The Kingdom of God

III

I told you earlier that we in the twentieth century are fortunate in possessing the records of the Spiritual Experience of all the Masters Who came in the past. We are fortunate that we have all these words of wisdom, the invaluable records of Their teachings, of the experiences They had with Themselves and with God. Had we lived before those Masters came, we would have been without them. The only thing that now remains is that we have to view these scriptures in their right perspective; and to begin with we have to learn the terminology of the scriptures. If you read the scriptures under the guidance of one who has had no experience with the Light within, who has not known God as a first-hand experience, it becomes almost impossible to understand the otherwise simple and accessible Truths taught by the Masters.

In Revelation it is said:

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men [...] and He dwelleth with them [...]

Some people will ask: ‘Where should we find God?’ For that purpose, we shall have to look within our own self, which, the seers say, is the True Temple of God. We have to make the best use of the scriptures and of the places of worship. We must understand the True Import of the scriptures we have, but we cannot do so until we sit at the feet of One Who has Himself experienced what they describe and is capable of giving us that experience. Only a True Master is competent to give us all that.

What do the scriptures say? Again they speak of the True Home of our Father and pray –

Thy Kingdom come.

I am not going to give you examples from all the scriptures; I have simply laid before you the gist of what they say within the short time I have at my disposal in order to bring home to you the Truth as it is given in them.

What do we find in our Bible?

The Kingdom of God cometh not by observation [...] the Kingdom of God is within you.

If we have to enter the Kingdom of God, we have to enter the Kingdom of God within us and not go outside in search of it.

Other scriptures say:

The Word is beyond all physical perception and limitations.

The Word, the source of all blessings, dwells within the human frame.

If you ascend within, then alone you will experience the Word.

In the Bible we find:

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it.

Those who are just leading the life of the physical senses and do not know how to transcend body consciousness will not have Everlasting Life.

But whosoever shall lose his life shall save it.

Losing one’s life does not mean committing suicide; it means coming above body consciousness while alive. Let me relate to you a sad incident that took place in India due to an ignorance of the real meaning of the scriptures. We read in the Bible, that the Kingdom of God is within us. It can be gained by death-in-life or in other words by taking a new birth for we have in the scriptures:

Whosoever loses this life shall have Life Everlasting.

This is what a certain man had read in the scriptures. The ministers had given him to understand that by just dying he would enter the Kingdom of God, for the ministers had no practical experience of the Truth given in the scriptures. So what did the poor fellow do? He took a glass of wine and put in it a big lump of opium. He placed it on the table before him and said: Oh God, I am now coming to you. With these words he drank the deadly potion, killed himself and thus brought ruin on himself and his family.

This was the result of blind faith in the teachings of blind priests. The scriptures never meant this. Of course, they tell us: Unless you lose this life, you cannot have Everlasting Life. But losing this life means just rising above body consciousness at will. It is a practical subject that we can learn at the feet of Someone Who has had that experience and is a Real Adept in the theory and practice of the science of Spirituality.

Further, it is said:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

The scriptures explain the whole thing precisely; provided there is a Real Teacher to expound it from personal knowledge and practice and be a guide on the God-way.

‘Baptism’ or initiation at the hands of One competent enough to impart the Life-Impulse and grant an experience of the beyond is an absolute necessity on the Path of the Masters. By personal attention, the Master can make one rise above body consciousness and give a first-hand experience of the Kingdom of God within.

Again, you will find:

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God does not come by observation. It is just a question of being born again of the incorruptible seed, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Again, we have in scriptures:

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.

‘Seek ye the Kingdom of God’ is the first and foremost thing – the rest will follow. Unfortunately, we have been seeking the Kingdom of God without.

For entering the Kingdom of God, and for seeing the Kingdom of God, we have to invert, enter within the temple of the body. We have to tap inside and peep within. It is a regular process of inversion. Our body has been likened to a mansion with ten doors. The outer organs of sense constitute nine of them: two eyes, two ears, mouth, two nostrils, the rectum and the genital organ. These are the outlets of the body. These are the doors with which we live all the time. Besides, there is a tenth door. It is within and latent. It leads to the Kingdom of God. But very few find this out about which it is written:

Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it.

About this, it is said:

Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

But we do not know where and how to knock. This is something practical. The tenth door in the body is the entrance into the beyond. Until you know all about it, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

How can you find your way to the Kingdom of God within you and not without? You can enter into it and see it only when you are able to rise above the physical body at will. So the scriptures say:

Learn how to die so that you may begin to live.

Bear the cross and the cross will bear you. Though the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.

Christ, in unmistakable terms speaks:

Take up your cross daily and follow me.

The life which can be saved, the Everlasting Life, can be had only when we learn to die while alive.

Dadu, a Hindu Saint, says:

Dadu, learn to die before death comes, for in the end everyone has to die.

What is death? Death is not something terrible; it is a mere change, a transference from one plane to another. What happens when you leave the physical body at the time of death? This physical body is knocked down. We shake off this mortal coil. As we do not know how to shake it off, it eventually overtakes us and we are overtaken unawares.

We think ourselves to be just the body, and we are attached to its environments. But death comes and we must leave all this behind, and therefore, we are frightened and confused. What is more, we do not know where we have to go or who is going. And as we do not know how to leave the body, we have to pass through the agony of death.