Latest / Brothers Karamazov / 042 - Book Six Chapter Three

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042 - Book Six Chapter Three · Brothers Karamazov

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Speaker 1: Chapter forty two of The Brother's Karamatza by Fyodor Dostayevsky,
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Speaker 1: translated by Constance Garnet. This Lieprivox recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain recording by Tony Addison, Chapter three, Conversations and
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Speaker 1: exhortations of Father Zossima E. The Russian Monk and his
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Speaker 1: possible significance Fathers and teachers. What is the monk in
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Speaker 1: the cultivated world? The word is nowadays pronounced by some
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Speaker 1: people with a jeer, and by others it is used
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Speaker 1: as a term of abuse, and this contempt for the
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Speaker 1: monk is growing. It is true, alas it is true
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Speaker 1: that there are many sluggards, gluttons, propligates, and insolent beggars
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Speaker 1: among monks. Educated people point to these, You are idlers,
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Speaker 1: useless members of society. You live on the labor of others.
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Speaker 1: You are shameless beggars. And yet how many meek and
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Speaker 1: humble monks there are, yearning for solitude and fervent prayer
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Speaker 1: in peace. These are less noticed or passed over in silence.
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Speaker 1: And how surprised men would be if I were to
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Speaker 1: say that from these meek monks who yearn for solitary prayer,
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Speaker 1: the salvation of Russia will come perhaps once more, For
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Speaker 1: they are in truth, made ready, in peace and quiet
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Speaker 1: for the day and the hour, the month and the year. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: in their solitude they keep the image of Christ, fair
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Speaker 1: and undefiled, in the purity of God's truth, from the
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Speaker 1: times of the Fathers of old, the apostles and the martyrs.
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Speaker 1: And when the time comes, they will show it to
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Speaker 1: the tottering creeds of the world. That is a great thought.
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Speaker 1: That star will rise out of the east. That is
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Speaker 1: my view of the monk. And is it false? Is
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Speaker 1: it too proud? Look at the worldly and all who
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Speaker 1: set themselves up above the people of God. Has not
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Speaker 1: God's image and his truth been distorted in them? They
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Speaker 1: have science, but in science there is nothing but what
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Speaker 1: is the object of sense? The spiritual world, the higher
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Speaker 1: part of man's being, is rejected, altogether, dismissed with a
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Speaker 1: sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed
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Speaker 1: the reign of freedom, especially of late. But what do
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Speaker 1: we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery
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Speaker 1: and self destruction. For the world says, you have desires,
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Speaker 1: and so satisfy them, For you have the same rights
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Speaker 1: as the most rich and powerful, don't be afraid of
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Speaker 1: satisfying them and even multiply your desires. That is the
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Speaker 1: modern doctrine of the world, in that they see freedom,
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Speaker 1: and what follows from this right of multiplication of desires
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Speaker 1: in the rich isolation and spiritual suicide in the poor
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Speaker 1: envy and murder. For they have been given rights, but
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Speaker 1: have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants.
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Speaker 1: They maintain that the world is getting more and more united,
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Speaker 1: more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it
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Speaker 1: overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air. Alas
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Speaker 1: put no faith in such a bond of union. Interpreting
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Speaker 1: freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men
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Speaker 1: distort their own nature. For many senseless and foolish desires,
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Speaker 1: and habit and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They
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Speaker 1: live only for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation. To
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Speaker 1: have dinners, visits, carriages, rank and slaves. To wait on
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Speaker 1: one is looked upon as a necessity for which life, honor,
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Speaker 1: and human feeling are sacrificed, and men even commit suicide
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Speaker 1: if they are unable to satisfy it. We see the
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Speaker 1: same thing among those who are not rich. While the
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Speaker 1: poor drown their unsatisfied need and their envy in drunkenness.
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Speaker 1: But soon they will drink blood instead of wine. They
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Speaker 1: are being led onto it. I ask you, as such
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Speaker 1: a man and free I knew one champion of freedom
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Speaker 1: who told me himself that when he was deprived of
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Speaker 1: tobacco in prison, he was so wretched at the privation
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Speaker 1: that he almost went and betrayed his cause for the
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Speaker 1: sake of getting tobacco again. And such a man says,
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Speaker 1: I am fighting for the cause of humanity. How can
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Speaker 1: such a one fight? What is he fit for? He
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Speaker 1: is capable, perhaps of some action quickly over, but he
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Speaker 1: cannot hold out long. And it's no wonder that instead
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Speaker 1: of gaining freedom, they have sunk into slavery, and instead
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Speaker 1: of serving the cause of brotherly love and the union
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Speaker 1: of humanity, have fallen, on the contrary, into dissension and isolation,
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Speaker 1: as my missa serious visitor and teacher, said to me
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Speaker 1: in my youth. And therefore the idea of the service
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Speaker 1: of humanity, of brotherly love, and the solidarity of mankind
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Speaker 1: is more and more dying out in the world. And
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Speaker 1: indeed This idea is sometimes treated with derision, for how
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Speaker 1: can a man shake up his habits? What can become
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Speaker 1: of him? If he is in such bondage to the
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Speaker 1: habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself,
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Speaker 1: he is isolated, and what concern has he with the
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Speaker 1: rest of humanity. They have succeeded in accumulating a greater
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Speaker 1: massive objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.
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Speaker 1: The monastic way is very different. Obedience and prayer are
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Speaker 1: laughed at, yet only through them lies the way to real,
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Speaker 1: true freedom. I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires.
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Speaker 1: I subdue my proud and wanton will and chastise it.
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Speaker 1: With obedience, and with God's help, I attain freedom of spirit,
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Speaker 1: and with it spiritual joy, which is most capable of
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Speaker 1: conceiving a great idea and serving it. The rich man,
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Speaker 1: in his isolation, are the man who has freed himself
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Speaker 1: from the tyranny of material things and habits. The monk
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Speaker 1: is reproached for his solitude. You have secluded yourself within
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Speaker 1: the walls of the monastery for your own salvation, and
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Speaker 1: have forgotten the brotherless service of humanity. But we shall
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Speaker 1: see which will be most zealous in the cause of
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Speaker 1: brotherly love. For it is not we but they who
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Speaker 1: are in isolation, though they don't see that of old
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Speaker 1: leaders of the people came from among us, and why
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Speaker 1: should they not Again the same meek and humble ascetics
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Speaker 1: will rise up and go out to work for the
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Speaker 1: great cause. The salvation of Russia comes from the people,
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Speaker 1: and the Russian monk has always been on the side
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Speaker 1: of the people. We are isolated only if the people
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Speaker 1: are isolated. The people believe as we do, and an
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Speaker 1: unbelieving reformer will never do anything in Russia, even if
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Speaker 1: he is sincere in heart and a genius. Remember that
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Speaker 1: the people will meet the atheist and overcome him, and
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Speaker 1: Russia will be one and orthodox. Take care of the
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Speaker 1: peasant and guard his heart. Go on educating him quietly
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Speaker 1: that your duty as monks, for the peasant has God
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Speaker 1: in his heart. He f of masters and servants, and
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Speaker 1: of whether it is possible for them to be brothers.
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Speaker 1: In the spirit of course, I don't deny that there
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Speaker 1: is sin in the peasants too, and the fire of
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Speaker 1: corruption is spreading visibly hourly, working from above downwards. The
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Speaker 1: spirit of isolation is coming upon the people too. Money
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Speaker 1: lenders and devourers of the commune are rising up already.
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Speaker 1: The merchant praws more and more, eager for rank, and
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Speaker 1: strives to show himself cured, though he has not a
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Speaker 1: trace of culture, and to this end meanly despises his
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Speaker 1: old traditions, and is even ashamed of the faith of
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Speaker 1: his father's. He visits princes, though he is only a
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Speaker 1: peasant corrupted. The peasants are rotting in drunkenness and cannot
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Speaker 1: shake off the habit. And what cruelty to their wives,
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Speaker 1: to their children, ever, all from drunkenness. I've seen in
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Speaker 1: the factories children of nine years old, frail, rickety, bent
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Speaker 1: and already depraved. The stuffy workshop, the dinner machinery work
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Speaker 1: all day long, the vile language, and the drink. The drink.
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Speaker 1: Is that what a little child's heart needs. He needs sunshine,
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Speaker 1: childish play, good examples all about him, and at least
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Speaker 1: little love. There must be no more of this, Monks,
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Speaker 1: no more torturing of children. Rise up and preach that
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Speaker 1: make haste, make haste. But God will save Russia, For
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Speaker 1: though the peasants are corrupted and cannot renounce their filthy sin,
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Speaker 1: yet they know it is cursed by God and that
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Speaker 1: they do wrong in sinning. So that our people still
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Speaker 1: believe in righteousness, have faith in God, and weep tears
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Speaker 1: of devotion. It is different with the upper classes. They
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Speaker 1: following science want to base justice on reason alone, but
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Speaker 1: not with Christ as before. And they have already proclaimed
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Speaker 1: that there is no crime, that there is no sin,
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Speaker 1: and that's consistent, for if you have no God, what
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Speaker 1: is the meaning of crime. In Europe, the people are
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Speaker 1: already rising up against the rich with violence, and the
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Speaker 1: leaders of the people are everywhere leading them to bloodshed
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Speaker 1: and teaching them that their wrath is righteous, but their
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Speaker 1: wrath is accursed, for it is cruel. But God will
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Speaker 1: save Russia, as he has saved her many times. Salvation
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Speaker 1: will come from the people, from their faith and their meekness.
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Speaker 1: Fathers and teachers watch over the people's faith, and this
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Speaker 1: will not be a dream. I've been struck all my
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Speaker 1: life in our great people by their dignity, their true
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Speaker 1: and seemly dignity. I've seen it myself. I can testify
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Speaker 1: to it. I've seen it and marveled at it. I've
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Speaker 1: seen it in spite of the degraded sins and poverty
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Speaker 1: stricken appearance of our peasantry. They are not servile, and
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Speaker 1: even after two centuries of serfdom, they are free in
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Speaker 1: manner and bearing, yet without insolence, and not revengeful, and
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Speaker 1: not envious. You are rich and noble, you are clever
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Speaker 1: and talented. Well be so, God bless you. I respect you,
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Speaker 1: but I know that I too am a man. By
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Speaker 1: the very fact that I respect you with that envy,
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Speaker 1: I prove my dignity as a man in truth. If
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Speaker 1: they don't say this, for they don't know how to
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Speaker 1: say this, yet that is how they act. I have
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Speaker 1: seen it myself. I have known it myself, and would
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Speaker 1: you believe it. The poorer our Russian peasant is, the
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Speaker 1: more noticeable is that serene goodness. For the rich among
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Speaker 1: them are for the most part corrupted already. Much of
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Speaker 1: that is due to our carelessness and indifference. But God
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Speaker 1: will save his people, for Russia is great in her humility.
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Speaker 1: I dream of seeing, and seem to see clearly already
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Speaker 1: our future. It will come to pass that even the
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Speaker 1: most corrupt of our rich will end up by being
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Speaker 1: ashamed of his riches before the poor and the port,
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Speaker 1: seeing his humility, will understand and give way before him,
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Speaker 1: will respond joyfully and kindly to his honorable shame. Believe
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Speaker 1: me that it will end in that things are moving
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Speaker 1: to that equality is to be found only in the
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Speaker 1: spiritual dignity of man, and that will only be understood
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Speaker 1: among us. If we were brothers, there would be return
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Speaker 1: that did. But before that they will never agree about
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Speaker 1: the division of wealth. We preserve the image of Christ,
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Speaker 1: and it will shine forth like a precious diamond to
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Speaker 1: the whole world. So may it be, So may it be,
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Speaker 1: Fathers and teachers. A touching incident befell me once in
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Speaker 1: my wanderings. I met in the town of k my
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Speaker 1: old orderly Afanazi. It was eight years since I had
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Speaker 1: parted from him. He chanced to see me in the
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Speaker 1: market place, recognized me, ran up to me, and how
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Speaker 1: delighted he was. He simply pounced on me, Master, dear,
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Speaker 1: is it you? Is it really you? I see? He
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Speaker 1: took me home with him. He was no longer in
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Speaker 1: the army. He was married and already had two little children.
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Speaker 1: He and his wife earned their living as customongers in
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Speaker 1: the market place. His room was poor, but bright and clean.
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Speaker 1: He made me sit down, set the samovar sent for
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Speaker 1: his wife, as though my appearance were a festival for them.
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Speaker 1: He brought me his children, blessed them. Father, Is it
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Speaker 1: for me to bless them? I am only a humble monk.
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Speaker 1: I will pray for them and for you, Afa Nazy Pavlovitch.
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Speaker 1: I have prayed every day since that day, For it
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Speaker 1: all came from you, said I. And I explained that
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Speaker 1: to him as well as I could. And what do
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Speaker 1: you think? The man kept gazing at me and could
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Speaker 1: not believe that I, his former master and officer, was
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Speaker 1: now before him in such a guise and position. It
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Speaker 1: made him shed tears. Why are you weeping? Said I?
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Speaker 1: Better rejoice over me, dear friend, whom I can never forget,
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Speaker 1: for my path is a glad and joyful one. He
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Speaker 1: did not say much, but kept sighing and shaking his
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Speaker 1: head over me tenderly. What is become of your fortune,
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Speaker 1: he asked, I gave it to the monastery, I answered,
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Speaker 1: we live in common aft the tea. I began saying
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Speaker 1: good bye, and suddenly he brought out half a rouble
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Speaker 1: as an offering to the monastery, and another half rouble.
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Speaker 1: I saw him, thrusting hurriedly into my hand. That's for
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Speaker 1: you and your wanderings. It may be of use to you. Father.
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Speaker 1: I took his half rouble, bowed to him and his wife,
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Speaker 1: and went out, rejoicing. And on my way I thought,
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Speaker 1: here we are both now, he at home and I
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Speaker 1: on the road, sighing and shaking our heads no doubt,
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Speaker 1: and yet smiling joyfully in the gladness of our hearts,
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Speaker 1: remembering how God brought about our meeting. I have never
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Speaker 1: seen him again since then I had been his master
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Speaker 1: and he my servant. But now, when we exchanged a
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Speaker 1: loving kiss with softened hearts, there was a great human
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Speaker 1: bond between us. I have thought a great deal about that.
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Speaker 1: And now what I think is this, Is it so
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Speaker 1: inconceivable that that grand and simple hearted unity might in
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Speaker 1: due time become universal among the Russian people. I believe
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Speaker 1: that it will come to pass, and that the time
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Speaker 1: is at hand. And of servants, I will add this.
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Speaker 1: In old days, when I was young, I was often
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Speaker 1: angry with servants. The cook had served something too hot,
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Speaker 1: the orderly had not brushed my clothes. But what took
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Speaker 1: me better than was the thought of my dear brothers,
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Speaker 1: which I had heard from him in channe Am. I
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Speaker 1: worth it that another should serve me and be ordered
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Speaker 1: about by me in his poverty and ignorance. And I
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Speaker 1: wondered at the time that such simple and self evident
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Speaker 1: ideas should be so slow to occur to our minds.
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Speaker 1: It is impossible that there should be no servants in
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Speaker 1: the world, but at so that your servant may be
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Speaker 1: freer in spirit than if he were not a servant.
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Speaker 1: And why cannot I be a servant to my servant,
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Speaker 1: and even let him see it, And that without any
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Speaker 1: pride on my part or any mistrust on his. Why
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Speaker 1: should not my servant be like my own kindred, so
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Speaker 1: that I may take him into my family and rejoice
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Speaker 1: in doing so. Even now this can be done, but
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Speaker 1: it will lead to the grand unity of men in
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Speaker 1: the future, when a man will not seek servants for himself,
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Speaker 1: or desire to turn his blowed creatures into servants, as
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Speaker 1: he does now, but on the contrary, will long with
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Speaker 1: his whole heart to be the servant of all, as
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Speaker 1: the Gospel teaches. And can it be a dream that
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Speaker 1: in the end man will find his joy only in
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Speaker 1: deeds of light and mercy, and not in cruel pleasures,
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Speaker 1: as now in gluttony, fornication, oscientation, boasting, and envious rivalry
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Speaker 1: of one with the other. I firmly believe that it
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Speaker 1: is not, and that the time is at hand. People
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Speaker 1: laugh and ask when will that time come? And does
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Speaker 1: it look like coming? I believe that, with Christ's help
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Speaker 1: we shall accomplish this great thing. And how many ideas
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Speaker 1: there have been on earth in the history of man
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Speaker 1: which were unthinkable years before they appeared. Yet when their
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Speaker 1: destined hour had come, they came forth and spread over
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Speaker 1: the whole earth. So it will be with us, and
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Speaker 1: our people will shine forth in the world, And all
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Speaker 1: men will say, the stone which the builders rejected has
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Speaker 1: become the corner stone of the building. And we may
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Speaker 1: ask the scornful themselves, if our hope is a dream,
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Speaker 1: when will you build up your edifice and order things
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Speaker 1: justly by your intellect alone, without Christ? If they declare
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Speaker 1: that it is they who are advancing towards unity, only
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Speaker 1: the most simple hearted among them believe it, so that
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Speaker 1: one may positively marvel at such simplicity of a truth.
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Speaker 1: They have more fantastic dreams than we. They aim at justice,
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Speaker 1: but denying Christ, they will end by blooding the earth
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Speaker 1: with blood, for blood cries out for blood, and he
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Speaker 1: that taketh up the sword shall perish by the sword.
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Speaker 1: And if it were not for Christ's covenant, they would
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Speaker 1: slaughter one another down to the last two men on earth,
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Speaker 1: and those two last men would not be able to
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Speaker 1: restrain each other in their pride, and the one would
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Speaker 1: slay the other and then himself. And that would come
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Speaker 1: to pass were it not for the promise of Christ,
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Speaker 1: that for the sake of the humble and meek, the
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Speaker 1: days shall be shortened. While I was still wearing an
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Speaker 1: officer's uniform after my duel, I talked about servants in
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Speaker 1: general society, and I remember every one was a mad
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Speaker 1: at me. What they asked, are we to make our
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Speaker 1: servants sit down on the sofa and offer them tea?
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Speaker 1: And I answered them why not? Sometimes at least everyone laughed.
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Speaker 1: Their question was frivolous, and my answer was not clear.
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Speaker 1: But the thought in it was to some extent right
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Speaker 1: gee of prayer, of love, and of contact with other worlds.
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Speaker 1: Young man, be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray,
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Speaker 1: If your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling
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Speaker 1: and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage,
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Speaker 1: and you will understand that prayer is an education. Remember
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Speaker 1: two every day and whenever you can repeat to yourself. Lord,
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Speaker 1: have mercy on all who appear before thee Today, For
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Speaker 1: every hour and every moment, thousands of men leave life
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Speaker 1: on this earth, and their souls appear before God. And
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Speaker 1: how many of them depart in solitude, unknown sad, dejected
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Speaker 1: that no one mourns for them, or even knows whether
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Speaker 1: they have lived or not. And behold from the other
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Speaker 1: end of the earth. Perhaps your prayer for their rest
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Speaker 1: will rise up to God. Though you knew them not,
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Speaker 1: nor they you. How touching it must be to a
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Speaker 1: soul standing in dread before the Lord to feel at
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Speaker 1: that instant that for him too there is one to
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Speaker 1: pray that there is a fellow creature left on earth
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Speaker 1: to love him too. And God will look on you
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Speaker 1: both more graciously, For if you have had so much
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Speaker 1: pity on him, how much will he have pity, who
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Speaker 1: is infinitely more loving and merciful than you, And He
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Speaker 1: will forgive him for your sake. Brothers, have no fear
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Speaker 1: of men's sin. Love a man even in his sin,
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Speaker 1: for that is the semblance of divine love, and is
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Speaker 1: the highest love on earth. Love all God's creation, the
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Speaker 1: whole and every grain of sand in it, Love ever relief,
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Speaker 1: every ray of God's life. Love the animals, Love the plants,
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Speaker 1: Love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the
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Speaker 1: divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will
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Speaker 1: begin to comprehend it better every day, and you will
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Speaker 1: come at last to love the whole world with an
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Speaker 1: all embracing love. Love the animals. God has given them
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Speaker 1: the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble it.
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Speaker 1: Don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness. Don't
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Speaker 1: work against God's intent. Man, do not pride yourself on
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Speaker 1: superiority to the animals. They are without sin, And you,
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Speaker 1: with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it,
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Speaker 1: and leave the traces of your foulness after you. Alas
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Speaker 1: it is true of almost every one of us, love children,
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Speaker 1: especially for they to ure sinless night the angels. They live,
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Speaker 1: to suffen and purify our hearts, and, as it were,
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Speaker 1: to guide us, woe to him who offends a child.
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Speaker 1: Father Am taught me to love children. The kind man
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Speaker 1: used often on our wanderings to spend the farthings given
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Speaker 1: us on sweets and cakes for the children. He could
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Speaker 1: not pass by a child without emotion. That's the nature
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Speaker 1: of the man. Some thoughts. One stands perplexed, especially at
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Speaker 1: the sight of men's sin, and wonders whether one should
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Speaker 1: use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love.
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Speaker 1: If you resolve on that once for all, you may
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Speaker 1: subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the
28:41
Speaker 1: strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.
28:47
Speaker 1: Every day and every hour, every minute, walk around yourself
28:52
Speaker 1: and watch yourself, and see that your image is a
28:56
Speaker 1: seemly one. You pass by a little child, you pass
29:01
Speaker 1: by spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart. You may
29:06
Speaker 1: not have noticed the child, but he has seen you,
29:10
Speaker 1: and your image, unseemly, undignoble, may remain in his defenseless heart.
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Speaker 1: You don't know it, but you may have sown an
29:20
Speaker 1: evil seed in him, and it may grow and all
29:24
Speaker 1: because you were not careful before the child, because you
29:28
Speaker 1: did not buster in yourself a careful, actively benevolent love. Brothers,
29:37
Speaker 1: love is a teacher. But one must know how to
29:41
Speaker 1: acquire it, for it is hard to acquire. It is
29:44
Speaker 1: dearly bought, it is won slowly by long labor. For
29:49
Speaker 1: we must love not only occasionally for a moment, but
29:53
Speaker 1: for ever. Every one can love occasionally, even the wicked can.
30:00
Speaker 1: My brother asked the birds to forgive him. That sounds senseless,
30:06
Speaker 1: but it is right, For all is like an ocean.
30:10
Speaker 1: All is blowing and blending. A touching one place sets
30:15
Speaker 1: up movement at the other end of the earth. It
30:18
Speaker 1: may be senseless to beg forgiveness of the birds, but
30:22
Speaker 1: birds will be happier at your side, a little happier anyway,
30:27
Speaker 1: And children and all animals, if you are nobler than
30:31
Speaker 1: you are now, it's all like an ocean. I tell you.
30:38
Speaker 1: Then you would pray to the birds, too, consumed by
30:43
Speaker 1: an all embracing glove in a sort of transport, and
30:50
Speaker 1: pray that they too will forgive you your sin, treasure,
30:55
Speaker 1: this ecstasy, however senseless it may seem to men, My friends,
31:03
Speaker 1: pray to God for gladness. Be glad as children, as
31:08
Speaker 1: the birds of heaven, and let not the sin of
31:11
Speaker 1: men confound you in your doings. Fear not that it
31:16
Speaker 1: will wear away your work and hinder its being accomplished.
31:21
Speaker 1: Do not say sin is mighty, Wickedness is mighty. Evil
31:27
Speaker 1: environment is mighty, and we are lonely and helpless, and
31:32
Speaker 1: evil environment is wearing us away and hindering our good
31:38
Speaker 1: work from being done. Fly from that dejection. Children, There
31:45
Speaker 1: is only one means of salvation. Then take yourself and
31:50
Speaker 1: make yourself responsible for all men's sins. That is the truth,
31:56
Speaker 1: you know. Friends, For as soon as you sincerely make
32:00
Speaker 1: yourself responsible for ever a thing and for all men,
32:05
Speaker 1: you will see at once that it is really so,
32:08
Speaker 1: and that you are to blame for everyone and for
32:11
Speaker 1: all things. But throwing your own indolence and impotence on others.
32:17
Speaker 1: You will end by sharing the pride of Satan and
32:20
Speaker 1: murmuring against God of the pride of Satan. What I
32:27
Speaker 1: think is this, It is hard for us on earth
32:30
Speaker 1: to comprehend it, and therefore it is so easy to
32:34
Speaker 1: fall into error and to share it, even imagining that
32:37
Speaker 1: we are doing something grand and fine. Indeed, many of
32:43
Speaker 1: the strongest feelings and movements of our nature we cannot
32:47
Speaker 1: comprehend on earth. Let not that be a stumbling block,
32:51
Speaker 1: and think not that it may serve as a justification
32:55
Speaker 1: to you for anything. For the eternal Judge asks of
32:59
Speaker 1: you what you can comprehend, and not what you cannot.
33:04
Speaker 1: You will know that yourself hereafter, for you will behold
33:08
Speaker 1: all things truly then, and will not dispute them. On earth,
33:13
Speaker 1: indeed we are as it were, astray, and if it
33:17
Speaker 1: were not for the precious image of Christ before us,
33:20
Speaker 1: we should be undone and altogether lost, as was the
33:24
Speaker 1: human race before the flood. Much on Earth is hidden
33:29
Speaker 1: from us. But to make up for that, we have
33:32
Speaker 1: been given a precious mystic sense of our living bond
33:36
Speaker 1: with the other world, with the higher heavenly world, And
33:40
Speaker 1: the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here,
33:43
Speaker 1: but in other worlds. That is why the philosophers say
33:48
Speaker 1: that we cannot apprehend the reality of things on earth.
33:52
Speaker 1: God took seeds from different worlds and sowed them on
33:56
Speaker 1: this earth, and his garden grew up, and everything came
34:00
Speaker 1: up that could come up. But what grows lives and
34:04
Speaker 1: is alive only through the feeling of its contact with
34:08
Speaker 1: other mysterious worlds. If that feeling grows weak or is destroyed,
34:13
Speaker 1: in you, the heavenly growth will die away in you.
34:17
Speaker 1: Then you will be indifferent to life, and even grow
34:20
Speaker 1: to hate it. That's what I think. Age can a
34:26
Speaker 1: man judge his fellow creatures faith to the end. Remember particularly,
34:35
Speaker 1: that you cannot be a judge of anyone. For no
34:39
Speaker 1: one can judge a criminal until he recognizes that he
34:43
Speaker 1: is just such a criminal as the man standing before him,
34:47
Speaker 1: and that he perhaps is more than all men to
34:50
Speaker 1: blame for that crime. When he understands that he will
34:54
Speaker 1: be able to be a judge. Though that sounds absurd,
34:59
Speaker 1: it is true. If I had been righteous myself, perhaps
35:04
Speaker 1: there would have been no criminal standing before me. If
35:08
Speaker 1: you can take upon yourself the crime of the criminal
35:12
Speaker 1: your heart is judging, take it at once, suffer for
35:15
Speaker 1: him yourself, and let him go without reproach. And even
35:20
Speaker 1: if the law itself makes you his judge, act in
35:23
Speaker 1: the same spirit so far as possible, for he will
35:26
Speaker 1: go away and condemn himself more bitterly than you have done.
35:32
Speaker 1: If after your kiss he goes away untouched, mocking at you,
35:37
Speaker 1: do not let that be a stumbling block to you.
35:40
Speaker 1: It shows his time has not yet come, But it
35:43
Speaker 1: will come in due course. And if it come not
35:47
Speaker 1: no matter. If not he, then another in his place
35:51
Speaker 1: will understand and suffer, and judge and condemn himself, and
35:55
Speaker 1: the truth will be fulfilled. Believe that, Believe it without doubt,
36:01
Speaker 1: for in that lies all the hope and faith of
36:03
Speaker 1: the saints work without ceasing. If you remember in the
36:09
Speaker 1: night as you go to sleep, I have not done
36:12
Speaker 1: what I ought to have done, rise up at once
36:15
Speaker 1: and do it. If the people around you are spiteful
36:19
Speaker 1: and callous and will not hear you, fall down before
36:23
Speaker 1: them and beg their forgiveness, for in truth you are
36:27
Speaker 1: to blame, for they're not wanting to hear you. And
36:31
Speaker 1: if you cannot speak to them in their bitterness, serve
36:34
Speaker 1: them in silence and in humility, never losing hope. If
36:39
Speaker 1: all men abandon you and even drive you away by force,
36:44
Speaker 1: then when you are left alone, fall on the earth
36:47
Speaker 1: and kiss it, water it with your tears, and it
36:50
Speaker 1: will bring forth fruit, even though no one has seen
36:54
Speaker 1: or heard you in your solitude. Believe to the end,
36:59
Speaker 1: even if all men went astray, and you will left
37:02
Speaker 1: the only one faithful, bring your offering even then, and
37:08
Speaker 1: praise God in your loneliness. And if two of you
37:12
Speaker 1: are gathered together, then there is a whole world, a
37:15
Speaker 1: world of living love. Embrace each other tenderly, and praise God,
37:21
Speaker 1: for if only in you too his truth has been fulfilled.
37:27
Speaker 1: If you sin yourself and grieve, even unto death for
37:31
Speaker 1: your sins, or for your sudden sin, then rejoice for others.
