Miss Not Your Own Train

[Ani]

Miss Not Your Own Train

 

Leaning on a rock by the Second Lake in the Rila Mountains, I was observing how peacefully and lovely the Master talked to those who went to him. I was awaiting my turn too.

 

In front of his tent there was a platform made of white stones where at a simple wooden table with small chairs aronnd it, he received his guests. It seemed to me that heaven and earth had an appointed tryst at the Second Rila Lake.

 

My turn was next when a sister came by and asked me to speak only for a minute to the Master before me.

 

"Well, yes!" I said politely and stepped aside.

 

While she was still speaking to the Master, another one came and made the same request. I had no special work, so it seemed the most natural thing for me to give up my turn again. While the Master was talking to her, I walked slowly on the path that led to his tent. When I was almost there, another sister walked by me and not even taking motice of me, passed in front and stood before the Master with her question.

 

Thus I became the fourth.

 

The moment I stepped on the white stone platform, the Master looked at me seriously and said:

 

"Do not miss your own train! Another will come and you will board it but that which was predestined for you will go to those who took the first train.

 

I understood that he spoke thus because I yielded my turn to the others, but I thought it concerned only this case. I thanked the Master for his attention to me and continued expressing my admiration that in ten days I was able to gather strength for the whole year.

 

"At this height one disconnects oneself from material things and the soul gets a rest. Tomorrow I shall go back to work in the kindergarten and it seems to me as if I will go back from another world. We all thank you, Master, for bringing us here every summer!"

 

I went back to Sofia and to my work. The everyday cares enveloped me, and days, months and years passed by in labor and cares. I attained my ends, but with great effort, always in the last minute when I was tired out in the fight and accepted the achievement with no joy. I began prematurely to get tired.

 

Once, talking with the Master, I shared with him my grief that everything was so difficult and brought so much hardship into my life.

 

"Master, I run all day long, work like a beast of burden, when shall I be merry?"

 

The Master smiled and said:

 

"Every man comes on earth with some favorable opportunities which he must make use of on time and in place. If you let the opportunity go by, you lose. Man is a collective being connected with the'sun and the whole solar system. He comes on earth with the impetus and the tendency to move forward and upward. But 80% of the people on earth realize themeselves only as individuals and wish to master Nature. Today humanity walks on the path of experience which is a path of suffering. It is not a bad path but the attainments and joys will be achieved much more easily if man feels himself a collective being, a spark from the Eternal Life and if he makes use of the favorable opportunities on time, when they come to him and call on him."

 

"Listen to me: If man makes timely use of the sun's rays, the fresh air and the pure water; if he correctly satisfies his hunger, and not his taste, with the necessary fresh and pure food in order to get and utilize the organic nourishing energies of the food; if he timely listens to God's voice that speaks to him: get up, go and work-if all that were being done, do you know that there would be no starving, sick, poor and unhappy people on earth."

 

"Now I want to tell you: don't you complain that your life is hard and difficult. The good chances which Nature offers you, you alone let them slip by and run after the last train. I told you: Miss not your own train! Start working on yourself with the smallest of quantities but work seriously, continuously, with no limited period of time-but until you achieve.

 

When you begin working on one virtue, begin living with its influence and work unceasingly, work until corresponding cells be reconstructed in your own body. That means work!'"

 

"Always have a wide awake consciousness, be wise and come near to the reality of life."

 

"And what is reality, Master?"

 

"Real is Love, real is Wisdom, real is Truth. The man of the new culture that is coming will have opened eyes and will live with the principles of those realities. Today man's culture and science are in their swaddling clothes, they are in the go-cart. A time will come when everybody will be able to visit the Moon, the Sun and the rest of the planets. But work is necessary, work and time . . . . "

 

"You have wonderful knowledge, Master!"

 

"You begin with the smallest things. Don't miss your own train. Everywhere and all the time be awake and careful."

 

"Thank you, Master. Your words are spiritual milk to us and with them I feel you are trying to prepare us for the new culture that is being born on earth."

 

In my notebook I put down the date of this talk with the Master: August 10th, 1938 . . . and I pondered long over his words . . . pondered and was grateful.