Now, after Judas had gone forth to meet the emissaries of the priests and to betray his Lord, The master said, The hour has come, the son of man will now be glorified. My little children, I am with you yet a little while; soon you will seek me and will find me not, for where I go you cannot come.
I give to you a new command: As I love you and give my life for you, so shall you love the world, and give your life to save the world. Love one another as you love yourselves, and then the world will know that you are sons of God, disciples of the son of man whom God has glorified. (Aquarian Gospel 161:1-5)
As I love you and give my life for you, so shall you love the world, and give your life to save the world. This is a much wider perspective than is given in the canonical gospels, so much so that this is a completely different commandment altogether. Perhaps only in At the Feet of the Master and the writings of C. W. Leadbeater can we find this advocated. The true disciples of Jesus do not just love one another: they love all in the world and dedicate their lives to their salvation. Who do we know that attempt this ideal? Then we should.
Love one another as you love yourselves, and then the world will know that you are sons of God, disciples of the son of man whom God has glorified. We are to feel that others are as much a part of our very existence as we are ourselves, and to love and value them accordingly. Considering the ways of human beings this is completely impossible unless we carefully cultivate the Mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16) by our attempt to attain Christ Consciousness through meditation. For to have such love is a trait of the sons of God, of those who have followed Jesus Christ unto their own Christhood.
And Peter said, Lord, where you go there I will go, for I would lay my life down for my Lord. And Jesus said, Boast not of bravery, my friend; you are not strong enough tonight to follow me. Now, Peter, hear! you will deny me thrice before the cock shall crow tomorrow morn.
And then he looked upon the eleven and said, You all will be estranged from me this night. The prophet said, Lo, he will smite the shepherd of the sheep; the sheep will flee and hide away. But after I am risen from the dead, lo, you will come again, and I will go before you into Galilee.
And Peter said, My Lord, though every other man forsake you I will not. And Jesus said, O Simon Peter, lo, your zeal is greater than your fortitude! Behold, for Satan cometh up to sift you as a pan of wheat, but I have prayed that in your faith you shall not fail; that after trial you may stand a tower of strength.
And the disciples all exclaimed, There is no power on earth that can estrange, or cause us to deny our Lord. (Aquarian Gospel 161:6-14)
The great error here is the ego-based refusal of the disciples to believe Jesus. How could they believe that he did not know their future? If they had believed him and begged him to help them to not fail in loyalty and courage he surely would have done so, and their story would have been very different. For each one of them died a martyr’s death except for Saint John who boldly went with Jesus to his trial and the crucifixion, although he was well-known to the high priest and other officials as a disciple of Jesus. By his steadfastness we know that he must have taken refuge in Jesus and not insisted on his own strength to keep him from forsaking the Lord.
And Jesus said, Let not your hearts be sad; you all believe in God; believe in me. Behold, for there are many mansions in my Fatherland. If there were not I would have told you so. I will go unto my Fatherland, and I will prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be. But now you do not know the way unto my Fatherland.
And Thomas said, We do not know where you intend to go; how could we know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life; I manifest the Christ of God. No man can reach my Fatherland except he comes with me through Christ. If you had known and comprehended me, then you would know my Father-God.
And Philip said, Show us the Father and we will be satisfied. And Jesus said, Have I been with you all these years and still you know me not? He who has seen the son has seen the Father, for in the son the Father has revealed himself.
Lo, I have told you many times that what I speak and what I do are not the words and works of man; they are the words of God, who lives in me and I in him. Hear me, you faithful men: He who believes in me and in my Father-God shall say and do what I have said and done. Yea, more, he shall do greater works than I have ever done, because I go to him whose works we do, and then I can reach forth my hand in helpfulness. And in my name, through Christ, you may petition God and he will grant you your request. Do you believe what I have said? Yes, you believe, and if you love the Christ and follow me then you will keep my words.
I am the vine; you are the branches of the vine; my Father is the husbandmen. The branches that are worthless, bearing naught but leaves, the husbandmen will cut away and cast into the fire to be burned. And he will prune the branches that bear fruit that they may yield abundantly. The branch cannot bear fruit if separated from the vine; and you cannot bear fruit when separate from me. Abide in me, and do the works that God, through me, has taught you how to do, and you will bear much fruit, and God will honor you as he has honored me.
And now I go my way, but I will pray my Father-God and he will send another Comforter to you, who will abide with you. Behold, this Comforter of God, the Holy Breath, is one with God, but she is one the world cannot receive because it sees her not; it knows her not. But you know her, and will know her, because she will abide within your soul.
I will not leave you desolate, but in the Christ, which is the love of God made manifest to men, I will be with you all the way. (Aquarian Gospel 161:15-38)
I will go unto my Fatherland, and I will prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be. The great twentieth-century humanitarian, philosopher and healer, Mokichi Okada, said that it had been revealed to him that Jesus was Amitabha Buddha in his previous incarnation. This statement of Jesus is exactly what he had said to his disciples as Amitabha, who by his tremendous spiritual power created (manifested) an entire realm (world or loka) in the higher astral regions known as the Western Paradise. Those who establish an affinity with Amitabha will at the time of death be taken to the Western Paradise by Amitabha himself. They will no longer be reborn in the material plane, but remain in that world where Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will instruct them in the spiritual practices and guide them to Nirvana.
In Saint John’s gospel Jesus tells his disciples: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2, 3). These words could be attributed to Amitabha Buddha as well.
I am the way, the truth, the life; I manifest the Christ of God. No man can reach my Fatherland except he comes with me through Christ. This should be carefully read and understood very literally, for it is not the same as what we read in the Biblical gospels. Here Jesus tells us that since the Christ of God, the Only Begotten Son or Ishwara, is manifesting through him, those who go with him through Christ by following the same path that Jesus did to unite with the Christ will reach the world he has prepared for his disciples and come to know the Father. These, too, could be the words of Amitabha Buddha.
He who has seen the son has seen the Father, for in the son the Father has revealed himself. God has revealed himself through Jesus. That is how in seeing Jesus the Father could be seen, not that Jesus himself is the Father. Our President appoints ambassadors, and they represent him, but they are not him. It is the same with those who know God: God is revealed in them, but they are not God. They are the perfected Sons of God.
Lo, I have told you many times that what I speak and what I do are not the words and works of man; they are the words of God, who lives in me and I in him. Those who accept Jesus and his words and his works, are accepting God and his words and his works, for it is God dwelling in Jesus that is really speaking the words and doing the works. Not that Jesus is possessed by God like a medium is by a spirit, but that Jesus lives in God and is so perfectly one with God that whatever God wills, he wills, and therefore whatever God does, Jesus does.
Hear me, you faithful men: He who believes in me and in my Father-God shall say and do what I have said and done. Yea, more, he shall do greater works than I have ever done, because I go to him whose works we do, and then I can reach forth my hand in helpfulness. Christians are meant to become Christs, just as did Jesus. And they shall do even greater things in this new age of Aquarius, because humanity in general will be more capable of receiving both the words and works of God than at the time of Jesus. And they, too, shall be the works of Jesus who, dwelling in God, assists us now.
And in my name, through Christ, you may petition God and he will grant you your request. Do you believe what I have said? Yes, you believe, and if you love the Christ and follow me then you will keep my words. In the Aquarian Gospel we find the correct distinction made between Jesus and the Christ. It is the mistaken identification of Jesus with the Christ that has resulted in the utterly erroneous Christology and Soteriology of Eastern and Western Christianity, both their definition of Jesus/Christ and of the means of salvation brought by Jesus.
If a person unites himself with Christ, then and only then when he invokes the name of Jesus, God will grant his petition. Jesus’ name is not some magic spell. If the consciousness of the invoker is not one with Christ, and therefore one with Jesus, then his prayer will be “unheard.” We must love Christ, who is God, and follow Jesus, our perfect example, in becoming ourselves Christs. Christ is God (Ishwara, the personal aspect of God), and Jesus is Man Made God Through Christ.
I will not leave you desolate, but in the Christ, which is the love of God made manifest to men, I will be with you all the way. The purpose of Jesus is to lead us to union with Christ in the attainment of divine sonship, of Christhood, and then to union with God the Father. All this is done through the patronage of Jesus the Master. Again we should remember that the Father is the transcendent, impersonal Reality and the Christ is the immanent, personal Reality, Ishwara the Lord. And the two are really One. It is impossible to understand the Trinity or the Incarnation (Avatara) without knowing the truths of Sanatana Dharma. The Churchian understanding of the Trinity and the Incarnation is a hopeless mess, a literal “dog’s dinner.” Without the Light of India the whole world stumbles in darkness. Jesus was a teacher of that Light, and no one can be his disciple who does not live and move in that Light.
I believe in Sanatana Dharma because I believe in Jesus; and I believe in Jesus because I believe in Sanatana Dharma. The two are inseparable.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis