1927_08_21_1 IT WILL TURN INTO JOY

[Ani]

From  The Way of the Disciple, AlphaDar

 

 

 

IT WILL TURN INTO JOY

 

"God reins in Heaven;

 

God reigns in life;

 

Let His name be blessed!"

 

I will take as examples two passages, one from the Old Testament, the other from the New Testament, and make a parallel between them. The first one is the 42nd chapter of Isaiah, verses 1 -16, the second is a part of the 16th chapter of John, from the 21st verse on.

 

If anyone wishes to know in what way specifically the reasonable life manifests itself, many definitions can be given. Each one of you can give an explanation himself, but only one of all these explanations can be understood thoroughly. By the word "reason" or "intellect", we mean those kinds of manifestation in which one can see a consistent, unbroken link between all things in nature. Such a person can be called "reasonable", because both in good and in evil, he sees a Divine link in action. I am not speaking about evil, which exists out of us, but about the manifestation of that evil, which is in us. We, people of today, do not recognize the external, Divine world as we should, but we have a subjective conception of this world. We know it to the extent that we are in touch with it, to the extent that we perceive, see, feel and think. Consequently, when we speak about the sun and the stars, we understand them to the extent that we are bound to them and have relations with them. Each one of you must strive to reach the state where he can feel and understand these relations.

 

In my talks I am giving you certain laws and rules by which you must live; I am talking to you about people; what the former human ideals have been and what people must be like in the future. This is a moment which defines the relations between people. For instance, if you are a worker, employed by someone, I ask you: which is the happiest moment in this work? There are two possibilities: the happiest moment for you may be either when you have been employed, or when you have finished your job and you go to your employer. The reasonable man must start thinking at this point. If you do not like your employer, you will feel better when you are going away from him. You will say: "Thank God that I can get away from this man!" This is a particular psychological condition. A son or a daughter, who do not like their parents, feel happy to leave them after they marry. When you say that you do not love anybody, it is a natural condition common to all people. It is neither a sin, nor a crime. This condition is due to an unorganized, distorted life in which the consciousness can not be manifested. It is due to the unorganized life surrounding you. However, if you love your employer, the happiest moment for you will be to go back to him after you have worked for him.

 

So, if anyone asks you which is the best thing in life - to withdraw from someone, or to approach him, you will say: "This depends on whether I love this person or not." These are facts, relations - not maxims and laws. Besides both actions are useful - it is necessary both to withdraw from and to approach a person. When you do not love someone, it is necessary to go away from him, i.e. go to work. If you love someone, it is necessary to approach him, i.e. return from work. When you do not love someone, you have started your work; when you love - you have finished your work. You say: "God, I do not love this person!" God says to you: "Go to the vineyard!" "God, I love this person very much." "Return from work, go home and have a rest!" Therefore, when you do not love someone, you work in God’s field. When you love - you are at home, having a rest. This is the way I think and the facts are drawn from life.

 

Nature is rational and it makes use of all of our conditions. Someone says: "I am not well displosed, I can not love this person." Nature says: "Very well, I have good work for you. Take this small mattock and go to the vineyard to work for a while!" - "But my hands got tired, I am weak!" - you say. "Never mind, all this will pass." - "But I love that person." Nature says: "Now go home to rest." Nature, of course, does not speak like us. It has a beautiful, pleasant voice and a pleasant smile. Its smile is unusual. Once having seen its smile, you can never forget it. When you feel somewhat discontented, nature welcomes you cordially, smiling, and all your discontentment disappears. It knows to whom and how to give. This shows that God knows all our needs and answers them at the right time. The Scripture says: "God knows our nature. He knows our weaknesses, our failings." Even the mightiest spirit, or some great angel, after having descended to earth, cries a little. At times, a few tears can be seen in his eyes, too. While he is up in Heaven among the angels, in the Divine world where no contradictions exist, he lives well, but as soon as he comes to earth and finds himself in that dense matter, among sinners, strong, stubborn people, among their faults and follies, he says: "We do not live this way in Heaven." When people hear him talking like this, they say: "What Heaven are you talking about? Have you had a dream, or are you dreaming now?" Don't we see that you are dressed in ordinary clothes and you look just like us? People are right and the angel finds himself in a complicated situation. He begins to doubt whether he has ever been in Heaven, or whether everything has not been a dream! This condition is psychologically true and real - you have all had it at some time. Sometimes you think you are righteous and you walk with pride, thinking: "I am a stable person, nothing in the world can make me waver." Yes, that’s true when you are among the righteous, but as soon as you are surrounded by sinners, you are influenced to such extent, that you can not even reorganize yourself. Then you ask: "Is this really me, or not?" I know that it is me, but how did it happen that I was influenced like this, I do not know. This influence is an external condition, it came from life.

 

There is an inner law in nature according to which all the faults get piled up on the back of the person who wants to correct other people's faults. And this person would regret a thousand times that he has decided to do this. He says: "Why did I bother with people's faults?" All these faults gather around him and say: "Tell us what we must do!" The faults in life seek only the easy way. When a mistake comes to you, it asks you: "Do you have any money?" No, I do not." - "Since you are so poor and have no money, why did you come to earth?" - "Do you have bread?" - "I do not, but I will teach you how to sow and cultivate the field." -:Since you have no bread why do you call us?" - "Do you have anything ready for eating?" - "I do not, but I will teach you how to cook." - "We do not want to learn now."

 

Now I want to draw a parallel between certain thoughts from the Old and New Testament. You read today what the Prophet Isaiah, who lived more that 2000 years ago, has said. For instance, he says in the 5th verse of the 42nd chapter: "Thus saith God Jehovah, Who has created the heavens and stretched them forth: He that spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein." This thought is not understood yet even by you. If you read it, you will wonder what the prophet means by it. The 5th verse goes like this: "Thus saith God Jehovah." Present-day theologists and philosophers say that God has no body. Since He has no body how does He speak? He has no tongue like us, yet He speaks. He has no eyes, yet He sees. He has no ears like ours, yet He hears. He has no hands like ours, yet He creates anything. He has no feet like ours, but He walks and is everywhere. Therefore, we think that all we possess in this life is the maxim of life. No, this is a temporary state. We do not know the various ways of God, which the Great Divine Wisdom has foreseen and drawn. That we are created as we are today in the consciousness of God, is in the order of things in His great plan.

 

"Thus saith God Jehovah, Who has created the heavens and stretched them forth; He that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it." Which are the products of the earth? - The plants, which are an expression of the inferior life - of that which comes out of the earth.

 

"He that giveth breath unto the people upon it." That's, God gave life and breath to all living things that they might breathe.

 

"And spirit to them that walk therein", that's mankind, the world. People have the spirit, they go to work, they create all things.

 

"I, Jehovah, have called thee in Righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." "I, Jehovah, have called thee in Righteousness." "I, Jehovah, have called them in Righteousness." These are the men God has choosen, He calls them from the world to work. To these men God gives His breath. They are men from the world whose consciousness is awakened. These men who have the spirit, whose consciousness is awakened, will come to us. This is inevitable. They can not remain in the world, just as the egg once put under a hen, can not remain in the basket. Once having been laid under the hen, the question of their life is definitely settled. The eggs will be hatched, small chickens will come out of them and will go to join the other chickens. Nothing can interrupt this process. "I, Jehovah, called them in Righteousness." God calls these men in the first place - in Righteousness. Who is a righteous person? What is Righteousness? Righteousness is determined by an inner law that's within people.

 

"To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the jail and those that stay in darkness." This will be their service and their power.

 

Now I will take the 21st verse from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of John: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world."

 

When I talk about the disciple, I take the word "disciple" in the narrow, not in the broad sense of the word. By "disciple" in the narrow sense of the word, I mean the one who studies here on earth, in this limited sphere of life. He studies here until he attains as much as the condition of this life permits him to. When I talk about the disciple in the broad sense of the word, I mean the disciple of high ideals, who studies both here on earth, in this world, and up in heaven, in the other world. He never leaves the school: during the day he studies in the laboratory of the earth, while, at night, he goes up to his Master, Who teaches him theory. On the next day, he comes again to earth to continue his practical work in the laboratory. This disciple studies continuosly: up in heaven, he studies theory, down on earth - practice. When I talk of the ideal disciples, I mean exactly those who study up above and who apply down on earth what they have learned. When I speak about the disciples in the narrow sense of the word, I mean those who study on the earth, but who, upon going to sleep at night, do not study up above. Getting up in the morning, they resume their study. They have no connection with the invisible world and do not know whether they are disciples or not. They say: "As long as we are in school, we are disciples, but when we finish school, we are no more disciples. The ideal disciples, or those I talk about in the broad sense of the word, know that they are always disciples. In the course of one life, of a second, third or fourth existence on earth they know that they have always been and will be disciples. And after many years, when the evolution of our earth, as well as that of the whole solar system, will be completed, they will pass as disciples into a new school, under new conditions. God will give them another name, not the name of "disciples". The word "disciple" is inadequate to express the deep idea involved therein.

 

I want you to understand me correctly and not be discouraged. Whether you will understand me right, or not, is the same to me, i.e. I am not indifferent, but I say that if you understand me correctly, I will be happy, if you do not -1 shall grieve a little, not in the way you grieve, but I will, at least, lose my good disposition. Suppose you have put on your white dress, but a fly makes up its mind to sit upon it and leave its letter, or rather - its visiting-card upon it. The letter which it writes is as follows: " I had the honor to visit your pretty dress and I have left my visiting card, so that you know about my visit. Is this a pleasant visit? - No, it is not. That fly has not found the post-box to leave its letter there. Often you act as the fly; you write a letter and until you take it to the post-office, you pin it on a curtain in your room, so that you will not forget it. When you see these letters on your white dress, you say: "Is this the only place the fly found for its letter?" You are disgusted and you start cleaning your dress. The dress is cleaned, but your attitude does not change.

 

That's why, first of all, a deep and broad understanding of things is required of you all. I know the consequences of an idea that is not understood correctly, that's why I explain things in many different ways and avoid using words which may produce unfavourable results. If you send a man to plough the field, do you think you do good to all people? Yes, it is good for your family, your friends, or those you owe somethings to, but it is the greatest harm for the small worms and bugs in the earth.

 

Yesterday I mentioned in my talk that people of the old life are ploughmen. Many of you thought: the master calls the ploughmen men of the old life, which means that all who plough the earth belong to that life. You must know that agriculture is the highest form of the old life , because there are still more inferior forms as: murder, theft, etc. While the ploughman neither kills nor steals, but yokes his oxen and says: "Come along to work now! I have found you, anyway!" And whether the oxen want to or not, they plough all day long. He says to them: "My wife and children are naked and hungry, we must plough!" What do these oxen have to do with his hungry and naked family? But this is his idea. It plays no role in the consciousness of the oxen who want to be free. In this case I consider the oxen, as conscious creatures. The ploughman continues to talk to them: "You have been created by God to work for me, we, people are above you, that's why you must work all day without being paid and without complaining." After that, he takes a long rod and pricks them to move faster. And what does he give them to eat? A handful of straw. Where do they live? In a most miserable shelter. The oxen complain, but their master does not hear them. He finds their home very nice. This is his own conception, however. I am speaking about the essential things in life, and not specifically about you. I consider the question in a broad sense I and speak about life as a whole, about the way which the entire humanity has to pass through. At present, man as an individual, the family and the whole society suffer. No creature in the world is free from suffering. The old life concerns all people. You should know, for the time being, that the ploughman is the highest and the noblest form, which the old life can produce.

 

Now, if we consider the old and the new life in a narrow sense of the word, Adam and Eve are of the old life. The old life produced the first law which Eve wrote down. She said: "We should not understand everything that God commands, in its ideal form, but rather as it can be applied on the earth. We should look for the inner meaning of things. A different philosophy is concealed in them." Adam and Eve, as disciples in Paradise, interpreted the laws of God in quite a different way when they were reasoning in front of the tree of knowing good and evil. Mosses, on the other hand, set the beginning of the new life. He was on the border-line between the new and old, which can be seen in his personal life. The law was formed during his life.

 

I shall not continue to discuss these questions, because they will divert us from the main thought and raise contradictions and discordance in your minds. This will not help to bring you to a right comprehension, which is necessary for you. Adam and Eve are still on the earth, as disciples, saying: "How foolish we have been not to have understood the laws of God and the Way which He has drawn for us!" Have you ever met Adam and Eve on the earth? When I ask you this question, I mean, it is a law that the great rivers never flow into the small streams, but the small streams always flow into the big rivers. I shall express this thought differently by saying that the small streams flow into the big rivers, but the big rivers pour out into small streams. In this case "pouring out" implies to an inner process -the great, the powerful is poured out into the small. The waters of the Pacific ocean give the beginning of innumerable small streams and springs, which know their original source and want to return to it. Therefore, the "pouring out" is a sort of going out, while the flowing in is returning to the source. Sometimes the Great will be "poured out" into you. Then we can say: "God is pouring Himself out into us, while we will return to the original source when we flow into Him." You ask: "How can we flow into God? Won't we lose our independence?" If God condescends to flow into you and live in you, why shouldn't you flow into Him and live in Him? If you flow into God, you won't be lost. As God, Who has flown into us, has not lost Himself, so also we, by flowing into God, can not be lost. As God always knows Himself in us, just the same way, after we have flown into God, into the Divine, we will know ourselves. After you have flown into God, you will have the most favourable conditions for self-development: for music, for the study of the arts and sciences - whatever you want and ask of God, you will achieve.

 

By saying that we should flow into God, I mean that the best conditions should be given to us for our development, as well as the best life. Better conditions than these can not be given to you. Your souls will be satisfied, but not overfed by that great good; you will be contented and acquire inner joy.

 

I give you these instructions as something definite to keep in your minds and not to fall into a contradiction. Some of you may ask: "Why did the Master say this? Why does He act, under certain circumstances like this and not like that?" You have the right to ask me, as well as God, about many things. For instance, you may ask why God placed the mountain Vitosha in the place it is today. Why did He put the village Boyana in its skirts? Why did He place the monastery a little higher up in the mountain? Will God give you an answer to all these questions? No, He will keep silent. It is interesting for you to know what Vitosha looked like 2000 years ago, but God keeps silent. You ask angels, but they do not answer you either. Why? By keeping silent they tell you that you must read these things yourself. You can study all things in nature, they are written on the rocks, on the earth-layers, on the trees, in the springs. Present-day geologists, who study the earth, give at least 20-30 years to the study of rocks, of earth-layers and after all that work, they publish barely a small book about their discoveries. They understand the language of living nature only to a certain limited extent. God has concealed all things from us, because He wants to make us think.

 

So, I say: We must not interpret the concealment of things by God in the negative sense of the word. If this book was open like a printed book-sheet and admissible to all people, do you know what would happen? Visitors like the big flies would come to leave their visiting cards upon every page of this book and go away. Would we be able to read this book after they have gone away? No, we would not, for they would have left their visiting cards in such a way as to make all reading impossible. Therefore, in order to be free from these flies, the wise have deemed it best to conceal everything and to close this sacred book. When a man, who can guard this book with a sacred feeling, with sacred purity, appears, he will be allowed to open the book, to read and understand what is written on each one of its pages. After reading it through, he will close it again.

 

"A woman in travail has sorrow." It has been considered a dishonor, a punishment for a woman in Israel, not to be able to have children. The whole generation has been regarded as degenerating, or not favoured by God. When it is said about someone that he is born by God, that's considered as the highest state a man can attain.

 

"A woman in travail has sorrow." Why? When a woman feels birth-pains, she is under the most unfavourable conditions, because she does not know how her child will be born. There are birth cases when both the mother and the child die. But after a mother has given birth to a child, she forgets her sorrow and is happy for a man is born in the world.

 

I take the word "birth" in its finest sense. The condition of giving birth to a thought is analogous. A woman becomes incented, acquires self-assurance. I will illustrate the idea of birth with an example. What can a woman, who does not bear children, be compared to? -To an empty purse. This purse may cost 10-20-50-100 leva, at the most 1000 leva, but is it valuable? When does it acquire some value? As soon as it becomes filled with English pounds. How much does it cost then? - Millions. When it is full of money, we take good care of it, carry it with us and call it valuable. Then I say: What ascends the mother, is the child. Therefore, the child creates conditions for manifestation of the mother. That's why every mother wants to have a child. A woman must have a child in order to become a mother.

 

Now we will apply this analogy to life. As long as the super-consciousness of a man is not awakened, he is an empty purse - he can not think. However, from the day of conception when the first thought comes into him, he begins to get filled. The first thought is Divine. Man becomes conscious that he must establish a bond with God. The first thought is the beginning of the real life, which is the most beautiful life. This life represents the first link with God, the first link with Love out of which all things proceed. Once this bond is established, your life starts to flow like water, or like music. This bond achieved, life stops to be a burden and one can pass through all sorrows and sufferings easily. But without this bond, without love in life, even in the midst of the greatest wealth and knowledge, you will complain like Solomon, the wisest man in the world, who has said: "Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity!"

 

When Solomon has pronounced these words, I understand that there has been no love in his heart. There is an appeal, a struggle, a deep sadness of the soul. He says: "I have all things. I have obtained all that I have desired on this earth. As a king, I had wealth, women and slaves; I ate and drank to my heart’s content; I studied nature and its laws; I had knowledge, but the greatest remained concealed! Life has no sense! "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" At that, mind you, Solomon was an initiate, an adept. He belonged to the school of the Esseys where he received his knowledge, but he was given a good lesson for his fall! He was an educated man, who knew about the coming of Christ. He says in Ecclesiastes: "Do whatever you want to, but know that one hay you will be held responsible for all your deeds." Solomon says in the 8th chapter of Proverbs: "I was glad and my delight was with the sons of men." He understood Love and when he said: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity", he was conscious of having ]_Qst something, which God had given him. He lost the Sons of God and after that, he started to correct his life. Solomon was a disciple, one of the servants of Christ. When Christ came to earth, Solomon was also there. He was seeking Love.

 

Christ says: "I and My Father are one." The Father is the Great Love. Paul says: "God is Love." Therefore, when we say that Christ is with us, we understand by that - the Love of God is with us. When we complain of life, we are conscious that the Divine Love is not with us. Love is not something physical, which can be lost. When you say that you have lost your love, it implies that your link with Love is broken. This link can be reestablished, restored again, but only by the right thought.

 

When I first talked to you I told you about the way of the disciple. In order that you might better understand this way, I told you about the four_r different kinds of life. What must be the way of the discipl_e? How many elements does it have? Four elements: Love, Light, Peace and Joy. These four elements are subjects to study. The disciple of the new life must study Love, Light, Peace and Joy [_{n a}ll their aspects, not as ordinary people study them.

 

That's why I say; An inner bond, an inner philosophy, which must be formed and studied from the new point of view exists in life. You can not live without this philosophy, i.e. you will live an ordinary, not a Divine life. Divine knowledge is acquired and developed only through the law of Love. I want you to enter the new life and start to work with the law of Love. When there is Love, there is Light; when there is Light, there is Peace; when there is Peace, there is also Joy. And vice versa, when there is no Love, there is no Light; when there is no Light, there is no Peace; when there is no Peace, there is no Joy. When someone says that he has lost his Joy, I understand that there are no Love, Light and Peace. You may feel some love, but it can not give you the joy which your soul longs for.

 

Now I will use another analogy. A reasonable person can not be born by an unreasonable one. For instance, a sheep can not give birth to a reasonable man. Such is the law. The child will look like its mother and father. Its intelligence and knowledge represent the total sum of the intelligence and knowledge of its parents. The child is the result. The son and the daughter can not be superior to the mother and the father. In some cases, they are superior to the parents in endurance, in their comprehension of life, in their manifestations, but this is only an external delusion. If a river flows out of its bed and spreads over an area of 10 miles, while another river carrying the same amount of water, becomes so narrow as to spread over an area of only 1 mile, I ask you: Will the first river have more water than the second one? Both rivers have the same amount of water, but the results they will produce would be different. In what respect? The river which has covered an area of 10 miles, after resuming its natural course, will leave much sediment and the places once covered by it will be more fertile. The second river, in which the water flows in a narrow bed, will run faster. Consequently, where the breadth is diminished, the motion is increased, and vice versa, where the breadth is incresed, the motion is slowed down. When motion is faster, life is more intensive.

 

Similarly, if a person begins to live an active life, he must, by all means, limit himself. As soon as the activity of life begins, sorrows, sufferings and contradictions also come into it. The sorrows and sufferings in life are the result of the person's lack of understanding. In such cases people fall into contradictions and begin to ask: "Why has God allowed certain things to happen in life? Why has He created all these various forms of life?" Suppose that the highest human consciousness awakens in an ox, which is working in the field and it becomes aware of the intolerably hard conditions it is under: all day working in the field and in the evening, entering his home to be tied up, deprived of freedom. Do you know how embittered this ox will be? But because of the fact that higher consciousness appears temporarily in the animals and then withdraws, they are easily reconciled and say: "Such is the will of God!" The animals, because of their low level of consciousness, live in a more inferior world than man.

 

Sometimes, people just like the animals, fall into a lower state of consciousness , in which they are not aware of the conditions they are under. Is the condition of those prisoners, who are beaten several times a day, then thrown to sleep on bare stones and given to eat a piece of hard bread and a glass of water, deprived of the opportunity to work, a better condition than that of the animals? I say: We people today, must transmit the thought of God! If we only read the Bible and interpret it from a physical point of view, we will find good things in it, but we will remain ordinary people. If you had all the knowledge Solomon had, you would still be an ordinary person and you would say: "Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity!" Some religious, spiritual people say: "We can enter the Divine world without passing the way of Solomon." This is not true, however, for if you enter the Divine world, you should pass, by all means, the way of Solomon and acquire the knowledge of this world. Then you should put the yeast of the new life into this knowledge. This yeast will be the Divine Love, which will draw from this knowledge all that's essential and necessary for the new life. And then, the essential, which will remain for us, will be for the good of our own soul and for the good of our friends.

 

Thus, you must start with Love! Love must be born in you. In order that it may be born, there must be a material form through which it could be manifested. Those in whom Love is being born, as well as those who nourish it, bear some sort of a physical image. Let us take, for instance, that great sculptor, who has moulded the statue of Diana - the goddess of Love. He presents Love in a material form and then puts it on a high pedestal, so that people can see it. All people respect this statue. Why? Because it represents Love. If people respect this statue, how much more will they respect a human form in which God, Love can be manifested? If a statue is respected, how much more will the human mind, the human heart, the human soul and the human spirit be respected? Therefore, we must respect every person. For whose sake? For the sake of Him, Whom we love.

 

So, the only basis in our life should be Love. But we can not acquire Love until we begin to love God. First of all, we must love God. If we do not love God, we can not love people. When we do not love some person, he appears ordinary, his face seems small, his eyes - hollow, he does not attract us. It is the same thing, as when you find an empty purse - you turn it this way and that way, it looks old and dirty to you and you throw it away. But if I fill this purse with gold, you take it and call it a fine purse. You do not pay attention to its shabby external appearance, for you are interested in its contents. You see some woman who is a mother of ten children and you say: "This woman has become dark, look how hollow her eyes look!" How can she look otherwise? She is the mother of so many children! Yes, but in the soul of this woman a sacred idea is deposited for which her children love her from all their hearts and will reward her some day. They wait for her to return from work in the evening, rejoice at seeing her and call her "mother".

 

When a man has the benevolence of God, he will see His Love in the face of his mother, father, or any other person. But how sad it is when a son has no mother and father! He says: If I could only have a mother! He goes around, sighing and in the place it is today. Why did He put the village Boyana in its skirts? Why did He place the monastery a little higher up in the mountain? Will God give you an answer to all these questions? No, He will keep silent. It is interesting for you to know what Vitosha looked like 2000 years ago, but God keeps silent. You ask angels, but they do not answer you either. Why? By keeping silent they tell you that you must read these things yourself. You can study all things in nature, they are written on the rocks, on the earth-layers, on the trees, in the springs. Present-day geologists, who study the earth, give at least 20-30 years to the study of rocks, of earth-layers and after all that work, they publish barely a small book about their discoveries. They understand the language of living nature only to a certain limited extent. God has concealed all things from us, because He wants to make us think.

