The Light - Videlinata

[Ani]

THE LIGHT

 

(Videlinata)

 

“Vie ste videlinata na sveta” (You are the Light of the world) St Matthew, Chapter 4, Verse 14.

 

In my last Talk I spoke of salt — the first divine element of life, and to-day I shall speak about the second element — Light. I shall attempt to pass on Christ’s words in the language of to-day, of the 20th century. What does Christ mean by the word “Light”? Every word has its own meaning. It is only understood when it produces a certain effect on the mind and heart of man. If you take a matchstick, you can only find out its effect when you strike it, otherwise it remains senseless. Consequently, words in the spoken language are matchsticks and everybody must have a matchbox ready to be able to light his match in time, that is, so that each word may produce its own effect. We should not behave like small children -just taking matches out of the box, striking them and throwing them away. That is not philosophy. There are many contemporary writers who take out matchsticks, strike them and throw them to the ground. I ask you: what effect could matches struck in this way possibly have? You can judge what their effects will be for yourselves. In future one’s speech must be salty, it must contain light, but people’s understanding of light is still vague.

 

Light (videlinata) is a compound of the divine element which pertains to the human mind, that is, it enables us to reason, it brings logic, content and sense to our thoughts. In modern science, physicists are arguing about light, whether it comes from the sun or from another source. There are scientists who argue that it comes from the sun, that it is a special form of energy which, when it encounters the earth’s surface, breaks upon it like a wave and is reflected as light. Light is an internal process. It is an element which can always be tested. Light is the most real thing in the world. It is thousands of times more real than this world. It creates human thought and wishes, it is a conductor leading to the world of the spirit and it exists in the form of contemporary ether, it is the membrane which encloses the human spirit, the human mind, without which nobody can think or feel. All of you who have been to high school have experienced some difficulty in solving problems, you know that the principles underlying these problems cannot be mastered all at one but, as one works on them light suddenly dawns and the principles become clear. It is the light which casts light upon things. I will teach you some rules so that you can check everything, because I am not speaking to you only in theory but about a positive science which can be verified by experience.

 

Light is the healthy condition of the human mind, an atmosphere in which man should live constantly. When writers lose this light, they become unproductive. When teachers lose it, they lose their touch and cannot teach. When mothers lose it; they lack love and patience and cannot bring up their children properly. If you have no light in yourself, Love and the Truth cannot be manifested in you. Christ says: “You are the light.” What does he mean by “you”? The first element is salt, the law of balance which keeps all the forces in equilibrium. The second element is light; it exalts and makes things grow, that is, all thoughts and desires grow in light and develop more correctly. A person who lives in light is like a fruit tree growing in fertile soil — all fruits ripen on its branches. Light (videlinata) is a compound of the divine element which pertains to the human mind.

 

When there is a ferment of philosophical thoughts in your mind, do not hasten to rejoice. This is perhaps a shoot coming forth to establish whether there is light, to see whether your thought will take root and yield fruit. When a person is not prepared to die for a thought, this means that the thought has not yet been born in him.

 

Before embarking upon a more lengthy explanation of this matter I shall give you an example from Bulgarian life. It is my task to bring these examples to life, to lend content to them. The example I am about to give you has been heard of by many people, but I shall give it a new character. During the period of Turkish rule in Bulgaria, a Turk visited a Bulgarian chorbadjiya (wealthy, prominent man). As he entered his room, he saw three icons and a lighted icon-lamp on the wall. The icons depicted the Virgin Mary, St George on horseback and St Nicholas. “What do you need those three pictures for? “ he asked the chorbadjiya, “They protect me from all evil, so far nothing bad has happened to me,” repliedthechorbadjiya. “That’samazing,” saidthe Turk. “lhavesomany servants, I pay them well but they do not look after me like that. How much do those icons cost? “ he asked. He bought the three icons, took them home and placed a lighted icon-lamp in front of them. He dismissed all his servants, saying, “I do not need servants any longer. I have found loyal men to guard my house.” One evening, however, thieves entered his house and robbed him. He went up to the icon of the Virgin Mary and said: “ I cannot really complain about you; you are a young woman, you have got a small child to keep you occupied.” Then he turned to the icon of St George. “I cannot complain about you either. You are a young man, you have got to ride your horse and enjoy yourself.” Then he turned last of all to St Nicholas and said: “You are an old man, you have not got a child to look after or a horse to ride, and that is why I am going to punish you.” Then he hung the icon of St Nicholas upside down. St Nicholas found a way of recovering the stolen goods and was reprieved. “That is how I want you to be!” said the Turk.