37:36
Speaker 1: Rejoice for the righteous man. Rejoice that if you have sinned,
37:41
Speaker 1: he is righteous and does not send. If the evil
37:45
Speaker 1: doing of men moves you to indignation and overwhelming distress,
37:51
Speaker 1: even to a desire for vengeance on the evil doers,
37:55
Speaker 1: shun above all things that feeling. Go at once and
37:59
Speaker 1: see suffering for yourself, as though you were yourself guilty
38:04
Speaker 1: of that wrong. Accept that suffering and bear it, and
38:08
Speaker 1: your heart will find comfort, and you will understand that
38:12
Speaker 1: you too are guilty. For you might have been alike
38:15
Speaker 1: to the evil doers, even as the one man sinless,
38:19
Speaker 1: and you are not alike to them. If you had
38:22
Speaker 1: been a light, you would have lightened the path for
38:25
Speaker 1: others too, and the evil doer might perhaps have been
38:29
Speaker 1: saved by your light from his sin. And even though
38:33
Speaker 1: your light was shining, yet you see men were not
38:36
Speaker 1: saved by it. Hold firm and doubt not the power
38:41
Speaker 1: of the heavenly light. Believe that if they were not saved,
38:46
Speaker 1: they will be saved hereafter. And if they are not
38:49
Speaker 1: saved hereafter, then their sons will be saved. For your
38:54
Speaker 1: light will not die. Even when you are dead. The
38:58
Speaker 1: righteous man departs, but his light remains. Men are always
39:03
Speaker 1: saved after the death of the deliverate. Men reject their
39:08
Speaker 1: prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and
39:12
Speaker 1: honor those whom they have slain. You are working for
39:16
Speaker 1: the whole, You are acting for the future. Seek no reward,
39:22
Speaker 1: for great is your reward on this earth, the spiritual joy,
39:27
Speaker 1: which is only vouchsafe to the righteous man. Fear not
39:31
Speaker 1: the Great nor the mighty. But be wise and ever serene.
39:37
Speaker 1: Know the measure, know the time. Study that when you
39:41
Speaker 1: are left alone, pray love to throw yourself on the
39:46
Speaker 1: earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it
39:50
Speaker 1: with an unseizing, consuming love. Love all men, love everything.
39:57
Speaker 1: Seek that rapture and exstacy. Water the earth with the
40:02
Speaker 1: tears of your joy, and love those tears. Don't be
40:07
Speaker 1: ashamed of that ecstasy. Prize it, for it is a
40:11
Speaker 1: gift of God and a great one. It is not
40:14
Speaker 1: given to many, but only to the elect I of
40:21
Speaker 1: hell and hell fire. A mystic reflection, fathers and teachers,
40:29
Speaker 1: I ponder what is hell? I maintain that it is
40:33
Speaker 1: the suffering of being unable to love once in infinite existence,
40:39
Speaker 1: immeasurable in time and space. A spiritual creature was given
40:45
Speaker 1: on his coming to earth the power of saying, I
40:48
Speaker 1: am and I love once. Only once there was given
40:55
Speaker 1: him a moment of active, living love. And for that
40:59
Speaker 1: was the life given him, and with it times and seasons.
41:05
Speaker 1: And that happy creature rejected the priceless gift, prized it
41:10
Speaker 1: and loved it, not scorned it and remained callous. Such
41:15
Speaker 1: a one having let the earth seize Abraham's bosom, and
41:20
Speaker 1: talks with Abraham, as we are told in the Parable
41:24
Speaker 1: of the rich Man and Lazarus, and beholds heaven and
41:28
Speaker 1: can go up to the Lord. But that is just
41:31
Speaker 1: his torment to rise up to the Lord without ever
41:35
Speaker 1: having loved, to be brought close to those who have loved,
41:41
Speaker 1: when he has despised their love. For he sees clearly
41:45
Speaker 1: and says to himself, now I have understanding, and though
41:50
Speaker 1: I now thirst to love, there will be nothing great
41:53
Speaker 1: no sacrifice in my love, for my earthly life is over,
41:58
Speaker 1: and Abraham will not come even with a drop of
42:01
Speaker 1: living water, that is the gift of earthly active life
42:06
Speaker 1: to cool the fiery thirst of spiritual love which burns
42:11
Speaker 1: in me. Now though I despised it on earth, there
42:15
Speaker 1: is no more life for me, and will be no
42:18
Speaker 1: more time. Even though I would gladly give my life
42:21
Speaker 1: for others, it can never be, for that life is
42:25
Speaker 1: past which can be sacrificed for love, and now there
42:29
Speaker 1: is a gulf fixed between that life and this existence.
42:35
Speaker 1: They talk of how fire in the material sense. I
42:39
Speaker 1: don't go into that mystery, and I shun it. But
42:44
Speaker 1: I think if there were fire in material sense, they
42:49
Speaker 1: would be glad of it, for I imagine that in material agony,
42:54
Speaker 1: their still greater spiritual agony would be forgotten for a moment. Moreover,
43:02
Speaker 1: that spiritual agony cannot be taken from them, for that
43:07
Speaker 1: suffering is not external, but within them. And if it
43:11
Speaker 1: could be taken from them, I think it would be
43:14
Speaker 1: bitter still for the unhappy creatures. But even if the
43:18
Speaker 1: righteous in Paradise forgave them beholding their torments and called
43:23
Speaker 1: them up to heaven in their infinite love, they would
43:27
Speaker 1: only multiply their torments, for they would arouse in them
43:31
Speaker 1: still more keenly a flaming thirst for responsive, active and
43:36
Speaker 1: grateful love, which is now impossible. In the timidity of
43:41
Speaker 1: my heart, I imagine, however, that the very recognition of
43:47
Speaker 1: this impossibility would serve at last to console them for
43:52
Speaker 1: accepting the love of the Righteous, together with the impossibility
43:57
Speaker 1: of repaying it. By this submisis, and the effect of
44:02
Speaker 1: this humility, they will attain, at last, as it were,
44:06
Speaker 1: to a certain semblance of that act of love which
44:09
Speaker 1: they scorned in life, to something like its outward expression.
