An extract from the book: Venus. The Path to Immortality

Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. “Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her.

She answered, “They have taken my lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

Then she turned round and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus. “Woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Maria!”

She turned towards him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (that is to say, “My Teacher!”) (John 20,11-16).

There are many Initiates in India who have demonstrated love without desire. In the occident we have Jesus Christ who demonstrated it in his life.

If we love we cannot desire; that is pure love. We love a person, because we desire certain things from the other person. We love a place, because we wish to derive something from the place. We love a thing, because we want to something from it. WE are looking for fulfilment of our desires in the name of love.

To an Initiate there is no such thing as loving places, persons and things. To him, love does not require a venue. But to an ordinary man love requires a venue.

To an Initiate there is no such thing as showing love. Showing love is nothing than showing desire or fulfilling others' desires.

The love of Jesus was complete, in that he never desired anything from any of his disciples. He was only loving them because they were attracted to his way of life, which is the wisdom of the Initiates.

The relationship of Jesus with Maria Magdalena was on a soul to soul basis. There can be no other relationship to an Initiate of that order.

When Jesus stepped on the banks of the river Jordan, after 18 years of preparation, he was a complete man. In him there was the full presence of the feminine aspect. He was androgynous. He did not need the presence of any female around him. None of his disciples played a supportive role. He was self-supporting. The disciples did not have the status to help Jesus. He had come to help them; how could they help him? If one is in a state of receiving help from his disciples, he is no Master. A Master is self-dependant and self-reliant, self-confident and self-governing. He had come to give a demonstration of wisdom to a few as to how a complete man should be. His completeness had attracted a few and he gave it out to them. The wisdom he carried was the way of life.

Among the disciples who received the way of life from him, Maria Magdalena was one of the most prominent disciples. She had a good transformation in a short cycle of time, because in her there was aligned. She carried complete conviction in what she did. Such people can easily tune up to any; concept when focused, because basically they carry alignment with them. They are people who do not attribute to themselves something which they are not; they are truthful to themselves. It is that truth which helped her to transform very quickly.

We all know Maria Magdalena as a prostitute. For all objective purposes she was so, but we have no idea of what alchemy she went through, to be one of the grand disciples of Jesus Christ. She was the first who was able to see the etheric body of the Master coming out of the sepulchre. Unless so much change has happened to her within, she would not have been able to see the etheric presence of the Master. How much work has been done to turn out an ordinary woman into a disciple!, -a fallen woman, according to the society.

Everywhere we find transformation happening from within. The detail of the transformation happening from within is not put out, only the fruits of the labour are given out. The difficulties that are gone through are silently endured. We do not see how a seed transforms into a root and sprouts, we do not see how the flowering happens, we also do not see how the flower transforms into a fruit and how the fruit ripens. We only know the taste of the fruit when it is offered to us.

Maria Magdalena was so much in her personality life. She was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women of her time and she was admired by all. She was admired by political leaders as well as by the government officials. They were all loving her and she also believed that they were loving her, until she met Jesus.

Her personality was very big. She was living in a great vanity and great riches; she was wielding much power in the government and in the political circles. All the influential people in town were her admirers. They were feeling that a look by her was a great favour done to them. She used to move in the streets in a glorious palanquin. People used to look at her in a great admiration as if the queen was moving . She used to enjoy such situations. She used to shower her blessings by looks. People were feeling : “Ah, she looked at me”. That was the stature she enjoyed.

One day when she was moving in the streets in a gait, she saw Jesus walking along with his disciples. Jesus was very handsome man. He was in the vigour of his youth in his 30th year. The one great damage that people has done to him, is to picturize him as a sad looking man, as if he never smiled. Jesus was a smiling beauty of his time , spreading radiance from every part of his body. His forehead distinctly carried a golden hue in the shape of a bud, in between the eyebrows. Such a person was walking on the other side of the street when Maria Magdalena was moving in her palanquin. All people looked at her with admiration. Jesus did not. But she looked at him; she felt hurt and thought: “Why this man did not look at me?”. She was accustomed to people looking at her with admiration. She now encounters a situation where a man did not care for her. Naturally she was hurt and she made note of him.

That is how Jesus made his first impression. The same situation repeated for a second time and Maria Magdalena gained a still deeper impression. She asked her maiden if she knew who was the handsome man who did not look at her. The maiden made inquiries and reported that Jesus was a kind of mystical person who teaches the gospel and seemed not to care for anything else. Maria Magdalena was recollecting Jesus all the time and was asking herself if he did not love her or, at least, like her.

One day Maria Magdalena was standing on the balcony of her house, looking around in the evening light. Suddenly she found Jesus seated under the cypress tree across the garden, near the gate. She felt encouraged and started thinking if he would be coming in or if she should go out. She would have liked him to come in, but he just sat at the gate. Maria Magdalena was in conflict thinking: “has he come for me, or is he just taking rest on his way?”. These thoughts were moving inside her. She became rest less. The man about whom she was thinking all the time was at her gate, but she was not sure if he would come in or not. Her vanity did not allow her to go out and invite him in. She spoke to her maiden and the maiden replayed: “Why don't you go to him and invite him? Instead of suffering inside about him, better go and meet him there”. M aria Magdalena thought for a while and then walked out. As she walked towards Jesus, Jesus walked towards her and said: “Maria, I love you”. She felt happy and comforted. But Jesus did not stop at it, further said: “Maria, I love you; others do not”. Then she was in confusion and asked him for an explanation. The Master again said: “You have many lovers, and yet I alone love you. Other men love themselves in your nearness. I love you in your self. Other men see a beauty in you that shall fade away sooner than their own years. But I see in you a beauty that shall not fade away. I alone love the unseen in you. All men love you for themselves; I love you for yourself. They want your body and you think that they are loving you. If you deny them your body, they will hate you and turn against you”.

Maria Magdalena could not believe it at first. She thought that they were all her real admirers in all planes. Then she thought to put it to a test. She started not being available any more for anybody. She stopped admitting people into her house. A big government officer came to the house and his entrance was denied; he felt offended as well. Thus, the government officer felt offended, the military officer felt offended, the politician felt offended, the police officer felt offended, the tax officer felt offended, the businessman felt offended! All the offended men called for a meeting and because of the insult they had suffered, they declared her to be a prostitute. Before that, she was not considered so, because of the insult they had suffered, they declared so, because all their wishes were fulfilled. She was treated as a very important person. But now that she denied her body and emotion to them, they have declared her to be a prostitute! For that purpose they invited a priest and told him to apply the Law of Moses upon her, which meant to stone her to death in public. The judgement was passed!

From a grand personality life, Maria Magdalena was reduced to be a prostitute on the streets. She could no more live in the big house; she had to move out to the streets, and the same people who used to look at her with admiration, started to throw stones at her.

The day came where she was to be stoned to death. While they wanted to start stoning her, Jesus came and offered his body as a protection to her and said unto them: If you are all righteous men, How did she become a prostitute? How can a woman become a prostitute unless men misbehave? The one who did not misbehaved with her is only eligible to stone her“. The power of the statement of the Master stunned the people who wanted to stone her and they left. Once again Jesus told her: “Maria, I love you; others do not”. Then, she understood-here is a man who offered his life to protect her, while he does not need her body. There are the others, who wanted to use the law to their advantage and put her to death when she refused to offer her body! The naked truth struck her like a thunderbolt.

Transformation triggered in her personality thereafter. What is Love was very clearly perceived by Maria Magdalena in that terrible crisis. In that crisis she found the only sources, the Master.

