And Miriam stood before the surging crowd, and casting up her eyes to heaven she sung anew the song of victory:
Bring forth the harp, the vina and the lyre; bring forth the highest sounding cymbal, all ye choirs of heaven. Join in the song, the new, new song.
The Lord of hosts has stooped to hear the cries of men, and lo, the citadel of Beelzebub is shaking as a leaf before the wind.
The sword of Gideon is again unsheathed.
The Lord, with his own hand has pulled far back the curtains of the night; the sun of truth is flooding heaven and earth;
The demons of the dark, of ignorance and death, are fleeing fast; are disappearing as the dew beneath the morning sun.
God is our strength and song; is our salvation and our hope, and we will build anew a house for him;
Will cleanse our hearts, and purify their chambers, every one. We are the temple of the Holy Breath.
We need no more a tent within the wilderness; no more a temple built with hands.
We do not seek the Holy Land, nor yet Jerusalem.
We are the tent of God; we are his temple built without the sound of edged tools.
We are the Holy Land; we are the New Jerusalem; Allelujah, praise the Lord! (Aquarian Gospel 110:1-12)
And Miriam stood before the surging crowd, and casting up her eyes to heaven she sung anew the song of victory.
Spiritual song was her exalted ministry. This was only possible because she was totally dedicated to God, none other. If she and Jesus had failed in the test in the temple (chapter fifty-three) and become mythical soulmates, neither of them could ever have accomplished their true missions in life. Think of a world devoid of the saving example, power and living presence of Jesus! So it would have been if he and Miriam had shamefully loved themselves more than God. Then the world would have another guilty pair mired in materiality and sensual life, resenting monastics and shrilly holding forth on how their (downward) “path” is just as right and good as that of monks and nuns. Just two more mediocrities destined to eventually fade away and be forgotten by the world they clung to and served. We can profitably look once more on the triumph of Jesus and Miriam:
“Then [Jesus] 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” (Aquarian Gospel 53:18-32).
What a glorious victory, a victory that lives on in the hearts and lives of his true disciples. Even Nikos Kazantzakis in The Last Temptation of Christ understood what the Aquarian Gospel declares to us.
Bring forth the harp, the vina and the lyre; bring forth the highest sounding cymbal, all ye choirs of heaven. Join in the song, the new, new song. Yes; the song of God’s eternal love is the ever-new song.
The Lord of hosts has stooped to hear the cries of men, and lo, the citadel of Beelzebub is shaking as a leaf before the wind. In Jesus the love of God for mankind was blazing forth and liberating those who took refuge in him from the deadly prison of the world.
The sword of Gideon is again unsheathed. “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Yet it was conquering the world. The spirit always vanquishes the material, just as in the following account of Gideon.
“And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
“And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
“So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled” (Judges 7:13-21).
The Lord, with his own hand has pulled far back the curtains of the night; the sun of truth is flooding heaven and earth; the demons of the dark, of ignorance and death, are fleeing fast; are disappearing as the dew beneath the morning sun. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The Only-begotten of the Father is both Word and Will. Abiding in the heart of all things he produces the cosmic drama of evolution and devolution. He both pulls back and draws the curtains of Light according to what phase of evolution the creation is entering. In the advent of Jesus Christ the Light that is Life was being made manifest. As a magnifying glass focuses the rays of the sun, in the same way a perfected son of God relays the holy Light to all within creation, shining from within, from the core of their being. There is no way the Light an be resisted for it is coming from within all things.
God is our strength and song; is our salvation and our hope, and we will build anew a house for him; will cleanse our hearts, and purify their chambers, every one. We are the temple of the Holy Breath. God “dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48; 17:24). But true temples of God, purified by the Divine Presence within, can now be raised to the glory of God. All those who live in the Light shall be living temples. For “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). God has no houses, only sons. Being ourselves spirits, he can dwell in us.
We need no more a tent within the wilderness; no more a temple built with hands. We do not seek the Holy Land, nor yet Jerusalem. We are the tent of God; we are his temple built without the sound of edged tools. We are the Holy Land; we are the New Jerusalem; Allelujah, praise the Lord! “With my spirit within me will I seek thee” and find thee within, for thou, my Father, and I are one (Isaiah 26:9; John 10:30).
And when the song was done the multitudes exclaimed, Praise God.
And Jesus said, Behold the way! The sons of men have groped for ages in the darkness of Egyptian night. The Pharaohs of sense have bound them with their chains. But God has whispered through the mists of time and told them of a land of liberty and love. And he has sent his Logos forth to light the way.
The Red Sea rolls between the promised land and Egypt’s sands. The Red Sea is the carnal mind. Behold, the Logos reaches out his hand; the sea divides; the carnal mind is reft in twain; the sons of men walk through dry shod. The Pharaohs of sense would stay them in their flight; the waters of the sea return; the Pharaohs of sense are lost and men are free.
For just a little while men tread the wilderness of Sin; the Logos leads the way; and when at last men stand upon the Jordan’s brink, these waters stay, and men step forth into their own” (Aquarian Gospel 110:13-24)
The sons of men have groped for ages in the darkness of Egyptian night. The Pharaohs of sense have bound them with their chains. Material consciousness both blinds and binds us.
But God has whispered through the mists of time and told them of a land of liberty and love. In the form of intuition the subtle whisper of God from the eternal core of our being has awakened us to higher possibilities of life.
And he has sent his Logos forth to light the way. From without God has sent master-teachers, themselves embodiments of light, to speak to our intellects and to show us the way by their example.
The Red Sea rolls between the promised land and Egypt’s sands. The Red Sea is the carnal mind. The mind both separates us from our divine heritage and leads to it.
Behold, the Logos reaches out his hand; the sea divides; the carnal mind is reft in twain; the sons of men walk through dry shod. But when the truth brought by the master teachers enters our mind, it opens before us and no longer impedes us but becomes itself the path.
The Pharaohs of sense would stay them in their flight; the waters of the sea return; the Pharaohs of sense are lost and men are free. The freed and illumined intelligence dissolves the bonds of sense and ignorance, setting us free.
For just a little while men tread the wilderness of Sin; the Logos leads the way; and when at last men stand upon the Jordan’s brink, these waters stay, and men step forth into their own. Our own enlightened mind leads us into and out of the ways of spiritual endeavor until it, too, parts and passes away and we enter into pure spirit consciousness that is our true Self and are free.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis