Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

The Egregor
of the Dove
or
the Reign of Peace

Izvor Collection – No. 208

Translated from the French
Original title: «L’ÉGRÉGORE DE LA COLOMBE
OU LE RÈGNE DE LA PAIX»

Original edition:

© 1982, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-204-4

© 1983, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-229-X

© 1984, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-301-6

© Copyright Prosveta S.A. 1987. All rights reserved for all countries. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, whether privately or otherwise, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, audio-visual or otherwise, without the prior permission of author and publishers (Law of March 1957 revised).

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Readers are asked to note that Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov's teaching was exclusively oral. This volume includes passages from several different lectures all dealing with the same theme.

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

The philosopher and spiritual Master, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1900-1986) was born in Bulgaria and moved to France in 1937. Although his work addresses many aspects of initiatic science, he makes it clear that ‘we must all undertake our own self-development, not only for ourselves but for the good of the collectivity. Then the collectivity becomes a brotherhood. A brotherhood is a collectivity where true unity reigns, because while working for themselves everyone is also consciously working for the good of the whole.’

Introduction

How to establish a lasting peace.

In the history of mankind, it is very difficult to find periods in which there has been no war and despite the fact that it cannot be denied that they desire peace. Yet there is no other way than to begin to establish peace within us: to monitor and appease our actions, thoughts and feelings. The propagation of this peace in each one of us in the atmosphere will then help to build a collective egregore.

‘How many people are working for peace in the world today! But in reality they are doing nothing to make this peace really take hold. They never thought that it is first of all all the cells of their body, all the particles of their physical and psychic being that must live according to the laws of peace and harmony in order to emanate this peace they claim to work for. As they write about peace, as they come together to talk about peace, they continue to fuel the war within them, for they are endlessly fighting one thing or another. So what peace can they bring? Peace, man must first install in himself, in his actions, his feelings, his thoughts. It was only then that he truly worked for peace.’

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Chapter One
Towards a better understanding of peace

One day I attended a public conference on the subject of peace. Several lectures were planned, and all the speakers were highly qualified, intelligent, learned, amusing and altogether charming people. Thanks to them I learned that peace was the most desirable and most beneficial condition for humanity, whereas war was the worst possible scourge. I was delighted to hear all this and thought to myself, ‘Ah, now that people have, at last, understood the advantages of peace, humankind will be saved!’

However, I was anxious to hear exactly how these people planned to bring about the peace they were talking about with such conviction. Several speakers put forward some very intelligent plans, one of which was to form an international police force that would make it impossible for the different countries to fight each other. That is certainly an excellent idea, but how could it be put into effect? It reminded me of the fable in which the mice convened a meeting to discuss how to defend themselves against the cat. After a great deal of discussion the senior mouse finally came up with the solution: the answer, he said, was to tie a bell round the cat’s neck so that all the mice would hear it coming and have time to hide. This magnificent solution was greeted with enthusiastic applause, but unfortunately they never managed to find a mouse bold enough to go and tie the bell round the cat’s neck! And it is exactly like that for this international police force: how could you ever constitute an international body with the integrity and impartiality necessary to fulfil such a function? And how could you ever get all the countries of the world to respect its authority?

Another speaker declared that the only hope for peace lay in a form of political federalism and went on to explain all kinds of complicated theories that nobody could quite follow. A third spent his time denouncing the state for abusing its legitimate power and depriving its citizens of their freedom. In the end, after listening to a great many speakers, I was forced to conclude that peace was not going to be established as soon as all that, for no one really understands it or knows what it really is.

The initiatic point of view is the only point of view that can throw light on this question, for in order to establish peace in the world we must have a profound understanding of human nature. You will probably say, ‘Oh, human nature: we know it only too well!’ But I don’t agree: no one really understands the psychic structure of human beings with their different subtle bodies and all their different needs and aspirations.1 And, above all, no one knows the twofold nature of humans that I have already explained to you: the lower self and the higher self, the personality and the individuality.2 And as long as those who work and hope for peace are ignorant of this science of the human being, they can do whatever they like but they will never establish peace in the world.

Nowadays, a lot of people spend their time accusing others of fomenting war. They think that in this way they are contributing to world peace. Some blame the rich; others say that the fault lies with intellectuals, scientists or politicians. Believers accuse those who are not of their own particular faith of heresies that are leading people to damnation, whereas non-believers accuse religious believers of fanaticism. Look around you and you will see that everyone thinks that if we could just get rid of something or someone else peace would reign in the world. And it is precisely here that everyone is mistaken. Even if humankind managed to get rid of all their armies and all their weapons, the very next day they would find other means of exterminating each other. Peace is something that exists within us; it is an inner state, an inner attitude, and it cannot be established in the world simply by getting rid of externals. First and foremost we have to get rid of the causes of war within us.

Let me give you a very simple example: take a man who has just eaten an enormous meal of sausages, ham and chicken, washed down with plentiful supplies of wine. Replete and satisfied, he says to himself, ‘Ah, now for a quiet spot and a little rest,’ and, finding just the place, settles down for a nap. Before long he feels a bit queasy so he smokes a cigarette, but that isn’t enough. He stretches and yawns and thinks, ‘What I need now is a nice little woman...’ Where can he find one? In his neighbour’s house, of course. There is a wall round it but that is no obstacle; he leaps over the wall and... well, you can imagine the rest of the story for yourselves. But one thing is obvious: there is no longer any question of peace!

Peace is not a condition that can be attained by external, mechanical means. If you seek peace and, at the same time, continue to live with a murky, turbulent inner climate, you will never find it. Peace is a result, a consequence of something else. It indicates a state of perfect balance and harmony between all of our internal and external functions and activities. Consequently, if we want to work for peace we must know the means and methods to use, and this is a science in itself.

As long as men and women harbour lustful or envious desires, whatever else they may do they will never know inner peace, for by entertaining such desires they introduce the germ of discord into their inner being. Look at the reactions of someone who commits a robbery: they automatically fear that they have been seen, and they cannot help imagining what the consequences will be. They are haunted by the idea that the police are watching them and that they are going to be arrested and sent to prison. They can never be absolutely sure that no one saw them, that they did not leave some trace that would lead to them or that they will not, one day, give themselves away by doing something careless. They will never know a moment’s peace again, they lose their appetite, suffer from insomnia and are obsessed by the need for concealment.

Or picture the case of someone who has borrowed some money: they keep promising to repay it, but as they are incapable of refusing themselves anything, they never manage to save up the money so they never do pay it back. Before long their creditor starts harassing them for it, and they are at their wit’s end to know how to escape. Or take the case of a man who has spoken so harshly and unkindly to a friend that he has turned his friend into an enemy. Once again, peace has flown out of the window! There is no point in continuing the catalogue of examples; you can find hundreds of them for yourselves. Ah, yes: when it comes to losing their peace, men and women are highly talented! If you have a relentless pack of bloodhounds on your trail because you have played havoc with other people’s lives, stolen their property or broken too many promises, how can you hope to find peace? ‘By keeping out of their way,’ you may say. All right, but what about all those inner ‘creditors’, all that inner anxiety and remorse that never stops pursuing you? How can you escape that? If you think you can just run away, it shows how little you really know or understand about it. Don’t fool yourself: you cannot escape from your own thoughts.

At first sight it might not seem particularly difficult to find peace: all you have to do is go up into the mountains where all is peace and solitude. Yes, but the trouble is that even there people are not wholly at peace because they always have their own little ‘radio’ in their head. Wherever they go their radio goes with them; it is never silent, and what a din it makes! As often as not their inner radio is tuned to infernal stations, and the music they hear is a hellish racket! Outwardly they may be at the top of the highest mountain where all is perfect peace and quiet, but inwardly there is a storm raging. So I ask you once again: how can one find peace?

Everybody knows that the human body is composed of a number of separate but interdependent organs, and although each organ has its own particular function they all have to work in harmony with each other, otherwise the result is disorder or – to put it in musical terms – dissonance. We can only be healthy and in peace if each of our organs does its work disinterestedly and selflessly, for the good of the whole. But that kind of peace and health is purely physical. When it comes to peace of the soul and spirit, we have to go much higher: all the different elements that go to make up that other whole – our psychic organism – must also vibrate in unison, selflessly, impartially and without friction, just like the organs of the physical body. Peace, therefore, is a higher state of consciousness and, as our state of consciousness depends to a great extent on the health of our physical body, and the least little problem on the physical plane finds an echo on the psychic plane, the physical and psychic organisms must be in harmony with each other before we can know true peace.3

Peace such as most people understand it is not true peace. Even when the problems and anxieties that trouble you vanish for a few minutes or a few hours, this is still not peace, for it does not last. Once true peace dwells in you nothing can ever dislodge it again. Yes, peace is not a question of feeling at ease, of being calm and carefree for a few minutes; it is something much more profound and much more precious. Peace, as I have already said, is a result. When all the instruments in an orchestra are perfectly tuned to the same pitch, when all the musicians have already practised under their conductor and learned to know, love and obey him or her, then they can produce extraordinarily harmonious music. And in a human being, peace is this harmony, this perfect accord that reigns amongst all the various elements, forces, functions, thoughts, feelings and actions.

This deep, indescribable peace is very difficult to attain. It requires tremendous will-power, patience and love as well as great learning. When disciples begin to know and grasp the nature and properties of each element, thought, feeling and desire and learn to refuse admittance to anything that might disturb their inner harmony; when they have finally managed to rid their organism of all discordant elements, then and only then can they know true peace.

If you smoke, if you eat and drink without discrimination, you introduce harmful elements into your organism which, in the long run, will ruin your health and you will never know peace. If you have a toothache or are suffering from colic or palpitations, how can you be at peace? You must first get rid of the putrid matter in your organism that is upsetting everything. And the same law applies on the psychic plane: as long as you are ignorant of the true nature of your feelings, thoughts, desires, passions and instincts, as long as you continue to breathe their fumes and feed on them regardless of whether they are good or bad, you will never know peace.

Peace, therefore, is the result of a deep understanding and clear-sightedness about the different elements that nourish humans on every level of their being. But, as I have just said, knowledge is not enough: people must also be extremely vigilant and strong-minded if they are to stave off every element liable to do them harm. If initiates always insist so much on the importance of purity, it is because they know very well that even the slightest impurity, whether in their physical body or in their thoughts or feelings, robs them immediately of their peace.

Peace, as I have just said, is the result of the harmony that reigns amongst all the elements that go to make up a human being: spirit, soul, intellect, heart, will and physical body. And if peace is so rare and difficult to attain it is precisely because these different elements are so rarely in harmony. People may have wisdom and a lucid mind and, at the same time, harbour base feelings in their heart which drive them to acts of folly. Or they may be motivated by the noblest intentions and yet suffer from a paralysis of the will. In such conditions how can they be at peace within themselves? Peace is the ultimate acquisition. When, after much suffering and many battles, defeats and victories, a person’s divine nature finally triumphs over all the insurrection and tumult of their lower nature, then they can obtain peace. Before they reach this stage they may experience moments of great delight but they never last. This is why we often hear people say they have ‘lost their peace.’

No! Peace, true peace, cannot be lost. Oh, of course, you can go through periods of superficial turmoil, but your peace will still be there, deep down inside, just as, far below the surface of the ocean, on the sea bed, all is quiet, even when waves and foam are tossing on the surface. Once you have succeeded in introducing true peace into your innermost being, the turmoil going on around you no longer has the power to upset you; you feel that you are within the protective walls of a strong fortress. As Psalm 91 says, ‘You who live in the shelter of the Most High… will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”’ This ‘shelter of the Most High’ is our higher self. When you have attained this highest point, this summit of your being, then you will know peace, the divine sensation of peace beyond description. But before you reach this point you are going to have to defeat the tendencies of your lower nature over and over again!

Peace, therefore, is born of harmony, of an absolute accord between all the diverse factors and elements that go to make up a human being. But I must add something to that and tell you that this necessary harmony can exist only when all those elements have been purified. Whenever there is a lack of harmony it means that impurities have slipped in. If you eat something that does not agree with you, you feel irritable and unwell, but if you take a purge and get rid of whatever is causing the problem, you begin to feel better! Impurities destroy peace. If you want to be at peace, therefore, the first thing to do is purify yourself, eliminate everything that hinders the smooth functioning of your mind, heart and will. A true initiate understands that only one thing matters, only one thing is really essential and that is to become pure, as pure as a mountain lake, as pure as a clear blue sky, as pure as crystal, as pure as sunlight. Once an initiate reaches this level of purity everything else is there for the asking. Obviously, as you now understand, no one obtains purity easily, but at least we can understand it, love it and long for it with every fibre of our being and, finally, do everything in our power to achieve it.

When you feel that things are not functioning as they should, either in your physical body or in your heart or mind, you can be sure that it is because you have ‘eaten’ something impure. By that I mean that you have absorbed some foreign matter unfit for human consumption. This does not necessarily mean that it was impure in itself, but since it upset you and gave you ‘indigestion’ you have to treat it as impure and get rid of it. Every illness, every mental torment or distress comes from having absorbed something impure, whether in the form of thoughts or feelings, or in any other form.

Every form of impurity, whether on the mental, astral or physical plane, upsets one’s system. And that is putting it mildly for, in point of fact, impurities can poison and toxify you and lead to death. So it is extremely important to purify yourself on every level: on the physical level by baths, purges, enemas, fasting, etc. and, on the psychic level, by prayer and meditation and various spiritual exercises. You will never attain true peace any other way.4

Only when humans are alive to every threat to their kingdom (the kingdom of their own being) and capable of defending its integrity against every would-be aggressor will they find lasting peace. And how can I describe that peace? As bliss beyond words, as an endless symphony, as a sublime state of consciousness in which your whole being is bathed in light, afloat in a torrent of living waters and nourished by divine ambrosia! When human beings reach this state, the perfect harmony of their life reflects the glory of heaven itself, and they begin to see all the splendours that had been hidden from them before, because their agitation and lack of peace made them incapable of focusing their inner and even their outer vision. Only peace enables us to see and understand the presence of subtler realities, and this is why the initiates who have experienced true peace begin to see the marvels of the universe unfolding before their eyes.

Most human beings have their heart set on things that are fleeting and illusory, things that will inevitably cause them disappointment and distress. But it is difficult for them to understand this. Understanding can only come at the cost of suffering – much suffering and bitter disappointment. They are going to have to touch bottom, to experience despair, before they can understand that instead of peace and fulfilment, glory and power, all those things they had set their hearts on can bring them only emptiness! But it is impossible to explain this to people who are still too young. You have to be old, very old both inwardly and outwardly, before you can attach yourself only to eternal values. Those who are still young continue to play with their dolls, their little tin soldiers and their sand castles; their youth makes it impossible for them to be interested in anything serious. But when they become more mature they will give up everything else for the sake of other, more glorious undertakings and then they will know peace.

You can only know peace when all your cells vibrate in unison with a sublime, disinterested ideal. Sages tell us no more than the truth, therefore, when they say that you will not know peace until every one of your cells, every fibre of your being, is steeped in thoughts of love, that is, in mercy, generosity, forgiveness and selflessness. This is the only way to attain peace. If you still hold a grudge against your neighbour, if you cannot find it in your heart to forgive and keep trying to devise some way of avenging yourself, or if someone owes you money and you keep brooding about when it will be repaid, you will never know peace, because these preoccupations are too personal, too egotistical. You may have a few moments or a few hours of calm tranquillity, but that is not peace. It is no more than a respite, a lull (which even the wicked enjoy at times), and it is soon followed by renewed torment and mental anguish.

True peace is a spiritual state which can never be lost once it has been attained. When your will is bent on doing God’s will, that is to say when the one thing you most desire is to do good to all humankind, to love, serve and forgive everyone, this desire is enough to make all the particles of your being vibrate on the same wavelength, and when this happens you will know peace. And once you have achieved it, it will always be with you wherever you go: you felt its presence yesterday, it is with you again all day today, and tomorrow it will be waiting for you when you wake up in the morning. You will even be astonished to find that you no longer have to make an effort to be at peace. Before, you always had to concentrate for a long time and pray and sing – and even take some tranquilizers – before you felt at peace, and now none of that is necessary – peace is always there, within you.

Keep working at this idea of being full of love, kindness and forgiveness. Keep working at it until it becomes so powerful that it pervades every fibre of your being and makes all your cells vibrate in unison with it. The peace that will then be yours will never leave you again. Even if certain circumstances or events disturb and distress you, you will be able to look into yourself and find the peace that is still there despite everything. For at this point, you see, it is no longer simply a self-imposed calm, a forced respite that lasts only as long as you keep up the effort; it is a permanent state that has become part and parcel of your very being.

Have you ever watched lions and tigers in a circus? As long as their tamer is there they make a show of friendliness, but as soon as his back is turned they start snapping and snarling at each other and are ready to tear each other apart. Or look at schoolchildren in a classroom: when their teacher is with them they stay at their desks and work quietly, but as soon as the teacher leaves the room they start running about and shouting and squabbling. Well, that is how the cells of our bodies behave: as long as you are attentive and concentrate on keeping them in order they accept your authority to a certain extent, but as soon as your back is turned, in other words, as soon as you start thinking about something else, the hubbub begins all over again. So you have to take care of them constantly, keeping them in order, washing and feeding them as though they were your own children or your own pupils. Yes, and once they have learned to work without quarrelling or arguing, then peace will reign.

In any case, it is no good thinking that you will find peace by moving house or getting new friends, by changing your job, your reading matter, your country, your religion or your spouse! Peace has nothing to do with changes of that kind. They might give you a breathing space, perhaps, a brief respite, but wherever you go the same old problems are going to pursue you and begin tormenting you all over again, until you understand that peace can only be obtained by a change in the way you think, feel and behave. If you change your thoughts, feelings and way of behaving, even if you stay where you are and even if you are still confronted by all the same difficulties every day, yet you will know peace, because peace does not depend only on external circumstances; it comes from within, and all the turmoil and agitation of the whole world cannot prevent it from surging up and flooding your innermost being. Peace is like a great river pouring down on us from on high, and once you possess it, you too can pour it out onto others and communicate it to all around you as a tangible, living reality. When you bring peace to others you are helping the whole world.

So many people nowadays say they are working for world peace when, in point of fact, they are not doing anything to establish true peace. It is just a lot of talk! They create all kinds of organizations to work for peace, but what they are really interested in is getting their name in the papers, being invited to receptions and receiving honours: the life they are leading does nothing to bring about peace. It has never occurred to them that they must begin by getting all the cells of their body, all the particles of their physical and psychic being, to live and co-operate together in accordance with the laws of peace and harmony, so that the peace they claim to be working for will emanate from them. They write articles and books and convene meetings to discuss peace, and at the same time they continue to nurture the seeds of war within themselves, for they are always in conflict with one thing or another. What kind of peace can they bring to the world in these conditions? Peace must first reign in our inner being, in our actions, our thoughts and our feelings. Only when this is so are we in a position to work effectively for peace in the world.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust’ – Psalms 91:9

1 See Man’s Psychic Life: Elements and Structures, Izvor Coll. n° 222, chap. 1: ‘Know yourself’, chap. 2: ‘The synoptic table’ and chap. 3: ‘Several souls and several bodies’.

2 See Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine, Izvor Coll. n° 213, chap. 2: ‘The lower self is a reflection’.

3 See Harmony and Health, Izvor Coll. n° 225.

4 See The Mysteries of Yesod – Foundations of the Spiritual Life, Complete Works, vol. 7.

Chapter Two
The advantages of unity among nations

Not so very long ago, many of the great countries which are now united were split into separate states constantly at war with each other. Then, one day they realized that it would be to their advantage to unite their resources, with the result that they are now rich and powerful nations. But this stage on the path towards unity is not enough, for although each country represents a force to be reckoned with, they all feel threatened by the rivalry of neighbouring states. They all live in fear of aggression, and they all hope to stave off the threat by arming themselves more and more. How can such a situation end, if not in mutual destruction?

Nations must realize that the time has come for a much vaster, broader form of unity: all the separate states of the world must unite, for this unification, like the unity that reigns in the human body, will be a source of strength, health and prosperity. At the moment, no one can say that humankind is in good health: it is being eaten away by the cancer of separativeness which is rampant in the world. Everyone wants to work only for their own country, their own family or themselves, and it is this tendency that is the everlasting source of conflicts and wars. This divisive attitude inevitably leads to clashes between the interests of individuals or countries. So we must now simplify things and convince all the countries of the world that it is to their advantage to unite, for world unity would mean that everyone would have what they needed, that all would live in plenty and freedom – freedom to travel and meet other people, freedom to love and be happy, freedom to create.

A philosophy of separativeness was justified in the past, when men and women were incapable of extending the scope of their consciousness beyond the limits of their caste, tribe or nation. In those days, even great initiates like Moses, for instance, held and disseminated the view that their people should fight foreign nations; in fact Moses took an active part in these wars himself. At that time humanity was incapable of understanding brotherly love and the necessity for one universal family. But things have changed: the world has become so small nowadays, owing to the facility and rapidity of modern means of travel and information that it is time people understood that they must do away with national boundaries and unite with each other so that all humankind will form one family. People are always at war, but what are they defending? Look at how desperate they are to maintain a state of affairs that is already doomed! Before very long they will be ashamed to realize how narrow their point of view was.

Today we can see that a change is taking place in the minds of people, and it is a change that is bound to intensify, not because of the adult population, perhaps, but thanks to young people. For the young are already forcing adults to broaden their concepts and eliminate racism, nationalism and intolerance. They cannot stand the old narrow-mindedness which is the root cause of all war. Yes, we can already see signs of a younger generation that is going to turn everything upside down: in both Russia and America there are going to be extraordinary upheavals.

Political leaders are too often under the impression that the destiny of their country is in their hands. Perhaps, for a time, they can cling to this illusion, but it never lasts. All those who once thought that everything depended on them have come to a bad end! Yes, tyrants always come to a bad end: they cause a certain number of heads to roll, and then, one way or another, it is their own head that rolls. For the truth is that the destiny of humankind is not in the hands of human beings, however powerful they may be. It is in the hands of very exalted invisible entities, who continually watch and control the course of events.

Look at all the great empires that once struck terror into the hearts of people but have since disappeared, buried in ashes or the sands of the desert! Yes, there are other entities, other forces at work, leading us towards a goal of which we know nothing, and it is important that people try to understand and show more humility; otherwise, sooner or later, they too will come to a bad end! Even those secret societies which believed that they were destined to rule the world never fulfilled their ambition: most of them have disappeared from the face of the earth. But those who were faithful to God’s will, the great initiates, even if they have often been persecuted and massacred, have always managed to keep their ideal alive. For God’s design, which is to lead humanity to salvation, liberation and happiness will be fulfilled!

The Universal White Brotherhood exists in order to remind men and women that they are all children of one Father – God –, who has given them life, and of one Mother – nature.1 So why slaughter each other? Why keep working against our own brothers and sisters? It is monstrous, insane! If we accept this truth, then we cannot go on being separate and hating each other; it’s simply not logical. There can be no valid argument to justify such behaviour. Either our behaviour should be compatible with the reality of universal brotherhood or we should come right out and deny it: it would be more honest to do so. If people did not have the same father and the same mother you might, at a stretch, think it legitimate for them to fight each other, but the behaviour of so many Christians who proclaim the universal fatherhood of God and still continue to massacre each other and everyone else is simply unacceptable. It is so utterly contradictory!

God is above all considerations of race or nationality; he gives life to all alike. He has not created men and women to be primarily aryan or semitic, slav or arab, Chinese or American. He has created them; that’s all. They themselves, because of the conditions in which they had to evolve, were forced to divide humanity into clans, families, societies and nations. But one day these distinctions which lead to so much hostility will all disappear, and men and women will feel themselves to be citizens of the world. Isn’t this the healthiest and most desirable thing we could possibly wish for? Which political leaders could claim the opposite? If there are any, let them come and talk to me, and I will demonstrate to them mathematically, scientifically and historically, that certain points of view are hopelessly out-of-date.

Only a few decades ago, any French man or woman who dared to speak of reconciliation with Germany would have been shot. Today, that reconciliation is a fact of life, and no one is being shot for it, either French or German. They extend the hand of friendship to each other, they visit each other’s countries, they fall in love with each other, and they are bringing into the world masses of little Franco-Germans! So why should there not be a similar reconciliation between all the other countries? The French and Germans have made friends: so far so good, but it does not actually go far enough, for they both have other enemies waiting and watching for the opportunity to pounce on them and devour them! So humankind needs a much broader and more substantial unity than this if it is to be free from all danger. Otherwise, neither their arms nor their diplomacy will save poor, suffering humanity from destruction. But soon, faced with the dangers that threaten humanity, all peoples will be forced to be friends.

Of course the belligerent instinct of Mars will always exist; humans will always feel the urge to do battle and triumph over an enemy. Their aims and the means they use will change, but the need, the inherent tendency, will never change. Humans have the right to obey the need with which nature itself has endowed them and declare war on the entire world. Yes, they have this right, but only if they use weapons of light and love.2 In the future, the bloody forms of war that we now know will no longer exist: people will come to understand how costly these murderous conflicts are, from every point of view, and they will stop slaughtering each other. And as this warlike instinct will continue to exist – Cosmic Intelligence itself has no wish to do away with it – human beings will continue to wage war, but differently, and the conquerors, instead of destroying those they conquer, will give them life, wealth, light and love. How glorious it will be! There will always be battles, therefore, but battles of another kind, battles such as the suns and stars wage, shooting at each other with arrows of light.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

Moses, chief warrior – Exodus 17:8-16

1 See Sons and Daughters of God, Izvor Coll. n° 240, chap. 13: ‘Sons and daughters of God are brothers and sisters to all people’.

2 See Love and Sexuality, Complete Works, vol. 15, chap. 27: ‘Our only weapons: love and light’ and chap. 29: ‘Towards a broader concept of the family’.

Chapter Three
Aristocracy and democracy

I

None of the political regimes known to humankind so far has been capable of really ensuring the peace and happiness of the peoples of the world. Monarchy, oligarchy or republic, whatever the system that may have been tried, none has ever offered the definitive solution. And the reason is not hard to find: it is because the system of government is not all that matters. So long as the individuals subject to that system are not conscious of their own responsibility, so long as they fail to understand that it is up to each one to make every possible effort to live in harmony with others whatever system of government is in place, social disorder and turmoil will continue to exist and humanity will continue to flounder in misery and discontent.

Nowadays, in almost every country of the world, democracy is the order of the day, and symbolically democracy represents the rule of the stomach. Yes, the common people, the demos, is the stomach. Do the masses know what is good or bad for them? No, they are only interested in obtaining the satisfaction of their instinctive appetites and inclinations. And if you need proof of what I say, just consider this: now that they have the right to speak their will and clamour for what they want, do you hear them clamouring for the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Do they ask for light and love? Not a bit of it! The stomach is only interested in getting more and more to eat, and it spoils and dirties everything it touches. The masses are not yet motivated by a high ideal, because this requires a head, and the head is missing. And, of course, the head must be enlightened, luminous and disinterested, for there is no point in having someone at the top if that person is motivated by the same instincts as the masses.

‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness’, said Jesus, and as the kingdom of God is a monarchy, every country should be organized in the image of the universe of which God is king. Now, I am not saying that it would be better to have a monarchy rather than a republic at the present time; I am speaking theoretically. We should not hand the reigns of government to a stomach that is blind, but nor should we hand them to a head that is worthless. So, please understand me: I am talking in principle. I have no objection to government by the people on condition that they are enlightened! If they are not enlightened then they should not govern. And if the head is unenlightened, ignorant or tyrannical, it should not govern either! Besides, it is often the head that does more damage than the stomach. So I am talking from a symbolic point of view, and in the realm of symbolism everything is clear-cut and mathematically exact.

To be a true aristocrat it is not enough to possess a name, a title, distinguished ancestors or great estates. A true aristocrat must also possess high personal standards of morality, generosity and strength of character. And if a democratic form of government has finally gained the upper hand in almost every country in the world, it is because the aristocracy proved itself unworthy. Unfortunately, though, the fact that kings, emperors and tsars have been exterminated has not made the people any happier, for many of those who have seized power, even in communist countries, perpetrate the same crimes as the overlords of old. So, once again, there will be revolts, and the new overlords will be liquidated in their turn, because they too are unworthy. They have forgotten that they overthrew the monarch and the nobles in order to establish the reign of brotherhood and justice. With the passing of the years they have forgotten their ideal and become materialized and corrupt, just as the Church, over the centuries, has forgotten the principles of love taught by Jesus and become materialized.

It is time now to restore the aristocracy of the heart and soul, the aristocracy of the initiates and great Masters, of all those truly enlightened beings who have proved their worth. It is not enough to talk about justice and happiness for the people. Everybody can talk about it, but how many are capable of putting their words into practice? As long as those who govern are not enlightened by Initiatic Science, nothing good can come of their decisions. They can make all the changes they like in the economic, material, financial or political fields, but whatever they do will never suffice to solve all the world’s problems. The same old story will be repeated over and over again; humanity will continue to be bogged down in the same old mud! The point, you see, is that no one has yet understood what it is that has to be changed.

The Roman populace demanded bread and circuses, and this famous detail of Roman history is quoted as though no other people in the world had ever reacted that way. In fact, though, human beings still clamour for the same things even if they appear to be different. It is simply that the form has been changed and modernized, that is all, but people are still interested in the same things – food and entertainment. Isn’t this what strikes and revolutions are all about? Nowadays the ‘circus’ has been replaced by the cinema, television, variety shows, night clubs and discotheques, football matches, etc. There is no lack of entertainment! It is still the same nature that craves amusement, and a great variety of ‘foods’ has been found to satisfy its craving. But how many people crave for the kingdom of God and his righteousness? How many demand light, purity, truth or kindness? No, the centre of interest is always money, food and pleasure.

The only thing of a spiritual nature for which human beings clamour is freedom, and freedom as they understand it always boils down to having more opportunities to waste their time, amuse themselves, indulge all their most insane appetites and do things that are harmful to themselves and to others. How many want to be free in order to devote all their time to sublime activities?1 Most political and social conflicts revolve around the stomach, sex, idleness and pleasure. And this is why, if you give people what they clamour for, they will only become more deeply enmeshed in selfishness and passion.

You only have to look around you to see how many popular books, films, plays and shows are contributing to the disorder, anarchy and chaos into which humanity is sinking. And they sell like hot cakes! It is amazing to see how human nature feels the need to feed on such infernal nourishment. We cannot really blame artists and writers for feeding the public on this kind of food. It craves for it so avidly that it is not surprising that some are ready to try and provide it. It is not entirely their fault, therefore. But still, if they were more conscious of their responsibilities they would understand that they should never stoop to satisfy the baser appetites and lusts of people’s lower nature. They should remain on a higher level so that their public also has to rise in order to reach them, in order to reach the higher intelligence and beauty they themselves possess. Artists represent the brain, and they should play the part of a true aristocracy, but they have fallen into the trap of trying to satisfy the masses, the demos, ‘the stomach’, with the result that it is these lower elements that swagger about and lay down the law.

The time has come to form a new intellectual, moral and spiritual aristocracy which will allow the masses to evolve, and the lower tendencies which are now in control, the demos, stomach and sex, must allow themselves to be ruled by the head. It is not for the head to satisfy the desires of the lower nature.

If you ask nature what it thinks about all this, it might well say, ‘And what about you? How do you organize a ship, for instance? You need engines to move your ships, but are the engines and the fuel they burn intelligent? No; their job is simply to propel the ship through the water, but they cannot see where the ship is going. They are quite liable to drive it onto the rocks or collide with an iceberg or another ship, and then where would you be?’ ‘Ah, yes,’ you say; ‘But there is always a captain in command who is intelligent and can steer a safe course.’ ‘Exactly!’ replies nature. ‘And when I made humans I put engines into them too, and those engines spit fire and propel them forward, but I also put a captain in command. The problem is, that if the captain has gone to sleep or gets drunk and loses control, your ship drifts into dangerous waters!’

The engines are below deck, in the bowels of the ship, and up on the bridge, that is to say, in your head, nature has placed the captain who uses your eyes, ears and mouth to see and hear everything that goes on and to give orders. Why is your head not between your legs, for instance, or on the soles of your feet? The truth is that, for a great many people, that is exactly where it is – symbolically speaking! Yes, anyone who does not use reason hands over control to the engines, and the head becomes an object of scorn.

So this is what you must understand: the stokers in the engine room have not been given the power to see where they are going or to direct operations; they are not capable of doing so. That is the captain’s responsibility. But when it comes to making the ship move they are fully capable. In fact they are indispensable: everything depends on them. And this is how it is with human society. Without the work of the masses, the whole country, including the aristocracy, would starve to death. So we should never underestimate the importance of the masses. They represent the means, the conditions, the energy needed by the body as a whole. The people are there in order to sow and harvest the crops; without them there would be famine. But they must not be entrusted with the functions that belong only to the captain, to the aristocracy. Their point of view is far too narrow; they are incapable of making intelligent decisions and guiding events correctly. Forgive me, but that is the truth of the matter! The cells of the stomach have not been given the capacity to instruct and guide the others. When the stomach or the sexual organs clamour for something, therefore, the brain is under no obligation to obey them systematically or to give in to their demands without a second thought. It is wisdom that has been designed to guide and enlighten human beings, and when it does so the strength and energy of the masses come into play to enable the splendours conceived by wisdom to become a reality.

Cosmic Intelligence created humans in such a way that the structure of their own body is an illustration of how all social life should be organized, and human beings have, in fact, groped their way to a social order roughly based on this model. But they are still a very, very long way from perfection! Every society includes the ruled and the rulers, but they are not always in their rightful places.

What is lacking is a true respect for the right order, both in humans themselves and in society. I don’t oppose my inner populace; on the contrary, I take good care of them and keep them clean and well fed. Oh, yes, my people are very well looked after, but they know that they have to obey the aristocrats. No revolutionary songs about chopping off the heads of the aristocrats for them! On the contrary they respect and obey the aristocracy.

You will say, ‘But all that is very dangerous! It’s dangerous to preach in favour of the aristocracy and condemn democracy!’ Well, everything is always dangerous. Whenever you eat or drink you are in danger of being poisoned or choking to death. And when you go out into the street you are in danger of being run over by a car or hit on the head by a tile falling from a roof. We are surrounded by dangers of every kind, but we have to speak the truth. And the truth is that it would be better to restore an enlightened aristocracy than to be ruled by the judgment and appetites of an ignorant populace. But you must understand what I am saying: I am not talking about social classes; I am talking about principles. I am well aware that there are true aristocrats among the masses, people who have the highest aspirations and ideals. I have met many who had neither titles nor great houses nor anything else but whose lives were so marked by reason, generosity and disinterestedness that they were the best of aristocrats. I think you are beginning to understand me now, aren’t you?

The truth of the matter is that I am not in favour either of an aristocracy or a democracy. I am in favour of an order, a unity, a harmony that exists in the universe and is reflected in our own bodies. Yes, don’t you see? If Cosmic Intelligence has put the stomach where it is and not on our shoulders, or the head where it is and not where the feet are, it is for a reason. The head is on top and the stomach down below, and if people want the stomach to be on top and the head anywhere except in its rightful place, the result can only be chaos. You must understand that a universal order exists and that it is not exactly the same as what human beings would like to establish.

The present state of things will go on for years and years: there will be republics, democracies, wars, devastation and revolution. And when human beings are tired and worn out, almost at their last gasp, they will begin to long for a new order. Then, perhaps, the great Masters will come and take charge of the destiny of humankind, and at the sight of such splendour, such justice, everyone will be ready to submit and obey. The people love justice and order, and if they are incapable of establishing a just, ordered society it is because they always choose one of their own number to govern them instead of choosing a being of a higher order. If you choose your leaders from the rank and file of the ant population, they will no doubt be capable of making speeches, biting and quarrelling with the other ants and stuffing their storehouse full of grain, but that is all. It is no use expecting them to be saviours of humanity.

Only those who are inspired from on high are capable of imposing the reign of order, peace and harmony in the world. And when this aristocracy of elite beings begins to be heard by the people, then everything will be transformed. It is the masses themselves that will clamour to be governed by the best and noblest, for they will recognize that, left to their own resources, without the light of Initiatic Science to guide them, they are lost.

But never forget that this hierarchical order must be established, first and foremost, within each human being.2 This is why you should ask heaven to send you an aristocracy of luminous beings to guide and instruct you. The rule of aristocracy within will not prevent the democracy from carrying out its duties. On the contrary; it must go on working even at night, for if the people stop working, that is, if the work of digestion, circulation and elimination ceases, the whole body, including the aristocracy, will be lost!

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness’ – Matt 6:33

II

What goes on within each human being is an exact reflection of what goes on in society: you can witness the same revolutions and disturbances, the same changes of government. How many monarchs who were unfit for their task have been overthrown by their subjects! Being ignorant of the terrible laws of karma, they thought they were free to be unjust and cruel. But without their knowing it, others worked secretly for their downfall, and in the end they were struck down. History is full of examples of this kind. So many kings have been dethroned and locked up in dungeons with just enough bread and water to keep them alive! And there they stayed, grieving and hoping to be set free, while those who had snatched power from them ruled in their place. Everyone knows about these things, but how many have ever understood that exactly the same thing takes place in our inner life? The ‘king’ within us gives himself up to a life of idleness and debauchery, and before he knows it, he is captured by hostile forces which shut him up in a dungeon and start to reign in his place!

All of humankind must be reinstated at the head of their own kingdom, therefore, otherwise they will find that their throne has been snatched by all the gangsters and hooligans that inhabit them. If they are unjust and dishonest, if they have no respect for certain laws, a revolution will take place inside them and they will be overthrown by monsters who will seize power and rule in their place. They may seem the same, outwardly, but inwardly the person in charge will no longer be the same. This becomes very obvious in certain forms of insanity. When people start saying that they are Genghis Khan, Jesus or Napoleon Bonaparte, it means that they have been dethroned; not by Genghis Khan or Napoleon, of course, and most certainly not by Jesus, but by someone. They themselves are no longer there, poor wretches, and they do not know where they are! A split personality is a phenomenon that is known and well documented nowadays: nobody doubts that it can happen. But what people fail to realize is that every individual has a split personality, or rather, that every individual has a multiplicity of personalities inside. We are inhabited by millions of different spirits and entities, and the conditions we provide determine which of them manifest themselves.

I know that some of you will find this very strange, but it is the truth. Humans are inhabited by a teeming population of cells which are totally dependent on them and under their influence, and this population sees how they behave and imitates them. If they break the law, their citizens notice and do exactly the same, and later on it is they, the masters, who are punished. They feel that something is not working as it should, and he complain, ‘What’s the matter with me? It feels like a revolution going on inside!’ The truth is that they have failed to educate their cells properly, and now they are no longer in control of these cells. As long as people fail to realize that their cells are tiny souls with their own intelligence and that they must get to know them and take care of them, their cells will never obey them. They can plead and threaten as much as they like, but their cells will not listen to them!3

You have never looked at it like that before, have you? You live like everybody else – unconsciously. But that won’t do! You must be conscious of what goes on inside you; you have a duty towards your inhabitants. They have been entrusted to your care so that you can collaborate in a great work, and your response is to set them a bad example! When it is a question of meeting other people socially, you take care to be impeccable: your words, gestures, expressions and clothes are all perfect. But when you are alone and no one can see what you are doing, it is quite another matter. You let yourself go and never think about that population within you that is watching you. Your citizens see that and say to themselves, ‘Very well, if that’s the example they’re giving us, let’s do the same. They’ll soon see what it’s like!’ and before you know what has happened you have been supplanted. Whereas if you know how to deal with your population, it is capable of doing wonders for you.

Yes, if you only knew how vast your population was, you would be very proud of it! There are billions and billions of beings in you – more than the total population of the world. And let me tell you this: some initiates have been so successful in educating their entities and have made them so strong and so highly evolved that the entities are now capable of working outside them: they go and help, console and heal their friends and disciples and even people they don’t know. Sometimes they take on the appearance of the initiate when they go to help others, and this is why people think that it was the initiate who came to them. No, not at all; in fact the initiate is often the last to learn about having helped someone.

Yes, human beings who work intelligently and consciously on certain inner entities can strengthen them to such a degree that, although they themselves cannot go absolutely everywhere, yet, thanks to them, they can reach all creatures throughout the world and enlighten them and prepare them for the coming of the kingdom of God. Believe me, this is the absolute truth, but orthodox science not only is incapable of accepting it, it does not have even the slightest inkling of it. And yet the possibilities open to humankind are unlimited, so extraordinary as to be indescribable, but everything depends, of course, on their degree of evolution. If they decide to learn, to master themselves and conquer certain weaknesses, all those possibilities are there on their path, ready for them. And I am not the first to tell you this. What I am saying has been said before by all the initiates, all the Masters since the world began. I am not inventing anything. I am here simply to transmit the secret of their learning and their power and to lead you gradually to that splendour.

So what harm is there in telling you that you must reclaim your throne and rule as monarch within you; that you must achieve self-mastery and learn to renounce certain weaknesses in order to free yourself from the clutches of your own wild beasts? There is no more important work than this: to become monarch of your inner realm and inspire love, respect and obedience in your inner population. And when they recognize that you are a good monarch, they will try to do whatever you ask them. If some of them start to lose their temper, you can tell them to calm down and they will obey you! Otherwise you will have to waste your time waiting hours or days for them to calm down.

First and foremost, you must reinstate the aristocracy within you. You must protect and guard as your greatest treasure all that is most noble, pure and luminous in your own being. Do you think that many human beings give a thought to defending their inner aristocracy? Alas, no! A young woman will willingly shed all her freshness and purity in exchange for a part in a film, a photograph in a magazine or the promise of fine clothes and jewellery. A scientist will readily sell his or her exceptional intelligence and intellectual powers to destructive forces if offered fabulous sums of money. Is this the way to protect and safeguard our inner aristocracy? Far from it; people are all too ready to betray and overthrow it and trample it underfoot. But nothing in the world, no amount of money, no promised fame or glory would ever persuade initiates to betray their aristocracy: they know that it is thanks to this aristocracy of luminous, intelligent, wise beings within them that they will one day call heaven and earth their own. No one can offer them anything remotely comparable.

When I speak about the aristocracy I am speaking about the true, inner aristocracy. If it succeeds in maintaining its pre-eminent position, peace and harmony will reign amongst the population of cells.4 If not, the others – instincts, lusts, vices and weaknesses – will take over the reins of government, the aristocracy will be toppled from power and heads will roll, just as it says in the revolutionary song! This always happens when the inner aristocracy is unworthy: the aristocrats are sent to the scaffold and the riff-raff take power into their own hands.

And, very often, this is what happens to you, too. Of course, your friends and relations will not see it, but an initiate will immediately understand what has happened and will say, ‘My poor friend, you’re no better than a slave in your own house! Why on earth did you let things degenerate to such an extent? And you don’t even know how it happened! Well, it must be for one of three reasons: either you lacked light, or there was not enough love in your heart, or you were not sufficiently strong-minded to work and learn self-mastery.’ There are only these three possible explanations, not, as people imagine, four or five or ten or more possible causes of their misfortune, and all external: their parents, society, their education, a shortage of money, neighbours, rivals, etc. No, the true causes are simply a lack of either intelligence, love or willpower. This is how initiates understand things. They know that the reasons for people’s difficulties will not be found outside themselves. No, they have allowed disorder to reign in their inner life, and that is where they will find the cause of all their problems. This is why they need to adopt an entirely new set of criteria that will at least allow them to see clearly where their problems come from. Only then will they be able to solve them.

1 See Freedom, the Spirit Triumphant, Izvor Coll. n° 211.

2 See Vie et travail à l’École divine, Complete Works, vol. 31, chap. 9: ‘Hiérarchie et liberté’.

3 See True Alchemy or the Quest for Perfection, Izvor Coll. n° 221, chap. 4: ‘Our heritage from the animal kingdom’.

4 See ‘In Spirit and in Truth’, Izvor Coll. n° 235, chap. 3: ‘The link with the centre’ and chap. 4: ‘Reaching for the top’.

Chapter Four
About money

I

Money is not, as so many people believe, ‘the root of all evil’. Money is simply a means, an instrument. The evil comes from those who use money to satisfy their greed, and as they often do so at the expense of others, this leads to intrigue, disputes and crime. Even if money were abolished in favour of some other form of currency, as long as men and women continue to harbour weaknesses, base appetites and passions, they will always be faced with the same problems.

So it is not money that is to blame, but people, for they are not sufficiently enlightened to know what attitude to adopt with regard to money or what reasons or purpose it should be used for. In itself, money is neither good nor bad; it is neutral. The only reason for its being so powerful is that people have invested it with power. And if they decided to divest money of its power and attribute it to something else, the same pattern would repeat itself all over again, with the same tragedies, the same seductions, the same aggrandizements, the same degradations! As long as money has value and that value allows men and women to satisfy their appetites, they will continue to concentrate on it as a means of obtaining all they need or desire; it is only normal. But it is possible to have other forms of currency. Perhaps, in the future, we shall not need money any more: love will be our currency. Yes, for love is a far more valuable currency than gold!

However, humankind is not ready to envisage things in this way yet, and as we may be sure that money will be with us for some time to come, it is important to have the right ideas about it so as to avoid falling victim to its powers of seduction. That is all there is to it: having the right attitude. There is nothing wrong in having money. How could you help others if you had no money? Perhaps your heart is full of love. That is wonderful, but if that is all you have you still cannot help your friends materially.

Oh, but I seem to be trying to persuade you that money is still necessary – as if you needed to be persuaded! I know very well that I don’t have to worry about that: you all agree that we need money. Yes, but it’s a matter of knowing how to behave where money is concerned. How often I have already told you: have as much money as you like, put it in your safe or in your pockets, but never put it in your head! If you hold money up as an ideal to be achieved at all costs, if you enthrone it in your mind as lord and master, it will give you very bad advice and you will be lost.

If someone who has not achieved the mastery of their thoughts, feelings and desires suddenly acquires money, the very first thing they will do is use it and abuse it and bring about their own downfall. You cannot blame the money if this happens. All it can do is give you the means to satisfy your desires, and if the desires of your heart are wicked ones, it is not the fault of money. Take the example of petrol, gas, coal or anything else: they can all be used for constructive or destructive purposes, and if you use them for a wicked purpose it is not their fault. The fault lies with you who harbour wickedness in your heart. The conclusion to be drawn, therefore, is that you must first transform yourself, so that you can use your money and all your other possessions for no other purpose than your own elevation and the good of humanity. And when you reach this degree of disinterestedness, you can be a billionaire many times over and still be in no danger of succumbing. You will simply be in a position to do all those splendid things that your soul has dreamed of for so long.

Leave money alone and let it get on with its work, and stick to your own task, which is to improve yourself. How often have I heard people saying, ‘Money is the cause of all our misfortunes!’ Yes, they say that when they haven’t got any, but as soon as they get some they sing a different tune. In the first case, therefore, they are too stupid to recognize the true cause of their misfortunes, and in the second case they are being dishonest. Two terrible failings! What they should say is, ‘Money is very necessary, in fact it’s wonderful, but heaven forbid that I should ever become a slave to it!’ For if you attach too much importance to money you will sacrifice all that is most beautiful in you to it. And, in fact, by the time you have all the money you want, you will have effectively destroyed the best qualities in you that would have allowed you to feel and enjoy to the full all the pleasures and delights your wealth can buy. This is the danger: you may obtain everything you have ever desired and still be unhappy, because you have destroyed that mysterious element that gives such exquisite, subtle flavour to every experience.1

Of course, it is terrible to be destitute and have no money at all. But if you had the choice between, on the one hand, possessing everything and losing your powers of enjoyment and, on the other, possessing nothing but preserving a keen taste for things, you should choose the second alternative, for when you have a sense of taste, you can enjoy whatever you receive to the full. If you had to choose, you should always choose to keep your sense of taste. Yes, the sense of taste is what counts.

But this sense of taste is something that only light can give you. Once you have found the light, whatever you do, whether you are eating, working or going for a walk, everything has the most delicious flavour.

What counts, therefore, is to learn how to work with light, to understand what light is, for without an understanding of light you will never understand anything in life. Light is the only thing that matters. If ever there was a subject that needed to be studied in depth it is the subject of light: the nature of light, how it works and how we can use it and work with it.

And now let me tell you what Initiatic Science teaches: it teaches that gold is sunlight that has been condensed and solidified in the bowels of the earth for millions of years. Those who are looking for gold have an obscure intuition of this; they sense that gold is sunlight and that that light contains both life and love. So those who look for solid gold are justified in doing so! Yes, but those who look for the gold contained in light are even more justified, because they have chosen the most direct path, whereas the others have taken a roundabout and often dangerous path.2

Human beings seek gold instinctively because they sense that it contains a divine element, a mysterious quintessence. But initiates do not look for gold, they look for light, for they know that once they possess light it will condense within them, and they will become gold, which is far better than having pockets or cupboards full of gold. You will perhaps say you have never seen an initiate made of gold. No, because their gold is all inside them in the form of light, even if you cannot see it. ‘But what can they do with that kind of gold?’ you will ask. Good heavens, how ignorant you are! They can use it to buy wisdom, peace and joy in the shops of heaven, and they feel so rich with all that light that their one thought is to share their wealth with others. The rich of this world, on the other hand, in spite of their gold ingots, are eaten away by mildew and rot. They are overburdened, unhappy and lonely, and we can only conclude that happiness cannot be bought with that kind of gold.

Are you beginning to understand me or not? There are a certain number of realities that hardly anybody knows but that you must know, and not only must you know them but you must put them into practice in your lives and, in this way, obtain treasures that are truly precious. It is a discipline that requires study. You will probably say all this is a lot of nonsense. Yes, but it is nonsense that comes true!

