The Chapter read from Jeremiah’s, the prophet, describes things in line with his internal understanding. The Prophet depicts things the way he sees them, at that from such a distance from which he grasps them best. He sees what people do, but does not see a way out of the situation they are in. In respect to people a prophet is in the situation of a creditor who has to take back. He only knows that he has to be paid [back]; he is not interested how he would be paid. The proper relations between the creditor and the debtor cannot be restored before the debtor repays his debt. The creditor can preach nothing to the debtor before the debtor repays his debt. Whatever he may preach, the debtor does not want to listen to.
Vagabonds caught an American missionary who started preaching to them. He wanted to familiarize them with the Gospel. Having listened to these sermons for some time, the chief of the gang said, ‘You speak very well, but it’s money we need. Nice words alone won’t do the trick. It’s money we need!’ Now you should not live under illusions, like this American missionary, believing that people you live among will easily agree, will easily start living like brothers. It’s easy to say that things will come out right; that the Kingdom of God will come to the earth; that people will become brothers to one another, but this will be difficult to attain. Today, while you are on the earth, this is beyond your reach. This did not happen in the time of Christ, it won’t happen in our days either. You want to attain these things as soon as today. Neither in your present life, nor in your future life can we talk about the advent of the Kingdom of God to the earth. Why? – Because as yet you are not prepared for the new life – for the life of immortality. As long as one lives only in one’s flesh, one can never attain immortality.
God created man and made him of two substances: of matter, i.e. of flesh, and of spirit. The Scripture reads, ‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul’. Dust will always remain dust. It cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. What is made of earth on the earth will it remain; it won’t enter the Kingdom of God. ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God’. Not knowing this, you strive for the earth, work only for your physical body. When you lose some weight, when you see your face sallow, your eyes – hollow, your heart – feeble, you get scared right away. There is nothing to be scared of, these are all material matters. Do you have to be scared that one of your windows is broken? Do you have to be upset that somebody said an insulting word to you? These are material issues which should not keep one’s attention for long. What are the contemporary people like? From morning till dark they deal predominantly in material issues: who was better dressed and fed; who had a better house; who had a high social standing etc. On looking at a man, externally he looks pious, meek, while internally he is raging, his spirit is disconcerted, and subsequently he is split internally. One usually tries to present oneself for what one is not in reality. However, no matter what one does, as long as one gives priority to the flesh, to the animal within, one will remain an animal all the same. It [the animal] is concerned solely in how to satisfy its needs, and does not in the slightest prepare itself for the Kingdom of God. An animal wants bread; it wants to meet its needs. As soon as it satisfies its hunger, it does not consider anything else.
The second nature of man is his spiritual, i.e. his Divine beginning. The Divine in man has an aspiration to the great, to the noble in the world. When the spirit is said not to grow weak, we understand the Divine, the spiritual beginning in man. Only it does not grow weak. All impulses, all strivings in man are derived from the Divine within.
All the people face one [and the same] task – to cope with the material mess of their lives. They are not sent to the earth to live in this mess, but to create better living conditions. They can plaster their houses with this mess; they can clean them; they can make them comfortable to live in. The issue is not that man should merge with this mess, but that man should put it to work [make use of it]. This will be an experience that will let you know your faith, how patient you are. Some people’s faith is just like the faith of a rabbit [bunny]. Rabbits cannot rely on their faith, nor can they rely on their strength. The only thing that a rabbit can rely upon is its long legs. It starts running the moment it sees any danger – nothing more. For rabbits running is related with the thoughts. As long as it runs, it can think too.
Man should think properly. Proper thinking means comparison, consistence of facts. A man went to the mountains and out of great jealousy one of his brothers did not allow him to smoke tobacco. He complained that he was forbidden to smoke. I say he who forbade smoking to you, did not understand what he himself had to do. Look here, there are small fires lit at a dozen of places, they are smoking, while you are told not to smoke. Their fires smoke much more than your cigarette. Just like they have a right to light fires, the same way you have a right to smoke. What’s wrong with a person lighting a cigarette? He takes the fire into his mouth. By this he wants to indicate that you are alike. His fire is in his mouth, while yours is outdoors. You will say that smoking tobacco is disallowed. Smoking tobacco is disallowed, but so is burning wild dwarf pine [pine-scrub]. It’s not the point to justify tobacco smoking, neither can making fires be forbidden.
