Levi H. Dowling - The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ

23. This loathing and this scorn is mockery, for if the tinseled coat of reputation could be torn away, the loud professor would be found to revel in his lust, deceit and many forms of secret sin.

24. The man who spends his time in pulling other people's weeds can have no time to pull his own, and all the choicest flowers of life will soon be choked and die, and nothing will remain but darnel, thistles, burs.

25. And Jesus spoke a parable: he said, Behold, a farmer had great fields of ripened grain, and when he looked he saw that blades of many stalks of wheat were bent and broken down.

26. And when he sent his reapers forth he said, We will not save the stalks of wheat that have the broken blades.

27. Go forth and cut and burn the stalks with broken blades.

28. And after many days he went to measure up his grain, but not a kernel could be find.

29. And then he called the harvesters and said to them, Where is my grain?

30. They answered him and said, We did according to your word; we gathered up and burned the stalks with broken blades, and not a stalk was left to carry to the barn.

31. And Jesus said, If God saves only those who have no broken blades, who have been perfect in his sight, who will be saved?

32. And the accusers hung their heads in shame; and Jesus went his way.

Table of Contents

1. Benares is the sacred city of the Brahms, and in Benares Jesus taught; Udraka was his host.

2. Udraka made a feast in honor of his guest, and many high born Hindu priests and scribes were there.

3. And Jesus said to them, With much delight I speak to you concerning life--the brotherhood of life.

4. The universal God is one, yet he is more than one; all things are God; all things are one.

5. By the sweet breaths of God all life is bound in one; so if you touch a fiber of a living thing you send a thrill from the center to the outer bounds of life.

6. And when you crush beneath your foot the meanest worm, you shake the throne of God, and cause the sword of right to tremble in its sheath.

7. The bird sings out its song for men, and men vibrate in unison to help it sing.

8. The ant constructs her home, the bee its sheltering comb, the spider weaves her web, and flowers breathe to them a spirit in their sweet perfumes that gives them strength to toil.

9. Now, men and birds and beasts and creeping things are deities, made flesh; and how dare men kill anything?

10. 'Tis cruelty that makes the world awry. When men have learned that when they harm a living thing they harm themselves, they surely will not kill, nor cause a thing that God has made to suffer pain.

11. A lawyer said, I pray you, Jesus, tell who is this God you speak about; where are his priests, his temples and his shrines?

12. And Jesus said, The God I speak about is everywhere; he cannot be compassed with walls, nor hedged about with bounds of any kind.

13. All people worship God, the One; but all the people see him not alike.

14. This universal God is wisdom, will and love.

15. All men see not the Triune God. One sees him as the God of might; another as the God of thought; another as the God of love.

16. A man's ideal is his God, and so, as man unfolds, his God unfolds. Man's God today, tomorrow is not God.

17. The nations of the earth see God from different points of view, and so he does not seem the same to every one.

18. Man names the part of God he sees, and this to him is all of God; and every nation sees a part of God, and every nation has a name for God.

19. You Brahmans call him Parabrahm; in Egypt he is Thoth; and Zeus is his name in Greece; Jehovah is his Hebrew name; but everywhere he is the causeless Cause, the rootless Root from which all things have grown.

20. When men become afraid of God, and take him for a foe, they dress up other men in fancy garbs and call them priests.

21. And charge them to restrain the wrath of God by prayers; and when they fail to win his favor by their prayers, to buy him off with sacrifice of animal, or bird.

22. When man sees God as one with him, as Father-God, he needs no middle man, no priest to intercede;

23. He goes straight up to him and says, My Father-God! and then he lays his hand in God's own hand, and all is well.

24. And this is God. You are, each one, a priest, just for yourself; and sacrifice of blood God does not want.

25. Just give your life in sacrificial service to the all of life, and God is pleased.

26. When Jesus had thus said he stood aside; the people were amazed, but strove among themselves.

27. Some said, He is inspired by Holy Brahm; and others said, He is insane; and others said, He is obsessed; he speaks as devils speak.

28. But Jesus tarried not. Among the guests was one, a tiller of the soil, a generous soul, a seeker after truth, who loved the words that Jesus spoke, and Jesus went with him, and in his home abode.

Table of Contents

1. Among Benares' temple priests was one, a guest, Ajainin, from Lahore.

2. By merchantmen Ajainin heard about the Jewish boy, about his words of wisdom, and he girt himself and journeyed from Lahore that he might see the boy, and hear him speak.

3. The Brahmic priests did not accept the truth that Jesus brought, and they were angered much by what he said at the Udraka feast.

4. But they had never seen the boy, and they desired much to hear him speak, and they invited him to be a temple guest.

5. But Jesus said to them, The light is most abundant, and it shines for all; if you would see the light come to the light.

6. If you would hear the message that the Holy One has given me to give to men, come unto me.

7. Now, when the priests were told what Jesus said they were enraged.

8. Ajainin did not share their wrath, and he sent forth another messenger with costly gifts to Jesus at the farmer's home; he sent this message with the gifts:

9. I pray you master, listen to my words; The Brahmic law forbids that any priest shall go into the home of any one of low estate; but you can come to us;

10. And I am sure these priests will gladly hear you speak. I pray that you will come and dine with us this day.

11. And Jesus said, The Holy One regards all men alike; the dwelling of my host is good enough for any council of the sons of men.

12. If pride of caste keeps you away, you are not worthy of the light. My Father-God does not regard the laws of man.

13. Your presents I return; you cannot buy the knowledge of the Lord with gold, or precious gifts.

14. These words of Jesus angered more and more the priests, and they began to plot and plan how they might drive him from the land.

15. Ajainin did not join with them in plot and plan; he left the temple in the night, and sought the home where Jesus dwelt.

16. And Jesus said, There is no night where shines the sun; I have no secret messages to give; in light all secrets are revealed.

17. Ajainin said, I came from far-away Lahore, that I might learn about this ancient wisdom, and this kingdom of the Holy One of which you speak.

18. Where is the kingdom? where the king? Who are the subjects? what its laws?

19. And Jesus said, This kingdom is not far away, but man with mortal eyes can see it not; it is within the heart.

20. You need not seek the king in earth, or sea, or sky; he is not there, and yet is everywhere. He is the Christ of God; is universal love.

21. The gate of this dominion is not high, and he who enters it must fall down on his knees. It is not wide, and none can carry carnal bundles through.

22. The lower self must be transmuted into spirit-self; the body must be washed in living streams of purity.

23. Ajainin asked, Can I become a subject of this king?