Ani

Go Now This happened on the 12th of September 1933. I was still teaching in Varna after my parents had moved to Sofia. I wanted to go to the capital too, but so far had not succeeded. At the Ministry of Education the lists with the names of those appointed to be kindergarten teachers in Sofia had been posted and my name once again was not entered therein. I had to go back to Varna and continue teaching there. In low spirits and dejected I went to Izgrev to bid farewell to the Master and to some other friends. I walked around the garden, drank some water from the beautiful fountain. The garden was wrapped in the wonderful colors of the late autumn day. Many leaves had fallen on to the path around the fountain. Automatically I got the broom out of the Brotherhood's kitchen and began sweeping them off. I decided to do some work as a farewell. "Oh, you are sweeping. That is good!" said the Master. I had not noticed when and from where he had come near me. "And what happened with your appointment in this city?" "Nothing, Master. Todays was the last day but I am again not on the lists. Tomorrow I have to go to Varna, if I am late I might lose my job there too." "Go now, I say, to the Ministry. Try again!" He spoke quietly and persuasively. "But the reception hours are over!" "It doesn't matter, I say, go now!" He pronounced each word softly, quietly but very persuasively and I was simply obliged to go. "I will finish the sweeping first and then I shall go, Master," I replied and began to sweep more energetically. The Master was watching me attentively. When I finished with the sweeping, I put the broom in its place, kissed the Master's hand and went down the road towards the city. I entered the dark corridor of the Ministry of Education much embarrassed. What shall I do here at this time of the day? The reception hours were between 10 and 12 in the morning and now it was 5 in the afternoon. Several minutes I bustled around wondering at which door I should knock. "Oh, Milka, how are you? What business brings you here?" It was an acquaintance of mine, a journalist, who at that very moment was just coming out of the office of the President. "Oh, I have been coming here every day for almost a month," I replied surprised. He knew that I was helping to support my parents who were in Sofia and I myself was working in Varna. Without a word he motioned to me to wait and entered again the President's office. Ten minutes later the inspector was asked to come to the President's office. For sometime the voices of the three men could be heard in the corridor discussing rather animatedly and loudly. Then the inspector and my friend came out and the latter entered the office of the secretary. About fifteen to twenty minutes later he opened the door and smilingly invited me to go in. "Sign the contract of your appointment as a kindergarten teacher in Sofia," he wispered to me, beaming with satisfaction. As in a dream I signed the three copies. The secretary handed me one of them. My friend congratulated me on my appointment and together we came out of the secretary's office. "Oh, Mr. Georgiev, I thank you ever so much. I wonder why I didn't meet you until today. I came so often to the Ministry during the last two months." "Anyway you met me just in time. Today they had appointed another girl but had not yet informed her of it. I explained to the President and the inspector the heavy financial condition of your family, while the girl that was appointed is the only daughter of a very rich architect. They understood and crossed her name off the list and wrote yours instead. This is the right way of arranging things. So long, Milka, I am in a hurry to get to the editorial office." I was almost flying back towards Izgrev with a copy of the contract of my appointment in my hand, whispering: Master, I am appointed in Sofia! How could you know the exact moment when to send me to the Ministry?! Oh, Master, how little we know you, we that call ourselves your pupils! I am so very grateful. How you came out to me in the garden in order to make me go just in time. Thinking thus I almost did not notice when I came to Izgrev. In front of the Hall, surrounded by brothers and sisters, the Master was talking with some of them. As I came up to the group, he looked at me, smiled softly and very quietly told me: "Now, work and study!" Nobody understood what it was all about, what had happened. "Work and study," I repeated to myself, kissed his hand and ran back home to tell my parents the glad tidings.

For My Eyes At the age of fourteen the doctors prescribed for me eyeglasses of half diopter for short-sightedness, and when I graduated from high school my eyeglasses were six and a half diopters. When I came to Sofia to study to become a kindergarten teacher, I had the opportunity to hear the Master's lectures and to talk with him. One day I decided to talk to him about my eyes. At that time I was too naive in my belief and did not know what it really meant to be a pupil. "Please, Master, tell me how to cure my eyes. I want to be an occult pupil and therefore I have to free myself from all defects and illness. I will do anything you tell me. You see what happened to my eyes through the help of the doctors. I beg you to help me." I said all this with full faith in him and awaited his reply. "Every disease has two causes-one physiological and another psychological. Now I shall explain to you the physiological cause of your short-sightedness. Imagine the eye-ball, the iris . . . and at the bottom the yellow macula. When a person is short-sighted, the rays of the light that enter the eye do not refract in the yellow macula; they refract before reaching it," the Master explained. "Now, your task is to prolong the rays that enter into your eyes so that they reach, and refract in, the yellow maculae. First, take off your eyeglasses and henceforth you will wear them only when you go to the theatre or when you wish to see something very far away." "I am so used to them that without them on the streets I won't be able to see my acquaintances three steps away from me," I tried to object. "Well, you will see only those that are next to you," the Master answered merrily. "Second, you will chose a time in the morning, at noon and in the evening when for five minutes you will concentrate on your eyes, without anybody knowing what you are doing. You will imagine your eyes and prolong in your thoughts the rays up to the yellow maculae." "Third, you will put some green paper on your desk and will try to look more at the green color. And fourth, every evening for half an hour without eyeglasses you will walk in the dark. You may stare but do not tire your eyes. Saying walk, means to move. It is not enough to stay in the dark, it is necessary to move in the dark. Do as I tell you and you will see the results." "And what about the psychological cause of my shortsightedness?" To this question the Master did not answer. "You do as I say now." I went home and took off my eyeglasses. It was very hard to get used to being without them but somehow I did manage. I kept strictly to the Master's instructions. And keeping it a secret, I walked without eyeglasses around the yard for half an hour each evening. Three times daily I hid myself in various places and concentrated on my eyes for the period of five minutes. And in my room the green color predominated. Thus three and a half years passed. When I went to the theatre, I wore my eyeglasses, seeing better with them, but my eyes hurt. Then I went to see the doctor who for years had taken care of my eyes and whose opinion it was that my short-sightedness could never improve, and in order to prevent its increase I had to wear eyeglasses. He was extremely surprised to ascertain that my shortsightedness had decreased with two and a half diopters. I was extremely happy that the advice of the Master proved better than the doctor's prescriptions. Mother, who came with me to the oculist, realized the justification of my eccentric excercises. The result was that she took care to remind me every evening not to forget to walk in the dark, although, up to that time, she thought it was mere nonsense. I went to tell the Master of the results. "Yes, sometimes small mistakes lead to big results, and often big results are cured through small corrections," he replied calmly and did not in the least underline the great help he had rendered me.

Does The Master See In The Life Beyond? I was still a teacher in the city of Varna. We dismissed the children for the winter vacation. The same evening I was preparing my luggage to go to Sofia. The door bell rang. My mother opened the door and invited in Mrs. Popandreeva, the wife of the chief schoolmaster of the school where I was a teacher. She was dressed in black and had a very sorrowful face. This was the first time mother saw her after their great misfortune and she expressed her condolences. Tears streamed from the eyes of the woman and she began telling how she and her husband simply could not go on living without their daughter Dora. Their first two children had died also. Dora was taken care of like a princess and they had tended her every step. For her sake only they had come from their native village to Varna, for her they had bought the house . . . and now when she had just graduated from college . . . during the summer they had gone for a month to their native village. They could not tell where or how she caught that cold but in two months time she had died. "Her father and I will go mad from grief," she ended. My mother tried to comfort her but she continued to sigh and cry. "I want somebody to tell me, even if it be a lie, that she is somewhere and that is why I have come to you. My husband told me that Milka is going to Sofia tomorrow. She believes in the life beyond and the Master lives in Sofia. Oh, please have her ask him where our Dora is now? Hearing this, I went to her and just for comfort's sake I told her that I would make use of the first chance and ask the Master. At the same time I thought: poor woman, how desperate she is! And what could the Master tell her?! During the ten days that I spent in Sofia I talked two or three times with the Master but dared not ask him about the daughter of the chief schoolmaster. I thought it was not fitting to take up the Master's time with such things. He is a Master, a philosopher, a wise man, nevertheless how can he see beyond and tell what people are doing there! It is simply impossible. I went back to Varna. The very first day at school the chief schoolmaster asked me to come to his office. His wife was there also and both were impatient to hear what I had to say to them. I was very ashamed and blushed lying to them that I had not had the chance to speak with the Master. Tears came down the faces of both mother and father. I pitied them much and was conscience stricken. "Oh, never mind, you will go to Sofia during the spring facation also, won't you? I hope he will tell you something then," said Mr. Popandreev trying to comfort his wife. The day before I started to Sofia for the spring vacation, Mrs. Popandreeva, with tears in her eyes and a box of chocolate candy in her hands, pleaded with me to ask the Master this time about Dora, why they could not even dream of her. I decided to ask the Master this time. On the last day of my stay in Sofia I went to say farewell to the Master and at the end of my visit I told him about the grief of the mother and father and how they asked where their Dora is now and why they could not even dream of her. While I was speaking, the Master listened to me and looked at me searchingly. "Now she is at a better place and is well." That is a very general reply, everyone could say that, I thought. "They cannot dream of her because of their tears, she cannot draw near to them," the Master continued. This too could be said by anyone, I thought again. Then the Master shook his finger at me, became very serious and told me: "Listen now! Their daughter came into their family in order to try to melt the ice of their hearts. Both of them are great egoists. After they did not learn their lessons in one way Heaven tried some other way." And he continued telling astounding details about the life of that family. "Now Heaven took away from them their Dora and in this way, through suffering and pain, they will have to learn. Do you understand? But this I say only to you, to them you will say that she is now better and she is with them. They must send their daughter good thoughts and stop weeping all the time if they wish to dream of her. And also tell them to give some of her garments to poor people. Is that enought?" the Master ended softly. When I heard him telling details of the family's life which he could have learned only by inward sight, and feeling that he was aware of my unbelief, I was much stunned and was so much ashamed that I didn't know where to look. Turning very crimson I just repeated, "Yes, Master, ... it is so, Master I understood that the Master saw and heard in the life beyond. This time when I went back to Varna, I had something to tell the sorrowful parents.

How I First Met The Master The train stopped at the central station in Sofia. My heart leaped with excitement. The hour in which I would meet the Master was at hand. My father went in front with the suitcase and I walked behind with the basket. We went into a tram-car and in half an hour were at my grandmother's home. With evident impatience I told father that I must deliver the basket with the grapes at once. In vain he asked me to whom I was carrying the grapes. Giving no explanation, I took the basket and went out. The streets of the capital were unknown to me, but friends in my native town of Varna had given me detailed directions. I took tramway number three, got off at Opulchenska Street, took the turn to the left and found the house numbered 66. I knocked at a wooden gate and entered into a long narrow yard, paved with stones. A woman met me. I told her that I wished to see the Master. She pointed to the stairs at the left. Hesitatingly I climbed the steps. The woman went in front of me, knocked at a side door and then invited me to sit down on one of the two wicker chairs in the entrance hall. The door opened and I jumped up. The Master was before me. I kissed his hand and he invited me to sit down again. We both sat on the wicker chairs. He was dressed in light gray with a white scarf around his neck pinned with a beautiful gold pin. Kindness and tenderness streamed from him. "Master, please, accept this. I brought you grapes from our own vineyard in Varna. I just arrived in Sofia with my father. I am a student in the eight class, and for two years now I have been going to the meetings of the Brotherhood in our town. My parents do not allow me to go. Every time I have to lie to them that I am going to see a friend or am going out for a walk. Please, Master, do arrange it so that they will leave me alone and I may go freely to the meetings," and so on and on I continued to relate my life to him in detail, and he listened attentively. At last I stopped talking. "Truth shall set you free!" the Master said. "But, please tell me what must I say to father, how to make him understand that it is no bad place I am going to," I continued to explain. "Truth shall set you free!" repeated the Master, and nothing more. "But please, Master, tell me a way, a method," I insisted and begged him to give me some advice. Half an hour passed. Other visitors came in and I had to go. I got up, so did the Master. "Truth shall set you free!" he repeated for a third time and said nothing more. I kissed his hand and went out. Why didn't he tell me some way, some magic method, so my parents could understand and leave me alone? Masters can do anything! The moment I came out on the street I saw father pacing furiously in front of the house. He had understood where I was going in such a hurry. "I didn't bring you to Sofia for this! Come home with me and you shall not go out alone until we leave for Varna! We came to Sofia in order that a doctor-specialist might examine your eyes and you! You came to this Douno! You will never see Sofia again!" And he continued scolding me until we entered grandmother's home. I didn't try to excuse myself, I just kept quiet. I knew I had made a mistake. I ought not to have gone out at once in such a hurry and thus make father suspicious as to where I was going. But the mistake was made, father had work and went around town for two days. All this lime I helped grandmother with her home work. On the third day he took me to the doctor and on the fourth we started off to Varna. I could not see the Master again. The train was flying on to my native town and the thoughts in my head were flying too. 66 Opulchenska Street . . . The Master . . . How kind he was . . . But why did he tell me only, "Truth shall set you free" and nothing more? ... He didn't tell me how to liberate myself from my parents . . . Maybe I talked too much? . . . Didn't give him the chance to say more . . . But no! There were moments when I lapsed into silence waiting for him to advise me and he did not say any more! . . . Strange Master! . . . May be I deserve no freedom!? . . . And the whole thing came back to me over and over again: The white wooden gate, the number 66, the yard, the stairs, the wicker chairs, the Master sitting opposite me and the words, "Truth shall set you free." Months passed. At home the same quarrels began: Sundays at 9 a.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. But the worst thing was that at these hours I could not go out of the house at all. My brother, being a boy, was left alone and he went to the Brotherhood's school regularly. I was trying to find some good lies and most often they were not successful. The words of the Master lived in me. I repeated them unconsciously wherever I went and could not understand what he meant by them and why he told me only those words. One evening, watering the flowers in the garden, the words "truth shall set you free" sounded more powerfully within me and I decided to stop telling lies and see what would come of it. From that day onwards I was very careful not to say any untruth. On Sunday I asked mother to go to the meeting, she refused and I sat in my room and read a lecture of the Master. On Wednesday, the same refusal and I sat and again read a lecture. I stopped asking for permission but on the days and hours of the meetings I always sat in my room and read a lecture. In a short time I could see for myself that I had been telling quite a lot of lies. Sometimes there was no need of a falsehood, I used it just without thinking. In the course of three weeks I controlled all my thoughts and words and cleansed myself of lies. It is not easy to get rid of such a bad habit but isn't it better not to say untruths! Like a sun ray deeper and deeper there penetrated into my soul the words "truth shall set you free" and I continued to work consciously on myself. Now and then, due to my old habit, a lie slipped out of my mouth. But in such cases I reproached, rebuked and even punished myself. Time passed on, maybe a whole year in conscious work on myself. I remember the bright sheaf of sunbeams in the room. It was Sunday morning ten o'clock. Mother entered and told me in я verv snecial voice: "Won't you start? I think you have a meeting this morning?" The whole room was lighted. I was at a loss at what was happening. I closed the book of lectures that I was reading and without a word went out and right towards the hall where the meeting was held. And walking to it as in a dream, I repeated the words "truth shall set you free." At last I understood that the Master had told me exactly what I wanted him to tell me-the magic method. One word more would have decreased the strength of the method: "Truth shall set you free." Later, I read in one of the Master's lectures: "First of all a pupil must always speak the truth. No lie is permitted." That was my first step on the path of pupilage.

By Way of Introduction A hundred years ago, there came to earth a divine messenger - a Master to point out the path towards the worlds of Eternity. He unveiled for us the power of nature's laws. He revealed the methods of applying Divine Love, Wisdom and Truth. The Master lived among us-the Bulgarians-very modestly, humbly and noiselessly, as the sun silently streams down abundantly its life-bringing rays, as the mountain brook flows forth, as the morning dew freshens each flower and each blade of greass, without selecting one in preference to another. He spoke quietly and calmly, he spoke directly to the soul. He welcomed in a friendly and fatherly way all who came to him with open hearts. His presence radiated peace and his advise wiped away tears and gave strength to the weak. He healed the sick in miraculous ways. The Master came down to earth in the flesh, as an ordinary man, but God Himself manifested through him. He knew how to humble himself before us, the ordinary people, so that he could penetrate into the hearts and sufferings of all, in order more closely, with examples from everyday life, to advise us. I loved to look at him and to listen to him. His presence brought peace to my soul independently of whether or not I understood what he was saying. In the course of twentyfive years I never missed any of his lectures. At the community dinners under the shadow of the old hazelnut trees, or in the small hall at "Izgrev," * on excursions in the mountain, or in the Rila Mountains during the summer, the Master took an active part in all initiatives of the brotherhood. He lived with the whole. In every person the Master saw a particle of the whole Divine Consciousness. In order to awaken this very consciousness, implanted in every human soul, the Master came down to earth, and whenever we knocked at his door, he welcomed us and listened to us with attention and sympathy. When I went to the Master usually I carried with me a notebook in which I wrote down some of the precious thoughts I wished to remember. But, friends of mine, now I shall tell you of things which I did not write in the notebook, the things which were written in my very soul and implanted in my heart. Reminiscences of the Master over a period of twenty to thirty years, arise in my consciousness today one by one, fresh roses that bloomed in the early spring of my spiritual life. The fragrance of the truth heard during those talks with the Master reveals me the sublimity of his spirit. His words-an omen for the time-continue to radiate in space like a sun from a faraway galaxy and shine into our consciousness when we read them with our very souls and come to understand that God Himself spoke to us through him . . . and continues to speak to us and to whisper to us until we hear Him, understand Him and know Him. The truth which I heard from the Master many years ago now flashes up within me and I see that every word of his, every advice, was the living Word spoken and left to resound in space and in me until my soul experiences a spiritual awakening and understands the power, the light and the spiritual insight of him who, with the might of God, and with penetration into ages past and future, spoke to our souls. I am going to tell you now about these bright and sacred moments of my life, about what I saw; heard and learned when the Master was on earth amidst the Bulgarian nation. M.P. (A pupil of the Master) Sofia, Spring of 1967 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * "Izgrev" in the Bulgarian language means "Sunrise." It is a place east of the city, just at its outskirts-several acres of land with a building (Hall, reception and bedrooms, kitchen etc.) where the Master lived.

TABLE OF CONTENTS By Way of Introduction How I First Met the Master Does Master See in the Life Beyond For My Eyes Go Now When Master Speaks-Does He See Us? Life is an Endless String of Divine and Human Manifestations More Suitable Audience A Lunch How I Began to write Children's Stories When Heaven Wishes to Give You Something One Day You Will Be Grateful for This Is the Problem Solved? He Worked Day and Night Be Careful When You Receive Favours The Angel's Choir He Saw from a Distance Feeding is a Mathematical Problem Marvelous Like a Dream May When the Sun Awakens the Day The New Man A Sacred Hour Master Healed in Miraculous Ways The Bible Miss not Your Own Train The Story of My Piano The Elegant Table My Last Meeting with the Master Epilogue

http://en-petardanov.com/index.php?/files/file/11-%7B?%7D/ REMINISCENCES - TALKS WITH THE MASTER A Book For Those Who Wish To Get Acquainted With BEINSA DOUNO THE MASTER SENTTO PROMOTE BROTHERHOOD Written by: M.P. a pupil Translated from the original, 1967 Copyright © 1968 by SUNRISE PRESS & BOOKS 5123 De Longpre Ave., Los Angeles, California 90027 and LE GRAIN DEBLE. B.P. 306-13, Paris 13, France

NOTES 1 Peter Deunov, talk from March 22, 1914, in: Iskayte sila, imayte vyara, Sofia, 1994, pp 9-12. 2 Translated by Harrie Salman. Translations made by Marianna Radoulova and anonymous translators have been consulted. Redaction of the translation by Cora Manzano (Hawaii). 3 A reference to the book of Isaiah, chapter 48:1, where the house of Jacob, sprung from the stock of his son Judah, is addressed. 4 The years under Byzantine rule (1018-1186) and Turkish rule (1396-1878). The Bulgarians were under Turkish bondage as a punishment for the persecution of the Bogomils, as Peter Deunov later explained. 5 The two brothers St. Cyril (827/28-869) and St. Methodius (815/20-885), who devised the Slavonic alphabet, the so-called Glagolitic alphabet. During their missionary work in Moravia (863) they began to translate the Bible into the language of the Slavs (now called Old Bulgarian or Church Slavonic). 6 In these sentences not the angel Elohil, but God the Father and Christ are speaking. Quotation-marks placed by the translator. 7 The Bulgarian king Boris I (ruled 852-889, died in 907), who adopted the Christian religion in 865-866 and later introduced the Slavonic alphabet. He welcomed the disciples of the two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, in 886 and founded schools where they could teach and translate Biblical texts into Old Bulgarian. 8 King Boris I abdicated the throne in 889 and became a monk. When his son and successor Vladimir attempted to restore the pagan religion of the past, Boris emerged from his monastery to save Christianity and defeated him in 893. Vladimir was blinded and replaced by his brother Simeon. 9 In these sentences the Lord is speaking. Quotationmarks placed by the translator. 10 After the Bulgarian uprising of April 1876, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877 and liberated the Bulgarian territories. A much smaller Bulgarian state was established at the Conference of Berlin in 1878. 11 God is speaking here. Quotation-marks placed by the translator. 12 It is not clear what kind of gift is referred to here. 13 This section is partly based on information given by Svetlana Christova. 14 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha (from the archives of Boyan Boev), Vol 1, Sofia, 1999, p 339. 15 Velichka Draganova and Lyudmila Dimitrova, ‘Spomen ot mladezhkite godini na Uchitelya’, in: Bratski zhivot, nr 39, July 2009. 16 Milka Kraleva, The Master Peter Deunov – His Life and Teaching, Sofia, 2001, pp 22-25, 30-31, Dnevnik na Uchitelya Beinsa Duno (Peter Deunov), Sofia 2001, Lichen belezhnik na Peter K. Deunov, Sofia 2010, Peter Deunov, Chio-Eli-Meli-Mesail, Sofia, 2003, Peter Deunov, Pisma do purvite uchenitsi, Sofia, 1999 and Peter Deunov and Penyu Kirov, Epistolarni dialozi, part 1, 1898-1900, Sofia, 2010 (part 2 is available on the internet). 17 The Wellspring of Good – The Last Words of the Master Peter Deunov, compiled by Boyan Boev and Boris Nikolov, Sofia, 2002, p 225. 18 Metodi Konstantinov, Boyan Boev, Maria Todorova and Boris Nikolov, Uchitelya, Sofia, 2005, pp 394-396. 19 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha, Vol 1, p 43. 20 The Wellspring of Good, pp 137, 161 and 276-277. 21 Milka Kraleva, The Master Peter Deunov, p. 42. 22 Peter Deunov, talk from March 22, 1914, in: Iskayte sila, imayte vyara, Sofia, 1994, p 11. 23 Arthur E. Powell, The Solar System – A Complete Outline of the Theosophical Scheme of Evolution, London, 1930. (accessible on Google Books) 24 The Wellspring of Good, p 364. 25 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 4 November 1911, in: Das esoterische Christentum (Esoteric Christianity, Collected Works, vol. 130), Dornach, 1995. 26 Filip Filipov, Preslav Pavlov and Dimiter Kalev, The Bodhisattva in the 20th Century, Sofia, 2007. See also Robert Powell and Estelle Isaacson, Gautama Buddha’s Successor, Great Barrington, 2014. 27 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 31 May 1908, in: Das Johannes-Evangelium (The Gospel of St John, Collected Works, vol. 103), Dornach, 1995. 28 Beinsa Douno, The Master Speaks (compiled by Georgi Radev), Los Angeles 1970, section on Wisdom. 29 Bernard Nesfield-Cookson, Rudolf Steiner’s Vision of Love, Wellingborough, 1983, pp 227-237. 30 The Wellspring of Good, pp 362-365. 31 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 2 November 1918, in: Geschichtliche Symptomatologie (Historical Symptomatology, Collected Works, vol. 185), Dornach, 1982. 32 The Wellspring of Good, p 364. 33 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 12 March 1916, in: Die geistigen Hintergründe des Ersten Weltkrieges (The Spiritual Background of the First World War, Collected Works, vol. 174b), Dornach 1994. 34 For a spiritual history of Russia see: Harrie Salman, The Invisible City of Kitezh – Russian people seeking their future. Bulgarian edition: Невидимият град – Духовната биография на руския народ, Sofia, 2014. 35 The Wellspring of Good, pp 270-275. 36 Peter Deunov, Toi suzdava, Sofia, 1999, p 119. 37 The Wellspring of Good, p 333. 38 Idem, p 337. 39 Idem, pp 339-340. 40 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha, Vol 1, 1999, p 320. 41 The Wellspring of Good, pp 223 and 338. 42 Idem, p 138. 43 Peter Deunov za Christos i novoto chovechestvo, compiled by Svetla Baltova, Plovdiv, 2011, p 139. 44 Idem, pp 151 and 169. 45 Idem, pp 153 and 167. 46 Idem, pp 114-115. 47 The Wellspring of Good, p 166. 48 Idem, p 165.

THE SCHOOL OF THE WHITE BROTHERHOOD When Peter Deunov started to work for the uplifting of the religious spirit of the Bulgarian people, later continued in the Chain and in the School of the White Brotherhood, he put himself into the service of the angel Elohil. He created a spiritual path to the future Slavic culture, not only for the Bulgarians, but also for the Russians. The teaching will be carried to Russia and be applied there, he said.[40] In a wider sense it is given to people from all cultures of the world. The School of the White Brotherhood was founded in Bulgaria, as Peter Deunov said, because the mountains of Bulgaria were ancient centres of initiation: “The oldest occult School (of the world) is situated within the Rila Mountains.” “From the Rila Massif comes down a mighty Divine Stream. Those who are close to the massif will naturally have good conditions for upliftment, because they are under a beneficial influence.”[41] The (Great or Universal) White Brotherhood is not a human organisation. It is a Divine community of spiritual beings, led by Christ, serving humanity in its evolution. Among them are also human beings who have completed their evolution. This Heavenly Brotherhood (which Rudolf Steiner called the White Lodge) has branches on Earth, among them the School founded by Peter Deunov. Here people can study on different levels. Comparable to the Schools of the Bogomils and French Cathars in the Middle Ages, which consisted of three groups (a circle of interested people, a circle of believers, and a circle of initiates), Peter Deunov brought together in the School of the White Brotherhood three groups of people: people with an interest in the teaching, people who studied it and tried to apply it in their lives, and a selected group of young people. For each of these groups he gave separate lectures. The White Brotherhood has three great laws: Love God, love thy neighbour and seek perfection.[42] The main principles of the teaching are Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice and Virtue. They are the five qualities man needs to develop in order to perfect himself. In observing them, according to Peter Deunov, he does the will of God. In the School, he developed a variety of methods of spiritual work. They can be summarized as: lectures, practise of the tasks and exercises given in the lectures, discussions with his disciples, songs, music, the circle dance of paneurhythmy, physical exercises, excursions into the mountains, summer camps in the mountains, communal life, prayer and meditation. After his death other methods appeared as well, such as reading circles and study groups. A new form of communal life was created in the community of Izgrev (Sunrise), at that time outside Sofia. In 1924 pupils of the School began to build small wooden houses and in the course of a few years Izgrev became the centre of the School. The communist regime confiscated the area, but a good destiny preserved a part of it – here is the garden where Peter Deunov has been buried. The School of the White Brotherhood offers a path to Christ. Christ did not leave the Earth after His Ascension into Heaven, said Peter Deunov. He lives in the soul of every human being, but they are not aware of this. What is called His Second Coming has begun in the 20th century and will be completed when all people will open their heart to Him and will receive Him from inside, not from outside.[43] Christ “is continuously visiting people, but they do not recognize Him.” “Usually he visits people who are in trouble, those who suffer, the poor, the ill and those who are abandoned.”[44] Christ is knocking on everybody’s door and one day all people will see Him. They can find Him when they purify their hearts. They will see Him, when they enter into harmony with Christ. They can not only find Him within themselves, but also in nature.[45] Often Peter Deunov stressed the necessity of meekness and humility. They give man the possibility to develop himself correctly, without them the healing of man is impossible.46 “Humility is the first condition for connecting with God. This is the Law of the Universal White Brotherhood. Humility is the primary quality required of the disciple. It is not the righteous or the wise who will see God, but the one with humility.”[47] Pride is the quality of people who are on the descending path, away from God, the path of involution. Humility is the quality of the person ascending along the path of evolution, back to God, Peter Deunov said.[48] With this view, he is in complete harmony with the spiritual traditions of Christianity. Humility is the way to metanoia, the inner transformation, which turns the path of involution into the path of evolution. In the School of the White Brotherhood Peter Deunov gathered many people who developed the qualities of meekness and humility. They were inspired by him and their development accelerated. They can indeed be seen as belonging to the vanguard of the new culture. After his death in 1944 they carried within them a living memory of the harmony he was able to create around him. A limited number of the around 4000 lectures of Peter Deunov has been translated into other languages, mainly English and Russian. Books with the lectures are available in every bookshop in Bulgaria and continue to inspire new readers. Paneurhythmy is danced in many countries in the world as a form of active meditation, introducing people to a new experience of nature and to the teaching of which it is an expression. We may expect that in the future new impulses for the further development of the Slavic culture will be given from the spiritual world. At the same time, people from other parts of the world will incarnate in the Slavic nations, bringing with them other experiences, skills and mentalities than those that can be found among the Slavic nations presently. And everywhere people are working within their own culture for the realisation of the impulse of Love in the New Age of Christ. A new spiritual consciousness is developing all over the world and everybody is invited to participate in the creation of a global spiritual culture. ---------------------- 40 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha, Vol 1, 1999, p 320. 41 The Wellspring of Good, pp 223 and 338. 42 Idem, p 138. 43 Peter Deunov za Christos i novoto chovechestvo, com- piled by Svetla Baltova, Plovdiv, 2011, p 139. 44 Idem, pp 151 and 169. 45 Idem, pp 153 and 167. 46 Idem, pp 114-115. 47 The Wellspring of Good, p 166. 48 Idem, p 165.

THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE SLAVIC COUNTRIES According to Peter Deunov the present Bulgarians have three good characteristics which they inherited from the basic constituents of the population. From the Thracians (who inhabited the country in Antiquity) comes the inclination for the mystical, the spiritual. From the Slavs they received the spirit of sacrifice: selflessness. And from the Old Bulgarians they received courage.[37] Peter Deunov distinguished between those who are Bulgarians in a physical sense and the Bulgarians of the spirit. The latter are people who search for their teacher, find him and learn from him. “The real Bulgarian is one who has goodness, righteousness, beauty and sentience: goodness of the heart, righteousness of the mind, beauty of the soul, and sentience as well. The Bulgarians must learn to rely on God alone.”[38] On several occasions Peter Deunov said that Bulgaria was in its ‘golden century’. For this he had created favourable conditions. “Until now the Bulgarians have served the powers of darkness, but now they will serve the powers of Light. Bulgaria today is like a holy land.” But: “If the Bulgarian nation does not accept the new teaching, something terrible is in store for her.”[39] With the arrival of communism in 1944 the golden age of Bulgaria came to an end. Peter Deunov did not speak about the period of repression that lasted until 1990. The School of the White Brotherhood was forbidden, books of the Teacher were confiscated and to a great extent destroyed. The School had to go underground, but it survived the 45 years of atheism and materialism. After the collapse of communism Eastern Europe was invaded by the free-market economy in which people were encouraged to seek their private interest. State property was privatized, often in criminal ways, and the life conditions for the poor, the ill, the aged and the unemployed deteriorated. Because their country could not offer them normal life conditions about a million people left Bulgaria after 1990 to look for a job and a better life. When we look at the situation of the Slavic countries that are part of the Orthodox Christian world, countries that belong to the sphere of inspiration of the angel Elohil, the general image is not very hopeful at the moment. In various degrees these countries have states with a high level of corruption, the state of law is not well developed and they are ruled by a political elite (usually from the old communist structures, the secret police and the new mafia) that is seeking its own benefit and has little interest in improving the general conditions of the people. A profound moral and spiritual regeneration is necessary to create the proper conditions for the development of the new Slavic culture. The School of the White Brotherhood can offer regenerating impulses. ------------------------- 37 The Wellspring of Good, p 333. 38 Idem, p 337. 39 Idem, pp 339-340.

THE PREPARATION OF THE NEW CULTURE The new culture has her teachers, both in an exoteric and an esoteric way. According to Peter Deunov, “the Slavic nations are a living tree onto which England, Germany, America and France will be grafted. They are the four teachers of the Slavic nations.”[32] In a spiritual sense, the inspirations for the new culture have other sources. They come from Bulgaria, Central Europe and Northern Europe, and from the Slavic spiritual tradition itself. The church as an institution came to Old Russia in 988 from Constantinople. Spiritually, Christianity came from Bulgaria to Kiev already before 988 in the form of the Old-Bulgarian liturgy, but also in the form of the Bogomil teaching that had begun to flourish in the Bulgarian lands in the 10th century. A new wave of spirituality from Bulgaria came with the teaching of the School of the White Brotherhood. From Central Europe a second source had already begun to flow. In the 17th century inspirations from the movement founded by the initiate Christian Rosenkreuz came to Russia and in the early 20th century new impulses for the development of a spiritual consciousness entered Russia through Anthroposophy. Steiner even spoke of the necessity of a ‘spiritual marriage’ between Central Europe and Russia, in order to awaken the self-consciousness of the Russians and to develop the potential of Russian culture.[33] The inspirations from the third source, the North, are less perceptible. The areas bordering on the Arctic Ocean are considered by spiritual science as the centre of the epoch of Hyperborea. The climate was tropical at that time and mankind was not yet incarnated in a physical body. Human beings had an etheric body as their lowest body. In more recent times northern Europe was, according to Steiner, the centre of a solar cult that spread to the Celts, the Germanic tribes and the Greeks. The musical culture of Old Europe was also influenced from there. Greek historians mention the relations between Greek sanctuaries and these northern lands, which they called Hyperborea (= the land beyond Boreas, the northern winds). The Solovki Islands in the north of Russia with their ancient labyrinths might have been the centre of this solar cult. In historical times the whole area between the Scandinavia and the Ural Mountains was inhabited by tribes speaking Finnish languages. In Finland and the Russian North, the forces of nature have a special quality. The beings of nature can be perceived easily and the people living in these areas have a deep connection with them. The great Finnish epic poem Kalevala, created in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot on the basis of fragments of the ancient songs which he collected, presents a powerful vision of the forces of creation that are still perceptible there. At the same time it gives vivid imaginations of the three personified parts of the soul that are working in separation and need to be united by ego-consciousness. From the Middle Ages, Russian hermits and spiritual seekers have felt a powerful attraction by the purity of nature in these ‘Hyperborean’ lands. Like other Slavic nations, Russia has a rich spiritual tradition in which important steps have been made towards the new culture. A wonderful image of the future culture has been created in the Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh. This city became invisible, it disappeared under water, by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, when the Mongolians wanted to destroy it in the 13th century. Pilgrims who used to come to Lake Svetloyar into which the city has sunk, could hear the bells of its churches when they went around the lake on their knees – provided they were pure in heart.[34] In the late 19th century a religious philosophy developed in Russia that was founded by Dostoevsky and Soloviev. This philosophy created a Russian Sophiology, a teaching on Holy Sophia (known from the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament), in which human thinking strives to connect with divine wisdom again. A profound expression of this new teaching can be found in the work of the Russian poet and visionary Daniil Andreev (1906–1959), who wrote his Roza Mira in a Soviet prison. It offers a vision of the coming Slavic culture, here called the ‘Rose of the World’, that is inspired by Zventa Sventana, a being that fulfils the role Sophia will play in the new culture. Andreev was very much aware of the evil inspirations behind the Soviet regime. The Second Coming of Christ that has begun in the 20th century is part of the Apocalypse or Revelation, described at the end of the New Testament, in which good and evil forces which mankind has attracted reveal themselves. The new presence of Christ confronts us with the dark aspects of our life and in the situation of the world. Peter Deunov said about this in 1944: “The wave of Love which is coming is also called the wave of Divine Fire. Everything old and impure will burn in it. After man passes through this Divine Fire, the Kingdom of God will come to Earth. (...) The great destruction which occurs today is due to this great Life which comes now. If people do not accept Christ voluntarily, the whole culture will pass through Fire seven times, but in the end, it will be purified and renewed. (...) All this is linked to the eradication of the karma of humankind which has been accumulated for thousands of years. (...) Because for thousands of years man was under the influence of negative forces, these forces now turn against him. (...) The karma of the European nations is already ripe and creates tribulations for the whole of humankind. The tribulations indicate that man must change his way of life and apply the Divine Teaching. (...) The turbulent flow which represents the tribulations and conflicts of humankind will abate by the end of the century.”[35] Through the suffering of individuals and nations in these tribulations (above all the wars), according to Peter Deunov, their old karma will be liquidated and this will prepare them for a new life in accordance with the will of God. Seen from another point of view, the ideologies of bolshevism, fascism, national-socialism, nationalism, neo-liberalism and the crimes against humanity committed in their name since the beginning of the 20th century reveal the dark side of the human soul. Through this dark side, the Beasts from the Abyss, about which the Book of Revelation speaks, also have begun to work in the 20th century, at the background of the beginning of the Second Coming. In contrast to Rudolf Steiner, Peter Deunov does not give much attention to the forces of Evil. For him it makes more sense to concentrate on the good. “If you talk about evil, evil will befall you; if you talk about the good, good will befall you,” he said.[36] ---------------------------------------------------- 32 The Wellspring of Good, p 364. 33 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 12 March 1916, in: Die geistigen Hintergründe des Ersten Weltkrieges (The Spiritu- al Background of the First World War, Collected Works, vol. 174b), Dornach 1994. 34 For a spiritual history of Russia see: Harrie Salman, The Invisible City of Kitezh – Russian people seeking their future. Bulgarian edition: Невидимият град – Духовната биография на руския народ, Sofia, 2014. 35 The Wellspring of Good, pp 270-275. 36 Peter Deunov, Toi suzdava, Sofia, 1999, p 119.

THE SLAVIC CULTURE OF THE FUTURE During his stay in America (1888-1895) Peter Deunov had become familiar with the Theosophical movement. He may have known that for H.P. Blavatzky and her followers, the new culture would be an American culture. In Theosophy the present culture is called the Teutonic (or Anglo-Saxon) sub-race. The Slavs are regarded as an offshoot of this sub-race. According to Blavatzky the new culture, called the ‘Australo-American sub-race’, will begin to evolve in the United States and Australia in the early 21st century. The sixth cycle of cultures, in this view, will also have its origin in America and not in the Slavic world.[23] This theosophical view about the domination of the world by the Anglo-Saxons, given through mediums like Blavatzky by invisible masters, has been incorporated into the American ideology of living in ‘God’s own country’ and of being blessed by God. This ideology is used to justify the global activities of the Anglo-Saxon spiritual, political and economic elites. In the 19th century Western spiritual circles recognized the youthful character of the Slavic peoples and believed that the Slavic nations should be educated by the West. The education the Western world has given to the Slavic world so far, however, is highly problematic. Western interest groups have been instrumental in spreading materialistic ideas to Russia and in creating the socialist experiment of bolshevism that seemed to spread the ideals of brotherhood, but in fact perverted them. The rise and fall of bolshevism is an important episode in the spiritual conflict about the Christian or antiChristian character of human culture in the future. The message of Elohil from 1898 clarifies what is at stake – the future of Slavic culture as the dwelling of Christ among humanity. His message is also the refutation of the Theosophical views about the new culture. Being instructed by the angel Elohil, Peter Deunov was the first spiritual teacher to announce that after the present (fifth) culture of ego-development the coming (sixth) culture of community-development will be a Slavic culture (and not an American culture). He did not indicate when this culture would begin, but obviously it is intimately connected with the return of Christ. “Until the end of the 20th century, many Evolved Beings will incarnate into the Slavic nations. They will bring a great spiritual upliftment. But they are not only the vanguard: they are the main forces”, Peter Deunov said in 1944.[24] Independently from Peter Deunov and a few years later, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian founder of Anthroposophy, brought the same message about the coming of the Slavic culture. His views support the prophesy of the New Age of Christ and of the new Slavic culture given to Peter Deunov. Both spoke out of an experience of the same spiritual reality and for this reason the views of Rudolf Steiner can complement the prophetic message given to the Teacher Peter Deunov. It is true that they assign different years to the end of the Kali Yuga (according to Steiner this was in 1899, hundred years earlier than the year given by Peter Deunov) and to the beginning of the Second Coming, but this is not essential – between ages there is a transition period and the return of Christ is a long process with different stages. Rudolf Steiner created a time schedule of the seven post-Atlantic cultures, each with a duration of 2160 years. The present Anglo-Saxon-Germanic culture began in 1413 and will end in 3573, while the Slavic culture will begin in the year 3573 and last until 5733. In Anthroposophy a distinction is made between the age of Aquarius (which will begin in 2374) and the culture of Aquarius (which will begin 1199 years later). It takes time before the new inspirations will work with full force and will be absorbed by humanity. Their seed will be the new Slavic culture, which in this view will only begin when the age of Aquarius is already more than halfway. In Anthroposophy the centre of the Slavic culture is thought to be in the northern part of European Russia, the Baltic countries and Finland. It will be a global culture. From the year 1910 onwards, also Steiner publicly spoke of the return of Christ in the 20th century, beginning around 1933. He described the Second Coming as a process that would last 2500 years, during which more and more people would experience Christ as a comforter, helper and advisor. They will develop new senses to see Him in the ‘etheric sphere’. This period of 2500 years almost coincides with the Age of Light (Satya Yuga) which began according to Steiner after the end of the dark age Kali Yuga in 1899 and will last for 2500 years. Steiner also spoke about the successor of Gautama Buddha, called the Maitreya Bodhisattva, who will become the Maitreya Buddha after about 2500 years. The title Maitreya means ‘bearer of the Good’. He is incarnated now and will be the ‘actual herald of Christ in his etheric form’, Steiner said in 1911.[25] This Bodhisattva incarnates almost every century. He will make people conscious of the new presence of Christ and he will through his words strengthen the moral forces of humanity. In 2007 the thesis has been brought forward that this being incorporated in Peter Deunov around 1897, who then became the Master Beinsa Duno, the spiritual name by which he was known among his disciples.[26] Inspired by the same spiritual sources, Peter Deunov and Rudolf Steiner worked in different cultures (Central European and Slavic), from different perspectives, with different missions and with people of different soul qualities. Peter Deunov focussed on the development of Christian virtues and of a new social life. Rudolf Steiner stressed the development of consciousness and of new spiritual faculties, necessary for a new spiritual science. These two teachers of esoteric Christianity described the coming Slavic culture in similar terms. This culture will be dedicated on the one hand to the evolution of man into a harmonious and pure being and on the other hand to the creation of communities founded upon love, in which Christ can live among humanity. In Anthroposophy the first aspect is related to the being of Sophia (Divine Wisdom). Through the purification of the astral body the human soul will transform into a vessel that can receive the higher Self of man. Symbolically this vessel has been described in medieval traditions as the Cup of the Holy Grail. Human beings will share a common cosmic wisdom, which will form the basis of peace and brotherhood among them. In esoteric Christianity the purified astral body is symbolically called Holy Sophia.[27] In his lectures Peter Deunov also spoke about Divine Wisdom. “God is Love, Wisdom and Truth”,[28] he often said. Rudolf Steiner saw the second aspect of the new culture (the creation of communities in the spirit of love) in relation to the work of the Manicheans, of which the Bulgarian Bogomils had been representatives. In these two aspects, wisdom and love are the two fundamental qualities of the new culture. For Peter Deunov and Rudolf Steiner love is the cornerstone for the foundation of the new culture. Both of them described the illusions people usually have about love. Very often love is in fact self-love, because sympathy and self-interest mask themselves as love. Only when we are able to surrender ourselves to another person, there is true love.[29] Steiner called the Christ-impulse the impulse of love. When we love unselfishly and when we create space for others in our consciousness, Christ can live in us. According to St.Paul, then instead of “I” we can speak of “Christ in me”. This is the turning point from involution, which strengthens the ego, to evolution, which connects us with the higher self. It is the personal entry into the New Age of Christ. The Slavic people are predestined to prepare the ground for the New Age of Christ. In 1944 Peter Deunov said: “The Slavic people will bring something new. They come now to create the new culture. In a sense, they are now the spiritual Israel. (...) In general, Western people have a developed intellect. In the Latin people, the feelings and heart are developed. The Slavic people now carry the power of the soul – Love. They are the people of Love for humankind. They carry the culture of Brotherhood. (...) One of the great characteristics of the Slavic nations is self-sacrifice. (...) A beautiful quality of the Slavic nation is altruism. (...) All Slavic people need to unite into one. After the unification of the Slavs, the whole world will unite. The future race will unite all. The Slavs will introduce a spiritual element into the world – that we may become as brothers. Their mission is the unification of all nations.”[30] In 1918 Rudolf Steiner described how in the 9th century AD a historical process began that prepared in Eastern Europe the formation of the ‘proper nation of Christ’, which is the Russian nation. In this process a territory was created where people kept their souls open for the continuous influx of the impulse of Christ, for the ongoing presence of the ‘breath of Christ’. He remains present in their souls as ‘an inner aura that permeates the thoughts and feelings of this nation’.[31] ---------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Arthur E. Powell, The Solar System – A Complete Outline of the Theosophical Scheme of Evolution, London, 1930. (accessible on Google Books) 24 The Wellspring of Good, p 364. 25 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 4 November 1911, in: Das esoterische Christentum (Esoteric Christianity, Col- lected Works, vol. 130), Dornach, 1995. 26 Filip Filipov, Preslav Pavlov and Dimiter Kalev, The Bodhisattva in the 20th Century, Sofia, 2007. See also Rob- ert Powell and Estelle Isaacson, Gautama Buddha’s Suc- cessor, Great Barrington, 2014. 27 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 31 May 1908, in: Das Johannes-Evangelium (The Gospel of St John, Collected Works, vol. 103), Dornach, 1995. 28 Beinsa Douno, The Master Speaks (compiled by Georgi Radev), Los Angeles 1970, section on Wisdom. 29 Bernard Nesfield-Cookson, Rudolf Steiner’s Vision of Love, Wellingborough, 1983, pp 227-237. 30 The Wellspring of Good, pp 362-365. 31 Rudolf Steiner, lecture from 2 November 1918, in: Ge- schichtliche Symptomatologie (Historical Symptomatology, Collected Works, vol. 185), Dornach, 1982.

THE NEW AGE OF CHRIST At the heart of the work of Peter Deunov stands the prophetic message that in the new Slavic culture of love and brotherhood Christ will return, and that He will establish his Kingdom in a more distant future, in the sixth cycle of cultures. The return of Christ (the Second Coming) initiates the New Age, proclaimed by the angel Elohil. It is in fact the New Age of Christ, who is returning, according to Peter Deunov, not in a physical body, but in the hearts of people, where he can be found. Throughout his life Peter Deunov was consistent in his prophetic message. In the book The Teacher, a group of pupils collected the following words: “This Christ is coming now to visit human minds and hearts. (...) Remember that Christ is a manifestation of the Love of God. And He will come as an inner Light in the minds and hearts of the people. This Light will attract everybody around Christ as a great Centre. The opening of the human minds and hearts and the reception of Christ from within – this will be ‘the Second Coming of Christ’ on earth. He will preach above all the great science of Love and the methods how to apply it. (...) Prepare to meet Christ! Prepare, so that everybody in one’s time can meet Christ. Put on your new clothes. For some Christ will come even today, for others – tomorrow, still for others – in years. You will see Him when you are prepared. Receive Christ in your hearts as a friend, and in your mind – as Teacher. Christ is now working. (...) If you are in harmony with Christ, your consciousness will wake up, you will see Him. Christ is coming to the world with His Intelligence and Love. Christ is already coming to the Earth to bring Divine Love for all the people. He will teach people self-sacrifice and Love. He brings Love, Wisdom, Knowledge, Freedom! The Light of Christ penetrates everywhere!”[18] In 1940 Peter Deunov commented during an excursion in the mountains: “We are at the beginning of the Second Coming.”[19] In The Wellspring of Good, a compilation of his words from 1944, we find him saying: “Humankind is presently passing through a new phase of its development. A new form of Love is coming. We ask, ‘When will God come and reveal His Love to us?’ This Day is coming. For some this Day has come already.” “The End of Times began in 1914.” “The solar system departs from the heavier matter and enters into a lighter medium. Because of this, there will exist the conditions for the manifestation of a higher consciousness for humankind. The solar system departs from the so-called ‘thirteenth sphere’. At the same time, the sun will enter the age of Aquarius. Now is the end of the dark epoch, Kali Yuga (a time of spiritual darkness, known in Hindu cultured – remark by the author).”[20] Peter Deunov said that this epoch would end in 1999. According to Peter Deunov the influence of the constellation of Aquarius began in 1914. About this influence he said: “The most typical of this sign is that it will raise and develop in man and in human society a striving for justice, for the spiritual and the mystic in man as well as in humanity as a whole.” “The main characteristic of Aquarius is purity. It is related with water which brings new life. We are already in the sign of Aquarius. This is the most mystical century, the end of a cycle. The sign of Aquarius determines supreme mysticism in man. The conditions now are the most favourable for work. Never before in the age of Christianity there have been better conditions.”[21] The early decades of the 20th century show the first inspirations of Aquarius in the public appearance of a new wave of esoteric Christianity, as manifested in the School of the White Brotherhood in Bulgaria and in Anthroposophy in Central Europe. For these movements, the age of Aquarius is the age of the returning Christ. In the 1960’s another annunciation of the age of Aquarius came from the Western world, from California, where the so-called New Age movement started. This movement is not part of esoteric Christianity. According to the old star wisdom each of the twelve constellations of the zodiac influences human life in a different way. The sequence of these influences is determined by the constellation from which the sun rises at the beginning of spring. Due to the movement of the axis of the earth, this vernal point shifts by one degree every 72 years. The whole journey of the vernal point through the zodiac takes about 25920 years – 12 periods of approximately 2160 years, if the length of the constellations would be equal, which is not the case. In 1928 the International Astronomical Union established the boundaries of all the 88 constellations in the sky. On the basis of this division the vernal point will be in the constellation of Aquarius between 2597 and 4312. In astrology, however, the boundaries between the constellations of the zodiac are defined by giving them an equal space of 300. According to this division of the zodiac, the vernal point in 2014 is in 50 Pisces and will enter the constellation of Aquarius around the year 2374. From the perspective of the spiritual world, the new age of Aquarius began on March 22, 1914, as Peter Deunov said on that day.[22] This date for the beginning of the new age is not connected with the visible constellation of Aquarius, but with the beginning of the Second Coming of Christ and of the End of Times. ------------------------------------ 18 Metodi Konstantinov, Boyan Boev, Maria Todorova and Boris Nikolov, Uchitelya, Sofia, 2005, pp 394-396. 19 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha, Vol 1, p 43. 20 The Wellspring of Good, pp 137, 161 and 276-277. 21 Milka Kraleva, The Master Peter Deunov, p. 42. 22 Peter Deunov, talk from March 22, 1914, in: Iskayte sila, imayte vyara, Sofia, 1994, p 11.

THE AWAKENING OF THE SLAVIC NATIONS The first ideas about the future of the Slavic nations can be found in the work of the German philosopher Herder (1744-1803). He considered the Slavs as the youthful carriers of a global culture of the future, in which they would realise the ideal of the highest humanity. His thoughts strongly contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness of the different Slavic nations in the 19th century. This was focused on their language and culture, not on political notions of national independence. In Russia this awakening give rise to the move ment of the Slavophils. In Poland Slavophil ideas led to a Messianic ideology (the suffering country Poland as the Messiah among the nations). It was ardently Polish, catholic and anti-Russian, and aimed at the creation of a Christian civilization. Also among the Czech, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs and Bulgarians, who were living in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, a new interest in the preservation of their national culture and language emerged. Polish writers (Józef Maria Hoene-Wronski, Zygmunt Krasiński and Adam Mickiewicz), Czech writers (Josef Dobrovský) and Slovak writers (Ján Kollár and Ľudevít Štúr) repeated Herder’s claims that the Slavs, because of their national qualities, are called upon to create a better world of freedom and peace. A similar Messianism was expressed by the Russian writer Feodor Dostoevsky. His views on the role of Russia as the saviour of European culture (Russia would reconcile the nations of Europe) were rooted in the belief held within the Orthodox Church that only Eastern Christianity had remained pure. A shift to Slavic political nationalism took place in the second half of the 19th century, first of all in Russia. The ideology of panslavism (a movement based on the idea of Slavic unity) was used to justify the imperialist policies of the Russian government to bring all Slavic nations under its control. In the other countries this shift led in the second half of the 19th century to movements of national liberation and in the early 20th century to the formation of national states. A return to the spiritual dimensions of the Slavic movement can be found in the work of the Russian spiritual philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. In his essay on the Russian Idea (1888) he spoke of the mission of Russia to create a universal Church, not in the sense of an institution but as a community living out of Christian ideals. The Russian nation carries within its soul an image of Christ, he said, but before it can fulfil its mission it has to experience a moral rebirth. Without having read the work of Soloviev and being directly inspired by the spiritual world, Peter Deunov set himself to the task to work for the spiritual regeneration of the Bulgarian people and for the preparation of the coming Slavic culture. To his pupils he offered the vision of a Slavic Messianism. He had to work with them for the transformation of a nation of disharmonious souls into the vanguard of a new culture, in which the Kingdom of God will be established.

Peter Deunov – Prophet of the New Age of Christ A Call to My People Commentary by Harrie Salman THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE OF THE ANGEL ELOHIL On 8 October 1898 the angel Elohil communicated an important message to Peter Deunov. The angel made himself known as the protector and guardian of the Bulgarian nation, and as the angel of God’s Covenant. In the same month Peter Deunov delivered this message as A call to my people – Bulgarian sons of the Slavic family to the Spiritistic Society Miloserdie in Varna. According to Peter Deunov, God had given to his angel Elohil the task to lead the Bulgarian nation and the Slavic nations in general. The name of the angel probably means: ‘Eloah is God’ (an Eloah is an angel from the rank of the Elohim or Powers, to which also Jahweh belongs). Peter Deunov had the intention of sending the message of the angel to the National Assemblee of Bulgaria to be read to its members, but he changed his mind. His friends asked him to publish the text, but when the proof-sheets were ready for correction he decided to withdraw it from printing in December 1898. He asked his pupils Penyu Kirov and Todor Stoimenov to keep the proofs and to be silent about them. In 1915 Mincho Sotirov received the text from Kirov to copy it. Also Stoimenov gave his text to someone to be copied. This last copy was found accidentally by Ivan Andonov, who made his own copy and gave it to other pupils. Andonov confessed to this to Peter Deunov, who then allowed the message to be read by others as well.[13] The angel Elohil revealed through Peter Deunov that he had come for the first time to the Bulgarian nation when czar Boris I adopted Christianity as the new state religion in 865. At that moment the mission of the Bulgarians, as well as the mission of Elohil, began. Elohil guided them through their sufferings, caused by their sins as a nation, to purify their souls along a path of patience and humility, towards a ‘good and holy life’. In the second half of the 19th century he initiated the process of liberation from Ottoman domination. Now he came to his nation for the second time, to confront it with the misuse of the gifts of the new freedom and to remind it of its mission. According to the angel, the Bulgarians shared their mission with other members of the Slavic family. We may suppose that Elohil led all the Slavic nations that received Christianity through the Old Bulgarian language, which was used in Eastern Europe from the time of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. His inspiration may have continued when these nations received their own folk spirits. A number of Slavic nations (the Poles, the Czechs, the Slovaks, the Slovenes and the Croatians) came under the influence of Rome and may not have been inspired directly by Elohil anymore. Elohil revealed that God had chosen the Slavic house as a dwelling for Himself. Similar to the way the prophets of the Old Testament called the Israelite people the ‘bride’ of Jahweh, he calls the Lord (Christ) the ‘bridegroom’ of the Bulgarian people, and in a wider sense also of the other Slavic nations. They are the ‘chosen children of truth’ and the ‘seed of the new humanity’ of which the Slavic family, as a new Israel, will be the hearth. This is a very significant image. The opening words of the Call are: “Heaven has assigned you a sacred office in the coming Kingdom of Peace, which is coming and approaching in its power.” Elohil will lead his nation to the Kingdom of God. Christ will return, the New Age is coming. Heaven has given ‘a sacred pledge of great mercy and love’ to the Bulgarians, but they must act in accordance with their calling. The angel described them as a ‘tribe of discord’ and as a ‘self-willed nation’, sharing in the ‘general lack of unity and discordance’ of the Slavic family. The angel had come to warn them. The Bulgarian people should awake and turn away from the evil path, repent and develop pure virtues. They needed spiritual guidance and education by their angel. When they would respond to his call, their redemption and spiritual renewal would begin. By responding to the call they would avoid the ‘total destruction’ which was already hanging over their heads, as the angel Elohil said. Such words of warning and threats of punishment are reminiscent of the words of the prophets of the Old Testament. A nation that does not heed the Divine instructions, as expressed by the prophets, must face the consequences. Peter Deunov followed the call of the angel. A year earlier, on 19 March 1897, he had been inspired by the spiritual world. As he told later: “Then I received a mission from Heaven, then it was told to me that I am a teacher for the whole humanity. The mission assigned to me is connected with the new path of the Slavs and with the coming of the sixth race (a concept from Theosophy, indicating a new cycle of cultures – remark by the author).”[14] In the same year he founded the Society for the Uplifting of the Religious Spirit of the Bulgarian People, which developed in 1906 into the Chain and in 1920 into the School of the White Brotherhood. Already in his youth, during a long illness in early 1884 which brought him to the brink of death, Peter Deunov had devoted his life to Christ and decided to become a preacher. Later he said that when he was 19 years old, Peter Deunov died and that the Spirit of Truth began to live in him.[15] This was during his illness. ‘Spirit of Truth’ is one of the titles of the Holy Spirit. After returning from Boston in 1895, Peter Deunov declined positions as a Methodist pastor. He turned away from the Protestant mission in Bulgaria that had been motivated by the idea of reforming the Orthodox Church. Devoting also time and energy to social and educational activity, most of his time however he dedicated to spiritual work – prayer and meditation. The preparation of his own mission began. His spiritual diaries, letters and a few published texts show that God and different angels spoke to him.[16] These spiritual conversations, of which the meeting with the angel Elohil is one, were extraordinary spiritual events that are only known from the lives of prophets and saints. The content of the mission of the Bulgarians becomes clear in the teaching that Peter Deunov spread in his lectures and sermons. They do not contain his own teaching, but the teaching of Christ, ‘the Great Teaching of Life’, as he said.[17] Humanity is on a path of involution – separation from God, from other human beings and from nature. Man develops his ego and loses the connection with his higher Self. Christ re-established this connection and through His sacrifice human evolution could begin. Man can now become a conscious part of humanity and nature, and develop his own divine essence. In accordance with the spiritual traditions of (Eastern) Christianity, Peter Deunov spoke of the pride of man, of the suffering caused by man’s mistakes and of the path of meekness and humility that leads to Christ. A renewed humanity no longer needs a Church. It will practice love and brotherhood and through them, society will transform itself into a spiritual community. Peter Deunov saw the School of the White Brotherhood as a school in which this new humanity can develop itself. It will prepare a new culture (the sixth culture in the present fifth cycle of cultures, a cycle which began after the destruction of Atlantis) which will be centred in the Slavic countries. Out of this Slavic culture a new, sixth cycle of cultures will be born that will embrace awakened people from all nations. Theosophy speaks of the ‘sixth race’, Peter Deunov called it the ‘Race of Love’. In anthroposophical terminology the five cycles are called the Polarian epoch, the epoch of Hyperborea, the epoch of Lemuria, the epoch of Atlantis and the present Post-Atlantic epoch. Two more cycles of cultures will follow. ------------------------------------------- 13 This section is partly based on information given by Svetlana Christova. 14 Akordirane na choveshkata dusha (from the archives of Boyan Boev), Vol 1, Sofia, 1999, p 339. 15 Velichka Draganova and Lyudmila Dimitrova, ‘Spomen ot mladezhkite godini na Uchitelya’, in: Bratski zhivot, nr 39, July 2009. 16 Milka Kraleva, The Master Peter Deunov – His Life and Teaching, Sofia, 2001, pp 22-25, 30-31, Dnevnik na Uch- itelya Beinsa Duno (Peter Deunov), Sofia 2001, Lichen belezhnik na Peter K. Deunov, Sofia 2010, Peter Deunov, Chio-Eli-Meli-Mesail, Sofia, 2003, Peter Deunov, Pisma do purvite uchenitsi, Sofia, 1999 and Peter Deunov and Penyu Kirov, Epistolarni dialozi, part 1, 1898-1900, Sofia, 2010 (part 2 is available on the internet). 17 The Wellspring of Good – The Last Words of the Mas- ter Peter Deunov, compiled by Boyan Boev and Boris Nikolov, Sofia, 2002, p 225.

