1935_08_09 Young, adult and old

[Ani]

Young_adult_and_old.pdf

 

Young, Adult and Old

 

 

I shall read you the fifteenth chapter of John. This chapter has no direct relationship to you. In it Christ explained to his disciples the cause of the great contradictions which they encountered. The disciples of Christ expected to be received by the world with wreaths, as many people are received; however, that was not the case with them. That is why Christ has said: "If the world hated you, know that it hated me before it hated you." On what basis did the world hate the disciples of Christ? Christ continued: "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but since ye are not of the world, I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hateth you. "

 

"Remember, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. He who hateth me hateth my Father also." Thus, the world has not known Christ, neither has it known God.

 

Many people wonder why they cannot love. They cannot love because they do not know love. He who does not love is of those who persecute Christ. He persecutes whatever God sends him; he i3 of the world. If you hate, if you despise, you are of the world. If you love, you are not of the world. Man moves between two states or moments of life; he either hates or loves. Everyone has experienced this and has wondered why it is so. Christ has explained the reason for these contradictions in human life.

 

As you see, in any given situation, everything in life can manifest itself in one way or another. You see a flower which has just opened its petals. You approach it and feel its fragrance. You smell it, and you are glad because of the fragrance, but your joy is the joy of the flower itself. After a few days you return to that flower and you feel that it smells bad. Why? Because it has already started to wither and decay. You grieve because the flower itself is grieving. If you had not gone to the flower, you would not have felt its grief, but then neither would you have felt its joy. The following year, when the flower again comes to life and blooms, you visit it again and feel its joy. As soon as you leave the flower, it begins to wither, decay and grieve. Therefore, when you visit the flowers they live, bloom and rejoice; as soon as you leave them they begin to wither, decay and grieve.

 

Interpret this thought and see how it may be applied in life. You are striving for the beautiful in life which God has created, just as you are attracted by the flowers. You see the beautiful, feel happy about it and are grateful for its fragrance. But soon after you have spent some time with the great and beautiful in life, you seek another thing and, wishing to change your state, you leave the beautiful. As soon as the beautiful becomes aware of that, it begins to lose its fragrance. As a result, sorrow and suffering appear in life.

 

For whose sake is wheat sown in the earth? For whom does the wheat suffer? For whose sake is it necessary to have it ground at the mill? For whom is the flour kneaded and the bread baked in the oven? You will say that the grain of wheat endures all these sufferings for itself. No, the grain of wheat suffers in the earth, in the mill and in the oven for others, in order that they might extract from it all the useful elements which it contains, until finally they imprison it. Eating is a prison for the wheat. After you take all that it contains, you discard it as something useless. While it is imprisoned within you, the wheat weeps and grieves, but you rejoice, jump and sing because you use all that it contains. After you rob it to the best of your ability and discard it, you begin to weep and grieve.

 

Consequently, you must understand that when you rejoice and grieve, it is not you who rejoices and grieves; rather it is the wheat, which you have received within yourself. In this sense, your grief will be real only when you put yourself in the place of the wheat. As long as you are not in its place, you are actors who play another role; you mount the stage and demonstrate to the audience the suffering of the wheat. However, it is one thing to demonstrate the suffering of others and quite another thing to suffer yourself. There is nothing real in demonstrating the suffering of other people. Only that which occurs at the moment is real. Therefore, you will understand what suffering really is only when you take the place of the wheat and they begin to grind, knead, bake and eat you. Then you will weep and grieve, while the others will rejoice. The grieving man is the wheat which is baked in the oven; he who rejoices is the man who eats the baked bread.

 

Why does the wheat grieve? - Because it is baked and put in prison. When do people rejoice? - When they eat of the wheat which has passed through a number of trials and sufferings. However, the joy of people is not yet Divine. What is Divine Joy? When God created the world, He decked it with countless stars, suns and planets. Then the sun asked God: what will be my work? God answered: Your work consists of this: when you rise in the morning you will give people work. - But what will men do after I set? - Then you will give them rest. From this you will draw the following conclusion: Man cannot work before; the sun has risen and he cannot rest before the sun has set. Every new beginning, every new state is work into which man is entering. Every conclusion, every completed state brings rest. When man completes his work well, he can rest.

 

People often speak about young, adult and old,people. I shall present these three states to you in a few words.

 

The young springs forth, the adult flows, the old flows into.

 

The young is born, the adult grows, the old dies.

 

The young sings, the adult works, the old collects money.

 

The young soils, the adult cleans, the old gives lessons.

 

The young blossoms and bears fruit, the adult ripens, the old sells fruit.

 

The young sing to his mother, the adult consoles her, the old writes inscriptions for her and makes her famous.

 

Those are; thoughts which express the present state of people. These thoughts are similar to the laws which are used in legislature. When someone makes a mistake or commits a crime, The law immediately catches him. Then that man is punished or acquitted according to some statute of the law.

 

I shall give one more definition of young, adult and old. The young is love; the adult, truth; the old, wisdom. Be like them!

 

Love gives, truth distributes, wisdom encloses.

 

Since modern men do not understand these states, they are faced with numerous contradictions in their lives, and they complain that they make no progress in their work. Many a persons work does not go smoothly, but neither is his speech fluent. Why? - Because the region in which they move is mountainous. When a man is climbing a mountain, he goes this way and that, seeking a smooth, easy path. He meets on his way many obstacles which hinder his progress. Therefore, when the speech of a man is not smooth and fluent, it shows that many thoughts appear simultaneously in his mind and clash with one another. Every thought wants the first place, and as a result, the man's speech does not flow smoothly. One must accept only the most essential and important of all these clashing thoughts and give it precedence. Man should always choose and accept just one of the numerous thoughts and ideas which fill his mind. The fewer ideas he has, the more fluent his speech; the greater the number of ideas, the more obstructed and uneven the speech. Every thought and idea has a certain weight which affects the human brain. The greater the weight of an idea, the more it troubles men. It is not easy for one to bear a great burden. However, do not think that everyone who can not speak well necessarily has many ideas and thoughts. Often a person does not speak smoothly even when he has but few thoughts in his mind.

 

Every thought must be musical and poetic; i.e., containing music and poetry. For this purpose, three factors must be harmonized in the thought; love should be young; truth, adult; and wisdom, old. If these three factors are not in harmony among themselves, the thought cannot move smoothly; it is deprived of music and poetry. When a man's thoughts do not move smoothly his life does not go well either. There is a close relation between the thought and the life of a man. When love, wisdom and truth do not abide in man, his thought does not move smoothly. Love is eternally young, it never grows old; truth is always adult, it never changes; wisdom is ever old. The ideas most people have about the young, the adult and the old differ radically from ours. According to us, both the young and the adult come out of the old. Since wisdom is old, both love and truth arise from it. That is why by "wisdom" we understand the manifestations of love and truth. In this sense, wisdom is ever old and static. However, you can not repeat and pronounce one word many times in one and the same way. For instance, can you pronounce the word "love" one hundred times in succession with the same intonation or with the same inspiration? You can not. If you must tell a hundred persons that you love them, when you come to the last ones you will be bored, discontented with the repetition of this word. You will tell the first person with the greatest enthusiasm that you love him, while you will tell the same to the last one with great boredom and indifference. When people are bored in love, that shows that they have reached the limit of their love, that they have come to the last man whom they must tell of their love. When people speak sweetly in love, that shows that they are with the first man to whom they must confess their love. The first word, the first bite is the sweetest.

 

Thus, in order to think right, man must have, light. When the sun rises, he sees clearly the landscape around him and he can speak about it as well as draw it. Until the sun has risen, even if you are an educated man, you can neither see nor speak of anything. Whatever the sun is for the physical world, such is the Divine Light for the consciousness of man. As soon as this light penetrates the human consciousness, things become clear and one sees everything. If man does not have this light in his consciousness, he is in complete darkness. He says: I do not see or understand anything. - How do you not see? How do you not understand? - If you were in my place, you would also neither see nor understand. If I were in your place, I would see and understand as you do. He who has the Divine Light in his consciousness shines by himself. He who has not this light carries a small -candle which either shines or is put out, and in this manner he lights his way. Because this light is not constant, man meets with many contradictions in his life. As long as he is faced with contradictions, he will always draw wrong conclusions about things. Life can be neither explained nor changed as long as such conceptions exist. People need new conceptions which will bring happiness into their lives. Otherwise life for them will always remain misunderstood, and void of light, happiness and joy. Such is the life of the sick, the dead and the bankrupt merchant. The sick man does not dance. The dead man does not speak with anyone. The bankrupt merchant does not give anyone alms.

 

What then does the life of contemporary people represent? The life of contemporary people is a delightful amusement for the evolved beings. That which seems like unorganized matter to men is a practical lesson for the evolved beings. They give, form to that which is not understood and offer it to people in 3 beautifully organized system. If the advanced intelligent beings do not understand it, men can not understand it by any means. In this respect, man represents a living written book which everyone can read. It is only the man himself who can not read his own book. Why can you not read your own book? - Because that which is written is on your back. Everyone who passes by you stands behind you and begins to read and to wonder who has written those valuable things. The back of man represents the garment of his past. You can read the message on this garment only when you take it off. This can be done under the condition that some sage wants to buy that garment. Then he unbuttons the garment and takes it off your back. However, the sage will discuss the price of your garment beforehand. The garment of your past is precious! As soon as you sell it, you will put on a new, clean garment. Since man has not known what precious things his old garment contains, he has considered himself unhappy and lived a discontented life, always being angry with this or that person. With whom can a man be angry? A man can be angry only with a man who loves him. He cannot be angry with one who does not love him. Therefore, a man can love only that person with whom he has been angry. He cannot by any means love someone with whom he has never been angry.

 

August 9, 5 A.M.