Magdala is beside the sea, and here the teachers taught. A man obsessed, and who was blind and dumb, was brought, and Jesus spoke the Word, and lo, the evil spirits went away; the man spoke out, his eyes were opened and he saw. This was the greatest work that men had seen the master do, and they were all amazed. (Aquarian Gospel 106:1-3)
A man obsessed, and who was blind and dumb, was brought.
Impairment of the faculties are sometimes the effect of spirits trying to invade and possess someone. Since that body was made specifically for the incarnating soul, possession is very difficult, almost impossible. But obsession is quite common. Still, since there is an incompatibility between the obsessing spirits and the person being obsessed, conflict is set up in the brain and central nervous system and various neurological problems can result such as in this instance.
Jesus spoke the Word, and lo, the evil spirits went away. Om is a powerful force in dealing with evil spirits because they find spiritual light and high vibrations intolerable, even painful. So the right form of exorcism is to fill the place with holy vibrations and they will leave. Abjuring and cursing the spirits is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. First, it is negative, and since the obsessing entities are negative they will feel right at home and enjoy making the exorcist sweat and fume to no effect. But when the healing power of God is invoked they will leave because they do not like it or because it has healed them of their delusions and they no longer wish to obsess anyone but pass on to higher realms for their own evolution. This is the best, because both the oppressed and the oppressors are freed.
The Pharisees were there, and they were full of jealous rage (yes, full of jealous rage); they sought a cause whereby they might condemn. They said, Yes, it is true that Jesus does a multitude of mighty works; but men should know that he is leagued with Beelzebub. He is a sorcerer, a black magician of the Simon Cerus type; he works as Jannes and as Jambres did in Moses’ day. For Satan, prince of evil spirits, is his stay by night and day and in the name of Satan he casts the demons out, and in his name he heals the sick and raises up the dead. (Aquarian Gospel 106:4-7)
The Pharisees were there, and they were full of jealous rage; they sought a cause whereby they might condemn. This goes on all the time. People who claim to be the only true believers are frustrated and angered when someone else does well, especially if it is miraculous. Exoteric religionists do not understand the psychic nature of things, so they claim that their miracles are signs of God’s favor and that others’ miracles proceed from demons. A friend of mine discovered a biomagnetic therapy using the polarity of the hands to heal. The local religious hucksters were infuriated with her because their healing by laying on of hand” was all purely biomagnetic, and she was unintentionally showing that their healing was no sign of God-contact, much less divine favor.
Accusing competitors of being in league with evil spirits is a very ancient practice. Later on when Christianity became a politically powerful force, if anyone in the church machinery wanted to get rid of a rival or enemy they would accuse them of heresy, which of course was “of the devil.” That gave them a clear path to burn their targets at the stake, for murder alone could satisfy such bloodthirsty monstrosities. Later on false Christians learned from the Pharisees with whom they had much more of an affinity than they did with Jesus. I knew a minister who was faced with the miraculous things being done by churches other than his one-and-only-true church. Since these churches prayed to Jesus and frequently prayed: “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” and addressed evil spirits “in the name of Jesus,” he solemnly declared to a group that included me: “Did you know that there is a demon named Jesus? These people are invoking him and he is working miracles to deceive them!” People will go to any lengths to preserve their wrong ideas that simple reality is proving false. Such were the Pharisees of past and present.
There is no way to know who “Simon Cerus” was. He was obviously well-known, and might have been the famous Samaritan magician later encountered by the apostles (Acts 8:9-24). It is interesting to see how much faith the Pharisees had in Satan and company, more than they seem to have had in God. Today this is a prime trait of fundamentalist Protestants.
But Jesus knew their thoughts; he said to them, You men are masters, and you know the law; whatever is arrayed against itself must fall; a house divided cannot stand; a kingdom warring with itself is brought to naught. If Satan casts the devil out, how can his kingdom stand?
If I, by Beelzebub, cast devils out, by whom do you cast devils out?
But if I, in the holy name of God, cast devils out, and make the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, has not God’s kingdom come to you?
The Pharisees were dumb; they answered not. (Aquarian Gospel 106:8-13)
You know the law; whatever is arrayed against itself must fall; a house divided cannot stand; a kingdom warring with itself is brought to naught. This is a principle well worth our scrutiny because understanding it can help us both recognize and avoid pitfalls in spiritual life. It can be applied to both individuals (including ourselves) and groups. The spiritual aspect is the most important.
