35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

EMPIRE OF THE SOUL
returned to India after the crucifixion, a punishment which rarely
killed people, and lived there until his natural death many years
later. Indeed, I was once even shown what was alleged to be his
tomb, in Kashmir. Reality is less important than myth.
But the comparison between a great deal of Jesus’ actual
teachings, as recorded in the Gospels, and Vedic spiritual science
continues to fascinate scholars. Considering controversies caused
by material in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as other texts suppressed
or even quite clearly falsified, it seems foolish to dismiss any
speculation.
The Torah opens with an account similar to Saint John’s, though
more prosaic. At times it seems confused, and it is clearly not the
basis of Saint John. In Genesis, God creates light twice – on the first
day, and, as if forgetting he’s done it, again on the fourth day. One
cannot blame the translators here so much as the author, who seems
to be adapting something from a cultural tradition that his own
language does not yet have the terminology for.
As the kabalists of Jewish mysticism point out, the first ‘light’ is a
different kind of light from the light of the sun, moon, and stars
created on the fourth day. In the Kabala, God is a limitless light,
unknowable, beyond all, yet gradually manifest through a series of
descents into more material realms – the process of Creation.
Much of Jewish mysticism, which is the real heart of the religion,
all but scorned since the so-called Enlightenment, closely resembles
the spiritual science of both ancient Egypt and the Vedas. All three
demonstrate a reverence for language, the belief that words have
power and that some combinations of words should be hidden from
the uninitiated. All three describe God through various attributes
rather than by name. It is thus curious that Judaism – in which it is
forbidden to speak or write God’s name in full – consistently uses
the same attributes, and is thought of as monotheistic because of
this, whereas Vedism, which gives different names to different
functions or attributes, is thought of as polytheistic. Actually,
Judaism could employ one name because it was essentially dualistic
– God is very separate from man – and Vedism, which was
nondualistic, not even monotheistic, is considered polytheistic
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