Reflection on the verse “God is Love” (I John, 4:8)
What is man? If we speak of the spiritual man, it is characteristic of him that he questions everything but no one questions him. Man is interested in many things, but they are not all equally important, many of them are minor. The only thing that interests man is what his welfare depends on. It is determined by his kindness. It is a blessing for man to be good. A good man is not worried, nor is he disturbed. Whoever gets worried and disturbed is not a true man. He is the choppy waters constantly crashing into the shores; he is a rock that is gradually being destroyed; he is the withered leaf that falls from the tree and begins to rot; he is the ashes from the hearth. People wonder where to put their dirty water, the pieces of the broken rock, the withered leaves, and the ashes from the hearth, so as not to disturb them. Different names are given to all things that disturb man.
When you read the Old Testament, you will find many places where lepers are mentioned. Today we use this word more often for a leper mentally, because physically this disease is not as common as in the past. Whatever garment the leper puts on, he is still a leper; the garment does him no good. Whatever idea he puts on, whatever feeling he puts into his heart, they do him no good. Leprosy is nothing but the ingratitude of man. He has to get rid of it and become grateful. Why is man ungrateful? – Because he is missing something. When he looks around, he sees that he does not have new shoes, a new garment, a new hat, some book – and he becomes ungrateful.
Gratitude should get into the human soul as a necessity, not just for a moment but forever. Rejoice that the ingratitude is not permanent, but it visits man periodically and opens the way for gratitude. A hero is one who is always grateful. The ungrateful one is like the coal that formed thousands of years ago from trees that were buried by layers of earth. They have charred partially or completely. We burn them and use them as fuel. With the use of coal, mankind has encountered great hardships and trials. Coal has formed from giant pre-historic trees with great ambitions and longings. God imprisoned these beings in the earth so that they would not make a great noise and disturbance. However, people let them loose out of ignorance and today they cause more mischief and hardships than in the past. People think that they gain something by taking the coal out of the ground and burning it. No, the coal was taken out of the ground prematurely. They had to be taken out later – in the Age of Love, when the beings who are imprisoned in them will have an opportunity to correct their mistakes. Now, not only are they not being helped, but we are turning them into ashes. They must return to their original life.
Which things are valuable: the living ones or those that can come to life and be useful? A train is valuable when it is moving, when it is puffing under the pressure of water. Then it carries passengers, merchandise, and it travels a certain distance. A steamer is valuable when it is moving. The driver drives the train, the captain drives the steamer, and they are made to do some work. A man is also valuable when he moves. He can move physically, emotionally and mentally. It is not important in which world the movement takes place, it is important that things move. Movement animates them and makes them alive. If movement ceases in all worlds, death occurs everywhere. Just as a machine is guided by someone, so a person must have a captain to guide them. The captain of man’s machine is his mind according to some, or his spirit according to others. He handles all difficulties, adversities and discontent.
I wish that this very morning you deal with the discontent according to the law of love: to say that it is sitting on someone else’s chair and to offer your own chair. The place where it sits is honourable – it is earmarked for contentment. So far discontent and ingratitude have been masters in human life; from now on they will become servants, while contentment and gratitude will become masters. This does not mean that you should take hold of ingratitude and shake it. If you do so, it means that you apply ingratitude. On the contrary, you will thank ingratitude for giving you valuable lessons in life, and you will deal with it according to the law of gratitude. There are many examples of this, but if a person is not ready to deal with dissatisfaction and ingratitude internally, these examples cannot benefit him. There are many tricks that one can use, but one must be ready for them too.
They tell the following story about a magician. He took twelve knives and threw them one by one at a board from a distance of five or six meters. In front of the board stood a woman with her arms stretched out at her sides. The magician threw the first knife at her right ear, the second one at her left ear, the third one above her head, the fourth one at her neck, on either side, the fifth and sixth ones on either side of her legs, and so on. Thus he threw twelve knives, but so successfully that none of them touched the live body. He was skillful, but the woman had no less merit. The knives were thrown around her one after another without a muscle of her face or body twitching. They were both distinguished with great self-possession. Can you not do so with ingratitude? Place it in front of a board and throw knives all around it, without touching it, without hurting it. This is an art – to liquidate something without upsetting, offending or hurting it.
A prominent Greek sculptor and a prominent artist decided to make something precious to present to the world. The sculptor crafted a bunch of grapes so naturally that he fooled the birds. As they approached it, they tried to peck, but immediately backed away – their beaks hitting the stone. The artist, on the other hand, painted a beautiful maiden covered with a thin veil. When the sculptor came, he wished to see the beautiful maiden and approached the painting with the intention of lifting the veil. When he put his hand to the veil, he was deceived – it was painted. He was content to watch the beautiful maiden through the veil. What have the two masters achieved with their art? The first one deceived the birds, the second one deceived the man. The sculptor’s bunch of grapes lacks substance. The birds landed and returned deceived, but the sculptor was also deceived by his friend’s painting: he thought he would see the beautiful maiden behind the veil. A great craftsman will be the one who can remove ingratitude from behind the veil and put gratitude in its place.
Nowadays all people say that they should love each other. Everybody talks about Love, but their paintings are similar to the bunch of grapes that the sculptor made and to the artist’s veil. Birds will land on the grapes and return without having a taste of it. People will come to the veil, behind which the beautiful maiden is hiding, but they will not see her either. Love comes only from one place, not from many places. As long as it comes from many places, people will talk about it, but in the end they will all die. Now, when one person falls in love with you, you have to die. If you fall in love with them, they have to die. If you fall in love with a chicken, it dies; you fall in love with an apple or a pear, it dies; you fall in love with money, it also dies. Whatever a man loves, it must surely die. When death enters into love, it shows that life is not understood as it should be.
In ancient times, one of the Masters of Love sent two of his disciples into the world to learn and preach. They sang and preached to the people. One disciple cheered the people with his song, the second one not only cheered them but opened their hearts and disposed them to giving, to good relations with their neighbours. From his song the sick were healed, the sorrowful forgot their sorrow. Now you also sing many songs, you sing that you can love and be loved, become servants of God. I wish that as you sing, so you may manifest yourselves. What is the use of serving if you are not satisfied with life? Dissatisfaction shows that you do not understand the deep meaning of serving. If the young man does not serve his beloved and if the maiden does not serve her beloved, love cannot manifest between them. Love without serving is not true love. The first quality of love is giving. You cannot call love something that gives nothing of itself. You cannot call love something that does not appreciate the manifestations of the soul.
Love and affection are eternal principles of Being. Love comes from God and brings His life to all beings: to grow and develop, to rejoice and be merry. Everyone expects this life, but it cannot manifest without Love and without gratitude. Gratitude brings immortality, while ingratitude brings death. It is not required much from man to be immortal. As long as he is always content and grateful, he has already acquired immortality. Someone has robbed you: be grateful that he has robbed you; someone has said bad words about you – be grateful; you have fallen ill – be grateful. These are shadows of life through which you will inevitably pass. If the weather is rainy or windy – be grateful; whether you have new clothes or not – be grateful. Be grateful for everything: for the small and for the great good. Someone has called you an animal – be grateful again. There is something bad in the word animal. The bad thing lies in its ingratitude. Animals appear meek, resigned to their situation, but in fact they are extremely dissatisfied and ungrateful. Try approaching an animal when it is eating. It will immediately express that it is dissatisfied with you – it does not want to be disturbed. Animals observe this rule towards each other, being careful not to disturb each other when they eat. If an ox approaches another ox, the first one will immediately point its horns at it and say, “Can you not see that I am eating? Why are you disturbing me?” Even to this day the animals have not yet understood the life they carry within them, but neither have humans fully understood it.
People often stumble by themselves. Everyone wants to know what others think of him. If he is religious, he wants to know what his relatives think, whether he loves Christ and what his love is. If he is secular, he wants to know whether his acquaintances think of him as a scholar, a great man. If you want to know what your love is, see what the animals have to say about you. A dog comes around you, wagging its tail. It is hungry, it wants you to give it some bread. If you look at it and give nothing, it already has a certain opinion of your love. It says: “This person has no heart, he does not understand my situation.” But if you give the dog some bread, it understands that you have love. The more bread you give, the greater your love is. Young maidens and lads write letters in which they pour out their love. What kind of love is that which is written in black ink? True love should be written in rays of light, not in black ink. This is how love letters will be written in the future. When you open a love letter, you have to clothe yourself with rays of light and shine. Moreover, if the letter mentions apples and pears, you will receive them in reality. Whatever is mentioned in the letter, you will have it in front of you. It is not a matter of having whole baskets of apples and pears. You may have one apple, but it should correspond to reality.
People still wonder if they can see God and Christ. It depends on them. When they take ingratitude out of themselves and bring gratitude into their hearts, they will see both God and Christ. How? In the manifestations of Love. It is said that God is Love. Therefore open your heart wide – let the Divine warmth enter into it, so that to experience the Divine joy and gladness. Open your mind wide – let the Divine light enter into it, so that to make your way straight. Open your soul wide – let the Divine power enter into it, so that to make you courageous and resolute. Warmth, light, and strength – this is the God you seek. He lives in our minds, hearts and souls. Knowing this, look with reverence at your soul as the dwelling place of God; look at your mind as a sacred altar, and at your heart as a sacred chamber.
Be grateful for the mind, the heart and the soul that have been given to you. And be grateful for the poverty and the diseases that have also been given to you. Diseases, sufferings, poverty are the manifestations of God who takes you in His arms and puts your love to test. You are angry, you are discontented, because you do not know that through them you are being shown a new path to Love. You will be grateful for everything: if you are sick, you will be grateful; if you are healthy, you will be grateful again; when you are dying, you will be grateful; and when you are born, you will be grateful again. Nowadays, when someone is born, everyone is grateful; when someone dies, everyone mourns. When death comes, say, ‘I am grateful that the time has come to die.’ Is there anything scary about death? If you die to get out of prison, you gain your freedom. It is more scary when you are born in prison. Be grateful in either case. A hero is one who is grateful both when he dies and when he is born. Man is tested both through death and through life. Unless he passes through both states, he cannot understand Love and Affection. When the lad and the maiden fall in love, they have to give something of themselves, to give up something, to learn to serve each other. If a man thinks only of himself, he forgets that he has to serve others.
If God serves all beings, then man must also follow His example. Christ says: “My Father is working, and I will work.” People want to become masters without having served others. This is impossible. Only the one, who has learned to serve, can be a master. Nowadays, people are learning to serve. Even the greatest Master Who created the world serves, let alone the one who has created nothing. That is why every man must desire within to become a servant, to serve Love. Work is service, yet many are not satisfied with their work. They say, “This work does not suit us, it is not for us.” Socrates was a sweeper in Athens. When he was asked why he was sweeping, he replied, ‘I am learning to work so that I can sweep away everything impure from myself.’ He wanted to show that one can be grateful for everything. At the same time, he proved that a man can be grateful even with a bad woman, so he married Xanthippe, who was known for her bad character. Whatever she did to him, he was always grateful. She would grab him by the hair, shake his head, but he would calmly reply, ‘Thank you for shaking my head so that I can think better.’ When she patted him on the back, he would say, ‘Thank you for shaking the dust off my clothes.’ Through Xanthippa he developed a great philosophy of life and said to himself, ‘Thanks to Xanthippa I have become a philosopher.’
Ingratitude must be turned into gratitude. If one cannot do that, one cannot achieve anything else. There is no greater thing in life than to be grateful. Gratitude opens the way to Love. Do you think that the one who loves you can do you harm? Evil is due to ingratitude. It is said of the grateful and the loving man that no eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared for them.
People nowadays talk about love, they love each other, but in spite of that they constantly quarrel. Why? Because they do not love God in man, but love themselves. Someone loves a person and immediately enters into him. As soon as he enters into him, he first loves himself in his beloved and begins to praise and admire him. In fact, he loves himself. When he comes out of him, he already sees his faults and wonders how he loved him. As long as the beloved ones enter into each other, they love each other, but they begin to impose on each other who is to serve whom. If one backs down and accepts to become a servant, they live somewhat well, in agreement. However, if no one backs down, they go out and start a wasr between them. Therefore, when you meet a man, get to love the God in him, not the man, and say, “Lord, I am ready to serve You because You have brought life into me. Then you will hear the still small voice of the Lord, “Enter into the Kingdom of love and be blessed.” This means that God rejoices in man, and man rejoices and has inner peace.
People nowadays fall in love and fall out of love. Why does this happen? Because every man enters into his beloved alone, without God. Therefore I say, when you get to love someone, enter into him together with the Lord, do not enter alone. When someone gets to love you, he must also enter into you together with the Lord. Whoever enters into man alone, without the Lord, does not bring Love. If you enter a house without love, you bring misery to that house. The world that is being created now is a world of Love. If you enter this world, Love must be your companion. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, everything must be dictated by Love. Whatever you do, everything must be written by the hand of Love. This may seem strange to you – it means nothing. Strange things are pleasant. If someone sings a song to you and you do not want to hear it a second time, it shows that it was not sung with love. If they sing it to you with love, you will want to hear it a second and a third time. If a song does not grow like the tree and ripen like the fruit, it is not true, i.e. it does not bring Love. If a thought does not grow and ripen, it is not a right thought. The right thought is capital on which man can always rely. If someone says that he is old and cannot achieve anything, he is not thinking right. The right thought implies eternal life. Man lives forever by taking off his old garment and putting on a new one.
It is said in Scripture: “And Abraham was gathered to his fathers.” It does not say that Abraham grew old and went back to the old people. Christ says, ‘Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.’ So in the other world there is no talk of old age. There are wise men there, not old men. This verse can be translated in this sense: if gratitude does not enter your heart, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Gratitude leads to love. Without gratitude you cannot find the way to Love. Learn to be grateful for everything. When you are insulted and when you are praised, be equally grateful. It is not a matter of being grateful mechanically, but consciously, turning bitterness into sweetness. Every man is at the front, his superior orders him and he has to obey. How long will this obedience continue? – Until one comes to that inner discipline within himself, until he gains complete self-control to become the master of himself.
People nowadays suffer because they do not understand what is going on in the world. They understand it externally, but they have not yet understood it internally. The world is well ordered externally. The external order is good: there are houses, factories, workshops, railways, steamships, aeroplanes everywhere. There are vehicles everywhere. Externally, life is made easier, but it is time now to put order internally, to put the inner life of people in order. The Divine brings inner order in all people, in all homes, societies and nations. Inner order will make people joyful and cheerful. Every face will be smiling. And then however much bread you put on the table, you will not apologize that it is little, but you will be grateful for it too. As much fruit as you put on the table, you will also be grateful for it; you will not say that someone gave you only one cherry, but you will also be grateful for it. If you have only one apple, be grateful for that too. If you are not grateful for the small thing, it will also be taken away from you.
A saint left for Heaven to meet the Lord, to give Him an account of his deeds. On his way, he met a rich man who asked where he was going. – “To the Lord.” – “Please tell Him that I am fed up with wealth, I want to get rid of it. If He does not set me free, I will go down to the bottom of hell and perish.” Further on, the saint saw a naked man buried in the sand. ’What are you doing here?” he asked the man. – “What am I doing? I am lying and lamenting my situation. I have had enough of this poverty. You are a holy man; please tell the Lord to deliver me from this poverty and this nakedness.” The holy man went to the Lord, finished his business, and on his way back went the same way again. First he saw the poor man, and then the rich man. He said to the poor man, “God counsels you to be grateful for the poverty and nakedness in which you find yourself. Only through gratitude will you be free from poverty.” ‘That is impossible!’ replied the poor man. – ‘If you cannot be grateful for poverty, it will never leave you.’ Then the holy man passed by the rich man and said to him, ‘To be free from wealth, God advises you to grumble, to show dissatisfaction at being rich.’ – ‘That is impossible!’ replied the rich man. – ‘If it is impossible, you will carry your wealth and will moan under its weight.’
So, the one who is grateful for all that is given to him is rich. The one who cannot be grateful and constantly moans, is poor. Gratitude rests on three things: kindness, prudence, and justice. Where there is goodness, prudence and justice, there is Love. Where goodness, prudence and justice are absent, there is no love. The human, temporary order of things is there. Therefore it is said in Scripture, “Always be grateful.” You will say that the time has not come for the Divine order yet. Not only has it come, but most people are late, they have to step up their pace.
Many people ask what to believe in, which creed is the most right one. That is not the point. Everyone should ask himself whether he is grateful for all that he has been given. If all people are grateful for what God has given them, they will understand each other. Their creed is right, they believe in the same God. If people are constantly grateful, many things will be given to them and many secrets will be revealed to them. But if they hold only an ingratitude in their heart, they trip themselves up. Be grateful for everything, so that you may be given what your soul needs. Whether the hairs fall from your head or they do not fall, be grateful either way. Every hair is a law. When you connect with these laws, you must apply them. If you do not apply them, nothing is achieved. Someone takes a hair from his beloved, enjoys it, keeps it as a memento. When he is disappointed with them, he throws the hair away. In order to avoid disappointment, he has to apply the law which is related to the hair. Put kindness, prudence, and justice in your soul in order to apply God’s laws.
God’s hairs are the laws of Being, they are the rays of the Sun, for which you must constantly be grateful. Every ray must be used wisely. There are special rays of God’s Love that nourish and develop the mind. There are special rays of God’s Love that nourish the heart and make it powerful. There are special rays of God’s Love that nourish the soul.
Since today is Friday – the day of Love – I wish that the rays of God’s Love nourish your mind, heart and soul not only for one day, but for eternity. I wish that you are constantly grateful for these rays.
Serve the Lord with love, serve Him with wisdom, serve Him with truth, so that you may have life, light and freedom within you.
22nd talk given by the Master on August 28, 1942, 5:00 pm, Sofia – Izgrev
Translated by Nikolay Nikolaev
Source: Постоянна благодарност
