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My hope is upon the Lord, and I will not fear.
And because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear.
And He is as a garland on my head, and I shall not be moved.
Even if everything should be shaken, I stand firm.
And if all things visible should perish, I shall not die. Because the Lord is with me, and I am with Him. Alleluia.

–The Fifth Ode of Solomon

(The Odes of Solomon are the earliest known Christian hymns. Written in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, some actually appear to have been composed by Him. Furthermore, the ideas expressed by the Odes reveals the utterly esoteric nature of original Christianity.)

There are two ways to “look at” Divinity. One is to see It as absolutely distinct from ourselves and therefore outside us. The other is to see It as absolutely one with us, and therefore within us. The results of these two views are quite different in their effect on us. One produces anxiety, insecurity, and even fear–though there may be occasional patches of “faith” and “hope” to artificially relieve the unease. The other produces confidence, tranquility, and inner strength. Those that subscribe to the “outside” view of God continually speak of the need for “trusting in” and “surrendering to” God, developing a total and pious dependence on God, firm in a conviction of their nothingness and valuelessness. Those that hold to the “inner” view are intent on the necessity for self-knowledge and the liberation of their inner potential to manifest the Divine. One group sees themselves as sinners, the other sees themselves as embryonic gods. What a totally different world these two live in! And more: what a totally different world is created or shaped by those who hold such views.

Some friends of mine had a very successful Montessori school. Quite a few of their students were “behavior problems” that were rejected by the public school system. One five-year-old had been expelled from as many schools as his age. In his second or third week of attendance he did something “bad.” He looked at one of the teachers and said: “I’m a little ‘devil’ aren’t I?” She smiled and replied: “Not to me. I think you are a little angel.” The poor boy was utterly flummoxed. “I am an angel?” he asked, his voice expressing total amazement. “Yes; you are to me,” she answered. And from that moment on his behavior was ideal. Because he really was an angel, but had not known it.

The real Gospel–Good News–of authentic Christianity is that of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) Our Christ nature is potential and must be brought forth, but we have no other nature to manifest. It is just a matter of now or later.

Once we realize that the Lord is our inmost being, the words of the Ode become extremely clear. The only comment needed is this poem of Emily Bronte:

No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere: I see Heaven’s glories shine, And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.

O God within my breast, Almighty, ever-present Deity! Life, that in me has rest, As I, undying Life, have power in Thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds That move men’s hearts: unutterably vain; Worthless as withered weeds, Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

To waken doubt in one Holding so fast by Thy infinity, So surely anchored on The steadfast rock of Immortality.

With wide-embracing love Thy Spirit animates eternal years, Pervades and broods above, Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and moon were gone, And suns and universes ceased to be, And Thou wert left alone, Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death, Nor atom that his might could render void: Thou–thou art Being and Breath, And what thou art may never be destroyed.

More on the Odes of Solomon:

Odes of Solomon – text

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A Commentary on the Inner Meaning of the Gospel of St. Matthew

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, by another road they [the wise men] went back to their country.”
(Matthew 2:12 – Wuest’s translation)

“By another road they went back to their country.” We came from God and we return to God; but the paths by which we leave and which we return are not the same. One is the taking on of illusion and the other is the divestment of illusion. One is the downward-going lefthand path of increasing involvement in ego and material consciousness and the other is the upward-going righthand path of decreasing involvement in ego and material consciousness. One is the path of unconscious evolution and the other is the path of conscious evolution. Both are necessary–first the lefthand path and then the righthand path–but they are mutually exclusive of one another, antithetical to one another. We cannot have one foot on the lefthand path and the other on the righthand path, for they lead in opposite directions. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

Now that is the part that sometimes unsettles and pricks us, but there is another aspect to the matter that is so wonderful, hopeful, and positive that it takes away all the discomfort we may be feeling. And that aspect is the wonderful truth that there really is a “road” that leads back to our country–back to God. That our return to God is not haphazard or whimsical (on the part of either us or God), but is a definite, precise, and methodical route to divine consciousness. That is why, when preparing to return to the Father, Jesus told His disciples: “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” (John 14:4) To know the way to God–what a wonderful thing! To no longer wander in a vague search, either not knowing the way or thinking that a false way is the true way. When He had been the prophet Isaiah, Jesus had prophesied of “the way of holiness” that would be a spiritual “highway” to the Infinite. (Isaiah 35:8)

Another road

The return of the wise by another way is a symbol of the fact that all the “good” in us which brought us to the point of meeting our inner Christ must become “baptized in Christ.” That is, these inner powers, however helpful they may have been heretofore, have got to be transmuted–spiritualized–before being made again operative in our life. They, too, must be “renewed” in order for us to be able to “walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) This is very important, for since we are in the grip of ego we like to hold on to the past “good” of which we are proud, and want to keep running in the same tracks as before. It seems virtually impossible for most people to realize what a total revolution is required before we can begin to hope of real spiritual attainment–and even more impossible for them to get busy and start renovating themselves from A to Z.

