23. Significant books

One day I asked Anastasia’s grandfather if he had ever had the opportunity to read any spiritual or scholarly books. His answer struck me as rather strange:

“If you mean taking a book into my hands, leafing through the pages and reading the words printed in the books, that’s something I’ve done only on one occasion. But everything written in significant books is known to me.”

“How so? And what are ‘significant books’? If there are significant books, that means there must also be insignificant ones, eh?”

“Indeed. But why are you stuffing your head fall of all this?”

“What d’you mean, why? A cultured and civilised Man ought to be well-read. When I speak at readers’ conferences, I’m often asked whether I’ve read this book or the other. But I’ve only read just a few books in my lifetime. So I’d like to know which books I should read first. A lifetime isn’t enough to read all of them, even if one read all day from morning ’til night. That’s why I need to know about these ‘significant books’, so as not to come across as an utter ignoramus.”

“You know, Vladimir, when you’re asked at your readers’ conferences what books you’ve read, you can say you’re familiar with all of them.”

“I can’t do that unless I have actually read them all. They might ask me, for instance, what a particular author said in his book. If I’ve never even held his book in my hands, there’s no way I could come up with any kind of answer.”

“Simply tell them: ‘This author has nothing substantial to say’ Tell the one who asked you the question to prove otherwise. You know, Vladimir, it only appears from the numbers that there’s a lot of books out there. In fact you can count the number of significant books on your fingers.”

“But how do I know whether a book is significant or not?”

“With the help of a criterion.”

“Can you let me have this criterion? At least to borrow?”

“Of course I can let you have it, and all your readers too. The point is that the criterion for determining the significance of a book is people’s way of life.”

“What d’you mean — their way of life? What’s that got to do with it?”

“People live in various parts of the globe. Human societies are conditioned by national differences. National cultures vary from country to country. As does their way of life, and their longevity The culture of various peoples is shaped under the influence of, among other things, a significant book. Generally: a book that determines a people’s philosophy, gives rise to a particular religion and, consequently, away of life.

“In China, for example, Confucius’ teachings are considered significant. A special view of the world has been developing there since ancient times. To put it briefly, it views the world as a living organism.

“Part of this cosmic organism, or system, is the concept of yin and yang.2 If you are interested in the Chinese people’s way of life, if you think it might serve as an example for the rest of mankind, then read Confucius’ book. If you are interested in the Japanese world-view and their life-achievements, then read a book about that country’s traditional religion — Shintoism. In many respects it helped shape the Japanese people’s way of life.

“If you think that the happiest people live in the Christian world, then read the Bible. Significant books are those books which shape a particular way of life of a part of human society”

“But in Christian spiritual literature, after all, there is a lot more besides just the Bible.”

“Yes, indeed. But there is absolutely nothing new in them. As a rule, in every significant book there are one or two basic thoughts or philosophical conclusions. All other books on a similar theme simply repeat this thought and contribute nothing new to one’s world-view.

“Take, for example, one of the basic thoughts of the Bible — namely, that God must be bowed down to and his instructions carried out. This has given rise to a whole lot of books outlining the best way to do this. Some books say you should cross yourself with two fingers, others with three. They tell how to build temples with the best-looking outward appearance. They cite hundreds of examples of acts of worship by various people, devotees of genuflection. They talk of wars and arguments over particular methods of worship.

“People get immersed in these arguments and lose their ability to discern the basic thought. They no longer use the basic thought as a standard with which to compare others.

What happens is that in reading a whole lot of books about one and the same thing, they do not obtain any new information, but merely atrophy their analytical abilities. And they don’t even bother trying to determine whether God really wants Man to bow down to Him, or whether He wants something quite different.

As you can see, the hundreds of thousands of ‘spiritual’ books that have appeared over the past two thousand years all say pretty much one and the same thing.

“The appearance of a new well-grounded thought about the interrelationship of God and Man signals the appearance of a new significant book for the first time in two thousand years. With its appearance, its predecessor in the ranks of significant books passed into the ranks of historical documents.”

“You’re talking about the appearance of a new significant book? What’s it called?”

“Co-creation. It contains new thoughts. And it is well- grounded. The main thought of this book states in a clear and well-grounded manner precisely what Gods wants of Man, and what Man’s purpose is. You wrote this book from Anastasia’s words, and you will remember, Vladimir, God’s response to the question from the elements of the Universe:

‘What do you so fervently desire?’ everyone enquired.

And He, confident in His dream, replied:

‘Conjoint creation and joy for all from its contemplation.

“But where is the proof that this declaration actually rep-resents God’s will?”

“The proof is everywhere. In the declaration itself. In the hu-man heart and soul. In the logic of thinking. Judge for yourself:

if you accept as a premise God’s creation of the Earth and Man, then the feelings ensuing from that on the part of God will cor-respond with those of Man — the parent of his children. All loving parents wish conjoint creation with their children.

