The Mysteries of the Kingdom: reasons i am stunned (Part 1)

September 16, 2008

>

> Dear All,

>

> i would like to extend the Silence over the week-end please. When

> its over i will explain the reasons why i am stunned. So please

> bear with me the delay which can be used to better comprehend Jesus

> and His teachings. " The Mysteries of the Kingdom " should be read

> very slowly, line by line, paragraph by paragraph. We must begin to

> remember and meditate on our Primordial Father/Spirit/Brahman and

> Mother/Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti--to recognize our true nature as

> children of these 'spiritual' parents--from within! Thanks for the

> cooperation.

>

> regards to all,

>

> jagbir

>

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

" The 'Gospel of Judas' does not stop with condemning erroneous views

about God and sacrifice, or practices of eucharist and baptism. On

the contrary, such criticism of mistaken church leaders marks only

its beginning. From this point, this gospel goes on to show " divine

mysteries " revealed only to Judas – about God, about Jesus and the

divine source whence he comes, and about how he – and the disciple

who follows him – may enter that spiritual reality.

Reason I am stunned:

i know for a fact that centuries of rules, rituals and debates over

Christ's teachings have created massive volumes of confusing, even

contradictory, human interpretations that have little to do with God.

Shri Mataji too has criticized religious institutions, condemning

their erroneous views about the Divine which have led their followers

astray, preachings that have nothing to do with Self-realization.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

Jesus teaches Judas that at death, the bodies of all human beings

will perish – there is no resurrection of the flesh. Only the souls

of the great and holy race will be lifted up when their spirits

separate from them (Judas 8:3-4). At the beginning Judas does not

really understand, for when he has a dream, Jesus laughs at him, a

clear indication that Judas has made some error. But rather than

dismissing Judas, Jesus promises to support him. He encourages Judas

to speak about his distress when he dreamed that " the twelve "

disciples were stoning and persecuting him. But Judas also had a

vision of the heavenly Temple – a glorious vision of a great house

filled with brilliant light, and, high above, dense green foliage

(Judas 9:9-12). (P.78) People would immediately recognize this as the

infinite light in which God dwells – the house of God. That, of

course, is what Jews called the Jerusalem Temple; but what Judas

sees - in stark contrast to " the twelve's " dream about bloody

sacrifice in the earthly Temple – is the spiritual reality beyond

this world, the divine reality that Israel's prophets often described

simply as " light " , the glory of God's presence, at which humanly

built " houses of God " , from the Jerusalem Temple to the cathedral at

Chartres, can only hint.

Reason I am stunned:

" The doctrine of bodily resurrection, linked closely to the soul's

nature and destiny, suffers like a fate. The ancients knew little or

nothing about the human organism — its chemical constituents, its

functioning parts, its psychology — and even less about the nature of

death. Modern man has measured corruption, can detail the chemical

changes that take place when bodily life ceases, has a clear idea of

what precisely corruption and decay of the human frame connote, and

defines human death precisely by the cessation of the observable

functions of the body. The three religions define death as the moment

when the soul leaves the body.

On the other hand, the scientist cannot accept the " outside "

explanation: that a god will " resurrect " the corrupted body. He knows

that in a living body today the actual molecules which compose it

were not part of it some time ago. In another decade it will be made

up of molecules which at present are elsewhere: in African lions, in

passion-flowers of the Amazon, in Maine lobsters, in earth in

Patagonia, and in the fur of a Polar bear. For the scientist, the

body as such has truly ceased to exist. No " shade " or reduced form of

the body exists in an " underworld " or in Elysian fields. The body has

ceased to exist. He therefore finds the resurrection of the body

unintelligible. "

Malachi Martin, The Encounter,

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970, 286.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

But when Judas asks to go there and join the distinguished elders who

surround the divine presence, Jesus rebukes him: " Your star is

leading you astray, Judas " (Judas 9:15). This shows that although

only Judas, of " the twelve, " caught a glimpse of what Jesus meant

when he began to speak to them about the mysteries that are beyond

the world – for Judas alone perceived that Jesus came from the

immortal realm above (Judas 2:22-23) – he still has not fully

understood what Jesus is trying to tell him. No mortal is worthy to

go there, Jesus insists, because that place is reserved for the holy

ones – that is, for people who are no longer subject to the sun and

moon and the other angels who rule over the realm of chaos. So even

though Jesus has already told Judas that he is able to reach the

immortal realm (Judas 2:27), the disciple still doesn't understand

fully Jesus' most central teaching – that for human beings to gain

eternal life, they have to perceive the deeper vision of God that

emerges from within. That is why Jesus began by challenging the

disciples " to bring forth the perfect human. " (P.79) Those who do so

discover that they have within them spiritual resources of which they

were unaware.

Reason I am stunned:

The eternal Spirit World exists and that is where Jesus descended

from. It is an immortal realm where countless liberated souls live.

Jesus demonstrates that no human being can enter the immortal realm

until and unless humans have realized their Self i.e., perceived the

deeper vision of God that emerges from within.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

For in the process of bringing forth the perfect human, one becomes

aware of the deeper meaning of the 'Genesis' account, which tells how

God created humankind:

Then God said, " Let us make humankind in our image, according to our

likeness... " So God created humankind in his image, in the image of

God he created them; male and female he created them " (Genesis 1:26-

27).

If human beings are created in the image of the divine, why is this

image so hard to perceive and why does it take such courage to

discover? Here Jesus goes on to explain that creation " in the image "

refers to our original, spiritual nature, hidden deep within what we

seem to be as ordinary men and women. It is that original quality of

human being that was created in the image of a spiritual being called

Adamas, who dwells in the light, where the true God dwells, hidden

even from the angels (Judas 11:1-2). The human Eve, too, is created

after the image of the heavenly race – because, like Adamas, Eve is

also a heavenly being – and it is she who most deeply represents

humanity's spiritual nature. For within the luminous cloud of light

where Adamas dwells on high there also dwelt Eve. In Greek her name

( " Zoe " ) means " Life, " drawing on the wordplay found in Hebrew, in

which " Eve " means " life, " as the 'Genesis' account shows: " The man

called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living "

(Genesis 3:20). (P.80) Here Jesus teaches that " the whole race " of

humans should seek eternal life 'in her name' (Judas 13:2-4). What

this means for human beings now is that those who come to recognize

their true nature are children of these 'spiritual' parents – not

children like Cain and Abel, enmeshed in the story of the first

murder, but children who resemble the lesser-known one, Seth, whom

'Genesis' says Eve bore to Adam as their third son:

When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God ...

When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of

a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth

(Genesis 5:1,3)

All humanity, then, belongs to " the incorruptible race of Seth "

(Judas 11:5), since everyone is a child of Adam and Eve, created

according to the likeness and the image of God.

Reason I am stunned:

When God said, " Let us make humankind in our image, according to our

likeness " , that image is that of the same substance as that of the

Creator i.e., of a spiritual nature. Thus our soul (Atma) is the same

as that of Spirit (Paramatma). All humanity are created according to

the likeness and the image of Brahman and they have to recognize

their true nature as children of the creator i.e., as eternal souls

of the Spirit. They have to remember again their original, spiritual

nature, hidden deep within what seems to be as ordinary, physical men

and women.

" One of the messages of the Upanishads is that the Spirit can only be

known through union with him, and not through mere learning. And can

any amount of learning make us feel love, or see beauty or hear

the `unheard melodies'? Some have only seen the variety of thought in

the Upanishads, not their underlying unity. To them the words in the

sacred texts might be applied: " Who sees variety and not the unity

wanders on from death to death. "

The spirit of the Upanishads is the Spirit of the Universe. Brahman,

God himself, is their underlying spirit. The Christians must feel

that Brahman is God, and the Hindu must feel that God is Brahman.

Unless a feeling of reverence independent of the barriers of names

can be felt for the ineffable, the sayings of the Upanishads is

true: " Words are weariness, " the same idea expressed by the prophet

that " Of making many books there is no end. "

The Holy Spirit may be the nearest translation of Brahman in

Christian language. Whilst God the Father and God the Son are in the

foreground of the mind of many Christians, the Holy Spirit seems to

receive less adoration. And in India the Brahman of the Upanishads is

not as popular as Siva, Vishnu or Krishna. Even Brahma, the

manifestation of Brahman as creator, and not to be confused with him,

is not living in the daily devotions of the Hindu, as are the other

two gods of the trinity, Siva and Vishnu. The Upanishads doctrine is

not a religion of the many; but rather the Spirit behind all

religions in their central theme repeated in such a wonderful variety

of ways.

Brahman in the Universe, God in his transcendence and immanence is

also the Spirit of man, the self in every one and in all, Atman. Thus

the momentous statement is made in the Upanishads that God must not

be sought as something far away, separate from us, but rather as the

very inmost of us, as the higher Self in us above the limitations of

our little self. Thus when the sage of the Upanishads is pressed for

a definition of God, he remains silent, meaning that God is silence.

When asked again to express God in words, he says " Neti, neti, " " Not

his, not this " ; but when pressed for a positive explanation he utters

the sublimely simple words " TAT TWAM ASI, " " Thou art That. " "

Juan Mascaro, The Upanishads

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

Why, then, does Jesus speak of 'two' kinds of human races? Why is it

that not everyone automatically understands the spiritual nature? To

help Judas understand, Jesus tells him that Saklas was the one who

decreed that human beings should only live for a short time and then

perish. People have been led astray and polluted with the foolish

" wisdom " of the world (Judas 8:7), because the rulers of chaos and

oblivion " lord it over them. " They've come to believe that this life

of the flesh, our present life in this world, is all that really

exists. (P.81) When they try to imagine eternal life, they imagine it

only as living on forever in the flesh, just as Justin, Irenaeus, and

Tertullian say. But Jesus insists they are wrong. Although

the 'Gospel of Judas', like the New Testament gospels, says that

Jesus' teaching offers a path to eternal life, the key to that path

is not what happens to the physical body; it is understanding

humanity's spiritual connection to God. Those who understand the

deeper secrets of creation, aware that they are created " in the

image " of the divine source, may come to dwell above in the realm of

the Spirit.

Reason I am stunned:

Jesus says there are two types of human races; the overwhelmingly

vast majority that thinks in terms of the physical body and the

miniscule minority that has attained knowledge of their original

nature, hidden deep within. The former have been led astray and

polluted with the foolish " wisdom " of the world by political leaders

and guardians of religious regimes — priests, pastors, reverends,

bishops, popes, rabbis, clerics, imams, mullahs, shaikhs, ulema,

ayatollahs, gurus, swamis, pandits, brahmins, acaryas, bhagwans,

granthis, gianis, lamas, monks, dalai lamas. Even when they try to

imagine eternal life, they imagine it only as living on forever in

the flesh – graves opening up during resurrection, 72 virgins in

heaven to fornicate at will for all eternity, heaven and eternal life

on earth etc.

Jesus' teaching offers a path to eternal life. The key to that path

is not what happens to the physical body. Instead it is understanding

humanity's spiritual connection to God> Only the miniscule minority

have taken this path to eternal life by attaining Self-realization

i.e., realization of the Self/God/Brahman within. Only the few who

understand the deeper secrets of creation are aware that they are

created " in the image " of the divine source. Jesus promises that only

they will come to dwell above in the realm of the Spirit.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

Jesus explains to Judas that God did not abandon humanity to the

lower angels but made sure that Adam and those with him learned that

the image of God they carry deep within makes them superior to the

rulers of chaos (Judas 13:16-17). Judas is astonished when he hears

this. At first he can't believe it is true, but gradually he comes to

understand what it means. Jesus explains that because everyone

received a divine spirit, everyone can worship God truly. Those who do

so free themselves from the power of the lower angels, so that when

their physical bodies die, their souls – now joined with spirits of

the great and holy race above – ascend to the heavenly realm above

(Judas 8:2-4; 9:22; 13:12-15). Judas finally understands Jesus'

teaching, so that this time he does not turn his eyes away, but he

lifts up his eyes so that he sees the cloud of light, and he enters

into it (Judas 15:15-19).

Reason I am stunned:

This is nothing but Self-realization! Jesus explains that because

everyone received a divine spirit, everyone can truly worship that

divine spirit (God) from within. Those able to worship their Self can

free themselves from this physical world and their liberated souls

ascend to the immortal heavenly realm of the Spirit above ...... and

live forever. This is the eternal afterlife promised by all the Holy

Scriptures.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

Yet the 'Gospel of Judas', like the New Testament gospels, shows that

Jesus' teaching is not limited to words; he also teaches through what

he does. What he reveals is not complete when he finishes speaking –

but only when he dies. His death demonstrates that the death of the

body is not the end of life, but only a step into the infinite.

Reason I am stunned:

Jesus Christ is the only incarnation who has demonstrated and given

evidence through His crucifixion and resurrection that " the death of

the body is not the end of life, but only a step into the infinite " .

Shri Mataji is absolutely right when She heaped this praise on

Jesus: " He was the Holiest of the Holy. You accept that position. "

And for more than 30 years She has glorified Jesus Christ and declared

the Good News of the Kingdom of God--the promised Resurrection and

eternal afterlife in the Spirit World--month after month, year after

year, decade after decade. The end of this physical life is but a step

into the spiritual infinite!

The Mysteries of the Kingdom:

What meaning, then, does Jesus' death have? Jesus shows Peter that he

should not fear death, because what dies is only the mortal body, not

the living spirit. To show him this, Peter is given a vision of

Jesus' passion to prepare him to face his own suffering and death.

The Savior reveals to Peter that if he perceives the crucifixion not

with his physical ears and eyes but with spiritual apprehension, he

will be able to perceive the truth. The one into whose hands and feet

they drive the nails is only the fleshly part; the living Jesus is

untouched by this suffering and death ('Apocalypse of Peter' 81:4-

24). [4] Peter expresses astonishment, for in a kind of double

vision, he seems to see one person being seized and nailed to the

cross while another, joyful and laughing, stands nearby. When Peter

asks Jesus what this means, Jesus explains that when the body suffers

mortal agony, it releases " the Spirit filled with radiant light "

(83:9-10). Human beings are not saved by dying as martyrs but only by

accepting God's forgiveness and standing fast against those who teach

error and violence.

Reason I am stunned:

First Falsehood: " But They Killed Him Not... But So It Was Made To

Appear To Them "

" Islam denies Shri Jesus' crucifixion contrary to massive scriptural

and historical evidence. This might be quite a shock to non-Muslims,

but it is true. Ask any Muslim and he or she will tell you that

Christ was never crucified. All Muslims firmly believe so, thinking

that the Qur'an says so!

That they said (in boast), " We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary,

the Messenger of Allah " —

But they killed him not, nor crucified him,663 but so it was made to

appear to them,

And those who differ therein are full of doubt, with no (certain)

knowledge, but only conjecture to follow,

For a surety they killed him not.

surah 4:157 Al Nisa (The Women)

(Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an, Amana Corporation, 1989.)

" 663. The Qur'anic teaching is that Christ was not crucified nor

killed by the Jews, notwithstanding certain apparent circumstances

which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies.;

that disputations, doubts, and conjectures on such matters are vain. "

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an

(Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an, Amana Corporation, 1989.)

The critical words " but so it was made to appear to them " clearly

indicates that humans did see Him being crucified. They saw Him being

crucified and killed (and the body later removed and entombed.) All

this did happen but it was made to appear to them that they had

crucified and killed Him. But in Reality, " for a surety they killed

him not. " This means that they `killed' Him physically, but

spiritually He was alive. He never died because the Spirit is

eternal. So, for sure they never killed Him just as no human ever

dies as we are all eternal spirits. Shri Jesus was physically

crucified but He did not die spiritually. In other words, He was not

crucified although it was made to appear so. The spirit is eternal

and cannot be crucified, killed, maimed, burnt, or cut, i.e., it is

indestructible. This was probably the simplest way of explaining a

very subtle and complex Truth to illiterate tribal folks.

The Qur'an does not deny the crucifixion; it only affirms that Shri

Jesus was not killed, although in all appearance it seemed so. And

the only way this is possible if humans saw Shri Jesus `dead' on a

cross. All His disciples and followers knew about His death by

crucifixion because there were many who witnessed it. Even though

they buried his dead body, He resurrected Himself three days later.

So He did not die even though He `died.' So He did die by crucifixion,

a common form of Roman punishment. If this is not the case then will

one billion Muslims please enlighten the precise nature of His death.

We are dying to know what you know. "

Shri Adi Shakti: Kingdom of God, pages 2993-94

September 19, 2008