Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Gurdjieff’s Words Illumine Salzmanino
Chapter XXXV, page 659
“Very good, your Reverence, I will think out how it may be possible to carry out your desire. I do not know just what obstacles there were then for the captain of the ship Omnipresent, but in the present case, on the direct route between the holy planet Purgatory and the planet Deskaldino, there lies the solar system called Salzmanino, in which there are many of those cosmic concentrations which, for purposes of the general cosmic Trogoautoegocratic process, are predetermined for the transformation and radiation of the substances Zilnotrago; and therefore the direct falling of our ship Karnak, unhindered, through this system, will scarcely be possible. In any case, I will try in one way or another to satisfy the desire expressed by your Reverence.” [Emphasis added.]
Chapter III, pages 56–58
The captain soon afterward entered and having performed before Beelzebub all the ceremonies appropriate to Beelzebub’s rank, said:
“Your Right Reverence, allow me to ask your authoritative opinion upon an ‘inevitability’ that lies in the line of our course, and which will hinder our smooth falling by the shortest route.
“The point is that if we follow our intended course, then our ship, after two ‘Kilprenos’ * will pass through the solar system ‘Vuanik.’
“But just through where our ship must pass, there must also pass, about a ‘Kilpreno’ before, the great comet belonging to that solar system and named ‘Sakoor,’ or, as it is sometimes called, the ‘Madcap.’
“So if we keep to our proposed course, we must inevitably traverse the space through which this comet will have to pass.
“Your Right Reverence of course knows that this ‘Madcap’ comet always leaves in its track a great deal of ‘Zilnotrago’ † which on entering the planetary body of a being disorganizes most of its functions until all the ‘Zilnotrago’ is volatilized out of it.
“I thought at first,” continued the captain, “of avoiding the ‘Zilnotrago’ by steering the ship around these spheres, but for this a long detour would be necessary which would greatly lengthen the time of our passage. On the other hand, to wait somewhere until the ‘Zilnotrago’ is dispersed would take still longer.
“In view of the sharp distinction in the alternatives before us, I cannot myself decide what to do, and so I have ventured to trouble you, your Right Reverence, for your competent advice.”
The captain having finished speaking, Beelzebub thought a little and then said as follows:
“Really, I do not know how to advise you, my dear Captain. Ah, yes …in that solar system where I existed for a long time, there is a planet called Earth. On that planet Earth arose, and still continue to arise, very strange three-centered beings. And among the beings of a continent of that planet called ‘Asia,’ there arose and existed a very wise three-brained being whom they called there ‘Mullah Nassr Eddin.’
“For each and every peculiar situation great and small in the existence of the beings there,” Beelzebub continued, “this same terrestrial sage Mullah Nassr Eddin had an apt and pithy saying.
“As all his sayings were full of the sense of truth for existence there, I also always used them there as a guide, in order to have a comfortable existence among the beings of that planet.
“And in the given case too, my dear Captain, I intend to profit by one of his wise sayings.
“In such a situation as has befallen us, he would probably say:
“ ‘You cannot jump over your knees and it is absurd to try to kiss your own elbow.’
“I now say the same to you, and I add: there is nothing to be done; when an event is impending which arises from forces immeasurably greater than our own, one must submit.
“The only question is, which of the alternatives you mentioned should be chosen—that is, to wait somewhere or to add to our journey by a ‘detour.’
“You say that to make a detour will greatly lengthen our journey but that waiting will take still longer.
“Good, my dear Captain. Suppose that by making the detour we should save a little time, what do you think: Is the wear and tear of the parts of our ship’s machinery worth while for the sake of ending our journey a little sooner?
“If the detour should involve even the most trifling damage to our ship, then in my opinion we ought to prefer your second suggestion, that is, to stop somewhere until the path is cleared of the noxious ‘Zilnotrago.’ By that means we should spare our ship useless damage.
“And we will try to fill the period of this unforeseen delay with something useful for us all.
*The word “Kilpreno” in the language of Beelzebub means a certain period of time, equal approximately to the duration of the flow of time which we call an “hour.”
† The word “Zilnotrago” is the name of a special gas similar to what we call “cyanic acid.”
Chapter XLVII, pages 1178–79
When Beelzebub, now with a transfigured appearance corresponding to His merits and visible to all, had occupied His usual place, Ahoon, His old servant who had been close to Him during almost the whole of His existence, unexpectedly fell prostrate before Him and in a sincerely entreating voice began to speak:
“Sacred Podkoolad of our Great Megalocosmos! Have mercy upon me and pardon me, an unfortunate ordinary three-centered being, for my past disrespectful manifestations, voluntary and involuntary, towards Your Sacred Essence.
“Have mercy and pardon me: just this three-centered being, who, though he has existed a very long time, yet to his misfortune—only because in his preparatory age nobody aided the crystallization in him of the data for the ability of intensively actualizing being-Partkdolg-duty—had until now been so shortsighted that he had been unable to sense the reality present beneath an exterior with which, according to the common-cosmic Trogoautoegocrat, all those existing and newly arising units of the Megalocosmos are coated, who ought to have in their presence that sacred ‘something’ which is called Reason.”
Having said this, Ahoon stood as if sunk in a stupor of silent expectancy.
And Beelzebub, also in silence, gazed at him with a look which though perceived externally from without, was full of love and forgiveness, yet there could be felt in it also His Essence-grief and inevitable resignation. 