Mathew ch.17
Children like childish things; adults like adult things; old people like old things. The rich speak only about their riches; the poor speak only about their poverty; the educated speak only of their knowledge, and the saints about the great and beautiful in the world. On the whole, everybody speaks about what he likes and understands.
No matter in what phase of life one may be, young, adult, old, rich, poor, educated, or ignorant, he must be awakened. Who must awaken him? God must. Why? Because God is the sun of life. When this sun awakens man, it will open his eyes, so that he may see and understand the world correctly, and work in it. When one awakens from sleep, he must expect something. If there is nothing for him to expect, life becomes senseless for him. Expectation is an incomplete process. Man sees how things gradually come into his life. You go to a concert or theatre and you expect the curtain to rise. After that, you expect the prelude to the performance. Then you expect the inner contents -the development of the events or pictures - and then comes the end. Similarly, there are three main divisions in a speech: introduction, exposition and conclusion.
When a spiritual man begins to talk, he will first deal with the question of God - what He is. If you want to hear what God is, call the children. They will define more clearly what God is. If you leave this question to the philosophers and the scientists, you will be thoroughly perplexed. Your own knowledge of the question will be confused. Scientists make mistakes sometimes, too. An educated archaeologist found a golden coin which was so stained that its inscription was not clear. In order to read the writing on it, he gave it to his servant to clean off the spots and dirt. The servant set to rubbing it hard, in order to remove the spots. After some hard rubbing, the coin was polished and he took it to his master. What incredible regret there was on the face of the master when, looking at the polished, glistening coin, he saw that the inscription had been rubbed off and nothing remained of it. The value of an ancient coin is in its inscription, not in the gold of which it is made.
Many contemporary intelligent men and philosophers, like that archaeologist, rub the truth well and make it shine like gold, but they erase what is written in it. However, the importance of archaeological objects is in their inscription. Such mistakes are made not only by the educated, but also by ordinary people. They do all this unconsciously. They want to show themselves to be good, moral and saintly before the people, and in that effort they erase the beauty God has inscribed in them. They shine, but their light is not real; it is reflected light like that of a candle in a mirror. What will you see in a mirror? A reflection of your image, but the reflection is not the real you. You read a book and find something nice in it, but the book is not you. Man is a living book, a living light in which everyone can read; its light delineates the way and arouses his consciousness.
The awakening of the human consciousness is a great act.
In this process, man sees simultaneously his past, present and future. He finds himself in a peculiar state; all that is hidden in his subconscious and his superconscious awakens; life is displayed before him and he reads. He finds himself alone, abandoned by everyone; not a living soul is by him; his mother, father, sisters and brothers, relatives and friends are all dead and he finds himself alone with only a naked consciousness. He weeps and laments his doom. All of a sudden his father comes from somewhere and touches him on the back. - Son, why are you weeping? Then his mother comes. - Son, why are you weeping? In this manner all his brothers, sisters, relatives and friends come to him, and he begins to wonder why he has wept. Such is the state of every man whose consciousness is awakening.
Therefore, life is not as terrible and difficult as people imagine. A frog sits like a philosopher, silent and in meditation. A fly lands upon his nose; the frog opens his mouth and the fly goes away. Then it lands upon him again and flies away. The frog sighs and says: "Life is difficult!" The life of the frog is only difficult when? When it is in the pond. Its conditions for life are there and its power is there. On the same basis, man must not grumble and complain about his life, but rather take advantage of the conditions given to him, and draw strength from them. Whether he is poor or rich, ignorant or educated, sinful or upright, these are all conditions necessary for his growth and development. If he is sinful, he should work and produce goods; if he is upright, he should sell the goods he has produced. "But I am sinful!" Since you realize your sinful state, nothing remains for you but to start working and spinning the wool which is given to you so that you will have something to sell. The power of man lies in work. Wherein lies the power of the merchant? In the goods he has to sell. When his shelves are full of goods, he is happy and feels a power within himself. Wherein lies the power of the educated man? In the books he has studied, in the work he has accomplished, and in the documents he has obtained. When he looks at his library, he feels happy and secure, having something to rely upon, material proofs are required of man, not only empty words.
Life can not be studied theoretically, as many people think; it needs to be applied. There are scientists, for example, who know all of geology by heart. They know what every other geologist has said about the subject of geology. But if they go out into nature, they do not know it. Why? Because theory is one thing, and practice is quite another. Many singers today sing over the radio, or on victrola records. However, I would like to hear the singer himself. Someone comes and begins to recommend to you one or another victrola record of some noted singer. Whatever the record may be, it disturbs the ear. Put away the victrola. It is good entertainment for children. The record reproduces the voice of the singer, yet many things are lacking in it. He who listens must fill in the gaps himself. Victrolas and movies are allowed on the earth, but in the Divine world they are not admitted. He who enters the Divine world, and dreams of a movie, is sent to the earth. In the Divine world there are living movies, living victrolas. If you have a great desire to see a movie, they may produce one there also, but it will differ radically from an earthly movie. There are no authorities in the Divine world and you can not depend on any authority there. Everything there is submitted to experimentation. The experiment proves things. If you conquer your opponent, you are considered a hero. If you do not conquer him, you are not a hero. Every man has a strong opponent with whom he will fight some day. When he meets him, his muscles will bulge out and his hairs will stand on end, but he will fight until he wins. Your opponent is black, but you will fight him and not escape. The victory is first in the physical world, then in the higher worlds. Therefore, man should develop first his physical power and gradually move to the mental and that of the heart. Wherein lies the power of man? In his faith. One must believe in what is deposited in him, believe that he can use it wisely. The power of man lies in his correct breathing. Breathing is connected with the thoughts and feelings. He who breathes correctly, thinks and feels correctly also. This is the path of human development.
Thus, everything which surrounds man must be a stimulus in his life. If you meet a man, a tree, a stone, a lake, stars, the sun - everything must stimulate your life. The Divine Spirit Who works and awakens the consciousness of all living things is hidden in all things. When God wants to awaken a person, He gives him good conditions: a good mother and father, good brothers and sisters, and friends who love him. Whichever way he turns, he finds love. When God does not want to awaken a man, He will send him to live under the most unfavorable conditions for development. When does a man sleep? When he thinks, feels and acts incorrectly. What deeper sleep is there than that of denying life, love, wisdom and truth? Life is sometimes meaningless and can be denied when one lives it monotonously - when one eats, prays and thinks monotonously. monotony kills life. Then what must you do? Never pray twice in the same way. Never eat twice in the same way. Do not think twice in the same way. When you are happy, you are glad that sweet things are given you. When you are unhappy, you complain of the bitter things. What is bad in the bitter things? The bitter pills cure many diseases, Bitter things protect man from many evils. When the organism becomes used to certain poisons, one becomes immune and can not become ill or be harmed by the evils and poisons of life. As the doctors can inject man with a serum against scarlet fever, in the same way they can inject his blood with a serum from the poison of the cobra and make him immune to that poison. He who doesn't have this serum in his blood may pay with his life. Man must become immune and invulnerable to sin. What is sin? A bite by a spiritual cobra. If this cobra should kill you, it shows that you are weak and that you have no faith in God. You say that you believe in God, but you die. What is this faith? In order to resist the poison of the snake, or the cobra, your consciousness must be pure and awake. There are fakers in India who can resist the poison of a cobra. They have immunity and are not killed by any snake-poison.
A Christian Hindu describes an experience of his. One evening he slept in a cave. In the morning, he saw at the entrance to the cave a great cobra twisted in a spiral. He had to go out to his work, but the entrance was blocked by the cobra. To pass it by was risky, since the cobra might sting and kill him. What should he do? He was not immune to cobra poison. He could rely only upon God, on his faith. That is why he turned to God with the words: "God, help me to pass by the cobra without being stung. Tell it to move a little, so that I can pass." Then he started for the entrance. The cobra looked at him and carefully moved away, making way for him to pass. Not everybody can pass by a cobra safely. That Hindu was a real Christian with a strong faith in God.
I ask you; what kind of believer is the man who in a difficult condition, a hard inner trial, can not see the power of God? What kind of a believer is the man who can be stung and poisoned by a cobra? What kind of a believer is he who can not pray to God to make the cobra move away from his path and make way for him to pass? The believers of today do not turn to God in prayer to protect themselves from the cobra; they begin to reason about whether or not the cobra will sting them. After that they try to hypnotize it by looking into its eyes. They fix their gaze upon it, but the cobra is strong and does not yield to their gaze. A Bulgarian man once tried to control bears by his gaze. He went to the forest and saw a bear at a distance. He concentrated his eyes upon it, but the bear neither stopped nor turned back. When he saw himself in a tight place, he said to himself: Why has God given me hands? Mow I shall apply my acrobatic skill. He climbed a tall tree. He understood that it would be safer for him to climb the tree of life than to remain down in the rude matter. The bear passed by the tree, sniffed a little, and went away.
The bear represents the troubles in human life. There are big and small troubles, big and small bears. How will you cope with them? There are also lions and tigers in life. How will you deal with them? There is one way, one science which can help man in such cases. However, he must know this science and put it to a test. What is this way? It is self-control. No matter what troubles one is experiencing, he must keep his presence of mind. If he wavers, or loses his presence of mind, he breaks all the ties through which the Divine power works and is manifested. Moreover, one must know himself and distinguish his own habits and states from those of other people. You experience many states that are not your own. You do many things under the dictates of external forces, and you yourselves do not know why you do them. You are like a child who is reciting a poem. The mother chooses a poem and reads it several times so that the child learns it by heart and recites it. It is good for the child to recite, but the mother must know whether or not that poem is useful for him. In the same way the mother gives the child food which he does not like. However, she insists that he should eat it, because it is good for him. The child eats that food out of necessity, but his organism does not accept it.
From this and many other examples in life, we see how rude and careless people are. They often use violence under the pretext that they are doing it for our good. He who has applied the law of violence even once, has inevitably tasted its consequences. An acquaintance of mine was telling about an experience of his for which he paid dearly. "One day," he said, "I visited a friend who was suffering from fever. I wanted to know his condition and when I saw him suffering from illness, I did not say a word, but went out and filled a bucket with cold water. My friend did not realize what I intended to do when I entered his room with the bucket and I quickly poured all the water over him. He began to shiver and cry from the cold, but his fever left him at once, as if cut by a knife. He was cured, but I became ill and suffered for three whole months from the same fever. I applied violence, but I experienced its consequences. Then I asked my friends to pour cold water on me two times, but my fever did not leave me. After a time, when its time had expired, I got rid of it."
Why did the cold water produce good results in the first case but not in the second? The effect of the cold water in the first case was due to the interchange which had taken place between the sick and the healthy person; the healthy person passed his faith on to the sick person, while the latter passed his illness on to the healthy one. In the first case we see the power of faith. Someone wants to help a person uplift himself, and he succeeds in that but in the process he falls himself. Thus, when a man helps others, he must be strong enough to resist their negative states. When people do good, they receive evil in return, and since they do not know the law, they say that one must not do good. As long as you live in the human order of things, you will always receive results contrary to what you do. Why? Because when you do good, you expect to be rewarded. You must do good for the sake of the good and not for the sake of any reward. Do not be disturbed by what people will say or by whether or not they will appreciate your acts. Do the good according to the rules of the Divine law in which there is no exception. Whatever you decide to do, do it according to the requirements of the Divine, not the human, love.
