I will read chapter 9 from the Gospel of Joan, from 21st verse.
“He speaks for himself.” (-21 verse)
When you come back at your houses read chapter 32 from the book of prophet Jeremiah.
Three crimes trip up man. The first crime is the shedding of blood on earth. The second crime which man has made and stumbled Alone in it, is distortion of his heart. To distort your heart, means to distort your senses and to go after foreign gods. After distorting his heart, man enters into the area of the injustice. He doesn’t serve only to one God but to many gods. Under these conditions man inevitably coarsens. He thinks only for himself and leads from what is pleasant for him. He leads only from his personal feelings and interests. What gives proctor to the human soul and helps in its development, is Divine Love. To give place to this love in you, means to be a conductor of good.
The third crime which man makes is the distortion of his thought. In this way he moves away from Divine Wisdom. The distorted, the wrong human thought is reason for discord and misunderstandings between people. The child is angry with its mother that she hasn’t given it anything to eat on time. Is it right to be angry? The poor man is being angry with the rich man because he doesn’t give him trees, coals, clothes to spend during the winter. Does he a have right to be angry? Everybody wants to arrange first his work, then the other works. And it is good but in the Divine world all the work is arranged. We don’t have to take care of the Divine work over ourselves. “ The World is not created for one; it is created for everyone. Therefore, from a Divine point of view, it is defined a little place for every man. He has the right to use from the place and of the others. But, if he tries to appropriate the foreign places, he acts against God.
Has man to wish the good of his fellow-man for himself? Has he to envy that somebody has more goods than him? Imagine that you meet a man, well dressed, with new, nice clothes, with new shoes. You look at him, and simultaneously to yourself, and say: Look how elegantly this man is dressed! My clothes are old, worn out and my shoes are worn. It awakens envy in you, you feel unpleasant feeling towards him. If you look at the things with resignation, you will say that this man is clever, deserves to be well dressed. Simultaneously you see how this rich man eats good food. On his table some kinds of food are put which are well cooked and you eat dried bread. You ask yourself: Why does this man eats so well and you just find the dried bread? If you are being reconciled easily, you will say: This man is clever, he knows how to eat. I am stupid, there why I am satisfied with the dried bread. Who doesn’t think like this, remains unappeased. If you are a little child, you have bigger brothers and sisters, you say that your mother loves her big children more, that is why she dresses them nicer. It may be like this, it may not be like this. What will you say if you are 25 years old man, who works somewhere and doesn’t dress yourself well in spite of it? Is your mother guilty again? The guilt is already in you, in your character. But, if you don’t like the truth, you will search for the guilt in your mother, in your grandmother and grandfather, from whom you have inherited some features.
As disciples, you have to be sincere, always to speak the truth. You travel in the evening through a wood and you fall into one big puddle. You wonder how this puddle has formed and how you have felt in it. When people ask you why you are muddy, you say: I fell into one puddle. I wonder how nobody has seen it in order to remove it from out of the way. It means that the guilt is again in other people, not in you. You know that you will travel in the evening. Therefore, you had to bring a torch, to light up your way. There why I say: Don’t search for guilt in your mother that she doesn’t love you as much as her other children. Don’t search for the guilt and in God. Don’t say that He loves one person more, others – a little more. He gives everything to His favourite children, to these that He doesn’t love, He deprives them from the vital. It is a wrong understanding. In spite of this, this is the way some believers think. They say that God is Love but when they find themselves in difficulty, they doubt in His Love. It is the white lie which people stumble alone from. You go to one good dressmaker, you want her to sew some clothes for you. Till you are with her and watch how she sews, she is correct. She sews the sewing well, even and the most hidden. After you go, she starts to work in her way. Those places which are visible are well sewn. The places which are hidden, she sews in a hurry, from above, so as not to waste time. It is a white lie too. Outside the cloth is well sewn, but inside – badly, the needle had just passed through it. Could you be satisfied by this dressmaker?
I ask: Which is the reason for the human dissatisfaction and indisposition? There are many reasons for it. They may be from physical, from heart and from mental character. Somebody pricks you with a needle in the arm. You lose your disposition immediately. The reason is physical. If consciously or unconsciously he has pricked you, it is another question. He may prick you and with his tongue, to tell you one offended word with which to disorganize your sensual world. At last, he may prick you and with his thought. No matter in which world he pricks you, you lose your disposition. Ten mothers gather and speak. The fifth mothers love each other and their children love each other. The five mothers don’t love each other and their children don’t love each other. The first five mothers speak well for their children; after they start to speak for the children of the other mothers, they immediately start to reproach them. If somebody listens these conversations, he will be dispirited. He sees that they are in the wrong. It is not correct to speak well of these people that you love and badly of those you don’t love. You will say that it was always like this on earth. Even if it was like this, it is not correct. You will say that and on the other world it is like that too: some people are in Paradise, on eternal felicity, and others are in hell – in eternal torment. One question appears: what is reason for this? – Man may torment alone, and others may torment him. If you stab yourself with a knife it the arm, who is reason for it? If you don’t love truth, you will say that others have forced you to do it. Somebody kills himself or drowns and it is written that the reason is the big despair he has felt inside. Simultaneously, as guilty for his despair, he directs somebody else. – Why man kill himself? – In order to acquire something that he has not got. It is atavism. Through a murder things do not happen. Nothing can be reached through drowning. If you are fish, there is a sense to throw yourself in the water. That is the way how and the sheat-fish throw it, catches more little fishes and satisfies its hunger. What will you catch in the water? Not only will you will not catch anything but you will die, will become a victim of the fishes.
