EASTER (March 22, 1915, in Sofia)

[Ani]

EASTER

 

Go ye therefore, and teach aff nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Hofy Spirit ⁹

 

In the whole Christian world today the preachers are speaking on the text of Christ's resurrection. Only in the USA there are 80,000--100,000 preachers and in Bulgaria about 3,300 priests preaching today about the Resurrection— they are speaking about it everywhere. Since so many people are speaking about the resurrection, I shall make a slight digression.
 
Many people consider this question from a historical or philosophical point of view—is the resurrection possible? There is a disputation on this question from a purely physiological standpoint—is it possible for a person to resurrect? Theoreticians and theologians write and try to prove the possibility of resurrection, but they also cannot prove it.
 
I shall stop on the words "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Deep is the Teaching of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What is this Teaching? You often repeat the words Father, Son and Holy Spirit but what sense do they have for you? They have sense only when they can produce a certain effect on you. If you hold a match in you hand, you cannot test its force until you light it; as soon as you light it, you will realize its force. And the resurrection will be an unknown object for you up to the time when you will light this word like a match that it may produce light in your mind and heat in your heart, or until you sow it as a seed in the Earth to grow and see its fruit. It is enough for people during their life to have only one such word, which they would understand as they should, so that they will become geniuses; if they understood two such words, they would become saints; but if they should understand three—they will become one with Christ.
 
Therefore, in every human language there are words which if we understand will acquire magic powers for us. When Moses raised his scepter by the Red Sea, he pronounced a word and the sea parted in two. When Christ was at the tomb of Lazarus, He raised His eyes to heaven and said only one word, "Lazarus, come forth!" and Lazarus rose. God pronounced only one word at the beginning of creation and the world was formed. You speak and write grammatically correctly using points and commas, question marks and exclamation marks; you discuss important philosophical matters, but you do not know how to arrange your life. You are like that philosopher who went rowing a boat with a boatman in the sea and started a conversation with the boatman. "Have you studied? Do you know anything about astronomy?" he asked. "Nothing at all," was the answer. "You have lost a quarter of your life. Do you know anything about geology?" "I do not know anything." "You have lost two quarters of your life. Do you know anything about mathematics?" "I do not." "You have lost three quarters of your life." At once a terrible storm started to rage and threatened to capsize the boat. On his part the boatman asked the philosopher, "Do you know how to swim?" "I do not know and have never learned to." "You can lose four fourths of your life," i.e. all your life. Now you sit like this philosopher discussing the question how Christ was born and came to earth, but as soon as a storm comes to your life, or you meet some obstacle or suffering, you do not know how to swim and begin to sink in the water. Where is your philosophy of life? Where did your mathematics, geology and astronomy remain? What is the purpose of these sciences if they cannot help you in such critical moments? Mathematics should be a science to teach people how to construct their life correctly. Biology is a science which must teach people how to put Law and order in their cells. Geology must teach people right relations to the Earth.
 
In the life of Christ there are three main phases: birth, death and resurrection. These phases must be intrinsic to every ordinary person. When Christ was born, angels in heaven proclaimed peace to people. Therefore, the birth of Christ was triumphant, but this same Christ became subject to a disgraceful death. People ask to this day why Christ had to die this way. There are a number of reasons for this. Christ was exposed to a disgraceful death, but in the end he rose from the dead. People today die too, but so far no one has risen. There are reasons for this too.
 
Now I shall make a comparison between life and death. When Adam was in paradise, God presented life to him in the form of two fruit-trees one of which He called The Tree of Life and the other The Tree of Knowing Good and Evil. In the occult sense The Tree of Life implies the aspiration of all living beings in Nature toward the Divine. This aspiration has an upward movement. It is a high tide in Nature, which gradually increases, grows. By The Tree of Knowing Good and Evil is implied the endeavor of the beings to go out of the center of life and move towards the periphery. This endeavor has a downward movement and represents a low tide in Nature. Since these two currents exist in Nature, it is easy enough to explain the origin of death. If two trains start moving from two opposite points toward one and the same point what will happen to them? A catastrophe is inevitable. Adam found himself between two such trains and, not being able to avoid the catastrophe, he died. Those who eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree will end their life like Adam. This means that the day a person eats of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they enter the low tide of life, i.e. the tide which has a downward movement toward the center of the Earth. God alone is able to save people from this low tide. Christ came to earth namely to take people out of this tide and place them in the opposite tide, in the high tide of life, which we call resurrection.
 