A call to my people Bulgarian sons of the slavic family[2] Listen to the words of Heaven: Brothers and sisters from the Slavic house, family of suffering, tribe of discord, soul and heart of Life and Salvation of the present, bearers and defenders of peace, Sons of the Kingdom of God, listen to the Word: Heaven has assigned you a sacred office in the coming Kingdom of Peace, which is coming and approaching in its power, to mark a great event in the life of this world, and if you prove to be faithful from now on to this noble and sacred calling awaiting you, then believe that the God of Hosts Himself will enwreathe you in the glory and the greatness of His life and will inscribe your names in the Supreme Books of the higher worlds that minister to the Supreme Holy Work of the great redemption. A glorious future is awaiting you, coming not to wipe out or destroy life but to resurrect it in its perfect fullness. All chosen people and nations, constituting the flower of the new generations of humanity are called to partake in this life. Your time is approaching, your trial is coming to an end, the hour of your calling has come and the moment of your life has arrived to wake up and to enter into this gentle life which is coming to this long-suffering land. I come from above at the supreme command of God, your Heavenly Father, Who has entrusted me with the great mission of warning you against the bad ways and to announce you the Truth of Life which descends from the heavenly dwellings of the eternal Light, in order to enlighten each mind, revive each heart, to uplift and renew all spirits – the chosen children of Truth preordained to form the seed of the New Humanity of which the Slavic family, the stock of Judah,[3] will become the hearth. The leader of this salvation, the anointed of Zion, the Lord’s King, the brother of those who suffer, will arrive in all His power and spiritual fullness and will change the appearance of this world. You will soon be elevated in the order of the redeemed higher worlds, which gradually yet steadily rise one after the other into a new region of the upper supreme worlds, into the Heaven of the Divine Instructions, into which also your world will step forward to take its place among the others as assigned to it by the Supreme Father. Your stepping into these new infinite boundaries of the New Kingdom of the everlasting worlds will be marked by being given the sign from the Supreme Lord, Ruler and King over everything. He with all the angelic hierarchies will meet you, will receive you with joy and cheer as fellow citizens of the Everlasting Kingdom of endless power and glory. Do not grieve God by your conduct; do not doubt His Truth, which He brings to you from the Heavenly Dwellings as a sign of His faithfulness and His love for you. Become enlightened, pull yourselves together, become conscious of the truth of life. He Who has given birth to you keeps watch over you. You know His Name. Doubt not or hesitate, but put aside your faintheartedness; come to the eternal light of life to know the eternal ways of God, Who has raised you from the ashes of nothingness to the glory and greatness of immortality. Do not err, but make a place for Him Who gives you life. In Him the families, generations and nations do not disappear, but they are restored and regenerated through this same Eternal Spirit, Who puts everything in this great Divine World in order. Renewal is a great blessing for you, which contributes to your becoming worthy of entering the path of light, which is endowed with peace and love at every step. This blessing is the powerful and eternal generator of life, which uplifts all the fallen in spirit. It is the path to salvation which unfortunate mankind takes, summoned from Heaven to perform one more heroic deed, with which everything that is destined will be completed. The path on which I come to lead you, so that you enter the Kingdom of God, serve Him, is eternal. It is a path filled with all the sweetness of life. All the heavenly hierarchies and dwellers, before the origin of that very eternity without beginning or end, have passed along this path. Between you and this path of the Heavenly Dwellers exists a great distance which no mighty power can fathom, yet there is an invisible bond connecting everything in one indivisible brotherhood. This bond is the love of the Eternal and Invisible God, the Source of Life. It is this infinite love of Him Who loves you and cares for you that called upon me from on high in order to come and help you in these hard times that lie ahead for the last time in this world. Before you lies a great danger which is getting ready to destroy all holy things which have been planted by the hand of your Heavenly Father. This is why I came to this world to guide you in person through this most dangerous moment of your lives. Be brave, strong and steadfast, faithful to your calling, and braced for battle. Each of you, make the necessary self-sacrifices for the truth to triumph. Now is the right time to show that you are the chosen kindred, a Royal Seed, a nation whose ruler is the God of Hosts. I come to support the Slavic family to whom is given to prevail over all its enemies and foes standing on its way to the noble knowledge for which it is striving and in its way to its destiny as ordained by Supreme Providence. The time is drawing near and is by the gates of this world. Truth will triumph and will reign in all its beauty, which will illumine the face of this world with heavenly radiance. This is the day of Truth that has given birth to you for His glory. Listen to His voice. He is coming from above, raise your eyes to see that which is awaiting you, open your ears to hear the sweet songs, the pleasant hymns, the great anthems, the songs of praise sung by the angels who are preparing themselves for this glorious day. Listen: faithfulness is the first step for entering the new life, the first condition of passage through the narrow gates of admission; it is the first fruit of Love which you shall place before the Hearth of the Father’s altar. There is no time left to involve yourselves with irrelevant discussions of the past which are of no use to you, unless past errors teach you a lesson to correct the present ones. Your rebirth requires pure virtues which are lacking. It is now superficial and not fundamental; it is of a transient and inessential nature, not able to bring the expected good fruits. This nation is yearning to be led and ruled by holy and godly principles, which are necessary to succeed. These principles were established long ago by God, Who takes care for the improvement of all His nations, and these principles are implanted in your souls. In the revival of the nations, the mind and the heart must be in harmony, love and virtue must be together, power and reason must jointly lead and steer the way of their good endeavours. Without these conditions everything is irretrievably lost for the nations. This is why you need to stop and consider the situation in which you find yourselves, in order to avoid the total destruction which is hanging already over all your heads. I arrive in this depraved world at this important moment to exert the necessary influence, to lead you away from this pernicious path into which the nations on earth rushed to pursue recklessly. Remember, if you repudiate my good advice and oppose my Divine Directions which I gave you because you are dear to My heart, then I will employ also other measures which are much worse and I am bound to apply in response to your disobedience to the holy Divine Commandments. You are under my protection and it is my duty to guide and educate you in the Word of Truth. I am your protector and a supreme leader among the Heavenly Dwellers. When I took upon myself to take you under my guardianship, I could foresee all the difficulties which time would present to me until I lead you to safety. I knew how many obstacles and how many failures in this great battle you and I would have to face, yet my spirit will not depart from my intention. My love for you dictates this sacred duty to me, so I stepped forward to take you under my supreme protection. In this distant past your spirit did not possess any beauty to attract me and make me love you. You looked disgusting and those who looked at you were repulsed by the rudeness of your heart. I did not reject you because of your flaws, nor did I disdain you because of the crudeness of the external garments in which your soul was wrapped, but I came to love you completely with all my kind spirit, which undertook to probe you and to find any Divine virtue, any kind feature of your soul, which my spirit could cultivate and make fertile, so that it might bring plenty of good fruits and that a pure, holy and sublime behaviour might be formed in you, so that you could deserve the honour to join the family of the first nations which the God of Hosts has chosen to fulfill His everlasting holy will. The day has already come to determine the main destiny of this corrupt world, in which Heaven is going to make a radical and great change, and that very soon in the approaching New Age, to mark new pages on the face of the earth. It is my desire to prepare you for this, because you are far behind due to your present crimes as well as past national sins; for them you were required to go through countless sufferings and sacrifices, until you wash away and clean the disgusting vileness with which you annoyed God. This made Him turn His face away from you and leave you in the ordeal which took centuries,[4] so that you might recognize and repent for your sins, that tear the sacred bonds of His Love. Yet, God is not angry forever. His mercy is from generation to generation and His kindness is always with those who love Him and His blessing does not withdraw. He guides you with a strong hand through all the dark ages and His eye watches you, especially when you were passing through the dangerous paths of this world. As your Supreme Protector, I had to exert great efforts and make sacrifices in order to correct your past behaviour, to educate you and adorn you with the beauty of the eternal assigned to you. For this purpose I deigned to call forth from afar, from the farthest realms of Heaven, the two brothers,[5] luminaries of the Slavic family, and to hand to them the Word of Truth and the Word of Life, so that they could bring them to you and teach you the path, so you could climb along it towards the Eternal Light in which I dwell, i.e. the Light of Life which I sent you to live in forever. “The world did not accept this Light but refused it and exposed Jesus, My Anointed of the Covenant, to violation and death because the deeds of these people were evil. But the transgressors of My Testament have paid for their lawlessness, and now all has come to an end. Righteousness is everlasting, My Father is unchangeable and His deeds can not be changed; you are My nation.”[6] The Lord searched for a dwelling for Himself and His choice fell upon the Slavic family which Heaven has come to love because of its Divine virtue. For this reason I sent My two servants to bring you good tidings, to abandon the darkness of gloomy pagan gods. And there was great joy in the worlds of the Light when God placed the seal of His great name upon you and put His Spirit into your hearts as an eternal covenant. And I appeared to your royal Ruler at that time,[7] and let him know the Will of Heaven to receive My Messengers of the New Testament; and he listened to my voice and was honoured in my presence to become the founder of your spiritual renewal. I can assure you that since him there has not been a more modest and pure-hearted ruler born to the family of Slavs. He fulfilled the given promise with unshakable faith, like Abraham who did not spare his son, but presented him as a living sacrifice to God; in this way acted your pious ruler and father of the Slavic family, who gave the eyes of his firstborn son as an auspicious sacrifice, a chosen gift to God, as a sign of his unshakable faithfulness to Him;[8] this very day your calling was initiated by the God of Hosts, Who ordained in His imeasurable wisdom to glorify, together with you, the whole Slavic family in which God Almighty abides and which He has destined to take the first place in His Kingdom which is now coming into power in this long-suffering world. Understand the unchangeable truth that the elevation of the Slavic family is an elevation necessary for all, which God Himself is performing for His chosen one, the Leader of Salvation, Who will appear soon among you in his full Glory and Power to restore the eternal Kingdom of Peace, God’s Kingdom on earth. “And he who challenges your pre-eminence from now on, says the Lord Himself, challenges Mine, for I have the power to give Mine to whomever I wish, and if I give out of My good will, who would oppose Me and ask Me what I am doing? He who has the courage to do so, let him come and try his strength and he will see. I am one, My Word never changes, I am faithful and true in all My ways. My Word is irrefutable.”[9] The Lord is to you a Leader, He is to you a Bridegroom Who sends forth His gifts, Who is delighted as a newly-married man with the love which you have accepted faithfully from Him, Who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. This is why I come from the eternal dwellings to awaken you to a good and holy life and to protect you not to trespass anew against the supreme will of Heaven, so that it may reject you as it did in the past, when you annoyed God with your unlawful acts and He let you fall into the hands of your enemies, who came from far away to punish you for your crimes and to fulfill the Supreme Judge’s will against you. Yet, at that time during your fall I supported you with My Love, because you had not been completely rejected from the sight of Him who had chosen you. And thus during this longlasting bondage I steadily guided you along the path of patience and humility and taught you to correct your life, to become conscious of your sins, to repent and turn to God the Lord with your whole hearts, with Whom you are united in the marital ties of pure and immaculate life. In all your sufferings and trials I supported you with My hand and gave you spiritual power and strength, so that you would not completely decline spiritually and become lost in the mire of life and in despair. And with all the power which I possess I began to create in you a pure and immaculate soul with Divine conduct. And at the end of your trial of many centuries, when Heaven under a Supreme judgment of Divine Providence decided to deliver you from the heavy slavery,[10] I was the first to appear, to intercede for your liberation, supposing that you would take advantage of this given blessing and correct your past behaviour; yet, you misused the gifts of your freedom. Anyway, I began the process of your liberation by putting into action all my mighty powers to work everywhere for the accomplishment and realisation of the great idea which I shall bring about in the shortest time. This is waiting for My supreme order, but your discord, your new sinful life are interfering with the sacred idea which I keep in my heart for your good and for the good of the whole mankind. There is a limit to everything and you must know that. During these last years of your newly begun life I have guided you safely until the present moment and have made greatest efforts to protect you from many dangerous evils. Give praise to God that I am not one of those who can be defeated. “The time has come when you will feel My Power and you will know that I am God, Who cannot be deceived, but you are a self-willed nation who does not see where its own good is hiding.”[11] The weak side of your soul is the general lack of unity and discord which hinders the sacred cause of the Slavic family, yet I am faithful to the work of Him, Who has sent Me. For Him there are no obstacles, no difficulties, His will is eternal and unbending and all He has said shall come to pass, but not in your days, if you turn back as did the Israelite nation in the desert, and like them you shall leave your bones because of your faintheartedness and general disbelief. Yet, the new generation which the God of Hosts Himself shall raise, shall bring to completion His intentions as ordained to be carried out. You may speed up or hinder the development of your cause, if you become involved in the licentious life of the corrupt nations, and this makes Me be more watchful over you, so that you may not turn back again and fall into the trap of evil, which fall shall cost you your lives. This has forced Me to come among you from above and to intercede for you again and to wipe out and remove the infernal hatred towards your brotherly nation which has sacrificed innumerable human lives for you. This is holy Russia for which God has ordained a great future, to fulfill His will for your glory and for the glory of His Kingdom. You will receive a gift from Russia as Melchizedek received from Abraham whom he blessed.[12] She owes her present power and glory to you; such are the Divine orders: one sows and another reaps, but in the end all will partake in the blessings of God. The infernal venom is being put aside today, the events are taking another course, the powers of hell are yielding the leading role on the battlefield; those who disturb the Peace of God will be punished everywhere and His justice shall be re-established on earth. The kingdom which I will restore is not a kingdom of hatred, but of love; raise your eyes to see that the world is ripe for harvest. Soon I shall prove the truth of my Divine words. One more great deed and all hearts shall tremble and the speculations of the world shall cease once and forever. As a sign of its benevolence, Heaven has given you a sacred pledge of great mercy and love which is kept between you, and from the day when the answer is given, your redemption shall begin; and I am warning you to protect what I am building, not to destroy it, because it is sacred and if you try to commit a sacrilege, I shall send three evils upon you: hunger, plague and devastation, and I shall have no mercy on you and I shall judge you so that you shall forever remember that God has spoken to you. Mind My words. In the Pledge, which I have entrusted to you, your future rests; it is the legacy of your house, it is the hope and life of your family. Listen to me, Slavic house, be witness that I have spoken to you. Now I am addressing you, my servants, leaders and teachers and to you scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites, and I command you to not corrupt My people which I have entrusted to you. Turn away from your evil paths, it is time for you to consider, guide my people on the path of the truth and do not mislead them, help the defenseless in their sorrows and do not injure the poor. Put away lawlessness, renounce injustice, leave depravity behind, for God can no longer look upon these evil deeds which are being committed everywhere before His eyes. He is out of patience, I have been called to bring an end to the mass of evil. Heed this while there is still time left, for the moment is coming when it shall be too late to seek me; think about this, the lack of faith which has taken over you wilfully, won’t bring you any good. This is my second coming since you have become my people, in order to see with my own eyes how you are and how you live and My spirit is moved when I see the dismal picture. You are to be pitied, you for whom I have sacrificed all that I acquired: life, glory, and honour; you have misused My goodness and love. In front of My eyes a great number of your unhappy brothers and sisters are standing whom you yourselves have violated and plundered. Go to them and confess your trespasses and make peace with your neighbours. On the day when I am coming to reveal myself to you in My full glory, I wish it to be a day of joy and not of sorrow, a day dedicated to My Lord. I am Elohil, The Angel of the Lord’s Covenant. Communicated on 8 October 1898, Varna, Bulgaria ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Translated by Harrie Salman. Translations made by Marianna Radoulova and anonymous translators have been consulted. Redaction of the translation by Cora Manzano (Hawaii). 3 A reference to the book of Isaiah, chapter 48:1, where the house of Jacob, sprung from the stock of his son Judah, is addressed. 4 The years under Byzantine rule (1018-1186) and Turkish rule (1396-1878). The Bulgarians were under Turkish bondage as a punishment for the persecution of the Bogomils, as Peter Deunov later explained. 5 The two brothers St. Cyril (827/28-869) and St. Methodius (815/20-885), who devised the Slavonic alphabet, the so-called Glagolitic alphabet. During their missionary work in Moravia (863) they began to translate the Bible into the language of the Slavs (now called Old Bulgarian or Church Slavonic). 6 In these sentences not the angel Elohil, but God the Father and Christ are speaking. Quotation-marks placed by the translator. 7 The Bulgarian king Boris I (ruled 852-889, died in 907), who adopted the Christian religion in 865-866 and later introduced the Slavonic alphabet. He welcomed the disciples of the two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, in 886 and founded schools where they could teach and translate Biblical texts into Old Bulgarian. 8 King Boris I abdicated the throne in 889 and became a monk. When his son and successor Vladimir attempted to restore the pagan religion of the past, Boris emerged from his monastery to save Christianity and defeated him in 893. Vladimir was blinded and replaced by his brother Simeon. 9 In these sentences the Lord is speaking. Quotationmarks placed by the translator. 10 After the Bulgarian uprising of April 1876, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877 and liberated the Bulgarian territories. A much smaller Bulgarian state was established at the Conference of Berlin in 1878. 11 God is speaking here. Quotation-marks placed by the translator. 12 It is not clear what kind of gift is referred to here.

Introduction THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW AGE The spiritual work of the Teacher Peter Deunov (1864-1944), which already began in his early years, intensified after his return to Bulgaria in 1895 from the United States. He had studied in Boston at the Methodist School of Theology. Back in Bulgaria he had meetings and conversations with spiritual beings, in which he received a deeper insight into the spiritual task of Bulgaria and into his own mission. It was revealed to him that Bulgaria has a very important task in the preparation of a new culture of love and brotherhood. Peter Deunov dedicated himself to this task and at the age of 33 he founded in 1897 the Society for the Uplifting of the Religious Spirit of the Bulgarian People. This society developed in 1906 into the Chain and in 1920 into the School of the White Brotherhood. In 1898 the angel Elohil gave a prophetic message to Peter Deunov that was addressed to the Bulgarian people. This message known as A Call to My People, provides the spiritual background for an understanding of the work of Peter Deunov. It announces the Second Coming of Christ in a New Age, in which the Slavic nations will step forward as the carriers of a new culture of love and brotherhood. This New Age is the Age of the return of Christ. In his public reading of the Call to My People in Varna, Peter Deunov adopted the role of a prophet, both of the return of Christ and of the new Slavic culture, which is developing in Eastern Europe under the guidance of the angel Elohil. On Sunday March 22, 1914, at the beginning of spring, Peter Deunov invited the spiritual circle that had gathered for his lectures during a number of years, for a festive dinner. After reading from the last chapter of each of the four gospels, he spoke the following words: “Most of you are not aware of importance of this day, but for some it will be memorable, because today one epoch finishes and a new one begins.” In the course of his speech he said: “This day is a great spiritual day. In heavens there is an official attendance of the feast and all friends congratulate you from there.” (...) “Today a new epoch begins in the Spiritual World and how will your names be written in the new Book of Life?” The closing words of his speech were: “Let us raise ourselves and let us represent today’s Divine image of the festivity in heavens. From above spirits are coming down to make us satisfied with what we have, and with them Christ is coming. This will happen either with a blessing, when they will only repair the present situation, or if this turns out to be irreparable, He will come with a catastrophe, He will demolish everything thoroughly (like buildings with rotten foundations), and He will begin His Work again. Let us not be afraid of that! Christ is always above us and between us. Let us go with Christ in the soul, let us open our souls and hearts, and He will come to bless us. Amen.”[1] On March 22, 1914 a new chapter in the history of mankind began. It is the realization of the prophetic message of 1898 – the beginning of the Second Coming. Since 1914, this day of March 22 is celebrated in the School of the White Brotherhood as the first day of the spiritual New Year. One week after this Sunday meeting, on March 29, 1914 the public Sunday Lectures of Peter Deunov, collected in the volumes of Power and Life, officially began. Informally these lectures had already begun in 1911. They present the new teaching about the development of consciousness in the Age of the returning Christ. In the year 2014 the White Brotherhood commemorates the 150th birthday of the Teacher Peter Deunov. It also celebrates the official beginning of the Sunday Lectures a century ago, in 1914. In 2014 humanity as a whole can celebrate the first 100 years of the New Age of Christ. This book presents the text of the Call to My People, in Bulgarian and English. It is followed by a reflection on its content and on the preparation of the new Slavic culture, also in both languages. Harrie Salman, Holland -------------------------------------------- [1] Peter Deunov, talk from March 22, 1914, in: Iskayte sila, imayte vyara, Sofia, 1994, pp 9-12.