 

What does the Virgin Mary signify? She signifies a woman with her heart. The child is the heart that she is caring for. Man came to the world to care for his heart like a child and bring about its rebirth. You will ask why women give birth. By means of the law of birth God teaches us how to bring up our children, that is, how to care for our hearts. If a mother suckles her child frequently, it will be healthy, but if the milk is contaminated the child will die. What does the icon of St George represent? St George represents the human mind and the horse his physical body. Man must ride his horse; he who does not ride his horse will lose it. The horse should be well fed, but not overfed, it should not overeat. What does the icon of St Nicholas represent? St Nicholas represents a person with a kind heart and a good mind who has reached the very peak of life. The sensible, divine life. He must engage in the upbringing of the whole of mankind, for him all people must be as children, he must sacrifice himself for others, just as a mother sacrifices herself for her children. Just as St George grooms and feeds his horse, wise old people must educate the young and with their minds and hearts urge them to adopt a sensible life.

 

Christ has this to say: “A city upon a mountain cannot be concealed.” If you possess light, you will be able to find it. If a chiromancer looks at your palm, he will tell you whether you have light or not, just as when you enter a European city you will be able to tell what the people are like by the layout of the city and by the houses. When you enter a house you can see what appeals to the housewife. If red predominates she is a woman of whims, she is changeable. Women who wear red hats and belts see the world as a battlefield and feel bound to fight. I do not say that fighting is wrong, but it must be based on divine law, it must be constructive. If it is destructive, it becomes anarchy. The aim of fighting is freedom, and that is the aim of Light — to make us free. By the word ‘freedom’ we understand the divine harmony in our thoughts and desires the putting in order of everything in the world, in other words, when everything is in its place, when everybody can use the potential that lies dormant in his brain and heart.

 

Modern scientists are constantly examining the brains of dead people and conducting experiments. It is the brain which determines human thought. It is like a garden; the thoughts it yields depend on the nature of the “soil” in the brain. The human brain contains zones similar to those on the earth’s surface. Thoughts grow in it just as flowers do on earth. Each thought is endowed with a form which may bear the character of a sheep, wolf, bear, fox, snake, spider, or ant, and all these forms are qualities which determine human character. The light enters according to the same law, just as light shines down from above and awakens everything in man, awakening both the good and the bad animals in him, whether they be wolves or sheep. And when these animals complain to the Light that there is suffering, the Light says to them: “Do not be afraid, next year I will create you anew, just make a little effort.” When we complain that there is suffering in our lives, the Light says: “Take care, I shall create in you what is necessary.” But the Light will allow for no doubt, faint-heartedness or lack of faith, for these are negative qualities.

 

The Light is a life of divine harmony, and only a person who possesses this harmony can experience the majesty of the Daylight. Daylight is a sensible element.

 

Contemporary physicists say this about light: if lights from two opposing poles with differing lengths and vibrations meet, they are neutralised and then darkness ensues.

 

The same applies to Light. The man is one pole of Light, and the woman is the other. They come together to form a divine harmony. They will form such a harmony if the lengths of their vibrations are the same. That is when the feeling of love is formed. This is when we feel an expansion of the mind, of the heart. However, they must both create Light. When he said: “You are the Light,” Christ meant all others. When he said: “I am the Light,” he meant “I and My Father.”

 

The human body is so adjusted that it will accept nothing that is in excess. We know from chemistry that each element combines with another in exactly determined weight relationships; or one element combines with another with an exactly determined number of atoms, as many as are necessary to form a stable compound. That is the law. Thus, human thoughts come together according to the same law of Light. This Light in the world of the spirit also has its own hues. They can be passive and active. The passive hue is one which is reflected and the active hue is the one which comes straight from the very source. Every thought which produces a division in your mind is not divine, it is only a reflection of the Light. For example, you want to build a house, to become an engineer, to become a writer, to study medicine; this division shows that the subject you are aiming at is not for you. Before the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottomans, when only a few professions existed, fathers advised their sons to become doctors because this profession was more lucrative, or they advised them to become engineers, but not to learn professions which were not lucrative. What sort of a doctor, engineer or priest can one become if one has no vocation? One will resemble the doctor in the Middle Ages who had a very simple method of treatment. He cured his patients by bleeding them and giving them warm water to drink, after which they died. He was surprised: “Well, do all the other doctors manage to cure their patients?” he exclaimed. The same applies to the doctors of to-day. They prescribe some medicine and the patient dies; then they say he had a weak heart or find some other reason to justify themselves. This is not the reason, though. The doctor should understand the human body, the temperament of each of his patients, and prescribe medicines accordingly.

 

A sanguine person and a choleric person cannot be cured by the same method. Why? Because in each body there are different elements which react in their own particular way. In my opinion, all illnesses which exist now are due to the disharmony which appears in the divine Light. How many of you believe there is a life beyond the grave? You will say: “That is what some great man or other said, that is what St Paul wrote.” What experience do you have of this reality, though? “When we die, when we go to the next world, we shall understand whether there is a life beyond the grave,” you will say. For this Light to be understood, spiritual vision is needed. All persons in whom this feeling is developed have certain signs in their eyes, around the pupil, they have certain spots which show to what extent the feeling is developed in them. In modern Western man this feeling has begun to manifest itself as intuition, presentiment, etc.

 

One day a great world in which the Light exists will be revealed to you. This Light comes from within and not from without. Modern occultists say that a person who possesses this Light also has magnetism. Such a person is gentle, compliant, loving and quick to forgive. The elements which destroy and ruin the people of to-day are as follows: pride, anger, lust, laziness, avarice, envy and greed. Pride does not come from God. God created man to have self-respect, but man has drifted away from this into pride. Such a person’s face, hands and nose all bear the marks of pride, but I shall not go into details here. You must study these things yourselves; there are many authors who have written on this subject. When you feel pride in you, when you feel that you are a very important person, look at yourself in the mirror and remember the features of your face, your eyes, remember exactly how you felt. When you are feeling loving and well-disposed, look at yourself again. Jesus said: “There is nothing concealed in man.” For the blind, however, everything is veiled. Some people say that I have told you a lot of mysterious things, but there is no mystery for those who have eyes. There is an apple-pip in my purse — here it is — this is the mystery Sow it, and in ten years’ time you will see its flowers and fruits, and then you will understand the mystery. You will say: “There must be something terrible in all this.” The timid will not enter the kingdom of heaven. What distinguishes a good person from a bad one? A person who lies speaks rapidly and a person who tells the truth speaks quietly and calmly and wants what he has said to be verified. I, too, want you to verify everything. I can, through this Light, communicate with advanced Americans, Chinese, Japanese, with your dear departed and with the world of divine harmony. So long as you love a departed one, you can have an intelligent and sensible conversation with him. There are some mediums who do not understand the language of spirits, and while they are trying to convince other people they can talk to spirits they begin to distort the truth and to deceive. Do not lie; speak the truth because lies have short legs. Truth moves with great speed, it has long legs so that it can hasten to help unhappy spirits. When somebody says to me: “I have got long legs,” I say: “You are lucky, but I hope your soul and your heart have long legs, too, so that you can be a bearer of the Light.” If the Light can develop in us, we shall be able to avoid ninety per cent of the evils that are happening now. Light is one of the fundamental elements necessary for the bringing up of good sons and daughters. I would recommend that all women adopt this rule: do not allow thoughts which have negative qualities to enter your minds. Let those who find life senseless greet the sunrise every morning for a month and see how they will feel then. In springtime, when flowers are sprouting and the trees are in bloom, watch them and see what the results will be — thus you will find the meaning of life. What do the people of to-day do? They sleep until ten o’clock in the morning, and in the evening, just as the sun is setting, they go out to enjoy its fading rays. In autumn, when the leaves are falling, they go for walks. Nature must be studied at the right time. And what are people like to-day? Some of them read the Bible and wonder what Jesus meant by certain words. Jesus had read the book of Divine Nature very thoroughly indeed. I, too, read books and always ask myself: does the writer possess Light or not, what hues is he lacking? After reading each book I can describe its author to you, how his mind works, the shape of his head and face, his hands, what his thoughts are like, etc, Some people want to know who I am, what kind of person I am. I am what I am saying to you. If I deceive you, then that is what I am; if I cure you, then that is what I am. You will ask: “Why should he cure us?” It makes no difference who helps you, whether it is I or somebody else. In my opinion I must pass on my surplus of knowledge, of life to somebody else because it is not mine to possess. The Light that comes from within must be emitted, sent outwards.”

 

“You are all Light.” Christians have been reading this verse for two thousand years and cannot comprehend it. For this reason, take your St Nicholas and hang him upside down. He is bound to protect your house and property because he is your reason, your intellect. Tell him that he will either reason well or that you will turn him upside down, You ask: “What is Light?” When it enters your soul, your face will be beautiful, your eyes radiant, a pleasant warmth will emanate from your hands, a lovely smell from your body. What do the people of to-day smell like? They smell unpleasant, most unpleasant. Violets and other flowers help us to disguise our natural smell. Now the violet you are using speaks: “God manifests Himself in the modesty of life and not in its pride. If you are a valley and your soil is good, God will sow the very best seeds in you. If you are a proud, stony peak, nothing else will cover you except now.”

 

This is the language of the violets, and when people spray themselves with their perfume, let them learn their language. I am not blaming you for that, though I would like all of you to possess the smell and hue the violet.