We are not against [making/ lighting] fires, but we hold the idea that fire should be smokeless. ‘Is this possible?’ – If it’s not possible today, it will be so in the future. This means coming to the electric power. Only electric power can provide smokeless fire. Therefore when you want to forbid somebody to smoke, give him an idea that is superior to the ordinary one. Tell him that he may smoke but let him find such tobacco that does not [produce] smoke and does not contain any drug substances in itself. On saying so, a new thought will wake up in this person and he will start thinking. Everybody should be granted freedom and everybody should be allowed to behave according to one’s consciousness. Do not exercise any pressure upon man’s consciousness. Everybody should do voluntarily whatever one does.
Indeed, everybody aspires to freedom. When can man be free? In order to be free, when one goes to bed in the evening, his bed must be twice as wide as he himself, so that he can easily turn from one side to another. If the bed is as wide as his body, there is no way that he can be free. If a man is given as much food as is a bee, can such a man be free? – No, man needs food for at least 50 000 bees. Only under these conditions can man be free. As long as man eats more than the bees, he will do more work than them. So, one’s freedom depends on one’s circumstances. These conditions can be external and internal. Devout people talk about freedom, love, the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, but their understanding on this issue is physical, it is material. According to them the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth is similar to the going of man out of his old, poor cottage and entering a new spacious rich house. What’s the difference between the new and the old houses? The new house will have more rooms, better furniture, larger windows etc. Do you have to preach to man that when the Kingdom of God comes, man will have a new, better, more spacious house than his old cottage? If it comes to a new house, man can have one as early as today. There is no need for the Kingdom of God to come so that a man can have a new house. Do you have to preach to somebody that he will have a nice big house in the next reincarnation? He can have a new, beautiful house in this life too. It’s not necessary for him to die, to be born again in order to have a new house. In the new house he will be the same as he was in the old cottage. It is important for one to change when entering a new house, to be born again internally. Then the new house makes sense. Only then the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth makes sense. A cat also lives with its master, eats from the same bread from which he eats, but remains a cat all the same, retains the same habits all the way. When it catches a mouse, it eats it together with the fur [hairs]. As long as the master is in the room, it does not dare touch anything; it makes believe it is habituated/ cultivated. As soon as the master leaves the room it finds the cheese right away and eats from it. On seeing the master coming into the room, it immediately goes out, as if it has touched nothing.
During one’s evolution man has to study, to observe one’s conditions [states] and to guard oneself against them. Not only the ordinary people but the advanced beings also succumb to conditions, which are harmful. One of these conditions is dejection [despondency], apathy. This condition is due to the material situation of man. The moment one succumbs to this condition, one feels feeble and frail. This condition is due to the material nature of man. As soon as one finds oneself under these conditions, one feels feeble and frail. Whatever one starts doing, one cannot complete it. One lifts a parcel and immediately places it down on the floor, finding that it is too heavy for him. He finds himself in the situation of a child. However, what a child finds to be heavy is not heavy for the adult. Subsequently, despondency, apathy, indisposition, grief – these are ordinary conditions, inherent to the material, not to the spiritual nature of man. As long as man is only in matter man either grieves or rejoices. Man is exposed to constant changes. His grief is like his joy. In the life of the spirit, however, these abrupt changes from grief into joy, from joy into grief, are ruled out. Spiritual life rules out abrupt changes. When Christ says that his soul grieves to death, this refers to material, to human affairs. He prays, looks for a way to get out of one condition and to enter another. Many things did Christ learn on the earth. He knew theoretically many laws, but their application he learnt on the earth. To try, to overcome, to reorganize things, this is true knowledge. Christ says, ‘I do what my Father taught me’. He applied the knowledge he gained from the Father, but many things he did also learn from the people. When He came to the earth, people started teaching Him; therefore He used to say, ‘How long shall I put up with you? Many came to Him and asked Him, ‘May man leave his wife? See, we caught this licentious woman in an offence. According to Moses’ law we have to stone her. What will you say?’ Christ had to answer many questions.
