The Kingdom of God

I

Whenever we read religious books or study any subject, there is a certain terminology peculiar to each of them. For instance, in law books, certain terms have a specialised meaning or connotation. If we are conversant with the definitions of the terms used, we are able to understand the law properly, and will be able to apply it. If a layman reads the text of the same law, he will not be able to grasp or to apply the true meaning of the law.

We have scriptures, Holy Scriptures, at hand. Therein we find a certain specialised terminology. Unless we are conversant with it, we may not be able to understand the true import of the scriptures. For instance, there are certain words used in the scriptures, such as Kingdom of God which is within you. There is the Light of God.

If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light.

These are certain terms peculiar to the English Bible.

Because of the special use of words like these, persons not conversant with them are not able to understand the scriptures correctly. They simply interpret them from the intellectual level; and many phrases like Light within you or God is Light are interpreted by the intellectual people as meaning intellectual light. But the scriptures tell us:

If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light.

What is the difference?

Whenever the Masters came, They gave out the truths in a very simple way, so that even the unsophisticated could understand. But, unfortunately, people with no practical Inner Experience have interpreted them in a way that makes it difficult for others to understand. If we take up the scriptures ourselves and read them, we will find their language always very simple. But the task is rendered difficult if we study them in the light of the controversies raised by different intellectual interpreters who have no knowledge of the practical side of things. Working from the intellectual plane, they complicate matters. Those who read the conflicting commentaries on the scriptures become confused and are spiritually unrewarded.

So the task would become easier if you would read the scriptures directly yourselves. I think the best way to understand any scripture is always to read it in the original language in which it was written. If you know the language, you will probably be able to understand better than by reading how somebody else has translated it in the language which you know. A single error in interpretation may alter much of the essence.

The majority of our scriptures were written in a language different from that in which we read them now. When I was in search of Truth, I wanted to read the Persian literature of Maulana Rumi, Shamas-i-Tabrez, and other Saints of the Middle East. I read the commentaries of highly renowned interpreters and each gave a different version of the same thing. A commentator tends to give the viewpoint he holds, not what the scriptures – the real texts of the scriptures – convey. And so the persons who depend on these commentaries are liable to be misled. For this reason, I had to study the Persian language thoroughly so that I might be able to read those scriptures in their original form. And I found them different from what the commentators had said.

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew. Later it was translated into different languages. The translators found here and there something which they could not understand correctly and so those who only read these translations run the risk of going astray.

I have had occasion to meet very intellectually advanced people, who were leaders of thousands of men. When I questioned them about something from the scriptures, just for interpretation’s sake, they kept quiet or gave some quaint interpretation of their own, on an intellectual level. Their conception of God, soul and scriptures answered to the level of their intellect and interests.

Wherever I speak, I always ask the heads of various sects what they understand by scriptural quotes like God is Light and Ye are the temple of the Living God, etc. But they, not having gone within, interpret the Light of God as the light of reason and intellect.

The other day I met the head of a large religious society and questioned him about the significance of words like: If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light; and The Kingdom of God is within you. It cannot be had by observation. ‘Well, does it mean anything?’ No reply to that.

The point is, the Truths are there in the Holy Scriptures. The pity is, that not being conversant with what lies within, we cannot interpret correctly.

I have had a series of talks in a church in Louisville. The clergyman in charge was very open-minded and admitted that though what I said was borne out by the Bible and other scriptures, yet he had no practical knowledge of the Truths mentioned therein.

What I am telling you is not anything new. It is all there in the scriptures. I simply had the good fortune to sit at the feet of a Master in India Who was a practical and Perfect Saint. At His feet I learned not only the theory but also the practice – seeing the Truth for myself.

When you see things for yourself, you are fully convinced. Generally, what do you find? We take God as a matter of something in the way of feeling or something emotional, or just as a matter of inference arrived at by intellectual striving. All these are subject to error. But the scriptures tell us that we have eyes and yet see not.

Blessed are your eyes for they see […] many prophets and righteous men have desired to see these things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.

Our scriptures say so.

Well, what did they see and what did they hear? That is the point. The scriptures tell us God is Light. They saw the Light of God. But where and how?

God made man in His own image, and man made places of worship after the image of man. Churches are nose-shaped. All temples of other religious sects are dome-shaped, like the head, and the places of worship in Mohammedan mosques are forehead-shaped. All these are made after the image of man. What do we keep in them? First, the symbol of Light and second, the symbol of the Sound Principle. This is only to show to the seekers after Truth that in this temple of the body that you are carrying, you will find the Light of God. This Light you can see if your Inner Eye is opened. You will also hear the sweet symphony of the Music of the Spheres, as Plato puts it, that is reverberating throughout all creation.