Talks

Transcript:

DATE: 19810617

TITLE: MS THE RELIGION OF TRUTH

I’ve chosen for my topic tonight, “The Religion of Truth.”

I would like to read to you an article written by Swami Ramdas, entitled, “World Fellowship:”

The Eternal Divine Principle, which is the cause of the world-manifestation is at once an immanent and transcendent Reality, so to realize this great Truth, we have to go within ourselves. Since the Truth is all‑pervading, it forms an immortal and indissoluble link that unites all beings and creatures in the world. This is an all‑inclusive and all-comprehensive Reality.

Inherently, we are universal and perfect in nature. When man awakens to the consciousness of this perfection of his existence, he feels, through the inner spiritual experience, that he is one with all beings and things in the universe—nay, that the entire revelation of nature in its various aspects and multifarious activities is the expression of his own infinite and eternal being.

Utter freedom, bliss, power and peace are only for him or her who has attained to this supreme beatific vision. In this vision, the ephemeral values of life disappear, and man, shuffling off his local, limited and imperfect nature, stands revealed as a veritable embodiment of Divine effulgence, power and glory. Now, universal love is his creed, universal vision his religion.

The momentous changes we are now witnessing in the affairs of humanity are the signs of a transitional period, veering humanity towards the acceptance of an universal consciousness and brotherhood. Chaos and confusion bring forth order and harmony. A long night ends in a resplendent day. The wail of misery and pain is succeeded by joy and exultation. War, strife and bloodshed, washing away the dirt of selfish human nature, pave the way to unity, harmony and peace.

A superficial view of affairs as they prevail at present seems to offer ample food for a pessimist who is ever busy singing the one refrain of despair and despondency, but the seer, who sees things afar and whose inward vision reveals to him the glory of a future filled with goodwill, harmony and joy, is carrying his heartening message to the perplexed humanity.

The question would be asked whether the optimistic view of the seer is at all possible or practicable of consummation. The Divine Principle, embedded in the very life of the universe, stands for unity and harmony, and this Infinite Power, in its spontaneous out-growth, strives to bring about order out of chaos. So, the note of despair and disbelief has no place in a world which is rapidly evolving towards a supreme state of world union and world fellowship.

If, with a wide sweep of vision, we care to observe the great changes that are happening in the world, we have to admit that the Almighty Power has been deeply engaged in breaking down the walls of ignorance that have so long kept apart man from man, community from community, religion from religion, and nation from nation. The light has now dawned on humanity, a light which is arousing them to the knowledge of the common and eternal bond that unites them into one life and one unit.

Let every one of us put his shoulders to this giant wheel of evolution and hasten the coming of the magnificent kingdom of cosmic vision, harmony and peace.

And this was written in April of 1936 by my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, entitled, “The Unseen Church:”

On the soil of eternity, I built an Unseen Church where all might worship. Here, under the blue dome, illumined by sun, moon, aurora, Milky Way and wisdom lights, are gathered the assembled star families, island universes, solar systems, and the little earth with its millions of families of many religions.

Every day, during the vesper hour, the flying angels of thoughts soar over infinity, calling mute and noisy beings to forsake their age-long slumber and join the cosmic service of awakening.

The altars of one rhythm, united hearts of commingled lives, of molten gold of cosmic union and electrified matter, were dimly burning with His gentle, enchanting Presence.

The comets arrived and shed their joyous tears of light; the stars poured their twinkles at His Feet of Eternity, and the prodigal souls shed tears of repentance for age-long forgetful wanderings.

All the blossoms of the earth opened the cork of petals and loosened their liquid fragrance on His omnipresent altar. The dew of devotion from the heart of all true tears meekly but steadily flowed over His feet of forgiveness.

Love, hate, light and gloom, wisdom and ignorance, good and bad, all thronged into the Church of All Creation. Then, a silent sermon of the Infinite was heard in the silence. A silent song of mirth filled the chalice of all lives. A silent smile of light drove the hidden gloom away from all.

Under the silent spell of His sermon, love embraced hate, light hugged gloom, wisdom transmuted ignorance, good charmed bad. Many religions embraced His one faith of Truth, many hearts dissolved into one altar of Heart, many loves became His One Pure Love, and many souls became One Spirit. And all of them sang, with one voice, the chorus of one religion, one life, one truth, one goal, one devotion, one love, and One Spirit.

Now from Colossians, Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 12:

1. We give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
2. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
3. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
4. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
5. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
6. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
7. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
8. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
9. And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
10. And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
11. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
12. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
13. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

It would be a wonderful thing if you will only stop to reflect upon it deeply, if everyone were to give up the idea that they belong to a certain church, to a certain religion by a certain name, and think of himself only as a disciple of God. It would be a wonderful thing if there was one religion under God because there is only one God who is the Father of us all.

If you continue to follow the social religions, and by that I mean those that follow the dogmatic path, and instead of exploring the higher truth of the Spirit, then indeed you will not make true spiritual progress. You must go beyond all religion in order to find the religion of Truth. That path is to be trod only within yourself.

Everything hinges on your own conscious willingness to receive the Truth, to reach out for it, to want it with everything you have. If you are satisfied with platitudes, with fairy tales, with parables, then this type of thing that I am speaking of is not yet for you. But to the one who is willing to pick up his cross, which is his body, and lay down his life for God, and by that, I mean not to die a human death in the way we think of the physical death but to give up his life in total surrender to God, to go through whatever spiritual experiences are necessary for him to realize this great Truth within himself, that he is indeed the temple of the living God—Remember that it says in John, 8, Verse 31: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

When you first start on the path, you come to a spiritual teacher who has picked up his or her cross and has trod the path on the way to glory, who has gone over the top and found the real Truth within himself or herself, you approach it in accordance with that which is within your own consciousness.

Many come and ask questions about their daily life. Many come asking for prayers and help in sickness, in trouble, in finding jobs, whatever. There are many, many requests along that line. But it is the obligation, the responsibility of the teacher of Truth to get them back on the track and to put forth the saying, which is above all others in the Bible, that if you will seek God and the kingdom of heaven first, then all of the other things shall be added unto you.

That knowledge, that kingdom, that heaven—and that hell, if you will—are within yourself, and your life is exactly what you will make it. But if you really are a seeker of Truth, then you will want to know the Truth behind all of these so-called phrases that are put before us. You will forget about the historical religion you have been taught and you will do as the Christ enjoined, to seek the kingdom of heaven within yourself, because he said that is where it is to be found.

Now you must have the methods for doing that, and in the few simple techniques which we give, which are natural to the workings of your own being: the technique of the spiritual eye, the technique of hearing the Word of God, or the Om sound, which the Christians call Amen or A[h]men; and the watching of the breath so that the breath may be completely still and the body remain in a state of suspended animation. These are the techniques, the few techniques which are taught to you, and they will take you a tremendous way. You will have great experiences in God.

But the greatest gift that you can give God is your love, your obedience and your total surrender of everything which you call your self and your own, and few indeed are willing to give that.

You will say, “Well, I will give this. Yes, I’m willing to do it. I will give this. But what about my children? I’m responsible. What about my job? I have to work, don’t I, to earn a living? I can’t keep my mind on God all of the time and still keep my mind concentrated on my work.”

I have heard these things, and a million more, given as excuses not to follow the path of God, not to put Him first. And yet, without Him we are nothing and we can do nothing because He is the Sole Creator, Sustainer and Dissolver of this universe.

As Ramdas’s article stated, we are going through tremendous changes. The world is evolving at a very rapid pace. Things are disintegrating, even the earth itself, before our very eyes. There are unreal accidents happening. And we turn on the television or pick up the newspaper or listen to the radio [and] every single day we hear of some tragic accident that has happened, and sometimes many in one day. And we think all of the morbid thoughts: “The end of the world is come,” and “Gloom is upon us. We’re going to be destroyed.” And I tell you this, that some may be, this is true, but what we should be thinking about is the destruction of the “son of man,” the human ego. We should be thinking of transforming the animal nature within us into that of the Son of God, the Christed One, because each and every one that is here, and beyond, has the power to become an heir with Christ if you will but pick up your cross which is your body and emulate Him in every detail, to make Him first in your life.

Above all things, think of God first. Give Him your complete love and devotion, with all of your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. Do that, and then things will start to happen. The Truth will be revealed to you. You will know that this body is the cross that is spoken of in the Bible. You will realize that he is the head of the body. Again, the body, the church.

He said this is the “temple of the living God.” This is the church that is spoken of; and yet, all of the orthodox churches today think that they are the body of Christ. In no way! They are merely a building. Some of them are made out of bricks, some of them out of cement, some of them out of wood, some of them out of straw. Some just erect something simple in a forest. But it is the body of every man that is the church, the temple of the living God.

It is the body of man in which heaven is to be found. It is the body of man in which the Christ will descend out of the cloud of that heaven into your consciousness when you have purified yourself sufficiently to receive Him. It is this body that holds the answer to everything that is in the scriptures. But because man was not, at the time these scriptures were written, ready to hear the Truth, nor had he earned it, then a fairytale, if you will, a parable, was woven around the Truth and it was covered up so that the blind, the ignorant, and those who had evil ways would not be able to take advantage of it. But to those few who had this burning desire within themselves— within their minds, their hearts, their souls—to reach out and discover the Truth of the Infinite, these men went into the laboratories of their own souls and they experimented. They explored the inner kingdom, until they came out with some fantastic answers.

And these things are just not words, but they proved to themselves the power and the glory of that which they discovered. They became filled with the light of God. They realized their oneness with God. They realized that there was only One Creator, only one who should be given full respect, full allegiance, full love to, and that was God, the Creator of everything there is.

Do you think we can do anything by ourselves? In no way! We have to have a fountain of knowledge, of wisdom, of power, of love flowing into our bodies at all times, and the key to that is the flow from the Infinite through the medulla of every single individual soul. And that positive and negative force goes straight through to what we call the Christ Center, and then it is distributed through the brain, down through the sub‑powerhouses, the spinal centers, and each spinal center has jurisdiction over the function of one part of the body.

And it is constantly being charged. Just like the battery of a car needs recharging, so also we need to be recharged from the Infinite. Still, we are constantly thinking of all of the things that we say, that we do, that we discover, that we are responsible for, and we do it with a great human-ego sense. And as long as we know that we do it, instead of realizing that it is God Himself who does all things for us and through us, we will never become the great souls that we have the power within us to become.

There are many tests that come to the disciple as he puts his feet upon the path. Sometimes when you first start in and you are totally determined that you are going to find the Truth within yourself, that you’re going to be obedient to God, that you’re going to give up all of your bad habits, it seems as though all hell breaks loose and all of the things that you feared have come upon you. This is your test in the beginning, and there are many who draw away from that test and they run away with their back turned to the spiritual teacher and to God, going back into the pleasures of the senses, and also, don’t forget, the misery, the trials, the tribulations, the sorrow, the hurt, all of the things that you want to get rid of.

And as long as you remain in that state, so it will be. But when you’re willing to go through your tests and to prove yourself in the fire of testing, and to reach out beyond and above all that comes before you, to go through it and go to the other side of it, then one day you will start to feel the tremendous feeling of power, of love, of a complete change within yourself such as you have never known before.

Your whole being changes, so that you don’t want to associate with the same company as you associated with before. You are willing to give up liquor, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs. You are willing to change your habits of sex indulgence and lay everything you are and everything you have at the feet of the Lord, and reach out and say, “Lord, here am I. Take me. Do with me as You will. Let me be your child and your servant. Guide me. Direct me in all that I do.” And when you go within yourself and listen for that “still small voice,” that voice of intuition, gradually it will grow and grow and grow, until every time when you go inside of yourself you will be given new truths. You will take a new and another step up the ladder of God‑realization. Your consciousness will expand.

In the beginning, you may even have headaches. That is a very natural result of meditation and of practicing some of the techniques that are given. But don’t worry about it. Just like the seed of a child is planted in the mother’s body and her body has to accommodate it by expanding to receive it and its growth, just so, the seed of God‑realization is planted in your consciousness and in your heart. And as it grows, the expansion takes place and sometimes you have a headache. Sometimes you have pains. Sometimes the serpent‑like force, which lies at the base of the spine, starts to climb. It reverses itself from being constantly misused through sexual indulgence and it starts to go upward instead. And as you experience that, the body seems to catch on fire. And I’ve told you all, when that gets too bad, to put an ice pack on top of your head and it will dissipate itself very rapidly.

But the time will come when there will be no more expansion because you will have realized the fullness of your growth. You will have delivered the Christ Child within yourself. There will be no burning because all that was dross within you will have been purified. But it takes effort, it takes dedication, and you have a decision to make as to which road you want to travel. Do you want to travel the world of the senses and keep on being buffeted between the forces of so‑called good and evil, or do you want to take control of your mind, your body, your soul and your destiny and become the master of yourself, and therefore of your life and all that is within it?

As you grow in spiritual development, there are three tests that you must particularly watch out for. One is the test of power, and there are many, even advertisements in magazines of all types today, telling you how you can use your mind-power, asking you to send for information so that you can have control over other people’s minds, over their lives, over their actions and they don’t even know that this is being practiced. What a terrible thing to do, to invade somebody else’s privacy.

There’s much going on in the way of hypnotic efforts these days. It is being used as a cure‑all for many things. But don’t forget that when you go put yourself in the hands of a hypnotist, you are putting yourself in their power, and if you do it over a period of time, the results may not be good. Many things can happen, and you lose control of that which, if you put your mind to it, you could do yourself. There are extenuating circumstances in everything, and I’m a total realist and I make exceptions to every rule, as God directs me to do, but I’m speaking in terms of generality.

I think there have only been one or two people in all of the years that I’ve been teaching, that I have recommended that they use this treatment of hypnotism in order to help them, and it has. It has brought them out. But I certainly don’t recommend it. I recommend, rather, that you go within yourself and meditate, that you learn to control your mind, because everything in the way of your actions, your movements, your speech, originates in idea-form, and it is brought forth into manifestation through these other faculties which you have been given.

When you finally reach the state where you feel the power of God in you and you are able to use this power, make sure that you don’t think that you use it, or that you have power, because you of yourself are nothing; it is your Father who doeth the works. Remember that always.

I have, as I have told you before, through God’s grace and totally with His help, raised a man from the dead. Many have been healed through God in this body. Some of them, I haven’t even been aware of the fact that my body was being used for this purpose. And still, if I took somebody in my arms or laid my hands on them, and sometimes when I didn’t even touch them—as happened with one saint in India, still this man who hadn’t been able to get up and down by himself for seven long years, through the tremendous impact of the Spirit of God, rushed to me, put my hands on his forehead, on his head, said that I was his Divine Mother, that I must accept him as my son. And I was flabbergasted. All I could think of to say was “whatever God wills.” And this man, who hadn’t been able to get up and down for seven years, got down all by himself, prostrated full‑length on the ground and put his head on my feet, and got up by himself. This was a man who had three ashrams and thousands of followers. Now, I didn’t do one God-blessed thing. How could I take credit for it?

In the case of the man raised from the dead, I knew nothing about it. But I was brought there, I was asked to help, and so I asked God, if it was His will, to show me what to do. And He did. But to this day, I cannot take credit for anything that has happened.

Many times, I don’t find out about what my body is being used for until sometimes a week or two weeks or three weeks, or sometimes longer. I know that I’m going through certain things, that I’m probably working them out. But I don’t do it. I would be afraid to. I would be afraid to use power on any single human being. Unless God said, “Lay your hands on this one. Do this. Do that,” no way do I move! And I do not want anybody who follows with me to do anything like that, because God is the Supreme Power in the universe. He is the Healer, He is the Doer, He is the Sustainer. He is the Everything! We of ourselves are indeed nothing. So when you feel this sense of power, if He uses you to do something, then don’t take the credit for yourself and start to be filled with vain glory; but rather, give all of the credit to Him. It is your opportunity to develop humility.

Another thing that you must watch for on the way up is to be self‑righteous: when you have attained a certain state, to feel yourself better than anyone else. You are not. You are still just one of the children of God. True, you may have gone through tremendous experiences, you may have become master of yourself, but that doesn’t make you any different or any better than anyone else in God’s sight. It just makes you a more willing, a cleaner vessel that He may use, because He made it to do His work because He is the Doer. What do we have to feel self‑righteous about? Just exactly what?

So, these things must be taken into consideration. And on the way up many times, as you start to grow in numbers, then either you’re born in wealth, or with wealth in your family, and you’re used to it, you’re accustomed to it, and all the things that it buys—or, on your way up you accumulate wealth. Now, what you accumulate can be used to store up for yourself to be used to better your own situation, to get things for yourself—better houses, more cars, this, that, and the other thing—or it can be used merely to satisfy your basic needs and then use it for the help, the upliftment of all humanity.

So it is very, very important that you are not trapped by any one of these three things on the way up. But if you persist, the day will come when God will lift you up. He will put you through whatever experiences He knows are for your highest good and which you have earned to go through. You have been here through many incarnations and this is the time, the opportunity when you have the very great privilege of realizing who and what you are in Truth: to explore the inner universe of your own being, to reach out for the greatness which is contained within your God‑self, to find that Self in the sanctuary of your own soul and become one with It, and once and for all cast off the “creature,” the “beast,” whose mark is 666.

That is the number of man—man in his human-ego state, because the six centers below the seventh spinal center—The last one is where you find God; that is within your consciousness. But the others are attached to your idea body, your astral or electrical body, which controls and governs your nervous system, and finally your physical body. These three are the numbers 666 that are spoken of in the scriptures as being the number of man. And as long as you are still in the consciousness of man, you are still to some degree in the state of animal consciousness because you have all of the desires of lust, of greed, of anger, of passion, of pride, of vanity.

All of these various things are within yourself. But if you will make the effort to fix your mind upon God alone, to set yourself the greatest goal of all, which is to realize your True Self and become one with that Self, then all of the other things are going to be added unto you. But you’re just not sitting with your hands folded in the meantime; you are listening to the voice of God every moment. You are realizing that it is through His power, through His blessing, through His words, through His strength, through His everything, that you are able to function and do the things that you do.

And if you will only let go and let God, and listen for His voice of direction—Sometimes it’s His direction that you do nothing. But everybody wants to get in on the act. And each of us do many things, and many times they’re very helpful and they wrought many, many changes in the lives, not only our own lives, but in the lives of others around us.

And this is one way we serve God in one another. But sometimes it comes to pass that having done everything we know how, nothing has worked, and we have no choice but to put everything in God’s hands and say, “Well, Lord, I’ve done everything I know how. If anything is to be done, you must do it.” And when we do this—when we are totally relaxed, when we are totally surrendered to Him—we rise above the problem, we let go of it, and we let God. And believe me, He can perform miracles. I’ve had this happen in my life, I can’t tell you how many times, so I know that I speak the truth because the truth can only be proven when it works for you. It becomes the fulfilment of prophecy.

God prophesizes within you. He gives you information. He gives it to you through intuition in the beginning, which comes and goes. That is the “baptism by John.” But it is not the baptism of the “one which is to come” because finally when the price has been paid and the Christ has taken over your kingdom, you have become one with that Supreme Power within yourself. Then the flow becomes steady from God, within your consciousness, as to each separate thing that you think, say and do. You no longer have the responsibility, except to be the witness of that which He does through this form which He made.

And it is the most fascinating thing in the world to be that witness, to have so totally surrendered yourself to Him that there is nothing there but the Christ within you, and to watch how He performs—watch how He handles every situation, every individual that comes before you; watch how He provides for you, watch how He changes your world; watch how He turns that which was in darkness into light, that which was in poverty into riches, that which was barren into production of every kind. And you find gifts within yourself that you never dreamed you had.

And it doesn’t matter how young you are or how old you are; you can start this moment and make something of yourself. You can build a new religion based upon Truth alone, not upon the name: “I belong to this organization,” “I belong to this religion, (and the full emphasis is on that) but I hate everything else. Nothing else is good except what I follow. They don’t have the truth. I alone have it.”

And there have been wars and people have been killed because of this method of procedure in so‑called “religion,” in so‑called “faith” and following and love of Christ. How can they dare to think such a thing? There is only one religion, and that is the religion of Truth.

Many years ago, (this is in the original teachings of my Guru) he said,

Do not admire the dogmatism of any religion. I believe that dogmatism is due to material causes. Churches should be the laboratories of spiritual experience. Their dogmas should be burned, and the Truth retained. I want to bring to the minds of different religionists that the time has come not to hold on to the belief in dogmas but let the mind of God freely flow through your hearts. My purpose is not to show the supremacy of any religion, but to reveal Truth wherever it is.

How wonderful. Then he went on to say,

Self‑realization Fellowship (which is his organization) is not a sect, but offers a technique by which you can calm the body and the mind. To become a member, it is not necessary to change your religion. What is necessary is to establish a fellowship of all religions and to find the quickest route that leads to God. We do not try to monopolize Truth.

Do you see the beauty of that? If you are a follower of the Follower of Truth, you are God’s child. We must have nothing but the realization of God, the religion of Truth, so let us make up our minds to follow the Truth. As Jesus said, “The truth shall make you free.”

Today, I received a magazine from the organization. [SRF] He died in 1952. The teachings are no longer recognizable. But that isn’t important because each one can go within himself and find that Truth there. But in that magazine was an article which belied, which destroyed everything that was said by this great Master in this lesson which was written back in 1938.

Everything was gathered unto yourself. Anybody that dared to say that they were a disciple of his and to operate on their own, or to dedicate anything to him, no matter how great he was to them or how much he had done for them, was beyond the pail. How terrible! How terrible. And yet, it is done to every great master who comes, since the beginning of time. The disciples always seem to know better than the Master.

And the truth is that the Master came to give through the price which he paid, through his own sweat and blood, so to speak. He has found the Truth, and he comes and he gives it to those who follow with him. Then somebody thinks they know how to do it better, or that he didn’t do it well enough, or his words aren’t just right, and everything is changed around. And those that come, the pity of it, the terrible part of it is that they don’t know that everything has been watered down, has been changed, and is no longer what the Master gave; that they’re getting “fool’s gold” instead of the true gold of the Spirit.

Somehow, if God ever permits me to write, I hope to find some way to keep it as God has given it to me, as He has put me through the Truth. I don’t want it changed, because unless you yourself have been through the fire of testing, unless you have gone all the way and returned, then you are not in a position to judge whether something is true or not. Write from your own state of consciousness, but do not change that which has been given. That is taking license of the first order.

As all of you know, we don’t operate under a name. We don’t charge for anything that we do. Everything is on a voluntary basis here. People of all religions are welcome here. And I don’t want anybody going out and being a missionary in the sense that you put your foot in the door, ring the bell, and insist that you have the only truth that there is, because you don’t!

God is everywhere equally present and there are many great souls in this world who have paid the price for knowing the Truth. But you can find that Truth within yourself, and as God brings people before you, or takes you to people and they evidence an interest in what you are because of what you have become through your following the Truth, then they want to know, then give it to them. But don’t force it upon them. I want freedom of will exercised.

You all know the rules that I have laid down, and those rules are not for my sake but for yours because this temple of God must be kept pure, the mind must be kept pure. And you should reach out and do everything you can to maintain that purity: to choose the right friends, to live according to the commandments which are given in every great religion in the world, and not to make up your own rules and regulations but to really get busy and find out the tremendous power, the tremendous light, the tremendous beauty, the tremendous love and peace and glory and bliss that are within yourself, that are your very Self.

This is what I come to give you, to broaden your minds, not to make them narrower. I want to embrace all the world with the Truth which God has put me through and revealed to me. Many of you have had some of these experiences yourself and so you know that what I have told you in the past is the Truth because you yourselves have experienced them.

But it will expand; it will grow. But it will only grow if we love one another, if we are friends, one to the other; if we live the good life, if we give everybody the great privilege of worshiping God in the way that God directs him to worship Him.

Nobody is held here. If you take a vow of initiation, that is another thing. But you are told in many ways, many times, before you take that vow, that it is a very serious thing and should not be broken, because when you break a vow that is taken before God, then there is a very definite karmic result from that. So you must remain faithful to your vow. But don’t take it if you don’t feel that you can keep it. But otherwise, you are free to come, you are free to go.

Everyone that is here, somebody else has brought. I haven’t gone after you. Anyone that wants to leave, I let them go and I don’t go after them. But many return. They go many, many places, and some of them come and tell me that they have never found what they have at this group, that the people are so warm and loving, and they feel truly like they’re their brothers and their sisters, that we are all one family in God.

Would to God, as this world changes, that this spreads, that we can embrace and take within the fold everybody who is interested in seeking the Truth. And that Truth, don’t forget, is to be found within yourself.

So make your one religion the religion of Truth. Forget names. Forget forms. Forget all of the dogma that you have been taught. Forget the historical facts that have been laid before you as being the truth. Everything that is the Truth is to be found within yourself.

All of the things that are written about in the Bible will happen within yourself. Different names have been given to them in accordance with the culture, the language, and the way of the people who have been taught Truth from wherever God has placed them, but because they wear a dark skin, they wear different clothes, they have different customs and they speak a foreign language, we call them “heathens,” “infidels,” “heretics.” How stupid can we get?

God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. He is All, and All in all. There is none other but He. So remember that, if you never remember another thing I say, and broaden your concepts, to love all people everywhere, no matter what their religious belief. Help them where they are. If they want to come out and be with us on a steady basis, fine. If they want to go to their church and come occasionally and be with us, fine. Each one is born with his own free will, his own free choice to do, to choose, to become whatever he has within him to become, and it depends on he himself as to what he makes of this blessed privilege.

You have the power to make yourself a beggar. You have a power to take yourself down into the depths of despair, of degradation. But you also have the power to lift yourself up and to become great in God, to bring forth the gifts that He has given you and to make them work for all mankind. But one thing I ask of you, and that is what he said at the last: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you,” “and your neighbor as yourself.” [paraphrased from Matthew 22:39]

And if you will do that, believe me you will become great in God, and the day will come when you will find yourself inside of yourself, saying, “Oh, my Father God, Blessed Spirit, I am He. I am He.” And you will open your eyes and you will see God and yourself as one, and you will see Him embraced in all of creation.

 

Transcript:

DATE: 19810923

TITLE: THE PRODIGAL SON

I’d like to read to you this evening from “The Vision,” an article written by Swami Ramdas:

You are the image of the Eternal. It is by pure devotion that you can purify your heart and lay it at the feet of your Eternal Beloved. Devotion to Him means a keen aspiration for His vision and the resultant continuous remembrance of Him.

Do not be beguiled by various methods of approach to Him. This is the simplest path. Look upon the Beloved as your sole aim and goal. To discover your kinship with Him is the one purpose of your life. To seek union with Him and realize His presence in you, and everywhere around you, is the object for which you are born as a human being.

You know craving for material wealth, glory, status and fame do not bring you real peace and freedom. To be with the Beloved, to know that you and He are one, and to live ever in this exalted consciousness means a joy and ecstasy which cannot be described in words.

It is really a matter for supreme wonder that while the Beloved is ever residing within you, you are not aware of it. You have not to go far to behold Him, or He has to come to you from afar. He pervades your being through and through, as also the entire universe before you. All your activities are inspired by His will and power, for the matter of that. This power alone is responsible for all movements in this world manifestation.

So, in the ultimate vision and realization of the Beloved, you become conscious of your perfect identity with Him in all His aspects. You are a veritable embodiment of Divine bliss and peace. The above blessed state is achieved easily by cherishing towards the Beloved genuine love and devotion. It is now that the Beloved’s grace floods your life and transmutes you into His very image and being.

Our Bible reading this evening is from St. Luke, Chapter 15, beginning with Verse 11:

11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

You may have guessed I’m going to talk about the prodigal son.

The goal on our journey on the spiritual path is to make the transition of coming out of the human into a realization of the Divine that we actually are every moment, only we have not realized it. It is to leave behind the idea of our separation from God, the idea that we are and have to live in a world of duality, that there is one moment sickness and health, one moment plenty of everything that you need and another moment you have famine. And you go back and forth between these pairs of opposites at all times and you never escape from them, you are never released from them. And this is too bad. It is really too bad.

This whole story tells about that one who was born in all of the purity of God in the beginning because God, as He projected Himself from Himself into the womb of nature, was absolutely pure. But, He took on the garment of flesh and He made man in His image and likeness. But in so doing, He gave him free will. He made commandments for him to follow. He made certain structures of law and He told man that this was for his own good, and that if he was to be what he should be, then he should follow these commandments. But man has forgotten about these things, especially today.

I don’t think that any of you would disagree with me when I say that we have never seen such times in our life—the violence, the utter cruelty. It’s just absolutely horrible. We do not feel safe at all, and it is too bad that we have brought ourselves to this state.

Now, I’m not speaking of those present because we have come out of it and we are on the road back to glory. But these that are still, like the prodigal son, that have taken all of the gifts, their portion of what was the Father’s, and have gone out and used it in riotous living, they have brought punishment, they have brought pain and suffering upon themselves. They have brought lack. And when they come to that point where they cannot stand the suffering which they have brought upon themselves, then and then alone do they turn their faces to God and say, “Father, I have sinned.”

As I have said many times, there’s only one sin, and that is the idea of separation from God, because every other sin in the world is contained in that one idea of separation. And that’s why I come to teach you the truth that everything that is in every great scripture of the world is to be found within yourself. It is the story of every man’s life from the human to the Divine, all of the things that he goes through.

The Old Testament is just full of what man does in his human state, and much of it is not good. It begins with creation, and then man comes into the consciousness of being. But in the beginning, his whole being, his whole consciousness is structured according to the human which he is taught.

We have a tremendous responsibility, those of us who are on the path of truth, right from the beginning to teach our little ones that they are children of God; to teach them all of the wonders and the beauty; not to impress on their minds that they were born in sin, that they are miserable sinners, but rather, that they were born in total innocence, and that we should concentrate upon original innocence instead of upon original sin. Let us teach them to go within themselves and meditate, concentrate on God, and find the kingdom of heaven within.

No man is ready or able to serve God until he is not disturbed by anything that is taken from him—nothing. You have to be willing to surrender all that you want in the way of name, fame, money, possession, glory, because until you do that, you are not really ready to be a minister of God.

As long as you harbor evil thoughts against someone else, you still have not put your feet back on the path which will return you to your Father’s house. So you feel left out, you feel abused, you feel put upon, but you must realize that it is not a punishment, but it is the grade in school which you are in now. And until you are willing to surrender yourself—all of your ambitions, all of your thoughts of what you are, what you can do, what you can be—and lay them at the feet of the Father, empty yourself totally of self and say, “Here am I, Lord. Take me. Do with me what You will,” then things will not be as they should be in order for you to fully serve Him. So, sit in the quietness of your soul and prepare yourself. Make yourself ready.

There are many saints in the world, perhaps some of the greatest, that man has never even heard of, and these are the great ones who do not wish to come into the world, to even be soiled by it, because perhaps they do not see the world as God, but perhaps they do and yet they feel that they can do the most good, they can give the most benefit to the people in the world, all of God’s children, by remaining silent.

We are told that there are many such saints in the Himalayas, sitting in silent meditation, keeping the world in balance. What a wonderful thing. Certainly, they have no personal name, fame or glory. They do not look for commendation for anybody, nor feel disturbed because they haven’t been given what they think they have earned. If they had earned it, they wouldn’t have gotten it.

So, everyone should look within himself and see what it is that has been keeping him from realizing his oneness with the Father who is the Indwelling Presence in every man.

You will notice that upon the return of the prodigal son, that the father ran to meet him with great joy, took him in his arms and hugged him, and ordered a fatted calf to be made ready so that they could have a great feast. But the older brother, who represents the self-righteous, perhaps, who has been doing the thing as he consciously thought to be right but glorying in his righteousness, was not given a feast, and so he spoke to the father about it, and the son said,

…lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

…which goes to show that no matter how far you have come on the spiritual path, until you have gone over the top you still want commendation. You still want to be praised. You still want to have someone feel sorry for you because you have gone through such tremendous suffering in your lives. And you, you think, (most everyone does) that you have gone through more than anybody else that you have ever met or ever will meet. And as long as you continue to think about those things, not from the standpoint of just describing them for the edification of somebody else, but to think of them and feel sorry for yourself, just so long you will keep yourself from the glory of God, of realizing that glory within yourselves.

When you start to put your feet on the path back toward God, you must learn the art of meditation because God is not to be found in books. He is not to be found even in the sermons that are given. The inspiration to seek Him within yourself is there, but He is not to be found there. He is to be found in the quietness of your own soul.

You must have your own place of meditation, your own woolen blanket to sit on. You must so relate to that place that whenever you think of it during the day or during the evening, you have a longing in your heart to go there and commune with the Lord, because until you have this desire within you so greatly you’re never really going to progress on the path. You have to put God first.

In these days with inflation, everything is going up and up and up. I heard a woman exclaim today in the grocery store, “My God! You’re charging us $1.29 a pound for these grapes? You don’t mean it! You can’t mean it! I don’t believe it.” And so it goes. And so we are faced with the problem of getting enough money to keep our bodies and souls alive.

Well, there’s no question of a doubt that we have to eat. There’s no question of a doubt that we have to breathe oxygen in our lungs. There is no doubt but when we have some illness, that the first thing we think of is the medicine cabinet, or what can we get to help us. But the Healer is inside of ourselves. He is the Supreme Physician. And if we got over the habit of just getting medicine every moment, but rather of going into meditation— I have done both.

Many, many times during my lifetime I have gone to doctors. And as I’ve told you before, God seems to arrange to give me many things for all of those who follow with me to the realization of their oneness with Him, many things to carry. And I have spent more money on doctor bills that weren’t my own that really would build a church and have a great piece of property around that we could all go and enjoy.

This is the truth that I tell you. I don’t consciously take on these things, and sometimes I’m working something out, and I’m not even aware that it belongs to somebody else until someone will come and tell me that they are suffering from exactly what I am suffering. And the minute they tell me, and I go “upstairs” with it, it’s gone. They lose it. I lose it. Now, don’t ask me. I’m no miracle worker. God is the Miracle Worker. He’s the Supreme Physician.

But if, instead of always looking to these outer things for sustenance, we would go into the sanctuary of our own souls and rise above all thought of sin, of separation, of lack, of want, of illness—and I have done that also, with miraculous results, with miraculous results.

When I can go above duality into the oneness of God and lose myself so completely that I’m not even conscious that I have a body, then I come back down (and it is God who brings me back down) and whatever is wrong is totally cured. It’s an amazing experience. It’s wonderful.

But we don’t always do it. In the first place, we don’t take the time. We don’t feel that we have the time. We’re so pressured. And believe me, I am pressured now because I’m trying to get ready to go on this trip. I’m trying to maintain my ministry to you and give you everything that I can in the short time before I leave. I have one million things to do, and I don’t know how they’re all going to get done because what I’m doing, mostly I have to do myself. There is much to be thought of, and so I don’t have the time to sit down and commune with my Father like I want to. But every minute of my life, my consciousness is upon Him.

There is not one minute that I am not thinking about Him and what I can do to help and to serve Him. Even the mundane things that I’m having to do in connection with the trip, I always have in the back of my mind, “Father, You are arranging this trip. It is for You. I know not why I go forth at this time, but it is to spread Your word and Your truth and to give love and understanding and fellowship to whomever I meet. Wherever You take me, whoever You bring to me, this is what I want to do.”

I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no idea. I have mixed feelings about it in some ways, and yet I don’t want those mixed feelings. I don’t want them. I’m getting something. Most of it is good; some of it is not good. And so, I probably will meet with some tests on this journey. I don’t know what they’re going to be. But that’s life. That’s duality. And when you’re out in the middle of the battlefield, fighting all of the egos of man, believe me you are in a battle. You never know what’s going to happen.

Look at the history of all of the Christian churches, and not only the Christian but of every great religion in the world, and you find this same thing: that whenever someone has attained the realization of their oneness with God, who has realized the Truth and they try to spread it, that every force that is possible to rise up against them, rises up, and they really go through something to put it forth.

This has happened to me all of my life. Every time I was going to give a Kriya Initiation, every time some important event was going to take place, it seemed that I was battling every force in the world, because why? That opposing force knows that if you succeed in what you’re trying to do, that it will bring light instead of darkness and that opposing force will have to dissipate itself. It will have to be transformed into the Divine. And it doesn’t want to; it doesn’t want to. So it uses everything in the book to try to stop you. And this is true not only of any movement, but it is true of every soul that puts his feet on the path toward God.

And you’ve got to recognize when these temptations come to you, and not give up. You’ve got to keep your banner for God going, you’ve got to keep climbing the ladder of God-realization, and above all, you’ve got to place your full trust in Him. Remember that you of yourselves are nothing; it is your Father who doeth the works in every single time.

You know, we are like trees, and we are made in the form of a tree, and that parable is used many, many times in the New Testament. But if the branch of the tree is cut away from the trunk of the tree, it withers and it dies. And this is what man does to himself when he insists on imbibing in the things of the senses at all times, and not putting his full attention upon God and realizing who and what he is in the glory of God.

But when the branch is firmly secured to the tree, it gets sustenance from the whole tree. And the tree gets its sustenance from the earth, and from the rain that falls, and from the snow—everything. And that sustenance produces sap, and that sap spreads through all of the tree, and furnishes life that is beautiful. And we look at the tree in all of its wonder and beauty. And many times, many trees come out with just little green leaves to start with, but then those that flower have the most beautiful flowers. In the spring, it is just absolutely gorgeous in this city because we have rain.

And then comes the fruit, the harvest. And then we pick the fruit. But if the fruit is left on the tree, it falls to the ground finally because it’s overripe. But the seeds are planted again into the ground, the ground takes it up and nourishes it, and so life goes on this way all the time because God is everlasting. He’s eternal, He’s ever existent.

But you’ve got to be willing to do something and stick with it. You’ve got to meditate, meditate, meditate. You’ve got to practice the techniques which are given to you, and you must keep your mind on God, and you must do the things that you know are right for you to do. You mustn’t devote all of your time to worldly pursuits, pleasure, and living, because if you’re going to really reach your goal, your whole absorption should be on God within yourself because you have to start with yourself and find out who and what you are—to face yourself, to be willing to face yourself squarely and look at the things, the bad habits, if you will, that you are still hanging onto and are refusing to give up. Look at yourself and see the things that you could be doing to serve God, to love Him, instead of trying to destroy people or to destroy the good life.

In everything that I tell you, I’m trying to help you to realize that you must purify yourselves, that you must go in and learn who you are, explore this beautiful, wonderful world of you which you, like the prodigal son who came in all innocence, took your portion and went out into the world, even as I did, and misused it. And now, because we have brought suffering, we have brought want upon ourselves, we have to climb back on this road to glory. But until you can do that, you don’t look outside for help. You look within yourself. You get your inspiration to seek, within. You get the methods for going within yourself and finding and realizing your oneness with God, but the whole thing is between God and you.

The Guru comes as God’s emissary. And they are not fit to be called a guru unless they have gone all of the way, gone through the death state and returned, because that one alone is the one who is able to take you out of the darkness into the light because they alone have given their all to God. And then, they are willing to come back and give all to God in you, in order that you may reach the same highest state that they have enjoyed—that you might feel the ecstasy, the wonder, the beauty of His Infinite Presence; that you might be filled with His bliss; that you might see the heavens open and see His bounty pour down so that your coffers are filled to overflowing, to the point where you don’t know where you’re going to put it and how you’re going handle it, and still it flows and it flows and it flows.

Be willing to give your last farthing for Him, if necessary, to help somebody who needs it, because believe me it will return to you in the gold of the Spirit not a thousandfold but a millionfold.

Learn to live the life. Learn to purify yourselves. Learn to serve with love. Quit bragging about the things that you have done. What have you done? Of yourself you could do nothing, unless the idea, the power, the will, the strength, the everything that you needed to do it was given unto you.

All of you, every single one, and that includes myself, are fed every moment from the Infinite. We’re fed with His power, the electrical power. He gives us His staff. He gives us his light. His staff is His power, and the light is the light that illumines the whole universe.

This universe is very dark now. It is dark with the dark deeds that man is doing. And there is nothing in this world that’s going to change this world as it is unless man first goes within himself, appraises himself honestly, and makes the necessary changes, and then goes forth to spread only love and goodwill and service to God in man. And until that day happens, we’re going to get worse and worse and worse. So we need a tremendous army of people that are willing to testify for God, for the Christ, willing to join the army and go forth and serve God in whatever way He requires of them; to be ministers of God, even though you may not have a Doctor of Divinity title.

I think I’ve told you before that Master said that anyone who is trying to teach truth, who has not themselves realized that truth, should not have the title of Doctor of Divinity, but rather should have the title of Doctors of Delusion, and that is true—Doctors of Delusion. That’s what we preach.

And there’s so much friction, so much hatred that is going forth from those who profess to follow the Christ who was the embodiment of love, who was the total example of what each and every one of us should be. He was the total example of what each and every one of us have to go through.

It’s all laid out before us in this New Testament, the way that man has to go in order that we might be His disciples. But who is willing to do it? Just who? You know? Now all of you are trying with everything you have, I know; otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. You keep coming and you keep coming and you keep giving, and you keep loving me and I keep loving you and giving to you, and going to you and sharing of myself with you to the utmost, smoothing over all the little things between you.

I sometimes wonder, now that I’m going to be gone for several months, if you will realize all of the little things that I do to keep things even for you, to smooth something that’s between two people, or to pick somebody for that, or to arrange something for that, or to give somebody some bit of information. The telephone is busy all day, or I am busy all day, and this I have taken great joy in doing, but the pressure has become so great that I have to find a different way to operate.

And always, we are together in spirit. But God wants me now, apparently, to go out and spread His truth to farther corners of the earth, and so you’re going to have to stand on your own and learn to settle your own problems, your own debates, your own arguments, your own feelings, one for the other, to go out and search for things that I’ve been doing for you.

You know, I’ve not only been decorating your insides with good words of the Spirit, but I’ve been decorating your outer houses. I’ve been really a servant to all of you. And some have not asked, “Please Mother, will you do this?” They’ve said, “Mother, do this.” And still I have done it.

So one of the things you have to learn is humility. But to see me operate sometimes, you wouldn’t think I had a grain of it because I come on with a very strong ego. But when I do that, that is the perpendicular pronoun, “I,” in me, working. God is working then because it is needed with the individual. And yet, the minute you start using that, they withdraw. “Oh! what you are doing to me! You shouldn’t do that. After all, I have a right to be myself.” You know? “You must do this and that for me so that I feel good.” But there comes a day and there comes a time when, if you are going to do for that individual what God directs you to do, and which is for their highest good, you have to get tough. They have left you no choice. And I hate it. I hate it with everything that’s in me when I have to get that way because I am a bundle of love from head to foot. I’m in love with love because God is Love.

And if all of us would love one another, if all of us, instead of always picking fault, one with the other, of always gossiping and doing this and that and the other thing, would see if we couldn’t see the good in them, to find out how we can best serve them, how we can be a good neighbor, love our neighbor as ourselves, as the Christ enjoined us, what a tremendous change it would be in our lives.

You think you can’t live with somebody because they don’t do what makes you feel comfortable; and yet, it is sometimes this very opposition that provides the greatest amount of growth, if you would only realize it. God has put you in this place, and yet it is where you have earned to be, because don’t forget that this isn’t the first time you have been here. You’ve been here many, many times before. And how do you know what you did that brought upon your head whatever you’re going through now, and that you have not anybody else to blame—not life, not God—but only the fact that you went away from the Father and you were the prodigal son. And now, you’re on your way back.

But blame no man. Just look to yourselves. And if you cannot see into the past, don’t worry about it. If God wants you to see, He will show you. But make this moment, every moment of your life, count for Him. And when you live each moment in love and service to Him in every form—that includes all of the kingdoms of the earth—then you will find that moment of glory and you will return to the Father’s arms and He will kill the fatted calf for you. And He will spread out a banquet for you that will be so wonderful, so beautiful, so filled with the aroma and the nectar of His presence that you will wonder how you could ever have left Him, how you could ever have gone away from Him.

It will never change, your lives will never change, until you change. Don’t forget that. “Change yourself and you will change thousands,” said my blessed Guru, and that is the truth. That is the truth. I see it happening before my eyes.

I see all of the beautiful people that are coming in. We have so many new ones, and the ones who have been with me for a long time, and I see how they have stayed, how loyal they have been, how much love they have given to God in this form, and to God everywhere equally present. And I am thrilled beyond measure that God has used me as the instrument to help to bring this to pass.

And all of the beautiful new people that are coming in, they’re searching for truth. They’re tired of what’s been going on in the world. Perhaps they’re tired of the way they’ve been living themselves and they want a clean existence. They want to be able to look in the mirror and see themselves filled with the light and the glory of God, to be able to face themselves and say, “I like you, my friend.”

It’s a wonderful thing when you can like yourself, because if you don’t have a good self-image, if you don’t like yourself, you can’t expect anyone else to do so because everyone takes you at your own evaluation. That’s true. So if you want people to like you, then be your Real Self, or God within you. Don’t put on a sham and a show, don’t be a Janus-faced god, but be the real thing. Be so filled with His light, His wonder, His beauty, His love, His glory, that you are just like a blazing light walking the earth, drawing, with the magnetism of God within yourself, all men everywhere. It happens, you know.

And you can see the halo around people. I had an interview just a few days ago with a man. This was the first interview I had had. And as I sat looking at him sitting in the chair there, the glory of God around him, the halo around him, was so beautiful. I didn’t mention it to him, but it kept changing from this beautiful, brilliant light to the blue of the Christ. And I’d never seen, quite like that, anything like that before, in just that way.

I see auras very easily. It’s very easy to do. Some people say, “Well, I can’t do that. I’m not developed enough.” But you can. But it’s not important that you can, except that man carries his own glory built in, within him. That’s why you see the pictures of the Christ, of the saints, with the halo around the head because they have finally arrived at that state where the light of God has burned out all the dross within their consciousness, within their whole beings, and they want nothing but to love Him, to serve Him. It’s beautiful! It’s beautiful.

This is what I want for you. I want you to keep coming even though I’m not here. Don’t lose what we have built. It’s taken me 30 years of hard labor, 24 hours a day, to bring whatever I do for God to this moment. And just like when Master left the body, in two years everything that he had worked for, for 30 years, while he was on this continent, was dissipated. It was changed. The truth that he came to give was distorted. His books were changed, even his autobiography. His lessons were put into different form and changed. It was an amazing thing to watch.

And so, when somebody says to you (if they’re of the orthodox faith of whatever form): “This is the whole truth,” believe them not. “This Bible contains the whole truth.”  Believe them not. The whole truth is to be found within yourself. As I told you the other day, if this book is lacking 29 books that are in the Roman Catholic Bible, how come? How come? Why did they take them out? And if they claim to have the truth, and these people claim to have the truth, what is man going to believe?

You can only use the techniques which have been given to you, go inside of yourself, and find the living truth there. The Bible is merely a help. It is a record of the evolution of every man from the human to the Divine, as I’ve said many, many times, and that is the truth! And each scripture describes the same thing. They use a different word because they live in a different climate, in a different country. They have a different language, but they’re speaking of the same One Father God, they’re speaking of the same universal Christ, they’re speaking of the same way of the cross that every man must go through if he is to be transformed from the human to the Divine. If you would study all of them, and compare, you will see. For instance, in the Bhagavad Gita, everything that is in this New Testament is an exact replica of what is taught.

Now, Paul is the disciple in here. Arjuna is the disciple in the Hindu scriptures, and Krishna is pictured as the charioteer. He is the one that drives the vehicle of the body. He is the one that urges the human ego, in the form of Arjuna and Paul, to kill all of the dear relatives on the battlefield: the relatives of the senses, the things that are keeping them from realizing who and what they are in this high state of consciousness.

The names of the rivers are the same, and they apply to the spine, the tributaries that run. It all has to do with the human body. It’s fantastic when you get into it. Even the Mount of Olives where the savior within you is crucified, these are your eyes. You must come to the point of Christ-consciousness here. And here are your eyes, the Mount of Olives, right here.

The road to Galilee—That means the circuit, because we have come out from God and we must return. And so, this Master Christ Seed goes the full journey around, the circular journey, and returns to the land of milk and honey.

And then, you realize why the Jews are God’s chosen people because they are the holy ones. You realize so many things that you took as being historical fact, (and in fact they become history because you project them from yourself) but every single scripture is telling the same story of what happens in every man on his journey from the human to the Divine. It’s fascinating.

We talk about the River Jordan; they talk about the River Ganges. We call God, “Spirit” in the beginning and they say “Brahman.” Then we say, “God the Father,” and they say, “Brahma.” That is God the Father. Then we have the Christ, and they have Krishna, which means the word Christ. We have the Holy Ghost, and they have Vishnu. And it is said that Christ is born of the Holy Breath, the Holy Ghost (It’s a virgin birth) and they say that Krishna is born of Vishnu. It’s the same thing. And the reason it’s virgin is because it happens within yourself. The power of the Holy Ghost descends upon you. It lifts you up in your consciousness and it takes you through these tremendous experiences, and it’s fantastic.

Then they have Rudra, who is the opposite of Satan. It’s different words for the same thing. And then they have Shiva, of course, the third person of the—And they also refer to him as the Transcendental God, and we don’t have anything like that surrounding Satan, but the function is exactly the same, exactly.

They have Manu, the law giver. We have Moses, the law giver. They have the Gopis and the Gopinis who were the disciples of Krishna. We have the 12 Apostles that were the disciples of Christ. And they have the Old and the New Testament; they call them the Kanda Karma and then the Vedanta, and just as you have the New Testament in here. The acts of the disciples, and all of instructions are in it. They’re identical.

I would look at the swamis that would come at Swami Ramdas’s ashram, and when they were having some special event, these swamis would dress in special customs. And the routine that they used, the ritual that they used, they had 5000 years before the Christian religion came into existence, and it’s almost identical. The chanting—we have the psalms; they have theirs. Everything is alike. And yet, we say they are heathens and we’re the only ones that have the truth. How dare we? How dare we, when God is equally present, and so is the Christ in every man, in every atom of space. How dare we do such a thing?

And so finally, we, like the prodigal son, return to the Father. And then we realize what we have been missing. We realize who and what we are, and the truth is that we are God in human form. We always have been, we are, and we always will be. And the Christ is in every man. “Lo, I am with you always,” he said. Why do we not believe him?

Why do we look for him just outside of ourselves? Why do you look for his second coming there, when he himself said that God and the kingdom were within? So if indeed that be true, then we cannot look for him outside of ourselves, but we have to look within the heaven of our own being for that second coming. But he cannot come the second time. He is born the savior the first time, and he must go through the crucifixion, or the transformation, but he cannot arise with all of his wonder and his glory until we realize that everything happens within ourselves. And that which we think is so important, or going to happen outside, is merely a projection of what we ourselves put forth. And when we withdraw that, the world ceases to exist in the way that we have consciously thought of it.

Do you realize what it means to be able to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel, and then to have it taken all away from you and have nothing but black? You know? Oh, but the wonder and beauty and the glory of God that you can experience when you have shut off the things of the five senses and you have raised your eyes to the hill and you go up into the mountain of your own consciousness, the mountain of your own being, and you’re transfigured on that mount even as Jesus the Savior was transfigured.

And who was awake to see him? They all went to sleep. And he upbraided them and said, could they not stay awake for just an hour and have vigil with him? But they couldn’t do that, you see. They wouldn’t. They didn’t want to. They wanted to stay where they were. They wanted to sleep. They wanted to remain in darkness. But not so, the Christ. He kept his lonely vigil, and he went through what he had to go through. And he descended into the hell, or the place of darkness and ignorance within himself, and he faced all of the things. And the whole story of it is in there.

But then, he arose from the dead. He was filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, and he ate and he drank with his disciples, and he gave them the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherein before, all of the powers that you had inside of you were human, then they became Divine. And he told them to go forth and to spread the gospel, or “God’s spell,” upon all the people of the earth. And he ate with them and he drank with them: the wine of the Spirit, the food of the Spirit.

And then he went into the experience called the “Ascension,” which also takes three days or three separate periods of time, and he ascended into the heaven of his own being. And there, in every human being who makes that effort to be the prodigal son who returns, he sits at the right hand of the Father in every single one. And you become a blazing light of glory. You become an instrument of the Lord, for His Name’s sake. And if you wish, having attained that highest state, you need go out no more. It says so in here.

There is truth in there. Don’t underestimate it. There is truth. But it is covered up. It is covered up with a coat, a seed, and you have to break open the seed and get the kernel of truth. Just like you have to break open the outer shell of a nut before you can get the kernel out and eat it, so it is with the things of the Spirit.

So, I ask you again, and I’m going to continue asking you until I go on this trip: stay together. Worship God. Love one another. Be what you should be in Him so that when and if, if it is God’s will, this thing is going on a world-wide basis, that He can use each and every one of you to go forth and help with it. I’m only one person. I just can’t do it, you know? It’s too much, too much.

He is your Self. You are all the Christ in human form, if you would only realize it. So, you go forth. Roll back the rock from the sepulcher of your own beings and come out. Leave your garment, in the human sense, behind you and go forth in all of His beauty, His wonder and His glory, filled with His bliss forevermore.

 

Transcript:

DATE: 19800416

TITLE: MS THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

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Summary (Transcript below this Summary):

Mother begins Her Talk reading an article by Swami Ramdas, entitled: You Are the Image of the Eternal (from The Vision magazine).

This holds a sweeping vision of the Immortal residing in every atom of space, and within every single soul in existence.  Papa proclaims:

“It is really a matter for supreme wonder, that while the Beloved is ever residing within you, you are not aware of it.”  This brings attention to the fore.  He follows this by heartfully bringing His vision center-point into each:  “He pervades your being through and through.”  

Now Mother goes to the KJV Bible, reading from St. Matthew, Chapter 22, vs:35: Here Jesus is being tested by a lawyer, who asks “Which is the greatest Commandment in the law?”  Jesus immediately responds by declaring the first and great Commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”   And secondly “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

To cement this commandment into awareness, Mother now tells the story of the pilgrim*, who left his house in the valley, and becomes unable to ascend to the summit of the mountain to be with the Lord.  He is told by the Lord to return to his house below, and to clean it, and to put it in order… a task that feels utterly distasteful to the man, who embarks on a journey, both harrowing and transformative, opening up the doors to the unexplored rooms of his filthy house, to meet aspects of his own being, that are needful of recognition, love and nurturing, in order to be made holy and at peace. Will he be able to endure another door?  One cannot help but empathize with his plight.  It is the story of every man seeking true freedom! (It is not, however, told as a haunting tale in a book, but as a living IMPERATIVE, on how we must master our emotions, and enter into brotherhood with every other soul, as we ascend the mountain of realization.

Mother gives us no quarter!  She relentlessly brings up the Commandments.  “These are the things in each of us that we must conquer.”

On ‘loving the Lord thy God’, She underlines: “So until you love Him with all your heart, so that you are willing to give up everybody and everything that you hold dear to you, you are not obeying the Lord’s Commandments”

“Your mind should dwell on nothing but the Lord, nothing at all…” 

Here we are given the incentive to ceaselessly chant the Name of God within, night and day, at work, or at play, “If you get in the habit of it, it will glue your mind to Him…and He will do the most brilliant work through you that you ever saw in your life!”

* Mother told the same story of the pilgrim climbing up the mountain in Her (Truth Series #20 talk entitled: The Great Promise)  I personally find the #20 version more eloquent, longer and richer in nuance in Her voice’s telling of it, but tying this story into the theme she chose for this talk, is also commanding.  The talks were given at different points in Her life, a matter to note.

At the end of Her talk on The House of the Lord, Mother exclaims with full Power: “If you will do this, I promise you, upon my word before God, that your lives will change…” 

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Transcript:

I’d like to read you an article from The Vision, written by Swami Ramdas. The title of it is, “You Are the Image of the Eternal.”

It is by pure devotion that you can purify your heart and lay it at the feet of your eternal Beloved. Devotion to Him means a keen aspiration for His vision and the resultant continuous remembrance of Him. Do not be beguiled by various methods of approach to Him. This is the simplest path.

Look upon the Beloved as your sole aim and goal. To discover your kinship with Him is the one purpose of your life. To seek union with Him and realize His presence in you and everywhere around you is the object for which you are born as a human being.

You know craving for material wealth, glory, status and fame do not bring you real peace and freedom. To be with the Beloved, to know that you and He are one and to live ever in this exalted consciousness means a joy and ecstasy which cannot be described in words.

It is really a matter for supreme wonder that while the Beloved is ever residing within you, you are not aware of it. You have not to go far to behold Him nor has He to come to you from afar. He pervades your being through and through as also the entire universe before you. All your activities are inspired by His will and power, for the matter of that, this power alone is responsible for all movements in this world manifestation.

So, in the ultimate vision and realization of the Beloved, you become conscious of your perfect identity with Him in all His aspects. You are a veritable embodiment of divine bliss and peace.

The above blessed state is achieved easily by cherishing towards the Beloved genuine love and devotion. It is now that the Beloved’s Grace floods your life and transmutes you into His very image and Being.

Our Bible reading tonight is from Matthew, Chapter 22 beginning with Verse 35:

35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36. Master, which is the great [Mother said “greatest” here] commandment in the law?
37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

I want to talk to you tonight about your body temple which is the ‘House of the Lord’.

I wanted to start by telling you a story of a pilgrim, who started on his spiritual journey. And he got halfway up a mountain and he could go no further. And he laid there, totally exhausted. He tried to move his limbs. He tried to call out for help. But he could do neither. He could go no further. He was absolutely stuck there. It seems as though he couldn’t go down; he couldn’t go up; he couldn’t go sideways.

So finally he lay there and he called out to the Lord, “Lord, help me. You must help me to climb the mountain.” All of a sudden, he opened his eyes because he felt a presence in front of him, and that presence looked like a man. The man was silent and strong and beautiful, and He said, “Yes, my son, what is it?” He said, “Lord, I have started the journey to climb up the mountain so that I might be one with You.” And he said, “I have come only halfway and I am unable to go any further. You must help me.”

And He said to him, “My son, the reason you have not been able to climb any further,” He said, “is that you have not set your house in order.”

“Oh,” he said, “my house. I’ve left that long ago, far behind me,” and he shuddered.

The Lord said, “Perhaps you did, my son,” He said, “but obviously it has not yet left you. There is work for you to do yet, in your house; you must descend the mountain again and set your house in order.” He said, “Then when you set your house in order, not only will you be able to climb the mountain but,” He said, “I shall come to you and I shall help you.”

Well, the man cried out in pain. He didn’t want to go back down at all. He looked every which way to see if he couldn’t find a way of evading what the Lord had asked him to do. At last, he could find no reason why he should just remain there, unable to go forward, and he went back down the mountain, all the weary way. He went up the path toward his house and he took out the key behind the flower pot, and he opened the door. And he saw much disorder in the house. He had always prided himself on feeling that he had kept a pretty decent sort of house. But now as he looked around it, he saw that the house indeed was not as it should be. So he cleaned it the best he could. While he was at the mountain with the Lord, he told the Lord—he said, “Lord, there are even doors in my house which I have never dared to open. I cannot go back down there.” And the Lord said that he must go back.

So having cleaned the house initially, he stood before the first door. It took him a long time before he could get the courage to even stand there. And as he stood there, a terrible fear overtook him and he said, “I’m afraid! I’m afraid! I am filled with fear. I cannot open the door!” But he forced himself to open the door. And there it was all gloomy and the place was filled with cobwebs. And the dim light that shone through the door—he saw a wraith-like creature that looked something like himself, cowering on the floor. And as he went in, he struck a light and he looked at the creature. And his heart was open to him and he felt great pity for him. And he said to him, “Come, I will take you out of this dark room, and I will see to it that your room is clean.”

So he took the poor figure out and he took care of him, and he went in and he scoured the room and he scoured the lamps and he scoured the windows and he scoured everything, until the room was absolutely meticulously clean. And he lived with the horror-wraith and gradually, as he got used to him—day after day—one day the sunlight shone in the room, and as he looked for the wraith, it was gone. He had absorbed the fear that had been this wraith outside of himself.

Well, he waited awhile because it took great courage to go again to the second door. But finally he geared himself to that. And one day, he walked up to the second door and all of the sudden he doubled up in pain and he said, “Oh, I hurt! I hurt!” And still he knew that he must open that door, no matter how he hurt. It felt like something was a spear, piercing his bowels. But he took hold of the handle of the door and he walked in. And again, in the dim light he saw another wraith that looked like himself, just bent all over and writhing in pain. And he said, “You poor creature. Come with me and I shall take care of you.” And he took the wraith out and he took care of him, and he went back and he cleaned the room until it was absolutely sparkling. The floors were cleaned; the walls were cleaned; the lamps were polished; the windows were polished. Everything was absolutely spotless. Then he went out and he continued living with the poor, sick and hurting wraith, until again one day, the sunlight came into the room and the wraith had disappeared. And he knew that he had conquered both fear and pain.

It took him a little while before he had gained courage again to go to the third door. But finally he did, and as he stood outside of the door, he felt his whole body getting hot with anger. Oh, he was angry! Anyone who would come before him would have been killed; he was so filled with anger. But he grabbed the knob of the door and he thrust it open. And there he saw a great demon-like figure that looked like himself. And he’d conquered his fear, as best he could, of him and he walked in because he knew that this was something he must do also. And he walked up and took the man and he said, “Come.” He said, “I shall take care of you also.” So he took this demon out and he worked with him for weeks, for days and for months. And he cleaned the room and polished it all up, until finally one day that which had caused him anger, had disappeared into the sunlight.

Now, it took him two or three years before he could get up sufficient courage to open the fourth door. And as he stood outside, he felt his body starting to writhe with passion. And he felt all the delicious thrills over his body, and a longing, a longing for something he knew not what. He finally took hold of the door and he opened that, and he saw a creature lying on the bed—half-man, half-woman, stark naked. And the creature was writhing, and it was writhing in all directions, holding out its arms to him, begging him to come, saying, “I must have you! I must have you! I must have this that I call love. You must satisfy my longing.”

And he walked into the room and he looked at the creature. The creature looked at him with begging eyes. “Come to me! Indulge in me!” And he said, “No, not anymore.” And he took the creature by the arms and he said, “I shall conquer you, if it’s the last thing I shall ever do.” And he took the creature out. And it is not known how long he had to wrestle with this creature called passion, but he finally conquered that. And he cleaned out that room in his house. And finally he was filled with the light of God, and he sat and rested. And he thought his work was all done.

But just as he was feeling at peace with himself, he saw another small door open, and a bony arm reach out. And he realized that it was the hand of death, and he said, “Oh, I have not made death my friend. I must make death my friend.” So he went to that door and as he opened it, expecting to see the figure of death, instead he saw the great radiant figure of the Lord before him, and He said, “Now, my son, you have cleaned your house; you have set your house in order. Come with me and I shall take you to the mountaintop.”

That’s one of the most beautiful stories I think I have ever read, and I wanted to share it with you because these are the things, within each of us, that we must conquer. Remember that it said in this Bible verse this evening, these verses, “Ye shall love the Lord with all of thy heart.” Now, that means that your heart must not be open to anything but the Lord, because He is all things: He is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent. He is everything that is, and He is that Life, that Power, that Love, that Peace, that everything-ness that is wonderful within yourself.

So until you love Him with all of your heart, so that you are willing to give up everybody and everything that you hold dear to you, you are not obeying the Lord’s commandments. You must love Him with all of your soul! You cannot be a house divided against itself and expect to stand. Nor can you expect to start to climb up the mountain and reach the summit, because it will not happen. You must give Him all of your soul. Most of us are halfway in between, and sometimes it’s only one-tenth with the Lord, if it is that much, and the other nine-tenths are with the opposing force. And the attention is upon everything but God.

I have also said that you must love Him with all of your mind. That means that your mind should dwell on nothing but the Lord, nothing at all! And there’s only one way to keep the mind in constant communion with God, and that is to repeat His holy Name to yourself. Do it from the time you wake up in the morning, until the time you go to bed. Now you say, “How can I work and still repeat the Name of the Lord?” But if you get in the habit of it, it will glue your mind to Him, and you can do the most brilliant work! You can keep your mind on the Lord because He is forever in the background. And His Name, His Word, is forever constantly humming within yourself. And He will do the most brilliant work through you that you ever saw in all of your life.