Would you like to know how initiates spend their gold? Let me give you an example: when someone falls ill it means that they are paying for some fault that they have committed. So I get in touch with the heavenly entities in charge of them and tell them, ‘Look, I love this person; they have done a lot of good for the Brotherhood; how much do they owe you?’ And then I pay their debt, and they are cured instantly. Yes, these are the realities I am talking about. It is possible to pay someone else’s debts with this kind of gold, and they will be cured!

So, my dear brothers and sisters, it is good to seek riches, but only if you seek them where they really are, on the level of their quintessence and not in the heavy, crystallized forms that have lost almost all their virtue, for on that level they cannot give you what is essential. If you had to haul your money-boxes across a desert, it would not be long before you would be ready to exchange them for just one glass of water! Yes, and if no one brought you that glass of water you would die of thirst, still clinging to your gold. But if you had the other kind of gold, you would be free to drink and quench your thirst, and you would not have to die.

You have money and that money opens all doors! In the physical world, yes, that is true. But there are other doors, the doors of peace, happiness, joy and inspiration, the doors of all the qualities and virtues, and those doors remain closed. So what good will it do you to open all the doors you want to open if the doors of the sanctuary remain closed to you? Are you incapable of feeling joy or of taking pleasure in anything you do? This is a sure sign that the spiritual doors are closed to you. And if this is the case it means that you have a faulty understanding of life and the values of life.

II

We should not try to prevent people from seeking wealth, but those who seek it should know what to do to avoid being crushed by the weight of worry, anguish and suspicions. For that is what is in store for them if they are not enlightened. Let them be rich if that is what they want, but without succumbing to the negative influences that faithfully follow all those who set foot on this path. Let them be rich, but without hurting others, and above all let them learn to keep their money circulating, let them have the joy of sharing it with others. Giving is a way of advancing spiritually, but the habit of giving is very rare indeed. A lot of people have vast fortunes, but they keep all their money for themselves. And the worst of it is that it doesn’t even make them happy: they are miserable! No, we should never prevent people from becoming rich, only teach them to share their wealth.

The need to amass wealth has always been a source of division and conflict amongst humans. So many tragedies, even in the most united families, are caused by questions of inheritance. Rapacious greed is always uppermost, and this is the basic reason why the world never manages to extricate itself from its difficulties. All wars are caused by those who want more than they already have. It is always the same reason: the need to appropriate somebody else’s money or land, as though they had to have money and land before they could feel rich and happy!

The truth is that God has given all men and women everything they need: food, water, air, warmth, light and, on the subtler level, prana and every kind of beneficial element. This being so, why do people still feel poor and miserable? Because they do not know how to draw on these elements and absorb them. Only initiates know how to find the wealth that exists throughout the universe. Everyone else always thinks that life is empty, that God has not given them anything worthwhile. They are very mistaken: every kind of wealth has been distributed far and wide; it is all there, available and at the disposal of all creatures. The trouble is that these creatures are too weak, lazy, blind and stupid to find it, and that is why they are still poor.

God has distributed everything he possesses in the atmosphere, the sun and stars, the mountains and oceans. He has kept nothing for himself. Everything is there for the asking; nothing is prohibited. The prohibitions are in you, because you are neither strong nor pure nor intelligent. But in fact, everything you need is there. Light, warmth, space, the stars – they are all there for your use, but you don’t know how to use them.

God is just, God is infinitely great, and he has never said that all this wealth that belongs to him should be given to some and not to others, but if you have never done anything to become capable of taking advantage of it, that is not God’s fault. This is why you have to study and practise; otherwise, you will still be poor and miserable for many incarnations to come, and you will still blame the Lord.

It always amazes me to see how human beings impose limitations on themselves. Look at their eating habits, for instance. They are quite content to eat, drink and breathe – in other words, to restrict themselves to solid, liquid and gaseous forms of nourishment – while completely neglecting the igneous element, namely fire and light. This is why they deteriorate so rapidly, because they are not properly nourished. To be properly nourished we need four elements, and the fourth, fire, is the most important of them all. It is for this reason that it is so important to get up in the morning to see the sunrise and absorb the fire and light which are present in such profusion at that time.

Look at the sun itself. Is there anything or anyone on earth whose light, love and generosity can be compared to those of the sun? No! And if you take the sun as your model, little by little your mind will be infused with its light, your heart with its warmth and your spirit with its power. And, most important of all, you will learn to give as the sun gives.3

The behaviour of most human beings is governed by the word ‘take’. This is how they have been brought up, and in fact the whole of contemporary culture is dominated by this word. ‘Take’ is the only word everybody understands! It reminds me of the story of the peasant who fell into a well. A passer-by heard him shouting for help, and leaning over the edge of the well he stretched out his arm, saying, ‘Give me your hand.’ The peasant was so alarmed when he heard the word ‘give’ that he instantly snatched back his outstretched hand. He preferred to stay in the well rather than give anything! Fortunately the other man saw that he was dealing with an inveterate miser, who could not bear the word ‘give’, so he said, ‘Take my hand!’ and of course, the word ‘take’ changed everything. The peasant seized his rescuer’s outstretched hand and was saved! But that peasant is not the only one to abhor the word ‘give’ and love the word ‘take’. Wherever people go and whatever they do, they are always on the alert to see what they can get out of it. They study, meet other people, work and get married with this one purpose in mind – to take. And this is why they emanate no light, no warmth and no life – because they are intent only on getting something for themselves.

Even when a man and woman are in love, this is their sole preoccupation: both of them want to suck life from the other. In fact there are cases where it would be far better for them to separate, for they are transgressing the laws of love. You might object that they really do love each other, that they really are as one. No, they both want something from the other. They are only interested in taking, in draining their partner of everything they can get, mercilessly and unscrupulously. Instead of bringing to their relationship something to warm their partner’s heart and soul, instead of giving each other a new impulse, new life and inspiration that would help the other to advance, their only concern is to satisfy their own needs by eating and drinking and taking whatever they can get from each other. And it is this mentality that is corrupting and corroding the entire world.4

The sun runs the only school where you can learn how to give. All the planets take; only the sun gives, and this is why we have to go and study in the school of the sun, and since the sun is the only one that really gives, isn’t this reason enough to love it? Human beings are always drawn to someone who has something good to offer. These are the people we love, whereas we try to avoid those who are always trying to get something out of us. Why do some people imagine they can go on taking from others for ever? Don’t they realize that others see what they are doing and that is why they leave them alone? So think about this, and you will see that it is to your advantage to cultivate a tendency to give.

1 See The Philosopher’s Stone – in the Gospels and in Alchemy, Izvor Coll. n° 241, chap. 3: ‘You are the salt of the earth’, chap. 4: ‘But if the salt loses its flavour…’ and chap. 5: ‘Tasting the flavour of the salt: divine love’.

2 See above, chap. 14: ‘The gold of true knowledge: the alchemist and the gold prospector’.

3 See ‘In Spirit and in Truth’, Izvor Coll. n° 235, chap. 16: ‘The truth of the sun is in giving’.

4 See Sexual Force or the Winged Dragon, Izvor Coll. n° 205, chap. 6: ‘Love without waiting to be loved’ and chap. 8: ‘Spiritual love is a higher way of feeding ourselves’.

Chapter Five
The distribution of wealth

I have often been asked what I think about the problem of the distribution of wealth. It is a question that worries a great many people, who see how unequally wealth is distributed and who consider this to be supremely unjust.

The truth is that the problem has been with us from the beginning of humanity. Someone who was stronger and cleverer than the others would be a better hunter, for instance, and so would bring back more game and accumulate more wealth than them. This unequal distribution of goods, which we find so unjust, was originally perfectly just. In fact, nature does not like equality and uniformity or a general levelling out.

Ever since the French Revolution of 1789 the Republic has taken as its motto, ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’, but the truth is that equality does not exist in the universe: inequality is the general rule. On earth there is no equality on any level. ‘But we have made equality a law’, you may say. Yes, but a law is theoretical and abstract; it is a text to hang on the wall, not a reality. The reality is that there is no such thing as equality; nature wants diversity, and diversity breeds inequality. Human beings have different capacities, and this means that some get more than others. Is this normal? Absolutely! Is it something that should arouse our indignation? Not at all! But people never get this far in their reflections; they cry out and rebel against what they consider to be injustice, because they allow others to lead them by the nose. But the thing to do now is to study the question and get it quite clear in your mind. If there is any reason to raise a hue and cry or start a fight you can do so later, but let’s begin by getting the thing quite clear.

However much or however little people possess, it is always normal and perfectly just. The rich deserve their wealth, and the poor deserve their poverty. This is not obvious to most people, because they refuse to believe in reincarnation, and reincarnation explains and justifies every situation. Why are some people wealthy in this incarnation? Because in a previous incarnation they did something to earn their wealth.1 Initiatic Science teaches us that, in the long run, we always get what we ask for, good or bad. The Lord gives everyone what they ask for, and if they fall flat on their face as a result, it is not his fault. If you asked for the burden that is crushing you under its weight, can you blame the Lord? It was up to you to foresee the long-term results of what you wanted. You never reflect enough about how things are going to turn out. You never pause to consider whether the fulfilment of your wishes might bring you unhappiness, poverty and illness. Very often it would have been better if your prayers had not been answered, and this is why disciples must begin by learning that they do well to ask for some things but that others should be left strictly alone.

One thing you can be sure of is that the rich are rich because they have cultivated certain qualities and worked hard to earn their wealth. The law leaves you no choice. You will object, ‘Yes, but what if they used lies, violence, deceit and dishonesty to get rich?’ Even if they did, the result would still be the same: what they wanted was wealth and that is what they got. Of course, there is still something which is not so clear-cut, and that is the question of how long they will be able to keep their wealth and whether it will satisfy them and allow them to live in peace and joy. But at least they got what they asked for. They may have used dishonest means to get it, that does not enter into it; the point is that they got it. But what they don’t know is that their success entails certain consequences. Many beggars and tramps are people who got rich at the expense of others or who used their wealth for wicked purposes in a previous incarnation. This is not always the case, of course, nor is it always true that the wealthy acquired their wealth by deceitful, dishonest means. Some people become rich thanks to their hard work, others inherit a fortune, others are merely lucky and still others make a valuable discovery. I cannot analyse every case in particular; I am speaking in general.

In the natural order, therefore, inequality is the rule: some people are wealthy and others are poor. Why do human beings think they should all be equal? Equality would mean stagnation and immobility, an end to evolution, because there would be no more competition. No, you cannot do away with competition, it will always exist, whether it is for wealth, power or knowledge.

There is something that really needs to be put straight in this question of the equal distribution of wealth. People worry themselves sick, tear their hair out and kill each other in the attempt to change the situation, but they will never succeed, never! For it is nature that demands inequality. Why should we waste our pity on lazy, incompetent, ignorant people? Of course, we can give them something out of sheer generosity, that is another matter, but if stupid, lazy people received exactly the same as those who have great talents or immense learning it would be very unjust!

Some so-called philosophers would like to wipe out the human urge to accumulate more and more possessions. But this is not possible either; they will never succeed, for this urge too has been placed in humans by nature itself, and even when it is not operative on the physical level it still exists on the emotional and intellectual levels. Humans have an abiding need to enrich themselves in one way or another, in every sphere of life. The desire to possess more, therefore, is absolutely normal. However, at some point it can become abnormal, and we have to recognize this point. Our own bodies give us the answer so clearly that no philosopher could possibly raise an objection. If I gave you my own personal opinion, everybody could say, ‘No, no. I don’t agree. To my mind it is like this or that...’, and the debate would never end. So I am not going to give you my own opinion. I am going to tell you how universal nature envisages the question – for I always try to read the solution to these problems in the works of nature – and everyone will have to defer to nature’s opinion.

So, this is the question: is it legitimate to want to become rich? Of course it is. What does your stomach do with the food you give it? It accepts it all eagerly, transforms it, keeps whatever it needs and sends all the rest on to the other parts of the body. It does not keep the surplus for itself. The stomach does not use what it receives only for itself. Once it has transformed it, it distributes it to the rest of the body. Then, after a few hours, when it feels empty, it takes some more food and begins the whole process all over again. And it is thanks to this impersonal distribution, to this complete disinterestedness, that people are healthy and able to walk and talk and sing and work!2

Now, suppose the stomach were to say, ‘From now on I’m going to keep everything I get for myself! Who do those idiots think they are anyway, that I should keep giving them things? Besides, suppose there’s a famine. You never know what might happen in the future. I have my own children to feed, and I’m going to hoard as much as I can.’ Well, a stomach that hoards everything for itself inevitably falls ill. Why? Because the law of impersonality and brotherhood is no longer being respected. Doctors may call it an obstruction, a tumour, a cancer or what they will, and if the head, the heart or the lungs behaved in the same way the result would be the same.

Human beings are like the cells of one body. In fact there are many more cells in our body than there are human beings on earth. Our brain alone contains several billion cells. And how is it that the cells of the body have managed to organize in such a way that they all help and collaborate with each other in a spirit of brotherliness, whereas human beings are so stupid that they cannot do the same? If only they could put the spirit of universal brotherhood into practice, the world would enjoy such prosperity that no single country or individual would feel the need to hoard and protect their riches: there would always be enough for everyone.

Why do people think of nothing but accumulating wealth? It is simply because they are forever getting themselves involved in catastrophic situations and feel they have to lay up provisions ‘for a rainy day’. But if everybody was really reasonable nobody would have to hoard, for they would always have whatever they needed. Even public transport would be free. People would go on working so as not to get rusty, but they would work without being paid. Yes, people would not want to be paid in money, because it is so marvellous to be surrounded by men and women who pay you with gratitude, smiles and love, that the attraction of money pales beside that!

People need to be enlightened so that they can abandon this urge to accumulate more money or goods than they need. When humankind becomes one family and national borders disappear, the need to hoard will disappear too, and there will be no more injustice. So, there you have the solution: each individual must understand the advantages of universal brotherhood and, like the cells of a healthy body, work to make it a reality.

1 See Man, Master of his Destiny, Izvor Coll. n° 202, chap. 8: ‘Reincarnation’.

2 See The Yoga of Nutrition, Izvor Coll. n° 204, chap. 6: ‘The ethics of eating’.

Chapter Six
Communism and capitalism

I

At present the world is divided into two blocs – the capitalists and the communists. In the minds of most people, capitalism and communism represent two different ways of envisaging the production and distribution of material wealth, but in fact these notions embrace a much vaster reality.

Take the example of a young girl: in the past – and let us hope that it is true to some extent even today – a young girl was a capitalist in that she wouldn’t let anyone kiss or caress her; she kept all her treasures for herself. Her parents told her not to give anything away, and for a time she followed their advice. But as the communist philosophy gains ground and infiltrates into every area, it enters the minds of young girls, and they are ready to share their heart and all their beauty and charms with others: they become communists. And the same is true for a young man: after a certain number of years of capitalism, he too becomes a communist and distributes his quintessence to all and sundry. Yes, all this is a form of communism! Of course, I know that no one sees things this way, but I have such a twisted mind that I can see it for what it is!

Let’s say, then, that a girl who gives her ‘capital’ to the first man to come along is a communist. But then you may wonder, ‘Why? What makes her give away her capital?’ She does it in the hope of getting her hands on the capital that he is ready to lose. So that kind of communism is not entirely disinterested! If a girl is very generous with her capital, you may be sure that it is in order to gain the boy’s capital, for everyone needs capital to live on. So a young girl has a considerable capital, and with it she can buy all kinds of things. She can at least be invited to a restaurant for a free meal... and after the meal it is she who will be ‘eaten’! Well, I don’t want to dwell on that, but you can see how complex it is.

The truth is that nature shows that capitalism and communism are both necessary. What are children, for instance? They are capitalists: they are always demanding and clamouring for what they want, they impose their will on others, and their instinct is to get hold of things and keep them for themselves. But one day they marry and have children of their own, and then they are obliged to become communists and distribute their wealth. All men and women are capitalists when they are born; communism comes later. When a young man and woman meet and decide to marry and start a family, this is the first step towards a communal way of life.

If men and women are capitalists and communists at different periods of their life, it is in obedience to nature. They begin life as capitalists, because they have to become rich, and it is nature that provides the capital: their arms and legs, eyes and ears, their brain and their sexual organs are all part of the capital they receive and use to accumulate wealth, which they can then distribute to others. If you are poor, how can you share anything out? You cannot! You will not even be able to help your own husband or wife and children; you must be rich before you can help others.

Capitalism should be simply a means; the great mistake of capitalists is to have made it a goal in itself. They don’t understand the first thing about it! But then, neither do communists, for that matter. Do you think that communists are true communists? Well, only the Lord knows the truth of the matter, but if they are always criticizing and fighting capitalists, it is often because they would like to be as rich and powerful as those they criticize. Those who feel poor and disinherited may preach communism, but if they become rich they soon change their tune: no more communism for them! As long as people are poor they are communists, but as soon as they become rich they become capitalists, because if they continued to be communists they would have to share their wealth, and that is something they have no intention of doing! Personally, though, I believe in communism. Why? Because Jesus was a communist. Yes, but Jesus was a white communist, not a red one!

At present neither communists nor capitalists think or behave correctly. When your goal, your ideal is to hoard wealth, all kinds of unpleasant and unforeseen consequences arise. On the other hand, when you want to share everything indiscriminately, the unforeseen results may be different, but they can be equally unpleasant. If communists and capitalists refuse to go any further in their reflection and therefore do not arrive at a more accurate understanding of the situation, they are bound to end by massacring one another. There will be civil war and, eventually, other kinds of war! Neither side possesses the light that you receive here: the necessity of working for a high ideal. They are working for themselves; even if they make a show of working for others, they are really only working for themselves.

Communists and capitalists must learn to understand each other in order to help humankind. Both are necessary; both currents are at work simultaneously in the universe. Why have human beings turned the thing into a cause for division when, in reality, the equilibrium of the whole cosmos is based on these two currents? So, you must become true communists and true capitalists both at the same time, and in this way you will find fulfilment.

Many people are communists only because they have been forced into it; their land and their house have been taken away from them. They did not give them away of their own free will. Isn’t that a peculiar kind of communism if it forces people to give up their property? Is it communism to impose limits on people and oppress and crush them? No, true communism means teaching people how to share, how to give, how to love, how to smile at others and, at the same time, how to keep their capital, for what can you do if you have no capital? Even if you have the best ideas in the world, if you don’t have two pennies to rub together what can you accomplish? Whereas if you have some capital you can start a business, earn a great deal of money and then share your money, and there you are! You have become a communist! But to be a true communist you must start by being a capitalist. This is the point you have to understand. If you possess nothing you cannot be a communist. Those who possess capital and who have never understood the reason for the existence of capital are very bad capitalists, and the communists are justified in attacking them. But they are not justified in attacking true capitalists, because true capitalists are true communists!

‘Heavens above,’ you will say. ‘This is getting much too complicated. I’m all mixed up!’ Yes, everything is all mixed up in your heads because you have not been instructed in Initiatic Science. When you hear the truth as Cosmic Intelligence created it, you are lost, because you have been to human schools where you have learned a lot of false ideas. Whereas I have studied in the school of Cosmic Intelligence and I was taught this: if you are not a capitalist you cannot become a communist. So this means that you are going to have to broaden your understanding of the question, become a capitalist and use all your possessions, even your brain and your tongue, as well as your arms and legs, to do good. If you do that you will be the ideal communist. But if you want to be a communist when you possess nothing, what good are you going to do? None. And if you take something that does not belong to you, you are a thief.

To want to exterminate the rich in order to take their money and live like them: is that the proper attitude to have? When people are destitute they are against the rich, but as soon as they become rich themselves their attitude changes. Actually, it is when you yourself are rich that you should be against the rich and distribute your wealth! It is all too easy to curse the rich when you yourself are poor. It is like a plain girl who is always criticizing her friends because they are prettier than she is: she does it because she knows how plain she is. If she herself were pretty she would never criticize other people’s beauty.

It is no solution, therefore, to overthrow the capitalists and chant ‘Long live communism’ and then oppress the people with even greater cruelty than one’s predecessors. How are communists going to vindicate themselves in the eyes of history? For don’t forget that everything goes down on record, and even in the books and films that are coming out these days we see how people have been unjustly condemned after being forced to confess to crimes they never committed. History will be their judge, and everyone will be judged, communist and capitalist alike, for they are all tarred with the same brush! But history will absolve those who wanted to be rich in order to share their riches with others and do something worthwhile for the happiness of humankind.

You must remember, too, that this notion must be understood and applied in every area. Why does everybody want to study and be educated and earn a lot of money? Because this is how to win the respect and esteem of others. Whenever a rich, powerful, well-informed man or woman appears, doors automatically open for them. So the tendency towards capitalism, that is the tendency to take and accumulate belongings and to dominate others, is eternally present and extends to every area of life. It may take different forms: for some, material wealth is their goal, for others it is power and positions of influence, and for others again it is knowledge. Although knowledge can be said to belong to a higher plane, it is still subject to that same tendency, which is to acquire riches in order to get one’s own way. Yes, the very learned behave exactly like the very rich: they are often distant, arrogant and far from brotherly.

Those who are weak and ignorant are more inclined to be ‘communistic’: they like to be with others, to visit each other and get into a huddle together, and they are often very warm, kind people. Yes, because they have no possessions! Whereas those who are rich or learned are inaccessible; if you want to see them you have to ask for an appointment months and months in advance, and even then you often see only a secretary: they are far too busy! Is this a good way to behave? The rich – whatever form their wealth may take – should not behave like proud pontiffs. They should come down off their pedestals and put themselves on an equal footing with others; they should treat others as their brothers and share their wealth with them. If they do this they will be communists, true communists. Knowledge and power should be sought only as means to be used to help humanity, not for one’s own private purposes.1

When I listen to people talking on the television, communist or capitalist, I see that they all have a ‘capitalistic’ attitude. They feel secure and well-armed with their knowledge and their customary arguments, and their language is the language of despots: they show no love, no humility, no gentleness. Yes, you cannot pull the wool over my eyes. I know exactly what category all these attitudes belong to. ‘But’, you will ask, ‘why do you classify all these attitudes as ‘communistic’ or ‘capitalistic’? Oh, that is because everyone uses these two miserable words all the time. I could find others, but in the meantime I use these because they are so convenient!

We need knowledge, titles, diplomas, but not for ourselves, not just to ensure the success of our own undertakings. You must never use knowledge to satisfy your lower self. No, whatever talents you cultivate in order to become a scientist, an artist, a statesman or a successful business person, you must always look on them as means for doing good. When the two tendencies become one, when you are a capitalist and a communist at the same time, then your work is divine. I have given this matter a great deal of thought over the years and, as I say, I have solved the problem: I have become a capitalist and a communist both at the same time.

Capitalism and communism are both necessary, indispensable in fact, and, as I have said, nature itself sanctions the two tendencies. The child that grabs everything for itself is a capitalist, and the old man who distributes all his belongings before leaving for the next world is a true communist: he keeps nothing for himself. And in between, there is the whole range of those who do not fully belong to either category: there are capitalists who are not genuine capitalists and communists who are not genuine communists. The ideal, of course, is to be both, to be rich in order to distribute wealth. When we do this we have reached perfection. But if you are only one or the other, then you lose on both counts.

Those who want possessions are perfectly justified. Nature has given them this right. You can see proof of this in the fact that we possess a physical body. It belongs to us and it would be dangerous to try to share it with others. Certain things can be shared, that is true, but we have to keep possession of our own body. Take the example of a tree: it is a capitalist in that it keeps its roots, trunk and branches, but it is a communist in that it distributes its fruits. This is how nature has conceived things, and initiates, who have understood nature’s lesson, behave exactly like the tree: they keep possession of their roots, trunk and branches, but they distribute their fruit, that is to say, their thoughts and feelings, their words, their light, their energies and their money. Only an initiate is both a genuine communist and a genuine capitalist. All the others are quarrelsome children who have not understood anything about life, and this is why they will never solve their problems: because they do not possess the true initiatic light.

So you see, the only true capitalists are initiates; they are continually enriching themselves. And, at the same time, they are the only true communists, because they spend their nights and days distributing their wealth. They keep their capital, though. They know they could do nothing without their capital. Suppose someone comes to me and says, ‘Oh, what a wonderful violin you’ve got. Please, will you give it to me?’ If I am a true capitalist I will answer, ‘No, I won’t give you my violin; it’s mine. But if you come and see me every day, I’ll play it for you.’

As long as humanity is divided into capitalists and communists, they will always be at war with each other. These two words are at the root of countless thefts, bombings, acts of arson, kidnappings and assassinations!

Wisdom lies in allowing both tendencies to develop in equal proportions and in learning to be one or the other at different moments of the day. It is very bad to be a capitalist only; that is to say, if you hide away in your own little cubby-hole and refuse contact with other people. On the other hand, you will be a very tiresome kind of communist if you spend all your time with other people because you are incapable of living alone. As far as I am concerned I have solved the problem by keeping half the day for myself, and I spend that half day praying, working and meditating, in other words, in hoarding. And the other half of the day is spent in lecturing and talking to people: distributing and sharing. And this is how to be happy, because this satisfies both sides of our nature.2

If you are always alone and never give of yourself to others, you will be bound to feel that it is not right, that something is missing. And if you are continually with others, you will be drained of all your resources, the reservoir will run dry and there will be nothing left for yourself. So, once again, you are obliged to become a capitalist and sacrifice part of the time you spend with others so as to accumulate more treasure. Those who accumulate too much are just as unhappy as those who distribute too much. The only way to find happiness, therefore, is to choose the third way: half and half.

II

As long as we think of capitalism and communism as two separate and contradictory notions, we will be in error. A capitalist who is intent only on accumulating wealth begins to grow mouldy, just like wheat that has been stored for years in a barn instead of being sown in the ground: either it gets eaten by mice or it rots. It is absolutely normal to want to possess, but to want only to accumulate possessions and never give anything away is a primitive instinct that needs to be educated. Men and women must use their possessions to do good.

The only thing is, though, that our desire to possess should not focus primarily on worldly riches, for we almost always have to dislodge a competitor or even resort to dishonesty in order to gain material wealth. The earth is small and space is limited, and this means that someone who becomes rich does so, almost inevitably, at the expense of others. But if your desire for wealth is focused on heaven, its treasures are so vast, so stupendously abundant, that however much you take you can never diminish that immensity, that inexhaustible ocean of wealth or injure or deprive anyone else.3 And once you have become rich with these heavenly riches, you will be in a position to distribute them to others.

The solution to the problem of both capitalism and communism would be for both parties to make the effort to broaden their concepts and look at things from a much higher standpoint. Personally, this is how I have solved the problem. There is no conflict between the communists and capitalists within me. They shake hands and embrace each other like brothers and live in happy coexistence. Day and night my capitalists are busy getting richer and richer, and they are far better at it than the capitalists on earth, who are so limited and hidebound. Yes indeed, it is very hard to get anything done on earth! It is dangerous, for instance, to drive very fast; there are so many potential obstacles in the shape of houses, trees and people! Sometimes you have to crawl along at twenty miles an hour to avoid running over an animal. Not so in the ether: there, you can move faster than light in complete safety! And my capitalists are all up there, in those etheric heights, and that is why there is nothing to hinder their work. Whereas the wretched capitalists on earth are constantly hampered and hemmed in, and all their efforts to swallow up the whole world come to nothing. On the material level this is always the way; there is nothing you can do to change it.

And communists who are so proud of their philosophy, who have such generous, altruistic sentiments will meet other kinds of obstacles. As they know nothing of the structure of human beings, it never occurs to them that improving material conditions while rejecting all spiritual aspirations will inevitably lead civilization to disaster. When human beings cease to develop the spiritual side of their nature they revert to the level of animals and become deceitful, dishonest and cruel. This is how even the very best communists can quite quickly become just as bad as the worst capitalists – unjust, violent and despotic, and ready to misuse their power and authority for their own ends. In spite of their magnificent philosophy, we have seen proof that a great many communists have already compromised themselves. Yes, it is very easy to preach an ideal philosophy, but it is much more difficult to put it into practice every day in our own life, and yet that is what counts.

Cosmic Intelligence has designed humans in such a way that they can only fulfil themselves by remaining closely linked to a higher world from which they draw light and strength. If they are content to rely exclusively on their own limited intellect, they will be unable to see and anticipate, and they will make disastrous mistakes in every area. All those, communist or capitalist, whose strength depends exclusively on technology, industry and material progress are doomed to ultimate failure. Their actions, inspired only by their desire to dominate the world without regard for the designs of Cosmic Intelligence, stir up certain layers in the physical and psychic atmosphere and provoke the hostile reaction of forces of terrifying power.

Yes indeed, those who have chosen to solve the world’s social and political problems by materialistic means without having studied the basic nature of human beings are due for a great shock. For this need for spiritual nourishment will erupt in the hearts of the masses with such force that nothing, neither threats nor prison nor even death, will have the power to stem the flood.4

Only initiates have succeeded in reconciling communism and capitalism in their own lives, and they do this consciously. They know that this circulation, this ebb and flow of giving and taking, is a law of life. Yes, for eternal life means receiving heaven’s gifts and distributing what we receive, so that it may then return to heaven to be restored to perfect purity. The process by which the blood circulates in the veins is capitalistic: it flows from every part of the body to the lungs, there to be purified. And from the lungs it returns to the heart, which pumps it out to the rest of the body: so arterial circulation is communistic!

The circulatory system in our bodies is a reflection of a cosmic process. The energy which flows from God, the Centre, passes through all the different levels of creation (human, animal and vegetable), bringing them life and, at the same time, relieving them of their impurities. It then returns, by paths unknown to us, to the lungs and heart of the universe to be purified and, once again, distributed to all creatures. This circulation is reflected in a proper understanding of capitalism and communism.

1 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, Synopsis Coll., Part IX, chap. 2: ‘La parabole de l’ivraie et du froment’.

2 See The Key to the Problems of Existence, Complete Works, vol. 11, chap. 3: ‘Giving and taking’.

3 See New Light on the Gospels, Izvor Coll. n° 217, chap. 4: ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven’.

4 See Vie et travail à l’École divine, Complete Works, vol. 31, chap. 2: ‘Matérialistes et spiritualistes’.

Chapter Seven
Towards a new understanding of economics

I

There is a tendency today to attach paramount importance to economics, and it seems on the surface of it that people are right to do so, for it is extremely important to organize the production and distribution of the world’s wealth as efficiently as possible. Their error lies in not realizing, or in neglecting, the fact that a healthy economy is dependent on factors of a higher order.

The economic aspect is, as it were, the ‘dead’ aspect of things. Of itself it is stationary, static and inexpressive. It needs other, live elements to animate it and set it in motion, and depending on whether those elements are wise or foolish the results of its activity will vary enormously. If the ‘head’ that determines the activity of the economy is sick, the economy itself will break down, and social discontent, strikes and revolutions will be the result.

It is a pity that human beings have allowed themselves to get so bogged down in matter that they have forgotten that the most important thing is not matter itself but the factors that influence and animate it. Suppose you have considerable capital resources and arms, thanks to which you feel strong and secure, but you are not very bright; well, if an enemy who is a great deal more intelligent than you comes along, they will make short work of you, simply because their intelligence is far superior to any of your weapons! Yes, intelligence often gets the better of material means, however powerful they are.

Every occurrence on the material plane is a result of a phenomenon occurring on a higher plane in the invisible world of thoughts and feelings, and as long as we fail to recognize these invisible elements that act on matter and influence it for good or bad, our view of reality will be false. The truth is that nothing of an economic, technical or industrial nature can act on its own.

To help their students to understand human anatomy, doctors use a series of plates, each of which illustrates one of the body’s systems: the skeleton, the circulatory system, the muscles, the nervous system, etc. None of these plates represents the whole picture, only one aspect of the whole, and what people do not realize is that, beyond and above the nervous system, there are several other systems, still unknown to established science. For example, no one ever mentions the auric system with its scintillating currents of light and colour, and yet it is the auric system that controls the nervous system, just as the nervous system controls the circulatory, respiratory and other systems.1 It is clear, therefore, that science has not yet studied every dimension of human beings.

The fact that people consider the economic dimension (raw materials, capital, commercial outlets, imports and exports and so on) to be of primary importance is an indication that they have restricted themselves to the three most material systems: the skeleton, the muscles and the blood. They have not even got as far as the nervous system yet – not to mention the auric system – and this explains why they neglect certain rules or laws and certain virtues that correspond to these higher systems. And this is how world leaders, who are principally concerned with the economy, are leading humankind as a whole to corruption and decadence. If you set your heart on being stronger and richer than your neighbour, you will inevitably be led to do things that are not always perfectly honest in order to reach your goal. It is unavoidable.

On the one hand, therefore, opulence is on the increase and, on the other hand, the respect for divine law is diminishing, and it is this that will inevitably result in disaster for humanity. I know that people will not accept the truth of what I am saying because they cannot see it. They are blind to the fact that success on the economic level means ceaselessly committing dishonest, criminal acts. It is the same in politics and espionage: anything goes! The excuse is that it is for the sake of the country. Yes, but what about the other countries? When economic interests are given priority, they always counsel the destruction of moral principles, and eventually all of humankind’s noblest qualities are wiped out and replaced by egotism, violence and deceit and the complete absence of scruples. Of course, the economic dimension of life is indispensable; I have no argument with that, but it must be kept under control and ruled by other necessities, by other, higher powers. Otherwise humankind’s purest aspirations will be trampled on and sacrificed for the sake of the egotists who want to be rich.

It is time people began to think about this and to understand clearly that it is the divine world that must be given priority and that everything else must be at its service.2 The fact is that human beings have mistaken the means for the end. They know that there is always a goal to be aimed at and that there are various means for reaching that goal, but what they have failed to see is that they are using all the most glorious faculties and talents that heaven has given them as a means to reach a terribly mundane, inglorious goal. They are ready to put their noblest qualities to work to satisfy their basest appetites! In fact they expect the Lord himself to comply with their every whim and help them in their licentiousness and folly. And do you think that they are aware of all this? Not at all! They never take the time to wonder what they are like or what they are really looking for in life. No, it takes a spiritual Master to come and question them, ‘Look, my friend, do you want to know where you’re heading? Straight for hell! That is your destination. And the means you are using to get there? The Lord and his angels, science, art and religion!’ Yes, these are the means we are using on our journey to hell!

It is perfectly true that material, industrial progress makes a positive contribution to life today. It is amazing how many appliances people have in their homes: heating systems, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and dish washers, televisions, telephones, etc., etc. But how is it that, even with all that, human beings have never been so discontented, rebellious and unhealthy? And what is astonishing is that in spite of the obvious fact that material progress does not bring happiness, people still continue to seek happiness from it. They will not understand that happiness must be sought on a totally different plane. Yes, to find happiness you must seek love, wisdom and truth and be a little less sure that affluence and comfort will give you all you want. The only things affluence and comfort can give you are sloth, selfishness and weakness, and the sad thing is that that is what people want – idleness and pleasure. They want to do nothing and have everything!

And now, what is my advice to you? I advise you to have both: to enjoy every material facility and, at the same time, to continue to be extremely active on the physical plane and, above all, on the psychic planes so as to avoid becoming stiff and numbed in mind and body. You will say I have already talked to you about that. It is true, I have. But I ask you: has it done any good? Have you made up your mind to act on my advice? No, not yet. You, too, are so intent on material gain and the pursuit of pleasure that you have no time to open your heart to the divine world and invite sublime entities to come and do their work within you.3 And it is very regrettable, because to fail to understand this is to invite suffering, and when it comes, as it inevitably will, there will be no one to help you. You are the only one who can save yourself, and you must do so through light and love. So analyse the way you spend your time and energy and the things that engage your attention. You will see that the divine world does not take up much room in your life, and yet it is this alone that can purify, enlighten and resuscitate you. You devote almost all your time and energy to the material world, and the material world gives you a few moments of joy and then proceeds to overburden, imprison and destroy you.

Take the case of those who are rich in this life: if they do nothing good with their wealth, if they use it only to indulge in mundane pleasures, when they come back to earth in their next incarnation they will have to suffer poverty and privations. And they will not even know that they were once very rich and that their present poverty is the consequence of having kept all their wealth for themselves instead of using it to help others. So many, many creatures come into the world in a really deplorable state, and no one never knows why! None of the established sciences has ever shed light on the question: psychology, medicine, educational science and psychoanalysis are all silent on the subject. Even religion cannot explain it. It can only be explained by Initiatic Science.

So, if you want to be sure of having good conditions in your next incarnation, be sure to analyse whatever you want to do before you do it and ask yourself sincerely, ‘Am I going to find the light, love and strength I am looking for if I do this or that?’ And heaven will be listening to you and will give you the answer.

There is still so much I could say about this question of economy! When a society gives absolute priority to its economic interests, many other aspects are neglected, and this leads to an imbalance in the life of the community, and all kinds of difficulties arise which, with a little wisdom, might have been foreseen. Take the case of a country that exports as much as it can so as to earn foreign currency: one thing leads to another and, before long, they are selling arms and military aircraft to countries whose constant wars endanger the peace and welfare of the entire planet. The people in some of these countries can barely read and write and yet they are allowed to buy highly sophisticated weaponry! Well, of course, that is one way to earn a lot of money, but the price to be paid in other ways will be exorbitant. Dear God, how can people be so blind? This is an example of how an unscrupulous economic policy can bring ruin to a great many countries.

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, I fully agree that nothing is more important than the economy. But there is one thing that human beings have failed to understand, and that is that if they want to solve their economic problems they must study them on the higher level and not here below, for what is below is only a reflection of what is on high.

II

Society is so well organized and able to provide human beings with whatever they want that they have become very negligent: they know that they can always find something or somebody to get them out of difficulty. They can go skiing and risk their life on the slopes, because if they break a leg they can always go to hospital and get a plaster cast. If they are working on the top of a ladder, why bother to see that it is securely in place: if they fall off someone will pick them up and take care of them. And why take care of their own teeth? They can always go to the dentist. And why be careful not to stain their clothes? There are so many cleaning fluids on the market these days! They can go for a walk in the forest and throw away a lighted cigarette: why get all upset if it starts a forest fire? The firemen will come and put it out!

And this is how people’s powers of attention and perspicacity, their dexterity, wisdom and intelligence are constantly diminishing. Why should they bother to cultivate these qualities when society offers so many ways of remedying their mistakes? Technicians and researchers are all working to help humanity, but the fact of the matter is that they are not helping, for people are losing their personal initiative and becoming lazier and lazier and less and less capable of doing things for themselves. No doubt they know more than they used to, but they are also more careless and slapdash. I am not saying we should put a stop to material progress. What I am saying is that we should also work for progress in our inner life by cultivating attentiveness, prudence and control.

After all, we have to remember that events could occur to deprive people of all the comforts and facilities they are accustomed to, and think of all the disorders and conflicts this could cause. Take the case of oil, for instance: only a few years ago it was produced and consumed and wasted without restraint, because people had the impression that it would always be available for the asking, and now look at all the political problems that have arisen because of it! It has become a terrifying weapon in the hands of those who produce it and a constant threat to world peace. Yes, economic interests are all very fine, but human beings would do better, first and foremost, to know and accept the truths that can help them to improve their psychic life, for their inner weaknesses always end up having a bad effect on the external aspects of their life.

Perhaps I am the only person in the world who really understands economics! Everybody talks about the economy and studies economic science, and I know nothing of all that, but what I do know is that the economy is not where people think it is! Do you want to practise true economy and be very rich so that you can help others? In that case you must become more attentive, enlightened and reasonable and learn to master yourself. This is the only true kind of economics! But no one expects to find economics in these things, and the economists are the ones who cause the most extravagant and ruinous spending.

The world is heading straight for spiritual, moral, intellectual and even material ruin, because no one really understands the true nature of economics. True economy begins with attention, mindfulness, and no one has ever thought of looking for it there! It is amazing to see how many different ways there are and how many products have been invented simply to repair the damage people do to their belongings – or to each other! It is fantastic: half the population is working to repair the damage caused by the other half! Well, isn’t this something that economists should be more concerned about? People rely far too much on all the external means. They say, ‘Why bother about being careful when there are so many technicians and workers able to repair whatever damage we do to our belongings – or to ourselves?’ The easier things are, the less people feel the need to be careful, and this leads to the breakdown of the economy: too much has to be spent on repairs.

But I know that economists don’t look at things this way. In fact, not only is this point of view foreign to them, but their philosophy is in direct contradiction to it. They believe in the continual growth of production and, in order to find a market for all the goods produced, people must be persuaded to consume more and more. Consumers are urged, therefore, not only to buy and use as much as possible but also to waste: the more they buy the better it is for the economy. So if they are careless and damage their cars or other appliances, so much the better: they will have to buy new ones! If they are unwise and ruin their health, so much the better again, as this is how the pharmaceutical industries make their fortunes! Of course, this view of economics will bring prosperity to a few people and a few countries, but for humankind as a whole, for the welfare, health and happiness of humankind as a whole, it is utterly disastrous.

The truth is that only nature knows and practices true economics: only nature knows how to do things in such a way that not a single atom is wasted. Every scrap of dust or dirt, even, is used. See how the earth absorbs all the refuse and wastes produced by humans and transforms them in its underground factories, turning them into food for plants. Nothing gets wasted; nothing is thrown away.4 Human beings are not nearly so intelligent as nature: not only do they exhaust the land by forcing production and wasting resources but they never know what to do about their rubbish. Look at the huge problems caused by radioactive and toxic wastes that nobody knows how to destroy. The only solution that has been found is to store them in underground tunnels, but they continue to constitute a terrible danger to humankind.

True economy, therefore, cannot be found where most people look for it. In fact, let me tell you, true economy consists in not wasting the forces, qualities and energies that heaven has given us.5 True economy begins with wisdom, restraint and carefulness. Nowadays the world is swarming with economists! But humankind will never find happiness if they listen to all those ‘experts’, for they never see anything but the material side of life and its problems.

How can anyone have a proper understanding of economics if they are so dominated by their own unruly passions, desires, thoughts and feelings that they waste all their psychic energies and scatter them to the four winds? Perhaps you will say that you cannot see the connection. Well, there is a connection, I assure you. The two aspects cannot be separated, and if you don’t see that, it is only because you are blind! This is why the heads of governments who formulate economic policies should begin by learning a certain number of truths that will not be found in their text books. They must learn what elements go to make up a human being and how they are all put together, they must learn that humans are related to everything in the universe, that the universe is built on a hierarchical order and that all human undertakings must conform to one model, one heavenly idea. If they understand this, whatever they do or decide will be perfect.

1 See Notre peau spirituelle, l’aura, Brochure n° 309.

2 See A New Dawn: Society and Politics in the Light of Initiatic Science, Complete Works, vol. 26, chap. 5-III: ‘The kingdom of God and his righteousness’.

3 See The Wellsprings of Eternal Joy, Izvor Coll. n° 242, chap. 18: ‘Visits from angelic beings’.

4 See Truth: Fruit of Wisdom and Love, Izvor Coll. n° 234, chap. 17: ‘Truth transcends good and evil’.

5 See True Alchemy or the Quest for Perfection, Izvor Coll. n° 221, chap. 8: ‘The use of energy’.

Chapter Eight
What every politician should know

I

A human being is composed of two natures (this is a simplification, but let it stand for the time being): a lower nature, which we call the ‘personality’, and a higher nature, which we call the ‘individuality’. When people are ruled by their individuality, they are capable of doing immense good to the entire world, but when they are led by their personality, which is egocentric, greedy and cruel, they can do only harm. Unfortunately, wherever you look, you will find that it is the personality that has the upper hand: in the family, husband and wife both try to get the most advantages; in society, everyone is ready to climb over others in order to get ahead. In political and economic life, and even in the arts, it is the personality that expresses itself, ranting and raving and imposing its will.

But human beings do not possess the criteria that would enable them to analyse and discover the source of their huge demands. How many changes of government, how many revolutions even, have come and gone, and yet the situation never gets any better! And the reason why it never gets any better is simply that revolutions have never been fomented by people who were determined to free themselves from the grip of their own baser tendencies. And as long as there is no improvement in mentalities, it does not matter what reforms are envisaged, none of them will really improve the situation. Only when people break free from the narrow confines of their appetites and lusts will they be in a position to bring about changes in society that will really and truly improve matters.

Until such time, however eloquently the politicians talk about ‘change’, we shall continue to witness the same ruthless efforts of the ambitious to grab the top positions of power, prestige and wealth for themselves. They never think of preparing themselves for their lofty responsibilities; they never make an effort to be nobler or more disinterested, to learn to master their own appetites, to become a model for others. That does not interest them. What use would it be to them to become better persons? That is not what they are looking for. What they are interested in is getting the jobs that will give them power, allow them to satisfy their passions, their appetite for triumph, domination and revenge. And this is why the world will never be at peace!

The truth is that modern society is so unenlightened that it encourages all the lowest tendencies of its citizens. Even parents are so ignorant that they imagine they are giving their children a good education when they teach them that it is all right to cheat a little in order to wangle favours and privileges for themselves. Instead of telling their children, ‘You must get ready for great responsibilities when you are grown up, and when they come you must be worthy of them and never, ever do anything dishonest’, they give them all kinds of dishonest advice and are delighted when their children succeed, even if they know they don’t deserve it.1 People are always anxious to succeed on the material level and, as this means being self-seeking, wily and violent, they end up destroying the last vestiges of good in their character.

You will object to this, saying, ‘Yes, but if we had to behave as you say, if we were always thinking about preparing ourselves to be a good example for others, conditions in the world are such that we’d never get anywhere. We’d always be unknown and obscure; we’d always be on the bottom rung of the ladder!’ What do you know about the great spiritual laws to be so sure you are drawing the right conclusions? When you have become really capable and exceptional, when you are truly a model, a sun, people will seek you out even if you do not want them to, and even if you refuse they will make you their leader and want you to guide and direct them. If this has not happened to you, it is because you have not earned it, you are not ready for it yet, so you have no cause to complain.

Human beings aspire to true light, true knowledge and true power. This is their highest need. This is what they are always looking for, but as the people they mix with are not exactly spotless examples, they compromise and begin to use dishonesty and violence in order to succeed at any price. Inwardly, every single human being aspires to all that is most noble and sublime, but as they never encounter it, as they find themselves surrounded by brigands and blood-suckers, they get discouraged and begin to imitate them and adopt the philosophy that is so widespread today: ‘Do good and evil will be done to you’, ‘Be honest and die of hunger’ or ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog world’. In this way everyone learns to conform to the lowest common denominator.

The sad thing is that many adolescents have a sincere desire to work for an ideal, to make great sacrifices, to conduct themselves with the chivalry of a true knight, but after a while, when they are always being urged to be ‘reasonable’ and ‘intelligent’, they begin to give up their dreams and conform to what is expected of them, and then they become just like everyone else. You can see this happening everywhere: people have great goodwill, good impulses, but they have no one to guide and instruct them, no examples to encourage and advise them and prevent them from sliding back. All the minor inconveniences, all the vexations and bantering, begin to erode their good intentions until, before long, there is nothing to distinguish them from the ravening beasts that surround them.

But just suppose what would happen in the future if some men and women decided to struggle and sacrifice everything for the sake of a sublime ideal: they would be so highly appreciated and loved that everyone would seek them out. And this is how the kingdom of God can be achieved on earth. If it has not already been achieved it is because most of those who rule the world do not have a high ideal. They would be insane to set their sights on a sublime ideal, you understand? They would much rather make the most of the situation as it is. But if the day ever comes when some of them decide to achieve this ideal come what may, then, believe me, you will witness true power, true light and true beauty.

Only those who were truly wise, the initiates and great Masters who had tamed their personality and made it their servant, have been capable of manifesting their divine nature and bequeathing their unforgettable, eternal, imperishable work to humanity. Such beings have always existed – the history of humankind has preserved their memory – but they are so few compared to all the rampant personalities that populate the earth, giving free rein to their lowest instincts of greed, hostility and revenge. When people like this hold responsible positions in the political organization of a country, they inevitably create havoc all around them. And this is why there will never be an end to war: because of this philosophy of the personality. As long as human beings refuse to change their philosophy, the situation will never really improve: there will always be war and misery somewhere in the world.

If the kingdom of God has not yet been established on earth, it is because men and women all work for political ends dictated by their personality. Yes, when I analyse the goals that politicians set themselves, I find that they are always mediocre. Oh, of course, they are dressed up and painted in bright colours to dazzle the public, but they all really boil down to the same thing: ‘Move over and make room for me!’ They are all the same! But little by little people are beginning to realize that you cannot make a violin with a bit of old timber; you have to find the right kind of precious wood. Yes, politicians must be prepared and instructed in initiatic schools, otherwise they will continue to lead their people to disaster.

Have you any idea of the real ambitions motivating those who shout and gesticulate and make high-flown speeches to keep themselves in the public eye? Everybody dashes off to listen to them and, not being clairvoyant, get swept off their feet and follow them with enthusiasm. It is a case of the blind leading the blind! But you know what the Gospel says: ‘And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a ditch.’ Unfortunately, it is always too late by the time people realize how blind they have been: the catastrophe is already upon them. Look at Hitler and Stalin and a host of others! What monsters, what murderers, and yet people acclaimed them as saviours of their country and flocked to follow them!

I am working for a political goal too, but not for a goal inspired by my personality. The sad thing is, though, that there are still so few people ready to understand my ideas. Just try talking to them about a policy inspired by the individuality, a policy of generosity, disinterestedness and light, and you will see: no one will follow you. But talk to them about destruction and arson, and at once thousands of people will eagerly agree. This is why – forgive me for saying this, but I have to – this is why human beings still need to suffer.

