not be like that of the beggar, who on meeting a rich man, begged him for help. The millionaire gave him 50 stotinki1 and said to him, “Come tonight to my house and I will treat you handsomely.” The beggar was unhappy with the money and thought, “What can I do with this money? I cannot even buy a packet of cigarettes! This millionaire was not prepared to give me more money and I am expected to go to his house in the hope of something more. I do not believe that!”
It is the same as you. You meet God and ask him for help. He gives you 50 stotinki and asks you to go later to his house for more money and fine treatment. However, because you do not know God, you do not believe Him and you say, “This man gave me barely half a pound. How can I trust him to give me more and to treat me well tonight? I do not believe that! He is a miser. First of all, what shall I spend this money on? On shoes, clothes, or a hat? Who would wait until tonight?"
No, you should wait for a moment, you should go to that rich house, as he said to you, and you would have everything - shoes, clothes, a hat and what is more you will be given food to eat well.
I am asking you, if we are not used to trusting small blessings and to be grateful for them, how we can trust bigger blessings. People nowadays always expect something big and they do not see the small valuable things. A young man says, “If I had rich father to graduate from a university in a foreign country, after that I could become a professor or a minister.” A young girl says: “I would like to get married to a young prince, and then I could do whatever I want. “ All people expect something good to come into their life from outside. Even if you become a professor, a prince, a princess or a minister - life cannot be changed from the outside. When somebody says, ”If I was married and had a child it would be better.” I am asking you, what you would do if you had a child. The child means the smallest goodness that someone has in their soul. If someone does not have this goodness in their soul, if he does not develop it, and does not cherish it then it does not matter how many children he will have he will stay childless - this is the great Truth in Life. Some people say, ”When I get married everything will start going in the right direction in my life.” No, until love comes into your soul, you will stay single; even if you had a relationship with a girl and you thought that you were married; this is not the real marriage. When the man falls in Love, then he is married.
Love comes just once in our life, and we can be married just once. When Love comes the man does not looks for anything else, he does not thinks about anything. Today everybody is looking for love - married and unmarried, well educated and not so well educated, childless and people with children, young and adults - everybody. When Love comes they achieve everything, and their life becomes meaningful, they live in peace and obey God’s laws.
I say that everything people do on the earth is considered as symbols of the Spiritual world - this way the Spiritual world will lead you to real life. The physical world without the spiritual world is a world of illusions. People get married and they stay single at the same time - they have children, but they are lost, they melt and disappear as ice. When a man of Love has a child, this child follows him in immorality as well - this child follows his father all the time and addresses him as father; these words he wants to say, “Father, you are the source of Love.” The same happens on the Earth, when the child grows up, he follows his father and calls him father; this means, you, who have come from Love, start all your work with Goodness and Love. Goodness is a witness of the great Love.
So, when a man is given new shoes he begins to see more clearly. Why can he not see properly, wearing the old torn ones? Because his legs are cold, he is looking constantly towards them, and cannot think clearly. When people are cold, they cannot think properly, they close their eyes and see nothing. When they warm up, they open their eyes. Therefore, one should always wear good shoes. You can say, ”Where is the connection between the shoes and the ability to think?” When a man put on his shoes, i.e. when Good comes to his legs, they become healthy, and he walks pleased and happy with open eyes and can see everything - this is a law, that refers to man’s conscience. Needs and weaknesses charge him with useless ballast, which deviate him from the real aim in his Life.
For example, somebody lives a religious live for 5-6 years, but one day that man says, “Why Should I pray God, what I have acquired, I do not need these prayers anymore, I do not need the Gospel anymore, I can live without them.” I can say, that this man cannot live a religious life, because his legs are naked, because his legs are not healthy; if he was wearing his shoes, if his legs, arms, eyes, ears and brain were healthy, he would go to the mountain and would pray to God, he would give his gift to God and would consider it a privilege to serve God. In the old scriptures of the Bible, people offered a sacrifice to God, and people now go to God without anything, with empty hands. What does the sacrifice mean for the people before Jesus Christ? Today, people go to a lawyer, but if their hands are not full, he does not accept them - it does not matter how good this lawyer is, after telling him what one wants, he will say, “You have to pay for these service 5000 leva.” Hearing that you have to prepare 5000 leva for his services your eyes open wide. - Why? One has to prepare money for him, because he does not work for nothing. One says, “It depends on winning the case?” However, the lawyer says, “It does not matter whether I win or lose the case, I must earn money." When a lawyer asks money from people, he does not open his eyes; when he hears the sound of the golden coins only then does he open his eyes.
Today, whatever people do, they expect to receive something for their work. There is nothing wrong for a man to receive compensation for their work, for their efforts - this is normal, but when I say that a man should work for nothing, I mean the following idea; the law of Love, should do every work without connecting it with money, which you might receive for it.
