BOOK of KNOWLEDGE,
a novel by Alexandra Kryuchkova
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series
PART 1. PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY, or the WAY to the LIGHT
Chapter 17. The HOUSE that GOD BUILT
Have you ever wondered what a house is?
«Alice, get up! It’s time for us to go. Don’t let your Soul be lazy!» I heard HER familiar voice and woke up.
We went outside. SHE was in a hurry somewhere. I could barely keep up with HER.
«Where are we going?» I asked.
«Home,» SHE said calmly, without even turning around.
«What do you mean home? We’ve just left home for the exact opposite direction.»
SHE laughed and finally turned around, giving me a piercing look.
«Every moment in the Earthly Reality, Alice, even when we take no steps, we are going Home.»
«I agree, but what awaits us on the way Home, or rather, what intermediate point of the Earthly Reality are we heading to?»
«We are going to the temple.»
«Is the temple also Home?»
«Yes.»
«It’s a house where God lives, right?»
«Yes.»
«But God lives in every flower, in every person, in everything, everything, everything that exists in the Universe.»
«Yes.»
«So, am I also a house? Is everything around a house for God?»
«Yes.»
«It means that God is everywhere, everywhere is God, right?»
«Yes.»
«In this case, why are we going to the temple if God is everywhere around us?»
«I don’t say that we are going to God. I say, we are going to the temple.»
«What for?»
«Your house is running out of candles,» SHE laughed.
«You’re up to something again!»
«Don’t you like surprises?»
I bought candles in the church shop. SHE whispered, «The prayer for 40 days,» and I ordered it. SHE pushed me towards a bookshelf, «There is something interesting there, especially for you!» I chose several books and went into the temple, where the liturgy had just begun. I had studied there at the parochial school twenty years before. I approached the soleya at the left (small) altar gates, where I used to sing in the children’s choir for five years.
There was a nun behind the gilded fence which separated the parishioners from the altar. After a couple of minutes, she walked up to the fence and held out her hand to me. I decided that the nun was going down «into the world», but she opened the door saying, «Come up to me, you should stand here.»
Her words made my Soul tremble. Only girls and nuns were allowed to stand there, but Another Reality gave me its permission, and I was in childhood again. It was the place where I first felt the presence of Another Reality and God everywhere: in icons, lit candles, incense, in church singing, in the voices of clergy, in the air. During the liturgy, I was in an altered state of Consciousness, merging with the immense Everything. The liturgy became for me a sacred mystery of Another Reality. Later I learned to see God outside the temple walls, but the Path to Him lay through the Temple.
People need a temple. It’s a place located simultaneously in both Realities. People come there to communicate with God, because in other places it’s difficult for them to communicate with Him, they don’t see Him there. In the temple, energy is concentrated (by summing up the energies of those present), and a colossal Flow connects everyone to Another Reality. One’s energy becomes balanced and purified, although not everyone’s, but of those who deserve it. Many people come to God solely for selfish reasons and ask for something more appropriate to be addressed to the Prince of Darkness; they lit the biggest candles at the icons, firmly believing that the fulfillment of wishes depends on their size and quantity.
I never speak to God in words. The word is always a limitation of thought. I speak to Him with my Soul, but the Soul doesn’t know words, having only feelings. God sees and knows everything about me at every moment. He even knows about me what I don’t know yet. He is always in me and everywhere. He loves me, like each of His creations, and everything that happens to me happens by His will. If I don’t like something, or it seems unfair to me, there is a reason for that. I can be unaware of the reason, but it’s well known to God. I ask Him to forgive me for everything that, consciously and unconsciously, I have done not in the way He would like, to open my eyes to the reasons, to give my Soul the strength to survive what will still be sent in order to walk my Path, deviating as little as possible. To tell me what else I can do for the world, because each of us, God’s creations, came to the Earthly Reality, first of all, not to consume, but to bring Light and Love into the world, to create good things and do something good and useful for others.
Everything is possible for God, and you can ask for everything that your Soul desires, and even for whatever that pleases not your Soul, but your body. Only doubt makes the possible impossible. Disbelief in miracles is a program in Consciousness, because of which many people have forgotten how to dream.