In order for you to receive the life which leads to the resurrection, you should understand the Teaching of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. What is meant by the Father? The Teaching of Divine Wisdom. By the Son? The Teaching of Divine Love. By the Holy Spirit? The Teaching of raising and evolution of people. It says in the Scripture, "He who believes in this Teaching will be saved." Everyone should understand the Laws of this Teaching. What is required of you? Many of you are fathers, but do you understand your calling as a father? Many of you have been sons, but do you understand what should be the relations of the son to the father? You have not yet been in the state of the Spirit, but you will be. Now you are preparing yourselves to pass through the Spirit, Who raises people, raises Christ in them.
 
In order to understand Christ's Teaching correctly, you must be freed from some ties with the world. This does not mean that you must deny the world. No, this is a wrong view. The world has two faces—one is an inner face, pure and bright, a Divine face; the other is an external face, subject to constant changes. So that when we speak of denying the world, you must understand a denial of its external face, of those elements which have a transitory and deceitful character. These elements do not give any essential thing to the life of a person. However, everything else which serves your uplifting should be preserved, for it is said, "God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believeth in Him should not perish." The Apostle Paul said, "The face of this world passes," which confirms the idea that the world has two faces. Therefore, the one face of the world which changes, passes away. The face which does not change, remains.
 
People are born, grow and think that they can set the world right and conquer it, but when they become 45-50 years of age, they notice a certain weakening of strength and give up this idea. They become kind, careful and make the young work for them. They begin to think only of their old age and that they might become ill and die. I am asking you: why do old people always direct their look to the center of the Earth? Why do not they keep in their mind thoughts full of Light, which refresh their spirit, renew them and lead to resurrection? People today are infected by the thought that we cannot resurrect, come to life and be born again. This is the greatest delusion in the world. People can rise just as they can die. Death and life are two relative things. If you come into contradiction with the Laws and forces functioning in rational Nature, you will be smashed and ruined. But if you are in accord with the Laws and forces of rational Nature, you will be raised and rise from the grave. In order to come to the resurrection you must free yourself from certain obstacles and drawbacks, which your souls have inherited from your ancestors.
 
I shall cite an example to explain a great Law which regulates life. Several English sailors left one day the ship where they worked to visit a European city. They walked around the city visiting different drinking houses until they got drunk. In the evening they returned to the port, got into their boats and started rowing, forgetting to untie the boats from the posts. They rowed all night thinking they have neared the ship, but what was their surprise in the morning when they saw they were still on shore! Why did they not reach the ship? They saw their mistake that their boats were still tied. The rope by which their boats were tied to the posts prevented them from leaving the place in spite of their night efforts. That rope was their obstacle. And if people today cannot rise, the reason is the same—they are tied by a small rope to some post. Small children do the same thing. A child catches a bird and ties one of its legs to a string and then lets it fly. The bird flies up to a place and then falls on the ground. Why? Because it is tied by a string. In the same way people today are tied. They must have a high ideal! What kind? Such as would pull them up to heaven. Someone says, "I tried to fly, but soon I fell down to earth. Why? "I myself don't know." But I say, "You were tied. You have had some doubts in your mind, or have wanted to solve some important questions, but have not succeeded." "What shall I do then?" "Untie your boat from the post, row with your oars and start forward and upward to your purpose."
 
No matter what a person does, they cannot escape the consequences of their life. Do not think that your thoughts and feelings do not exert an influence on you. Every thought and every feeling, however small they may be, exert an influence not only on you but also on those around you as well. Moses, I think, says in the Deuteronomy that God recompenses people for every crime down to the fourth generation. It follows from this that in one hundred years at the most every crime must be liquidated with. Those who know this Law have noticed the following: if a woman of the black race has intercourse with a man of the white race, in the first generation the child may be white. However, in the second, third and fourth generation a black child will be born by all means. If in the first generation a black child is born, that ends the karma. However, this Law has a contrary effect as well. If a woman of the white race has intercourse with a man on the black race, in one of the four generations a black child will be born by all means. If a black child is born to a husband and wife of the white race, they will wonder where this child came from. They even do not suspect that one of their grandmothers has had intercourse with a black man some hundred years ago. Do not take this illustration in a literal sense; it is highly metaphorical!
 
