The challenge must be delivered, and war declared against the existing powers

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JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE

Chapter 5

Struggle with the Pharisees

 

This Galilean springtime, during which the dawn of the Kingdom of

Heaven seemed to rise upon the attentive multitudes lasted two years.

Now, however, the sky darkened, sinister flashes appeared,

forerunners of catastrophe. The storm burst upon the small family at

Galilee like one of those tempests which sweep the lake of

Gennesareth, and in their wild fury engulf the fishermen's frail

barques.

 

Jesus was in no way surprised at the consternation and terror of his

disciples, he fully expected it. It was impossible that his preaching

and increasing popularity should not stir the religious authorities

and himself. On the contrary, from this conflict alone could light

flash forth.

 

At the time of Jesus the Pharisees formed a compact body of six

thousand men. Their name Perishin means " separate "

or " distinguished " . Of a lofty and often heroic though narrow and

haughty patriotism, they represented the party of national

restoration; their existence only dated from the Maccabees. They

acknowledged both an oral and a written tradition. They believed in

angels, a future life and resurrection, but the glimpses of esoterism

which came to them from Persia they buried beneath the darkness of a

gross material interpretation. Strict observers of the law, though

quite opposed to the spirit of the prophets who placed religion in

the love of God and of men, they made piety consist of rites and

ceremonies, fasts and public penance.

 

On great occasions they were to be seen in the open streets, their

faces covered with soot, praying aloud with contrite mien, and

ostentatiously distributing alms. In contradistinction to all this

they lived in luxury, eagerly intriguing after authority and power.

None the less were the chiefs of the democratic party. They were

composed of families whose pretension it was to have exercised

priesthood by hereditary right ever since the time of David. Extreme

in their conservatism they rejected oral tradition, accepted nothing

but the letter of the law, and denied the existence of the soul and a

future life. They ridiculed alike the stormy practices of the

Pharisees and their extravagant beliefs. For them, religion consisted

entirely in sacerdotal ceremonies. Under the Seleucides they had

deprived the pontificate of power, as they were in complete accord

with the pagans, and were even imbued with Greek sophistry and

refined Epicuris. Under the Maccabees the Pharisees had been rejected

from the pontificate, though, under Herode and the Romans, they had

apparently regained this position. The Sadducees were stern and hard-

hearted as men, and lovers of good cheer as priests, possessed of one

faith, that of their own superiority, and of one idea, the

determination to maintain the power tradition had handed down to them.

 

In such a religion what could Jesus find, Jesus the initiate,

inheritor of the prophets, the Seer of Engaddi, seeking in social

order the image of the divine, in which justice reigns over life,

science over justice, and love and wisdom over all three?

 

In the temple, instead of supreme science and initiation, he found

materialistic and agnostic ignorance, playing on religion as on a

power-giving instrument, in other words, priestly imposture. In

schools and synagogues, instead of the bread of life, and the dew

from heaven falling upon men's hearts, he saw an interested morality

under the veneer of formal worship, i.e. hypocrisy. Far above,

enthroned in a nimbus of glory, sat almighty Ceasar, the apotheosis

of evil and the deification of matter, the sole god of the then

world, only possible master of the Sadducees and Pharisees, whether

they wished it so or not. In adopting the idea from Persian esoterism

as did the prophets, was Jesus wrong in naming this reign the

dominion of Satan or Ahrimanes, i.e. the rule of matter over spirit,

in place of which he wished to substitute that of spirit over matter?

Like all great reformers, he attacked not men, who as exceptions,

might be excellent, but doctrines and institutions which mould the

majority of mankind. The challenge must be delivered, and war

declared against the existing powers.

 