 

So, I say: We must not interpret the concealment of things by God in the negative sense of the word. If this book was open like a printed book-sheet and admissible to all people, do you know what would happen? Visitors like the big flies would come to leave their visiting cards upon every page of this book and go away. Would we be able to read this book after they have gone away? No, we would not, for they would have left their visiting cards in such a way as to make all reading impossible. Therefore, in order to be free from these flies, the wise have deemed it best to conceal everything and to close this sacred book. When a man, who can guard this book with a sacred feeling, with sacred purity, appears, he will be allowed to how much more will they respect a human form in which God, Love can be manifested? If a statue is respected, how much more will the human mind, the human heart, the human soul and the human spirit be respected? Therefore, we must respect every person. For whose sake? For the sake of Him, Whom we love.

 

So, the only basis in our life should be Love. But we can not acquire Love until we begin to love God. First of all, we must love God. If we do not love God, we can not love people. When we do not love some person, he appears ordinary, his face seems small, his eyes - hollow, he does not attract us. It is the same thing, as when you find an empty purse - you turn it this way and that way, it looks old and dirty to you and you throw it away. But if I fill this purse with gold, you take it and call it a fine purse. You do not pay attention to its shabby external appearance, for you are interested in its contents. You see some woman who is a mother of ten children and you say: "This woman has become dark, look how hollow her eyes look!" How can she look otherwise? She is the mother of so many children! Yes, but in the soul of this woman a sacred idea is deposited for which her children love her from all their hearts and will reward her some day. They wait for her to return from work in the evening, rejoice at seeing her and call her "mother".

 

When a man has the benevolence of God, he will see His Love in the face of his mother, father, or any other person. But how sad it is when a son has no mother and father! He says: If I could only have a mother! He goes around, sighing and grieving, there is no place to rest for him. He is not like the other men. It is good to have a mother and to call her "mother"! It is good to have a father and to say "father" to him! When you say "father", he opens his purse and sends you to school. When you say "mother", she makes your bed for rest, in the morning she gives you nice and clean clothes, embraces and kisses you and sends you to school with a blessing. The mother sends her children to school and she studies for them. When a young man falls in love with some girl, he loves her because of his mother, he seeks his mother in her. He looks for his mother j_n every girl and falls in love with that girl in whom he finds her. The man loves the girl while the mother is there. As soon as the mother is gone, he stops loving the girl. When a girl says that her beloved does not love her, it means that the mother is not in her. If _a girl weeps, it is because Love has left her - the mother is not there then. People say there is something "crooked" in this matter.

 

I will give you an example to show you how this "crooked" element spoils everything. Several Bulgarian men, converted into the Mohammedan faith, had set themselves upon building a Turkish mosque. There had been a rule that during the whole time of building the mosque, not one Bulgarian word should be pronounced. While walking through a forest in search of trees for the construction of the mosque, they had exchanged their opinion about different trees, but every time they had come to a tall tree a little bent on the top, and because of the lack of a Turkish word to express the idea, they had used the Bulgarian word "crooked". The hodja, upon hearing the Bulgarian word, cried out: "You disgraced the mosque because you used the Bulgarian word "crooked". They started again looking for tall, straight at the top trees, but all the trees had "crooked" tops, and because of the Bulgarian word "crooked", the mosque remained unfinished. I say: All people start their work well, but towards the top they turn out a little "crooked". Thus, all our works are like the work of those Mohammedan masons, a little crooked at the top. This is the reason why, even today, our mosque is not finished. Why? Because we use the Bulgarian word "crooked". Do not take the word 'crooked’ in its literal sense.

 

I often hear you say about some people that they can not do anything. Do not speak in this way! When are people unable to do anything? When they do not love. When you do not love someone, you say: "I can not do this work, but when you love him, you say:" I can do everything for him. When you do not love someone, you let him into your house through the main entrance, but when you love him, you go even out of the window to meet him and bring him in. Therefore, for Love there are doors everywhere. When I speak to you this way, I do not have in mind any particular person. You may have disputes among yourselves, but avoid making comparisons and criticizing this or that sister, that she does not love anyone. Think principally on the question what your attitude toward God must be. For the time being, this is the most important problem, whose solution depends entirely upon you. Can you solve your problems in life for the sake of God and His Love? If you can, say to yourself that, because of His Love, you can study, become a servant, work without being paid, go hungry, bring up children and fulfil with pleasure all tasks which God has given you. When you return to God, you will see how you have solved all these problems.

 

What problems do you have to solve? For instance, the disputes among you are sometimes small problems. Someone has told you an offensive word; that's a small problem for you - to try to transform its energy. There are no offensive words in the world. An offensive word is the visiting card of that fly. This is the way you must think. You can also think differently and say: "If this fly had my understanding, my consciousness, it would not have left its visiting card on my dress, so thanks God I am not a fly to do the harm it does." Every man who does not think right, who commits crimes, has the consciousness of the fly. When God has deposited His Love and Light in you, when He has dressed you in Peace and Joy, and yet you leave your visiting cards here and there, I ask you: What sort of understanding is this?

 

I will give you an example to show you some of the methods by which people act one against the other. For instance, it happens sometimes that some disciple from School gives a talk to his friends, in which he brings out some of their faults, or incorrect acts. He says, for instance, that certain brothers and sisters are fanatics, that they say their prayers openly, thus making themselves look ridiculous, etc. He brings out all these ideas with a sincere heart; with the purpose to make his friends correct their faults. But what is the result of this method? At the end the mistakes he has brought out are attributed to him. There is a law in nature, that when a person brings out the faults of others, these faults exercise a certain influence upon him, just as some poisonous gas has harmful impact on the person who works with it. The fact that this person has brought out true facts does not change the law - it acts in the same way in both cases. Why? The method which this brother employs is right, but there is something crooked on the top! Sometimes, I myself employ this method when I bring out the faults of some disciple in the presence of others. After that he says to me: "Master, why did you bring out my faults in public? Couldn't you tell to me everything in privacy?" I tell him that I did it, because I had a great respect for his ear. If I had told him about his faults personally, my voice would have sounded so loud, that there would have been a danger of bursting his ear-drum. However, by telling them in public, I lessened their force by taking half of the burden on me. In that case, I prefer to suffer instead of you. It is important to achieve and fulfil the given purpose.

 

Therefore, do not think that when I bring out people’s defects, I do not take a part of the burden. I take upon myself half of it. Great attention is necessary when one brings out the faults of people. The consciousness must be fully awake, otherwise the results may be negative. When other people’s faults are brought out, that must be done with the greatest possible kindness and purity, with the greatest discretion and nobility on behalf of the one who does it. There is something more important in such a case and that's: bring out people’s faults only when God tells you to. If He tells you to do it, turn kindly to your brother and say to him: "Brother, I am bringing out your fault in public, because God told me to do so. I prefer to fulfil the Will of God and to get in conflict with the world, than to keep quiet and to get in conflict with God. When apostle Paul brought out other people’s faults in his own name, he used to say: "You will forgive me, for I speak in my own name, God has not told me to do this." He knew that he would take half of the burden upon himself. That's why every person who is under this law becomes discouraged, his face darkens, if he can not bear the burden and he says: "Why did I ever speak to these people, they did not understand me!" On the other hand the people, who listen to him say: "Why does this man attack us like this? Don't we want to serve God?"

 

I used these examples, to illustrate for you the two methods by which our words may affect people when we bring out their faults with a desire to correct them: we can do that either in privacy or in public. Sometimes the invisible world tells a person to bring out the faults of someone and not to think about the consequences. Therefore, no matter what idea some brothers or sisters may bring out, listen to them carefully, try to penetrate their thought and see what lies concealed in it. You know how the question stands from your point of view, but if you try to see it from the point of view of the one speaking to you, this will throw a new light on your mind and you will benefit by it. I can compare those men who speak to others, to fishermen who throw their nets in the water, while those who listen to them can be compared to buyers of this fish. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that the fishermen who catch the fish earn less than those who sell it. The man who does the catching of the fish throws the net again and again and draws it out in the course of 4-5 hours, gets all wet and at the end, you find that he has caught barely several small fish. And after all that work, men find fault with him for having caught so little fish! "Why did you catch so little fish? This fish is not worth anything!" No, you must not discourage that man! Tell him that the fish is nice and that another time he will catch more. Therefore, I tell you as disciples: Encourage in others the valuable ideas which arise in you. Stimulate each other for knowledge, but do not limit yourselves. Do not say that you have no need of knowledge! Knowledge is necessary for all of you - both for the advanced and for the retarded disciples.

