Now, when the feast was finished, Jesus, with the foreign masters and the twelve, with Mary, Miriam and a band of loyal women who believed in Christ, went to a place apart to pray.
And when their silence ended Jesus said, Be on your guard; the leaven of the Pharisees is being thrown in every measure of the meal of life. It is a poison that will taint whatever it may touch; and it will blight the soul as sure as the fumes of Diabolos; it is hypocrisy. (Aquarian Gospel 109:1-3)
Jesus says that hypocrisy is completely pervading human life. It was most evident in the Pharisees, but it was a universal blight. Mahendranath Gupta, the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and who was written about in Autobiography of a Yogi as “Master Mahasaya,” often said: “The entire world is filled with insincerity.” And so it is. In religion this is usually the rule: The higher they talk the lower they live. The Hallelujah Trail leads downward, deep downward. Real religion keeps us aware of the need to reach the goal, not to brag about how we have made it.
As usual the sages of India said it best in the Kena Upanishad: “If you think that you know well the truth of Brahman, know that you know little. What you think to be Brahman in your self, or what you think to be Brahman in the gods–that is not Brahman. What is indeed the truth of Brahman you must therefore learn.
“I cannot say that I know Brahman fully. Nor can I say that I know him not. He among us knows him best who understands the spirit of the words: “Nor do I know that I know him not.)
“He truly knows Brahman who knows him as beyond knowledge; he who thinks that he knows, knows not. The ignorant think that Brahman is known, but the wise know him to be beyond knowledge” (Kena Upanishad 2:1-3).
The Tao Teh King in Section 56 says: “He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know.”
The Pharisees seem fair in speech, but they are diabolical in heart. And then they seem to think that thought is something they can lock within themselves. (Aquarian Gospel 109:4, 5)
This is a perfect picturing of Fundamentalist Protestantism. So many people are fooled by their extravagant claims of how close to God they are. They speak “great swelling words” (II Peter 2:18; Jude 16), but have very little to show for it once the public display is over and real life resumes. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous” (I John 3:7). Jesus tells us: “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). He does not tell us to brag about how much we know and how much we have attained.
In his autobiography Paramhansa Yogananda tells of meeting a great Master, Ram Gopal Mazumdar. After telling Yogananda about his nearly half a century of intense spiritual practice in the Himalayas: “You are asking illumination from me,” the yogi continued musingly, “while I am wondering–inconsiderable as I am, and with the little meditation I have done–if I have succeeded in pleasing God, and what worth I may find in His eyes at the final reckoning.…God is Eternity Itself. To assume that one can fully know Him by forty-five years of meditation is rather a preposterous expectation.” This is how the Masters speak.
They do not seem to know that every thought and wish is photographed and then preserved within the Book of Life to be revealed at any time the masters will. That which is thought, or wished, or done in darkest night shall be proclaimed in brightest day; that which is whispered in the ear within the secret place shall be made known upon the streets. (Aquarian Gospel 109:6-8)
Karma is the foundation of evolutionary existence along with rebirth which is brought about by karma. Karma comes first, then rebirth, and they keep reacting on and in each other until they are almost inseparable and unstoppable. Therefore a religion that does not have karma and reincarnation as cardinal tenets is no religion at all, but a superstitious speculation. Anyone who has escaped from such a religion into the light of true religion is very aware of this fact. All religions do not lead to the same place. Ignorant religions lead to more ignorance and the true wisdom religions lead to more truth. One plunges into darkness, the other lifts into the light. This is no exaggeration but simple fact.
So spiritual Pharisees understand nothing about themselves, having no idea where they came from, where they are going and why they are here at the present moment. Confusion is the result, and a stubborn, dedicated confusion at that. Separating such a person from his delusion is impossible. Only his own innate nature will manage that when it finally begins to surface in his consciousness and lead him out of fantasyland. For the life of the spirit which is within shall certainly reveal itself in time.
And in the judgment day when all the books are opened up, these men, and every other man, shall be a-judged, not by what they’ve said or done, but by the ways in which they used the thoughts of God, and how the ethers of eternal love were made to serve; for men may make these ethers serve the carnal self, or serve the holy self within. (Aquarian Gospel 109:9-11)
I never heard this in the revival meetings we used to have twice a year back in the fundamentalist church! It was just sin, hell and damnation, and all at the whim of God.
The judgment day spoken of here is not at the end of the world but at the end of each life we live when the cloud lifts and we have to face the truth about ourself and the life we have just completed. Words and deeds will mean nothing. The only consideration will be the ways we either used, distorted or suppressed “the thoughts of God,” the seed-patterns inherent in us from the very beginning of our entry into relative creation. If we recognized and followed them, then all is well. If we twisted them to conform to our distorted understanding, then things are not well. And if we suppressed them, then we have lived in vain; our life is literally nothing in the great summing up. The question at the end of each life is: What have we done with it? Have we progressed toward the realization of God or not? If we have progressed, how much did we progress? God will be the measure of judgment. This is a serious matter and dangerous to take lightly or ignore.
Behold, these men may kill the body of this flesh; but what of that? the flesh is but a transitory thing, and soon, by natural law, will pass; their slaughter only hastens nature’s work a little time. And when they kill the flesh, they reach their bounds of power; they cannot kill the soul. But nature is the keeper of the soul as of the flesh, and in the harvest time of soul, the trees of life are all inspected by the judge; and every tree that bears no fruit of good is plucked up by the roots and cast into the flames. (Aquarian Gospel 109:12-16)
As the Gita says, “Death is certain for the born” (2:27). Therefore the question is only when death will come, not if it will come. But that which is beyond the body, the subtle levels which include the mind, the will and the destiny (karma) they create, must be taken much more seriously than the body which is only one in a series of rebirths. The subtle bodies persist through many lives, though they are continually changing in response to our experiences in the physical and subtle worlds as we move between earthly incarnation and astral or causal incarnation.
When we leave this world and enter the subtler worlds we undergo a profound evaluation which determines what will be our experience in those worlds as well as when we will be returning to this world and what will happen to us there. In other words, our karma is examined and those karmas are selected which are to be dealt with. As the great mystic and philosopher Mokichi Okada, pointed out, all purification manifests as pain. Therefore pain is a blessing though certainly not enjoyed or desired. So the “flames” spoken of here are the purifications necessary to elminate our bad karma. They are not punishment. They are blessing. For all things exist solely for good.
Who then shall you regard? Not him who has the power to kill the flesh, and nothing more. Regard the mighty one who has the power to dissolve both soul and body in the flames of nature’s fire. (Aquarian Gospel 109:17, 18)
Jesus tells us to regard, not fear, the divine power of purification and balancing and take it seriously. Factors that kill the physical body are of little consequence, but those which destroy the subtle bodies that are distorted beyond repair and purification are certainly to be taken into account and respected. They are for our benefit. Our English translations of the Bible make the corresponding passages sound like Jesus is telling us to not fear people but fear God. This is not the message at all. God and all that he has provided for our evolution are not to be feared but cooperated with. If pain must come it should be welcomed, but if we become “workers together with him” (II Corinthians 6:1) we will not be creating situations that will result in pain. Any future suffering with be from old, earlier misdeeds.
So we must respect and act in accordance with the laws of cause and effect, and the moral and spiritual principles we have been given. And we must be sure we understand them fully and know how to apply them. Then peace and happiness will be our assured future.
Notice Jesus speaks of “the flames of nature’s fire,” not fires of hell and retribution. There are cosmic laws whose violation kindles the fires of suffering. They do not cause the suffering, that is the reaction to the true causes: ignorance and transgression of the laws. We must become truly rational and wise. Then we will live life as it should be lived.
But man is king; he may direct his thoughts, his loves, his life, and gain the prize of everlasting life. (Aquarian Gospel 109:19)
Jesus does not say humans shall be king or master, but that they are such right now. It is common for human beings to have no idea of the inner powers they possess, and nearly every aspect of society, including religion, reinforces that unawareness and even actively deny those abilities. Nevertheless, we can indeed direct all our faculties and open up the gates of everlasting life and pass through into immortality.
And you are not abandoned in your struggle for the crown of life. Your Father lives, and you shall live.
God has a care for every living thing. He numbers stars, and suns, and moons; he numbers angels, men and every thing below; the birds, the flowers, the trees; the very petals of the rose he knows by name, and every one is numbered in his Book of Life; and every hair upon your head, and every drop of blood within your veins, he knows by number and by rhythm.
He hears the birdling’s call, the cricket’s chirp, the glow worm’s song; and not a sparrow falls to earth without his knowledge and consent. A sparrow seems a thing of little worth; yea, five of them are worth two farthings in the market place, and yet God cares for every one of them.
Will he not care much more for you who bear his image in your soul? (Aquarian Gospel 109:20-27)
You are not abandoned in your struggle for the crown of life. At all times God and all the forces of good and truth are present to help us. It is just our limitation that keeps us from perceiving this. This is revealed in an incident from Jesus’ previous life as the prophet Elisha. The king of Syria learned that Elisha was able to tell the king of Israel everything the Syrian king said in his own tent. So: “[The king of Syria] said, Go and spy where [Elisha] is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (II Kings 6: 13-17).
We should never think that we are alone. God and his saints and angels are ever ready to help us. Sometimes because of past karma we have to wait to experience that, but we will in time. We shift back and forth and change like a weathervane, but God, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17), is not like us. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear” (Psalms 46:1, 2).
Your Father lives, and you shall live. Why? Because we are ONE. No, we are not exactly the same because God is infinite and we are finite, but we are all divine consciousness, divine light. God is the whole and we are the parts. There is a distinction between us and God, obviously, but there is no essential difference. An individual wave is not the ocean, but the ocean is the wave.
Our life is God’s life, and God’s perfection is potentially ours. There is no spiritual level we cannot attain because we share in God’s all-encompassing being. Just as God cannot go against his own nature or cancel it, neither can we, though we can avoid expressing our innate divinity for a while. But eventually it must surface. God cannot “deny himself” (II Timothy 2:13), and neither can we. But we can try to and thereby cause ourselves immeasurable suffering. The choice is ours.
God has a care for every living thing.…and every one is numbered in his Book of Life. Everyone and everything is rooted in the infinite life that is God. We can lose awareness of that fact, but it cannot be weakened or changed. We are all predestined to attain the knowledge: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
Will he not care much more for you who bear his image in your soul? “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,” (Romans 8: 38, 39). And this is not a mechanical thing, but the result of God’s eternal, personal love for each thing that exists. The Bhagavad Gita expresses this very clearly:
“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).
“My devotees dwell within me always: I also show forth and am seen within them. Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime, let him but love me, rightly resolved, in utter devotion: I see no sinner, that man is holy” (Bhagavad Gita 9:29, 30).
Fear not to make confession of the Christ before the sons of men, and God will own you as his sons and daughters in the presence of the host of heaven. If you deny the Christ before the sons of men, then God will not receive you as his own before the hosts of heaven. And more I say, Fear not when men shall bring you up before the rulers of the land to answer for your faith. Behold, the Holy Breath shall teach you in your hour of need what you should say, and what is best left unsaid. (Aquarian Gospel 109:28-31)
Jesus is not speaking of us going about making a nuisance of ourselves by “witnessing for Christ” and expounding Christ as a mere theological abstraction. Rather, he is speaking of our confessing (affirming) the truth of “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), the Christhood of all sentient beings and of ourselves. If we unwaveringly bear witness to this sublime reality, then we shall be revealed as the children of God. But if we deny it and label others and ourselves as sinners, corrupt and depraved by nature, then our divine sonship shall not manifest and we will not awaken from the dream of sin into the reality of holiness. So it is and shall be.
And then the Christines went again to teach the multitudes. (Aquarian Gospel 109:32
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis