BEHOLD THE MAN
Lecture given by Peter Deunov (Beinsa Douno) on March, 16th 1914, Sofia
Then Jesus came upon out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said to them, "Behold The Man!"
The word "man" /in Bulgarian "chovek" or "chelovek"/ signifies a being, living for a whole century. But in the archaic language in which this phrase was used, the word "man" has a different meaning Jesus, The Man, coming down to Earth, The Brother of those who suffer. What should we understand by these words? When we go into the world, would people say of us: "Behold The Man"? To deserve this name, one should possess four things: wealth, strength, knowledge and virtues. You could be surprised what wealth has to do here. Wealth is the soil, i.e. the conditions for one's development; it is the soil for cultivating strength. And the latter imparts heat and light beneficial for growth and progress.
As far as knowledge is concerned, it is the method of understanding and regulating our life. Virtue is the goal that we should strive to. Take and sow a grain of wheat, it will show you what to do. "How?" you ask. Give it moisture and the surays will point at the only possible direction which the grain of wheat will aim and follow The Sun, the Source of Life. Like the grain of wheat we must grow and strive for God.
But someone may ask: "Does the grain of wheat reach the Sun after growing up? As to me, I want to find God. "You want to know where God is, but it is not necessary for you, you should only strive for Him. The grain of wheat knows what the Sun is and it receives what it wishes. The same law applies to people we have to produce the small result we should be sown. Surely, our life will be full of difficulties the small, but indispensable obstacles as it is the case with the grain of wheat. We need a certain pressure and then we will start the process of growing up or knowledge. And when we bear fruit, it is already Virtue. Therefore we must be sown, covered with soil, put under some pressure; then we should grow up and acquire knowledge; and this knowledge, after growing up to a certain extent, should immediately be turned into a grain of wheat. After that The Master will send the reapers to yield the wheat and He will separate the worthful from the worthless, the grains from the weeds. When we were born, this was sprouting; we grow up, develop and die; burial is the threshing. And from the threshing the Lord will take what He needs. This corresponds to the barn and the granary: chaff is put into the barn while wheat into the granary.
I read you the 19th Chapter from the Gospel of St. John, so that you could see the four things, which Christ bore on the Cross, the four things, which we have to learn. If we put Virtue on His Head that was not nailed, on the left side Knowledge, on the right Strength, and underneath, in the feet wealth, we will have then a crucified person. I.e. if we nail Wealth, Strength and Knowledge, their juices will go up to the head or to Virtue. Whenever God intends to make someone a good person, He nails him to the cross He nails his wealth, strength and knowledge. What does it mean, "nailing"? Putting into a safe, so that nobody could take and dispose of him, because God will dispose of him. God says: "Be calm, when I work." And as one does not want to stay calm, God orders: "Nail him, so that I will be calm to work..." And when we are nailed to this cross, we should not cry, for God is working then for us. Unhappy is that one, who is not nailed to the cross. Whoever wants God to deal with him, should pass through such process of development.
I am speaking to you allegorically. By all means Faith should precede this process of development the firm faith in the universal Divine plan, concerning all living beings created by God. We should not distrust God, for God is perfect and almighty. Didn't Jesus say at one place: "Theimpossible for a human being is possible for God." The Divine paths are unrevealable. Do not admit the idea that these paths could be distorted or restrained; it is impossible. And when we have been called upon and started on the Divine path, we should have that simple faith, which children have, and we should avoid weaknesses as the one in the following story:
A great artist in England wanted to paint a picture, expressing extreme poverty. For days and months he walked around London, searching for a suitable person. Finally he found a ragged child who appealed to his heart and he thought: "This will be the model for my picture!" He approached the child, gave him his visiting card and said: "Come to my place in four days, I want to speak to you." The child, seeing this well-dressed gentleman, thought: "How could I go to him in my rags?" And it went to its friends in order to dress better and show itself as it fits before kings. New clothes were found and put on and the child went to the painter.
"Who are you?", the painter asked.
"A am so and so."
"Go away! If I wanted a well-dressed person, there were thousands of them. But I needed you as you were dressed in rags when I first saw you."
We also want to dress when Heaven invites us to do some work. But Strength is neither in our clothes, hats, gloves and shoes nor in our collars, ties and watches; these are not so important. Strength is in our minds and hearts, in our lofty wishes and strivings to do what is good. When we have these, the other things will come by themselves in proper time. Should we, when going to Heaven, take our clothes from here? When God calls us to Heaven, He takes off all our clothes here. He does not want our rags and He says: "Bring him just as he is." When someone is dying, all of us turn back to him; even those who loved him say: "Take him away as soon as possible!" But where is their love? Only God does not turn away and He says: "Bring him, I need him as he is." And when they put us into the grave and leave us, what does God do? He begins to talk with us. He asks: "Did you understand Life, did you understand the meaning of Life, which I sent you?"
During this talk God is painting His Great picture. And then comes the following process: the people who buried that person begin weeping and listing all his good features they see the Divine picture, expressed in these qualities.
We have to bear the sufferings coming to us in order to have certain experience. Jesus through His earthly sufferings wished to give us an example of how we should submit to such a Divine process. Once He said: "Have I not the power to ask My Father to send thousands of angels to save Me? But if I do not fulfill the purpose for which I have come, how can humans be raised?" And He Himself wanted to be raised. You are here, on Earth; one day storms, difficulties and may be the same destiny will fall on you. But when this hour comes, do not in any way consider it as a misfortune, for where there is no suffering, there is no gain. And where there is a sorrow, there is a joy as well: where there is death, there is also resurrection. And who does not want to participate in the sufferings of humanity will gain nothing. After all, what are sufferings? A consequence of the errors caused once by our incompetence. These errors namely are being corrected by the process of suffering. This process is a method of adopting and reaching those high ascending vibrations, which are there, in Heaven. We have to endure a hundred sufferings to become able to bear just one Divine Joy. Then we could appreciate this joy worthfully and preserve it. That is why God begins with the sufferings in order to temper us (in the same way as the smith strengthens the iron to become good for work), to prepare us for the Great joy, that will come later.
Everyone of us is needed, very much needed by God. For the world you may be nothing, just a nullity, but for God you are an important unit. Only God, Who has sent you down to Earth estimates our sufferings, that is why you should not worry what the world thinks of you. The One, Who has sent you, He thinks of you and appraises you. It is important for you to have the approval of God. If God is with you, you will be beautiful; the world likes Beauty too. If God is with you, you will be wealthy, strong and good Good is always respected as well.
Now I am going to speak to you about God, but not that God presenting a Being abstract and scattered through space (as the philosophers say), Whom you do not know neither you know where He is, but about this God, of Whom I am preaching to you, Who thinks of us, Who watches our actions, Who corrects, amends, punishes, dresses and undresses us, Who makes us live and die. What is death? Performing an operation and seeing that you will lose a lot, God shortens the process of your life. "In order to avoid any more accumulation of debts, take the capital that I gave to him, as the present conditions are not beneficial, leave him for other days, bring him to me." And in this process we think that the world has forgotten us. But if the world has forgotten us, God thinks of us. And the world, at any cost, should forget us. A girl could never marry; if she loves all the boys; she has to choose one of them, saying: "This is my world." This fact is true in life as well. You should have only One God. There are many gods in the world, who wish to take you, but you must find your God, under Whom you could live, develop and grow.
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