 

When you utter a word or write something it should have a pleasant smell. According to the concepts of Light, all people are colours, flowers. And what is a teacher? Is he a preacher, a tiller of the soil, father, mother, brother or sister? They are great, divine flowers. Do you understand the colour of a mother? When you enter the world of the Light, you will understand what colour she is. There are no more beautiful colours, no more beautiful flowers in the world than those of a mother, father, brothers, sisters, family and friends. Do you have these colours inside yourself? Is there anybody who has not driven the Light out of himself at least ten times? Is there anyone who has not injured the delicate blooms of his parents, his nearest and dearest, in himself? From now onwards we must build and build. If you want to raise the level of Bulgarian people, you must build. Bulgaria needs salt and Light, which makes things grow, and that is why educated people must think upon these things. Without salt and without Light there is no Bulgaria. The Bulgarian people have a root down there in the earth and a branch up there in the divine world, and people must bring forth fruits upon its branches. This is the only way in which a nation or a soul can acquire character. Souls really are individual but are also collective at the same time. Collectiveness is a law of harmony we can experience with our souls, our hearts and will.

 

Another thing which destroys Light is anger. An angry person is a person without will-power. In one place in the Scriptures it is written: “Be angry, but do not commit sin.” Anger is a certain energy which is not used to good ends. All of us have experienced a feeling of weakness after anger, which proves that demagnetisation has taken place. Another element which binders Light is lust. It is the coffin of love. How many young men and women have gone to their graves prematurely because of it! Love is harmony and lust is poison. The fourth element which ruins Light is laziness, the fifth is envy. Envy and pride are brother and sister. A person who envies is proud as well. He who has been possessed by envy is glad when he sees others suffering.

 

Envy is manifested in politicians too, and there are plenty of them in Bulgaria. Make way for noble people! If a person has all the above-mentioned vices, then stop him, trip him up, for he does not know his place!

 

When Jesus said: “You are Light,” he was referring to the people of the future. When God created the world and the stars, the moon, the sun, He said: “This is for the people of the future.” Sometimes people say to me: “Tell me about your past.” It has been written on you. Your body may be sick at the moment but this does not mean that you are sick. When the conditions which hinder the Light are removed, the sickness will disappear. Another vice which binders the Light is greed, the desire to have a lot. I will give you an example of greed. In Spain there was a very rich man who enslaved entire regions of the country. Everybody complained about him, and because of this the King of Spain ordered that he be put in prison. In prison, when he wanted water or bread he was charged a thousand ducats for a glass of water or a piece of bread. “This is the cruellest thing that has been done to me,” said the prisoner. “That is your punishment,” replied the king. “Now go, and never again do anything you would not like others to do to you.”

 

All of you who are here, men and women, are Light. For me evil does not exist. I understand that in the Divine Harmony evil does not exist, but outside of the Divine Harmony there is evil. If you decide to lead a good, noble life, you will possess this Light, it will be with you. The Light is reasoning, and all the mystics of old who possessed it saw a boundless world full of the most beautiful colours and flowers with which their souls were filled. When you feel well-disposed, you possess this Light, but you cannot retain it for long. Sometimes you think that I preach good sermons but you say to yourselves: “I wonder what his aim can be” My aim is to fulfil the will of God. I am not a liar. I have never lied to anyone, nor have I been deceived. You cannot win me over with anything but good, truth, love and wisdom. If you want to serve God and decide to do this, only then will God come down from on high and make you good people with great spirits. I preach to you about the living god, about the god of the 20th century who demolishes prisons and sets prisoners free and brings harmony and order, joy and cheer. He brings blessings that people have not even dreamt of. He will transform this earth into a Garden of Eden, and you, the Bulgarians, will live in it. You will all be alive, I will meet you again and you will see whether what I am telling you is true or not. There are no illusions as some may think. Illusions contain the following quality: for example, you can feed somebody with an illusions when you say to him that you have given him food but in forty to fifty days he will grow thin and die. Man loses his strength and wits because of illusions. If, however, your soul is fed, is refreshed, is kept alive by some thought, then it is not an illusion. I want all Bulgarians, men and women, to be great in terms of virtue, love, justice, wisdom, of that divine truth of the Light that I have been talking to you about. Contemplate the Light, it is with you, experience it, be independent, enter each flower like bees to collect the honey. Do not stay there for the night, for that is lust, but take some honey and go back to your own hive.

 

That is what Jesus meant by the words: “You are the Light,” and: “A city that is built on a mountain cannot be concealed.” When you enter that city, you will understand the sense of your life on earth. You imagine what your future life will be like. It is there inside you and depends upon your present life. The same is true for every caterpillar, which contains all the elements necessary to turn into a butterfly. You, too, will be like the butterfly before much time has passed. At present you are walking along the ground in a straight line and wondering whether another life exists. When you become butterflies, you will see that there is another life, and with your wings, your mind and your heart of Light you will alight on the most beautiful divine tree, the tree of life; you will understand its sense and you will be joyful and happy.

 

Talk given on II April 1917