He that hath the bride – Sunday lectures by the Master Beinsa Douno

Sunday lectures, Sofia, 17^th of March 1929

 ‘’He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.’’ (John 3:29)

All scientists today follow the truth, but still, none of them is free. They say that whoever has knowledge, science, they are a cultured, free person. Is it really so? Since time immemorial there have been learned people, philosophers, but still, they were not free. You will say that in order for a person to be free, they must first put their affairs in order. The affairs of many people are in order, but they are still not free. So, freedom does not depend on this, whether the person’s affairs are in order or not. The affairs of people might be in order, they might not be in order, and the person might still not be free. So, in order for a person to be free, they must have attained the Truth, to know something. While they are young, the person idealises things, they imagine them in a way, in which things are not… Each task, which cannot bring sense to life, it is not for life. This is why the person must aim towards those tasks, which can give them a way, a method, for solving the fundamental principles of life. Many tasks will be given to the person, which they must solve in the right way.

…People today must know that everything which happens in living nature, is reasonable. Many think that the external conditions are the main factors in life. Truly, the external conditions are factors in life, but they are not the only ones and the most important ones. The person is also a factor, even though many think they cannot do anything. If it is true that the external conditions are the only factors and the main factors in life, I ask: why has the person come to earth? Why then do they not reconcile with all external conditions, without rationalising, without seeking ways and means for the betterment of these conditions? You will say that the person is a slave to conditions. Since they realise this, let them seek a way to liberate themselves. How can a person attain their freedom? – Whoever wants to attain their freedom, they must follow the Truth. For this purpose, the person must not make mistakes. If they do not make mistakes, they will be liberated from the debts which have enslaved them. Someone says: I must not create debts. – With this, the matter is not solved. It is easy to say this. It is as if the person locked themselves in some place and said that they would not create debts. Yet another person says that they sin a lot. – They sin a lot, because for centuries they have stored in themselves many unnatural desires, which are now raging in them and making them err. The person will cease to err when they realise that the unnatural desires in them are others’ capital shares, with which the person must not work. Someone fell in love and they think that they have given birth to this love. – Love does not belong to anyone.

…Therefore, each person must place their throne by the sea, to see, does the tide of the waves obey them, or not. If the tide does not obey them, they must place their throne far from the waves of the sea. This shows that the relations and possibilities of the person in life are completely different from the ones that they may imagine. The life of people today is not coincidental, and it must be known that coincidental things are reasonable, and ordinary things are unreasonable. That, which happens constantly, is human; that, which happens by chance, is reasonable – therefore, Divine. When they study Nature’s phenomenons, the scientists say of some fact, or of some phenomenon, that it is coincidental. But they must know that namely coincidental things are Divine. Just when the person thinks that there is no way out from the situation they have fallen in, they see that ‘’coincidentally’’, they are right in front of such a way out. They call a doctor to see to someone, who is ill. The doctor visits the ill person, takes their pulse and concludes that according to the rules of medicine, within 24 hours, the ill person will be finished. According to the rules of medicine, it is so, this person cannot live more than 24 hours, they will inevitably be finished, and no one is able to help them. It so happens though, according to some unexpected turn of the illness, that the ill person gets better and they become healthy. There are many such examples in life.

…People today seek something great in their life, they want to attain Love, to gain it, but doctors, as well as people of the old ways say that it is not worth it to live, that the person’s life is brief, that in 24 hours they can leave for the otherworld. In some Hindu books it is said that it is not worth it to live – this is a warped translation. It is not worth it to live only when the person deviates from the right way, from the way in which there is growth and elevation. Otherwise, life is beautiful and everyone strives towards it. Many say that life creates sufferings – this is also untrue. There may be some elements in life which create sufferings, but these elements do not present life. How is it possible that what we love creates sufferings? It is impossible that the one who loves you creates sufferings for you. It is known that Love gives birth to life. Therefore, if life created sufferings, then it would not have any foundation. The reasons for the sufferings are in the person themselves, but not in life. From the book ‘’Bhagavad Gita’’ the following sentence has been translated to English:

‘’Free from the bonds of action is that man who by means of Spiritual Knowledge hath attached himself to Wisdom and thus torn asunder the illusion of doubt – he indeed is free.”*

(Transl.note: The Master gives the quote directly in English.)

All people speak of freedom, they say that everyone must be free. A free person is the one who is not affected in their actions by the external conditions. Someone wants to do a good deed but is affected by external conditions. This person is a slave to the external conditions. They must liberate themselves from this slavery. Who is able to liberate them? – Knowledge. Through knowledge, the person is connected to Wisdom. Once they are connected to Wisdom, the person is now in a condition to break the bonds, the veil of the illusions, which make them a slave. Many people think that they can attain certain boons without Love, without Wisdom in life, as a consequence of which they expect everything just like that. – No, each one must accept in themselves the fundamental situation that without Love, life does not exist. Love gives birth to life. Besides, between Love and Wisdom there is a close connection. Therefore, until the person places Love and Wisdom as a foundation of their life, the person will always encounter contradictions.

…You say: how long are we going to learn? – If you become 120 years old, you will still learn and you will not lean on a stick. People today take one period of time of 45-50 years and when they reach that age, they say: we have grown old now, our hair has gone white, we cannot learn. – In what codex of the Holy book is it written that when a person grows old, they are no longer able to learn? – Such a thing is not written anywhere. And also, nowhere in the Holy Book is it written that the elderly, or the young, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, in a spiritual sense, under the word ‘’child’’ is meant a person who has a flexible, mutable mind, and a Soul, filled with the striving to acquire knowledge, which they can apply in their life, in order to correct it and uplift it. In this regard people today must be as a Wellspring, which constantly gives and perceives. They must not stop the currents of their life, to form swamps. The water in them must have an external outlet, to flow out, and to flow in. This means attaining love inside and transmitting love outside. – Where and how will we employ love when we attain it? – There are many unhappy people in the world, who expect help to come to them from somewhere. Here, for example, you meet two people in love, but God does not bless them. – Why? – Because they are not using the love, which has been given to them, in the right way. They wonder what gifts to give to each other. – There is no need to give gifts to each other. They have been given a gift anyway, they have the biggest gift – Love. Gifts must be given to the poor, to the paupers. This is a Divine act. You say that God lives in all people, and with that, you do not love each other. You meet someone and you tell them that they must love you. – If you say that God lives within you, in itself, you shall love each other, because it has been said that God is Love. To demand that people love you, this is violence. – Love does not tolerate absolutely any violence whatsoever. – In Love the person is absolutely free. Therefore, as a person, deep in my Soul, I must realise Love and I must apply it myself, without any external violence. Each one must be sincere in their Love. It is not a matter of loving people, but to express your love, and each in their own specific way. As people differ from each other in their specific way of expressing love, in their specific way of development.

And this is why I say: If you come to certain relations between each other, do not divert each other from the Way which God has outlined for you, but help each other in this way. Two people can meet in one mutual Centre. What must they do? – They will stop for a while, they will speak, and they will continue on their way. Their paths cross without obstructing each other. In time they will meet at another mutual Centre: they will stop again for a moment, they will greet each other, they will talk a little, and they will continue on their Way. It is not necessary to stop for a conversation for a long time, nor to divert from their way: each one will follow precisely their way without any diversion. Evil in the world consists in this that other people from the outside want to determine the person’s way, by saying to them: You must think this way, feel this way and act this way! Who must determine the person’s way? – a person cannot determine another person’s way, because they have not given them neither their mind, nor their heart, nor their body. Then, how can they retain this privilege to determine the way of the person? If the person has obligations towards someone, it is towards the First Reason, Which has given them everything, but not towards that god of humans, in whose name all sorts of crimes are being committed. Every person has the right to believe in some god of their own, but in the end, they will be certain that there exists One God, Who has determined the fates of people and has outlined the way of their movement.

…People today want to be told something serious, with which they can fix the world.  – Have serious things not been spoken until now? Have serious, strict sermons not been held until now? What sorts of penances have been imposed on people, what sorts of prisons have existed, how many heads have been taken, but despite this, the world still has not been fixed. Why? – This is not the way in which the world can be fixed. This is not the way in which humanity can be improved. People are before big contradictions, without knowing that the reason for these contradictions are they themselves. Someone jumps, plays, raises dust around them and thinks that this dust is everywhere. They wonder who has raised this dust. – The dust is only 10 metres around them and they have created it themselves. Travellers, going through dusty areas in the desert, think in this same way. They wonder how to rid themselves of this dust. – Stop the motion and the dust will settle. Stop tinkering, stop digging in things and everything will be settled.

…In Anciency one adept fell in love with the daughter of a King. I will not say the name of the adept so as not to disturb him. When we announce the names of the spirits, we disturb them. If I say his name, I will embarrass him. So, let him listen what is spoken, what has happened to some adept, without me announcing his name. He was a poor, Godly man and he thought that if he wrote a nice letter, the daughter of the king would direct her attention towards him. He wrote his first love letter, but the daughter of the king turned him away. He turned towards God with burning prayers, for God to show him a way through which the daughter of the king might direct her attention to him, to love him. After long and lasting prayers, his master finally came to him to show him a way through which the daughter of the king would turn her attention towards him. The adept thought that his master would turn him into a handsome young man, with the riches and powers of a magus, who would be able to do as he pleases with his magic wand, and in this way to oblige the daughter of the king to fall in love with him. But his master told him: I will turn you into a beautiful precious gemstone, into a diamond, as big as a walnut, and you shall always rest on the neck of your beloved. Aside from this, throughout your whole life, you shall only think of her, you shall make sure to liberate her from all the evils which might befall her, and you shall aid her in every good deed, which she desires to accomplish. If she loves someone, you shall aid her in this too. Said and done: the adept turned into a big diamond and found himself on the neck of the daughter of the king. Two tears rolled down from the eyes of the adept and he said to himself: Is this how far I’ve come, I had to turn into a stone? The daughter of the king did not know where this diamond came from, but each night when she took it off her neck, she caressed it, she stroked it and said: I love you, even though I do not know your story. Who knows at what depth you were in the ground! I know nothing of you, but I love you. – In this way spoke the daughter of the king each night with her diamond, and it remained silent. This is art! To sit on the neck of the daughter of the king, for her to speak to you, and you to remain silent. To perch on top of the dump hill, like the rooster, and to crow, to flap your wings – this does not yet resolve the matter. The rooster says that it does not dawn without him, but is it truly so? – It dawns without roosters too, but if there are roosters and they do not sing, earthquakes happen. What is the rooster? – The rooster is the mind with which the person must think. If in every task the person does not instil their mind, to consider well what to do, it will still dawn, but there will be an earthquake. What is the earthquake? – bankruptcy, ruin.

…And so, each one must make an internal arrangement of their thoughts, feelings, deeds, and to place them in their respective places. Each one must have a clear concept of the way in which they are walking, of the capital share that they have. Said in other words: each one must have a connection to what is Great, if they desire to be free. The Great, which connects the person, simultaneously liberates them, makes them free. The free person is constant, resilient. Whatever the external conditions may be, this person always remains one and the same. They only change on the outside, but on the inside they remain immutable. This is the Divine Law which everyone admits, but few fulfil.

 ‘’He that hath the bride is the bridegroom’’. Now you shall make a translation, what inside you corresponds to the sun, and what – to the day. Your life, this is your day. For the sun you shall answer yourselves. You must know one thing, that on earth only the sun marries the day. The moon, the stars, people, can only rejoice about the sun, i.e. the bridegroom and his bride. Truly, we can only rejoice about this wedding, this inner process, through which something great and joyful is brought into the world. When someone complains of their misfortunes, the reason for this is that they have never been present at the wedding of the sun. If there are unhappy ones among you, I invite them right away to the wedding of the sun tomorrow. Only in this way shall they be renewed, they shall find the Truth, which shall make them free. I live once, I think and I am free, this is the Truth for me. Must it now be proven to me what is the Truth? – But I must teach you how to live. – If you are a master, I am ready to listen to you. If you are a master violinist, or a great artist, I am ready to learn from you. The best teacher, though, is nature. It renews, it brings peace for all living beings. Aim to gain something each day, as small as this attainment might be. In it, there is growth, uplifting…

Many think that when they go to the sky, among the angels, among the supreme beings, they will attain knowledge. – For the ones who believe in this, it is so, but what will those ones say, who do not believe in the existence of angels? They at least believe that in the world there are Wise, learned people. Do you think though, that if one incapable person goes to one Wise, learned man, that he will spend time on him? He will say: Please, relieve me, I am busy, I have important work. Learned people are like the English, they do not apologise much to their guests. If you go to visit the home of an English person, if they are busy, they look at their watch, they take their hat and say: Pardon me! – and walk out. They give no explanations, that they are busy, that they have promised someone to meet them, and they do not care whether you will stay in their home, or you will go. The Bulgarian person acts in the exact opposite way: even if they are busy with something, even if they have promised some meeting, once they have guests arriving, they are ready to postpone everything. If they cannot postpone it, they will explain, they will apologise. In this way acts the young lady too. She has some belief, she believes in God, but once she meets a young man, she falls in love with him and she gives up on her belief, on God – to her it is important to live well with this young man. And the young man gives up on his belief because of the young lady. But both of them do not make it in life. Do not expect anything from a person who is willing to give up on their belief, on their conviction. According to me, here is how the young man should act when he sees that for him, the young lady is willing to give up on her beliefs. He should say to her: Because you are giving up on your beliefs, I cannot marry you, because tomorrow you will give up on me too. – If it is a matter of the person giving up the insignificant, the transient in their life – I understand, but to give up on the ideal of their Soul – I do not understand.

A young lady met a young man and said to him: Listen, I have morals, from which I never back down. They are the following: I never change my head, I never rent out my eyes, I never send my tongue to the market. If you have the same morals, I am willing to marry you, otherwise I do not agree to live with you. I say: everything in the world may change, but the head of the person – never. – But they took the head of so-and-so. – If someone is able to take the head off your shoulders, you are not a person. Even if they take your head off a hundred times, it must still go back to its place. This is what it means to be a person! Bandits met an adept and said to him: Give us your money soon! – I cannot give it. – We will take your head off! – You can, try it! – One of the bandits waved his knife and cut off the head of the adept. He bent down, took his head and put it in its place. – Give us your money soon! – I cannot, it is meant for someone else. – The bandit waved his knife again, took off the head of the adept. The adept bent down, took the head and put it in its place. As many times as the bandit cut off the adept’s head, that many times he put it back in its place. Finally, when the arm of the bandit grew tired, he gave up fighting the adept. The adept said to him: However many times you take off my head, you should know that I will never give you my money. – This is what bravery means! I ask: how many of the people today, when they see that their head is coming off their shoulders, will not give away their treasure, which God has given them? Bravery, decisiveness, fearlessness are required of you. You want now to be spoken to in a scientific manner. I ask: with the tongue of which science would you like to be spoken to – with the tongue of human science, or with the tongue of Divine science? What science is this one, which brings fear and trembling in the person and makes them fear their shadow?

…‘’He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.’’ This lecture is necessary for you in order for you to be able to solve your difficulties easily. Do not wait to grow old, to then become learned people. Learn throughout the whole eternity. – A person must live! – Do not think of this. Think only of today, not of tomorrow. When you get up in the morning, prepare yourself internally to go to a wedding. Consider that you are a wedding man and rejoice about the bridegroom, who has the bride. Today the sun is shining, and the wedding man, the bridegroom is on the top. Rejoice! – in this is the Great Teaching. This is the way, in which all the boons in the world can come. This is the way, in which the talents in the person can be developed. The teacher of the violin may tell their student for a long time how they must play, but this is not enough. The teacher must take his violin and show the student how to play. There are things which cannot be transmitted verbally. Therefore, in such a lecture as today’s one, not everything can be transmitted, but whoever thinks in the right way, they can benefit.

Translated by Ruah Ezekiel

Transl.note: This is the only lecture by the Master I have ever come across where He spoke in English.