I say, the same Law functions in the feelings and thoughts of a person. Someone sits calmly and all of a sudden a bad thought enters his or her mind. Where did this bad thought come from? One hundred years ago your soul has had relations with a negative thought, a "dark one." The "dark one" represents the temptation in the world. Every bad thought or every bad feeling is a child of the person that nurtures them. This is done according to the Law of karma. The karmic Law is strict. You must keep yourselves from it, because you cannot avoid its consequences. Do not give place of bad thoughts in your mind. If you admit them in your mind, they will create their own forms, which will handicap you in the future. It is not a question of whether you are born of a father or mother of the white race, the important thing is that the vibrations of the people of the black race are considerably different from those of the white race, as a result of which much work and effort is necessary in order to reconcile those vibrations. The aspirations of the black race are towards the Earth, not toward heaven. They are the people of that tree from which Eve, the first mother of humanity ate. The aspiration of the people of the white race is toward heaven. This aspiration is very strongly expressed at the present time. They want to be people of the Tree of Life and eat its fruit. Therefore, we become one or another kind of people according to the tree we eat of. The Tree of Life is Christ. When this great thought penetrates your mind, salvation will come. You should not dwell on the abstract thought that Christ is sitting on the right sight of God, but rather consider Christ as a power penetrating the whole earth. When this power passes through all beings from the smallest to the greatest, then the liberation of the whole humanity will be realized. When they crucified Christ, i.e. when they interrupted the course of this power, of this current, darkness overwhelmed the Earth. All people felt this darkness. The Scripture says that after that Christ descended to hell to preach his Teaching there. All who obeyed him left hell and went to live on the Earth. Were you not also there when Christ preached? You were, but you have forgotten this. What did Christ say when He went down to hell to bring you out of the darkness there? "Go and sin no more!"
 
Now I also say to you that if you sin, you will bear "dark children" and sufferings will come one after the other. Since Christ is already on the Earth, He has decided to save humanity and will save it. There is no power on earth, however strong it might be, that can counteract the power of Christ. Christ says, "No one can take from my hands the sheep God has given Me, for there is no greater than Him." And if ever any doubt should possess your soul, know that this is your "dark father." Break your ties with him! The pure should not tie themselves to the impure. When a mother sees her children soiled, does she embrace them immediately? No, first she will punish them a little, then she will bathe them and put clean clothes on them and after that she will embrace and kiss them. This is the simplest philosophy of life. Someone says, "Nobody loves me." "Your clothes are muddy, my friend." If you want people to love you, go and bathe yourself and clean your body as you should. After that, clean your heart and your mind and see then if people will love you or not. Thus cleansed and bathed, a person is ready for resurrection.
 
Christ rose, but before he came to the resurrection, He passed through the crucifixion. What is the meaning of the cross? It is the net of squares after a cube has been spread out—the cube on one plane. At the same time the cube represents a person's house. Christ was crucified on the cross— on this open (spread out) cube by which God wanted to tell people to open the doors and windows of their houses, wash them and thoroughly clean them, thus preparing them for the day of the resurrection. Someone hands a cross to a person and says, "Kiss this cross!" But I say that before you kiss the cross it must be cleaned. The cross is in a person's mind and heart. Therefore, you cannot kiss this human cross until it is absolutely purified, i.e. until the person's mind and heart are not perfectly pure. All people are living crosses that must be raised. As soon as this is done a circle, which signifies eternity, will be formed around the cross. Thus, the cross will be turned into a wheel which will be in constant motion.
 
By His Teaching Christ wants to reveal to people the basic Laws by which they can change the human order of things. To change this order, people should first have an idea, which they should put as a foundation of their lives, and after that they should try to attain this idea. People today cannot attain this idea for the simple reason that they are victims of their implacable egoism. Everyone thinks only of him or herself alone wishing to have the first place. In one of his pictures an artist presented human egoism very well. He painted a high mountain peak on which an idol stood tall. Millions of people had their eyes fixed on this peak, everyone trying to reach it and bow to the idol. Yet, whoever would start first for the peak was immediately held back by the others for fear he would reach the peak before them. In this way they handicapped one another, in result of which no one has reached the peak yet. What do we see in life? Until this day people continue to struggle and pull each other back lest anyone should reach the peak and receive the wreath of merit. In ancient Greece during the races of the Olympic Games whoever reached the goal first received the wreath. However, in our efforts for Christ's exploit, everyone who fulfils His Teaching can receive a wreath.
 
Thus, there are three important things, three important words in Christ's Teaching: the Father,; the Son and the Holy Spirit. If you can pronounce these words in their profound sense and in their fullness, you have already entered the Teaching of Christ. When you pronounce the word Father, you should feel the pulse of your Father, Who moves the world. You should feel it the way a mother feels the pulse of her child. To feel God's thought implies to understand it and to know it. If you have acquired all this, you will understand the verse which says, "Before you have asked for something of the Father, He will fulfill your desires." You must all have filial relations to God and fulfill your duties to Him as to your own father. He did not come down to earth, but sent His Son as a sacrifice that no one who believes in Him should perish. On the same basis once we have come to earth, we too should sacrifice ourselves. Many are afraid of sacrifice, saying that there is no life in it. They cannot make out the words, "If you do not eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you." We eat daily in order to live. Do not the grains of the wheat and the fruit we eat die and sacrifice themselves for us? We must justify their sacrifice! They say, "We are ready to die and be sacrificed for you, if only you become more humane." Billions of creatures serve people, but what do we do in exchange for this? We are engaged in scholastic problems as the theologians of the Middle Ages who philosophized how many devils can dance at the point of the knife.
 
I say, Christ's Teaching contains the sense of life. There is always a lowland between two great epochs. If we observe the human brain, we shall see that it, too, has grooves and elevations. The human thought can function due to these grooves and elevations in the brain. The Earth, too, has grooves and elevations thanks to which we live. Someone says, "I do not want to live in a valley." Where do you want to live? "On a high mountain peak." I ask you, how many people can live on a high mountain peak? All people cannot live on the peaks. Some will live in the valleys, others—on the summits. Everyone lives on their own land—once they will be in the valley, another time—on the summit; a third time they will go down the valley again; a fourth time they will climb the peak. This way they will constantly ascend and descend until they finally learn that the evolutionary Law is movement along a broken line in which there are lowlands and heights. When people learn the Teaching of Christ, which is related to the circular motion of eternity, they will enter another kind of evolution in which there are no ups and downs but only circular movement.
 
"Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit." The Teaching of the Spirit is a real Teaching which people today deny. The Father is the Creator of things. The Spirit implies the unity; it implies the multiplicity of things as well. Christ, the Son, represents the sap constantly flowing in The Tree of Life. The Spirit represents also the conditions in which we live. Astrologers today state that a person is in communications with the whole universe, i.e. all beings are in a certain relation among themselves. The heart, the brain, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, as organs through which forces pass, correspond to certain beings in space. When a conflict arises among some of them, a person feels some change in the corresponding part of their body. And in fact they begin to complain of pains in their arm, leg or some other part of the body. This is due to some external influence which, according to the erudite, comes either from Jupiter, from Saturn, Mars or some other planet.
 
Some may object, "How is it possible for Mars to influence people?" But I ask you, if a nation can exert an influence by its thoughts on another nation, why should not a planet be able to do the same? We see that England, France, Germany, Russia and the other nations mutually influence each other, on the same grounds the beings living on Mars by their thoughts exert a certain influence on people. Their thoughts pass across space forming a current. Those who fall under the influence of this current become belligerent. People today are under the influence of Mars as a result of which they are fighting and are at war until this current or influence attains its purpose. You will say that Christ's Teaching is about peace, however, when this peace, or this balance of Nature, is disturbed, war will inevitably come. The present views of people impose a restoration of the disturbed balance only by means of war. We see this Law in practical life as well. When a housekeeper wants to take the butter out of the milk, she puts the milk in the churn- tub and churns it. Therefore, the war in the world will end only when people derive butter. Christ says, "I want people to have butter which, when applied, will make them softer and more delicate." Present-day people are hard and callous to a greater extent than is necessary. That they are in need of oil is obvious in the parable of the five foolish virgins who forgot to take oil for their vessels and remained outside. Those who want to enter the Kingdom of God must by all means have oil for their vessels.
 
This is the Teaching of the Spirit. Now I am speaking allegorically, but if you think deeply about this question, you will see that there are forces which exert a softening influence on people and you will understand their relations to you. You ask, "Why did God create the world?" That you may study. The spirits which were created first became crystals. After them the Earth had to be created with new cells in a circular not a geometrical form. In order to develop and turn in to a plant, the crystal must become a living cell. By the force of this Law, the noblest of plants must turn its "wooden" immovable cells into muscles and nerves, in order to be able, like the animals, to feel and to be able to move from one place to another. In the same way we also must pay up everything, in order to form in ourselves that cell which creates the saints. People are dead at present and in heaven they are planted with their heads down. We must sacrifice ourselves and become a sensible cell one with Christ and after passing through His body, through His mind and through His heart, become tuned up to understand the deep sense of things. Now I shall not explain these abstract truths, lest I deviate from the main subject.
 
The first thing in life is obedience. In antiquity a Greek disciple wanted to study the secret sciences and for that reason he went to Egypt, to the so called school of the Brotherhood of Light. The high priest in the temple of Isis took him to many places and finally to a statue and said to him, "This is the Truth." "Why did you not first take me to the Truth, but to all these other places? You should have lead me to this statue at the very first," objected the disciple. "This cannot be for such is the path of the Truth. Be careful not to raise the veil of this statue and not to touch it. Study it only on the outside." The disciple burned with a desire to see what is beneath this veil. He thought he would find the Truth if he lifted the veil and after returning to Greece he would possess great power. One night he quietly walked out, entered the temple and raised the veil. However, they found him dead in front of the statue the next morning. What did he learn? Nothing. Someone says, "Raise the curtain; I want to see the Truth!" It is dangerous to raise the veil of the Truth prematurely. A person must be ready for this moment. Christ has come to earth to prepare us to meet this moment without fear.
 
First of all we must understand which life leads to salvation. After that you must pass through another process of which it is said, "If you are not born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God." And Nicodemus was told that if he were not born of water and of the spirit, he would not enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore, there are two births, but not reincarnations, for reincarnation implies a process of cutting life short, of interruption. Reincarnation is a process of disharmony. To be reincarnated is to begin anew the work which you have left. You are caught and imprisoned and after staying in prison for 10 years, 15 more years remain; one day you escape from the prison, but they catch you again and imprison you for 10 more years, which makes again 25 years. After five years you escape again. They catch you and imprison you for the third time, imposing a greater punishment on you. Thus, the person who does not want to serve their sentence is reincarnated. Or in another sense—the person who is sent to earth, but does not want to live according to the order of God, passes through reincarnation. Such people want to live an easy life, to escape from prison, then they will be caught, put in prison again and if they always escape, this prison will never end. The Law of the new birth implies the fulfillment of the Will of God. It is not difficult for a person to fulfill the Will of God. The difficulty lies in our misunderstanding of life.
 
People today have the tendency to criticize. Everyone sees the mistakes of others, "So and so does not live as they should." But do you live as you should? "They are not a good person." But are you good? A person should first know themselves. They should study their constitution. Do you know why God has given you one nose, two eyes and two ears? Do you know why some eyes are black, others blue or green and what are the eyebrows for? The eyes form the symbol of the number eight. What does the number eight mean? It is the number of work. The nose is the plough of a person. When you lay a person horizontally, it shows that they should plough. Thus, God's grace will descend on us and cause everything we have sown to grow.
 
I ask you, what does thinking lie in? What process is thinking? Someone may say that thinking is a process of concentration. What is concentration? Years ago in Varna I met a Bulgarian man who told me he earned eight thousand leva which he lent a merchant to help him, but the merchant went bankrupt and the man lost his money too. He said, "I lost too, but God is good, I shall earn money again." I say, here is a man who has understood the Law. He is not an occultist, but knows a Law that will teach him what to do in order to earn money again. He says, "God gives, God takes away." Riches, knowledge and power are transitory things in the life of a person. God tests us by them, as a mother tests her children. Often the mothers call their children angels. A mother calls her child "my little angel!" I say, test them and see if they become an angel. Give the child an apple and then ask it back again. If the child gives you back the apple without getting angry, they will become an angel. If they do not give it back, they will not become an angel.
 
In the same way, God gives you a blessing and says, "Give your blessing to others!" "I shall not do it." Here is an unknown quantity you have not solved. "But I do not believe in life!" This is a second unknown quantity you have not solved. "I shall escape from life"—a third unknown quantity. You often solve problems with solving unknown quantities, you find what they are equal to, but when you come to life, you cannot solve them. Every unknown quantity has its value which can be solved only when a person works. Therefore, in order to define what every unknown quantity is equal to, you must put to work your thoughts and feelings. When people cannot solve the unknown quantities in their lives, they weep and feel unhappy. The world is a school in which only those who want to study can be enrolled. If you do not want to study and to concentrate, who has forced you to enter this school? If you do not want to study, you better enter a plant or a mineral. Only by hard concentration you can understand the Teaching of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and begin to love God. Many people say that only a foolish person can love. No. Love is an unknown quantity which must be calculated in order to determine its real value. The problem of love can be solved only from the standpoint of the Teaching of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
 
The Teacher of this Teaching visits you every morning and sows a thought in your souls, but in spite of that you grow poor. Why do you become poor? Because you cannot evaluate the thought which Christ gives you. Someone says, "I want glory, wealth, knowledge." The blessings Christ gives you are more essential than the ones you want. The glory of God is far more valuable than the glory of people. Christ wants to make you all powerful, masters of life and death. Do you know who creates death? Those billions of spirits who are constantly doing destructive work. Every day you are filled with doubt, envy, and you want to be people of progress at that! There are even such people who speak of occultism, but their thought is not free— they do not understand life. Christ rose from the dead and showed the spiritual path we must pass—by the process of birth.
 
What is birth? Tolstoy speaks of one of his dreams. One night he dreamt he was pregnant trying to bear a child and feeling awful pains. On wakening in the morning he asked, "Are the pains women feel at birth very strong?" When he received an affirmative answer, he said, "It is no easy matter to be a woman!" Your mind conceives a thought, but what sufferings it will cause you until you give it birth! Do not think that sufferings are a bad sign. As a mother gives something of herself, in the same way you must give something to your child. You must give life and power to a noble thought in your mind. Finally, you must have the courage to roll the stone off your tomb and not sit like present-day philosophers reasoning if Christ has risen or not. There are people who have been present when Christ rose. You will say, "Prove it!" I can prove that to you, but you must assume the same relations, an important Law must be observed. What is proving? You will lead a person a certain path and show them the way by which they must test the truth themselves.
 
The last hour has come and we must all rise. We must and we will rise from the dead! When we have come to the question of the resurrection, you must not ask whether Christ has risen, but whether the time for your resurrection is near. Many ask to this day the question, "Did Christ lie for three days in the tomb?" Leave this question aside. For eight thousand years you have been lying in this tomb. Is not this time enough? It is. The angel, coming down to roll the stone off the tomb, is Christ's call, announcing the coming of the Last Judgement. How will Christ find you? If the stone is not rolled off your tomb, can Christ say, "Lazarus, come forth!"? Your relatives and friends must at least do you the favor of rolling the stone off your tombs. Then Christ will say, "Rise!" And you will rise from the dead.
 
To all of you who are listening to me this morning, I roll off your tomb-stones and say, "Christ is coming!" He will stand before your open tombs and say, "Come out!"
 
Sermon of the Master held on March 22, 1915, in Sofia.
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⁹ Matt 29:19.