Now, John was deeply grieved because the master said, I go away, and where I go you cannot come. He wept and said, Lord, I would go with you through every trial and to death. And Jesus said, And you shall follow me through trials and through death; but now you cannot go where I will go; but you shall come. (Aquarian Gospel 162:1-3)
Jesus tells John that he will go with him through his trials and death, but he cannot go further, unto the very throne of the Father in the Highest heaven, at this time, but that he shall in time go the very path that Jesus will traverse before him.
And Jesus spoke again unto the eleven and said, Grieve not because I go away, for it is best that I should go away. If I go not the Comforter will not come to you. These things I speak while with you in the flesh, but when the Holy Breath shall come in power, lo, she will teach you more and more, and bring to your remembrance all the words that I have said to you. There are a multitude of things yet to be said; things that this age cannot receive, because it cannot comprehend.
But, lo, I say, Before the great day of the Lord shall come, the Holy Breath will make all mysteries known–the mysteries of the soul, of life, of death, of immortality; the oneness of a man with every other man and with his God. Then will the world be led to truth, and man will be the truth.
When she has come, the Comforter, she will convince the world of sin, and of the truth of what I speak, and of the judgement of the just; and then the prince of carnal life will be cast out.
And when the Comforter shall come I need not intercede for you; for you will stand approved, and God will know you then as he knows me. (Aquarian Gospel 162:4-11)
When the Holy Breath shall come in power, lo, she will teach you more and more, and bring to your remembrance all the words that I have said to you. The Holy Spirit Mother, the very fabric of the cosmos which is the “womb” in which all spirits are making their way back to God, contains within herself all things and therefore quite naturally can reveal all things. She is herself the power that transforms men into gods. She is Vidya Shakti, the Power of Knowledge, Omniscience itself.
The Father and the Son (Christ) are modes of Consciousness which observe and direct the evolutionary process, but it is the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit, who initiates and accomplishes all things. She is not the servant of the Father and Christ, she is one with them, the completion of the Trinity known as Satchidananda. When Consciousness is still, we call it Spirit; and when Consciousness moves we call it Power or Energy. But Consciousness is One. Therefore the Trinity is also Unity. There are not three Gods, but the One God in three modes of relating to the spirits that exist eternally within God. So the Holy Breath is God become dynamic in order to empower our physical, astral and causal bodies in the process of evolution. (Again, without the insight of the Indian sages we could not possibly grasp these basic facts.) She is particularly the empowerer of the yogis. She the Giver of Life and Life Itself. This is why in all viable spiritual traditions those who attain enlightenment do so through intense involvement with the Mother. The Father and Christ may be the goal, but the Mother is the path without which none can reach them, without which none can know them.
There are a multitude of things yet to be said; things that this age cannot receive, because it cannot comprehend. The general consciousness of the human race rises and falls as it passes through various stages. In India these stages are the yugas: Kali Yuga in which the prevailing consciousness is one fourth of its potential; Dwapara Yuga in which the prevailing consciousness is one half of its potential; Treta Yuga in which the prevailing consciousness is three-fourths of its potential; and Satya Yuga in which the prevailing consciousness is the total of its potential.
In the West it is considered that there are two-thousand-year cycles that are named according to the astrological signs whose characteristics dominate during them. Jesus was born at the beginning of the Piscean Age which lasted for two thousand years. We have now just entered the Aquarian Age which began around the year two thousand. (Human calculations are not absolutely precise, so some leeway must always be given when considering these Ages.)
In the Piscean Age, the highest spiritual faculties of the general population were very inward-turned and psychic. Consequently people could only understand things in that context. In the Aquarian Age (and the century of transition that preceded it), consciousness has become increasingly outward-turned and broadened in scope to embrace the entire world and even the universe itself. Global thinking is common, something impossible in the Piscean age. Government is taking on a character unthought of in the previous age, and society is in complete flux as the new forms begin to emerge. Human beings are directing their lives in ways impossible under the aegis of Pisces.
The liberating science of yoga has become a factor in the life of people in every nation. This was predicted to me by a Rosicrucian astrologer in January of 1962, as the great gathering of planets in the sign of Aquarius was approaching. “Right now, we yogis are few and considered freaks; but in time ‘yoga’ and ‘guru’ will become household words. Vegetarianism which is also now considered freakish will spread throughout the world as new discoveries in nutrition are made public along with new vegetable sources of food that will replace animal sources.” And so it has proved to be.
But the most important thing is the opening of the Western mind to the spiritual wisdom of the East. Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism flourish in places they would have been bitterly opposed and persecuted a short time before. In my own home town where a few decades ago Christian Scientists and members of Unity were almost lynched on occasion, there are now three Buddhist meditation centers, one Hindu temple and about six yoga centers.
In this Aquarian Gospel, Jesus says: “Man is not far enough advanced in sacred thought to comprehend the Universal Church, and so the work that God has given me to do is not the building of that Church. I am a model maker, sent to make a pattern of the Church that is to be–a pattern that the age may comprehend.
“My task as model builder lies within my native land, and there, upon the postulate that Love is son of God, that I am come to manifest that Love, the Model Church will stand. And from the men of low estate I will select twelve men, who represent the twelve immortal thoughts; and these will be the Model Church.
“The house of Judah, my own kindred in the flesh, will comprehend but little of my mission to the world. And they will spurn me, scorn my work, accuse me falsely, bind me, take me to the judgment seat of carnal men who will convict and slay me on the cross.
“But men can never slay the truth; though banished it will come again in greater power; for truth will subjugate the world. The Model Church will live. Though carnal man will prostitute its sacred laws, symbolic rites and forms, for selfish ends, and make it but an outward show, the few will find through it the kingdom of the soul.
“And when the better age shall come the Universal Church will stand upon the seven postulates, and will be built according to the pattern given” (60:7-15).
In the Piscean Age the Christian Church was only a model, but in the Aquarian Age it will become what he intended it to be. There is a great deal to look forward to.
But, lo, I say, Before the great day of the Lord shall come, the Holy Breath will make all mysteries known–the mysteries of the soul, of life, of death, of immortality; the oneness of a man with every other man and with his God. Certainly these ideas are now to be found everywhere throughout the world, and their roots being in the Far East is open knowledge.
Then will the world be led to truth, and man will be the truth. What an incredible prophecy: Human beings will not just know the truth, they will become the truth: they will become one with God. Not all humans will attain this state because not all will seek it; but those who seek shall not just find, they shall Be.
When she has come, the Comforter, she will convince the world of sin, and of the truth of what I speak, and of the judgement of the just; and then the prince of carnal life will be cast out. And when the Comforter shall come I need not intercede for you; for you will stand approved, and God will know you then as he knows me.
The hour has come when you will weep; the wicked will rejoice, because I go away; but I will come again, and all your sorrows shall be turned to joy. Yea, verily, you will rejoice as one who welcomes back a brother from the dead. (Aquarian Gospel 162:12, 13)
When the Comforter shall come I need not intercede for you; for you will stand approved, and God will know you then as he knows me. Saint John of Kronstadt frequently referred to the Holy Spirit as the “air” in which all live and the medium through which human beings have communication with the spiritual world. Here Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will bring about union with God and man so each will know the other.
I will come again, and all your sorrows shall be turned to joy. Yea, verily, you will rejoice as one who welcomes back a brother from the dead. This is a reference to two events: the resurrection which was imminent and the second advent (birth) of Jesus in the future. The mystical tradition of Judaism says that the Messiah will come twice: first as son of Joseph and be rejected and second as son of David and be accepted. In the first instance it was the followers of Jesus that would rejoice, but in the second advent many more will recognize him and rejoice.
It is interesting that Jesus likens himself to a brother to those that shall rejoice. This is because he was once an evolving soul just as we are, and became a perfected image of God in whom God was revealed. He is not God, but a son of God as are all sentient beings. “We believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord of love and wisdom, first among his brethren, who leads us to the glory of the Father….”
And the disciples said, Our Lord, speak not in proverbs any more; speak plainly unto us; we know that you are wise and know all things. What is the meaning of your words, I go away, but I will come again?
And Jesus said, The hour is come when you will all be scattered forth, and every man will be afraid; will flee to save his life and leave me alone; yet I will not be all alone; my Father-God is with me all the way.
And wicked men will take me to the judgment seat of wicked men and in the presence of the multitudes I will give up my life, a pattern for the sons of men. But I will rise again and come to you. These things I speak that you may be established in the faith when they shall come to pass.
And you shall bear the buffetings of men, and follow in the thorny path I tread. Be not dismayed; be of good cheer, Lo, I have overcome the world, and you shall overcome the world. (Aquarian Gospel 162:14-22)
This is very clear; the main point is that Jesus told the apostles all that would come to pass and that they were prepared for it.
Then Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, My Father-God, the hour has come; the son of man must now be lifted from the earth, and may he falter not, that all the world may know the power of sacrifice; for as I give my life for men, lo, men must give their lives for other men. I came to do thy will, O God, and in the sacred name, the Christ is glorified, that men may see the Christ as life, as light, as love, as truth. And through the Christ become themselves the life, the light, the love, the truth.
I praise thy name because of these whom thou hast given me, for they have honored thee and they will honor thee; and none of them are lost, and none are gone away, except the blinded son of carnal life, who hath gone forth to sell his Lord. O God, forgive this man because he knows not what he does.
And now, O God, I come to thee, and am no more in mortal life; keep thou these men to whom I have made known thy wisdom and thy love. As they believe in me, and in the words I speak, may all the world believe in them and in the words they speak. As thou hast sent me forth into the world, so I have sent them forth. I pray that thou wouldst honor them as thou hast honored me. I do not pray that thou wouldst take them from the world, but that they may be guarded from the evil of the world, and not be subject to temptations that are too great for them to bear. They once were of the world, but now are of the world no more, as I am of the world no more. Thy word is truth, O God, and by thy word let them be sanctified.
I do not pray for these alone, O God; I also pray for all who will believe on me, and will accept the Christ because of what they do and say, that they may all be one. As I am one with thee, and thou art one with me, may they be one with us, that all the world may know that thou hast sent me forth to do thy will, and that thou lovest them as thou hast ever loved me. When Jesus had thus said, they sang the Jewish song of praise, and then arose and went their way. (Aquarian Gospel 162:23-40)
The son of man must now be lifted from the earth, and may he falter not, that all the world may know the power of sacrifice; for as I give my life for men, lo, men must give their lives for other men. Where is the doctrine of “atonement”? No mention at all here or anywhere else in the Aquarian Gospel. Rather, the crucifixion is a source–and opening–of spiritual opportunity for the world. The main message is that followers of Jesus must dedicate their lives to the help and upliftment of humanity. Obviously to be a Christian (Christine) is something very different from what the world and worldly churches think it means. Will we follow and believe them or Jesus?
In the sacred name, the Christ is glorified, that men may see the Christ as life, as light, as love, as truth. And through the Christ become themselves the life, the light, the love, the truth. Those who practice Om Yoga will experience that which Jesus describes in this verse. (See Om Yoga Meditation, Its Theory and Practice.)
The blinded son of carnal life, who hath gone forth to sell his Lord. This is how Jesus describes Judas, not as the most evil person who ever lived. Though he would be his betrayer, Jesus understood that Judas was blinded by material consciousness, not a demon but a poor lost and blind soul.
One thousand eight hundred years after Jesus so described him, Jesus appeared to Sri Ramakrishna and told him that Judas had suffered greatly in his subsequent lives, and that he was sending him to Sri Ramakrishna that he might attain liberation. Sarat Chandra Chakravarty was his name in that life, and when he was eighteen years of age he met Sri Ramakrishna and became his disciple. After the passing of Sri Ramakrishna he became a monk and was known as Swami Saradananda. In 1896 he came to America and taught Vedanta for two years, returning to India in 1898. There he wrote a long book about the nature and life of Sri Ramakrishna entitled Ramakrishna, the Great Master. This book described in detail the spiritual practice and realization of Sri Ramakrishna. Regarding it, Swami Saradananda said: “I have not written of anything in this book that I have not experienced myself.” He became like Saint John the Apostle in that he looked after the welfare of Sri Sarada Devi, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna until her passing in 1920. He then withdrew from active spiritual work and departed from this world in 1927.
Through Mahendranath Gupta (known usually as “M”), a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Paramhansa Yogananda became well acquainted with Saradananda, whose identity as the former Judas was revealed to him by M. Yogananda said that he still had a peculiar attitude toward money and that when his fellow disciples teased him about it, Sri Ramakrishna sternly made them stop and told them to never do so again, perhaps fearing that his old samskaras as Judas might be awakened. (Yogananda wrote in his autobiography about Mahendranath Gupta as “Master Mahasaya, the Blissful Devotee.”)
So Judas is now a Christ. Such is the mercy and love of Jesus.
They once were of the world, but now are of the world no more, as I am of the world no more. If we wish to follow Jesus to our own Christhood we must become like him, no longer of this world but inwardly living in realms of the spirit. Jesus’ words that “I am of the world no more” indicates that he was once of the world like the disciples, but that he attained the heights of Christhood as may we.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis