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From Dawning of a New Epoch, Beinsa Duno The Importance of What Is Small “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in Heaven their Angels always see the face of My Father who is in Heaven.” Matthew 18:10 In human society men and women all strive for big things, for great achievements; and everyone despises the little things in life. This is a weakness in human nature. If, for example, you are given five leva[1], you say, “This is nothing! I wish to be given one thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred thousand of leva. Just five leva? I feel offended—I am not a beggar!” You are offered one walnut, but you say, “Sir, you insult me with this. If you give me 5-10 kilograms of walnuts, I will accept them, but just one walnut, are you making fun of me?” When we strive for great purposes and achievements, we try to make contact with people in high positions: kings, presidents, directors, scientists, and philosophers. At the same time, we say about people in inferior positions, “This or that person is ignorant, a simpleton!” In all areas of life we see contempt for what is small and great interest in what is grand. Yet, Christ addresses his disciples and warns them not to despise the little ones. Why? Do not despise the little ones because thus you offend their Angels who serve them in Heaven. If you despise them, you also despise the Angels to whom the little ones are like children. When we want to split tree logs into firewood, we first chisel small sharp wedges, and as they penetrate the wood, they make space for the bigger ones. If the wedges are big and dull, how will they drive in? So, the little things open the way for the larger things. In the world as well, the entire process of development begins with these little things that you despise, and the overall progress in the Universe is a result of these. Figuratively speaking, we say that a plough feeds the whole world, because after the farmer ploughs and sows the field well, it rewards him with a plentiful harvest. This is true, but we should not forget the role of those billions of earthworms who also help by turning over the soil. However, we have been taught to look down upon the weak. Even after becoming devout Christians, hidden under our sheep’s skin we still have some wolfish instincts, which we occasionally show. We have not lost our old inherited habits and if someone steals from us even a small amount of money, one lev, for example, we immediately bring that person to court. However, if the amount is big, five or ten thousands leva for example, we say, “Bravo!” Yet, those who steal a lot did not develop this habit all at once: first they stole one coin equal to 2.5 stotinki[2], later one gologan[3], later on one grosh[4], followed then by five, ten coins, and so on. This Law is true in all aspects of life. When we do not consider the little details in our actions, we also miss the big effects that they produce. All our misfortunes today, both individual and collective, come as a result of our previous neglect of little things. Therefore, Christ addresses His disciples and advises them “not to despise one of these little ones.” Who are “the little ones?” Someone may say that these are our children, and that is true. Yet, if we want to apply Christ’s Law in full, we will see that there are many other things that should not be despised. “Do not despise one of these little ones!” I will reveal the hidden meaning in these words. A Hindu gave a whole walnut to his son and asked him to find out what was inside. The son cracked the shell and ate the kernel. “What is the essence of the walnut, son?” asked the father. “Nothing special, just some tasty nut meat,” replied the son. “Are you sure you have not found anything else in the walnut?” “No, nothing.” “Son, there is a great power hidden in the walnut. If you had planted it, instead of eating it, a big tree would have grown and you would have seen the greatness of this seemingly small thing, which has a hidden potential within it.” In the same manner God sends you one small thought, one apple seed, but you say, “It is nothing,” and discard it. Yet, God says, “Ask yourself what power it has. Plant it, and you will see the tree that will grow from it.” As a result of this constant overlooking of the little things in life we have reached the present situation of complaining that the world is bad. And what is more, we think that we are the clever ones! Christ advises us not to despise these small things, not to strive only for big things, but to learn to recognize the hidden power within the small things, and to use them, as they will help us achieve big results. For example, your house is built up of microscopically small and densely pressed together particles, is it not? In the same way, our daily life is based on those little things, like the grain of wheat, fruit, and many other things, so-called “trifles.” This pertains not only to the human body, but also to the human mind. In reality, it is the little thoughts and desires that bring joy and happiness in life. Sometimes we laugh at children because they are occupied with little thoughts. We