What do we see in the life of the present people? In justice everywhere. And the world, and the religious people are extremely unjust to each other. The spiritual man watches how his fellow-man prays and criticizes him that he doesn’t pray as he has to. How man has to pray, he doesn’t know too. Others say that the weather improved because he had prayed to God. It is an unjust conclusion. Don’t think that you only pray for the improvement of the weather. Hundreds of people pray together with you. Their prayer has contributed something too. You say: This house is mine. – The house is not yours, you have received it through inheritance. – I made it. – You haven’t made it. Around ten workers have taken part in its building.
I ask: Who may praise you with something that he has made alone? Tell one good in which you have taken part alone. I don’t say that you don’t make good, but in every good many creatures take part. Good is collective process. You say: Last year my garden bore much fruit. – You have worked much. This year you have less fruit because you have worked less. Till your trees bear fruit, you will always visit them. After they stop to bear fruit, you leave them. It is self-seeking. Such are the relations of the present young people. The girl loves the young man not because of he himself, but for his qualities. He is young, powerful, health, he can keep her. He is handsome, educated, works well, he can feed and dress her well. Others the relations are of the health to the ill man. You love the ill man and help him, you are ready to make sacrifices for him. This love is disinterested. The girl draws from the healthy and handsome young man. If she goes to the ill man, she gives there. The girl relies on the strong young man, but if it comes to his handsome, she loses soil under her legs. – Why? – Many girls strive to this young man. All of them like him, all of them flock to him. The girl starts to get jealous, she is afraid of losing him. Many girls may appropriate the young man, but nobody can take away the beauty. It is deflected on the human face but it is elusive. But, the girl wants to hold the beauty of the young man only for her.
When I speak for the young man who strives to the beautiful girl, I have in mind the spiritual side of the question. It means that he strives to the beautiful sense in man. The young man takes the beautiful girl’s arm and walks complacently around with her; he wants to show her to the people, to see his sweetheart. Another young man does absolutely the opposite. He looks to hide his sweetheart from the eyes of the foreign people. If you marry, who would you prefer? – The first. – Really, the first is preferable, but and in the showing of the sweetheart to people there is something wrong. And both of the actions are not ideal. To manifest your beautiful feelings on show to people, is vanity. To close and hold your beautiful feelings only for you, is self-seeking, jealousy.
Today you have come to listen me. You compare to that young man who leads his sweetheart everywhere, everybody to see her. Those, who haven’t come to listen me, you compare to the jealous young man who keeps his sweetheart hidden, so that nobody sees her. They say: We engage with God, that is why we haven’t come to a meeting. It is not the truth; they don’t engage with God. Neither these who have come on the meeting engage with God, neither do those who haven’t come. Nobody speaks the truth. The prayer is an internal process. You can’t pray in a defined time: only in the morning, at lunch or evening. You will pray when your soul wishes. It means to pray with disposition. You may pray and inside, and outside. As you know it, don’t say that when you pray in the evening at home, then you go to God. The psalm singer says: “I will praise you, God, at a big meeting.” It is not said anywhere that you will praise God only by yourself.
Christ says: “If you want to know me, come into your secret little room and pray secretly.” For which secret little room it he speaking of? For your little room at home? No, you will enter inside in yourself, in the holy place. – Which is this place? – It is the place which is far from every suspicion, from every doubt, from every hatred, from every lie, from every darkness, from every envy. The place you are now is a place of lie, of argument and hatred. These are your houses. The clothes you dress with are soaked with negative thoughts and feelings. What will you say about it? Some men say that I don’t love them. They think like that because they don’t have love in their hearts. From morning to the evening they care only for themselves. Does God have to live for me or do I have to live for Him? Are the legs created for man or is man created for the legs. Of course that the legs are created for man. Therefore, they have to be of use to man, and he has to care about them, to wish good for them, otherwise they wouldn’t serve him.
I ask: Which is the way we may be good to God? – in a way which is dutiful. Unless you study to serve God, you can’t find the right way. It is a law: God loves all those who serve to Him. He who only serves himself can’t be loved by God. To love only you, means to be exposed to sufferings. To serve God, means to be glad. The serving of God brings life. The suffering understands that you have more love to you than to your fellow-man. – What has that man to do who lives only for himself? – He has to let himself free, to stand the consequences of his life. You want all the people to be good to you. They want the same too. It is not bad but everybody has to demand it first from himself. Be good to the others in order and they will be good to you. The mother is good and indulgent to the mistakes of her child, but not and to the mistakes of the other children. If she has one item of clothing, first she will dress her child. It is natural. She can’t dress all the children with one item of clothing. But she may make one item of clothing and for the other children. It is a question which refers to all people. The hindrances may be moved with collective taking part of everyone. They have to unite, to deliver food to everybody. God has given enough food but people don’t distribute it uniformly to them. Thanks to this the contradictions which are being created. Since people are not good conductors of Divine Love, hatred is being raised between them. They are not good conductors to the Divine Wisdom either and that is why the curved and distorted thoughts arise. That is why I say: People themselves are the reason for their sufferings and unhappiness.
