The healing waters and angels
“The feast time came and Jesus and the twelve went to Jerusalem. Upon the day before the Sabbath day they reached Mount Olives and they tarried at an inn before Mount Olives on the north. And in the early morning of the Sabbath day they went in through the sheep gate to Jerusalem. The healing fountain of Bethesda, near the gate, was thronged about with people who were sick; for they believed that at a certain time an angel came and poured a healing virtue in the pool, and those who entered first and bathed, would be made whole” (Aquarian Gospel 91:1-5).
Water is extremely sensitive to psychic energies and will take on their vibration, which is why we have holy water and why baptism is based on water. When water has been magnetized by prayers and blessings it becomes a repository of powerful spiritual energies which will be imparted to whomever it touches. In baptism there is a remarkable energy exchange, for the holy vibrations enter into the person being baptized and a multitude of negative energies flow from him out into the water which then must be disposed of in a place where no one will touch it. When people are baptized in the same water their energies become all mixed up with each other’s and the cleansing vibrations may become depleted and nothing remains but the subtle negative energies of “sins.” This is no joke. It is like getting a toxic blood transfusion. Without esoteric understanding this kind of harm often occurs in religious ritual. This is why it is so foolish and even dangerous for someone with esoteric understanding to think that all they need are “valid” Sacraments. These are initiatic rites and should only be administered by those who know what they are doing–and that is not anyone who is solely exoteric in belief and training. Ignorant piety does not compensate for mishandling and misadministration of the Sacraments.
Angels also are able to convey sacred powers to water. For example, Saint German of Alaska, who was not a priest, would see an angel blessing the water around Kodiak Island at the Epiphany. This world is the world of human beings, but angels can play a great part in human life if they are requested to do so. (See Living With Angels.) Having themselves been human, and presently being just one rung above humans on the evolutionary ladder, they are naturally very close to us and part of their evolutionary endeavor can include helping human beings in various ways, healing being a major activity along with protecting. The Gospel of John implies that an angel came and infused the water of Bethesda with healing power. This text seems non-committal and perhaps doubtful of that. Since it was a long-established healing center, something must have been going on, for it is inexcusably simplistic to attribute everything to psychosomatic reaction.
An unhealed man
“And Jesus and the twelve were standing near the pool. And Jesus saw a man near by who had been stricken eight and thirty years; without a hand to help he could not move. And Jesus said to him, My brother, man, would you be healed? The man replied, I earnestly desire to be healed; but I am helpless and when the angel comes and pours the healing virtues in the pool, another who can walk, steps in the fountain first and I am left unhealed” (Aquarian Gospel 91:6-10).
It is apparent from this that the healing energies imparted by the angel only sufficed to cure one person. Consequently there was a rush to be first in the water. We can be sure that a lot of very inappropriate conduct occurred all the time. One of the most apalling examples of this is the rush to be first into the water at the auspicious time during a Kumbha Mela in India. Many people die in the press or are trampled or drowned. Furthermore, there are false “sadhus” that violently prevent non-sadhus from entering the water. They also knock the containers out of the hands of those that have gathered up to water to take home for the benefit of those who could not come themselves. This is what happens when superstition reigns on the throne of ego.
Healing for all
“And Jesus said, Who sends an angel here to potentize this pool for just a favored few? I know it is not God, for he deals just the same with every one. One has no better chance in heaven’s healing fountain than another one.
“The fount of health is in your soul; it has a door locked fast; the key is faith; and every one can have this key and may unlock the door and plunge into the healing fount and be made whole” (Aquarian Gospel 91:11-15).
There is a chance that people were wrong in thinking that only one person at a time could be healed. However it may be, Jesus reveals that healing is for all. Section 35 of the Tao Teh King says in part: “The Great Tao flows everywhere, (like a flood) It may go left or right. The myriad things derive their life from It, and It does not deny them.” Jesus said: “Seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7). The question is how to seek effectively. “Faith” is an awakened intuition, not mere hope or belief. When we are fully attuned or aligned with God, then everything is available to us. How to attune and align? Deep meditation supported by the yoga life.
Arise…
“And then the man looked up in hopeful mood and said, Give me this key of faith. And Jesus said, Do you believe what I have said? According to your faith it shall be done. Arise, take up your bed and walk. The man at once arose and walked away; he only said, Praise God” (Aquarian Gospel 91:16-18).
For a paralyzed man to simply get up and walk is a great act of faith. It did not require any psychic up or forethought. Away he went. Yet, he asked Jesus for faith because it is possible for a highly evolved person to impart something of his consciousness and insight to another by either word or look. So it was in this case. Jesus freed his mind and therefore his body. Faith is contagious. I saw this during my time with Swami Sivananda. Because he believed totally in our ability to attain higher consciousness, we believed it too and acted upon it. His many great disciples proved the possibility of this, as did the large number of Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples who lived as gods on earth.
We might prefer that the man would thank Jesus, but he had the wisdom to know that God had healed him through Jesus, so he gave God alone the glory.
The healing Word
“And when the people asked, Who made you whole? the man replied, I do not know. A stranger at the pool just spoke a word and I was well” (Aquarian Gospel 91:19).
The Divine Word, Om, healed the man when It was spoken by Jesus.
Retaining healing
“The many did not see when Jesus healed the man, and with the twelve he went his way up to the temple courts. And in the temple Jesus saw the man and said to him, Behold you are made whole; from henceforth guard your life aright; go on your way and sin no more, or something worse may fall on you. And now the man knew who it was who made him whole” (Aquarian Gospel 91:20-23).
All misfortune is a manifestation of negative karma, so if we keep on accumulating such karma there will be no end to our misfortune. It is not at all uncommon for people to be cured of a disease and then get it back after some time. That is because they persisted in the kind of thought and deed that caused the illness in the first place. I have known of several instances where people were miraculously healed by prayer or blessing, but in time the old trouble came back. Doubters said this was proof of their not having been healed, but they were wrong. They had been healed, but they had not been corrected. That is, the kept on doing what brought about the problem. A person could be cured a dozen times of cancer, but it he continues eating carcinogens the cancer will reappear. In the same way, if a difficult situation is relieved after prayer, if we do not look into the roots of the problem and eliminate them the situation will return. That is the law.
Therefore Jesus told the man to watch his life and see that no evil or foolish thing would be there to manifest as future difficulties that might be even worse than his paralysis. Ultimately, we are the source of everything that happens to us.
A higher law
“He told the story to the priests and they were much enraged; they said, The law forbids a man to heal upon the Sabbath day. But Jesus said, My Father works on sabbath days and may not I? He sends his rain, his sunshine and his dew; he makes his grass to grow, his flowers to bloom; he speeds the harvests just the same on Sabbath days as on the other days. If it is lawful for the grass to grow and flowers to bloom on Sabbath days it surely is not wrong to succour stricken men” (Aquarian Gospel 91:24-27).
It is a terrible thing when doctrinaire principles cancel out good sense and condemn right thought and action. But that is the way of any dogmatism, religious or otherwise. (Right now political and social dogmatism are devastating entire nations, something religious dogmatism never did.) Imagine being angered by someone’s healing. Jesus certainly knew how to address this nonsense and did so. The question is: Will we be like God or ignorant humanity? The choice is ours, but our nature is on the side of the godlike.
Even more…
“And then the priests were angered more and more because he claimed to be a son of God. A leading priest, Abihu, said, This fellow is a menace to our nation and our laws; he makes himself to be a son of God; it is not meet that he should live” (Aquarian Gospel 91:28,29).
Well, there we have it: exoteric religion speaks the same way throughout history. Such ignorance loves sin and hates perfection, and even more hates the aspiration to higher consciousness and life. The yogi, like truth itself, is their worst enemy.
Thinking about it
“But Jesus said, Abihu, Sir, you are a learned man; you surely know the law of life. Pray tell who were the sons of God we read about in Genesis, who took to wife the daughters of the sons of men? Our father Adam; who was he? From whence came he? Had he a father? or did he fall from heaven as a star? We read that Moses said, He came from God. If Adam came from God pray, was he offspring, was he son? We are the children of this son of God; then tell me, learned priest, Who are we if not sons of God?” (Aquarian Gospel 91:30-33).
That says it all.
And so…
“The priest had urgent business and he went his way” (Aquarian Gospel 91:34).
Indeed! If they cannot silence truth they run away from it. I cannot count the number of times I witnessed this from childhood. Such people flee the light. That is why Jesus said: “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:19,20). This is the way of bullies, including religious ones.
Sons of God
“And Jesus said, All men are sons of God and if they live a holy life they always are at home with God. They see and understand the works of God, and in his sacred name they can perform these works. The lightnings and the storms are messengers of God as well as the sunshine, rain and dew. The virtues of the heavens are in God’s hands, and every loyal son may use these virtues and these powers” (Aquarian Gospel 91:35-38).
Churchianity thrives on the disempowerment of the true person and the exaltation of the ego and ignorance. But these words of Jesus tell us what being a Christian is all about: mastery through Christhood, and Christhood through mastery. It is all interrelated. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and…when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2).
Further…
“Man is the delegate of God to do his will on earth, and man can heal the sick, control the spirits of the air, and raise the dead. Because I have the power to do these things is nothing strange. All men may gain the power to do these things; but they must conquer all the passions of the lower self; and they can conquer if they will” (Aquarian Gospel 91:39,40).
One of the reasons “Christians” insist that Jesus is unique is their total disinterest in being like him. “He ‘paid the price’ but we get the goods!” That is the Doctrine of the Atonement as they really mean it. They pretend to be defending the honor of Jesus, but they are really defending their spiritual laziness and degradation. Why? Because they revel in their passions and the pig-wallow of the lower self. Those things are their friends, so how could they want to conquer them? As Jesus said, they “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” It is all a matter of choice, and ours must be different.
Honoring God and man
“So man is God on earth, and he who honors God must honor man; for God and man are one, as father and the child are one” (Aquarian Gospel 91:41).
It is not easy to always keep this perspective because, as Yogananda said, people are skillful in their ignorance. They can completely fool themselves and others into thinking that they are helpless sinners. Then they need do nothing else but wait for God to save them and enjoy sinning in the meanwhile. What responsibility does a hopeless case have? But Jesus tells us otherwise, and we must act on that–first in our life and then in seeing others as sleeping gods. This is not positive thinking, it is the positive truth.
Resurrection
“Behold, I say, The hour has come; the dead will hear the voice of man, and live, because the son of man is son of God. You men of Israel, hear! you live in death; you are locked up within the tomb. (There is no deeper death than ignorance and unbelief.) But all will some day hear the voice of God made plain by voice of man, and live. You all will know that you are sons of God, and by the sacred Word, may do the works of God. When you have come to life, that is, have come to realize that you are sons of God, you who have lived the life of right, will open up your eyes on fields of life” (Aquarian Gospel 91:4246).
This is the glorious future of all human beings, however much they may drag their feet on the path. They may delay this blessed resurrection into life and light, but they cannot avoid it. One day they will hear and respond to the call: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). Then they in turn will spread the light they have received “and by the sacred Word, may do the works of God,” just as did Jesus, who said: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). This is the real Good News (Gospel) of Christ.
Everyone’s destiny
“But you who love the ways of sin will, in this resurrection, stand before a judgment bar, and be condemned to pay the debts you owe to men and to yourselves. For whatsoever you have done amiss must be performed again, and yet again, until you reach the stature of the perfect man. But in due time the lowest and the highest will arise to walk in light” (Aquarian Gospel 91:47-49).
No one is condemned eternally by God, but all must pay their immediate karmic debts and purify themselves from the others. Rebirth is a chance for perfection. We face the same things and situations again and again until we solve the problems correctly and get passed on to a higher grade. The great sinner of today is the great saint of tomorrow. That is why Yogananda said: A saint is a sinner who never gave up.
Yet a rebuke
“Shall I accuse you unto God? No, for your prophet, Moses, has done that; and if you hear not Moses’ words you will not hearken unto me, for Moses wrote of me” (Aquarian Gospel 91:50).
The same words can be addressed to the Bible-worshipping churchians. The Bible itself proves their theology to be demonology in action, for it denies mens eternal status as sons of God and the eventual, sure revelation of this divine sonship in every human being.
However that may be, we have a great deal to rejoice in, as they will also in time.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: The Insights of Jesus