The struggle began in the synagogues of Galilee and continued beneath

the porticoes of the temple at Jerusalem, to which Jesus made

lengthened visits, preaching and replying to his opponents. In this

as throughout his whole career, he acted with that mixture of

prudence and boldness, meditative reserve and impetuous action, which

characterised his wonderfully well-balanced nature. He did not take

the offensive against his opponents, but waited and replied to their

attack, which never tarried, for, from the very beginning of his

ministry, the Pharisees had been jealous of him by reason of his

popularity and his healing of the sick. They quickly suspected him to

be their most dangerous enemy. Accosting him with that mocking

urbanity, that cunning malevolence, veiled beneath a mask of

hypocritical gentleness, in which they were past-masters, in their

role as learned doctors and men of importance and authority, they

asked what reasons he had for having dealings with publicans and

sinners? Why did his disciples dare to pluck ears of corn on the

Sabbath day? Such conduct constituted a grave violation of their

regulations. With a magnanimous gentleness, Jesus replied in words at

once tender and courteous. He tried on them his gospel of love, spoke

of the love of God, who rejoices more over one repentant sinner than

over many just persons. He related to them the parables of the lost

sheep and the prodigal son. In embarrassed astonishment they held

their peace. Uniting again, they returned to the charge, reproaching

him for healing the sick on the Sabbath day. " Hypocrites! " replied

Jesus, a flash of indignation illumining his eyes, " do not you on the

Sabbath day remove the chain from your own oxen's neck and lead them

away to the watering trough? May not therefore the daughter of

Abraham be delivered this same day from the chains of Satan? " No

longer knowing what to reply, the Pharisees accused him of casting

out the devils in the name of Beelzebub. With quite as much wit as

logical acumen, Jesus replied that the devil does not cast himself

out, adding that sin against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but not

sin against the Holy Ghost, signifying thereby that he attached

slight importance to insults against himself personally, but that a

denial of the Good and the True, when once established, constitutes

intellectual perversity, the supreme vice and an irremediable evil.

This was a declaration of war. He was called Blasphemer! Agent of

Belzebub! Which accusations he answered by the expression:

Hypocrites! Generation of vipers! From this time the struggle

continually increased in bitterness. Jesus gave evidence of a close

incisive logic, his words lashed like whips and pierced like arrows.

He had changed tactics; instead of defending himself, he attacked and

replied to charges by other charges more vigorous still, showing no

pity for hypocrisy, the one vice at the root of all others. " Why

transgress ye the law of God by reason of your traditions? God

recommended, Honour thy father and thy mother: you dispense with

honouring parents, if, as alternative, money flows into the temple.

With your lips you serve Isaiah, but your devotion is devoid of

heart " .

 

Jesus ever kept perfect control over himself, though the enthusiasm

and greatness of the struggle daily increased. The more he was

attacked, the more emphatically did he proclaim himself as the

Messiah. He began to utter threats against the temple, to foretell

the misfortunes that Israel would undergo, to appeal to the heathen,

and to say that the Lord would send other labourers into the

vineyard. Thereupon the Pharisees of Jerusalem became anxious. Seeing

they could neither impose silence on him nor find any effective

retort, they too changed tactics. Their idea now was to ensnare him,

so they sent deputations whose object it was to induce him to utter

heretical sayings which would warrant the Sanhedrim in laying hands

on him as a blasphemer, in the name of the law of Moses, or the Roman

governor in condemning him as a rebel. Hence the insidious question

concerning the woman taken in adultery, and the coin stamped with

Caesar's image. Ever penetrating the designs of his enemies, Jesus

with profound psychology and skillful strategy, disarmed them by his

replies. Finding it impossible to effect their object by these means,

the Pharisees attempted to intimidate him by annoying him at every

turn. Worked upon and excited by them, the majority of the people

began to turn away from Jesus when they saw that he was not restoring

the kingdom of Israel. Everywhere, even in the smallest of hamlets,

he met suspicious and wily countenances, spies, and treacherous

emissaries to track and dishearten him. Some came and said to

him, " Depart from here, for Herod (Antipas) is bent on killing thee " .

He replied proudly, " Go tell that fox; it cannot be that a prophet

dies out of Jerusalem! " Nevertheless, he was often obliged to cross

the sea of Tiberias and take refuge on the eastern bank in order to

escape these snares.

 

Nowhere was he now free from danger. Meanwhile John the Baptist was

put to death by order of Antipas in the fortress of Makerous. It is

said that Hannibal, on seeing the head of his brother Hasdrubal,

killed by the Romans, exclaimed: " Now I recognise the fate of

Carthage " . Jesus could recognise his own fate in the death of his

precursor. He had had no doubt of this ever since his vision at

Engaddi; had begun his work, knowing the inevitable end, and yet this

news, when brought by the sorrow-stricken disciples of the prophet of

the wilderness, struck Jesus as a death-warning. He exclaimed : " They

did not recognise him, but have done with him as they wished, thus

shall the Son of Man suffer at their hands " .

 

Jesus: The Last Great Initiate

Struggle with the Pharisees

 

 

i too have found many flaws in Sahaja Yoga

October 25, 2007

 

Just like Judith Coney, Jeffrey and Alex, i too have found many flaws

in the Sahaja Yoga organization. i too was led into a whirlpool of

contradictions and deceit - as many still in the group will confirm

privately.

 

My children and myself too have been for years subjected to abuse,

ridicule and false propaganda carried out by the very council members

who make up WCASY (World Council for the Advancement of Sahaja Yoga),

the so-called presenters of Shri Mataji's Will.

 

Since WCASY has hijacked both Her Will and Divine Message i have set

this website http://www.sahajayoga-shrimataji.org/ to record for all

posterity how tens of thousands of SYs unwittingly helped such a

latent negativity almost destroy Shri Mataji's Advent. It is without

question that the sending of the Comforter (Holy Spirit) by Jesus in

the name of God Almighty is meeting the same evil resistance that He

experienced 2,000 years ago. Jesus' life and mission was brutally cut

short then, which triggered the need to sent a future Comforter

(Paraclete) to complete His mission. And He did as promised!

 

According to Jack Wilson Stallings' and Robert E. Picirilli's book,

The Randall House Bible Commentary: The Gospel of John:

 

" Jesus solemnly assures the disciples that they will, in the future,

perform even greater miracles than He. By this He means to say that

through the power of the Holy Spirit, they will bring about the

greatest miracle of all – the salvation of lost souls. He promises

them that whatever they ask for, in connection with their ministry of

bringing the miracle of salvation to lost men, will be granted them.

 

The theme of this section is reassurance and encouragement. Jesus

gives the disciples three basic reasons they should cease being

troubled in their spirits. First, He tells them that, although He is

going away, He will return for them so that they may ultimately join

Him where He is going (vv. 1-3). Second, He tells them that, though

He is going away, He will be the only means by which men may come to

God and go to Heaven (vv. 4-11). Third, He tells them that, though He

is going away, their ministries are not finished. In fact, the best

is still ahead. They are going, by the Holy Spirit's power, to be

part of the greatest miracle of all, bringing men to salvation (vv.

12-14). " ...

 

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will

send in my name, shall teach you all things, and bring all things to

your remembrance, whatsoever I have told unto you.

 

Jesus now summarizes all that He has been saying in this section.

Referring to the many things which He has taught them while He has

been present with them in the flesh, He tell the disciples that the

Comforter not only is going to remind them of these things, but also

will go to teach them all things necessary to their understanding and

happiness. The Comforter will recall to their minds Jesus' teachings,

will enable them to understand truly and completely, and will develop

and expand them into new and wonderful truths.

 

Jesus has referred to the coming Comforter as the Spirit of Truth (v.

17)...[whose] primary function is the work of making men holy. This

is the work we call sanctification.

 

In v. 16 Jesus has said that the Comforter is going to be provided to

the disciples by the Father on the basis of His (Jesus') prayer that

He should do so. Now He says that the Father is going to send the

Comforter in His (Christ's) name. These statements are essentially

identical and imply a joint action involving both Father and Son. [1]

 

Jack Wilson Stallings and Robert E. Picirilli,

The Randall House Bible Commentary: The Gospel of John,

Randall House Publications, 1989, page 205

ISBN 9780892659524

 

 

Yet today we are again in a precarious situation! Tens of thousands

are forbidden by WCASY, on pain of excommunication, to discuss the

Comforter's Advent and Divine Message to humanity. And the vast

majority of them, believing that all they need to do is just give

self-realization, have happily complied! What empowers this

collective deception? How is it possible that so many are neither

conscientious nor conscious of collectively committing the greatest

crime against humanity? As we continue to add ever more articles

based on the holy scriptures and eschatology to give evidence of the

promised General Resurrection, we cannot help but question what is

the nature of this negativity that induces thousands of so-called

self-realized souls to be so blatantly dishonest about their core

belief.

 

And hundreds of thousands of genuine, innocent and serious seekers

over the decades were deliberately kept in the dark that they had

felt the cool breeze of the Holy Spirit as it is the promised Blossom

Time. 99.99% left and never returned. Just like the Norwegian

undergraduate at Bath University, they too left wondering, " What's it

all about? " The official Sahaja Yoga policy till date states that the

truth cannot be told as it would scare them off. It is thus

preferable that SYs spare them the agony of salvation with the

compassion of soothing lies and deceitful answers.

 

But since time immemorial the Divine has always battled such negative

forces, and ultimately won. The challenge must be delivered, and war

declared against the existing powers. The assured outcome against the

WCASY-dominated Sahaja Yoga organization will be no different.

 

regards to all,

 

jagbir

www.adishakti.org