When I dwell on these issues, I do not in the slightest want to generate new contradictions for you. I do not want to provoke your contradictions either, because the river-bed where your life flows is muddy anyway. Those, who enter your river, will stir up this mud unintentionally, will trouble your water. You will anyway stir up this mud no matter which home you will enter nowadays. Imagine a young handsome man coming into a noble family where there are two beautiful maids. If he cannot behave himself, the young man will embarrass the whole house, i.e. he will stir up the mud from the bottom of their lives. If a young beautiful maid enters a home where there are several young men, having little experience in communication, she will trouble their lives; she will disturb the minds of all of them. You will say that the young man or the young woman have fallen in love. Well, cats fall in love too. When a cat sees cheese, it falls in love [with it]. As soon as it falls in love with the cheese, it pinches [makes off with] it right away. Both cats and people can fall in love and upset a home; can muddle the waters therein raising the mud from the bottom of one’s life. Anybody can, unintentionally, embarrass somebody. Why? – Because there are dregs [scum] at the bottom of everyone’s life that can be easily upset. When the bottom of one’s life is upset, such a person says, ‘Why should this happen? Couldn’t it have been avoided in one way or another? For such things not to happen, one has to cope with the dregs [scum] of one’s desires. You have to organise the powers and currents of your desires, if you want to cope with them. There is nothing bad in entering a house, taking a look at the beautiful young women. This cannot be the cause for stirring up the mud. The mud stirred up because when a young man looked at one of the beautiful maids, he wanted it for himself and he thought he would be happy with her. Not only that he won’t be happy, but both of them will be unhappy and will be at their wits’ end what to do in order to get out of this situation. The young woman will say, ‘You took me from my mother who loved me. You gave many promises, but you fulfilled none. You made me unhappy, you ruined my life.’ However, the young man will say the same to the young woman, ‘While I was with my mother, she loved me. You promised me your love, but you did not give it to me. Now I am unhappy, lonely and worn out in life.’
When I dwell on these examples from life, I want you to be sensible, to have a proper understanding. When a house is being build, solid beams are chosen. If any of the beams turns out to be weak, it breaks and cannot support the weight placed upon it. Who is to blame in this case: the beam or the person building the house? Many of the human desires are also equally weak, frail, like willow beams. If you place such a desire in the construction of your house, it will soon cave in (give way), it won’t withstand. Who is to blame in this case: the desire or you, who placed this desire as a foundation of your life? What do you have to do then? Or what are you required to do? Intelligence is required from every human being. You enter an inn, you take out your purse and you see that you have money only for lunch. Intelligence makes you eat as much as you can afford. But the inn-keeper is a fine person; he will give you food on credit, as much as you feel like. No, you will rely on what you have, not on the inn-keeper’s kindness. That he is a kind man is another issue. The order of the inn-keeper is absolutely different. He wrote an announcement: Today you pay [for your meal]; tomorrow you have it for free. Somebody has 50 leva in his pocket. He goes into an inn and says, ‘Today I shall order a sumptuous lunch. I shall eat like an aristocrat. I don’t want to know that I won’t have a slice of bread tomorrow. God will take care of tomorrow.’ Yes, God has taken care of it. He decided that you should fast tomorrow. Then you will start grumbling because God has so ordered [decided]. God has ordered fine, but why did you not spread your money so that it could last you for several days? You should have gone to an inexpensive dining place, where lunch costs ten leva. The fifty leva you had would have lasted you for five days.
Things are strictly determined in the Divine world. Each things has its allotted [fixed] time, place and means. Things do not happen mechanically there. In the Spiritual world, when one eats, it is as if everybody eats. There is no envy there. Whichever house of the Spiritual world you may enter, you won’t find excess there. In the evening nothing remains out of what they bought in the morning. If something is left over, they try to immediately distribute it. New [stuff] is bought on the following day. On the earth, however, it is not like this. Here everybody is trying to provide for the following day. There are no provisions in the Divine world. The order on the earth is drastically different from the Divine order. If you want to act according to the laws of the Divine world, all the people should be prepared, should understand the laws of this world and [should] observe them. For example, you have a kilo of olives. A poor person, a relative of yours, comes to visit you. You want to help him and observing the Divine laws, you give all the olives to your relative, without thinking about tomorrow. He takes the olives and does not think of what is left for you, but is trying to leave as soon as possible lest you call him to take back some of the olives. Both, the one giving and the one receiving should act according to the laws of the Divine world. You need not give a kilo of olives to one person. You will give everyone a little.
I only bring this example to your attention, so that you know what the Will of God is. The Will of God is that you should understand the order and organization in the Divine world and [should] live according to this order. Living like this you will see that you are not far away from the Kingdom of God. You wait for Christ to come for a second time to the earth and then to enter the Kingdom of God. Christ can come to the earth today as well and you can enter the Kingdom of God as early as today. It is as possible to happen in a thousand years as is [possible to happen] today. Somebody expects everything from Christ, from God, like expecting from one’s father, He to help him. However, when their Father comes to them, He will see that some of them are still sleeping.
Looking at them He will say ‘Let these children sleep.’ Many people sleep 12 hours a day. If an hour is equal to a hundred years, then they have been sleeping for all of 1200 years. During this time their Father has been waiting for them to wake up from this long sleep. Christ says, ‘I am not any longer [fit] for the world: I am coming to You’. So, Christ leaves the world and goes to his Father. By saying this He means that He leaves the human understanding, the human order of things and goes to the Divine world, where another order and organisation exist. ‘Holy Father, safeguard in your name those whom You entrusted to me for them to be one [whole], as we are.’ When we all become one, then the present and the future life will represent one great continuous life. Actually there is no difference between the present and the future life. The life of a little child and the life of an adult are the same. The difference is in their awareness [comprehension]. Children have certain awareness [comprehension] of the world, while adults have another.
When I speak about the two human natures, many think that they can easily get rid (dispose) of their first nature – the nature of flesh. Whatever people may say, whatever Sacred books they may read, it is impossible for man to get rid of the nature of one’s flesh. There has always been and there will be a struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The life of the spirit and the life of the flesh, no matter how contrary to each other they may be, are both necessary for the human development. There can be no human development, no progress with the life of the flesh. Leave flesh aside. Do not worry about it, but try to subordinate it to the spirit; it should be a servant to the spirit. Train your flesh in every possible way. When you eat, eat intelligently. You should always remain a little hungry after any meal. It’s not the point to torture yourselves, to go hungry, but to remain at least a little hungry. If the bread is stale, place it above steam to refresh it; if it is damp, place it above fire to bake it; if it is a little dusty, rinse it in hot water.
If you have noting else but bread, imagine that you have olives and or pears placed on the table before you and that you pick an olive or a pear at a time. You will say that these are illusions. – No, these are no illusions at all. Bread contains all the nutritive substances within. You will find in it whatever you feel like. If you go to an inn, you will find a great diversity, but this is a diversity of form, not of substance. Bread contains everything that the various dishes contain, only that these are presented in another condition, not like in the cooked matter. People today eat white bread, brown bread, bread buns, baklava, however all these are made of dough all the same. For the time being bread is the best food, the best dish. Today bread is entitled to citizenship everywhere. Man can live on bread only. Nonetheless, when man has only bread [to eat], man is not pleased [satisfied, happy]. Whatever one eats, one has to chew the food for a long time. Many eat chicken and lamb. They may eat whatever they please; the important point, however, is whether hens and lambs want to be slaughtered. Everything you do, you have to do it consciously. When I am talking about these issues, many of you are in a hurry, feel like sharing these with people close to them and with their acquaintances. You have no idea to what difficulties you subject yourselves by doing so. By exposing your power [strength], your knowledge and wealth before people, you arouse their desires to possess the same goods [bounties]. It is natural for man to desire to be rich, strong and educated. Anybody can have these goods; however, there exists a certain order for acquiring things. It is necessary for man to possess certain abilities within oneself in order to acquire this wealth. There must be a certain correspondence between man and each of these goods. Wealth and knowledge represent a burden and these require strength to carry. Only those having a strong backbone can carry these goods upon their backs. A man not having a strong backbone should carry a burden according to his strength. Each idea has a particular weight. You have to let it go, you should not keep it closed, so that you do not feel its weight for a long period. Ideas are seeds that should be planted, so that they can grow and bear fruit. Why should you nourish ideas if you cannot plant them? Or, why should you plant them in a soil not favourable to their growth and development? Intelligence requires you to plant your ideas in a good favourable soil. A good man represents a fertile field, cultivated soil where you can plant Divine ideas. Do not sow holy, Divine ideas under unfavourable circumstances. If you come across virgin land, sow thorns in it. Sow in such lands as many thorns as you have in yourselves. Thorns also need to grow.