 

The ideas presented and the procedure make this conference unique. We are infront of the eyes of God and have His blessing, as well as the support of the brothers all over the world for this work. We have also the support of the angels. Do not think what you are and who you are. We have the blessing of God and this is what is important. Some people say: "Will our work be successful?" This is not included in our program. We do not raise this question. Do not stop to think of the question whether our work will be successful or not. The future is where God is. You ask: "Who will join us?" Those who must come have already come. If all people come, how can we accommodate them? Imagine that 20 000 people come here. In what kind of hall can we have them all? Then you would not be able to see me. Physically, it is impossible for so many people to be in this small hall. There is another way by which these people can gather together and see each other without thinking about space. This is the world of ideas.

 

When I talk, I understand the ideal sense of things. Sometimes, I have my official clothes on, sometimes - my ordinary clothes. You notice that and say: "Today the Master has his ordinary clothes on. Why?" I say: This is what God wants. God says to me: "Today you must put on your ordinary clothes and go down to talk to these people in their own language." Another day God says to me: "Leave your work now, go out in the street where you will see two oxen yoked in a wagon. They have been praying for a long time. Stop by them, pat them on the back and go away." Now this is out of my intimate life. I go down to the street, find the oxen, pat them on the back and just as I turn around to go away, their master looks at me and says: "What are you doing?" He is surprised at my attitude toward the oxen, which he beats all day long. I take out of my pocket 3 or 4 pieces of gold and say to him: "Please, take good care of these oxen! They do their job well. If you listen to me another time, I will give you more of these coins." Then I go my way. After the oxen return home in the evening, they say: "Today a man passed by us, stroked us on the backs and from that moment on, our master became more kind to us. Up to this day, he pricked us and beat us with a rod, but today he became more considerate of us. We do not know the reason for this change.” I know the reason, however. God told me to leave my professional work, to go and pat these oxen and to give their master 3-4 golden coins. When I went to that man, I did not start explaining to him that God has sent me. I said to him: Listen, my friend, your oxen are of a good breed, you will not find others like them, so feed them well and take good care of them. They do their work very well. After patting the oxen, I said to them: Do not feal, only have patience and pray unceasingly! A year from now your condition will be better. And actually, their master finds a Bible and begins to read it, becomes a vegetarian, throws away the rod, understands that one must not tortune the animals and an year later I saw him ploughing in the field with these same oxen, talking gently: "Come on now, come along, brothers! Let us plough a little!" After ploughing with them for 3-4 hours, he unyokes them and sets them free. Master and oxen begin to understand each other. Everyone has such a master in himself.

 

Now we can make an analogy. I have decided to visit your masters. I will pat you on the back, give your masters several golden coins and say to them: "Be so kind as to take good care of your servants. They work diligently and you will not find others like them." What will you say then? That the external conditions of life have become better; that society has begun to look more favourably on you, etc. Now many of you say: "Master, can we change the negative opinion the public has about us?

 

Can we change their views about us? We suffer of these views and this negative opinion. Something must be done about that! As long as they do not know who we are, they listen to us, but as soon as they find out who we are, they become reserved. I say to you: "There is one way to make people listen to you." Which is this way? If during this year you apply the kind of Love about which I talked to you, if you apply the Light which comes from above and which I manifest to you, if you accept the Peace and the Joy, which come from above, all obstacles will disappear. And then you will begin to talk to people so eloquently, that everybody will listen to you. In order to remove the obstacles in the world, you must have a living contact with the rational forces of nature. These forces are imparted only by contact. When you come into contact with them, they begin to flow into you and melt all the ice and snow.

 

So, I say: All contradictions must vanish from your mind. There must not be any disaccordance in your relations. Someone says: "My heart is cold. I have no definite idea about God." I say to him: God is Love. - "But this idea is also an indefinite idea for me." - "Then begin to love your mother in the new way!" - "I love her, but still there is something missing in me." - "Love your father." - "I love him, but still there is something missing." - "Love your brother!" - "Still that's not enough!" - "Love your sister, your servant, all creatures, love, at last, your enemies!" As soon as he begins to love his enemies, he says: "Master, at last I have understood the meaning of Love!"

 

So, I say to everyone who does not recognize Love:

 

Apply Love in its fulness! While the Divine Joy flows in your soul, descend to the greatest depth and you will realize that the Divine Love is also working there and that you have fulfiled the will of God. Only in this way you will be able to understand the meaning of Love. If you apply Love, the doors of your mind will open and the knowledge of past ages, as well as that of the present and the future, will begin to enter your mind in a natural way. Then you will become acquainted with the problems of the new life. Today there are virtuous, talented people who have come down to work with the sole purpose of acquainting people with these problems. You say: "This is a worldly science!" No worldly science exists, there is only one sacred science in which many consecrated people are at work. They study the Divine in life and they are those, who will open up their treasuries and display the new knowledge and the new understanding.

 

I ask you: What must people whose minds are empty and do not contain anything new do? They will do the same thing as they would with a purse full of old things of no value. Do they throw away their purse? No, instead of that, they take out of it all things that have no value and fill it up with something new and valuable. When I say that you must empty your mind and heart, I mean that you must take out of them all that has lost its value; you must throw away all the old, obsolete ideas, conceptions and opinions about morality and allow the Divine, which will create its own forms to flow into you. Let Love enter your mind, it will show its nature itself! All you will have to do is - listen! When a child is born, does the mother teach him to speak? No, she only gives him the possibility to manifest himself. At first, the child mumbles, produces sounds, but gradually it begins to speak clearly. The mother only corrects him. There are children who speak clearly and with ease. The adepts, while children, do not need many corrections by their mothers. They make very few mistakes until they learn to speak well. Thus, after you deposit the Divine in yourselves, it will renew your life.

 

Christ says: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow." Every man who has come into the world, has sorrow and in order to enter the Divine world, he must give birth to something. One can not bear a sinful world, for there exists constant abortion, and as a consequence sorrow is born. The best ideas are aborted in the world. What is realized in the world? Temples are ruined, schools are ruined, mothers are spoilt, children are spoilt, sisters and brothers are spoilt, servants are spoilt - everything becomes spoilt in this world. Things start well there, but afterwards they become spoilt and come to a bad end.

 

I say to you: If you want to acquire, to bear the great, new thought; if you want to acquire the new science, you must by all means enter the Divine world, acquire Love, Light, Peace and Joy. You can enter that world, but you must observe all the rules which exist there. You will put aside the old life with all its habits. Everyone on getting up in the morning, should pray to God saying: "God, give the blessings which You give to me, to my brothers also! I will obey You as You teach me. I will apply Love according to Your will." We, ourselves are often the cause for our misfortunes and troubles in life. How? By pointing out the sins of people. Let us be thankful in our souls for every sorrow which comes to us and say like the Psalmist: "It is good for me to have been grieved." Who had grieved him? His mother. How many mothers cause grief to their daughters! They say to them: "Where did you go today? You must stay at home! Take off your new clothes! Stop going to dances with the young men! Take the jugs and go for water!" Does that mother think badly? Does she have an evil intention for her daughter? Not at all! She desires the best things for her daughter - that the latter might be honest and respectable. The mother is not against her daughter being in love with someone, but she says: "You must love the best and the noblest young man and not the first one you meet in the street." The daughter thinks that her mother wants to restrain her love and says: "Once you have been in love yourself, but now you restrain me." Neither the restraints nor the freedom which you may have, can give a solution to the great law of Love. We must love each other, but how? If a young girl finds a man to marry, who will put her away from him on the very next day, does he love her? No, he does not. But there are some honest men in the world, who before marrying the one they love, say to her: "I love you today, but how long my love will last, I can not tell; I guarantee for one year, at the most. If you are willing to leave your parents for one year and follow me, do it."

 

I shall tell you of a case similar to this. There was in Sliven a good young woman, who fell in love with one of our best brothers there and wanted to marry him. He had made up his mind not to marry. The young woman asked me whether she should marry him, and I answered that they do not match, and that the brother she had chosen was not in a state to marry, he had other work to do. She answered: "I love him and want to marry him, even if I have to leave this world in three years." I told her that they will not live together even for three years. They did not obey me, and got married. About an year later they started to avoid each other. When she met me at that time, she said: "Who could tell that we would come to such an end!" I had told her, but she had wanted to test things by herself. She had not even thought of evil, but the evil came. That brother liked to read and philosophize, he was not a man for family life. She went to work every day to earn something for their living, while he walked around all day long, cigarette in mouth, only giving orders to her what to buy and do for him. So I say: As long as one has not settled the question of his health, or his work with God, he should not get married.