The strength of the truth that we hold is put test only in crisis. A crisis is the turning point for everyone to walk towards the light. Crisis are common in the lives of the disciples. It is through that crisis that Maria Magdalena has become a disciple. The communication between her and Jesus was one of soul and no more on the mental plane. He did not require to communicate much to her through mind or voice. Such was the depth of Maria Magdalena. She could realize the beauty of Master and the universality that was functioning through him.

Her orientation to the Master was so complete that it enabled silent transmission of the soul quality from the Master to herself. It was a joyful process of magnetization that she went through. The disciple is thus prepared.

She was allowed to be around the Jesus all the time, even to the extent that the co-disciples felt jealous about her. The other disciples did not carry so much conviction as she carried about the Master. John, the youngest one of the 12 apostles, on whose shoulders Jesus was frequently leaning his head, was the deepest among them. He could not see the esoteric side of Jesus. To him, the entire esoteric doctrine was revealed in the presence of Jesus. There were others who doubted him. Among the ones who doubted him. Among the ones who doubted was none other than his own younger brother Thomas. In times of difficulties Peter disowned the Master. When he was about to be in trouble, peter felt better to disown him that own him. There was such a variety among his disciples.

The one who really showed complete understanding was Maria Magdalena. She was the one who went first towards the sepulchre. What did the apostle do? Why didn't they go to the sepulchre? Only three ladies went! We can se the kind of belonging they had. The three ladies went to the sepulchre, but they did not find the body of the Master. They were dumbstruck and awe-struck. To them the situation was such that they could not live with the fact that the body of their Master was missing. It was a fact which they could not bear. That was the belonging they had towards the Master. The Master had to make haste to utter: “Maria!”, and Maria Magdalena turned towards him and said in Hebrew, “Rubboni!” (“My Teacher!”). “Do not hold on to me”, Jesus told her, “because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God. So, Maria Magdalena went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her”. (john 20, 16-18)

Some got excited with the news and some where putting into reasoning: “It is possible? Are these ladies emotional?” The intellectuals try to sweep away the visions of the real ones as emotional. There were others who doubted. Jesus Christ had to come, give his presence to them: “I don't die:.

The concept of resurrection is very clearly demonstrated in the life of Jesus, and it was so as he walked up to the banks of the river Jordan.

There was nothing that he needed to learn during the last three years. He had a mission (a plan) and he fulfilled it. He always remained a big challenge to humanity and he is frequently with his demonstration of life after death.

The teachings that Jesus gave were complete and very simple, but only a few could really pick them. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was already an Initiate. There was nothing that she needed to learn from her son. She knew the whole scheme of things. She was the one who was giving a kind of presence to protect those who were working with Jesus. She also has no role to protect Jesus, but she had the role to protect the followers of Jesus. That is the reason why the followers of Christianity seek protection through Mary. If the followers of Christianity want to get protection, they pray to Mary, the mother. If the followers of Christianity want to get resurrected, they should follow Jesus.

The relationship between Jesus and Maria Magdalena was one of complete understanding between a Master and a disciple. It was a complete alignment between a Master and a disciple, where the disciple is fully anointed with the presence of the Universal Master. Her story gives us the message of the appropriateness of crisis in life. Every crisis makes the person deeper in his being. Spiritual realization cannot happen in fair weather. That does not mean that we have to invite unfair weather. Only through crisis we can be driven deeper towards truth.

When we looked at the life of the Initiates, like Arjuna or Yudhistira, we find that they were in deep crisis. Only in periods of crisis they gained the spirit. Among the disciples of Jesus we only know that Maria Magdalena had such a deep crisis in life. That must have afforded a great opportunity for her to transform. At the point of death initiation can happen. Arjuna was at that point and Maria Magdalena was at that point. Initiation can very easily happen in such crisis.

That is another dimension which I visualize in the life of Maria Magdalena.

That is how the transformation happens through the death of personality. This is what happens when we are truly walking in the path of light. The death of personality for the birth of consciousness.

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First Edition: 1997
© Copyright: Dhanishta

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