Question: You speak of immortality as of mergence with God, but Gurdjieff told that immortality is achieved through crystallization of consciousness. How is this correlated?

Answer: First of all, I am expounding not only my own point of view. Krishna dealt with it in detail. The ultimate immortality can be reached through stable Nirvana in Brahman.

But one of the stages toward it is crystallization of consciousness, which ensures, so to say, not the absolute, but relative, immortality — that is, the possibility to be active during one’s life in between incarnations. Gurdjieff in his last incarnation was not aware of the higher abilities of man, so he did not speak about this.

Relativity of “Gurdjieff’s” immortality consists also in the fact that crystallization not necessarily leads to spiritual progress. Crystallization in coarse states of consciousness leads not to God, but away from Him, transforming people to devils.

At the “end of the world”, those who performed crystallization incorrectly, as well as those who have not attained Nirvana at least in Brahman, are destroyed. Those who have attained it acquire the eternal life (that is, true immortality) in God.