forget that the small grains are those that produce growth into big things. Why should we “not despise the little ones”? It is because we should not disobey the second Divine Commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[5] You should not despise any living being, as it can give useful service, whether it be a pigeon, a hen, a sheep, a horse, or a donkey. For each and every form of life there is a special book. For example, it is written about the donkey, today you loaded the donkey that much, the next day that much. All this is written in the book and when God calculates five leva per day for this service, then after 100 years, assuming that the donkey has served you its entire life, how much do you need to pay it? One day you will find that you, like the debtor from the Scriptures, owe almost ten thousand “talents.”[6] You may say, “I do not remember,” but God has written your debt in the book. So, in fact, all of us are in debt to the little ones. We owe our present progress, our thoughts and desires to the “little ones,” as Christ said. Therefore, being in debt to them, we should have love for them; and knowing that they have served us, we should now serve them, too. Meanwhile, I would like to give you an explanation about a mystery. I have often been asked why Angels are interested in human beings, and whether there is any connection between them. Once upon a time, when Angels were in our present situation and they were living on Earth as consciously aware beings, we were in the situation of animals and served them. Thus, they are obligated to us and God requires them to pay their debt. Cosmic Beings do not despise their smaller fellows because they have served them. Maybe your servant is ignorant, but you do not really know the truth behind this relationship and why God has placed this man in your home. Your relationship with him did not originate in the present: this particular servant has been in your home many times previously. You do not know this, but God knows. This person has probably saved your life many times; therefore, you need to have love and compassion for him. And this is how we can understand this Divine Law: to have love for the little ones. Love is to be expressed not only for great people, Angels, and saints; it is also for the little things, the little ones, the poor and fallen brothers and sisters. This is the reason for the strong love of a mother toward her child; she loves by the power of this Divine Law that obliges her to do so. She loves her child thanks to this inner Divine Fire. You want to see God, but when He comes in your child, you say, “Why did God give me this child?” Every day you ask God to come and every day you chase Him away. And you consider yourselves to be learned people! This is not only an attitude, but a pattern of behavior in the entire world. Every day God tests you to see how much you love Him and how truthful are your words. Once upon a time, after the Fall of Man, when the world went wrong, a rumor was spread that God had descended to Earth to see how people were living. Many people had decided that, since there was no God in Heaven to control them from above, they could live as they wish, without any restrictions. In one place God saw someone selling a blind horse, but telling the buyer, “In God’s name, the horse is not blind.” The man replied “Since you swore in God’s name, I believe you,” and the man bought the horse. God passed by a house and saw a husband beating his wife who cried out, “In God’s name, forgive me!” and the man stopped. These both went to Heaven afterward and justified themselves, saying, “God, on Earth we called upon Your name.” Modern people call upon God too, especially when they try to sell a blind horse or want to beat their wives. Some priests advise, “Believe in God,” but what would God reply to them? He would reply, “I do not know you because you use My name, not for My glory, but to deceive people by encouraging them to perform wrongful actions and make excuses for doing so.” These are the little things that create big misfortunes. You have a blind horse and you want to sell it by using the name of God, but you need to be careful and responsible for your actions. Do you know what the “blind horse” is? It is your body. Yet, people talk against it all the time, punish it, and blame it. No, the body is not the guilty one. Someone gets drunk in the pub and orders, “Do not give food to the horse.” He is doing wrong by getting drunk, but he punishes the horse. Do not despise your body and do not confuse the flesh with your desires and lusts. You need to renounce them—not the flesh. To renounce the flesh would mean to renounce all thoughts and deeds that are realized through it. In addition, you should not torment your body—a temple created by God. In fact, you should be very sympathetic with it because you can work only as long as it is fit and healthy. When Christ says “their Angels,” He refers to those Wise Beings who keep a record of our actions. In fact, what we call “consciousness,” these are the Angels abiding within us and recording each of our actions: either good or bad. They say to us, “Well done!” or “You have not done well.” When you insult someone, then the Angel of this person tells you that your behavior was not good. You start apologizing, “I am sorry, I was a little nervous, indisposed, the conditions were such and such.” Your excuse about the conditions you were in has nothing to do with the rule that you should not despise the little things because they create the foundation for the Divine Laws. The little things can sometimes cause either great benefits or big harm. A wolf once boasted that he was a hero and the king of the animals. The fox interjected, “Do not talk big because if a mosquito enters your nose and stings you, you cannot do anything to it.” “I will blow my nose and the mosquito will fly away,” replied the wolf. One day a mosquito entered his nose and stung him, thus bringing infection to the wolf and causing his death. Often the small circumstances in our life can, in one way or another, bring either progress in our development or an impediment. The causes that bring us good or bad results are not bad in themselves, but their application is wrong. Take, for example, air: if you breathe it through your lungs, it will purify your blood producing a positive effect for you, but if it goes into your stomach, it will produce stomachache. In both cases, one and the same cause creates two totally different results. If you take some charcoal mixed in water, it will have a good effect on your stomach, but introduced into the lungs, it would be poisonous. Therefore, through those little things Christ advises us not to despise, He is referring to the whole of human life with all these little things we are closely involved with. For instance, if I ask you about the way your body, heart, and mind have been formed, could you tell me how this has happened? Initially, when human beings came into existence on Earth, they were not huge, but microscopically small; but under certain conditions they developed and became a million times larger than before. Their power was initially hidden in a nucleus. In a similar way in modern times, an idea is a great Divine foundation; and if it falls on good soil, it can revive our life. That which we call “revival” exists as a Spiritual Law; it is the inner Divine process that uplifts and renews the human heart, mind, soul, and spirit. This is the process of ascending from lower to higher states of development and being, lower to higher levels of existence. And our uplifting, deliverance, and salvation come as a result of this Divine striving. Therefore, all beings, from the biggest to the smallest, strive to rejuvenate and to evolve because in rejuvenation is hidden the blossoming of the human soul. The reason why we should be tolerant toward the little ones is to avoid bringing sorrow to God because when we hurt someone, in fact we hurt not only that person, but also God Who resides in him or her. And when we do good, we help God as well. In fact, when we assist people, their Angels in Heaven will serve us too. Therefore, if we want to have friends in Heaven, we need to serve the little ones, and their fathers, the Angels in Heaven, will welcome us in their Home and offer us a feast. The world is like this: service for service and love for love. Do you understand now why Christ addressed His disciples with these words? You need to remove contempt from your soul. For instance, when you meet people you do not know and feel contempt for them, thinking that they might possibly be inferior to you, if instead you could just help them with their ignorance, you would change the situation; but if you look down upon them, you are introducing a poison into the relationship. In modern aristocratism and caste systems, some are noble, others not, some are rich, others poor—all that has its origin in contempt. If we understand how relations among people should be, we will not be ashamed of poverty, as it is a service given us to carry out. We need to be small and we need to be poor, in order to become rich and great. These are the two polarities, between which development happens. Movement is always from the large to the small, indicating that God always pays attention to the small. He is interested not only in big things. God created all that exists. Yet, ruling over all His creation gives Him less pleasure than being involved with children. His work is to teach people when they err. Thus, He gives us an example not to despise little ones, but to tolerate them and teach them because this is our time to rest and enjoy. When a teacher works with his students, he enjoys it, and when the students study well, he praises them. Saints and priests are involved with wrongdoers in order to turn them to God. The assignment of all of us is to pay attention to weak people and small things. When someone says, “I do not have time for rest,” I know that this person is occupied with big things and big thoughts. How could such a person rest, if he takes an overloaded backpack with 10, 20, or 50 kilograms of gold in it? If he leaves only one Napoleon[7] in his backpack, he would realize that he had plenty of time to rest. Now God comes to tell us “Leave your backpacks!” This will liberate the world of its burdens. Down with the weapons that destroy your minds and hearts! All of you need to become like children, not to despise the small things that God has created. God wants to bring people back to this pure, primeval state that people call “being wild,” but in reality it is not wild, but virgin. I would like to see people becoming wild in this way. In Sanskrit “wild” means “pure.” Let us become pure and come closer to God, instead of becoming evil and cruel. I would like the entire world to become “primeval” as soon as possible, to become pure, noble, and stop despising the little things and the little ones that God loves. I would like the world to place Love, Justice, Wisdom, Truth, and Power in the high esteem where they need to be. This is the way to salvation. Lecture held on August 3 (16), 1914, Sofia. _________________________________________ [1] Lev—BGN (Bulgarian lev, plural leva, levove) is the currency of Bulgaria. [2] Stotinka (plural stotinki): One hundredth of a lev, the basic unit of money in Bulgaria. [3] Gologan is a folk name for an old coin made mostly of copper, with a value of 10 stotinki. [4] Grosh (denarius in Latin) is a coin used in the past in many European countries with a value of 20 stotinki. [5] Mark 12:31 [6] See also Matthew 18:24. [7] The Napoléon is the colloquial term for a former French gold coin, originally minted for Napoléon Bonaparte. The coin continued in use through the 19th century and later French gold coins in the same denomination were generally referred to as “Napoleons.”

From Peace be with you Peace be with you "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." " (John 20:19) Immortality - this is an aspiration of the human soul, an ideal which she strives for and always desires to fulfill. The human soul lives on Earth so that it may find the path to immortality. Immortality is regulated by a great Divine Law, a law which man must study and apply in all areas of his life. And in this sense, we have to constantly learn [1], to find those conditions under which immortality can exist. Man can be immortal and lose his immortality, he can be mortal and acquire immortality. Death and immortality - these are two states. In a [more] scientific language - immortality is an equilibrium of [all] things, of the powers which act within Nature. Death is a loss of this equilibrium. Immortality contains in itself a unity, a harmony; death - a disunity, a discord, a disharmony. When people desire immortality, they should know exactly what it contains in itself. When you enter a modern-day concert hall to listen to a symphonic orchestra, if you have the ability to observe, you will see that, firstly, when the players come in with their instruments, which are mostly stringed, they take the instruments out of their cases, after which they begin to tune the violins, to determine the tones of the wires, some of which are stretched more tightly, others less so. In this tuning there is a certain ratio. And after they attune the instruments according to specific tones, they take the bow and begin to play. Do you know how much time a violinist needs to become able to join a symphonic orchestra, to become able to control his instrument, his bow? He needs to dedicate at least 12 years to specialized tuition. Here they usually say that someone who plays a violin is a gypsy - this is the byname of the violinists. But in this instrument there is a certain emblem. We can say that the violin is the most perfect instrument, which, for the last 300 years - since the great master Stradivarius made it - has not undergone any changes, because it has almost achieved its perfection. I can liken the violin to the human soul: it has four strings and a bow. The violin - this is the human soul; the strings - these are the four human temperaments. The human will we can consider to be the bow. A violinist, when he goes to buy strings, will say: "Give me a such-and-such string - Mi (E), La (A), Re (D) or Sol (G)" and when he returns home, he knows where to put every single string. In human nature there are, we said, four temperaments - choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine and nervous [2] - these are four states within man. They correspond to the human soul, mind, heart and life. These are four main strings which we should know how to tighten and relax. And when we tune our heart and our mind, we should know to tune them to one and the same tone. In the violin, the four wires are tuned to four different pitches, and between every wire there are also four tones, that is, every consequent wire is tightened four tones higher than the previous one. When you tune the whole violin, you have 4 x 4 = 16 tones, steps, to which the strings are tuned. When the violinist tunes his violin, he takes the bow and begins to play. And the violin is precisely the only instrument which is played on a cross, an instrument which creates the most pleasant music, which with its tones comes nearest to the human voice. Therefore, when you tune your violin and take the bow, you form this cross of which you now complain and say: "Why, Lord, have you given us this heavy cross!" I tell you, that the Lord has given you a beautiful instrument, but you do not know how to