CONTENT Introduction. The Beginning of the New Age. A Call to My people – bulgarian sons of the slavic family. Peter Deunov – Prophet of the New Age of Christ. A commentary on “A Call to My People” by Harrie Salman. The prophetic message of the angel Elohil. The awakening of the Slavic nations. The New Age of Christ. The Slavic culture of the future. The preparation of the new culture. The present situation of the Slavic countries. The School of the White Brotherhood. Notes.

http://en-petardanov.com/index.php?/files/file/12-%7B?%7D/ Peter Deunov – Prophet of the New Age A CALL TO MY PEOPLE Commentary by Harrie Salman English translation: Harrie Salman, Marianna Radoulova Translation from English: Valentina Atanasova-Arnaudova, Maria Braikova Editor: Maria Kissova Graphic Designer: Iliana Popova Prepress: Ivan Djedjev Illustration: Gustave Doré, Christoph Weigel © Publishing "BIALO BRATSTVO" 2 General Shteryu Atanasov Str., "Izgrev", Sofia tel: +3592/ 41 80 110, 0897 847 641 www.bialobratstvo.info; www.beinsadouno.org

About the Translator “Ernestina Staleva (1914–2005) danced atop Mount Pollux for the last time this Memorial Day weekend. The free-spirited 90-year-old Bulgarian native and Leverett resident had led her students in the sacred circle dance known as Paneurhythmy for over 40 years.” This publication in the Amherst Bulletin on August 19, 2005 captures a rich and dedicated life in just few words. Erna, as she was known among friends, was born in 1914 in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the age of 20, she was introduced to the Teaching of the Spiritual Master Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov). Soon she joined the community of followers at their center called Izgrev (Sunrise) in the outskirts of Sofia. There she met her husband to be - George Stalev, a violinist, who, like her, was a student of the Teaching of Beinsa Douno. In 1947 the family, including their daughter Boryana, moved to the Czech Republic and lived there for 11 years. During that time she divorced, but continued to be in touch with Boryana’s father. Life was not easy and she was forced to take various low-paid jobs, but was able sometimes to supplement her income also by selling her paintings and giving singing recitals. In 1958 they all immigrated to Vienna, Austria. In 1959 Erna accepted an offer to come to Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. After a couple of years she got a position at the Smith College library, in the foreign acquisition office, where her working knowledge of six languages was highly appreciated. Later she worked at the University of Massachusetts library, and then at the Five College library until she retired. Ernestina Staleva first started offering Paneurhythmy at Smith College, before discovering Mount Pollux in Amherst, with its 360-degree view. She taught the movements of Paneurhythmy, initially introduced by Beinsa Douno, to everyone interested and she was frequently invited to present it at many places around the USA. The pleasure of painting, gardening, hiking, and singing devotional songs was of great help to Erna in overcoming life’s challenges. Her house in Leverett, Massachusetts, was always a welcoming home for visitors whom she treated to her simple delicious meals and her wisdom together with some lively stories about the Master. Dancing Paneurhythmy in her beautiful garden among the flowers was an experience beyond description. Beinsa Douno had told Erna that she would translate his talks one day. Since at that time Erna was translating for Bayer, she assumed that she would be translating the Master’s lectures into German. However, with her move to the United States the Master’s words gave her a new direction. So, when Erna became relatively confident with her proficiency in English, she began translating into this language. Erna was also receiving translations of the Master’s lectures from Bulgaria. She was offering all these materials mostly as handouts, meanwhile trying to organize their publication and distribution. The rich legacy of the published work with her participation includes: “The Brother of the Smallest Ones” (Bialo Bratstvo 1993), “Paneurhythmy—Supreme Cosmic Rhythm” (Bialo Bratstvo 1999 and 2004), “The Wellspring of Good” (Kibea 2002), “Prayers, Formulas, Devotional Songs” (Bialo Bratstvo, 2006), and the new collection of lectures presented in this book. Beinsa Douno’s last words: “A small task has been accomplished for God” can be applied also to Erna’s dedicated life.

THE BLOSSOMING OF THE HUMAN SOUL The separation of the human soul from God represents one of the greatest moments in Creation. This separation is known in the Angelic world as “Dawn of Life.” In the world of humans, it represents one Divine breath because with every breath of God new intelligent souls come into being. New worlds are created with every outbreath of God and with every inbreath some worlds are reabsorbed and the souls enter into the material world. So, with every Divine breath or with every exodus of souls from the Prime Source, they go straight ahead as Divine Rays in the infinite cosmos. Thus they enter the vast Universe of their mission or the pre-assigned work they are given to complete. Now, you who have gathered here feel this inner Divine impulse as an undefined aspiration. People of today call this “youth.” Do you know the proper direction of youth as it should be? It is the direction that is observed in plants. Modern people have lost it. Sometimes they move to the left, sometimes to the right. Youth is neither to the left nor to the right. It is an all-powerful path, defining and equally comprising all directions of existence. To be young implies that you know your path. To be young implies that you bear the most elevated, sublime ideas. Christ said, “Blessed are the children, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”[1] The Kingdom of God belongs to the young, as they are free of moral taint and go neither to the left nor to the right. You all should possess the noble features of prince Hussenfrakh. Here is his story. He was once considered one of the proudest sons of the kingdom, totally unapproachable and unsociable. One day, while hunting in the mountains, he found a wounded abandoned shepherdess. Robbers had attacked her, had stolen her whole herd of sheep, and left her wounded. For the first time the prince felt his heart moved by compassion. Finding the shepherdess so abandoned, he treated her wounds and brought her to the palace on his horse. He took care of her until all her injuries were healed. After her recovery he brought her back to the mountains. He found the robbers, regained her herd from them and gave it back to her so that she could continue her usual life looking after the sheep in the mountains. Some may comment that the young shepherdess should have stayed in the palace with the prince. No, she needed to return to her herd in the mountains after she had experienced some of the prince’s noble qualities so that the sheep could experience these same qualities too. I think that you are like this prince and will find many shepherdesses in the world. I call “shepherdesses” the abandoned human souls, independent of their gender. Gender is of no significance in this case; it is only a method of self-improvement. I address all young people: Know that you are living, intelligent souls and you should accomplish one great quest in the world. If you do not raise your consciousness to the idea that you are souls, if you think that you are just your minds or hearts, men or women, lads or maidens, you are not going to accomplish anything. Many have already tried these methods. However, I think that if you engage your consciousness with the thought that you are living, intelligent souls, you are going to introduce something new into your life, setting it to a new course. In the present development of the human being, there is nothing more sublime than the state of the soul. It carries within itself all the conditions and opportunities of Divine Love. God can express and manifest Himself in His fullness only within the soul. Love can fully express itself only through the soul. If you manifest your love through the heart, it will be only a half of it. If you manifest your love through the mind, again, it will be only a half. All failures in the world come as a result of these halves. Do you know how Nature reconciles them? How is a cherry’s stem formed first and the blossom afterward? The stem is number one, is it not? It means that the path of the soul is circular: from its emergence from the Prime Source until reaching the destination of its journey. This circle is divided into two equal parts by its diameter. In the similar way, when a bud is formed, the stem beneath is formed first. A cross is formed by drawing a perpendicular diameter and the blossom, which was previously a bud, now bursts open. One can already see the stamen, which together with the blossom, heads toward the center of the Sun, toward Love. When you remove the stem, that is number one, the two hemispheres of the blossom remain, manifesting their new direction. Thus, number three is formed, which is represented as a triangle. This blossom, at the current moment, represents the human soul. So we could say that only now the human soul gets to blossom. Until now, it has existed in the form of a bud, but now, for the first time, the bud has begun to open. It is noted as one of the greatest occurrences in cosmos designated as “the blossoming of the human soul.” All Sublime Beings in the Divine World have been waiting for it. The chalice in which the soul manifests itself will then reveal its beauty and God will imbue it with His Light and Love. This is to say that now you are all facing one of the greatest epochs in the world, the blossoming of the human soul. You all will become aware that you are souls coming to blossom. And blossoming, you will emit a delightful fragrance that will spread throughout the world. Only thus, you will gather all these small bugs, little flies, and bees around your chalice because you will produce nectar for them to feed on. As soon as the human soul comes to blossom, all Angels who are servants of God will arrive. For millions of years, from times immemorial, they have been waiting the blossoming of the human soul and what is Divine in the human being in order to gather the nectars from it. The Angels will bring a New Culture with their coming, which will be called “Culture of Divine Love.” I would like you to keep one essential thought: Know that you are like buds, so focus entirely on your blossoming, as it is a paramount moment in your life. After your souls have blossomed, there is nothing greater than joining the Divine World and exploring the possibilities hidden in it. This is not an illusion. You shall come to experience it. For this reason, I say that you all need to be pure of heart and intents. Today you, the youth, bear the debts of the old, but this is only on the surface. Unrighteousness is only dust that accumulates on the surface of the human soul. Remember this: You are not defiled within. Be not deceived by anyone; the dust is only on the outside. Someone may come and say to you that you are sinful. He may cite the verse that says, “And in sin my mother conceived me…”[2] In truth, the human soul is conceived in Love at other place than Earth. You are souls, not bodies. Remember this: You are souls conceived in the Divine Spirit a long time ago. Now the opportunity has come for you to open, blossom, and bear fruit, which to be auspicious before God. I would like this essential awareness to be laid in you as a foundation. If it is not rooted, then the meaning of Life cannot be perceived. Whatever philosophy or science you may investigate and follow, still you could not attain the profound Truth you are seeking. There is one way to It. If you are aware of this, there will be no difference where you are going, left or right, upward or downward. You will live in oneness experiencing the omnipresence of God. When you get this, you will not fear hell. Paradise is where the soul is, in fact, the soul creates the paradise. A place abandoned by the soul turns into hell. Hence, hell is a soulless place, while paradise is a place of the souls. Now I would like to draw your attention to the weather outside and see what it tells about you. The day is beautiful, the Sun is shining, the sky is clear and all this is a very favorable omen. Only you can ruin such a beautiful day; no other power can do it. It is for you all, it is a day for each one of you. If you grasp the concept that you are souls and have come from God in order to serve Him, your life is going to be like this day. The Sun will shine in your mind and soul and your soul will see God. This Great Divine Spirit will dwell in you, therefore you are going to be strong and firm enough to fulfill everything that you desire. Everything in the Universe is possible, but only under one condition: when you are all aware that you are souls and God abides in you. Through this thought only you may feel that deep warmth and that deep connection, which exist among all beings. Then not only Earth but also Heaven will become more familiar to you. In this way, your present life now on Earth, representing a microscopic part of the entire Whole, will become meaningful only by this Great idea. Some of you might have some inherited shortcomings. They are only externals because all diseases and weaknesses are only on the surface of your mind or heart. The Great Day is coming now into the world, when all your shortcomings will disappear at once. When you open up for the Divine Light and receive the Divine Warmth, all your past shortcomings will vanish without a trace. You are going to sense then a special fragrance of Life and you will become so powerful and mighty, so joyous and happy, so young and energetic, as you have never felt in any of your lifetimes, births, and rebirths. The blossoming will occur as soon as you break all chains of slavery binding your soul. As soon as you get free of them, the Divine Spirit will come to your soul for re-establishing the union between you and God, between the human being and the Creator. I would like you to accept the idea that Heaven is something close and accessible to you. You should not think of it as some remote and inaccessible place. No, it is up to you to have it. When the Divine Ray illuminates you, if that same evening you go out and look at the sky, all stars will speak to you and tell you a sweet word. Thus you will come to know that stars can also speak. All these words will be combined in such a way as to form a new book of your life. You will then have the whole codex, all ordinances and laws, methods and ways by which to live. It all will be so clear to you that when you express intent to accomplish some work, each star at which you look up will smile at you to encourage you. So there will be not impossible things for you. You will be able to perform everything in joy and delight. I will be pleased if you consider yourselves students of the Universal Brotherhood of Light for which you are preparing now. May temptations turn to be not hindrances on which you stumble, but challenges that will make you heroes. Do you understand what heroes mean? Those who have no fear of darkness, but grow in Love and Light - I consider them heroes. It is my wish for you to have great success in the work that is to be done at this gathering. You need to write only a few lines, but try to write them well. You are now laying a foundation. Try to place it well. There should be unity and harmony among you and everything should be performed with Love. Do you understand? Lay as a foundation this: May all that you think, feel, and do of your free will be raised and is guided by the Great Principle of Love so that you can really experience it. And this Love will inspire the Great Divine thoughts in you. You all should have sublime ideas and such profoundness that everyone around you may feel that you are the bearers of something new. Each one of you should bring the unique, which is indeed the sacred anticipation of your soul. Protect this sacred anticipation; there is nothing more beautiful than that. When your heart is in a stir, when your mind is in a stir, do not be afraid. Do you know what the wind means for that blossom, which is slightly moved by it? This gentle stirring is one of the blessed moments in life. Some of you are afraid of such anticipation, but when your heart and mind stir, these are some of the most beautiful experiences in your life. Try to do everything according to the Law of Love. As I told you yesterday, try to be a model for people of the old ways. If you succeed in this, you will remain forever young. If you do not give this example, some other young people will come to do it and you will become old. But if you succeed to do it, you will be eternally young. I would like you to be the last generation of the old ways, thus breaking the line of those going in the old ways. True, the representatives of the old ways must pass away, is not that so? They are the people of transgression, delusion; they have caused the highhandedness and misfortunes existing today in the world. The young are the new human beings who come to life in the image and likeness of God. I say again: The young are those who will blossom and flourish in the image and likeness of God. I give you this great concept not only to have it while you are gathered here, but also to take it home with you! No greater idea may ever exist than that. Say, “We are anticipating that great moment when our soul will blossom and we are going to receive the Divine Light and Warmth. We will bring a new fruit so that to overcome all shortcomings of the humankind of today.” It is my wish for you to have the support and blessing of the Universal Brotherhood of Light, to receive the blessing of Christ, Who is the Head of this Brotherhood and to experience God’s Love, which is the meaning of Life. All this should be laid as a foundation in your souls so that you may become bearers of the New Teaching presenting the coming of the Kingdom of God and the fulfillment of God’s Will on Earth! Now, be so good to sing a song and begin your work. Lecture given by the Master Beinsa Douno at the opening of the First Youth Council Gathering of the disciples of the Universal Brotherhood of Light, July 2, 1923, Sofia. ------------------------------------------ 1. See also Luke 18:16–17, “But Jesus called them to Him and said, ‘Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.’” 2. See Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.”

