- •Preface to the forth edition
- •I express cordial gratitude to Alla Alexseevna Dobrosozkikh, without whose energetic initiative and thorough editorial decoding of my lectures this book would hardly be written.
- •About those who live in another life
- •Eat, drink, be marry, my soul?
- •Understanding of death by ancient people
- •And what is common for all?
- •I may cite here some more books on the subject:
- •Consequences of progenitors’ sin
- •Where a soul resides after death of the body
- •Messages from there
- •Reflection of celestial
- •Posthumous test of good
- •Test of evil
- •I’ve got everything.
- •Than on earth…”
- •We are free to make good and evil
- •What is the right way to pray for the departed
- •Be a christian at least for forty days
- •Gehenna
- •What is in store for us at the last judgment?
- •Christ is savour of all men
- •Why did christ descend into the hell?
- •About a mortal sin and who is righteous
- •-How can I enjoy being in the Kingdom of God, if I know that my relatives are in hell?
- •-What is the essence of the remembrance of the dead by alms and meal?
- •-Will you explain, please: fiery hell and purgatory, is it the same thing?
- •-What is the lot of infants killed during abortion?
- •- May I pray and how to pray for my relative, a Baptist?
- •-It is known that suicide is the hardest sin. But how about a man, who has committed it, but he was a perfect righteous in his life?
- •-What is the state of the soul of a man, who died the death of a martyr, but over whom the funeral service was not performed?
- •-Why did the perfect angel – the son of the dawn (Denniza), departed from the Creator?
- •-What is the origin of the evil? Why was it admitted by God?
Eat, drink, be marry, my soul?
Many remember the Gospel parable about a man whose land produced a good crop. Even before that he probably was well off, but this time due to a special abundance of the yield he started reasoning what he would do with such wealth. And he made a decision point blank to tear down his barns and build new ones and after that to live a prosperous life. Eat, drink, be marry, my soul, you have plenty of everything.2
It is expressed very eloquently. Really, what different things has not a man dreamed of during the whole history! It’s about how to achieve such huge scientific and technological progress, when there comes an opportunity to do nothing and only to eat, drink and be merry. Happiness, probably will be achieved. But what will be the end of these everlasting dreams of the rich man?
But something happens with him about which he had not thought (neither had we) and did not want to think. God spoke out His judgment about him: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (Luke: 12, 19). It is not simply said: you will die ( and this would be terrible), but – “will be demanded” ( in the Church Slavonic language it sounds even stronger: истяжут your soul). The point is not only in this short period of time (to-night), which separated thoughts and dreams of the rich man from the moment when his soul was withdrawn from him. For everyone this moment can be measured by a different period of time: hours, days, months, years. But in any case they are just an instant. Everyone of us knows perfectly that his previous part of life has passed like a dream – no matter how old he is now – 20, 50, 70… Time is somewhat remarkable, a unique thing, it seems that it exists and at the same time it does not. Not without reason the ancient Greek sage men used to say: the past does not exist as it has passed away, the present – there is none, because it is elusive, there is no future, because it has not come yet. And what is there that will come for us beyond the instant of the earth life?
Alas, sentence passed on the Gospel rich man: your soul will be withdrawn from you – it is pronounced upon everyone who sees the essence of their life in eating, drinking and being merry.
But what is it – death? This question inevitably comes to everyone, moreover when his age reminds him about it. But the point is not the age but the wisdom, which characterizes a person irrespective of the years that he has lived. Do you remember what Lermontov said when he was only 20 years old: “ I don’t wait anything from life and I don’t feel sorry about anything from the past”.
Because of the impossibility to find an answer to the question about the essence of life in front of unavoidable death it is quite often that tragedies take place. There are many occasions when people finish their lives by committing suicides – due to the seeming senselessness in their lives. What is worth noting, suicides occur in all ages starting from the youngest, among the self-murderers there are children of the ages – 10, 11, 12, and sometimes younger. This striking phenomenon is witnessed presently both in Russia and abroad. For example, 1.5 percent of all deaths are suicides.