Yes, no other explanation is possible: human beings still need to suffer, and one day, through suffering, they will find the way. Do you think I am being very cruel? No, I take no pleasure in saying this. On the contrary, it gives me great pain to do so, but it is true: human beings still need to suffer before they are ready to understand. If you want proof of this, just look at how they behave when messengers from heaven come to instruct and help them: do they listen? Not a bit of it! Not only do they refuse to listen, but they shut them up or crucify them or send them to the stake. But when monsters who are bound to bring them suffering come along, they welcome them with open arms, acclaim them as saviours and invest them with all the powers they need for destruction. If you study history you will see that human beings have always welcomed those who bring suffering in their train.

The annals of Initiatic Science tell us that many human civilizations have disappeared from the face of the earth and that the culture and technical progress of some of these civilizations, such as the Atlanteans, for instance, were far more advanced than ours. If they disappeared it was because of this perpetual tendency of the personality to egg people on to try and dominate and subjugate others through violence.

This tendency is becoming more and more evident in the modern world, and the outlook for humanity is not a happy one. Everywhere you look you can see states or political factions intent on dominating and crushing others, and increasingly lethal weaponry is being manufactured in ever greater quantities all over the world. If there is one type of industry that is never short of work it is the arms industry. Every country manufactures arms for themselves and for sale to others. Africa is stocked with arms bought from other countries, and those that manufactured and sold them are pleased with the deal because they have made a lot of money from it. But has it never occurred to them that one day they will have to suffer terrible consequences because of their arms sales?

Cosmic Intelligence, whose dwelling place is eternity, is certainly not going to be concerned about the disappearance of one more human race. So many others have already disappeared that if this one goes the same way through its own fault it will not trouble Cosmic Intelligence at all. It will simply use the few surviving individuals to start a new humanity. It is up to us not to destroy ourselves. But if we persist in doing everything we can to destroy our race, Cosmic Intelligence will be quite undisturbed. It will let us go our own way without intervening.

Humanity has reached a very high degree of development, that is obvious, and it owes this development to the powers of the intellect. Of itself the intellect is neutral, neither good nor bad, but when the personality takes control of it – and this is usually the case – it becomes a very effective tool for the accomplishment of the most pernicious schemes. Thanks to the extraordinary development of humankind’s intellectual faculties, the personality is more and more successful in manifesting its most evil tendencies: the will to monopolize everything for itself and destroy anything and anyone that stands in its way.

When I listen to some of the speeches by the leaders of political parties or trades unions, I think, ‘Dear Lord, how they do delude themselves! Whatever they do it won’t do any good.’ Why? Because they themselves are not an example for anyone to follow, they are motivated simply by their own ambitions, their own prejudices; it is their personality that is in control. Perhaps you will say that they are very intelligent people, that they talk extremely well... Yes, of course, but that is not enough. They know all about politics, history and economics, but they are under the thumb of their own personality. When their individuality takes control, then, yes, they will accomplish something useful. But do they even suspect that they have a higher nature within them that should be allowed to take control?2

No one can be a good head of government as long as their motives and policies are dictated by ambition, self-interest, vanity or a desire for revenge. If this is the case they will never, ever make their people happy. Oh, of course, they all make fine speeches about saving the nation, making all their citizens happy, establishing the reign of justice, and so on, but that is simply to throw dust in the eyes of the public and conceal their true motives. It would never do to tell the plain truth! If they let people see them as they really are, with all their greed and their ambition to dominate others, it is obvious that no one would vote for them. They know this perfectly well; it is why they bluff and lie and deceive!

In the past, it is true, people like Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun and Tamerlane could get their own way even though they showed themselves for what they were. But that was in other times; the mentality was different. In those days, the more would-be leaders showed themselves to be cruel, implacable and unjust, the better their chances of success. It is quite different nowadays: candidates for political office cannot show themselves in their true colours. They have to hide behind acceptable, reasonable, even generous goals, otherwise they will get nowhere. That is why they all work so hard to polish their manners and make a good impression on the public and, like the spider, attract their victims. Then, once they are securely in office, one gulp and their unhappy rivals disappear! It is so easy, because their victims have no intuition, no intelligence, no knowledge. Given the right methods and a little time, even scoundrels can convince almost anyone to vote for them as long as they do not reveal their true intentions.

The only hope of finding someone who is truly disinterested is to go to the great initiates who have already shown proof of their integrity, having purified themselves and emerged victorious from much suffering. In every other case it is wiser not to be too trustful. If a person’s higher nature has conquered their lower nature, you can trust them, but not before.3 If they have not yet reached that point, whatever they may tell you, be on your guard! As for myself, I am not telling you to trust or believe or follow me. All I am saying is, ‘Come and live with me; come and see for yourselves.’ If, when you have watched me at work for months or years, you think that you can trust me, then you may feel free to follow me. But I have never asked you to follow me from the very first day.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘And if the blind lead the blind’ – Matt. 15:14

II

I am well aware that when people who keep up with what is going on in the world listen to my lectures, they may find that I am always talking about things that have no connection with current events. They think, ‘But what on earth is he talking about? If he only knew what was going on in Poland, Lebanon or even here in France, he would stop talking about such unimportant things!’ And this only shows that they have not understood the first thing about it, for what I tell you here is, on the contrary, the foundation of all the rest: it contains the methods, means and keys you need to solve every problem in life.

What use would it be to you if I were to talk to you about current events? There are already so many people who talk about them but who have no solutions to offer. All they can give you are reports and statistics, which are powerless to change anything; in fact the Lord only knows how accurate they are! So I let other people concern themselves with contemporary problems, and I concern myself with the essentials, with things that will be valid for all eternity. Human beings have a physical body, a will, heart, mind, soul and spirit, and the whole problem is this: how can they work with these elements that are a permanent part of them? Yes, for the rest of eternity, whatever else may occur in the world, every human being is going to be faced with the same problems: how to think, feel, act, love, create and so on.

My subject, therefore, is human beings, and it is the most important subject there is. Other people don’t see the importance of it, and they waste their time and energy on things that everybody will have forgotten in no time at all. Yes, it is extraordinary to see how people have this tendency to be fascinated by passing trends! They get all worked up about a new government, for instance, but how long is it going to last? A few months from now it will be voted out of office, and they will have to switch their attention to the next one! And as for political parties, they are constantly appearing and disappearing or changing their name, and if you don’t know their name or the names of their leaders, everybody looks down on you! If you know nothing about the divine world, that is unimportant, but not to know the names of party leaders, not to know what their latest squabbles are about, what they said to each other on television, etc., that is disgraceful! But it is all so petty! What good can any of it be to human beings? Can it contribute anything to the real future for which they are destined, in other words, to their peace, light and immortality?

You will say that you keep up with current events because you want to help your country, but it is impossible to help it that way. No one has ever helped humanity through politics. They imagine that they are helping, perhaps, but political discussions and dissensions are incapable of helping humanity. They have never produced anything but discontent, anger, strikes and revolutions. Can you give me just one example of something that has been improved by politics? The hospitals are overflowing with the sick, criminal cases flood the courts, and soon we shall need one policeman for every inhabitant.

There are thousands of people in the world who think that politics takes priority over everything else. They never think of anything else, day and night, but what solutions have they ever found? None, except to belong to a party. Ah, that is important; it is a great feather in your cap to belong to a political party! But does that party hold the solutions to the world’s problems? Does it have the right philosophy, the right outlook? Those are questions people never think to ask themselves. It is enough for them to be members of a party; then they feel safe and strong and proud of themselves. But their pride may not last very long; if their party is beaten at the polls they are going to be a little less pleased with themselves and with it. Their glory was nothing but a soap bubble, and it has burst!

Do you agree with me? No, I don’t think you do! Well, have it your own way, but let me tell you that all the different tendencies we see today are, in a greater or lesser degree, tendencies towards anarchy. If only people could realize how far they are from the truth! The trouble is they like being mistaken, they enjoy their illusions even if they serve no useful purpose, and they bustle about and stir up a lot of dust, to give the impression that they are actually accomplishing something. Well, at least they keep busy, they are not inactive, and that is already something: we must be active, but why can’t they at least try to choose the best kind of activity?

If you start talking about politics in public, in the street or in a train, for instance, you will instantly find that everybody, young and old alike, is ready to chime in and give you their opinion. But, heavens above! They lead such narrow lives, they are so tied up in their personality, what ideas can they possibly have? And all political party leaders spend their time accusing all the others of working for the ruin of the nation and the misfortune of their fellow citizens, whereas they themselves, of course, think only of the good of their country; their life is dedicated to their country! Are they really sincere? Is what they say really and truly said with the interests of their country and their fellow citizens in mind, or are they talking in their own interest, in order to be elected? Once they are elected, of course, their fellow citizens will see for themselves! And, unfortunately, what they see will simply be ‘more of the same’!

It is because people cannot agree about what constitutes ‘the good of the country’ that there are so many political parties: more and more, in fact. But what good can all these factions do? What we need is an overall view of the whole, a view of the unique, ultimate goal to be achieved, not to fix our sights on one particular aspect or to fight about partial objectives that very quickly have to be replaced by others.

I am not saying that everybody is wrong. No, from their own particular point of view they are all right. But they are all mistaken in respect to the whole.4 Egotists, who pay no attention to other people’s interests, arrange things in such a way as to satisfy their own appetites and desires, and inevitably others blame him for it, but they cannot understand this criticism, because from their own point of view what they are doing is perfectly logical and well organized. And this is exactly what happens with political parties. What they say is all very logical and true from their own point of view, but if you look at it from a universal point of view, from the point of view of the whole, it is not quite so true!

When a child sets its heart on something, it is quite convinced that it is only normal and right, and it gets a nasty shock when its parents don’t agree. From the child’s point of view, taking into account the level of understanding it has reached, what it wants is completely logical and legitimate. So it is furious with anyone who stands in its way and refuses to give it what it wants; it thinks they are both wicked and stupid. And this is exactly what happens with adults too. Everybody tries to impose their opinions: ‘To my mind it’s like this’ and ‘To my mind it’s like that’. Yes, but ‘your mind’ is so terribly limited in its outlook! It is time we learned to broaden the scope of our minds and become capable not only of seeing things from our own personal point of view and according to our own needs and wishes, but of seeing other people’s point of view too, and of using this understanding to modify or round out our own. If we can learn to do this we shall begin to see reality as it truly is and realize that everybody is both right and wrong: that is to say, they are all right from their own point of view, but they are not right from the point of view of the cosmic collectivity.

As long as human consciousness is so restricted and personal, people will only see things from their own point of view, and their ‘personal truth’ will be only a tiny part of the whole truth. All political parties are in error, therefore, for they all see things only from their own point of view. If they saw reality as it truly was, they would not be quite so pleased with themselves. Those who make no effort to open themselves to a universal point of view are bound to be mistaken, and one day, sooner or later, life itself will prove it to them.

I am not opposed to politics, but I understand it differently. If power is put into the hands of those who know nothing of how human beings are constructed and how they relate to all the different powers of the cosmos, you cannot expect them to have a particularly beneficial influence on their country. If they have not realized their own link with the cosmos, how can they do so for a whole nation? How can the ignorant instruct others? How can the weak bear other people’s burdens? How can the impure help others to purify themselves? You will answer that they cannot! Exactly! And nor can politicians bring happiness to their people if they have never been instructed in an initiatic school, for only there can they learn that before anyone can aspire to being a true political leader, he or she must have a profound knowledge of the human being and of nature and a deep respect for divine law and be completely free from personal ambition or passions.

They all talk about serving their country, but that is often nothing but words; most of them are only interested in their pocket-books, their prestige and their power, and they have all they need in the way of hoofs, claws and nails with which to fight their way to the top. And the few who are better qualified but who are not prepared to fight tooth and nail to get to the top are ignored. No, as I say, I am not against politics, but for me the only valid form of politics is that of the initiates, who have an intimate knowledge of human nature with all its strengths and weaknesses, who know what human beings need and what spiritual, emotional, moral and economic conditions will enable them to fulfil their needs. As long as this knowledge is lacking, politics can only lead to bloody conflict.

Even the famous Karl Marx, who is so popular and whose theories are so widely praised, even he is going to be defeated before long – and all his acolytes with him! Yes, because the problems of humanity cannot all be resolved by class warfare and the collective ownership of the means of production, etc. I am not saying that Marx was not a genius; he most certainly was. Nobody can deny it. But he could not foresee everything, he did not live a divine life and he was not an initiate: no one can deny that either. I recognize, of course, that we need people who are qualified in all the different aspects of social and economic life, but most important of all, we need the leadership of initiates, who may know nothing about these specific problems but who understand the essentials.

Are you astonished by all this? Well, take my case, for instance. No one on earth is as ignorant as I am about political organization, economics or finance. I know nothing about any of that! But there is one thing I do know, the only thing that is absolutely vital, and that is how to keep the water flowing! I know that water will find its own channels, and when it does, a whole culture of plants, animals and men and women will spring up and organize itself. The important thing is to keep the water coming and not bother about the rest. And that is what I have been doing here, in the Brotherhood, for years and years: my work is to keep the water flowing, and then you – like the plants, birds, trees and animals that grow up into a community of life around a spring – each one of you can find your own niche. It is not up to me to find your place for you; my work lies elsewhere. And that is why I have absolutely no talent for organization. My only care is to keep the water flowing, for when the supply of water is assured, the rest takes care of itself. And the water I am talking about is love: love and life!5

As long as politicians forget about the need for water and think that all they need do to improve the situation is set up a good organization, create new institutions and new structures or new administrative posts, they will never get anywhere! Whatever they do on the purely organizational, external level will be ineffectual if they do nothing to ensure the flow of water. This is why it is essential for there to be someone at the top who possesses that water, that love, for then every branch of every department will be in a position to contribute to the success of the whole.

You can already see this phenomenon in your everyday life. Perhaps you don’t know exactly how to set about whatever it is you have to do, but you love it, you love your work. If this is the case you will succeed and do it very well, because love always finds the way! But if you don’t love it, you will never be any good at it however hard you try!

Some women, for instance, read all kinds of cookbooks and use all the best ingredients, but the meals they turn out are inedible! Why? Because they hate cooking! Whereas others never read a cookbook and, with the simplest ingredients, manage to turn out delicious meals, no one quite knows how! The reason is simple: they love doing it. That is what love is. For all the rest, of course, I am not so naive as not to realize that running a country is an extremely complex business. I know that. But if you want everything to run smoothly you must have light, you must have love. In other words, the water must flow. When the water flows, everyone receives the inspiration they need to find what they have to do and how to do it.

Imagine a group of people who are meeting to decide about a joint project. If the members of the group love each other, it will be much easier for them to understand each other, and by the end of the meeting everyone will be pleased with the decisions they have taken and their plans will meet with success.6 But if they meet without love, they will never find the solutions they need. And this often happens in committees: there is no love between the members, so they meet once, twice, three times, ten times, and nothing comes of it but misunderstandings and quarrels. If you are really inspired by love when you go to a meeting, it will often take just five minutes to resolve problems which, without love, would still be problems years later.

Why are human beings still so blind? And to think that they pride themselves on being great geniuses! No, if they are incapable of solving their problems, what reason do they have to be so pleased with themselves? Well, it is time they realized that what is preventing them from finding the solutions they need is their lack of love. But they don’t believe in the power of love. They only believe in the power of the intellect, in the power of a critical mind, and that is where they are so mistaken. It is not these that are effective; quite the opposite in fact – they are dangerous. If they would only bring a little more love to their encounters with others, to their deliberations, they would find that that was all that was needed to solve their problems, and everyone would go their separate ways happy and astonished that it was all so simple.

Have you never seen two people discussing something? Have you never seen how they keep interrupting each other and talking at the same time? No wonder they end up killing each other! Yes, because neither of them is listening. They are both so full of themselves that they are incapable of listening to anyone else, and they get more and more irritated and impatient and lose control of themselves to such an extent that they actually come to blows. Really, people are completely lacking in psychology or any pedagogical sense. If they had any intelligence at all, they would know in advance what the outcome was likely to be and avoid reaching that point. Intelligent people begin by demonstrating love and goodwill and listen to what others are saying to them. In this way they bring out the best in other people, and their problems are soon resolved.

In conclusion, I repeat: as long as political leaders remain in ignorance of Initiatic Science they are bound to commit errors. The public that listens to their debates are dazzled and enthusiastic: ‘Did you see how So-and-so put his opponent in his place? Wasn’t it fantastic! Wonderful! He really let him have it!’ Yes, but an initiate, seeing the same scene, would not be delighted at all. When people are blind they will accept anything, but an initiate will not.

So don’t expect too much of politics until political leaders have studied Initiatic Science. Without it there will be more and more conflicts, difficulties and misunderstandings; they will never find the solution to all their problems. I’m sorry, but this is the truth, and I have to say it, even if some of you don’t like to hear it. As long as they have not studied the true science of the human being, the universe and the Creator, they will find only makeshift, temporary solutions to their problems, and the solutions themselves will lead to all kinds of other, unforeseen anomalies.

1 See Education Begins Before Birth, Izvor Coll. n° 203, chap. 11: ‘Education versus instruction’.

2 See Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine, Izvor Coll. n° 213, chap. 8: ‘The silent voice of the higher self’.

3 See Love Greater Than Faith, Izvor Coll. n° 239, chap. 10: ‘Base your trust on vigilance’.

4 See ‘In Spirit and in Truth’, Izvor Coll. n° 235, chap. 2: ‘The divine office of weights and measures’.

5 See The Mysteries of Fire and Water, Izvor Coll. n° 232, chap. 4: ‘Civilization, a product of water’.

6 See Love and Sexuality, Complete Works, vol. 14, chap 23: ‘Like the sun, love brings order to life’.

Chapter Nine
The kingdom of God

I

Why is there so much social and political unrest nowadays? Why this feeling of emptiness and discontent? In spite of all their possessions, people feel dissatisfied and unhappy. Why? Because they behave as though their existence were purely material, as though they were no more than their stomach or sexual organs, because they are only interested in satisfying the demands of these two functions. It is as though they did not know that they also possessed a soul, a spirit, a divine spark; that they possessed another higher nature with other dimensions, other, more intense vibrations, and that they had to listen to the demands of that other nature also in order to understand their true needs.

The soul does not need the same things as the physical body, but people keep trying to give it nourishment it cannot assimilate and never give it what it asks for. The soul asks for space, infinite space, brilliant light, harmony and celestial music, but all it gets is material food. Is it any wonder that it is somnolent and debilitated: it is being stifled to death.

When humans finally begin to know themselves and to understand that they are not just a physical body but that they are composed of several other, subtle bodies, that each of these bodies requires its own kind of nourishment and that they must all be harmoniously integrated, this new philosophy will lead to improvement in every other area: social, economic and political. And when this happens conditions will be ripe for the kingdom of God to be established on earth. As long as humans still do not know themselves as they really are, they cannot establish the kingdom of God, for they are always looking for it in the wrong places.

The kingdom of God is not a material but a spiritual reality; it is a state of consciousness, and this is why it is essential to alter humankind’s present state of consciousness by means of the right kind of knowledge. Of course, we cannot expect everybody’s consciousness to change overnight; some people will not change for thousands of years. But it is enough that a minority of highly evolved beings understand and accept the ideas of the Universal White Brotherhood, the kingdom of God on earth and the Golden Age, for they will rule and the others will follow them as the tail follows the head. The masses will be given the opportunity of joining this minority in the work of establishing the kingdom of God, and when they see the new life that is being offered to them and the new social order that will bring such tremendous advantages to all, nobody will feel like objecting.

The kingdom of God, therefore, must first be established in minds in the form of light, intelligence; secondly it must reign in their hearts as feeling, love, and thirdly it must descend onto the physical level to manifest as prosperity and peace. This is possible. This is what I am working for. The only thing is, though, that so few people understand me; the majority cling to the antiquated conceptions of the past. They point to all the horrors in the modern world to prove that I am asking for the impossible: ‘You’ll never get people to change. Look at the world today; isn’t that proof enough?’ Obviously I can see those things too, and I am more keenly aware than anyone that if this state of affairs lasts for ever, the kingdom of God will never be established. But once you have accepted the philosophy of the initiates, everything becomes possible.

This philosophy of the initiates is based exclusively on their knowledge of human nature. People think they know all about human nature but they are gravely mistaken, and that is why all the remedies they apply in their attempt to solve the problems of society can never be more than temporary sedatives. It may seem, for a while, that things are getting better, but before long the so-called solutions lead to other disadvantages. Isn’t this what often happens in the medical field: the cure for one illness brings on another? And in the field of education: with all the improvements in the schools these days, shouldn’t the children be better equipped to direct their own lives? But they are not! Education fails in its task because it is not based on a knowledge of human nature.

This is why I have always maintained that the only science that merits close and careful study is the science of human nature. Yes, this is the science that should be given top priority. It should be the focal point of our preoccupations, and all the others – physics, chemistry, mechanics, astronomy, biology and so on – should be at the service of this essential science, which has been neglected for their sake. You will perhaps say, ‘But we study anatomy and physiology; isn’t that enough?’ No, they are not enough; they supply some basic knowledge, which is certainly necessary, but they cannot give us an exhaustive picture of the whole human being.1

It is time now to change our whole conception of science itself and restore man and woman – and the Godhead that dwells within them – to their rightful place at the centre of all our studies. Only when people realize that everything else must gravitate around the divine core of their own being will they be in a position to find the solutions to their problems. This is why I always insist so much on this divine centre and on the necessity for getting all the cells and particles of the body to be in harmony with it. This is the whole secret: to collect all our scattered, diverse elements and set them spinning in orbit around this centre, like the planets round the sun. The time to talk of social order, happiness and peace will be when humankind has achieved this. Then will be the time to talk of the kingdom of God on earth, because then there will be a centre, a sun, a nucleus, and every element will find its rightful place, its own orbit, and there will be no more collisions or conflicts.

I have complete and absolute confidence in this philosophy of the initiates. When you study it closely and compare it to every other philosophy, you cannot help but see that it is the only one, absolutely the only one, that can hold its own; all the others fall flat on their faces! Can’t you see it? It is so obvious and so simple! Take away our centre, that is to say our spirit, our soul, and we are no better than a corpse, our whole body begins to disintegrate. We must find this living, vibrant atom at the core of our being and make it the focal point on which everything else converges, for it alone is capable of maintaining order and peace.2

People are always saying, ‘I completely lost my head!’ Yes, they do lose their head; they lose all control of themselves and don’t know what they are saying or doing! They seem to be swamped by events over which they have no control, they make all kinds of blunders, and then they have to go to a lot of trouble to make amends. Of course, when people say ‘I lost my head’, it is symbolic: they might just as well say, ‘I lost my heart’, for the heart too is a centre.

It doesn’t matter whether you think of it as your heart or your head. What does matter is that you have lost the divine core at the centre of your being, and the result is chaos spreading out in waves of confusion and disintegration. When your cells learn that their leader, the head, is no longer in command, they lose no time in running riot; they rise up in arms against you and threaten your wellbeing. Before, all the cells of your heart, lungs, arms and legs, etc., were obedient, well-mannered servants, whereas now it is as though they were almost trying to kill you! They behave so badly that you fall ill and have to go to bed, and then they are delighted; they laugh at you, saying, ‘Aha, now are you beginning to understand?’ But all you have to do is put the centre, the spirit, back in its place, and in no time at all your cells will all go back to work as harmoniously as before.

The one thing that human beings will need to understand one day concerns neither microbes nor the stars, but how to keep the spirit always at the centre of all their activities. This is the indispensable condition for a life of fulfilment and peace; for the establishment of the kingdom of God.

II

There is no more important or more glorious work for humans than that of bringing all the powers of their mind, heart and will to bear on the realization of the kingdom of God on earth. Unfortunately, there are not many who are anxious to embark on this work. On the contrary, we see more and more instances of personalities working up to a fever pitch of pride, vanity and vainglory. Everyone has their own private ambitions and goals, and the kingdom of God is forgotten.

This is why it is so important that here, in the Brotherhood, we form a powerful, living nucleus bent on the coming of the kingdom of God. In this way we can influence other minds and souls. And one day, when the children of light are all united in thought and intent on the same goal, they will tip the balance and outweigh all those who seek destruction and chaos.

Perhaps you will ask why heaven does not intervene and change the world. Well, of course, it could do so, but without the consent and goodwill of human beings it would be useless. They would not understand or appreciate it and would simply destroy everything all over again. Whereas if the will to change comes from them, if they learn wisdom from the pain and distress they have had to suffer and really want to improve things, the rest will follow automatically. The invisible world will release new currents, new forces and energies, and we will witness a marvellous change, but it must come from human beings to begin with. They must get together and make up their mind to work in such a way as to win the intervention of cosmic forces. If they don’t insist, they won’t get anything. The sublime entities on high never decide to interfere in human affairs for their own pleasure. It is up to us to ask them.

This is why, whenever we gather for a meeting, each one of you must come with the desire to draw heavenly forces into our midst so as to realize the kingdom of God. If you all arrive with your own private worries and concerns about getting married, finding a place to live, getting the better of a rival, etc., etc., these different thoughts and desires will not only achieve nothing, they will make it impossible for us to form a force capable of releasing beneficial energies into the cosmos. If we want results, we must all concentrate on the same goal.

There is great power in concentration. If you concentrate rays of sunlight through a magnifying glass, you can set fire to a whole forest! But the light must be concentrated. So, since we are already in the habit of gathering together, we must do what is necessary to get results, otherwise the time spent together is just wasted. We must do something useful with all that force produced by the collectivity, otherwise we would be much better off at home. Why waste our time? If we are not going to get results, it is stupid to go on with these meetings. And my role in this is to enlighten and guide you and direct you so that we get the best possible results.

The point is that you must direct your spiritual work towards a specific goal. When you meditate, reflect and pray, you should mention that it is for such and such a reason. Yes, always indicate your reason, the goal you are aiming at, otherwise all those forces will just drift aimlessly away. In this way your thoughts will become obedient and be at your service. It is very difficult to tame one’s thought processes and bring them under control: thought is like a horse that has broken loose. But if you work at it every day you will end by breaking it in and making it obedient and submissive. And as there are a great many of us and we have frequent meetings, the forces and energies emanating from us are recorded and gathered into divine reservoirs. One day we shall see the results of all our work. One day? Yes, but it is not our business to know when!

The kingdom of God will come, I promise you. And the Golden Age too. Every time you pray for this sincerely, intensely and selflessly, your prayer is answered, but it is answered progressively. It is an ongoing process which expands and takes shape only gradually, for what you are asking for cannot be achieved in a day. As soon as you begin to pray for something, the answer to your prayer is already beginning to take shape, but it takes a very long time for it to reach maturity. When you plant a seed, the tree that it will become is already there. True, it may take years for it to grow to its full stature, but once it is planted your prayer is answered, for it has already begun to grow. If you ask for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you cannot expect it to happen all in one day; it is not possible. The kingdom of God is a gigantic tree and it cannot suddenly appear in all its splendour.3 But it has been planted; the seed is in the ground and the tree has begun to grow. ‘Where is it? I can’t see any sign of it’, you may say. Well, that is because you are short-sighted, but I can see it: the seed is sprouting.

And now, when you go and see the sunrise in the morning, you must concentrate on nothing but the kingdom of God, wish with all your might for the kingdom of God. For the kingdom of God is a state of perfection and fulfilment; it contains everything: health, wealth, beauty, order, freedom, peace, balance, harmony and happiness. Instead of enumerating all these things it is so much more ‘economical’ to speak of the ‘kingdom of God’, which is a synthesis of every possible blessing. People long for wealth, power, beauty..., but all these things are simply different aspects, different attributes contained in the kingdom of God.

Also, you have to be very careful about what you pray for, for if you ask for one particular quality the balance of the whole is lost. The kingdom of God is, above all, a state of harmony and balance, whereas when we insist on one aspect to the detriment of another, we introduce the germ of imbalance. Everything that our soul, spirit, heart, mind and physical body need is contained in the realization of the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, ‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ Yes, because if you dedicate your work to a divine idea you immediately fall under its influence and benefit from all the treasures it possesses. You only need to have one idea that belongs to the world of sublime light, just one, and in spite of all your imperfections and weaknesses, in spite of your ignorance, this idea will lead you to new friends and open your eyes to other beings and other regions. In this way it will not be long before this one idea gives you heaven itself. The kingdom of God: when this is your one idea, it immediately introduces you into an intimate relationship with all the other ideas that vibrate on the same wavelength, and there you are: you find that ‘all these things’ have been given to you! This is the meaning of Jesus’ words, ‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ Between the beginning and the end of this sentence lies an expanse that needs to be explored.

This is one of the most important truths known to Initiatic Science: a single idea, however limited, can give you wealth that is not its own, because it puts you in touch with other, kindred ideas which are in harmony with it. Little by little these other ideas get to know you, and as each one of them has a piece of land here or a house there – symbolically speaking – you receive these other riches, all because of that one idea. Yes, because in the world above everything is connected; nothing exists in a watertight compartment, so when you touch one idea you are touching all the others as well. As long as you have made friends with one idea, as long as you love it and nurture it and make it your constant companion, it will put you in touch with all the others, and they in turn will give you all they possess. This explanation – which is not explicit in the Gospels – fills in the gap between the beginning and the end of that sentence: ‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ How is it possible for ‘all these things’ to be given to us? It is because there is a special affinity, a magical, magnetic affinity between any one sublime idea and all the other ideas that resemble it, and also because every sublime idea has its own representatives here on earth, who all receive the message. This is why you will be given ‘all these things’.

Blessed are those who have understood me! Every day, when we are here together, we must ask for the kingdom of God. True, we can also do so when we are alone, but when we are alone the effects of our prayer is not nearly so powerful unless, of course, we know other laws. If you have to be alone, you must realize that you cannot achieve anything by yourself and unite yourself mentally with all those beings scattered throughout the world who are working towards the same goal. In work of this nature you will never obtain anything if you are isolated. Even if you cannot always be with others physically, you must at least join them in thought, and hope that many, many other brains will vibrate in unison with ours and respond to our call.

An authentic evolution tends towards a collective way of life. Someone who is happy and fulfilled in a collectivity evolves most wonderfully.4 And if some people feel oppressed and uncomfortable when they are with others and want to evolve alone, on an intellectual level, by reading and studying, it shows that they are still being guided by their personality. Well, that is not the best way to evolve. You must love a collective way of life and immerse yourself in it, as if you were in an ocean, where every soul vibrates in unison with all the others. Yes, there is still a lot of progress to be made. Sooner or later you are going to have to overcome and put aside certain personal tendencies and make them obey you, so that you will finally be able to say: ‘I’m a collective being. I’m no longer a caterpillar. I’ve turned into a butterfly!’ When this day comes, you can rise above the earth and travel to the other planets, to the stars.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness’ – Matt. 6:33

1 See Man’s Psychic Life: Elements and Structures, Izvor Coll. n° 222 and Man’s Subtle Bodies and Centres – the Aura, the Solar Plexus, the Chakras…, Izvor Coll. n° 219.

2 See The Symbolic Language of Geometrical Figures, Izvor Coll. n° 218, chap. 2: ‘The circle’.

3 See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 9: ‘The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed’.

4 See The Key to the Problems of Existence, Complete Works, vol. 11, chap. 22: ‘Toward universal brotherhood’.

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Prosveta Catalog Collections

Books

Complete Works

The Complete Works collection consists of several hundred improvised talks

Izvor

Our popular pocket books The Izvor Collection presents all the main themes found in the talks of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Brochures

Every brochure consists of a complete talk given by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov on a particular subject

Synopsis

The Synopsis Collection presents a synthesis of the teaching of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Daily Meditations

Since 1991, One inspiring thought given by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov for every day of the year (includes index)

Stani

Deepening spiritual practice

Autobiographies

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov autobiographies in two volumes

Testimonies and studies

Testimonies of several authors who knew or followed Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov for many years, attesting his outstanding spirituality and nobility of character

Audio-visuel

Lectures on CD

Audio CD's with brochures. Talks read in English by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Lectures on DVD

Talks given by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov in French with subtitles in English and more than 10 other languages

Musiqc and songs

1 CD instrumental music composed by Peter Deunov and intended to accompany a dance of ritual character named Paneurhythmy

A book about descriptions and commentaries (with schemas) of the dance movements of Paneurhythmy with musical scores

5 CD of Mystical songs by the Master Peter Deunov

About
the Universal White Brotherhood

The aim of the Universal White Brotherhood association is the study and practice of the Teaching of Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov,

published and distributed by Prosveta.

All enquiries about the association should be addressed to:

United Kingdom

Universal White Brotherhood

The Doves Nest, Duddleswell

Uckfield, TN22 3JJ

E-mail: uwb@pavilion.co.uk – Site internet - omraam-uwb.uk

United-States

East-Coast

FBU-USA

Locust Valley, New York 11560 - USA

E-mai: fbu_usa@hotmail.com - www.fbu-usa.com

West-Coast

Capistrano Beach, CA - USA

E-mail: WestCoast@fbu-usa.com

Canada

Fraternité Blanche Universelle

3950 Albert Mines

E-mail: fbucan@fbucanada.com - fbucanada.com/en