Original content

English translation

Thirteen prophets came there and were becoming guides for all the misguided, saying: "Come now, blessing has increased; where is gratitude? If the mount of gratitude has fallen asleep, stir it. Gratitude to the Benefactor is required by reason; otherwise He opens the door of eternal wrath. Look at generosity, and who does such a thing: that for such blessing He is content with gratitude. He gives a head and, as gratitude, asks for one prostration; He gives feet and, as gratitude, asks for one sitting." The people said: "A ghoul has carried off our gratitude; we have become weary of gratitude and blessing. We have become so withered by gifts that neither obedience pleases us nor sin. We do not want blessings and gardens; we do not want means and leisure." The prophets said: "There is an illness in the heart, from which a blight comes in recognizing the Real. Through it every blessing becomes illness; when does food become strength in a sick person? Many a thing seemed pleasant to you, O obstinate one, and all became unpleasant, its clear part turbid. You became the enemy of these pleasures; whatever you laid your hand on became unpleasant. Whoever became familiar and your friend became contemptible and low in your sight; whoever was a stranger to you seemed, in your eyes, very great and honored. This too is from the effect of that disease; its poison runs through all companions. That disease must be driven off quickly, for gratitude with that filth will appear as filth. Every pleasure that comes to you becomes unpleasant; if the Water of Life reaches you, it becomes fire. That quality is an alchemy of death and body-breaking: from it your life finally becomes death. Many a food by which the heart became alive, when it entered your body, became rotten. Many a dear one who appeared openly with grace, when he became your prey, became contemptible to you. The acquaintance of intellect with intellect through purity, when it occurs, increases every moment, and so does loyalty. The acquaintance of the lower self with any base lower self, know certainly, decreases moment by moment, because his lower self winds itself around disease and quickly corrupts recognition. If you do not want your friend tomorrow to become hateful, take friendship with the intelligent and with intellect. Since you are diseased by the poisons of the lower self, whatever you take becomes a tool of the disease. If you take a jewel, it becomes a stone; if you take love of the heart, it becomes war. If you take a subtle, virgin point, after your grasp of it it becomes tasteless and coarse: 'I have heard this too much; it has grown old. Say something else besides that, O helper.' Suppose another thing, fresh and new, is said; tomorrow again you will become sated with it and averse. Remove the disease; when the disease becomes habitual, every discourse seems old to you, but when it is removed, He will bring new leaves from the old; He will make the old bloom a hundred clusters from the pit. We are physicians, disciples of the Real; the Red Sea saw us and split apart. Those physicians of nature are different: they look at the heart by way of the pulse. We look well into the heart without intermediary, for by our discernment we look from a high vantage. Those physicians deal with food and fruits; the animal soul is made firm by them. We are physicians of action and speech; our inspiration is the radiance of the Light of Majesty: this sort of action benefits you, and that sort of action cuts you off from the path; this sort of speech brings you forward, and that sort of speech stings you. Those physicians have urine as evidence, but our evidence is majestic revelation. We ask no wages from anyone; our wages come abundantly from the Real. Come, a call to the festering sickness: our remedy is for each sufferer, one by one."