44:16
Speaker 1: I am sorry, friends and brothers, that I cannot express
44:20
Speaker 1: this clearly, But woe to those who have slain themselves
44:25
Speaker 1: on earth, woe to the suicide. I believe that there
44:29
Speaker 1: can be none more miserable than they. They tell us
44:33
Speaker 1: that it is a sin to pray for them, and
44:36
Speaker 1: outwardly the Church, as it were, renounces them. But in
44:40
Speaker 1: my secret heart I believe that we may pray even
44:43
Speaker 1: for them. Love can never be an offense to Christ
44:48
Speaker 1: for such as those I have prayed inwardly all my life,
44:52
Speaker 1: I confess it bathers and teachers, and even now I
44:56
Speaker 1: pray for them every day. There are some who remain
45:01
Speaker 1: proud and fierce even in hell, in spite of their
45:04
Speaker 1: certain knowledge and contemplation of the absolute truth. There are
45:09
Speaker 1: some fearful ones who have given themselves over to Satan
45:13
Speaker 1: and his proud spirit entirely. For such hell is voluntary
45:18
Speaker 1: and ever consuming. They are tortured by their own choice,
45:23
Speaker 1: for they have cursed themselves, cursing garden life. They live
45:27
Speaker 1: upon their vindictive pride, like a starving man in the desert,
45:31
Speaker 1: sucking blood out of his own body. But they are
45:35
Speaker 1: never satisfied, and they refuse forgiveness. They curse God who
45:41
Speaker 1: calls them. They cannot behold the living God with that hatred,
45:46
Speaker 1: and they cry out that the God of life should
45:48
Speaker 1: be annihilated, that God should destroy himself and his own creation.
45:54
Speaker 1: And they will burn in the fire of their own
45:57
Speaker 1: wrath forever and yearn but death and annihilation, But they
46:02
Speaker 1: will not attain to death. Here. Alexei Fyodorovitch Karamatsov's manuscript ends.
46:12
Speaker 1: I repeat it is incomplete and fragmentary. Biographical details, for instance,
46:19
Speaker 1: cover only Father Zossima's earliest youth of his teaching and opinions,
46:25
Speaker 1: we find brought together sayings evidently uttered on very different occasions.
46:31
Speaker 1: His utterances during the last few hours have not been
46:35
Speaker 1: kept separate from the rest, but their general character can
46:39
Speaker 1: be gathered from what we have in Alexei Fyodorovitch's manuscript.
46:45
Speaker 1: The Elder's death came in the end quite unexpectedly, for
46:50
Speaker 1: although those who were gathered about him that last evening
46:53
Speaker 1: realized that his death was approaching, yet it was difficult
46:57
Speaker 1: to imagine that it would come so suddenly. On the contrary,
47:02
Speaker 1: his friends, as I observed already seeing him that night,
47:06
Speaker 1: apparently so cheerful and tilkative, were convinced that there was
47:11
Speaker 1: at least a temporary change for the better in his condition,
47:15
Speaker 1: even five minutes before his death, they said afterwards, wonderingly,
47:20
Speaker 1: it was impossible to foresee it. He seemed suddenly to
47:23
Speaker 1: feel an acute pain in his chest. He turned pale
47:27
Speaker 1: and pressed his hands to his heart. All rose from
47:31
Speaker 1: their seats and hastened to him, But though suppering, he
47:35
Speaker 1: still looked at them with a smile, sank slowly from
47:38
Speaker 1: his chair on to his knees, then bowed his face
47:41
Speaker 1: to the ground, stretched out his arms, and as though
47:45
Speaker 1: in joyful ecstasy, praying and kissing the ground, quietly and joyfully,
47:51
Speaker 1: gave up his soul to God. The news of his
47:55
Speaker 1: death spread at once through the hermitage and reached the monastery.
47:59
Speaker 1: The nearest friends of the deceased, and those whose duty
48:03
Speaker 1: it was from their position, began to lay out the
48:06
Speaker 1: corpse according to the ancient ritual, and all the monks
48:10
Speaker 1: gathered together in the church, and before dawn the news
48:15
Speaker 1: of the death reached the town. By the morning, all
48:18
Speaker 1: the town was talking of the event, and crowds were
48:22
Speaker 1: flocking from the town to the monastery. But this subject
48:27
Speaker 1: will be treated in the next book. I will only
48:30
Speaker 1: add here that before a day had passed, something happened
48:34
Speaker 1: so unexpected, so strange, upsetting, and bewildering in its effect
48:39
Speaker 1: on the monks and the townspeople, that after all these years,
48:44
Speaker 1: that day of general suspense is still vividly remembered in
48:48
Speaker 1: the town. End of chapter forty two,