All our faculties which enable us to function intelligently must also be “returned” to their correct orientation of spirit; they must be taken from their present status of serving our ego and given back to their rightful owner–our divine spirit.

It is evolution from life to life on this earth that has brought us to this point. And that was good. But now we must disdain any further terms (lives) on earth and aspire to evolve henceforth into the higher realms of being. The blind, haphazard seeking that we engaged in through past lives was not without benefit; but now it must be abandoned; from now on we must seek in a careful, intelligent, and systematic manner.

Our own country

The very purpose of finding the Christ within is to enable ourselves to return, like the wise men, into our own country–the place of our origin. This is a most important fact, for when we realize that we are going back to where we came from–that it is our nature to be there–our perspective on the matter is greatly affected, for we realize:

1. We do not need to become something other than what we really are–we do not need to make ourselves into something else. So all the struggle that we see virtually all religions engaging in is absolutely unnecessary–even detrimental to attainment of the true goal. By misapplied understanding and application religion binds us and keeps us from knowing our true selves just as much as any of the other evils of the world. (Yes, I mean that implication: erroneous religion is one of the evils of the world.) For we only need to reclaim our eternal status, praying: “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:5)
2. We do need, however, to stop being what we are not. Once we do that, we shall automatically become what we are. When we endeavor to stop the delusion, though, we discover that we are not passively in ignorance. Instead, we are frantically applying all our energies to create and maintain our ignorance and illusion. Since this is not a conscious process on our part we do not realize what we are doing. Authentic meditation reveals this situation to us right away, however, and we go on from there. Meditation, then, is not a doing but a stopping. This fact reveals that nearly all meditation being engaged in is invalid for spiritual realization–that is just a tool for perpetuating our illusions.
3. Since self-realization is our nature we need not doubt the possibility of our return. For “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.” (John 3:13) The very fact that we can ascend means we have first descended. We have already done half the journey!
4. Our return is inevitable, having been eternally predestined for us. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

It is also necessary for us to realize that spiritual experience or awakening is not the goal: it is only the beginning. The wise men did not stay with Jesus in Nazareth. They had to go back home. It is the same with us. No matter how wonderful our spiritual awakenings and experiences may be, we have to turn from them and be about our “Father’s business” (Luke 2:49) of return.

The wise went home, and we, if we are wise, will also go home. We must understand that true religion is not just pleasing or placating God, or even this emotional idea of loving God; it is returning to God. It is getting up and getting out of here. As it says in the Constitution of the Apostles: “May grace come to us and may this world depart from us.” We do not belong here; we never have.

We must know that we came from God, and then we must use every waking moment of our life to return to God, otherwise we are not wise, but foolish. We have to get away from the land of Herod, away from the land dominated by the alien powers of the Romans, and go back to where God is the heart of everything.

Read more commentaries on the inner meaning of the Gospels, and the teachings of Jesus.

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The poet Browning wrote of “the end of life for which the first was made.” That is a lovely expression, but very few really believe it and therefore rarely think of their life’s end. Those of us who seek liberation must from the very beginning be looking toward the end we desire. In the next to the last verse at the close of the Isha Upanishad we are given the perspective we should be living with every moment of our life if we would truly “come to a good end.”

Now

“Let my life now merge in the all-pervading life. Ashes are my body’s end. OM….O mind, remember Brahman. O mind, remember thy past deeds. Remember Brahman. Remember thy past deeds.”
–Isha Upanishad 17

Emily Dickenson wrote: “While others hope to go to heaven at last, I am going all along!” This is the only way for those who would succeed in spiritual life. Nothing should be delayed for the future–it is all now or not at all. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2)

There are many partially awakened people who know that God is the only real goal. Yet they delay their endeavor. “After I get this,” they say, “then I will really dig in and seek God.” But they never do, for as soon as one little short-term goal is reached another arises that seems even more demanding.

I know a woman that claimed she would intensely seek God the day after her only child graduated from high school. But then it became after his graduating from college. Then after he was married and “really settled down.” Death found her anticipating still another “after which,” but it was all over. And by her foolishness she had created in her mind the habit of postponing spiritual life, a habit that will surely carry over into the next life and perhaps into others.

How often do we think that the vision of God will somehow interfere with our life–when in reality we have no life outside that vision. Silly children, we dawdle and dally until the night falls, that “night in which no man can work” (John 9:4) which Jesus warned us about. “Now or never” happens to be the simple truth.

Merging in Life

Many people want to “embrace life” so they can egocentrically possess it and exploit it to the full. But they have no idea what life is. Just the opposite, for what they think is life is really death. “The all-pervading life” is the only life, for that is God. And the necessity is not to find or see God as an object (again, to possess), but to merge with God in complete unity-identity. That is, our consciousness must be completely merged in the infinite Consciousness, and irrevocably so.

Just as a cup of water poured into the ocean cannot be drawn back out of the ocean, so we need to attain that state of unity which can never be reversed. Many yogis paddle their feet or go for a quick dip in the ocean of Satchidananda, but the goal is to unite with that ocean, to merge in it and become totally one with it. Consequently at ever moment of our life we must be holding in mind and living out the sankalpa: “Let my life now merge in the all-pervading life.”

Those who are unfit for union with God become all anxious and even fearful when they hear about merging with the Divine. “O! will I go out of existence?” they quaver. “What will happen to me?” Over and over again they plunge headlong into the sea of rebirth, never raising such questions about relative existence, but “going for it” heedlessly. Only when confronted with God do they develop prudence and caution. Jesus has assured us, though: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:33) This is because we are truly negative–that is, we are absolutely backwards one hundred and eighty degrees. Consequently what we think will annihilate us will immortalize us, whereas what we think will make us live will destroy us.

Like the great master, Yogananda, we must pray: “Let me drown in Thine ocean and live!”

Read more commentaries on the Upanishads.

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A continuation of Choosing Between the Good and the Pleasant

One of the problems with prevailing religion of all kinds is its incredible small-sightedness. Like the pleasant-oriented and pleasant-obsessed ego which it supports and feeds, it is concerned with only the moment at hand or with goals that are utterly irrelevant to the real nature of the human being. When we understand who/what we really are, then alone can we comprehend what is the sole purpose of our existence: conscious union with the Absolute. In light of this the upanishad concludes: “Blessed are they that choose the good; they that choose the pleasant miss the goal.” So the discrimination between the good and the pleasant is no light matter.

A genuine test of character

In the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we find a parable about foolish and wise souls. Most of us do not really care if we are foolish, just as long as no one labels us so. But we should care, and so the upanishad continues its teaching, saying:

“Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to men. The wise, having examined both, distinguish the one from the other. The wise prefer the good to the pleasant; the foolish, driven by fleshly desires, prefer the pleasant to the good.” (Katha Upanishad 1:2:2)

There is a lot of truth in these few lines, some of it embarrassing, but nevertheless beneficial for us. (The good is not the pleasant, even in philosophy.)

• “Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to men.”

Whatever may be the excuses we may make for ourselves, even portraying ourselves as weak or victims, no one, NO ONE, forces anything upon us in life, however much it may seem otherwise. Rather, the good and the pleasant simply “present themselves” to us. We are totally responsible for our response to them, although, like Adam and Eve back in Genesis, [“And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.…And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:12,13)] we try to put the blame on someone else, on some external factor.

It is really essential to us as we move through life (hopefully forward) that although our deluded experience seems just the opposite, in reality all “things” are completely neutral–it is our response to them that really gives them any character such as good, bad, destructive, positive, etc. A little thought will show this. The deadliest poison is harmless if we do not make contact with it. Conversely, the best medicine is worthless if we do not consume it. Or think of this: garbage seems heavenly food to a starving person, but not to someone who is well fed; a child’s toy means nothing to a mature adult. Nothing has an innate ability to draw or force us–all the drawing and forcing is in our own mind as it responds to the object. We can blame no one at any time. It is all in us. If there are no grass seeds in the soil no grass will grow. The seeds have to be in us to sprout and grow and bear fruit as thinking, willing, and acting.

• “The wise, having examined both, distinguish the one from the other.”

Viveka, the ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal, between the true and the false, between the transient and the permanent, is indispensable for the serious spiritual aspirant. The wise possess and exercise this faculty, the eye of wisdom, by deeply examining whatever is presented to them and discerning whether it is the good or the merely pleasant they are being confronted with. Intelligence comes into the foreground, feeling and emotion being banished from the mental field altogether. Human beings operate either rationally or instinctually-emotionally. The wise are rational at all times. At all times. For example, real love is clearsighted–never blind–whereas infatuation masquerading as love is both blinding and blindness.

Preferring and driven

If two people are walking, one toward the north and the other toward the south, the difference between them is very little–just the direction they are facing. But in the matter of the wise and the foolish the differences are profound, for they are rooted in their very being, especially the mind and intellect. Even as a child I always thought that the statement of Abraham to Lazarus that “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed,” (Luke 16:26) was spiritually symbolic, that a great gulf did indeed lie between the Godwards and the earthwards. The upanishad is outlining this nature of this gulf for us by describing its effects on both.

The wise prefer the good–they are not enticed, coerced, or “somehow drawn” to the good. They intelligently–yes, intellectually–prefer it because they know its nature and its effects. This is true of everything in their life, mundane, mental, and spiritual. This is markedly true in the matter of religion. The religious expression of the wise is always, peaceful, clear, intelligent, informed, and practical–it works.

The foolish, however are not so. They truly are a “troubled sea” (Isaiah 57:20) “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind” (Ephesians 4:14) as Isaiah and Saint Paul observed. “Driven by fleshly desires,” it only follows that they prefer the pleasant to the good, for the “flesh” cannot even perceive the good to any appreciable degree; but they create a lot of illusions about it–all negative and self-assuring. Their religion is subhuman, of course, catering to their emotions and their demands for the indulgence of their whims and vices. However educated they may be, or how boring and dry their church services, still animality reigns and all manner of subhuman behavior is sanctioned and even elevated and “spiritualized.”

Wallowing in the sty of their comforting and indulgent religion, they cast many a contemptuous (and secretly guilty) glance at those who are not so, and create many a bon mot about their “unnatural denial and repressions” hinting of sinister implications for those who “run away from life” and “refuse to face themselves,” and “expect too much from themselves and others.” But they are still only talking pigs. Even though they like to say they are “only human” and that God understands they are.

Driven by pleasure/pain, their humanity becomes submerged in the animality impressed in their subconscious by millions of incarnations in subhuman forms. Merely possessing a human body is no guarantee of humanity. The redoubtable Dr. Bronner in a conversation with one of the monks of our ashram referred to some people as “not yet HUMAN!” He was right. A house does not make a home and a human body does not make a human. Humanity only dawns when intelligence dominates and wisdom is gained. We need not be intellectual in the academic sense, but we must be intelligent. Then if we use our intelligence there is a chance we may become wise and thereby cross the great gulf.

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Jesus said, ‘I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind.’”
–Gospel of Thomas 17

[Those who receive the monthly Atma Jyoti Newsletter will have seen this article already, but we wanted to share it with our blog readers also.]

We are familiar with this idea from Saint Paul’s saying: “It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (I Corinthians 2:9) He was quoting Isaiah 64:4: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”

The King James translation misses the idea a bit. The original Greek actually says: “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and to which the heart of man has not aspired, that has God prepared for those that love Him.” Naturally the heart of “man” has not aspired to the divine gift, because it is far beyond the grasp of the earthbound mind and heart of those entrenched in the human condition, having forgotten that they are gods and not men. (“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” Psalms 82:6)

It takes a moderate degree of evolution to realize that there is a realm that is invisible to the eye, unheard by the ear, untouchable to the hand and beyond the imagining of the human mind. But it takes a great degree of evolution to understand that that realm is the real world, and that we are living in a mirage, a dream–which has meaning, but is nonetheless a dream. To aspire to enter that true world and leave this world of mere appearance is a mark of nearness to the status of “the sons of God.” And that is the gift Jesus offers to His disciples, the real Christmas gift that comes to us when we are born into the real world of God.

Read The Gospel of Thomas and more Commentaries on the Gospel of Thomas.

The Fourth and Final part of the Series How to Know God

“By learning, a man cannot know him, if he desist not from evil, if he control not his senses, if he quiet not his mind, and practice not meditation.” (Katha Upanishad 1:2:24)

• Persisting in evil

Evil in all forms must be abandoned if the Self, which is all good, is to be known. This should not be hard to understand, but many deny it anyway, or try to skirt around it. Of them Jesus said: “They have their reward” (Matthew 6:2,5,16)–a false security that is really “the sleep of death.” (Psalms 13:3) But for us who wish to live it is important to determine what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong.

Sanatana Dharma has a concept of right and wrong unique among the world religions. The others teach that something is right or wrong because their God or Prophet has said so in their infallible scriptures. “It is in the Bible,” “It is in the ZendAvesta,” “It is in the Koran,” etc. Although the scriptures of Hindu Dharma do mention things as being good or evil, the basis for the statements are utterly different from that of other religions.

Sanatana Dharma does not look upon a thing as wrong because God or gods have declared it wrong or some lawgiver has prohibited it. And the same in relation to the things that are right. Rather, a thing is good or evil according to its innate character. Many times people tried to get Mata Anandamayi to approve or disapprove of something. But she would simply say: “If it takes you toward the Goal it is good. If it takes you away from the Goal it is evil.”

That which darkens, obscures, or limits our consciousness is bad. That which lights, clears, and expands our consciousness is good. That which helps in the search for God is good; that which hinders or delays it is not.

We all know people who declare that their addictions and illusions either do not hurt them or even are good for them. Very well; they have their reward. But the intelligent do not engage in such childish rationalization. They impartially examine and conclude accordingly. It is all a matter of the individual’s interest and honesty. In other words, it is all in our hands–as are all the aspects of our life if we face up to it. Sanatana Dharma does not list “bads” and “goods” because it assumes that those who wish to pursue dharma can judge for themselves. Though we can certainly determine whether the Vedic scriptures consider something harmful or helpful, we should look upon the list as neither exhaustive or even binding. Sanatana Dharma is Manava Dharma–human dharma. And human beings use their intelligent reason. Sanatana Dharma also leaves every one free to be wise or foolish. Dharma never condemns or praises. It just waits to be fulfilled.

• Lack of sense control

The senses must be controlled, but we usually mistake the way to do so. The upanishads use the simile of horses pulling a chariot, and we mistake that, too, thinking it a symbol of incredible forces to be overcome. But we need not think of it so drastically. Before you control a horse, you tame it. So before we control the senses we “tame” them through purification. Sadhana is the only way. Meditation alone purifies in a lasting manner.

At the same time we purify the senses by directing them Godward. We make the eyes look at sacred symbols or depictions, the ears to hear the words of sacred texts and sacred music, the nose to smell the offered incense, the tongue to taste the offered sweets or food, and the inner sense of touch to feel the exalted atmosphere created by worship and contact with the holy. Pilgrimage is valuable because it is a “total sense” experience of holiness. The good news is that we need not struggle with the senses, but turn them in spiritual directions.

• Restlessness of mind

Restlessness of mind is itself great suffering. Yama says that a quiet mind is indispensable to self-knowledge. Here is what Krishna has to say about it:

“If a yogi has perfect control over his mind, and struggles continually in this way to unite himself with Brahman, he will come at last to the crowning peace of Nirvana, the peace that is in me.” (Bhagavad Gita 6:15)

“When can a man be said to have achieved union with Brahman? When his mind is under perfect control and freed from all desires, so that he becomes absorbed in the Atman, and nothing else. “The light of a lamp does not flicker in a windless place”: that is the simile which describes a yogi of one-pointed mind, who meditates upon the Atman. When, through the practice of yoga, the mind ceases its restless movements, and becomes still, he realizes the Atman. It satisfies him entirely. Then he knows that infinite happiness which can be realized by the purified heart but is beyond the grasp of the senses. He stands firm in this realization. Because of it, he can never again wander from the inmost truth of his being.” (Bhagavad Gita 6:18-21)

Can I say more than that?

• Without meditation

“Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness?” (Bhagavad Gita 2:66)

The sine qua non of self-knowledge is meditation. The Self is ever-present but we do not perceive it because our vision is obscured by the illusion known as Maya. After describing the method of meditation, Krishna says: “If he practices meditation in this manner, his heart will become pure” (Bhagavad Gita 6:12) and the Self will become literally self-evident. In conclusion he remarks: “Make a habit of practicing meditation, and do not let your mind be distracted. In this way you will come finally to the Lord, who is the light-giver, the highest of the high.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:8)

The formula

The Self can be known by those who truly desire to know. And that true desire manifests through desisting from evil, controlling of the senses, quieting (restraining) the mind, and practicing meditation. This is the real Formula For Success.

Related articles:

• Foundations of Yoga
• Introduction to Om Yoga

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