Contemporary Christians advocate what they do not perform. This means that they sow good seeds in poor soil, under unfavourable conditions. This is not to be condemned. Can you condemn a person because he eats? Anybody will get soiled while eating. And afterwards one will seek ways to clean oneself. In such a situation man is bound to come across a certain contradiction. The great contradictions in life stem from the fact that people do not understand what the Will of God is. By not understanding where the Will of God lies, they want to impose their own will; they want to change the order and organization of things in life. They want to subordinate the Divine order and organization to the human one. This is impossible! God grants everything voluntarily. He satisfies your needs, but in no way does He allow us to subordinate the Divine to the human. We have to accept the Divine within us – there is no other way out [of the situation].
Take delight in the Divine life that is penetrating you! The task of every person is to see the Divine in oneself and to understand It. There will come a day when all the people will give a green light to the Divine beginning within and will accept the Divine order and organisation. As soon as people get to this situation, they will attain that internal peace to which they aspire. Do they need preaching afterwards? What will you say about love to a loving person? To tell somebody that people should love one another means to make him/ her give. Love implies two aspects: either giving or taking. When two persons love each other, the one gives, while the other one takes. The one, who loves, gives; the one, being loved, takes. There is love in both giving and taking. If you visit a sick person you will express your love by taking something from him. What will you take from a sick person? You will, for the time being at least, take his pain and he will be relieved. If you are a strong person, you take his pain and employ it to work. Afterwards you take the whip and start the cart. In the case the disease acts the part of the horse. Whoever sees this horse will find it a good, labouring horse. However, not just any person can employ diseases to work. According to contemporary medicine every disease rests in the blood of the person. According to our statements, however, every disease employed to work as a horse, can be conveyed to any person. Suffice it for you to stay behind the horse for the horse to give you a kick with its leg and cause you pains. Therefore diseases can be compared to healthy, handsome, energetic horses full of life who do not know how to manage their energy. Contemporary people are scared not only of diseases, but they are also scared of suffering and obstacles. What are certain suffering and obstacles to people due to? They are caused by the strong desires that they have within themselves, but for whose implementation they have no resources [and] strength. If you do not have the potential to implement your desires, give them as a present to somebody so that they can be implemented. To maintain a strong desire within you, a lot of resources are needed. High is the price of the strong desires! A noble idea, a great idea comes to your mind, but you cannot implement it on your own. If you cannot implement it, tell it to somebody so that he may implement it instead of you. You keep it within yourselves, you wait for opportune conditions for its implementation and you fail, you suffer, you are tormented. There is no point in suffering. Tell it to somebody and be glad that he/she will be able to implement it.
So, when you can’t cope with the ideas that come to your mind, do as shepherds do. A shepherd has a hundred sheep. Every year his sheep increase. In ten years he has a thousand sheep, then the sheep number two thousand, three thousand etc. What does the shepherd do then? He picks out the best sheep and sells them. You do the same! What prevents from taking your desires out on the market to sell them and convert them into money? Many of your desires are supposed [meant, destined] to be sold and you are supposed to make your living in this way. Many sheep are destined to fall prey to their masters. To fall prey means to be sold, to be eaten. If not people, wolves will eat them, germs will eat them. Which is better? When man dies, man is also eaten. Who eats man? The earth eats man and therefore it is said that the earth engulfs man. When put into the grave, man is eaten by beings from a lower culture. Which is better for man: to die young or old? To be eaten young or old?
