The talk began by one of those present asking: “Can it be said that man possesses IMMORTALITY?” Fragments: Two

“Immortality is one of the qualities we ascribe to people without having a sufficient understanding of their meaning,” said G. “Other qualities of this kind are ‘individuality,’ in the sense of an inner unity, a ‘permanent and unchangeable I,’ ‘consciousness,’ and ‘will.’ All these qualities can belong to man” (he emphasized the word “can”), “but this certainly does not mean that they do belong to him or belong to each and every one. Fragments: Two

“And only the man who possesses four fully developed bodies can be called a ‘man’ in the full sense of the word. This man possesses many properties which ordinary man does not possess. One of these properties is IMMORTALITY. All religions and all ancient teachings contain the idea that, by acquiring the fourth body, man acquires IMMORTALITY; and they all contain indications of the ways to acquire the fourth body, that is, IMMORTALITY. Fragments: Two

“The fourth room gives man IMMORTALITY and all religious teachings strive to show the way to it. There are a great many ways, some shorter and some longer, some harder and some easier, but all, without exception, lead or strive to lead in one direction, that is, to IMMORTALITY.” Fragments: Two

At the next meeting G. began where he had left off the time before. “I said last time,” he said, “that IMMORTALITY is not a property with which man is born. But man can acquire IMMORTALITY. All existing and generally known ways to IMMORTALITY can be divided into three categories: 1. The way of the fakir. Fragments: Two

“In order to grasp the essence of this teaching it is necessary clearly to understand the idea that the ways are the only possible methods for the development of man’s hidden possibilities. This in turn shows how difficult and rare such development is. The development of these possibilities is not a law. The law for man is existence in the circle of mechanical influences, the state of ‘man-machine.’ The way of the development of hidden possibilities is a way against nature, against God. This explains the difficulties and the exclusiveness of the ways. The ways are narrow and strait. But at the same time only by them can anything be attained. In the general mass of everyday life, especially modern life, the ways are a small, quite imperceptible phenomenon which, from the point of view of life, need not exist at all. But this small phenomenon contains in itself all that man has for the development of his hidden possibilities. The ways are opposed to everyday life, based upon other principles and subject to other laws. In this consists their power and their significance. In everyday life, even in a life filled with scientific, philosophical, religious, or social interests, there is nothing, and there can be nothing, which could give the possibilities which are contained in the ways. The ways lead, or should lead, man to IMMORTALITY. Everyday life, even at its best, leads man to death and can lead to nothing eke. The idea of the ways cannot be understood if the possibility of man’s evolution without their help is admitted. Fragments: Two

“Man number seven means a man who has reached the full development possible to man and who possesses everything a man can possess, that is, will, consciousness, permanent and unchangeable I, individuality, IMMORTALITY, and many other properties which, in our blindness and ignorance, we ascribe to ourselves. It is only when to a certain extent we understand man number seven and his properties that we can under­stand the gradual stages through which we can approach him, that is, understand the process of development possible for us. Fragments: Four

“This question has many different sides to it. First of all what does immortal mean? Are you speaking of absolute IMMORTALITY or do you admit different degrees? If for instance after the death of the body something remains which lives for some time preserving its consciousness, can this be called IMMORTALITY or not? Or let us put it this way: how long a period of such existence is necessary for it to be called IMMORTALITY? Then does this question include the possibility of a different ‘IMMORTALITY* for different people? And there are still many other different questions. I am saying this only in order to show how vague they are and how easily such words as ‘IMMORTALITY’ can lead to illusion. In actual fact nothing is immortal, even God is mortal. But there is a great difference between man and God, and, of course. God is mortal in a different way to man. It would be much better if for the word ‘IMMORTALITY’ we substitute the words ‘existence after death.’ Then I will answer that man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing. Fragments: Five

“This is ordinary man,” he said, “man number one, two, three, and four. He has only the physical body. The physical body dies and nothing is left of it. The physical body is composed of earthly material and at death it returns to earth. It is dust and to dust it returns. It is impossible to talk of any kind of ‘IMMORTALITY’ for a man of this sort. But if a man has the second body” (he placed the second body on the diagram parallel to the planets), “this second body is composed of material of the planetary world and it can survive the death of the physical body. It is not immortal in the full sense of the word, because after a certain period of time it also dies. But at any rate it does not die with the physical body. Fragments: Five

“For this it is necessary ‘to be’ If a man is changing every minute, if there is nothing in him that can withstand external influences, it means that there is nothing in him that can withstand death. But if he becomes independent of external influences, if there appears in him something that can live by itself, this something may not die. In ordinary circumstances we die every moment. External influences change and we change with them, that is, many of our I’s die. If a man develops in himself a per­manent I that can survive a change in external conditions, it can survive the death of the physical body. The whole secret is that one cannot work for a future life without working for this one. In working for life a man works for death, or rather, for IMMORTALITY. Therefore work for IMMORTALITY, if one may so call it, cannot be separated from general work. In attaining the one, a man attains the other. A man may strive to be simply for the sake of his own life’s interests. Through this alone he may become immortal. We do not speak specially of a future life and we do not study whether it exists or not, because the laws are everywhere the same. In studying his own life as he knows it, and the lives of other men, from birth to death, a man is studying all the laws which govern life and death and IMMORTALITY. If he becomes the master of his life, he may become the master of his death. Fragments: Six