 

One of the maxims of the new teaching is the following: A woman who can not take care of a man, does not love him; a man who can not take care of a woman, does not love her; a friend who can not arrange the affairs of his friend as his own, does not love him; a master who can not take care of his servant as of an intimate friend, does not love him; a servant who can not take care of the works of his master as of his own, does not love him. How must we behave with each other? We must be ready to serve others no matter in what difficult situation we may be, no matter how difficult a problem we may have to solve. There must be something to distinguish us from the rest of the world. At present, you must be thankful to the men of the world. They are a very good school for us. The Scripture says: "Do not love the world." That means: If you love the world in the first place and God in the second place, you will stumble and draw far from Him. Love God first of all and one day, when you come to know Him, He will take you into the world and acquaint you with it. Therefore, today God is telling us what He had told Adam and Eve: "You can eat all fruit but one - of the "tree for knowing good and evil". In other words, God says to the people: "You can love all things, but the world, you must not taste its fruit." Someone says: "Why musn't we love the world?" You can love it, but you will look like Adam and Eve, for you will go barefooted and in shabby clothes. You may study the world, but you should not eat of its fruit. The word "world" implies the Divine life. You must study the Divine life and the Divine knowledge, which can be applied everywhere in the world. Only in this way you can attain all that you want.

 

There are ploughmen among you. If you obey me and live in the new way, when you sow 10 acres of ground, it will bear as much fruit as if you had sown 100 acres. That means: your labor will be reduced and you will have more spare time for reading. The ploughman is the highest expression of the old life. When Christ was born, who came first to worship Him? Were they people of the old life? They were not. Shepherds came first - they are men of the new life. The men of the new life say to their sheep: "We do not want to cause you suffering anymore, so we shall leave you to feed freely." This is what our Master teaches us. We shall guard you from the wolves, but under the conditions, that from time to time, we may take off your wool and milk you. This is the law. We have women and children whom we must feed. We have already reformed our lives and will not tortune you, but you will serve us with your wool and milk. Christ has said: "If you have two coats, give one to your brother." This verse means: give one coat to your Master. And then the sheep say: "As our master speaks like this, you may take our wool to make clothes out of it, and you may have our milk for food." The life of the shepherd is of a higher order than that of the ploughman.

 

What does the life of the righteous represent? It is of a still higher order than the life of the shepherd. I compared the righteous to a cook. He does not invite men to a feast, but he puts on his white apron, cooks the food, sets the dishes on the table and smilingly tells everyone: "Help yourself." Only the rich and wise men will find him. He serves them and recommends himself as a servant of the new teaching, but after all have finished eating, he whispers in their ear: "Listen, I do not want wool, or milk, but I want you to open up your purses, for the gold you have is not for you, I will take it. You will put your gold in my own purse." The cook deals with righteous, wise men.

 

I am giving you these ideas, so that you can better understand your psychic states. You should observe and analyze these different states. You will say to yourself: "Today I am a ploughman, I fulfil the highest occupation of the old life." Another day, you will see yourself as a shepherd, fulfiling the most noble task of the new life, but still taking the wool off the sheep. Then some day, you will be cooks - the highest occupation of the life of the righteous. You have business with wise people, but you collect their gold. You think: we are not free people yet. At last, we come to the new life, to the life of the disciple, who does not want anything. He deals with Love, Light, Peace and Joy. This is the real life. But until you come to this life, you can not be free from the other three kinds of life; you have need a ploughman, a shepherd and a cook. If you want to have happiness in your home, you must have a ploughman, a shepherd and a cook. If you want to have Joy in your home, if you want the blessing of God, you must have, by all means, a disciple. When the ploughman, the shepherd, the cook and the disciple get together at your home, stand before God and say: "God, I thank Thee that Thou hast sent these helpers into my home, so that I may learn something from each one of them. The ploughman taught me something, the shepherd taught me something, the righteous taught me something and now the disciple will teach me the new way of life." I take the word "disciple" in a broad sense of the word. The invisible world will send a disciple into your home, who will go every night up in heaven to study, and on the next day, when he returns, he will tell you what he has learned about Love, Light, Peace and Joy. He will bring you the good things and tell you about them, and you will learn from him.

 

Some people say: "It is good for people to be visited by the Spirit.” But I say: It is good for a person to have at his home a disciple, who will teach him about Love. Sometimes, he will kindly take you into the School, where you may see his Master. You can not go alone to the Master. There must be a disciple to take you to Him. One disciple leads another disciple there. A disciple can never go alone to his Master. In the same way, in order that we may go to God, there must be someone, by all means, to lead us to Him. You say: "There are things in us, which the Spirit is cultivating. That's why He will lead us to our Master, Who will show us the way of salvation." Who is this Spirit? Christ. Who is Christ? The Love which works with eagerness and joy. If I tell you that it is already time for your eyes to be opened - they are already opened. Only a thin veil remains to be taken off, but for many of you this act will cause a great fear. As you enter the spiritual life, the New life as I call it, you will inevitably face a mirror in which you will see both the beautiful and the ugly side of your personality and you will be frightened. This is why it is necessary for one to be prepared, otherwise a sorrow will overcome you at the thought that you are not worthy of this life. You will see all your previous existences in this mirror, that’s why, first, you will be led through a preparatory way where you will find another mirror and after you are prepared, you will face the frightful mirror. Disciples who enter the spiritual life prematurely, face the second mirror, and they can not endure what they see. They fall and rise, until, at last, they find themselves in despair and say: "This business is not for us, we are sinners." Then you see those people taking the wrong path in life. That's why, upon entering the spiritual life, do not hurry, but wait until you are well-prepared and strong. Then upon seeing your face, you will already know what work is required of you. This is a great Truth, which you must know.

 

You are on the threshold of the New life. It may be tomorrow that someone might knock on your door and call you. I am not speaking about a physical entrance into the New life; I do not want you to die and enter in it, but I say: When God knocks on your consciousness you may die and still continue to live on the earth. This is a conscious death. Paul says: "I died and now Christ lives in me." He says that he is dead, but we see him walking and talking. How is it possible for him, who has died, to continue to live? This shows that Paul died as a consciousness, but Christ came to live in him as Love, as a super-consciousness. He heard the voice which was saying: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" - "Who art Thou, Lord?" - "I am Christ, rise and go where I tell you to go."

 

Now God is saying to you: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" When we do not manifest the Divine Love, don't we persecute God? You say: "The time for this Love has not arrived yet." But I say: Now is the time for it. The world has never felt a greater need for Love than it does today. What sufferings, what degradation, what darkness exists today in the world! Today, there is a need of strong souls, strong disciples, who will not only speak about Love, but will also manifest and apply it in life, so that they may support and ascend these souls. Do you know how many people sigh, weep and suffer in their homes, without having someone to tell them a word of comfort, or encouragement! God says to you: "Find these souls and help them! They go to church, light candles and pray, but they can not be comforted. They study, yet they can not be comforted. They have money, but that does not comfort them either." They say: "God, send us someone, who can give us light and show us the right way in this world!" You say: "But aren't they educated people?" How many educated and famous people are there in Europe, who have written books in sciences and philosophy, but who go to different churches, read the Bible, and in great earnestness seek the Truth. You also must have that eagerness and seek the great Truth.

 

If you are not disposed to listen to me with Love, Light, Peace and Joy, you will not understand the true meaning of my words, but only their ordinary meaning. If you read the Bible, still you will not understand the deep meaning its words carry. Today God is speaking to you. I do not want to put you to a test, as to what you would want from Him, but I say: When God appeared to Solomon, who was an adept at that time, what did he ask of God? Knowledge and wisdom. He made a wrong choice for he chose the difficult way and could not stand it till the end. Therefore, I am telling you: Do not choose the difficult way of Solomon, but rather choose the way of Love. It is a way of sorrow and suffering in the world, but where sorrow and suffering are, there is Love. The second step after Love is the way of Light. As a rule you start with Love, then with Light, after that with Peace and last must come Joy. Then will come the second phase - the difficult way - the way of Wisdom. If you do not pass through this natural way, you may travel all over world, you may study in all the schools of the great Masters in the world, who bring the Divine Word, but all of them will have only one definite Divine idea, they can not change this Divine way. Everywhere they will tell you: "The first step in life is the way to Love." The way of Wisdom is the most difficult way, it is only for the Masters. Solomon chose this way, because he had a high opinion of himself. He thought that he could become a Teacher of Israel. He built a temple, but how many times it had to be ruined! That temple showed that the knowledge which Solomon had about the Divine world did not rest on a solid basis.