tune it, and, because of this, you carry it on your back as a heavy burden. Take it off and start tuning it, so that it may become playable. And when Apostle Paul says: "I will boast in the cross" (Gal 6:14), what do you understand? Everywhere I see people who carry these crosses, I see them in the Churches and everywhere besides, but I have not seen a man play on his cross. Enter the concert room and see that people applaud the playing on the cross, without realizing that they, too, have crosses - the sufferings - that they, too, play. But the most important thing in this playing on the cross is the keeping of measure. When the Kapellmeister [3] raises and begins to wave his baton, everyone must be attentive and [allow themelves to] be guided by him. And the movement of the bows causes us a certain pleasantness, because the bows move according to a certain rule. So, when we come to the deep intrinsic meaning of life, when we tune its strings - the mind, the heart, the soul, the life, and when we harness the bow - the human will, to work, through the Spirit of the Kapellmeister Who will raise His baton, we will create the most pleasant music in our life. Note that the cross is a great blessing with which the Lord visits us on Earth: the most grandiose symphony proceeds from it, music, singing, which is called salvation. It is in this kind of singing that salvation is to be found. When Christ was suffering on the cross, the Angels above, in Heaven, were not weeping, but singing. All the prisoners in Hell were rejoicing that their Savior is coming. So too when He was born upon the Earth, the Angels came to announce His arrival with singing yet again. So, when this Instrument, these Strings, this Bow of our faith were being created, the Angels were singing above, in the Heavens. The modern-day Christian says: "Woe to us! The Earth is a woeful lot, life is a burden, it does not have meaning". For the foolish people who do not know and do not wish to play, who do not know how to tighten their strings, who do not listen to the Kapellmeister, for them indeed, life does not have meaning; but for those who can adjust their violin and play, for them life is full of meaning. And the violinists who play so pleasantly receive a very large remuneration - 4-5-6-700, 1000 levs per month, just by moving their bow. Christ often visits you and asks: "Do you know how to play?" When I ask a man: "Do you know how to suffer?" I understand: "Do you know how to play?" You do not want to suffer, this means - you do not want to play. Those who do not know how to play are gloomy; I have no hope in them. There is a saying: "A man who sings and plays does not think evil". A man who suffers, this means - he sings and plays in life and saves himself. Does a violinist who plays stay hungry? Whoever does not know, will beg. Whoever knows and stands somewhere to play, he receives a payment from the people. Whoever knows how to suffer, he will never stay hungry. And note, people always rush to help one who suffers, just as they give to the violinist. When I remain to listen to how someone plays, while others only watch how the bow moves, I also hear the voice of the violinist, and I can see whether he has learnt to play [already] or whether he is learning now. If he is learning, he is a novice, now he is taking lessons, but in 12 years he will be in the symphony orchestra and then you will pay a high price for a ticket to listen to him... Now, when we learn this great law, to sing and to play, said in the modern language, or to suffer, said in a Christian sense - these words have one and the same meaning for me - through the suffering we will reach that great law, immortality - in which all harmony exists, in which there is no disharmony. Christ, Who comes to the Earth, is coming to teach people how to sing and play. He will teach you {pl.} how to tighten the strings of your soul. The string of the soul is Mi (E), the top-most string, [the string] of the mind - La (A), of the heart - Re (D), of the life - Sol (G). Here is the first lesson which Christ will teach you. Many times people ask themselves: "Why has the Lord given me such a good-for-nothing heart?" Is the heart good-for-nothing or you are good-for-nothing! They say: "Why has the Lord given me this foolish mind?" Is the mind foolish or are you foolish! "Why has the Lord given this meaningless life?" Is life meaningless or do you not know what it is for. The sufferings - these are the laws through which the Lord works for our development. We have to sing and play - to feel and think. To think means to play; to feel means to sing. Now, if two neighbors tune their violins and begin to play, it will be very pleasant. A year ago I visited a family; the father, the mother, the son and the daughter - all played; the father has taken the violin, the son - the double-bass and so on; everyone has something to occupy themselves with. Most modern-day people, the husband, the wife [4], the children, do not know how to play and since they do nothing else, they begin to fight. For them, of course, life is meaningless. Christ says: tune your violins, pull your bows, learn to play; when you gather in the evening, take up a song to play or sing in measure and then another, a third, a fourth. Have a meal and start again. Lay down to sleep; on the next day - go to work again in life. Now, you will say: "What connection does this have with the resurrection of Christ?" The modern-day Christian deliberates the question of the resurrection and says: "When I go to Heaven, then I will learn everything". This is for the world beyond [5]. But for this world, what shall we do? There is the illogicality in people's reasoning {pl.