What is the difference between the Divine and the human love? In human love, there is decay, disintegration, sickness, sin, crime and death. In the Divine Love there is no room for sin and crime, decay, illness and death; these do not exist in it. In human love there is poverty, hardship, discontentment, and disappointment. In the Divine Love these do not exist. The Divine Love includes all that bears life, knowledge and freedom. He who has the Divine Love, has at his disposal everything that he could wish for. Apply this diagnosis to your life to find out which love you are operating with, the Divine or the human.
We speak about a human and a Divine order in the world. They appear as a result of the two kinds of love - human and Divine. As long as you live in the human order, you are in a world of constant changes, in the transitory side of life. The human order is not bad, but it must not be mixed with the Divine. The human order can be correct or incorrect; that depends on people. The good and prudent people live in the correct human order, but the imprudent live in the incorrect human order. The correct human order leads to the Divine order of things. It is a natural transition to the Divine order.
Now I shall use an analogy in order to explain the difference between the correct human order and the Divine order. The human order can be likened to a piece of coal which can burn and turn into a gaseous body; it can absorb particles of dirt, but' it can by no means reflect the sunbeams like the diamond. In order to be turned into a diamond, the coal must be put under great pressure and high temperatures. The greater the pressure and the higher the temperature, the better the diamond will crystallize. The Divine order is beautiful. There is a reflection of rays there which causes the appearance of many colored rainbows, different tints and lights.
There exists a certain analogy between the laws of the physical and the laws of the Divine world. Therefore, whatever methods are used for turning the coal into a diamond, the same are used for the passing of the soul from the human into the Divine order. The human soul must be put under high temperature -the fire of love - and under great pressure - the pressure of wisdom - in order to become Divine. After the soul has crystallized and turned from a coal into a diamond, then the high temperature and the great pressure will decrease and become lighter to bear. Then the soul - diamond - will be placed on the crown of some king to shine from a distance and reflect the rays of the Divine sun. When the "soul-coal" crystallizes and turns into a "soul-diamond," everyone likes it and stops to look at it and enjoy it. It is loved by gods, angels, men, plants and animals. While the soul is a coal, nobody stops before it or casts a glance at it. Christ did not come into the world to save people, but rather to turn coals into diamonds. In order to accomplish this, men must pass through high temperatures and great pressures, which people call sufferings, hardships and trials. The Sacred books also speak about this fire. This is the fire of the Divine; Love and the pressure of the Divine Wisdom. The fire and the pressure will purify the human soul and crystallize it. When the soul becomes Divine, or diamond, it will reflect the Divine light and form around itself an aura of light and delicate tints. Such is the soul of every perfect man. The human soul aspires toward that perfection.
"And He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. And Jesus came and touched them and said: "Arise, and be not afraid. Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead."
Up to this day religious people dispute about the question: what did Moses and Elias speak about with Christ. They were telling Christ about the fire, the great pressure His soul had to pass through, in order to crystallize. They were explaining to Him the results of that crystallization. Since you know this, should you become disappointed? If you realize that you live in a world directed by God, should you be troubled? Why should you be afraid when you know that all good, upright, lofty and perfect beings who have completed their evolution, are participating in what is being created today?
Present day people become discouraged because they think that nobody carts about them. Yes, while they are coals, nobody thinks of them as much as God does. He thinks what greater fire and pressure to put them under, in order that they might shine, crystallize and turn into diamonds. He will put them under a great glass or metal bell, turn on the switch of a powerful electric current and before they have realized it, everything will be finished. The pressure will be great but it will last a short time.
I wish all souls to crystallize and turn into diamonds.
This is attained by the path of Love, Wisdom and Truth.
Love is a path for the crystallization of the human soul.
Wisdom is a path for the reflection of the Divine Light-Truth is a path for the realization of the Divine Light which bears freedom.
October 6, 1935, 10 A.m. Sofia - Izgrev.
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