 

So, I say: How many times your building may be ruined? This shows that there is Righteousness in the world! A society gets disorganized, but it becomes organized again. Therefore, there is something upon which life, societies rest and without which they can not be built up. Christ says: "I have built this temple upon a rock and the doors of hell can not prevail against it." Which is this rock? Love. If you build up your life upon Love, nothing in the world can shaken it. I am not speaking about the external forms of Love, neither about your external credo, but about all that lives deep within you.

 

"A woman who is in travail has sorrow, but after she is delivered, her sorrow turns into joy for a man is coming to the world." Start giving birth with love. If you do it with love, your child will not die and your sorrow will be turned into joy. If you give birth without love, your child will die. This is the law. Life is determined by Love. In the present state in which you find yourselves, only those people who suffer deeply and consciously are wise. The future is on the side of those who suffer today. There are no two opinions about that. The soul of those who suffer deeply is so shaken up, as if the whole world is being destroyed within them. They do not only feel their own sufferings, but also the sufferings of the whole world and of all creatures. I feel the suffering of all rational and irrational creatures, both big and small. My soul is shaken up, but I know the causes of these sufferings. That's why I am against all artificial sufferings, which people themselves call forth. The world is full of suffering, do not add even a hair - breadth to it! Doubt, suspicion, lack of confidence are artificial sufferings, that's why you must avoid them and not create them yourselves, because they will bring other, greater sufferings.

 

That’s why all great Masters recommend to their disciples different methods for acquiring self-mastery. How difficult is it for one to be a master of himself! And now, since you have become pregnant with the Divine, I am giving you the Teaching of Love.

 

Some of you, when listening to me, think that I deny your efforts. Two sisters were telling each other: "For a number of years, we have been making efforts to become disciples, but it seems we have not obtained any results yet, by the words of the Master!" I see all this - there are results already, but I consider the question in a broad sense -1 am telling you what must be the great ideal of the disciple. This must be the impulse, the aspiration of your life, but the rest assured, no matter how little you may do, God will bless you. Do not think that He will overlook the litle you have done. God says: "If a man give but a cup of water to anyone with love, I will bless him." Thus, everything you do with love is for your own benefit. If you think, feel and act right, it is first of all for your own good, then for the good of your friends and at last, for those around you. Only this way you can bear the Divine life.

 

So I say to you: People will come from the world to tempt you and to want to become your teachers. They will tell you: "Do you know that at the place where you go to be taught and preached to, division of the nation is taught?" No, there does not exist division in the world. In the world there is development, branching out, but no division. In biology it is said, that the cells multiply by division. No, there is no process of division within the cell, but rather a process of ramification, of branching out. The cells grow and multiply just as the roots, the branches, the blossoms and the fruit of a tree. In life there is also no division, but branching out. These are definitely determined laws. Those who do not understand the deep meaning of these laws, speak about division, but we go by the law of branching out. Division produces death, while branching out is a process of the great life, which operates in the world. Thus, a woman when she has delivered her child, is in the law of branching out. This is the way the Divine flows into life.

 

Therefore, you should try to become free of all delusions in life. At times, it seems strange to you why you see one and the same object in different aspects. I will explain this to you in the following way: Someone says that he saw the shadow of a tree to the east. I conclude that that man has observed the tree at sunset. Another man says that the shadow of that tree was to the west. It means that he has observed the tree at sunrise. The first man, who has observed the tree at sunset, has smaller light than the one who has observed the tree at sunrise. The conditions, the setting for their observation are different. After all that, these two men get together and start arguing on which side is the shadow of that tree: to the east or to the west, and they draw their conclusions. Therefore, when a man commits sin, I say that his shadow is to the east. When anyone does good, I say that his shadow is to the west. You ask me: "What is your opinion about that man?" I answer you symbolically: The shadow of that man is to the west. By this you understand that he is a good man and is doing good to someone. I say about another man that his shadow is to the east. You understand that he does evil. If we speak about the man of Righteousness, his shadow can not be to the east, because Righteousness comes from the east, from above, so its shadow will be always downward where west is. There are inner conceptions of the laws of life. When one suffers, his shadow is to the west, when he rejoices, his shadow is to the east.

 

In the past, it often happened that after I would have finished my morning talk, someone would come to my home to ask me where God is. I would say to him: I will answer you gladly where God is, but now it is dinner-time and as we are hungry, let us first eat and we will speak afterwards. I would invite him to dinner, and after he has eaten, I would give him a glass of wine, he would become happy and forget to ask me where God is. He would look at his watch and seeing that it is getting late, would go home. On the next day, he would come again to speak with me. I would invite him again to dinner and he would forget to ask me the question which interests him. You say: "When a man is sad, give him a glass of wine, so that he will forget his sorrow." This is a wrong idea, however. You should give a glass of wine to the one you love. This means, that you would give him something because of your love. This love will elevate him and he will forget his sufferings. What must you fill his glass with? - With that golden wine of words which will make him forget all his grief and suffering. Dress this man, for he is in shabby clothes and naked! The Divine Love implies sacrifices.

 

I ask you: Do you know the art of treating your guests? In Sofia there are, at the present time, many tavern-keepers, I do not know their number. I shall thank the one who can tell me that number. I am glad there are so many tavern-keepers in Sofia, for if one day they learn to treat people in the new way, there will be no better people than those. "A woman who is in travail has sorrow, but after she is delivered, she forgets her sorrow." You are in the last phase of this birth, that's why you need peace and calmness. One can give birth to a great idea only when his spirit is calm. When a great musician creates anything, he says: "Give me favourable conditions!" When a great poet creates, he says: "Give me favourable conditions!" When a woman is delivering a child, she also requires favourable conditions. How much more are these favourable conditions necessary for us who are to give birth to the Great Thought! What is necessary, in order that these favourable conditions may come? - Prayer. Prayer only can bring about such favourable conditions and exercise a beneficial influence upon us. Prayer is a link and Love can come into the world only by means of this link. Many people do not know how to pray. Praying does not consist of external reading, or whispering of prayers, but our whole life must turn into an inner prayer, that we may prepare in us the conditions for the visit of Love. Once Love has visited us, we feel Light, Peace and Joy in our soul.

 

Some people say that the religious people get stiff. How can they change? Such is society, such is its religion. Religion which makes people stiff is a religion without love. Science which makes men stiff, is science without love. When there is stiffening, there is coldness, freezing. When there is love, there is expansion, thought, wealth. Thinking is a sign that Love has come. Love is already visiting you and I want you to be ready. It is knocking on your hearts, do not be afraid. Some people say: "Do those whom we love, deserve our love?" Do not ask such questions. The ones you love always deserve your love.

 

Christ says: "Love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your might; love your neighbour as yourself, love your enemies also!" This verse has mystical meaning, but only the mystic can understand what it means to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your might, to love also your neighbour and even your enemy. As disciples, you must understand the deep meaning of this verse. This is a problem for you, which you must solve in the future.

 

If you apply now the law of Love, you will obtain only practical results. Every teaching must have at least practical results, which can prove that the smallest work is also blessed. If you are a musician, your work will be blessed; if you are a painter, your work will be blessed; if you are a ploughman, your work will be blessed; if you are a clerk, your work will be blessed - God blesses every work. You must be contented with your labour. If you have that inner contentment and gratitude for the conditions in which God has placed you, you will hear that inner voice even in time of greatest suffering, which will tell you: "Do not be afraid, everything will end well and your sorrow will turn into joy." But you must study and apply knowledge. Powerful thought is required of you! The disciple must have the right thought! He must choose a positive way in his life, know what subjects he must study and, at last, he must give birth to something great. As soon as he bears, he enters the School where his Master will welcome him. Do not ask yourselves whether you are disciples or not. Also, do not ask yourselves whether you are of the old life, of the new life, of the righteous life, or disciples. These are different trends of life. The old life flows in the stomach of man; the new life flows in the lungs; the life of the righteous flows in the brain, while the life of the disciple flows in the soul. The life of the disciple is the soil upon which you will sow the new. The new culture of the future will rise out of this soil. Everywhere in the world there are conditions for the birth of the new, for the formation of the new people. They will be the people of the sixth race whom I call "disciples of the great Divine School", who bear the new thought and who are servants of the Great God, Creator of everything in the world. These peole are called saints in the religious life.