}. For this world we are very clever, but for the other world [beyond] we are not. When a youth wishes to study at a certain University, can he fly off from home and enter straight into the university? First he has to pass through kindergarten, then through the grades of primary school, the classes of high school, to prepare himself to understand advanced science and only then can he enter the University. Now, why has the Lord sent us to the Earth and what is she? This is a kindergarten, the grades of a primary school through which we have to pass. If we do not graduate from them, how are we to enter the classes [of the secondary school]? When we go to the other world, do you think they will accept us in the classes? No, by no means. The word "resurrection" contains a lofty idea in itself. It contains Divine secrets. To resurrect - this means to be master of all elements, of all powers, of all thoughts, of all desires, of all your actions. And how can a man resurrect when he is not a master of all these things? When a frog, or a little snake can frighten you, how are you preparing yourselves for resurrection? When on the Earth you cannot bear the smallest sorrow and be of service to the Lord, how will you be able to resurrect? If a violinist has to spend 12 years of constant 1-10 hour a day labor in order to learn to play, we, the Christians, how much do we need to play in order to learn Christ's resurrection? One of the failings of the modern-day Church is that it thinks that everything can be received as a gift [by grace]. The Lord can give us a violin, strings, a bow as a gift and He can find a teacher for us and pay for him, but we will have to spend 10 hours a day to learn to play - the exercise must be from us. And whoever cannot exercise thus, is a man indolent, incapable, he is not worthy of the Kingdom of Christ. When Christ says to His disciples: "Peace be with you!", if I were to interpret this phrase for you in its broad sense, it means the same as when the Kapellmeister takes some symphonic aria, beckons with the baton and everyone listens at once and begins to play. Similarly, when Christ says: "Peace be with you!", everyone should prepare themselves with their own violin, with their own bow, and listen to this Divine measure, which constantly moves from one end of the world to the other. All people sing and play before the Lord. He inspects them. Whoever has not learned to sing, twists his mouth. Weeping - this is distorted singing. In laughter the mouth rises up a little, and in crying it bends downwards. Whoever cries is young, he has not learned to sing yet. And so, crying is distorted singing, which, incidentally, is preparation for good singing. It is not bad to cry, because in time this crying will turn into very good singing. But, it is grievous for the man. We will be lenient: he will learn to sing. With this new energy which Christ brought into the world with His resurrection, He showed the way of that Divine art - salvation. And this is exactly why you should study the Gospel diligently. You say: "I do not understand this, I do not understand that, this is necessary, that is not necessary, this is right, that is not right". I ask, what is right? Some people do not want to suffer, do not want to sing, others do not want to work. What, then. do they want? Weeping is an exercise; it is a transition to singing. The hoe, it also has its tone. To work with the hoe, to raise it and apply it - this means to beat [upon] a drum. And the drum has to be beaten. You raise an axe and bring it down - these are the bells in a piece of music. And when you raise the hoe and till, even then you should think, you should say to yourself: "The master is watching me - I have to know how to apply this hoe rhythmically". Chop wood {pl.}, but chop it {pl.} according to all the rules of the art. We say: "This is meaningless, that is meaningless". But then, what has meaning in life? The things seemingly smallest, to which we attribute the least significance, have the greatest content in themselves. Resurrection is a process which the Spirit of God performs in our life, a grand process, through which God restores that primordial harmony. One day, when your ears open and you begin to listen a little more and further away than you listen now - now they are very thick, you do not even have musical capability, you perceive only the roughest tones - you will notice that throughout the whole Universe there is a movement of certain tones which the objects - the wellsprings, the trees, the leaves - emit, and you will hear majestic music which spreads from one end of the world to the other, and then you will understand the inner meaning of life. And