And you must love Him with all of your strength. That means all of the power that is within you! And you have untapped power that you don’t even dream of! If you would stop scattering your energy in all directions, and bring all of the parts of yourself that you have put into all of the earthly pleasures—all of the people that you fancy you love—and bring all of this attention back, and take it inside of yourself, into this temple, which is indeed the House of the Lord, and offer it all to Him—with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul and with all of your strength—you would find power within you that you never even dreamed of. And that power can be used for many things. But you must use that power only for good, only for good, never to invade anyone else’s privacy, never to use power over them, never to do anything but to let that power flow through you, and in full surrender to God let Him use it, in those places and with those people that He so wills.

When you are an empty vessel, empty of all of the humanness within you, then the Lord comes in, in all of His glory, and you divinize your whole body. This doesn’t mean that you cease to be a human being, that you cease to have the ability to have fun, to live in the world—to laugh, to play, to work, to do all of the things that everyone else does—but you do it in the conscious Oneness with God, because He is the Lord and the Master, finally, of His own house, which is your body temple. And that pseudo-self, that which you now call ‘you’, has disappeared from existence. The only thing that is left is the little part that remembers that once it was the son of man, the human self, the human ego. But now it has become the Son of God. But it acts as the witness of what the Christ, who has taken over your temple and dwells there, does within you.

How tremendous it is to have this feeling of purity, of innocence. Remember that it says in there that you must become as a little child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. And it means what it says, that you can laugh—you can play; you can dance; you can act like a little child. This now does not mean to be childish, but child-like. It does not mean to let your human ego take over and think that you are greater than anybody else, that you have greater talents, that nobody else has a chance but you, because in truth each and every one of us, in our human status, are absolutely nothing, nothing at all! We just think we are because this, in truth, is the house, the temple not made by hands.

When we can come to that state of surrender, when every thought, every word, every action, every moment of our lives is surrendered to Him, and we listen for His voice of direction, and we do whatever that voice tells us to do, in full humility, knowing that of ourselves we do nothing, that it is our Father who doeth the works, it is then and then alone that our life becomes a glorious thing, a successful thing! You can never expect success—you can never expect to reach your full potential—until you put Him first, not last. Seek ye first God and His kingdom, and then—and then alone, will all of the other things be added unto you.

Still, we keep hoping: “Lord, if you will give me this; if You will do this for me; if You will take this away from me; then I will do all of these things that You ask of me, but not until You give me what I want first.” And it will never happen, I clue you, never in this world. You have to give Him all of yourself, and you have to learn to love your neighbor as yourself. And that neighbor isn’t just the person next door; it starts with you yourself, that neighbor which you call your human-self. You have to learn to have a good self-image, to learn that you are the temple of the Lord, and that He is that Indwelling Presence and that He is a very important Person.

You have to learn to live with the members of your family in total love and harmony, forgetting yourself in service not to them as individual human beings, but to God-in-them. And for all the flack that you get, for all the dissension that comes at you, the opposition, know that that is the Lord in that form, doing what is necessary to absolutely push you to your oneness with God—because where does the human being have to go but up, when he has nobody or nothing else to depend on but God? And if that one, in that form in your family, serves that purpose, then bless him or her beyond all others! And love them. Love God-in-them.

And then your neighbors around you and the people you work with, and the people all over the world—send out that Christ-love to them, because whatever you send forth from yourself will return in kind. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. As ye give, so shall ye receive. And in these troubled times, this is needed as it was never before needed on this earth in the history of mankind. We have to change this stream of hatred, of lust, of violence, of power, of these hungry power-people that are destroying the world, and make it a fit and a safe place where we can dwell again, in comfort and in safety, with our families and our friends.

What have we turned this world into? Because this world is the sum total of every single thing that has gone out from each and every one of us, because even the flicker of your eyelash carries with it its own vibration, and returns in kind. There is not one single thing that does not fit this law; it is the law of the universe! Whatever goes up must come down; whatever seed is planted in the ground will bear the fruit of its own likeness. And you have that power in your hands.

Think of the power, that unleashed, un-thought-of power that is within you, that you could change your life, your world. And you do it through the power of positive thinking, of positive action, with no thought of harm or hatred or enmity toward anyone, but with the thought of: ‘how can I serve first God, and then God in every human being that I meet?’ And if you will keep up with that thought, and with that desire, and follow it up with action, you will find that your tree of effort will bear the greatest fruit in the world.

But you cannot put it forth positively one day and cancel it out with negative thoughts, negative words, negative actions the next day, and expect to see results because it will not happen. And you yourself have caused it not to happen because you have cancelled out that which you had put forth positively, as good. You’ve got to keep it going.

As I mentioned before, Dr. Peal’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking, is one of the most powerful things that any man has ever given to humanity! It started a whole new line of thought. It has been in the scriptures since the beginning, but it was not brought to man’s attention in the graphic way that this man has brought it. He has done a great thing for humanity. All of the psychologists now are trying to dig us out of the graves of our own making. And what we have stored up in the subconscious and comes out in the various troubles and trials and tribulations, sometimes beyond our control, all of these things are creatures of our own making. We have been delving into so many things.

I picked up a magazine today and I saw a very evil face looking out of there, and if you send so much money, this man will tell you how to have power over other people’s minds. What are we coming to? People are going to ‘couch readers’ every day, wanting to be regressed to former incarnations. I have seen people who have done this. I have known them before they have done it and I have seen them since—and believe me they are not the same people—because, don’t forget, we are on an evolutionary path and what we have done in the past has brought us to this moment. And it is said that if the soul continues to progress to its final union with God, then the things that it has done in the past, God mercifully blocks out of our consciousness.

If He wanted us to know, and if He does want us to know, He will tell us! We should not interfere with it because when you go back into these former lifetimes, you can dredge up some things and make them a part of this present personality, things that you had forgotten about, that laid dormant and that you had the opportunity for overcoming, and you do not do it. Instead, your curiosity as to whether you were a king or the Queen of Sheba or Cleopatra, or whatever—it is amazing how many Alexander the Greats and how many Cleopatras and Anthonys and all that people have been told they are, all over the world, and all for the almighty dollar.

I don’t want anybody delving into the in-between stages; I want you to fix your attention upon God-through-Christ. Keep your mind on Him alone, and not go into these other things, because they will cause you nothing but trouble. There are many methods to help clean out the subconscious mind. But don’t forget when that housecleaning takes place, you’ve got to deal with the empty space. You’ve got to set your house in order. You just haven’t cleaned it out so that you can go back out and do the same things all over again in the human state, and expect that you’ve gotten any reward, any benefit from it because you have not! You’ve got to put God in that empty space. You’ve got to keep on cleaning that house until it stays clean—it becomes a habit to keep it clean.

And above all, you’ve got to get away from the human euphoric state of love, into the Divine Love for God and for Christ, by whatever Name you want to call Him, because don’t forget that Christ is universal. He is the cornerstone of every religion, in this whole universe. He is that One which was the result of the union between God-the-Father and God-the-Divine-Mother. And He is universal. He is the first born of every creature, it says in the scriptures. So that means that He is that Intelligence, that Power, that Light, that Strength, that Love, that Purity, that everything which is the final state to which man must climb, and become one with, within himself.

If we would use our power of speech to repeat the Name of the Lord, instead of to use it to gossip, to destroy people, to constantly tear people down, our lives would change in a great big hurry. If we would use our vision to see only the beautiful, in everyone and in everything that comes before us, and try to bring beauty into our own consciousness, our own person would become beautiful. To bring beauty into the way you furnish your house, in the way you conduct your life, you would start to beautify not only those things around you, but the world around you. And gradually, as this contagious beauty spreads, it would spread to the hearts and the minds of men everywhere! And they would no longer wish to be at war with their brothers. They would no longer wish to kill them; they would no longer wish to have power over them. But they would realize that all the power they ever dreamed of is right within themselves, if they would only make the effort to become one with it, to realize that it’s there, to learn how to use it for God and for good.

The desire for money has taken over the world. The desire for power has taken over the world. But it isn’t good money and it isn’t good power. The power of God is the only power on this earth and we are the temple of God; yet, we have made it a den of thieves, as the Christ said. And the gold that we are looking for is not the gold that is buried under the earth, and which they are charging such fancy prices for today, but it is the gold of the spirit. The wine that we would drink is not the alcohol that we put into our bodies, and saturate our brains with, but it is the wine of the spirit, and that wine is the sweetest wine that anybody could drink.

Everything that is in that Bible, it is within each and every man, from the beginning of creation until the end, where the soul finally has climbed to the top of the mountain and has become one with its Maker, and then that One stands tall and straight, in full control. It is totally surrendered to God. But it is not in the form of someone who goes around and wears sackcloth and ashes, and acts holier than thou, with a sanctimonious expression on their faces. It is someone who is filled with love, with joy, with laughter, with dancing in the streets, with seeing the beauty of God everywhere, but of harming no man, and least of all, yourself, because you are the keeper of this temple, and it is up to you to clean your house, this House of the Lord and set your house in order. If you will do this, I promise you, upon my word before God, that your lives will change and you will become supermen. You will be God-men, and yet “you” will be nothing. In all of the humility of which you are capable, you will know in truth that this is the House of the Lord in which you live, and it is your Father who doeth the works.