Christ says, ‘If you do not eat my flesh and do not drink my blood, you have no life in yourselves’. If Christ had to be eaten, could you avoid being eaten? Every man will be eaten. It is not important whether man will be eaten or not. What is important, however, is for those eating you to become one with you, to receive your life. Christ said, ‘Those, who do not eat my flesh and do not drink my blood, have no life in themselves’. This is not just a mystic line. It contains within itself a real aspect that you will understand in the future. I shall not dwell now upon this aspect of the line, for you not to fall into any disillusionment. For Christ ‘flesh and blood’ mean that [one] internal spiritual power, which goes out of man and feeds the other people.
Now, whatever explanation may be given to one or another line of the Gospel, if you have the understanding of the people of the world, things will still remain not understood. Why? – Because these people are in contradiction with the Divine order of things. They are right for themselves, but not in respect of the Absolute. Whatever approach to things [in life] they may have, they will come to suffering anyway. Nobody can break free from suffering. They are good for the human soul, because they are conditions for the wakening of the consciousness. When man’s consciousness is awakened, the Divine beginning takes the upper hand over the human [beginning] within. From this point of view suffering is of great benefit, both for individual people and for the entire humankind.
Man aspires to knowledge, to better conditions of life. This is natural. Knowledge brings in light. It opens possibilities for men to serve God consciously. Many think that they have first to see to their dealings [stuff] and then to serve God. No, serve God every minute, every hour, under whatever conditions you may find yourself. If you wait to set [put] in order your dealings, and only then to serve God, you will lose these favourable circumstances that you are having now. I am driving you to this thought so that you can always remember that you are threads as thins as a web. If these threads are not joined together in one [whole], they won’t hold out against external storms and winds, they won’t hold out against external forces. A thousand threads joined together form something strong [stalwart], resilient. If each of you lives for oneself, if you do not unite, your strength will be like the strength of a web and you will do as much work as spiders do. If, however, you all join together in one [whole], you will do the work set [destined, determined] for God. God’s work is done by many people, not only by one person. Many people are set [destined, determined] to do God’s work and they will come!
When workers come down from the invisible world to this world, they seek appropriate soil, appropriate conditions. Appropriate conditions are the people ready to work. The more people ready to work, the more workers on the earth for God’s work, the more [workers] will come from the invisible world. When the citizens of Heaven come to the earth, they will set in order [see to] the dealings of the earthly citizens [inhabitants]. One builds one’s house and if it turns out to be good, the intelligent comes in to set in order. Everybody is required to build. Both, the ones and the others will build. Become good workers in order to deserve the great blessing. What will you do when some day God takes [back] everything that He has given you? If you have a wife, she will be taken; if you have a son, he will be taken; if you have a daughter, she will be taken. At the end your body will be taken. In this situation you will get scared, bewildered [confused], you will be wondering what to do. I shall now make a comparison between your situation and the situation of a little child that grows by the day and comes to that age when the child stops growing physically. Imagine that a father has a young child whom he delights in. He dresses the child, bathes the child and so he gladly finds out that the child grows and develops by the day. At first the gown, the clothes of the child fit its body all right, but when the child reaches about five years of age, these become short, tight and the father buys new clothes, longer and looser, for the child. He tells the mother, ‘Come on, undress the child, to bathe the child nicely and to put the new clothes on the child’. What has the child lost? Nothing has the child lost. Not only that the child has not lost anything, but the child has acquired something. The child has new, longer and looser clothes. After another five years the child goes through a new clothing [dressing] process, until one day the growing stops and this process stops as well. Man’s going out of his body and leaving for the other world is just like the child’s dressing and undressing.
When man stops growing physically, when the son becomes 21 years of age, the father continues to bring new clothes, however, this time not in five but in ten years. The son starts wondering why his father has become so stingy. He finds that his father was more generous previously. No, his father is not stingy but does not want to spend money indiscriminately, to waste one’s resources. Remains of giant people, living thousands of years ago on the earth, were found during excavation work carried out somewhere in the Alps. They were tall about four meters. What would be the situation of a father having a son or daughter tall about four meters? Knowing the economic conditions under which people live on the earth, God stopped their physical growth up a possible limit. Thus, he spared them from one evil. What would have been the material status of a man tall four meters? The economic, the material conditions today are adapted to fit people who are one meter point fifty up to two meters tall at worst. If contemporary people are taller than this limit, they will be exposed to great ordeals, to great deprivations both in terms of eating and clothing.
