In the Temple
“Again the great feast [of Passover] in Jerusalem was on, and Joseph, Mary and their son were there. The child was twelve years old. And there were Jews and proselytes from many countries in Jerusalem. And Jesus sat among the priests and doctors in the temple hall” (Aquarian Gospel 19:1-3).
Being the son of a Temple virgin and himself having lived in the Temple for a year, Jesus was able to sit among the spiritual notables of the land.
Reading this reminded me of my childhood habit of keeping company with the ministers of the church I was raised in so I could ask them questions about our feeble theology which, since I was totally ignorant, was mostly beyond me. (Until I began reading on my own and then discovered that our ministers really knew very little of the official doctrine, but were glorified Sunday School teachers.) Later, when I had transferred to a more conservative branch of that church, things were quite different and I learned a great deal. Best of all was staying close to the ministers during week-long events. Each night when all the laity were asleep they would literally “talk shop.” One night always spontaneously developed into the best Fright Night(s) of my life when they began swapping their experiences with exorcism and evil spirits. Terrifying but wonderful! It was practical, too, because they often pointed out how a person could unintentionally become susceptible to demonic influence. I still remember many of their stories and still find them chilling.
Jesus was not thinking of such things, but of vaster and therefore more serious subjects as we now see.
Isaiah
“And Jesus opened up a book of prophecy and read: Woe, woe to Ariel, the town where David dwelt! I will dismantle Ariel, and she shall groan and weep: and I will camp against her round about with hostile posts; and I will bring her low and she shall speak out of the earth; with muffled voice like a familiar spirit shall she speak; yea she shall only whisper forth her speech; and foes unnumbered, like the grains of dust, shall come upon her suddenly.
“The Lord of Hosts will visit her with thunder and with tempest, and with storm; with earthquake, and with devouring flames. Lo, all these people have deserted me. They draw to me with speech, and with their lips they honor me; their hearts are far removed from me; their fear for me is that inspired by man. And I will breathe upon my people, Israel; the wisdom of their wise men shall be lost; the understanding of their prudent men shall not be found.
“My people seek to hide their counsel from the Lord, so that their works may not be seen. They fain would cover up their works with darkness of the night, and say, Who sees us now? Who knows us now? Poor, foolish men! shall that which has been made say of its maker, He is naught, I made myself? Or shall the pot speak out and say to him, who made the pot, You have no skill; you do not know?
“But this will not forever be; the time will come when Lebanon will be a fruitful field, and fruitful fields will be transformed to groves. And on that day the deaf will hear the words of God; the blind will read the Book of God’s Remembrance. And suffering ones will be relieved, and they will have abundant joy; and every one that needs will be supplied; and it will come to pass that all the foolish will be wise. The people will return and sanctify the Holy One, and in their heart of hearts, lo, they will reverence him” (Aquarian Gospel 19:4-18).
Though not exactly like the Hebrew or Greek (Septuagint) texts, what Levi Dowling perceived was certainly to the point and really needs no comment of mine.
Explanation
“When Jesus had thus read he put aside the book and said, You masters of the law, will you make plain for us the prophet’s words? Now, Hillel sat among the masters of the law, and he stood forth and said, Perhaps our young rabboni who has read the word will be interpreter.
“And Jesus said, The Ariel of the prophet is our own Jerusalem. By selfishness and cruelty this people has become a stench unto the Elohim. The prophet saw these days from far, and of these times he wrote.
“Our doctors, lawyers, priests and scribes oppress the poor, while they themselves in luxury live. The sacrifices and the offerings of Israel are but abomination unto God. The only sacrifice that God requires is self. Because of this injustice and this cruelty of man to man, the Holy One has spoken of this commonwealth: Lo, I will overturn, yes, I will overturn, it shall be overturned, and it shall be no more until he comes whose right it is and I will give it unto him.
“In all the world there is one law of right, and he who breaks that law will suffer grief; for God is just. And Israel has gone far astray; has not regarded justice, nor the rights of man, and God demands that Israel shall reform, and turn again to ways of holiness. And if our people will not hear the voice of God, lo, nations from afar will come and sack Jerusalem, and tear our temple down, and take our people captive into foreign lands.
“But this will not forever be; though they be scattered far and wide, and wander here and there among the nations of the earth, like sheep that have no shepherd guide. The time will come when God will bring again the captive hosts; for Israel shall return and dwell in peace. And after many years our temple shall be built again, and one whom God will honor, one in whom the pure in heart delights will come and glorify the house of God, and reign in righteousness” (Aquarian Gospel 19:19-33).
We should look at some of these things.
By selfishness and cruelty this people has become a stench unto the Elohim.…The sacrifices and the offerings of Israel are but abomination unto God. The Elohim, the Creator-Mothers, made all the forms of life needed for inhabiting spirits to evolve, moving up the evolutionary ladder from life to life. For human beings to kill and eat any of these forms is a terrible crime against the Divine Purpose. As Saint Paul wrote: “Destroy not the work of God for food” (Romans 14:20). To commit this evil under the guise of worshipping God is truly abominable. All who wish to attain higher consciousness must take this very seriously. Abstinence from animal food is a foundation stone of conscious spiritual life–especially of yoga.
The only sacrifice that God requires is self. Here the word “self” means the ego. That alone should be slain and burnt in spiritual offering to God.
In all the world there is one law of right, and he who breaks that law will suffer grief. The one universal law is that of karma: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7, 8). Those who transgress that law through ego, ignorance, malice or conscious evil shall indeed suffer grief–not as punishment, but as simple reaction in kind. The cosmos is a mirror and karma is a reflection of that mirror. There is no living outside the law for either sinner or saint. There is no partiality or favoritism with God: “My face is equal to all creation, loving no one nor hating any” (Bhagavad Gita 9:29). God cannot be influenced by human beings: “The Lord is everywhere and always perfect: what does He care for man’s sin or the righteousness of man?” (Bhagavad Gita 5:15). It is up to us whether we will suffer or not.
If our people will not hear the voice of God, lo, nations from afar will come and sack Jerusalem, and tear our temple down, and take our people captive into foreign lands. Fifty-eight years later this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled exactly.
The time will come when God will bring again the captive hosts; for Israel shall return and dwell in peace. When Levi Dowling received these psychic impressions no one could have dreamed that the State of Israel would one day exist, but it does and shall continue despite the threats and assaults of the enemies of righteousness. Those who hate Israel and demand its annihilation are simply the agents of Satan who dread the return of Jesus for the second time as the Messiah who will be accepted, as written about earlier. The time of peace shall come, and who can say if some of us will see It?
And after many years our temple shall be built again, and one whom God will honor, one in whom the pure in heart delights will come and glorify the house of God, and reign in righteousness. So it shall be; and everyone who purifies his heart and life is preparing for that advent.
Acclamation
“When Jesus had thus said, he stepped aside, and all the people were amazed and said, This surely is the Christ” (Aquarian Gospel 19:34).
It is a long-standing practice to dismiss “the common people” as uncomprehending and insignificant, but we see over and over that they are able to see and understand saints better than the religious “aristocracy” does. “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25). “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (I Corinthians 1:27). For some reason this is especially true in the case of appearances of the Virgin Mary. The simple intuit the presence of their Mother and flock to see her, but the “wise” remain no better than wood or stone.
Once again we see that the people of Israel recognized Jesus as Messiah for many years.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: Jerusalem to Nazareth