Big and many are the sufferings of people, but you are not responsible for them. You are responsible for your sufferings and you can move them away in every moment. – How will I move them away? – As you carry Divine Love in your mind, in your heart and in your power. The mind has a relation to the mental world, the heart has a relation to the heart world, the soul – to the spiritual world and the power – to the casual world. It is not speaking for the spirit, he hasn’t come yet. That is why we don’t say let us come to love God with our spirit. Mind, heart, soul and power – this is the way you have to walk on. Till you pass this way, you will experience huge suffering. It is inevitable. As you know it, work consciously upon yourself, free yourself from the connections and the desires of the body. If you don’t succeed in this, even if you leave for the other world, you will go around long time your grave. Your fellow-men will think that you have gone to God but you know truth. Few people know who is free from his body and who is connected with it.
As disciples, you have to study the human and Divine love, to distinguish them. Human love presents concaved plate which contains everything. When you fill it, you have a meal. If you decide to give away everything what you have been gathered, you will remain hungry. Divine Love presents a protruding plate with the bottom upwards. Before something is to be poured into it, it already has given it away. It doesn’t keep anything for itself. When you give away everything that you have, you feed yourself. It means that if you live in the human love, you will constantly gather it; if you live in Divine Love, you will constantly give it. What constantly takes is human; what constantly gives is Divine. These things are not bad but you will know: When you take constantly, you will be fed in a human way, but in a Divine way – hungry. If you constantly give, you will be hungry in a human way, but in a Divine way – fed. Then you will choose one of the two: or hungry in a human way, or hungry in a Divine way. If you feed in a human way, you will feel Divine hunger; if you feed in a Divine way, you will feel human hunger. Which from two you will choose, it is your work. According to me, it is better man to be fed in a Divine way and to be hungry in a human way than to be fed in a human way and to be hungry in a Divine way.
Which food is Divine? Which way of eating is Divine? – The mother feeds her child with Divine food and in a Divine way. Originally the child doesn’t know how to eat. The mother opens its mouth and puts food into it. He, who serves God, eats in a Divine way. People outside come to feed him. When will they feed you in a human way? When you are ill, you can’t move your hands, that is why your fellow-men feed you. – How the just man feeds on earth? – When people speak badly of him, it is Divine lunch. He needn’t be grieved. If somebody says that people grieve him, he eats it in a human way. Be glad even when they speak badly of you, in order to eat in a Divine way. And both ways of eating don’t decide the tasks in life.
And so, in order to understand life and to decide your tasks, you have to know the human and Divine love and to make the human the love servant of the Divine. Until they are separated and independent one from other, you will always come upon contradictions. If you want to settle your contradictions, put the human love to serve the Divine’s. In this the settling of all the questions remains hidden. If you don’t do it, your life remains unsettled and you will remain such as you are now.
When will the new come into the world? – When human love becomes a servant of the Divine’s, it has to become voluntarily, not with violence. Man alone has to force his love to serve the Divine’s. Only in this way will all your contradictions be removed and you will come into the new life. The new to come in you, means to refuse your will and to penetrate into the wish to execute Divine will. It understands entering in the right way of life. To fascinate your will to the Divine’s is correct understanding. It refers to all the kings, patriarchs, bishops and ordinary people, to all live in the world. Everybody has to be submitted voluntarily to the Divine will, to become a servant of the Divine will. To serve God – here are the keys of life. Out of this serving, all the keys are empty work. For this aim you have to be clever and good. Clever is only he who has fascinated his love to the Divine’s. Good is only he who has fascinated his knowledge to the Divine Wisdom. It may be done from everybody.
It is said in the Divine prayer: “Forgive our sins as we forgive our debtors.” You want to follow the Divine way. – How will you reach it? – When you forgive the debt of your fellow-man. Somebody has to give you something. Forgive his obligation. Forgive everything that he owes you. If you want to serve people, you will take the money from your fellow-man. After you erase the debts of your fellow-men, and God will erase yours.
Now I speak and to young, and to old people. The first thing which is wanted from everybody is to force your love to serve the Divine’s; your will to fascinate the Divine’s. – Who is young and who – old? – According to me, old is that one who forces Divine will to serve his. Young is that one who forces his will to serve the Divine’s. – Who is beautiful and who - ugly? – The young is ugly. – Why? – Because he is in the process of forming. Is the unripe fruit beautiful? But, when it ripens, it becomes beautiful. Strive to the youth as an uninterrupted process. Be eternally young, to fascinate your will to the Divine’s, to refuse from your old human habits, to follow the way of perfection and beauty. The young man constantly applies his virtues in the serving of the Divine.
Morning Speech of Master delivered at 10 January, 1937, Sofia – Sunrise.
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