Hence in order for you not to make wrong conclusions about life, you have to free yourselves from your old philosophy. Both your understanding of the earth and of heaven is wrong. You imagine life in heaven like the life on the earth. If your idea of the earthly life is at least correct, it’s all right, but even the earthly life is not very comprehensible [clear, intelligible] to you either. But if you go to heaven and see what order and organisation exist there, you will laugh at your own views [believes]. You imagine things that you can find only on the earth, but not in heaven as well. Whatever ideals you may imagine, you will find all of them on the earth. You imagine Heaven [Paradise] to be something special. Even if you describe to me the best of paradises, the most beautiful paradise, I will show to you the same paradise on the earth. Your paradise is not the Paradise of Heaven. Paradise, i.e. the Divine life, stands out with unusual beauty and magnificence [splendour]. You cannot imagine such beauty! There is nothing superfluous [unnecessary] in the Divine world. Everything belongs to its place there. Those who make it to Heaven will get lost among the beings there, as they all look alike. You would not recognize who your friend is among the others. All of them are like one human being. There is one possibility for you to recognize your friend: if you love him/ her. Life in Heaven is utterly monotonous in this respect. There is an external monotony there and an internal diversity. All appear alike in looks, smiles, movements, and clothing. Their clothes are white, made of linen with gold belts and [they wear] wreathes on their heads. Those who make it to Heaven, cannot be angry, cannot envy. Why? – Because they have everything they want. There are no possessions there. Here, somebody takes his wife and says, ‘This is my wife’. He recognizes his wife by the eyes, by the brows, the nose, the mouth, the voice etc. People have different outer appearances, while they look alike internally; they are monotonous [internally]. Whatever their life on the earth is, it represents a great school, a subject teaching for the people. This life is necessary; it is in its proper place. The earthly life is an introduction, a preamble to the Divine one.
Now I am talking about heaven, but it will still remain incomprehensible. Why? – Because the contradictions existing now on the earth, are an obstacle [make it difficult] for you to see [things] clearly. No matter how you reconcile them, the contradictions will remain. How long? Until you enter the Divine world. As soon as you enter this world, you will understand the relation between the earthly and the heavenly lives. Many things don’t you understand as yet and you won’t understand them, because you haven’t tried them. Theoretically you know these things, but you have to understand them internally. To understand them internally means that these things should pass through your consciousness.
I see now that I am talking so much to you, that there is a danger for your cart to get overloaded. Your cart is quite loaded anyway, it should not be overloaded. Waiting for the time to enter the Kingdom of God, you have burdened yourselves with superfluous thoughts and desires which stumble you along the way. Relieve yourselves a little, so that you can get there more easily. If you are very burdened [encumbered], you will notice that you are losing your strength, your memory, your thought by the year and you become bitter [sour], discontented. This is due to your not understanding life. By living you are supposed to arrive at the law of renovation, of the eternal rejuvenation, so that you will be young when you leave for the other world some day. If you leave for the other world, leave young, [do] not [leave] old. Old people are not welcome there. Even if you are old, if you are thinking of leaving for the other world, renovate yourselves, rejuvenate yourselves and leave afterwards. If you leave old, you will be turned back. Old people are not admitted there. Those who are old will remain on the earth. When people become old, they are scared that they will die, will go to heaven. – No, old people are not allowed to [enter] heaven. The earth cannot do without them. When a heavenly citizen comes down to the earth, he is trying to rejuvenate the old while he leaves the young aside. This is implied in the words, ‘Christ did not come to the earth for the righteous, but for the sinful1’. He came to help the weak, the poor, the suffering, and not the strong, the happy ones. Weak, feeble, poor are those who are lagging behind in the path of their development, who find themselves bewildered, who have lost their hearts [confidence], and find life pointlessness. These people need to be cheered, they need light. The Scripture reads, ‘I will send my Spirit to teach you’. When will this spirit come? The Spirit will come when a person establishes a bond with Him. This bond will bring an internal understanding to man.
You say that the Spirit will teach you, but at the same time you are looking for various occult sciences, you expect them to deliver true knowledge [to you]. Occult science does not show the path to man, neither does it give him a way of life. It is a path to the Divine life, but it is not a science for life. To take up [go into] occultism means to study the conditions under which life can arrive. While you are preparing for these conditions, the Divine Spirit will come down upon you and will bring to your attention the superior, conscious life. The word ‘occultism’ implies something covered [concealed], secret. Not everything that is concealed is occult. For example, somebody falls on the ground and breaks his leg, or hurts himself severely. For the pain to fade away, the person starts rubbing his backbone slightly or another part of his body. If somebody rubs your backbone everyday, any pain that you may have will disappear. This indicates that certain spots in our organism contain hidden live energy that cures the sick spots. As soon as this energy is activated, it manifests itself immediately and exerts its influence. This is a hidden energy, but it is not occult. People get sick due to a single reason, that they sever their bond with the Divine world, and subsequently deprive themselves of the energies of this world. Not knowing the reason for their disease, they look for external help, but it does not come from outside. Man, in order to be healthy, must have a profound internal understanding of things; man must be peaceful, he should not fear anything. You have come to the mountains and while you are adapting [to the conditions], you will be ready to do everything. Many of your previous diseases will come up - this should not bother you. Various reactions will take place in the organism, which under the circumstances, is a matter of course. If you have arrived at the mountain, you will try to leave the superfluous, the old, the frail here and to adopt the healthy, the pure, the renovating from the mountain. Do the following experiment: try to have a tranquil, quiet day, [try to] avoid anger or disputes. Spend this day in such a way that nobody finds himself at the end of his tether, as you say. Thus each one will verify [check] for oneself how far one has got in the self-training and self-control. Each one should restrain [curb] oneself, should endure, and should not be restrained externally. Somebody comes to me, sits down and starts talking. As it is a pleasure for him to stay longer, he starts repeating the same song again and again. This is not a musical talk, this is humming, chanting. I, in turn, have to have the patience to listen to him carefully. I often do experiments upon myself. I sing a song once, twice, thrice or more times until finally it has a positive effect upon my condition. Any word, spoken musically, is reflected harmoniously upon the human condition[s]. If it reflects well upon me, the others will like it too. In this respect each one can be a touchstone for what one speaks. Try things first upon yourselves and when you are convinced in their good effect, apply them to the others.
So, spend this day without any discontent, without any frowning on your faces. Forget all diseases, all suffering and difficulties. When a disease comes to you, you ask it what service it wants and tell it that you are ready to do anything for it. Diseases are outside you. Your leg hurts. Tell it that it will pass away and forget about it. You haven’t slept all night long – so what? You will sleep all right tomorrow. The body has not slept, not the human being. You have a headache. This is a physical pain; it’s not a pain of the human being itself. When an acrobat is walking on a rope, you watch him and experience all the fear for him. He is walking on the rope composed, while you are torturing yourselves; you are worried for him not to fall down. The same goes true about your diseases and suffering. Your body is sick while you suffer for it. You see an aviator flying in the sky, and you, down on the earth, are nervous for him. Aviators are usually brave, self-confident people, but are at the same time vainglorious. Now, do you agree to do the experiment for a whole day? If a whole day is too long, then do the experiment till 12 o’clock at noon, only half a day. A whole day is too much for you to refrain from anger, from disputes. It’s not easy to spend a whole day in harmony: in walks, glances, words, feelings and deeds. It’s not the point to get scared, but everyone should live the way they live in heaven. To be able to sustain [stand] the experiment till noon, keep pronouncing the following words, ‘I and the Father are one’. God works for us and we have to work for Him!
‘Let’s be perfect as is perfect our Father.’
Lecture delivered by the Master on 11th August 1935 at 5 o’clock in the morning.
1 To Editor: this quotation is not cited word for word, as it is not referenced and unfortunately I cannot recognize where it is taken from
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