COMMUNION WITH GOD Life, as it reveals itself, possesses one real and one unreal side. The manifestations of Life have their practcal and theoretical meaning. Faith, for example, is one of the theoretical aspects of Life. Regardless of what you think about it, faith is still a theory. In this respect, people differ in their theoretical views about faith and Life. However, regarding what is real in Life or, in other words, regarding the essential aspects of Life, in general all living beings, including humans have similar perceptions, experiences, and perspectives. This implies that within the reality of things unity exists. For example, when Joy comes, it creates the same conditions and transformations among all living beings. However, they are most evident in humans. When someone is joyful, his pulse quickens, the blood flow from the heart increases, and all organs expand. In general, Joy brings expansion to people. Prayer is another real element in Life. Whoever does not know how to pray can only theorize. However, theorizing about prayer cannot be called genuine prayer. Many people of today believe that prayer, in general, is mostly for the ordinary people. They consider prayer to be quite simple for scholars, geniuses, and saints. In reality, if the life of these people is reviewed, it would become evident that it is prayer from the beginning to the end and nothing else than prayer. Their life begins and finishes with a prayer. For example, the prayer of a genius indicates inspiration coming from some great idea, which the genius wants to fulfill as a contribution to the world. The genius’ life is completely selfless. For this reason, we state: Neither a genius nor a saint strive for personal benefits in life. Therefore, only those who are ready to perceive prayer in an intrinsic and intuitive way are able to grasp its deep meaning. None of modern languages can express the profound idea hidden in the concept of prayer. And in the different languages of today because of the lack of suitable words we use substitutes, which can only approximately convey the concept of prayer. Praying means to direct your mind, heart, soul, and spirit toward the Source of Life from which you have come. A person may become unkind, if he rarely thinks about the One Cause or, in other words, about the Primordial Source of Life. Therefore, the downfall of the present humankind has one profound, intrinsic cause: the negligence of the First Principle from which it originates. People of today are negligent in their attitude toward God and that is why you often hear someone saying, “I am a free human being. I can do without God. I can do without praying as well.” This is the reasoning of a person who believes to be free. And yet, this reasoning is obviously incorrect for the sole reason that the Real, or in other words, the Absolute in the world cannot be divided. As God who has created us cannot forget us, in the same way, we do not have the right to forget Him. Should God forget us, everything will come to an end for us and we are going to die; likewise, if we forget God, we are going to die as well. You ask, “Why are we going to die?” I will tell you why death comes. When you ask: Is it not possible to live without praying, it is just as if you suggest that you can live without breathing. If you think that you are free and independent, try to stop breathing only for one hour. If try to do it, you will realize the necessity of breathing. In the same way as with breathing, the conscious awareness of God is not only vital, but even a thousand times more important than breathing for the human being. The more you remember God and keep Him in mind, the better your character becomes. The noble character depends on your mindfulness of God. It implies that if we desire to hold sublime ideals, we need to recognize this truth: God is the Essence that flows through all of us. In all situations that occur in our lives, whether joyful or sorrowful, we need to remember God. Education, sublime ideas, sciences, religions, arts, mastery cannot exist without God - none can exist without God. Someone may say, “Culture can exist without God.” I reply: Culture can exist without God as far as earthly life without sunshine. Culture can exist without God as far as plants without water. And Culture can exist without God as far as people without air. These comparisons show the great need of prayer. Human thought cannot develop without prayer. We do not consider the distorted human thoughts, in which the idea of God is presented in a twisted way. The idea of modern people about God is one of the fallen humankind. What they consider reality, in fact, is not Reality at all. How many times have people prayed to God without receiving an answer? Why are the people’s prayers not answered? Praying to God without receiving an answer is like when a thirsty person dreams that he is drinking water; but waking up from his sleep, he is still thirsty. The water he drank in his dream has not quenched his thirst. It means that this water was not actually real. Reality is distinguished by its capability to satisfy any inner need that one feels. In Reality, one can advance continuously and unceasingly. The gathering this evening is dedicated to the true nature of prayer so that you could understand how to pray. I would like to hear from you how you pray. When you pray; in other words, when you go before God, you feel meek. Can you pray properly, when you are timid? And what is the reason for your timidity? When a student has learned his lesson, he rises hand bravely and decisively, and gives a good answer to every question asked by the teacher. And vice versa, if the lesson is not prepared, the student feels timid and tells himself, “The teacher is going to fail me.” When you pray to God, keep in mind the following quality of His: God is very patient, but expects us to make efforts. When you pray, pray for what is real and genuine. God does not like us to pray for superficial things, which we can do by ourselves. We should not expect God to act upon such things. It is ridiculous, for example, to go before God and say, “Lord, teach me how to eat,” or “Teach me, Lord, how to drink water; how to shake hands with people; how to dress.” Many prayers of today are of this nature. I say: People of today need such a prayer that will set their lives right and will eradicate any self-indulgent behavior. Self-indulgence is a vice like an ulcer that eats away at the human soul. Like a cloud, it darkens one’s consciousness and hardens one’s heart. The self-indulgent individual thinks all day long only about oneself: to have a good meal and warm, comfortable home, to be healthy and well-dressed. As to the suffering of others, such person says, “It has nothing to do with me.” The lack of interest in others is an alien state which could be quite susceptible. It is rare but so offensive that one will need a long purification to be able to release it. And so, remember the following truth: there is nothing greater in one’s life than prayer. People may tell you whatsoever, but you should not forget the foremost importance of prayer and communion with God. Neither knowledge nor love or wisdom on Earth can be compared to prayer, to the communion of the human being with the First Cause. The power of prayer lies in this: at worship people need to set all their virtues to work. Prayer in which it does not happen is not genuine. Prayer should include the qualities of Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, Virtue, Compassion, and many other virtues. When you go before God with a prayer like this, you resemble a tree covered with ripe fruit. Seeing you so adorned, God will be pleased that a wise child stands before Him and knows how to speak in the sublime, Angelic language. You say, “We cannot all be wise children.” It does not matter as God is patient toward His foolish children as well, but there is a difference between the wise and the foolish child. The foolish child will never achieve the results of the wise one. We see this everywhere in Life: the wise child studies; while the foolish child always procrastinates. The wise child is rewarded, while the foolish child indulges oneself. I say: If people of today do not know how to pray, they will lose even the little they have preserved. All good, great, and beautiful that is preserved in them is due to the Spirit of prayer acting in their souls. Therefore, as a result of praying, although it is not so well applied in the modern society, something good was preserved and something new was attained. Thanks to the prayers we offer we have become channels of the sublime powers and noble values through which the entire humankind is sustained. The soul needs intrinsic, spiritual nourishment that can be attained only through prayer. Now, when I look at you, I notice that you are enriched by the knowledge I have passed to you; and yet, you have not still learned how to pray. In many aspects you think, preach, and speak as I do; but there remains something unknown for you: and that is how to pray as I do. The only thing that I cannot teach you is how to pray. I never allow myself to teach anyone how to pray. Why? From my point of view, prayer is the most sacred act that belongs to the soul itself. Someone asks me, “How do you pray, when do you pray?” I cannot tell you how, but I am always praying. I pray when I eat and drink water, when I read and work. At all times and everywhere, I pray. You might ask, “Do you not feel burdened by so much praying?” On the contrary, I feel uplifted. Life consists primarily of the act of praying. Should one cease to pray, Life will disappear. Prayer is something great. It is not expressed through the mumbling or whispering of prayers. When you learn how to pray, your life will become meaningful. Christ’s disciples did not know how to pray either, that is why they turned to Him with the words, “Master, teach us how to pray.”[1] Christ answered them, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, It will teach you.”[2] However, they had a model of true worship in the presence of Christ. I say: Everyone can learn how to pray. Prayer is determined by one’s virtues, so you should place Good as a foundation of Life. When the foundation is placed, you will not even notice how the ability to pray will come as a natural result of Life. Then your soul will get to blossom like a tree with thousands of fragrant blossoms. When a person goes in the mood of supplication, malice ceases to exist for him. He is kindly disposed to every one. He rejoices in everything and gives thanks for all. Even if he sees a crawling worm, he will stop to help it in one way or another. When he looks at a tree whose branches and leaves sway in the breeze, he feels well-disposed toward it and desires to help it. Everything is alive to this person. He sees God’s Spirit working and assisting everywhere. This awakens within him the impulse to work too and to free oneself from the limiting conditions of Life. You ask whether only human beings pray. Every living being prays including animals and plants. The fragrance that the plants disperse throughout the air is their prayer. When they lose their fragrance, they wither. As long as a plant is fragrant, it grows and develops. There are plants, whose leaves in addition to their blossoms disperse a fragrance. Therefore, when people pray, they produce some fragrance like plants. The more they pray, the more fragrance they produce. If praying ceased, the fragrance will gradually dissipate. Those who have never prayed or forgot how to pray have this fragrance lost. It depends on the quality of their development, on the virtues they have. The more developed virtues are, the stronger fragrance one emits. Therefore, prayer is the most valuable work in Life. As far as the way one should pray, it is a personal matter and you are going to learn it on your own. You will hear just an echo, if I teach you how to pray, so you will find it tiresome at the end and will cease praying. Prayer is genuinely precious only when it comes from the depth of your soul. If you ask someone to teach you praying, he will answer, “I would better pray for you, but you will work for me.” This is the Law: If you work for someone, he will inevitably pray for you. If he does not, you, in turn, are not obliged to work for him. Such are the manners among spiritual people. If you pray for someone, that person will work for you. This evening I would like you to pray, while I am going to work, or vice versa, I will pray and you will work. We can divide into two groups: one-half will work, the other half will pray. Whatever you agree upon, one thing is important: all of you need to participate and direct your attention to God. There is not a moment that is more solemn than raising our minds and hearts toward the One Who has granted all Blessings to us. If you do this continuously in the course of a whole year, you are going to be joyful and cheerful all the time, experiencing the presence of God. Prayer can be helpful in all circumstances of Life. Without prayer, anything: whether science, religion, or love remains uninspired. Without grace even nourishment is wearisome. All you do without prayer deprives you of joy. There are worshippers who are very precise in their prayers: their prayers are rigid, measured, reserved. However, there are others, especially among the poor, whose prayers go freely and fluently with the flow of their feelings at a given moment. After such a prayer, the faces of these people become luminous and get to smile; at the same time, a change occurs in their souls as well. You may listen to a poor person who is praying like this, “Lord, I have an inner desire to pray, but I do not know how. I am aware that You bestow Your time and care upon me, but I have not yet learned how to pray. I make efforts to do Your Will, but do not succeed always, as I make mistakes. If You should strike me down, Your arm will crush me. Have mercy upon me. I will not repeat the same mistakes again.” Receiving this prayer, God sends a Blessing to this soul and says, “This is a wise child of Mine who will readily improve.” I am presenting things in the human perspective as they happen among people. Who has never met in life a candid and sincere person speaking from the depth of one’s soul? Listening to his words, you feel that person’s readiness to offer you any service, and do any sacrifice for you. So you feel well-disposed to such person. Even when he has caused you some harm, you are ready to forgive him right then. I say: Your transgressions will not be forgiven, unless you forgive the transgressions of your fellowmen. Often you turn to God with a plea to learn some secret. Many things will be revealed to you, but only when you learn to pray properly. Now, looking at you this evening, I notice that there are both young and old people among you. You all say that you love one another and have brotherly feelings among yourselves. What distinguishes the old from the young? The old wants to render service to the young and the young is willing to work. It implies that they both are ready to do any assigned work. All human beings should have in their souls the absolute willingness of serving God in the same way as Angels and Advanced Beings are ready to help anyone regardless of the difference in the living conditions. You say, “In which direction should we face when we pray?” You should know one thing: worship does not tolerate rules or limitations. When praying properly, one is always facing God. You cannot pray if you are not facing God. If you pray to God, but think of someone else - it may be your friend, mother or father - then, you are praying to that person. If you pray to God while thinking of your money or home, you are praying to those. If you pray to God while thinking of a saint, you are praying to that saint but not to God. If you want your prayer to be received by God, your thought should be exclusively focused on Him. During prayer, your mind should be free of any extrinsic thoughts. Therefore, the image of God should be the focus of your mind while praying, no other image. You may say, “We do not know the image of God.” No, you know it and you should only recall it now within yourselves. There is an instant in Life when all beings - from the least to the greatest ones - pray to God. In this case, the mystical aspect of praying lies in one’s ability to recognize this instant and unite with the collective prayer, saying, “I turn my mind, heart, soul, and spirit to God Whom all others address at that very moment.” At that point, all will send forth their thoughts to God according to their own development. God will answer this collective prayer by sending to each one as much Light as needed. Now, let us say “The Good Prayer”[3] directing our minds toward God Whom all beings are appealing to tonight. This is a collective prayer not only for the humankind but for the entire Universe: for all Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Dominions, and Powers. Prayer is the only way to obtain God’s Blessings so that we can grow and develop according to God’s Will. Lecture of the Master Beinsa Douno held on November 23, 1930, Sofia, Izgrev. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. See also Luke 11:1, “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’” 2. See also John 16:13, “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” 3. A prayer given by the Master.

ABSOLUTE TRUTH Have you learned the Prayer of Daniel? Let each one of you read the Gospel of John. It is good to have the text of this Gospel with you. I say: Whatever you do - do it for God. When you enter the classroom, keep silence and stay focused. As spiritual students, you must speak the Truth. Falsity is not admissible for a spiritual student. It represents a double transgression. When you make a mistake and do not want to admit it, then you are living a lie. You should sanctify the Name of God. If not so, others will come and will do it. If you love God, you will keep His Name sacred and will honor all people at the same time. Some say that at times I act in a human way. If so, from now on I will always act in a Divine way. But regardless of the way I act, people are always ungrateful. God has given them Life; He has given minds and hearts to them along with all blessings, but they are still ungrateful. God has been working for you thousands of years, but still you are not grateful. As it is mentioned in the Scriptures, an ox knows its owner, but Israel does not know God.[1] If you cannot take control over your mind and heart, how will you come to know God? If you quarrel with people, how can you serve God? It concerns all of you without any exception. There is none among you to be as they should be. I speak to every one of you today. If you are not satisfied, go into the world where you will be met with a whip. If you do not perform God’s Will, I feel sorry for you. You need to know this! The deeds of those who do God’s Will are shining. The Scripture says, „Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”[2] I am going to make an experiment now to see who of you is perfect and who is not. If I pour a little gasoline on you and strike a match, I will see whether you will ignite or not. If you catch fire and burn, you will know by yourselves who you are. If you do not burn, again you will know who you are. One needs to be knowledgeable. If knowledge does not improve human life, it is not real: it is like a burden that cannot be handled. If knowledge cannot become the Light in which to read, it is not real Knowledge. One’s Light will increase with the awakening of consciousness. Knowing this, make efforts to keep your consciousness awake. Do not lull it to sleep. Only those who have awake consciousness can enter the Kingdom of God. „Old” people with trembling hands and legs cannot enter there. Remember: only „young” people are admitted in the Divine School. „What will happen with the old ones?” you ask. They will rejuvenate. The young will become like the Sun and will shine. The Divine Teaching requires this, thus creating order and organization everywhere in life. Spiritual students have the fragrance of flowers. The Divine Teaching excludes any impurity. Some of you are still holding to the formal church and attending the sermons of preachers. You are free: you may go there to be preached. You may go to the world, if you think that the teaching of the world is good. Then I will be free. Remember one thing: If you search for an easy path to salvation, you will find it nowhere. No salvation can exist if Divine Love is corrupted. You can find temporary diversion there but not what you seek. As I am observing you, I see that some of you come to me only with the purpose to have certain secrets revealed. Should they stay even for thousands of years with me, I am not going to reveal anything to them. Why? It is because they have not been prepared yet for such Knowledge. They will complain afterward that I have not treated them as I should. How could they expect me to behave to them as they wish, when they are trying to deceive me? „The Master does not treat me well.” How could I treat him well, when he is trampling on the Truth? What kind of relationship can I have with someone who defiles the Divine Knowledge with his mind and tarnishes God’s Love with his heart? This is addressed to all of you, I do not exclude anyone. There is not even one truly righteous person among you. For this reason, I say: You cannot advance, if you do not transform your iniquity into Justice. If iniquity in the world is transformed into Justice, we could expect some positive change worldwide. Try to tell someone of today that he is not righteous. He will answer, „My father is a man of noble character. My mother is righteous too.” I ask: If the king’s son, himself, is stealing, what will be the honesty of this nation? Therefore, if you do God’s Will and yet, you steal, where is your honesty? „But I have fulfilled everything that is required from me.” Do you think that to be diligent once or twice is enough? Do not become servants of the dark, negative forces. If you do not apply Divine Knowledge, you will encounter the knowledge of the forces of darkness, from which all misfortunes come. „But God will help us.” How will God help you, when you do not have a single great idea? „We will pray.” You could pray, but your prayer will not be answered. The failure of your endeavors is a sign that you do not have God with you. Until you become one with God so that to have continuous peace in your soul and perform God’s Will, you can never be fully successful. You all are required to discipline yourselves and get control over that company of spirits raging in you. You are in charge of that company. If you fail to put it in order, you are to be pitied. Do not try to excuse your employees. No lie is allowed. Do not distort the Truth. Do not misinterpret my words as well. Do not lie in my name. I do not permit that. Remember: Pity will be on that one who lies in my name. Someone may claim, „But the Master said this or that.” Verify it ten times, but do not lie in my name. Moreover, do not lie in God’s Name! Absolutely no falsehood is allowed in the School. After all that, someone will come to speak about Love. What can you tell the hungry person about Love? Give him food, nothing else. Doing this, you will fulfill God’s Will. Someone comes to share that God has appeared to him. That is a superficial understanding. The time of such misinterpretation has already passed. If God can speak to us from now on, where has the Truth remained? The bud, which is going to blossom today, has prepared for this process for a long time. This same bud has blossomed many times. You say, „The Sun is rising.” The Sun has risen so many times, but you have not seen it. Therefore, if you have not blossomed yet, make sure that you can do it. The human power lies in the opening of the soul bud and its blossoming. Young and old - all should have a good understanding of Life. Some among you think that they do not need to study any more. Have you studied the Law of Sacrifice? Do you know how it relates to Life? As you live, you will be learning to sacrifice. You are required to live properly so that you may set your life right. If you do not set it right, I will do it for you. But pity on you then! You cannot even imagine the redressing that will befall on you! You will see what will happen yourselves, but do not wait for that day to come. If you think that with the beginning of war, your affairs will be settled, you are doomed. Do not wait for the sunset to put your affairs in order. No, your affairs should be arranged while the Sun is shining. Make use of this time. Purify your hearts after the God-gifted freedom that you have - for we reap as we sow and the Law is really strict. Everyone will bear the consequences of each of their actions. In the future, fathers will not be responsible for their sons, and mothers - for their daughters. The time of parental responsibility has passed. At one time, the retribution for one’s wrong-doing was repaid to the fourth generation of this person. Now everyone is responsible for their own mistakes. No one will pay for anyone else. Therefore, everyone who comes to class should maintain the harmony. Everyone should have inner peace. When you come here, instead of talking, open the Scripture and read. Next time, everyone should bring the New Testament and read it. If you do not want to bring the whole Book, copy the chapter chosen for reading. Otherwise, what is the purpose of being together? If God's Blessing is not coming upon us, what is the reason for our gatherings? It is not permissible to play games with God. It is the most dangerous thing in the world. For instance, you stand before God to ask Him for this and that, but follow your will. You give promise, but do not act to it. No, once you promise to do something for the sake of God, you should perform it. Once you avow that you will serve God, you should keep your word; even with the cost of your life, you should serve God. When I watch you, I see that you are slacking off; you are not working as before. You wish that you are free. However, this indolence is not true freedom. Live and work in such a way that everyone can see there is something special in you; that everyone can see the Divine in you. „But we have weaknesses, are we not humans?” Everyone can have some weaknesses, but they exclude falsehood. Lying is not allowed to anyone! I have the greatest repugnance for falsehood. Everything can be forgiven, but a lie is never forgiven! Your other wrongdoings can be remitted, but untruth is never excused. When I meet you, there is one thing that I want from you: to be free from hypocrisy. I want to see you advance but without any deceit. Absolutely no lies! Do not permit untruthfulness to stay as an obstacle between you and God. Everything is disrupted, all your affairs, by the presence of a lie. Do not place any barriers between God and your soul. Do not ask to whom it applies. I speak to all people. It applies to all of you, without any exception. I do not speak about Absolute Purity only. To be able to come to It, you should exclude falsehoods from your life-path. Untruthfulness interferes with any development. It leads to death. Those who lie break for themselves the link with their life. Work upon yourselves to get free from lack of Truth. Only in this way you will attain Peace. Peace cannot come where lying exists. Some are dishonest even while speaking of Peace. Peace will come only when there is no deceit whatsoever. Peace should be reigning between God and us. Christ said, „I give you My Peace.” Now, when you leave the class, you will say that the Master has scolded you. This is not scolding. Say, „The Master invites us to absolutely free ourselves from lies.” This is the Truth. If you do not speak the Truth, it is another way of lying. Why will you speak of something that has not been said? I met a young sister and looked at her. Why? I wanted to tell her to be truthful. I told her mentally: You are young. You are entering the world now and have already begun to lie. I met an elderly sister. I looked at her too. I sent her these thoughts warning her in a mental way: Sister, you are on the edge of dying. Be careful not to lie. And so, both young and old people should speak the truth. Sometimes people look at me in disapproval. They want to tell me, „Why do you permit your followers to be dishonest? Why do you also permit spirits to deceive us?” Thus they make me an accomplice to those who lie. No, I cannot be their accomplice. There is one thing I cannot partake in - and that is falsehood. You will say, „It is impossible to go without twisting the truth.” No, it is quite possible. From now on, no lie will be used. I am quite lenient toward you. All your wrongdoings can be excused except lying! Any other transgression is preferable to lying. If someone has never committed a single transgression except being untruthful, it is equal to having committed all transgressions. Therefore, this person will be the greatest wrongdoer and will be beyond redemption. The devil is the father of lies. No one can save liars. If they stop lying, the rest of their transgressions could easily be remitted. Remember: There is no excuse for lying. „What should I do when a false thought comes to my mind?” Take it by the ear and let it go with the words, „No lie!” You ask, „What should I do next?” You should speak the Truth. And when you are asked what the Master has told you, say, „The Master tells us to cast out lies.” You speak that I was angry. That is not true. Anger is not useful. What will I accomplish with my anger? It implies frowning, raising voice, and shouting. No, nothing can be accomplished in this way. I repeat: No lies! Remember: Renounce any falsehood, if you want to receive Divine Blessing this year. Otherwise, you are going to lose everything. I do not like anyone of you to be harmed. I support your wellbeing. Should I leave you with falsehood, you would be completely confused. Falsehood is not an original quality of humankind - it was adopted from a different culture. You cannot love it as it has a bestial origin. I will read some verses from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. „In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[3] By „Word,” I understand the Intelligence. It means that the Intelligence was in the beginning. „And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.”[4] Why not? It is because the Intelligence was there. „And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth.”[5] Absolutely no falsehood can exist where there is Grace and Truth. No Grace and Truth, no Word and Wisdom can exist where there is falsehood. „No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”[6] Why has no one seen God? It is because most people are untruthful. The one who lies cannot see God. If you want to see God, free yourself of falsehoods. „He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’”[7] Though the prophet Elijah was a courageous person, he was frightened by a woman and fled to the desert. This fear remained also in John the Baptist. For this reason, when they asked him whether he was Elijah, he denied. Whom did he renounce? The faint-hearted Elijah. „He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.’”[8] John wanted to say that he was not the Elijah who killed the prophets. He is the voice saying, „Make straight the way of the Lord!” It implies that John is not the old, but the new Elijah. „And they asked him saying, ‘Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’”[9] „I did not know Him; but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”[10] He speaks the Truth. The Spirit cannot descend upon that one who lies. „And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”[11] Who is the Son of God? The one who is always telling the Truth. „Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), where are You staying?’”12 „He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where He was staying and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).”[13] There is only Truth where Christ abides. „‘We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ).”[14] It means: we have found the One who never lies. We have found the son of Joseph. „And Nathaniel said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’”[15] In other words, can a person who does not lie come out of Nazareth? „Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward Him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.’”[16] It implies that he is a man who is ready to speak the Truth. „And He said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see Heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”[17] The Son came when falsehood needed to be cast out. And so, work this year on what is good before God. Do not think only about yourselves. If you believe that God lives in all people, then work for the common good. Then God is going to see through the eyes of anyone and everyone that you are fulfilling His Will. You come to borrow one hundred leva from me. Yet, I see that with this money you intend to buy a rope in order to hang someone. Will I fulfill God’s Will if I give you the money? I will fulfill God’s Will much better, if I send two people to give you a good thrashing; after that they will carry you on a stretcher to your bed. After that, I myself will come to heal you. This is the meaning of fulfilling God’s Will. Therefore, suffering comes to prevent you from committing the crime, which you have considered to do. You will be beaten; you will be ill for a while, but you will make the amends. While walking, you fall and break your leg. Why? You have done something inappropriate. The leg suffers instead of you, but it will teach you not to transgress. It has refused to serve you. It says, „God has made me to serve you, but without any deceit. Should you force me to be untruthful, I will not move from my place.” Truly, there is nothing more beautiful than a truthful person in whom there is absolutely no lie. There is no more beautiful face than the one that is always truthful. It is an angelic face. It can say anything, but it will never lie! That one who is honest and true is able to carry people’s transgressions. Those who lie deliberately bear their own transgressions because it is difficult to get redemption for them. These are the devil’s transgressions. If someone asks you, „What did the Master tell you today?” answer, „To live without falsehood.” This is the Truth. Appeal to God like this, „Lord, my soul desires Peace and may it come to me in all its fullness.” Where does Peace abide? Peace abides only where lie does not exist. Now, throughout the week, all who live in Sofia need to get up at 4:30 A.M. to carry out the assignment. Immediately upon awakening, say to yourselves, „Without falsehood!” You should break your links with all lies. You should divorce from it. I divorce you from the lie. No one has the right to marry falsehood. You must remain pure! The lie is the first woman - the adulteress. If you unite with her and give birth to children, do you think they will be good? Do you think they will have sublime desires? Absolutely no union with the lie! If you want to marry, I advise you to unite with Truth. Someone asks me whether to marry or not. You can marry but the Truth only. Should we marry? Yes. Whom? The Truth. Those who attend the class should divorce from falsehood and marry the Truth. If your father is married to the lie, you should leave him. If your relatives are bound to deceit, quit them too. This is the meaning of the verse, „Renounce your father and mother.” Renounce yourself and all those who incite you to be untruthful. Whom should we marry? The Truth. Whom should we love? The Truth. You will love your mother and father who serve the Truth. You will love your brother and sister who serve the Truth. You will love your relatives and friends who serve the Truth. You will love animals and plants that serve the Truth. Absolute Truth! This is the ideal of the New Teaching. Absolute Truth! This is the ideal of the New Humankind. Keep this ideal within your souls. First morning lecture by the Master Beinsa Douno, held on September 21, 1930 in Sofia, Izgrev ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. See also Isaiah 1:3, „The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master ’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.” 2. See footnote 2 on page 91. 3. See John 1:1. 4. See John 1:5. 5. See John 1:14. 6. See John 1:18. 7. See John 1:20–21. 8. See John 1:23–24. 9. See John 1:25. 10. See John 1:33. 11. See John 1:34. 12. See John 1:38. 13. See John 1:39. 14. See John 1:41. 15. See John 1:46. 16. See John 1:47. 17. See John 1:51.

THE VOICE OF GOD The human path is defined by the existing inner philosophy of Life. In order to attain this philosophy, you need to make conscious efforts; to work on yourself. If you are questioned on the reason and purpose of your coming to Earth, you will say that God knows the answer; He has created you so He knows your predestination. This is a general assertion; that is how one speaks without thinking. Yet, all should know why they have come to Earth, what their special purpose is. If this question is directed to an ox, bird, or fish, each one of these beings would answer according to the degree of its development. The ox will say that its specific work is to go from one place to another and defend itself with its horns, if attacked; the bird will reply that the purpose of its life is to fly; the fish - to swim. What will a person answer to this question? If you have thought about it, you can give yourself a satisfactory answer. All who have the answer about their life mission on Earth can be called happy - they have attained inner peace and tranquility. Therefore, those who perceive the meaning of Life have reached a high level of awareness and understanding, due to which they can evolve properly, walking on their path with confidence and open eyes. Such people resolve any difficulties and contradictions they may encounter with ease and they are interested in everything in Life. The person who is ill will also open his eyes, but only for the medicines and food, which are substantial for his recovery. After he takes them, he will close his eyes and begin to moan again. Why is he moaning? It is because he is passing through a difficult part of his life. So, the ill man moans because of the perilous path ahead. At the sight of what he needs to endure, he closes his eyes not to look at it. The ill person is faint-hearted. When one is healthy, this one walks with open eyes. Why? The path ahead is beautiful and easy. As long as people have not run into difficulties, they are not frightened. But encountering challenges, they close their eyes and begin moaning. The wise person, however, who understands the meaning of Life, goes with open eyes regardless of all difficulties. Humans have come to Earth for learning lessons. Students of Life should aspire for positive knowledge that will bring a profound inner peace to them. For this reason we say that your first task is coming to know yourself and work upon yourself, and after that - coming to know the others and work with them. To take the improvement of the world upon yourself is not in your power and abilities. Can you provide food for all people? Can you say what is happening to the dead and where they go? Can you keep account of the lives of all who are born? Why is one born, why does one die? Life brings the same things as death. Both life and death bring the human being certain blessings and adversities simultaneously. Death is happiness to someone and unhappiness - to another one. Happiness and unhappiness are relative things. It is up to you to make your life happy or unhappy. Living consciously and observing God’s laws prolongs one’s life. Disobeying God’s Laws shortens one’s life and brings suffering. While living, it is good to perceive Life as a great blessing. God’s Will must be observed in order to make the best of this blessing. Religious people claim that they do God’s Will. What is the meaning of the words “fulfillment of God’s Will”? Only those who are healthy, strong, and wise are able to fulfill God’s Will. Their prayer is always accepted as they are in connection with God. What would you say about someone who is bragging about having a millionaire friend and at the same time goes with an empty purse? It is impossible to lack shoes on your feet, to be hungry and in rags when you have a rich friend. It is impossible to be fulfilling God’s Will and at the same time to be ill or live in poverty. In spite of whether you fulfill God’s Will, God has not deprived you of the good things in life. He provides an abundance of water, air, light, and food for all people, but many of them are ill or suffer of hunger and deprivation. Who is to be blamed for that? When one’s jug is cracked, what is poured in it will run out, but who is to be blamed for that? The jug. Who cracked the jug? Either the potter or its user. Whatever the case is, it will not help the person whose jug is cracked. What is important is to replace it. He has the right to replace the broken jug with a new one. And so, when you hear someone complaining of not doing well, you should know that his jug is cracked. Whatever he pours in it is running out. Ultimately, he becomes a permanent loser. Sometimes the losses are big, sometimes they are small. If you pour water in a cracked jug and it runs out, the loss is not so big because there is plenty of water in nature: you pour it from one side, it flows down from the other side. However, when it comes to rose attar, for example, the smallest loss of it affects badly not only the individual, but the whole household. The human body is nothing else but a pot given to the person to act through it and do some work. This pot needs to be solid enough to preserve the precious attar for a longer time. The precious attar that is poured into the human body represents Life itself. When the pot cracks, the attar runs out and the process of aging begins. When Life is running out of someone, he becomes indisposed and begins to complain that his legs do not hold him, that he feels often dizzy, his chest is hurting, he cannot think sensibly, his eyesight is failing, and so on. This indicates premature aging, which is a sign that this person has broken the good relationships with the Intelligent Nature. What should be done in this case? One needs to restore the proper relationship with the Intelligent Nature and as a result to begin rejuvenating. Everyone, righteous or sinful, may disrupt the relationship with the Intelligent Nature, but can re-establish it too. The righteous person may disrupt the connection with the Spiritual World by some wrong doings. Yet, with good deeds this connection can be re-established. It is quite natural. If the wrongdoer lives in an area with clean air, he will be healthy. If the righteous one lives where the air is polluted, he will get ill. However, each of these situations could be temporary or permanent. The righteous person who lives wisely would not probably stay for long in an unclean atmosphere. On the other hand, the wrongdoer could not always make use of the pure air. Also, if the righteous man worries constantly, he will lose his health and if the wrongdoer does not worry, but keeps his inner peace, he will always be healthy. God gave mind to the human being to be able to think, not to worry. “But why is the world created in this way?” It is none of your business. “Which is the appropriate creed?” These are issue, which cannot be solved only in theory - they need a practical application. To answer the question about the true creed, one needs to experience the results of a given creed as applied in Life. The Scripture says, “You will know them by their fruits.”[1] The same is true about any creed. If you are healthy and strong, your creed is good. If you are sick, ignorant, and weak, your creed is not appropriate. Even if you can explain the reason for your weakness and ignorance, it will not help you much. Whatever explanations and excuses you may give, the weakness and ignorance are not overcome. A person should be aware of the connection existing between God and the human soul at any moment of being and guard oneself against interrupting it. Without this connection you cannot create a concept neither of God nor of yourself. You can see people, you can see yourself too, but without having an idea about the humankind as a whole. You know that a person has eyes to see; ears to hear, nose to smell; mouth to speak, but this is not enough. You should know the purpose of each organ in the human body. You say that you have hands and feet; but you must know both their external and internal functions. The purpose of hands is not only in the work they do. The purpose of feet is not only in walking. All organs of the human body have their external and internal purpose. Christ put clay on the eyes of the blind man and he began to see. The learned of that time gathered around Christ to question Him on how it happened that the blind man could see. They wanted to know if he was blind by birth and if so, what was the reason for this: had he or his parents sinned? Well then, according to the philosophy of that time, it was impossible to be blind by birth without any reason. Christ answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.[2] The people of those days lacked understanding of what Christ spoke to them, but people of today do not understand it either. Some people do, but most do not understand Christ’s Teaching. After asking Christ about many things, people wanted also to know why he opened the eyes of the blind man. It makes sense to ask why someone’s eyes are gouged, but to ask Christ why He has opened the eyes of the blind man is out of place. Blindness is a limitation that needs to be eliminated. Christ met a blind man and opened his eyes. Could there be more natural act than this? At that time there were many blind people living in Israel, but Christ did not help them, He opened only the eyes of that particular blind man. Why? It is because He had a special attitude toward him. In fact, that person became His disciple after his sight was restored. Christ came to Earth to help those who externally or internally were blind, but at the same time, they were ready to fulfill God’s Will. Those who are not ready and willing to do God’s Will are going to listen and look without hearing and seeing anything. It means that it is not destined for everyone to have their eyes or ears opened so that to see and perceive God’s Word. Now apply the story about the blind man to your spiritual life and see if there is such blindness in you too. When will one’s spiritual sight awake? When there is a deep desire coming from the heart for recovery of the spiritual sight in order to be used for serving God and fulfilling God’s Will. The man born blind, whom Christ helped to see again, was cherishing the inner desire to fulfill God’s Will. Guided by this desire, he was waiting for someone to come and help him. Someone may say that according to the Hindu philosophy that man had paid his karma and that is why he was able to see again. Yet, we say that the karma itself left him. What is the meaning of this statement? When will the karma leave someone? When it is clear there is nothing more to be taken. Looking at that person, the karma says, “There is no more to be drawn from that one.” Does the wolf not act in the same way? When meeting a sick sheep, the wolf will push its belly and will leave it with the words, “I do not eat sick sheep.” However, when meeting a healthy sheep, the wolf will quickly get the better of it. The sick sheep will remain free as the wolf will not attack it, while the healthy sheep will be exposed to its teeth. It is a figurative explanation of the karma, in order to understand that Law. The fundamental interpretation of a topic is like a circle and all other relevant issues are arranged around it in concentric circles. Such circles are formed and exist around a person as well as in Nature. Where in Nature do we find them? When we look at the cross section of a tree’s trunk, we see that it consists of several concentric circles. We can define the age of the tree by counting them. Why are these circles formed there, why not squares or any other geometrical forms? It is because the circumference as a curved line meets less resistance than the straight line. It indicates that while growing, the plant searches the path of the least resistance. It is one of the Nature’s ways. She always searches the way of the least resistance so as to avoid the needless consuming of her energies. And so, by proceeding on the path of the least resistance, a person observes one of the moral rules in Nature. People of today often speak about morality, judging or approving deeds of their fellowmen. However, if they want to examine their own actions, they will see that only a few of them correspond to the moral rules. Morality exists also for one’s manner of speaking. If its rules are not observed, the speech is rough, unexpressive, and unpleasant. Only the person, who is soft, can speak according to the rules of morality. People say that someone speaks sweetly. If there is no softness in the character, whatever one may say, it will sound alike. Whether you wish all the best or tell someone that you despise them - it will sound identically. Therefore, one needs to be gentle. Gentleness will give expression and modulation of the voice so that the content of the words may become notable. An example for this is the Prophet Elijah’s prayer when he wants to prove to the pagans that only one God exists in the Universe Who can hear and answer people’s prayers. Every word in this prayer contains gentleness, power, and proper intonation. When God answered his prayer, fire came down from Heaven and lit up the sacrifice, which he had placed on his sacrificial altar. The pagans were praying to their gods as well but to no avail. They were shouting, boasting, and injuring themselves, but their gods remained deaf to their prayers. It is said about Elijah’s prayer that it came from the depth of his soul. That is why one should pray with all his soul. When does a prayer come from the soul? When someone is on the stake waiting to be burned. In such moment he has eliminated everything around, he does not see and hear anything. His being is fully engaged with the thought of God. There is not any barrier between God and his soul. He has a direct connection with God’s Consciousness. When you come before God in prayer, you should be like a child willing to confess or admit all its mistakes without justification. Why did a person err? That is not important, but recognition is what is required. In respect to justification and acquittal, it is none of your business, it is God’s Work. God knows that humans cannot always understand things with such clarity so that not to make any mistakes. Facing their wrongdoings, some people excuse themselves pleading that the human being is weak and it is not possible for a person to avoid mistakes. This does not resolve the situation. When you do harmful actions, you must rectify the effects from them. If not, you will come to an inner state of sinfulness, whereby you will lose your dignity and strength. You will realize that you have lost what brings you strength and impulse to grow and evolve. In this situation, in spite of people’s opinion about you, what really matters is your inner state. Once you correct your mistakes, you will reconnect to God and begin to feel strong and courageous again. Calmly you could look into people’s eyes and will not be disturbed by their opinion. People of today need new concepts, which would create new attitudes and a new creed for them. Today all say that they believe in God. What kind of faith is this that makes no sacrifices? Someone says that he is ready to jump from a rock in order to prove his faith in God. Easy to say, but not everything one speaks can be fulfilled. Mindful and not foolhardy faith is required. When Satan tempted Christ, he asked Him to jump from the temple to see whether the Angels would really hold him so that He might not fracture His leg on a stone as it is said in the Scriptures. Christ did not give in to the temptation and answered, “Go away and do not tempt God!”[3] If it was a question to try God, let the one who tempts others jump first. One should be wise. To jump from a rock for God - this is an inner process. In some case, someone may fall from a rock and remain unharmed. It can be achieved by changing the body weight. It is based on some physical laws, which are still unknown. Therefore, each action needs to be mindful. If one wants to gain some kind of experience, then a jump from a rock will make sense. But if this jump will cost one’s life, that is tempting of God. Such a jump is irrational and makes absolutely no sense. And so, true Faith and Love imply work. If you believe in a person, you will work for that person. If you love a person, you will work for that person. Love is a Law of Service. Because God loves us, He is constantly serving us. He has created the world so that we may learn and evolve. Under the same Law we, too, shall work for Him and do what He desires. This means to fulfill God’s Will out of love for Him. It is a Law: If you love someone, you should do what will please that person. If you hold the image of the beloved in your mind and heart in Purity, this person will be pleased with you. If you do not love a person, you are not ready to do anything for that person. People enjoy life, health, and powers thanks to the Love and Care of God and the Advanced Beings for them. If God should stop thinking of humans, they will disappear from the face of Earth. Your life is sustained by the love of your mother and father, your brothers and sisters, as well as your friends. Because they love you, they want you to live - thus they support your life. Therefore, Love sustains Life. If there is Love, there is Life too. If there is lack of Love, there is no Life either. As long as your family and friends want you to live, you will live. As soon as they want for you to die, you will lose your life. It is one of the intrinsic Laws of Creation. Knowing this, always maintain your connection with God. If you break your connection with God, your life will also be broken. And when Life is interrupted, adversities come one after the other. Therefore, if you suffer, do not search for the cause of your suffering outside yourself. Know that you have broken your sacred relationship with the Prime Cause. What should you do then? You should restore your connection with the Prime Cause. As soon as you do it, your life will flow normally again. You have studied mathematics at school and know the law of ratio, so you have observed that when one quantity is changed, the total ratio changes too. If this law is valid and observed in the physical world, how much more it is observed in the mental world, where matter is more refined and requires greater organization. When you are given a straight and a curved line, you should know if there is something in common between them and if so, you should know the ratio. Straight and curved lines have an application in Life. When you meet a magician, you will see that he has his magic wand, in other words, he uses the straight line. When you meet a soldier, you will see that he, too, carries magic in his saber, in other words, he uses the curved line. The devil also carries a wand - his arrow, and shoots at whomever he meets. Today all people fight with straight or curved lines, which they use as weapons. Whether they fight for the right or wrong cause, for good or bad, they fight unceasingly. All people fight with firearms. There is no person on Earth without a firearm. The human tongue is also a weapon that can be used for bad or good. If people want to insult you, they immediately use their firearm - their tongue for this. What can one gain from injuring others with the magic wand of the tongue? The Scripture says, “A person will account before God for every empty word.”[4] When will this happen? On Judgment Day, in other words, on the day when the destiny of humankind will be reviewed. Everyone is responsible for their words, for every single word because we live in a harmonious world of complete and systematic order. When you find yourselves in God’s Court, you will answer why you have created words like firearms, with which you disrupt the harmony of the Divine World. God’s World is harmonious itself, only that humans bring discord into it due to their ignorance and lack of understanding. However, they think that the world as a whole is disharmonious. The human world is disharmonious, that is true, but the Divine World is not. As these worlds are intervening, it seems like the world in general is disharmonious. No, disharmony is partial and belongs to the human world. To remove it, humans need to pass through suffering and karma-determined destiny, in order to see their mistakes. Writers are responsible for their poorly written books through which they have implanted temptation and impurities in life. Artists will be kept responsible for those of their works, which introduce something depraved in the people’s minds and hearts. Some artists for example, paint Love either in its human image, or in the image of Cupid - the god of love, with an arrow in his hand. No artist has been able to capture and present Love up to now. Whatever form they try to give it, it is far from the ideal of Love. What kind of love is that, which is using an arrow? It represents the love of someone who could stab you with the knife at any time. If he is not pleased with something, he will immediately draw out the knife. When I point out at the unsatisfactory work of poets, writers, scientists, philosophers, artists, and musicians, I compare it to the future work that will come as a result of the meaningful inner life of humankind. Every thought and feeling coming from the depth of human soul, is reflected on one’s face and whole body. Human thoughts and feelings give self-created lines and define one’s bright or gloomy perspectives for the future. With their positive thoughts, people can improve the condition of their bodily organs. For example, continuous worries and monotonous thoughts and feelings kept in one’s mind and heart will soon weaken the physical sight. People who have wept a lot, who have passed through immense worries and anxiety, have weak eyesight. A child has passed away and the mother is mourning all her life. What will she change with her crying? Will she help herself? As much as she cries, she achieves nothing. Weeping does not solve the problem. Someone has lost one’s love and begins to weep. Love cannot be gained through crying. If you wish to attain Love, turn to That One in Whom Love lives. God is Love. Therefore, if you search for Love in God, you will find it. As spiritual students, you need to know that the relationships of people are defined by their relationship to the Primordial Cause of all things. People cannot have good relationships with one another, if they do not have the right relationship with God. Rising from sleep you need to turn to the Great Consciousness of Life, uniting with It and perceiving at least one of Its thoughts and feelings. When this union is achieved, your work during the day will be good and you will be joyful, ready to serve all your friends and acquaintances. There is nothing greater than to have God speak to you through His thoughts and feelings giving you an impulse for work. That is to say, to find your true purpose in life. For those who have meaningful life, all doors are open. Whenever they knock at a door, it will open and people will say, “Welcome.” People of today need a new philosophy and concept of Life. They need a creed able to unite them with God. If they cannot make this connection, their creed is not useful. They move on the wrong path, the path of delusions. In order to resume your contact with the Primordial Source, think about the One Who has given you Life every time when you wake-up. You will search and think of Him until you perceive at least one of His Thoughts. How will this happen? Read quotes from the Bible, take examples from the life of saints and good, great people. After that, you can begin your work. If you have not nourished your mind and heart, do not begin to do any work. Should you begin your work without God, do not expect any success. It is an advice to those who desire to begin conscious work for self-growth. Those who are busy, dedicating themselves to home, children, and personal affairs, they are free. In my view, every work should be preceded by your thought and feeling for God. People of today do not succeed in life as they begin their work without a thought of the Great in the world. They come to life, marry. and die without God. If you intend to create something or to get married, ask Him who has created you. He knows what is necessary for every one and gives what is needed. You say that a young woman needs to look out for a rich, learned, healthy young man, as for love among them, it will come by itself. However, I will advise the young woman not to go into marriage until she has found the young man she loves and who is in love with her. How will you know who loves you? Those who love are ready to give everything they have. Therefore, if both the young woman and man are prepared to sacrifice everything they possess for one another, they love one another. Should one of them try to conceal whatsoever, they defile their love. Love does not tolerate any kind of deception, falsehood, doubt, mistrust. Love is pure, sacred, and immaculate. The relationships among people who love each other are and should be like the relationships between humans and God. By loving us, God constantly thinks how to help us and satisfy our needs. When you know this, you should be ready to sacrifice everything for God. Seeing this, God will begin to speak to you and will tell you just one Word, but this Word will help you rise in your path and will add meaning to your life. If you cannot make this sacrifice, you will be doomed to death - not physical but spiritual death. Spiritual death implies a loss of Love. When people lose their love, they begin to search it anew. You hear someone saying to have lost the first love, but found another one. The second love is the beginning of strife and misunderstanding. The first Love is pure and selfless and it opens a world of bliss. One’s transgression begins with the first Love loss. You hope to find it again, but you are deceived. You are like a ship rocked by the ocean waves. A long time will pass until you come to maturity and Love again. Once you have regained the first Love, it is impossible to lose it any more. Now the aim is not to make you discouraged, but to give you a clear concept of things: to see them as they are. Why deceive yourself that the stone on your ring is precious? Why should you deceive yourself that your love is genuine, pure, and sacred? Listening to someone talking about the Great Love, many say it does not interest them, as they desire to withdraw from society and become monks. The question here is not about monkhood, in other words, about living in solitude. We are not interested in this kind of service because it is deprived of any science and progress. In contrast to these people there are others who say that they are ready to put themselves into God’s Hands. This is also not right, it is like distorted speech. Why should they lay themselves in God’s Hands? They are not criminals. Man is expected to serve - to serve God with all his soul, mind, heart, and willpower. Therefore, one may surrender oneself into the hands of the Angel who is in charge of collecting souls. After passing this process one surrenders completely to God. The young girl gives herself up into the hands of the young lad. When? When he is stronger than her. Christ too, gave His soul into God’s Hands because God is strong. Christ said, “Father, into Your Hands I commit My spirit.”[5] In other words, Christ turned to God with the following words, “Lord, because I have karmic bond with the sins of humankind, I have taken up to bear them. To a certain place I carried them on my back, but then I understood that there was no need to carry them to the end. Here, now I turn over My spirit laden with the sins of humankind.” After this difficult trial Christ’s resurrection came. Christ’s resurrection marked a new epoch for the world - the karma eradication. Christ himself could not resolve this problem, but He conceded it to God. In the name of God, Christ wanted to make the Jews trust God, but He failed. He said to God, “I did what I could, You will finish the rest.” Therefore, the work of humans is to sow the seeds in the garden and leave the rest to God. You should know that it is God Who makes the things grow, He uplifts and purifies everything. One day, when you accomplish your work on Earth, like Christ, you will say as well, “Lord, into Your Hands I lay my spirit.” One should have a diamond steady faith to lay oneself into the Hands of God. But before coming to this faith, trust in one’s fellowmen is required. Today people have lost their mutual trust in themselves. Whomever you meet, you see lines of conflicts on their faces. On the surface, people may present themselves as believers, but in fact they live in inner contradictions, which have thoroughly shaken their faith. This is not a pure life. Purity implies identical inner and outer life. Why should you doubt? Why should you waver? By itself, Life is pure and sublime. Hold on to this Life, not to the human version. The human life is continuously changing like people themselves, while the Divine Life is stable and harmonious. Use the present conditions to make your way in this lifetime so that you can put your own matters in order. If you do not do it today, you will never be able to do it. You say, “But we will pray to attain Divine Life.” Prayer implies work. If you do not work, no prayer can help you. If spiritual students do not act, but only pray, the Teacher will not be able to promote them to higher classes. The Teacher has an equal attitude to all and as a consequence, he demands from all students to learn and apply what is studied. As spiritual students you need to work consciously and attain something new every single day. The knowledge you have today is not sufficient neither the achievements you have obtained. Who of you can, by compressing a stone in a hand, make a fire come out from above the stone, and water - from below? What is the meaning of this? The stone represents the unyielding human thought, while fire and water represent the conditions for life. Therefore, if you cannot hold your unyielding thought tightly in your hand, producing water and fire, in other words, providing the conditions for life, you have achieved nothing then. In this case, you cannot pride yourself with faith or knowledge. I do not want to discourage you. But if a physician must spend 10 - 15 years in studies in order to become a good doctor, qualified and acknowledged by people, do you think that a student of esoteric science needs to work less? To be a spiritual student, you should evolve your mind, heart, and willpower so as to become a master of life in all conditions. If you fall among an agitated mob, you should be able to calm them only with one wave of your hand. If you get in a storm, again, you could stop it with your wave. If you experience a headache, in the same way, you could remove it with one wave. This is what the true students of the spiritual school can do. What they say - it happens. But if they utter for example, one hundred prayers and only one of them is received, this is an indication that God is not listening to him yet. They have not become saints so far and are not prepared enough to serve others. Saints work for the entire humankind and their work is blessed. People of today need cleansing. They must purify their thoughts, feelings, and wishes and free themselves of all layers of the past. They must purify their consciousness so that it becomes luminous. It implies pure life. When one’s consciousness is purified, one’s life becomes pure as well. Do not dwell on peoples’ outer manifestations, thinking that they are not pure. Purity and impurity are inner processes. If you do not think in this way about things, you will fall into false piety; you will look only at the external devotion. No, one needs to be devoted both externally and internally. Do not pay attention only to the external, but look at the deeds accomplished for God. All that is done for God is pure and sacred. Whether one is a poet, preacher, or scientist is not so important. If poets do not glorify and live for the Great in life, they are not true poets. Poets, scientists, preachers teach and glorify the Great, but they also live for It. In this sense, everyone can be a poet. If you cannot use your tongue as a pen and write according to all rules of poetry, you are not a poet. If you cannot use your mind as a pen and write according to all rules of poetry, you are not a poet. True poets use not only their tongues but also their hearts and minds. They pour out and give generously from the abundance of their hearts and minds. True poets share the experiences of their hearts, minds, and souls; and for this reason people appreciate their poetry. It is my wish for you to meet Christ so that He may open your eyes. When you begin to see, He will ask you, “Do you know Me?” If you recognize Him, you are ready to work and to apply this Teaching. It means that in the process of consciousness awakening, there are two important moments: you open your eyes, in other words, you begin to see and perceive and then you get to apply the Great Laws of Life. Some have come to the first phase of opening their consciousness eyes, while others are applying the Law of Service. Service implies acts motivated by Love. Those who apply the Law of Love are strong. It is said in the Scripture about such people that the righteous will rule the world.[6] Religious people affirm that God will set the world in order. God created the world perfect and if there is any disharmony whatsoever, it is due to the distorted human life. Humans have corrupted the world and they must set it right. Even now God is working and creating new worlds, but they require enlightened people who will not to destroy the new that is under construction. By saying that humans have ruined the world, I mean the human world. No one can destroy God’s entire creation. It is impossible. However, you can cause harm to your fellowman by your negative thinking: if you say to him that he is ignorant and does not understand anything, that he is on the wrong way, and so on. Every person is susceptible to the negative influence of others and can become distracted from the right Path. If someone calls you godless, be not disturbed; rather ask about their achievements through their faith. If your “godlessness” provides you with food, clothing, and living quarters, you are on the right path. And if with your “faith” you stay hungry, barefooted, and in rags, it shows that your “faith” is not genuine. True faith is nourishing, it will make the believer strong, healthy, and rich. True God helps people to go out of their misconceptions and place them on the right Path. True God removes people from wrongdoings and crimes, providing them with conditions that will uplift them. Whoever degrades humans and pulls them down from their present position has nothing to do with God at all. True God creates beneficial conditions for one’s spiritual, intellectual, and emotional health. He purifies all poisons that deprive humans of inner peace and make them discontented. I would like you to hear God’s Voice as you wake-up in the morning, the same way as Adam heard It in the Garden of Eden. God turned to Adam, “Adam, Adam, where are you?” “I am here, Lord, but I cannot come out.”[7] Why was Adam not able to appear in front of God’s Face? It is because he was naked. I also tell you: when you hear the soft Voice of God, give a prompt reply and say, “Here I am, Lord!” Be courageous enough to stay before His Face. There is nothing greater for the human soul than the moment when you hear the still gentle call of God. Along with His Voice, a Light will appear in your soul and you will be already prepared to work and serve God. Without God’s Voice, it is very easy for the human being to fall into darkness. Strive for pure life so that you may unite with God and hear His Voice. Become like good soil, to be able to receive His Word. If you are like stone, the Word will pass by you without a trace. It is easy to irrigate good soil, but the stone diverts the water away from it. To be like a stone not receiving the water into yourself, represents a life full of contradictions. To let go of the contradictions, you should be good swimmers. Entering the stormy sea of Life, you should hold heads above the water not to get drown. People of today fear life and worry what will happen to them. If students ask such questions, it is an indication of their fears. What will happen when their teacher passes away? This kind of fear is inappropriate. The conscientious teacher is like an experienced captain of a ship. He will never stop the ship in the middle of the sea. Once on his way, he will safely lead his passengers to the designated harbor. If the teacher departs, his students will be in the same situation as before, when they were with him. The good and conscientious teacher brings Light into his students’ minds and because of this, they will continue to study without his physical relation to them. If this is true about an ordinary teacher, how better it would apply to an Enlightened Teacher who is a presentation of God’s relationship to human beings. A Teacher transfers some part of his Light to those around him, in the same way as the candle gives some part of its light to everyone who wants to make use of it. The Teacher is a manifestation of the Divine Light. The more one absorbs this Light, the more this one is connected with the Teacher, not by form but in content and meaning. The Word comes from the Teacher, but It belongs to God. Christ says, “Believe in God and believe in Me!”[8] This is to say that it is sufficient to believe in God and in Christ. If you believe in this and that person, in saints and good people, your faith will be limited. Believe in the One and you will see Him in all. The One in Whom you need to believe is God. Believing in God, you are going to believe in all people as God is revealing Himself through them. People ask themselves about the person they hear of: Who is that man, where does he come from, who has sent him, and so on. Some people ask me, “Who are you?” I say: I will tell you, if you are ill; I will tell you, if you are students. Therefore, if I am a physician and I can heal you, my knowledge will be tested. If you are a spiritual student and I can teach you, my work is not in vain. Whom is the Sun created for? It is created for those who can make use of its light and heat. This Sun is created by God. If you cannot benefit from its light and heat, it is not created for you. Remember: There is one Master in the world. If you want to enjoy His Blessing, keep His Name sacred in your mind, heart, and soul. It is the ideal of the human soul. One God exists in the world Whom you should ever trust. Do not doubt His Love for you. People doubt Love because they expect more than it can give them in a certain case. God’s Love is the only measure with which we are to measure things and distinguish between good and bad. If you apply this Love in your life, whatever you wish will come true. When you have this knowledge, beware of your wishes because every wish, good or bad, comes true. Now, knowing the essentials in Life, try to preserve your connection with God. If interrupted, make your best to restore it. This is the way in which the New is coming into the world. The old has already been stepping back to be replaced by the New. The Turks have a saying, “When the downpour passes, the mud remains.” At the beginning the mud is wet, but gradually it dries out. The important point is what you can make out of the dried mud. Hearing that the old life is flowing out, many people are scared that something horrible will befall them. There is no reason for fears. The old knowledge will give up its place to the New one. The old life will be replaced: what is terrible in that? Christ says, “He who wants to be my disciple let him lift up his cross and follow me. He who wants to be my disciple let him renounce his mother, his father, even himself.”[9] Renouncement means releasing your soul from all contradictions and obstacles that you meet in life. Renouncement implies inner freedom for the soul. Some people say they have renounced themselves, but at the same time they die. Those who have renounced the old life do not die but ascend. When the time of departure comes, they invite their friends to a feast and receive them. They bring their letters to the relatives beyond and after taking leave with all, they head to the “heights” - far away from the world where they have lived in. And so, you are all required to maintain a conscious connection with God, to be able to enter the New Life and hear the still Voice of God saying, “Adam, come out! Leave the old life and enter the New where Love, Light, Knowledge, Freedom, and Infinite Space reign.” Lecture of the Master to the General Esoteric Class delivered on August 26, 1930, Sofia, Izgrev. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1. See Matthew 7:16. 2. See John 9:3. 3. See also Matthew 4:5 - 7. 4. See also Ecclesiastes 5:2, “Do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in Heaven and you on Earth; therefore let your words be few.” 5. See footnote 9 on page 282. 6. See also Psalm 37:29. 7. See also Genesis 3:9 - 10. 8. See also John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” 9. See also Mark 8:34, “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. ”