It is not possible to be paid with money for each work done with true Love. For each work that is done without Love, people pay money. A lawyer says, “I want the certain amount of money for that case,” - this man works without Love. You go to another lawyer, who does not speak about money, takes the case, investigates it, defends it and wins the case; his client says, “I will not give you 5.000, but 10.000 leva, because I am happy with the results of your work; I cannot pay for your efforts, but I would like to give you a small reward.” This kind of relations exists just among sensible people. When you go to a grocery and ask for a kilo of sugar, and the grocer measures the sugar, gives it to you and he neither ask for money or says how much it costs; you get sugar and you give him what you think is valuable for it. These are the relations between people who have Love for each other and for God. However, according to the attitude nowadays between people, a grocer says, “You must pay for the sugar 25 leva,” - the buyer pays 25 leva for the sugar. In accordance to the law of Love, the tradesman would say nothing, but the buyer would get a note of 50 leva and would say, “I am happy, that I have found some sugar in your grocery, and about the price I am ready to give you 1000.” What a wonderful world we could have if the relations among people were like this?
I say, you cannot force people to Love each other because Love does not accept force, but God gives good lessons to people. For example, when people do not give anything to God, He sends thieves to their houses and says, “Because these rich people do not give anything to others."
For my sake, even they are very rich let them give to you. Then these thieves break into somebody’s rich house with guns in their hands, steal what they want and leave the house. When they leave those rich, people will say, “These thieves have stolen a lot of goods from us, but thank God we are still alive.” This example is given to make the idea clear. We should understand that everything we have does not belong to us, is not ours, it belongs to God. How can somebody talk that he has deposited or withdrawn some money from the bank - nobody deposits any money into the bank, money exists anyway, without him. Other people stroke coins, and think they are the owner of that money; nobody owns the money. Man can say, “I have worked very hard for this money, how you can say that I do not own it?” The efforts and work are from Life, they are not yours. If somebody named himself as a master of the Life, he must be a man of deathlessness. Deathlessness will come when all people follow the law of Love. Now they are studying the law of deathlessness; when they learn this law, they will know how to love each other. People do not live in accordance with the law of Love if they are still dying. Jesus says, “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God,” when you achieve the true knowledge of God, He will give people as a present Everlasting life - the life of deathlessness.
You can ask, “When is it going to be, after how many rebirths?” This will be in the future, in the very far future; the eternity is an area of Truth. So, when somebody speaks about eternity I get the idea of Truth - eternity is an image of Truth and Truth is unlimited. Consequently, everything can become reality in the area of Truth. Whether an idea becomes a reality in a year or two, one hundred, a thousand or more, all these are the borders of the Truth - a minute or a century, a year or one million years, these all are borders of the Truth. It means that a man can achieve something in a minute or in million years - what is the difference? If one can get the things he wants in one million years, he will experience many difficulties, and uneasiness of things, if one achieves his desires in one minute, he will hardly have any problems. For example, somebody says, “Do you know how many problems I had until I achieved this wealth, which I am enjoying now?” However, all these things, he has achieved are external, and they are not the subject of the Truth, nor the subject of Life.
I met an acquaintance once, who is a priest, and he told me something concerning his life. He said, “I do not know what to do. I have a house, children, and concerns about them, but God took my wife, and left me alone to cope with all these problems. When she was alive, I was poor, our children were small, and our life was difficult. Then they grew up, life got better, but she passed away. Today, even if I want to get married again, I am not allowed, because I am a priest. However, I am tired of these problems, how can I struggle away from djubeto? I miss my wife.” He is right. What is life without his wife? It means one can not live without experiencing Love. Life without Love is similar to the priest’s life without his wife. Nowadays, everyone complains that there is no love in their life. This means that the signification of life exists just in Love. It does not matter how rich a man is, if he does not experience love in his life. One’s life is meaningless without Love.
Then I said to that priest:
Your wife can come back, she can resurrect again, because Love never dies. Your wife can resurrect and she can come to you tonight.
- How?
- If you fall in love with God?
- How do I find God, and how I can fall in love with Him?
I said:
- If you have preached to God for a long time, you have spoken about Him, but you, yourself do not know where and how to find Him, why have you then misled people by speaking and preaching about God?
- I will ask God to forgive me, because I have been confused. It would be better if you could give me advice on how to move away from all these problems, and how to find a new wife.
Moreover, he is right. I will translate, djube means the people’s sins that alienate them away from Truth. When a man takes off this cloth called djube, when a man turns away from sins, and when Truth enlivens within him, then he will find his wife2.
And I said to that priest:
- Take off your djube and come with me.
- I would like to think about your offer for a while.
And he has been thinking since then. Now I am telling you to get rid of your djubes because your love is everywhere. Do not put hope into your life for everything. Build your life based on the three most important things - God’s Love, Wisdom, and Truth. Do not make a differentiation in any kind of work. If any work, even the smallest one, is done for the sake of God’s Love, Wisdom, and Truth, then it is good. If work is done for the sake of God’s Love, Wisdom, and Truth, it becomes very valuable. One can ask, ”How to experience Love or how to achieve God’s Love, Wisdom, and Truth?” I will answer you the way I have answered the priest.