Get yourself a «Book of Wishes». Write a letter to the Higher Forces, tell them what kind of life would be ideal for you. Describe your earthly home, the people you communicate with, your job, and so on in as much detail as possible. Write in the Present tense, here and now, avoid the particle «not». For Another Reality, «not» doesn’t exist, so everything that you write with «not» will happen exactly the opposite. Don’t be afraid to ask, but be afraid of fulfilling of your wish if it violates in any way the Divine Laws, because you will certainly be billed.
I stood on the soleya, listening to the choir singing. Many people like to sing, or rather, they mostly sing than talk. In exchange for a portion of pity, blaming others for their troubles, some people sing about the cruelty of the world and flagrant injustice. Others, who are doing well, on the contrary, sing about their charity and the way they have practically reached holiness. However, they help only if others immediately learn about such feat of generosity and admire them, that is, in exchange for a portion of glory. Try to help quietly, so that no one knows about it except the one you help, or so that even that one won’t know. I assure you, it’s much more difficult than it seems at first glance.
I remembered one of my relatives who became very rich. As we met, she talked for a long time about her charity, and after that, she reasoned out loud which of her wallets to take money from to furnish the newly purchased cottage. I gave her three copies of each of my books as a gift and, being unemployed, asked her to buy ten of my books for gifts as her charity towards me. The relative paused and said in a serious voice, «You are great for leaving your mark on the Earth. I have to think about it, ten is so much! I’ll call you back!» Those books are long gone. She hasn’t called me back yet.
After the liturgy, I approached the tombstone of the Patriarch, located next to my favorite icon of the «Seeking for the Dead». «You are always in my heart!» I said mentally, and the Patriarch smiled in response from his portrait. His eyes radiated Universal Love.
I returned to my earthly home. If you consider me completely alien to the Earthly Reality, you are mistaken. That day I had to iron a lot of things. Turning on the iron, I recalled our casting for a TV show, which was kept secret. I hadn’t done it for many years, but I turned on the TV so that I could get an idea of which show one could get into.
It was Sunday, the Sun was shining…
On the screen, there was a corpse in a pool of blood and people carefully studying it: someone was taking photos, someone was examining the contents of pockets. The girl investigator, apparently the main character, was about to leave the frame when someone exclaimed, «This is the corpse of a transvestite!» Well, I’m certainly not a Saint, but…
...it was Sunday, the Sun was shining, I wanted to see some kind of light on the screen!
I switched to another TV channel. A documentary investigation of a series of mysterious rapes with the following murders of old women in a village. Ominous music. The voice-over was going into detail. They showed in turn those untouched by the nightmare, talked about those who had left for Another Reality and enjoyed the interview with the miraculous survivor. All that, as it turned out, was done by a young guy living in the same village, but…
...it was Sunday, the Sun was shining…
I pressed the button for the next TV channel. Action movie. Everyone was shooting. It was not clear who hit whom, the main thing was that it was very noisy, continuous abuse, screams and blood. Five minutes without a break. I couldn’t stand in front of the TV screen, the flow of negative vibrations was turning my Soul inside out, it wanted to run away from me.
I pressed the button again and found myself in a fantasy movie. I was already delighted, but… A couple of minutes later, on a huge pole of an unknown tribe of the next century, but for some reason living in something similar to a cave, where people in tattoos with skulls were dancing wildly, a tied up man from the second tribe, living behind a wall from the first one, appeared. The man was put into a seething cauldron, then pulled out, and pieces of his mortified flesh were cut off and eaten (!) with wild joy turning into ecstasy. My Soul howled. I turned off the TV because…
...it was Sunday, the Sun was shining…
So what show did they sign us up for?
For more than thirty years I had been a guest of the Earthly Reality. Once upon a time in India, an astrologer predicted that I could completely change my life at that age, starting from the place I lived and ending with everything. On New Year’s Eve, at a literary party, we were telling fortune, pulling candies with prophecies hidden under the wrappings out of Santa Claus’ bag. I got a phrase that made me smile, «It will be peace throughout the world, and you will live in a new flat». Do you know the cost of a new apartment? That was why I smiled.
However, after several months, I dreamed myself coming to a large and practically new flat. The interior decoration had just been completed. I looked around: the ceilings were high, the walls were bright, the hallway was spacious, the strange arrangement of the rooms even pleased me. One of them was intended for my parents, although I remembered in my dream that their home was located in Another Reality. I didn’t go to see them, and it seemed they wouldn’t let me in there. Their room smelled cold, I knew it was flooded with moonlight, but I didn’t feel any fear or other negative emotions. Meanwhile, I felt the next room as my own and entered it.
It was very bright and completely empty. A large window with a balcony, behind which there was the Light. The walls were of a light color. I visualized a sofa and sat down on it. I didn’t know the way I had got the flat, but I had to furnish it, and I liked everything related to design and decorating spaces. I thought I would put up bookcases there and take away books from the category of literature useful for the Soul. I imagined shelves and mentally placed them on the opposite wall. The shelves were light too. Then I filled the room with the few things dear to me, I didn’t like to clutter the space with earthly things. I was about to make a list of items to purchase, but the alarm clock rang. I had to return to Earth. Perhaps the flat in that dream was my life. The parents’ room, the black part of it, was left in the Past. I was entering the second room. It should be full of Light. I was going to take there only the most important things from my Past.
A month later, I saw an equally strange dream. I was offered to buy a house. I never understood why the owners were leaving. They didn’t live long there, a family with two children, although I saw only a dark-haired boy of about 13—15 years old. I came to see the house with two men, one of them was a lawyer or realtor. The reddish-brown wooden front door opened directly onto the street. I couldn’t make out the inscription of white letters located in a semicircle above the house number; perhaps it was in a foreign language. They opened the door, and I got inside. There were many rooms with expensive furniture. In general, I liked the interior design. The boy told me about each room. Opening the next door, I found myself in the bathroom with a shower stall only, albeit an overly sophisticated one. «The bathroom is next,» the boy said with a smile. Indeed, the bathroom was located further, and more further I found… a swimming pool. «Wow, I can swim right at home now!» One of the rooms opened onto a terrace in the courtyard, flooded with light. The floor was made of wooden planks. I saw also a round white table and white chairs in the French style. There was something like a sun canopy on the roof, the same white, but not so long to cover the entire terrace. «I’ll put pots of flowers here, and something to lie on and read a book,» I thought. We started discussing the details. The agreement had already been prepared.
«How much does it cost?» I asked.
«One and a half million euros only, but you may pay it in parts as long as you like.»
I was horrified by what had been said, remembering in the dream my salary, which was not enough even to save money for a «rainy day». I began to think frantically, what else I had, besides my salary. A small flat on the outskirts of the city and an old cottage in the middle of nowhere.
«So do you agree?»
I looked at the man next to me, but I couldn’t see him at all. The realtor or lawyer handed the contract to me for signature, but I put the documents aside, saying that I wanted to read them in a calm atmosphere. At the same time, I knew that the house already belonged to me, at least in Another Reality. My earthly guard, the alarm clock, rang as usual under the pillow. I hastily returned to Earth, forgetting to pull the docs out of my dream.
That evening, I opened my email as usual in the hope that, having remembered me, the Man Who Was Not showed Himself in my reality. I had gifted Him my book, and we didn’t see each other anymore. It seemed like an eternity had passed, and I still couldn’t understand why it was difficult for Him to write me at least a couple of words or just call me to ask an absolutely non-binding, purely earthly question, «How are you?» He knew perfectly well how glad I was for rare communication and how lonely I felt. I loved Him without reasons, with unconditional Love, feeling something close in Him, and I wanted Him to be somewhere nearby — in letters, calls and meetings, as a Person Who Simply Is. But the mailbox reported as usual that it had received zero point zero of new letters. I decided to write to the MWWN, sharing my latest news about the RAM film, the casting, the trip to the city of M., where I had been settled in the cemetery, and so on. I wrote for a long time, but, as it turned out, to Nowhere. I pressed the «Send» button, and the mail froze. No matter what I did, the letter remained not sent, and finally it… disappeared. There was no point in rewriting it again, the MWWN didn’t read my letters. What if Maria was right, and He didn’t exist in the Earthly Reality? Was He sent by the Forces of Darkness to push me to leave the Earth failing the Life Exam? Was He the Black Shadow that the Teacher spoke to me about?
I glanced briefly at the breaking news on the Internet. All social and political news could be divided into 2 categories: someone kissed someone, and someone’s tail was stepped on. After that everyone began discussing whether it had happened by accident or done on purpose, and if on purpose, for what purpose. Another kind of news was about the transition of a famous person into Another Reality. That person might have been already forgotten by everyone, but suddenly reminded the world of his former existence. And immediately, out of nowhere, numerous «friends» of the deceased used to appear. They recalled him only on that day, which happened once a year, or even less often, but after his death they wanted to get a moment of glory and tell about the departed one that he didn’t want to tell anyone in the Earthly Reality for some reason. Someone mysteriously hinted at the existence of an unofficial reason for leaving, and the death began overgrowing with legends, the more the better. A magnificent farewell with the erection of a luxurious monument followed, because it was customary. Anyhow, the memory of a person clearly remained in another place, not in a cemetery.
I felt sad about such news, and there was almost no other news there, so one day I stopped reading the news, and life became easier. Moreover, everything that happened, is happening and will happen is in the information field around us. I assure you, there is much more news there, and not distorting reality. Instead of reading the news, it’s better to remember your friends and loved ones and communicate with them before their leaving for Another Reality.
I was just about to close the Internet, when in one of the announcements I noticed a photo of a man whom I had often seen lately as a portrait on the walls of almost all executive offices, but had never seen in the original. The man looked directly at me from the monitor and even somehow questioning. I wanted to talk to him. I didn’t know his phone number or email address, but I took a pen and wrote in my notebook the following.
«Hello… I know almost nothing about you, just like you know about me, but I wanted to talk to you. You will ask who I am, but I still don’t know the answer to this question, despite the fact that I came to Earth more than thirty years ago. I know that Life in the Earthly Reality is too short to play any games in it and not to be ourselves. I am absolutely apolitical, but I am embodied in the country that you lead. This country is like a large and beautiful Garden. I know how difficult it is to keep track of everything that happens in the garden, because I have a house in the country. The garden seems small, but I constantly need to work in it so that it doesn’t become overgrown with weeds and pleases me in the fall. I often think, it’s so difficult to be God, because God’s House is much larger than my country house and any country. The entire Universe is His House with the Garden, and God must watch and hear everything that happens every moment in every corner, and make sure that His Garden doesn’t become overgrown and doesn’t cease bearing fruit. I feel like a guest in this world. People compare me to a nun, call me a spell-caster, because I write poetry in the spirit of the Silver Age spell-casters. If you want, I will give you my books when we meet. I invite you to my house. I have few things, but many mysteries. True, I don’t have your portrait on the wall, but I think you don’t have mine yet either. In my flat, Icons from Holy Places and my own paintings about Another Reality live on the walls. I painted them after the RAM seminar, you might be interested in meeting her. Each of us comes to Earth to do something good and bright. I want to be useful to people and leave my mark before I return home to God. You are very busy, having a little less to do than God, but still… I want to talk to you about poetry. What is Garden without birds? They say that in the Past good poems were published at the expense of publishing houses, literary parties were held free, poets were valued and people knew them. Today there are many worthy poets. Being representatives of Another Reality, they have no money, but are forced to publish works at their own expense, organize literary parties for friends and relatives, paying for the rent of the hall. It’s almost impossible to bring one’s creativity to people in our large country without money. The same people who have a lot of money, as a rule, don’t have the unique gift of real poets. And it’s painful to realize how many talented works and their creators will sink into oblivion, while they could form part of the cultural heritage for everyone who lives now and will live after us. I want to help talented people, but I don’t know how. Perhaps we will come up with something together, because by helping them, we will help our Garden not to become overgrown with weeds, and it will certainly bring us worthy fruits in the fall. Anyhow, I sincerely wish you to walk your Path, doing Good and bringing Light into the big and beautiful House that God built…»
I signed the letter, pulled out the leaves from the notebook, folded them in the shape of a bird, opened the window and released them into Heavens. I knew that someday it would definitely find its addressee.