The twelve apostles now had reached the stage of spirit consciousness, and Jesus could reveal to them the deeper meanings of his mission to the world. Next week the great feast of the Jews would be observed, and Matthew said, Shall we not gird ourselves and go unto Jerusalem? But Jesus said, We will not go up to the feast; the time is short and I have many things to say to you; come you apart into a desert place and rest a while. And then they took their boats and crossed the sea, and came into a desert place near Julius Bethsaida. The people saw them go, and in vast multitudes they followed them. And Jesus had compassion on the anxious throng, and he stood forth and taught them all the day, because they sought a light and were like sheep without a fold. (Aquarian Gospel 124:1-6)
The twelve apostles now had reached the stage of spirit consciousness, and Jesus could reveal to them the deeper meanings of his mission to the world. Origen the great writer and teacher of the third century said that there are two kinds of people in this world: bodies and spirits. Most live the life of the body in the consciousness of the body, but there are those whose consciousness has developed beyond the body into the spirit. Most religion is only a matter of ideas and observances, but it is mistaken for spiritual life so we rarely find religions whose avowed purpose is to awaken the spirit. Jesus the yogi understood and helped his disciples to awaken into spirit consciousness. Only then could they comprehend his mission in this world.
And Jesus had compassion on the anxious throng, and he stood forth and taught them all the day, because they sought a light and were like sheep without a fold. The people were not just without a shepherd, a teacher, they were without a religion, a fold. What they thought was religion was misinterpretation and superstition, a power structure empty of real spiritual knowledge. According to the Bhavishya Mahapurana, a Sanskrit history of Kashmir, when Jesus met the king of Kashmir in the Himalayas after having returned to India, he told the king: “I come from a land far away, where there is no truth, and evil knows no limits.” So we cannot doubt that Jesus considered the people of Israel in general at that time to be without any real religion. And this passage of the Aquarian Gospel bears it out. This may seem very harsh, but at the time Jesus was speaking the Essenes had left Israel and gone into Egypt to escape the Roman destruction that they knew would come upon the land. So with the esoteric element absent from Israel it really was devoid of truth and susceptible to all forms of evil. For that reason Jerusalem was later literally overthrown and not a single stone remained on top of another.
And as the night came on the twelve were doubting what the multitudes would do, and Thomas said, Lord, we are in a desert place; the multitudes have naught to eat and they are faint from lack of food; what shall we do? And Jesus said, Go to and feed the multitudes. And Judas said, Shall we go down and buy two hundred pennies’ worth of bread for them to eat? And Jesus said, Go look into our larder and see how many loaves we have. And Andrew said, We have no bread, but we have found a lad who has five barley loaves and two small fish; but this would not be food enough for one in ten. But Jesus said, Command these people all to sit upon the grass in companies of twelve; and they all sat down in companies of twelve. Then Jesus took the loaves and fish, and looking up to heaven he spoke the sacred Word. And then he broke the bread and gave it to the twelve; he also gave the fish unto the twelve, and said, Go to and feed the multitudes. And all the people ate and were refreshed. There were about five thousand men, a company of little ones, and women not a few. And when the people all were filled the master said, Let not a crumb be lost; Go to and gather up the pieces of the bread and fish for others that may want. They gathered up the fragments and they filled twelve baskets full. The people were bewildered by this wondrous act of power; they said, And now we know that Jesus is the prophet that our prophets said would come; and then they said, All hail the king! (Aquarian Gospel 124:7-21)
Then Jesus took the loaves and fish, and looking up to heaven he spoke the sacred Word. Multiplication of food and other resources is not unknown in India. For example, at the tomb-shrine of Ram Jwala Baba in Western India, every day enough food for three hundred people is cooked for the devotees who come there. But at least five hundred people, and often much more, are fed every day to their fill. An Indian friend who had witnessed this many times told me about it. I visited an ashram whose founder once told a disciple to feed a goodly number of people who had arrived late at night. When the disciple protested that there was nothing in the kitchen, not even uncooked items, the saint took her into the kitchen and showed her a cooking pot that had fragments of rice and vegetables sticking to the side. “Dish it up,” the saint said and sat in a corner watching. To the woman’s astonishment as she kept scraping and scraping she took abundant food from the pot and fed the entire group. Once I went on an overnight trip with some friends. The driver was very generous and filled the car with gas, paying for it himself. When we got back home another friend offered to fill up the car with gas. But the gas gauge showed that the tank was still full! When the friend insisted, saying the gauge must be stuck, we went to the gas station where not even a cup more could be put into the tank. All that driving had not used up a drop. Such things happen throughout the world when people have the right consciousness.
When Jesus heard them say, All hail the king! he called the twelve and bade them take their boats and go before him to the other side; and he went all alone into a mountain pass to pray. (Aquarian Gospel 124:22, 23)
Jesus shows us just how little we should value or respond to the praise of the worldly, especially when it is based on their material gain. People seem to always have loved the idea of a welfare state that would take care of their needs and relieve them of all responsibility, even though it never works.
The twelve were on the sea and hoped to reach Capernaum in just a little time, when all at once a fearful storm arose, and they were at the mercy of the waves. And in the fourth watch of the night the wind became a whirling wind, and they were filled with fear. And in the blinding storm they saw a form move on the waves; it seemed to be a man, one spoke out and said, It is a ghost, a sign of evil things. But John discerned the form and said, It is the Lord. And then the wind blew not so hard, and Peter, standing in the midst, exclaimed: My Lord! my Lord! If this be truly you, bid me to come to you upon the waves. The form reached forth his hand and said, Come on. And Peter stepped upon the waves and they were solid as a rock; he walked upon the waves. He walked until he thought within himself, What if the waves should break beneath my feet? And then the waves did break beneath his feet, and he began to sink, and in the fearfulness of soul he cried, O save me, Lord, or I am lost! And Jesus took him by the hand and said, O you of little faith! why did you doubt? And Jesus led the way unto the boat. The storm had spent its force; the winds were still, and they were near the shore, and when they landed they were in the valley of Gennesaret. (Aquarian Gospel 124:24-35)
But John discerned the form and said, It is the Lord. Though the figure was only dimly seen, the beloved disciple recognized the vibration of Jesus, for such beings have powerful and vast-reaching auras.
And Peter stepped upon the waves and they were solid as a rock; he walked upon the waves. This indicates that matter is not as it seems, but at the will of masters can behave completely different from its usual state.
He walked until he thought within himself, What if the waves should break beneath my feet? And then the waves did break beneath his feet, and he began to sink. “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29) is a principle that applies to unbelief, too. Once the great saint Kabir who lived in Varanasi (Benares) sent his son to visit another saint, the poet Tulsidas. He sent a letter with his son asking Tulsidas to teach him wisdom. So Tulsidas worked many miracles invoking the holy name of Rama. When Kabir’s son was to return home, the Ganges was in flood and no boats could cross it. So Tulsidas tied something in a corner of the boy’s clothing and told him to walk over the water! The boy did so, to his amazement. But when he was almost at the other side of the Ganges, he began to wonder what magical object Tulsidas had tied in his cloth. So he untied it and found a sacred tulsi (basil) leaf with the name of Rama written on it. “What’s this?” he exclaimed, “Just the name of Rama!” Immediately he sank in the water, but managed to thrash his way to the shore and crawl out. There is certainly a lesson in that.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis