Brothers and sisters, Bapak will continue his talk as he promised you. In truth, for you who have received the latihan, talks do not really need to come first. For listening to many talks at the expense of doing latihan will not clean your thinking but instead will add to it, so you will have more things to think about. But since Bapak has already promised you, he has no choice but to go on with this talk.

And Bapak asks you all not to think too much about what he is going to say. Just listen to it. In fact, as far as you can, you should surrender to God and empty your thinking mind and your heart, so that the purification going on within you can proceed easily.

Bapak has repeatedly told you that the most important thing for all of you is to feel patient. This feeling of patience is not for your everyday needs – that is, for the needs of your everyday life that you have to think about and pay attention to – but a feeling of patience towards the power of God. What this means is patience in receiving, and the patience to wait: not being in a hurry, and not being pushed by your desires into wanting to receive quickly what you hope for and to understand quickly everything you receive.

Also, as far as possible, you should not compare or match what Bapak says against things you have heard or studied. Do not do that, because that would add to your thinking and could make you confused, causing you to be carried away by useless and chaotic thoughts. The result of that would of course be that you receive nothing, but instead confuse your family and other people.

Do not worry that, if you do not think about it and do not ponder on it deeply, it will disappear or you will end up not understanding it. You need to remember what Bapak has told you over and over again about the lives of the messengers of God, the prophets who lived long ago. And the same thing applies also to Bapak himself; Bapak never studied spiritual teachings, he just received patiently. He received everything step by step until he reached a stage where he could spontaneously understand. That is how it was with the messengers and prophets long ago: they did not study anything; they just surrendered to God. And with their surrender, their patience, acceptance and willingness to let go, they were able to receive everything they received.

For knowledge from God or understanding from God is like a tree that you plant. The tree grows by itself, and once it has grown, suddenly flowers appear and then fruit. That is how it works. So there is no point in you thinking about it before you flower and before you bear fruit, for your individuality is like a new tree that has just been planted. Not only its branches, but also its trunk is still thin. So if you were to receive – suppose that God gave you flowers and fruit and leaves – you would fall over, because you have no strength yet, your individuality does not yet have the capacity to receive that.

Bapak did have a guru once, brothers and sisters, before he received the latihan. In fact more than one: he had quite a few before 1930, before his receiving in 1932. Among them there was one whose teaching came from Egypt; another’s was from Persia, referred to in Islam as the Naqshbandi – they were dervishes or Sufis. Nothing that Bapak got from them was of any use, because what these gurus taught boiled down to trying to find where God is located and how to look for God. Whereas it is even said in Islam that human beings cannot look for God; God cannot be found through human thought, because God has no time, no abode, no colour and no form; God has no language and no nationality. God preceded everything that was in the beginning – so even what came first was preceded by God – and God will end everything that comes at the end. God is outside, beyond everything that is on the outside, and God is deeper than everything within. This is what the prophets have said.

So, human beings with their thinking minds cannot possibly find God; especially not today’s human beings, who look human but whose souls may not be human. In the early days it was still fresh – they were still complete, still clear – and even so they were not able to find God unless God showed them how. And the way God shows something is not in the way one person shows another. The way God guides and informs a person so that they can see God’s power, is by manifesting in that person’s seeing. To enable a person to hear the voice of God’s power, God or God’s power manifests in the hearing of that person; and that applies to the whole of a person’s body, all the way to their soul.

This is the point, brothers and sisters: a human being certainly cannot do that. How could one person inform another by manifesting within them? The person who is doing the teaching would disappear in that instant.

That is why you need to reflect. If you are still asking, ‘What, more or less, is God like? Is God like this or like that?’ the question shows that you have not yet known God’s power at all. This is because for anyone who has known God – who, through God’s grace, has become acquainted with God’s power – there are no more questions, for all the knowledge that is in their brain has been filled with God’s power. The result is that they understand the nature and the atmosphere of what exists beyond this world, beyond what human beings are accustomed to.

And even if a person has reached that level, that stage where everything within them is complete, they still have their nature, their outer nature – the nature of their body with its form, with its flesh and bones that give them their human appearance – because they are formed from the food they eat. Therefore, no matter what that person may be like, even if they have been united with God’s power, that power within them is limited by their human nature, because their whole body consists of things that originate in this world and can be damaged. Do not imagine that when someone is close to God and everything within them has been filled with God’s power, that they will be like Almighty God, that they will have power and be able to destroy the world. They cannot do that.

Human beings remain human beings; unless they are no longer human beings – that is another matter. You have already heard this because it is confirmed in all the holy books. Although God’s full power inspired Christ and dwelt within him – so one could say that Christ was God, God Jesus – because Jesus had a human body he could easily be crucified. And having been crucified, he died. And he also bled.

It is the same with the prophets Abraham, Muhammad and Moses. Even though they were inspired, even though they were filled with God’s full power, because they were human they were still vulnerable like all of you. That is why, no matter what, Abraham, Moses, Muhammad, Noah, David and the others, all died in the end. They died, just like us. What did not die was their soul.

So, it is very important for you to understand that suppose – just suppose, brothers and sisters – you were able really to receive what Bapak has been talking about, it would not be right for you then to claim to be God. No. Nor would you be fully like God, one hundred per cent. No. You would not have the power to destroy this world nor to create this world. You would remain a human being, who can become sick and who can die.

Certainly there would be a difference between you and other people. What would be different would be your state. But as regards getting sick and dying, you would be the same. So a person who has received the full grace of God would still get sick and die.

Just as an example, if you were to ask: Bapak also still gets sick and can die – and will die one day, he doesn’t know when. Do not imagine that Bapak never gets sick. Oh, he gets sick, just not like you. Bapak’s illness is like … well, it is an illness, but there is a purpose to it. And he will also die eventually. He does not know when, so he just surrenders that to God. He does not think to himself, ‘I don’t want to die before I reach this age.’ No, that is up to God. If God lets Bapak live to a hundred, that is up to God; or if he lives just to seventy, that too he surrenders to God.

A clear difference Bapak has experienced for himself – he doesn’t know if you will believe it or not, that’s up to you, but Bapak has experienced it even though he doesn’t understand it – is that people always love him. Bapak is talking about affection, not romance. They love Bapak because they feel as if they are of one soul and one feeling with him. Not just in Indonesia; here and everywhere.

What is the reason for that? It is because – as Bapak said – God has cleaned out all the dirt in Bapak and has united God’s essence with what is within him, with the result that whoever sees him or is close to him, it is as if they are seeing or close to God’s power. It is like that. But do not take this to mean that Bapak is God. No! Bapak is just Bapak, that is all. So do not say that he is this or that prophet, or God. Do not do that. He is just Bapak, Bapak Muhammad Subuh. That is enough. The name Muhammad Subuh is enough for him; not more and not less.

And Bapak has no feelings of dislike. None at all. Bapak regards no one as his enemy. And this does not apply only to people but even to satanic beings, about whom people generally say, ‘A‘udhu bi’l-Lahi mina ’sh-shaitani ’r-rajim’[Arab.], which means, ‘Oh, God, keep away the accursed satan’. Bapak does not dislike them. And because he does not dislike them they come; yes, and it doesn’t matter. As a result they do not bother Bapak in the least, whereas many of you are bothered by them. They do not disturb Bapak because he does not hate them. That is the reason why it is not Bapak who looks for his sustenance but his sustenance looks for Bapak.

There are many signs, brothers and sisters. The members in London have maybe witnessed them. And so have the members in America and South America, if they are willing to bear witness and willing to believe it. It happened that in a place where it never rains, the night before Bapak arrived, there was heavy rainfall. As a result, Bapak’s arrival the next morning was celebrated by everyone in town, because they were so happy to have some rain.

A similar thing happened once when Bapak was coming here, to Switzerland. Before he came Mrs Häfeli said, ‘Bapak, don’t come to Switzerland, because everywhere is very icy. If Bapak came here tomorrow, what would we do? Bapak would not be able to come to my house because of all the ice.’

‘Oh, no. I have already promised; I shall come tomorrow.’

That night there was a heavy rain in Switzerland. When Bapak arrived, everything was clean. There was no ice.

These are signs that Subud members have experienced. Mr Bennett himself says that Bapak always carries the sun in his bag, so that if he arrives in a place where the weather is bad, it changes and becomes good. That’s what he says. So it is not only people, and not only Subud members who love Bapak. The ice and the rain love him too.

That is the difference between someone who has been purified and those who are not yet fully purified. It was the same with the prophets and with Jesus Christ when they were alive. People always loved Jesus. Well, of course there are always exceptions, among a thousand people who loved him there would be one who hated him, because that is how people are. They are like that because they still have a human body.

So do not imagine that someone who has become united with God’s power will have God’s authority. No. While they are in this world their authority will be that of a person. For example, if they have money they can get around; if they don’t have any money, they cannot. It will be quite different later, when they have left this world and returned to their own world, which is where they really belong. That is why Jesus said, ‘One day I shall return to my kingdom. There I have authority.’

That is also why Bapak is not upset or surprised if there are people who do not like him, because that is normal. And Bapak does not regard such people as his enemies, nor does it make him uncomfortable. No. He accepts it as something normal; that is how people are.

Brothers and sisters, Bapak has been telling you all this to explain what it means when the individuality of a human being is truly united with God’s power. Now as far as your purification is concerned – if one were to test it spiritually – there is still a lot you have to do, and a lot you have to receive, before you reach the level of perfection where you are one hundred per cent pure inwardly. You certainly do not suspect this, because you are not aware that taking all the parts of your being one by one, only about five per cent belongs to you. The other ninety-five per cent belongs to the material level, the vegetable level and the animal level. So how could you receive a command from God – a command in the sense of some knowledge or words or something said – in short, some knowledge or understanding from God? For your ear is not yet completely full of you, it is still full of forces below you. God, who is All-knowing and All-wise, will not give you something when your ear is still not yet complete.

Another thing that Bapak has experienced – you don’t need to believe this either, just listen to it – if a person here wants food, they can pick it up and eat it. But it is different in heaven; the food in heaven is alive. So if you are not alive yet, you cannot eat in heaven. For example, here is some of the food in heaven; you want to eat it, and it goes like this [Bapak shows the food escaping from him]. That is what food in heaven is like.

Therefore be careful. Have faith in God so that God may guide you to be able to eat in heaven in the way Jesus Christ wanted you to: the food coming to you, not you having to come to the food.

If what Bapak is saying is not true, then what Christ said is not true either, nor what Prophet Muhammad said. Because Christ said the same thing and Prophet Muhammad said the same thing; and so did the other prophets. So there is some corroboration.

When you put on a piece of clothing here – you have bought it and you put it on, like this [Bapak demonstrates] – that is here. But in heaven, it is alive. You want to put it on, you pick it up and … [Bapak demonstrates]. Yes, you pick it up and it escapes; you pick it up again and it escapes.

That is just about clothing and food, not yet those things that want to get their own back because you used them in this world. For instance, you don’t like to have a meal without meat. And the meat comes from a cow. The cow certainly feels, ‘Ay! This person is eating my flesh. Very well! Later, when we are over there, I will gore them.’ But you have eaten at least a hundred cows in your life, so you will be gored by at least a hundred cows – like the matadors in Italy.

That is just the cows, not yet all the other things. If we went through them all, there are … wow, a lot of things that are hostile to people. But in reality it should not be so, brothers and sisters. The cow that a person eats actually prays to God that it should be eaten by a person rather than just dying by itself. That is because the heaven of cattle, the heaven of animals, the heaven of plants and the heaven of material things, is with people.

But what kind of people? That is the question. This is why it is so necessary for you to be cleaned by the power of God that is within you. Once your individuality has been cleaned and prepared and guided, all these things will no longer want to take revenge, but instead will pray that you may quickly go to heaven.

If Bapak talks about these things it will take a very long time. Therefore let Bapak now do some tests, so that you can know. Those of you who can feel and receive will certainly receive ‘yes’; but if some of you cannot receive yet, it does not matter.

Bapak will test with you, so let us be quiet for a moment. Yes, begin … just sitting down; you don’t need to stand.

[Testing, not recorded.]

Brothers and sisters, I will end my talk here. And because tomorrow morning Bapak is going to leave Switzerland, and continue his trip to Vienna and beyond, he will be leaving you. He would therefore like to pray that after he has gone you will be well, and will always receive God’s protection.

And Bapak does not forget to say thank you very much to all of you who have given him your care and attention; and especially to Mr Bissing and his wife and family, who have provided a pleasant and comfortable home for Bapak and his party. Bapak thanks them very much once again, and he simply prays that their goodness and hospitality will be repaid in equal measure by the power of Almighty God.

Once again Bapak says, merci beaucoup.