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Chapter One Hundred Sixty One

Hoffman's portrait of ChristPart 173 of the Aquarian Gospel for Awakening

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

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The Aquarian Gospel—Commentary and Text

The Aquarian Gospel for Awakening—A Commentary on the Aquarian Gospel
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke)

  1. The Mother of Jesus
  2. Prophecies of the Births of Saint John the Baptist and Jesus
  3. The Birth of Jesus
  4. Revelations in the Temple
  5. Coming of the Wise Men
  6. Herod’s Reaction
  7. Revelations in Egypt
  8. The Two Selfs
  9. Deliverance From Gods and Demons
  10. About God the Tao
  11. From India to Chaldea
  12. The Wisdom of Buddha
  13. God and Prayer
  14. The Mission of Jesus and John the Baptist
  15. Sin and the Forgiveness of Sin
  16. The Universal Law of Man’s Free Will and the Divine Will For Man
  17. Understanding Death
  18. The True Teacher
  19. The Value of Ritual
  20. The Law Behind All Laws
  21. Opening To The Truth
  22. In the Temple at the Age of Ten
  23. Revelation to the Teachers and People in the Temple
  24. Jerusalem to Nazareth
  25. Nazareth to India
  26. What is Truth?
  27. What Is Man?
  28. What is Power?
  29. Understanding
  30. Wisdom
  31. Faith
  32. Healing and Healers
  33. Conflict Over Caste
  34. The Destiny of All Men
  35. God and Man
  36. The Voice in the Heart
  37. Seeing the Unseeable
  38. To God Through Man
  39. Who Is Jesus?
  40. The Real Versus The Apparent
  41. The Brotherhood of Life
  42. God…and Man
  43. Relating To God
  44. The Worthy Host
  45. Come to the Light
  46. The Kingdom Revealed
  47. The King Revealed
  48. Perspective On Death
  49. Fire and Sword
  50. Evolution: The Path of Glory
  51. The Real Heaven
  52. Getting to the Essence
  53. New Perspective on Religion
  54. In Tibet and Ladakh
  55. Words to the Worthy
  56. The Thirty-Eighth Chapter
  57. The Origin of Evil
  58. The Silence
  59. The Source of Healing
  60. The Fivefold Gospel
  61. Homecoming
  62. In Athens
  63. The Oracle of Delphi
  64. The Real God
  65. Return to Egypt
  66. First Steps to Wisdom
  67. Strong in Will and Intent
  68. Here Comes the Ego
  69. Blessed are the Merciful
  70. Claiming Our Freedom
  71. The Great Test
  72. Comprehending Death
  73. The Christ!
  74. The Asembly of the Masters
  75. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – I
  76. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – II
  77. The Declaration of Jesus
  78. John the Baptist – I
  79. John the Baptist – II
  80. John the Baptist – III
  81. Baptism – Jesus and John
  82. Self-Examination and Temptation
  83. The First Disciples Follow Jesus
  84. Jesus’ First Sermon
  85. The King and the Kingdom
  86. Dealing With Challengers
  87. The First Miracle of Jesus
  88. Kings and Kingdoms
  89. The Temple of God
  90. What Is A Messiah?
  91. The Laws of Healing
  92. Nicodemus Finds The Kingdom
  93. The Prince of Peace
  94. Dealing With Spiritual Opposition
  95. The Opened Gate
  96. John the Baptist Speaks of the Christ
  97. John Speaks Further About Jesus
  98. The Woman at the Well
  99. The Disciples and Samaritans at the Well
  100. Jesus in Sychar
  101. More Wisdom In Samaria
  102. The Imprisonment of John the Baptist
  103. In Jerusalem
  104. The Insights of Jesus
  105. Sabbath Wisdom
  106. Prayer and Good Deeds
  107. Divine Laws and Principles for Seekers of the Divine
  108. A New Understanding of the Ten Commandments
  109. Aspects of the Higher Law – 1
  110. Aspects of the Higher Law – 2
  111. Aspects of the Higher Law – 3
  112. Aspects of the Higher Law – 4
  113. Chapter One Hundred One
  114. Chapter One Hundred Two
  115. Chapter One Hundred Three
  116. Chapter One Hundred Four
  117. Chapter One Hundred Five
  118. Chapter One Hundred Six
  119. Chapter One Hundred Seven
  120. Chapter One Hundred Eight
  121. Chapter One Hundred Nine
  122. Chapter One Hundred Ten
  123. Chapter One Hundred Eleven
  124. Chapter One Hundred Twelve
  125. Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
  126. Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
  127. Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
  128. Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
  129. Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
  130. Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
  131. Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
  132. Chapter One Hundred Twenty
  133. Chapter One Hundred Twenty One
  134. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two
  135. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Three
  136. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Four
  137. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Five
  138. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Six
  139. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Seven
  140. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Eight
  141. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Nine
  142. Chapter One Hundred Thirty
  143. Chapter One Hundred Thirty One
  144. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Two
  145. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Three
  146. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Four
  147. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Five
  148. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Six
  149. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Seven
  150. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Eight
  151. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Nine
  152. Chapter One Hundred Forty
  153. Chapter One Hundred Forty One
  154. Chapter One Hundred Forty Two
  155. Chapter One Hundred Forty Three
  156. Chapter One Hundred Forty Four
  157. Chapter One Hundred Forty Five
  158. Chapter One Hundred Forty Six
  159. Chapter One Hundred Forty Seven
  160. Chapter One Hundred Forty Eight
  161. Chapter One Hundred Forty Nine
  162. Chapter One Hundred Fifty
  163. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One
  164. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two
  165. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three
  166. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four
  167. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five
  168. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six
  169. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven
  170. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight
  171. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine
  172. Chapter One Hundred Sixty
  173. Chapter One Hundred Sixty One
  174. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Two
  175. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Three
  176. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four
  177. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five
  178. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Six
  179. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Seven
  180. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Eight
  181. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Nine
  182. Chapter One Hundred Seventy
  183. Chapter One Hundred Seventy One
  184. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Two
  185. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Three
  186. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Four
  187. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Five
  188. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Six
  189. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Seven
  190. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Eight
  191. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Nine
  192. Chapter One Hundred Eighty
  193. Chapter One Hundred Eighty One
  194. Chapter One Hundred Eighty Two

The Text of the Aquarian Gospel—by Levi Dowling

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