As the holidays come around and we honor the life of Jesus Christ, it is essential for us to remember that there are certain universal teachings that are meant to uplift everyone whether or not we consider ourselves to be Christians. When we think about Jesus, we often think about qualities such as compassion, forbearance, tolerance, forgiveness and unconditional love. Jesus exemplified these characteristics—so if we are being Christ-like (Christian)—then we should be developing such qualities. My parents were both Christian and Jewish so I don’t really have a sectarian way of thinking. I like to look at the all of the good that the different religious traditions have to offer–and there is a lot of good in remembering Jesus Christ. When we (mankind) gets too off track—God sends someone (or He may come Himself) to help us get back on track. Jesus came into the world to bring pure love and light to everyone. He lived in the world at a time when spiritual wisdom was being watered down or forgotten or distorted in some way–or used for some personal gain or control. Because of this, we may tend to throw out the baby with the bath water (so to speak) but if we do we miss out on the real essence which lies within—and which has great value. Jesus taught us about real love and brotherhood–and he showed us that when we live in alignment with the Divine, we have nothing to fear–not even death. We may be persecuted, tortured, crucified, but still–the Truth of love and light cannot be destroyed–no matter how hard people may try.

So I’d like to share some of my favorite teachings of Jesus—to honor his memory and bring to life his profound words of wisdom, Truth and love. You may not be familiar with some of these teachings.They are from the Gospel of Peace. Many of Jesus’ teachings have been obscured over time. In his words [from the Gospel of the Holy Twelve]: “….the time comes when darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, and the enemies of truth and righteousness shall rule in my Name, and set up a kingdom of this world, and oppress the people, and cause the enemy to blaspheme, putting for my doctrines the opinions of men, and teaching in my Name that which I have not taught, and darkening much that I have taught by their traditions…But be of good cheer, for the time will also come when the truth they have hidden shall be manifested, and the light shall shine, and the darkness shall pass away, and the true kingdom shall be established which shall be in the world, but not of it; and the Word of righteousness and love shall go forth from the Centre.” The Gospel of the Holy Twelve and the Gospel of Peace present teachings that are not widely accepted. I believe that they are true teachings because they are completely in alignment with the eternal wisdom that is taught in the ancient Vedic texts. There are so many wonderful teachings in both of these Gospels. As we just celebrated the birth of Christ, I’d like to share his words about our earthly Mother who gives us life…

From the Gospel of Peace: And then many sick and maimed came to Jesus, asking him. “If you know all things, tell us, why do we suffer with these grievous plagues? Why are we not whole like other men? Master, heal us, that we too may be made strong, and need abide no longer in our misery. We know that you have it in your power to heal all manners of disease…have compassion on us.”

And Jesus answered- “Happy are you that you hunger for the truth, for I will satisfy you with the bread of wisdom. Happy are you that you knock, for I will open to you the door of life. Happy are you, that you would cast off the power of [Darkness] Satan, for I will lead you into the kingdom of our Mother’s angels, where the power of Darkness–Satan cannot enter.”

And they asked him in amazement: “Who is our Mother and which her angels? And where is her kingdom?”

“Your Mother is in you, and you in her. She bore you, she gives you life. It was she who gave to you your body, and to her shall you one day give it back again. Happy are you when you come to know her and her kingdom; if you receive your Mother’s angels and if you do her laws. I tell you truly, he who does these things shall never see disease. For the power of our Mother is above all. And it destroys [Darkness] Satan and his kingdom, and has rule over all your bodies and all living things.

“The blood which runs in us is born of the blood of our Earthly Mother. Her blood falls from the clouds; leaps from the womb of the earth; babbles in the brooks of the mountains; flows wide in the rivers of the plains; sleeps in the lakes; rages mightily in tempestuous seas.

“The air which we breathe is born of the breath of our Earthly Mother….

“The hardness of our bones is born of the bones of our Earthly Mother, of the rocks and of the stones…”

“The tenderness of our flesh is born of the flesh of our Earthly Mother; whose flesh waxes yellow and
red in the fruits of the trees, and nurtures us in the furrows of the fields.”

“Our bowels are born of the bowels of our Earthly Mother, and are hid from our eyes, like the invisible depths of the earth.”

“The light of our eyes, the hearing of our ears, both are born of the colors and the sounds of our Earthly Mother; which enclose us about, as the waves of the sea a fish, as the eddying air a bird.”

“I tell you in very truth, Man is the Son of the Earthly Mother, and from her did the Son of Man receive his whole body, even as the body of the newborn babe is born of the womb of his mother. I tell you truly, you are one with the Earthly Mother; she is in you, and you in her. Of her were you born, in her do you live, and to her shall you return again. Keep, therefore, her laws, for none can live long, neither be happy, but he who honors his Earthly Mother and does her laws. For your breath is her breath; your blood her blood; your bone her bone; your flesh her flesh; your bowels her bowels; your eyes and your ears are her eyes and her ears.”

“…I tell you, unless you follow the laws of your Mother, you can in no way escape death. And he who clings to the laws of his Mother, to him shall his Mother cling also. She shall heal all his plagues, and he shall never become sick. She gives him long life, and protects him from all afflictions; from fire, from water, from the bite of venomous serpents. For your Mother bore you, keeps life within you. She has given you her body, and none but she heals you. Happy is he who loves his Mother and lies quietly in her bosom. For your Mother loves you, even when you turn away from her. And how much more shall she love you, if you turn to her again? I tell you truly, very great is her love, greater than the greatest of mountains, deeper than the deepest seas. And those who love their Mother, she never deserts them. As the hen protects her chickens, as the lioness her cubs, as the mother her newborn babe, so does the Earthly Mother protect the Son of Man from all danger and from all evils.”

“For truly, no one can reach the Heavenly Father unless through the Earthly Mother…I tell you truly, happy is that son who accepts the counsel of his mother and walks therein. And a hundred times more happy is that son who accepts and walks also in the counsel of his father, for it was said to you: ‘Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon this earth.’ But I say to you, Sons of Man: Honor your Earthly Mother and keep all her laws, that your days may be long on this earth, and honor your Heavenly Father that Eternal Life may be yours in the heavens…..FOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS LOVE.
FOR YOUR EARTHLY MOTHER IS LOVE.
FOR THE SON OF MAN IS LOVE.”

“It is by love, that the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother and the Son of Man become one. For the spirit of the Son of Man was created from the spirit of the Heavenly Father, and his body from the body of the Earthly Mother. Become, therefore, perfect as the spirit of your Heavenly Father and the body of your Earthly Mother are perfect. And so love your Heavenly Father, as he loves your spirit. And so love your Earthly Mother, as she loves your body. And so love your true brothers, as your Heavenly Father and your Earthly Mother love them. And then your Heavenly Father shall give you his holy spirit, and your Earthly Mother shall give you her holy body. And then shall the Sons of Men like true brothers give love one to another, the love which they received from their Heavenly Father and from their Earthly Mother; and they shall all become comforters–one of another. And then shall disappear from the earth all evil and all sorrow, and there shall be love and joy upon the earth. And then shall the earth be like the heavens, and the kingdom of God shall come…. And then with the kingdom of God shall come the end of the times. For the Heavenly Father’s love gives to all life everlasting in the kingdom of God. For love is eternal. Love is stronger than death.”

“I am sent to you by the Father, that I may make the light of life to shine before you. The light lightens itself and the darkness, but the darkness knows only itself, and knows not the light. I have still many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them yet. For your eyes are used to the darkness, and the full light of the Heavenly Father would make you blind. Therefore, you cannot yet understand that which I speak to you concerning the Heavenly Father who sent me to you. Follow, therefore, first, only the laws of your Earthly Mother, of which I have told you. And when her angels shall have cleansed and renewed your bodies and strengthened your eyes, you will be able to bear the light of our Heavenly Father. When you can gaze on the brightness of the noonday sun with unflinching eyes, you can then look upon the blinding light of your Heavenly Father, which is a thousand times brighter than the brightness of a thousand suns. But how should you look upon the blinding light of your Heavenly Father, when you cannot even bear the shining of the blazing sun? Believe me, the sun is as the flame of a candle beside the sun of truth of the Heavenly Father. Have but faith, therefore, and hope, and love….If you believe in my words, you believe in him who sent me, who is the lord of all, and with whom all things are possible. For what is impossible with men, all these things are possible with God. If you believe in the angels of the Earthly Mother and do her laws, your faith shall sustain you and you shall never see disease. Have hope also in the love of your Heavenly Father, for he who trusts in him shall never be deceived, nor shall he ever see death.”

“Love one another, for God is love, and so shall his angels know that you walk in his path….be true Sons of God, that you also may partake in his power and in the knowledge of all secrets. For wisdom and power can come only from the love of God. Love, therefore, your Heavenly Father and your Earthly Mother with all your heart, and with all your spirit… Peace be with you.”

So beautiful…Jesus talks so much about love….his core teachings are based on truly caring for one another on a deep soul level–and showing kindness to all of our brothers and sisters–and respecting our eternal Mother and Father. Jesus didn’t start a ‘new’ religion. He was just teaching the Truth (the same Truth that has been taught since time immemorial). He taught the same eternal Truths that we find in the Vedic scriptures. It’s wonderful to see how these words spoken by Jesus are so aligned with Vedic wisdom–and this is why I accept these teachings [from the Gospel of Peace and the Gospel of the Holy Twelve] as Truth. Any teaching that reminds us of our intrinsic connection to one another and that we are to love one another and care for one another–is, in my humble opinion, a true teaching. We sometimes lose sight of the real meanings of our religious traditions. We often get caught up in the external practices and we forget why it is we do what we do. All of our practices are essentially meant to help us remember our connection to the Divine–and to help us remember the relationships that we have with one another. Vedic wisdom teaches that we are given as much knowledge as we can understand at any given time—and so teachings may appear to be contradictory—even though this may not really be the case. It may just be that one teacher is sharing only certain aspects of the Truth—not necessarily a different Truth. As Jesus stated: I have still many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them yet. Jesus talks about Truth as a ladder with many steps. As we climb up the ladder we are able to understand spiritual wisdom more deeply and when we look deep within the different religions and spiritual paths we can reconcile the apparent differences and realize that Truth is One–and that it comes to us in many different ways. If we see divisiveness and dissension amongst the different religions then we can know that the real meaning has been lost. All true religions and spiritual paths (at the core) are based on understanding our intrinsic connection to one another and our real inner spiritual nature which is based on compassion and love. In our world today we can see how much we have separated ourselves from one another–and this is causing us (as a human race) so many problems. As Jesus reminds us: we are all brothers and sisters. We all come from the same divine Source. When we disregard our true nature (which is based on love) things start to fall apart. Love is something that we just can’t do without. It is the basis of our being. We need to be loved unconditionally–and when we experience a lack of this kind of love our lives and our world become extremely imbalanced. We (as a human race) keep on trying to live a separate type of life style–one wherein we don’t wish to regard the happiness and well-being of others…but clearly we can see that it’s not working. Why? Because quite honestly our own happiness is contingent upon the happiness of others. Because we are all connected, what affects one—affects the whole. We attempt to live without regarding this essential part of who we are, but as we can see—when we do, things fall apart. There is way too much chaos and strife in the world–and it may seem a bit too simplistic to say that it just due to a lack of love, but it really is that simple. We have strayed so far from our inherent loving nature and we are living our lives in a way that is very ‘unnatural’. Jesus reminds us that if we wish to have peace and harmony in the world, then we need to regard our relationships to one another and to our earthly Mother—who is so often forgotten. When we forget that we are in relationship with one another and with the planet our actions become extremely compromised–and then problems such as poverty, war, hunger, etc. follow. But we are quite fortunate to be living in a time when there are so many great movements going on in the world, which are focused on alleviating the suffering condition of others. Many people are understanding that we are all connected and that we need to help each other. Hunger and poverty really don’t have to exist. It’s not that we don’t have enough resources to go around; it’s that the resources are being misused and mismanaged–and resources are being mismanaged (meaning a few take a whole lot more than what they need at the expense and well being of others)—because of greed…So how do we eradicate greed? This is something we need to address because until we do, we will continue to see undue suffering in the world. So to eradicate greed, we need to remember that we are all in this [life] together—that we have an interdependent nature–and that we are all meant to help one another. We need to change our values. Our values need to be aligned with the well being of all—otherwise the problems will continue on. So I hope that when the holidays come around and all throughout the year we remember the valuable things that Jesus taught us—to help increase our desire to help others; to give to those who are in need; to show true love and compassion to everyone; and to live in alignment with our Divine Mother and Father. If the holidays become wrought with greed, we lose the meaning–and it no longer has anything to do with Jesus or the things that he wanted us to learn–most essentially “to love one another”. If we can do this then we can surely do justice to his life and know that his example and his teachings were not in vein.

So I hope that this holiday season was extra meaningful and that you were able to share your love with those who needed it the most….Peace be with you.