You have written love letters for so many years and you say that you do not know how to experience Love - this is a contradiction. The priest fell into the same contradiction. He serves God, preaches to people for Love, and when he was told that there exists a new way of serving God, and in this way, he can resurrect his love, he does not believe and accepts just the old way. However, if he just follows the new way, he will find God, and God’s Love. To achieve this Love one should make just a step forward, and this step is when one decides to give something from himself, to sacrifice for the Beginning of everything, for God - when he makes this step then his problems will be solved.
Therefore, I would like you to remember the main meaning of this lecture. All useless things should be thrown away and the main thought should be kept - it will be the basic thought. Someone will ask, “How can we understand what is useful, and what thought is useless?” Imagine you have received a precious ring placed in a small box wrapped in lots of papers. The ring itself is 25 grams, but with all papers wrapped around it, it weights more than a kilo. What will you do in this case? You will take the ring out of the box, and will put it on your finger, and all the other paper you will throw away. Do you need to wear all the paper as well? After getting the Good opportunities in Life - they are a guarantee, a referee who signs under the reference letter to the bank in order to receive a loan from the bank.
Everybody should have this kind of reference letter.
Consequently, the reference letter is a Faith. You can go nowhere without faith. Faith is a rope on which the acrobat is performing; will is the stick that the acrobat holds in his hands in order to keep equilibrium. If the equilibrium is lost, he still can keep his body on the rope, but if the rope tears, he is hopeless - he needs a new rope. This is to say that without faith you cannot go from one side to the other side of the rope. If you want to go from one end to the other end of the rope, you need to tighten it first, to hold the stick in your hands and to cross it. When you get to the other side, you will be paid. The violinist is paid after playing. Whoever goes to dig the vineyards he is paid after the job is done - the worker is paid after the job is done. The lawyers make an exception to this rule. When a lawyer is given some case to defend, he says, ”I will take this case, but I want to receive in advance at least the half of the price for it.” They have lost the reliability of people and say. "We have worked for too many people, who did not pay for our efforts and we want to insure ourselves in advance." In the spiritual world, the law is the same as in the physical one - you are paid after the job is completed.
Now the essential matter you have to consider is for the things you need and for the things you do not need. The things you need are like the ring in wrapped papers; what does the ring mean? The ring means healthy legs, arms, eyes, ears and mind - this implies a warm heart, bright mind, strong will, broad soul, and powerful spirit. When I am listening to what everybody should have, this sometimes means that people restrict themselves in its meaning. When I say that one should have faith, this does not mean that one does not have faith. Everybody has faith, but not the faith that he should have. You cannot impose the faith mechanically. Because of that, I am saying, you will go without faith; how can it be understood? Unless somebody becomes faithless, he cannot get real faith; in other words, nobody can find the right way or the Truth unless he stops believing in false things, in temporary things. For example, you follow some direction for years, while one day you will say, “I have not achieved anything following this direction!” When a man stops believing in unattainable things, and gains Truth, then he passes into the faith; sometimes the opposite can happen – some people goes from faith into the faithless. Some people go from Love towards the loveless, whereas others go from loveless to Love - these are the ways that people go.
When I speak about Love and loveless it does not mean you do not have any love. It means that many people now understand love the wrong way - they always connect it with the face of young men, and women. In addition, they know that when the love comes they have to give a gift.
A young pretty girl goes to an American millionaire and asks, “Do you want anybody to love you?” He looks at her, bends down his head, and is thinking about the answer - he knows that, if somebody loves him, many dollars will go out of his wallet; he knows that the pretty girl will cost him too much money. After thinking for a long time, he replies, “This question is very difficult, come in a few days and I will give you the answer.” He finds himself in a struggle between the love of his money and for a pretty woman, whom he must love. If he falls in love with a pretty girl, his money will run out. Contemporary people want to love, they know how to love, but they think about the big sacrifice that Love requires. When we say to somebody that he should love God he says, “I want to live without any special arrangements.” That man is not ready to offer a big sacrifice, he is a banker who loves money and says, “I will think about it and after that I will give the answer.”
Thus, a new understanding for Life is required from everybody.
For that reason one should think about the way one goes - everybody should see his own weaknesses.
When somebody for example says, ”We should love each other!” Then my reply is, without God’s love people themselves cannot bring anything good to anybody. That love is similar to a wheat bean, which is sown in a rocky place, or it is similar to an empty wheat spike. Have you ever seen how erected the empty spikes are? When a farmer looks at them, he takes a deep sigh and says, ”These strikes are empty, I cannot rely on them.” After that he looks at full strikes and says,” How nice this wheat is!”
I say, there is nothing better than full strikes in our life - full strikes present God’s Love to people. When Love comes to us it fecundates everything, it develops one’s activity, rationalizes our thoughts, feelings, and actions. When Love comes to us, we become strong, cheerful and happy. When we love somebody or something, we look like a sunny day with a bright sky, when the Sun shines and the weather is warm and serene.
1 Bulgarian currency equal to 50 pence
2 in the meaning of love
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