Christ, through His resurrection, wishes to introduce you into this concert hall. He will pay for you, He will give you [each] a ticket, but will you have an ear to understand this Divine music when you enter that hall and see that concert, that playing? This is the internal deep meaning of Christ's resurrection. This is the life which develops among the Angels, from the lowest to the highest. This Divine manifestation is [present] everywhere in the world, and, because we cannot find this internal connection, we assume that there is no connection between the various phenomena. And when you hear the words: "Peace be with you!" you should be ready for what the Kapellmeister will order you to play - whether to sing or to cry. When the Lord raises His baton and says: "Peace be with you!", the husband [4] who does not know to sing begins to shout, and his singing is already called beating. And he beats the drum, but beats it awry. The wife, she, too, sometimes beats the drum awry. The Lord says: "You have not learned to beat the drum, you do not take the such-and-such tone correctly, you have not set your voice right, tune, tighten a little the strings of your life, of your soul". Then again He says: "Peace be with you!" and you begin to play. "Hold on! You do not place your fingers on the violin correctly" - He will stop you again. You will say: "I have had enough!" But you have to understand that art is acquired with great patience and conscientiousness and that for the indolent there is no Heaven. This is why the Lord says: "If you do not become receptive like the children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven"; because children have the striving to study [these] things, while adults say: "We do not need this, we do not need that" and finally they stoop downwards, become like a question mark, the Earth attracts them and they are buried in it. The Lord says: "Because this violin is not made well, put it down, so that it can be made anew once again". They will assemble it again, and it will go out in the world afresh, so that it may start learning again - the Lord has decided that each of you is to learn how to sing and play. He does not desire children in Heaven who do not wish to learn to sing and play. And Apostle Paul says that he was taken up to the third heaven and heard something which cannot be expressed with human language (2 Cor 12:2). He had heard singing and playing. [st.] John also said, that he heard singing and playing. This is the thought which I wish to leave for you. Do you know what the fundamental tone of your soul is? Do you know how to tune your violin? Learn to tune it. Every morning, when you get up, tune your nervous system. You are a little grumpy, anxious - this shows that your violin is not tuned. Stop, tune it. And so while you gradually tune it, your anxieties will disappear. How will you tune your nervous system? You will go to say a prayer - prayer, this is tuning. Some ask: "Why should we pray?" In order to tune your violins. When you tune your violin like this, you will say to the Lord: "My violin is tuned", and the Lord will tell you: "Begin the work of the day". And peace will enter amongst you, and your work will proceed well. And on some days the wife does not tune the violin well and starts to beat now this, now that child; of course, [on] this day the music does not go well. She says: "Why did the Lord give me these children? They are so unruly [6]!" Whether the children are misbehaved or the mother is, this is a question. Another day, when the violin is tuned, everything goes well, yet the children are the same. So there is something discordant. This is why the first thing we should do in the morning is to pray - to tune our minds, our hearts, our souls, our lives, and thus to appear before the Lord for work. To be grateful and to say: "We have learned our lesson in singing and playing well today, and our Dad, when He comes back, will receive our gratitude". Christ has come to see how we sing and play on Earth. He is nailed to the cross and 500 million people today sing and play on this cross, which, since its arrival, has given the perfect civilization. And so, Christianity is Divine music, Divine singing. Learn to sing and play on it; tune your violins well, move the bow correctly and listen to the commandments of the Kapellmeister. The whole world will follow this Divine law, and you will prepare yourselves for the other world, for the other life, which is coming. Lecture given on the 11th of September, 1914, in Sofia. --==[][][]==-- ______________________________________________ Notes: [1] or study [2] i.e. melancholic [3] From German; this is a court composer-conductor who would compose music for and lead the palace opera company, orchestra, and/or Church services. Nowadays a Kapellmeister is the director or conductor of an orchestra or choir. [4] In Bulgarian, there is a single word for "husband", "male" and "man", and similarly for "wife", "female" and "woman" [5] literally: for the other world. It is possible that the quotation beginning with the previous sentence extends until the end of this one. [6] i.e. children who do exactly the opposite of what they are told