“In Persia Jesus’ work was done and he resumed his journey towards his native land. The Persian sage went with him to the Euphrates; then with a pledge that they would meet again in Egypt land the masters said, Farewell. And Kaspar went his way unto his home beside the Caspian Sea; and Jesus soon was in Chaldea, cradle land of Israel. In Ur, where Abraham was born, he tarried for a time; and when he told the people who he was, and why he came, they came from near and far to speak to him.
“He said to them, We all are kin. Two thousand years and more ago, our Father Abraham lived here in Ur, and then he worshipped God the One, and taught the people in these sacred groves. And he was greatly blessed; becoming father of the mighty hosts of Israel. Although so many years have passed since Abraham and Sarah walked these ways, a remnant of their kindred still abides in Ur. And in there hearts the God of Abraham is still adored, and faith and justice are the rocks on which they build.
“Behold this land! It is no more the fruitful land that Abraham loved so well; the rains come not as in the former times; the vine is not productive now, and withered are the figs. But this shall not forever be; the time will come when all your deserts will rejoice; when flowers will bloom; when all your vines will bend their heads with luscious fruit; shepherds will again be glad” (Aquarian Gospel 42:1-10).
The facets of The Gospel
The Gospel of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), has many aspects, for it is all-embracing. Five of those facets are to be considered now.
“And Jesus preached to them the gospel of goodwill, and peace on earth. He told them of the brotherhood of life, and of the inborn powers of man, and of the kingdom of the soul” (Aquarian Gospel 42:11).
Goodwill. When Jesus was born, the angelic hosts sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Despite the later history of Christianity, the Gospel of Christ emphasized the good will–the love, actually–of God toward men, an unchanging love that works the ultimate salvation of all humanity through the process of rebirth and the spiritual evolution it makes possible. The ideas of divine wrath and eternal damnation are anti-Christian denials of the eternal good will of God for all sentient beings.
Equally part of the Gospel is the good will toward all mankind that the true followers of Christ will cultivate, inwardly and outwardly.
Peace on earth. Not “world peace” but “peace in the world” in the hearts of those that seek the inner Christ. No other peace is possible in this age. That is why Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 14:27), for it is an inner peace, a peace of the true person–the spirit. However, those who bear this peace within them will by their presence in the world increase the level of general peace and make peacemaking easier than it would be without them.
The brotherhood of life. All life is one: The One. But it appears as many, just as the waves of the sea, even though they are at all times the one field of water. But since we are presently see diversity, we need to know how to react to it in a right manner so our consciousness can be disentangled and enabled to reclaim its awareness of Unity. The easiest way is to think of God as Parent–Mother or Father or both–and all sentient beings as part of the Divine Family, intimately related to us. And we should value and respond to them accordingly. (For example, killing and eating our family is not to be done.) Nevertheless, it is the eternal unity of all that Jesus is pointing us toward, and the lesser idea is to lead to the higher, and from thence to the meta-conceptual realization of Unity.
The inborn powers of man. When Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, it was dedicated to realization of the unity of all humanity and the study and development of the powers innate in all human beings. So she was carrying on the light of the Gospel of Christ far more truly than any of the churches at that time.
It is a necessary part of the Gospel for people to be taught about the abilities innate in their subtle bodies and to be shown the way to develop and exercise them. Except for a very few limited groups, perhaps the only ones doing this in a complete and scientific manner are the Spiritists–especially in Brazil. Indian religion is as much a failure in this as the other religions of the world, because those who make a business of religion in India seek to control others, not empower them and make them independent.
Rare are the yogis who understand these powers and make them accessible to their students. (And rarer still are the disciples that do not conceal or corrupt those teachings after the teacher has left the body.) This dishonesty and deficiency is masked by a kind of pious horror about “the siddhis” that supposedly must be avoided, even though Patanjali not only mentions them but tells how they are to be attained. Certainly there are useless siddhis, but the existence of useless knowledge does not exempt us from gaining useful knowledge, and it is the same with the siddhis. Patanjali even lists the siddhis that come from perfection in yama and niyama–how could they be avoided? And if they were potentially harmful, how could they arise from the observance of necessary moral principles? Such a view is ignorant, superstitious, and controlling–as is the decrying of astrology and divination. As could be expected, I. K. Taimni presents the intelligent perspective in The Science of Yoga.
The kingdom of the soul. All the four factors already considered are oriented toward the external life, but this fifth one is purely internal: the consciousness that is our true being, our spirit. And that spirit lives not in the finite world of external experience, but in the infinite world of Divine Being, itself able to participate in the Infinite Consciousness that is God. To become established in this inner kingdom is to attain liberation–Self realization–and be freed forever from all compulsion to rebirth. If such a liberated spirit takes any birth in any world, it is an avatara, a virtual incarnation of Divinity. Obviously, then, this is the supreme doctrine of the Christ Gospel just as it is the supreme state of Spirit.
All five of these elements are necessary to the Gospel of Christ, and anything less is not the Gospel at all, and is powerless to liberate the spirit into Infinite Life.
In conclusion
“And as he spoke, Ashbina, greatest sage of all Assyria, stood before his face. The people knew the sage, for he had often taught them in their sacred halls and groves, and they rejoiced to see his face.
“Ashbina said, My children of Chaldea, hear! Behold, for you are greatly blest today, because a prophet of the living God has come to you. Take heed to what this master says, for he gives forth the words that God has given him.
“And Jesus and the sage went through the towns and cities of Chaldea and of the lands between the Tigris and the Euphrates; and Jesus healed a multitude of people who were sick” (Aquarian Gospel 42:12-17).
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: Homecoming