The Salt - Solta

[Ani]

XI

 

THE SALT

 

“You are the salt of the earth;

if the salt becomes saltless,

how then can things be salted?”

St Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 13.

 

Christ commenced his sermon on the mountain with the nine beatitudes. The beatitudes about which he spoke relate to another world, They do not refer to life on earth. About earthly things Christ says: “You are the salt.”

 

I am going to talk about salt, because life on earth cannot exist without salt. The physical world is a world of salt, not of light, which is the world of angels. “You”, he says. What does he mean by ‘you’? Do not interpret this word in a limited sense. It is only for those who believe that the word ‘you’ means all people in whom an awakened divine consciousness exists; all the latter are the salt of the earth. All occultists, cabalists and mystics interpret the word ‘salt’ as meaning ‘the force of balance’, that element offeree which keep things balanced. If we want to walk in the streets, we must possess balance. When ships are built, a cargo of salt is placed in the bottom of the hull to maintain the ship’s balance so that it will not capsize in stormy seas. By salt we mean the force which makes material dense, protects it from decay and creates conditions for the functioning of more exalted forces in the world. Salt is a necessary element on earth for the health of the human body. When the body loses its salt, it loses its foundation and in consequence all ailments manifest themselves. Sometimes we say about somebody: “He is neurasthenic.” I say: “ He has lost his salt, his nervous system has lost its salt, energy is flowing out of him.” If we examine the nerves, the arteries of a neurasthenic with the eye of a clairvoyant, we will see a number of small cracks from which energy leaks. Why is this so? Because he has lost the divine salt which is the main force for the support of human life on earth.

 

What are the reasons for the loss of this salt? Firstly, they are unbridled human passions. After every passion, whatever its nature, one feels weak. You have all experienced this. Passions are unnecessary for people who possess salt: they are only necessary for those who possess no salt. Christ said to his disciples: “You are the salt, and if the salt loses its strength, it is worth nothing and it is to be cast out and trampled upon by men.”

 

Why should salt which has lost its strength be trampled upon? Trampling is a reaction, so that it will again become salty. Suffering is being trampled upon. If the angels cast you out among people, you become weak because you have lost your salt. If you were rich, you become poor. If you were intelligent, you become foolish. You lose your salt, and when this happens you lose the sense of your life, and then all contradictory doctrines appear. People argue about whether they should marry, have children and love their wives. The epicurean philosophy, according to which a man should have many wives, should experience everything, appears. You may try everything, but then you will be cast out and trampled upon by all sensible persons — until you regain your salt. It is then that the second process begins. Light will come, it will cast light in your mind and you will then understand why you are suffering. You will understand that these things are not in agreement with life. Each wish, each thought which does not serve for the construction of the human soul, which is destructive, is an unnecessary wish, leads to loss of salt. Let that wish be trampled upon a little for it to regain its salt. When a man, metaphorically speaking, tramples upon his wife, let her say to herself: “Trample me so that I can regain my salt.” A man who has been trampled upon by his wife shows that he has no salt. Often, when a Bulgarian is ill the bear-tamer comes and he makes the bear trample all over the sick man so that he will regain his salt and recover. This force is inherent in all people. The educated people of today have given it a different name and occultists have given it many names, one of which is ‘magnetism’. When he has this salt, a person is magnetised. If you have this salt, you will feel a pleasant warmth in the pit of your stomach. You rise in a good mood. If you have no salt, you rise in a bad mood and are rude to the very first person you come across. You “go for him”, you get really angry. The anger means that one is asking for someone to come and trample upon one a little so that one can regain one’s salt. The person who comes to trample upon one possesses the salt and will immediately reestablish the equilibrium of the person who is angry. I would like you to test the things I have told you in these talks in practice and see the results.

 

Only he who has deep convictions and has experienced things for himself is strong, because if you believe everybody you have no salt. I believe that God speaks to everybody according to the salt they possess. If you have salt, He will say to you: “After you get up, go to your vineyards and hoe the ground. Go to your field and sow it.” If you are a judge you will review your cases, etc, and you will understand Him. If you have no salt, you will be trampled upon and robbed. They will take your money, your wife, your children and your home. “Those who cannot carry out their task on earth should be trampled upon,” says the Lord.

 

People frequently ask themselves: “Why are things not going too well in the world?” There is no salt in the world. Give people salt! They do not need much, only a quarter of a kilogram of the salt I am talking about is needed. That is enough to salt the entire Bulgarian nation, and the latter will become an excellent nation, at least for a hundred years. Do you know how long your factories have to work to obtain that salt? A scientist made some calculations about the primary material from which the world is made and has proved that it is thousands of times lighter than hydrogen and that in order to obtain only one gram of that primary material, all factories would have to work for three thousand years. You are the salt, and you will have to devote the whole of your lives to obtaining that salt. If you have but one gram of that salt, you will be the richest person in the world and wherever you pass you will heal people. When you enter a house where the husband and wife quarrel and do not get on together, give them a little of that salt, and peace and concord will be restored.

 

When children quarrel, give them a little salt. When judges are in dispute, give them a little of that salt. When nations are at war, give them a little of that salt and peace will be restored between them. You say to yourselves: “What alchemical element is this salt, what mighty strength it possesses! “ When a priest who possesses this salt enters the church, there is complete silence and everyone turns to look at him. The congregations wants salt, and if you do not possess it you will not succeed at all. What I am talking about is not a matter of condemnation for I condemn no-one: I am only mentioning a deficiency that exists not only in Bulgarians but in everybody Every person who lives on earth has handicaps. If we were perfect, we would be among the angels, at God’s side. But as we need to be educated, God has sent us to Earth the place of wisdom, where these great lessons are learnt.

 

Today my Talk is about salt. Why? You all wish to be happy, but you must cultivate the art of keeping that happiness and not only acquire it. You rise in the morning, you are in a good mood and you say to yourself: “How happy I am! “ But before five or ten minutes have passed you have lost that ability to be happy. Why? You have no salt in yourself. By the word salt we understand the world with all its forms, because you cannot retain an essence without forms, and for this reason I say that the world is real and actual, and actual and unreal. Real and actual is that world which possesses all the forms with their content, and actual and unreal is that which possesses forms without their content. There are people who are actual and unreal because they have a body but no salt. If you have no salt, you cannot understand what God’s light, God’s kindness and love are. It is only by means of salt, only through balance, that your mind and heart, when they are calm, can comprehend this divine wold. Jesus says: “Salt which has lost its strength must be cast out and trampled upon.” In any case, I have reiterated many times that suffering is necessary. It is the way to regain one’s salt. Regaining one’s salt is the way to the light, and to love. Love leads to God.

 

If we set foot on the road to seek God, the world will immediately take on another aspect to that which it has had until now. All of you who are listening to me this morning sometimes think that life on earth has sense, and sometimes that it has no sense, that it is very sad. You have friends who do not understand you, children who do not love you. You are among believers: they do not understand you. The crux of the matter is to understand who is in error. Is it they who have no salt, or is it you? Where there is salt, there is justice. Where there is no salt, there is no justice. If you have no salt, you will say: “I must be trampled upon.” All people are particles of God, and as such it makes no difference who will trample upon you. Do not forget that this comes from God: it is always God’s hands or feet that trample upon you. That is a thousand times pleasanter than being trampled upon by a bear as the Bulgarians used to. An Englishman was talking about an experience he had had. He went to India for the purpose of studying the life of its people. As he was a sports-lover, one day he took his gun and went hunting in a dense forest. He was carrying his gun in his right hand. Suddenly, a violent blow on his left arm knocked him over. It was a tigress, who seized him and carried him away to her lair where her cubs were. The tigress said to her little ones: “Get hold of this Englishman and trample upon him well, teach him a lesson, and if he tries to raise his head, trample upon him.” The Englishman tried to raise his head to see what was going on around him, but the tigress said: “Do not look up, there is nothing to be seen, I am teaching my children.” “I was not angry because my left arm was broken but because I could not raise my head and could not see,” said the Englishman. Any person who has no salt will fall into the tiger’s claws. When some young people fall in love, they go to the church, the priest says a prayer for them and everybody embraces them. A month later they are apart: the tiger has carried the bride or the groom away. These people have lost their salt and will be cast out. If they divorce, they have lost their salt and such people should never be together. Let them be trampled upon, man or woman. Bulgarians are healed by being trampled upon. This is a pleasant form of massage. You need this salt, your body needs it, the physical field needs it, so do your thoughts and feelings. The law for the physical world and that of angels and that of God is a common one. Contemporary philosophers give a different name to the qualities of the spiritual world. For example, they refer to a person who possesses salt as “moral” and a person who possesses none as “immoral”. It is said of somebody: “This person is highly intelligent and sensible,” and by this we understand that in him the law of equilibrium reigns, he possesses salt. Sensibility is salt: that is, by sensibility we understand the condition where all the human abilities are in a position to perform.

 

Salt is the soil. Without salt there can be nothing in the world and a world without salt would be a desert, everything would rot. Salt is a manure which has accumulated over the centuries. In its wake come other forces which build up our bodies. In order not to lose our salt we should avoid entertaining unlawful desires.

 

I will recount a myth. Once, in the distant past, a daughter was born to the Tsar, and she was the most beautiful girl in the world. When she grew up, her father found a young, kind-hearted man as a husband for her. The young couple loved God so much that He sent an angel to represent Him at their wedding on earth. The angel, when he came down to earth, fell in love with the maiden and did not want to go back to heaven. He began to wonder how he could make her his own. God waited for the angel’s return; a day, two days, a month passed and the angel did not return. When God understood what had happened, He turned the angel into a songbird who would hop from branch to branch among all the other birds and be shunned by them so that he would understand the appalling consequences of his unlawful desires. He flew from branch to branch but was shunned by all the birds. He could not explain this suffering to himself. One day he perched on a tree and began to lament his fate. At that time four robbers came and sat down under the tree to share their booty. They divided everything equally. Then it was decided that two of them would go into the nearest town to buy food and bread for a feast. They went into the town and bought food, but while they were on their way back it occurred to them to put poison into the food so that, when the other two were eating their meal, they would be poisoned and then they could grab their share of the booty as well and divide it between them. Meanwhile, the two robbers who were waiting for their friends under the tree decided to shoot the others when they returned and take their share of the spoils. The angel knew what terrible things the two pairs of robbers were plotting. As the two robbers who had been into the town approached, the two under the tree opened fire on them and shot them dead. The robbers who had remained under the tree ate the food and were poisoned. It was then that the angel understood the consequences of unlawful desires and the reason for his suffering. When God sends you to a wedding in which He is a participant, you should not allow your eyes to wander like the angel. If you are a man, mind you do not say to yourself: “She will be mine!” And if you are a woman, “He will be mine,” because you will by up there in that tree for a long time to come!

 

I am asking you: are you not birds that have been cast out of heaven?

 

Some people ask: “Why have we come down to earth?” “We have all come down to earth to learn that unlawful desires have dire consequences, to understand that a person who has no salt is far from God. People want freedom and for this reason God sends them to earth, but He says to them; “Live according to the law of my freedom.” The worst thing about people is that everyone wants freedom only for himself. According to the law of God we must understand the relationships which exist between us. The law of the salt is as follows: do not withhold from others what you desire for yourself. Allow them to develop their abilities as well. If somebody possesses a field or a vineyard, do not envy him but be glad that he has everything. If you see somebody riding a horse, do not say: “I wish that horse were mine.” Be glad that he has a horse, for he is worthy of it. If you see a beautiful, well-furnished house, do not covet it. If you have salt, you possess everything that is necessary, Say to God: “I want salt from now onwards.” To convince the people of to-day of this great truth, you will have to put forward a lot of arguments. With some people an attempt may be made whilst with others an agreement may be arrived at at once. One needs to put forward arguments to people whose spiritual vision is not developed. This means a touching of the spiritual world. Step by step, by means of consistency, they will acquire a clear understanding of things they cannot comprehend all at once.

 

We must consume a certain amount of bread, water and air every day to build up our bodies. Some people think they will become better by not eating. The reverse is true. If you want to make man better, then feed him if he is hungry. Give him water if he is thirsty. When you give him bread and water, give him a little of your salt as well and he will improve. If you do not feed him, you commit a crime. If you meet somebody who is desperate and wants to kill himself, do not give him advice, telling him it is no good and that he must not despair, but take him home and feed him, slake his thirst as you are accustomed to do and in an hour or two, when his food is digested, say to him: “Let us have a talk.” Get him to tell you why his life is so unbearable. Give him directions, show him the way he should take. This is why God sent him to you that day.

 

We often pray thus: “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done...” but if you do not fulfil His will as He instructs you to do, you will be without salt that day. You can make this experiment: if you are unwell, see a close friend who is even less well than you are, invite him to your home, feed him and you will notice how God has salted both of you. A woman who was dissatisfied with her husband met another woman who was even more unhappy. When the two met to talk, God gave them both salt.

 

This is a positive Christian philosophy. People often complain to me that they are unwell or unhappy and I say to them: “I know that because I too am on earth.’ “ ‘Yes, but your situation is quite different from ours “ they say. The only difference is that I have more salt. I will give you some of my salt, but you must use it well. You must distribute it wisely. If you have alittle bit of ferment, you will of course keep some of it back for another time. When you eat yoghourt, put a little of it aside for the next batch: do not say that the children have eaten it. I recommend that the people of today should not eat their fill because God will carry such people away. In this case you will resemble the Bulgarian who was lent some money and set off to buy a lot of unnecessary things with it. When the lender saw what had happened, he asked for his money back so that he could count it but the other man refused to give it back, saying: “If you do not know how to handle your money you do not deserve to get it back.” When God sees that you are not making a correct use of your life and are misusing it, He will take it back. How many of you have been healthy, cheerful and happy but are now sick and exhausted? Why? Because you do not know how to make use of life. When there is salt inside you, you will be healthy people with a healthy heart and body. Concentrate your mind on salt, on the element of equilibrium and exaltation and try to comprehend it. It is referred to as “Prana” in India, which means “a life-bearing force”. It is to be found in the air, in food and in water, from where it is extracted.

 

I shall now tell you how to eat. I shall start in this world, with food. When you begin to eat, the first condition that is imposed upon you is to cast out any feelings of discontent. And if you have a little bread, the energy which is contained in you can penetrate your body, after which you will be filled with a pleasant feeling. What happens now? The wife has spent four hours cooking, she has put in everything imaginable to make the food tasty and she really has prepared an excellent meal. Her husband comes home frowning and displeased, his wife is deeply hurt and all the salt is gone. The next day the wife is displeased about something. They eat and again they do not absorb any of the good in the food because they are displeased. The husband says: “Do you call that a wife?” The children say: “What sort of a mother is that?” everybody. To-day God is trampling upon people and salting the world the English, the Germans, the Russians, the French, etc. Good things will come from now on. I hope that all of you, as you go to your homes will acquire at least one grain of salt so that you will be useful members of your family, of society and the nation, that you will be thankful for everything, because only then will you acquire sweetness. Then you will be intelligent, kind, industrious and hard-working.

 

This Talk was given on 25 March 1917 in Sofia

 

I have made various experiments with food. I have eaten two apples and a little bread and have been satisfied. It is not only plenty, but sometimes small amounts as well that one blesses with thankfulness. Do not neglect this little bit of salt in the world, for it is like the tiny grain of corn which gives birth to so much. The first task that awaits us is to re-educate that feeling of discontent which resides in us.

 

If you are satisfied with the food you consume, you will be able to accumulate as many elements as are necessary to satisfy you from outside sources. Some people say: “One should not drink water, it is meant for frogs: wine is for us.” You will drink water when you are hungry, 1100 to 150 gr at a time. You should drink between half and one kilogram of water a day, from which you will extract the nutriment necessary for your arteries. You will breathe deeply through the nose and not through the mouth, so that you will not inhale too much dust. When the people of today are taught to absorb these elements thus, food, water and air, the other blessing will come of itself.

 

Do not think that things will be created in your soul immediately, for there are many feelings which lie dormant in us. The human soul is rich and awaits conditions under which it can develop. The first thing that must develop in us is a feeling of thankfulness for all we have. Make sure your eye does not wander like that of the angel I told you about. If you all apply this great “law of gratitude”, at least fifty per cent of your affairs on earth will be in order. And when the angels look down from above, and see that we have set foot upon the True Path, they will come to help us. Do not think that you alone are working in this world. Turn the earth with a spade and see how many worms help the harvester, how many minute creatures prepare the soil with the farmer and how many other elements go to make up the grain of corn. And, given all this, we are like children who are discontented whatever father brings home for us. Each child should thank his father for everything he brings him. A child who does not kiss his father when he brings him something has no salt. Some parents say: “My little angel!” The child is indeed a little angel but with no wings, A daughter who does not thank her parents and does not kiss them is an angel without wings.