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How Should We Regard
The Ancient Teachings?
When the world was young, in the great spiritual
centers of the world, the citadels of ancient learning, by and large, people
worshipped idols. There was worship of the sun, the moon, the golden calf and
the sacred monkey. There were animal and human sacrifices. Much later and
extending even into our modern age, Jesus Christ is still viewed by many to be
one such human sacrifice. "He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world. By his stripes, we are healed. He died in payment for our sins,"
that is, according to those who don't want to make restitution for their own
transgressions. They want someone else to pay for their mistakes, and they have
chosen to bestow this great honor to Christ. According to them, it is Christ, in
fact, who should be thankful for being so honored.
Earlier were the days of Jehovah, the vengeful
God and the Ten Commandments which were very much like admonishments, dos and
don'ts given to little children, because in fact, the mental capacities of the
people of those periods were only like those of little children, ignorant,
selfish and immature. We now know that the Earth is only a training school for
spirit students. We spirit beings incarnate many times in order to study in this
school. Thousands of years ago, we were those very same people in the world,
only that during those times, we were much, much younger spiritually, much less
developed, much more ignorant than we are now. Jesus confirms this when he said;
"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
In Persia, women and slaves were bought and sold
like cattle, which practice still persists in certain parts of the world. And in
the estimation of those people, even wars can be holy, as in the case of the
Jihads or the Islamic holy wars. Admittedly, in the early days, it may have been
necessary to go to war just so the Faith may survive. However, in our age of
ecumenism and integration, the continued validity of this teaching is at best
doubtful.
In India, the caste system is still in effect in
certain places. Now, we agree that spirit beings are at various levels in the
order of evolution. But this concept was misunderstood and misapplied to the
order of physical things. These Hindus have failed to realize that our present
worldly status in life is in no wise related to the degree of our spiritual
attainment, but that such worldly position is conferred on us in order that we
may develop certain desired qualities. Therefore, a person will be given wealth
so that he may learn to handle wealth wisely, not for himself alone but for
others, as well. Another person will be allowed to rise to a position of power
in order that he may learn the responsibilities of wielding power over others.
Accordingly, one born to the Brahmans is not necessarily already a holy priest
of God but that he is being given the opportunity to train to become one; while
one born to the Sudra or laborer caste could rise to become a prophet of God.
Jesus Christ, son of the carpenter, is of the least who rose to become the
highest to demonstrate to all the fallacy of this belief.
In Egypt, dead bodies were mummified and pyramids
were built for the futile purpose of preserving the worldly treasures of the
dead for use in their afterlife. They probably believed in the resurrection of
dead bodies, never mind the worms, the acrid smell of embalming chemicals, the
discolored skin and the fallen hair. Now, we know better. Today, we prefer new
and better handling, beautiful and youthful physical vehicles. And the
treasures, well, they cannot be taken to the next world. Riches and wealth may
be the coin of the realm as far as this world is concerned but beyond Earth,
money has no value whatsoever. No one can bribe his way to Heaven, no matter
what some of our politicians and government officials may believe. Neither can
they legislate laws or issue decrees to contravene God's laws.
The spiritual teachings were couched in the form
of Vedic stories and Biblical parables akin to fairy tales to cater to our
childish fantasies and preferences. We would not give solid food to little
babies because they have no teeth with which to grind food or stomachs strong
enough to fully digest such food. Instead, we feed them fluids and soft foods
which are all they can handle. Similarly, the higher levels of learning have not
been available to the people in the world, but the higher principles have been
reserved for later dissemination when we shall have evolved sufficiently enough
to be able to understand these higher concepts.
From the foregoing, we could conclude, therefore,
that the ancient civilizations, no matter how highly developed in the material
sense they may seem to some of us, do not indicate a high level of spiritual
attainment. The ancient peoples may be considered worldly-wise, however, they
were, in fact, spiritually foolish due mainly to their youth and limited
experiences.
Likewise, the ancient scriptures are products
of our youth. They have often been regarded as absolute truths when, in
fact, they are not. The wisdom that can be derived from the ancient scriptures
served only to raise the level of ignorance of the world to a lesser level of
ignorance. Explanations were provided enabling us to advance a few grades higher
in the order of evolution. But now, we find that the explanations of
yesterday no longer satisfy us. Of course, some of the Ancient Teachings are
eternal truths. However, much more, including many of the old Occult Teachings
are only half-truths or initial instructions for beginning students. And
inadequate knowledge, oftentimes, does more harm than good because it prevents
us from being open to the new and advanced teachings.
At the beginning of every new age, Christ comes
to light the way. To prepare the world for his coming, new explanations, new
insights, new approaches, new teachings are being made available. Contrary to
what some people may believe, divine revelations never cease to be given,
rather, the unfolding continues just as soon as we have made ourselves ready to
receive even higher truths. In considering the New Teachings, we should not
disregard the revered Ancient Teachings; instead, we should relate the old with
the new and update our understanding of these truths, to make them relevant to
our present situation.
With reference to ‘At the Feet of the Master’
in furtherance of our spiritual studies, we should learn to discriminate between
the important and the unimportant, between the useful and the useless, and
between the true and the false. To these criteria, we must subject all
information which form the bases of our studies. In this connection, ‘At the
Feet of the Master’ also enjoins us to distinguish between the more useful,
those things that relate to the spiritual and the eternal and the less useful
which are things that relate purely to the physical or the transient.
Most importantly, the Master gives us this very
wise counsel and we quote,
"There are in the world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions
and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore, you must not
hold a thought just because many other people hold it, not because it has been
believed for centuries nor because it is written in some book which men think
sacred; you must think of the matter for yourself, and judge for yourself
whether it is reasonable. He who walks the Path must learn to think for himself,
for superstition is one of the greatest evils in the world, one of the fetters
from which you must utterly free yourself."
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