The Spiritual Worldview of Gregory Rasputin

The worldview of the elder Grigoriy is completely in line with the traditional ideas of the Russian people, embodied in the concept of "Holy Russia". The main thing in it is the understanding of love as the core of the universe, as an expression of God Himself. -

"Where there is love, there is God. God is Love." "Love is such a gold mine," writes Rasputin, "that no one can describe the price of it. It is more expensive than everything created by God Himself, no matter what was in the world, but only little people understand it. Although they understand love, but not as pure gold. Whoever understands this gold coin of love is a man so wise that he would teach Solomon himself. Many - we all talk about love."

"If you love, you will not kill anyone - all the commandments are obedient to love, there is greater wisdom in it than in Solomon."

Love is the greatest value, but it is only given to experienced people through suffering and trial. Love "dwells most of all in experienced people, but it will not come by itself to a man who is at peace and has a good life... God's chosen ones have perfect love, you can go and listen, they will tell not from a book, but from experience, so love does not come for nothing.

This is where the enemy interferes, trying in every way, as if a person does not capture love, and this is the most difficult thing for him, the enemy. After all, love is a kind of millionaire of spiritual life - there is not even an estimate. In general, love lives in exiles who have experienced everything, all kinds of things, and not everyone has pity.

It is even difficult to talk about love, it is necessary with the experienced, and those who have not been in the experience, it will turn it over in every way. In general, where there are a select few in spiritual conversations, they understand love more and talk according to the New Testament and live with one voice, one spirit. There is sincere love in them, and they pray together day and night for one another. They are the ones who have the treasure of love. Brothers, beware of your enemies, and sisters, think of the love of the pure gold coin.

Love, according to the starets' perception, must be active and concrete. One must love not everybody in general, but a concrete person, who is near you, in general, and every person, whom you meet. When the elder Grigoriy stopped wearing real chains on his body, he, in his expression, "found the chains of love. "I loved indiscriminately: I saw wanderers from the temple and with love I fed with whatever God would send me, I learned a little from them, I understood who was coming after the Lord".

In general, "Love is a great number," asserts the elder. "Prophecies will cease and knowledge will be silenced, but love will never cease.

An important part of the spiritual views of Elder Gregory is the desire to live according to conscience, as commanded by Holy Scripture and the lives of the saints. "One must examine and examine oneself everywhere and everywhere. Each of your actions should be measured against your conscience. Such a view also corresponds to the spiritual values of Holy Russia. "No matter how wise, but the conscience does not overthink", "Conscience with a hammer: both tapping and eavesdropping" - these are folk proverbs. Rasputin said: "Conscience is a wave, but no matter what waves are on the sea, they will subside, and conscience is only extinguished by a good deed.

To achieve salvation, you need "only humiliation and love - that is the joy of it. In mental simplicity there is great richness and a guarantee of salvation. "One must always humble oneself in dress and consider oneself low, but not in words, but in spirit indeed. Diamonds are also God's creatures and gold is the ornament of the Queen of Heaven, beads are revered, but one must only be able to keep them. We clothe ourselves in pearls-we make ourselves above the cities, we raise our spirits, and a vice of pride and defiance to all things is born... It is not necessary to seek honor and learning, but to watch and seek the Lord, and all scholars will listen to thy verb or thy utterance."

The Elder tells how many times he had to be with the bishops, who wanted to test his faith and put to shame a simple uneducated peasant. You come with a broken soul and a humble heart - their teaching remains nothing, and they listen to your simple words, because you do not come with a simple spirit, but from the grace of God. You will utter one word, and they will paint you a whole picture. Although they want to try and look for something, but you as not with simple words, i.e. in fear - that's when their lips stop and they cannot contradict.

Spiritual simplicity must be combined with one more of the most important spiritual values of Holy Russia - nestizhastnost, lack of self-interest, the desire to acquire. "If you will not seek self-interest anywhere and will strive as if to console, call on the Lord spiritually, - the elder teaches, - then demons will be aroused by you, and the sick will get well, if only to do everything not for the vile self-interest. But if you search for some cases for your belly, for glory, for greed, you will get neither here nor there, i.e. neither heavenly nor earthly things... If you acquire for yourself, you will adorn neither the temple nor yourself, and you will be a living dead man, as the Gospel says.

Worldly, domestic, economic basis of Holy Russia, which gave it a social stability, was the attitude to work as a virtue. Labor for the Russian person was not reduced to a set of actions or skills, but was seen as a manifestation of spiritual life, a moral act, a God-pleasing thing, and diligence was a characteristic expression of spirituality. What Gregory teaches is fully consistent with these views, and he especially exalts peasant labor (he himself did not stop working in his household until the end of his life, although he had every opportunity not to do so).

"The Tsar himself lives as a peasant, and the laborers eat from his hands, and all the birds use the peasant, even the mouse - and he eats it, every breath praises the Lord, and all the prayers are for the peasant... The great, great is the peasant before the Lord, he understands no balls, he seldom goes to the theater, he only remembers: The Lord himself gave and commanded it to us - God's workman! Instead of organs, he has a scythe in his hand; Instead of amusements, a plow at his heart: Instead of a lush robe, some stiff harness; Instead of a troika, a tired horse. He rides and remembers from his heart to the Lord, "Take me from this valley to your refuge or to the city." That's where Christ is on him! And he himself walks with tears. Here he is with Christ, and there he has long been in Paradise, i.e., he has prepared the Harvest of God.

The system of spiritual values of Holy Russia was crowned and harmonized with the idea of royalty. The image of the Tsar personified the homeland, the Fatherland. "In the Motherland", - writes the Elder, - "one must love his fatherland and in it the Tsar, God's Anointed. The true power of the people, in his opinion, is in the idea of royal authority. The king is the most perfect expression of the people's mind, the people's conscience, the people's will.