“The second part of the declaration specifies what kind of creation God desires: ‘and joy for all from its contemplation’. So tell me, what kind of creations can bring joy to absolutely everybody?”

“That’s a hard question to answer. Some people get joy out of a good car, while others couldn’t care less about cars. Some like eating meat, while others don’t eat meat at all. There’s even a popular saying: There’s no accounting for taste. It’d be hard to find something that everybody could embrace.”

‘And yet, it is possible. Think about air, water, flowers, for example...”

“But those have already been created, while we’re talking about conjoint creation.”

“Yes, air, water and vegetation have already been created. But they’re not always the same. Man is capable of making his air filled with dust, smoke and lethal gases, yet the same Man can fill it with ethers, aromas and flower pollen.

“Water can vary too. You can use chlorine-smelling water, for example, or you can drink genuine, refreshing water. And in among the great variety of plants you can either manufacture bloody chaos or create living scenes of extraordinary beauty and grandeur, attractive and delightful to the eye. There’s a statement about that in Co-creation.”

“If the book Co-creation, as you say, is significant, then isn’t it also supposed to transform the life of society or somehow influence it?”

“Yes, that’s a law. Anew thought inevitably embodies itself in a new way of life for society.”

“But when will this come about? Two years have gone by already since that book was published.”

“To put it more accurately, not two years already, but just two years. In this relatively brief space of time, however, it has already co-created a great deal. You yourself were saying, weren’t you, that many people are already attempting to build a new way of life for themselves. They’re even creating national development programmes.”

“Yes, I did say that. There are indeed manifestations of this already”

“You see? It took three hundred years to make Christianity noticeably felt, and here look at what’s been accomplished in just two years! Anastasia’s thoughts are materialising in a real way of life among many peoples, they are uniting their aspirations into a single creative impulse of universal cocreation.

“She launched a new way of thinking into Space, and this is an event of colossal proportions. This means that the book in which these thoughts were set forth for the first time will be accorded a similar evaluation.”

“I guess that means that I too will be one of the world’s significant writers?”

“You will not be one of... You will be the most significant, Vladimir. My granddaughter would not even think of secondary roles for her beloved.”

“It’s not working out quite that way The popular newspaper Argumenty i fakty (Arguments and facts) published a book rating putting The Book of Kin in second place overall in Russia.”

‘After a time a great many people will become aware of the significance of the books you have written. And then a simple first place in the ratings won’t seem like all that much. A mere six years has passed since you wrote your first book. You were a nobody back then, but today — you are more than just famous. I’ve heard that you’ve been awarded recognition as a People’s Academician and presented with a certificate.” “You’re right, only this recognition wasn’t from a traditional academy, but a public one.”

“Well, there you ago — a public academy5 Treasure this award, it’s higher than the traditional variety The people have spoken. The people who have realised the significance of your books, they’re the ones who’ve decided that you are significant. It means they’ve actually understood Anastasia’s thoughts and appreciated them. It’s not just ordinary people who have been able to do this, it’s people who will be able to go farther and embody, understand and materialise her thoughts. That’s how it will be. Only don’t give yourself airs — hold out until the time comes, without giving in to pride.”

“I’ll try my best. I’ll read over Anastasia’s sayings again. It goes without saying that I won’t read crime novels or any kind of fiction. There’s really nothing in the way of new thoughts in them. Just light entertainment fluff.

“But I do have one question I’m unable to find an answer to. You can’t really tell whether a book is significant or not until after you’ve read it. But there’s a huge number of books out there — you walk into a library and the shelves are lined with tens of thousands of books. Many of them have pretentious titles, even ones like Conversation with God, or Truth unveiled or All the secrets of life. In actual fact, however, you can read and read and still not come across any new thoughts. For every ten thousand there’s maybe only one significant book, but then my chances of stumbling across it are one in ten thousand too. What to do?”

“Well, I’m telling you: before starting to read anything, take a survey of how people live in various corners of the globe, take note of situations that appeal to you in their lifestyle, and then read their book, and ponder it.”

“But what if I don’t find anything appealing? All peoples have similar troubles. There are differences, sure, but in the main... Take the environment, for example — there’s nowhere in the world where it’s not going downhill.”

“Well, then, if you don’t find anything appealing, then give some thought on your own as to how to build a harmonious way of life, and when you come up with something, you’ll write a book about it yourself.”

‘All by myself? Without reading anything else?”

“You’re contradicting yourself, Vladimir! You were the one that said you can’t find any books worth reading, and behind those outrageous titles there’s only a proliferation of words without any sense, without any new thoughts. And at the same time you are doubting — you think you can’t be intelligent without reading a whole lot of rubbish. In any case I can tell you that every Man, right from birth, aspires to read the most important book — one whose language is distinct from printed letters — you remember: ‘The Divine language has fragrance and colour...’”6 “I understand.”

“So read and ponder what you’ve read.”

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