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The Destiny of All Men

Hoffman's portrait of ChristPart 34 of the Aquarian Gospel for Awakening

For most of the world’s population caste is no problem as it does not exist among them. But the problem of spiritual bondage is common to all, so we should look at Jesus’ words of hope to the lower castes, for they apply to every one of us.

A parable of caste and contempt

When Jesus saw the sudras and the farmers in such multitudes draw near to hear his words, he spoke a parable to them; he said:

“A nobleman possessed a great estate; he had four sons, and he would have them all grow strong by standing forth and making use of all the talents they possess. And so he gave to each a share of his great wealth, and bade them go their way.

“The eldest son was full of self; he was ambitious, shrewd and quick of thought.) He said within himself, I am the oldest son, and these, my brothers, must be servants at my feet. And then he called his brothers forth; and one he made a puppet king; gave him a sword and charged him to defend the whole estate.

“To one he gave the use of lands and flowing wells, and flocks and herds, and bade him till the soil, and tend the flocks and herds and bring to him the choicest of his gains. And to the other one he said, You are the youngest son; the broad estate has been assigned; you have no part nor lot in anything that is. And he took a chain and bound his brother to a naked rock upon a desert plain, and said to him, You have been born a slave; you have no rights, and you must be contented with your lot, for there is no release for you until you die and go from hence.

“Now, after certain years the day of reckoning came; the nobleman called up his sons to render their accounts. And when he knew that one, his eldest son, had seized the whole estate and made his brothers slaves, he seized him, tore his priestly robes away and put him in a prison cell, where he was forced to stay until he had atoned for all the wrongs that he had done. And then, as though they were but toys, he threw in air the throne and armor of the puppet king; he broke his sword, and put him in a prison cell.

“And then he called his farmer son and asked him why he had not rescued from his galling chains his brother on the desert plains. And when the son made answer not, the father took unto himself the flocks and herds, the fields and flowing wells, and sent his farmer son to live out on the desert sands, until he had atoned for all the wrongs that he had done.

“And then the father went and found his youngest son in cruel chains; with his own hands he broke the chains and bade his son to go in peace.

“Now, when the sons had all paid up their debts they came again and stood before the bar of right. They all had learned their lessons, learned them well; and then the father once again divided the estate. He gave to each a share, and bade them recognize the law of equity and right, and live in peace” (Aquarian Gospel 25:1-21).

This parable is very easy to understand; the law of cause and effect will eventually work toward the right order of things. As the esoteric creed formulated by Bishop Leadbeater of the Liberal Catholic Church says: “We believe that God is Love, and Power, and Truth, and Light; that perfect justice rules the world; that all His sons shall one day reach His feet, however far they stray. We hold the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man; we know that we do serve Him best when best we serve our brother man. So shall His blessing rest on us and peace for evermore. Amen.” The perfect justice that rules the world eventually corrects all things and liberates all people. This is the message of Christ.

Hope of freedom

“And one, a sudras, spoke and said, May we who are but slaves, who are cut down like beasts to satisfy the whims of priests–may we have hope that one will come to break our chains and set us free?

“And Jesus said, The Holy One has said, that all his children shall be free; and every soul is child of God. The sudras shall be free as priest; the farmer shall walk hand in hand with king; for all the world will own the brotherhood of man.

“O men, arise! be conscious of your powers, for he who wills need not remain a slave. Just live as you would have your brother live; unfold each day as does the flower; for earth is yours, and heaven is yours, and God will bring you to your own.

“And all the people cried, Show us the way that like the flower we may unfold and come unto our own” (Aquarian Gospel 25:22-27).

The two ineradicables

No matter how deeply human beings may delve into ignorance, and no matter how distorted and degraded their minds and wills may become, there are two things that they cannot change, distort, or weaken in the least: 1) all the children of God are destined for perfect freedom; and 2) every single human being is a child of God–and therefore partakers of divinity. We should ever keep in mind these two ineradicable truths about ourselves. Levi Dowling, the seer of the Aquarian Gospel, wrote in Biopneuma that every day those who seek illumination should say the following, which they should commit to memory:

“Wisdom! Wisdom! It must be mine; Light! Light! I will see the True Light; Illumination! Illumination! I will attain unto Divine Illumination, through Jesus Christ, My Lord.”

Saint Peter wrote: “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:3,4). And Saint Paul: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). And finally, Saint John the Beloved: “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2). This is the true Gospel of Christ–of “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Accept no substitutes!

Become conscious

These are beautiful words, and they certainly inspire us, but what shall we do to realize their truth for ourselves? Jesus continues:

O men, arise! be conscious of your powers, for he who wills need not remain a slave. Become conscious! This is the call. Consciousness is the nature of spirit, not just an attribute. Therefore if we will open our consciousness, enter into it fully, and dwell in it completely, the first step has been taken. And it cannot be taken by looking here and there outside of us. We must penetrate into the essence of ourselves, into our immortal spirit. Meditation is the only way to do this. Everything else is busywork if meditation is not the basis of our life.

When we are really conscious we will be aware of the divine potencies within us, especially our will. Usually we only manifest our whims and petty desires. Many people who seem to have strong wills are only being driven by their egoic desires and aversions and have no operative will. Only the awakened person can exercise his will, for the will of the spirit is vastly different from the artificial force of our emotional and intellectual “wills.” But once that true will comes alive we can arise and cast off our bonds and be free from slavery of any form. Until then we languish in the prison of ignorance, slaves of birth, death, and all in between.

Live

From childhood we hear the Golden Rule–that we should do to others as we would have them do to us. But that is only part of human life, only social interaction. Jesus gives a more comprehensive rule when He says: “Live as you would have your brother live.” It is easy to look at others and know what they should be thinking, saying, and doing. So we should do ourselves exactly what we think others should do! In religion particularly we like to have “special” people, such as priests, monastics, and spiritual teachers, who are living according to divine principles in every way and whose presence is a benefit to all. And how furious we get when they do not live up to our ideals! Sometimes we even turn from religion and belief in God. How foolish. The failure or success of anyone else means absolutely zero. We are the ones that must be living out the truths revealed by God to mankind. Even if everyone else fails to do so, that is no reason for our neglect. If we were in a group of people and learned that everyone but us was going to die in some catastrophe, would we object and say: “If they are not going to live, then I am not going to live, either!”? Hardly. Just because others fail–or never even try–is no reason for us to fail or not try. Saint Paul wrote: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (I Corinthians 9:24). If we are the only one in this entire creation cycle to attain Christhood, let it be so. But it will not be so. Elijah told God that he was the only one in Israel to not worship Baal, but God answered that there were seven thousand others who had not done so either. We will find ourselves in a large company. So let us get Christing. Live as you would have a saint live, and you will become a saint.

Two errors of Churchianity

We are confronted by two serious errors of Churchianity. One is the doctrine that we just do something to “get saved” and BANG! it is all done. Now we need only sit and wait to go to heaven. The other is the idea that as long as we are in this world, burdened with the body, we can have no illumination beyond a few glimpses that inspire us to “yearn for heaven” and long for death–preferably slow martyrdom with a sizeable audience. (Few Churchian aspirants to sainthood wish their sanctity to be unobserved.) But Jesus says: “Unfold each day as does the flower; for earth is yours, and heaven is yours, and God will bring you to your own.”

Evolution is the word, not instant salvation or enlightenment. A doctor once assured me that drastic change in the body is always pathological, and he concluded by saying that the same was true in spiritual life–there may be an instant shaking up or coming into awareness of the reality of spiritual life, but from then on it is a steady process of movement toward the divine. Spiritual growth does not go in fits or spurts, but is a matter of “each day.” The hare ran fast, then dawdled and even slept; but the tortoise kept at it and proved that “slow but sure” is the way.

The likening of our development to the unfolding of a flower underscores the truth that not only is spiritual life one of steady continuous progress, it is also a movement from within outward, the expression of our eternal nature. A flower does not become a flower, it reveals its flower-nature. We do not attain Christhood, we unfold it, for it is always within us in potential form, just as the tree is in the seed.

Part of the second error of Western religious thinking is that things earthly are hindering our spiritual vision and that we must turn from earth to heaven–that the body is a curse which we must separate from before the spirit can be free. That we are not “this” but are “that.” This creates all kinds of problems and conflicts for those who seek God within that context. But Jesus assures us that “earth is yours, and heaven is yours, and God will bring you to your own,” saying: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Earth and heaven are the manifestation of our Father-God, so they are ours, as well. Moreover, our attunement to God gives us mastery of both earth and heaven, uniting them in us, ending the dichotomy and duality that plagues us now. Jesus was referring to this condition when at the end of His time with them He told His disciples: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18. “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine” Psalms 89:11). He meant that earth and heaven were His inheritance from the Father.

The final clause of Jesus’s words say it all: “And God will bring you to your own.”

Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: God and Man

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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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