In the Garden of Gethsemane

What Really Happened While The Disciples Were Asleep?

Most people have heard the story of Jesus and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. The core teaching of this familiar account from the New Testament is that when in difficulty, one should approach the spiritual Master Teacher or God to pray for advice and inspiration. The Lord will respond, either directly or through the spiritual Master Teacher, resolving the sincere disciple’s difficulty. This tenet is actually an integral part of the Esoteric Teaching from which all the bona fide religions in the world are derived. Therefore it is universally relevant to all Godly people, regardless of their doctrinal orientation or level of attainment in self-realization.

However, this pastime also contains a much more profound meaning. There is a clue to its deeper layer of significance in the fact that Jesus’ disciples could not remain awake while he prayed. The unenlightened person can hardly appreciate the personal presence of God or the timeless Esoteric Teaching He reveals when He appears in this world. As the Lord stated in the Esoteric Teaching, “The time of awakening for the self-realized soul is night for ordinary beings.” Therefore, although a spiritual event of universal significance was happening right before them, the neophyte disciples who would later chronicle of Jesus’ life in the Gospels and found the original Christian religion could not remain alert. They slept despite the fact that God was present, engaged in an intense personal dialog with His son and intimate disciple Jesus Christ. This inattention is revealed in the Gospels; or rather, in what is omitted from the Gospels. After all, the writers could not possibly have recorded what was happening while they were asleep. Therefore in the Gospels’ version of the story, Jesus goes from protesting “My Father, all things are possible for You, take this cup from me,” to capitulating, “Yet, not as I will, but as You will,” in a single verse.

A great soul like Jesus does not so easily doubt the order of the Lord, which is his life and soul. If Jesus had doubts (“Take this cup from me”), they must have been significant. Significant doubts are not easily erased. One gets the feeling that a lot of dialog is absent from the narration; indeed, the Lord’s side of the conversation is completely missing. Except for a brief mention of the appearance of the Lord of Heaven to Jesus, only statements and actions of Jesus appear in the Gospels.

This is consistent with the observation that the disciples were inattentive and unaware of God’s presence. They were dozing, and only half awoke when Jesus cried out to his Father in prayer. Alas, the Gospels, for all their beauty and value, are not perfect. They contain many omissions. Another glaring dereliction is the entire story of Jesus’ young manhood. The Gospels narrate a few precious pastimes of Jesus as a child, and then suddenly skip to his preaching activities as a grown man. Twenty years or so are utterly missing from the Gospels’ account of Jesus’ life. However, this is not the case with other records. The Esoteric Teaching narrates Jesus’ early travels throughout the ancient world, notably to Egypt and India, where he took instruction and received initiation and recognition from many spiritual authorities. Not surprisingly, the Esoteric Teaching contains a similar, but more complete version of the Gethsemane story as well.

After the Last Supper

The Gospels’ version of the story begins just after the Last Supper, when the disciples followed Jesus out into the countryside to pray:

Going out according to his custom, Jesus took his disciples to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus came with the disciples to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to the disciples, “Sit here and wait while I pray.” And taking along Peter, James and John, Jesus walked about a stone’s throw away. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply troubled.

Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even unto death. Stay here and watch with me.” And going forward a little, he fell on his face praying and saying, “My Father, all things are possible for You, take this cup from me.”

And the Lord of Heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. And being in ecstasy, he prayed more intently. And his sweat became as drops of blood falling down onto the earth.

There are many important lessons to be learned from this Gospel story. The age-old custom of those in the spiritual and renounced orders of life is to seek the shelter of nature’s pure atmosphere for spiritual activities. The cities, towns and villages are always more or less polluted by people’s sinful activities of selfish sense gratification. For this reason Jesus’ initiating spiritual Master Teacher John the Baptist refused to enter the towns even for preaching purposes. He used to remain outside the town walls in the pasturing grounds (eremo in the original Greek), and the people had to come out to see him. Therefore after the Last Supper, Jesus wanted to leave the contaminated atmosphere of the town and commune with God in the purity of the countryside, without the distracting influences of material sense gratification and sinful life.

Spiritual life has nothing to do with bodily sense gratification; indeed, the two are mutually exclusive. One cannot work hard to maintain the values of bodily enjoyment and at the same time become a self-realized or God-realized soul. That is contradictory. Spiritual life means the renunciation of gross bodily pleasures as far as possible, and realization of a higher source of pleasure in relationship with God and His pure devotees. This is actual spiritual life. It is not dry, it is full of pleasure—but that pleasure is on the spiritual platform, not the bodily platform. Jesus is the prototype of a renunciant. He is not at all interested in material pleasure, for he has realized a higher source of pleasure in loving devotional service to the Lord. His greatest joy is in sharing his special relationship with God. In this story we find a perfect instance of the spiritual relationship of mutual love, surrender and service between the devotee and the Lord.

One should therefore study this confidential Esoteric Teaching very carefully—if possible, with the help and guidance of a self-realized devotee of the Lord—and try to understand it outside of blind doctrinal criticism and personally motivated misinterpretations. The example of proper understanding is illustrated in the way Jesus accepted instruction directly from the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, transforming his initial lamentation and hesitation into joyful, enthusiastic surrender. If someone is fortunate enough to understand this Esoteric Teaching without twisting it to justify his personal desires, then he surpasses all conventional exoteric religious studies and ordinary Scriptural wisdom. One will find in the stories and parables of the Esoteric Teaching all that is contained in the ordinary teachings of religion, but the deeply inquiring reader will also find much wisdom not to be found anywhere else. That is the specific standard of the Esoteric Teaching. It is the perfect theistic science because the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Lord, directly speaks it for the pleasure and benefit of His devotees.

Jesus’ Motivation

The first sentences of this apparently simple story set the stage for the sacred talks to follow. To understand the character and motivation of Jesus, we must first accept that he is a pure devotee of the Lord. He has no desire for material sense gratification, intellectual philosophical knowledge or even liberation. He is so advanced he is ready to sacrifice everything for the purposes of his beloved Father, the Lord. Yet for the sake of his disciples, he adopted the role of an ordinary ignorant man and pretended to be in anxiety and illusion. Jesus did this to invoke the Lord’s mercy upon them. He wanted to gain the Lord’s special instructions and blessings to empower his disciples to teach the Absolute Truth to the fallen people of this materialistic age. It is extremely difficult to teach spiritual life or God consciousness in the present historical cycle without distortion, especially in the Western countries. Jesus wanted a new dispensation of the eternal Esoteric Teaching specially adapted to present conditions, so that even the most fallen materialistic people could understand these important transcendental Truths.

The Garden of Gethsemane was a favorite meditation place of Jesus. He came there many times to pray to the Lord. Therefore it was a comfortable scene to his disciples, who were used to resting while Jesus prayed. But this time was special, for Jesus already knew that he was betrayed and what was to occur early the next morning. On this night, Jesus was approaching his prayer with unprecedented intensity, because he knew that he and his disciples were soon to undergo the greatest test. The disappearance of the empowered representative of the Lord from this world always opens the gates of chaos, and unscrupulous persons take advantage of this to advance their own interest under the guise of religious teaching. Jesus therefore asked his closest disciples to remain alert while he invoked the presence of the Supreme Lord, so they would benefit by receiving the special Teaching the Lord was going to reveal.

The Lord appears in the material world to protect His pure devotees, to accept their loving service unto Him, and to respond to their heartfelt pleas for help. A pure devotee can invoke the presence of the Lord at any time, and the Lord responds to him just like an ordinary parent or friend. The father of a young child is certainly in a superior position, yet when his son calls in distress the father immediately comes to help. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the Father of all living entities, who are therefore His dependent children. Yet He is always responsive to the loving call of His pure devotee who feels helpless and completely dependent upon His kind mercy.

Death is an extremely difficult time for everyone but a pure devotee of the Lord. Only the pure devotee has nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving up the material body. Others whose lives are riddled with sinful activity not only suffer the loss of everything near and dear to them, but also have nothing to look forward to except a hellish existence after death. But the devotee knows that after death he will be reunited with his most beloved Lord. Therefore he is not disturbed by the prospect of death; indeed, he welcomes it enthusiastically.

Jesus wanted the Lord to take responsibility for his disciples because he knew the Lord’s plan. Jesus was soon to leave this world and his disciples would have to carry on without his physical presence. Nevertheless they were at an immature stage of spiritual development and unready to carry on the exalted esoteric tradition of transcendental knowledge. Therefore Jesus wanted to ask the Lord to protect them directly. Of course, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is already protecting all living entities, but this is an example of the sweet personal dealings between the devotee and the Lord. Jesus knew that he would be unable to complete his disciples’ transcendental education; therefore he personally called upon his Father, the Lord, for assistance.

The next part of the story reads, “And going forward a little, he fell on his face praying.” This text is a little difficult for the ordinary person to understand, because it refers to a level of spiritual practice beyond our common exoteric experience. In the West, it is customary to kneel while praying; but in the context of the Esoteric Teaching, it is understood that one is supposed to fall down on the ground in complete surrender before the Lord and his spiritual Master Teacher. To show proper respect to the omnipotent Lord and his personal earthly representative the spiritual Master Teacher, one is supposed to offer complete obeisance with eight parts of the body: the two legs, the two arms, the belly, the chest, the head and with one’s words. This is called dandavats, or falling down like a stick. This is the transcendental etiquette, and here we see the Jesus Christ observes the customary procedure. One who does not comply with this tradition is considered most uncultured and unfit to associate with the members of the Esoteric Circle. However, anyone who offers proper respect to the spiritual Master Teacher and to the Lord very easily obtains their complete mercy and advances in spiritual life and devotion.

The bulk of the disciples could not pass through the Gate of Initiation and enter the Mesoteric Circle because they were not yet qualified to be Initiates. Only Peter, James and John could go deeper into the Garden with Jesus. As the Path of the Teaching ascends toward the presence of the Supreme Lord in the Esoteric Circle at the center of the Garden, it becomes so narrow only one can pass. Only Jesus could enter the Esoteric Circle and come into the Presence of God, because only he was qualified by personal realization of the Absolute Truth.

The Esoteric Teaching asserts that Lord Jesus Christ is an empowered incarnation of the Celestial Christ, the secondary creator, sent to the earth planet by the Supreme Lord to perform an important service to Him. Lord Jesus Christ is unique among all beings in this universe because his body is emanated or expanded directly from the transcendental body of the Lord before the creation of the planetary systems of this material universe. Therefore, although the Lord is certainly the spiritual Father of all living entities, Jesus Christ is especially known as the transcendental son of God.

The question then arises that, considering the exalted position and advanced spiritual consciousness of Lord Jesus Christ, how is it that he lamented his imminent persecution and crucifixion? Was he afraid of death? Did he doubt his eternal spiritual identity because of some material ignorance? Was his spiritual development less than perfect? Otherwise, why was he begging, “All things are possible for You, take this cup from me”? Was Jesus asking the Lord to change His plan? If Jesus knew the future and the nature of the conspiracy against him, why didn’t he simply use his mystic powers to escape? These are all legitimate questions in the mind of the inquisitive student.

“Take This Cup”

In the symbolism of the ancient wisdom-language of the Esoteric Teaching, the cup stands for the mind, and the drink within the cup for the knowledge or consciousness within the mind. Jesus was begging the Supreme Lord, not to change His plan, but to change his consciousness or state of mind. This is confirmed by Jesus’ ultimate conclusion: “Not as I will, but as You will,” indicating Jesus’ complete surrender to the will of the Lord. The metaphor of the cup indicates that the entire passage should be interpreted as shedding light on the esoteric psychology of the intimate loving relationship between the pure devotee and the Lord.

Unless we change our consciousness, we cannot advance in spiritual life. Spiritual life means developing consciousness of God leading to eternal freedom and bliss, whereas material life means consciousness limited to the dull, temporary and changeable material mind and senses. The soul perceives the Lord directly through spiritual senses, so the material body is superfluous in the advanced stages of spiritual life. The spiritually advanced devotee does not care for the material tabernacle, except insofar as it is useful to carry out the instructions of the Lord. Therefore Jesus was not lamenting for the body, although from a material perspective it may appear to be so.

To comprehend the significance of the events in the Garden of Gethsemane that night, it is vital to understand that Jesus was trying to create a pretext for the Lord to transmit the Esoteric Teaching anew. He was concerned about his disciples’ immature stage of spiritual advancement. Jesus felt they were unprepared for his imminent disappearance. He was trying to provoke the Lord to appear and bestow the important instructions of the Esoteric Teaching for their benefit. Therefore he invokes the Lord’s presence by pleading for help in dealing with his own mind. In other words, Jesus humbly takes the position of an ordinary man who is unable to control his mind at the hour of death. He does this both as an example to his disciples of how to pray in times of emergency, and to provide an opportunity for a new dispensation of the Esoteric Teaching. He knew that God always speaks just appropriately for the intelligence of those who are hearing. His real motivation is thus consistent with both his devotional attitude of humility and unconditional compassion, and his special concern for his disciples’ welfare and their impact on the future of humanity.

The appearance of the Lord in the material universe is always a very great and significant event. It is only by such appearances or incarnations of the Lord that we denizens of the material world learn of transcendental knowledge. Unless the Lord reveals Himself by speaking the Esoteric Teaching, we would simply have no other alternative than to speculate about religion and manufacture our own so-called truth, as is going on all over the world at the present moment. Unfortunately, as we have experienced, this leads only to misunderstanding, strife and disaster.

People in material consciousness cannot understand why modern hedonistic culture, based as it is upon limited human intelligence, cannot grant perfect peace and happiness to the living beings. This is because, while materialists may have made some small progress in material science, they are ignorant of the science of God. Therefore spiritual degradation, unrest and suffering are increasing all over the planet. The Lord appears to speak transcendent knowledge of spiritual life just to mitigate the sufferings of all living beings by granting them spiritual peace. This is the only valid process of obtaining real knowledge of Transcendence, which by definition is beyond the observational range of the imperfect material senses and the analytical power of the tiny human mind. Since we cannot see the spiritual world in our present limited state of consciousness, when the Lord appears He reveals knowledge of the unmanifest world. This is the origin of the Esoteric Teaching that underlies and informs all the bona fide religions of the world.

However, we must be intelligent and spiritually advanced enough to see and recognize the Lord when he reveals Himself. Otherwise we will miss Him and lose the opportunity, as did Jesus’ disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. While Jesus was speaking with the Lord, completely absorbed in the spiritual ecstasy of seeing Him face to face, his disciples were sleeping. This confirms that they did not see the Lord nor feel His presence. Therefore their transcendental senses were as yet unawakened. Not only Jesus’ neophyte disciples, but the entire Jewish elite of Jerusalem missed the appearance of the Lord, who “comes as a thief in the night,” and thus is not exposed to our materially conditioned senses.

Master of the Senses

In the Esoteric Teaching, the Lord is called Hrsikesha or the ‘Master of the Senses’ because as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is the actual owner and controller of all the senses in all living bodies. The living entities emanate from Him, therefore the senses of the living entities are also emanations of His senses. The omnipresent Lord, situated in the hearts of all living entities, directs their minds and senses, but since the embodied living entities in the illusion of material consciousness identify with the body, they wrongly think that the bodily senses are operating under their own control. Actually, the Lord directs the senses and awakens the minds of the living entities in proportion to the degree of their surrender unto Him. He does not force Himself on anyone, but reciprocates in response to the sincerity of our desire to know Him as He is.

The non-devotional impersonalist philosophers, and others overwhelmed by the illusion of material consciousness, cannot understand Him or detect His personal presence. But in the case of a pure devotee, the Supreme Lord directly controls his senses and mind, awarding enlightenment, unlimited spiritual pleasure and causeless transcendental knowledge. No one but a pure devotee of the Lord can comprehend how this is so. The impersonalist philosophers cannot properly understand either the senses of the living entities or the transcendental senses of the Lord, and therefore they concoct various theories that describe all living entities, including the Lord, as ultimately impersonal or senseless. Since there is no such thing as a living entity without senses, in reality it is the impersonal theory that is senseless.

The Lord has different names according to His different activities and qualities. In the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord directly controlled the spiritualized senses of Jesus, thus stimulating intense symptoms of ecstatic love in Jesus’ body and recalling His particular name of Hrsikesha, ‘Master of the Senses.’ The purpose of Jesus’ dialog with his Father, the infallible Lord, was to get Him to reveal the confidential purpose of eternal religion—the Esoteric Teaching—to his disciples. Although the Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Supreme Controller, He accepted this task in the service of His transcendental son out of His causeless mercy and boundless unconditional love. He never fails in His affection for His devotees, and thus He is called Acyuta or ‘Infallible One.’ He felt responsible to carry out Jesus’ request, and as a loving Father he did not hesitate to do so.

Although in this pastime the Lord accepted the position of a Father or Spiritual Master at Jesus’ request, His supreme position was never challenged. In all circumstances, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord of the total senses. But the Lord was reciprocating His devotee’s love. The relationship between the Lord and His servitor is very sweet and transcendental. The devotee is always ready to render service to the Lord, and similarly the Lord is always seeking an opportunity to render service to His devotee. He actually takes greater pleasure in His pure devotees’ ordering Him than he does in being the order-giver Himself. Since He is always the supreme Master and Controller, everyone is under His order, and no one is above Him. But when He finds that a pure devotee is ordering Him, although He is the infallible Master of all beings, He derives spiritual pleasure from this paradox of loving intimacy. This is the esoteric transcendental psychology of the relationship between the Lord and His pure devotee in the ecstasy of spiritual love.

Jesus and the Pharisees

As soon as the Supreme Lord appeared to him, Jesus was cleansed of all material contamination and elevated to his original spiritual position as the Celestial Christ. With mystic vision, he could see the entire situation clearly, as if from above. Jesus could see many high priests, rabbis, Pharisees, elders as respectable as his father, grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and well-wishers within the party of his enemies—all full of hatred and ready to kill him.

Jesus could clearly see the hatred in the hearts of his enemies, but he did not hate them. And he could also see the fear and unsteadiness in the hearts of his disciples, although they were under the Lord’s protection. This situation was giving him grief, because in both cases it was an illusion due to the influence of ignorance. The Pharisees were the religious scholars of the Jews. They wanted to protect their aristocratic position in Jewish society against the popular movement started by Jesus. Therefore they hated Jesus, although there was no offense on his part. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Jesus had no desire to fight with his fellow Jews, but since the rabbis and Pharisees were never agreeable to any peaceful negotiation, he was forced to preach against them by their very obstinacy. It was an open secret that there was a conspiracy among the rabbis, in collaboration with the local Roman government, to entrap Jesus by evil plans.

Jesus wanted to educate everyone in transcendental knowledge, and thus share the bliss of his enlightenment. But demoniac people are always against spiritual advancement, though they may be in the dress of so-called pious priests, rabbis or other religious authorities and government officials. They made a false case against Jesus, a pure devotee, a genuine representative of God, and sought to entrap him by a conspiracy of counterfeit arguments. All this gave rise to distress within Jesus’ heart, caused by compassion. Of course, Jesus’ enemies could not comprehend that he and his sincere disciples inevitably would be victorious over their evil plan by the Lord’s grace. The Pharisees were so proud of their temporal power and ignorant of real spiritual Truth that they would not accept the Lord’s representative, even though he personally appeared before them. Why then did Jesus grieve for them?

In the Esoteric Teaching, the pure devotee is referred to as Gudakesa or ‘One who conquers sleep.’ Sleep also means ignorance. So Jesus conquered both sleep and ignorance because of his being the transcendental son of the Lord. As a great devotee of the Lord, he could not forget the Lord even for a moment, because that is the nature of the devotee. Either waking or in sleep, a devotee of the Lord is always thinking of the Lord’s Holy Name, form, abode, qualities and pastimes. And this God consciousness is the source of the highest transcendental ecstasy. Thus a devotee of the Lord can conquer both sleep and ignorance simply by thinking of the Lord constantly. In the language of the Esoteric Teaching this is called God consciousness, Christ consciousness or Krsna consciousness.

As Hrsikesha, the Director of the senses and mind of every living entity, the Lord could understand Jesus’ purpose in calling Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. As the Supersoul of all living entities, the Lord could understand everything in Jesus’ mind and heart. As a Father, He wanted to comfort His transcendental son Jesus, and assure him that there was no cause for distress. But He was also concerned about Jesus’ doubts. Did Jesus want to stop there and not go on with executing the Lord’s plan? The Lord never expected such things from his transcendental son. The Lord, who can understand the psychic activities of all beings, thus predicated His teaching in the Garden that night on the conflicting thoughts in Jesus’ mind.

Jesus, seeing his Jewish friends and relatives conspiring against him in such a perverted spirit of animosity, felt symptoms of transcendental anxiety out of compassion for their spiritual blindness. Anyone who has genuine devotion to the Lord has all the good qualities found in Godly persons; whereas the non-devotees, however advanced they may be in material qualifications by education and culture, lack all good spiritual qualities beginning with truthfulness, compassion and loving kindness. Jesus could understand that his kinsmen, though intelligent and learned, were devoid of God consciousness and had ignorantly become enemies of his mission. As such, he was overwhelmed by compassion for these fools who had declared war against their own real interest in life. As far as his disciples were concerned, he was naturally sympathetic. But Jesus felt deep compassion even for the opposing party, foreseeing their imminent destruction and the terrible punishment they would have to undergo for their offenses.

Jesus was simply astonished to see the animosity of the rabbis and Pharisees. Practically the whole Jewish aristocratic community, all blood relatives of Jesus, had conspired to stop his preaching mission. This overwhelmed a kind devotee like Jesus. Such symptoms in Jesus were actually not due to weakness but to his soft-heartedness, an important characteristic of a pure devotee of the Lord. One who has unflinching devotion for the Personality of Godhead has all the good qualities of the archangels and more. But one who is not a devotee of the Lord has only material qualifications that are of little value. This is because he is hovering on the mental plane without spiritual engagement, and therefore is certain to be attracted by the glare of the material energy and entrapped in an endless regress of material desire and frustration.

Ecstatic Symptoms

When the son of God, Jesus, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives full of animosity, he became overwhelmed with compassion and spoke in a faltering voice: “My dear Father, my whole body is trembling, and my hair is standing on end. My renunciant’s staff is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.”

The ecstatic phenomena, such as trembling of the body, standing of the hair on end, horripilation (goose bumps), loss of external consciousness, faltering of the voice and so on occur either in great spiritual ecstasy or out of great fear in material consciousness. Jesus’ symptoms in this situation are apparently out of material fear—namely, imminent loss of life. Excessive attachment for material things puts a man in a bewildered mental condition, especially at the time of death. Such fearfulness and loss of mental equilibrium in the face of hardship, suffering and death take place in persons who are too affected by material conditions. But there is no fear in transcendental realization and Jesus is the pure devotee on the transcendental platform of consciousness. Therefore Jesus is actually in transcendental ecstasy due to the presence of the Supreme Lord, and only pretending to be fearful in order to provoke the Lord to benefit his disciples by speaking the Esoteric Teaching.

The sweating of blood from the pores of the skin mentioned earlier in the Biblical text of this story is a very uncommon symptom of great spiritual ecstasy (mah-bhva). It is documented in certain esoteric literatures that describe the advanced symptoms of intense love of Godhead. These books declare that such rare symptoms exist only in the bodies of the greatest devotees or in the transcendental body of the Supreme Lord Himself. However, since Jesus is having a conversation with the Lord, we must conclude that he is not God, but an incarnation of a great devotee especially empowered by God to perform the mission of spreading the Esoteric Teaching among the people of the Western countries. This conclusion is essential to understanding the transcendental personality of Lord Jesus Christ and his relationship to his Father, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Jesus continued, “I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I foresee only evil, O Destroyer of Doubt. I do not see how any good can come from being killed by my kinsmen, or Your killing them in retribution. Nor can I, my dear Father, desire any subsequent success, opulent congregation or happiness.” Jesus, in humbly accepting the role of an ordinary foolish man before his Divine Father, envisioned only painful reverses in the immediate future—he felt that he would not be happy even by gaining victory over his foes. When a man perceives only frustration in his expectations, he feels like he would rather be anyone or anywhere else. Everyone is interested in himself and his own welfare. But one’s real eternal welfare lies in worshiping and serving the Lord. The conditioned soul forgets this, and therefore suffers material reactions to his unfortunate activities. Jesus was apparently showing ignorance of his real self-interest by trying to forestall his destiny according to the Lord’s will. Jesus ostensibly thought that whatever the outcome of the coming struggle, it would only be a cause of lamentation for him. He could not, for the moment, see how any good could come from being killed by his own kinsmen. Nor, because of his sense of righteousness, could he desire victory over them, nor any subsequent success or happiness.

Jesus therefore argued, “O Father, of what avail to us are followers, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed against us? O killer of evil-doers, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers and all other relatives are ready to give up their lives and properties by offending Your son, then why should I wish You to kill them, though I may survive? O maintainer of all creatures, I am not prepared to see You destroy them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth.” Without knowing that one’s real self-interest is in devotional service to the Lord, conditioned souls are attracted by bodily relationships, hoping to be happy in such temporary, imperfect situations. In such a blind conception of life, they forget that the Lord is the original cause, even of material happiness. In his anxiety, Jesus appears to have forgotten the moral codes for a renunciant. The ancient esoteric Scriptures teach that a person in the renounced order of life who is completely devoted to spiritual culture is eligible to enter into the spiritual world or Kingdom of God at the time of death. Therefore Jesus should have been glad to accept suffering and even martyrdom in the service of the Lord, for that would have guaranteed his eternal liberation from the suffering of material existence.

But the real cause of Jesus’ agitation is that out of profound compassion, he is reluctant to allow his relatives to commit offenses to his divinely ordained mission, thereby ruining their chances of spiritual advancement. For the same reason, he thinks that there would also be no happiness in being victorious over his kinsmen. Any victory could only come by the defeat and humiliation of many senior rabbis, who Jesus humbly regarded as his teachers. Therefore he was temporarily unwilling to go on, just as a person who does not feel hunger is not inclined to cook. Perhaps he imagined escaping into the desert to live a secluded life of frustration. But as a renounced preacher, he required a congregation for his subsistence, because according to the Eastern religious social tradition, renunciants cannot engage themselves in any occupation other than preaching and begging from their congregation. Jesus’ sole opportunity for gaining happiness lay in going through with the Lord’s plan, which for the moment he apparently did not want to do.

The Father of All

Jesus further reasoned, “Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for you to kill the descendents of Moses and our friends. What should we gain, O Father, Husband of the Goddess of Fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen? O Lord of All, although these men, overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing one’s family or quarreling with friends, why should we, with knowledge of the sin, engage in these acts?”

Jesus addressed the Lord as ‘Father’ because the Lord is the origin and maintainer of all beings. And as the Husband of the Goddess of Fortune, He the real object of all pleasures of the senses. By using these significant words, Jesus hints that the Lord should understand what would satisfy Jesus’ senses. But the Lord is not meant for satisfying our senses. However, if we try to satisfy the desires of the Lord, then automatically our own senses become satisfied. This is the mystery of devotional service to the Lord. Materially, everyone wants to satisfy his own senses, and wants God to be the order supplier for such satisfaction. The Lord will satisfy the senses of the living entities as much as they deserve, but not to the extent that they may covet. But when we take the opposite path—trying to satisfy the senses of the Lord without desiring to satisfy our own senses—then all our desires are satisfied by the grace of the Lord. Jesus’ deep affection for community and family members was exhibited due to his natural compassion for them. Therefore he was unwilling to see them destroyed by the Lord’s anger. Everyone wants to enjoy his opulence with his relatives. Jesus feared that if his relatives attacked him, the authorized representative of the Lord, the Lord would kill them all, and thus he would be unable to share his opulence of spiritual enlightenment with them. This is a typical miscalculation of materialistic consciousness.

The transcendental life, however, is different. Since the devotee wants to satisfy the desires of the Lord, he can, Lord willing, enjoy all kinds of opulence for the service of the Lord, and if the Lord is unwilling, he will not accept anything. Jesus did not want to be the cause of the Lord annihilating his relatives. Jesus was thinking like this because he apparently forgot that the Lord had already decided long ago to punish the rabbis and Pharisees, and that he was only to become an instrument for the Lord’s plan. This fact is, of course, disclosed in other books of the Bible. As a natural devotee of the Lord, Jesus did not want the Lord to retaliate against his miscreant relatives, but factually it was the Lord’s plan from long before that they should all be defeated. The devotee of the Lord does not want to retaliate against the wrongdoer, but the Lord does not tolerate any mischief done to the devotee. The Lord can excuse a person who offends Him, but He excuses no one who has harmed His devotee. Therefore the Lord was determined to punish the reprobate rabbis, although Jesus wanted to excuse them.

According to Scriptural injunctions there are six kinds of capital aggressors: 1) a poisoner, 2) an arsonist, 3) one who attacks with deadly weapons, 4) one who plunders riches, 5) one who occupies another’s land, and 6) one who kidnaps another’s wife. No sin is incurred by killing such aggressors. Killing criminal aggressors is quite befitting an ordinary person, but Jesus was not an ordinary man. He was saintly by character, and therefore he wanted to deal with them in saintliness. According to Scriptural law, a saintly person should not slay aggressors, especially those who are also family members. Jesus thought that in this case, the Lord should consider the special type of aggressors, namely his own relatives, rabbis, the Pharisees, etc. Because they were relatives and also religious teachers, Jesus thought that He should not take the severe steps necessary against ordinary aggressors. Besides that, saintly persons are inclined to forgive. Therefore Jesus may have thought that it was not proper for his Father to vanquish the descendants of Moses and David on his account. How could Jesus be happy by becoming the cause of the Lord’s destroying his kinsmen?

Such injunctions of mercy for saintly persons are usually more important than any personal emergency. Jesus considered that rather than invoke the power of the Lord to defeat his kinsmen for personal advantage, it would be better to forgive them on grounds of religion and saintly behavior. He did not, therefore, consider such retaliation profitable simply for temporary bodily happiness. After all, the pleasures derived from the body are impermanent, so why should he risk his eternal salvation by the sin of causing the downfall of his own kinsmen? Jesus wanted to point out to the Lord that, as Husband of the Goddess of Fortune, he should not induce Jesus to take a course of action that would ultimately bring about misfortune. The Lord, however, never brings misfortune to anyone, especially His devotees.

Although Jesus’ relatives’ minds were overtaken by greed and they saw no fault in killing him or persecuting his disciples, how could Jesus, who could see the crime in destroying a family, tolerate these acts of violence? Especially when he foresaw the terrible revenge Lord would wreak on the entire Jewish society as a result. However, a preacher is not supposed to abscond when some rival party confronts him, but defeat them by spiritual power. Under such a moral obligation, Jesus could not refuse to meet the fate designed by the Pharisees, though the ultimate result would be their certain destruction. Jesus compassionately considered that the other party might be blind to the effects of such an offense. He, however, could foresee the evil consequences and therefore could not accept the challenge. According to the highest logic of Scriptural morality, an obligation is actually binding only when the effect is good, but when the effect is destructive, then no one can be bound by obligation. Considering all these pros and cons, Jesus wanted to escape and prevent the terrible carnage that would result from the persecution of his mission.

Spiritual Society

Jesus prophesied, “With the destruction of the senior family members of the dynasty, the eternal family tradition is vanquished, and thus the descendants become involved in irreligious practice. When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Father, the women of the family become corrupt, and from the moral degradation of womanhood come unwanted progeny. When there is increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. In such corrupt families, there are no regular offerings of food and water to the Supreme Lord.” In the ancient system of spiritual society there are many principles of religious tradition to help members of the family mature properly and attain spiritual values. The elder family members are responsible for such purifying process, which are a series of seven transcendental rituals celebrating the passages of life, beginning from conception and birth up to the death ceremony. But on the death of the senior family members, the family traditions of purification may become neglected, and the remaining younger family members may develop irreligious habits and thereby lose their chance for spiritual salvation. With the destruction of the lineage holders of the family spiritual tradition, the rest of the family may become involved in irreligion. Therefore, for no purpose should the older members of the family be disrespected, disobeyed or destroyed.

When irreligion becomes prominent in the family, the women of the family become polluted by unfaithfulness. And from the degradation of womanhood comes unwanted low-class progeny. The deliberate creation of good quality population is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and spiritual progress in human society at large. The principles of the exoteric social institution of the Esoteric Teaching are designed so that good population prevails in society for the general spiritual progress of state and community. These arrangements for good population depend on the chastity and faithfulness of womanhood. As children are vulnerable to deception, women are similarly very susceptible to exploitation and moral degradation. Therefore, both children and women require constant protection, supervision and guidance by the elder members of the family. The women are protected from being misled into adultery by being constantly engaged in various family religious traditions in association with their elders and spiritual teachers.

Women are generally sentimental and not very spiritually intelligent, and therefore are easily deceived and misled by unscrupulous men. So family traditions of religious activities should always engage them, and thus their chastity and devotion will result in good population eligible for participation in spiritual life. On the failure of such spiritual institutions, naturally the women become free to act independently and mix unrestrictedly with men, and the resulting illicit sexual relations create unwanted, sinful population. Irresponsible lusty men also promote adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race with the result of crime, war and a pandemic of ignorance in society. The increase of unwanted population certainly causes hellish conditions of life both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. The evil deeds of those who destroy family traditions and thus give rise to unwanted children ultimately devastate all kinds of community projects and family spiritual welfare activities. The family welfare activities of the social institutions of the Esoteric Teaching are designed to help people attain ultimate salvation.

Therefore, when irresponsible, unenlightened leaders break the family tradition, the result is social chaos, and consequently people in general forget the aim of life: devotional service in God consciousness, Krsna consciousness or Christ consciousness. Such ignorant leaders are spiritually blind, and persons who follow them are certain to be misled into confusion. One may be inclined to desire sinful acts such as the death of one’s own senior relatives when driven by selfish motives. There are many such tragic occurrences in the history of the world. But Jesus, being a saintly devotee of the Lord, was always conscious of spiritual principles and therefore took care to avoid sinful activities. He could foresee that the entire community of the Jews would have to bear the sinful reaction of the evil conspiracy of their leaders, the rabbis and Pharisees. These results would reach far into the future and disrupt the peaceful condition of society all over the world. We are actually experiencing the results of this sinful reaction even today.

Jesus’ Reasoning

Jesus concluded, “I would consider it better for the descendents of Moses to kill me unarmed and unresisting, rather than to ask You to kill them.” Jesus was trying to establish a position of non-violence on the principles of material religiosity. He compassionately saw that if the rabbis were allowed to attack him, due to this offense the Lord would punish them severely. The inevitable result of this offense against a pure devotee of the Lord would be the destruction of the elders and spiritual guides of Jewish society: the rabbis descended from Moses and David . When the guardians of spiritual family traditions are destroyed, the traditions important to the spiritual health of society would be neglected, and the whole civilization would glide down into a hellish condition as described above.

Although Jesus’ concern for the spiritual family tradition was certainly correct according to external Scriptural codes of morality, the Lord was more concerned with the esoteric side of religious practice. While the rabbis and Pharisees were following the external principles of religion very strictly, they had become ignorant of the inner or esoteric aspects of spiritual advancement. Thus they were unable to recognize Jesus as a pure devotee and representative of the Lord. They had become more concerned with maintaining their important positions in material society than with the Absolute Truth. Due to their continued offenses the Lord had already decided long ago to destroy them, and Jesus was to be the instrument of His plan.

Jesus knew this, but at the same time he was horrified at the thought of the destruction that would take place. He did not consider that the family religious traditions had become corrupt, and the Lord desired to replace them with a new dispensation of the Esoteric Teaching. Jesus apparently was caught up in material lamentation. He thought that even if he survived the confrontation with the Pharisees and defeated them, he still would be unable to enjoy the result. Having defeated and dishonored his elders, many of whom were his childhood religious teachers, Jesus would not be able to enjoy the flourishing congregation he would thus inherit. Nor, after defeating and dishonoring them, would he be able to share his spiritual success with them. In every alternative, then, Jesus saw only defeat and frustration of his actual mission, which was to uplift the entire human society, including his quarrelsome relatives, to the plane of God consciousness.

Seeing Jesus full of compassion in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Supreme Lord spoke comforting words of transcendental wisdom to him. In very ancient times the Lord killed the demon Madhu, and thus to this day He is called Madhusdana or ‘Killer of Madhu’ by the followers of the Esoteric Teaching. Now in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wanted Him to kill the demon of doubt that had overtaken him in the discharge of his devotional service. No one in material consciousness knows the proper application of compassion. A person fallen in the dangerous ocean of material nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outer dress—the gross material body. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is useless.

Therefore bodily compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance; compassion for the eternal soul is actual self-realization. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress of the soul—the material body—laments unnecessarily. Jesus was an advanced transcendentalist, a great sage and spiritual Master Teacher, and for him this kind of conduct was unexpected. The Supreme Lord, however, wanted to show how to dissipate the lamentation of all ignorant people. For this reason He arranged a situation in which Jesus was apparently placed into lamentation so that the Lord could impart the confidential truths of the Esoteric Teaching to save suffering humankind.

Three Stages of Realization

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Father of all, spoke confidentially to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Supreme Person said: “My dear Jesus, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy.” The Supreme Lord, the Father of Jesus and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical. Therefore the Supreme Lord, God the Father Almighty, is referred to as the Supreme Personality of Godhead throughout the Esoteric Teaching. The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding: Brahman, the impersonal all-pervasive spiritual existence; Paramtm, the Supersoul or localized knowledge aspect of God within the heart of all living entities; and the Father or the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the personal form of unlimited consciousness, knowledge and bliss. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, or God the Father, is the ultimate goal in the study of the Esoteric Teaching.

These three Divine aspects can be illustrated by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects: the sunshine, the sun disc and the sun planet itself. One who studies the sunshine is only a preliminary student. One who understands the sun disc is farther advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet itself is the most advanced. Ordinary students who are satisfied simply by understanding the sunshine—its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature—may be compared to those who can realize only the impersonal Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramtm feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the Father, or the personal feature of the Supreme Absolute Truth.

The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are not in the same category. Therefore the lovers of God, or the transcendentalists who realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Father feature of the Absolute Truth, are the most advanced transcendentalists, although all mystics who realize any aspect of the Absolute Truth are certainly on the path of the Esoteric Teaching.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead

The term ‘Supreme Personality of Godhead’ refers to He who possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, learned or very much detached, but no one besides the Lord can claim that he possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation in full. Only the Supreme Lord can claim this because he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Complete Whole and the Supreme Absolute Truth. No living entity, including Lord Jesus Christ, can possess opulence as fully as the Supreme Lord. Lord Jesus himself confirms in the Esoteric Teaching that his Father the Supreme Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one is equal to or greater than Him. He is the primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Father of all, and the Supreme Cause of all other causes.

In advanced texts of the Esoteric Teaching there is a list of many incarnations of the Supreme Lord within the material world, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also defined as the original Godhead from whom many, many incarnations of God expand. Therefore the Supreme Lord, the Father, is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, the source of both the omnipresent Supersoul and the impersonal spiritual effulgence.

Jesus’ lamentation for his kinsmen was certainly unbecoming in the presence of the exalted Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such weakness is never expected from men belonging to the Esoteric Circle who know the ultimate spiritual value of life and have an eternal, interplanetary civilization based on spiritual realization of the Absolute Truth. People who are led astray by the material conception of life cannot know that the aim of life is realization of the Absolute Truth, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Father. The glittering external features of the material world captivate their minds, and therefore they cannot understand spiritual liberation. But according to the Esoteric Teaching, knowledge of spiritual life is a requirement for human beings. Therefore persons who have no knowledge of spiritual life or liberation from material consciousness sometimes are called humanoids, meaning ‘resembling humans.’ Although Jesus was supposed to be a preacher, he was deviating from his prescribed duties by declining to play his part in the Lord’s plan to defeat the Pharisees. The Lord describes this act of cowardice as befitting the humanoids. Such deviation from duty does not help one progress in spiritual life, nor does it even give one the opportunity to become famous in this world. The Supreme Lord did not approve of the so-called compassion of Jesus for his offensive kinsmen.

The Son of God

The Lord encouraged Jesus, “O My son, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O sinless one.” Jesus is the son of the Supreme Lord. Therefore Jesus had an intimate family relationship with the Supreme Lord. If the son of a great king declines to fight, he is a prince in name only, and if the son of a holy man acts impiously, he is a priest or rabbi in name only. Such cowardly princes and ignorant priests are unworthy sons of their fathers; therefore, the Supreme Lord did not want Jesus to become an unworthy son. Jesus is intimately related with the Supreme Lord, and the Lord was directly guiding him; he was a spiritual Master Teacher and a prominent member of the Esoteric Circle. But in spite of all these qualifications, if Jesus abandoned the battle for Truth, he would be committing an infamous act. Jesus wanted to avoid confronting the Pharisees on the grounds of his magnanimous attitude for his relatives, but in the presence of the Supreme Lord that sort of compassion was revealed as mere weakness of heart. Spiritual authority does not approve such false compassion. Therefore, false magnanimity should be given up by persons like Jesus engaged in the work of preaching the Esoteric Teaching under the direct guidance of the Supreme Lord. Actual compassion means to enlighten people with spiritual knowledge. To allow them to remain in ignorance, when one knows the Truth, is really a kind of violence. This attitude did not fit Jesus’ personality or position.

Jesus wondered how the Lord could put him in a position of ruining respectable men who he felt worthy of his worship. Respectable superiors like kings, rabbis, priests and other teachers are always due respect. It is general etiquette that superiors are not to be offered even a verbal fight. Even if they attack, they should not be counterattacked. And even if they are sometimes harsh in behavior, they should not be harshly treated in return. Then, how was it possible for Jesus knowingly to create a situation where the Lord would counterattack and destroy them? Jesus wanted to justify his attitude and behavior to the Supreme Lord, his Father. But since these arguments are ultimately based upon mundane religious morality, the Lord did not accept them.

Jesus considered that it would be better to become an unknown beggar than to enjoy worldly fame at the cost of the reputations of great souls who were his teachers. Even though they desired worldly gain, he considered them to be superiors. If they were defeated, he thought his devotional service would be spoiled by the offense. Jesus was feeling some bodily attachment to those who had instructed him in his youth. But according to Scriptural codes, a teacher who loses his sense of discrimination and engages in abominable actions is fit to be abandoned. The Pharisees were the official spiritual teachers of the Jews, but they were preaching only the letter of law and ignoring the spirit. They also attempted many times to entrap and persecute Jesus unjustly. Under the circumstances, they had lost the respectability of teachers. But because of his natural humility, Jesus thought that nevertheless they remained his superiors, and therefore he felt that to accept the fame and reputation that would come to him after defeating them would mean to unlawfully enjoy rewards earned by offensive acts.

Even accepting that it was his duty to continue to preach and thus confront the rabbis and Pharisees, leading them to inevitable disaster, Jesus did not know which was better: conquering them or being conquered by them. If he were to defeat his relatives the Pharisees and rabbis by the power of God, he would not care to live. Yet they were plotting against him as if on a battlefield. Therefore Jesus did not know whether he should continue to preach and risk unnecessary violence—although preaching was his duty—or whether he should refrain out of compassion for his relatives. Even if victory awaited him, still if the rabbis and Pharisees lost their high reputation, Jesus considered that it would be very difficult for him to continue living because of this offense.

All these compassionate considerations by Jesus definitely prove that not only was he a great devotee of the Lord, but he was also highly enlightened and had complete control over his mind and senses. His desire to retire from the preaching field, although he was directly the son of God, is another sign of humility and detachment. These qualities combined with his faith in the words of instruction of the Supreme Lord, indicate that he was truly virtuous and a perfected soul in the highest stage of God consciousness.

Jesus’ Position

We must conclude therefore that Jesus was already a perfectly liberated soul. Unless the senses are controlled by intelligence, there is no chance of elevation to the platform of spiritual knowledge; and without knowledge, humility and devotion there is no chance of liberation. Jesus was competent in all these spiritual attributes, over and above his enormous material qualifications. Jesus submitted, “I can find no means to drive away the grief that is drying up my senses. Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.” Although Jesus was the son of God and a perfectly self-realized soul, in the Garden of a Gethsemane on the eve of the climax of his mission Jesus apparently became confused about his duty due to human weakness. He did this to create a pretext for the Lord to deliver the Esoteric Teaching anew for the benefit of his immature disciples and their followers. Therefore he prayed to the Lord to tell him conclusively what was his best path. In other words, he stopped being a son and became a disciple: a soul surrendered unto God.

By God’s Law, material activities are always a source of difficulty. At every step there are problems, and therefore one must approach an enlightened spiritual Master Teacher who can give proper guidance in achieving the ultimate purpose of life. All spiritual literatures advise approaching a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher to get free from the problems of life, which happen automatically without our desire. The problems of life are like a forest fire that blazes spontaneously without being set by anyone. Similarly, the human condition is such that the problems of life automatically appear. No one wants difficulty or suffering and yet they take place, and we become confused because we feel that we have not done anything wrong. We do not understand that as long as we remain in material consciousness, the problems of life will continue to remind us that this material world is not our real home.

The Esoteric Teaching therefore advises that one must approach a spiritual Master Teacher who is in the lineage of disciplic succession from the Lord to understand the spiritual science and solve the problems of life. A person with a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher is supposed to know everything. One should not, therefore, remain in material suffering but should approach the Master Teacher for instruction and initiation in spiritual life. Anyone who is perplexed and lamenting due to material suffering does not know the solution to the problems of life. In the Esoteric Teaching one who is ignorant of the spiritual cause of material suffering is described as a miser who does not utilize the opportunity of human life to solve the problems of life, and who thus leaves this world like an animal, without understanding the science of self-realization.

This human form of life is a most valuable asset for the living entity to use in solving the problems of life. A human being must be intelligent enough to utilize this life to solve his real problem. One who does not properly utilize this opportunity is a humanoid, or a human being in name only. Miserly humanoids waste their time in the material bodily conception of life, being overly affectionate for family, society, country, etc. Most people are attached to family life—wife, children and other family members, house, money and career, social status, race, religion, and the rest—on the basis of temporary sensual affection or ‘skin disease.’ The materialist humanoid ignorantly thinks he is able to save family members from death; or he thinks that his family our society can save him from the verge of death. Such family attachment can be found even in the animals, who also take care of children. Nevertheless, no amount of family affection can save any living entity in the material world from death.

Being highly intelligent, Jesus understood that his affection for family members and his wish to protect them from defamation and death were the causes of his suffering and confusion. Although he understood that his duty was to preach, because of compassion for his disciples and relatives he was baffled how to discharge his duties. He therefore intelligently put the matter before the Supreme Lord, the supreme Spiritual Master, to make a conclusive solution. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and offered himself to the Supreme Lord, not as a son but as a disciple. He wanted to stop intimate, affectionate talks and inquire seriously from the Lord. Discussions between the Master and disciple are grave and significant, and Jesus wanted to talk very seriously with the most authorized spiritual Master Teacher, the Lord. The Supreme Lord is the original Spiritual Master of the science of the Esoteric Teaching, and Jesus is the perfect disciple for understanding the Teaching.

The Spiritual Master Teacher

Without approaching the spiritual Master Teacher or the Supreme Lord, we can find no means to stop the grief and suffering that are drying up our senses. Even Jesus was unable to dispel it. Jesus was capable of putting forward so many arguments based on Scriptural knowledge of the principles of religion and moral codes. But it appears that he was unable to solve his real problem without the help of his Spiritual Master, his Father the Supreme Lord. He could understand that his so-called knowledge was useless in driving away his problems, which were enervating his entire existence; but it was impossible for him to actually resolve his suffering without the help of his spiritual Master Teacher the Supreme Lord.

Academic knowledge, Scriptural scholarship, wealth, beauty, high position, or any other material opulence are all useless in solving the real problems of life. Real help can be received only from the Supreme Lord or a spiritual Master Teacher who is in touch with Him through God-conscious self-realization. Therefore, only a man who is 100 percent God-conscious, Krsna-conscious or Christ-conscious is the bona fide spiritual Master Teacher, for only he can help us solve the problems of life. The Lord says in the Scriptures of the Esoteric Teaching that regardless of his social position, one who is master in the science of Christ consciousness or Krsna consciousness is the real Spiritual Master.

It does not matter whether a person is a learned scholar in Scriptural wisdom, is born in a high-class family or is in the renounced order of life; if he is master in the science of the Supreme Lord—the Esoteric Teaching—he is the perfect and bona fide spiritual Master Teacher. On the other hand, without being expert in the science of God consciousness, Krsna consciousness or Christ consciousness, no one can be a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher. It is also said in the esoteric literature that a scholarly intellectual, expert in all subjects of Scriptural knowledge, is unfit to become a spiritual Master Teacher without also being expert in the practical science of God consciousness. But a person born in a lower-class family can become a spiritual Master Teacher if he is fully Christ-conscious. Later on in the Esoteric Teaching, the Lord will explain the symptoms of a fully God-conscious soul so that we can easily recognize a qualified spiritual Master Teacher.

No amount of material religiosity, economic development or sense gratification can counteract the problems of material existence: birth, old age, disease and death. In the Western world there are many economically developed countries replete with all material facilities of life. The people are beautiful, strong and well educated. They are also ostensibly pious, yet all the problems of material existence are still present. People are seeking peace through material means, and despite great endeavors this has proven to be ineffectual. But they can achieve real happiness if they consult the Supreme Lord, or the Esoteric Teaching—which constitutes the science of the Supreme Lord—through the bona fide representative of the Lord, the experienced man in perfect God consciousness.

If sectarian piety, economic development or sensual comforts could drive away our family, social, national or international problems, then Jesus would have thought that victory over his enemies would be able to drive away his lamentation. But he knew by personal experience that these temporary material solutions are ineffective. He therefore sought refuge in God consciousness, and that is the right path for peace and harmony. Economic development or political supremacy over the world can be finished at any moment by the inevitable cataclysms of material nature. When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to a low status of life. Many great politicians and other leaders of the world have fallen down in that way. Such downfalls only constitute more causes for lamentation. Therefore, if we want to curb lamentation forever, we have to take shelter of the Supreme Lord, as Jesus did. Jesus asked the Supreme Lord to solve this problem definitely, and that solution is the path of the Esoteric Teaching.

Satan, or ignorance personified, must have been very glad to understand the Jesus was not going to confront the rabbis and Pharisees, and was instead leaving the preaching field for a frustrated life of isolation. But Jesus’ conclusion—“Not my will, but Thine”—would disappoint Satan by showing him that as a surrendered, empowered representative of God, Jesus was still competent to chastise the ignorant and preach the Absolute Truth. Although Jesus was apparently overwhelmed with false grief due to the intransigence of his relatives, he correctly surrendered unto the Supreme Lord, the supreme Spiritual Master, as a disciple. This indicates that due to invoking the infinite mercy of the Lord, he would soon be free from false lamentation resulting from bodily affection. Once enlightened with perfect knowledge of self-realization, or God consciousness, he would then surely continue to act in spiritual consciousness and teach that knowledge by personal example. Thus Satan’s joy was short-lived, since Jesus certainly would be enlightened by the Supreme Lord’s direct revelation of the Esoteric Teaching, and would preach with undiminished potency to the end.