THE IDEAL HUMAN BEING As students of the Great School of Life you are going to explore the music existing in Nature. When you make your way to the music of Nature, you will learn those natural, creative scales through which the world is formed. The conditions of all living beings change according to these scales, in other words, musically. With the changes of a scale, the conditions change as well. Knowing this, through music you can transform your thoughts and feelings and uplift yourselves. Often people lose the basic tone of their life and as a result, an inner dissonance appears in their state. If you are nervous, indisposed or irritated, begin to sing - silently or aloud - until you transform your state of mind. Music and singing help with the development of one’s talents. All great people and geniuses, who have endured grave sufferings and trials, were musical people. They had high and well-developed foreheads. Unless you begin to have idealistic thinking and bear the inner image of the ideal human being, you cannot achieve anything. Do not search for the ideal human being outside of yourselves. The ideal image is innate in all people, but needs to be revealed. If the ideal image is not within you, how do you know then what is good or bad, what is moral or immoral? What are the distinctive features of the ideal human being? Try to describe them not as they are presented by the poets and artists, but as you personally perceive them. If your opinion about the qualities of the ideal candle is needed, you can give it right away. However, regarding the ideal human being - it is not easy to say. A good candle burns uninterruptedly without smoke. It melts not so quickly and gives out a bright, clear, and clean light without dripping. Which of the above qualities are also qualities of the ideal person? The ideal person shines like a candle. The ability to shine lies in the ability to pay attention to everything without dwelling on the defects. People’s shortcomings cast a shadow on their consciousness and dim it. In Nature, shortcomings do not exist; they are just in the human mind. If you could cast them out of your mind, you would become pure and bright. Therefore, if you desire to come closer to the image of the model person, do not keep people’s shortcomings in your mind and consciousness. The less you dwell on people’s shortcomings, the closer you will be to the image of the ideal human being. The more you pay attention to people’s weaknesses, the further you will go away from the image of the ideal person. The more you burden your consciousness, the more you depart from the Path of the ideal human being. Imagine that you have two wires through which an electric current flows. The upper wire is made of metal that is a good conductor of electricity and lights up when heated. The second wire is less conductive - it heats up less and does not light up, but retains the dull dark color it had before. From this we conclude that brightness of the wire depends on its ability to easily conduct the electric current. The lower wire, which is weakly electro-conductive, remains dull dark. The same is true about good and bad people. The good person is a good conduit of the energies coming from the Sublime worlds and has light and brightness. The bad person, on the other hand, is a poor conduit of the energies from the Sublime worlds. So, this person is without light and brightness. Therefore, if someone admits to be bad, it indicates that he is not a good conduit of the energies coming from space. How can one manifest the Good from within? Replacing the wire through which the energies flow, the bad conductor could be transformed into a good one. It means to change your state from bad to good. You can try to change your state until you find such a wire that will be in harmony with a given scale of Nature. It means to find a wire that will be a good conductor of Nature. The wire that is shining white represents the Divine Origin of human being, whereas the dull dark wire relates to the human inferior nature, which needs to be developed until its coarse manifestations and states are refined. People of today ask themselves why sufferings come. Very simple: sufferings represent the fire by which one is tested. How long will one be tested? Until one becomes enlightened and luminous. Why do you need to suffer? To become good conduits. The poorer conduit someone is, the greater is Nature’s desire to make him better. As soon as Nature directs a flow toward someone, this person begins to shine. Suffering is caused mainly in two ways: when you refuse to yield the way for the Nature’s Powers to manifest themselves; and when Nature does not give you what you want. She puts it close, but when you open your mouth to take it, she immediately pulls it away. Nature’s intent is not to make people suffer, but make them happy. But they cannot be happy unless they are conduits of Nature’s energies. What is happiness? From a scientific point of view, only raising of consciousness to a higher level will allow people to overcome the old traditions and concepts of Life. Traditions are not related only to humans, but animals have them too. For example, wolves traditionally suffocate sheep. Sheep traditionally eat grass. From a scientific point of view, grazing is nothing other than mowing of grass. Sheep mow the grass and collect it in one place. One day, when sheep evolve to humans, how will they manifest their old habits? People do not eat grass, but from time to time someone bends, picks a few blades, and continues on the way - this is a remnant from the tradition of sheep. We sometimes pick flowers and smell them - it is another remnant from the desire of birds to clean their beaks in the flowers. They pick flowers to clean their beaks. People can understand the background of their actions and traditions by self-observation and analysis. A person can have desires through which traditions are manifested. It sometimes takes years for someone to overcome some of these desires. Some sufferings are natural; others are not. Especially at present, some of the natural traditions have become unnatural and useless. It will take a long time before a wolf could give up its desire to suffocate sheep. Therefore, remember: You can be happy only when you are good conduits at all times of your life. If there are occasions in life when you do not act as good conduits, your happiness will disappear. To preserve happiness, you should know how to train your body, your thoughts and feelings. This is the aim of the new education. What new methods do psychology and ethics offer for human education? One of the methods of the new ethics of education is the application of Purity in a broad sense as cleanliness of the human body, clarity of the human mind, and purity of the human heart. One should maintain cleanliness of body by means of regular washings and baths, perspiration, changing of clothes, combing of hair, and so on. After achieving good physical hygiene a person begins to think about purity of emotions and thoughts. Pure feelings exclude any kind of self-interest and selfishness. Nobility of the human feelings implies the presence of organic gold in the blood. Gold supports the condition of health in the organism. Less gold in one’s blood supposes more pre-conditions for suffering and diseases. Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity. Therefore, the organic gold in human blood conducts the energies of Nature. Knowing the power and value of gold, people strive for it; they want to be rich. Everyone wants to have a gold object as an adornment. If one cannot afford to wear gold jewelry, it would be good for him to carry a gold coin in his pocket. The human love for gold is a natural aspiration imbedded as an inner impulse for nobleness. There is not a person in the world not to love gold. And so, gold is an element needed in the human education. However, it does not mean that one needs to spend one’s whole life acquiring gold. When someone has acquired the necessary quantity of gold, that person begins to search for other elements. The human body needs different elements, not only gold. If only one element is acquired, the person will come to uniformity that is detrimental. In general, you should avoid the monotony in life. Coming to the monotony, even the rich person will give up his wealth. When someone overeats, even the best food will generate a morbid condition. As a consequence, the stomach refuses to accept this food. One needs to take various foods. In the future, in self-education, the elements which the body needs and their quantitative ratio will be taken into account. One should know these things not to take anything more than necessary. When it comes to gold, you should know that everyone should have a few grams of gold as an inviolable reserve within oneself and externally as well. Those who want to be morally pure should have a certain amount of silver within themselves; silver purifies. Without silver, one cannot be pure. Gold is a bearer of the vital energy of Nature, whereas silver purifies any impurities in the organism. Iron strengthens the human body. In case of anemia, doctors prescribe iron pills or drops. However, if someone takes more iron than necessary, they will become coarse. Every element serves its purpose for the human organism only if it is used in the appropriate quantity. If it is more than prescribed, it will cause harm. When there is a surplus of certain elements in the human body, microbes and parasites appear to consume this surplus. As microbes and parasites consume the excesses in the physical body, in a similar way, some thoughts and feelings as parasites attack the human mind and heart and provoke certain withering. It implies that some thoughts and feelings bring about emaciation, while others cause obesity to people. Therefore, in order to be healthy and develop normally, one should attain inner balance among the powers acting in the body as well as between thoughts and feelings. Music is a method for maintaining balance. Those who are familiar with the Laws of Nature’s music can stop the destructive activity of the parasites in their body and improve their health condition. As soon as you begin to sing, the parasites stop creating harm. Orpheus - this wonderful singer, was able to tame even the most ferocious beasts. He was a shepherd; and as there were wolves, bears, and tigers where he grazed his flock, he constantly played his flute and sang in order to tame them. Because he was preaching the Teaching of Peace and Love, he refused to kill animals. Instead, he was constantly singing and playing music in daytime. The animals began to play after his singing and forgot to attack and harm his sheep. If Orpheus managed to tame the wild beasts with his songs, could you not also overcome the difficulties and unfavorable conditions in your life through music and songs? You may comment that it is easy to speak about these things, but difficult to apply them. It is easy to play music, but one should do it in such way as to tame the beasts within. You say that you cannot play and sing without making any effort, thus building a barrier within yourselves. Everyone can sing. If a frog, that is not a singer begins to sing when a snake is biting its leg, you can be much better singers and musicians, can you not? If someone is sentenced to death and he should sing a song or perform a good deed in order to be pardoned, would he not learn to sing a song and do something good? Only at the thought that he would be pardoned, he will become a singer, he will do good deeds. Nature imposes great punishments upon humans, but very little is required to avoid them. Many think that for their salvation they need to do big things or become prominent singers and musicians. This is true for the human world. But in the Divine World, it is not so much that is required from you. It is sufficient to come across one of Nature’s Scales and begin to sing. True singing implies thought. When one thinks rightly, this one can sing well. Therefore, when you wake up in the morning, begin to sing - silently or aloud, but without any hesitation or doubt whatsoever. Never say that you cannot sing. Through singing, you enter into the foundation of Life. Life, in and of itself, is music and harmony. You are sent off from Heaven with music and song; therefore, music is not foreign to the soul. The human being is immersed in music by nature and that is why one can sing and play music. So one needs to step back, return to one’s initial state of music and song, of harmony and melody and from there, move forward. Knowing this, cherish the sacred thought that Life is music and song. Within Life, all is good and harmonious. God’s Love brings the full and abundant Life. Lecture of the Master Beinsa Douno to the Youth Esoteric Class held on March 7, 1930, Sofia, Izgrev.