It is no news that human beings can be in conflict with themselves; most are to some degree. The classical depiction of this torment is found in the epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans: “We know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal [sarkikos: fleshly], sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.…Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.…for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?…So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14, 15, 17-24). (Saint Paul was describing his condition before he became a disciple, not his later experience.) “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). It is a terrible thing to find yourself living the lower life virtually automatically despite your sincere aspiration to live the higher life.
What is the solution to this dilemma? I know only one: yoga meditation. I knew many Christians who were like the description of Saint Paul and suffered great agony of soul with no apparent way out. Fortunately for me I read the Bhagavad Gita and found the way: “Arjuna said: Impelled by what does a man commit evil, even unwillingly, as if urged [commanded] by force? The holy Lord said: This force is desire, this force is anger; its source is the rajoguna. Voracious and greatly injurious, know this to be the enemy” (Bhagavad Gita 3:36, 37). A Brief Sanskrit Glossary defines rajoguna in this way: “Activity, passion, desire for an object or goal.” This is a subtle force in the mind, a conditioning from our many lifetimes. It originates in the need to survive and develops into egoic impulses that impel us to harmful actions.
“As fire is covered by smoke, and a mirror by dust, as the embryo is enveloped by the membrane, so the intellect is obscured [enveloped] by this [i.e., rajas and its two forms of desire and anger]. The knowledge even of the wise ones is obscured by this eternal enemy, having the form of desire, which is insatiable fire. The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its abode; with these it confuses [deludes] the embodied one, obscuring [or covering] his knowledge. Therefore, restraining the senses first, kill this evil thing which destroys knowledge and discrimination [intelligent understanding]. They say that the senses are superior. The mind [manas] is superior to the senses; moreover, the intellect is superior to the mind; that which is superior to the intellect is the Self. Thus having known that which is higher than the intellect, sustaining the self by the Self, kill the enemy which has the form of desire and is difficult to conquer” (Bhagavad Gita 3:38-43).
Everything that exists is formed of energies vibrating at different rates. It is the rate of vibration that determines how a field of energy such as the mind will behave. Since it is a matter of subtle energy beyond the intellect, external religion and piety are useless. Yoga alone deals methodically and directly with all the energies of our inner and outer makeup. When these energies are at first controlled and then thoroughly purified, we become free from the conflict between our inner impulses. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:17), concludes Saint Paul. And Krishna: “Therefore, be a yogi” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46).
Groups, including spiritual associations, consist of individuals, but by their intention and activity create what are known as egregores or thought-forms, entities composed mostly of intellectual and emotional energies drawn from the members. Wikipedia defines it thusly: “Egregore (also egregor) is an occult concept representing a ‘thought-form’ or ‘collective group mind,’ an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people.…Gaetan Delaforge, in Gnosis magazine in 1987, defines an egregore as a kind of group mind which is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose.”
From this we see that membership in any kind of association or institution should be approached very cautiously as membership entails psychic influence from the group mind however unintentional it may be. At the same time, the directors of these groups have to consider the fact that each member will begin to influence the whole and in time may change its entire character although outwardly everything seems the same.
Further, we cannot take the stated purpose of an association as a guarantee of the effect it will have in the world. Since “a house divided cannot stand; a kingdom warring with itself is brought to naught,” if the individual members feed enough opposing, weakening, or disintegrating energies into the egregore it will become weak and ineffectual and may even produce effects opposite to its founding intentions. This is how some organizations come to produce the very things they were formed to eliminate.
We see this continually in religion and politics. They set out to oppose something negative and end up only shadowboxing and effecting nothing. Why? Because the energy of the group is itself negative, so no genuine opposition can occur. Consider the vaudeville spectacle of government, government agencies, and political parties. These latter fulminate and bombast and denounce one another and get elected to change the chaos and things just go on as usual. In fact, the politicians that wrangle with each other in public will turn around and brag about what good friends they are in private life–something that would be impossible if they really believed each other were the scoundrels they claim before the voters. It is all just a medicine show to gull the suckers, and it never fails to do so.
All institutions can start out with one kind of character and end up with a completely different one. What they were when we joined means nothing; what matters is what they have or have not continued to be. We should be constantly checking on the status quo, not allowing ourselves to be blinded by complacency or nostalgia for the past conditions.
If I, in the holy name of God, cast devils out, and make the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, has not God’s kingdom come to you? Because religion in the West has been so ineffective for centuries no one really expects it to do anything tangible, much less miraculous. In fact, most people become afraid when something happens that they cannot explain. This is a serious impediment to any kind of awakening. I was fortunate to be brought up in a church that believed in miracles, especially healing, and I saw actual miracles in and out of church. In India I experienced and witnessed even more amazing things. Just before going to India I was told by a friend of mine about a group of esoteric students in which an exoteric Christian asked an Indian woman why Christianity did not make more converts in India. “My dear sir,” she replied, “when there are people walking the streets of India that can do everything Jesus did, why would you expect them to think Christianity had anything special to offer them?” The truth is, Jesus worked his miracles because of what he learned in India.
Anyhow, the idea is that the physical and the metaphysical are intertwined, and a physical change indicates a psychic change, since the subtle astral and causal energies are the basis of the more objective material energies and phenomena. As Above, So Below. Therefore miracles are inseparable from true religion. The miracles Jesus lists are the correction or elimination of conditions that spring from negative karmas or sins. When those karmic sins are expunged, their physical manifestations cease. Jesus proved this by the following incident.
“Behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house” (Matthew 9:2-7). Such things occur when the kingdom of God manifests on earth.
The Pharisees were dumb; they answered not. As usual.
As Jesus spoke a messenger approached and said to him, Your mother and your brothers wish to speak with you. And Jesus said, Who is my mother? and my brothers, who are they?
And then he spoke a word aside unto the foreign masters and the twelve; he said, Behold, men recognize their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers here in flesh; but when the veil is rent and men walk in the realms of soul, the tender lines of love that bind the groups of fleshly kin in families will fade away.
Not that the love for anyone will be the less; but men will see in all the motherhood, the fatherhood, the sisterhood, the brotherhood of man. The family groups of earth will all be lost in universal love and fellowship divine.
Then to the multitudes he said, Whoever lives the life and does the will of God is child of God and is my mother, father, sister, friend.
And then he went aside to speak to mother and his other kindred in the flesh. (Aquarian Gospel 106:14-22)
Men recognize their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers here in flesh; but when the veil is rent and men walk in the realms of soul, the tender lines of love that bind the groups of fleshly kin in families will fade away. This might be the most unpopular and willfully ignored passage in the Aquarian Gospel because people are obsessed with “Will We Know Each Other Over There?” There is even a song called “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” Pat Boone made a fortune singing:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
Possessiveness cannot be stymied by death. People are determined that the departed will be theirs for eternity. Earlier I mentioned a man that had a very successful metaphysical church where he continually preached reincarnation and soul evolution. But when his best friend and coworker died, he called me and asked me if his friend was waiting for him “over there” or would he be reincarnating. “When I die, won’t Thomas be there waiting for me?” he asked, obviously hoping I would assure him Tom would be sitting there for the next forty years or so wondering when he would arrive. When I told him that of course Tom would be going on to better things through rebirth, he did not want to accept it. What crass selfishness. It was love all right: love of his own ego to whom Tom was just a possession, a prop. Later I showed Tom’s photo to Anandamayi Ma, who said that Thomas was a highly developed person who attained to a very high level after death. She seemed to imply that he might never be coming back to earthly birth. I did not tell my friend who was grieving for himself, not Tom.
Till Death Do Us Part is the law. After that it is time for newer, bigger and hopefully better things. Certainly we may meet again in future lives, but not because we own one another. Once I was hounded by a woman who demanded that I tell her where her husband had been reborn. She would not give up, but I certainly did not tell her where he was reborn because she had been the literal bane of his life and those of their two children. I missed him when he died, but I was glad he had escaped “the old ball and chain.” Most (not all) human love is completely predatory and instinctual. Jesus would agree with me, but not many others on this earth would.
Not that the love for anyone will be the less; but men will see in all the motherhood, the fatherhood, the sisterhood, the brotherhood of man. The family groups of earth will all be lost in universal love and fellowship divine. Here Jesus describes the attitude of those who have put God first in all things and ascended to higher awareness. Why speak of Divine Unity while really only running in the hamster wheel in which we were born? We have to expand our horizons if we would really love, for love is the nature of God (I John 4:8, 16). So only those who are one with God really love perfectly and unconditionally. Others do not have the ability, and it is unfair to expect it from them.
Whoever lives the life and does the will of God is child of God and is my mother, father, sister, friend. Those who have dedicated themselves to God above all are the real family of Jesus and of the saints and masters. “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” is a very popular song, but how many aspire to be themselves a friend of Jesus and God? In our usual selfish, egocentric way we expect God to be our unfailing friend and give us his undivided attention. But who aspires to be God’s faithful friend and give him their undivided and constant attention?
And then he went aside to speak to mother and his other kindred in the flesh because he loved them, too, some of them being embryonic saints and his mother being more than any human mother, but the mother of his heart and soul because she was perfect in every way. She, too, was involved in Jesus’ saving mission. That is why the Roman Catholic Church gave her the title Co-Redemptress of the World.
But he saw more than these. The maiden who once thrilled his very soul with love; a love beyond the love of any fleshly kin; who was the sorest tempter in the temple Heliopolis beside the Nile, who sung for him the sacred songs, was there. (Aquarian Gospel 106:23, 24)
We should go back to the fifty-third chapter where Miriam appears who was a virtual soul-mate of Jesus, obviously close to him in previous lives. In the great temple of Heliopolis where Jesus was completing his preparation for Christhood he saw Miriam for the first time when she sang.
“And Jesus was entranced; such beauty he had never seen; such music he had never heard.…And Jesus, talking with himself, said out, What is the meaning of this incident? I did not know that such entrancing beauty and such queen-like loveliness were ever found among the sons of men. I did not know that voice of angel ever graced a human form, or that seraphic music ever came from human lips.
“For days he sat entranced; the current of his thoughts was changed; he thought of nothing but the singer and her songs. He longed to see her once again; and after certain days she came; she spoke and laid her hand upon his head. Her touch thrilled all his soul, and for the time, forgotten was the work that he was sent to do. Few were the words the maiden said; she went her way; but then the heart of Jesus had been touched. A love-flame had been kindled in his soul, and he was brought to face the sorest trial of his life. He could not sleep nor eat. Thoughts of the maiden came; they would not go. His carnal nature called aloud for her companionship.
“And then he said, Lo, I have conquered every foe that I have met, and shall I now be conquered by this carnal love? My Father sent me here to show the power of love divine, that love that reaches every living thing. Shall this pure, universal love be all absorbed by carnal love? Shall I forget all creatures else, and lose my life in this fair maiden, though she is the highest type of beauty, purity and love? Into its very depths his soul was stirred, and long he wrestled with this angel-idol of his heart. But when the day was almost lost, his higher ego rose in might; he found himself again, and then he said, although my heart shall break I will not fail in this my hardest task; I will be victor over carnal love.
“And when again the maiden came, and offered him her hand and heart, he said, Fair one, your very presence thrills me with delight; your voice is benediction to my soul; my human self would fly with you, and be contented in your love; but all the world is craving for a love that I have come to manifest. I must, then, bid you go; but we will meet again; our ways on earth will not be cast apart. I see you in the hurrying throngs of earth as minister of love; I hear your voice in song, that wins the hearts of men to better things. And then in sorrow and in tears the maiden went away, and Jesus was again alone.
“And instantly the great bells of the temple rang; the singers sung a new, new song; the grotto blazed with light. The hierophant himself appeared, and said, All hail! triumphant Logos, hail! The conqueror of carnal love stands on the heights. And then he placed in Jesus’ hands a scroll on which was written, LOVE DIVINE.”
The recognition was of kindred souls, and Jesus said, Behold, for God has brought to us a power men cannot comprehend, a power of purity and love; to make more light the burdens of the hour, to be a balm for wounded souls; to win the multitude to better ways by sacred song and holy life.
Behold, for Miriam who stood beside the sea and sung the song of victory when Moses led the way, will sing again. And all the choirs of heaven will join and sing the glad refrain: Peace, peace on earth; good will to men!
And Miriam stood before the waiting throngs and sang again the songs of victory, and all the people said, Amen. (Aquarian Gospel 106:25-32)
Because both Jesus and Miriam had renounced personal, egoic love they were capable of loving God with all their heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). Therefore they had gained “a power men cannot comprehend, a power of purity and love” which enabled them “to make more light the burdens of the hour, to be a balm for wounded souls; to win the multitude to better ways by sacred song and holy life.” If they had not done so, then the world would never have known Jesus the Christ. Nikos Kazantzakis was quite intuitive when he wrote in The Last Tempation of Christ that the final, great temptation would be to come down the from cross and become a mere mediocrity with house, wife, children and very little else.
Further, because their inner eyes were opened they understood the basis of their attraction to each other in this life. Previously Jesus had been Moses the prophet and Miriam had been the sister of Aaron, the prophetess Miriam who sang the song of triumph when they had crossed the Red Sea miraculously. And Miriam was again empowered to do the same, as Jesus was now the New Passover.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis