The Lord was standing by the sea; the multitudes were there and one stood forth and said, Does God bestow rewards as men bestow rewards, for what is done?
And Jesus said, Men never know what other men have done, this life is such a seeming life. One man may seem to do a mighty work, and be adjudged by men as worthy of a great reward. Another man may seem to be a failure in the harvest fields of life, and be dishonored in the face of men.
Men do not know the hearts of men; God only knows the hearts of men, and when the day is done he may reward with life the man who fell beneath the burdens of the day, and turn away the man who was the idol of the hearts of men. (Aquarian Gospel 143:1-6)
Karma is the law. Everything is determined by it. It is our mistaken ideas that cause us to believe that God is a cosmic arbitrator, that all is in a sense God’s judgment and action. Instead the universe is a great reactor, and we determine its response. We create our life through the karma we create. The most important aspect of karma is the fact that it is determined by our minds. Buddha emphasized this continually. Therefore Jesus insists that the heart of the human being determines his destiny. We are always the masters of our fate.
And then he spoke a parable; he said, The kingdom of the soul is like a man who had a vast estate. And in the morning time he went down to the market place to search for men to gather in his grain. He found three men, and he agreed to give to each a penny for his service for the day, and sent them to his field. Again he went down to the market place the third hour of the day and found five men in waiting, and he said, Go down into my field and serve, and I will pay you what is right; and they went down and served. He went again; it was the sixth hour of the day, and seven men were waiting at the stand; he sent them to the field to serve. And at the eleventh hour he went again; twelve men stood there in seeming idleness; he said to them, Why stand you here in idleness all day? They said, Because we have no work to do; no man has hired us. And then he sent them to his field to serve. Now, when the evening came the man said to his steward, Call the laborers from the field, and pay each for his services. And all were paid, and each received a penny for his hire. Now, when the twelve, who served but from the eleventh hour, received each one penny for his hire, the three were sore aggrieved; they said, These twelve have served but one short hour, and now they have an equal share with us who have toiled through the scorching hours of day; should we not have at least two pennies for our hire? The man replied, My friends, I do no wrong to you. Did we not have a fast agreement when you went to work? Have I not paid in full? What is it unto you if I should pay these men a smaller or a larger sum? Take that which is your own and go your way, for I will give unto the twelve what I will give unto the three, the five, the seven. They did their best and you could do no more than do your best. The hire of man is based upon the intent of the heart. (Aquarian Gospel 143:7-21)
Everything is disposed according to the ways of the heart.
As Jesus taught, a Pharisee came up and said, Lord, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? And Jesus said, You ought to know; what says the law? The Pharisee replied, The law provides that man may be divorced, may put away his wife. And Jesus said, The hardness of the hearts of men induced the giver of the law to make provisions such as these; but from the first it was not so. God made a woman for a man, and they were one; and afterwards he said, A man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; they are no more divided; they are one, one flesh. What God has joined no man can part. (Aquarian Gospel 143:22-27)
Man’s law, including those of religion, is almost always different from God’s law, therefore we must be very careful as to what we assume is allowed or prohibited. Our intuition must reveal to us the higher purposes of God, and not those of ourselves.
Now, when they went up to the house, a man made free to ask again about this matter of divorce. And Jesus said again what to the Pharisee he said; and then he gave the higher law of marriage life: Whoever puts away his wife, except she be a courtesan, and then shall take another wife, commits adultery. The woman who shall leave a man, unless he be a libertine and an adulterer, and then becomes the wife of any other man, commits adultery. (Aquarian Gospel 143:28-31)
This is a very high ideal, but what is the desire to be a disciple of Jesus and his Father but the highest possible ideal? We must be those who will to do the highest and the best. Once a Western missionary could not understand the sacrifices a devout Indian woman was making for her religion, and challenged her. She simply and gently replied: “Only the best for my God.” If we are not the best by the standards of Christ and God how can we ever be theirs?
And Thomas asked, What is adultery?
And Jesus said, The man who harbors lustful thoughts, who covets any woman not his wife, is an adulterer. The wife who harbors lustful thoughts, and covets any man who is not wed to her, is not her husband, is a courtesan. Men cannot make a law to bind two hearts. When two are bound in love they have no thought of lust. The woman cannot leave the man; the man has no desire to send his wife away. When men and women harbor lustful thoughts, and covet any other flesh, they are not one, not joined by God. (Aquarian Gospel 143:32-37)
This is extremely clear and extremely discomfiting to those who either will not or cannot conform to this ideal. Interestingly, monastics find this very easy to comprehend and have no problem with the high ideal of marriage that Jesus consistently sets forth in the Aquarian Gospel. In fact that alone is acceptable to them. The essence of this passage is in two principles:
1) Men cannot make a law to bind two hearts. Marriage is not a matter of human law, but divine law. Nor can religion create marriage laws. This God alone can do, and has done from the beginning of the human race. Only the seekers for God have the capacity to understand the true and high nature of marriage. Anyone can comprehend the animalistic wallow of adultery, and most prefer it.
2) When two are bound in love they have no thought of lust. Love and lust are incompatible. “The sanctified pleasures of marriage” are a blasphemous myth, denying the nature of God and man. No one can love someone and feel sexual desire for them. The idea that sex is an expression of love is outrageous. It is like saying that war is the ideal and expression of peace. See the misery that comes from humanity being continually trapped in and through sex. Sex is a total denial of the Self, a destroyer of higher consciousness in any form. It is a form of aggression and essentially violent. Any clear-sighted observer can see that is true. Saint Gregory the Great said that it was impossible to engage in sexual relations without committing the sin of concupiscence.
The words of Jesus in several places of the Aquarian Gospel make this clear. Either we follow them or we do not. And there the matter ends.
And Philip said, Lord, are there few that God has joined in holy marriage bonds? And Jesus said, God knows the pure in heart; the lustful men and women are but creatures of the lustful self; they cannot be at one; nor can they be at one with God. (Aquarian Gospel 143:38, 39)
Then we can clearly see that sex renders the very purpose of human life, union with God, impossible. Nothing else can truthfully be said. Just as Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup, so a human being sells his soul for sex: turns away from God and seizes animal lust.
Nathaniel said, Is it not well that all men should refrain from taking on themselves the marriage vow? And Jesus said, Men are not pure because they are unmarried men. The man who lusts is an adulterer if he has wife or not. (Aquarian Gospel 143:40, 41)
This is also true and must be faced by the unmarried, and especially the monastics
And then he said to all, Some things men know by being told, while other things they know not till the gate of consciousness shall open up for them. (Aquarian Gospel 143:42)
A worthy teacher shows the way to open the gate of consciousness and then waits for the aspirant to do the needful. And there are others who one day just know without being told the true facts of life. But in all cases, until the necessary level of evolution, of consciousness, is reached there is no possibility of higher knowledge coming to anyone.
I speak a mystery that now you cannot understand; but you shall some day understand. A eunuch is a man who does not lust; some men are eunuchs born, some are eunuchs by the power of men, and some are eunuchs by the Holy Breath, who makes them free in God through Christ. He who is able to receive the truth I speak, let him receive. (Aquarian Gospel 143:43-45)
One who does not understand cannot really receive what Jesus is teaching, and such a one is not censured by Jesus who understands that consciousness must open before these vital principles can really be grasped. But he knows that all shall come to this point, so there is no need for anxiety. We must follow his example if we would be wise.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis