A Continuation of the Commentary on Theologia Germanica, by the Frankfurter.
And like as the sun may not hide its brightness, but must give light unto the earth (for heaven indeed draws its light and heat from another fountain), so also God, who is the highest Good, wills not to hide himself from any, wheresoever he findeth a devout soul, that is thoroughly purified from all creatures. (Theologia Germanica)
A lot of people like to accuse God of “hiding” from or “abandoning” them. Shame!!! As Saint Paul assures us: “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (II Timothy 2:13). As Yogananda said once in a talk: “He never denies us; we deny him.” That is the truth.
It is God’s nature to draw us upward into His “throne,” into His perfect Being and Consciousness which He wills to share with us. That is why He told Abraham: “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1). And if we do not violate our nature as eternally existing in God, we will cooperate in rising to Him.
As the Frankforter says, God is looking for “a devout soul, that is thoroughly purified from all creatures,” one who is completely free from desire and attachment for things of either earth or heaven, intent instead on complete liberation of spirit. Krishna describes such a one in this way:
“Among those who are purified by their good deeds, there are four kinds of men who worship me: the world-weary, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for happiness and the man of spiritual discrimination. The man of discrimination is the highest of these. He is continually united with me. He devotes himself to me always, and to no other. For I am very dear to that man, and he is dear to me. Certainly, all these are noble: but the man of discrimination I see as my very Self. For he alone loves me because I am myself: the last and only goal of his devoted heart” (Bhagavad Gita 7:16-18).
For in what measure we put off the creature, in the same measure are we able to put on the Creator; neither more nor less. (Theologia Germanica)
Since the human being is really a god in embryonic form, it is possible for people to divest themselves of humanity and all forms of relative existence, even those of the highest worlds.
And the less a person is part of creation, the more he is assumed into the Being of the Creator. He does not become the Creator, but he “puts on” the Creator, being clothed in Divinity, sharing in the qualities and powers of God insofar as a finite being can do so.
That is why Saint Paul speaks of “putting on Christ.” (“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” Galatians 3:27.) It is the nature of every individual spirit (jiva) to attain divinity. “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law [Psalms 82:6], I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:34).
This was a teaching of original Christianity, and still is a teaching of authentic Christianity. As I explained to more than one missionary in India, the Hindus, Buddhists and Taoist are far more truly Christian than they are. That is why Jesus told of such people: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22, 23). Their religion itself is iniquity, not of Christ or God.
As Jesus further said to such false teachers who claim to be “winning souls for Christ”: “Woe unto you! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15).
For if mine eye is to see anything, it must be single, or else be purified from all other things. (Theologia Germanica)
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34).
Now the priest-knight brings it home to the individual, including himself. For anyone to experience union with God, the “eye” of the intellect, known in Sanskrit as the buddhi (intelligence factor of the mind), must be capable of that experience. The Greek word translated “eye” in the New Testament is ophthalmos, which means both the physical eye and the mental eye–the faculty of perception and knowledge. This faculty must be single: haplous, which means simple and single in the sense of whole–totally operational. One of the roots of haplous is pleko, which means gathered up into one. So the single eye is the same as the “one-pointed” mind of the adept yogi.
“When can a man be said to have achieved union with Brahman? When his mind is under perfect control and freed from all desires, so that he becomes absorbed in the Atman, and nothing else. ‘The light of a lamp does not flicker in a windless place’: that is the simile which describes a yogi of one-pointed mind, who meditates upon the Atman. Then he knows that infinite happiness which can be realized by the purified heart but is beyond the grasp of the senses. To achieve this certainty is to know the real meaning of the word yoga” (Bhagavad Gita 6:18, 19, 21, 23).
All “things” must be emptied from the mind in meditation, and most of the time outside meditation. Only the external awareness that is needed at the time of outer activity should be in the yogi’s consciousness at any time.
More from the Frankfurter:
- Seeing Our Spiritual Blindness That We Can Overcome It
- When Will Perfection Come for Us?
- How Can You Know God?