The Sage of Aquarius: A Centennial Study of the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Robert M. Price

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СКАЧАТЬ God-man unity that exists, at least latently, in every human being. The difference between Jesus and the run of mankind is that he awakened to his divine character and began to draw upon the power to which it entitled him. The self-imposed limitations of unbelief and of low, worldly expectations stifle any expression of the inherent divinity in the rest of us. What Jesus was, we all can be, will be.

      The Christological framework here is essentially that of Friedrich Schleiermacher, the father of Liberal theology, who insisted that, to have been truly incarnate, truly human, Jesus must have possessed and exercised divinity in a manner entirely compatible with his genuine humanity. Thus he cannot have owed his exceptional power and wisdom to an infusion of divinity that would have rendered him some sort of Superman. That would make him a mythical demigod, and nothing for us realistically to aspire to. Jesus “was God incarnate” in the sense that he was filled with God-consciousness,⁴ ever mindful of his divine source and nature. Everyone could be this way, but all allow themselves to become preoccupied with worldly matters. In one sense Jesus was not unique: others can do what he did. In another sense, he was unique, not merely a way-shower. He became a living force, by virtue of the passing on of his gospel portrait preached in church. The preaching of Jesus as he appears in the gospel, in the atmosphere of the Christian community, enkindles in the believer an experience like that of Jesus himself, at least to some increased degree. So Jesus is the Redeemer as well as our example. It is a subtle and impressive Christology. It should be no surprise to find the same outlines in The Aquarian Gospel since New Thought, from which it draws, was itself inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the New England Transcendentalists, and they were in turn the American children of Schleiermacher.

      The Aquarian Christ admits that his power is great, but in the very next breath he diverts attention from himself to his hearers, who may reflect him as he reflects God, if only they will: “What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be” (178:46). Before the cross, he announces, “What I have done all men can do. And I am now about to demonstrate the power of man to conquer death; for every man is God made flesh” (163:36-37). See also 176:19, where the Risen Jesus issues the Aquarian version of the Great Commission: “I go my way, but you shall go to all the world and preach the gospel of the omnipotence of men, the power of truth, the resurrection of the dead.”

      Jesus, as Jesus, deserves no worship at all. Like numerous New Testament characters, he repudiates the very idea, here in the course of a denunciation of Hindu idolatry. Chapter 26 finds the pilgrim Jesus watching the approach of one of the great ritual vehicles transporting an image of the god Krishna, or Jagganath.⁵ (We derive our word “juggernaut,” an unstoppable engine of destruction, from these huge-wheeled wagons, beneath the wheels of which fanatical worshippers used to throw themselves as sacrifices.)

      One day a car of Jagganath was hauled

      along by scores of frenzied men,

      and Jesus said, “Behold, a form

      without a spirit passes by;

      a body with no soul;

      a temple with no altar fires.

      This car of Krishna is an empty thing,

      for Krishna is not there.

      This car is but an idol of

      a people drunk on wine of carnal things.

      God lives not in the noise of tongues;

      there is no way to him from any idol shrine.

      God’s meeting place with man is in the heart,

      and in a still small voice he speaks;

      and he who hears is still.”

      And all the people said, “Teach us

      to know the Holy One who speaks

      within the heart, God of the still small voice.”

      And Jesus said, “The Holy Breath

      cannot be seen with mortal eyes;

      nor can men see the Spirits of

      the Holy One; but in their image man

      was made, and he who looks into the face

      of man, looks at the image of the God

      who speaks within. And when

      man honors man he honors God,

      And what man does for man, he does

      for God. And you must bear in mind

      that when man harms in thought, or word

      or deed another man, he does

      a wrong to God. If you would serve

      the God who speaks within the heart,

      just serve your near of kin, and those

      that are no kin, the stranger at your gates,

      the foe who seeks to do you harm;

      assist the poor, and help the weak;

      do harm to none, and covet not

      what is not yours. Then, with your tongue

      the Holy One will speak; and he

      will smile behind your tears, will light

      your countenance with joy, and fill

      your hearts with peace.”

      And then the people asked.

      “To whom shall we bring gifts?

      Where shall we offer sacrifice?”

      And Jesus said, “Our Father-God

      asks not for needless waste of plant,

      of grain, of dove, of lamb.

      That which you burn on any shrine

      you throw away. No blessings can

      attend the one who takes the food

      from hungry mouths to be destroyed by fire.

      When you would offer sacrifice

      unto our God, just take your gift

      of grain, or meat and lay it on

      the table of the poor. From it

      an incense will arise to heaven,

      which will return to you with blessedness.

      Tear down your idols; they can hear you not;

      turn all your sacrificial altars into fuel for flames.

      Make human hearts your altars, burn

      your sacrifices СКАЧАТЬ