 

I say: You must all be ready to accept this teaching, so that when one of the disciples comes to you, he may find an environment ready for work. In order that the Divine idea may be realized, a disciple of heaven must, by all means, unite with a disciple on earth and thus form a complete disciple. When Christ came to earth, that other disciple came after Him from above. Who was that disciple? The Spirit. He came and entered Christ. When he came from above, they both started to preach. This is the law on earth. The Scriptures say: "I shall put my Spirit upon Him." Similarly, if you are disciples, God will put His Spirit upon you and you will bring forth that part, which is yours to give. Apparently, that is a small part, but that small part will grow large in your soul and your life will become significant.

 

And now, I want you all, firstly, to be joyful; secondly, to have peace; thirdly, to have light, and fourthly, to have love. Let Love be your rear-guard. This is a natural law, which exists on earth. What does a wise mother do when she goes for a walk with her children? She lets the children walk ahead of her. Thus, Joy must walk first, while Peace, Light and Love must walk behind. The unwise mothers do just the opposite: they let their children walk behind them and cry. When a mother leaves her child to run and cry behind her, she is an imprudent mother. I wish your children would walk first. If they are first, you are disciples of the new teaching. If they are behind, you are men of the old teaching.

 

"A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow." Therefore, you will have a little sorrow. Christ says: "Now you have sorrow, but I will see you again and then your sorrow will be turned to joy." This state shows only a moment of the spiritual awakening of people. When the great thought comes into you, and you awaken, you will have an inner experience, which I wish to remain always with you. I want you to keep the.joy, which you will receive, throughout your life. It is not enough to this joy only for one day, for one week, or for one year, but once it comes, you will retain it for ever. Once you accept joy, you will receive also the blessing, which God has deposited in it. Now you all need to penetrate deep into things, so that you can understand them. Some people need to be convinced, but we do not have to convince you. We say to you: Come, see, test! The prophets used to say: "As God has taught us." I say to you:

 

Act the way God teaches you from within. You will act according to the knowledge which you have, according to what you hear and according to the teaching of God’s Spirit within you. Love will teach you how to act. Rest and be sure that everything will have a Divine end. The future belongs to God.

 

Christ says: "Everyone who seeks first of all the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, will get everything else.” That's why you must first seek Joy, then Peace, then Light and at last - Love. Let Love be the rear-guard in your life. Only in this way can you solve all the difficult problems, which you will face. They are not to be solved theoretically. I would wish all of you to solve all problems freely for yourselves, without any external influence. If you see a brother act in a way which you do not approve, do not advise him, or reprove his action, but rather act with him in the way you think is right. I will give you a specific example. A brother comes to ask another brother to lend him money. The one asked acts harshly to that brother and does not give him any money. You see that and do not approve his behavior. It is not necessary for you to go and advise him how to act, but turn kindly toward the one in need and say to him: "Brother, excuse me, but you have been sent to me for money, you have gone to the wrong person and to the wrong address. Here is the money you need, take it!" If you act in this way, you will raise your brother in the eyes of the others. All of you must be noble. You can bring out the faults of people, but in the Divine teaching it is a rule to act nobly and with love. Should we, who are in the great blessing, in the Great ocean, be disturbed by the small misfortunes which come upon us? Should the Great ocean shed tears because the small river may stain its shore? It will smile instead and say: "Everyone who flows into me leaves his deposits and becomes pure." In my waters, all muddy rivers leave their deposits; all philosophic systems leave their deposits; all religious systems leave their deposits, only the great, the Divine remains. People will come to know that only God rules the world and only His laws are eternal.

 

Therefore, we shall stand bravely and say: We are obliged, first of all, to fulfil the law of God and after that we shall fulfil your law. We must be true to our law. If you want us not to violate your law, we must, first of all, prove loyal to our law. Sometimes you become afraid, thinking what the state will say. Which state are you afraid of? You are afraid of the rulers. Which rulers are you afraid of? You are strange people, indeed! A righteous man comes into the world and someone decides to stand against him with his gun I ask you: Have you ever tried to shoot at a man whom God has sent into the world? Can you shoot against light? Can you make a hole in the ocean? As long as I am in a physical body on the earth, I am harmless for the contemporary society, but once deprived of this body and left only with my spiritual and Divine thoughts, everything will be destroyed, nothing will remain on the earth! It is just the same with a poisonous gas closed in a bottle - it is harmless as long as the bottle is closed, but once the bottle is opened and the gas released, everyone will experience its power! This is the philosophy of life. A righteous man can not be eliminated! The Jews crucified Christ, but they bear the consequences of that act to this very day! The Japanese persecuted the ambassador of Iomoto - Onisabro Deguchi, whom God had sent, but as a result they faced great misfortunes. Japan was shaken by terrible earthquakes. It is said from above: "You should not raise your voice against the Ambassadors of God!" Every nation, which has tried to oppose the Ambassadors of God, has seen no good.

 

And now the Bulgarians think that they can rise against me! My words are the words of God; they are the laws of God. If these people try to violate the laws of God, they will be obliterated from the face of the earth by God. They say: "This man is self-elected." No! The Bulgarians must know that whatever their relation and attitude toward me is, such will be the attitude of the entire outside world towards them! If they change their attitude towards me, the outside world will change its attitude towards them. The outside world regards them as dishonest men, as robbers. You will say: "How can this be?" I will tell you. Everyone who declares himself against the messengers of God, declares himself against God, against Love! Love is an eternal law, it has no past, but an eternal present and an eternal future. And Christ says: "All who raise against Me, i.e. against Love, are thieves and robbers." The Bulgarians think that a man can form a certain movement, and deceive people! This is impossible! Christ came and He had about 500 million followers. Did He deceive them? - No! The teaching of Christ is Divine. Therefore, God has called these people. So, Christ

 

Who attracted so many people, has come from God. Buddha, Mohammed have also come from God and are His messengers. However, I must not discuss what people think about me; I must not pay attention to the hatred in this world. I know that in this nation, there are people, who are ready to serve God. I know that in this nation there are people of the old life, of the new life, righteous people, but there are also disciples - there are all categories of people. If I have come into this nation, I have done it only for the disciples, they are of interest to me. There are others who are interested in the other categories of people. You must be brave and resolute, and have faith that God is on our side. When it comes to the question of fulfiling the will of God, we will work without retreating even a hairbreadth. Up till now the disciples have never retreated on their way. They have been subjected to inquisitions, burning, sufferings, but they have always sactifyed themselves with joy. You must know that everyone who rises against God, against Love, is due to the ignorance of the world.

 

I say: The disciples must have a positive, living faith and live with Joy, Peace, Light and Love. The future is in front of you, you will taste it. Thousands of people have suffered and worked for God before you. Today also thousands of people live, suffer and work for God. And in the future thousands of people will live and work for God. Some day you will see the bond which exists among all these people. Then you will understand what the Divine plan has predetermined for His Cause on earth. We rejoice when His Cause succeeds in the world. The men of the old life prepare the way for the men of the new life, who prepare the way for the righteous; the righteous, in their turn, prepare the way for the disciples, while the disciples prepare the way for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

 

Our problem is to prepare this way. The disciples are engaged with this difficult problem. They will encounter many obstacles, but all obstacles will melt like snow and ice. This will not be accomplished in a day or two, neither in a year, or in a hundred years, this is an inner organic process which requires a long time. However, what I am telling you, may be achieved in the life of each one separately much more faster and may bear fruit. What requires ages for a collective group, can be achieved within a short period of time by a single individual, just as an aviator may rise high in the air with the aeroplane and come down to earth again within several minutes. You may do the same thing. We can give you a ticket for the first aeroplane, that you may go up and after you come down to say: "We saw the New which is being built."

 

"When a woman who is in travail hath sorrow, and when she is delivered, she forgets her sorrow."

 

I wish you all to give birth to something great and after you have created it, to forget your sorrow, so that your sorrow may turn into joy - that you may bear the Joy of God with you always!

 

"Only the Love of God brings the fulness to life."