The Aquarian Christ admits that his power is great, but in the very next breath he diverts attention from himself to his hearers, who may reflect him as he reflects God, if only they will: “What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be” (178:46). Before the cross, he announces, “What I have done all men can do. And I am now about to demonstrate the power of man to conquer death; for every man is God made flesh” (163:36-37). See also 176:19, where the Risen Jesus issues the Aquarian version of the Great Commission: “I go my way, but you shall go to all the world and preach the gospel of the omnipotence of men, the power of truth, the resurrection of the dead.”
Jesus, as Jesus, deserves no worship at all. Like numerous New Testament characters, he repudiates the very idea, here in the course of a denunciation of Hindu idolatry. Chapter 26 finds the pilgrim Jesus watching the approach of one of the great ritual vehicles transporting an image of the god Krishna, or Jagganath.5 (We derive our word “juggernaut,” an unstoppable engine of destruction, from these huge-wheeled wagons, beneath the wheels of which fanatical worshippers used to throw themselves as sacrifices.)
One day a car of Jagganath was hauled
along by scores of frenzied men,
and Jesus said, “Behold, a form
without a spirit passes by;
a body with no soul;
a temple with no altar fires.
This car of Krishna is an empty thing,
for Krishna is not there.
This car is but an idol of
a people drunk on wine of carnal things.
God lives not in the noise of tongues;
there is no way to him from any idol shrine.
God’s meeting place with man is in the heart,
and in a still small voice he speaks;
and he who hears is still.”
And all the people said, “Teach us
to know the Holy One who speaks
within the heart, God of the still small voice.”
And Jesus said, “The Holy Breath
cannot be seen with mortal eyes;
nor can men see the Spirits of
the Holy One; but in their image man
was made, and he who looks into the face
of man, looks at the image of the God
who speaks within. And when
man honors man he honors God,
And what man does for man, he does
for God. And you must bear in mind
that when man harms in thought, or word
or deed another man, he does
a wrong to God. If you would serve
the God who speaks within the heart,
just serve your near of kin, and those
that are no kin, the stranger at your gates,
the foe who seeks to do you harm;
assist the poor, and help the weak;
do harm to none, and covet not
what is not yours. Then, with your tongue
the Holy One will speak; and he
will smile behind your tears, will light
your countenance with joy, and fill
your hearts with peace.”
And then the people asked.
“To whom shall we bring gifts?
Where shall we offer sacrifice?”
And Jesus said, “Our Father-God
asks not for needless waste of plant,
of grain, of dove, of lamb.
That which you burn on any shrine
you throw away. No blessings can
attend the one who takes the food
from hungry mouths to be destroyed by fire.
When you would offer sacrifice
unto our God, just take your gift
of grain, or meat and lay it on
the table of the poor. From it
an incense will arise to heaven,
which will return to you with blessedness.
Tear down your idols; they can hear you not;
turn all your sacrificial altars into fuel for flames.
Make human hearts your altars, burn
your sacrifices with the fire of love.”
And all the people were entranced,
and would have worshiped Jesus as a God;
but Jesus said, “I am your brother man
just come to show the way to God;
you shall not worship man; praise God, the Holy One.”
Here is a fine specimen of the same rationalist ridicule of idolatry we find in the Second Isaiah (Isaiah 44:9-20). It is, of course, a rationalism that stops short of turning its guns on religion per se as a superstition. In short, it is the religious rationalism of the Deists and Natural Religionists which have influenced Levi Dowling at other points, too. That Enlightenment piety shows itself as well in the disdain for wasting money on religious mummery that could have been spent for the poor, even though this point clashes with the canonical gospels (Mark 14:3-9).
Even miracles are not, as in traditional apologetics, signs pointing to the glory of Christ himself, but only to that to which Jesus himself points: “He was transfigured that the men of earth might see the possibilities of man” (129:14).
The Method and the Messiah
How did Jesus attain unto his exalted office as the revelation of divine humanity? It is important to know, for, in the nature of the case, the rest of us must do the same thing if we wish to gain the same goal.
The greatest mystery of all times
lies in the way that Christ lives in the heart.
Christ cannot live in clammy dens
of carnal things. The seven battles
must be fought, the seven victories
won before the carnal things,
like fear, and self, emotions and
desire,